The Hive Freshly Paved

I showed up for my VQ KB workout at The Hive to find a freshly paved parking lot.  Apparently Bandcamp has a lot of pull!  It’s nice going home without road rash and stones in the front seat.

The workout consisted of the following warm ups exercises.

  • SSH
  • Windmills
  • Cherry Pickers
  • Moroccan Night Clubs
  • Little and big arm circles
  • Imperial walkers
  • Peter parkers
  • Parker peters

A slow mosey with butt kickers and high knees.

Exercise Round 1

Phase 1 consisted of 6 exercises.  Each exercise was was done in in 20 counts.  Once completed we repeated with the count being 15, then 10 then 5.  The exercises were:

  • Two handed squat and overhead press
  • Plank rows
  • Curl
  • Merkins
  • Two handed swing
  • Tricep press

Exercise Round 2

We ran to the bottom of the hill near the stadium.  At the bottom we did:

  • 10 Single arm clean and press (10 each arm)
  • 10 Overhead lunges (10 each leg)
  • 20 Goblet squats
  • 20 One handed swings (10 each arm)

Once we were done with this we ran about half way up the hill, did 10 Burpees and 10 BB Sit-ups, run down the hill; rinse and repeat X3.  After the first set an audible was called to go to 15 each and then 10 each on the next two sets.  (Time was running out and we wanted to get them all accomplished).  We ended up getting through the second set when it was time to return for COT.

COT

  • Bandcamp has a friend coming in next week, his second F3 workout, and will be leading the warm up.  Please come to The Hive next week to support these guys.
  • UHAUL has his VQ, I believe Wednesday.
  • Prayers for safe travels this week.

I appreciate the opportunity to lead, it was a lot of fun and a  great group!

Thank you Bandcamp!

 

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Conveyor Belt of Pain 2

YHC had just spent a stressful weekend in which we threw a birthday party for our eldest at Adventure Air (and the rest deep cleaning our house). They let me jump, and jump I did. So much so that my back was incredibly sore the day before my Q.  That just meant that everyone would need to do some more back stuff with me to help keep me in shape.  Thanks, everyone!

9 PAX gathered in the parking lot of the Armory.  Started out by dragging out the disclaimer while Tesh and River Rat pulled in.  Yet another PAX showed up at the last minute, but I don’t recall who it was..  Went for a quick mosey up the side lot and half way back to wait for… other guy… sigh… and got in a quick 20 SSH and some windmills to get us stretched out.

We then moseyed over to the bells and ran to the far end of the parking lot where some of the toys were arrayed, and chalk was drawn all over.  Stations were set up every 3rd parking space down the line, then at the end, over two rows, and back down the line forming almost three sides of a square.

The stations were as follows.

  1. KB Swings
  2. Upright Row
  3. 3/4″x72″ Black Iron Staff – Tip ups
    1. Holding the staff at least at half way, the more above your hand the harder it is
    2. Let the tip drop to parallel with the ground and use only fingertips and wrist strength to bring it to vertical.
  4. 3/4″x72″ Black Iron Staff – Rotations
    1. Holding the staff straight forward, rotate to the left and right
    2. Speed of rotation controls the work required to slow and reverse direction
  5. Box jumps (20, 24, and 30 inch sides)
  6. 10lb Training  Mace – barbarian swings
    1. Swing the mace to align it with the chest at shoulder height to the left and right, when the arm close to the ball crosses the body, it’s on the bottom.  When it’s on its own side, the top
  7. Kettlebell Pendulum Swings – R
  8. Pendulum Swings -L
  9. Deadlift
  10. Seated chest press
    1. Six on the ground, legs straight out, torso leaned slightly back
    2. Chest press while leaning back with legs not leaving the ground
  11. Standard Kettlebell Row

Timing:
There is always a traveling PAX. Two PAX started at station 11 (Chicken Hawk and Shin Guard).  Chicken Hawk spent about 10 seconds doing rows and ran with his bell down the parking lot, turned 90 degrees and ran to station one.  Each PAX was to bear crawl with the bell to the next station, however after one round it was apparent that the timer was going to kill our ability to hit all the stations multiple times.  Changed it to a quick walk.

After the first complete round, we met in the middle and did about a minute of broga to stretch out the back and went back to the conveyor.  We made it half way through the second round before time was up and it was a quick mosey back to COT for announcements and prayer.

Everyone worked hard.  Everyone got better.

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Remember your #

Another saucy morning for the PAX at footloose.  Slight mumble chatter as YHC assessed the group.  I had a plan but could I pull it off was the question.  Gave a brief intro and disclaimer and we were off for our 5 second mosey which caught everyone off guard.  Mental preparedness is key.  We started out with…yep you guessed it Broga.  Thanks to Sasquatches excellent training I learned a few things over the last couple of years on Broga.  Threw in a few other warmup items like windmills, SSH, blah blah blah.

On to the meat and potatoes.  First order of business was to assign a number to each PAX and an exercise which went fairly well considering a bunch of dudes early in the gloom.  Kicker was if they forgot their number or exercise we’d do burpees.  I don’t think we did any surprisingly enough.

Off to our first location down by Ft. Mill COG.  Plan was to start at #1 and go through 13.  PAX with number would run up and down the stairs while rest of PAX did exercise.  Simple enough.

Imperial Walkers, Cherry Pickers, Merkins, LBC’s, Calf Raises, Carolina Dry Docks, Flutters, Squats,
Shoulder Taps, Mountain Climbers, American Hammers, Seal Jacks, Freddy Mercury.

Off to another set of stairs where we rinsed and repeated again.  Ran back to Shovel Flag for 1 more round to finish up with COT.

Thanks Beacon for the opportunity.

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4yr Hive-iversary

12 PAX gathered in the humid pre-rain gloom on Deacon’s 40th Birthday for a workout marking the four years since #TheHive shovel flag was first planted.

With current and former Site Qs on hand, the Q was split 3 ways. YHC took the first 10 and last 5, Tesh and Longshanks had 15 each.

The Thang:

Warmup – Band Camp
– SSH x40
– Windmill x10 (slowcount)
– Mountain Climbers x10 (sloooowcount)
– Parker Peter x10
– Peter Parker x10

Bro-ga sequence
– Honeymooner
– Down Dog
– Right leg high
– Right foot between hands
– Move right hand inside right foot
– Push right knee out further to the right
– come down to elbows and hold
– Return to high plank
– repeat on left side

Kettlebell flow
– Deadlift
– Goblet squat
– Right lunge
– Left lunge

Handoff to Tesh:

Single arm overhead press
– start with bell up
– come down on a 3 count
– press up and count the rep
– 10 each arm

Partner up – try to find similar bell size
Stand about 40 yards apart
One partner does 10 KB Swings, other 10 snatches (5 each arm)
When finished with your reps, put your belly down on the ground
Your partner will either be down on the ground or finishing up. If they’re down, both of you pop up and sprint to change places. If they’re finishing up their reps, wait for them to finish and their belly to hit the ground, then pop up and sprint to change places.
Continue for 7 minutes.

Double arm tricep extension
– start up
– come down on a 3 count
– press up and count the rep
– 10 reps

Handoff to Longshanks

Ladder:
– 5 manmakers
– 10 deadlifts
– 15 goblet squats
– 20 curls (10/side)
– 25 big boy sit-ups with bell
– Run to the end of the parking lot and back
Rinse and Repeat 3 times

Back to YHC for some core (flutters w/ bell, american hammers, and Deacon called some leg raises) a message on Kennedy’s “We choose to go to the moon” speech. https://youtu.be/kwFvJog2dMw?t=19

“We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too.”

That we choose to do the hard things because they are hard. (Here’s a personal list for me. 1st F: posting in the gloom to increasingly challenging workouts; 2nd F: reaching out to a PAX I don’t know well, but know is struggling; 3rd F: praying aloud with my wife/discussing my faith with someone whose beliefs I don’t know.) Because that difficulty measures us. It forces us to organize our energies to accomplish the challenge.

Grateful for the opportunity to serve as Site Q and to strive to be better among men that inspire me to keep going.

– Band Camp dismissed

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100/300 Blind Spots

9 PAX gathered in the humid pre-rain gloom at the southern end of The Fort for this iteration of The Tomahawk

Warmup:

Short mosey
10 SSH
10 Mountain Climbers (slow count)
10 Parker Peters
10 Peter Parkers
Honeymooner–>DownDog
10 SSH
10 Imperial Walkers
10 Hillbilly Walkers
Short mosey back to bells

The Thang: alternating with Kettlebell Swings

20 Merkins
10 KB Swings
20 Merkins
15 KB Swings
20 Merkins
20 KB Swings
20 Merkins
25 KB Swings
Short mosey

20 Goblet Squats
10 KB Swings
20 Goblet Squats
15 KB Swings
20 Goblet Squats
20 KB Swings
20 Goblet Squats
25 KB Swings
Short mosey – to check on a shovel flag in need of repair

20 Crunchy Frogs
10 KB Swings
20 Crunchy Frogs
15 KB Swings
20 Crunchy Frogs – hands up
20 KB Swings
20 Crunchy Frogs – bells in the air
25 KB Swings
Short mosey

20 Cossack Squats
10 KB Swings
20 Cossack Squats
15 KB Swings
20 Cossack Squats
20 KB Swings
20 Cossack Squats – with bell
25 KB Swings

Short message on blind spots
Plank up
’round the circle on what PAX think their blind spots are

Final round to get to 100 of each exercise and 300 swings
20 Merkins
20 Goblet Squats
20 Crunchy Frogs – bells in the air
20 Cossack Squats – w/ bell
20 Kettle Bell Swings

COT

NMM:

Blind Spots:
As we went around the circle every PAX mentioned that their blind spots are either related to their M or their 2.0(s)….Interesting to note these are at the center of the concentrica. My mind too often wanders back to a Donald Rumsfeld speech (circa 2002) where he lists categories of concerns about the war in Iraq. Known Knowns

  • Things we know
  • Things we know we don’t know
  • Things we don’t know that we don’t know

Phil Kline wrote an Art Song using the text.

At first, I felt Rumsfeld was just rambling, more than a little incoherent, and simply trying to justify the cause for going to war. But the more I hear Phil Kline’s little tune……

We all have blind spots, and often put these “blind spots” into the second category. Things we “know” are our blind spots. But more dangerous is the third category: blind spots we have, but don’t even know exist.

This is why it is important to have other PAX cover your blind spots, and be emboldened to speak with candor when they see your blind spot. If you could see it yourself, you would have already.

We post to get better, and the 1st F is the easiest  to push ourselves. “It’s simple really. If you want to learn how to run faster, just find a faster man. And chase him until you catch him.” Let’s make sure we commit to get better in the 2nd and 3rd Fs as well. And just as the Q and PAX will push you during a workout, let’s push each other to be better beyond just physically.

-Band Camp dismissed

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Why Do We Have To Do So Many Wheelbarrows?

Punchlist and YHC finishes up a preruck because what is sleep? We finished up and saw a few familiar faces in the parking lot. After a quick disclaimer we started off on a mosey.

Warmup in a parking lot consisting of:

-Windmills

-Hillbilly Walkers

-Imperial Walkers

-Low Slow Squats

-Honeymooner/ Downward Dog

-LBCs

-Probably something else too

Next we continued our mosey down towards the wall for some wall sits. Starting on the ends pop out, 3 burpees and back on the wall until everyone completed their burpees. Rinse and repeat, but with 5 burpees this time around.

After that was over we moseyed back to the park when we stumbled upon some cones. Not entirely sure on the distance between the cones but it was a Very Fair distance. Partner up, and wheelbarrow to the middle cone. Each partner does 25 Merkins. Flapjack on who’s the wheel and who’s the barrow to the next cone. Complete 25 Squats. Repeating this pattern decreasing by 5 until we reached Zero.

Next we used the cones and lunge walked to them completing more squats at each cone. Can’t remember what number we did of them.

After some quick thinking, we made our way to the playground for some Dora. Merkins, Flutter Kicks and SSH. On our way back to COT, lined up for 1 sprint. I was hoping to do more sprints but time was up.

Thanks to Esso for the opportunity!

Wegmans

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Thrive at the Hive

We had 14 at the Hive for a fun filled workout with the KB this morning.  Did a short intro and disclaimer with a slight stall tactic to wait on PAX to catch up from coming in hot.

Off we went on a slow mosey around the lot and circled up for the warm-up

30– SSH’s (slight mumble chatter prompted YHC to stop)
10– Merkins
20 – Moroccan Nightclubs

The Thing

Grabbed the bells and a slight mosey over to the featured portion of the Pain.  Strategically taped to the back of the trashcan was our Paper o Pain with 15 Exercises on it.  The plan was to do 30 of each exercise with a run across the parking lot in between.

 

Curls
Goblet Squats
Overhead Claps

LBC’s

Triceps

Short Switzer to talk about Mentorship and impacting others.  Think about who you are mentoring ie Home, Work, F3, etc.

Chest Press

American Hammer

Deadlift

KB Swings

Calf Raises

Another short switzer to see if anyone had any stories to share about mentoring. YHC talked about the 3rd F event last week and the impact it had on me and how I’m using it to challenge others.

Last round:

Flutters

Lawnmower Pulls

Dips

Skull Crushers

Step Ups

Wrapped up with a nice lunge walk and bell pass through before circling up for COT.

Appreciate the invite BandCamp!

Bass-O-Matic

 

 

 

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Return to The Tomahawk

Always enjoy being asked to Q a workout, especially The Tomahawk.  It’s been a little while since I’ve Q’d there since I’ve been logging a bunch of miles for the #1000in2019 challenge.  My last workout there ended up being a discussion of my “best of” workout memories.  So, with this workout coming up, I wanted it to be one for the memory book.  Unfortunately, other priorities didn’t agree and I found myself last Wednesday morning with a impromtQ on my hands.

There I was standing by my lonesome in the gloom, questioning once again my decision of a pre-run.  Polaroid did not disappoint and provided someone to keep me honest and run, rather than catch a few extra zzz’s in the car.

The PAX rolled in and after the disclaimer we were off on a mosey around the parking lot, with some karaoke, toy soldiers, and dynamic stretching mixed in. We circled up for warm-ups and completed SSH, hillbilly walkers, seal jacks, mountain climbers, and cross cross jacks.

Mosey back to the pick up the bells for the Thang!  Mosey around the school, stopping at various locations for a veritable smorgasbord of pain…squats, wall sits/curls, lunge walks with pass through, swing crunches with Merkins, suicides, follow-the-leader through the pillars and around the basketball court, bear crawl with the bell, squat/curl/press, monkey humpers, flutter kicks with press, lawnmower pulls, overhead press, overhead tricep extensions, LBCs, and possibly a little bit more.

We ended back at the front of the school with a reverse pyramid of burpees (5…4…3…2…discussion of acceleration and doing so by getting outside of each of our own comfort zones…5 burpees)

Count-o-Rama, Name-o-Rama, announcements, prayers/praise, COT

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Cone Work

Five HIM posted for pain on this cool May morning at Tomahawk. Quick disclaimer and then a mosey around the parking lot.

Warmup:

  • 20 Side Straddle Hops
  • 10 Cherry Pickers
  • 10 Low Slow Squats
  • 10 Merkins followed by Downward/Upward Dog

The Thang:

Three cones were setup each about 25 yards apart (two outside cones and one center cone). We broke off into partners of two. One partner started at the near outside cone, and the other partner at the far outside cone.

Round 1 – 10 KB Swings near outside cone, 5 Burpees center cone, 10 Upright Rows far outside cone. Reps went from 10 down to 5.

Round 2 – 10 Curls each arm near outside cone, 5 Plank Jacks center cone, 10 Snatches each arm far outside cone. Reps went from 10 down to 5.

Round 3 – 10 LBC’s near outside cone, 10 Squats center cone, 10 Flutters far outside cone. Reps went from 10 down to 5.

Between each round we went around the circle of PAX for a Mary session.

We wrapped up the workout with two rounds of Ring Of Fire. One round of planks, and one round of leg lifts.

Headed back to COT for announcement/prayers & praises.

JWow

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A Hive workout with no SSH’s or Swings?!? It’s true.

17 #HIMs decided to follow the tweet of Band Camp (or decided on their own) and came out on a reasonably pleasant morning to lift and put down objects of varying weight numerous times.  YHC was honored to get the call (it’s always a privilege to lead – more on that later) and learned the night before that the deck of cards had not made its way to the Hive in some months.  Seemed as reasonable a time as any to bring them back.  So I did.  After the disclaimers were given and the traditional check for FNG’s came up empty this time around, we were off.

We moseyed with bells to another area of the parking lot (minimal running today – it is a kettle bell workout) and circled up for COP, which consisted of the following (yes – there were no side straddle hops, believe it or not):

Moroccan Night Clubs X 20 I/C – holding arms out after completion

Little arm circles  X 10 forward and backward keeping them held out in between and after

Overhead claps X 10 – after completion, arms at ease which were now warmed up for what was to follow

Imperial walkers X 15 IC

Low Slow squats X 20 (another precursor for future exercise)

Mosey with bells to the East side of the lot for the main event:  Out comes the deck

Spades = Goblet Squats, Clubs = Upright rows, Diamonds = Skull Crushers, Hearts = Hammer Curls

YHC was pleased by the mumble chatter and simultaneous effort and the PAX delivered so well, we made it through 1 deck and 1/2 way through a second time.  Upon completion of the first deck (which happened faster than anticipated due to efficient PAX), YHC was asked if a sermon was to be given.  When silence ensued in response, YHC smiled and promptly requested the PAX to sprint to the West end of the lot as fast as possible then mosey back – all obliged.  Following a few 10 counts and one round of 10 burpees (just because),  T-Square had to choose between one of two piles of cards as YHC had split the deck of cards in 1/2.  He chose the pile that ended up having a disproportionate amount of face cards – much to the pleasure of the PAX.  Mumble chatter increased as consecutive suits were drawn on multiple occasions citing a few accusations of a rigged deck and flush draws (fake news).  Nonetheless, all got better.

With 5 minutes to go, we moseyed to COT with bells in hand for…….a little ab work – but just a little:

All exercises were with bells and double-count:  flutters with the press IC x 20, LBC’s IC x 10, Hello Dollys IC x 10 and Rosalitas IC x 10.  This took us to 5:59:30.  A body destroyer was called, then a 10-count delivered from Trucker and lo and behold, 6:00 was upon us and the time came for COT and BOM.

Announcements – Convergence on May 24 at Harris Teeter Baxter – all 4 workout options available – KB, Ruck, Run, Boot Camp with 3rd F at Eternal Shack (behind Zaxby’s) following.

May 21 – one year anniversary W/O to honor Badger and his legacy at Golden Corral.  Wear red to honor.  Decibel on Q and Badger’s oldest 2.0 will be in attendance.

Read your newsletter.

Prayers – for teachers, for families, for our 2.0’s finishing school, for Mom’s – especially this weekend and for those working through strained maternal relationships, especially on this weekend.  Be a light to someone when you’re called – you never know what someone is gong through – No OYO.

NMM – YHC had stated in the past that serving in any position of leadership is a privilege.  No matter the opportunity, when called to lead a group of #HIMs, it should be taken as the blessing and opportunity it is meant to be.  And one of the greatest gifts we can pass on to one another through leading is the gift of sharpening, strengthening and honing ourselves – physically, mentally and spiritually.   To Band Camp, my sincere thanks for the opportunity to get out in front of such a strong group of #HIM’s this morning.  Every man gathered today made YHC better and, for that, I extend my thanks and gratitude.

Honored to serve,

Cyclops

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