Category: Backblast (Page 639 of 904)

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!

July 4 in GasHouse-multiple options for F3 workouts but given the holiday, I felt a Murph was in order. I knew there would be no shortage of Merica, but I did not know how much Merica would be there. I was not disappointed.

A few of us put in some EC with some ruck action. I believe there was also running done by 1 or more as well. At 0700 we gave a quick summary of what was on the menu and got started with the mile then jumped right into the workout-100 pull-ups, 200 Merkins, 300 squats. Get them done however you want. There was music, there was some grunting, there were some flags, there was a lot of sweat, and there was a heckuva lotta Merica. A few of the guys that posted at Folsom brought the Merica galore. Tater Hole, Bedpan, and Montross brought a big flag with some music and poured out the inspiration that kept us going. There were comments by non-F3ers about how impressed they were. It was cool to be a part of this. Once the exercises were completed, we got the other mile done then convened with a quick back story on who Michael Murphy was (thanks Roscoe) and how the Murph came to be. If you are not familiar with it, read a little about him. It won’t take long and is well worth your time. We finished with the Pledge and a got in a quick COT.

The flag, the smiles, the friendly faces and “good morning” smiles from the non-F3ers, the effort by the PAX-all of it was great and made this another great workout for me. Thanks for coming out today and pushing the rock again.

Whoopee

I think it was a beautiful morning to Q the Yank again. We’re 3 years into the easternmost of all Gashouse AO’s and still going strong. In this version of our favorite AO Short Sale played DJ for YHC’s workout. His interpretation of what he thinks I would listen to is entertaining to say the least. We appreciate his dedication to lifting up our region. It was a thing of beauty. This is what I remember…

Warmup:

• Arm Circles
• High Knees

Mosey around the corner and up the long hill to the convenience store. Cross the street and do brief wall sits for the 6. Keep going down the street until everyone arrived at the middle school.

The Thang:

The Figure 8 – at each point do 20 reps of the appointed exercise as follows:

• Merkins
• Arm Taps
• Burpees (damn you Q)
• Goofballs
• Dips (it was at this point that Short Sale had “Rubber Band Man” play on the speaker. Holy cow)
• Arm Taps
• Burpees
• Monkey Humpers

Rinse and repeat another round. Yeehaw!!!

Mosey around the corner again down to the Pit for some

Dora 1,2,3,4 – partner up and do exercises while your partner runs to the traffic barricades and back.

• 100 reps WW situps
• 200 reps of ?
• 300 reps of ?
• 400 reps of LBCs

Mosey around the corner to the narrow street beside the railroad tracks for one last hurrah. Lunge walk to each painted line where we do a squat. Do it all the way to the end.

Mosey across the street to the fountain for a couple laps of the Death Spiral. Up the steps to the Fighting Yank statue and the Pledge of Allegiance.

The End!

Sargento out!