Shovel Flag Handoff at The Hive

Double 5 (10) PAX gathered at the hive for a Shovel Flag handoff!

After a quick disclaimer, YHC took the helm with a short mosey around the parking lot.

COP – Warmup:
Side Straddle Hop (SSH)
Imperial Walkers
Hillbilly Walkers
SSH
Mountain Climbers
Peter Parkers
SSH
Merkins
Down dog – Up dog

Knowing I had limited time, I moved to a thang that doesn’t have to be complex to be difficult and doesn’t need much instruction:

20 KB Swings
Run the length of the parking lot
We repeated that about 3xs
40 KB Swings (to get to 100)
Solo Tesh to a 10 count x3 on each arm

Plank up – NMM:
Ego….My ego gets in the way in many aspects of my life. I enjoy being a Site-Q; it feeds my ego. But part of leadership is training someone else to take over and being willing to step out of the way. It helps to give the shovel flag away to a real HIM. I’m excited Uhaul and for the future of #TheHive. It is an honor to have carried the flag!

-Band Camp

Since Band Camp was already handing over the keys to The Hive party bus he figured he might as well split the bill on the workout as well…
The PAX began by strolling over to the dance floor while your’s truly queued up today’s play list… a veritable smorgasbord of both kinds of workout music, Country and Western, with a serious Oklahoma flavor…
1. Against the Grain – Garth Brooks
2. Standing Outside the Fire – Garth Brooks
3. Mr. Right – Garth Brooks (anyone sensing a pattern? Fish Sticks did…)
4. Much Too Young (To Feel this Damn Old) – Garth Brooks
5. Two of a Kind, Working on a Full House – Garth Brooks
6. Ain’t Goin’ Down (‘Til the Sun Comes Up) – Garth Brooks
7. It’s Midnight Cinderella – Garth Brooks
8. Everybody Hurts – R.E.M. (hey, a tradition is a tradition)These amazing tunes were the backdrop for some serious UHaul lamination potpourri from previous Q’s… As always, we partnered up, even in the absence of Partner Work, and one HIM accelerated and worked the count while the other just accelerated…
1. Hammer Curls x25 while the partner did Shoulder Taps
2. Standing Shoulder Press x20 while the partner said Hello to Dolly or Cut Boxes
3. Upright Rows x20 while the partner burned through some Low Slow Squats
4. Laying Chest Press x25 while the parter worked through Sumo Deadlifts (finishing with an upright row always makes it feel better)
5. Skull Crushers x25 while the partner felt déjà vu-ish while doing more Low Slow Squats
6. Kettle Bell Swings x20 while the partner felt déjà vu all over again while doing Air Dramas, which are really just Low Slow Squats with a Calf Raise at the end
7. Laying Press (amazingly similar to the Laying Chest Press) x20 while the partner got a fresh start with no Squats but American Hammers instead Upon finishing the substantive part of the workout PAX returned to COT for 3 minutes of ab work while listening to the dulcet tones of Michael Stipe and his colleagues from REM.

-Uhaul (4th Site-Q at the Hive)
 

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Snake Bite At Snake Pit

Five years ago my mom passed away after six months of hell, dealing with kidney failure and all that entails.  She had mental health issues, that meant she had to take some strong medicines that basically eventually killed her kidneys.  Ironically my mom retired as a kidney dialysis nurse.

So with today’s anniversary coming up, I thought it was a good opportunity to remember mom, and talk about mental health.  I shared some facts, and the facts decided our numbers for each exercises after COP.

Mom was a huge fan of Elvis and Ricky Nelson. Facts about the two artists:

Elvis – Born 1935
Elvis – Death at age 42
Elvis – 33 #1 singles
Ricky Nelson – Born 1940
Ricky Nelson – Death at age 45
Ricky Nelson – 14 top 10 singles

35 – KB swings
42 – goblet squats
33 – curls
40 – skull (Helmet) crushers (face for radio)
45 – flutters
14 – Turkish getups (pax favorite)

A few facts about my Mom’s life:

Mom – Born 1945  Death – 2014
Mom – Married 49 years to my father
Mom – 69 years old at death

49 – American hammers
14 – cleans

49 – merkins
69 – flutters  

Then we went on to some facts about suicide and mental health among men:

20 US veterans commit suicide daily.
77% of deaths in the US by suicide are male.
10% of men experience depression and anxiety.
Only 36% of psychological referrals are for men.

20 – Lawnmowers
77 – Rosa Litas
10 – Burpees
36 – LBCs

Finally some lighter facts, about Christmas and New Year’s Eve:

14 days till Christmas
The Twelve Days of Christmas starts on Christmas, not before.
The Twelve Days of Christmas ends 1/5/2020.
12/31 – In the Catholic faith, NYE is the Feast of Pope Sylvester.

I had the pax pick an exercise for the above numbers.  There was much rejoicing.

And we were done!

Thanks 3D for rearranging some schedules to allow me to Q today. Thanks to Bird Cage for all the whining.  Love you brother! Just payback for the Coors Light board of pain!

Brothers your presence today is testimony of what F3 can do.  Five years ago I found out about Mom’s passing about 2:00 am and didn’t make it back to bed that night.  So I posted at Peak 51 in Area 51 (South Charlotte) and was glad I did.  I needed the pax to be around me and pray for me and our family.

Your continued prayers for my father who is 78 and plugging right along are appreciated.  He definitely misses Mom.

Remember: Leave no man behind, but leave no man where you find him.

DT out!

 

 

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Snake Pit – Pick Your Poison

10 PA

Pick your poison. Name the exercise for the group while you run to said point and back.

Circle up. Now, do your own exercise 100 times. Look to your right, do theirs 50 times. Look left, do theirs 50 times.

Dora. Partner up.  – 100 deadlifts, 200 upright rows, 300 curls

COT

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Preparation at the Armory

19 PAX at The Armory

Workout is pretty clear from the outline I think.

We ran a bit in between the reps for the Thang…..at an allegedly fast pace….pretty sure it was slow on the Fish Sticks scale. Also we did 60 SSH….a real crowd pleaser. Alternating between Mtn Climbers and a Yoga sequence over and over and over was also “well” received.

I did use my handy cheat codes on my forearms to keep myself on task. It’s cheaper than buying one of those quarterback play-caller wrist bands like OldBay has, but decidedly less cool. Forgot what DD (Downdog) stood….But on a Mosey Shady reminded me; at which point, I was glad for his assistance and that we’d already done that sequence in the warmup.

Mary to close out:
– Windshield Wipers
– Flutters
– restarted the Thang from 5 reps and built up (crowd pleaser) got to 10
– Pigeon Lunge

COT

NMM:
Advent is about Preparation. How are we preparing ourselves daily to handle our Jester(s) beyond just fitness?

Thanks to JWOWW for the invitation to Q. Great to have such a group of HIM present.

Band Camp Dismissed

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Pastor of Pain makes a visit in the Armory

YHC was asked to Q at the Armory by a HIM named JWOW and I jumped at the request. I am use to Kettlebells and love Qing them. Today I brought with me a WO that was recently Q’d at my home AO #Cannonball by Survey Says! and I named it the Pastor of Pain after him.

We started with a basic COP with some SSH, Sun Gods and Cherry Pickers. We then headed to the cones I had set up but stopped briefly before them to get in some curls, Tri extensions, Bell Jax and big boys with a bell push over the knees. Nobody like the bell jax. We then eventually made it to where I had a few cones set up about 4 parking space’s apart from each other and began:

The Thang was basically a ladder:
Begin at Cone 1 with 10 Man Makers then Broad Jump with the Bell in hand to the second Cone and do 10 Snatches then Broad Jump to the third cone and do 10 Turkish Getups then overhead bell mosey all the way back to the first cone.
Start at Cone 1 again with 20 Wood Choppers Lunge to the second cone and do 20 overhead bell Presses Lunge to the third cone and do 20 Bell Swings then overhead bell mosey all the way back to the first cone.
Start at Cone 1 again with 30 Goblet Squats Bear Crawl to the second cone and do 30 Curls then Bear Crawl to the third cone and do 30 Bell Merkins then overhead bell carry mosey all the way back to the first cone.

Repeat the Thang again in Backwards order starting with the 30 reps segment.

We had a little time still left over so we knocked out some more Curls, Triceps extensions and big boys with a bell push over the knees. We left off the bell jax fortunately. They suck.

Got to meet a few new PAX and that is why I always like Qing and different AO’s. Found the HIM that bought my breakfast last Christmas (Spitz) and thanked him again.

Finished up with a COT (announcements, a few prayers -Apache and Cash and Kenyan-and praises and all thankful for another day).

Thanks for the opportunity to lead JWOW

I am enjoying this ride I am on and am not sure where it is taking me but all we can do is prepare and train.

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Snake Pit – Quarter Pounders w/ Cheese

After rescheduling this too many times due to conflicts, able to finally Q at this fine establishment. Special guest Partnerwork who’s kind of a big deal showed up. Gave the obligatory disclosure and we were off.

To get the blood flowing, began with a kettle bell mosey down to the lower entrance of the football field.

Warm up IN cadence:

  • SSH
  • IWs – little extra practice nice before to avoid repeating the epic failure from my Block Party Q
  • Cherry Pickers
  • Mtn. Climbers
  • Low Country Crab – found this one in the Exicon
  • Freddie Mercury

Quick recovery and Partnerwork opened the gates with the keys to the castle. Questions about a random tire placed by gate arose but was ignored.

The Thang

Line up at the goal line to explain the objective. Carry your kettlebell every 10 yards and execute number of corresponding reps to the end zone. Cyclops pointed out this is a reverse pyramid.

  • 10 – Man Makers
  • 20 – KB Swings
  • 30 – Gobblet Squats
  • 40 – Curls
  • 50 – Tricep Extensions
  • Repeat past the 50 to end zone

Checking time, needed to call a few audibles.

  • Grabbed some wall and proceeded with dirty hookups in  cadence x 30.
  • Jack Webbs (1×4 to 5×20)
  • Shoulder Taps x 30

Lined up on goal line for next field round.

Quarter Pounder

  • 10 KB swings to start, run to following yard markers, execute corresponding reps and run back backwards to start w/ 10 KB swings before running to next marker.
    • 25 yards – Merkins
    • 50 yards – American Hammers
    • 75 yards – Mountain Climbers
    • 100 yards – Calf Raises

With time running out, decided to head back to COT but with a bonus. Inspired by Geronimo’s Q at Laces In,  decided we should Indian run with our kettle bells with leader also carrying tire. It was met with enthusiasm.

Reached COT with a few minutes to spare, MARY Ab workouts in cadence until time.

Announcements: Thanksgiving convergence, Christmas party

Prayers/Praises: health, unspokens, upcoming travel

Thanks to Partnerwork for the field access , 3D for the opportunity, and the wisdom of other PAX  for this junior Q.

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Footloose – Lesson Learned

It was good to get out to footloose and see some familiar faces and meet some new PAX.  Since Rebel was on his entertainment tour for the week  so Fogerty and YHC stepped up to try to fill his shoes.  Did a brief intro and disclaimer and headed out for a brief mosey down to the COG lot.

I did a quick circle back to pick up the six while Fogerty kicked off the warm-up.  We started out with some SSH, IW, a few other things and then into… yep you guessed it a little broga.  That’s becoming a nice little change up move for me.  Upward/Downward dogs, pigeon stretches, warrior 1,2 etc.

Moved into the meat and potatoes with some 4 corners. Counted off into 4’s then went to our corner with a lunge walk between corners.  They looked like this:

Round 1 10 Reps

Corner1 Squats, Calf Raises, Monkey Humpers; Corner 2 Merkins, Mtn. Climbers, Shoulder Taps Corner 3 LBCs, Flutters, American Hammers Corner 4 SSH, Imperial Walkers, Overhead Claps then back to the center for burpees

Rinse repeat with sets of 15 and toy soldiers between corners.  Fogerty took the last 15 minutes for a quick DORA up the hill with some LBC’s, Squats and whatever else he was thinking.  Quick mosey back to COT for 5 min of Mary.

Mole Skin – Not much was shared during the workout, but I did have some time to reflect on the way home.  As I was turning off of Confederate street onto main street my impatience got the best of me and I wiped out a cross-walk sign with my truck.  I pulled over like any honest PAX would have and had a brief conversation with the Fort Mill City guy who witnessed it all.  We move the sign out of the way and assessed the damage to my truck (not good btw) and went on with our day.

Nobody was hurt or anyone else involved which was good.  Several emotions could have come up during the ride home but the one I landed on was disappointment.  In years past I probably would have threw a fit and tried to blame the City for putting the sign there.  Yes, Rebel we talked about this on our run, but I sincerely am owning the fault.  Had I been more patient and waited could it have been avoided?  Hard to say.  I’m looking at it as an opportunity to exercise control and use it as a teachable moment.  As discussed in Q source sometimes a failure comes with consequences.  This one is going to be a little $$$.  Moving on and looking forward.

Thanks for the opportunity to Lead and share.

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Venom

Observations:  7 #HIM put up a strong Q at the Snake Pit today.  It was a beautiful brisk morning. The Pax tried to keep up with Scrum the whole time.  He was flying! Uhual brought tunes to keep our minds off of the pain. 

The Thang:

WMs (15x), SSHs (20x), IWs (20x), Mountain Climbers (15x), Slow Sumo Squats (15x), LBCs (15x)

The Kettlebell Board of Pain:

  1. 100 Yard Dash
  2. Lunges (Double Count) 
  3. Big Boy Sit Ups
  4. Goblet Squats
  5. Man Makers
  6. Merkins (Split Count)
  7. American Hammers (Double Count)
  8. Kettlebell  Swings
  9. Flutter Kicks (Double Count)
  10. Curls (Double Count)
  11. Tricept Extensions
  12. Upright Rows 

Moleskin:

God has invested power in each of us. An example of God’s investment of power in man is when Peter healed the lame beggar in Acts 3. To make this miracle happen, Peter had to build a relationship with God, hear God’s calling and practice an act of obedience.

Do you know what power or spiritual gift God gave you? If so, what are you doing with your power?

We may not all be miracle makers. However, sometimes your obedience can help God’s victory. 

 

Peace,

Deacon

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Band Camp-Slash CO-Q

Slash on Q:

9 pax showed up on an unseasonably warm, late October morning at Block Party looking for some solid acceleration. After a quick disclaimer it was time to mozy, so mozy we did! Our destination was a bit farther than many probably anticipated, but they survived! We headed to Church of God (COG) just past the police station and apparently I though it was smart to circle up in a four way stop? After some brief confusion my CO-Q quickly spoke up and said :maybe we can use the lovely flat parking lot that’s 13 feet away? So we did and we began to delve into my portion of the workout. After 2 impressive and in perfect form side-straddle-hops we started the routine. I wanted all PAX to have a say in what we did so each man took their turn running up a hill and upon his return he would then call a workout and lead in cadence while the next man took his turn running. We were able to go one full round and then it was BC time! We did a bear crawl over to the staircase where our next HIM took over!

The thang:
Mozy to COG
2 side-straddle-hop

Merkins
flutters
Windmill
Moroccan
Freddie
6 count plank jacks
Monkey humpers
Baby arm circles (forward and reverse)
LBC’s

Band Camp on Q

COP

Front Scales and Back Scales (warrior 3)
https://www.crossfit.com/essentials/front-scales-progression
https://www.yogajournal.com/poses/warrior-iii-pose

Went around the group holding each pose for 20-30 count.
Challenging everyone’s balance

Thang:
2 30lb kettlebells were strategically pre-placed by my co-Q and I prior to the workout

Each PAX performed a kettlebell complex
– burpee over the bells
– two arm bent over row
– kettlebell clean
– squat and press (thurster)
– rinse and repeat

(probably easier to see than read: https://www.instagram.com/p/B2zrBV6FWgu/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet)

While one PAX performed the complex the rest of the PAX went up & down the large staircase, did two merkins, and then returned via the large staircase.

This took a while, and then we moseyed back.

COT

NMM:

The workout today challenged our balance and everyone shared the load. It would have been a TALL order to do all those hill runs individually or all that kettlebell complex for 20min straight. Sometimes when we’re off balance, we need help carrying the load. Along with that, we should also notice when those around of us are off balance and help them carry their load.

An honor to lead and share the Q with a HIM I respect so much.

-Band Camp dismissed.

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Runaway Recycling Truck at The Snake Pit

4 lonely PAX braved the forecasted rains to pick up and set down heavy things at #TheSnakePit this week.

With a slight sprinkle in the air the workout began with some warmup and a mosey down the hill. Once at the bottom of the hill our fearless leader let us know that we would not only be picking up and putting down heavy things, we would also be running up and down the hill. Repeatedly. Over. And. Over. And. Over.

Exercises included the following:

  • Kettlebell Swings
  • Skull Crushers
  • Low Slow Squats
  • Military Press
  •  LBCs

Probably some other stuff, but it was at this point that we nearly got recycled… disaster averted and all safely returned to COT.

Upon pulling away after the Ball of Man the heavens opened and the rains arrived.

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