The Spirit of 276

Today was the day to implement the test.  A few days earlier I messaged Roscoe and asked if he remembered a workout at Downtown that I never forgot.  It was my first post in awhile, those two years ago, where I was back from the beach and decided to rededicate effort into F3.  Nearly a year before Painlab was to start, Roscoe was the Q and there were about 10 of us.  I remember Easy Rider, Def Leppard, Hushpuppy and Squirt being there.  Can’t remember any more, but there’s a picture somewhere.

Roscoe took us on a workout around town, running up and down the parking deck, but stopped and had us circle up into 4 groups.  He did a waterfall of Burpees, and it never seemed to stop.  He sped it up with Def at some points, I remember that, but before the end we had done roughly 85 Burpees in a row.  I remember that workout because it was something I wouldn’t have said I could do, if you told me to do it beforehand.  That’s a great part of F3, the time you realize you can do more.  Plus I felt nauseous.

SO….with that backstory here we go.  I get to the parking lot with my truck full of weights and , and there is Linus.  This site Q is all over his job, and has been busting his @$$  pushing the rock.  We shoot the bull, and talk weight-lifting.  We’re thinking that maybe we should start an EC thing at Gashouse with some mass-building-centric stuff?  I keep saying it, the older we guys get, the more muscle loss is going to happen, it’s just a fact.  So you all stew on that.  But he helps me make the stations and set the weights at.   The guys start to trickle in, and I tell Mayor that we might not have but a few folks for Painlab and then we’d join JJ for a bootcamp.  Luckily the number hit just right!

JJ warmed us up, Pledge, then the split.  I told JJ in secret about the Test I was going to do, he said they were going to go away…..far away.  Later I saw they went to Ollie’s.  Adios boys.

8 (9 with me) stuck for Painlab.  Disclaimer, and remember these rules for when you Q:

1) Modify as needed.  Ankle hurting?  Let Q know and he can give you something else to do (Merkins, LBC, there is always an alternative).

2) We do zero to low impact.  You CAN do high-impact, like the hop after the Burpee, or do it slower.  Again, we modify.

3) We’ve had a theme of using weights.  This is not required.  If you Q Painlab, holler at HIPAA and get some original ideas.  He’s done great in innovating this AO.

I set up 8 stations to rotate through.  When someone realized that there was 9 of us, we made a new one on the spot.  Improv!

Goblet Squats with 50 lb. kbell

Diamond Merkins (Hushpuppy missed my diamond drawing.  Uncultured).

Halos with 30 lb. kbell

Curls with 50lb. curl bar

Tricep Extension with 20 lb. dumbell

American Hammer with cinderblock

Rows with 50 lb. kbell

Marches with 25 lb. plate or 20 lb bell

*Lunges with 2 10 lb. hand weights (this is what we made up, good job Mayor!)

You do 10-15 repetitions, rotate when I say so, we rest 30-60 seconds before next station, repeat.  My favorite was when Top Hat grabbed the 50 lb. kbell for squats and yelled out “JOHN BROWN!”.  I think he’s feeling muuuuuch better these days.  So we do this times 2 cycles.  This was more work than what we did 2 years ago with Roscoe, and while I knew it would have an effect, we put in 30 minutes of work.  Perfect.

Next was the test, we split into groups, Hushpuppy remembered what I told the gang about the Roscoe workout and girded himself.  Only difference was that each group would count and we would ascend, not do a 1-2-3-1, count, but just count up.  I thought this would give some mental edge.  Plus, I made a playlist specific for this event.  So me and Hunkajunk paired up, Mayor and Defib, Pedal along with Hushuppy, TopHat with Sledge-o-matic and Hunchback.  I can’t remember what number we were on, but here comes Madoff and Hercules.  They join up, welcome to the pain train!

At this point I set the time for 15 minutes.  I saw the sweat, I saw the push, and tried to keep the chatter up.  The third song on the playlist helped to inspire me and Mayor, when “Real American” came on.  How can you not flashback to your youth when Hulkomania was running wild?  Say your prayers, eat your vitamins and be a good American.  Hot damn I’m pumped up now!  At one point I saw the group sagging just a hair, I told them to put their arms in the air and I checked the clock.  11:30 had passed.  I asked if they had it in them to go for 4 more minutes.  The answer was a resounding yes, so back to work we went.

Final count – 276 group burpees.  That’s 69 individual in a row.  The bench mark has been set for PainLab.  Next time is 277 or bust.  GREAT WORK MEN.  And hats off to Pedal, who did the torture chamber with Gastone the day before, which looked like the stuff of nightmares.

I had everyone sit on their 6 and did some basic stretches to cooldown.  Weightlifting + 69 consecutive burpees is pretty rough on the body.  After 5 minutes of stretch I lead us in some yoga poses to actively stretch.  I enjoyed watching people shake and tremble while planking.  Monk came running up during tree pose and looked like he’d seen a car accident.  GET TO WORK MONK.  JJ joined me in the circle, we did some Mary work, churchbells = time.

MOLESKIN – been waiting for a time to do the test.  Hats off to Roscoe for pushing me 2 years ago, hats off to Painlab participants for not quitting.  You can pause, you can go slow, you can let doubt creep in, but the test has one bigger purpose – push your brother, iron sharpens iron.

Until the next time, adios.  And if interested in an EC kbell-weight session before bootcamp on Saturdays, holler. Gastone was thinking of one through the week too.  Opportunities abound.  Proud of all this new blood taking over site Q’s!

Rudolph