Tag: GasHouse (Page 22 of 53)

Today was a great day at the Gashouse. Boudin asked if there was any extra credit the night before. Why not? When we got the Schiele there were already cars in the lot. Quiche and Sargento were already putting the miles in. Boudin, Stroganoff, and YHC went out at 0615 sharp for a little more than 3 mile run through Sherwood Forest before the workout. When we returned we found Linus and Rudolph doing some EC kettlebell work. Strong work!

Monk rolled in and said he had an FNG coming today. He was true to his word. We also had another FNG that rolled in with Tandem. At 0700 sharp I made sure to place extra stress on the disclaimer, especially the “U vs U” part and the “modify as needed”. We welcomed both and started with a pretty standard warmup. Apparently YHC doesn’t say “in cadence” and that deeply offended Quiche who was making strong mumblechatter about it. (He knew it was in cadence all along!)

Warm up: SSH, Squats, IW, LBC’s

Pain Lab PAX (8) split and went with Sargento and the boot camp PAX (12) went with Roscoe. We moseyed to the flag for the Pledge and set off to the back of the library.

Thing One: At the bottom do 5 burpees. Run towards the library up two sets of stairs for 10 squat jumps at the top. Run back down for 5 more burpees and then back up for 9, 8, 7, 6…1 jump squats. Kudo’s to Stroganoff for stressing the modify part with the 6. Boudin graciously followed orders and led some Mary and plank while the rest of us mortals finished up. Now for a word…We covered the 5 core principals of F3.

From 12 Rules for Life and Dr. Jordan B. Peterson…”Do one thing every day to improve yourself.” For the guys present this was probably accomplished already.

We then moseyed through the neighborhood to the Sherwood School track. The gate was closed. “Somebody is going to have to go back and get a sh*&load of dimes!” Quiche had to head out early so he moseyed back.

We opened the gate and continued our mosey to the playground for:

Thing Two: Murph Training

8 Pullups, 20 Merkins, 30 squats, run a lap x 3. Then…

Word #2 from Dr. Peterson…

“Treat Yourself As If You Were Someone You Were Responsible For Helping” “He whose life has a why can bear almost any how.”

You could help direct the world, on its careening trajectory, a bit more toward Heaven and a bit more away from Hell. Once having understood Hell,” particularly your own individual Hell” you could decide against going there or creating that. You could aim elsewhere. You could, in fact, devote your life to this. That would give you a Meaning, with a capital M. That would justify your miserable existence.

You could begin by treating yourself as if you were someone you were responsible for helping.

Thing #3. Five minutes of plank

Plank on elbows, arms, downward dog, while we discussed life.

During this time we learned that Monk is a counselor for teen girls and he was going to use the “He whose life has a why can bear almost any how.” Being the gracious guy I am I told him I would share my weinke with him after the workout. (I didn’t of course)

YHC asked for any news from the PAX while we were holding the plank and we learned that Yo Pauley is going on a mission trip and that Yo Adrian is driving. It is nice to see our younger PAX being true #HIM’s.

Mosey to church field. YHC asked Linus what he wanted to do out of respect for him being the new site Q. His choices were 50 burpees in 5 minutes or partner Dora. He wisely said partner Dora and the crowd of PAX went wild with adoration and praise.

Dora: Partner Up P1 runs up the hill to the other side of parking lot, P2 does…then switch

50 monkey humpers

100 seal jacks

150 Squats* *Somewhere around this time we had to jailbreak back to home due to time. We circled up at the Schiele and started the 200 Flutter Kicks to finish off the workout. The Pain Lab Pax rejoined the circle and joined in. YHC shared the theme of the day and concluded with “Hang around people who want what is best for you.” Again, I think the F3 guys have that covered.

Boudin showed his lack of decorum by questioning why we didn’t stop when his watch said 0800. All the regulars had to set him straight because they all knew the workout isn’t over until the First Presbyterian bells hadn’t rung yet!

Welcome FNG “Clear!” and “Friar”.

Nice to see the guys make a great effort today. There wasn’t a lot of mumble chatter. It is amazing how quickly an hour goes by when you are Q’ing a workout. We had so much more to do yet so little time!

We had 5 for Coffeerama at Panera. Mayor asked Yo Adrian what he does for a living. As he was explaining that he does instant replay for live sports, Yo Pauley said “He pushes colorful buttons”. #truth

YHC closed in prayer.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead as always.

Painlab  by Sargento (completed on the same day!!!)

So after Roscoe’s group split the Painlab crew moseyed to YHC’s M’s brick carrier to grab the coupons for today’s workout. Unlike other more elaborate Q’s, YHC like things to be straightforward and to the point. We’re going to use bricks today and that’s it!

Once we grabbed our gear, we moved to Frank’s Fortress of Solitude, popped in some rockin’ tunes and threw down the Thang.

The Deck of Death!!!

Nothing is better for creating great mumble chatter than going round and round picking cards anticipating what pain will be dealt next. It almost seems like DoD was created specifically for Painlab because you don’t have to run or have impact if you don’t want to. Here’s how it went.

Spades = Merkins

Hearts = Shoulder Presses

Diamonds = Back Flys

Clubs = Step Ups (each leg)

It was a lot of fun going through the deck especially when we’d get stuck on one deck for a few draws in a row. Feel the burn! Because we had several newer PAX and an FNG today, YHC made sure to cover the 5 Principles of F3 many times (completely independent of Roscoe) to help the men have a deeper understanding of who we are. Pretty sure all in attendance can recite all 5 now.

Once the DoD was done, we move on to a new routine YHC came across in his studies the night before…

The Bruce Lee

Do these exercises consecutively in cadence to 20 reps each:

American Hammers, Leg Raises, LBCs, Dying Cockroaches, Crunchy Frogs and 100s

We did almost two rounds of this before time was up to join the others.

It was a pleasure to lead today men. I look forward to get back to the Painlab soon.

Aye!!!

I had the privilege of leading pain-lab on 7/7 this week.  Claven captured the names in his death anniversary backblast so I will not re-type them here, but I was honored to have so many stick around and carry bricks with me.  Glad Brown Streak is getting after it again, Glad Mayor survived Tonsillitis,  Glad Hunk o Junk Keeps getting after it and I hope he has his mind a year down the road.  You will see results.  All of us have.  Also Honored that Toto hung out with us and I knew I had to bring it when he circled up with us.

It rained Friday night so all my Q-pons were covered in Mud.  at 0600 I was outside hosing them off and loading them in the trunk of the pup wagon.  0700 Claven leads the warm up and reminds us of how precious life is.  Then the boot camp took off and it was time for Hushpuppy’s revenge.

Step into the circle:  I submitted this to the Exicon Saturday afternoon.  Performed to Thousand Foot Krutch’s song “move”, plank up and listen to the music.  Every time he says move, plank walk one step left, then when he says circle, spin in a circle, then when he says move, plank walk one step right.  3.5 minutes of this and sweat is dripping and the shoulders are burning.  Then DJ snake and”Get low”.  Start in the peoples chair, hold the squat as low as you can, when the beat drops, squat up and down in time with the music.  When the song comes round again, drop to a merkin and hold the low part of a merkin until the beat drops, then (if you can) do merkins in time with the music.  Brutal.

At this time I shared about how I have had a pars fracture in my L5 vertebrae for over 20 years and will be getting surgical consults in the coming weeks.  I try to model a workout that protects that part of my back.

Grab the Q-pons, down the nature trail.

Curls 20x in cadence, hold at the top for a 10 count, hold halfway for a 10 count, recover.  Down the hill to the bridge with the Q-pons.

Merkins on the bridge 10 ic.

Lunge walk around the trail to the other bridge, then more merkins.  Had Toto count cadence for that one as I was getting a little winded.

Lunge walk back to the Q-pons and more curls.  Hippa mentioned something about colt 45 curls and I offered to let him lead it.  That generated some mumble chatter and we decided against.

Walk backwards up the hill carefully with the Q-pon.  Got the quads burning good.  Mayor almost ended up in a tree and no one was spotting him.  I got you bro.

At the top, feet up for 10 dirkins IC and then 10 shoulder taps IC.  30 flutters ic and 15 crunches ic,

Carry the brick around the wall towards the road for some pushup bra’s.  Rocks to the chest, push em up and push em out.  10 ic.  then recover.  Attempted another set of 10 but got 5 and had to stop. 30 second breather, 5 more.  Out to the road for some squats and monkey humpers to show Gastonia our best side.

Almost forgot, wanted to get some hamstring and glute work in without bending at the waist.  Plank up with hands on the curb, Right leg up, kicking up and out right leg x 10 ic.  Switch legs, left leg ic x 10.  Squeezing the hammies and glutes kicking the leg up and out.  Feeling it today as I sit on said glute’s and type this bb.

Back to the pup wagon with the Q-pons.  Some more curls, then some chest presses overhead with the bricks, and stow them away in the trunk.

Return to Startex for some Mary with the boot camp. Stroganoff called 30 flutters ic, I called 5 burpees, (not a mary exercise but I wanted to do them), then I called box cutters and the bells saved us.

Tried to keep it more traditional but still low impact.  Not a yoga guy and don’t know much about ropes but Bricks I can do.

Pup out.

Whoopee vacated his Q slot for this morning’s bootcamp. Either his M failed to tell him or he failed to remember they had a garage sale scheduled bright and early this morning. Plenty of George Strait cd’s are still available I here. So I gladly took control for the boot camp while Bedpan was to have his VQ with the Pain Lab. When I’m on a work call that looses my interest, I open my excel file with all of my Weinkes and get creative. This idea had been brewing for a while and I tempted the PAX of Gastonia via Twitter and Slack, hoping to entice a big crowd.

I arrived in the parking lot after an EC run and was pleasantly surprised at the eager group of PAX. I had a strong feeling Udders from Greensboro would post. I was happy to see the return of the “the Streak,” as well as Hushpuppy. I attempted to lure Brownstreak to the bootcamp providing as much insight as I could (he doesn’t like surprises if you didn’t know) but he was leaning toward the Pain Lab. I checked my watch and 0700 struck – time to get this train wreck mov’in.  No FNG’s but a disclaimer was stated as there were some newer men among us. “You verses you, modify as needed, do what you want to do.” Did I say you verses you? I did…let’s go:

Warm-up:

• SSH IC x 10
• Squats (apparently I didn’t say “in cadence” though the PAX were following my lead quite nicely until HIPAA called me out) we finished 10 – in cadence
• Rapid fire: LBC’s in rapid cadence x 8; Plank Jacks in rapid cadence x 8, and just for HIPAA: 5 Burpees OYO

Pledge – boot camp bid adieu to the Pain Lab

We moseyed to the Grier track for Part I. Once through the gate we circled and I was once again surprised that only 7 men followed me. I guess the temptation wasn’t strong enough or the PAX were skeered as they sometimes say. No matter – the PAX that faced me were ready for a beat down and I was ready to give it. The biggest form of flattery is to borrow from another man’s workout. The track work is a combination from Stroganoff’s world famous “Wolfpack Grinder” and one that Tiny Tank led in honor of his West Point classmate Dan Whitten. To perform the real Whitten – you need some equipment, so modifications were in order. However – if you have access to a dumbbell or kettle-bell and a medicine ball – look up this workout and do it when you can’t attend F3. You will be tested. So today’s version was originally slated for 4 rounds of 20 reps. After round 1, I modified unbeknownst to the PAX. Here’s what we did:

• Steps-ups
• Dips
• Run 200 meters
• Burpees
• SSH
• Run 200 meters to complete a full lap
• Round 1 was 20 single count reps of the exercises; Round 2 was 15, and Round 3 was 10

I omaha’ed the fourth round because of time. Thanks to Roscoe for leading plank work waiting for the PAX to gather. Props to Roscoe for leading the charge with Udders closely following. This circuit was designed to elevate the heart rate. I’ve found that any occasion to run and throw in burpees will get your ticker pumping. A quick count off confirmed all eight men were still with us. Onto First Presbyterian Church’s PAD where the Main Event was waiting.

The set up took a minute to get the music going (thanks Rudolph for your speaker) and the cooler opened. Preparing for this Q was a bit unique and took me to three different stores to find the various coupons. I did fulfill a few requests but unfortunately those men were not among my PAX. Stroganoff titles many of his routines and this one deserved such distinction: 99 Bottles of Beer. Think all the way back to your elementary school days and those field trips. I feel certain that most if not all of us sang the song as the bus took off. I’m going to venture a guess that few field trips ever actually completed the countdown. I imagine in today’s PC world, young kids singing a song with “beer” in the lyric would be frowned upon. But today’s workout would bring smiles. So think of the “deck of death” workout but instead of cards, various bottles of beer were used. The time began with, yep you guessed it, a 99 second circuit, followed by a 30 second rest and then 98 seconds, and so on. I offered the PAX an asterisk that if they selected a bottle and didn’t like the exercises, they could “take one for the team” with a power chug of the ice cold beer. Some thought about it but none accepted the challenge, at least the drinking beer part. It went like this:

• 99 seconds: Old English 40 – Single line suicides & V Ups
• 98 seconds: Busch Light – Donkey Kicks & CDD’s
• 97 seconds: PBR – Jingle Balls & Am Hammers
• 96 seconds: Natural Light – Ski Abs & LBC’s
• 95 seconds: Stella Artois – Step Ups & Derkins
• 94 seconds: Ice House – SSH & Squats
• 93 seconds: Mich Ultra – Hi/Low Wall Taps & Floyd Mayweathers
• 92 seconds: Bud Light – Lt Dans & Flutter Kicks
• 91 seconds: Miller High Life (Just for Medicine Woman – a no show) – Burpees & Dying Cockroach

You see two exercises – most tabatas are 30 to 45 seconds.  Doing any one exercise for 99 seconds; it’s not that easy. So the idea was to do the first exercise to failure and then start the second – keep the cardio and heart rate going as much as possible. The mumble chatter was pretty good. Roscoe announced each new round with “(name) get you a cold beer.” I also had a cooler of water for the PAX and we certainly enjoyed a few of those cold ones in the summer humidity. We completed 9 rounds before it was time to head home. Oh did I mention the play list? All songs about drinking cold beer or partying or just a cool groove, but mostly about drinking: Blooze (Junkyard), Party Like Tomorrow is the End of the World (Steel Panther), Had Enough (Tesla), Toes (Zac Brown Band), Day Drinking (Little Big Town), Metalingus (Alter Bridge). I hear that some bumpkin midget named George Strait has a song called “Cold Beer Conversation” but after listening to 30 seconds I decided the slow moving twang would have a negative effect on our heart rate. Maybe the next Q can use that song while doing yoga or an hour’s worth of star gazers?

PAIN LAB BB:

Shoulder press,lunge,lbc,merkin x20 three times.

Annie’s=planks one handed taking the other hand in the motion of cleaning the floor. Each side hold 20 seconds.

Bat wings x 20; 4 x each

Forwards, backwards circles; Seal claps, overhead claps x 20

WWII, Sandy V, Freddy Mercury’s, LBC’s, Flutter Kicks, Heel taps.

• 5 burpees
• 10 lunges
• 15imperial walkers
• 20 merkins

Sally up song w/ squats

15 super mike Tyson’s = mike Tyson then a burpee afterward.

15 minutes of battle rope alternating between planks

15 minutes of kettle bells

Rotated these two in groups.

COT: I ran with Madoff for some extra credit this morning. He was unable to post because his son had a swim meet but asked for a friend Nikki Bailey that is battling stomach cancer. We also lifted up prayers for Hushpuppy’s work friend Ashley that lost her battle with cancer leaving behind a family. Toto’s mother-in-law and his marriage. I believe Timeframe had a request that I cannot recall the specific name. We have a lot of PAX traveling home or to vacation destinations – we asked for their safe travels as well as safety and enjoyment as we look forward to celebrating July 4th.

Moleskin: Roadie was correct – the enticement of beer was a trap, well sort of. As noted, the PAX had the opportunity to drink one for the team. Of course splashing merlot would have come into play. I appreciate the 7 PAX that followed me out of the parking lot and allowed me to have some Q-fun with the workout. It was a grinder but the guys pushed through. Roscoe was on fire. Until you hear Moses say his age, you wouldn’t know by the way he pushes through the workout. Toto is drinking the F3 Kool-Aid like it was a free keg on the 4th of July. Nice to have Dr. Feelgood in the fold. Blart was quiet but had his typical dry witted comedic statement that got the guys laughing. JJ was steady as always, and Udders joined in as if he was one of us and not just visiting. Great work by the boot camp guys. Once the workout ended, we re-packed the cooler and I now have a collection of tall-boys, double-deuces, and an Ole E “fo-ty” that I doubt I’ll ever drink. High school and college was a long time ago and I have enough room in my budget for my standard Bud Light. So that means before this piss-water goes bad, I may need to bring the cooler to an AO near you. I’m scanning the Q schedule and you may very well find yourself participating in my version of 99 Beers on the Wall. That is unless Udders doesn’t snatch my Weinke and take this cooler to G-boro. It was a pleasure to Q.

(Rudolph) I was gone too long, sick and exhausted from the beach. Time to Q some Painlab, despite the fact that my neighbor and new member Pedal bailed on me for Boot Camp!  We march on….

Tube and Short Sale took the PL pull, and we focused on 3 areas: cardio, strength and stretch.

Cardio Phase 1:  8 minute clock, AMRAP with 10 squats, 10 merkins, 10 ice skates, 10 shoulder taps.  No rest.

Cardio Phase 2:  4 Round HIIT:  20 seconds on, 10 seconds off of these 4 exercises, x 4 rounds: Squat, Shoulder Taps, AMERICAN Hammers, Mountain Climbers.

Strength Training:  grab a kettlebell and let’s get to work:

Russian Swing x 2 sets
Cleans x 2 sets
Presses x 2 sets
Snatch x 2 sets
Deadlift x 2 set
100 lb Farmer Walks

Short sale had to split (going to a devotional hike, this guy is strong with the force!), Tine and I did 5 minutes of stretch/yoga then the gang landed.  Some sweet Mary Time and the crew was saved by the bell from Burpees.

Great talk during PLab, the talk the night before from SS was inspirational, and great to catch up with with Tube, strong work!  A pleasure to lead and glad to be back!

***all F3 crew make sure to see who is on Twitter or Slack, I was surprised how many people Saturday do not have one of these communication tools. Make sure to stress this to our Pax everyone!!

Luke B.

(Linus) I arrived promptly late for EC this morning and found the Boone Bound crowd protecting the non permited 24/7 non-towing non-enforced parking lot.  I thought I was arriving late for my own Q!!!; nerves settled when I remembered they were heading for the hills, I set up the shovels and moseyed around Grier for a sluggish warm up which I un proudly posted to Strava.  Most of the PAX showed up at 7 and it was about then we decided we may want to push on a workout.  Disclaimer, warm up, (numbers in line this time), here we go:

SSH – Always start with this for Short Sale, 20 in cadence

Merkin – Stopped at 10 in cadence

LBC – 20 in cadence

Squats – 20 in cadence

Pledge, that’s it.  I took 1/2, Rudolph grabbed the rest.

Moseyed up to Grier, Rudolph chased us half way to Grier flagging down his EH trying to persuade him to come back to painlab.  Turns out he was helping by bringing him gloves but I’m sure Rudolph was pondering how I managed to steal his EH.  Made it to the track (in tears) and I decided this would be the day we did not start with 4 corners.  Lucky all.

Moseyed to the picnic tables, started with Lindsay’s/Forties.

30 Dips/10 Derkins = 40 – Reduce/Increase by 5 until 10 Dips / 30 Derkins – Plenty of gas in the cardio tank but arms are toast.  Little Sweet, who was Beach Bound this week was thrilled about his Picqued Thorax Breast Nipple Pecs and kept posing for a mirror that did not exist.  We would take moderate breaks but Lil’ Sweet kept wanting more when he would notice his newly acquired excess engorgement subsisting.

Time going fast already at this point, decided to spice it up a little, maybe too much.  Down the hill to baseball field.  One trip only, one……Backward Bear Crawl up Hill…….seemed simple enough, I think it took about 10 minutes.  Not sure if Jesus and Tube was struggling or trying to choke me out.  An absolute excellent shoulder burner.  Literally the rest of your body is pretty much dead weight you drag.

The next exercise was not much better, ‘Modified’ Burp Back Mountain.  Instead of running backwards up hill we moved forward.  Partner up, run up hill to tables, partner burpees, aggregate total of 50.  Modify to flying squirrels, no argument from the Pax.

Moseyed to the steps.  Partner up, Dora 1,2,3’s.  Merkins (100), Squats (200), Scissors (300).  This was like a 3rd grade exam, much relief.

Parking Lot:  Aiken Legs……20 of each…..Squats, Box jumps, Lunge (across parking lot), Split Jacks

Approaching way past 10 ’til and we are already late to join Rudolph’s Mary.  Always a good idea to not let Rudolph listen for the Angelic chimes of the bells, he’s usually busy listening to himself hand out pain, his favorite thing to do, and he laid 5 burpee’s on us pre-chime even though it was 7:59 and 59 seconds.  How in the world (I wondered) did I just Q a workout when Rudolph makes me feel like this is my first day.

Chime, Finish……..

Announcements/Concerns

Be sure to look up WhetStone and sign up online.  Turns out my application was denied (I could not name all the Castaways on Gilligans Island) but that should not stop you from signing up.  Great program, I am looking forward to it, get involved!!!!  Now, Yesterday…………Sign UP!!!!!!

Welcome Alec Wallace, FNG (Pedal) whom I took from Rudolph with or without gloves

Whoopee with the Bootcamp Q on 6/30, Clavin on 7/7

GoRuck Event 7/22 (Hippa heading this up)

Many Thanks to Pockets and Short Sale for leading the 3rd F event Friday night at FPC

Prayers continue for Brownstreak and his family and for Pockets for quick healing

Honored to lead the HIM’s where I am frequently the Six.

Linus

6 HIM’s went to see Grandfather on 6/23.

Whoopee, Blart, HIPAA, Moses, Sparrow, and Hot For Teacher.

We were met with 70 degree weather!! After navigating our way around a washed out bridge, we headed up the Tanawha and Daniel Boone Trails to get to Calloway’s Peak. The route was nothing short of beautiful. The total hike was 7 miles and took us 4:12 minutes to complete. We even climbed up 3 ladders near the top. We rummaged through an old airplane wreck as well (a cool surprise). After the great hike, we broke bread (and chicken wings, BBQ, and hush puppies) at Woodlands…not to bad.

It was great day…hope everyone enjoyed themselves.

Two notes…my thighs are smoked and my neck muscles hurt! Wasn’t expecting the extra work out to that muscle group!

THX- HFT