Category: The Ranch

And then there were 2 . . .

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I didn’t have high expectations based on the number of fireworks I saw and heard the night before. I picked up Jiffy’s Q and as always had a blast at F3, even if there were only 2 of us . . .

A special thanks is listed at the very bottom.

And this was just the WARM-UP . . .

PLENTY OF DYNAMIC STRETCHING:

Jog, High Knees, Butt Kickers, Toy Soldiers,, Lateral Shuffles , Lateral Lunges, Squats,

Alternating Forward Lunges, Tempo Merkins,

Single Leg Toe touches with other leg going back, Peter Pointers, Table Twists

The Thang:

Nasty 7s: 7 chin-ups from a deep position, 7 pull-ups from a half position with opposite grip, 7 full range pull-ups.

Daft Punk: 2 rounds

Dancing Bear with 2 Merkins

Daniel-Son

Empty Wheelbarrow

Laney Lu, Plank and Merkin

LBFCs: Little Baby Flutter Crunches

Low Country Crab

Iron Mikes

Inch Worm until exhausted

Groaners

Good morning Abbey: lay flat, move feet in and sit upright, then get up without touching the ground, then lower self back without using arms again (12 X)

Global Warming with extra tempo merkins, flutters, plank, Carolina Dry Docks, and others in-between

Hurpees: hand release burpees; increase # of hand releases up to 10;

Hydraulic Squat: Squat low, then right knee down to touch ground, then left now, then go back up in same direction as you came; do 10;

The Donatello

Tempo Merkin

*We will leave it to your imagination how many reps you think Sasquatch and I did of each of these exercises. (Can we say constant 45 minutes of moment?)*

8 minutes of Mary (0 rest):

Seated Ab Circles – 30 secs each direction; no rest between each

Twisting Pistons – 30 secs

Alligator Walks  60 secs;

Recliner Elbow to Knee Tucks – 30 secs

Slow LBC and Twist – 60 secs

Peter Parkers – 60 secs

Sprinter Peter Parkers – 60 secs

Elbow Planks with right arm/left arm high – 30 secs each

Regular Plank to the end – 30 secs

COT: Announcements; Prayer Requests


**A special thanks to Wegman’s for fartsacking today. 

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Creativity in Leadership/Beyond

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Beyond Workout & The Ranch joined up to discuss and experience Creativity in leadership through the lens of F3 – Fitness, Fellowship, and Faith.

As I spent time preparing for this Beyond workout, a lot of what I planned to cover resonated pretty heavily with me.

I asked 3 things of the PAX: (1) challenge yourself (2) encourage one another (3) engage in the workout/discussions and begin responding to the challenges in the days and weeks to come.

Started with dynamic warm-ups: a combination of mosey, toy soldiers, knees to chest, ankle toward chest, karaoke.

The Thang:

Mosey to first location at the end line  of soccer field in front of Springfield Elementary School. Talked about part 1 of 3 things that I believe is necessary to achieve creativity in leadership: Get out of your comfort zone, leading from the front and when more appropriate partnering, delegating and/or supporting.

There’s the adage “don’t Q it if you can’t do it”.  In every workout I Q I try to push myself and the PAX outside of the comfort zone, because the biggest gains come from being challenged.  There is a guy I’ll refer to as Geronimo, who once said “if you want to run faster, you have to practice running faster.”  This  can be applied to many facets of your life – whether talking about actually running faster or getting stronger or if you want to be a “better” husband, father, friend, employee, saver, giver, fill in the blank.  Get out in front of it (outside the comfort zone) and hallenge yourself.  All f that being said, there are enevitably things that are not my/your strengths or are the strengths of others – where it s doesn’t make sense to lead from the front.  In these situations, Partner, delegate and/or support those around us that have those strengths.  It could be the PAX to our left/right or our M, a Whetstone partner…again fill in the blank.  We are all HIM, but we can’t do everything ourselves. Remember that 1 grain of sand doesn’t make a beach.  Challenge: Think of the impact we can make when we both lead from the front and (when more appropriate) partner, delegate and/or support those around us.

exercise group 1: First, from the end line, lead from the front in a soccer field length sprint (if your not in the front or are the 6, make sure you challenge yourself).  Down and back 3 times.  Next, on the sideline, partner-up and support someone by carrying them across the field.  Alternate back and forth 3 times.

Mosey to second location at the bottom of the hill at the bus loop in front of Springfield Middle School.  Talked about part 2 of 3 in achieving creativity in leadership: always look for opportunities to set yourself apart.

When I took the reins at Varsity, we had plenty of bootcamps and I was reluctant to Q “another bootcamp” – it was winter, attendance was very low, and frankly there was talk of consolidating the AO.  I knew that for it to remain on its own, it needed to stand apart from other workouts, which resukted in choosing the HIIT workout format.  The AO went from many weeks of myself and maybe 1 or 2  others to consistently 10-15 PAX.  I believe that the uniqueness of the AO and the willingness to try something new outside of the comfort zone is what drew the PAX.  Challenge: Think about what it means to start ourselves apart in how we interact with those within our spheres of influence – out Ms, 2.0s, coworkers.  Light always frowns out darkness.

exercise group 2: The PAX we’re split into two groups with group 1 running the bus loop while group 2 performed a modified Jacobs ladder of 3 burpees at the top of the hill and 3 v-ups at the bottom until the first group returned.  Switcharoo.  Rinse and repeat until each group ran the bus loop 3 times.

Mosey to the third location at the back entrance to the middle school.  Talked about part 3 of 3 in how to achieve creativity in leadership: don’t be predictable.

I was a runner pre-F3.  In fact, that’s is what drove me to F3 (a story for another time).  When I was asked to Q my first kettlebell workout, my natural inclination was to run with the bell. There have been many iterations of that since – bells, blocks, rocks, flat ground, hills.  My goal is to alway challenge myself and the PAX in ways we may have not been challenged before.  There are reasons why there are different variations on the merkin or squat!  Not to mention I get bored doing he same thing over and over.  Challenge: think about he areas of your life where you are predictable – your relationship with you M or 2.0s or how you exercise your faith – what are some ways to break out of that comfort zone and be less predictable?

exercise group 3: 3 LEGIT reps of each – Merkins, Squats, Diamond Merkins, Sumo Squats, Wide Arm Merkins, Alternating Solit Squats, Hand Release Merkins, Pistol Squats.

Running out of time, bear crawl to the straight away and then mosey back to COT.

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‘Watch’ Your Trajectory

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The preview was we will do lots of dumb things together. YHC hopes the advance billing lived up to the hype! We had a good discussion on trajectory and how many missteps does it take to get you off course. Surround yourself my PAX that will keep any missteps in check…plug for Whetstone. We need an accountability partner. Seeing that I have lost a few friends over the years to addiction, as recently as this week, take a look around and see how you can make an impact on others trajectory.

With that, we did a nice warm up that got us sweaty in an already humid environment quickly.

Mosey around the bus loop twice with dynamic stretching.

Circle up.

SSH
LS Merkins
LSS
Peter Parker
Parker Peter
CDDs
Some downward and upward dogs and some other goodness.

Now that was behind us we were ready for the main course.

The bus loop has three light poles about 30 yerds apart.

Rd 1 – 10 burpees, bear crawl to the light, 15 jump squats, crab walk, 20 merkins
Rd 2 – 10 burpees, lunge walk, 15 jumping lunges per leg, bear crawl, 20 CDDs
Rd 3 – 10 burpees, sumo walk, 15 LSS, bunny hop, 20 dips
Rd 4 – 10 burpees, single r leg hop, 15 calf raises, single l leg hop, 20 arm circles

Mosey to front of SFMS

Rd 1 clock merkins on the curb at 12, 3, 6, and 9 10 merkins each position
4 corner box jumps going clockwise x 15
4 corner box jumps going counter clockwise x 15

Rd 2 clock merkins on the curb at 12, 3, 6, and 9 10 merkins each position
15 single r leg hops over the line
15 single l leg hops over the line

Mosey to the backside of SFMS
Wall sits while each pax counted to 10
15 wall tar jai

Indian run all the way back to COT.

5 MOM with Pax pick your poison.

COT.

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Seis Rancheros

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A motivated group of 6 men met at The Ranch for another test of their strength and endurance.  Here is what they did:

The Thang:

Warm up with walking knee pulls, ankle pulls, toy soldiers, and lunge twists.  Take a short mosey and circle up for COP:

All in cadence:

SSH x 30, potato pickers x 10, merkin x 10, IW x 20, mountain climber x 30/hold/6”/regular/6”/low plank/regular.  LBC x 25

Take a short mosey and stop at the entrance to the drop off circle at the elementary school entrance.

ST400 – (5 rounds, 4 exercises/round, 20 reps/exercise, run a lap in between).  Today, we cut it to ST350

Round 1:  Merkins, Freddie Mercs, squats, burpees, run a lap

Round 2:  Diamonds, flutters, alternating lunges, burpees, run a lap

Round 3:  Wide arms, hello dolly’s, sumo squats, burpees, run a lap

Round 4:  Staggered merkins (L/R), Rosalita’s, monkey humpers, burpees, run a lap

Round 5:  Dips, pretzel crunch – stop here.  We ran out of time.

Take one last Indian run around the loop and head back to the starting point.

End with the body destroyer ( lay on your back, breathe deeply, stare at the sky, and don’t talk)

COT

This is a pretty tough workout and everyone got after it today.    The 20 burpees followed immediately by the run kept the heart rate up quite well.   Sasquatch ran at  a swift pace around the loop this morning.  I left a sweat stain on the asphalt during the warm-up and Change Order’s shirt came off after round one.  Yes, it was humid.   Not a lot of mumble chatter today, but Sasquatch did manage some slightly sarcastic encouragement to the group during round 3 or 4 of the burpees.   We were running a bit short on time so we avoided the 5th round of burpees.  We may or may have had time.  Or, perhaps the Q was gassed after round 4 and could not call out another round of 20 burpees (maybe).     In any event, it was a great day at the Ranch and a privilege as always to lead such a fine group of men.

Announcements/Prayers/Praises

Read your newsletter!  Need a Q for Guidance (CAH on May 26), also need Q’s for F3 Dads in June (Change Order)

Continued prayers for Badger and his family and for the Jennings family

Praises for Sasquatch’s sister graduating from college.  Safe travels for the Sasquatch and Wegmans to NY this weekend.

 

 

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Cone heads

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First I want to thank Jiffy for the opportunity to lead the PAX today. 15 guys showed up and this was the biggest group that I had Q’ed for . I spent an hour or so the night before reading up on the exercise database found in the F3 website. The first exercise I introduced was the kimono dragon. It’s best described as a Peter Parker but you actually move forward. Note: very hard to execute backwards. This new move was implemented in the warmup.

Then we moseyed to soccer field for the main event. We started on the goal line and I had placed cones 10 yards out .First we did DMC. It’s a duck walk, merkins, and a bear crawl. Duck walk to the first cone, 5 merkins, and bear crawl back. Duck walk to the next cone(20 yards) and do 10 merkins and bear crawl back with increasing by 5 merkins every cone until we reached 50 yards.

The next thing we did was lunge walked to the first cone and did 10 squats and lunge walked back and progressed through each cone adding 10 squats each time. This was painful. A total of 150 squats and 300 yards of squats .

Next we paired up and partner 1 ran to the first cone, did 5 merkins and ran back. Meanwhile partner 2 is doing flutters . Each partner ran to each cone and did 5 pushups and ran back .

6 minutes of Mary and then the end .I looked up a new ab exercise called Dr . W .I still don’t fully understand what that is so you should go look it up .

Thanks agaun!

Wegmans

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No Saggy Middles @ The Ranch

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PAX: Wegmans, Cable Guy, Senator Tressel, Decibel, Jiffy, Geronimo, Funhouse, Cake Boss

16 PAX showed up to The Ranch on a relatively chilly morning. 7 joined Dark Helmet for a BEYOND workout… the remaining fools joined me (Sasquatch) for a lesson on core… and it was hard. -Hardcore- It is in my nature to look around and see how people move, and oftentimes, it’s sloppy- too many SAGGY MIDDLES or rears to the sky. Focus was to perform several of the exercises we do day-to-day at bootcamps (i.e. peter parker, plank jacks, etc *see below) and to do them with GOOD FORM. Maintain a flat lower back that is aligned with your upper spine and buttocks. Think about pulling your navel up in towards your spine. Any plank-type exercises (including Merkins) should be performed with your hands aligned directly below your shoulders for optimal stability… any other position will compromise the shoulder joints and take away from CORE strengthening. No SAGGY MIDDLES!

The Thang

Front Plank during long disclaimer

Dynamic Warm-up on the Field
Knees to chest / High knees
Heel to butt / Butt kickers
side shuffle / side shuffle other way
Inch worm / bear crawl

Mosey to Playground Parking Lot

Circle-up
Imperial Squats
Static Lunge with Moroccan Night Club
upward dog/downward dog
Mountain climbers
Peter Parker
Parker Peter
Elbow Plank Jacks

Mosey to Playground and Partner-up
Sit-ups holding feet x20 and switch
Toes to bar x10 (Partner 1) and supermans x10 (Partner 2) then switch
REPEAT x3

Mosey to front of school
Bench Jumps x10 (Partner 1) and Curb Burpees x5 (Partner 2) switch
Wheelbarrow ~30 yards and then switch
REPEAT x3

Mosey to COT and MARY

Announcement/Prayers
Honey Badger officially opens Monday at 5AM NAFO.
RPG on Fridays at 5AM Food Lion Parking Lot for some Broga and Run is a thing.
Prayers for family and friends suffering with cancer.
Attend CAH workouts, especially since new kids are showing up.
Still need volunteers for Strawberry festival booth.
Witbeck Golf Classic begins tomorrow but you have until April 22nd to sign up to join the league and play round 1. Message Wegmans on the Twitter machine for more information.

Thank you, Jiffy, for the opportunity to Q at the Ranch. Thank you, Dark Helmet, for not stealing my thunder and having everyone go BEYOND. Good lesson from him. Check out his Backblast when you get a chance.

–

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Final Prespect Q at the Ranch

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 Name-O-Rama.  11127355-7E37-4F2A-9B9E-F19861396FC7

YHC thanks Jiffy for the opportunity of one last Q as a Prespect and for the PAX who attended.

Not many posts to the Ranch from my end, but I had been eyeing up the facilities for weeks during 2.0’s soccer practice. Made good use of the the soccer fields and all the trees and light poles.

Arrived early,  fortunately enough lighting in the gloom for the planned weinke, set up 3 cones in front of one soccer goal approx. 10, 15 and 20 yards away and placed the 43 lb sandbag near the opposite goal.

Arrivals, no FNG’s, and a really ‘succint’ disclaimer. I believe we may have had one late arrival.

Moseyed around the parking for 2 laps with high knees, butt kickers, toys soldiers and shuffling. Jogged to far end of the further soccer field for SSH, merkins, flutters, GoofBalls, MNC’s. The real fun began with stage 1:

Stage One. Making use of 27 crepe myrtles lined up, we did bear crawls for one tree with 5 merkins, lunge walk one tree with 5 squats and continuing with adding 1 more tree until the end. Wow, this was tougher on the thighs than expected.  The RETURN lap was jog 3 trees, bear crawl 1, sumo walk 1 until the end. The first lap started near the trees, but by the second lap we were spread out across the soccer field.

Stage Two, Act One. Soccer field. Partner up, one PAX ran the length of the field and kicked a soccer ball into the goal from the closer 1st cone, the other PAX carried the sand bag overhead until handing off to the kicker for the return run. A missed shot meant running a lot further to track it down and replace it at the first cone for the next kicker/group.  MEANWHILE, the other PAX cycled through 5 LBC’s, 5 Flutters, 5 American Hammers. This continued until all 5 partner duo’s had gone.

Act Two and Three had the kickers move back 5 yards, while PAX cycled through…Act Two: 5 bombjacks, 5 Jump Squats, 5 Calf Raises. Act Three, 5 yards further back cycling through 5 Donkey Kicks, 5 left side crunches, 5 right side crunches.

YHC along with about 5 other PAX missed shots on goal.

We finished with 2 laps around the fields using the light poles. 3 burpees at every pole which ended up amounting to 45 burpees. For good measure, we finished 4 more burpees in COT to reach the magical “49” for the workout.

The brief message of the workout was to “Be Inspired, Become Inspiring.” Observe our PAX and follow their lead. We have PAX with different personalities and different involvements to inspire us to become better from the fitness side, to the community/philanthropy efforts, to the betterment of ourselves from the faith and spirituality side.

Prayers to sick or injured family members and friends. ChickenHawk noted to make use of the Easter holiday season to seek out, learn and improve yourself in your faith. Use the extra time to connect with family members.  G-Fit and CAH every Saturday needs PAX involvement, ESPECIALLY during Easter when regular PAX may not be able to post. HELP IF YOU CAN!

3 days to 50 for me, but my first RESPECT post will probably be with the Lehigh Valley PAX back in PA. Looking forward to first Respect post back in the Fort.

Aye! Bolt

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iFLIJfBSEK8BLAEPZWWh-VTD8sYuv0-H/view?usp=sharing

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It was a Dark and Drizzly Morning…

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It was a dark and stormy morning in the gloom… well actually it was dark and rather drizzly more than anything, but apparently the forecast rain was enough to keep many a PAX in the fart sack.  Wegmans and Senator Tressel manned up and were ready to go at 5:15

 

Warm-up consisted of a lap in the car rider loop with some butt kickers, high knees and toy soldiers.  we then triangled up for 20 SSH, 20 Moroccan Nightclub, 12 Imperial Walker and 12 Hill Billy Walker

 

Warm-up completed we mosey over to the front of the middle school for some cover just in case it actually does rain.

 

Once there the action consisted of 4 sets of

40 double count toe taps on the curb

20 derkins from the bench

20 squats

40 LBC’s

Lap around the middle school car loop

 

Once this was completed we mosey back to the front of the elementary school to find some decent wall space and finished up the fun with

1 minute wall sit

20 Freddie Mercury (in cadence)

20 Flutter (in cadence)

Wall Plank Series (Flat, 45, BTW) – 10 count each

20 Dying Cockroach (in cadence)

20 Hello Dolly (in cadence)

Airborne’s Hip Destroyer

 

COT and Prayer

 

Thanks for the opportunity to lead, its always fun to Q and while large groups are great it is refreshing occasionally to have a small group.  We were able to chatter a bit and get to know each other much better which is always fun.

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BAM!

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Conditions were near perfect this morning in The Fort. 65 degrees, clear skies, nice breeze meant that we have optimal weather for bettering ourselves. We started off with a quick disclaimer, set up the BAM in the workout (Burpees, American Hammers(IC), and Merkins (SC). We started with a 5-10-15 and each time BAM was called incremented by 1…6-12-18 and so on.

We started off and immediately Chicken Hawk calls ‘BAM’. I think he must have been testing the system out, it worked 10 steps into the mosey, we did the 5-10-15 and proceeded with the mosey to the bus loop.

Did some dynamic stretching, toy soldiers, butt kickers, high knees and then took another mosey past the playground to the back parking lot.

Circled up for PAX led warmup, SSH, LBCs, Windmills, CDDs, Peter Parkers, and Parker Peters. Now that we were all warmed up and a few more BAMs called out, we did some leg work.

Single leg hops – R for 75 yards
Single leg hops – L for 75 yards
Ski jumps at an angle for 75 yards
BAM!! 7-14-21
Lunge
Backward lunge

Mosied to back wall.

BAM! 8-16-24
Aussie Mountain Climbers – 15 degree, 10 count, 45 degree, 10 count, BTTW 10 count, 45 degree 10 count, 15 degree 10 count.
BAM! – 9-18-27
WALL Sits – 10 count each PAX
Wall Tar Jai – 10 count each PAX

That was a winner!

Mosied to SMS loop.

Last BAM! was spread out over the loop performing one of the exercises at each corner.

Proceeded to COT with some SSH in the middle for a rest.

At COT had time for 1 minute of Freddies and we were done!!

Thanks to all for pushing each other and to Jiffy for having YHC as Q.

Great work today.

COT.

Prayers to those families affected by tragedy in Florida, but also those who are dealing with the lead up to those flash points across the country.

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Running the Lights with Classic Rock

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I haven’t Q’d at the Ranch in quite a while so I thought it would be fun to use the field and light poles in a circuit training of sorts.  It is always a decent change in pace when I can carry around a phone and speaker to add a little life to the party.

Started with a mosey to the back of the school and began with a warm-up of SSH, Moroccan Night Clubs, Imperial Walkers, Hillbilly Walkers and Windmills. We then mosey back to the front light poles along the field.  There are 8 poles so I planned on 2 exercises per pole 50 seconds on and 10 second rest with 10 seconds after them to travel to the next pole.  I hoped to make 2 circuits of the field.  It all hit the fan right off the bat when I actually started on a light pole from the parking lot not the field.  Thankfully in my incredibly observant nature I realized this 9 light poles later and since I’m easily adaptable I was able to handle this wrinkle of an extra pole like the champion I am… The action went like this

-Merkins

-Squats

MOVE

LBS’c

Donkey Kicks

MOVE

-Dips

-Mountain Climbers

MOVE

-Side Straddle Hops

-Nolan Ryan

MOVE

-Box Cutter

-Plank Jack

MOVE

-Lunges

-Peter Parker Merkins

MOVE

-Dry Docks

-Bobby Hurley

MOVE

-American Hammers

-High Knees

Confusion about how an extra pole appeared, Then just MOVE anyway

 

After 2 cycles we mosey to the lot for COT, announcements and prayer.  Always and excellent AO and appreciate the opportunity.

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