During the past month, a number of men from Area 51 have had the opportunity to get to know a beautiful group of kids that live at the Alexander Youth Network [AYN] campus just a few miles outside of downtown Matthews, NC. The range of services offered at AYN is impressive. I can’t do it justice in a brief post, but here are some fast facts to give you a general sense for AYN:
When I was introduced to AYN a few months ago I couldn’t help but wonder how F3 could get involved. After a 6-degrees of separation conversation with Haywood [from the F3 Foundation Board of Directors] I discovered that two men of F3 [i.e., Puppy Love and Sweeper Boy] serve on the AYN Board of Directors. I should have known! Puppy Love connected me with the AYN team, and we jointly decided to try a four week program whereby men of F3 would lead workouts for the AYN residents on Saturday afternoons from 4-5PM. AYN has as many as 36 full-time residents in treatment at any point in time, most in the age range of 8-12. The residential program serves children that require 24-hour supervision; with a typical treatment duration of four to six months. Each child has a unique story, but the common thread is that these are kids that have experienced some real challenges in life, including various forms of abuse.
So, for the past four Saturdays we’ve had a collection of F3 men – Puppy Love, Frasier, Slim Fast, Mermaid, Spackler, Iron Horse, and myself – rotate Saturdays to lead workouts and connect with the kids on a personal level. It’s been – I think – a mutually beneficial experience. The kids showed gains each week… getting the counting down pretty well [better than some of my F3 brothers, who shall remain nameless]… and by the last week we even had some of the kids leading exercises. The kids loved the fact that we had silly nicknames [thankfully, all of the F3-ers on site had family friendly nicknames]. As the weeks progressed it was pretty cool seeing the kids come out of their cottages at the start of the workouts and call out to us by name.
I wanted to share all of this, not for a pat on the back, but rather to make you aware of AYN and to give a small example of how men of F3 continue to find ways to connect with the community. My gentle challenge to the men of Area 51 is to keep your eyes open for community engagement activities. I’ve found that all it takes is one person – with a bit of passion – to attract other men of F3 to community projects/programs. It’s a bit like Field of Dreams… “if you build it, he will come”… just flesh out your idea and the men of F3 will lift it up and make it happen.
So, you may be wondering… well, what next with AYN? We are in the process of working with AYN to a) have a fun F3-AYN cookout to goof around a bit with the kids, and b) establish a long-term commitment with AYN whereby we get men of F3 out with the kids on selected Saturdays throughout the year. So… stay tuned… there will be opportunities to get involved.
Joker
[There should be a really cool picture of The Double Deuce bar from classic move Roadhouse…but no more graphics in posts]
A cool double deuce of Area 51’s finest came out in the damp, breezy gloom to swing some iron and run a little. Did enough to make Dalton proud.
Warmup: SSH x 30 IC IW x 30 IC 20 2-hand swings OYO Mountain Climber x 20 IC
Downward Dog
Cobra (Upward Dog)
20 Snatch (10-R, 10-L)
The Thang Mosey to bottom of Church parking lot, partner up
Partner 1 runs to bottom three curbs and back Partner 2 does called exercise
Flapjack
Combine to complete called rep count
Round 1 – T-bag squats x 150
Round 2 – Curls x 200
Round 3 – Two hand overhead press x 150
Round 4 – Tricep extentions x 150
Round 5 – Asinines (exercises 1 – 4 completed as one exercise) x 50 Mosey to top lot, plank up while waiting on the six
Moleskine
Sorry for the Road House references here. Upon counting off, Bananas informed YHC that I made a cool double deuce of Pax this morning, hence, Brad Wesley’s favorite watering hole. Wait, I’m really not sorry as the film is an American movie classic.
Fairly mundane weinke this morning, but YHC really wanted to bring back the Asinines this AM. At the end, it felt like a polar bear fell…well, you know.
Great to see Robin Hood back out. My man is 64, and crushing it out there. Good to see you, brother.
Busch and TR, double your 60 lb. pleasure, double your fun. Great work guys.
Pax were pretty spread out, so whatever mumble chatter happened was missed by YHC. Sound off if need be.
Great send off from Freedom, thanks brother.
Announcements
#F3Golf April 30th – seems to be about 80% full, so sign up today
Posted on behalf of Puddin’ Pop
14 PAX celebrated the break in the rain and frost and enjoyed the 50 degree morning and my 2nd Q.
Jog around the school
IC: 20 SSH, 20 Merkins, 30 Imperial Walkers, 30 Slow Squats.
Progressive Ladder – sprints from one end of the field to the other in between:
1) 20 Russian Hammers
2) 5 Stump Huggers
3) 5 Dive Bombers
4) 10 Mtn Climbers
5) 5 Diamonds
6) 15 LBC
7) 7 Drydocks
8) 16 single leg flutters
9) Merkins
10) Rosalitas
11) Burpees
Completed the ladder, and ran each back one at a time at each end of the field
22 of the finest gents from A51 and metro got their week off to a good start at #F3DMZ. And it went a bit like dis:
The Thang
Circle the parking lot for the stragglers. Off to Carmel Middle School we went at a fairly good clip.
COT for a brief round of 20 SSH
Partner up and each pick out a rock (one ‘heavy’ rock and one ‘running’ rock)
Line up on lacrosse field for Triple 200’s – one partner perform called exercise with ‘heavy’ rock while the other runs 200 yards with the ‘running’ rock – flap jack until you get to 200 on called exercise. Elbow plank when done.
1st 200 – curls
2nd 200 – overhead press
3rd 200 – T baggers
Quick plank work with a few 6 inchers
Drop the rocks and head to the hill by the baseball diamond for Triple Nickel.
Diamond merkins at bottom, wide at the top on the hill x 5
Mosey to front of school for Triple Sprints – 80 yard (roughly) sprints x 3 (actually 4)
AYO pace back to parking lot with 20 CDD’s at each speed bump
40 Dolly followed by 20 Dolly
Moleskine
So I got the call on Saturday to replace Agony who was going to be sick today. I thought, no problem I’d be up for it. Then came Sunday. I decided it would be a good idea to build a fire pit in the back yard. For those that know me, you would know that would not be a simple task, especially for me. Now I know that just like dry wall and painting, building fire pits are something you pay to have done, right Haggis? I completely underestimated the work and for that I was sore as all get out this morning. Soooooooo, decided to go with a little different plan and run a bit more this morning. If that upset anyone, I apologize. I do know it would have been seriously disappointing to Semi Gloss who has been planning his entire last week on attending Fast Twitch tomorrow. But he decided to fart sack this morning so…..I digress. Not a lot of breaks today and certainly no 10 second countdowns. It’s only 45 min. Gotta get after it.
Good to see some familiar faces out there today but I really need to start making DMZ more often and get a chance to meet more of the metro guys. Lot’s of noticeable strength out there. However I will say that it was very obvious some of you (not just metro but A51 as well) could have had some bigger eyes for your ‘heavy’ rock. However, there was one eager gent who’s eyes were bigger than he needed them to be when choosing his rock and unfortunately he was my partner. Bug, I don’t know what the heck you were smoking this morning but that thing was ridiculous. Felt like I had a bad case of elephantitis during the T bags.
The Weinke called for Triples all morning but had to audible during the Triple Sprints and call for one more. Blame Hopper. I think he was attempting to Q Jack.
Learned that Cheesecurd had quite the Saturday night. He had to ask what the weather was like yesterday (beautiful and 70…in Feb) as he and his M marinated in their post libation caves all day. Go big or go home. Next time calls for a little hair of the dog for recovery bro.
Sound off if you have any other observations.
Enjoyed it gents. As always, its a pleasure to lead such a fine group. Thank you Snowflake for the prayer send off.
Announcements
Mud Run sign ups are underway. Check site.
BRR sign ups are underway, atleast in A51. Check the site.
Quarry Crusher is on April 18th in Columbia. Run down the quarry and back – 3.75 miles and 10% grade. Clowncar is the plan from S Charlotte. DM Spackler for details.
Fifteen pax thrashed to the mellifluous harmonies of Ratt, Cinderella and Dokken for the next stop of the Doubles Tour. In case you didn’t get the t-shirt, previous locations were my garage, Meathead, Diamond Head, and Skunk Works. And maybe a few other places. Tour life is a grind..hard to keep all the places straight.
Today was to be a pure KB workout and, as such, the call was for a KB warm up, sans SSH.
Line up abreast on the curb
Saw a You Tube video (can’t find the link right off, but apparently Brown has seen it) of a snatch to walking lunge (S/WL) that I wanted to try out. So we did. Do a snatch then lunge walk in the overhead position. Rinse and repeat on the other side until you reach your destination.
Partner up with similar sized bells for doubles. Partner 1 works, Partner 2 gets a short breather.
COT
MOLESKINE:
Some new stuff and some new standards. Not sure what to think about the snatch to walking lunge combo. Sometimes different is better and sometimes it’s just different. They are two great exercises on their own but when combined they lose a bit of their stand-alone potency. Still, not a bad complex to have in the toolbox.
The front half of the workout was effectively a warm up for the doubles on the back half. A bit of a KB renaissance is sweeping Area 51, and (in my opinion) a large part of that has to do with doubles. I sound like a broken record, but guys are figuring out that they have much, much more reserve strength that they had given themselves credit for, especially on the ballistic exercises like swings, cleans and the like. Once you swing a double 35 (or 40 or 45), the light bulb comes on. One size does not fit all for KB: as demonstrated today, the pressing bell is about half the size of the swinging/ballistic bell. Put another way, most guys but pressing bells and unknowingly cheat themselves on the ballistics. Well, know you know. You’ve done it.
Rock Thrill drove up with a 30 lb bell today. This afternoon, he’s shopping for a 24 kg (53 lb). If you want to get better with the bells you have to have more than one. And one of them needs to be heavy.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
BRR, Golf and Mud Run sign ups ongoing. And a bunch of other stuff in the weekly email. If you don’t get the weekly email, talk to a veteran pax and he will get you hooked up.
5 men made the choice to be the toughest men in Area 51 on Saturday morning. Here’s what we did:
The Thang:
YHC set up 3 Pain Stations. We rotated through the pain stations every 2.5 minutes until we couldn’t lift our arms-
1. Punching Pads (1 man wears the pads, one man punches the pads)
2. Heavy Bag Work
3. Defensive punching pads (1 man wears to pads while trying to hit the man punching, the other punches the pads and block the man holding the pads)
We took a lap around the Lockness with out hands up in our face in the defensive position then circled up for sparring. Sparring lasted 2.5 minutes per round and the PAX could only jab at 25%.
COT
A record tying 25 men of steel, including 3 FNGs, rolled into Base Camp for perfect temps and some “My Buddy” (wherever I go he’s gonna go). After a solid disclaimer we were off.
The Thang:
Run towards 51, stop in far parking lot for Side Straddle Hops x20 IC, Partner up, FNG’s make sure you are with someone who can help/ explain/encourage you through your first beat down. Joker chose to pair with Steinbrenner, I think Steinbrenner now knows what he is doing.
Run towards 51, stop in daycare parking lot for Imperial Walkers x20 IC, and Low Slow Squats x20 IC.
Run to 51 for 7’s on the Hill
Stick with your partner, Jump Squats at Top, Partner hand slap merkins at bottom.
Head back to the launch spot, with one plankorama stop to keep the crew together.
Head to the rocks located by the stairs, each pair of guys grab one lifting rock and head back to the parking lot.
Rocks in the Lot
Partner 1 does AMRAP exercises with the rock until Partner 2 returns,
Partner 2, runs to the curb at the end of the parking lot and back (turns out there is no curb, or maybe
Plank after each round until everyone is done.
Round 1: Curls.
Round 2: Squats with the Rock.
Round 3: Tricep Extensions.
Return rocks and head to the bleachers
Circuit:
Dips x 20
Step ups x 20
Supine Pull ups x 20
Squats x 20
Partner work
Round 1: Partner 1 runs to stairs and back, Partner 2 does 10 dips, 10 step ups then rinse and repeat until partner returns then flapjack.
Round 2: Partner 1 runs to up the stairs and takes the path to the left to circle back, Partner 2 does 10 Supine pull ups, 10 Squats then rinse and repeat until partner returns then flapjack.
Round 3: Partner 1 runs to stairs and back, Partner 2 does 10 dips, 10 step ups then rinse and repeat until partner returns then flapjack.
Head up to the restrooms: Bear crawl 15 yards (many noted the questionable call) then AYG to the stairs.
Head up the stairs and grab some wall for the Peoples Chair (Regular, Frankenstein)
Head to the parking lot to finish with some Freddie Mercuries (variable speed).
Although Horsehead said he needed to get to work we were delayed for a second because the Q’s phone was locked in Big Top’s car. Passport, the excellent Site Q that he is, saved the day and got his. PS-Big Top and I are still at south charlotte middle waiting for keys to his car, I am posting this from a laptop I found in the parking lot.
Done.
Deep thoughts by Jack Handy (aka the Moleskine):
-Great crew this morning, loved seeing vets work with the FNG’s.
-Lots of chatter this morning, it started with some concerning comments from Big Top on Low Slow Squat form. The chatter continued right through the MumbleChaos of the Freddie Mercuries. I caught something about a glass of water, and I am pretty sure the rest were questions about my leadership ability. Loved it.
-There may or may not have been an FNG that needed to use the facilities mid workout, they may or may not have used the women’s room, there may or may not have been merlot spilled in said restroom.
-It was 50+ degrees but:
-Passport was still wearing running tights, and come to think of it Geraldo did call him out for doing some Barre exercises instead of pullups #Ballerino
-And Joker was still keepin’ it real in his short bill winter hat (#ImStillJokerFromTheBlock, #PlayOnPlaya)
-Champagne challenged Geraldo on one of the runs, it was close until Geraldo turned on the afterburners, dude keeps getting faster. Steinbrenner also bested Hannibal!
-FNG’s: Mama Mia has been in three musicals, Putin speaks Russian, rides horses with no shirt on and has been to Sibera (It’s beautiful this time of year), Fish Bait shared that he was once bit on the nipple by a piraña (say no more), Knickers already had a name from an unofficial workout we did on our church leadership retreat this fall, but this was his first official post and he crushed it.
-Kotters to Big Top and Clunken.
Announcements:
-Sign up for Mud Run and BRR, all the info you need is in the Email of the week.
-There are still some spots open in Q school talk to Passport or Fireman Ed if you are interested.
Have a great week guys, Thanks for coming out, and thanks Passport and FE for the chance to lead. FNG’s, good work, I hope you stick with it! The first three weeks are key.
Sound off with any other color commentary.
Swift will launch at 0515 from the Vine Restaurant on Tuesday. We will be dialing back some of the distance in order to get in some semi-short and fast running.
Once we get to the untracked track (Rushmore Dr near the Bull Ring), we’ll be doing 200meter sprints (1 mile race pace / Repetition pace) with the occasional 600m sprint thrown in. Distances will be marked. Bring a watch if you are interested in measuring yourself for “Repetition” pace against the pace calculator at http://runsmartproject.com/calculator
I guess the older I get, the longer it takes to add the backblast. Well, here it is for Rebel yell. Hopefully I remember what we did
SSH x 45
10 Burpees (I think)
Mosey to top of Murderhorn, 10 Burpees
Middle of Murderhorn, 10 Burpees
Bottom of Murderhorn, 10 Burpees
To the rock pile, 5 Burpees ( I think)
Partner up and grab a good size rock
Mosey with rock to pool parking lot
P1 squats P2 run to tables, 20 decline Merkins, flapjack
P1 Russian twist wih Rock, P2 20 decline merkin, flapjack
P1 LBC wirh Rock, P2 10 pull ups
Take Rock back to pile, most to bottoms of Murderhorn
Get into groups of 3, grab a plate
Hair burners up Murderhorn
P1 hair burners, p2&3 6 grasshopper Merkins, chase & switch until at the top
Carry plates to parking lot hill and grab a Rock.
Same groups, p1 with Rock on top of hill, p2 hair burners to P3 at end of lot
Timer set for 3 min AYG,
On hill: Rock curls, end of lot LBC, HAirburners in between
3 min AYG:
Rock tricep on hill, Merkins end of lot, HAirburners in between
No time for anything else
SF was planted as 10 PAX gathered at McKee Road Elementary for the weekly edition of Area 51. Welcomed back Cold Cuts and Picasso after some time on IR (foot injury for Cold Cuts, new baby for Picasso household) and a little winter hibernation and welcomed TNT to the AO as he traveled down from Lake Norman area to post. With everyone ready to go and no sign of late arrivals, YHC gave the quick disclaimer to remind everyone I am not a professional and they were out there on their own accord and at their own peril. With all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed, led the PAX over to the soccer fields for a little warm-up lap around the pitch and then we circled up for COP:
With the body woken up and the blood flowing, time for a few rounds of Suicides/Suicide Ladders:
Mosey over to rock pile and pick up a lifting rock and then head back to the soccer fields. Apparently Lobster Roll was a little suspicious of call for lifting rock, but YHC reassured him we would not be on the move with the rocks.
Rock Exercise/Ark Loader Combos:
Return the rocks to rock pile and then circle up at top end of soccer field for 6 MOM:
Time to head up to the playground at front of school. PAX divided into 3 groups for 3 man grinders
After hard push by all the PAX, YHC decided it was time for People’s Chair:
With the PAX having an opportunity to recover during the PC rounds, YHC decided it was time to focus a bit on chest and shoulders. What better way than a round of Jack Webb
4-5 minutes left on the clock so we headed over to the track for a round of 4 corners. 1 lap around the track with stops at each of the 4 corners for called exercises from the PAX:
Head back to launch point and line up at entrance to parking lot. AYG back to launch point.
COT
NMM:
Announcements: