Category: The Swamp

The New Name of the Swamp is …

Leave a comment

Today was the launch of the Swamp at a new location. The new name will be revealed at the end so you can skip down or search Slack.
10 men showed up, will a sneaky snowman arriving after warm-ups. Slow mosey to the church parking lot for COP. Standard exercises (SSH, Imperial Walkers, Windmills, Plank Stretches. Next we broke into groups of three, alternating sprints by each pax to get our heart rates up. Ten minutes, with a decrease in distance making the rest period less as we progressed through this exercise.
Next, we moseyed to the daycare parking lot for two rounds of Ab exercises (LBCs, Flutters). No rest, continued on our journey to the fountain. Half Pike routine, 10 hand release merkins at the fire station, down the hill to the fountain, 1 burpee and +1 after every pass, top of the other hill, 10 lunges. Rinse and Repeat. Most pax got in 5 to 6 rounds.
Back to COT.
Great job everyone. Its good to see guys out this morning especially with it being hot and muggy.
New AO name: Stockade

TClap |
0

The Final Episode

Leave a comment

3 showed up for the Final Episode of The Swamp.

We warmed up in standard fashion with:

15 SSH
10 MNC

Mosey to CVS Parking Lot.
15 Seal Jacks
10 Arm circles forward
10 Arm circles backward
5 Burpees OYO

Mosey to Target

We did 10 HR merkins and 10 4-ct flutters at every other ball. We did 4 rounds taking a lap around Walker Branch Road each time. We also reduced the reps at each ball by 2 each lap.

Once complete we moseyed over to the fountain. We completed 10 Inclined merkins, 10 decline merkins, and 10 dips with a lap around the traffic circle. Repeated 3 times then headed to COT.

With 3 minutes to go we did a brief EMOM 5 burpees and 15 LBCs.

COT: Thanked the PAX for coming out for the sendoff. Looking forward to the next chapter as the Swamp comes to a close.

See you all Next week at the Harris Teeter 160/Gold Hill Rd. for the launch of (REDACTED)

SYITG

THE THANG:
MARY:
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
COT:

TClap |
0

Examining Parking Lots

Leave a comment

WARMUP:
7 PAX did the hard thing on this humid Friday morning and arrived at the Swamp ready to work. 1 new face pulled in with a huge smile on his face.

Disclaimer was given for new PAX and we moseyed to Home Depot. Fairly standard warm up of:
25 SSH IC
10 Tappy Taps IC
15 LSS IC
15 MNC IC

Moseyed back behind Home Depot toward Target. Slowed for some Toy Soldiers, butt kickers and high knees, then moseyed to Target parking lot.

THE THANG:
Started with Apple Turnovers all the way across the Target parking lot. Bear Crawl to parking spot center line, complete 3 merkins, and continue with crab walk. 3 merkins and flip back over. Finished the last lane with 10 merkins.

This up close and personal time spent with the parking lot had some pondering why people clean out their cars in parking lots and leave the trash.

Quick discussion on the G3L and specifically the Get Right.

Moseyed to the Fountains. PAX partnered up and completed a DORA with one PAX running around the round-a-bout and back while the other PAX completed:
100 box jumps
200 dips
300 step ups

MARY:
Made it back in time for flutters IC and American Hammers IC.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
A lot of announcements this morning: MISOGI, Pints & Padres, Tec Dowling golf tourney.

COT:
Prayers for PAX in attendance, praise for leaders in our community. Welcome Hemorrhage!

TClap |
0

Swampy At The Swamp

Leave a comment

WARMUP:  We did a typical Circle Of Pain.
THE THANG: 10 of each run a lap after each set

Cat 1 – Merkins
Cat 2 – Merkins, Squats
Cat 3 – Merkins, Squats, LBCs
Cat 4 – Merkins, Squats, LBCs, Lunges
Cat 5 – Merkins, Squats, LBCs, Lunges, Diamond Merkins

Two rounds with a stretching break in between rounds.

MARY: Each pax led an exercise then we stretched some and called it a day.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Bourbon, BBQ and trash pickup
COT: Prayers for Spectre’s M and Airewolf and my brother.

TClap |
0

Danger Zone, B.O.M.B.S, ABC’s

Leave a comment

WARMUP:
10 – Side Straddle Hops
10 – Windmill
10 – Moroccan Night Club
10 – Cherry Pickers
10 – Merkins

While moseying to The Circle Fountain…

Danger Zone
PAX runs while Danger Zone by Kenny Loggins plays in the background. Every time the words “Danger Zone” are heard PAX does single squat then resumes running. End result is 3 and a half minutes of run with sporadic squats.

THE THANG:
B.O.M.B.S.
Similar to Dora 1-2-3 but more exercises. Partner up. Pax 1 does exercise while Pax 2 runs to the other end of the end of the sidewalk and back. Swap out and continue the exercise until each amount of reps are complete. The exercises and reps are: 50- Burpees / 100- Overhead Claps / 150- Merkins / 200- Big Boy Sit-ups / 250- Squats.

Short message about pushing through the trials in your life. It’s only making you stronger to get through those tough times.

“Your life will be enlarged in proportion to the amount of iron you have endured, for it is in the shadows of your life that you will find the actual fulfillment of your dreams of glory. So do not complain about the shadows of darkness —in reality, they are better than your dreams could ever be. Do not say that the darkness of the prison has shackled you, for your shackles are wings —wings of flight into the heart and soul of humanity. And the gate of your prison is the gate into the heart of the universe. God has enlarged you through the suffering of sorrow’s chain.”
~GEORGE MATHESON

Mosey back to Parking lot

3 minute EMOM
10 Burpees
20 Merkins
30 Squats

MARY:
Alphabet (or ABCs)
On your 6 – feet elevated like 6-inch hold – spell out the alphabet with your feet. All capital letters preferred.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Royale last Q at The Abyss – 5/18/22
DaVinci Art Raffle
New AO – The Yard starts tomorrow, Grassy Knoll on Q
COT:
Anxiety and Prayers for Families

TClap |
0

90’s Pirates and the Killer B’s

Leave a comment

WARMUP: Mosey around the parking lot until we circled up by the Petsmart

3 Burpees
10 HR Merkins
18 SSH IC
24 Seal Jacks IC
25 Mountain Climbers IC
Mosey back to Best Buy

THE THANG:
This was a derivation of the Killer B’s workout from the Iron Pax Challenge.

Starting at the stop sign the workout consisted of the following:
10 yard broad jump
10 Burpees
10 yard broad jump
20 Bobby Hurleys
10 yard broad jump
30 Big Boy Sit-ups
Bearcrawl back to the stop sign
4 rounds.

Tesla killed it and we all picked up
The 6 together. With a few minutes left we moseyed across the parking lot for a 6 minute EMOM
10 HR Merkins
15 LBCS
15 2ct Flutters
(Last minute we did 10 BBS and 30 Hello Dolly’s)

Ran to flag for 21 Tempo Merkins and 10 LBCS which got us to 6:00.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Invergence tomorrow.
COT:Prayers for anxiety and families.

Just for context the Pirates of the early 90’s featured Barry Bonds and Bobby Bonilla… otherwise known as the Killer B’s. Reminiscing about this on Wednesday with Anchorman made me nostalgic…So of course it inspired me to incorporate it into a workout. 😁

Thanks to all who came out this morning!

TClap |
0

All Good at The Swamp

Leave a comment

WARMUP:
Mosey to Fuji
SSH, Imperial Walker, Hillbilly, Mtn Climbers
Mosey to Near Death Island
One pax runs around the island while other pax exercise — Squats, Merkins, Parker Peters, Moroccan Night Clubs, Arm circles forward & backward

THE THANG:
Mosey to the fountain
20 Step Ups
20 Dips
10 Box Jumps
20 Derkins
Mosey to side of Best Buy
Balls to the Wall followed by People’s Chair (rinse & repeat)
Mosey to back end of Best Buy lot
10 Monkey Humpers
20 Parker Peters
30 Lunges
40 Shoulder Taps
50 Squats
Pax completed 3 rounds of the above with one lap in between
Mary — Flutters, Dollies, Backscratchers, Box cutters, Superman
Mosey home
10 Burpees OYO

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Spectre VQ next week!
AKA convergence at WEP 4/30
Invergence on Shield Locks at WEP 4/30
Q School coming in May

COT:
After several days of intense upper body beatdowns at AKA this week, on this Good Friday YHC concentrated on legs & core along with a message about the GOOD that is all around us and inside of us at all times. It’s easy to get sucked into the negative in our media, our workplace, our schools, our families and friends. Even when I block out media, change jobs and reel in my interactions with others, the negative INSIDE ME can still take charge and become my focus. It takes strong and intentional commitment to focus on the GOOD. The GOOD is just as much around us as the negative, and the GOOD even surpasses everything else! Let’s make it our mission to focus on the abundance of GOOD all around us.

Among the GOOD this morning was FNG/Hot Wheels, EH’d by Tesla and rising out of bed at his home in Mooresville! Not only did HW drive an hour to post at The Swamp, he engaged like a veteran pax taking his turn counting exercises, sharing about his priorities (Faith, Family, Friends) and his how he surrounds himself with people focused on values and character. In talking about the GOOD in his life experience he highly recommended Love’s as the best truck stop food on the interstate!! Sorry Cake Boss, no Bucee’s mention.

Airwolf’s cadence count melody suggest some real talent hiding in those vocal chords. Hey, Band Camp, we might have a Barbershop quartet or Acapella group Q here!?!?!

Slapshot continues to Make The Swamp Great Again! Thanks for your leadership and the invite to lead in the Gloom!

Last, among the NOT SO GOOD things today was YHC’s poor safety skills. I made the decision to wear the florescent vest even though the parking lots are lit to ensure we could be seen. But that’s not even half the battle — strong safety also requires SEEING and good judgment. Near Death Island got it’s name because of my call to mosey to the traffic island across from Fuji then my lead of the pax into the street without looking left. Yes, I missed an incoming car with high speed destined to take out the back of the pack. Fortunately, they looked and had the presence of mind to stop. The driver stopped too and waved them across. A teaching moment for sure. Stay safe men!

TClap |
0

The Peacemaker

Leave a comment

WARMUP:

Very quick demo of what was coming. 12 exercises pulled from the intro dance to Peacemaker.
The board:

Oh, and everyone grab a 4.5lb paver for each hand. They’re brand new so the gloves are to keep your skin from being sliced open.

THE THANG:

HIIT workouts with all 12 exercises. Everyone, just use the beat!
1. Squat lat pull w/alt leg raise
2. Dumbell scarecrow
3. Lat pulls w/alt high knees
4. Al Gore tricep extensions. Arms out, elbows turned UP
5. Apollo Ono with shrug/lat pull/whatever felt right
6. Overhead press (with optional pelvic thrust)
7. Lunges with full arm motion
8. Side arm lat raises
9. Hillbilly walker
10. Scarecrow again
11. Slow, full arm circles with one arm, holding the other out. Guitar hero style
12. overhead press to tricep extesion and back

We did the above for:
1. 90 seconds on, 20 seconds rest
2. Take a break with a long lap around the parking lot
3. 30 seconds on, 12 seconds rest
4. Two of each, straight down the line, try not to mess up or burpees
5. Everyone did fine, so 10 burpees as a reward
6. Two each one more time, because the ruckers needed to know what they were missing

Spotify playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6k0Pd1cAC3pmdvO7NstFkq?si=75f40460c85245c

Video of our last two minutes is here (as caught by the TeslaCam):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-Im8n1SVEW-_TXBNIcm-EoHATl797135/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-CcQb4RhCVMlU7UEx7gyL1tt1dlIvrO6/view?usp=sharing

ANNOUNCEMENTS

https://photos.app.goo.gl/SByJGmeayUfkfNab7
Funhouse talking about what AKA is all about
Tinsel talks about the Manion WOD at Chupacabra on 4/29
YHC letting everyone know that we can soon start posting BBs in Slack, and to update your names or you won’t get tagged

COT:

Talked about F3 being open to all men. While YHC is reasonably certain that most of the men there was some flavor of christian, I asked men to bow their heads for a moment of murmuring silence. When complete I also said I don’t want to ignore things that are difficult in each others lives. grab the man next to you if you need to talk about something. This is CoT, and we trust.

NMM:

I’d been thinking about this workout for weeks, basically the first time I saw the intro credits for Peacemaker, I knew I had to bring this to an AO near me. And it just so happened that I had the Swamp on AKA, so I watched that credit sequence over and over until I had a solid, awful, dumb, stupid workout ready to share with whatever AKA groupies were brave enough to drive out to Rivergate.
I knew it was going to make guys feel dumb, stupid, perhaps even embarrassed, but the smiles went on for miles, and the shoulders have been successfully melted. Mublechatter was epic, everyone had a great time, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to have brought a fun, shoulder smoking Friday morning to The Fort. Thanks for putting me on the calendar, Slapshot!
Peacemaker intro:

TClap |
1

Gaming at the Swamp

Leave a comment

When I arrived this morning to check the road conditions around the AO, Grass Knoll and Slapshot had already started their prework activities.  It’s always great to see guys pushing themselves to get better. Once 38 Special arrived, we began the workout with a jog to the far side of Home Depot.  Warm up exercises:  SSHs x20, Imperial Walkers x15, Windmills x10.

We continued our journey to the front of Kohls.  We started with a lunge walk to the next cross walk.  At the crosswalk, we did 15 merkins and 10 squats.  We continued forward with butt kickers and toy soldiers stopping at each crosswalk for merkins and squats.

Next, we moseyed to the fountain.  Two guys ran a half lap around the parking lot while the other two men did the below exercises.  The groups flip flopped after the lap.

Exercises:

Dips

Derkins

Step-ups

Burpees

On our way back to COT, we did the sidewalk shuffle (sideways bear crawl) along the store fronts. We arrived at COT a couple minutes early for some LBCs and burpees.

During the workout, I shared a story about my childhood.  I enjoyed going to the arcade and playing videos games.  Back in the day, the ongoing joke was “Is that a roll of quarters in your pocket or are you happy to see me?”  We may need to explain this joke to some of the younger guys.  I wanted to buy an Atari but my parents were not willing to spend the money to buy one.  I was able to find a few jobs like shoveling snow and coal around the neighborhood.  Each week I would accumulate a little more money until I finally had enough money to pay for the gaming system. I felt proud when I made my big purchase.

The story is similar to your physical health.  It takes time to become stronger, run faster and longer.  Consistently attending workouts each day and even adding pre-workout activities will help improve your physical health.  “Each day” was emphasized since I am a firm believer that you should train your body to recover from a workout within a 24 hour period.  There are obvious exceptions like running races and participating in ruck events.

If you are struggling to get on track, please reach out to me.  We’ll put a plan together.

Fishstix

TClap |
2

The Swamp: reps, laps, and a forgotten message

Leave a comment

7 PAX – 1 FNG
Full disclaimer was read (at least the high points)

Little Mosey
Some dynamic warmups
Some in-cadence warmups
-IW
-HW
Little Mosey
Some more dynamic warmups

Thang w/ Laps around Target
25 burpees – in cadence
lap
50 merkins – stopped at 25 to let the PAX gather their resolve
lap
75 lunges
lap
100 monkey humpers – in cadence
lap
75 lunges
“lap” – modified with a mosey back towards COT
50 merkins – no stopping
mosey back towards COT
– Airwolf wanted to sprint it back in. YHC obliged
25 burpees – 10 EMOM for 2.5 minutes
40 seconds of flutters in cadence to hit 0600

NMM:

Workout stolen from a Hello Kitty tweet. As the Russian master, Igor Stravinsky said: “good composers borrow, great composers steal.”

I blame Badlands and Tesla for pushing the pace. So much push that I forgot the message I’d planned on how Jesus called Peter to be a “fisher of men,” but told another follower to “go home.” (Luke 8) It’s alright we don’t all get the same callings.

Guess I’ll save it for another Q!

Welcome FNG: Spector

—
Band Camp dismissed

TClap |
1