Author: Rudolph (Page 3 of 5)

6 men braved the precipitous drop in temperatures, and wanted to prove their mettle for one more day in 2019.  How was your 2019?  Your 2020 will be better, I GUARANTEE IT.   I had a workout that I’d been wanting to try (new exercises), but just yesterday I got a diagnosis of a partially torn rotator cuff.  That sucks.  Got to stay away from certain exercises for like three months.  Well, one more post won’t hurt, will it?

WU:  started by relighting the fire of our former Nan’tan selection/book “The One Word”, or some-such.  Pick a word and do your best to live by it in 2020.  I asked who had one for 2019, more on that later.  Let’s really warm-up:

-all by 15 reps in cadence:  SSH, LSSquat, MNC, IW, Merkin, LBC

Cardio:  these exercises, times 2 sets, 10 second count in-between:

• Pistol Squats, 14 each leg

• Standing Sprawl or Burpees – 20 reps

• Handstand wall walk – 3 reps (yes, this was stupid with an injury, but fun)

• Spaceman Jump/Bonnie Blair/Ski Lunge – 30 seconds

• Standing Long Jump/Lunges – 30 seconds

• Side Plank – 45 seconds per side

MUSCLE WORK: drop sets, do whatever I say (time or reps)

• Step Ups with Knee lift; Double-Handed Swings (20 reps, 15 reps)

• Spider-Crawls with V-Ups (this sucked.  That’s all I have).

• Curls and Rows – Max out on each

MARY TIME:  have you thought of your word?  Everyone say it and then lead us in an exercise.  From what I remember:

Sledge-o-Matic – Q (leadership)

Voodoo – Gratitude (for the good and the bad)

Watts Up – Extra (going above and beyond)

Defib – Give (as in give more of himself to others)

Dry-Rub – Intentional? (I thought his may be Action, but this is the one I’m waiting on 😉

Def Leppard – still in thought, he is released to pick his later as he actually has been thinking about it.  He already has taken on Leadership.

Rudolph – Courage (as is to do the best and right thing all the time, no shirking).

And here comes my good friend Oompa Loompa, who said LAST year his word was Courage.  Great minds think alike.

TIME.

Moleskin – lots of prayers need to be said (Sargento’s word this year) for friends, family and health.  My phone went dead so apologies for not recording.  Proud of the guys for doing new things, and really dug the Nan’tan getting up extra early to make the trip.  Bulldog is a dope AO, very glad to serve.

***WHAT’S YOUR WORD, F3 GASTONIA???  SEND IT TO ME!

We have a guest Q at the Gashouse Bootcamp, how many will show for the Pain Lab?  1 or 100, let’s make sure they get as spirited a workout as Pac-Man and the boys from Rock Thrill are about to give.  Great turnout for Bootcamp, and we 7 Pain Lab’ers formed like Voltron.  Turns out the Girl Scouts are camping at the Schiele overnight, so let’s allow those little princesses to sleep in a bit, we’ll take our workout to Stonehenge.  Circle up.

I ask who has what injury:  Rudolph shoulder, Roadie shoulder, Hermes knee.  Good stuff, I can adjust us easy.

Point of today is tactical movements – precise, controlled and intense.

I. HIIT:

• Punch Merkins – 45 seconds, 15 second rest
• Punching Sprawls – 45 seconds, 15 second rest
• Ski Jumps – 45 seconds, 15 second rest
• High Knee twists – 45 seconds, 15 second rest
• Squat Jumps – 45 seconds, 15 second rest

Good work.  I thought that everyone would be winded, not so much.  Let’s keep that rhythm for all these exercises.  Listen to the Q for specifics ( I would go slow, hold, fast, etc.  Just changing things up until I heard squealing):

• Walkouts
• Weighted Lunges
• Rows
• Mountain Climbers and Moutain Rolls
• Bench Pistol Squats
• Curls
• Squats
• Ab work
• Struts

We worked on swings a good bit too; HIPAA took the team through the motions.  I cannot stress enough, if you want a good compliment to F3, kettlebell work is king.  You must master the “hinge” of a swing to get the most out of it.  It will be unnatural until you do.  We would have done Turkish Get-Ups, but with the shoulders and knee injuries, that would be no good.  Doc appointment on the 30th!  Get hype!

*our 5 minutes of message was about Eric Liddel.   While on business travel this week I got to see Chariots of Fire, finally.  I”m glad I was an adult when I saw it, much more impactful.  Read about his life if you never have, what a beast.  I won’t take  you through the majority of my schpiel, but remember this “where does the will to finish the race come from?  It comes from within”.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbgR-pOIFbE

Here comes Pac-Man and a gaggle of guys, let’s join up.  Great work from all, a tactifully good start to the day.

Always a pleasure to serve,

RUDOLPH

This will be short and sweet, just like me.  Diablo Sammich was calling me, thanks to Watts Up for allowing me to step in.  It’s a guaran-DAMN-teed way to make sure you post 😉

I saw Pavel has a new bodyweight routine to incorporate hanging as an exercise.  Let’s try it out.  5:30 is here and Watts Up, Dry Rub and Pedal are ready to go.  Wait, here’s Hushpuppy, pulling in hot (aka late).  Wait, Pedal is going for a run?  He and HP are in the P200?  It’s okay, not everyone is man enough to ruck.  Off Dry Rub, Watts Up and I go.

Routine:  get to the castle, do 15 merkins, 10 squats, and 30 seconds of hanging.  All with the sack.  After that, we take a lap, then repeat.  I think we got in 6 rotations.  Back to start.  Good work.  Especially on converting the hanging to pull-ups!  Got to love some extra weight.

PRAYERS:

Dry Rub’s family for health

Pedals’ father for health

HP’s pastor for health

STUFF:

P200 and Christmastown

Post at Starkville and San Quentin!  Support Rockabilly

Anyone hungry lately?

Always a pleasure, be real Smokey.

Rudolph

First off, thanks to Big Pappy for the invite.  Been a long time since I’ve been to/Q’d Folsom.  I kind of remember why 😉

We had 14 to start, then some runners joined, then some runners left.  I was very confused.  Anyways, for those 12 who remained:

Warm-Up in cadence:  SSH, Squats, MNC, IW, Merkins, LBC’s.  After that, we did some cardio, follow me in single-file line – we bearcrawled for 3-4 segments of the tennis courts, then lunged 2-3, ski- lunge 4 on both sides (L -R), and finish with crab walk.

Painstations – pick a spot, do the exercise, rotate when I say to do so.  Big ups to Montross and Pizza Man (and me and Oompa 😉  ) for alternating in exercises at the station by partnering up.  We had curl bar, swings, goblet squats, merkins, half-moons, front raises, kick-backs, cleans, presses, and some more I can’t remember.  Good work by all, sorry it was so dark and my station signs may have been hard to understand.  Come to Painlab more often and it will fit like a hand in glove.

The Test – we had 5 groups, instead of the usual 4, still enjoyed doing this.  Set the clock, waterfall burpees.  I can’t remember what we got to, maybe 360?  So divided by 5 that’s 72 burpees per contestant?  Very glad to see the work done, remember even when you take a break, just get back to it and get going!

Yoga – only 8 minutes left, time to cool-down and stretch.  Doing Yoga at Folsom is…..interesting.  There was no sexual innuendo at all.  None.  Zip.  Zero.  Nada.  Nein.  Negative.  And if you believe that….

A quick word (see Moleskin), COT and pray out by Broke, which was excellent.  And big ups to Montross for reminding me of my Q fail and getting the pledge in!  Great work guys!

MOLESKIN:  On the speaker today was The Beastie Boys.  I started the exercise by asking if anyone knew who Curtis Mayfield is.  Then I asked if they knew the connection.  It’s tenuous, but here’s the truth:  if you don’t know who Curtis Mayfield is, look him up.  Amazing man who was as religious as he was charitable as he was a man’s man.  Classic and amazing songs, some you know with his group the Impressions, but in 1990 tragedy struck as he was hit by equipment on stage, and made a quadraplegic.  Nevertheless, he persisted and continued to build a legacy.  His songs are positive and moving, and then he toughed it out for nearly a decade.  True him.  The connection with The Beastie Boys?  They sampled the HELL out of all his songs, especially “Superfly” on a favorite of mine, “Egg Man”.  Hard to lift weights to Curtis Mayfield though, so I punted to Beastie Boys.

Always a pleasure Folsom, stay crazy.

Rudolph

Simple approach to today, I wanted to do a circuit training since it had been awhile.  Through the week I researched exercises and circuits that boxers use, and I rolled out 8 stations.  Problem was, we had 11 people!

WU:  Shortsale warmed up everyone up, then Painlab migrated to our ring of honor.  Then we did some more warmup, via Low Slow Squats, MCC’s, Merkins.

CIRCUIT WORK:  we had the following available, and me & Watt’s Up pivoted to create the last two stations.

Step-Ups (10 each leg, then 10 Dips)

Slamball (10 slams, 10 presses)

Shadowbox (continuous)

Unders (rope set up, do hooks while shuffling across the line, when back and forth 10 SSH’s.  With weights).

Swings (double or single, have at it)

Jumprope

Elastics (pull back with one arm, punch forward with the other)

Cleans (KB cleans continuous)

Core (pick a core exercise, do it)

Pick your weakness (Curls, Merkins, Squats)

I had the timer for each station set at 2 minutes.  This was not helped by the fact I should have had a 1 minute rest period for everyone but instead opted for like 30 seconds, maybe?  Good work from all.

At the end of the first cycle I stopped everyone to discuss the message of the day.  Linus had on NC State gloves.  I’m not an NC State fan.  I respect State because I love NC, but like all things in sportsball, the some fans (and friends!) anger me.  BUT, they hold one thing high, and that’s Jim Valvano.  Valvano is a hero to me, for his simple message of “Don’t give up, don’t ever give up.”  So I let the crew know about Rockabilly, a #HIM that had to change his work schedule to work nights and that means he will miss morning workouts.  So instead of quitting, what does he do?  He starts TWO NEW AO’S.  That’s what a leader does.  He doesn’t quit, he never quits.

Message done, back to work.  This time I set the clock to 1 minute, but no rest between stations.  I think we all short-circuited around station 8.  Brutal.  Called time at 7:57, met with the Bert crew, done.

MOLESKIN –  I woke up with the worst crick in my neck at 5 a.m., fearful that I might not be able to go.  But some water, stretching (and IB Profun), and good to go.  I feel so much better due to exercise and fellowship.  Remember that F3 helps cure the mental and the physical.

Great work from Nessman on 2 consecutive weeks, thanks to Pedal for helping support by bringing gear, great to see Tube getting more time in, Hunchback and Sledge were working AND conducting business (leaders), Dry Rub and I agreed my time management sucks, and both he and VooDoo got in EC which is impressive.  Timeframe seemed to enjoy the Painlab time, maybe we’ll steal him from Bootcamp?  He doesn’t have soccer arms.  Lastly great work FUGITIVE, our FNG, when he hit his wall, he took the time needed, then got back at it.

IT DOESN’T GET EASIER, YOU GET STRONGER.

Prayers for Nessman’s family, Tube & Fugitive’s friend, there was another personal one that I hope Short Sale captures.

WATT’S UP – thank you for the opportunity to Q today, a man among men.  Maybe your Tigers will take it easy on my Tarheels today.

Great work men – Rudolph

New site?  Same game.  All aboard the paintrain!

4 other men arrived and helped to move some weights up to the tennis courts.  the 20, the 35, the 50 and the 70 lb. kettlebells, along with some plate weights.  We dialed up White Zombie at the request of HIPAAAAAA (Slack – Sid Haig.  Yeah, I know).  Time to work:

WU:  15 SSH, 15 Low Slow Squat, 15 MNC, 15 IW, 15 Merkins, 15 LBC – all in cadence.

Cardio Stretch:  Bear Crawl, Crab Walk, Side Lunge around the court.  MODIFY, but WORK.

Cardio Spike:  3 point stance, I say “HIKE” then you sprint to the end of the court, NUR back to start.  We repeated 3 times.  I miss playing ball sometimes.

Now that the warm-up is over, let’s get to work:

SIMPLE & Sinster

10 x 10 Kettlebell Swings.  Quick lesson then off.  Guys did great.

Turkish Get-Ups:  needs work boys  😉  Seriously, not an easy exercise, a little weight goes a long way.  I halted us after 3 sets.

PAINSTATIONS:  Shoulder and Traps time.  These were the stations:  presses, lateral raises, front raises, upright rows, shrugs.  Rotate after each does their set, 3 claps, get back to work.  We did this 3 times.

THE TEST:  modified this, but very proud of the guys.  I set a time, and waterfall burpees.  As soon as guy in front of you hits the ground, you can do yours.  I didn’t allocate much time, but it was a great time.

YOGA/STRETCH:  we finished the last 10 minutes with a lot of yoga and core.  Guys were talking about their poor flexibility.  REmember, if you spend 10 minutes before bed doing some basic stretches, it will feel soooo much better.  And it’s a great way to cool down muscles after weighted work.

TIME

Moleskin:  I told the guys about halfway through, pausing the White Zombie, that we can’t let anything get in the way of our connection with God.  WZ ain’t exactly choir music, but I love getting pumped up.  Music, movies, people and everyday life moves me a lot of times, and I encourage all men that as long as you’re following my 3 big rules, do what you like in life:  do the right thing, do your best, treat others well.  Simple and you can have fun.

Starkville is a good joint.  Love those tennis courts, having a flat grade to do work on is superb.  Like the Terminator, I’LL BE BACK.

Thanks for the opportunity, CONVICTS.

Rudolph

As you read this let the album Screaming for Vengeance from Judas Priest take you away…..a lot of album swapping on Twitter lately!

I unloaded a lot of weights, bells and tools, the gang circled up for a warm-up led by the mighty Linus.  Termite was going to join us at PL, but with a low BC #, he opted out (MORE ON THIS IN THE MOLESKIN).  This left 9 brave souls to get to work, Painlab style.

THE THANG:

Follow the Leader – cardio time, get in a single file line and follow me.  We did the stadium steps, up and down and back again.  Bear crawl level 1, Crab walk level 2, Lunge Walk level 3, Ski Lunge 4, and Ski lunge 5 the other way.  We did this for about 8-10 minutes.  Lots of approval from the crowd.  Seeing Mayor do a box jump to get going on the ramp was a sight.  I didn’t know everyone loved crab walks so much, we’ll do more soon!

Pain Stations – I set up a big circle around Frank where there were optional exercises at each stop.  The idea is that you do one or both of those exercises, while we wait for one man to take my weighted vest, hoist it overhead, walk down to the big rock and back.  When they get back, we give 3 claps and rotate.  Stations:

Shoulder Raises, front and lateral

Tricep Ext or Curls

Squats or lunges

Bar Curls or Military Press

TGU’s or Decon Burpees

KB Swing or Around the World

Decline Merkins or Dips

Mowers or Upright Rows

I know some of these weights were heavier, well done trying to push past it men!  And hats off to Pedal for moving in a serpentine fashion to make us all work longer.  What a brother we have there, the fact he was willing to take so long to make us work harder.  Thanks.  A lot.  Really.

Hold the Line – with one circuit down we did some static work.  Hold these positions until I say to stop:  Plant, People’s Chair, Superman, and another that I forget.  Lots of sweat, but also lots of hard work and effort.

Pain Stations – we did another rotation

Hold the Line – another round of this.  But, it should be noticed that I was getting called out, especially during Freddy Mercury’s, so I then adjusted to full leg extension Freddie’s.  You all had Mayor to thank for that.  You’re welcome.

Pack up gear, do some Mary, bells were rang, TIME.

MOLESKIN

Great work today, great crowd.  Good to see guys back, and another special thank you to Hushpuppy for reaching out to CSPAN, HIPAA and I for that talk.  It was unexpected, but enjoyable, and I hope it serves F3 Nation well.

BUT…I fear that we’re hurting the Gashouse Bootcamp with the population.  So if you listened to the podcast, one thing I said is that I still think being able to dominate a bootcamp is the height of fitness.  Anyone is always welcome at Painlab, and I know some of us have the injuries or love the muscle work, but think about running with Bootcamp, and work on FNG’s!!!

Always a pleasure to Q the Lab.  Gracias men.

• Rudolph

So my son Hank said now that swim team is over, he wanted to make sure he was keeping up with exercise.  I’m proud of his constant go after athletics, but I’m also hesitant to bring him to F3 at times (man spot).  Anyways, I said since the Q was open, let’s try a little man lesson, and have him Q it!

After almost an hour of him writing down exercises, ideas and a plan, I knew this would be good.  He made his plan around “60 seconds” being a theme.  We worked on it together and here it was:

Warm up with Bootcamp (thanks JJ for letting Dobby help lead); then continued WU to hit muscle groups that we knew would need a little blood:

Low Slow Squats – 10

Morroccan Night Clubs – 10

PHASE 1 – each exercise gets 60 seconds regardless, but some are to a certain number, and some are continuous:

• 20 Low slow squats

• 15 Burpees

• 40 LBC’s

• Calf Raises – continuous

• Plank – continuous

• Lunge Walk – continuous

• Downward facing dog – continuous (rest time….kinda)

2 circuits of that in the books, now for the harder version:

PHASE 2 – just like phase 1, just different

• 20 Burpees

• 25 WWII sit ups

-60 SSH

• Goof balls – continuous

• High Knees – continuous

• Mountain climbers – continuous

-50 Plank Jacks

-Cobra pose (with variations, rest phase)

We got 2 circuits of that down, and decided to head back for 5 minutes of Mary.  The gang showed up, and we were grateful.

ANNOUNCEMENTS – Gaston Residential Services is having a charity casino night on September 7th, would love to have some of you join my wife and I there.  GRS does great work, help support a local charity (Least of These, Family Promise, GRS…there’s a lot of opportunity for this peer group)

*check with JJ for more

MOLESKIN – proud of my boy, and the Pax.  Great full body workout, and I got gassed a bit.  But when he told his Mom that he threw up in his mouth, and swallowed it back down to tough it out, that’s when the Dad hairs got raised up.  Thanks to this group for helping me raise another #HIM.

Rudolph & Dobby

I took the Q at approximately 10:00 p.m last night.  Let’s just go with the flow…

VooDoo, Dry-rub, Outhouse and Watts Up had already arrived, then here comes HIPAAAAAAA in off a jog, and Whoopee could have stabbed me by sneaking up with his pre-ruck EC.  I said a disclaimer, and that this was my DSVQ, so we take off….THEN comes Hushpuppy.  I told him in my last BB to get a watch.

We rucked.  Then I set my timer to every 3 minutes to do 10 squats, 10 merkins, 10 LBC’s.  So I had a vest on and the LBC worked, everyone else griped.  They also said I was light of weight, but I was at 28 lbs thank you very much.

Next interval was same but with flutters instead of LBC.  Then Planks instead of flutters.  Just a lot of rucking.  Then I asked Whoopee if it was cool to bear crawl.  On the field, Indian Ruck Bear Crawl with Plants, Merkins and Squats.  I call it the IRBCPMS.  We rucked.  Around and around doing stupid stuff, I found a hill and we bear crawled to the top, merkins at the top, repeat-o.  Then I had them do curls and something else.  Let’s get back.

5 minutes left and things got groovy.  What happened next…..the exercises performed were individual acts of perversion, so profound, and disgusting, that decorum prevents me from listing them here.  Faithfully submitted,  Rudolph of F3 Gastonia, Sgt. at Arms.  Show to know.

• CONVERGENCE THIS SATURDAY.  AT THE SCHIELE.  BRING SOCCER ARMS

• MURPH AT MARTHA’S ON JULY 4th, WHOOPEE STYLE.  DO IT.

• MOVE MONK ON SATURDAY STARTING AT 2.  YOU HAVE NO EXCUSE.  HE MAKE BEER WE MAKE MOVE GOOD.

Whoopee lead us out in prayer.  I liked my stay at the Diablo Sammich.  Great work men!

Rudolph

Howdy ho Avengers.  Pretty simple, I asked my boys for a good theme, and that I hadn’t used my plates in a long time.  They look like a shield, so let’s find a good Captain America workout.  About 3 seconds later from Google, and about 20 minutes with a clipboard and a piece of paper, off we go!

Warmup with the rest of the Pax and 2.0’s was conducted.  After the shrimps left, we warmed up a bit more as I knew what was in store:

In cadence:  15 squats, 15 Imperial Walkers, 15 Merkins.

Weight plates (10 – 25 lbs) were distributed to the Pax.  That’s your shield.  Please knock some rust off of it with man-work.

The Thang:

Phase I – BASIC TRAINING – Cap did basic training, let’s get some PT:

10 each leg High Soldiers (hold the weight, cradled in one arm, go from lunge to a high knee lift.  10 each leg).

80 punches (combos, whatever, just do it right)

10 Knee tuck jumps/high knees while holding weight out front.  This…was tough.  I lead to a worse decision

20 sit-ups (no plates)

10 butt-ups (plates overhead, I think this is also called Heels to Heaven)

10 raised leg circles (5 each way, weight plate held)

10 Diamond Disc Merkins (in cadence)

10 Lat rotations (doggie pose, lift weight to your right, then do the left side.  Kinda hard)

20 Door Frame rows (grab a pole, hold the weight and lower to a squat, back up and that’s a good job).

We repeated this cycle, only break was between cycles for a 10 count.  Great job!!

Phase II – THE WAR – Cap has trained up, time to sock a Nazi!  Better get in the foxhole with a teammate…

DORA

100 – Squat Thrusts with your Shield

200 – Curls

300 -WWII sit-ups (no disc).

here’s when it got stupid.  Partner A does exercise, partner B has to lunge walk, high knee or high kick down the parking lot and back, but all the while you must do STEERING WHEELS (rotate the disc in front of you).  This was awful.  I knew it was bad doing with a 25 lb., so I told the guys to Omaha.  Scribbles was my partner and still attacked it, and guilted me into continuing to do so.  Now that’s F3!  Again, no one quit, great job team!

Phase III – THE AVENGERS SUPER HERO TIME!

Time to produce some super-human vomit.  60 second rounds of each:

Half-Moons

Skullcrushers

Shield Swings (I kinda got into this one, show to know)

Blockies/Shieldies/stupid damn burpee things

After all that I made time, and always try to do so, for some yoga to cool down and stretch muscles that have just had weight-work.  Highly recommend, if you use kettlebells or weights, give the Pax at least 5 minutes to stretch.  We wrapped it with the Trailblazers coming in hot.  Here’s what I noticed:

• Anchorman used Painlab for one of its intended purposes – he’s healing from a calf injury.  He modified as needed.  That’s what’s up!
• Hayzuz/Jesus – great to see you again, you look skinnier.  How are you in better shape than me with fresh babies?
• VooDoo – like a rock, I think you may use shields at Bulldog???
• Sledge-o-matic – very ashamed I was in TN and missed your VQ, you put the work in sir.
• Scribbles – I chose my partner wisely.  Thanks for stepping your game up
• Shake ‘n Bake – welcome!  Way to keep it going!  Remember – Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday to get going
• Hunk-a-Junk – add the weight plate to your hammer, Thor.  Great work sir.
• Bandit – sexy.  That’s all.
• Hushpuppy – get a watch

Remember Monk is moving Saturday and needs our help.  Many hands make light work!!

Always a pleasure to serve this fine organization.  Thank you for the opportunity to lead.