Category: Crows Nest

A Summer Reunion at Crow’s Nest

Leave a comment

Great way to start your week.  5:15 bootcamp with 95% humidity! We gathered up in the gloom and I was happy to see 10 guys join me for our Monday morning beat down.  Two Ferns made his Crows Nest debut, Austin Powers returned  from his vacation across the pond and we had Viogt join us from Rock Hill at the request of Homebrew.  Excellent group this morning, especially after Olaf and Nemo ran up late to COP!

I quickly gave the disclaimer and we were off. Mosey down the service road to the back parking lot of the school with several dynamic warmup moves.  It’s funny how you go under the street lights and they TURN OFF when we stroll by… really tells us how wanted we are.

COP

Random counts of Imperial Walkers – Moroccan Night Clubs – SSHs – Merkins – Yoga – and Mountain Climbers

Didn’t take long to break a sweat, so we moseyed to the playground area farther back in the school.

We started a cycle of an easily written, but hard workout. UvU

Station 1 = 10 pull-ups

Station 2 = 20 Merkins

Bear crawl about 40 yards to next station

Station 3 30 Sumo Squats

Crawl Bear another 40 yards back to station 1

Rinse and Repeat 5 times

Once this was over I shared a few “motivational” words about being tougher than you think you are.  Completing this cycle was a big challenge, and everyone made it.  It’s opportunities like this that show you how far you can actually push yourself.  Keep it up throughout your day and challenge yourself to be better in everything you do!

Mosey around the school to a wall for next evolution

Wall sits for 60 second counts

Wall Plank with feet on wall then we did 10 in cadence shoulder taps. (real crowd pleaser)

Wall sit another 70 seconds of counts

BTTW 30 seconds of count.

Made our way back to the front of the school for the last 5 minutes of Ab Lab.

PAX went in clockwise circle picking the Ab exercise and counting the cadence.

Ended with COT and our prayers.  Shared a summary of the 3rd F Invergence from the previous Friday.

Honored to Lead

-Royale

TClap |
2

Not So Ultimate Frisbee

Leave a comment

On a comfortable morning at the Crow’s Nest, 4 brave Pax joined YHC for what I planned on being a fun but grueling workout.  Lately, the Q’s have been incorporating sports in the workout’s and being that in the book “Freed To Lead” it suggests that you borrow ideas and try to make them your own, I would follow this time tested formula.

I started the workout with a quick 5 Donkey Kick’s to get the Pax’s attention and then we mosey’ed on over to the COP area that is in one of the many parking lot’s in the Crow’s Nest.

I had ascending Donkey Kick’s to accompany the 10 warm up exercises starting with 1 Donkey Kick to 10 Donkey Kick’s after the final exercise.

10xSSH

10xSunGods-fwd and reverse

10xWindmill

10xCherryPickers

10xImperial Walkers

10xLSS

10xPlankJacks

10xHook/Hook, Uppercut

10xMountain Climbers

Plank Hold-10 second each Pax around the circle

The Thang

We then mosey’ed on over to the main event.  Unfortunately, since we only had 5 Pax on hand, my plan on playing a match of F3 Ultimate Frisbee landed with a dud so I had to Omaha.  I started us out just tossing the disc around while I tried to figure out what I was going to do and then when I saw one of the Pax drop the frisbee I figured there should be a punishment for dropping said frisbee.  We then just kept tossing around the disc and every time a Pax member dropped it(or there was a mis-throw) we had to do an exercise.

1st Drop-10 Burpees

2nd Drop-15 ‘Mericans

3rd Drop-20 Single Leg Squats (10 each leg)

4th Drop-25 LBC’s 

5th Drop-30 Plank Jack’s

6th Drop-35 Single Leg Flutter Kicks

7th Drop-40  Thrusters

8th Drop-45 Bomb Jacks

Final Drop-50 Curb Dips

With 15 minutes on the clock we mosey’ed on over to the pull up station and did Jack Webb’s with an ascending pull-up/squat combo.  Nemo was not pleased, and at the end we were all doing cheat pull ups.  We then mosey’ed on back to COT where we has 3 minutes of Mary(or Ab Lab as some call it).

Peg called out 12 Big Boy Sit Ups OYO

Nemo had us do 10xBox Cutters

Respectable Olaf has us do 20xFreddy Mercury’s

Wolverine had us Do 10xAmerican Hammer

I ended the workout with a Honeymooner/Down Dog combo

Observation/Prayers/Praises

Prayed for injured Pax members and discussed Bolt’s idea for a Sunday morning trail running AO at 7 Oaks.  Till next time…

 

 

 

 

TClap |
2

Octagon of Pain

Leave a comment

It was an incredibly hot and muggy morning and the workout I had planned at the Crows Nest didn’t do it any favors.  We were all dripping with sweat and smoked by the time it was over.  I’m still tired as I write this a few hours later…

Mainly due to IR, DR, or Jedi’s postiversary, only 5 PAX showed up today at the Crows Nest, but they came ready.  We were glad to have NASA come out this way! He hasn’t had the opportunity to post at the Crows Nest so I even modified things a little to give him the “tour” so to speak, more on that later.

After practically no disclaimer, we took the long mosey towards the back of the school.  Along the way we did some karaoke’s, NUR’d, butt-kickers, and toy soldiers, before arriving in the back parking lot for warm-a-rama; which consisted of the following in cadence:

  • Windmill x10
  • Plank/Elbow Plank (30 count)
  • Elbow Plank Peter Parkers x15
  • Back to plank for Merkins x10

I was inspired by Sasquatch’s Q at the Swamp 3 or 4 weeks ago so I’ve been doing something a little different for warm-ups, it must be working because at least 1 PAX shouted that he is starting to hate my warm-ups.  Mission accomplished!

The 1st routine of the morning was supposed to get the blood flowing before the main event and I think that was accomplished.  We did “Eights”, which is basically just a modified “Elevens”, and also fit with my theme for the workout.  1 Pull-up at the playgroud and then a run to the top of the parking lot for 7 Diamond Merkins, back to the playground for 2 Pull-ups, and 6 Diamond Merkins at the top… you get the drill.

The 2nd routine was really supposed to the the last and final, but I called an Omaha before we even started because I had a surprise for Nasa.  I had 8 cones setup in the field in the shape of an Octagon with an additional cone in the center.  There was about 40ft. from center to each cone.  Each cone had an exercise taped to the top of it.  I had planned to partner up for this, purely for the push, but we ended up going solo mainly.  We all started at one of the points in the Octagon, performed the exercise and then broad jumped to the center cone and performed 4 burpees.  When finished with the burpees, we bunny-hopped back to a new point/cone and did that exercise.  We were to do this until we made it all the way around the Octagon, we always broad jumped to the center cone and bunny hopped back.  We always did 4 burpees in the middle.  As I mentioned earlier, I called an Omaha on this one to shave some time off so we only did half of the number taped to the cone and 4 burpees instead of 8.  It was still brutal because it was a leg/cardio burn for sure because of the exercises chosen:

  • 50 SSH
  • 50 Jump Rope
  • 25 Squat Jump
  • 20 Jump Lunges (each leg)
  • 10 Jumping Spiders
  • 50 Plank Jacks
  • 10 Donkey Kicks
  • 10 Bomb Jacks

And that was half!

So like I said, NASA was here, and probably the most amazing thing about the Crows Nest is the Green Monster so we were going to pay him a visit.

The last and final ad-hoc routine was a King-of-the-Mountain type exercise at the Green Monster.  1 PAX would stay at the top and perform Makhtar N’Diayes, while the remaining PAX run down and back up, twice (I quickly Omaha’d this to 1 time up and down to save time, it takes like a minute to go up/down this F@#%$!!! thing).  We then cycled through all the PAX, each one staying at the top for a rotation while the rest go down and up the hill.  Makhtar N’Diayes were to be OYO until the 6th made it back up the hill, then the next PAX would be “King”.  At one point I thought NASA might need an ambulance while he was laying on his back, practically motionless, at the top of the monster, but he recovered and finished! Well done brother!

We finished with about 5 minutes to spare and still had about a 4 minute mosey back to CoT so we ended up arriving just in time.

  • NASA on Q at Children’s Attention Home
  • Prayers for injured PAX, Homebrew, BTB
  • Prayers for safe travels (Austin Powers travelling to England Thursday, Whopper taking a job in Washington)

Until next time,

-Flux

 

 

 

TClap |
5

Murph Jr and Balls to Wall-Whoppers last Q at crows nest

Leave a comment

By a mixture of being out of town over the weekends and just staying up too late/laziness, I’d managed to avoid posting at crows nest despite it being literally the closest AO from my home.  What with me moving sometime between the 17-23rd, I was glad to get put on the Q schedule in advance so that I could have one last whirl for the time being. I wanted to do something unique and fairly painful for the pax.

Short mosey to closest parking lot, COP-

SSH
Sungods, forward and reverse, windmills, imperial walkers,

Musical Primer- At some Q’s they have brought speakers but NOT been playing 80’s headbangers, much less the one most appropriate to a classic exercise, Balls to the Wall!

Had the PAX get into peoples chair, one at a time run to walkway and perform burpee+shoulder tap, as the song played on shakespeares speaker via my phone bluetooth. At part right before chorus, We would go balls to wall. Fun little warmup.

Main Event- Murph JR

Mile run, 1 minute pushups, squats, pullups, with note taken to what max reps done by any of the PAX was.

Another mile run, and started running out of time so we didn’t go back to the pull ups. all together, did 66 merkins with a ten count break, and 60 squats, which was records from the 1 minute timed.

with two minutes left, mosey back to COT and did some ab lab, 10 bigboy situps, 20 4 count flutters and then time up.

Prayers for safe travels and england Godspeed in the world cup. humbled by the PAX and the support they have given me for over a year. At the end of this week I will know if my future is leading me to Greensboro, Washington state, or ft worth texas. Wherever I go, I know I will want to join or create fellowship like that I’ve had in F3. Thanks to everyone who has sweated with me and helped me grow as a man.

TClap |
5

Crows Nest 7/2

Leave a comment

8 pax came out to Crows Nest.  A disclaimer was made and we mosied up to the rock piles for COP.

COP

MNC x 25, Windmills x 12, HBW x 15, Merkins x 15, Peter Parker’s x 15

Everybody grabbed a rock and we made our way to the back of the school for the main event.  First we all did 10 pull ups OYO.

YHC had set up 10 stations and PAX paired up.  Every exercise was x 25 while Pax#2 did the second exercise and then both pax ran a lap… Except for the burpee stations, where both pax did 10 burpees with 2 laps. (Tri ext/6″ Squata/Al Gore, OHP/ MNC, diamond Merkins/plank, curls/curb hops, Merkins/plank, lunges/flutter, BOR/LBCs).

 

Had to finish up early and head back for COT with thr rocks.  Had some extra time so we made it through 40 jack webbs in 6 mins.

 

Announcements/Prayers for PAX job hunting and for Bob the Builder and his family.

Thanks Flux for the opportunity to lead.

 

TClap |
0

Mystery Filthy Fifty at Crows Nest

Leave a comment

As I was heading out the door, I was asked to Q today. I had already been thinking about the Weinke for my next Q the same week, so obviously I threw all that out the door and started over as I was driving to the AO

Completely forgot the disclaimer for a bunch of vets though, so ooops.

Moseyed around toward the Y with the standard butt kickers, toy soldiers, bear crawl… wait what? and then stayed in plank as we crawled into a circle for some stretching and warmup

Partner DORA 1-2-3
Pointed out a short distance to run and swap with your partner through 100 merkins, 200 squats and 300 LBCs (a classic in my opinion)

I keep with me a brown paper bag of exercises printed out into baseball card sleeves (mega cheap guys, maybe have one in your arsenal as well just in case) so we did 50 OYO of each exercise that was drawn by the PAX

In no particular order
Monkey Humper
Pistol Squat
LBC
CDD
Big Boys
SSH
Inchworm Merkin (this was slooooooow)
Overhead clap
Apollo Creed – no one could agree or remember what this was so we did something Wolverine called out where you sit up like an American Hammer but instead of twisting, you alternate punch and alternate bicycle kick your legs out. makes more sense when you see it, need to name it

Moseyed back for 4 MoM (dolly, box cutters, protractor)
And ended the workout with 5 burpees as expected 6:00:01 was the time

CoT
Sweati July 14 at First Baptist Fort Mill – in the newsletter
Homebrew,DaVinci,NASA doing the GoRuckLight in Colulmbia on 6/30

Homebrew’s brother? is engaged now!
Witch Hunt is traveling to St Louis
Wolverine just hit 2 years in F3!!!
Nemo admitted he needs to have a better attitude even though his life is going great with a wonderful family, kids and job. AYE!!

TClap |
0

Steal the flag, pop the balloon

Leave a comment

It started with bacon.

Well, really it started with Cha Ching’s Q last week, where fifth grade games were the theme of the day. In planning the weinke for today, YHC decided to stick with this theme, and the first game to come to mind was “Steal the Bacon.” So, six PAX posted in the gloom of Crow’s Nest for YHC’s take on an old favorite (that apparently nobody has heard of).

Disclaimer was given, and off we went on a mosey to one of the side drop-off lots for a quick warmup including knees-to-chest, quad stretches, side shuffles, karaokes, and toy soldiers. We also did a handful of side-straddle hops, low slow squats, windmills, merkins, downward dogs, and a honeymooner (just one…though, just one honeymooner sounds like a bad honeymoon).

Mosey back around to the front for

THE THANG

Five pink balloons, each with a card with an exercise tucked inside, were taped to cones at one end of a 50-yard stretch of road. PAX were divided into two teams and given the basic rules.

  • Complete the buy-in exercise, then go to far cone and back according to prescribed movement
  • Depending on round, assigned team member of winning team would pop balloon to determine group exercise.
  • Losing team on a given round would do five burpees before all PAX complete group exercise.
  • Rinse and repeat for all five balloons.

To add to the fun, every PAX was given a strip of fabric (cut up tee shirt) to serve as a flag/tail tucked into the back of his waistband. In addition to everything else, PAX were to protect their flag. If they lose it to another PAX, they were to immediately complete five burpees. They would then re-insert the flag and continue on. There was no limit to the number of times a PAX could lose his flag.

Round 1:

50 merkins, followed by a run down and back. First PAX back popped the balloon. Card exercise: 100 plank jacks.

Round 2:

40 monkey humpers followed by sneak gorilla down and back. Second PAX back popped the balloon. Card exercise: 30 breakdancer merkins.

Round 3:

30 CDD followed by bear crawl down and back. Third PAX (protect the six!) popped the balloon. Card exercise: 50 30 leg-cross squat turns. These apparently take some coordination. Who knew?

Round 4:

40 crab cakes followed by crab walk down and back. Third PAX back popped the balloon. We ended up popping both remaining balloons and choosing 50 hillbilly squat walkers as the final exercise (as opposed to 50 donkey kicks).

The flag football approach added a fun dynamic to the workout, leading to a killer workout that engaged the brain as well. The final round took a long time, as strategy played heavily into the completion of the crab walks. This actually turned out a lot better than anticipated. Look forward to bringing this one back around again.

Announcements:

  • PAINtheon on Wednesday
  • Hog and Coyote on Saturday
  • Sweati in July

Prayers and Praises

  • QBert and family back to the beach after the workout
  • Cha Ching and family and life with new baby

It was a hike to get to the AO, but man it was fun. Grateful for the chance to lead.

Jedi

TClap |
2

A Primal Beatdown

1 Comment

On a warm sticky morning at the Crow’s Nest 7 Pax rolled into the parking lot while I was preparing for my first ever Q and I was pumped!  After about 10 weeks of following all the great Q’s of my past workout’s I was eager to prove my mettle and present a challenging workout with a theme of how animals move in nature.

Warmup

I had an instant COP to warm up the morning stiffness

20 SSH

10 Cherry Pickers

Arm Circles

10 LSS

Then I had the Pax do an Indian Run to the main event area with the rear Pax doing 1 Burpee to continue the warming up period.

The Thang

I pulled out a deck of playing cards for the beatdown

Spades were Bear Crawls

Clubs were Crab Walks

Hearts were Donkey Kicks

Diamonds were Pull Ups (Monkey)

Jokers were 14 Grasshopper ‘Mericans

Rep ranges were 2-14 depending on the card with BC’s and CW’s  going a certain distance corresponding to the card.  Thanks to Flux for the helpful modification on the BC’s and CW’s.

During the beatdown I pulled out 2 scripture readings, the first being on how our bodies’ are our temple’s to SkyQ from 1 Corinthians and with the word of the month being Accountability I knew a great passage from Ezekiel on being watchers on the wall.

After getting through most of the deck we moseyed back right on time for COT.

Thoughts and prayers for this country on yet another school shooting.

 

 

 

 

 

TClap |
2

Russian Roulette

Leave a comment

To start:

Simple stretching while I explained the idea of what I call Russian Roulette.  During the workout, rock songs from a 90s and 00s playlist were blasted on shuffle.  One song on the playlist would function as a punishment song and, if played, the entire group would have a punishment to complete during the length of the song.  Naturally, that song was by Nickelback because they might be the worst band of all time (as if having to listen to Nickelback wasn’t bad enough, the group would have something terrible to do during that time as well).

 

The Thang:

PAX split into pairs to work through 6 different stations of various exercises.  Each set of exercises were completed twice before moving on to another station.  Each station were as followed:

  1. 2x40lb Sandbag Farmers Carry, Medicine Ball Balance Merkin, LBC’s w/ 10lb weight
  2. Agility Ladder SSH’s, Dumbbell Tricep Extensions, Flutter Kicks
  3. Burpee Medicine Ball Slam, 40lb Sandbag Bicep Curl, Big Boy Situp w/ 10lb weight
  4. Jump Rope, 40lb Sandbag Squat w/ Overhead Press at the top, and Freddie Mercury’s
  5. Ski Jump Over Jump Rope, Carolina Dry Docks, Medicine Ball American Hammers
  6. Plyo Box Jumps or Step Ups, Band Chest Press, Dying Cockroach

Based on my observation, most PAX completed one full round plus a few extra stations in the time that we had.  Luckily for us, Nickelback never played.  Next time, when I shorten the playlist, we may not be so lucky.

 

P.S. – Just in case you weren’t aware… Nickelback sucks.

TClap |
1

Log Jammin’

Leave a comment

7 men posted at Crow’s Nest to rumble with some lumber on a very breezy Monday morning. Disclaimer was disclaimed, and we were off moseying around to the back of the school. I had strategically parked my truck around the back and the tailgate was down, revealing a slew of logs who would become our friends for the next 45 mins. The size and weights varied, but most were in the 30 lb range. PAX were encouraged to select a log that would challenge them, but not cause injury.

Penalties for the day: (1) you hit a PAX with your log – 10 burpee penalty (2) you hit the Q with a log – 25 burpee penalty. Thankfully, no penalties were needed.

Warmup

  • 20 SSH
  • 20 MNCs
  • 10 low slow squats with log
  • Finkle swings
  • Log pickers – weed picker position, roll the log out until you feel it in your calves then hold. Repeat x3

The Thang

 

Hill Runs with Log

Log jog to the hill. PAX ran up and down the hill with their log, carrying it whatever way they saw fit. Lots of front carries, with a few shoulder carries in the mix as well. Each time you arrive at the bottom of the hill, do 5 derkins on the log (logs were about 1.5 feet high). At the top of the hill, do the next exercise on the list until all 5 rounds are complete.

  • 20 derkins
  • 20 curls
  • 20 rows
  • 20 Al Gore squats
  • 20 American Hammers

Plenty of pain here. PAX did LBCs until the 6. Peg was asked to select between option A or B. He chose A, so we rinsed and repeated the whole sequence. Another option was given after round 2, and Nemo selected Colorado over Arizona. So we moved on to the next event. False democracy at its best.

 

Peoples Chair with Logs

I poached this idea from Double D’s Black Friday workout, only we used logs instead of Cindy. All the logs were handed off down the line then, passed back to the side they stated from. Then PAX got a break … by doing 10 burpees.

Repeat x 5, for a total of 50 burpees, and plenty of time on the wall.

 

I gave a quick NMM before heading to the final event of the morning. See Below.

 

Lumberjack Webbs

Similar to the original, but with more wood and more pain. Each PAX retrieved 2 split pieces of firewood from the truck and circled up on the grass with their logs. Ratio of 1:3 was used because we were short on time, and due to the added weight. 1 derkin on the log, then 3 overhead claps while holding a piece of firewood in each hand. Then 2 derkins + 6 firewood claps, 3 derkins +9 firewood claps… ect. This was a real crowd pleaser. Much mumble chatter abounded. We only got through 8 rounds before time ran out, but that was plenty to get the shoulders burning, especially after the burpees and derkins from earlier.

Mosey back to COT, for announcements, prayers, and praises.

 

NMM

Sticking with the theme of the day we discussed the following passage from scripture:

Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. Matt 7:1-5

This is something I need to be reminded of frequently. In my marriage, at work, with my children- where am I keeping score? We can be very quick to extend ourselves grace while withholding it from others. We all have logs of selfishness and vice that we carry around every day, and maybe the reason we can’t see them is we have become used to them. So have a look in the mirror. What is your log? What can you remove from your life to make you a better man of God? The next part of Jesus’ challenge is to then extend grace to those that struggling with the specks in their eyes. Be ruthless with the sin in your own life, while overlooking the faults of others – do the harder thing.

 

Thank you Flux for the opportunity to lead!

 

Stay Classy,

Homebrew

TClap |
3