Author Archive WarEagle

B 2 the W (what!what!)

For some reason when YHC Q’s Rebel Yell it seems to want to rain.  But every time the skies part just in time and it ends up being great weather.  That was the case today as well so at about 5:28 the rain stopped and the cars rolled in, including what looked to be a 5 Pax clown car.  20 Pax were kicked off with a proper disclaimer since we had one semi-FNG (more on that later) and off we went.  Here’s what went down.

The Ting

Warm up:

SSH x 12

IW x 12

5 burpees OYO

Peter Parkers x 10

Parker Peters x 10

 

Head down the Murderhorn stopping at every street light for 5 merkins.  Stopping at the rock pile everyone grabbed a rock somewhere between a lifting rock and a running rock because we were not going to run nor lift them.  Carry said rocks to the Thornhill park and place them down where YHC had placed cones beforehand.  3 stations were set up for some circuit work and the Pax counted off in 3’s.  The 1’s hit station 1 which consisted of 4×4’s.  This is where you plank on a parking spot line and hop side to side over the line 4 times then go into 4 squats.  Continue until time called.  The 2’s hit station 2 which consisted of Larry Bird’s (not an official name but rather one that YHC came up with because he is an old school basketball soul and it really was not a Jordan type move).  Grab a rock and squat letting the rock touch the ground then up with a jumpshot using the rock.  Continue until time called.  Station 3 with the 3’s were our time keepers.  Up to the picnic area for 10 derkins, run to the park entrance and then back for 10 derkins.  Once the 3’s finished they called switch and everyone rotated stations.  We rotated so that every group did every station.

The Pax were (editor’s note: Was or were? Is Pax singular or plural?) very quick on the circuit work.  We wrapped up one round, did some Mary to catch our breaths and then did another round of the stations.  Back to the rock pile to put our rocks back gently and then back up the Murderhorn stopping for 20 LBC’s at each street light.

Once back at Stonecrest we moseyed over behind the theater for some wall work.  People’s Chair with 50 overhead presses which apparently I called something else the first time and Wingman in a not sarcastic way whatsoever let me know I used the wrong term.  After People’s Chair up on the wall for some balls to the wall.  The Pax were reminded to try and get their B as close as possible to the W.  This seemed to be a crowd favorite with some groaning and a lot of clomping of feet back to the ground when time was called.  Thus YHC called for a 2nd round of People’s Chair/overhead presses and B2theW.  Deciding the shoulders and arms needed more attention we circled up for a round of bearcrawl banjo.  YHC learned this delight posting at an out of town AO and has made it his mission to bring it into SOB land.  The Pax circle up in plank facing outward.  First guy bearcrawls out and around the circle.  Once the first guy starts the next guy to the right does 3 merkins then bearcrawls around trying to catch the other guy, continuing down the line.  If you get caught it is down for a merkin. So on and so on until everyone has bearcrawled around the circle.  Oh and while planking you drop for a merkin ever time someone bearcrawls in front of you.  A couple of minutes left for some Mary and then TIME.

 

Moleskin:

Great work by all on this fine morning.  A good showing of 20 guys despite the questionable weather.  The Pax was really quick through everything today as evidenced by the fact that YHC makes sure to have more planned than ever needed but we were getting to some of my last planned exercises on this day.  Thanks to guys like Chunder, Bucky and Transporter for calling Mary and plank while we regrouped and brought the 6 in.  We do need a brush up on rule following as YHC made it clear that Station 3 could not call switch until everyone from the group was done and in, but we had guys finishing up all over the place and heading to the next stations.  “Leave no man behind” (said in my Dad voice).  Thanks to everyone that led a Mary exercise when YHC called on them.  Mental note, don’t call on Transporter to lead a Mary exercise unless you want to do 857 American Hammers…ouch.  T-claps to Gramatica for the strong showing on the bearcrawl banjo.  He went from coughing up a lung like he had just smoked a pack of Marlboro Reds before the warmup to chasing people down on bearcrawl like a greyhound. Admittedly the bearcrawl banjo kicked YHC’s tail.  I had to go knees down a couple of times on my own exercise (don’t Q it if you can’t do it, right?).  The last couple of times I have done it there has been like 8-9 guys but 20 makes it fun and challenging.  Thanks to FNG Flounder for coming out to post.  YHC was confused how he was at his first post but already had a nickname.  Apparently he skipped the F3 warmup altogether and went straight to running BRR with some of F3’s finest.  So instead of being the only guy being called by his hospital name they dubbed him Flounder.  Be sure to ask him the origins of the name as it is pretty funny.

Announcements:

  • Isabel Santos 5k this Saturday and convergence at Stonehenge beforehand.
  • Pancakes and Beer 5k at Old Meck benefitting NC MedAssist 10/27.  There is a F3 team.
  • Susan Komen 5k 10/6

 

Thanks to Billy Goat and Mary Kay for the opportunity to lead.

 

No Labor Day Break Here

9 men made the (maybe) wise choice to kick off the Labor Day weekend by posting at DaVinci.  Since YHC is a football fanatic I thought that it would make it more interesting to tie it into the college football kickoff weekend.  The workout may or may not have been ripped directly from the Alabama strength and conditioning program better known as the 4th Quarter Program.  Here is what went down.

The Thang

Moseyed over to the Best Buy parking lot for COP

SSH x 15 (Hops set the tone early with some refusnik on the COP)

IW x 15

Moroccan Nightclubs x 15

Mtn Climbers x 15

Merkins x 10

Bear crawl from one parking island to the other stopping to drop for a merkin at each parking line.  Then did the same thing back.

 

We then moseyed over to the Blakeney playground.  The plan here was to partner up with partner #1 running a lap around the restaurant seating area/grass lawn while partner #2 did the called exercises on the playground and flapjacking until the number of exercises hit. YHC stopped by early to leave a poster sized weinke of exercises so there was no confusion by the Pax on what was needed.  There was a slight sense of pride when Mary Kay complemented the size of YHC’s weinke.  The called exercises that the partners needed to hit were pull ups x 50, derkins x 60, dips x 100 and step ups x 125.  The Pax knocked these out and Paper Jam and Finny (sp?) led some Mary until all were in.

From here we moseyed to the Montessori School stopping at a wall for People’s Chair with overhead presses and then stopping at the neighborhood entrance for Mary.  Once at the Montessori School everyone grabbed a lifting rock.  In a circle we did 17 bicep curls/rotate to the rock on your right, 17 overhead presses/rotate to rock on your right and 17 tricep lifts/rotate to rock on your right.  YHC offered a prize to whoever could tell why we did 17 reps.  After a few attempts at humor regarding Bear Bryant, etc. (probably from Clemson or Ohio State fans) YHC gave the answer that everyone knew.  Yep, 17 national championships for the Crimson Tide.  This led to more jokes about made up National Championships but if UCF can claim one for 2017 then Bama has 38*.  The prize was 17 reps of Triple Lindy’s followed by 17 upright rows.

*Number not verified by actual stats but more of a guestimate by unbiased sources.

The Pax returned to Blakeney shopping center stopping at the stairs.  Partnered back up with Partner #1 running up stairs, doing 5 Carolina Dry Docks at the top and then finishing the loop down.  While this is going on Partner #2 does supine pull ups on the railings at the bottom of the stairs.  Each partner to do 4 laps and 4 rounds of pull ups.  After this it was time to head back to launch.  Before leaving the area completely Chopper said that he wanted more before we called it…actually I think he asked if we were headed back to launch but YHC realized we had a couple of minutes and took it as though Chopper wanted more.  The Pax gathered in a circle planking outwards and a verse of Bear Crawl Banjo was strummed.  Head back to Launch and time.

COT

Moleskin

This post was a fun one for YHC.  The numbers were down a little due to slackers with end of summer vacations (I’m just jealous I was not vacationing) but the 9 that posted made it an enjoyable one.  The workout seemed to push everyone but yet we were able to have some good 2nd F mumblechatter throughout.  There was no six as everyone busted it and stayed together.  Hops and Paper Jam are the kings of conversation during the workouts but I guess that is because both are runners and a bootcamp is nothing for them.  Mary Kay and Chopper are F3 veterans who talk their game down but in reality do a fantastic job of pushing themselves while helping new guys out at the same time.  That is no easy task.  Boitano crushed it as always and is poised to Q some workouts if he has not already.  Finny recently moved to Charlotte from Whiteville, NC where he helped to get the chapter started there and has been posting in the Marvin area.  It was a pleasure to have him join us as he helped to keep the mood light.  We welcomed two FNG’s, Ponce de Leon and Dig Dug who both knocked it out.  Looking forward to seeing all three of you gentlemen at future posts.

Announcements

  • September 11th special 3rd F after Bagpipe and Swift where guys that were in NYC and experienced 9/11 firsthand will share their stories.
  • Rebel Yell 5 year anniversary 9/6
  • Marvin Elementary has a program called The Watchdog program and they are looking for men who can spare an hour to come be a positive role model to the kids and read to them and help out in various ways.
  • Thanks Chopper for sharing your Hope Challenge story.

 

 

 

Back to School

7 men kicked off their Cinco de Mayo celebrations with a trip down memory lane and took it back to high school.  We were joined later by additional revelers, but more on that later. Here’s what went down.

The Thang

Left launch at CFA and moseyed over to the playground at Blakeney for COP.  There we circled up and numbered off 1’s and 2’s.

15 SSH and 15 IW’s in cadence

1’s hit the bars for 10 overhand pull ups while 2’s did 10 merkins

Back in circle for 12 Peter Parkers

2’s hit the bars for 10 overhand pull ups while 1’s did 10 merkins

12 Mtn Climbers

1’s 10 pull ups and 2’s 10 merkins

12 Parker Peters

2’s 10 pull ups and 1’s 10 merkins

All warmed up we moseyed down Ardrey Kell swinging behind the Amazing Lash Studio, not to make our lashes amazing but rather to make our upper bodies amazing.  Partnered up with 1 lifting rock between.  In total partners were to get 100 curls, 100 overhead presses and 100 tricep extensions.  P1 does lifting exercise while P2 runs to mailbox at end of parking lot, does 10 wide arm merkins and back.  Flapjack until all totals are hit.

This was knocked out no problem so we continued down Ardrey Kell stopping at a guard rail for some wall..er rail sit.  We grabbed some rail and did civilian count 55 presses in honor of May 5th.  Continued on until we got to Ardrey Kell High.

Since the trip was a little on the longer side we hit our six on the grass and did some called Mary by the various PAX: dying cockroach (Escobar’s favorite), box cutters, Freddy Mercury.  On our feet and over to the circle courtyard at AKH.  Partner back up for a total of 100 dips, 50 derkins and 50 incline merkins.  P1 does called exercise while P2 runs a lap around the courtyard and then flapjack until totals are hit.  After we finished this I remembered an exercise that I wanted to do after Mary so moved back to the grassy area for a round of bear crawl banjo.  The way this banjo is played is the PAX circle up in plank facing outwards.  First out of the gate does 3 merkins and then bear crawls around outside of circle.  Once the guy to your left starts bear crawling you do 3 merkins and bear crawl out trying to catch the guy(s) in front of you.  If you get passed then down for a merkin.  This continues around the circle until everyone has gone and back to their starting spot in plank.  Oh and while planking you have to do 1 merkin every time someone bear crawls in front of you.  The guys did a great job with this one.  It was sucky enough with 7 guys but is a real smoker when you have about 20+ PAX and a large circle.

Moseyed back to launch stopping at our guard rail for another rail sit with 55 overhead presses (this one I felt much more than the one heading to AKH). Continuing on down Ardrey Kell we stopped at a light for merkins while the six caught up.  Got to launch with a couple minutes to spare so hit our six for a final Mary of Rosalita x15 IC and frogstomp x15 IC.  COT and announcements.

Moleskin

Great work this morning by the group.  My goal was to go with a good final landing spot in AKH with some pain stations in between that would really focus on the upper body (think very, very mini Southern Discomfort).  I think that I heard that we got in 4 miles in which was more than I planned for or expected seeing as when I measured from Blakeney to AKH it was about 1.2 miles.  But with the running during exercises it came out to about 4.  Thanks to all for really busting it because we had to keep it moving in order to get it all in an hour.  Hopefully after posting you felt that you could enjoy Cinco de Mayo and all the food and drink guilt free.  Special thanks to Mighty Mite for the history lesson on Cinco de Mayo and that it is not actually the Mexican Independence Day.  Rather it celebrates a Mexican defeat of France in battle.  Either way its a good reason to celebrate in May.

Once we got back to launch we noticed that there was a group of F3 runners that had just finished up.  Ed note; I guess runners at Bagpipe are Swifters then these guys at Davinci are Drifters?  Anyway we folded in with them for COT and announcements.

Announcements

  • Bring a FNG day at Cerberus May 11th.  5:30 at Waverly.
  • F3 dads starting up June 9th.  9:00 at the Bull Ring.
  • Savage Race May 19th

Thanks to Bucky and Fredo for the opportunity to lead.

 

Hazingchatter

24 men braved the Windy City like conditions to get better at the latest installment of Bagpipe.

The Thing:

Began in the doctors office parking lot.

COP (all IC) = SSHx15, IWx15, Cherry Pickersx15 and Mtn Climbersx15

Jogged to one end of the parking lot.  Here we ran to the other side stopping at each parking line to do 10 diamond merkins and 10 squats.  Once we reached the other side jogged it back.  Repeated this one more time but replaced diamond merkins with wide armed merkins.

Now that our tri’s, chest and lower halves were warmed up it was time to mosey to Ballantyne Village.  Here we went behind Mellow Mushroom and Blackfinn to utilize their wall and the benches.  Everyone partnered up and P1 ran to a bench and did an exercise while P2 grabbed some wall to do a wall sit with overhead arm presses.  Once an exercise was completed the partners flapjacked.  The exercises consisted of derkins x8, incline merkins x8, box jumps x8 and dips x8.

Next, over to the parking garage for some Paula Abdul with 10 jump squats on the up and 5 Carolina dry docks on the down.  After finishing this we took it back down the garage alternating between running forwards and backwards on each ramp.

Finally, we ran back to the doctors lot for modified Mary.  Partnered back up for 10 leg throwdowns followed by 10 hand slap merkins.  Finale was P1 hit their six for continuous leg flutters while P2 ran a lap around the lot and then flapjacked.  One more round of this with heels to heaven replacing flutters.

Time.

Moleskin:

In full disclosure YHC has not owned a digital watch since about middle school but figured that I needed to buy at least a cheapo one for the VQ.  Apparently it was a couple of minutes behind actual time because the guys with the fancy schmancy actual time watches informed me it was 5:30 when I was showing a couple of minutes left.  So we will go with the actual world time and YHC proceeded to deliver a very formal disclaimer.  Not going to have any legal issues on my VQ watch.  We moseyed over to the doctors lot for COP.  In the weeks leading up to the VQ several guys had advised me to make sure and keep the COP cadence slower than I think because you get all amped up at a VQ.  So YHC made a concerted effort to start the COP with a regular speed cadence.  I think we got to about the 3rd or 4th SSH when Frehley asked to speed it up because it was cold and windy.  After YHC laughed inside at the irony I quickly realized what the most difficult part was going to be of the VQ…tuning out the hazing mumblechatter (hazingchatter if you will).  More hazingchatter ensued asking if we were travelling to spots either indoor or where the wind would be blocked.  Nope, your YHC has a plan and is not going to let a little breeze alter that.

Over at the BV the Pax killed the bench/wall exercise that I came up with. I thought there would be a six but there was not one. Everyone finished together which was awesome. I like this exercise so don’t be surprised to see it at a future War Eagle Q except maybe doubled with increased reps. Then over to the parking garage for Paula Abdul. Admittedly YHC had a big crush on Ms. Abdul in the early 90’s so this exercise has a special place in my heart. Tagalong let me know that he and Thin Mint had a Google bet and the song actually says 2 steps forward and 2 steps back. Dangit Tagalong!  That does not work with our exercise…please stop bringing logic to the workout.  Again the group nailed it and everyone finished pretty much at the same time.  When I did a practice run for this Q (thanks Thin Mint for meeting me one early morning for a dress rehearsal) I planned for some six time.  It became evident there was not going to be any of that today.

In order to see who was awake at 6:00 I tested the Pax by telling them we would head back down the garage running forwards on the down ramps and backwards on the up ramps.  Ever the speaker for the group Frehley alertly and correctly said, “That’s going to be hard when they are all down ramps”.  He is not just a pretty face folks.  On the way down I heard chatter about running backwards on a decline ramp not being great for the Achilles.  Not being a runner I didn’t even think about this but in hindsight it makes sense.  So scratch that one from the list on future Q’s.  We ran down, headed to the doctors lot for modified Mary and finished just as Swift was coming in.

Overall the Pax killed this workout.  Luckily YHC had extra exercises just in case (thanks Mary Kay and Billy Goat for the advice) so there are a few left in the hopper but we definitely got through more exercises than I anticipated.  Thanks Tagalong for the opportunity to lead as it was a pleasure and honor to Q this group.  Thanks to Hops for the takeout.

War Eagle

Announcements:

-Brolympics February 24th.  Sign up to participate or volunteer.

-Madison has sign up for the CPR class February 17th.

-Fredo has his 1 year anniversary Q at Rebel Yell this Thursday.