No Balance & No 50-Yard Line

6 Veteran pax posted to The Colosseum on a dry (thank you!) crisp morning to share in another #DRP experience.  Within just a span of a few days, it’s great to experience the energy of the Convergence last Friday with 70-ish pax and then the intimacy of a small group where no one can hide.  Drive-by Disclaimer today given the crowd, and then we were into the warm-up in place as Jekyll pulled in at 0516.

The Thang

COP — SSH, Mtn climber, Parker Peter, Windmill, Hillbilly walker

Mosey to front of school with grassy area/trees along right

Three separate Suicide series to 3 trees and stop sign
1. Bear crawl to trees / backward lunge walk back
2. Backward run to trees / backward run back
3. Sprint to trees / sprint back

Plank series plus Merkins x40

Mosey to basketball courts behind school & pick partner

Dora 1-2-3 EXCEPT NO AGGREGATION, each partner does full count of exercise
1. Merkins x100 / run to 1st light pole & back
2. LBCs x200 / run to 2nd light pole & back
3. Squats x300 / run to 3rd light pole & back
First partner to finish can then aid the other partner in reaching his finish line through aggregate counting of additional exercises

Mosey home

COT

NMM

Core of today’s workout was derived from QPoint on The M.  In reading past two weeks of The Jester and The M, I was struck by just how critical these two phases are to the Get Right…almost to the point of deserving more attention, more time, more sharpening than anything up to this point (and maybe even beyond in future weeks).  Just two pieces of The M yielded today’s message and workout template. The “myth” of work-life balance, as I call it, alone could stimulate many long conversations around shared experience.  Work is part of life, and only one of many parts…to pull work outside of life and then try to create balance is like taking a pie slice out of a wheel and then expecting it to roll right.  The idea of a marriage being 50/50 is equally flawed.  I’ve been through many experiences when my wife and I both gave 100 and then we came to the other end with a sum less than 200, in some cases even less than 100.  If you’re not giving 100, then why should your wife?  Or how can you expect to reach your potential.  Thus, the reason for the Dora without aggregation.  All each man could do was encourage his partner and the others around him through word and mostly through action until he’d finished it all.  Interesting to see that each pair finished without much need for aggregate counting.  Way to push!

It was great to see Rebel in The Gloom this am, and see his spirits rebounding.  He kept pace with his partner MacGyver during Dora, proving he put it all out there.

Thank you to Jekyll for the opportunity to lead.  It’s always a privilege.

 

 

 

 

 

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Do you need a bell? VQ at Armory

So I was nervous about my first Kettlebell Q.  Sure, I’ve been to The Hive and The Armory a few times but never Q’d.  Honestly, YHC had to pour over backblasts to get some exercises to call.  Then Youtube to see how to do them.  But hey, the theme of the month is Growth so let’s do this!

To make my Q a bit easier, I got to the AO early to literally chalk out the Main Event.  I start seeing the cars roll in as I’m finishing up then I head over to the gathered circle of men, excited to see some familiar and newer faces.  Good crowd I’m thinking.  I set my Kettlebell down and proceed to great the PAX.  I get to Peabody as he’s rolling up and he and asks me if I need a Kettlebell.  Man, I guess it’s obvious I don’t know what I’m doing!  A quick disclaimer was given, we left the bells, and took off.

The Thang

After a mosey around the back of the church, we circled up in the front parking lot for some warm-up exercises.  All IC in no particular order:

  • SSH
  • Imperial walker
  • Windmill
  • Merkins
  • Dips
  • Mountain Climbers
  • Moroccan Night Club
  • Low slow squats

Mosey backs to the start spot and grab your bell.  In cadence for a round of squat curls.

Mosey back to the front parking lot with kettlebell.  Partner up for some Dora.  One partner ran a lap around the lot while the other lifted.  As a group, complete  100 squats, 150 curls, 200 lbc’s.   Special shout out to Fish Sticks who would not let me take it easy on the run and ran me down each lap.  Well done Sir!

Main Event

Mosey over to the far lot where 5 parking spots at the top and 5 spots at the bottom had exercises posted.  With your partner, pick a parking space.  Both would do 10 reps of the exercises listed.  When complete, rotate over one spot to the right, leaving your kettlebell behind for the next group.  When you get done with the 5th station, rotate to other end of the lot.

Everyone got through one complete rotation, some made a few more before time was up.  Here’s what we did at each station:

  • goblin squat / calf raises
  • tricep extention / curl
  • shoulder press / single arm swing with pass through
  • figure 8’s / halos
  • LBC / merkins
  • lawn mower pulls, each arm
  • squats / lunge with pass through
  • skull crushers / big boy sit-ups
  • American hammers / merkins
  • swings / curls

Mosey to COT

Announcements – Sign up for Operation Sweet Tooth 8K, Huntersville, NC on 3/20.  Virtual Option available

Prayers – David Chadwick resigned as Sr. Pastor at Forest Hill Church after 39 years.  Prayers for church body and Elder leadership in this time of transition.  Peabody is on the Council of Elders so we prayed for him, our families, children, & injured PAX.

Thanks JWOW for the chance to Q!  Thanks also for the encouraging word from the PAX.  I encourage anyone out there to attend kettlebell workouts and Q!  If you need a bell, just ask Peabody.

Flat Tire

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I’ll take a number 5 meal, and make it a large (Farva)

A fairly chilly morning is upon us at the Abyss. Pre-workout mumble chatter included asking where the large crowds were. Perhaps PAX are preparing for a rucking event or this P200 thing coming up. Perhaps some injuries. Also Tesla asked who is on Q and I regretfully informed him it was me. YHC provides a brief disclaimer (no FNGs) and lets them know he had friends in from out of state all week and weekend. We had too many fast food lunches which was inspiration to lead the “combo meal” workout.

Mosey to back of the school for Warm-O-Rama:
-Peter Parker Peter x20
– Low Slow Toe Squats x10
– Smurf Jacks x10
– Flutter Kicks w/Simultaneous Arm Flutters x20
– Hello Dolly and Flutter Kick x20
– Hold Al Gore and Calf Raises x10

“Are you warm?”

Mosey toward front of school, stop at the wall:
– People’s Chair and Arm Flutters x20 (IC)
– BTTW with 10 Double Count Shoulder Taps (reminder to modify as needed) (OYO)

Mosey to front of school for the thang – Four Corners with Middle Pain Station:
– Start in the middle, burpee broad jump to corner one for Air Chair + Air Claps x15
– Burpee broad jump to middle for 5 Body Bag Builders (ten count burpee with a plank jack and a mountain climber after the merkin portion of the burpee).
– Burpee broad jump to corner two for Low Slow Jump Squats x10
– Burpee broad jump to middle for 5 Body Bag Builders
– Burpee broad jump to corner three for Superman + Moroccan Night Clubs x15
– Burpee broad jump to middle for 5 Body Bag Builders
– Burpee broad jump to corner four for CDD + Donkey Kicks x10
– Burpee broad jump to middle for 5 Body Bag Builders
– Enough burpee broad jumps. Duck Walk to corner one for Derkin + Shoulder Tap x10
– Duck walk to middle for 3 Body Bag Builders
– Duck walk to corner two for Dying Cockroach + Flutter Kicks x20
– Duck walk to middle for 3 Body Bag Builders
– Duck walk to corner three for Australian Snow Angles x10 (in superman pose)
– Duck walk to middle for 3 Body Bag Builders
– Duck walk to corner four for American Hammer + LBC x20

10 counts provided by Copyright and Royale

And now for the finisher of the shoulders, partner up, face each other with 8 parking spaces between. Each starts at one end and meets the other in the middle. While PAX 1 crab walks, PAX 2 bear crawls. Where they meet they do 20 merkins and head back in the same manner. Flapjack method of transport. When they meet again, 20 werkins. Flapjack method of transport. When they meet again, 20 diamond merkins. Flapjack method of transport. When they meet again, 20 ranger merkins.

At this point we are all smoked with 5 mins remaining. Ab Lounge to finish, each PAX got in an ab exercise which brings us to 0600 on the dot.

COT for announcements and prayers/praises which included Wild Thing entering the phase of building a new house, Mile High and his family, and one other that I cannot recall.

I’m going to be feeling this one tomorrow, but it is a distinct honor to be among such great #HIM, aye?!

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Block Party of 11 no make that 13

Disclaimer while a couple of guys slid into parking lot. Must have been one of those mornings Guys either forgetting what time we start, or where we meet on certain days but all good cause they made it.
Warm up- Butt kickers, high knees, toy soldiers, and knees to chest.
Circle up- 15 SSH, 10 Cherry pickers, 10 windmills, 10 Moroccan nightclubs, 10 mtn. climbers, 10 CDDs.
Take off on sprint to track at each drill bit we perform 10 of the following merkins, squats, bomb jacks. Sprint to next drill bit until we hit 5 by the playground.
Go onto playground 5 pull-ups 5 CDDs work your way down to 1.
Mosey to low walls down the block when 6 is in we complete the following 10 box jumps, 10 Merkins work your way down to 1 of each.
Mosey to hill Lunge walk 4 steps then 1 burpee all the way up the hill until you reach the parking lot.
At parking lot count off by 2s for DORA 1,2,3
P1 10 merkins while P2 holds plank switch at every 10.
P1 20 squats while P2 holds leg lift at 6 inches switch every 20
P1 30 LBCs while P2 holds AL Gore switch at every 30.

Jail Break back to COT.

Announcements- Look out for preblast for Chicken Hawk doing 8 week study on you giving God your attention.
MAR 27- Cornerstone and Stang dividing and conquering 2 AOS to address mental Awareness.
40 day challenge get hooked up on Slack.

Prayers- Water bug on his passing be with his family

Praise on JAVA be back out after layoff.

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Walk around the Kettlebell Clock…

Two Ferns was kind enough to put me on the Kettlebell Q at Cannonball.  I decided P200 will be plenty of running, so why not work the rest of the body?  I showed up to set up and it was pitch black in our parking area… seems Two Ferns didn’t change the timer at the church for day light savings!  Well he fixed that in two minutes and I set up for the fun.

Guys were gathering and it was great to see two of our FNGs this week, Whitesnake &  Speed Handle show back up for there 2nd and 3rd WO (respectively).  And it’s ONLY TUESDAY?  These guys are in for a treat… and are hitting the ground running!

Gave the long disclaimer, and we left our kettlebells and started a mosey around the parking lot.

High knees, butt kickers and some Toy Soldiers

Circle Up for some COP

Standard exercises with a varied rep count to keep the guys guessing.

Side Straddle Hops – Windmills – MNCs – Imperial Walkers – Ranger Merkins – Mountain Climbers – Peter Parkers

We moved on to my setup. So I’m still new to kettlebells, so I stole this WO from my friend Fishsticks WHO DID THE PROPER THING AND POSTED A BACKBLAST!  Let’s keep that going Site Qs and QICs.

12 cones, one centered. One PAX move from clock to center, KB Lunges then 5 burpess at center and lunge back. Rotate to next spot holding KB overhead. Continue pattern for as long as I want.

  1. American Hammers
  2. Curls
  3. KB Swing
  4. Flutter
  5. Upright Row 10x times 2
  6. Goblet Squat
  7. Tricep Press
  8. Figure Eight
  9. Shoulder Press Single Arm and rotate
  10. Floor to Shelf 10x times 2
  11. Chest Press
  12. KB Clean 10x times

After we make it around the whole clock, do a lap without KB –  We repeated around the clock 2 times.

Round 2 finished right at 6:00am to we moseyed back to COT

Annoucements

Read your newsletter, join us tonight for 2nd F at Mac’s Speed Shop

Praises and Prayers for unexpected passing of F3 WaterBug, our children and being present, and a friend to the PAX’s mother who is 92 and in the hospital for potiential NORA virus.

Two Ferns shut down the lights, and it was time to go!

An Honor to Lead

~Royale

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Being Vulnerable is not a sign of weakness but a sign of strength

P.S.A attendance is highly recommended. March 27th mark your calendars. F3 St. Louis very own Miyagi and Aerobie has brought light to a sensitive subject that’s right Suicide-mental health awareness. A subject we try and avoid talking about at all or till it’s to late. YHC will be on Q at the Panethon if you can’t make it to the west side of town Stang is on Q at Tomahawk and will also discussing the subject.

I am encouraging you to step up and share your experience. Whether it be about yourself or family member or even a friend. YHC will testify how this subject has effected my life. Please remember what we talk about in COT stays in COT it’s okay to be vulnerable. We are stronger together rather than alone.

Quotes
Don’t be ashamed of your story it will inspire others. Author Unknown

“You don’t have to control your thoughts. You just have to stop letting them control you.”

”I hide all my scars with an I’m fine.”

The bravest thing I ever did was continuing my life when I wanted to die. – Juliette Lewis

The world is a better place with you in it.

Suicide doesn’t end the chances of life getting worse, it eliminates the possibility of it ever getting any better. – unknown

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Constant Movement @ Crow’s Nest

A week late… but it’s here!

(I don’t remember everything… this was my first Q without writing stuff down and just going with the flow.  The template is accurate… the exercises on the other hand, probably not)

 

Started with a quick disclaimer and some light static stretching.

Mosey to the facing the building left side of Crow’s Nest (that I don’t think gets used very often?).  Warm-O-Rama in quick succession… Windmills, Weed Puller, SSHs, Hillbilly Walker

1st Workout-

Partner up- A runs the loop and back to starting point, B completes AMRAP of the following… 1st Round- CDD , 2nd Round- Squats

Long Mosey to opposite side of building (facing front right side of building)

2nd Workout-

Exercises completed in quick succession…  LBC, Prison Cell Merkin Burpees x3, American Hammers x 20, Prison Cell Merkin Burpees x3, Flutters x20, Prison Cell Merkin Burpees x 3

Mosey to the very back loop of the parking lot

3rd Workout-

Hold People’s Chair while going 1×1 down the line, person jumps out and completes 10 Curls with 50 lb sandbag.

BTTW x 2

Return to COT by means of Indian Run with person in front carrying/trading off the sandbag

Name-O-Rama/Announcements/Prayers

Thanks for the opportunity to lead Flux!

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Cindy meets blackdiamond

I am always looking for opportunities to push myself out of the ordinary and this was no exception, thanks to Jiffy for hosting the black diamond series of events at The Ranch, this time I put together a simple routine but hard enough to have everyone engaged for the majority of the time.

We started the day with a disclaimer with no FNG’s, then we moseyed around the parking lot for the warm up:

Windmills,

cherry pickers,

moroccan night clubs,

low slow squats,

low slow merkins

We moseyed around the side and back of school about 1/3 of a mile to meet a row of cinder blocks at the back entrance of the middle school, toy soldiers, butt kickers, high knees and NUR were included in the run.

The thang, ALL exercises had to be done with cindy:

10 man makers

push cindy 20 yards bear crawl style

10 flutters

push cindy 20 yards hairburner style

10 squats

push cindy 20 yards bear crawl style

10 big boy sit ups

push cindy 20 yards hairburner style

10 biceps curls

push cindy 20 yards bear crawl style

10 american hammers

push cindy 20 yards hairburner style

10 overhead press

push cindy 20 yards bear crawl style

10 bent over row

push cindy 20 yards hairburner style

10 triceps extensions.. rinse and repeat starting with man makers

Lots of mumble chatter, it was a crisp 28 degrees but most PAX decided to shred a layer or two of clothes since we were all sweating buckets (especially me) it was a non stop series of exercises and all PAX pushed really hard to stay together. GREAT WORK EVERYONE!! We were able to complete 2 full circuits and the third circuit we cut down on the block pushing and only did all exercises one more time:

10 man makers

10 flutters

10 squats

10 big boy sit ups

10 biceps curls

10 american hammers

10 overhead press

10 bent over row

10 triceps extensions

With about 10 minutes to spare it was time to go back to COT, we carried all blocks back to the truck, about 1/3 of a mile taking turns since we had 12 blocks and only 7 PAX.

We circled up for announcements, prayers and praises and ended our journey with a ball of men and the Q’s prayer.

Till we meet again, Tinsel out….

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Alcatraz Music Montage

We had 4 Pax that made their way to Alcatraz for an full hour of YHC.  Perogi (visiting from Carpex), SlapShot and Uber were all Polish brothers from other mothers had some really good mumble chatter during the mosey around Runde.  YHC felt left out because my roots trace back to Hilton Head Island….So away we went.

The Thang:

Warm Up with a Mosey around Runde

COP: SSH X 50, IW X 25, Windmill X10, Merkins X 10, CDD X 10, Squats X 20, SSH X 50.

Music Montage: Bring Sally up, Bring Sally down – Merkins, Roxanne – Squats, Happy by Pharrell – Burpees (this song is awful to listen to in the car, makes it even worse to do a burpee ever time you  hear the word Happy).

HIIT – 20 secs on, 10 secs off X 8 per set

Set 1 – Mountain climbers   Set 2 – Lunges    Set 3 – Plank Jacks     Set 4 – SSH

Plank-O-Rama – 30 secs per

Plank, plank left leg up, plank right leg up, elbow plank, elbow plank left leg up, Elbow plank right leg up, Plank, 6 inches

Done

COT – Praying for healing, for new babies being born and runners at Joe Davis

 

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Sally Visits Bermuda Triangle

We had 10 for a tour of the Campus of Bermuda Triangle.  It was my first visit to this awesome place so I wanted to take in all the sites.  Next time I will definitely explore the behind the school area we didn’t get to.

F1:

Mosey to the side of the school and circle up:  Cherry Pickers with a chain break at the top x15, imperial walker x15, windmill x15, plank, mountain climber x15, hold it, peter parker x16, hold it, parker peter x16, hold it and mountain climber x1 to even out the numbers.  Pax was lucky I didn’t go add one to each exercise (OCD anyone).

Break into two groups and indian run back to gravel path, then switch to bear crawl/crab walk indian run (this was a cluster so we moseyed to the basketball court).

Q up Sally.

Do Squas to Moby’s song Flower (when he says up you go up and down you go down).  The song almost 4 minutes long.  Pax took care of business.  Then do a lap around the gravel path.  LBC until six is in then x20.

Rinse and Repeat with Merkins (this sucks)!  Then lap again.  Hello Dolly until six is in then x20.

Rinse and Repeat with Dips.  Then lap again.  Freddy Mercury until six is in then x20.

Break into 2 teams of 5.  Do a Crab Walk and Bear Crawl Race on basketball court with prizes at the end.  The race was to close to call so all Pax received a price of 10 burpees.

I want to thank all Lake Wylie and York Pax for the welcome with open arms.  I have been doing more and more with the Lake Wylie Pax and they are a great group.  If you ever get a chance to join this group you will always get a quality beat down with great fellowship!

 

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