Fitness, Fellowship, Faith

Category: Backblast (Page 424 of 904)

Back To Back

I just had the Folsom Q Saturday and noticed an opening in the schedule for Tuesday. I volunteered for the opportunity for back to back Qs. I have been posting regularly at Midoriyama and it has been a minute since I hit Folsom on a weekday. It was a good opportunity to see some of the men I haven’t seen much recently. Sparky must already be doing boat thangs as he was not there. Unfortunately, there was no Huck sighting either! However, 13 solid HIM showed up this morning to put in werk!

I gave the guys a disclaimer and got in a few reps to warmup. Westside, once again, was not there so I won’t go into the details here. I will only say it was a thorough and complete warmup.

Mosey toward the flag at the park entrance.  At each light pole, we do:
10 Merkins
10 American Hammers
10 Peter Parkers
We added a set at the fork in the road for good measure.  The guys got in some Mary as I grabbed the Six.

Pledge

We take the scenic route back to main parking lot and, again, at each light pole, we do:
10 Merkins
10 American Hammers
10 Peter Parkers
I made a mental note that Spackle was getting it done. My man was cranking out merkins like Wichita does!

Mosey on to the Ampitheater for some in-cadence work!
3 sets each
25 LBCs IC
20 Flutter Kicks IC
15 Shoulder Taps IC
10 Hip Slappers IC
10 Dirty Hookups IC
Time limited me to only 2 sets on Saturday so we had to get in the full deal today. Ball Joint had some concerns on my shoulder taps so I reassured him that I did indeed complete every rep I called. For sure, if I Q it, I’m gonna do it.

Mosey back to the parking lot, burpees while Ball Joint got the Six.  I got 7 burpees in.  I am sure some guys got 8 or 9.

A few minutes left so we did a few rounds of Waterfall Merkins and then a few minutes of Mary. Sarlacc tried to hijack my Q and spent what seemed like 29 minutes doing things with our finters and arms, so I had to assert my Q authority a bit LOL. I wanted to make sure Spackle had a chance to call a few reps too!

Prayer requests: Turtleman, Big Pappy, Hal White knee, SA, Hacksaw, BP’s M’s family, my cousin, Gumby’s mom, Stogies dad, and Sparky’s mom . Reminder to register for Snowbird!!!!! We also have the Freed to Bleed Blood Drive coming up. YHC took us out in a BOM prayer.

NO RAIN and warm

Warm up:  Cadence

Merkins x 10, SSH x 10, Flutter kicks x 10, Merkins X 5

Boot campers mosey up to the Grier School parking lot for 2 sets of exercises

Suicide Burpees ( about 11 parking space lines – one at each line and back to start for one)

Suicide Merkins  (same as above)

Mosey to Parkwood for some Dora: Partner up – one with the exercise below and the other runs from the bottom of hill to the basket ball court and back

Merkins x 100

LBC x 200 (modified from 400)

Flutter kicks x 300 (modified from 600)

Mosey to Grier and down to the baseball field: for some 6s (not 11s)

hip slappers at bottom and top

Mosey to the running track:

Mosey the turn and nur the straight away  for the first lap

Next lap four corners (make your own corner)

Merkins x 10

LBC x 20

Squat x 30

Flutter kicks x 40

Mosey back toward start stopping at the entrance for some calf raises  of different forms

Finish up with a little Merry

Time!

Pledge

Announcements

Many Prayer request

My second Saturday Q , the first one was about 30 degrees and raining.

No use to the extra 15 mins

 

EZ out!!

 

 

 

Shoulder Day!

Let’s start with a little warm up with Head Circles, Arm circles, Shoulder Shrugs, Don Q’s and Left Right Stretches. 

Grab your coupon and let’s riffle carry down the trail switch up to lunges up the hill to the benches.

Set 1: on the bench Incline Pushups, Step-ups and Triceps Dips – R&R 3x’s

Grab Coupon and riffle carry down the trail, then lunge walk up the hill. Return to the circle.

Set 2: Kettlebell Swings, Single Arm Rows ( switch), Curls, Overhead Press, Sumo Dead lift. R&R 3x’s

Set 3: on 6, Chest Press, Overhead Triceps Curls, Superman Pullups, Reverse Pushups, American Hammers with Coupon, Reverse Crunches. R&R 2x’s

Mary Remainder 8 minutes 

The Man in the Arena

Muggy morning for some moseying at The Coconut Horse.

Whoopee showed on time but forgot his shoes and made it back just as the Q called the start.

We moseyed.  Some faster than others.

No  announcements.  Several prayer requests including Turtleman and Linus and his family.

Last week, we started a 7 week “open subject” series for the Q Source Study.  This week we reviewed a summary of a classic book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  In summary, the 7 habits are Be Proactive, Begin with the End in Mind, Put first things First (prioritize), Cultivate a win-win paradigm, Seek to Understand before being Understood, Create synergy by practicing openness and keep Sharpening the Saw (always learning).  If you have not read it, I would recommend it.

We also took a quick look at The Man in the Arena which comes from a classic speech from Teddy Roosevelt.  It’s premise is that the people actually doing things, taking action are the ones that deserve the credit.  Those that will live through both success and failure will find the greatest success over time.

We also reviewed one of my favorite poems, Invictus by William  Ernest Henley.  It’s a great poem about perseverance that I have referenced multiple times over the past couple of months.

Until the next one.  Aye.

Stroganoff

We Are All The Six

One of the best things I found when I started F3 was there were always guys coming back to finish reps with me. I was the Six and they were picking me up. That really encouraged and helped me push through and also helped develop the friendships I now cherish.

Sometimes I am the six, sometimes I am not. I have found myself catching a few extra breaths of rest or a little chit-chat rather than picking up the Six like I should and I have seen it from some of you too! In particular, I noticed it recently at a workout and it bothered me. I decided I need to do better and I can do things in my Q to help make sure we all give back the support we were all once given. The Six would not be left behind today. I focused on a workout to keep everyone together and leave no man behind. I figured this was also a chance to teach a few newer guys some tips in Qing.

Also, we had an FNG today. He was late and he then proceeded to sit in the truck for a few minutes. Possibly he was contemplating if he made the right decision to post as we were knocking out a set of Monkey Humpers? Very possible. As Spackle went to get him, he finaly shut the truck off and got out. ‘BOUT DANG TIME!!!! Welcome FNG Bout Time.

Warmup:

It was a thorough and complete warmup. Unfortunately, Westside was not there so I am not going to tell him all the details. He needs to show to know!!!!

Thang:
Mosey to the bottom of the lower parking lot. One way to keep everyone working together is doing AMRAP. All men can work at their pace and everyone can push themselves. The exercises were:
10 Burpees
20 Merkins
30 Squats
40 Freddie Mercuries
Run to the top of the parking lot and back. Repeat for 15 minutes AMRAP

Quick rest! Next, we “practice” picking up the Six. Sometimes, you just have to remind guys to get the Six.

Lunge Walk to every other parking line, 10 Mountain Climbers (count right-leg)

When you get to the end, go back to the 3rd guy behind you and finish with him. When you finish again, go back to the 3rd guy and continue to do so until everyone finishes together.

Next, Bear Crawl to every other parking line, 10 Big Boys.  Same rules as before. In hindsight, the roughest parking lot in Gaston County was probably not the best place for well over 100 Big Boys and I have a Folsom Tramp Stamp to prove it.

To the Ampitheater for some in-cadence work! Burpees while I pick up the Six!
Counting reps is a challenge when you are not a bat flipper yet find yourself Qing the toughest of HIM. However, it is a great way to keep guys together and it pushes you. Let the Q juice flow! Time was running short so I did 2 sets each rather than my plan of 3.
25 LBCs IC
20 Flutter Kicks IC
15 Shoulder Taps IC
10 Hip Slappers IC
10 Dirty Hookups IC

Return to Parking Lot.  Time.

Prayer requests: Turtleman, SA, Pappy, my cousin. YHC took us out in a BOM.

Moleskin: Put extra focus on picking up the Six today. It is a great way to encourage other men! I am going to lead by example and do better myself. Don’t be too surprised or take it personally if I call you out for not picking up the Six.

Freight’s Bike Club

Memorial Day has passed which means that Freight’s Bike Club has officially started! This is one of the most exclusive clubs in Gaston County and there are very strict guidelines to be eligible for membership. I’m not sure what they are, but I believe one of them is that you must have a bike. If you’re interested please see Freight and he will explain the application and qualification process in more detail.

12 PAX either joined the bike club or got in a run and all ended up better. Wirenut came out of the gym and joined in for QSource.

Announcements

Advisory meeting June 13th at 4pm at Lineberger Park

Blood drive June 16th

Service project items this month – Nail clippers and Chapstick

 

Prayer Request

SA and family Turtleman

Gumby Mom

Linus Dad

 

Dr. Seuss took us out.

I’m Broke

Ya’ll must be vaccinated!

I pulled up at Old School to see most everyone decided to get some EC in. 13 circle up for a grad week workout.

Warmarama:

SSH, Don Q’s, Hillbilly’s x 11 IC

Thang:

Mosey to the corner at the playground equipment to lunge walk for half the block then reverse lunge to the stop sign.

Mosey down the hill to the Pickle for 10 HR Merkins and 1 Burpee then run up the hill to the stop sign and back for 9HR Merkins and 2 Burpees. Repeat till you get to 1HR Merkin and 10 Burpees. Somewhere in this set we have a Toyota Avalon come by and the girl inside screams “ya’ll must be vaccinated “ and drives up the road. We all look at each other somewhat confused and laugh about it. More on this later.

We mosey to the courthouse entrance and then bear crawl to the steps for the triple nickel. Big Boy sit-ups on one side of the steps up and over the steps for Little Gumby in the woods. A 10 count by Leppard and it’s off to the corner.

4corner escalator was called with Diamond Merkins x 10, 20 flutters, 30 Squats, and finally 40 lbc’s  mosey to next corner.

Here I call 10 WWII’s (thought I was calling WWI’s oh well just go with it.) run to the corner at Papa’s Pizza for 10 Star jumps back and forth each corner counting down 1 each time. Here is where our Avalon and occupants show up again. She was screaming stuff and we were all going along with her. I don’t have a clue what was said by her or us. We were just amused by the constant drive by’s. I’m sure she showed at least 2 more times before we started making the way back with around 5 sets to go. Stopping at each corner counting down our sets till we arrive at start with 3 minutes to go.

10 Spider-Man Merkins OYO 10 Mountain Climbers OYO and LBC’s IC till time.

Announcements:

Advisory board meeting June 13th at 4:00 pm Lineberger park

nail clippers and chapstick for Freights service project.

Dark Helmet leading at  the Storm on Tuesday

Blood drive on the 16th. Get signed up

F3Dads at the Yank see Mayor

DBC at Crossroads 06:00 start

Prayer Request:

my mom

Turtleman

SA and family

Big Pappy and family

COT:

YHC took us out

Moleskin:

Great to see big attendance! Appreciate everyone coming out and working hard this morning. Thanks for another opportunity to lead!

NUOSU week two at the Gashouse

We had five this morning and here is what we did.
coupons used:  5 rucksacks, dumbbells (35 and 40) one kettlebell, one piece of granite, one 40# sandbag. One well travelled wheelbarrow, one speaker

Warmup:  throw coupons over fence and then jump the fence to Grier track and run one lap

Next with rucks on, 5 sets of the following:  Ten squats, ten merkins, ten Ground to overhead press with ruck  off (use as coupon)

Next police up gear and roll to the start line on the track and partner up

 

P1 and P2 work together one pax wears ruck w/sandbag on shoulders and farmer carries 35# dumbbells a lap around track. Switch as needed.

P3 and P4 put everything else in the wheelbarrow and do a lap together, switching as needed.

P5 bearcrawls ten yards and does flutters w/bag up and then lungewalks back to start and does American hammers.

repeat until everyone has completed the laps four times and the solo work once. The last lap was all together with the wheelbarrow loaded with everything to include rucksacks but we had to modify since the wheelbarrow was going to fail. you could hear it groan and the wood was about to splinter.  You ever see a large woman whose buttons on her pants are about to pop after a meal at the fish camp?  (Reminds me of the time we were doing defensive tactics training and one of my friends broke his pinky after rolling around with another larger guy with a pretty big gut. “What happened to your finger?”  A:  “it got stuck in Lee’s belly button”. (You had to be there)).

Remove and carry coupons as needed to get the weight balanced and complete the lap, jump the fence, and put all the coupons up. Working time was approximately 45 minutes.

Glad Whoopee asked me to lead and glad we had more PAX participate. If you get Short Sale fired up on any topic he will carry 140 pounds for an entire lap and not notice that he is doing all the work.

Watts up is a beast but his shoulders don’t seem to accept a sandbag.  We may need to figure out if the problem is the bag or the technique?

Voodoo showed up early ready to go and definitely “N’ed Up” this am.

Whoopee is a consistent rock pusher and doesn’t complain about anything. His aim is to get the Gashouse back as the premier Saturday workout and grow it so make sure you get into the habit of EH’ing everywhere you go.

We had a few minutes to hydrate and change shirts before EZ rider took it to us for the normal 0700 beat down.  We have heard it many times when we do hard things together due to  FOMO that we “need better friends”.   I don’t think so. I think I need more guys like you.

roscoe

Douchey Q

I helped the new Site Q out at Midoriyama, signing up for the first Thursday of June. It kind of snuck up on me as normally I have a good idea of what I want to do. In my perpetual work from home environment, I had the luxury to look at YouTube for some inspiration. It wasn’t the kind of inspiration Freight got from staring at “House Porn” but it I did find some good stuff from Iron Wolf. Many of you have heard of Iron Wolf and for those that haven’t, just know he’s a beast. He’s workouts are simple, direct, effective, and most of all challenging (just ask Rudolph). Once the Weinke was set, I ate lunch – had a hankering for some pasta. I cooked more noodles than I needed and determined all needed to be ingested – bad idea. As I “took care of business” and then doubled over in the fetal position for a good portion of my afternoon I was reminded of The Office episode (Season 4, episode 2) where Meredith is in the hospital because of rabies so Michael Scott wants create awareness with the “Michael Scott’s Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Pro-Am Fun Run Race for the Cure.” Prior to the event, Michael decides to carb load by eating as much fettuccini alfredo as he possibly can, declining water. Sorry to take you down that road, but there was a brief period I wondered if I’d be the first Q to merlot their own workout – shout out to Tums and their miracle tablets.

On my way to the site, I pick up some nail clippers and chapstick for Freight’s service project, arriving w/ about 5 minutes to spare. On a steamy afternoon, a few more guys than I anticipated, including Trojan who initially posted Monday at the Murph. A couple others on their second post of the day and a few bat flippers. I mentally scanned my Weinke and knew one part was not going to work, so as we’re trained to do, modify the plan. SA interrupted my internal strategy session to say his watch had 5:30…maybe we should all get together and synchronize our watches to avoid this in the future or maybe I’ll just set my watch a minute ahead of the knuckleheads to avoid the $hit talk. Without further delay –

Warm-up:

  • Seal Jacks IC x 11
  • Imperial Walkers IC x 10
  • Toy Soldiers IC x 10
  • Side to Side Lunge IC x 10
  • Don Q IC x 10
  • MNC IC x 10
  • 5 Burpees OYO

Pledge – I wanted to ensure we got some Mary in and plus it’s good to make the PAX think this could be the workout. “On your six!” I announced.

  • LBC’s IC x 20 (because Freight likes to hear me count)
  • Flutter Kicks IC x 20
  • Dollies IC x 20
  • Freddie Mercury IC x 20
  • American Hammer IC x 20 (Asshhh Pond’s favorite)

Recover, let’s mosey to the small soccer field on the right. I toy with the idea to do burpees or other idea along the way but decide against. Probably the only time I could keep up with Round Up as he strides alongside. Nice of him to join us this afternoon. I notice he’s wearing boots as in military issue/work boots. He says he wants to test them out (#beastmode). We arrive and spread out along the sideline in front of the bleachers. I mention the source of the workout is from Iron Wolf and get groans and mumble chatter. Here is the order:

  • Burpees x 10
  • Mtn Climbers x 10 (each leg or 20 total)
  • Lt. Dans x 10 (count the squat)
  • Merkins x 10
  • SSH x 10
  • Run the width of the field and return

I suggested we’d do 10 rounds but that was only to create a goal for the bat flippers to push toward. Happy to share it worked! Round Up, Sister Act, Dr. Seuss, and Slaw completed or in the process of completing their 8th round when time was called.  We spent about 20 minutes on this effort which based on the lack of chatter and humidity, took the attention off the Q and for each PAX to push themselves. I could have stuck with this as Oompa’s Q did on Tuesday but decided to mix it up with some partner work and a DORA:

  • 100 Merkins
  • 200 Flutter Kicks (count both legs)
  • 300 LBCs
  • P2 runs width of the field and up the small hill and return

This is where the title originated. I pass Sister Act on the running up the hill to which he growls: “this is a douchey Q.” Which coming from one of the douche canoes is the ultimate sign of respect. We gather and return to base and despite a few minutes remaining, I called time because I planned to get to DQ and see Turtleman.

Announcements: Open SLT meeting Sunday, June 13th at 4 pm at Lineberger Park; Blood Drive 6/16 – sign up; Freight’s Service Project (nail clippers/chapstick); Prayer requests: Turtleman, Big Pappy, Sister Act & 2.0, and Uranus. Ball of Man and I took us out.

Moleskin: I cut the COT short or at least made it quick. Whoopee organized an outing for Turtleman at the Dairy Queen. A few PAX followed across town and joined a handful of HIMs gathered around the guest of honor, though he probably dislikes that term. I’ve known Chad since the 8th grade. His brother and I have been best friends, college roommates, golf partners, and the like. Chad is a few years younger but joined us on our tennis team for our senior season and the beginning of his career. Unlike my good friend whom Roscoe and I suckered into an F3 workout while at the beach, Chad, aka Turtleman joined our brotherhood several years ago, even held the honor of Site Q for Monday’s at Martha Rivers under the name Neverland (now The Sandlot). Turtleman also trained and competed in some Spartan events with his M and played tennis too. He’s got a sneaky competitive side. And he’d love nothing more than to be in the gloom. He said he would be one day, after he kicks this lymphoma’s ass, but he’s still got a few rounds to go in that fight. Hearing Turtleman talk about his situation and asking about the various guys that visited, he’s got a tremendously positive attitude. That can’t hurt. It was actually a bit inspiring to hear how positive he was. Knowing him, it was genuine to his personality. Turtleman didn’t ask for this situation, no one ever does. It’s the plan we don’t understand, but reading Matthew 6:10, “thy will be done” reminds us God is in control. Turtleman has a handle on this too, which is amazing. Anyone of us could be in his shoes, fighting this fight. On the outside of the ring, all we can do is cheer, encourage and most of all pray. One of my church pastor’s benedictions was the Irish Blessing. I don’t have Dr. Frye’s soft and warm voice to speak it as reverently as he did each Sunday but it goes:

May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face; the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand. 

Turtleman – you’ve got this and your F3 brother have got you. Keep pushing the rock brother.

Short Sale

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