Day: August 19, 2017

Seven warriors showed up at The Yank to put in a little early morning work in the heat and humidity of mid August in pre eclipse Gaston County. It was not easy friends. it looked a little like this:

Gather up at the Yank with the pax and mosey to the first corner for some warm ups

SSH X 20

2 burpees OYO

IW X 20

4 burpees OYO

Windmills X 20

6 burpees OYO

Merkins X 15

8 burpees oyo

LBCs X 20

10 burpees OYO

Mosey to the top of the hill for some bench work:

Step ups X 10 total

Dirkins X 10 total

Dips X 10 total

Increase to 15, then 20 then back down to 15, 20, 10

Mike Tysons X 10 on the steps.

Mosey down to the field of dreams for a nightmare scenario of:

Partner work : 10 partner dirkins, mosy to the other end for 10 hand slap merkins. Mosey back

partner merkins, 1X2X3X4X5X6X7X8 and back down.

Serpantine bear crawl: Weave in and out of pax in plank position “Indian run” style to the end of the field. Talk about building mental toughness!

10 SSH, 15 Copperhead squats.

Mosey down to Heatbreak Hill for some triple nickel nastiness.

bottom of the hill: 5 jump squats.

run the hill

top of the hill: 5 CDDs

repeat 5X

Over to the playground:

10 velociraptors

10 merkins

10 rail squats.

3 rotations.

Over to the fountain for a round of pax led Mary in the circle.

1 pax calls exercise and runs around the fountain while rest of the pax does the exercise. Included but not limited to LBCs, heels to heaven, merkins, you name it. Two rotations total.

Done.

NM: This was a tough one today. Our FNG disappeared for awhile but came back to life for the playground and Mary session. Way to keep hanging in brother! It will get better and easier. But this was a hard day. Make no mistake about that fact. The humidity was pretty thick for sure.

Honor and pleasure to lead The Yank. Great AO and even better guys. Welcome GQ! looking forward ot seeing you in the gloom brother!

Tesla

Ah Tooltime.  Never a second thought about creating a painful trap for the Pax.  Sneaky guy….I loved it.

After last week he took the Q, walked up and said “I want to know about Painlab, and I want everyone else to know.  How about I run ’em for a lap and bring them to the circle?”.  I said “you have a sick mind.  Let’s do it”.

So with that the trap was set.  The regular Painlab staff of Oompa and Bandit were in on planning, and the crucial move by Slaw to make sure we had enough coupons.  This was a BIG part, so big ups to Slaw for that.  The Pax should always know that I put 6 – 25lb plates in my trunk, along with 4 – 10lb. plates, some 5 lb. ones and a few Kettlebells.  Kettlebells are growing on me.  Get one in the 20-40 lb. range and I’m glad to send you a program!

Anyways, we planned through the week, and this morning Tooltime was grinning ear to ear.  I wrote a program that represents what we do, so here we go:

Tooltime wasted NO time, said he was an idiot and so were we, off they moseyed.  Meanwhile Oompa, Bandit and I grabbed our weights and did this in front of Frank:

4 Rounds – 10 Lunges, 10 Kettlebell Swings, 10 Merkins, 10 Squats

By the middle of Round 4 the Pax showed up.  Some looked confused, all enjoyed carrying their coupons.  They did the tradition of once you hit the curb, you lunge your coupon to the circle.  Then……WELCOME TO PAINLAB!  Gave the usual spiel:

• Modify as needed.  I always have alternate exercies
• We do non-high impact.  High Impact both feet leave the ground, low is one foot, zero is two feet on the ground
• We focus on cardio, strength, core and flexibility

Phase I: PainLadder

25 each – Blockie Merkin, Weighted Crunch, Deadlift to High Pull, Weighted American Hammers

20 each – same

15 each – same

10 each – same

5 each – same

Good work, lots of chatter.  Tooltime asked Stroganoff to never ask him to Q again.  I saw Frank smile  Break time….1 minute lunge walk around the circle

Phase II:  PainCycle

1. Boxing (3 minutes)
2. PAINMARCH Lunge (1 minute – ALT Rockette)
3. Muscle Work (3 minutes – Diamond Merkin, Curls, weighted squats – 10 to exhaustion cycle) (ALTS are French Curls, Bent Over Rows, Don Quixotes)
4. PAIN MARCH High Knees (1 minute – ALT Slow Karyoke)
5. Ab Work (3 minutes – Mary in circle, reps of 20)

wanted to repeat but had to Omaha…..had to get to:

Phase III: Follow the Leader

Lunge walk around the circle to the stadium steps, bear crawl up, then across, next level was crab walk, next level was lunges, next level was bear crawl again, then high knee the last one.

After that everyone found a pole and squatted for a bit.  Leave it to Tooltime to start talking food to break it up.  Hard to talk when I had a clock going off in my head….but I got delayed 15 seconds, you don’t feel that when you have an iso-squat going, do ya?  Good stuff.

Phase IV:  Isolation Drop-Sets

everyone has something they need to work on.  I try to leave 3-5 minutes to tackle something you want to hit, compliments of a Q I saw Roscoe pull many years ago.  Something about facing your fears.  So, I gave the men drop-sets (one exercise, then another to exhaustion, that focus on the same muscle groups).  I listed exercises, set the timer and said GET TO IT!  Good work by the guys here.

Phase IV:  Yoga

Asked the Pax what you do, so you don’t get injured, after some hard muscle work?  STRETCH!  And the best darn thing I have ever found in terms of stretching but staying intense is Yoga.  If done right, this stuff is the real deal.  For a many, many weeks now, Bandit, Oompa and other guys have been getting better and better.  Very proud of this, because check this out:

Namaste

Warrior Pose 2, both sides

Hanging Knee

Chair Pose

Plank

Low Plant

Cat pose

Child pose

Plank

Hands to Feet, bleeding into….

Crane Pose.  BANDIT GOT FULL CRANE!  And held it.  He’s losing weight or getting stronger.  That’s all there is to it.  Awesome.

Back up to Tree pose on both sides.  Got some laughs here.  That’s good, it was quitting time anyways.  Walked the coupons back and name-o-rama.

Tooltime said it best:  when you are hurt and want the fellowship, come to Painlab.  When you want to focus on strength, core and flexibility, with a side of cardio, come to Painlab.  This is our thing to give F3 Gastonia, and whether I pull a solo merlot or have the big dogs Oompa and Bandit with me, you will always have stretches, exercises, but most importantly the fellowship time to push the rock.  Or block.  Or plate . Or kettlebell.

A pleasure to lead and have the team we did today.  Teamwork!  AYE!

• Rudolph