Author: Nutria (Page 1 of 10)

Be on the lookout, next time I Q, I’ll be calling “weed pickers” and “arm pretzels” courtesy of Noodle at The Big House in Princeton, NJ.  (If you’re thinking those aren’t actually exercises, I won’t argue otherwise, you can air your grievances while we do them anyway.) See actual bb below.

Laps Around the Square

During a business trip to Chicago, I agreed to swap dates with Maybelline so he could “smartsack” for Ville to Ville.  A few stories from Thursday’s “Dip City / F3Chicago” workout gave me a good starting point for Friday’s Weinke. 

“Chick” got to know Slaughter – CEO of F3 Nation who Q’ed Downtown not too long ago – a few years back.  So, after the standard disclaimer, we got right to the point and kicked off with the “Slaughter Starter” – 20 burpees OYO.  This was an immediate crowd pleaser but effectively set the tone for the next 44.5 minutes of pain.  20 burpees behind us, next was a gem from “GTL” (named for the Jersey Shore reality TV star for those who remember that monstrosity of a show) called the Leprechaun.  In cadence, it’s hopping back and forth (not bending over), touching your hand to opposite toe.  Bedpan got a little excited and made this into a full-blown jig, so look for it to be repeated next time he Q’s at your local AO.

To move from Warmup to Thang, I organized a small tribute to the late OJ Simpson, the “OJ Mosey.”  One pax led with a slow Bronco pace while 2 single-file lines followed in Indian-run fashion, but the last pax in each line did one burpee before sprinting to the front (but still behind OJ – err, Pallbearer).  The slow-speed chase, I mean mosey, took us to the parking garage. 

To get to the top of the deck, we bear crawled up the ramps and nurred across the flats. At the top I called for some extra-dirty 11’s: Mike Tysons and Jungle Boys, with a Kraken burpee in the middle on every back-and-forth.  This was more taxing on the shoulders than I’d planned, but these HIM’s pushed through.  Some of us learned that Chicago is known as the “Windy City” not because of the wind, but because there are a lot of “windbag” politicians blowing hot air.   We also found out that the Chicago Hilton embosses its silverware (ask Bedpan how he knows). 

Going back down the parking deck, we carioca’ed both ways across the flat levels.  This took some time and a significant toll on hip flexors.  We then returned to the flag with another OJ procession, this time with Volt in the lead.  With 8 minutes left, we did calf raises (10xIC) on each step up to the pavilion then finished out with exactly one round of Mary and the pledge. 

Announcements = 2nd F lunch at Simonetti’s this Wednesday,  Goonies event 5/4, Extinction Run 5/18

Prayers = V2V runners, Purple Haze’s coworker Rory, Bo Thompson’s daughter, praise for Tube helping Hei Hei find an apartment

Thanks to the HIM’s who posted this morning – it was a pleasure to lead!

 – Nutria

Second rainy Wednesday in a row.  After a pretty standard warmup, I explained the simple format:  One pax rolled the die and chooses one of two exercises corresponding to the number rolled.  Exercises included perfect form merkins, burpees, Makhtar N’Diayes, American hammers, Star crunches, and more.  There was no counting – when someone said “enough” we stopped and moved on.  After everyone had a turn rolling the die, we ran a lap in the rain. 

Goose thought we did too many burpees; Tesla thought it wasn’t enough. Nobody thought we did too many Makhtar N’Diayes, and we didn’t get nearly as wet as we did the previous week during Cheesesteak’s waterlogged VQ.

Announcements:  2nd F lunch Apr 17th at Simonettis,  Goonies CSAUP 5/04,  Extinction run 5/18

Prayers:  Anchorman, Turtleman, Jane Fonda, marriages

Privileged to lead a small group of dedicated HIM’s.  From Slaughter, CEO of F3 Nation:  “If you’ve never been to a workout in the pouring rain, you’re missing out. It has healing powers”.

– Nutria

7 HIM’s gathered at Bulldog on a perfect day for a beatdown.  There was a multitude of gripes and grievances expressed by the pax, and Flintstone will undoubtedly be haunted for the rest of spring break by the electronic voice calling out “3-2-1-Exercise 1.”  Here’s how it went down.  We started with a quasi-disclaimer followed immediately by Seal jacks, Abe Vigodas (super-slow), Low-slow squats, and merkins (all 10xIC).  I set up music and moved on to The Thang, 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest (“Tabata”).  4 rounds of each set of exercises:

Set 1 = KB pullovers, Thrusters, Lawnmower rows (L), Lawnmower rows (R)

Set 2 = KB swings, Flutter kicks, Mountain climbers, Heels to Heaven

Set 3 = KB pullovers, Curls, Bulgarian split squats (L), Bulgarian split squats (R)

Set 4 = KB swings, American hammers, Star crunches, Scissor kicks

10 seconds of rest is usually an ambitious transition time, especially if changing positions or weights.  However, I really wanted to avoid pauses that extended the rest time.  At the same time, the “Tabata” concept (20 seconds on, 10 seconds rest) requires you to work hard to make your 20 seconds of work count every time (more on that below…).  In the end, we all put in good work and got better.

We took one farmer-carry mosey around the parking lot between Sets 2 and 3, and after Set 4 there was just enough time for a down-and-back lunge walk.  Hunchback helpfully posted a permanent American flag on the post that used to have the “Turn your engines off, kids breathe here” sign which curiously got replaced by a “No smoking” sign, so we said the pledge and continued with COT.

Announcements
Montana VQ Saturday at The Yank
Convergence 4/13 at CaroMont Park downtown, followed by Community Foundation Run with Speed for Need, all other AO’s closed
Extinction run to be rescheduled.
FCA Golf tournament on April 15th – see Hot Corner to participate or help sponsor

Prayers
Latte, Huck, Kool-Aid and Pax on IR, marriages.

It’s an honor to lead this morning – thanks to all the pax who showed up and expressed their honest feedback.
– Nutria

Lagniappe:  In case you’re you’re curious about whether or not 20 seconds is REALLY all it takes to get the job done, here’s a brief history (from https://www.verywellfit.com/tabata-training-definition-1230982).

Tabata training originated from the world of athletes, as many of our workout ideas do. Dr. Izumi Tabata, a professor at the Faculty of Sport and Health Science at Ritsumeikan University in Japan, along with the head coach of the Japanese speed skating team, wanted to find out if very short bursts of high intensity exercise, followed by even shorter rests, would improve the skaters’ performance.

Welcome to Monday at Life Line.  There were no pleasantries or BS today.  Cherie Berry conveniently slipped away to “make the coffee” as the clock struck 0530.  Warm-up consisted of SSH, Imperial walkers, Mountain climbers, Nolan Ryans, Superman pull-ups (10xIC).  I gave a brief disclaimer somewhere in the middle of those, then went straight to Thang 1:  Hot Corner helpfully reminded me that it’s called a Ring of Fire after I described that we would do merkins like a count-off, one at a time while all pax hold plank.  10 pax = 10 merkins each.  Next we moseyed the long way around the building to get blocks.

Thang 2 was EMOM Blockies, but not as cruel as Hei Hei’s routine last week.  We started with 5 and got up to 8 after 4 minutes.

Thang 3 was a classic Lifeline routine. Pax do block work while one “timer” pax carries a sandbag up the hill and back.
Thrusters
“Lawn mower” (bent over) Rows
Dead lifts
Curls
Reverse lunges (with block)
World War 3 sit-ups
Uneven merkins

After 3 full rounds of exercises (and having to rein in Hei Hei who just about had the sandbag on his back already), we paused for another Ring of Fire, this time with leg-lifts while pax hold six inches.  Cherie Berry had returned by this point, so it was initially confusing that there were 11 pax instead of 10…

Then it was back to Thang 3 for another round or two before we started the “cool down” routine, reversing the EMOM blockies starting at 8 and ending at 5.  Many of the pax took exception to the term “cool down,” but it was 38 degrees and the number of blockies was going down every minute, so I rest my case.  We then returned blocks and moseyed back to the flag.  There was enough time for one more Ring of Fire, with jump-squats while pax hold Al Gore.  We finished out the last 90 seconds Mary-style with American Hammers and LBC’s, then pledge and COT.

Announcements 
VQ’s coming up:  Cheese Steak 3/27 at The Ricky Bobby, Montana 3/30 at The Yank
Convergence 4/13 at CaroMont Park downtown, followed by Community Foundation Run with Speed for Need, all other AO’s closed
Extinction run to be rescheduled. 
FCA Golf tournament on April 15th – see Hot Corner to participate or help sponsor

Prayers
Kool Aid, Blueprint, Huckleberry, Anchorman, Turtleman.  Other pax on IR.  Marriages.

Afterwards, Cherie Berry explained the last 7 things Jesus said before He died.  I won’t try to paraphrase or condense the meaning of these, but I encourage everyone to look further into these on your own – whether you were there or not.  We all benefit from a few minutes of extra prayer and reflection during this Holy Week. 

Always an honor to lead – thanks to the 9 HIM’s who participated in the entire beatdown and to the 1 HIM who joined after making the coffee (it was good coffee, I’ll admit).

Merlin and Mr. Tuttle and another pax with a name I can’t recall were interested to hear about our Pushing Rocks challenge.  Good morning to share stories downrange.

Nutria posted downrange at “The Crick.”  The name of the AO is not how your neck feels when you sleep the wrong way and can’t turn it in a particular direction without a sharp stabbing pain shooting all the way down your spine.  No, “crick” is a southern term that means a shallow stream of water, aka creek.  But some people call it a “crick” which is almost as bad as the yankees who call it a “brook.” Anyway, we did burpees and some other dumb stuff.

14 pax came out to welcome 2 FNG’s at The Yank.  As the clock struck 0700, the peanut gallery had already started jeering and heckling, even before I had a chance to give the full disclaimer.  From the very beginning, I knew this crowd was going to be lots of fun but tough to keep in line, and they didn’t disappoint.  We moseyed to The Bunker for warmup:  SSH, Imperial Walkers, Low-slow squats, merkins, Nolan Ryans, LBC’s (all 10xIC). 

The Thang:  We split up into 4 groups – in a crude manner that prompted criticism from a few armchair quarterbacks, but the method to the madness was to keep FNG’s with the guys who brought them out.   There were 3 exercise stations: Perfect form merkins, Jungle boy squats, and flutter kicks.  The 4th group bear-crawled from one station to the next.   The group at that station then bear-crawled to the next station, and so on.  I started music to begin the routine, but mumblechatter amongst the groups suppressed it into the background.  In my group with Gavel, Jane Fonda, and FNG Tom (aka Jelly Roll), we heard about Gavel’s upcoming Polar Bear Plunge into the pool at Lineberger Park, and Jane Fonda and Jelly Roll shared stories about modern college life. 

After one full circuit, groans and complaints from the pax told me I had done something right.  After 2 full circuits, I stopped the music, and we circled up to call out the 5 Core Principles:
1. Free of charge
2. Open to all men
3. Outdoors, rain or shine, heat or cold
4. Peer-led in a rotating fashion
5. Ends in a Circle of Trust

Without FNG’s, I would have done this Mayor style, testing the newbies and inflicting burpee penalties for punctuation errors or grammar mistakes.  And, in fact, when one of the pax shouted “Open to all men,” a few hecklers called out the fact that “Open to all men” is not the first core principle.  But, today it was more important to convey the meaning behind the principles since it’s part of what separates us from just another workout group or fitness center.

Next, we moseyed to Hawthorne St. for a Triple Nickel with big boy situps and Mike Tysons.  As a benevolent Q (only because we want our FNG’s to come back), I refrained from utilizing the entire gloriously steep hill, and instead defined the boundaries as a couple of telephone poles in the middle section of the street.  Bat flippers were to plank for the six.  Once the six was in, we talked about the F3 Credo: “Leave no man behind, but leave no man where you find him.”  This is the basic premise behind our practice of “picking up the six.”

We moseyed back to the bunker for another group of exercises in the same 4 groups as before:  Apollo Ono’s, Star crunches, and mountain climbers.  Transition between stations was lunge-walk.  After 2 full rounds, we circled up to review the 5 core principles, the credo, and bring it all together with the Mission of F3:  “to plant, grow, and serve small workout groups for men for the invigoration of male community leadership.”

With 11 minutes left, we had enough time for another quick Triple Nickel – Bobby Hurleys and CDD’s.  Then we moseyed to the flag for a few flutter kicks, star crunches, and the pledge to close it out.  Great push by all!

Announcements:  2nd F lunch 2/21 at Pita Wheel in Belmont; March 2 Q school at Gashouse; Rice n Beans one Tuesday mid-March; April 20 extinction run (preblast coming soon)

Prayers:  Praise for Montana and Jane Fonda getting back out.  Prayers for Brutus in Africa and racers participating in various events today.

I was thrilled to see such a  high quality crowd of HIM’s come out to The Yank today!  We captured everything that F3 is about.   I’m grateful for the opportunity to lead and look forward to seeing Pinto and Jelly Roll back out again soon!

– Nutria

Vise Grip led a trash-pickup ruck on the streets of downtown.  It’s already a pretty clean city, but now it’s a little bit cleaner.  Happy Valentines Day, Des Moines.  Mad Max, Drop-off Lane, and 4 others were there too.

The third Core Principle of F3 is “Held Outdoors – Rain or Shine, Heat or Cold.”  That doesn’t mean we always subject ourselves to the most extreme conditions out there, but one reason for that principle is to get out of our comfort zones and learn to overcome obstacles – mentally and physically.  Real life doesn’t happen at 68-72 degrees, so being out in the elements makes us stronger. 

“There’s no way Nutria will make us run in the rain” thought some of the pax, but they would be wrong.   Gathering under the front portico of Life Church was a good start.  After the usual warm-up, we moseyed “the long way” with a 3-burpee Indian run (Pax at end of the line does 3 burpees then sprints to the front) to the back to pick up coupons.  

On the way back to the portico, we stopped at the picnic shelter for American hammers, flutter kicks, Superman pull-ups, mountain climbers, and big boys.  The rain eased up as we circled up back at the front, and I explained the rules:  One pax would lunge-walk with block halfway around the portico while others do an exercise.  We did 3 rounds with Thrusters, Rows, Swings, Pullovers, Curls, Squats, and Derkins (feet on the block).  All worked hard, but not hard enough to eliminate mumblechatter about post-Super Bowl analysis and commercial critiques.  After 3 full rounds of exercises, we returned to the picnic shelter for the same core exercises, this time 15 reps instead of 10.  Back at the front, we got almost one more full round before it was time to return coupons.

Announcements:  2nd F lunch 2/21 at Pita Wheel in Belmont; Q School Mar 2 at Gashouse

Prayers:  Huckleberry, Turtleman.  Pax on IR: Bubba Sparxxx, Amazon, Montana, and others.  Buckshot’s first day back to work.

I’m glad to have exceeded expectations this morning and thankful for the 8 HIM’s who came out on a rainy Monday morning to get out in the rain, lift heavy things, and prepare ourselves – mentally and physically – for the hard work that we are certain to encounter. 

– Nutria