Day: August 23, 2021

This YHC’s first time posting at Old School so why not Q it! With F3 Dads at Folsom and F3 Dads camp in Lake Wylie, YHC knew the crowd would be light. Def Leppard was at F3 Gastonia 2nd F happy hour Friday night and assured YHC he would be posting at Old School for support. Gave him a thumbs up and said see you in the morning as he was leaving. YHC also posted on Slack there would be some EC running and Slaw HC’d.

Saturday morning: After EC run, we had about 12 mins before bootcamp started. As it got closer to 7am, it was still only Slaw and YHC. About 6:58, Wirenut shows up and now its work time but no Def Leppard.

Warm-up

• SSH
• Don Q’s
• Imperial Walkers
• Stretching

The Thang; 

Time for some round and round workout….We stay in the parking and move to one end.

Round 1 – 5 burpees and then run to end of parking lot and back

Round 2 – 5 burpees, 10 merkins, and then run to end of parking lot and back

Round 3 – 5 burpees, 10 merkins, 15 LBCs and then run to end of parking lot and back

Round 4 – 5 burpees, 10 merkins, 15 LBCs, 20 CDDs  and then run to end of parking lot and back

Round 5 – 5 burpees, 10 merkins, 15 LBCs, 20 CDDs, 25 squats  and then run to end of parking lot and back

Round 6 – 5 burpees, 10 merkins, 15 LBCs, 20 CDDs, 25 squats, 30 sec planks  and then run to end of parking lot and back

Round 7 – 5 burpees, 10 merkins, 15 LBCs, 20 CDDs, 25 squats, 30 sec planks, 35 american hammers  and then run to end of parking lot and back

Round 8 – 5 burpees, 10 merkins, 15 LBCs, 20 CDDs, 25 squats, 30 sec planks, 35 american hammers, 40 o/h presses while in squat position and then run to end of parking lot and back

Round 9 – 5 burpees, 10 merkins, 15 LBCs, 20 CDDs, 25 squats, 30 sec planks, 35 american hammers, 40 o/h presses while in squat position, 45 mountain climbers and then run to end of parking lot and back

Round 10 – 5 burpees, 10 merkins, 15 LBCs, 20 CDDs, 25 squats, 30 sec planks, 35 american hammers, 40 o/h presses while in squat position, 45 mountain climbers and 50 zombie walks and we were done!

COT 

Announcements -JJ5K and Labor Day Monday combined workout in McAdenville at 7am

Prayer Request – Country, Afghanistan, Westside’s dad, school starting back, teachers, students, and safety, Stump, a friend of Wirenut’s, and his family which all have Covid. Slaw’s neighbor who unexpectedly pass away.

YHC closed in prayer

Breaker Breaker

First time at Mt Hollywood in a while, so no better way than to Q it. At first YHC thought there would be a repeat of The Goat a couple of weeks earlier since it Freon and Pillager were the only ones there so far. With only a minute or two to spare, a few more PAX showed up. It’s 5:30am and time to get to work.

Warm-up

• SSH
• Don Qs
• Moroccan Knight Clubs
• Stretches

The Thang – Bubba Sparxx stays back for his upper body workout due to his foot issue while Pillager ran

Mosey down to BB&T parking lot for 10 burpees, 10 merkins, and 10 squats. Mosey out of parking lot and start down Main St and every 100 – 150 yards, stop to repeat the 3 exercises scaling down from 10 reps to 1 rep. We finished up on side street by elementary school and then continued to mosey back to middle school parking lot. Now for some 11s work in the parking lot.

10 SSH  -1 American Hammers

down to 1 SSH – 10 American Hammers

Finish out with some stretching.

COT

Announcements; F3 Dads, 8/21 at Folsom, Labor Day Monday combined workout at 7am in McAdenville (Sandlot and Mt Hollywood closed), JJ5K – 9/25,

Prayer Request – Pillager and his M, Whoopee’s 2.3, Sister Act’s 2.0, Linus’ father, and Roscoe’s father-n-law

YHC closed out with prayer

Breaker Breaker

Warm-up

Mosey to the playset for a modified Murph

5 Pull-ups

10 Merkins

15 Squats

Run a lap

Rinse and repeat 10x for a total of 50 pull-ups, 100 merkins, and 150 squats and 2 miles of running

Circle back up on black top for a round of Mary

COT

Announcements

Prayer Requests

YHC closed in prayer

Breaker Breaker

Very light crowd at the Goat this morning, very light.

The Pledge

Warm-up

Mosey to the Baptist church parking lot for some four corners escalation and de-escalation.

Corner 1 – 10x Hand Release Merkins

Corner 2 – Squats

Corner 3 – Butterfly Sit-ups

Corner 4 – Lunges

Rinse and repeat with 20 reps, 30 reps, 40 reps, and back down 30, 20, 10

Mosey back toward Main Street, but need to stop for 10 burpees…..finish back in parking lot.

COT

Announcements

Prayer Request

YHC closed out in prayer.

Breaker Breaker

Well Im a day late and a dollar short on this BB.
But I do remember what we did!

WE Ran.

Articulation: The Action of putting into words an idea or feeling of a specified type

The Bed Pan is
full,

Humidity kicked up again for start to the week. Pledge.  Start with a review of the mission of F3, encouragement to work hard, give it your best.   SSH, IW, gravel pickers 15x IC. Do some stretches.  Mosey to BBT

Call for Walls of Jericho.  Seven exercises, seven reps each, take a lap around the bank.  Exercises were burpee, big boy sit ups, Bobby Hurley’s, hand release merkins, dirty hooks ups, crunch frogs, suspension merkins.

Seven rounds took most of the time, but took a few minutes for walking lunges across parking lot and back, and then 50 low squats.  Head back.  Arrived with a minute to spare so time for five burpees.  Time.

Men came out to start the week right, hard work put in.  YHC recapped a little of importance of working hard and relying on your F3 brothers. YHC re-capped just a little of the difference it   made to Whoppee and his family having various men reach out to him during the time they were in Boston with their daughter.

Announcements:  Labor day workout in McAdenville (Sandlot and Mt Hollywood closed, JJ5K coming up, extinction run in November

YHC proceeds to name o rama, beginning with site Q Freon, Sister Act beside him.  YHC circles the group and announces self, SA speaks up with a What a bout me??!!  Sorry SA!  Was just a matter of saving best for last.

Prayer requests: Pacer friend, people of Afghanistan, people of Haiti, people impacted by flooding, kids and staff returning to school, Pillager surgery, PAX traveling West for relay race later in the week.

YHC took us out

Always an honor

Tiger

YHC had the Q for NUOS and bootcamp, Tube took Painlab.  HIM’s came to work.

Warmup all together, start with a review of the mission of F3, encouragement to do what it takes every single time.  SSH, IW, gravel pickers 15x IC. Do some stretches just to be sure Whoppee limber and ready.  Split between Pain Lab and boot camp.

Boot camp heads to the track for modified PT test.  50 merkins and 50 big boy sit ups.  Run a lap.  Repeat 8 times.  We made it 7 rounds, time to head back.

Stopped at entrance to museum for  a sprint to the flag.  Had a few minutes to spare by design.  Spoke for a moment about Whoppee 2.0, Madeline, who just returned from surgery in Boston.  YHC spoke  for a moment about how Madeline had no choice to quit in her journey.  We had been doing 100 merkins for Maddy until her return home, which happened just a couple of days prior.  So we called 100 for Maddy to celebrate her return, encouraging the PAX to dig deep when it got difficult, Maddy didn’t have the option to quit., neither should we. We did 350 merkins at the track, so this was going to be tough.  Invited Whoppee to call them.  Good push men.

Pain Lab returned.  Pledge.

YHC spoke for quick moment on the importance of doing hard things together.  You never know when your brother needs you, or you need him.  Building that brotherhood through doing hard things is invaluable.  Whoppee spoke about  how getting a note or a text or encouragement, and knowing he and his family had so many prayers for them made a very difficult time a little more bearable.

Announcements:  Labor day workout in McAdenville (Sandlot and Mt Hollywood closed, JJ5K coming up, extinction run in November

Prayer requests: Pacer friend, people of Afghanistan, people of Haiti, people impacted by flooding, kids and staff returning to school, Covid impact

YHC took us out

Always an honor

Tiger

Today, at least for Gaston County Schools starts a new milestone for 2.0’s of various ages. Actually some of these starts have occurred over the past week or so, but regardless of when, a new step has occurred. Even at a respectful age now, I can remember some of those first days. I vaguely remember, but my mother enjoys recalling 45 years ago when I wouldn’t get out of the car for kindergarten. For about the first 2 weeks (so I’m told) I cried every morning not to “take me to that place!” Sounds a little like F3 except the crying came after the workouts. Flash forward, class of ’22 Seniors are ready to embrace this moment they’ve been awaiting for years. Confident and ready to assume their mantel of leadership. Quite the opposite for the 6th and 9th graders, entering bigger schools with older kids. Hoping not to get lost or to make an “uncool” mistake. Kind of like an FNG.

I arrive to The Sandlot with only 2 minutes to spare. The circle is formed and chatter is mumbling. Larger group than normal – I wondered if there was a special celebration I was not privy? Ah, who cares, happy to see some guys out in the gloom as I’ve been taking Mondays off recently. Not today, nope, we’re getting this $hit show going early.  Some new faces and a Kotter or two, but no FNGs – still the disclaimer – perform the suggested exercise, modify as needed and don’t sacrifice form. Rarely do I begin my warm-up with Side Straddle Hops but what the hell:

Warm-up:

• Side-Straddle-Hop – in cadence…since I don’t really like this, let’s make the most of it…how long can we go? Once past 20, I wanted to see who would break form first. JK2 was the first I saw, then Whoopee…then I see headlights pull into the parking lot. Who might this be running behind…Cinderella takes a slow mosey to the circle, tying his shoe and various other delay tactics…I announce “we’re not stopping until you join.” EZ Rider says we got to 50 in cadence (Linus – if your tracking at home that’s 100 total reps).
• Next up – Imperial Walker IC x 10
• Side to Side Lunge – IC x 10 (these are better than cotton pickers because Whoopee will do them but they’re effective to open your adductors, hamstrings, and glutes – google it!)
• I think I did one more warm-up-ish exercise. I can’t recall. JK2’s mouth was moving faster than his body so he did get me discombobulated a bit trying to correct my call. Yes, officially these exercises are all in cadence even though I didn’t say “in cadence.”
• Pledge of Allegiance
• Mosey to Martha Rivers Park and the picnic shelter by the turd shack. This would be our home base for the day.

Thang:

I’m nursing a groin-like injury at the moment. Happened when I did weighted glute bridges last Saturday when I was unable to post but did a YouTube video from my girl Caroline Girvan (check her out for some ideas or a tough workout – or just check her out physically – she’s more ripped than Gold Digger). Note to self – don’t put a 30 lb dumbbell across your junk and imitate Slaw air humping – not a good combination…not really a good visual either, sorry for that. Where was I? oh yeah, my groin hurts. Voodoo offered some advice on Saturday and I’ve done some stretching, rucked instead of ran at the Coconut Horse so hopefully I can get through this Q. I drew inspiration from the WOD site, combining a few ideas into what I thought would work the entire body and avoid having to do any open body weight stuff like flutter kicks or big boys that would aggravate my injury. Now, that is not to say the exercises I selected wouldn’t aggravate the PAX various injuries – but, I did say modify as needed and I am the Q (hint: JK2 if you don’t like what I say – you can Q and do your own thing).

What did we do you’re wondering? 5 exercises, 25 reps each for 4 rounds. After each circuit is complete, run across the parking lot and return.

• Hand Release Merkins
• Squats
• Dips
• Plank Jacks
• Turtle Crunch (back of calves on the bench, sit up)
• Run
• Rinse & repeat 4 times

Next to burpees, I’m of the opinion that HR Merkins are nearly as difficult, especially 25 reps where your arms fatigue. But even if you cut the corner w/o a straight back, you’re still pushing your body weight off the ground. Unlike merkins when you can do baby-pulses for high rep counts. Now combine that move with dips and plank jacks and a nice burn should occur between your elbows and shoulders – maybe not as swole as Cougar benching 350 but definitely feeling it. However, I think I heard the most bitching for the Turtle Crunches…yeah – there not easy either. Even with your feet able to grip the bench and getting you started – it’s pretty much all abs pulling you up to the bench. Keep that in mind when you need to quite the crowd.

So that took longer than I thought but I did have Round II on deck. Same format as the first but different exercises:

• Shoulder Taps (count each movement)
• Step up Right
• Dips (again, I know!)
• Step up Left
• LBCs
• Run

Originally I had derkins queued up but felt the first circuit did enough upper body work. So I offered the PAX a choice and they took shoulder taps. Step ups – now the easy route was to give one leg a break and do both interchangeably. I wont’ argue against that could be more efficient, but the goal was to stress your quad muscle with higher focused rep count. So there is a lesson for the day from the teacher (Q). Running short on time, had to cut this circuit to 3 reps. If I break this out again, maybe go to 15 or 20 so we can get both rounds in. Oh, well – mosey back to base.

Announcements: 2 weeks from today on Labor Day, combined workout with The Sandlot and Mt. Hollywood, post at 0700 at Pharr Yarns across from Spruce Goose in McAdenville; Nutria is Q 8/30 next Monday. Forgot to say in the circle – sign up for Iron Pax Challenge – it will be a challenge for sure. Consider it and give your best effort. Prayers: Cougar’s grandmother, Flintstone’s sister, Whoopee 2.0 recovering, family members, kids, teachers and administrators beginning school.

Moleskin: Heard this in a sermon yesterday and pondered on it a bit and wanted to share (additional disclaimer – I’m not a professional, just trying to get better). Though the sermon wasn’t about starting school, I led with that because of some conversation this morning. In Proverbs 27:1 “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.” The main theme of the sermon was “Are You Ready to Change?” Change is hard. Many of us are closer to being curmudgeonly old men, if we’re not already, than we are to spring chickens. We’re set in our ways and creatures of habit. For most of us, work doesn’t revolve around a particular school calendar (now don’t go overanalyzing that more than what I intended…other than teachers, most of us are in a continuous cycle – hopefully that makes sense). Point being, we don’t have a particular date that we “start something” that is mandated by someone else (and I’m not headed toward a political discussion about mask/unmask with that). Ok, reset again, so my real point I’m driving at, if you want to change your life or change something in your life, Proverbs says “Start today.” There is some unknown element about tomorrow that even with proper planning, it will be different (reflect back to Q-source and Preparedness). You want to make change in your routine, your diet, your mind – Start Today. I know for some today at The Sandlot, this was a start of something new. Regardless of those inner challenges we have, I know for 100% certainty, the 17 men that posted, we all started the week off better than had we not made the choice to attend. Cheers to new beginnings.