22 Strong posted on a beautiful Friday morning to kick off the first Slow Burn workout of 2015.  Here is what they did:

The Thang:

Run a big loop, nice and easy around the Lowes parking lot to COP:

SSH x 20, Mountain Climber x 15, IW x 15, Slow, Slow Squat x 15, Parker Peter x 15, Windmill x 15

Wide merkin x 5, hold, left arm/leg high, hold, flip to inverted plank, hold, 10 dips, right arm/leg high, hold, 6″ merkin, hold, regular, 6″ merkin, hold, recover

LBC x 20

Mosey to guard rail behind Lowes:

Moderately high step up left leg x 10

5 dips/1 derkin, 4 dips/2 derkin, 3 dips, 3 derkin, etc.

Rinse and repeat both, alternate leg on step up

Mosey to hill by Empire Pizza for Jacobs ladder (Diamond Merks  x 10 while waiting for the six)

5 trips up the hill, 1-5 burpees at top.  Do extra reps if you finish early.

At the bottom of the hill, lie on your stomache for Superman/parachutes (4 reps total)

Mosey to nice grassy spot for ab lab:

Dying cockroach x 15, slow, slow Freddie Mercury (on Q count), Hello Dolly x 15, Russian Twist x 15, Slow, slow merkins (on Q count) x 5

COT

Great group out there today on a cool SC morning.   This was my first Q at Slow Burn and I hope to do it again soon.  The first Q at a new AO usually requires an audible or two,  and today was no exception.  I hope the Pax enjoyed the change of pace .  Happy New Year, brothers!

Announcements:

Joe Davis 5K/10K, Saturday, Jan 10, 8am at Baxter Y.  Be there!

North Augusta F3 expansion. Clown cars leaving promptly at 4:45 tomorrow from Baxter Starbucks  Help support the F3 movement.

Dredd and OBT are coming to the Reservation (Indian Land) on Saturday to Q that workout.

Prayers for those battling illness and injury.

23 Pax shook off the holiday hangover and ventured out for a low-running quasi-moderate Slow Burn.  YHC had some free time and took advantage of the new F3 exercise lexicon which can be found here

The Thang
Dynamic warm-up of windmills in the Chik-fil-a parking lot before moseying down to the Empire lot with some high-knees, butt-kickers, and walking Imperial Walkers along the way.

Circle up and straight into a Dirty MacDeuce (4 sets of 3 exercises, in cadence, with no rest between exercises)
Set 1:  Merkin/LBC/Squats
Set 2:  Diamond Merkins/Freddie Mercuries/Monkey Humpers
Set 3:  Wide Arm Merkins/Hello Dollies/Peter Parkers
Set 4:  Knerkins (alternate:  Merkins)/Rosalitas/Parker Peters

Mosey to the wall for Peoples’ Chair sequence

Jack Webb Ladder:  Run to the first crosswalk for 1 merkin & 4 airpresses.  Run to second and third crosswalk and back increasing the number of merkins by 1 and airpresses by 4 at each crosswalk.  Return to start for 6 merkins and 24 airpresses.

Dan Taylor (see lexicon):  leg version of the Jack Webb.  Start at 1 squat and 4 lunges.  Increase until 5 squats and 20 lunges.  Crowd pleaser so we repeated it back the other way.

Mary time, starting with Guantanamo (again, see lexicon).
LBCs
Russian Twists
Crunchy Frogs
Moroccan Night Club (because, why not?)
Protractor
Freddie Mercuries

Back to the shovelflag @ Chik-fil-a, AYG

1 minute left, so 1 minute of burpees OYO

Moleskin
With CSPAN’s tour of Rt 160 last week, and with Senator Tressel as Q next week, I figured a low-running workout was needed this week or Slow Burn might get a reputation as a running workout.  #NotOnMyWatch.  To plan the work out I spent some time on the Exercise Lexicon that @AP set-up.  There is a lot of great information on there and if you Q any F3 workout I encourage you to spend some time on it.

The Dirty MacDeuce was fun, although judging by the amount of #MumbleChatter I believe I will need to ramp-up the exercises in the sets.

The Dan Taylor was fun, although YHC apparently didn’t explain it correctly judging by the number of Pax that started to sprint on the start.  Either that or far too many folks follow CSPAN blindly.

Guantanamo was fun, especially with 23 pax.  It was more fun when I figured out it worked better trying to pull down the legs by running inside the circle instead of pushing the legs down from outside.  Thankfully no faces were stomped.

The Crunchy Frog looked easier in video.  Bad form on the Q’s part not being to execute it well.  I punched out after 5 reps b/c #DontQItIfYouCantDoIt.  Also don’t threaten to hold the protractor while the mumble chatter persists if @Trucker is posting… he can hold it.   And he can chatter.

Great effort by the Pax and I had a blast on Q.

Look for the Q1 2015 Slow Burn Q schedule to be posted in the next couple of days. I’ll plan on rotating in anyone who’s Q’ed Slow Burn so far.  Let me know if you want in through email, in the comments below, or on twitter (@jeff_gray)

Announcements:

1/1/15 – Ranch is open.  0630 launch
1/3/15 – Clown car down to N. Augusta.  See CSPAN
Joe Davis Run 1/10/15, see preblast

YHC got a last minute call to Q the now infamous #SlowBurnF3…

High quality disclaimer…read the website…not a professional…read it in Hebrew or Greek…

Quick prayer for Tatanka’s meeting

In your best Forest Gump voice “and we were running” down to Harris Teeter…

COP and Plankorama…could have been too much or not nearly enough…perspective…

In your best Forest Gump voice “and we were running” down to Auto Zone…

ABLAB to 100 reps…potentially different perspective…

In your best Forest Gump voice “and we were running” back down to Harris Teeter…

COP in reverse age order, started with Senator and finished with Waldo.

Circle-o-Rama, Name-o-Rama, Prayer or Praise, & BOM.

Mosey at your own pace back to Chicken-&-Wisdom

Cobains to all that did not enjoy the tour, I keep talking about needing more cardio, got about 2 easy miles in today…

Merry Christmas

Another fine morning in the gloom with 19 fanboys of the First and Second F.  After a short speech by YHC on the merits of Moderate and the disclaimer, we took off.

Indian Run to Front Lowe’s Corner
SSH
Windmill
IW
MNC

Indian run to back of Lowe’s Lot
Dips
Incline Merkins

Indian run to front of Lowe’s Lot

4 corners:
Monkey Humpers
Lunge Hop
Squats
Plankorama led by First PAX to finish

4 corners:
Crab Cakes
Recline Dips
CDD
Plankorama led by First PAX to finish

People’s chair while each person does:
10 Merkins
20 SSH
20 Squats

Mosey to Empire Lot

Six Minutes of Mary:
Wheezy Jefferson
Rosalita
LBC
Superman/Banana

Dealer’s Choice Ab Work by PAX

Jailbreak to CFA for COT

Naked Man Moleskin
I read Freed to Lead recently and discussed the merits of a “Core” workout with a few of the PAX while running last week. When Hard Drive asked me to lead Slow Burn this week, I thought it was a good opportunity to remind the PAX that while we like being stronger, we need to think of the guy who leans on Excuse #1 to keep him from his first post.

Slow Burn should be for that guy, and I want to feel like I am not lying when I tell the neighbor I have been EH’ing that he can handle moderate. This means we need to try to keep it moderate even when there are no FNGs so that it is our culture, not just an exception.

Regarding the actual workout, I was initially disappointed that I ran out of Ab work on #SixMinutesOfMary, but the PAX stepped in with no complaints to fill the void. I got kudos from the PAX after and, while I was driving home after Chik-n-Wisdom, I thought of how we aren’t required to have it all together.

What we are required to do is to be willing to get out of the fartsack and lead. This isn’t limited to F3 workouts, but is applicable to all aspects of our daily lives.

From Isaiah 59:15-16 – “The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm achieved salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him.” The Lord gave us his righteousness through Jesus, so let’s be the Arm of the Lord to intervene in this world till he returns.

Lead your family.

Stand Up.

Push Back against The Curse.

Make a Difference wherever you have an opportunity.

Lastly I want to give shouts to Assassin for recommending the butt kickers/high knees on the Indian Run to keep it Moderate as well as all the PAX who show up every week to keep Slow Burn strong even when we’re sub-30’s weather.

Announcements:
Party Tonight at 1800, see the preblast from Crab Cakes
Baxter Trail Run on New Years Day, 15K and 5K option
Joe Davis on Jan 10th

Prayer Requests:
Many Prayer requests this morning for those who are sick (I believe it was Destiny’s sister, Blackhawks friend) or have lost loved ones (Airman’s father).

God has a plan, we just need to be willing to do his will and keep pushing back against the temptations of the flesh with the Lord’s help and our Brothers (thanks for the 3rd F this morning Anchor Man).

19 Pax heeded the call of the pre-blast and took on the Moderate Cup challenge at region’s best Friday workout. The challenge was simple, who among the pax could do the most reps OYO of 4 simple moderate pain stations in a 20 minute period?

The Thang:

Mosey down to the lower parking lot where YHC somehow led from the middle in a series of karaoke, backwards jog, high knees, and butt kickers.  Worked about as well as it sounds.

COP for a brief warm-up before the main event:
SSH x10
Imperial Walkers x15
Merkins x10 with a hold at the end to keep everyone honest
Windmills x10
Slow Sumo Squats x10
Moroccan Night Clubs x 20 or so
Mountain Climbers x 10

Mosey to the crosswalk where the Q explained the Cup challenge:  OYO run around the strip mall stopping on each side for one of the following:  Merkins x10, Squats x20, LBC x20, Supine Pull-ups x10.  Sounds moderate right?  The Pax had 20 minutes to complete as many circuits as possible.  The winner would earn the coveted Moderate Cup.  (I brought 2 cups expecting to break into 2 groups:  Hates and Hate-Hates in one, Old on up in the other.  Turns out we’re mostly Old so forget it.).  YHC vaguely warned about leaving enough in the tank for a tie breaker if needed…

Usual suspects were up front including CSPAN, Backdraft, and Waldo.  Thoughts about the 10k Merkin challenge must have drifted into CSPAN’s head b/c he fell off the pace leaving Backdraft and Waldo the challenge winners.  I know they must have lapped me at least 3 times.  #SteadySixWinsTheRace or some such #goo.

The tiebreak was 5 Burpees OYO (which may not sound like much, but by then it was) and then jailbreak for the Shovelflag, winner take all.  By CSPAN’s account (see note above about being the Six) it was Backdraft with the late burst to win it securing the first ever Moderate Cup.  Backdraft couldn’t even hold it up over his head in victory either because he was too tired, or he was too embarrassed by the cheap Hong Kong novelty trophy, either/or.  I’m going with the former.  Waldo took home the Hate Division Moderate Cup, because honestly what was I going to do with it?

Announcements:
Need Q’s for Slow Burn schedule starting next week.  DM me on Twitter @jeff_gray
Joe Davis Run on 1/10.  See Preblast for details
12/12 – Christmas Party.  See preblast for details and signup
12/13 – F3 Dads, 0930 @ Alcatraz
12/17 – 12 Days of Christmas led by Double D at PHOP
12/24 – Christmas Eve convergence at The Coop.  No Christmas Day workout!

As 2014 is drawing to a close, it’s time to answer the question that has been on everyone’s mind since Slow Burn launched back in June:  What the hell does @CableGuy eat?  But the second most asked question undoubtedly is who is The Fort’s King of Moderate?

We’ll answer that (second) question this Friday with a little friendly competition at Slow Burn.  Come out for an OYO timed event.  The pax with most reps will receive the exalted Moderate cup. A little warning though, you might want to save a little in the tank for the tie breaker…

See you Friday.

(Side note:  Don’t do a google search for “Moderate Cup” while on the couch with the M.)

13 strong men took the #RedPill for a Black Friday Version of #SlowBurnF3

YHC gave a quick recap that it is a disappointing state of our country that we need a holiday to remind us be thankful, especially when we have so many gifts and blessings in our lives. We discussed that the negative of this world becomes our focus, when really if you take a full 360 degree look around to fully understand the blessings you have.

The Thang:

My style warm up, old school, & old man slow old and painful with planks held way too long.

6 OYO Pain Stations = 3 exercises per station= 20 repetitions of each exercise so by the time you made it around the building you made a full circle with 360 exercises.

Exercises included: SSH, Monkey Humpers, Imperial Walkers, Flutter, Dollys, LBC, CDD, Americans, Moroccan, Rosa, V-ups, Freddy, Wide Arm pulls, Close Grip pulls, Squats, Calves, Incline Merkins, & Decline Merkins.

Moleskin:

Welcome FNG Prosciutto

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Holiday Party

Joe Davis Run

As always, it is a privilege to come off the bench and substitute at our moderate workout AO – Slowburn. With just less than 24-hrs notice, YHC had to quickly think what to do. The whole weinke was made up as we went as we explored the entire Lowes Home Improvement parcel.

The Thang:

COP consisted of EW, windmills, SSH

Mossy Lowes parking lot for sprint-a-rama

Line up at first parking light pole:

1st round: sprint to next light pole – 10 merkins; sprint to second light pole – 20 merkins. rinse and repeat back

2nd round: 10 and 20 squats

3rd round: 10 and monkeyhumpers, return with 20/10 bombjacks

4th round:10 and 20 LBCs

Mossy to Baxter Bunch House for wall sits and abs, 2 rounds. As YHC was sitting, he looked over at a potential new obstacle and mentioned these storm drain pipes to Backdraft. So with Backdraft’s approval we then mossy to the 54″ RCP. Bear crawl through and hit the storage trailer for more wall sits, 2 rounds

Mossy to back of Lowes for 20 dips and 10 merkins

Mossy to Sweetfrogs for 10 reverse pull-ups

Mossy to COP

Shortened AO by a few minutes in order for PAX to make it 3rd F for gathering to hear Haywood speak about the F3 Foundation. Made PAX kept moving as we enter into the cold season. 3rd F was great and the goal for all PAX is to find your spiritual meaning. Chatter throughout about Cornhole and Truckers Q at Alcatraz (Burpee warning)

Trucker