The snake pit 12/18/19

F07A9CBF-DBA9-43DF-96EE-3E615C1EE305Had a fun time for my first Q, was very interesting getting ready for it. we had 17 people show up with 2 fng’s present.

warmup :

-lap around parking lot

-windmills (10)

-ssh (25)

-cherry pickers(15)

-hillbilly walkers (15)

-imperial walkers (15)

-lbc’s (10)

-Moroccan nightclubs (20)

 

pre-workout (wall)

-wallsit/kB  (everyone did 5 burpees until reach middle)

-calf raises (30 seconds) X2

-wallsit/kb (everyone did 5 Merkins until reach middle)

 

workout (partner):

-KB Swings (200)

-American hammers (200)

-lbc’s (200)

-rows (300)

-squats (200)

 

C.O.T

-Floyd plank (20 seconds) “quite a bit of complaining involved “

-circle of Mary (until 6:00)

We finished with the name o Rama and names two FNG’s

thanks again for letting me Q for the first time, it was a fun experience and will definitely try to do again!!

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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 – 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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Block Party Beat Down

I was excited to Q Block Party after the co-Q at The Fort on Sat.  I arrived early and saw 7 runners take off at 5:00 sharp with Bird Cage leading the way down the back trail.  Cars began to file in and the cars kept coming.  I wasn’t expecting a large crowd and then I heard that CSPAN was still in town and was coming to Block Party so I knew there would be a big and rowdy crowd on hand.

Once we hit 5:15, no FNG’s were present so a short disclaimer and off we moseyed.  Since the park has several obstacles littering the grass from the festival, I was going outside of the park.  We moseyed to the first parking lot up front and circled up.

  • Imperial Walkers
  • SSH
  • Arm circles front and back
  • arm stretch across body
  • mountain climber
  • slow merkin – 3 count down, 3 count hold, 3 count up

Mosey over to the sidewalk and wall near Springs Global.  3 exercises , 3 sets, decreasing reps each set.

  • Dips – Reps –  25/20/15
  • Derkins –         20/15/10
  • Step-UPS –     30/20/10

Mosey to the big hill and meet at the top parking lot.  3 excercises, 15 reps each, then run to bottom of the hill and come back up the hill backwards.

  • Squats/Monkey Humpers/Calf Raises
  • Slow Merkin/MNN/O/H Clap
  • Flutter/ Big Boy Sit-up/Hello Dolly

Mosey back to the sidewalk and wall where we started and do one more set of  dips and derkins 20 & 15.  Mosey back to the park. Since we had a few minutes left I decided to take a lap around the park on the path for an added bonus.  We ended back at the parking lot for set of LBC’s.

This was a great morning and I enjoyed the chatter and hard work.  Through the Q Source, I have been motivated to look for ways to continue to accelerate  in all areas.  I shared with the group that I have been successful in accelerating in King, Queen and Jester control, but the last 4 weeks the QSource was focused on Faith.  I was convicted that I am not accelerating in study and recognize the need to have my shield locks there to hold me accountable and provide the push I need.  I asked everyone to think of where they need to accelerate and who are they going to have beside them to hold them accountable.

Thanks Esso for the opportunity to Q and lead the Pax.

Rebel

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Frying Pan Fun

Sometime in the last couple of weeks, YHC’s youngest 2.0 wanted to watch a Disney movie that I never wanted to see.  I did my best to pick apart the plot holes and inconsistencies to keep myself entertained, and the thing that stuck out the most was the fact that the main character, some lady with absurdly long hair, could wield a cast iron frying pan as if were a hair brush or whiffle ball bat..  I walked into my kitchen and picked up my iron skillet and noticed that swinging it around would require someone to be JACKED…

The Setup

The night of the 23rd, a plyometric box, 3 bells (20, 25, and 30), as well as a cast iron skillet (with lid) were loaded into the back of YHC’s suv.  The M was very confused.  The morning of the workout, I arrived around 0505 and had to navigate through half a dozen runners who answered Polaroid’s call for a pre run.  It’s alway encouraging to see such bad-assery so early in the morning.  Today would be a good day to Q.

During setup PAX continued to arrive in droves. I plunked down the plyo box in a parking space and held onto the cards I made to deploy depending on group size. Thankfully, Polaroid threw his slam ball into the COT, so I grabbed it and threw it into the plyo box space so everyone would be able to have fun

Overall, 20 PAX appeared in the gloom at The Tomahawk.  A lot of faces were new to YHC, and so we quickly talked about the 5 core principals and disclaimed.

The warmup

Started with a quick mosey around the parking lot to warm up those whom had not already accumulated a couple miles, circling up on the east side (more of an ellipse).
2 sets of single-leg stretches (one leg bent, six close to the earth, other leg straight with toes up) Lots of mumble chatter already
Hands down into plank
10 werewolf merkins – The chatter continues
Back into plank

The workout

Mosey to pick up the bells and count off by 5’s.

Four stations were created including that of the plyo box.

PAX worked on their station exercise while the timer group grabbed the cast iron skillet and walked to the other end of the lot and back. The skillet was to be held with arm at a 90 degree angle, holding the handle with the skillet extended (in theory but not often in practice). At 15lbs it’s not that heavy, but holding just the handle makes for a sneaky bit o pain. The other PAX of the group would distribute the remaining bells and walk with the skillet holder, trading off as necessary. Optionally, the PAX could do lunges at the station.

Genuinely cannot recall the ORDER of the exercises, but below is what was available to the non plyo spots.
Snatch and squat
Plank Row
American Hammer
Goblet Squat
Upright Row
Man Maker
Plank Pass Through
Lawn Mower Pulls
Swings

One station was dedicated to the plyometric box (20x24x30) and the slam ball.

After each group visited each station the PAX were pulled aside for some group exercises.
Between sets 1-2
10x Imperial Walker
10x Merkin

Sets 2-3
10x Imperial Walker
10x Hillbilly Walker
10x Straight leg kicks (each leg)

One station short of a full third set and it was time to hit COT. Name-o-rama revealed the presence of an FNG, now named Tricycle (WELCOME!!!).

Polaroid got the former site Qs together and handed off the shovel flag to 3D.

Announcements were announced and the COT ended with a prayer. Great work by all the PAX. YHC is truly humbled and honored to have gotten to Q this day.

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UNO (a VQ dream)

3D’s VQ premiered an UNO workout with 12 guys.

(3D finally got access to post this.  Sorry for the delay.  It was so popular DropThrill has used it since.  Some of this is copied from his BackBlast.)

Shuffle the deck of Uno cards and whatever the number is, you perform that number of reps with the exception of 0 being 10. The color of the cards determines the exercise. You have to play your cards just like in Uno. Color on same color, or same number on same number.

Blue = Kettlebell curls
Green = LBC’s
Yellow = Squats with or without bell
Red = Upright rows
Skip = Run a lap
+2 = Two reps of 2 exercises from the list (player’s choice)
+4 = Four reps of all four exercises
Reverse = Do the same exercise you just performed
Wild = Change color

Sounds simple right? It is, until you get stuck on a color or number for a while.

If you dont have a card to play, you draw another card and have to do a Burpee.  The crew flipped this and in the spirit of camaraderie, everyone did a Burpee for every card drawn.

Folks tried to call out Uno, but we didn’t have a contingency for this.  Something to add for next time.

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Slow and Intentional at Tomahawk

Slow and Intentional at Tomahawk 

WarmORama–

Mosey around the full parking lot. Intermittently throwing in toy soldiers, high knees, and butt kickers.

Exercises not necessarily in this order:

Windmills, SSH, Merkins, Imperial Walkers

The Thang-

Everything in cadence slow and intentional (except where noted SC). 

  • Right arm curl 5x
  • Left arm curl 5x
  • Right overhead tricep extension 5x
  • Left overhead tricep extension 5x

20x SSH SC

  • Goblet Squat 10x
  • Right leg lunge 5x
  • Left leg lunge 5x
  • Calf raises 10x

5 Burpees SC

  • Merkin with bell in RH 5x
  • Merkin with bell in LH 5x
  • Bent over row RH 5x
  • Bent over row LH 5x

20 Mountain Climbers SC

  • Shoulder Press RH 5x
  • Shoulder Press RH 5x
  • Carolina Dry Docks w bell in RH 5x 
  • Carolina Dry Docks w bell in RH 5x 

1 lap around the parking lot

  • American Hammers 5x
  • LBCs 10x
  • Kettlebell lateral swings RH 5x 
  • Kettlebell lateral swings LH 5x 

Plank Waterfall

Round of Mary

COT 

Count off 

NameORama

Name the FNG – Welcome Uhaul

Praises and Prayers

 

Thanks for the opportunity to Q Polaroid!

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Tomahawk-0 to 60 in 45 mins

12 PAX and YHC came in da Gloom of Doby’s Bridge Elementary to take our daily Red Pill. As I thought about what type of beat down I’d apply I realized simple is sometimes enough. We over complicate many things and our lives and we can’t do any one thing well. So I kept it simple and effective!

The Thang:

Warm Up around the parking lot with mini COP

Grab the bells and get after it. 20 exercises for 60 secs or 1 min each and after 4 we run a lap.  Fun times had by all!!

Flutter kick
Russian twist
V up
Hello dolly
Leg raises
Lunge
Squat
Right leg
Squat figure 8
Left leg
KB Swing
Shoulder press
Upright row
Bent row
Lat raises
R/L Curl
Concentration curl
Tri extension
Skull crushers
Calf Raises
YHC spoke about restoring old cars and how people can see the beauty in things that some of us don’t. I mentioned the research center in NC where body parts are being grown with people’s actual cells, so they can be interchanged if something goes bad….like car parts.
As much as we can exercise and change parts there is only one way to be restored…..through the Grace of Sky Q. He takes our old away and makes us New. He sees beauty in us that we don’t even see in ourselves. Find time to realize how Sky Q plans to make you restored and living a brand new life today!!
2/17-Breakfast at Philly UMC
2/20-1stF and 3rdF convergence at Forest Hill Parking lot
2/24-YETI…..just do it!
Thanks for Lead Polaroid!
Cake Boss
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1

First taste of The Tomahawk

Got my first taste of the many options that Tomahawk has to offer. Perhaps agreeing to Q the day after the Super Bowl wasn’t the smartest thing YHC has ever done, but no one wants to disappoint the Pax. After taking a recon drive past the school on Saturday, a plan was formed. Being nervous as to how long it would take to get to this AO that is nowhere near my home base, I, of course, arrived way early. But, as i was searching for the perfect spot for my cones, the lights miraculously came on at 5 sharp. That lifted my spirits tremendously.

Pax rolled in starting with He who loves the Thrill of the Drops. Tried to introduce myself to the arriving pax to introduce myself to those I had not met and to set a tone that we were in this together.

Disclaimer offered at 5:15 sharp and off we went. Mosey around the drop off circle with some high knees, buttkickers and karaoke. Circle up.

COP:

  • SSH * 20
  • Windmill * 15
  • Merkins * 10
  • Squats * 15
  • Wide Arm Merkins * 10
  • MOROCCAN NIGHTCLUBS * 20

MOSEY behind the School to an array of cones

THE THANG: LADDER

  • 10 KB SWINGS-RUN TO 3 RD LIGHTPOST AND BACK
  • 10 KB SWINGS, 15 SKULL CRUSHERS-RUN
  • 10 KB SWINGS, 15 SKULL CRUSHERS, 20 SQUATS-RUN
  • 10 KB SWINGS, 15 SKULL CRUSHERS, 20 SQUATSS, 30 Upright ROWS-RUN
  • RINSE AND REPEAT (SORT OF)
  • 10 KB SWINGS-RUN TO 3 RD LIGHTPOST AND BACK
  • 10 KB SWINGS, 20 FIGURE 8S-RUN
  • 10 KB SWINGS, 20 FIGURE 8’S-RUN, 20 BENT OVER ROWS-RUN

THOUGHT ON ANXIETY/WORRY: EACH OF US SPENDS SO MUCH TIME&ENERGY WORRYING ABOUT MATTERS OUT OF OUR CONTROL. DO YOU SEE JESUS WALKING WITH YOU WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT THE FUTURE WORRIES? (SHARED A PASSAGE FROM THE BOOK “THE SHACK”)

To the Wall- Peoples Chair with KB held out front while each Pax jumps out of line and does 5 Bombjacks. Repeato, but this time with 5 merkins

MOSEY TO COT

Prayers for Polaroids’s daughter having trouble sleeping, prayers for my family after my brother’s recent death, other unspoken prayers.

Really enjoyed my morning with the Pax of the southern reaches of The Fort. I’ll be back sometime, but not so early next time. Thanks Polaroid for the opportunity to serve this growing region.

Short Sale Out.

 

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