Day: May 14, 2018

Passing of the Torch

Looking back through Back Blasts I had seen the 1^st Pain Lab was done on Saturday May 16^th, 2017. After one year of a very successful campaign, Rudolph felt it was time to pass the torch. Rudolph and YHC seemed to have shared the same vision about Pain Lab since the first time I had attended. Given that, he had asked me if I would like to take over this wonderful AO and at the 1-year mark. YHC humbly and gratefully accepted his request. Rudolph, you have introduced a wonderful experience for all to enjoy and cannot thank you enough for the push to keep this going. I only hope I can be as successful as you have been during this time. I promise not to let you down and to keep this alive for years to come.

Here is an excerpt from the 1^st  Pain Lab BB: “PAINLAB – you are here because your body hates you after high-impact work, or you are recovering from injury.  Either way, you will get a workout!  High-impact is when both feet leave the ground.  We don’t do that.  We bust @$$ keeping 1 or 2 legs on the ground.  It works!”  I’d like to think that this is the official Mission Statement for Pain Lab and I will keep that promise. All are welcome to join in the pain, but the ones on IR are the ones we definitely want to target. Why? Because this keeps those men involved, possibly rehabilitate faster, keeps their spirits high, and allows them to keep pushing the rock. Prime example here is Clavin. As many of you know, Clavin is fresh off knee surgery. He loves F3 and doesn’t want this injury to put him in that dark place. Clavin was out in full force Saturday, couldn’t even tell that man was on the IR!!!

While Pain Lab’s main home is Gashouse on Saturday’s, it will not be stationary. Once a month we will take Pain Lab on the road, delivering pain at Folsom, The Yank and regions beyond. YHC has been building up his private collection of weights and other goodies, and wants to share them with all. We have Kettlebells, Battle Ropes, Slam balls, dumb bells and Picnic Tables?? (Keep reading J). If anyone wants to Q the Pain Lab and wishes to borrow this equipment for your workout, you are more than welcome to at any time. No security deposit required!

That said, let’s show you how we incorporate these items into a Pain Lab workout!!

The Thang:

Tabata/HIIT Style

30 second AMRAP: 10 second rest (Yes Mayor, it was 10 second rest) x 3 Sets each Round. Switch stations after 3 sets have been completed. Rinse & Repeat until all rounds at each station had been completed.

Stations: 6 HIM = 6 Stations:

Station 1 – Battle Rope (50ft 2” Battle Rope):

Round 1: 3 Sets – Double Arm Waves

Round 2: 3 Sets – Battle Rope Burpee (New Burpee!!)

Round 3: 3 Sets – Single Arm Waves

Station 2 – Slam Ball (20Lbs):

Round 1: 3 Sets – Overhead Slams

Round 2: 3 Sets – American Hammers with Slam Ball

Round 3: 3 Sets – Overhead Slams to Sprawl

Station 3 – Kettlebell (All sizes for all levels):

Round 1: 3 Sets – Plank Rows

Round 2: 3 Sets – Swings

Round 3: 3 Sets – Snatch

Station 4 – Body Weight:

Round 1 – 3 Sets – LBC’s

Round 2 – 3 Sets – Pseudo Planche Merkin

Round 3 – 3 Sets – Hand Release Burpees (New Burpee!!)

Station 5 – Ruck Sack (30Lbs):

Round 1 – 3 Sets – Bent Over Rows

Round 2 – 3 Sets – Shoulder Press

Round 3 – 3 Sets – Lying Chest Press

Station 6 – Picnic Tables

Round 1 – 3 Sets – Bench Dips

Round 2 – 3 Sets – Bench Derkins

Round 3 – 3 Sets – Picnic Table Presses

In the time allotted, we were able to finish all 6 stations except for 1 round at the last station before Madoff came back with his group. (Example: The only exercise I wasn’t able to get to do was Overhead Slams to Sprawl)

As you can see, Pain Lab is NOT to be taken lightly. There was not much mumblechatter from the group, well except Mayor constantly complaining about the alleged “10” second rest period. You should be lucky I even gave you one! Overall, I think everyone was so concentrated on busting out AMRAP, there wasn’t much time to talk. YHC totally forgot he had a fully charged GoPro in his car; I would’ve liked to have recorded the session. We will do this in the future for a promo video! Blart, I dont think you had any idea what you were getting yourself into today. Glad you stayed for the pain and hope you return to join us again, it looked like you enjoyed it!

COT

Welcome back cotter, Warden! Warden hit up the F3 FB page Friday evening wanting to know if we still did Pain Lab on Saturday mornings. The reply was yes and reminded YHC to put up an AO schedule on FB. I was glad to see Gashouse have a large gathering of HIM today! Welcome 2.0 FNG Dijon! I know your Dad is proud of you!!

Announcements: Memorial day 5K (Speed For Need), Convergence, Murph all on 5/28. We need PAX to step up and fill open Q’s. Visit our Events page to check over the “Q Schedule for Gastonia, Folsom & Midoriyama:” calendar, it’s there for a reason!

Prayer requests for family, friends & fellow PAX in need of healing and mercy. Madoff took us out in prayer.

Men, as always it is an honor and privilege to lead a group of HIM. I encourage you to keep posting, do not let yourself fall into that dark hole. We are all here for each other, reach out to someone if you need help!

KEEP PUSHING THE ROCK, AYE!!!!

HIPAA

I spent the end of the week teasing my workout about how it would be an epic beatdown. Gumby brought it on Thursday so I felt the bar was already set high. The workout plan had been finalized since Wednesday so I knew the madness that was coming their way.

In addition, there is an ongoing dispute in Folsom regarding contact in a recent Frisbee Rules Football game. Sister Act says Roadie’s hit was intentional. Both are arguing about the degree of injury vs the level of Sandy V. Sister Act called Roadie ‘SOFT’. Dang son, when talking to a HIM like Roaide, you are better off talking about his mom rather than calling him SOFT. Roadie has vowed to show ‘Essay’ he is most definitely not soft! Roadie got in some EC doing Sister Act lifts throughout the workout.

Back to the workout though – 17 HIM showed up at Folsom – Pizza Man and Tool Time departed for a run

Thang:

• SSH 10 IC at a brisk pace.
• Roadie does a Sister Act lift

I took a planned break to let the PAX know something seemed to be missing. It felt lonely out there by myself on a Saturday. I felt like I needed some teamwork and some support. Out of nowhere, 2 Team Timberlake shirts have appeared. It’s a Team Timberlake Q baby! JT music is playing in the background, all is right in the world at that moment, and the first words out of Slaw’s mouth are…

• SLAW-TER STARTER!!!!!!!! 20 OYO

Whooooooo! Let’s mosey to the flag. BRUTAL! On our way to the flag, I notice Roadie is pushing the rock, running near the front. Solid work. He is making a statement to Sister Act!

• Pledge, let’s mosey some more down around to the back side of the park.

• Split into 2 groups (possibly not necessary, according to the PAX) 15 Merkins on one side, run down the hill and back up the other hill, 25 LBCs, run down and then up the other hill…repeat 5 times.

• Mosey across the grass to the tennis courts. Freight moans about running in the grass and getting his shoes wet. That was a pretty common theme through the workout!

• Burpee Dans! – line up against the fence, lunge-lunge-burpee, lunge-lunge-burpee, lunge-lunge-burpee all the way to the net. Then do the same back to the fence with 2 burpees, then back to the net with 3 burpees…..we offered the PAX a reprieve at about 6.

• Mosey to the amphitheater. More whining from Freight about his shoes. At this point, I think he’s more upset about his hair being out of place.

• Crazy Indian (modified). Frankly, we probably had too many PAX for the limited amount of wall space but I tweaked the plan…half on one side of the wall, half on the other. Assume Balls to the Wall position, the 2 outermost PAX run around the amphitheater, reassume the position, then the next 2 PAX run around the amphitheater. It was something of a mess but we got it done. On your 6 for some ab exercise.

• 40 LBCs OYO

• 20 Sandy Vs

• 20 Freddie Mercuries

• Hip Slappers 10 IC. Having a co-q did help here as Slaw counted one side of the wall, YHC counted the other.

• Mosey – pause mid-run for 20 Flutter Kicks IC and allow the 6 to catch up. Back to the tennis courts.

Slaw shares some great words of wisdom, letting us know his daughter is turning 17 and reminding us all to spend good quality time with our families and kids because time flies by. He is 100% right!!! We all get distracted with life, work, our phones, hobbies (including F3), etc. Make sure you’re putting in that quality family time too because that fitness is just as important!

Then, Slaw gives the PAX an equivalent of a Stone Cold Stunner…

• Burpee Dans – pick up where we left off. This goes on for about 8 minutes. Everyone was GASSED! Omaha!

We have a few minutes left so let’s get in a round of Mary
– Roadie gets in a few more Sister Act lifts
– LBCs
– American Hammers (Ash Pond, they say he can do them all day)
– Cork Screws (thanks Short Sale)
– 22 for the Vets (a train is heard in the background)
– 5 burpeees OYO

Time!

COT: There were several requests including Pockets. YHC took us out in prayer.

Moleskin: I had a regularly scheduled follow up this week with my oncologist and, good news, the doctor says everything is looking good. I wanted to share that and also a piece of the story while I was going through surgery and treatment in Jan/Feb 2017. My surgeon had found cancer when removing my appendix and recommended I have part of my colon removed. My cancer wasn’t very aggressive and prognosis was good, but I wasn’t sure….did I really need this surgery? Is it the best way? So, I made an appointment for a 2nd opinion with an Oncologist at Levine’s in Charlotte. He agreed I should remove part of my colon so I’m feeling better about this, but I’m still nervous. As I’m preparing for surgery, I go to get bloodwork done a few weeks later and the nurse told me how, in her job, she sees a lot of people in need and she uses her job to minister to others…she tells people about her faith in Jesus and offers to pray for people. We talked about church and I let her know I was a believer. Turn out, she had a similar surgery to mine a few years ago. She told me she felt we’d met that day for a reason and that it was the work of God. After my bloodwork, she prayed for me and I felt a calm come over my soul. I cried in the room because I was so relieved. I cried because I knew God was speaking to me. Frankly, that doesn’t just happen to me all the time, but I was looking, I was listening, and he was there when I needed it. So my advice to you all – look and listen for the great Sky Q to speak to you. He won’t answer every prayer, everything isn’t going to go perfectly to YOUR plan, but it will according to HIS!

-Montross