8 HIMs reported to Varsity this morning, undeterred by the threat of cold weather and rain. We met at 0515 at the front entry awning of Nation Ford High School and promptly shared the requisite disclaimer, followed by a warmup.
We did some SSHs and then a bunch of planks, honey-mooners, downward dogs, and shoulder taps, and then I explained the game.
I decided to revise my deck of pain workout from The Armory to be used at Varsity, and I thought it worked out great.
We each took turns picking cards from the deck to determine what exercise and number of reps we would do…
Number of reps was determined by the face value of the card drawn, 2-13.
Spades = Jump Squats
Diamonds = Bench Dips
Clubs = Peter Parkers
Hearts = Derkins
Aces = 10 Burpees
Jokers = 100 SSH
We made it through the whole deck with about 7 minutes to spare, so you guessed it… Mary.
Each of us got a turn to pick an ab exercise, and we finished right at 0600 in time for COT.
Count-o-rama, Name-o-rama, and ended with prayers and praises.
Kelbasa shared a story with the group about a therapy patient he met who was a Green Beret in Korea and Vietnam who had a good attitude and kept moving even through a Covid diagnosis.
Prayers for those affected by Corona, and other needs. Many of us are battling mental and emotional demons, every day. Some are open about it, some have a harder time sharing our struggles. Never forget that sometimes we are the light or the rock for others around us, even if we don’t realize it. Post for eachother!
Thanks Splinter for the opportunity to lead this morning, I wouldn’t rather have shared this cold and gloomy morning with anyone else!
What better way to start the new year than with your brothers in the rainy gloom? Well, 4 at Varsity did just that.
Today was really special for several reasons.
It’s F3’s 10 Year Anniversary. I wonder if DREDD and the other Redwoods had any idea what this would turn into? In Honor of that, we did the same workout they did on 1/1/2011.
First we started with a little mosey where we talked about who was up the latest and Harry Caray’s smart plan to go to bed, take a nap and then wake back up for the ball drop with his M and 2.0’s. I’ll have to remember that for next year 
Since it’s 2021, our warm-up consisted of 21 reps of SSH, Marocain Night Clubs, Imperial Walkers, and 7 windmills (because we do them really slowly and I couldn’t cadence count 21 windmills).
Then it was a lap around the track and into the Thang.
Run a lap.
10 merkins, diamonds, and wide-arm merkins. Run a lap.
Shield fell so far behind that we went back to pick up him. He said he had to stop and tie his shoe to which we all said was a “likely excuse”.
10 knee up dollys (think bring your knees to your chest, back out, apart and back together is 1), Freddie Mercury’s and LBC’s. Run a lap.
10 Side Straddle Hops, squat thrusters, and mountain climbers. Run a lap.
Since it rained most of the night and was drizzling most of the morning up to this point, we decided that instead of running up and down the bleachers that were slick to do Jacob’s Ladder, we ran over to the hill by the pull-up bars. We got an extra burpee in b/c YHC forgot that you have to run to the top first before doing the burpee. The extra burpee was my NY gift to the group.
Since that only took about 25 minutes, I had to fill some time, but since we were at the pull-up bars, I figured why not.
21 pull-ups followed by 21 squats x2 rounds.
Then it was time to play with Cindy. 10 counts of bent-over rows (each arm), overhead press, goblet squats, curls, and KB swings. 2 rounds.
We finished COT with a discussion of our One Word from last year and this year.
On a personal note, these HIM’s are my SheildLock and were my quarantine workout partners. I would be in a very different place (and not for the better) if it had not been for these men who I have learned so much from. I hope I have impacted their lives as much as they have mine. Here’s to 2021!
Cheers!