Author Archive Ice9

Displacement, courtesy of The Transporter

Posted on behalf of The Transporter

8 gents kicked off this Saturday morning in style with several rounds of 7’s and 11’s

Warm Up

• 25 SSH
• 15 Merkins
• 20 Reverse Lunges
• 25 IW

Main Event

Mosey around the school to begin a round of 7’s on the hill
Burbee’s the top,Squats at the bottom

Moving quickly from there to the stairs with a set of 11’s
Box Jumps at the doors and Supines near the bridge

Took a short mosey over to the rock pile to do 2 sets of 11 Curl to press, 7 staggered merkins followed by 11 LBC’s in cadence

Mosey down near the track with a quick bear crawl across the bridge to do 2 rounds of 7 single leg squats and 11 dips.

Mosey over to the field where we did an indian hop and a quick lock horns push and back with 10 burbee’s on the turnaround

Moseyed back, hit the school wall for a quick people chair than back to the lot for a short round of 25 LBC’s and 35 Russian twists.

Moleskin

Overall great morning and the Lawson crew showed up in two cars only missing one of the crew who apparently “Scotched out” of the commitment he made.

From Ice9:

The Transporter is quickly becoming a beast. For those of you that used to feel like you were as fit as he was, and are now cleaning his dust out of your teeth, his secret is open: he posts during the week, too.

Here are some additional workouts to consider:

1. Monday: “Flash” at Nesbit Park in Waxhaw at 5:30.
2. Tuesday: “Swift” and “Bagpipe” at the Vine Restaurant in Ballantyne at 5:15 and 5:30
3. Wednesday: “Dromedary” at Marvin Ridge High School at 5:30
4. Thursday: “Rebel Yell” at Stonecrest shopping center at 5:30 or “Devil’s Turn” on Rea road at 5:15
5. Friday: “Overdrive” at Sun Valley middle school at 5:30.

Also, check this out if you are still new(ish): http://f3nation.com/10-steps-for-a-new-guy-in-f3/. Get on Twitter especially so you can get workout notices.

In Cadence

Six men hung around a parking lot early Saturday morning.  This is what they did.

Warm-up (in Cadence Work)

• Imperial Walkers x50
• SSH x100
• Mountain Climbers x100
• Low Flutters x100
• Squats x50

Interlude #1 (More in Cadence Work)

• Spartan burpees x30
• A set of 11s, while holding plank, with merkins and peter parkers.  (a/k/a the organized mind eraser).  All exercises were four count, so you could call it a set of 22s.
• Heels to heaven x30

Interlude #2 (Partner in Cadence Work)

• Partner carry walking squats x20
• Werkins (wheel barrow moving merkins) x20

Interlude #3 (Partners without Cadence)

• Sonar x12.
• (Partners each run in opposite directions around parking lot.  When they meet, they bounce back and run the direction from whence they came.  The faster you run, the less your partner runs.)

Finale (Back to Cadence)

• SSH x50
• 3 sets of dips x20, dry docks x10, and jumping lunges x20
• Six minutes of Mary with:
  • knee-ups
  • real sit ups
  • russian twists
  • low slow flutters
  • the bicycle
  • obliques (both of ’em)
  • heels to heaven
  • j-los

COT.  Very strong take out by Witness.

Moleskin

• It is good once in a while to take apart every muscle group without leaving the parking lot.  Hope y’all got your money’s worth.  All of the above is approximate, of course, and I probably missed some exercises.  Sound off below with additions or corrections.
• Bratwurst gets t-claps for putting in 4-12 miles before the workout. No one joined him for the run, despite a polite invitation.  He has a funny way of doing jumping jacks.  Namely, his feet move vertically rather than horizontally, as though he were in a narrow hallway or trying to sidle between the walls of a NY state prison.
• Dasher was on his 4th post of the week, and feeling it. YHC was actually surprised — did not think it was possible to put that man into failure.  Fewer smiles from him today too.  Huh.
• Witness was back for the second week in a row after enduring several weeks in the death-seat as his son learned to drive.  YHC is hoping we will have driverless cars by the time the little gingers are old enough to drive.  Not sure I am up to that task.  Witness showed some power and endurance today:  by adding a couple more workouts per week, he will be sailing soon.  But he wasn’t thrilled with the werkins.
• Captain Phillips was back for his second post of the week after debuting Wednesday at Dromedary.  Strong work.  I tried to take his boat today (metaphorically, of course), but he would not give it up.  No sir.
• Transporter was the lone Lawson man today, and his name was rendered rather futile.  Can you really be a transporter if you have no human cargo?  Don’t really think so.  Yet despite his inability to perform the function for which he was named, Transporter is quietly getting stronger every week, as he adds workouts, and beasts through.  Indeed, there were a few intervals this morning when YHC could have sworn that Transporter was the only other person conscious — with the other guys seemingly taking very short naps while lying prone.
• Great work today, all.

If you like this F3 thing, and want the workouts to get easier, there is only one remedy.  Do more of them.  That’s it.  All you have to do is show up 2-3 times per week for a couple months, and you will barely recognize your own self.

Here are the weekday workouts close to home for our Union County brothers (all are 45 minutes and start at 5:30, unless a running workout, which starts at 5:15 and may go an hour):

Mondays:   Nesbit Park in Waxhaw, starting July 13th.  (Workout to be named).  Until then, consider the kettle bell workout at Foxhole at Elon Park Elementary

Tuesdays:   The Vine Restaurant in Ballantyne, running and bootcamp options (Bagpipe and Swift).  5:30 start for bootcamp, 5:15 start for running

Wednesdays:  Marvin Ridge High School, 5:30-6:15 (Dromedary, bootcamp)

Thursdays:    Stonecrest bootcamp (Rebel Yell), and Running at Rea and Bevington (Devil’s Turn)

Fridays:   Sun Valley Middle School (Overdrive).

Finally, check out “Steps for New Guy”:  http://f3nation.com/10-steps-for-a-new-guy-in-f3/

Hope you all have a great weekend.  Blessed to spend time with you this morning.

 

The Colossus Arrives

Ten men gathered for Commitment, and 1 man left.  Here is what the others did:

Warm-up

• Side Straddle Hops
• Imperial Walkers
• Mini-mind eraser:  hold plank while doing merkins, mountain climbers, diamonds, peter parkers, wide-arms, and plank jacks, maybe a couple other exercises.
• Mosey to rock pile.

Rocking in the Free World

• Overhead rock presses, then mosey to wall.
• Cycle through a few rounds of people’s pistons: (people’s chair, pump rock straight out and then overhead) and russian twists.
• Several minutes of mary: heels to heaven, flutters, dollys, rosalitas, knee-ups, and maybe a couple other exercises
• Mosey to concession stand.

The Wall

• Jump-ups
• Dips

The Underground

• Standing supines under the bleachers
• Squats

The Grinder.

Three man teams lined up on the track for grinders, cycling through:

• burpees, SSH, mountain climbers, merkins, sumo jump squats, turkish get-ups, and maybe a couple others.
• mosey to the front of the school

The Wall Redux.  Cycle through several rounds of dips, knee-ups, and decline merkins.

Finale.

• AMRAP (as many reps as possible) burpees for 90 seconds.

COT.

Moleskin

• No Offense Dude. A bunch of us were standing around figuring out that YHC would Q this morning when Bratwurst and Stumphugger roll in from a 12 mile run pre-workout.  SH exchanges a few pleasantries, asks who will be Qing, and then gets right into his car.  Ouch. Felt like the time my mom left me at the mall, (just because i was constantly hiding under clothes racks and such). To show that there are no hard feelings, he is listed under the pax above.
• FNGs rule.  Current or recent FNGs (with less than six months) outnumbered the veterans today.  Colossus, Money, Transporter, Kevorkian, Mustang. This is just what makes Commitment great, and brings the fresh energy.  Keep bringing your friends, neighbors, and enemies.
• Strong. Alf, Kevorkian, Transporter, and Mustang all showed fresh from the Spartan race, and most sported some decent raspberries, cuts, scrapes, and a few instances of something that looked much worse.  My money is on these boys in the next race — putting the work in now.
• Money.  Anybody notice Money moving along these days?  Just think what he could be doing with more than 3 posts per month!  Mo’ Money, Mo’ Money, Mo’ Money!
• Technician.  Bratwurst would have my vote for a Top 10 Q if he were still in metro.  But despite his many talents, he is still working on diplomacy. There was some rude arguing today about various complicated pythagorean geometry. I thought the Q got to decide what mathematical laws applied?
• Colossus.  Look out for Colossus. The man got his name because he has that superhero’s build, and was one of the few not complaining during our mary work.  Look out for him.  Welcome Colossus.
• Alf.  Good to have Alf out there today.  The man is a stud, and appeared effortless all morning. It was kind of annoying actually.

Announcements.  F3 Golf, some races, and lots of good stuff coming up in F3.  Check the tab above for Events.

Happy weekend gents.  Good to spend time with you this morning.

 

Ab bone connected to the Guts bone

4 men came together to work while others played. This is (mostly) what they did:

The Thang

Warm-up:  SSH, IW

Mosey to concession stand for ab smoker.  The pax did about 15 minutes of Mary, with LBCs, heels to heaven, rosalita, dying cockroach, low slow flutter, dollys, protractor, oblique crunches, JLo’s, peter parkers, long rock hoppers, elevated knee-ups — some of them multiple times.  The Q essentially called a new exercise when 2 of 4 pax failed.  Most could feel it by the time we stopped.

Mosey to cinderblocks for curls and overhead presses.  Then grab bricks for tricep and lateral shoulder raises.

Mosey with bricks to the big hill behind the baseball fields.  About 5 minutes of hill work, with ascending merkins (with bricks) at the top.

Mosey to tennis courts for leg work, with some brick bear crawls and lunges thrown in for the trip, dropping off bricks on the way.  Squats, one-legged squats, sumo jump squats, sideways squats, jumping lunges.

Broad jumps or lunges back to main sidewalk.  Mosey to front of the school, with some stops for squats and planking, and a partner carry at the end.

In the brick area in front of the school, alternating sets of dips and decline merkins to failure, followed by knee-ups.

COT. Take out by Intimidator.

Moleskin

• What a great morning to be out exercising in the brilliant morning sun with three friends.  We are blessed, and need to treasure these moments that God gives us.
• Some of the pax suspiciously started to mumble about whether the Q was making up the workout on the fly.  As Louis Armstrong said once, “if you gotta ask, you ain’t never gonna know.”
• T-claps to the pax, all of whom have gotten noticeably better wind and become noticeably better runners. If you wondered why you felt good running early, and not so much later, it was because you were trying to run later without abs.  That was on purpose.  Ancient Q secret.
• Kilowatt has shed some real weight in a short time.  Look out.  The guy will be on the cover of Mens Fitness in no time.  T-claps for the hard work.  Once he adds a third workout per week, the results will multiply even more.  Good example for the rest of us.
• Stumphugger is infectious with his enthusiasm and energy — once he can get healed up, he will be all stump. During several times in the workout, however, he was the only one counting.  Not sure why.  Still wondering.
• We were in Intimidator’s wheelhouse this morning. He mostly shrugged off the ab work, and showed perfect form.  It kinda made the rest of us mad.  And the cinderblocks, well, it appeared as effortless for him as if he was moving his wife’s couch pillows around.
• Camacho, who was likely mud running this week, has the Q next week.  He has to walk about across the street to get here.  Looking forward to it.

OUT.

Pain in Place

Stumphugger has a wounded wheel, as some know.  But he just can’t live without his brothers, nor the work they do in the gloom  So we planned to start early, do some pain-in-place intervals at Commitment to give him some work in fellowship, and then do some running beginning at 7am while he went home to make pancakes.  More about that later.

6am Pre-Work (Kettlebells).  The 6am-6:30am work was something close to the below.  We did about 5 or 6 sets.  (Snowflake will know).

• 20 two-handed swings
• 10 push-press each arm
• 15-20 high pulls
• 10 renegade row each arm
• 10 cleans each arm
• 20 racked squats

6:30 Official Start (Pain in Place).  For the 6:30 crowd, I broke out a version of “20s,” which has been seen a couple times before at Worm, Shark Tank, and a Convergence, though usually with merkins, dry docks, supine pulls, and knee-ups.  Since we didn’t have a supine bar, I substituted dips and more ab work, which I think made it easier since there was more “rest” between the merkins and dry docks.  It also took longer.

We warmed up with 100 or so SSH (jumping jacks), half of them in double time.

We then did descending sets of 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15 (so on), finishing with 20 reps of:

• Merkins
• Dips
• Dry Docks
• Knee-ups
• Dollys
• Flutters (each leg)

This took us until almost 7:15, and then it just seemed wrong to leave Stumphugger behind.  (I had planned on 400s at the track with a chase twist.)  Plus it was raining.  And we were dry.  But the track was wet.

7:15(ish) (Improvisation) —

• Burpees (or substitution) until the first man gets to 120 burpees. That sucked.
• Some minutes of Mary:  Little baby crunches, heels to heaven, something else?

COT.  Great takeout by Snowflake — also one of the greatest men in F3.

Moleskin

• Smoker.  I can’t speak for others, but my shoulders are demanding a refund right now, and my abs have spasmed a couple times when i laugh too much in the wrong position.  I think we did alright.
• What?  Okay, so I knew Dasher was fast, fit, and strong already. The day is coming (or has already come, I am not sure), when Dasher will leave YHC completely in the dust. I knew that already.  But we break out the kettle bells this am, and Dasher doesn’t have one.  Why?  Well, he has never used one before, of course.  And those of you who know him wouldn’t say he is a big guy from looking at him. Fit? Definitely.  Big? No. Dasher is a closer to an ectomorph than anything, weighed 135 pounds when he graduated from high school, and was a wide receiver. You get the idea. I expected a 25 lb kettlebell to be plenty for him his first time swinging them — though he would be able to do more once he mastered the technique. So Snowflake kindly gives Dasher a spare 25 lb kettlebell, and it soon becomes apparent that this is like King Kong and a small lady: no effort. So SH lends him a 35 kb, and Dasher pretends to be working out.  Then Dasher grabs my 53 lb kettle bell, and has no issue at all. None! Given that I need it back, Dasher takes both of Snowflake’s extra 25 lb kettlebells, grabs them in one hand, and does the exercises that way, including push-presses. Truth. It kinda irritates me, just as it impresses me. It reminded me of when I put the 270 pound Durango down during snow-ruck, and Bunny came by and easily hoisted him up.
• Can I get a Witness? We were blessed to have FNG Witness join us for the first time this morning. This is a great man, named for his testimony in more ways than one. My heart soared when he showed. Truly.  Despite walking in during the middle (okay, the beginning) of the 20s, Witness hung in there, and knocked out the reps. He will be sore tomorrow, and maybe through Wednesday, but there is no stopping Witness. Look forward to meeting him soon in the gloom. You will be better for it.
• Rain sleepers. Guys who stayed home: we kept dry all morning. Kilowatt, Intimidator, Money, Minuteman — you were missed.

Out.  See y’all next Saturday, if not before.

Who’s Counting (aka: Hot Pants Has a Virginal Q)

Posted on behalf of Hot Pants

Warm Up

• SSH x 19
• IW x 20
• Windmills x 20
• Goofballs x 20 something

The Thang

• Mosey to rock pile at side of school
• Deck of Death = excercies categorized by suits and executed by the value on the face 2 through Ace (14)
  • hearts = Tempo Merkins
  • diamonds = alternated between LBC’s, Pretzel Crunches and Reverse Crunches OYO
  • clubs = Copperhead Squats
  • spades = Curls to Overhead to Tricep Extensions with rock OYO

Ice9 takes the Q.  (Ice9 insertion:  Hot Pants signed up for the first 15 minutes, and handled 40 minutes like it was nothing. No looking at his watch, no hesitation, no apologies, no mercy!  It was awesome. The guy is a pro and was born to lead.) Finishes out the hour with sprints with plank-o-rama, mountain climbers and rock jumps between

Moleskin

• Had my routine planned for my first lead in a shared Q at Commitment. However, it felt awfully plagiarized from other workouts. I decided to visit the exercise lexicon for some assistance. There it was the “Deck of Death”. This changed everything. Finally decided on some traditional exercises that also concentrated on form, which has been highlighted recently in many backblasts.
• I had visions of blanking out like Johnny Manziel in the Snickers commercial where he’s leading the lady’s exercise group instructing them “now do some of these…alright, now do this” all while do some gyrations that looked like chicken wing arm circles. The real problem came with counting. Not so much the cadence, but I found my mind wandering to what was to happen next and completely lost track of how many reps we had already done. There were also moments in the DOD that I found the air escaping my lungs in such a rapid manner, that I apparently had no control over, that it caused an inflection in my voice that sounded like an indication that the exercises was to end. Although my counting lead to some brief confusion and hesitations I was lucky to have an experienced PAX that knew the routine and carried me through.
• The routine took up more time than I thought it would but that didn’t hamper Ice9’s ability to crush the PAX with the time remaining. There may have been a little more to the exercises that occurred between the sprints but I quit paying attention once I started seeing spots. I did hear some mumble chatter from Bratwurst and Ice9 about Dasher getting head starts on the sprints. There was some heavy competition between the speedsters. After it was over heard Bratwurst ask on which side your appendix was located.
• Extra credit goes to Bratwurst and Dasher for the 5:30 trail run before Commitment. Believe it’s a five mile loop.
• Goofballs were another exercise I picked up from the lexicon and one I’ll use again for nothing more than the entertainment value. Really felt in control at that point, kind of like picturing everyone in their underwear when speaking to a large crowd.
• DOD would probably be better in warmer months. Can’t wear gloves and maneuver through a deck of cards.
• Glad to have Frack back out at the site. Strong work. Showed his toughness before we ever even started by showing up wearing shorts.
• I appreciate the time I get to spend with you gentlemen and all of the support and encouragement so graciously shown me. Thanks for the opportunity to lead.

Announcements

• Stonehenge will be converging at Commitment on Valentine’s day. If you have had a problem with Commitment in the past, no better time to get over it.
• Sign ups for BRR And Mudrun are now open. See weekly email or website for details.

  Q school next Saturday (6 am workout launches from arboretum abc store. Q school is 7-8)

Commitment

Nine brothers worked together this morning.  This is what they did:

Warm Up:

• a few SSHs
• mosey to bridge, punctuated with some planking
• sideways plank walk across the bridge
• mosey to the concession stand

Main Event

• Partner with a friend who has been doing F3 longer (or less time than) you, and do the following together:
• 10 laps
• 100 burpees
• 100 jump ups
• 200 merkins
• 200 leg throw downs
• 200 squats
• 200 LBCs
• 200 mountain climbers

Wind-Down

• maktar n’djaye’s in cadence
• planking
• sumo squat jumps in cadence
• partner carries
• broad jumps
• bear crawls
• crab walks
• planking
• heels to heaven
• dying cockroach

COT.  Takeout by Snowflake

Moleskin:

• The weather forecast called for rain, but, as so often happens, F3 was blessed with a rain free morning.
• The blessings abounded when AP and Superman arrived from Cotswold as a complete surprise to YHC. This is the sign of true friendship:  when the mere presence of another man gives you encouragement and strength.  Presence, and nothing more. YHC was feeling the love, and very humbled, this morning.  Thank God for the friends that F3 has given me.  Adding them to Snowflake and the Commitment regulars made for a special morning.  YHC is very blessed.
• Triple claps especially to the new fellas at Commitment:  Money, Intimidator, Kilowatt, Hot Pants, and Dasher (a beast when he arrived).  As you may have gathered, we do not lay off at Commitment, and all YHC could see on your faces at the end were smiles.
• It was an honor to lead you all this am.