Author: Tesla (Page 12 of 17)

The 4th of July is one of those days that gets lost a little bit as a day off in the summer, maybe a whole week off work to observe American Independence as it’s “mission”. Lots of big shows, races, barbecues, boat rides, fire works, you name it. But do we ever actually read the document those founders wrote and really give it our thoughts and ask does it mean anything to us today, 243 years later? Unless you are a student of history probably not! So our mission of the day was to do an upbeat workout and then read this declaration aloud to see what it was all about. Went like this:

COP:

Warm up and stretching.

SSH X 20

IW X 20

Merkins X 15

LBCs X 20

Mosey up to the Field of Dreams for a set of blimps

Partner up for BLIMPS, Burpees, Lunges, IWs, Merkins, Plank Jacks, Squats,

Partner 1: Run a lap around the track.

Partner 2: do the “BLIMP” exercise.

Flapjack P1 and P2 upon lap completion. Repeat until we get through the whole BLIMP set.

Move on over to Heartbreak Hill for a set of Half Pipes.

Top of Heartbreak: jump squats X 5

Pad: Burpees X 5

Top of stairs: monkey humpers (butt to the street) X 5

3 repeats of the half pipe, takes @ 12 minutes and has everyone gassed. (Note: After looking at the half pipe in practice you can figure 1 round takes an entire pax @ 4-5 minutes total.

Back to the pad for some warm down stretching and the ceremony

Followup by the statue of The Fighting Yank;

Pledge of Allegiance, then reading the Declaration of Independence YHC had broken down into @ 17 parts for each pax to read. it’s a lot more than the preamble about being endowed by our creator but without that it doesn’t mean anything.  I would highly recommend anybody getting this weekend’s Wall Street Journal that discusses it pretty in depth. It says a lot about what Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin were thinking when they wrote it. And it wasn’t about them. It was about us. And those who come after us. Everywhere.

Sam gave us some words based on Paul Harvey’s July 4, 1974 radio show, a time I well remember as a real low point in the nation’s history. 5 weeks later the president would resign. South Vietnam was collapsing after the US pull out in March 1973. The US economy was beginning to see the inflation that would cripple it until the early 1980s. And the first round of gas lines had occurred along with a close call with nuclear war in October 1973. Talk about a crisis of confidence.

Sam talked about how the signers fro the most part of the declaration suffered pretty badly as a result of their staking out of their positions. They were all men of means, all leaders in their communities, states, and then some semblance of a nation. in most cases they either died during the war or lost everything they had as a result of the war. It was not pretty. So it was in fact an act of sacrificial leadership. With a whole lot of virtue as well.

YHC plans to do this every year by The Fighting Yank. For reasons illustrated above. Come by and listen or if you are motivated help us read! It means a lot.

Happy 4th! And keep it going!

So with the race in Belmont and Speed For Need yHC stepped up to hold the fort down at The Yank again this morning. And as it turned out we did have some new players that we felt needed an intro to the new toy at The Yank which is of course the the Half Pipe, aka the Horrible Half Pipe. As we gathered on the pad for some warm ups it was easily going to be the hottest workout of the year to date. Went like this:

COP on the pad:

Train burpees X 5

SSH X 20

IW X 20

Copper head squats X 20

Peter Parker X 20

2 minutes of right had right leg and left hand left leg strectches

merkins X 20

mosey on up to the field of dreams for some .555 caliber shots as follows:

5X each

Squats,

Merkins

Big boy situps

Burpees

Plank Jacks

After each round, run to the other end of the field and repeat.

5 rounds total

Mosey up to the Corner of Knowledge:

10X each:

Mike Tysons (on the steps)

Step ups (10 each leg)

Dirkins

Line up for burpee broad jumps to the middle path.

frog hops from the road to the steps.

Lunge walk down to the end.

Burpees 5X

Inclined merkins  10X

LBCs X 20

Karoke back to the COK,

Mosey down to the wall for some wall torture as follows:

People’s Chair

Air presses X 20

Air punches X 20

Balls to the Wall, all pax stays in the position while one sprints to the middle of the drive and lays down 5 HR Merkins. Do this down the line.

Mosey over to Heart break Hill for – Half Pipe time at The Yank!

Top pf HBH – 5 plank jacks

Pad – 5 Mountain climbers each leg

Top of stairs: 5 butt to the street mountain climbers.

Repeat 3 times, which was plenty in this heat and point in the workout.

Mosey back to the Field. You KNOW what’s next!

Bear Crawl Slalom! Everybody got three times through. This is not because we want to or even YHC wants to. This is about one thing – Grit! Which takes you a long, long, way in life. Everybody got three rounds. Note: We were in the shade. Not a bad thing.

End of the slalom, a little recovery:

SSH X 10

Squats X 20.

Back to the start:

Run @ 1/3, drop and 2 HR merkins, 2/3, drop and 4 HR merkins, all the way, drop and 6 HR merkins

Down to the fountain for pax led Mary to end.

Pledge

NMM:

Great, great , group to be with today. Pleasure to lead. We worked into it and went hard, harder, hardest. And nobody folded. Not even close. Bad ass bunch!

don’t know if any of you caught it but I stream the USNA graduation ceremony every year which is the Friday of Memorial Day weekend and I had a buddy (F3 Checkpoint, metro) Whose son Shep graduated with honors from the academy yesterday. Pat Shanahan, the acting Sec. of Defense gave one of the most inspiring speeches I have ever heard. He talked about how failure makes you better because you learn to feel the pain, lose the fear of failure and then get better. And about the thing that really matter – grit! Somebody made a comment during last week’s Bear Crawl why YHC always puts this at the end. The answer is it is the most productive place for it to be. It is the place where it builds the most grit physically, mentally, and spiritually. And if we do that we are getting better. If not, we’re just going through the motions. And acceleration is not about going through the motions. It’s about putting it out there and being the man in the Arena.

It’s out there to be done men! And we are the guys to do it.

Pretty good affable ass kickin’? I thought so! We all got better.

Tesla Out.

BTW, we renamed Durst to Milburn because he found a $20 bill, No claimant so we made the motion that he keep it. Those guys in Raleigh that named him did not meet our standards. Only his third post. Looking or more from you brother!

So back in March when YHC was at his nominal Friday morning Metro workout at Atilla Do Re Mi threw down the idea of a convergence with the Gaston Gang at The Yank. All In! So we set it up for 5/18. One thing you have to understand about the Core crowd is that it is cross regional and is very tight as a group. It also features the most remarkable guys in all of F3 with Horse (age 80), Money (77 and undergoing radiation treatment for Lymphoma), South Beach (75) and a host of others that don’t mind getting up and getting with it on a regular basis. So exporting that ethos is pretty important to YHC.

With that said YHC also saw an opportunity to add a new twist to an AO that keeps on giving in the Yank and that was to be unveiled at the event, which was the Half Pipe or as was hoped, the Horrific Half Pipe! And it did not disappoint as we shall revel herein.

As the time came and the gloom melted away it was apparent this was going to be our first really humid and hot workout of the season as clown cars rolled in from east of the Catawba. It was also apparent that there was going ot be mumble chatter  par excellence as Rev Flo Rida and Tool Time (he of the most perfect hair in the nation) showed up completely unfettered and undeterred to speak out. so as the clock hit 7 the pax moseyed up the street to the first parking lot for a COP:

COP:

SSH X 20

2 burpees OYO

IW X 20

4 burpees OYO

Copperhead squats X 20

6 burpees OYO

Mountain climbers X 20

8 burpees OYO

Merkins X 10

Stretching for 1 minute

10 burpees OYO

By now the first salvos had been fired in the mumble chatter battle of all battles as Rev and TT were acting totally within character and up to expectations! This was fun to watch!

Mosey up to the 1st corner and the following three rounds:

Wall Squats: 10X. 15X, 20X

Mike Tysons: 10X, 15X, 20X

Plank Jacks: 10X, 15X, 20X

5 train burpees

Mosey over to the second corner in the tour. This is protocol I follow when we have visitors in just to show off Belmont. I have not billed the town yet for this service but I probably should!

Wait for the six and just do some squats, them mosey on over across the railroad to the Corner of knowledge for the following three rounds:

Stepups: 10X, 15X, 20X

Dips: 10X, 15X, 20X

Dirkins: 10X, 15X, 20X

Now comes the time we have all waited for – The First flight of the Half Pipe! inspired by the original half pipe in Louisville back when YHC went on that expansion. And specific to The Fighting Yank AO as follows:

Top of Heart Break Hill : 5 jump squats.

Bottom of Heart Break Hill: On the pad, 5 diamond merkins

Run to the stairs and up to the street: % monkey humpers, butt to the street

Back down to the pad: 5 diamond merkins.

Back to the top of HB Hill

That would be one round. Original call was for 5 rounds. But being a humid, warm day YHC pulled the plug at 3 rounds.

Gather up and proceed to the Field of Dreams for  – Bear Crawl Slalom! In this rendition as we had 22 pax we counyed off by twos and split up. Everyone got two rounds in.

End of the field: 10 SSH, 5 burpees.

Back to the start, run halfway, 5 hand release merkins, at the end, 10 HR merkins.

Time for one more half pipe round! This time, stay on the pad and then mosey over to the fountain for some pax called Mary to end with

Pledge

Name o Rama

NMM:

Great to have the guys from Metro Core over today. We had about a 50-50 split. Rev and Tool Time put on a mumble chatter show. Rev commented that he finally met someone in TT who can talk as much as he can! Have to say it is a clsoe call and YHC would have to say that this would be a pick ’em on any given day. Tool Time actually conceded that Scribbles hair may be better than his. If true then we are all just refugees from a Warren Zevon reality show featuring werewolves. So we had a pretty unique situation that unfolded throughout the morning on the streets and public areas of Belmont, NC.  And the Half Pipe did turn out to be as advertised – horrible! We’re gonna book that one as a Yank staple from here on out. If you missed this one, it was the wrong one to miss!

Tool Time reminded all of the guys about the loss a lot of our guys have dealt with of late and to send prayers out for that. Our brothers in Metro get that for sure.

Setting a return date for a Gaston trip over to Core probably in June, looking like 14th. I will finalize and get that info out this week.  Great to be a part of this one and looking forward to the return engagement on their turf! Pleasure, honor, and privilege to have led so many high quality men get better here.

Also working on another July 4 special edition of The Yank where we will read aloud the Declaration of Independence and see if we can get Sam Warner from 1st Pres in Belmont to say a few words as well by the Fighting Yank.

Tesla

It’s coming! Saturday at The Yank. The Core Group from the East will ford the mighty Catawba at dawn to meet on the field of battle known as The Fighting Yank. Can this invasion be stopped? Maybe a better question is do they know what liver mush is? Well they are for sure going ot learn about Bear Crawl Slalom! And of course the secret weapon – The Horrific  Halfpipe.  Right of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness: “The horror, the horror”.

I would show to know. This could be as epic as the Plains of Marathon and Thermopylae! You will not want to to say to your grand kids when they asked “what did you do when the core guys came over from Charlotte and invaded our AO” you won’t have to say “I fart sacked”.

Tesla

So as YHC meandered up New Hope Road in the gloom he came upon a poor soul that had rolled his car into a ditch. Fortunately the guy in the wreck was out of the car and receiving help as the Gaston County police got on seen. and yes it put me behind! Had I been there on time (I was running about 2 minutes late) I could well have been in that wreck.  And the outcome would not have been good. Hmmm. Things to ponder at 5:20 am.

So as YHC pulled in almost late (but not quite) we got with it as follows

COP:

Two minutes of stretching.

SSH X 20

IW X 20

Copperhead Squats X 20

20 LBCs

10 burpees , 5 for us, 5 for the train.

Mosey up the hill to the Cramerton Coliseum! Where there was work to be done.

first set: Elevens

Step ups (each leg) (Bottom)

Dirkins (top)

That tended to gas the crowd so a little more work.

3 rounds

Bottom: Big boy sit ups

Top: Hand release merkins, Tijuana Dreamers

1st round: Big boys X 10, HRM X5

2nd round: Big boys X 15, HRM X 10

3rd Round: Big boys X 20, TDs X 20

Mosey back down to the park and the bridge.

Gazebo work as follows

Two Rounds, pullups, Diamond merkins, burpees, run to the top of the hill and 10 side straddle hops

Roound 1: 5X, 5X, 5X, run, 10 SSH

Round 2: 10X, 10X, 10X, run, 10 SSH

Time for some Mary

Obliques, 20X per side

Protractors

1 minute of stretching

Pledge

Done

NMM:

YHC was a little shaken by the wreck but recovered. Pax went hard and that helped. We had not been to the coliseum of late so I felt the need to pay a visit. Glad we did – it was a beast! All of course for a warm up up for Saturday’s date with the Core Group, aka the bad ass old men’s club.

Prayers out to Gastone who lost his dad last week. And the poor guy in that wreck that had a really bad day. Also for a new pax from Greensboro that will be joining us soon that is moving in down here in South Shore. Look for news on a possible Wednesday AO down this way soon.

Tesla out!

16 showed for a near problematic morning at The Storm on a muggy Tuesday morning in May for a little fun and games. Went like this:

COP:

Warm up with some stretching to get the kinks worked out and then get into it:

SSH X 20

Burpees, 2X

IW X 20

Burpees, 4X

Mtn Climbers X 20

Burpees 6X

Slow merkins

Burpees 8X

LBCs X 20

Burpees 10X

mosey to the tennis courts, which were locked! So time to improvise from the planned program. Which we successfully did.

Partner up for Kevorkians, aka Partner assisted suicides

Partner 1 – run midway to the traffic island and do 5X of the called exercise, back to the start then run all the way to the traffic island and do 10X of he called exercise.

Partner 2 – Do called exercise until Partner finishes and flapjacks.

Round 1 – Hand release merkins

Round 2 – Big boy situps

Round 3 – Diamond merkins

Round 4 – American Hammers

Mosey back to the baseball and softball complex for some hill/partner work.

P1 and P2 do this together. Accountability drill.

Bottom: 15 squats

Run the hill

Top: 10 SSH

Repeat 5 times

This is probably the steepest hill in use in Gaston F3. Maybe. So the pax was blowing pretty hard at the end of this.

Mosey to the front of the school from some drill work as follows:

Dips : 1 minute

Inclined sit ups: 1 minute

Dirkins: 1 minute

Step ups: 1 minute

LBCs : 1 minute

Recovery run to the end of the lot and back. Then it was time for the Tesla Special:

Bear Crawl Slalom!

Crew of 16 made the crawl long and the plank longer. So we only did one round.

Back to the flag for final stretching and the pledge.

NMM:

Great crowd this morning and everybody worked hard. Perfect spring morning as we even had sunlight in a lot of the workout. Nice to have! Despite some minor Q fails early we got it done.

Prayers out for Gastone whose dad just went into hospice care. We love you brother! And we are here. mentioned Monk who is moving to DC in June. We think his going away party is 5/31 bbut we need to check on that. Please someone do that for us! Hate to see Monk leave. been a huge part of this region and it’s growth. You will be missed brother.

Honor and pleasure to lead thus group.

Tesla

With the community run this Saturday YHC figured there would be jusy a few pax show for this edition of The Yank. That and a pretty daunting weather forecast regarding thunder storms in the morning had me working on some alternatives for what we might do, keeping in mind not just “creature comfort” but safety as YHC has total respect for high voltage discharges anytime and anywhere. So with that in mind and the 6 am thunderstorm that hit the South Shore area YHC had a BLIMP version ready to go under the shelter.

When I got there hardly a drop had fallen but you could feel the humidity and thick cloud cover spoke of caution, so up to the Stowe Park shelter we went.

COP:

SSH X 20

IW X 20

Plank and stretch

Merkins X 20

Lap through the park.

Blimps as follows:

Burpees 5X, 10X, 15X, 20X, 25X

Lunges 5X, 10X, 15X, 20X, 25X

IW 5X, 10X, 15X, 20X, 25X

Merkins 5X, 10X, 15X, 20X, 25X

Plank Jacks 5X, 10X, 15X, 20X, 25X

Squats 5X, 10X, 15X, 20X, 25X

After each round of BLIMPS, a run through the park and the drizzle which was pretty refreshing given the humidity and stillness.

After this is done, head for the field of dreams in its soggy state. Don’t you love the feel of red clay mud in the morning? Guess what we did: Bear Crawl Slalom! Four rounds for everybody to get to the end of the field. Anchorman commented that throwing up was an option at this point. Hmmm. I’ll take that as a compliment! It’s the 4th quarter. Time to get tough and bring it home!

End of field:

SSH X 10

Copperhead squats X 10

Run back to the other end, drop at halfway and do 10 hand release merkins.

Back to the shelter for triple nickel on Heartbreak Hill.

Top: 5 dips

Bottom: 5 diamond merkins

Had to pull the plug here at 80% due to lightning and get the pax back under the shelter.

Another round of BLIMPS, the 10X version.

3 minutes of stretching and the pledge. Done!

NMM:

Didn’t really need the shelter until the very end when the rains truly came. Kept us under the shelter and in fellowship for an extra 30 minutes. That was worth it! Again as I have said any number of times, safety has to be the top priority in leading a workout and we did keep that in mind.

Great work by an enthusiastic pax!

Tesla

So it has been a little while since YHC led a beat down at The Goat so it was most def time to roll with one. Went a little like this:

COP:

SSH X 20

2 burpees

IW X 20

4 burpees

LBCs X 20

6 burpees

Merkins X 15

8 burpees

Mtn. Climbers X 20

10 burpees

Mosey across the South Fork and to the parking lot for some 4 corners.

1st Corner – Merkins

2nd Corner – Big boy sit ups

3rd Corner – CDDs

4th Corner – Jump Squats

Run to the center after 1 roll, 5 burpees and on in clockwise fashion to the next corner. Count off by threes, had four groups.

Round 1; 10X each

Round 2: 15X each

Round 3: 20X each

Mosey back over the lot bridge to the shelter for more table work:

Dips

Step ups

Inclined merkins

Inclined big boys

Three rounds, 10X, 15X, 20X

Now, what would a Tesla workout be without a round or so of Bear Crawl Slalom?

Three rounds across the Southfork Bridge! Now THAT is a crossing!

Mosey back to the flag for some Mary.

NMM:

Great push on a perfect 50 degree morning by the pax. We went hard today which is always a Tesla intent. Nobody shows for easy do they? I sure hope not! We are here to do the hard things. Being one of the few pax over here that remember Apollo 11 in real time it means something to my generation. It needs to mean a lot to everyone because struggle is what it’s all about and getting through it is what we do and get better by doing it.

Stay at it. What ever “it” is.

Tesla

So with the P 200 upon us 4 warriors showed up in Mt. Holly for Tesla lead beat down at Mt. Hollywood. Looked a little dicey for awhile with YHC and Freon were in the dark on our own until Tiger rolled in and then Doodles came in hot and a minute or so late for COP.  Went something like this:

COP:

SSH X 1 minute

IW X 1 minute

Copperhead Squats X 1 minite

Merkins X 1 minute

Mountain climbers X 1 minute

LBCs X 1 minute

mosey down to the elementary school wall (known now as Hadrian’s Wall for the roman who conquered the British Isles 2000 plus years ago.).

Dips, stepups, Dirkins, 3 repeats, 10X, 15X, 20X

Mosey down the street to “town square” for more repeats

HR Merkins, Big boy situps, jump squats, 10X, 15X, 20X

mosey down to vet park and the bottom of the hill.

Run up to the first intersection – 5 burpees, regroup

Run way up the hill to the second intersection, 5 burpees, 10 SSH

Run up to the 3rd intersection, 5 burpees, 10 SSH, 15 LBCs

Run up to the 4th intersection, 5 burpees, 10 SSH, 15 lBCs, 20 merkins

at the top of the hill, mosey on over to the field opposite the AO parking lot for some triple nickel in the bank (which is very steep)

Bottom: Plank jacks

Top: Squats

Repeat 5X

Mosey on over to the AO lot for tree minutes of stretching and the pledge.

NMM:

Great work by the small crew today. Felt like January again. The P 200 is taking a little air out of the Gaston and Lake Wylie workouts this week. We still got with it and hated everybody else missed us! We talked about YOU! Because the Fartsack was closed.

See you in the gloom.

Tesla

So about last fall YHC got the famous (or infamous depending on your perspective) Rev Flo Rida to come over and guest Q at the Yank one day last fall. It was requested he bring the plates for the dreaded hair burners which are truly the greatest atrocity visited on a pax for a F# workout. Since it had been awhile Tesla decided was time to poke that bear again and bring out the heavy armor to make it happen all over again. So, Friday morning at Atilla YHC gathered up the implements of destruction and brought them to Belmont whereupon he told the guys at Happy Hour what fate awaited then the next morning.

Up at 5 am and off to belmont YHC placed the plates from 45 lbs to 20 lbs up on Hill Street behind the Field of Dreams and waited for crowd to gather in the gloom and fog of early March. Went like this from there on:

COP on the pad:

1 minute rolls here:

SSH

IW

Merkins

LBCs

Mountain Climbers

Mosey up to the torture chamber, Pockets wisely left to run.

Hairburner set 1

Count off by 3s (we had an even 9)

1s – 1st push (about 50 yards)

2s – Stay behind and do called exercise

3s – Other end , called exercise there as well.

1st round @ 5 pushes per pax

1s -SSH

2s -Jump squats

2nd round

1s – Mountain climbers

2s – Big boy situps.

Break for a recovery run around the field of Dreams and a 10 count. Resume torture.

3rd Round

Same 1, 2, 3.

1s – merkins

2s – IWs

4th Round

1s – lunges

2s – LBCs

Break for another recovery run. By now Orangeman had taken the Lord’s name in vain, Termite had dropped a few well placed expletives, and Virus and Anchorman looked like Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon running each other off the pavement racing to the end lines.

Recovery run was followed by a short trip to the Corner of Knowledge for some work on the benches.

Rinse and repeat 10X, 15X, 20X

Dips, Step ups, Dirkins.

10 count then mosey back to the insanity where it was promised the beatings would cease when morale improved.

Round 5 –

1s do CCDDs

2s – Back to SSH

Did 6 rounds per pax and decided we needed a little time for the best way to end an F3 workout on a miserably wet, cold and muddy Field of Dreams – Bear Crawl Slalom! Nobody was happy. But everybody worked and got it done all the way to the end. 3 times per pax it seemed.

COT.

NMM: Hairburners always bring out the beast! HIPPA needs to incorporate these into PainLab. We may see that at the Convergance at Folsom? Could be! Will see this act back in town in the spring for sure. Too good to pass up! Always good to test the metal for sure! Head down, butt up, pushing the rock. Humility, it’s a good thing!

Great work on a nasty day by all pax.  Honor and pleasure to lead.

Tesla