Author Archive Baracus

The Grind

This was my first Q duty since recovering from a stress fracture in my foot.  After nearly two months of limited exercise, I had begun to get back into some of the more cardio heavy workouts recently.  It’s been tough, so I was hopeful I had enough in the tank to lead the men to a good workout this morning.  Hope it didn’t disappoint.  Here is what we did…

After planting our brand new shovel flag in the ground at PDS, we mosey’d down to the track to take a warm-up lap, then circled up in field for…

COP

  • Windmill x 20
  • Hillbilly squat x 20
  • SSH x 20
  • IW x 20
  • HR Merkin x 20
  • Mtn Climber x 20
  • Peter Parker x 20

Jog over to the goal line on the football field and get into groups for 3-man grinders.

  • Set 1 – Two do squats while the third bear crawls between them
  • Set 2 – Flutter kicks with Burpee broad jumps
  • Set 3 – Merkins with Lunge walk

Mosey to the stadium with a stop for people’s chair (left leg up, right leg up, air presses x20 IC)

Bleacher grinders

  • Set 1 – jump-ups/step-ups at bottom / wall touches at top / other man runs steps normal run – repeat until each man has run steps three times
  • Set 2 – dips at bottom / tricep push-ups at top / hop up steps on left leg, right leg, both

MoM

  • Dolly x20
  • CCV with knee crunch x10 on left and right

NMS

The heat may be taking its toll.  We had a small group this morning, but we had some great fellowship.  It has been a little while since I’ve Q’d, so it was great to return to action.  Thanks for the opportunity to lead.

Great to see you this morning Joker.  That is the first time I’ve seen someone do peoples chair while facing the wall.  As usual you were ridiculously fast on those bear crawls…great work.  I enjoyed knocking out those grinders with you and Tesla.

Arena rightly called me out on the bleacher work…definitely looked better on paper.  Nevertheless, you, Chowda and Ray Charles were killing it. Nice work guys!

Ray Charles….enjoyed the PDS history lesson from our local alum this morning.  Still wish they would have installed some fans or something on that field.  Does the wind ever even blow in that bowl??  Man the air is thick down there!

Again…thank you men for the honor of leading this morning.  Please come out again next week!  Thanks Ray Charles for taking us out!

Announcements:

  • F3 Golf
  • Alexander Children’s Network – first Saturday of the month starting in the fall (contact Joker)
  • Prayer groups with Johnson C. Smith athletes in the fall (contact Ray Charles)

What’s With the Cones?

** posted by Baracus on behalf of Arena **

It was a muggy morning! You could cut the humidity with a knife! You almost needed scuba gear to make it through the workout!

The Thing:

Mosey down to the track and jog one lap

Meet in the center circle of the field

Warm Up:

  • Side Straddle Hop – 20 in cadence
  • Merkins – 10 on own
  • Imperial Walkers – 20 in cadence
  • Merkins – 9 on own
  • Low Slow Squats – 15 in cadence
  • Merkins – 8 on own
  • Mtn Climbers – 10 in cadence
  • Merkins – 7 on own
  • Plank Jacks – 10 in cadence
  • Merkins – 6 on own
  • LBCs – 20 in cadence
  • Merkins – 5

Divided the group into two teams and moseyed over to the bleachers.

The Cone Transfer:

  • Each group starts with a stack of cones
  • Each group member takes one cone from the stack at a time and runs the course
    • Up steps along top down the next set of steps
  • Each group member drops their cone off and does a called exercise.
  • Then they run back through the course and do called exercise once they return to the start.
  • Once done they pick up another cone and repeat.
  • Round 1:
    • Drop off – 10 decline Merkins
    • Pick up – 10 Jump-ups/Step-ups on bench
  • Round 2:
    • Drop off – 5 Burpees
    • Pick up – 10 dips on bench

5 minutes of Merry:

  • Circle up
  • Each PAX calls abs exercise and does the count.

editorial by Baracus…

I heard it was a good workout…hate that I missed it.  I’m sure it was humid, and I’m sure there was a COT, announcements, and even some good stories worth telling in the moleskin…but we don’t have one and we’ll never know for sure.  Nevertheless….Arena thanks for leading the group today!  I miss this group of men and look forward to being back out in the gloom with you guys.

Bridge to Robinson Woods

Posted on behalf of Bridges…

16 men met at PDS for the Charge this morning and did this:

The Thang:

Mosey around the upper parking lot to basketball court with high knees, but kickers, and karaoke thrown in

COP

  • SSH x 20
  • Mountain Climbers x 20
  • IW x 20

Rock work

  • Mosey to rock pile and partner up.  20 reps of old fashioned sit ups alternating rock with partner each rep/
  • Head to practice field:
  • Bear Crawl half way
  • Crab walk half way
  • AYG back to rocks
  •  Repeat old fashioned sit up reps and return rocks to the snakes

Off campus 11s

Head off campus up Sardis road to Robinson Woods neighborhood and the first big hill as you enter

  • 11’s with monkey humpers at the top and merkins at the bottom
  • Plank while we wait on the 6 (which also happened to include the Q)

Back to the Friendly Confines of PDS for some wall work

  • People’s Chair with Right leg up, left leg up, air presses x 30
  • BTW for 30 seconds

Mosey back to within a couple hundred yards of COT.  On your belly and then AYG back.

  • Freddie Mercury x 25
  • LBC x 50

Done.

Moleskin:

Thanks to Baracus and DD’s for the opportunity to lead.  We don’t get off the PDS campus much at the Charge although I heard rumors it’s happened.  Felt a little like Truman with the first step off campus and wondered if I was leading the PAX into a big canvas wall.  Sardis Road existed though and I heard a little surprise chatter we were leaving.    Also,  I may have underestimated how steep that hill in Robinson Woods is.  Great work by the entire PAX this morning.

Winterplace Wonderland

(posted by Baracus on behalf of Winterplace)

9 Pax emerged from the fartsack for some track and field work on this gloomy morning:

The Thang:

Mosey to parking circle for lunges, shuffles, butt kicks, and high knees to warm up those old legs.

Proceed to COP for 25 side straddle hops, 15 slow, deep squats, and 15 merkins as a warmup for the main event:

Track Work:

  • 400 meter run (1 lap)
  • 5 burpees
  • 10 hand-release merkins
  • 15 deep squats
  • Rinse and Repeat X 5!
  • The Pax then proceeded to the People’s Chair with 20 arm pumps for good measure.  Then the Pax held the “balls-to-the-wall” position or handstand hold for 1 minute.
  • Having captured their collective breath, the Pax lined up on the field for 3 sets of suicides with a 1 minute plank in between.
  • Running short on time, the Pax returned to home base for name-o-rama, but not before polishing off the workout with 10 burpees, 15 squats, and 10 more merkins.

Moleskin: 

  • Great group today.  The Pax gave it their all even though the Q found out 5 rounds of track work would be a lot more painful and time consuming than it looked on paper.  #optimisticQ
  • Props to Les Mis and John Deere for tearing up the track this morning.  They made it look easy.  #toolateformudrun

Announcements:

  • Les Mis and his family are moving to South Africa with Campus Outreach. Tomorrow night Ditka & Carrier are hosting a get together on his behalf to provide people with more information. If you are interested, text Les Mis @ 704-576-6944. They need a head count for food and drinks. Thursday June 4th, 6:30pm, 1212 Wareham Court, Charlotte, NC 28207.  Here’s the link:  http://eepurl.com/bn3m79

The Merkins

Posted by Baracus on behalf of Chowda:

13 showed up to take the gloves off at the charge today.

The Thang

Mosey around upper lot, mix in some backward run and karaoke. Jog down to the track for a 1/2 lap and circle up for COP. SSH x25, MCx20, IWx20.

15 rounds of Merkins and LBCs

Start with 15 Merkins in cadence, and 15 LBCs in cadence, repeat 14ct, 13ct, etc down to 1ct (240 total). Break for a lap after 13,10,7.

Mosey to wall for people’s chair+air pressure+BTW.

Mosey to field for segments. Break field into 6 segments, jog 1 sprint 1, jog 1, sprint 2, jog 1 sprint 3, jog 1 sprint 4 (audible).

Circle up for Mary go round, each of the pax calls an exercise and bear crawls around the circle.

Mosey to parking lot, AYG to gate, COT

Moleskin: 

Nice work men, YHC almost spilled Merlot after 3rd rd of Merkins #hairball. Good work on the Mary go round, my personal favorites- figure 8, diamonds, burpees.  Welcome to Hoghouse, our FNG lawyer from Pink Hill.  Hope to see you back out there soon!

Thanks to Tesla for taking us out in prayer

Guess how old I am?

The VSF was planted, the pax was disclaimed, and after a few jabs at YHC’s age we were off to do some work.  It won’t take you long to figure out my age…

Take a jog around the mini-track for warm-up, 10 burpees to start…10 burpees at turn 1, 10 burpees on the back-stretch, 10 burpees at turn 2, then 2 burpees to finish (for a total of…42) …plank and wait for the six

COP

  • SSH x42
  • MC x42
  • IW x42
  • Merkins x 21 (actually 42 pushups)

Grinders (groups of 3) – 4 rounds, 2 exercises per round

  • Station 1 – pull-ups, Station 2 – tricep dips, 3rd man running
  • Station 1 – LBCs, Station 2 – jump ups, 3rd man running
  • Station 1 – burpees, Station 2 – derkins, 3rd man running
  • Station 1 – heels to heaven, Station 2 – calf raises, 3rd man running

Mosey to school

  • Peoples chair – w/ 42 air presses
  • BTW for 4 10-counts and a 2-count

Circle of fire – circle up and assume plank position

  • Progressive push-ups around the circle x10
  • Lunge walk in circle…1 pax runs around, keep going until all finish

Mary

  • Dolly x42
  • Russian twist x21
  • Flutter x21
  • Freddie Mercury x21

Moleskin:

Bugeater played an April Fool’s joke on the pax by tweeting that this was going to be a 50th birthday celebration.  Despite my thinning hair and diminishing mental capacity, nobody was buying it.  And everyone was thankful that it wasn’t the truth…42 burpees on a warmup lap was plenty, and 42 reps in cadence takes forever.

Great to see some guys I haven’t met and a few I haven’t seen in awhile. You all worked hard out there this morning and it was a pleasure to lead.  Thanks for the opportunity!

Announcements:

  • Mudrun – pay up for bus and sundries
  • F3Golf – April 30th

Campus Tour

12 guys showed up despite the threat of rain since YHC was Q’ing (I seem to bring the showers).  It was a perfect morning for a workout, so the disclaimer was dropped and we went to work..

Mosey to basketball court for COP

  • SSHx20
  • Slow Squatx20
  • IWx20
  • LBCx20
  • Merkinsx20

Wall work

  • 20 step ups
  • 20 tricep dips
  • 20 derkins
  • Repeato x2

Triple Nicklel on small hill in front of school

  • Bottom 5 squats
  • Top 5 merkins
  • Repeat 5x

On the way to stadium stop for some peoples chair and air presses

Main event / Bleachers – Elevens

  • Jump-ups or step ups at bottom
  • Burpees at top

Walls sits while we wait for the six

MOM – pax choice (I may be missing something)

  • Flutter
  • Little Baby Rosalita
  • Heels to heaven
  • Russian Twist
  • Burpees
  • Freddie Mercury

Sprint to finish

Backblast:

Big Easy is everywhere!  I think he is following me…I haven’t been to a workout over the last 10 days that he hasn’t been at.  Who dat?  Dat’s Big Easy.  Hopper returned to The Charge, and many of our regulars were out this morning too – Arena, Bridges, Butter, Starfish, Chowda, Oswald, Winterplace – strong work by all.  Great to see Gullah back out in the gloom too, the temperatures have officially cracked 50 degrees!

Great job out there today guys, it is always a pleasure to lead…especially when the temperatures get into the 50s and it isn’t raining!

Announcments:

  • Clean up at Trinity Presbyterian this Saturday
  • Gastonia Launch this Saturday – meeting at Shield Museum (F3Expansion)
  • F3Golf
  • Happy Hour at TMac
  • HDHH Area51 & The Lodge

Return of the Skywalker

It was 11pm last night when it suddenly came to me that I had to lead a workout this morning.  Earlier that evening I had already had visions of a lazy Saturday morning, enjoying the fartsack until about 8pm…but I came to the realization that something even better was in store.  So a small group of men gathered in the OP parking lot, we planted the virtual shovel flag, and off we went…

Ze Ting

Mosey to opposite side of school and run around the parking lot a bit…backwards, high knees, butt-kicks, karaoke, etc. then circle up:

  • SSH x25
  • IW x25
  • Merkins x10
  • MC x10
  • Peter Parker x10
  • Parker Peter x10

Mosey back to the other side of the school to the track, where we did four corners…sort of.  10 burpees at the start, 20 squats at 1/4 lap, 20 CCDx at 1/2 lap, 20 lunges at 3/4 lap, plank while the group finishes.  Rinse and repeat two more times.

Jog to the church across the street, partner up, and grab a nice size stone.  Partner 1 does called exercise while partner 2 jogs to entrance on other side of church and back, then flapjack.  Exercises called:

  • bicep curl
  • goblet squat
  • shoulder press
  • good mornings
  • tricep extension

Put stones back and jog back to the school.

  • Peoples chair
  • Step ups x10
  • Tricep dips x20
  • Decline merkins x10
  • Repeato (but this time Geraldo called for air presses during the people’s chair, even though he wasn’t there)

Finish with a little jog around the parking lot to pick up trash.  Deposit into dumpster.  Nice job men!

Moleskin:

So I printed up an old workout last night since I had completely forgotten I was scheduled to Q.  But as I drove through the rain to the workout I started recalling the recent convergence workout at OP that took place in the rain.  Memories of sloshing through rain-soaked fields in the mud and doing LBCs in 2 inches of water didn’t inspire me.  I had even planned for some tunnel of love, but I thought better of it.  We can get a good workout without the sillyness of rolling around in the muck, so we stuck to the blacktop today.

It was great to see Skywalker back in the gloom this morning…his first workout since his knee surgery several months ago #Kotters.  He looked great out there, and while we did do some running today it was only for short distances.  There was a little rust, but only on following directions.  Apparently “run to the other entrance and back” sounds just like “run around the block”… the four guys hanging back doing the stonework got in several extra reps.  I think Skywalker was just savoring the fellowship time.  Great to see Low Tide back out there too.  He was flying this morning during the running portions of the workout.  High Tide looked equally strong doing work with the rocks.  T-claps to Strange Brew for running into the workout this morning…enjoyed your stories of long airplane trips and doing squats in the galley for all to see.  Pele and Fireman Ed looked great this morning.  Enjoyed stories of #lunkheads at Planet Fitness.  As always, it was an honor to lead this morning!

I’m pretty sure the last four times I’ve led workouts it has rained, so I apologize in advance to the men of The Charge next week…make sure you bring your rain ponchos.

Announcements:

  • F3 Golf
  • Keep praying for Zip – he’s improving but still needs it
  • Thanks to Skywalker for a strong takeout in COT

Old School

We finally got a little warmer temperature this morning, but the conditions were still wet.  This must be one of the rainiest winters on record!  Nevertheless, most men still in the habit of long sleeve and toboggan hats, and John Deere looked like he was dressed for a hike in the arctic circle.  So there were 11 of us that met at the VSF (when are we getting a real flag anyways?).  DDs skipped the disclaimer as we had a group of old pros, and got things started a few seconds early to get some extra value for the dollar.

The Thang:

10 burpees in parking lot

Mosey around parking lot side steps, high knees, squats, backward jog, heels to butts, lunge walk fwd & backwards, up the hill.

Circle up in bball court for COP:

20 of everything:

  • SSH
  • Imperial walker
  • Mountain Climber
  • Parker Peter
  • Left and right arm out
  • Hip slappers
  • Peter Parker
  • Plank 6 inches

Mosey to upper parking lot

Square of death 20×20 grid

  • Beat crawl 10yd increments, lunge walk back (10, 20, 30, 40 yds) Short sharp sprints while pax do an exercise

Cardio:

80 yd sprint while partner completes 10 mercin, wide arm, diamond, dips. Repeat x3 Mosey back thru campus stopping for people’s chair 60 seconds, balls to wall.

10 knees ups on wall

10 dips

10 dercins

Finish w bear crawl alley – 30 yd bear crawl thru road cones serpentine style.

Moleskin:

  • DDs has heard enough talk of heated tracks, cushioned fields, and stadiums with escalators, so he took us to a whole new section of campus with parking lots paved with broken glass for an old school style workout.
  • The “Square of Death” was painful, if not monotonous.  As repetitive as it felt, Joker didn’t figure out the pattern until our fourth cycle around the square.  He may have taken time to figure out the pattern, but he certainly had the bear crawl figured out along with John Deere, who was referred to as a “cockroach” due to his crawling skills.  Hope that nickname doesn’t stick.
  • Big Easy… I mean Who Dat… or whatever his name is…has been posting consistently the last few weeks.  Great work brother!  Glad to see you coming back for more.
  • Good to see our regulars out there – Dick Clark, Arena, Blue Rhino, Huddle, Crypto, Chowder…great work this morning guys.
  • Thanks to John Deere for taking us out.

Announcements:

  • Sign up for Mudrun…

Merkinfest comes to The Charge

7 men jumped out of the fartsack on this cold, and semi-icy this morning to enjoy a relentless upper body attack.  It went something like this…

Warm-up jog to circle drive

  • Lunge walk
  • High-knees
  • Butt-kickers
  • Karaoke left/right

Mosey to soccer field

COP

  • SSH x20
  • Slow Squats x20
  • IW x20
  • Merkins x20
  • MCs x20
  • Rock hoppers x20

Jog to endline

Merkin Beast (6 exercises, 6 stations, 6 reps)

Stops at 35 yd line, other 35 yd line, other goal line

  • Wide-arm Merkins
  • Standard Merkins
  • Diamond Merkins
  • Exploding Merkins
  • Man-maker Merkins
  • Hand release Merkins

Mosey to track for the Mile of Mary

  • Run lap 1, LBCs x20
  • Run lap 2, Dolly x20
  • Run lap 3, Flutter x20
  • Run lap 4, Freddie Mercury x20

Jog to pavilion – peoples chair w/ air presses x20

Jack Webb (if plenty of time left)

  • 1 merkin x 4 air presses…n merkins x 4n air presses
  • Up to n=8

Jog back for COT

Moleskin:

DDs and I went back and forth all day yesterday trying to decide if we should cancel the workout or not…after all, even CMS cancelled school for the second day in a row.  After much internal debating, I decided to hop in the car and head over to PDS to check it out for myself.  A few patches of ice here and there, but overall there was plenty of dry land, and track, to keep us all upright.  The Charge is on!

Overall the mumble chatter was pretty light this morning.  Some chatter from many about how we entertained the kids yesterday on another day off from school.  Get ready for day two of that everyone.  I will be braving the roads for the ride into work today.  #escape

Hope everyone enjoyed the merkin-heavy workout this morning.  I’ve done this workout a few times (or at least one very similar) and it seems to be a hit.  Like to focus on one area for a good portion of the time.  Have fun washing your hair and typing on your keyboards today.

As always guys, its a pleasure to lead.

Thanks Babyface for the strong prayer to take us out.

Announcements:

The usual – BRR / Mudrun…look at the weekly newsletter for details.