Wet Workout with Garage Stuff
Wet, cold, wet-cold…F3 must go on. Those with enough testosterone(4) showed up and we did the thang.
The Thang:
After a quick mosey around the block we circled up for exercises.
- SSH X 20
- IW X 15
- Old Man Stretch(middle/side to side)
Now it’s time to head to the Church’s shelter. What does Shake have in store for everyone(4)? Lookie-Lookie, Shake brought some toys from his garage. We’re doing stations under the shelter.
Round 1: (3 sets with 1 minute duration with 10 second break in between)
- Hammers with wood plank
- Merkin/picnic bench squat
- Step-up squats(alternate legs)
- Lawnmower with kettlebell
Round 2: (3 sets with 1 minute duration with 10 second break in between)
- Burpees(jump up to tap shelter borders)
- Squat/Fly(With firewood)
- Duckwalk with kettlebell
- Jump straddles up and down the wood plank
Gather up garage crap and head back to COT. We have 3 more minutes in the tank, let’s make sure we get over a mile. Mosey around the block to achieve our goal.
Was not my best Q but it was not easy with the weather and of course me forgetting that I was on Q. Ended up making up the plan at 12/1 am. I used what I had and it worked. One thing I can say is that I gave the PAX wood during the workout(insert drums here). Good night everybody!
Moleskine:
I’m glad that I got the chance to Q today. It was a staring in the mirror moment. I see where I am and where I need to go. I try to take advantage of these moments. Whether it’s with F3 or more importantly in life(family, work, etc.), find your starting point and go. Today, find your starting point by have a staring in the mirror moment and go. Just GO!
Announcements:
- I suck
Stalled Diesel, the latest backblast ever
The usual Popeye beatdown, with typically insane lifts, making gazelles scream to be allowed to run.
WARM-UP
Mosey around the parking lot. Typical Popeye warm-up.
15x each – SSH, mountain climbers, SSH, merkins, SSH, plank-jacks, SSH, imperial walkers, SSH, imperial butt-kickers, SSH
Stretch – Duggan, calves, can-openers, 15x Moroccan nightclubs
THANG
Get started
- 3x 100’s with bricks (100 = 10x curl, 10x palm down curl, 10x cross body curl, 10x front raise, 10x side raise, 10x bent over fly, 10x bent over row, 10x bent over tris, 10x shoulder press)
- Grab coupons and walk to Mt Chiseled, stopping for 5x coupon swings 5 times on the way, partner up when we get there.
Fun at Chiseled
- Buildup #1: chest press, sitting shoulder press, arms to heaven, all while partner rifle carries to the top of chiseled
- Buildup #2: curls, shoulder press, curl to press, all while partner carries to top of chiseled backwards
- Chesty Chiseled: standard chest press, incline chest press, decline chest press, all while partner murder bunnies to the top of chiseled (started noticing a number of audibles at this point).
- Grab coupons and walk to COT, stopping for 5x coupon swings 5 times on the way.
Finish up with some pain
- 3×15 heels to heaven with a brick (pinch the brick between your feet as you do a heels to heaven)
- 10x sumo squats with coupons, 10x sumo calf raises toes out, 10 x sumo calf raises toes in, 10x Recalc Squats… 3 rounds
- (Definitions: Sumo = hold the coupon with a hand on each side pressing in, Recalc Swuat = squat with heels on a curb)
- Finish up with 3×15 bonus chest press.
MOLESKINE
I’m turning over a new leaf of extremes. Extreme lifting balanced with extreme running. There is some real fun in making yourself feel powerful, and I wholly embrace anyone who wants to feel that too. Low reps, repeat, slow, heavy. Mix in some high rep stuff to keep the heartrate in the right place, and we get some power.
Particularly heartwarming at these is the mix with the mash folks. There was definitely some audibles pulled, but you can’t have a good power workout without a few audibles.
Killer B’s Caught in a Webb
This is probably one of the dumber Qs I’ve had and that’s saying something. The temperature was in the low 30s, the rain wasn’t letting up, and I had a terrible idea that we would do a Webb that involved Burpees.
Quick flashback, almost exactly a year ago, February 6th to be exact, I made the half marathon trip across the border to support Bottlecap’s Q here at The Arsenal. It was a rainy, nasty day that day as well but Bottlecap was a nicer Q than I and kept us under the shelter.
So here I am pulling into the parking lot and I’m the first one here. The minutes tick by and I hope (pray) that no one else is dumb enough to join me. The first car pulls in at 5:28, followed quickly by another. So close!
Soft Pretzel and Brexit are given ample warning that we will NOT be staying dry. We WILL be getting wet. They are still following me. Crap.
DiCCS on the run. If you aren’t an F3 Waxhaw guy, no I’m not talking about the 3 of us. DiCCS stands for
Disclaimer – I’m not a professional. Modify as needed. Don’t sue…etc.
CPR – I’m CPR certified. Hopefully others are too. If not, I’d strongly consider it for your F3 brothers and your family and friends’ sakes as well
Cellphone – I’m carrying one. In an emergency, the sooner you can get EMTs on the way the better. Don’t be caught running back to your car to grab a phone. Bring one with you.
Safety – I wear a headlamp. You should too. At the very least a reflective vest. It’s dark. It’s rainy. It’s early. We can’t count on drivers to see us.
Alright. Enough of that. Here’s what we did.
Warmup
In most obstacle course races, one of the first challenges they have you do is get a little dirty. Get your feet wet. Get you nice and prepped (and miserable) for the rest of the race. For example, in the Tough Mudder they put you through a mud pit where you crawl under barbed wire and they call it the “Kiss of Mud”. I didn’t make the PAX crawl on their bellies, but we did our own little Kiss of Mud right off the bat by walking wading through the grass pond towards the maintenance road that leads to the high school. No turning back now. All the way down the road and into the high school parking lot. 10 SSHs, 10 Imperial Walkers, 10 SSHs, 10 Moroccan Night Clubs, 10 SSHs, Calf Stretches, Glidah Stretches and recover.
The Thang
The outside perimeter of the high school lot totals about 400m so it makes a good “track” to try out some speed work. The next set of exercises would follow the same pattern. Exercise then run the perimeter.
Side 1 – Run this at 70% of your top speed. Think of this as your race pace. Whatever you’d run a long(er) distance race at
Side 2 – Run this at 50%. A recovery type pace
Side 3 – 90-100% here. We’re looking for finish line speeds
Side 4 – Back to recovery pace around 50%
We ran this loop 4 times total. Exercises preceding the run were:
Round 1 – 10 SLOW Merkins IC / 10 Low SLOW Squats IC – Run
Round 2 – 10 SLOW Diamond Merkins IC / 10 Dips IC – Run
Round 3 – 10 Mike Tysons IC / 10 Can’t remembers IC – Run
Round 4 – 10 Dry Docks IC / Sister Mary Catherines IC – Run
Round 1 wasn’t super terrible because the rain was light. About 4 steps into the Round 2 run the rain picked up and I’m pretty sure there was some sleet in there. Pretty sure I know how it feels to go lightspeed now because this was the view with my headlamp on:
With that out of the way we headed back down the maintenance road to the elementary school bus lot. I was looking for a spot without puddles and thought (mistakenly) that the covered walkway would be our ticket. No dice. Ah well, we’re here. It’s time for the main event.
Killer B’s Caught in a Webb
You’ve heard of the Killer B’s? Exercises staring with the letter B done in succession? You’ve heard of a Jack Webb? 1 rep of an exercise (increasing by 1) followed by 4 reps of another exercise (increasing by 4)? Well this garbage I was about to unleash combines them and sheesh it was the worst.
1 Burpee, 2 Broad Jumps, and 4 Bear Crawls
2 Burpees, 2 Broad Jumps, and 8 Bear Crawls
…
5 Burpees, 2 Broad Jumps, and 20 Bear Crawls
That went about as well as expected. We needed a break. I needed a break. A quick change-up for a little partner exercises. With 3 of us that meant one exercising and 2 running. No rep count, just AMRAP until the runners get back. Repeato until each person has done the exercise.
Big Boi Sit-Ups
Squats
Did we do another round? Who is Qing this thing??
Back to the Killer B’s
6 Burpees, 2 Broad Jumps, and 24 Bear Crawls
Let’s not mutiny here. We’re running low on time. Audible!
5 Burpees, 2 Broad Jumps, and 20 Bear Crawls
…
1 Burpee, 2 Broad Jumps, and 4 Bear Crawls
Nearly there. No longer wading this time, we doggy paddle across the pond to the COT lot. Time for some Donkey Kicks.
10 Donkey Kicks – hold it at the top for a 10 count
9 Donkey Kicks – hold it at the top for a 9 count
…
1 Donkey Kick – hold it at the top for a 1 count
I said afterwards this is a Chastain Special. Brexit said he was just trying not to black out. That’s NOT the Chastain Special, but maybe it should be? Donkey Kicks til you black out.
Less than 2 minutes remaining so a quick lap around the lot and we’re done.
Soft Pretzel put in a few extra seconds of running to his car to get it running and warmed up.
Moleskin
I appreciate the invitation to Q The Arsenal. I’m always open to try new AOs and lead a different group of guys. Maybe next time we’ll have some better weather. Regardless, I have extra thanks for both Brexit and Soft Pretzel for not only getting up early and willingly going into this nastiness, but for the enthusiastic support when I said we WOULD be getting wet. Hopefully you got your money’s worth.
No announcements this time.
YHC took us out
Lazy Q
21 PAX enthusiastically gathered in a South Charlotte Harris Teeter parking lot for the latest edition of Hawk’s Nest aka Falcon Crest. Enthusiasm not because YHC was on Q, oh no, but rather because of NO RAIN that morning. We cannot complain too much with all of the wintery hardship being thrust upon a wide swath of the country, but can we get a little sunshine, please?? Anyway, YHC uttered a toothless disclaimer, loitered a bit as Deep Dish roared into the parking on 2 wheels, and then cast off into the gloom to commence the commencement.
COP behind the building near the Walgreens – nobody really knows what businesses are in this building, but the parking lot is useful.
LSS, MCs, Slerkins, IW, Straight Leg Raises, Runner’s Lunge Stretch – in perfect cadence
Claim a parking space stripe as your own. Lateral jump over the line 20x. Plank walk merkins 5x ea. side of stripe. Rinse and Repeat 3x. “Is this a cardio workout??” Nope, just channeling my inner Body Shaping workout circa 1988 ESPN.
Mosey across Colony to Stonecroft Park Dr. Left on Summerhill Ridge Dr. Left on Greenway Bend Dr. This would be home base.
Mosey to each cul-de-sac (3 total), returning to home base for 5 merkins each time.
Cul-de-sac 1 — Dolly, Flutter — 10 ea.
Cul-de-sac 2 — Peter Parker, Parker Peter — 10 ea.
Cul-de-sac 3 — Jump Squats, SMCs — 10 ea.
Mary
Mosey up and over Summerhill Ridge Dr. to Lee Rea Rd. Who was the Rea family? Must have owned a gazillion acres back in the day. Partner up. YHC had the honor of being Chopper’s partner, who is crushing it at 61 (double Respect).
Partner 1 — called exercise at top of hill — Heels to Heaven, LBC, WWII sit-ups
Partner 2 — run to bottom of hill around the bend — 10 WA merkins
Flapjack
Mosey back across Colony and make our way to the fountain.
Derkins x10, Dips x10, Hot lap — Rinse and Repeat 3x
Mosey to launch
Done
Much to Spackler’s displeasure, we did not have time for stomache’ exercises at the end, but looking at the summary above, we gave the core a thorough beating. Strong effort by the PAX notwithstanding the soggy streets and Tuesday morning hangovers. Respect for the aforementioned Chopper, Snowflake, Snuka, and Hopper. These guys post regularly, get after it, and inspire us all. Well done, brothers. Lots of mumble chatter but YHC was focused on the workout and leading this motley crew thru the mean streets of South Charlotte. YHC engaged in a post workout chat with Pop and Dish about the best Van Hagar songs, of which YHC prefers “The Best of Both Worlds” followed closely by “Pound Cake.” Hagar was solid, but there is something about the Diamond Dave days which sticks in the psyche. Nevertheless, the fact Oasis is not in the Rock and Roll HOF is a damn shame; don’t even try and convince YHC otherwise.
Thanks to Deep Dish and Hopper for the opportunity to Q this bunch. It was an honor (sort of).
JF, RTR, MTAQ
Pure Rock Fury
9 men made their regular weekly mistake by showing up to a Hoover Q of Meathead. YHC is not sure which site q made the worst decision, Voodoo for scheduling YHC #voluntold or Lorax for convincing Bounce to lead that motley crew over at Anvil. Pretty sure someone’s standards are slipping. Who puts a Georgia fan in charge of anything? It’s probably those Clemson fans he keeps hanging out with, bad influence. And let’s not talk about those Alabama snowflakes.
But I can’t talk trash about Bounce, he and I live within 3 miles of each other and we drive out of the Metro region to post to Area 51. That’s like a 17 – 19 minute drive to Calvary on a cold Wednesday. #YoureWelcomeArea51 #SmellsLikeDesperation
On to the terrible idea that was YHC’s Q. No need to badger Voodoo about the worksheet he probably whipped up between Tuesday morning emails. It’s structured to keep the weinke from going off the rails with enough flexibility to keep it interesting.
Thangs:
Warmup: 25 two handed swings, IW x 10, Sharon Towers x 10, Prying squat, 25 two handed-swings
First Round:
Double Swings 10 sets of 6, 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off (10:00)
Second Round:
Armor building: 2 x Dbl Hamburger Hands (cleans), 1 x Dbl OH Press, 3 x Dbl Freakin Front Squats #FFS, 1 minute per set, 15 seconds rest, for 15:00 (12 sets)
Third Round: 5:00 minutes to complete per set, 2 sets
Upper Body Pull, Explosive: 2 sets
Lawnmower (5 per side), Dbl High Pull: 10 or 10 per side, Dbl Up-Right Row:10, scratch that, single upright row is bad enough, 50 swings pax choice #Just DoTheWork
Murray: 30 seconds each, because we’re too old and ugly for Mary
Plank & Hollow Body Hold
Italian Notebook:
YHC started working on this thing somewhere around 7:00 on Tuesday. Because, well why not? It’s the same reason YHC is writing a backblast at 8:30 on a Wednesday. This work ain’t gonna get done on its own. Thankfully for YHC, 8 brave souls proved that point this AM. Legitimately. They worked hard. YHC was feeling it the rest of the today.
It’s also a solid #Respect crew that shows up regularly. #OldManStrong Pretty sure Focker was the War Baby, and YHC isn’t far ahead of him.
It’s worth noting that the Anvil crew must have gotten lost going “off campus” this AM. They wound up at Meathead and all had to tie their shoelaces or something at the same time. Again, this is what one can expect from solid Georgia-influenced leadership being assisted by those Clemson boys. Couldn’t find their way out of a wet paper bag with a map.
The real fun for YHC is, as always, pulling together a playlist. It’s one of those cathartic things, like therapy. Searching through the internet for some good tunes that don’t get overplayed. Anyone who’s been to a workout when YHC is pumping some tunes #HooversJukebox knows that the musical range can be anywhere between the eclectic, the aggressive, classics, soul, punk, motown, you name it YHC probably has it.
So the flavor of the day was an aggressive mix of hard punk and metal. Enjoy. YHC just found the American Sharks recently, they’ve got a solid Motorhead vibe. If you’re into that sort of thing.
The Flatliners – Calming Collection
American Sharks – Overdrive
Monster Magnet – Powertrip
Deftones – Swerve City
Clutch – Pure Rock Fury
Soundgarden – Room A Thousand Years Wide
AFI – The Lost Souls
Foo Fighters – La Dee Da
Incubus – A Certain Shade of Green
A Perfect Circle – Judith
P.O.D. – Boom
Rage Against the Machine – Know Your Enemy
Announcements:
Blood drive – Friday
Beer Mile – a month from Friday
Thanks to High Tide for the take-out
2nd Chisel
15 Pax braved the cold to participate in my 2nd Q.
DICCS given
The warmup:
Opening mosey to front of church entrance
Circle up to main parking lot for stretches
15 imperial walkers
15 moracan night clubs
calf stretch
downward dog
can opener
The thang:
Return to COT to pick up coupon
rifle carry to Mt. Chiseled
stop and do 5 curls continue
stop and do 5 swings
Partner up and start pain outlined on whiteboard:
- weighted squats w/ coupon
- kettle swings w/ coupon
- durkins
- overhead press w/ coupon
- LBC’s
- Curls w/ coupon
- Stationary Lunges with coupon
- Bench press with coupon
- Rows Block to chin with coupon
- curb dips
Timer has option to run around Mt. Chiseled or do murder bunnies up Mt. Chiseled. Surprisingly the only person to do murder bunnies was Sledge who had just returned from knee surgery.
After completion return to COT for a game of make it stop. Many checking watches hoping time was up. We did manage to get 1 blocky in before the bell rang.
Announcements:
Rice and beans postponed due to recent required relocation
Flanders took us out
The moleskin:
Appreciate the opportunity to Q. I do not always fully appreciate the thoughtfulness that many of the Q’s have when designing a workout. It seems simple when you are participating but, when laying it out on paper it is much more difficult. Cheers to the guys who Q regularly and manage to keep it exiting and challenging.
Frozen Bells
Today was my VQ for Cowbell thanks for the heads up on the Q Gerber, better late than never
Gerber insert:
Warmup: Stretch, Cowbell Swings
The Thang
Kettle Bell Swings
Sprint
Chest Press
Sprint
Lawn Mowers (L) then R
Sprint
Cow Bell Triceps Extensions
Sprint
Merkins/Planks
Sprint
Push Press
Sprint
Kettle Bell Lung Pass
Sprint
Moleskin
3 guys showed for the pre-run, you can guess the three, and NO dasher was not one of them 😊
10 guys showed up in the cold 28 deg weather ready to swing some cow bells!
Everyone pushed hard and did a great job, there was a lot of moo’ing in the background though specifically from the reindeer.
Shoutout to Popeye for coming out to Express and Cow bell really pushing himself great job!
Shoutout to O69, Bluescreen and Schneider for coming out and pushing themselves as well.
No Ice your not on the list you’re a different breed and should be 30 something years old on paper!
Great job Zin, was kind of quiet today not sure if you were out of breath or what but great job pushing yourself!
And good job to the rest as usual keep pushing yourselves as it makes us all better, stronger and faster! Beach season is right around the corner.
Inmates are running the Asylum
QIC: Blue Screen
Pax: Fuse Box, Swimmers, Loafer, Shop Dawg, Schnitzel, Flanders, Mayhem, Sledge-O-Matic, Posse, Bunyan, Ice9
- Hosted Mash where 5 started and 4 finished (Bunyan dropped mid-workout). Ice9 was a guest host Mashing for first time at Asylum. Groupies everywhere!
- Swimmers got upset because I got his pretty yellow shirt wet/dirty with T-Merkins. I also did T’s to get Flanders yellow shirt dirty also!
- Shop Dawg appeared from a vapor out of nowhere about 15 minutes in to the workout
- Cold, dreary, but we completed it all with smiles (all except Stu, he never smiles)
Pre-Stretch
Arm circles
Calf stretch
Running stretch
Jimmy Dugans center right left
Right hand/Right foot and pull leg up and back
Side straddle hops
Mosey To health clinic
Grab rocks
Run to Hickory Tavern and back
20 rock chest presses
Run
20 rock overhead presses
Run
20 sit up presses
Run to Petsmart
4 corners
10 Center chin-ups or durkins
Corner 1 20 jump lunges (1 is 1)
Corner 2 5 Burpee’s
Corner 3 10 big boy sit-ups
Corner 4 5 T-merkins
Run to neighborhood and left to bottom of cul-de-sac. Run backwards/karaoke alternate top of cul-de-sac and @ each light x5 Whatever you choose… leg exercise. Side lunges speedskaters jump squats
Back to Petsmart
20 donkey kicks
Run to curb and back
Repeat twice then COT
A Workout at the Maul
So YHC’s creative juices are not flowing this morning so sometimes a BB title just needs to call it like it sees it. A solid 11 Pax showed up including Hops who had HC’d to YHC the night before. Good to see you Hops, it had been a while. A couple of guys inquired about Madame Tussaud’s whereabouts since he had HC’d the night before as well. Apparently like a married woman who would rather catch up on “This is Us” as opposed to other evening activities, Madame let YHC know that he was up with a headache and would not make it. Seeing as he is on the other side of Covid, Patent Pending and I decided to give him a pass this time. YHC slow played the disclaimer a bit waiting on stragglers and a couple of other guys who had indicated that they were posting, but at 5:31 Chipotle basically said he was starting out with or without us. Big Tuna let it be known that he was finishing at 6:15 and would not make up YHC’s disclaimer delay on the backend. Fair enough. Off we went.
The Thing:
Warmup in the HT parking lot: IW, Potato Pickers, Hillbillies, SSH, Mtn Climbers into yoga stretch. YHC instructed Wingman that it was pertinent to place the foot on the outside of the hand and not inside. Makes a huge difference I am sure (insert eye roll emoji from Wingman here).
Now that we were warm time for the main event. Mosey to the bottom of the Uwharrie Bank parking deck. Here we would do a triple nickel adjusted for inflation. 5 donkey kicks at the bottom, run to the top for 5 burpees then repeato with 10 reps and repeato with 15 reps. Thanks to Wingman for leading the finishers in LBC’s while everyone finished. Nice work all in finishing these out.
Now on to the rockpile at the office building next to Ballantyne Commons and everyone grab a lifting rock. Count off in teams of 3 for some variation of grinders. 1’s stay where they are and do curls, 2’s walk to the end of the parking lot by the street light and do tricep extensions and 3’s walk from one group to the next holding rocks overhead in rifle carry. Big Tuna made a great call that we start on the other side of some water on the parking lot that whether it was frozen or not would be slippery. Way to look out for the Pax and keeping the Q safe from litigation. Once the rock rifle carriers got to a group the groups flapjacked so that each group rotated through each exercise several times. A few minutes of this and YHC called time and switched the exercises up to be squats and lunges with rocks. The third group still rifle carries between groups. A few minutes of this and it was time to put rocks back gently exactly where we found them and start back to launch.
Part of the group made it across Rea while the other part held back waiting on a car to pass. Those of us who made it across settled into some Al Gore while the remainder crossed. Still holding Al Gore and still waiting…no cars but still no sign of the rest of the group. At this point we realized they may or may not have intentionally been holding back to see how long we would hold Al Gore like idiots. Eventually everyone crossed and we continued. One last stop at the wall by Firebirds for some wall sit and air presses. YHC counted 50 at which point some guys stopped thinking that was it but what’s this…YHC still counting air presses so back on the wall to keep it going. Was going to stop at 60 but Wingman asked “What are you doing?” so YHC added a few more for talking in class. Finished mosey to launch where Regal had not paid the light bill and darkness had settled in.
Moleskin:
Solid work by all. Hopefully everyone got a good workout in as YHC tried to hit a little bit of everything: running, cardio, upper body and lower body. But there was still solid mumblechatter throughout on topics that ranged from boot warmers that also work on gloves, yard drainage, running tights keeping everything in place, how there are different guys that post at Stonecrest on Wed and Thurs, how blood flow to hands and feet slows at age 40 making those parts awfully cold, etc, etc. Side note, keep Jerry World’s family in your prayers. He moved from Texas a few months ago and still has lots of family there affected by the crazy weather.
Announcements:
- Wingman on Q at the Brave on Friday with Snooze Button to follow at 6:45. Snooze Button is a great workout to get FNG’s and Kotters out.
- Blood Drive this Friday 2/19
- Maul needs Q’s
- Each AO is taking up items or monetary donations for welcome packages for A Roof Above to assist with providing basic essentials for homeless that are being provided with living accommodations.