Flagpole up
6 PAX came out for some boating with at The Body Shop, accompanied by 4 MASHers. The rain did hold off while Ironsides led the PAX for a long-distance series of 11s with merkins and bent-over rows. There were burpees, planks, maybe one ab exercise. Solid mumblechatter, especially with the joy for long 11s and the biting wind hounding the PAX the entire time. Flags and flagpoles were at full attention and that’s no euphemism.
MASHers did stuff with blocks.
#waxhawcounts
Don’t skip calf day
When it was announced months ago that a new Monday boot camp would be starting at Blakeney and it would be named “Firestarter,” YHC got excited remembering some of his favorite Stephen King books, movies and anecdotes and knew this would make for a great theme someday when Qing. YHC Qed on Monday and began working on that theme in earnest Sunday night — the lack of theme preparation was apparent to the 12 PAX in attendance.
WARM-UP
Mosey towards Starbucks – has this ever been done before? Firestarter always seems to head towards 131 Main to start.
Hillbillies x 19 IC
Plank Jacks x 19 IC
Freddie Mercury x 19 IC
Squat Twists x 19 IC
THE THANG
Run from the Victoria’s Secret Lululemon to the trampoline store, stopping at each crosswalk for 5x Alternating Shoulder Taps, but bear crawl across the two ornate concrete crossings (7 stops total)
Sets of Squats x 10 IC
- Regular
- Sumo
- Bonnie Blairs
Return to the Victoria’s Secret Lululemon, repeating the shoulder taps and bear crawls
Run back to Banana Republic for Baryshnikov Squats x 19 IC
Run to the J. Jill short wall for…
- Incline Merkins x 10 OYO
- Dips x 10 OYO
- 3 sets total
Head to the stairs
- Head up the stairs with 5x calve raises on each step
- 1 Kraken Burpee at the top
- Run back down for 2 squats
Repeat for 3 Kraken Burpees and 4 squats, then for 5 Kraken and 6 squats, with calve raises on each ascent and varying the direction of the feet (regular, inward, outward)
Run to the back side of Target
- Run along the back of Target stopping at each functioning light on the right for 10 Cujos (Pointer Dogs)
Plank
Jailbreak a la Shawshank Redemption to COT
Shawshank
MOLESKINE
YHC quickly realized that a Stephen King-themed workout is a challenge unless one wants to bludgeon another PAX at the ankles a la Misery — maybe that’s where the calves came in? The number 19 is prevalent in some of his works and that sounded better than doing sets of 61 — the number of novels he has published — or 3000-4000 — the number of words he used to write daily before toning it down to just about 1000.
YHC likes to dig into the exicon for workouts and “Cujo” for the pointer dogs was the most natural, non-partner exercise. But then things got complicated. There was a mocking comment of, “Nice VQ so far” — if YHC drove a 1958 Plymouth Fury, it would have been tearing around the corner at that point looking for a victim. Slack comments mentioned the “laundry list” of instructions to be given — better than the laundry service at the Overlook Hotel, though. The unplannable final scene of the workout, however, was how the drizzle began and it mirrored Shawshank Redemption as the PAX looked up and enjoyed the freedom of being done with an overly complicated Q. “Get busy livin’ or get busy dying.”
Approximately 400 calf raises — that’s a terrible idea. Calf Day should not be a thing.
Stephen King’s least favorite film adaptation — Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining because of the way it treats Jack Nicholson’s character.
Firestarter? Drew Barrymore’s first dramatic lead and a horribly rated film on Rotten Tomatoes.
YHC’s favorite King novel? Pet Semetary.
Stephen King holds the record for most movie adaptations of his works at 34.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Blood Drive — Friday, Feb 19th at the Brace YMCA. Sign up, save some lives.
Check out The Appetizer on Tuesday evenings at Rea View Elementary at 530 PM — great for 2.0s also.
Hemi-powered VQ
***Posted on behalf of Fruit Loops for his VQ***
- 14 Side Straddle Hops
- 14 Low Squats
- 14 Merkins
- 14 Side Straddle Hops
- 14 Low Squats
- 14 Merkins
- Hold wall squat and do:
- 20 Jabs, followed by
- 20 Air presses.
- Hold squat for an additional 47 seconds–1 second for every 10 hp in the 470HP Hemi engine in the Dodge Challenger. Felt the bern.
- 20 Step ups (we chose a close retaining wall as the outdoor tables were iced over)
- 20 Dips
- 7 Derkins
- 47(0) HP Hemi
- 15 Overhead press
- 15 Tricep extensions
- 15 Curls
- 15 Arm/Shoulder extensions (beginning with both arms at the side, lift arms o be horizontal with with the ground at shoulder height)
- 20 Overhead press
- 20 Tricep extensions
- 20 Curls
- 20 Arm/Shoulder extensions
- 7 Squats
- 1 Burpee
- 7 Merkins
- Sprint 40 yards out and 40 yards back
- 7 Speed Skaters
- 9 Burpees
- 7 Lunges
- Sprint 40 yards out and 40 yards back
- 8 Burpees
- 10 Imperial Walkers
- 7 American Hammers
- Sprint 40 yards out and 40 yards back
- 14 Low Squats
- 14 LBC
- 5 Bobby Hurleys
- Mosey to corner of Weddington Middle Roundabout and do:
- 14 Low Squats
- 14 LBC
- 5 Bobby Hurleys
- Mosey back to start, repeat 3 times: 2nd round we ran to opposite corner. 3rd round we ran one complete lap around.
First and firsts at Bizarro Diesel
YHC Qing a gear workout, Brutus doing a pre-run, and then Gerber and Speed Bump arrive for the gear workout — January 22 was Bizarro Day at Diesel. And 12 PAX were there to witness.
WARM-UP
Mose–wait, can’t do that at Diesel.
Hillbillies x 15 IC
Arm Circles
Windmill x 10 IC
Michael Phelps arm swings x 10 IC
THE THANG
Rifle Carry the cinderblock to the other end of the parking lot, stopping at each island for 1 set of 3 traveling merkins (right hand on block, both hands on block, left hand on block)
Return hugging the block close to chest, stopping for 5x squats at each island
Circle up for the rest of the fun
- Arm circles in front of body while holding bricks
- Superman x 40 seconds
- Hillbillies
- Angry Al Gore with bricks
- Hanging Tough Challenge — Hold the Cinderblock overhead throughout the song “Hanging Tough” by NKOTB
- If you drop out, do burpees until the next guy drops out, then call an exercise until he is relieved
- Cinderblock — sets of 20 swings + 20 of another exercise
- Swings + chest press
- Swings + Overhead press
- Swings + Little Baby Dips
- Swings + Carolina Dry Docks
- Swings + Curls
- Swings + Squats with blocks
- Swings + Bent Over Rows
- Swings + Diamond Docks
- Squeeze the block to hold it, with squats
- Killers’ “All These Things that I have Done” — Plank and 2 merkins whenever song says “Soldier”
- Hollow body hold
- Glute Bridge
MOLESKINE
Reaching out for last-minute Qs on the GroupMe Site Q channel is a dangerous move and YHC should know that by now. Yet he did it again in December for The Body Shop and was quite excited that Chastain eagerly jumped at the opportunity — then came the reciprocal invitation to Q Diesel. A gear workout? After trying to pass it off to a Site Q who has basically ghosted The Body Shop for 7 months (not calling out Boitano’s name at all), YHC remembered that uncomfortable is a good thing.
As this was YHC’s first gear Q, the music was chosen from a list of personal musical firsts, with the goal of generating some entertainment and some mumblechatter. In another first, YHC decided to push the workout in spite of growing discontent around the swings. The weinke called for just 5 sets of 20 + 20 and the grumbling began at just set #3, but the Q was not deterred and was, in fact, inspired. We grow when we’re uncomfortable, right? Instead of 5 sets, we went for 8 sets before the revolt began. But the PAX got in 160 swings and it probably only felt like 100 for the body — and 400 for the mind? From some of the discord, it sounded like the Q called 100 burpees.
HUGE props to Turnbuckle in the Hanging Tough Challenge — he outlasted the group and looked like he had another 5 minutes in him. Not sure if the bigger accomplishment is holding the block that long and with such ease or making it through the song. Popeye also gets the Beast Mode award for his swings and enjoyment? of them. Centerfold was rocking the Presidential trivia. Chastain showed no signs of fatigue from the 2-mile pre-run, though Brutus switched from block to bricks kind of early on some exercises. Great to see Rockwell and also the MASH crew with Penalty Box and Bunyan, who YHC hasn’t crossed paths with as much recently. And kudos to Speed Bump for dragging out Gerber and Easy Button, not letting them lose to the fartsack with the excuse of tight calves, hammies, unwashed glitter headbands or whatever the challenges may be.
Go ahead and get uncomfortable and Q a site or workout type you’re not used to — heck, even post at a workout you’re not used too because you might surprise yourself and like it. I hear Dasher is looking to Q Diesel soon?
Awesome music included Mana, Michael Jackson, Alabama, Soul Asylum, New Kids on the Block, Spin Doctors, Beach Boys, Skid Row, Poison, Def Leppard, The Killers and Les Mis.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Blood Drive — Saturday, January 30th at Five Stones Church. Sign up, save some lives.
COVID continues to creep in on us and brothers around us. Keep them in thoughts and prayers.
More opportunities to serve with Rice N Beans — if you haven’t done it yet, try it out and your week will be better for it. Check out the Service channel on GroupMe.
Namaste, 2020.
9 men got better as One Star took out 2020 with a reflective and introspective Body Shop Q that challenged both the body and the mind. He urged positivity in the coming year, and gratitude for whatever good we experienced in 2020.
94% on Rotten Tomatoes.
A Series of Unfortunate Events
In an effort to literally one-up the 8 neighboring PAX at Meathead this fine morning, 9 PAX arrived about 200 yards away at Anvil, the nation’s premiere Wednesday boot camp at a church named Calvary. It was quickly pointed out by Limey himself that he was starting his day with a poor decision by posting in near-freezing weather.
WARM-UP
Mosey to a location near the Rea entrance
Hillbillies x 10 IC
Mosey to a location closer to the church
Motivators – Begin at 10 and count down, only making it to 8 before the pain of boredom and imminent PAX refusenik set in
Mosey some more
Nancy Kerrigans x 10 IC / flapjack to other leg
Moroccan Night Club x 15 IC
THE THANG
Run along the back of the parking lot from the cemetery to the Hot Box, stopping at each light pole for 6 shoulder taps.
Mosey to the rock pile for a lifting rock.
Head to the nearest parking area where the PAX lined up with their rock. One PAX would call an exercise then run to the far light pole, do 2 burpees and run back, acting as timer while the remaining PAX did said exercise. Repeato for all PAX. (Thrusters, Squats, raised-rock flutter, chest press, curls, Triple Lindy, tricep extenstions, bent-over rows.)
Bear crawl to the first light pole, while dragging or pushing the rock. Terrible idea leading to returning the rocks.
Return to lot adjacent to 51, grab a line and do 10x line jumps/ski slalom jumps, run to next section and repeat, through 6 sections of parking lot.
Mosey to an area. Angry Al Gore x 10 IC. (Al Gore with punches) Little Baby Dips on the curb x 30 IC.
Run back and at each light pole, do 6x Monkey Humpers.
More Angry Al Gore.
Mosey to COT and American Hammer to finish.
MOLESKINE
YHC based much of the weinke on a nice aerial view of Calvary Church, as provided by our dear friends at Google. Lies. All lies. It was planned that there would be running between parking islands, some Supermans and backwards runs, some burpees. These parking islands were not as expected and, frankly, not to be seen. Around that same time is when the Motivators kicked in and we realized how terrible an exercise that is, especially if going for the full 10-to-1. Didn’t happen.
Another unfortunate event was that Limey — who already knew he was making a poor decision — strained his back somewhere in the early moseying. But the man stuck with it because… maybe because he couldn’t find his keys right away to drive home. But he gets credit. That should have been a sign to YHC to nix the plans for the bear crawl with the rock push/drag, but it wasn’t. That was a terrible decision. Hairburners are rough — rock hairburners are miserable. Maybe that’s why it seemed like the only other PAX who didn’t opt for walking lunges (Q-jack anyone?) was the site Q who roped YHC into Qing, Point Break. Your guilt/pity is appreciated.
A51 got a flavor of YHC’s penchant for digging into the depths of the Exicon and some, like Bounce, came away with their eyes opened and minds enlightened. Bubblewrap’s bad decision was to show up without gloves, and Hammer has skating potential after the Nancy Kerrigans. Good to cross paths with Rachel again after a long time and Snowflake ran off into the gloom after we wrapped, leaving Lorax and Point Break to regret inviting a Q from the ‘Haw.
Good times and unfortunate events along Area 51.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Blood Drive. Mighty Mite has more details, but he was at the other workout at Calvary, so we didn’t get the full deets.
Pre-Festivus Blakovery
There has been debated in the past of how to spell Blakovery. Since BBs are rarely, if ever, written YHC today declares that it is Blakovery. PAX gathered. PAX ran. There may have been some route confusion and grievances were shared early and often about the route.
Does Chicken Run need a BB?
YHC took the Q today for Chicken Run which means drawing up a route on Garmin and publishing it so that the group can follow. YHC also made alternate routes for an 8.2-miler and a 10k, but the 10 cocks of Chicken Run (that doesn’t sound right, does it?), didn’t opt for the shorter versions; in fact, half of them pre-ran, which may have been an insult to the planned route.
WARM-UP
Exiting vehicle, or pre-run if that’s your thing
THE THANG
Run 10 miles using this route: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/course/46926773
MOLESKINE
There’s not a tag for “Chicken Run” so that would indicate that a Backblast is not required, expected or perhaps ever happened for this run. The PAX overcame YHC’s inability to navigate a couple of tricky spots that cut through neighborhood paths and they came out better for it.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
No announcements, no count, no Name-o-rama, but there were donuts courtesy of the da Vinci 4th Anniversary celebration. YHC will not disparage Dunkin’ as he normally does because after 10.2, that icing-topped product was pretty tasty.
12 Days of Painmas / Krampus’s List
Christmas season is here and what better way to celebrate than with holiday-themed workouts and a rockin’ soundtrack!?!?!?! (And excessive punctuation!?!?) 18 men of Waxhaw were in need of a little Christmas cheer from Europe’s devilish anti-Santa, the Krampus, and his &@#*&@$!% attitude!
WARM-UP
Mosey the Golden Brick Road
Moroccan Night Club x 12 IC (poorly called on the final cadence)
Mosey some more
Sumo Squats x 12 IC (better)
Mosey to the HS parking lot
THE THANG
When we arrived at the high school parking, what did we find but the 12 Days of Krampus List! Grab a rock and prepare for the fun. Just the like “12 Days of Christmas” song, the work was to build on each round, doing 1 run, then coming back for 2 star jack + another run, then 3 Kraken Burpees + 2 star jacks + 1 run, and so forth.
- 1 – run 3/4 of the parking lot to the light pole and back [pear trees can be tall]
- 2x Star Jacks [like a turtle dove being shot with a shotgun too powerful]
- 3x Kraken Burpees [French hens like Kraken references?]
- 4x Superman [Calling birds… flying]
- 5x Golden Rings with the rock (big, two-handed circles) [no explanation needed]
- 6x Sumo Squats w/ rock [geese a’ laying]
- 7x LBCs w/ rock in chest press position [arms extended and legs curled resemble a swan a’ swimmin’]
- 8x Curls (with the rock, of course) [maids a’ milking]
- 9x Bonnie Blairs (2:1) [Ladies dancing]
- 10x Jumping squats w/ rock [Lords a’ leaping]
- 11x Moroccan Night Club (2:1) [Arms out like… Pipers piping]
- 12x Forward rock raises [Drummers drumming]
On the return mosey, group stopped to enjoy the holiday classic “Dominick the Donkey”
- Plank position
- For each “Chingedy-ching, hee haw hee haw” PAX did 2 merkins
- For each “donkey” PAX did 3 donkey kicks
MOLESKINE
YHC has been attending F3 workouts at Cuthbertson since May or June of 2016 and this was his first Q. He asked to be on the schedule once, but it didn’t happen, and he should’ve asked more but took the blue pill too often. With that, YHC wanted to make the Cuthbertson VQ a fun one and what better way to do than with Christmas fun, an oversized weinke and sweet tunes?
YHC had no idea how long the weinke would last because of the building rounds, but it was impressive how the PAX dug in and powered through increasing numbers of reps with lots of up-and-down. A good number finished and, selfishly, YHC let it go a few minutes longer than planned just to finish the list himself. There was plenty of grumbling over some of the exercises, but Krampus doesn’t give %@&$%, does he? The highlight of the list was easily the Kraken Burpees, the only exercise YHC dug from the depths of the Exicon this time. The Donkey finish was also a crowd pleaser from the moment the song was announced to (When the pastor vaguely sounds like he takes the Lord’s name in vain, you know it’s a winner.) all the way through the final donkey kicks and multiple reminders that it was past 6:15 and we wouldn’t get back to COT on time. Again, Krampus don’t care.
What does Krampus care about? According to Wikipedia, it’s rockin’ tunes! That’s why YHC put together some winners courtesy of a free trial of Spotify:
- “12 Days of Christmas” – Relient K
- “Little Drum Machine Boy” – Beck
- “Candy Cane Lane” – Sia
- “Oh Come All Ye Faithful” – Twisted Sister
- “Angels We Have Heard on High” -Relient K
- “Cascabel” – Generic Spanish artist
- “I Wanna Hippopotamus for Christmas” – Dis, Dat, n D’Udda
- “Campana Sobre Campana” – Yuri (also Spanish)
- “Christmas Wrapping” – The Waitresses
- “Dominick the Donkey” – Lou Monte
- “Christmas in Hollis” – Run DMC
*In the style of The Body Shop (Rea View Elementary, Thursdays 0530) and YHC fashion, this job finished a little later than expected, but was delivered with a smile and a money-back guarantee.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Multiple announcements about 2nd F and 3rd F opportunities this weekend, but YHC is a slow on the BB and they should have all finished by now.
Did it all for the swerkins
Having recently attended Site Q School, YHC knows that the goal of the Site Q is to not Q his own site. But when one is Site Q at such a fun, dynamic and opportunity-filled site like The Body Shop, that guideline is a negative. With that, YHC was excited to open the garage this week.
WARM-UP
3 burpees OYO before heading out.
Short mosey to a nearby lightpole.
- Hillbillies x 20 IC, then mosey to the next light on the right
- SSH x 20 IC, then mosey to the next light on the right
- Merkins x 20 IC, then mosey to the second light on the right, because the next was dark
- Squats x 20 IC, then mosey to the small turnout on the right
- Little Orphan Annie x 20 IC
- Calf stretches
THE THANG
Paula Abdul time!
- 3 merkins going forward
- 5 jump squats on the return
Rock work with a lifting rock
- 20 curls IC
- 10 overhead presses IC
- 10 tricep extensions IC
- 15 or so bent-over rows IC
- 7 weighted jump squats OYO
- Brisk run to the second lightpole and then back
- Repeato 3x total
Head to the lower playground for swerkins!
- Each PAX took a turn as the timer, doing 15 supine pull-ups while the rest of the group did swerkins
- As a breather between sets, the timer chose a short intermediate exercise:
- squats
- burpees
- jump squats
- SSH
- merkins
- 2 others
MOLESKINE
As mentioned above, YHC was excited for the opportunity to Q today, but there’s also a bit of trepidation and wondering how the group will react to the workout. Some of the weinke was made up on the fly, like any good mechanic’s solutions to an unexplained tick or knock.
The PAX were strong today and gave big effort, and it was exciting to see some faces from distant Waxhaw lands in Rudy and Chastain. Smuggler earned the Chain of Pain today when he took the “brisk run” to a new level and chased down Chastain in the repeato by going to full-on sprint. Sledge just doesn’t quit out there, and One Star’s mouth doesn’t quit either, making for entertaining mumblechatter throughout. YHC’s tennis arms were ‘a painin during the rock work, but a glance over at Deep Dish’s persistence and was the motivation to not wimp out on his weinke. YHC loves the difficulty of the swerkins and hinted at those on GroupMe the day before — they continue to bring the pain and he commends those not afraid of such a terrible exercise.
In usual garage and YHC fashion, this job finished a little later than expected, but was delivered with a smile and a money-back guarantee.
In the coffeeteria afterwards, One Star and Smuggler expressed some positive comments about the workout and that was highly appreciated. As mentioned, there’s often a little nervousness heading into the Q, but this was a clear reminder to YHC that some positive reinforcement and kind words go a long way and he’s committing to do that more often.