F3 Gastonia

Fitness, Fellowship, Faith

Category: Backblast (Page 775 of 904)

Pain Lab_No weights or Brains

January 20, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Being my first Q, I figured it needed to match the intensity of previous Pain Labs from Rudolph and his previous posts. So here goes…

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…no wait.

Call me Ishmael…hold on.

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God…

It was cool and icy in Ralph’s house. 3 Pax and 1 Q showed for Pain-lab. The goal for the day was KISS, Keep it Simple Stupid. Not hard for me, so that’s what I did. We broke it down to 14 basic exercises using the Tabata method: 20 seconds on, 10 seconds rest between. Here’s the breakdown (sorry that the Lexicon for all exercises are not accurate)

Merkins 20 seconds-rest

LBC’s 20 seconds-rest

Wax On (shoulder rotations) 20 seconds-rest

Sumo Squats 20 seconds-rest

Tricep Dips 20 seconds-rest

Stair Step Ups 20 seconds-rest

Peter Parker 20 seconds-rest

Front lunges 20 seconds-rest

Hi Plank 20 seconds (brought in some yoga poses)-rest

Warrior pose 20 seconds-rest

Up Dog 20 seconds-rest

Down Dog 20 seconds-rest

Low Plank 20 seconds-rest

Warrior Pose Side Stretch 20 seconds-rest

Breaking those 14 moves down with 2 different times really put a beat down on the shoulders and hammys, so we decided to up the ante by running through all 14 exercises (+ another set of Merkins and LBC’s at the end) for a total of 8 minutes of solid workout….TWICE. While we didn’t run, cardio did play a factor in the training for the day. We kept it simple…No brains. We kept it body resistance…no weights. KISS.

Thanks for the encouragement from Rudolph and his confidence in letting me lead his Lab. Thanks for Short Sale, HIPPA, and Tube for following my lead. Hopefully they feel the pain from the lab. I also got to play my theme song for the workout. How many PAX get to do that!!

Peace, HFT

Mystery suv

January 20, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Come into the park a few min early to see Slaw and Sister Act doing some EC running. Roadie setting in his truck absorbing the last few min of heat. A black SUV that I didn’t recognize . (Thought Sister Act got a new ride.). Once the EC guys showed back up they let me know it didn’t belong to any of us f3 guys. Now I’m thinking FNG. Maybe? So volt and Gumby show up and it’s time to start. No one comes out of the SUV?

Warmup with
20ssh
15 don Qs

We start running towards the park entrance for the pledge. I hear Sparky say the truck just started and turned his lights on!!
Guess he didn’t want to workout. Maybe next time. We just call it the mystery truck

Mosey to Walmart hill

Mike Tyson’s and ww2 /11s

Mosey back to lower parking lot on the left and we run into Montross who couldn’t find us. Good to see him show up!

We split into two groups.
Each group goes to separate corners. perform Merkins x 20 IC. Plank Jacks x 20 IC. 20 LBC’s IC, 20 SSH IC. After each corner run back to the center with your group for 5 burpees then run to the next corner until everyone completed each corner.

Mosey to the picnic shelter for 80 D’s. 20 Derkins, 20 (Hello) Dolly’s, 20 Dips, 20 Diamond Merkins. Repeated x2 and then 20ic step ups on the bench

Mosey to the tennis courts for suicides and merkins. Each time back to the line while adding one merkin. We did 5

At this point we had 3 min to go so I ask the pax for a exercise. Roadie called out ring of fire with LBCs. We each did 20 single count while the group held theirs till everyone was complete .

It was again a honor to lead this great group of guys . I just want to say thanks for keeping me accountable.

I apologize for not hearing all the messages and prayer request . I was in my truck getting ready to go to work.
Sparky ask to keep his son in our prayers. He has a suspicious knot on his neck.

Dora and Forrest Gump are friends

January 20, 2018 / / 0 Comments

It’s still cold in the gloom.  Who knew how many would show as some of the Saturday regulars were working or participating in The Rooster.  Having not done my ‘Forrest Gump’ workout in a while, I decided a pre-Ruck was in order for some EC and recon to make sure ice would not be a problem.  Turns out the normal Lineberger Park sections for parts of the ‘Forrest Gump’ were icy and probably a little unsafe so we would have to improvise.

11 Total were ready to roll by 7:00 am including an FNG that showed on his own accord…..that’s strong, welcome Padre.  Quick warm-up before splitting off for the Pain Lab and Boot Camp with some IC work as follows:

SSH X 10

Imperial Walkers X 10

Pledge

Split off:  7 for the modified Forrest Gump & 4 for the Pain Lab led by Hot for Teacher

The Thang

The Forrest Gump is so called because it includes a little more running than some of our normal workouts and goes like this:

Mosey west along Garrison Blvd for the first stop at East Garrison Baptist Church for some IC work:

Merkins X 10

Squats X 20

LBC’s X 20

Mosey further west to second stop at Hillbilly’s:

Hillbilly’s X 20 (Appalachian Americans for T-Square)

Merkins X 10

Squats X 20

LBC’s X 20

Mosey to Lineberger Park.  However, the route to the flag area was covered significantly with ice so we stayed on the Garrison sidewalk up toward the upper field with the train track.  Time for some Dora 1-2-3

Partner up:  Partner 1 runs the path and circles around the fountain/water play area and back while partner 2 is performing the following exercises for cumulative totals as follows:

100 Merkins

200 Squats

300 Flutter Kicks

After the first round, we switched paths as the original path to the circle was iced over slightly.

After completION, we moseyed to one of the covered picnic shelters near the pool parking lot.  The normal location would be the picnic area inside the train track but the wooden walkway to that area was completely covered in ice so we improvised with some IC work:

Dips X 20

Step ups X 20

Derkins X 10

Dips X 15

Step ups X 20

Derkins X 10

Meander back to the Garrison sidewalk….is that a train?  Yes/no?  Not sure……how about 3 burpees since we weren’t sure.

Mosey back to Hillbilly’s for another round of IC work as follows:

Merkins X 10

Low-Slow Squats  X 20

LBC’s X 20

Mosey with one more stop at East Baptist Church (yes Freight, the Methodist stopped twice in a Baptist parking lot).  The tradition has always been to finish the ‘Forrest Gump’ workout with a set of Monkey Humpers toward the road….Monkey Humpers IC X 15……this was the glorious portion of the workout.

Final mosey back to the Schiele to complete the workout.  Great timing as the First Pres bells were ringing as we entered the parking lot.  My apologies to the Pain Lab for not getting back in time for any Mary.

Good work men and especially nice to have an FNG show on a Saturday.

Announcements – several prayer requests – Name-O-Rama

FNG naming – Padre

The Moleskin

As always it was an honor to lead the group this morning.  Several good discussionS along the route including the 5 tenets of F3 along with a quick discussion about why we are here.  It’s not about beating the guy beside you.  It’s about lifting up the guy beside you and trying to be better today than you were yesterday and being better tomorrow than you were today.

Keep Moving Forward.

Until the next one.  Aye!

Stroganoff

PS:  40 Days of Discipline starts today…….that Oatmeal at Panera was GOOOOOOOOOOOD!

Forty Days of Discipline Begins tomorrow!

January 19, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Hopefully you have fully committed to changing some things about your habits for the next 40 days.  With the help of a few F3 friends, we will be providing periodic tips to help give you workout ideas and some tips for eating better.

Disclaimer:  I am no expert.  Consult your doctor before attempting anything that could endanger your health.  Modify as needed.  These are just suggestions, etc.

Myoplex shakes are an easy way to have some nutrition with you for when you need it.

Oatmeal!  Quick and easy to make and fills you up.  Add milk and some dried fruit.

Eggs are very cheap right now and are about the perfect food.  Hard boil a couple dozen and have a couple yolks and three or four egg whites.  Add salt and pepper or a your favorite salsa.

Drink more water!

For your workouts, hit your usual Saturday AO to get that first workout in on the first day.  If you find that you have time in the afternoon, go for a run and rest Sunday.  Otherwise, go to the Coconut Horse Sunday or NOGA for a ruck or run.  I guarantee you won’t remember the workout, just the great fellowship along the way.

Do sets of 25 reps for a number of exercises like at an F3 workout.  As many rounds as possible for at least 30 minutes.  Take a picture of your results and journal it so you can compete against yourself next time.  You know the ones that suck.  Do those!

Eat well tonight because tomorrow we are going to get better together.

No wenkie, no Q, 7 HIMS in the snow…here we go!

January 18, 2018 / / 0 Comments

After a couple of days of being snowed in, a little cabin fever was setting in.  Calvin called this afternoon to see if we should take our 2.0’s (Google and Cap’n Crunch) to Madoryama and I thought it was a great idea.  We show a touch before 5 to a locked gate and no other Pax besides the 4 of us to be found.  We jumped out of the truck to shake out some of the wiggles and get started.  To our very pleasant surprise in comes Tiger.

5:30 to 5:35 was the Timeframe.  Let’s get started with and impromptu Q.  This is the best I can remember and am sure of some mistakes and omissions.

warm up:

SSH x 20  IC (1,2,3. 1, like that)

In comes Billy Madison and his 2.0 (Lil Beast)

Inperial Walkers x 20

Merkins x 15

LBC’s x 50

Burpees x 5

SSH x 20 for Billy Madison and Lil Beast

Pledge looking at the sticker of the American flag on the back of Clavins truck

The thang:

mosey the long way to the shelter beside the turd shack:

Stepups x 20

Dips x 15

LBC’s  x 50

Mosey up the road stopping at the light poles:

SSH x 15 per pole = x 4 to gate

on the way back:

Merkink x 10 per pole

Back to the shelter for some Mary:

50 LBC’s

25 flutter kicks

Homer and Marge (led by Calvin)

25 American hammers (led by Billy Madison)

15 Bicycle kicks (led by Cap’n Crunch)

20 WWI’s (led by Lil Beast)

20 step ups

10 Dirkins OYO

15 Dips

Mosey back up the road stopping at the poles once again

there was some combination of Sumo Squats, Merkins, Monkey Humpers, SSH’s, Squats

on the way back to the shelter from the gate…same combination to the shelter

50 LBC’s

15 dips

20 step ups

10 Goofballs (led by Google)

6:15….Times up

COT…although I think I forgot the namerama.

Prayer

Tiger and Lil Beast…it was great to meet you.  I’m sure it won’t be the last time.

Great work was today for the impromptu seat of the pants Q.  It still got the wiggles out.  I think it was Squirt that posted ” no matter how slow you go, your lapping everyone on he couch.”  I love it.

 

Its always an honor and an inspiration.

 

Aye!

 

Timeframe

 

 

Daily Dose of Mercins and LBCs

January 17, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Before I was even out of the house this morning, I was in the running mode, running late that is. I arrived at the Storm with about 2 minutes to spare.  It was another cold morning ( I am starting like these 20 degree workouts), and when I pulled into the Storm, there were 8 PAX ready to go and the ninth one, Sarento, right on my tail. Let’s get this party started!

The Pledge

Warm up:

SSH x 25 IC

IW x 20 IC

Mercins x 15

Squats x 15 IC

Thang:

Mosey up to the round a’ bout with the big statue. This Q is getting old and can’t see without reading glasses, so when we reached round a’ bout, Q asked Dolph to read next exercise from Wienke, of course Dolph said 10 burpees. Not yet Dolph! Oh yea, I remember now. 10 mercins and then run to other side of circle for 10 LBCs, rinse and repeat 5x.

Mosey on down the road to the football field parking area and along the way 5 burpees at each speed hump (Dolph 👍).

Next is BlackJack, more mercins and LBCs. start out with 1 Mercin, run to other side of parking area, about 30 yds and do 20 LBCs….After a few rounds, Q realized we needed to modify count since it was already 5:55am, so we ended exercise at count of 10. We then moseyed up to the school wall for final exercises. I think it went something like;

Squats 5x – run 15 yds and back

Dips 5 or 10x – run 15 yds and back

Steps-ups 10x – run  15 yds and back

Mountian Climbers 10x – run 15 yds and back

burpees 5x for the train.

Mosey back to starting point for Mary’s;

Flutter kicks – 15x IC

American Hammers – 15x IC

COT:

prayer request for Sarento’s mother in law, Mayor’s wife co-workers, and Abba’s family traveling to Disney.

Good workout brothers. We all need accountability for support and to push us to get stronger and be better men. Thank you F3  Gastonia for holding me accountable and pushing me to be stronger, a better man, husband, and father. Thank you for the opportunity to lead you this morning!

 

 

We are all unique snowflakes

January 17, 2018 / / 0 Comments

No matter what Tyler Durden told you in Fight Club, you are unique and special. And gosh darn it, people like you.

With a 10 PAX, I mean 9(count off issues again), we broke in the day, pre-snow.  During the early mumble chatter, the drops of cold rain began to transform into fluffy white dead fairies that fell from the blazing sky.  Cold to the touch, yet refreshing to the pallet.  We dove right into this muscle builder routine right after the pledge, and in the process, crushed my old personal record of never-before-lead exercises(2).

THANG
Mosey to the cover drive through baking center 50 yards away.

Side Straddle Hops – 20 IC,   Squats 15 IC,   LBCs  20 IC,   Mountain Climbers  20 IC,   Imperial Walkers 10 IC
10 Merkins IC,  20 second rest,  10 Merkins IC,  20 second rest,  10 Merkins IC
Recover
10 Parker Peters IC, 10 Peter Parkers IC, 10 Parker Peters IC,  10 Peter Parkers IC,

Mosey to the protective cave of the former Teeter of Harris.

Sweat Angels – 20 IC
World War I snow angel – 10 OYO
Crunchy Frog – 10 IC
Imperial Squat Walker – 15 IC   These should be on regular rotation.
Dutch Skate – Pax lined up and Dutch Skated 2 laps inside the cave

Mosey 1 lap around the parking lot, stopping twice for 2 sets of Monkey Humpers  – 10 IC

Mountain Climber Merkins – 15 IC
Outlaws – 10 Per side
Wall of Fire Routine  –  PAX  do People’s chair, 2 at a time hit 10 IC merkins 10 IC LBCs
Captain Morgan  – 10 IC per leg
Star Jack Burpee – 10 OYO

Mosey 1 lap around the parking lot, stopping twice for 2 sets of Monkey Humpers  – 10 IC

The Wolverine Burpees –  10 OYO
Captain Thor –  10 OYO
Cheerleaders  – 15 IC

Mosey back to Sno Balls
Imperial Walkers – 10 IC
Standing Sun Gods – 10 ish
Moroccan Night Clubs – 10 ish
Don Quixote – 6 ish

COT:

This workout snuck up on me.  At some point I had to sit out an exercise as I became light headed. It was either the intense workout or the dazzling beauty of snow falling on the empty parking lot.  Not much on  the strenuous cardio, but a heck of a pump.  Thanks to the PAX for being there and being strong!

Family Reunion

January 16, 2018 / / 0 Comments

YHC has been out for a few weeks with a sore hip joint so to motivate myself I signed up to Q and we had 16 strong for the reunion. Ash Pond and Blart (age 42) were not there. Swimmer who just turned 44 was there. Happy Birthday Swimmer! Tiger rolling in hot! Let’s get started.

Warm Up SSH x 15 IC, Cotton Pickers x 15 IC, CDD’s x 15 IC, Say the pledge. Quick count equals 16 so let’s mosey.

Mosey to the big soccer field on the left, meet in the center for Four Corners. Count off by 4’s, Each group goes to separate corners. 1’s perform Merkins x 20 IC. 2’s perform Plank Jacks x 20 IC. 3’s perform 20 LBC’s IC, 4’s perform 20 SSH IC. After each corner run back to the center with your group for 5 burpees then run to the next corner until we all had completed a cycle. Crowd pleaser.

Mosey to the Dog Park Hill. Run up the hill, touch the fence, run back down for 10 WWI sit ups. Repeat x 5. Another crowd pleaser.

Mosey to the long parking lot near the playground and find some curb. 10 Mike Tysons.

Mosey to the picnic shelter for 80 D’s. 20 Derkins, 20 (Hello) Dolly’s, 20 Dips, 20 Diamond Merkins. Repeated with 10 reps each.

Mosey back to the flag.

We talked about how life is fragile. A local family lost a 9 year old named Glenn Jackson after a long illness. I talked about how much of a fighter he was. We also talked about a fellow F3 Pax named Gremlin who passed away. Life is short. Tell those around how you feel. Don’t put off the important things. Tell others about God’s love.

Announcements: Rooster Relay is Saturday. Let Site Q’s know if you didn’t receive the newsletter in your email. It was a good read with our own Slaw telling about what F3 has done for him. Forge is a Wednesday night Bible Study/Discussion at Grits and Greens in Lowell at 6:30 p.m. with this week’s topic of forgiveness. This has been well attended the first 2 weeks but we have a large room to ourselves if we can fill it.

Prayer Requests: Glenn Jackson family, Gremlin’s family, friend of Arial openly talked about suicidal thoughts, all of our F3 brothers.

COT YHC took us out.

  • Great to be back in the gloom with the guys. It’s always a pleasure to lead and the Pax really pushed the rock today. We ran around 2.5 miles with around 340 reps. It was great to have that push from everyone today. I really needed it as I am not back to 100%. Y’all know how to make an old guy feel welcome. Even got an unusually long hug by a former Nantan! I missed you too! Love seeing Tyson, Mr. Bubbles and Arial (Bridges brothers) working out together. Great to see Lil Sweet back as his work has been busy lately. Birthday boy Swimmer was getting it done today and even helped me count merkins when I was out of breath. Tool Time, Tyson and Slaw pushing the pace as usual forcing all of us to keep up! Floppy Disk must have been in a hurry to get back to the flag as he showed the famous Floppy sprint towards the end!

Picnicing

January 16, 2018 / / 0 Comments

YHC showed on a cold Tuesday morning and no one was in the parking area. Not a minute later and the PAX started pulling in one after another. All total 5 HIM’s showed up for a cold but thankfully dry beatdown. 05:30 hit let’s get started.

Warmarama:

15 SSH, Hillbillys, Gravel Pickers all IC

Thang:

Mosey to the front of park for the pledge and 22 Merkins for the vets.

Mosey to the lower shelter for some picnicing.  Start with 15 Arm Squats IC  then run a lap around the parking lot.  Next 20 Squats(butt on the seat) IC run a lap, 20 Incline Merkins IC run a lap, 20 Step Ups IC run a lap, 20 Derkins IC run a lap, 20 LBCs IC run a lap, 20 American Hammers IC run a lap, YHC was out of exercises so Sparky called Burpee’s x 10 OYO.

Time running out so we mosey to start for some Mary. YHC called an exercise that he can’t remember at the moment, then called on each PAX to call an exercise and count it out.  Sparky with 10 WW I, Volt with 20 Merkins, Montross with 10 WWI, and Jorge with 10 Freddy Mercury’s IC.

Announcements: Forge on Wednesday nights at 6:30.  Def Leppard with the lead tomorrow night on forgiveness.

Prayer Request: Glenn Jackson family, Jorge’s M with their second kid to be born soon, each other.

BOM: YHC takes us out.

Strong work from each man this morning, Way to push men. Total miles 2.4 Thanks for the opportunity to lead it is a pleasure and honor.

19-150-300-450

January 15, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Once again it was cold.  My trusty vehicle thermometer told me it was 19 degrees when I arrived at The Black Knight to kick off the week.  This has become a recent theme during the Gloom.  My high dollar Casio watch told me it was 5:32 am (it’s 2 minutes fast and I do not know how to correct it) so we started with a quick warm up IC:

SSH X 10

Imperial Walkers X 10 (after the Don Quixote juke)

The Pledge

Wait, is that Pockets coming in hot?  Let’s add one more warm up with some Hillbilly’s X 10

The Thang

Time to mosey to Martha Rivers Park and Field #4 or what most call the Upper Back Field for something I’ve never done before….who knew I could come up with something new.  This came to me on the drive to the AO this morning.

It would be a ‘Murph-Like” workout…..clearly not The Murph but similar in the manner in which we performed the reps/sets.

Line up on one side of the field facing across the short side.  Here we go:

Sprint to the other side followed by a set of 10 Merkins – 20 Squats – 30 LBC’s – Plank for the six

Rinse-Repeat for 4 more rounds

For round 6 we added a second set of reps after the sprint across the field so it went like this:

Sprint to other side – 10 Merkins – 20 Squats – 30 LBC’s – 10 Merkins – 20 Squats – 30 LBC’s – Plank for the six

Rinse-Repeat for 4 more rounds

For those counting, this yielded 10 total sprints – 150 Merkins – 300 Squats (ask Gastone, I think YHC only finished 290) – 450 LBC’s

The ground was frozen solid so my apologies to those who did not have sufficient glove protection.  There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad gear, correct?

Plenty of time left so we moseyed to the picnic shelter for my normal Q routine of IC work as followed:

Dips X 15

Step Ups X 20

Flutter Kicks X 20

Dips X 15

Step Ups X 20

Flutter Kicks X 20

Dips X 15

Step Ups X 20

Time became an issue so we moseyed back to the start and finished off with one set of Mary:

Flutter Kicks (IC) X 30

Quick announcements plus a few prayer requests:

Tube’s Grandmother

Gastone’s monther-in-law

F3 Gremlin’s family and the PAX from Mint Hill/MECA.  Godspeed.

Namo-O-Rama;  Nice to see Hippa out for his second workout and a Kotter (Tube).

Second round of apologies for the grass/straw that is now all over my car and my house.  What can I say, F3 workouts are outdoors.

I was unable to come up with a good name for this backblast so I just put up the temperature plus the number of reps we did during the wacky field sprint work.

As always, it was great to start the week out with you men in the gloom.  I hope the work was worthy of your time.  Thanks for the opportunity to lead.

Until the next one.  Aye!

Stroganoff

 

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