Author Archive eHarmony

246 souls honored in silence

This week we celebrated another unfortunate anniversary…9/11. I wanted to honor some of the victims in this horrible tragedy. I know it’s a couple of days late but it doesn’t matter.

8 PAX fought the fartsack / Panthers hangover and paid tribute to passengers on the planes that went down on that day. It went like this:

Started off with the disclaimer, I had my cell phone, and a few CPR certified pseudo professionals.

Mosey around the parking lot

COP

  • 30 side straddle hops in cadence
  • 15 imperial walkers in cadence
  • 20 mountain climbers in cadence
  • 10 arm circles in each direction on your own

The thang

There were four flights with a total of 246 people on board.

Flight 11 – North Tower
87 Total
76 Passengers
11 Crew

Flight 175  – South Tower
60 Total
51 Passengers
9 Crew

Flight 77 – Pentagon
59 Total
53 Passengers
6 Crew

Flight 93 – Field in Somerset County, PA
40 Total
33 Passengers
7 Crew

Each of the flights had the number of reps for the # of people on board. Since we were honoring the victims, I requested the PAX perform the exercises in SILENCE. More on that later.

Flight 11

  • 76 – Curls
  • 11 – Turkish Get Ups (11 Each Arm)
  • LAP

Flight 175

  • 51 – KB Swings
  • 9 – lunges (9 each leg)
  • LAP

Flight 77

  • 53 – tricep extensions
  • 6 – clean & press (6 each arm)
  • LAP

Flight 93

  • 33 – goblet squats
  • 7 – Halos (7 each direction)
  • LAP

MARY

  • 87 – LBC’s (4 count)
  • 60 – Freddie Mercuries (2 count)
  • 59 – Flutter Press (2 count)
  • 40 – American Hammers (count each side)

Moleskin

This is normally where I would reference inside joke or funny things from the workout. Today was a unique experience. This was the quietest workout that I have ever been a part of. It was a very somber feeling. I wanted the PAX to realize that each rep was a person who woke up that day and had no idea that it was going to be their last. I also didn’t want to hear the PAX complaining because a difficult exercise is certainly better than the fate of the 246 that were lost in the planes.

This was a difficult workout on many levels. The silence added to the beat down. The normal chatter distracts you from how tough the work out is. It was great to see the guys do the work in silence and push through. There were also quite a few reps of the same exercise which adds to the soreness.

I can safely say that the 7 gentlemen that joined me this morning left the workout a different person than before they started it, in their minds, hearts, and bodies. It was my pleasure to lead this.

Announcements / Prayer requests

  • Prayers to Glass Joe’s M and her sister for health related issues
  • Prayers to Change Order. His daughter is getting married AND he is the officiant.
  • Hair Band is on Q tomorrow at Outland 0700 at Sun Valley Middle School
  • There will be an impromptu gear work out at Woody’s house on 10/3 as he loads up the rental truck and moves to Houston. You’ll be missed.

Crushing kettlebell cards

Today was a good day…because I didn’t have to use my AK.

Friday is the best day of the week. Not only is it the end of the work week (for most of us), but it is OVERDRIVE. A chance for men to wake up early and do amazing silly things with kettlebells and other gear. A 6 pack of PAX crushed a kettlebell card workout that went something like this:

Warmup

Everybody who has been to workout that I’ve been at knows how much I love running. If you haven’t been at the same workout as me, I’ll give you a hint: RUNNING SUCKS. Since I’m in charge for the workout, there will be none of that running nonsense. That’s right we covered exactly 0.0 miles. No warmup mosey today.

25 side straddle hops

15 windmills

10 arm circles in each direction

The Thang

In an attempt to get the Facebook lurkers to a workout and of their normal routine, I teased that we would playing with a gift I received for Christmas (not the PAX, but the holiday). If you’re crazy enough to still be reading this, you may be wondering what my gift was. I’ve obviously told friends and family about F3. My parents came across a deck of cards with kettlebell exercises on them and gave it to me. You can order your own on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Stack-52-Kettlebell-Instructions-Conditioning/dp/B01E6KPOEQ?th=1 I don’t know which cards / exercises we pulled, but only made it about halfway through the deck. We ended with a little bit of Mary. In a plank position pull the kettlebell from one side to the other.

Naked Moleskin

As always it was an honor to lead this band of misfits brothers. I also have the expansion pack so there are still plenty of exercises left that we haven’t tried yet! These cards had some different moves that we don’t typically do in a gear workout. It was a great change of pace. These cards are so great. They are color coded with each color representing a different part of the body to focus on. They have the recommended # of reps, a picture showing the basic form, words describing the exercise, and even a barcode you can scan on your phone that will take you to a youtube demonstration if you’re still lost.

There was some mumble chatter on the facebook page about the workout being easy. The poster didn’t show up for the workout. I guess it was a little harder than the ole fartsack. There was a lot of grunting and not a lot of mumble chatter, so it couldn’t have been too”easy” of a workout.

Bernanke – at the end you said “is that it?” I don’t know if it was a compliment that time flew by so fast you lost track of time, or it’s the fact that you came in hot about 5 minutes tardy. It may be a combination of both.

Lamont – apparently he is working on projects around the house. His M asked him to recruit F3 brothers for help. Sounds like a terrible idea.

Unplugged – Good to see you in an NC State sweatshirt. I’m still not sure if you’re an alum, a fan, or just wearing it to be ironic. Either way it is better than seeing that ugly color of the Tarholes.

Edison – strong work as always. I think I might have heard a record 10 words come out of his mouth today. I noticed you were wearing a Penn State sweatshirt. Too many inappropriate jokes came to mind and I just let them fall by the wayside. Respect the Respects.

Glass Joe – Thanks? for choosing to come out. The alternative still sounds like it might have been more fun. The only workouts you regret is the one you don’t go to. We may all need to look at getting braces after hearing about the orthodontist. Thanks for taking us out in prayer at the end.

Announcements

Monroe needs a Q for tomorrow. Reach out to Glass Joe if you’re interested. He won’t be there (something about a follow up for his gender reassignment consultation) but would appreciate any help

We had no idea who the Q for Outland is tomorrow. I’m sure it will show up on social media at some point today.

Thoughts and prayers for Hoffa’s continued recovery. Bambi – 1 Hoffa – 0. He may have taken up hunting after this run in. Don’t be surprised if you see a deer head mounted in his living room next time you come over

One last note. I wanted to make this last so it is fresh in your head. In the COT at Conviction, Rubbermaid made the comment that F3 is trying to focus on mental health. As men, we carry the burden of having to provide for our families in addition to many other stressors (work, family, spouse, etc.). Also as men, we typically keep things bottled up inside because talking about them is a sign of weakness. I encourage each of you to bring your challenges to the circle of trust at the end of a workout. We may riff on each other during the workout but I am confident that if one of our brothers is going through something rough that we will have fully support any way that we can. If you need to talk to a professional, reach out to one. My wife is a psychologist and can help. If you need her information, reach out to me. She may give a “friends and family” discount if you tell her that I referred you. She doesn’t talk about her clients to me so your privacy is guaranteed. If your worried about this, she can refer you to colleagues in the area. If you need help, don’t be afraid to ask for it.

A game of giant Jenga

Have you ever been to a bar and saw a giant Jenga set? Yeah I haven’t either. One time when I wasn’t at a bar, I certainly didn’t have a thought that it would be fun to play Jenga at an F3 workout. We’ll blame this workout and the concept on the alcohol.

12 dudes came out for a fun time playing Jenga. It went a little something like this.

Warmup-

  • Mosey around the parking lot. After the mosey, Hairband asked if I was feeling OK. Apparently the mosey was longer than expected. Not sorry.
  • SSH in cadence x 20
  • Empirical Walkers. Yes I screwed up calling Imperial Walkers and put an extra C in it. There’s a “that what she said” moment.  I’m going to stop calling these damn things since I’m always mispronouncing it. Anyway we did 15 in cadence
  • Mountain climbers in cadence x 15
  • Arm circles on your own to get the blood flowing

Mosey over to the picnic pavilion.

Thang –

FYI there are 54 blocks in a Jenga set. This makes the math easy. I numbered the blocks 1-9 with different exercises for each one. I went for a full body beat down. 1-3 were arms/chest 4-6 were abs and 7-9 were legs. The order we went in, is the order people pulled in the parking lot.

1 10 WORST Merkins.(1 Wide + 1 Regular + 1 Diamond = 1) Hold plank until next piece is pulled
2 30 Carolina Dry Docks. Hold half push up until next piece is pulled
3 Bear Crawl around BOTH sets of stairs. Hold squat
4 20 WWII situps. Hold American Hammer position (only thing touching ground is your six) until next piece
5 30 heels to the heavens. Hold feet 6″ off the ground until next piece
SIX 25 Reverse crunch (bring knees to chest). Roll to stomach and hold low plank (elbows & toes)
7 20 lunges (10R + 10L). Calf raises until next piece
8 25 JUMP ups (low or high step). Squat hold until next piece
9 All you got sprint to Carolina Courts and back. Wall sit until next piece

There was a penalty for the person who made the tower fall. We didn’t stop for Mary since she was already part of the workout.

Announcements-

Moleskine –

  • Thanks to Hair Band for taking us out.
  • Turnpike was tired of playing the game so he just pushed the stack over. The penalty was 30 burpees, but since he is on the mentally disabled list.  It was nice to rest a little while we reset the tower for round 2.
  • It’s good it didn’t fall a second time. The punishment would have been a group punishment that would have been terrible. This will be the first punishment if I do this kind of workout again
  • Very little mumble chatter this morning. I don’t know if it was the PAX that are typically on the quieter side or if the workout was too hard to talk.
  • Thanks for the opportunity to lead
  • Speaking of leading, if you’ve read this far then the next step would be to sign up to lead your own workout.

Triskaidekaphobia / phasmophobia

My arms are so sore after the workout this morning that I just banged my head on the keyboard to title this backblast.

Triskaidekaphobia is actually fear of Friday the 13th, which happens to be today and phasmophobia is the fear of ghosts. 10 of Union County’s strongest men proved that they aren’t afraid of Friday the 13th (or ghosts).

This was a last minute Q. I was asked yesterday if I would like to step up and Q. I hadn’t thought about it and didn’t have anything planned. Sure I’ll take it. What could go wrong? It’s kettlebells and 45 minutes.

Warm-up

If you know me, I’m not a fan of running. Since I’m calling the shots today, it will be a 0.0. That’s right exactly zero running. If I wanted to run, I would go to Fast Goat or Mountain Twitch…whatever those silly running workouts are called. I have no interest in running the Appalachian Trail while crammed in a 15 passenger van with other sweaty idiots.

I was trying to play on the Friday the 13th theme and had to stretch for this one. I need a song that had some repetition in it so I went with the theme from Ghostbusters. If you’re reading this you should know it. If you don’t or if you want to have a song stuck in your head for the rest of the day you can listen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9We2XsVZfc (Not sorry if that’s in your head all day). Every time you hear “ghost” do a burpee. The first half of the song we were doing side straddle hops in between “ghosts”. The second half of the song we did arm circles in between “ghosts”

Enough warm-up. Time for the real fun to begin

Thang

This was a simple workout. Simple does NOT mean easy. It’s basically 2 exercises. Simple right?

Round 1

  • 5 swings R / 5 swings L x 10 sets
  • 5 cleans R / 5 cleans L x 10 sets

Round 2

  • 10 swings R / 10 swings L x 4 sets
  • 10 cleans R / 10 cleans L x 4 sets

Round 3

  • 15 swings R / 15 swings L x 2 sets
  • 15 cleans R / 15 cleans L x 2 sets
  • 15 Merkins with right hand on bell / 15 Merkins with left hand on bell

Round 4

  • 20 swings R / 20 swings L x 1 set
  • 20 cleans R / 20 cleans L x 1 set
  • 10 Merkins with right hand on bell / 10 Merkins with left hand on bell

Mary

  • Flutter press WITH bell in cadence x 13 (I had to keep the theme alive)
  • American Hammer WITH bell in cadence x 13
  • Freddie Mercuries WITHOUT bell in cadence x 13

That’s it gentlemen. Shout out to Snookie for taking us out.

Announcements

  • Hairband is possibly working on another shirt order with more colors. Check out some of the colors that another region had (including CAMO) https://f3.mudgear.com/products/f3-carpex-2018-pre-order Stay tuned to the social media outlets for more information
  • Prayers for Glass Joe’s wife as she is having surgery on the 24th.
  • Prayers for Bullwinkle’s mom as she also has an upcoming surgery. I don’t know if he announced the date or if I just missed it.
  • If you’re reading this, sign up to Q a workout.
  • Speaking of Q, YHC will also be on Q Tuesday at Thrive. I hope to see you there. It will be fun.

Moleskine

  • Hair band and Shepard spent a lot of their work out planning their romantic evening together and little time moving bells. I can’t wait to hear the juicy details! It was good to see Shepard back at a KB workout. Hopefully you’ll come back more often and weren’t scared away by today’s workout
  • Snookie and Hoffa also spent a lot of their work out mumbling. It looked like a seen from Grumpy Old Men. I’m not sure which was Jack Lemmon and who was Walter Matthau. I can’t give them too much of a hard time. Both are in the double respect club. I only I hope I can be half as active as these sexagenarians are.
  • Jaberwocky – I’m sorry I interrupted your sleep schedule. Those yawns were contagious.
  • Edison – I don’t know if I heard 5 words come out of your mouth today. Way to keep your head down and get the work done.
  • Woody – Was this a “bucket of suck”?
  • Bullwinkle and Glass Joe were relatively quiet. Good job today gentlemen
  • As I wrote the workout yesterday I knew it was a terrible idea. It was much worse in real life than on paper. It will be difficult to do anything above shoulder level today. You’re welcome.

 

15 seconds with rusty balls goes way too quick

You’re probably reading this by accident. You must have been lost or bored on the internet. You were scrolling the site and title grabbed your interest. Now that you here, you might as well stay and read about the high jinks we got into.

Wow where did the humidity come from? It must have been 917% humidity. It’s the kind of day you sweat before you even start to workout. Well at least I’m the only crazy one. 8 other gentlemen (and I use that term loosely) joined YHC in the muggy gloom. If you were there, you know the fun we had and left a better man. If you weren’t, you can read about it and regret not going. The only workout you regret is the one you don’t do.

Warmup

  • Mosey around the parking lot. Hairband came in hot at 5:32. Conveniently missing the mosey.
  • Side straddle hops IC x 20
  • Empirical walkers IC x 15. That’s not a typo. That’s what I called. Blame it on too much F3 happy hour last night. Even though I butchered the name, the PAX knew what was meant and jumped right in
  • Mountain climbers IC x 20
  • Arm circles OYO x 10 each direction

Enough warmup. If you’re not warmed up between the temperature and humidity, you’ll warm up as the workout progresses.

The beatdown

When I come up with workouts, I try to think outside the box and do stuff that isn’t done on a regular basis. I haven’t been to a Tabata style workout so I thought it would be a good idea to create one. Turns out it was a terrible idea. For those of you who don’t know Tabata is a Japanese word that loosely translates to “holy crap this sucks”. It is named after a Japanese speed skating coach who found that high intensity training increased the athletes aerobic and anaerobic systems. Now when that comes up on Jeopardy, you’ll be able to answer it. In a nutshell, it is a period of exercise followed by a period of rest. Each exercise was 8 rounds. 30 seconds of exercise and 15 seconds of rest.

  1. Kettlebell swings
  2. Kettlebell bob & weave
  3. Lawnmowers (switch arms each round)
  4. Kettlebell double lunges (front lunge to a reverse lunge, switching legs each round)
  5. Curls
  6. Calf raises with kettlebell

Mary – whoops. I look down at the trusty timepiece and it is 6:15. No time for Mary.

Moleskin

BIG shout out to Snookie. He is our 62 (not a typo) year old PAX. In November, he was injured in a motorcycle accident when he crashed trying to jump 5 school buses. Today was the second or third time he has been able to get a shoe on. He may have been on the disabled list for 6 months, but he certainly picked up where left off. I hope I’m half the bad ass he is when get to that age. Great job and welcome back Snookie.

Hoffa was actually pleasant today. There may have even been a smile a couple of times. He might have been in a better mood since his bromance wasn’t there. This also means that our ears didn’t get quite the workout that they normally do. I don’t think anybody is upset at that fact.

We were talking about the new Panthers’ owner and how he was able to pay 2.2 BILLION in cash. Somebody said he should deliver the money in pennies. (I had to check the spelling of that last word a couple of times. I can’t afford that misspelling). Jabberwocky mentioned that Rusty WALLACE had received a fine and paid in pennies (again with the spell check). The thing is, none of the PAX heard WALLACE. It sounded like Rusty Balls. I didn’t know who he was talking about since I misheard. For a good 30 seconds, I thought Rusty Balls was an F3 name. Who knows it may end up being one.

Cyrpto is relatively new. I can definitely see improvement in strength and stamina. Keep up the great work. The workouts don’t get easier, you just get stronger.

It was good to see Bullwinkle in the gloom with his shiny new kettlebells. Yes Bullwinkle comes prepared. He now has 2 bells (again checking to make sure I used the right word). He’s like a human Shazam. Any song that came on during the workout he was able to identify. My M and I have an inside joke, that if we didn’t have so much useless crap (movie quotes, song lyrics, random information) in our heads that we could have devoted our brains to some more important. We could have cured cancer, if Forrest Gump quotes weren’t taking up so much space up there.

Hairband was swinging some serious weight. I’m sure he’s going to feel this workout. Good job. Thanks for taking us out this morning.

Another solid performance from Woody. He doesn’t talk much during the workouts, but he does it usually to drop “this is a bucket of suck”. If you’re not right next to him, it does NOT sound like bucket. I also like in the name-o-rama when he says his hospital name it sounds like temperamental.

A quiet but steady performance from Bernanke.

I know this was going to be a tough workout when I was making it. It was quite a bit tougher than expected. 15 seconds seems to fly by when you’re resting, but 30 seconds during an exercise feels much longer. Everybody did a great job and it was my pleasure to lead this morning.

Announcements

  • Pray for the victims in the school bus crash in New Jersey
  • Pray for Snookie’s friend, Steve who has a rough case of the shingles.
  • Poptart on Q at Outland tomorrow
  • Conviction is moving to Shiloh Elementary on 5/30 @ 0530. It will no longer be a “moderate” bootcamp after the move.
  • If you’re reading this sign up to Q a workout.

 

Overdrive and the deck of dread.

Everybody has had a rough start to a day at some point. I had one last night. I woke up at 0145 but in my not quite conscious state panicked and I thought it was 0745 and I was going to be late for work and had slept through my Q. There have been a couple of instances of this happening and I certainly didn’t want to be that statistic. It really got the blood flowing.

Nobody reading this cares about sleep patterns (or lack there of). If you’re reading this you want to know what happened at Overdrive this morning. Well if you were there, you wouldn’t have to read this because you would already know. Shame on you for missing a great beat down this morning.

Yesterday afternoon, there was an urgent request for somebody to Q today. I had an idea of a workout that sounded like a good one so YHC volunteered to Q.

With the temperature in the 60’s, YHC thought more PAX would show up. A surprisingly small crowd of 7 fought the fartsack, humidity, and the deck of dread to become better men by the end of it.

Warmup

  • Mosey around the parking lot
  • SSH x20 IC
  • IW x20 IC
  • Arm circles x10 both directions OYO

The Thang

This was a deck of cards work out. Most people have done one where the number tells you how many reps and the suit tells you the exercise. I switched it up. The number tells you the exercise and the suit tells you how many reps to do of the exercise. Below is a copy of what I had laid out. In the last minute rush to come up with a workout, I forgot the #10. Whoops. Two 10s actually came up. We did curls. If more came up it was going to be tricep extensions. The jokers were also in the deck and came up. The joker penalty was 20 burpees, then run up the hill and return to the parking lot.

 

2
Goblet Squat
 ♣
15 reps
3 Curls ♥
20 reps
4
Tricep Extension
 ♠
25 reps
5
Swings
 ♦
30 reps
6
Upright rows
7
Lawnmowers
8
Lougenis
9
Shoulder Press
J
Chest Press
Q
Flutter Press
K
Calf Raises
A
Merkins w/ 1 hand on bell (1/2 reps per hand)
  

5 minutes of Mary

  • LBC’s x 20 IC
  • Flutter Kicks x 20 IC
  • Dolly x 20 IC
  • last 30 seconds, get in a low plank (elbows and toes) and hold it until time is called

Moleskin

Great job by the few that came out. It is always a pleasure to lead. We didn’t cover much real estate, but you certainly got your money’s worth out of the workout. The humidity must have been about 137%. Most of the mumble chatterers weren’t there for whatever reasons (fartsack diet, menstrual cramps, explosive dirrarhea).

Shepard wanted more of a leg work out. When you Q, you can have a leg workout. It is harder to come up with leg exercises that work with kettlebells.

Hoffa was in traditional angry form. He didn’t want to play the game a couple of times.

Espresso needs to stay in his 20s to bring the average age down.

Lamont – thanks (not really) for pulling the first joker.

Sticky Note – great push. I don’t know if you can tell a difference, but you have gotten stronger and more endurance in the short time you have been out. Keep it up. Thanks for a great take out.

Hair Band – I hope this was enough of a “snot woggle” for you.

  • Respect – 4
  • Meh – 1
  • Hate – 1
  • Hate Hate – 1

The respect club definitely showed up this morning. Over half the PAX.

Announcements

Outland challenge – 20 terrible minutes

9 men including 1 FNG beat the first challenge, the evil fartsack.

No cars in the parking lot when YHC rolled in the parking lot at 6:45 to start setting up. Guess no pre-runners. Probably a smart decision because there was warning that the workout was going to be tough.

After a lackluster disclaimer is given we begin at 7.

Warmup

  • Mosey around the parking lot and circle up
  • Side straddle hops IC x 20
  • Imperial walkers IC x 20
  • Arm circles x 10 OYO in each direction to get the blood flowing to the arms. It will be needed.

The Outland Challenge (Thang 1)

After we are warmed up we mosey over to the side of the school (the courtyard near where the buses park). The challenge “scoreboard” is tapped to the wall. Each PAX grabs the sharpie and puts their name on a line. The challenge was an AMRAP challenge to push the PAX to get the most amount of rounds, WHILE STILL MAINTAINING GOOD FORM.

1 round consisted of:

  • 10 lunges on each leg
  • 20 WWII (big boy) situps
  • 20 merkins
  • 20 squats

Results of the challenge are below.

Thang 2

At this point, the PAX is tired, sore, and likely regretting the decision to be here but we still have plenty of time left. I found a timer app where you can set different timers for different exercises and different number of rounds. The app even read the text of the exercise so everybody knew what to do. I told the PAX that it was going to be 6 rounds and that each exercise was a minute. Just do the called exercise for the whole minute. The number completed didn’t matter, just keep moving.

  • Dips
  • Jump Squats
  • Burpees
  • Rest

Almost no time (less than 2 minutes) left for Mary. We did some flutter kicks in cadence and ended the workout at 8.

Moleskin

First, let me say it was an honor to lead this group. Good work by all. Welcome FNG Jiffy. Apparently he is an environmental engineer for a company that may or not produce lubricant so he was named Jiffy for Jiffy lube.

I told the guys in Thang 2 that each round was a minute. Each exercise round may or may not have actually been 1 minute and 15 seconds. Insert evil laugh.

Hair Band had to cut the workout short. Something about his 2.0 needing food.

Bonhoeffer was continuously asking when the work out was going to start. Feel free to do more of this at home if it wasn’t enough for you. I was willing to get the 40lb ruck out of the car if you need more difficulty.

Woody hasn’t watched a hockey since they went on strike in ’95 and refuses to watch any more NFL games. His GPS said we covered 856 feet. Almost a 0.0. Those 856 feet were a struggle by the end though.

Arsenal looked like he was still asleep at the start of the workout. Glad he was able to wake up in the process.

I didn’t get a chance to talk the people I hadn’t worked out with before (Dr. Thunder, Radar, FNG Jiffy). Maybe next time when we’re not working as hard.

A good indicator of the workout difficulty is the amount of mumble chatter. There was almost none. What did come was people complaining how bad the workout sucked.

Thanks to Shepard who took us out like a professional.

Results of the challenge:

  • YHC –  7 rounds completed
  • Hair Band – 7 rounds completed
  • Bonhoeffer – 6 rounds completed
  • Shepard – 7 rounds completed
  • Arsenal – 6 rounds completed
  • Radar – 5 rounds completed
  • Woody – 6 rounds completed
  • Dr. Thunder – 5 rounds completed
  • FNG Jiffy – 4 rounds completed

This is a simple workout that can be done on your own if you want to see how you stack up. Do it again in 6 months and see how you’ve progressed.

 

Announcements

Brolympics is NEXT SATURDAY (2/24/18). All the details are at https://f3southcharlotte.com/?s=brolympics. Multiple tabs in the Excel sheet for signing up to compete, volunteer, and/or bring equipment.

CPR class was held right after this workout. Thanks to Madison for setting this up. I highly recommend you attend a future class. It was 2 hours and $35 to learn skills that you hope you never need, but if you do have to use them your family, friend, co-worker, fellow PAX, etc will be thankful for saving their lives.

Sisyphus and a bucket of suck

  1. You’re wondering why the title of this backblast has an STD in it.
  2. On second thought you realize it is Sisyphus  (click his name to the left if you don’t remember who he was) not syphilis (no link because nobody needs to see that).

YHC was EH’d into Q-ing this morning. Thanks Hair Band. I wanted to make this workout different than the “typical” kettlebell workout and it certainly was. Two things showed up at the workout that haven’t been used (or at least I haven’t seen used).

The first was a bucket of suck. It was a 5 gallon bucket filled with rocks. We’ll say it weighed around 50-60lbs, though it certainly felt like more by the end. I was going to weigh the bucket when I got to work, but the PAX was taking out their anger on the poor defenseless bucket and the PAX won the fight. Let’s have a moment of silence for the bucket who gave its life so we could get swole.

The second item of gear were first called “streamers” when the PAX first arriving. YHC works as a Quality Control Manager at a textile company. YHC took an off-quality roll and chopped it into 2″ sections. These “streamers” were lined up on the hill from the parking lot to the sidewalk near the street. These “streamers” were tied to everybody’s kettlebell

Warmup

Mosey around the parking lot and circle up

Side straddle hops IC X20

Imperial walkers IC X20

Mountain climbers IC X20

Everybody warmed up…GOOD let’s start this thang.

Thang

  • Round 1 – Everybody takes a turn on the bucket of suck. Pick up the bucket walk about 8 parking spaces. Do 5 burpees. Pick up the suck bucket and go back to the start. While one of the PAX was doing work with the bucket, the remaining PAX was at the top of the hill on the sidewalk. While holding a squat position the PAX at the top of the hill pull their kettlebells to them. Once the bell reached the top of the hill, the PAX did 5 shoulder presses on each arm. Take your bell down the hill to reset. Repeat until all of the PAX has had their go on the bucket of suck.
  • Round 2 – Same concept as Round 1. This time, the bucket of suck goes up the hill to the sidewalk. Once at the sidewalk 10 burpees. Bring bucket down the hill for the next guy. This time the PAX pulled their kettlebells up the hill in a seated position like a rowing machine. Once the bell gets to the top do 10 shoulder presses each arm with the bottom of the kettlebell facing up. Modify to regular shoulder presses if you weren’t comfortable pressing the bell upside down.

Mary

ABC’s – on your six hold your feet off the ground. Spell the alphabet with your feet in CAPITAL LETTERS without letting your feet hit the ground

Flutter kicks IC X20

LBCs ICx10

Done.

I’m humbled to lead such a great group of guys. Thanks for the opportunity and for trying something new. Wasn’t sure if everything would work or not.

Announcements

  1. Gypsy and the Mint Hill guys are planning an unofficial hike 11/4. See him for details. I don’t believe he is on any social media.
  2. Shout out to Nekot and Turnpike. They both have long roads to recovery after their surgeries.

The pelt of a rodent (Moleskine)

  •  Attendance was a little light this morning. One was going on a “rode” trip (their words, not mine). One is barbecuing meat for the entire town tonight. More than a couple have gross, disfigured, or dysfunctional feet or ankles. Some probably drank too much White Zinfandel at the happy hour last night. Some might not have been able to find the M’s yoga pants. Whatever your excuse for not being there this morning, you were certainly missed.
  • Another moment of silence for the bucket. Luckily his death was quick. I can’t say if it was painless or not.
  • From Hair Band: Missed #mumblechatter opportunity this morning…From an article I read:”While normally Uranus is barely visible, you should be able to spot it with your naked eye, even without binoculars.” Plenty of jokes to be made on this one.
  • I almost did hillbillies aka the Bernanke (had his real last name listed there, but switched to his F3 name. We know it is for his whole family, not just him) mating call, but did mountain climbers instead. Either way it should have made him happy. Speaking of Bernanke, if you see him let him know he is a wanted man for bucket homicide.
  • I think we all have a new respect for that hill. It doesn’t look that long or intimidating until you’re forced to drag heavy(ish) things up it repeatedly.
  • Plenty of opportunity for “that’s what she said” this morning. It works with just about anything.
  • Some mumble chatter about Duke’s this morning. Not sure if it was the university, the mayonnaise, or the grill in Monroe. Whatever the case, it makes me want a greasy cheeseburger with mayo now. Thanks for that.
  • Glass Joe was able to relive some of his teenage angst with a song (don’t remember which one) that came on during the workout.
  • Lamont came squealing in on 2 tires with about 10 seconds left.At least he was there and on-time.
  • Hoffa admitted when he first got there that he was up way past his 7pm bedtime. Believe it or not, he was at a concert last night that didn’t get out until after 11. Good job showing up and doing work
  • It was good to see Arsenal in the gloom. We need you to hand over your VQ card. There is no time like the present to step up and Q. They will only mock (read: help) you a little bit. Arsenal is one of the more quiet guys, but he sure made himself vocal at the end and his displeasure of the workout. That is music to my ears. Once you regain feeling in your arms/shoulders you’ll thank me.
  • Edison is another quiet one. Shows up, does the work, doesn’t complain. Looking forward to a workout where he is on Q as well.
  • Hair Band mentioned a restaurant opened by GWAR. The menu looks amazing. Will have to check this out if I’m in the Richmond area. http://gwarbar.com/
  • When Gypsy arrived and found that I was on Q he was not a happy person. “After eHarmony’s last Q (my VQ by the way) I was sore for a week. It sucked in a good way.” That comment made my day sir. I’m not sorry for that or if you get sore from this one either. Soreness is weakness leaving the body.
  • I was glad none of Union County’s finest came by as I was setting this up. A guy at a middle school at 4:45 in the morning throwing what looked like toilet paper down the hill 10+ times would certainly be hard to explain my way out of.

Redemption…with a side of grumblechatter

Posted on Bullwinkle’s behalf since he can’t seem to figure out how to logon to this. YHC may or may not have added some commentary in bold.

 

Preface # 1: The last time YHC Q’ed conviction (BW-Overdrive??- Not sure what a moderate workout on Wednesday has to do with a gear workout on Friday), I forgot my typed up stations on paper and the workout turned into a confusing melé of “what do we do next” so when HB gave me an opportunity for redemption, I did not waste the opportunity and wrote up a workout that would leave no confusion.

Preface # 2:  In being the FF team this week with the lowest number of points, I was instructed by the team with the highest amount of points (Slingblade) to do 25 derkins and post the video to Facebook.  I had 24 hours to do so or the number would double.  This was Wednesday.  YHC did not have a way to position camera in a manner to catch it so I thought to work it into the Q today. Kind of hard to believe.  Something could have been improvised. Lean the phone against a wall, car, or even a log and use the front camera. However, this was met with loud protest.  So I figured the next best thing was to make sure the PAX felt my pain after my 50 were done. BW definitely needs to work on his form. If you watched the video, you would agree. Tclaps for getting them done though.

10 minutes prior to start: YHC showed up to get 50 glass-joe style derkins done and recorded by witnesses.  Amongst those that showed up early to watch me accept my punishment was Mindcrime.  #Kotters!

Mosey to center of parking lot.  Disclaimer in which I guarantee everyone would see my lack of professionalism by the end

COP:

15 SSH IC
15 Imperial Walkers IC
15 Hillbillies IC
10 Small Sun Gods (forward and back)
10 Large Sun Gods (forward and back)
Combination of back, arm and leg stretches

Grab a bell and mosey to the bottom of the hill

The Thang:

50s on the hill:

Round 1 – 40 KB Swings at the bottom 10 CCDs at the top, continue until numbers are reversed, plank when done

Round 2 – 40 Curls at the bottom 10 Merkins at the top, continue until numbers are reversed, plank when done

Find a partner for combined reps/hills

Round 1 – Partner 1 does Curls while partner 2 runs to the top for 20 count SSH.  Stop when you have reached 200.

Round 2 – Partner 1 does Skull Crushers while Partner 2 runs to the top and does 35 monkey humpers (behind facing the road). Stop when you reach 300.

Mary

COT

Moleskine:

Thank you PAX for allowing me to lead.  Redemption was indeed sweet.  Too bad GJ couldn’t make it out this week, he would have appreciated the grumblechatter, especially during the 300 combined Skull Crushers.  Mindcrime welcome back to the gloom, it’s good to see you fight through the pain to make it out.  Slingblade, good to see you out.  Keep posting, I know it’s hard and the fartsack is easy to succumb to but it will get better even though it won’t get easier.  Good to see the rest of the PAX out, your consistency and dedication in showing up is an inspiration to me to keep showing up in the gloom even when it’s much more alluring to fartsack. Shenanigans were strong with this crowd today. Either your bells are too light, you can’t count, or some combination of the two.

Announcements:

Start thinking about signing up for Conviction in November.  Fall is approaching,  weather should be getting cooler and less humid.  Also sign up to Q thrive if you haven’t yet, there are still slots open in October and November.  Keep Woody’s folks down in Fort Myers in your prayers as they continue to recover from the Hurricane as well keep those fighting for our freedom overseas in your thoughts and prayers

What’s in the box?

13 men came to the Thrive gloom for YHC’s VQ. It was a last chance to get a workout in before heading up to the BRR for some. For others it was a welcome back from a holiday weekend. Others were a no show.

The Thang:

We started with a short mosey around the parking lot and then circled up. Disclaimer was given and since it was a VQ, YHC had to include the line “I am not a professional. In fact, I have never done this at all. I don’t know what the hell I’m doing”

COP:

SSH x 20

IW x 20

Abe Vigoda style windmills x 15

Mosey over to the well lit part of the parking lot. In the center island was a box with different exercises in it. The PAX was broken into 2 teams. One person from each team would run to the box, grab an exercise, bring it back for the team to complete. After completing the exercise another team member would run back to the center to grab another exercise. Repeato until time was called.

The exercises that were in the box were:

  • 20 merkins
  • 20 Diamond merkins
  • 40 Carolina dry docks
  • 25 burpees
  • 20 wide arm merkins
  • 20R/20L plank shoulder taps
  • 40 side straddle hops
  • Run to curb / back x5
  • 50 plank jacks
  • 30R/30L mountain climbers
  • 20R/20L lunges
  • 60 monkey humpers

After time was called, the teams counted the number of exercises completed. The team with the least amount had to bear crawl to the center island and back. The winning team could choose what they wanted to do. Some moseyed and squatted at the island, one did back scratchers, one (YHC) was cleaning up the parking lot.

Team 1 was Playoffs, Arsenal, Nomad, Gypsy, Shake-n-Bake, Thurston, Espresso (24 exercises completed) and Team 2 was Glass Joe, Shepard, Hoffa, Hair Band, Bonhoffer, eHarmony (26 exercises completed)

Circle up for Mary:

LBC IC x 50

Dolly IC x 35

That’s a wrap!

Announcements:

  • Bonhoffer is scheduled to Q Outland this Saturday (9/9/17), but he informed the PAX that he will be going to prison this weekend and will be unable to make it. Need a substi-Q for Outland this weekend.
  • Good luck to the guys running the BRR this weekend. This was likely their last work out before heading up there. Stay safe, kick ass, and have fun

Moleskin:

YHC definitely murdered the wording/flow during the COP. It is helpful if you tell the PAX “exercise” so they know you are starting. Rookie mistake. I can’t say it won’t happen again. Strong performance by everybody. The fact that it was a little competition stepped up the intensity/speed of the exercises and decreased (at least on our team) the mumble chatter. Later on in the game, the “shopping” strategy started to be used to get exercises that the team preferred instead of randomly picking one. To quote a certain PAX in the respect club “Work harder not smarter”. Somebody on our team noticed Arsenal running to the box and wondered how many winter coats he may need once the weather gets cooler because he is ALWAYS in pants, even when it is 80° out. It was my privilege to lead the men of Union County in my VQ. Hair Band took us out like a champ.

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