I’m Back and Better Than Ever… Well, I’m Back at Least…

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Following my 2 year hiatus I have returned and apparently been showing up enough to be voluntold that my fans have been waiting for my return to the Q… That or they had an opening and needed it filled, I chose to believe the former…

We started with a brief warm-up with some SSH, windmill, imperial walkers and hillbilly walkers and then began with the inflation impacted “Suns Out, Guns Out” buy in… 30 curls and 30 triceps extensions.  Following that  we turned on my little app with our very friendly coach and and began a little HIIT set to Foo Fighters in honor of their lost drummer.  Each exercise consisted of 4 sets of 30 seconds on and 10 second rest.  Every 3 exercises were separated by a more cardio based movement done in 2 sets of 50 seconds on and 10 seconds off

-Dead Lift

-Goblet Squat

-Row

-SSH (50 sec x 2)

-Pull Through

-Triceps

-Lunge

-Mountain Climbers (50 sec x 2)

-Curl

-Calf Raises

-Flutters

-Swings (50 sec x 2)

Following these sets we returned to COT to buy out at 30 reps of curls and triceps extensions.

We had the honor of welcoming a new PAX member this morning.  Welcome Beaker.  It was great to meet you and hope to see you in the gloom soon

The we formed into COT with announcements and prayer requests

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The Best You can Do is All That’s Asked of You

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YHC got a last minute request to lead at the Colosseum.  Of course, the privilege was accepted and off we went.  11 PAX assembled, were disclaimed and we moseyed off for some “fun”

COP – various exercises in cadence, a few burpees sprinkled in and we moseyed from there to the flag for a Pledge of Allegiance, afterwards – we were off to the bottom of light pole hill.

PAX were given the advice – “The best you can do is all that asked of you”.  The instructions were to do a series of the following at each light pole:

7 – burpees, 23 – squats, 19 – merkins, 48 side straddle hops.  More on the significance of the numbers later.

Upon completing each light pole, PAX returned down the hill and attempted the same at every other light pole.

At 0555 – YHC called a return to COT and PAX obliged.

NMM – This was YHC’s first Q since my father’s passing.  When considering the best way to honor him, it seemed fitting to use the date of his birth (7-23-1948) as the numbers of reps for the exercises we completed.    It also seemed appropriate to pass on the very advice he was given by his mother, YHC’s grandmother – hence the title of this back blast.  The advice is simple, yet entirely fitting for anything we take on in life as leaders – whatever the calling may be.

Shower Curtain, YHC thanks you for the opportunity to Q and to share, in the process, some timeless and relevant advice that serves as a good reminder to us all.

The best you can do is all that’s asked of you.

Grandma & Dad, thank you.

Gratefully,

Cyclops

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Took Shatner out

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WARMUP: alla carte, probably yoga heavy
THE THANG:

Series of exercises with a mode of transportation in between. We moved through the short side of the parking lot.
10ish reps in each

Suitcase row
Over head press
Clean, squat
Side lunge
Bear crawl
Man maker
Waiter carry
Half Turkish getup
Bear craw
Side lunge and clean
Swing
Pull
Snatch
Thrust

It was hard. Finished strong with: Burpee Snatches

COT:

I broke Shatner. Love that guy, hope his back is better now that I’m writing this a solid 4 months later. Always an honor to lead.

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Acceleration Requires Recovery

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5 pax posted to Laces In on a June morning that somehow got lost in late March, but humid 65 degree weather didn’t slow this group or dull their edge.

The Thang

Warm-up at launch as Cohiba  slow-rolled his way into the Gloom — SSH, Mtn climbers, Hillbilly Walker, Windmill, Parker Peter, Plank Jack, Merkin

Mosey toward the gym with Carioca along the way

Half-speed run to baseball field

Nur back to other side of the parking lot

Line up near gym facing tennis courts for Series of sprints & exercises:
Sprint to 1st light pole & sprint back, recovery walk to 1st light pole, 5 merkins
Rinse & repeat to each of the next 3 light poles, adding 5 merkins each time (5, 10, 15, 20)

Mosey to baseball side of parking lot

Repeat sprint sequence with squats at each light pole (5, 10, 15, 20)

Mosey back to gym corner

Repeat sprint sequence with wide arms at each light pole (5, 10, 15, 20)

Mosey to baseball corner

Repeat sprint sequence with monkey humpers at each light pole (5, 10, 15, 20)

Mosey to gym corner

Repeat sprint sequence with shoulder taps at each light pole (10, 20, 20, 40)

Mosey to baseball corner

Repeat sprint sequence with LBCs at each light pole (5, 10, 15, 20)

Mosey home

Box cutters & Back scratchers

COT

Naked Man Moleskin

Strong push from an intimate crowd today with the sprint starting gun passing to each pax.

Funhouse didn’t let a gimpy hammy keep him from running the whole workout at modify pace and no recovery.  Then he carried the pax through the shoulder tap escalation with an aggressive cadence count.  And he capped the workout with a reminder that he wouldn’t be pushing the way he did without the presence of brothers in the Gloom to accompany him.  #King

The workout structure and message today revolved around the importance of Recovery, a key  element to enabling each of us to push ourselves, to grow, to achieve Acceleration.  In all areas of life — physical, emotional and spiritual — fitting recovery into the flow of life is an essential discipline.  It’s true for HIMs and true for Ms (thanks to Cohiba for the M reminder!).  Put Recovery on your to-do list.

Always an honor to lead.  Thanks to Yard Sale for the Q stick.

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Gettin’ Lazy

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11 PAX showed up for this block party

Disclaimer then mosey to the front of the WEP amphitheater for a warmup

SSH, Windmills, IW, MNCs, Merkins all in cadence although much mumblechatter drowned out the counts

Lots of houses to visit during the block party, better get to it…

 

House #1

It looked like we had a lazy bunch this morning so we went with a Lazy Dora 1 2 3

partner 1 performs exercise while partner 2 “rests”

Merkins – partner 1 – 10 Merkins, partner 2 – “rest” in elbox plank position – swap and repeat until 100 reps complete

LBCs – partner 1 – 20 LBCs, partner 2 – “rest” in laying 10inch leg raise – swap and repeat until 200 reps complete

Squats – Partner 1 – 30 Squats, partner 2 – “rest” in Al Gore – swap and repeat until 300 reps complete

The mumblechatter subsided rather quickly here- like I said, lazy bunch out this morning.  The one comment I did hear had something to do with “I wish we were running”

 

House #2

Ask and you shall receive – Indian Run around WEP loop (x3)

First Loop – last runner drops off and does 5 Merkins then sprints to front of line

Second Loop – last runner drops off and does 5 Squats then sprints to front of line

Third Loop – last runner drops off and does 3 Burpees and then sprints to front of line

 

House #3

Bear Crawl from North Side of field to the Playground (about 2 street blocks)

Jack Webb style progression – 1 Pullup – 4 Monkey Humpers, 2 pullups – 8 MHs, 3 – 12, 4 – 16, 5 -20

 

Running low on time so we moseyed back towards CoT with time for one last stop

House #4

Hill sprint up Massey St

 

Gathered back at CoT right at 0600

 

Appreciate the chance to lead the group, Thanks Kermit

 

 

 

 

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Monkey Humper Missionary Burpee Beatdown

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Raining on and off through the night and into the morning left us with a saturated soccer field as I pulled up to scope out the conditions.  Time to pivot from original plan and keep us out of the muck.

4 PAX at 0515

Disclaimer and we began to mosey toward Middle School when Mainframe pulled in.  Decided to be kind and not make him chase us so headed back towards the parking lot to meet him and do some warmups on pavement next to soccer fields.

Can’t remember warmup exercises since I am writing this two weeks late (lesson learned)

 

The Main Thang –

11s on pavement next to soccer field – about 100 yards between 2 stations with cone at the 50 yard mark

Station 1:  SSH (IC)

Station 2: Monkey Humpers (IC)

every time you pass the cone in the middle – 5 good ol’ normal missionary style burpees

 

We went on a short mosey after finishing 11s to recover and found our way back to the elementary building.

 

The Extra Thangs –

Performed a variety of exercises  (IC) while in a wall sit:

MNC, Overhead Claps, Toe Risers

Legs were starting to feel it but these 5 PAX came for pain so we performed a couple rounds of the following:

sumo squat shuffle the length of the sidewalk from the flagpole to the soccer field (Some thought it was not fair that Mainframe and I only had to do half the reps since our legs are so long…)

Move to curb – 1 Merkin with hands on curb then roll over and 3 dips then roll over and repeat until you make it back down to the flag pole

 

We then moseyed back to CoT and got in a few minutes of Mary

 

Thanks for the invite Poppins!

 

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(Pre) Adopt a Highway Beatdown

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16 PAX for The Fort and 6 PAX for Milllkshake on a lovely spring morning

Battlebot started off with disclaimer and straight into warmups in the amphitheater parking lot… first warmup exercise he called was Goofballs, and with that the milllkshake crowd had seen enough and split.

(IC) – Goofballs, Cherry Pickers, Overhead Claps, MNC,  Merkins

We then began a mosey on trail towards Harris Street Park with a pain stations along the way

Station 1: 10 reps – Monkey Humpers, Imperial Walkers, American Hammers

Station 2: 10 reps –  CDD, Peter Parkers, Lunges

 

At Harris Street Park:

use full length of basketball court – Bear crawl to one side, crab walk back

use full length of basketball court – high knees there, duck walk back

10 reps each exercise-

use benches – Bulgarian Split Squat, Incline Merkins, Step Ups, Derkins, Dips

use swingset – pullups

Burpees

Run halfway back up trail towards WEP until you get to the beer bottle, turn around and hit the full circuit again

 

BattleBot handed Q to YHC at about 0658 and we began our mosey back towards WEP – about 3/4 of the way back we stopped for 25 LBCs (IC)

Continued to WEP playground where we partnered up for a DORA – Partner 1 exercises while partner 2 runs from playground to the statue on the hill.

Exercises:

50 reverse pushups on swings (short on swings so a couple groups got to do 50 pullups)

100 hand release merkins

150 squats

 

We finished up the last 7-8 minutes with a HIIT 45Sec ON 15Sec OFF doing the following exercises:

Burpees, Freddy Mercuries, High Knee Taps,  SSH,  In&Outs, Side to Side Squats, Shoulder Taps

 

Congregated back at the parking lot with about 30 seconds to spare and Al Gored to finish at 0730.

 

Got through announcements and started Prayers/Praises before I realized I forgot Name-a-Rama.  Another reminder that I am surely not a professional.

Thanks for the opportunity Grinder

 

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Horse Collar

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There was a time when the world whispered. When quiet blanketed the meadows, and branches parted. When we hiked in wordless wonder and the birds regaled us once more with song. It was this morning at The Hive.

Warmup:

  • Side Straddle Hops
  • Windmills
  • Tappy Taps
  • Merkins
  • Perter Parkers
  • Down Dog/Honeymooner
  • Hamstring Stretch
  • LBC’s
  • Futters
  • Ran a lap

The Thang:

Partnered up because accountability matters. Cones were lined up with a plethora of KB exercises. The timer was an experiment of mine that was a cross between a human horse and buggy with battle ropes. The idea was to run across the parking lot with resistance. It was teeeeerible!! All of the pax would rotate through the cones onto the resistance run.

After a few rounds the timer switched up to bear crawls and waiter carries (aka The Tesh).

Six o’clock arrive fast. Back to COT for prayers and praises.

Prayers for mental health, cancer, and marriages.

JWOW

 

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Snake Pit – 3.23

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8 PAX split off with Bushwood. I’m 100% certain Tesh’s backblast will be more interesting to read than mine. (I’ll tag him on Twitter and Slack to confirm this fact.) That left 8 PAX with kettlebells for the Snake Pit

The Thang:

Warmup alla cart of the top of my head based on what I felt my body needed. YHC was on Q; so, YHC went with what YHC knew.
Windmill
SSH
Merkins (slow count)
Halo
Around the World (AKA: Kettlebell Sling Shot)
1 Burpee

Flow 1:
5 reps each
Swing
Goblet Squat
Halo
Side Lunge
Deck Squat (click the link…these suck)
then 4 reps
3 reps
2 reps
1 reps as a full flow

Small Lap and some yoga

Flow 2: 5 reps, then 4, 3, 2, 1
Over Head Press
Suitcase Row
Clean and Squat

Small lap and no yoga

Flow 3: 5 reps, 4, 3, 2, 1
Single Leg Deadlift
Swing
High Pull
Snatch

A little bit of yoga (Birdcage does not enjoy pigeon lunge

Workout felt deceptively challenging

Dark Helmet-esque Report:
@WagonWheel has the tough work of being @Slash’s pastor
@Slash believes Encanto is a “foreign” film
@3D_Alex Geyling thinks it’s hilarious when somebody’s “dad” is escorted out of a theater for spoiling the movie and possibly being a “hobo”
@B.O.B. Is appropriately fearful of celebratory gunfire.
This is better than: @Sugarbug and YHC. We are unnecessarily fearful of unsuspecting coming across quicksand in our daily lives. Thanks Atreyu
@birdcage_f3 believes crossbreeding with an octopus is possible
@Drop Thrill doesn’t understand They/Them, but crushed today’s workout

NMM:

I struggle with being a musician in a time of WAR (Ukraine/Russia at the moment). I was a sophomore music major during 9/11/2001 and viscerally remember feeling useless. Leonard Bernstein said: “We musicians, like everyone else, are numb with sorrow… Our music will never again be quite the same. This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.” (he was speaking on JFK’s assassination.)

When I read an account from the last journalists in Mauripol, I again felt useless. My students and I spend so much practice and work exerting for something so ephemeral with no lasting product past last night’s performance. There’s a question of the validity of our efforts when so many suffer needlessly.

But this journalist’s account is a story. And many of the most lasting stories in our culture are turned to art (drama–> tv, stage, film). And much of what sticks in our minds and works in our hearts is through stories turned to lyrics and set to music. So, my individual labors may not single-handedly yield a song that awakens a generation, but my students may sing, write, teach, perform in a concert that does. Or at the very least, I’ll make d@mn sure that we work to make music more beautifully and devotedly than every before. And I’ll trust that the world will be a more beautiful place.

Men: stick with what gifts you’ve been given and the talents you worked to develop

—
Band Camp dismissed

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3/16 at ROF

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There were 8 boot campers and 2 runners at ROF on this cool morning.  Started off with a disclaimer then got in some stretching with upward & downward dog and SSH.

Went into my version of 21s with 21 merkins (single count) and 21 Big Boys.  The next round was 18 & 18 going down by 3’s until we got to 3 and 3.  Little bit of mumble chatter, but the Q kept count so no extra reps were done.

From there we moseyed over to the pull up bars and each grabbed a Cindy.  We walked those to the bottom of the hill and the PAX awaited instructions.

Here we would do 11’s with 2 exercises at the bottom and top.  At the bottom of the hill we did curls with the Cindy and squats (holding the cindy overhead), then run to the top/pull up bars and do pull ups and knees to chest.

On the last rep I instructed the PAX to grab their Cindy (most got through the full set) and we headed back to COT.  I realized we still had a little time so we got in some Mary and the runners joined us for COT.

Thanks @kaiser for the opportunity to lead!

 

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