10 pax decided to post at Footloose this morning for a little bootcamp Q School. YHC endeavored to create a WO this morning that would provide a few reminders/tips to seasoned PAX while focusing on some key fundamentals for newer PAX.

Pre-Disclaimer: I had all the PAX hold plank while I talked a bit about what goes into Quing a workout before 5:15. In short, 80% of a great Q happens before 5:15. Some best practices that were mentioned:

• Write the Weinke down
• Over prepare ( always have more than you need)
• Make the workout scalable both in types of exercises and difficulty
• Be site aware ( how to best utilize the AO)
• Try and keep the group together as much as you can
• Start on time

Remember, PAX are getting up early to drive to a Workout you are running. If anything you owe them the time and effort to make their time and effort worth it.

Disclaimer: We talked about the key components of a good disclaimer.

• Announce who you are, you are not an expert
• Ask for anyone new (I prefer to ask for new ppl as opposed to “FNG” in the event someone shows up not knowing what a FNG is)
• If we have a FNG make sure there is someone (Site Q or person who EH’d him) that will stick with him and encourage him. Also be sure to mention our 5 core principles and welcome them to the WO.
• Make clear that all exercises are suggestions and participants in the workout are assuming all risk. As a result, modify as needed to avoid injury
• Highlight potential risks during the workout (going off campus, traffic, wet surfaces, poor footing etc….)
• If you are going off campus count how many PAX you have before you break COT. If you leave with 10…end with 10.
• Start the workout.

The Warmup:  Maintaining our position at the Shovel Flag but before the actual exercises I mentioned how important it is to show proper form during this portion of the workout. Often times all eyes will be on you and as a result you will need to set the example. If you cannot maintain good form (or cadence) during an exercise then just don’t’ do it. ( If you can’t do it …..don’ t Q it)

Next YHC went into the fundamentals of cadence calling. Announcing the exercise, telling pax to “move” into position, declaring if this next exercise will be in cadence(or OYO) and then to “begin”.  The key is to practice and to be mindful of “setting a pace”. I executed a set of SSH’s both at a slow place to demonstrate the cadence and then speeding it up to demonstrate how to pace the exercise. The next exercise was the Windmill. Which I was very careful to ensure that a proper pace was maintained.

One other tip to mention with warmups. Be mindful that it’s a “warm-up” As the Q don’t blow yourself up on the warmup…you have at least another 40-35 minutes to go.

The Thang:  As we begun the main portion of the workout I mentioned to the PAX that one thing I like to do with my workouts is “time box” my Wienke. In short, I like to keep to a schedule to ensure we get plenty of work in the 45 minutes while guaranteeing that we get all PAX back to COT at 6:00. For example a  Weinke of mine is laid out like this:

5:15-5:17 Disclaimer

5:17-5:18 Mosey to Warmup

5:18-5:23 Actual Warmup

5:23-5:25 Mosey to Thang Part 1.

5:25-5:40 Thang Part 1

5:40-5:42 Mosey to Thang Part 2

5:42-5:58 Thang Part 2

5:58-6:00 Run to COT

Through experience you’ll be able to determine how much time certain types of exercises or routines take  so be prepared to audible if needed or modify a workout up or down depending on the time allotted.

Specific to todays Q School I wanted to share with the Pax some basic exercise routines we leverage in F3 that are great ways to structure a workout and enable the opportunity to both scale up and down if needed. The routines we did were:

• Pearls on a String ( 15 Merkins, Squats, Plank Jacks, LBC’s)
• 7’s ( Carolina Dry Docks and Hello Dolly’s)
• DORA (28 HR Merkins, 56 Squats, 112 LBC’s and 1 Kraken Burpee Each per Partner) In honor of Veterans Day I arranged the rep counts of this Dora to reflect the different Regiments, Brigades, and Divisions my father (CSM Pysher) served in during his career.

A couple things I mentioned during this portion of Q School:

1. Don’t be afraid to modify up or down during these types of routines by changing reps, modes of transportation or by adding or subtracting exercises. Notice if the Pax are struggling or if they are blowing through it. You want to keep ppl moving and not have anyone standing around or getting discouraged.
2. An easy way to do so is to carry chalk with you during your Q. For example I had written out the Dora in the parking lot before we started. At the conclusion of the Dora I simply added with chalk 50 SSH OYO. It’s an easy simple, effective way to modify the workout as you go.
3. Keep things as simple as possible. The routines highlighted in today’s Q School are very simple yet very effective in that they provide a structure that will enable all pax to participate in a workout. Remember, if you are explaining……you are losing.

After the conclusion of the Dora we had roughly 10 minutes left which gave me the opportunity to go over a couple “time killing” routines that I have used in the past couple years.

Going back to what I had mentioned earlier about being over prepared it’s always a good idea to have in your back pocket a couple things (not just 5 minutes of Mary) that you can execute either on the way to COT or at COT that will keep PAX engaged.

• Last Man Planking: all Pax in a circle. Essentially the last person maintaining good plank form “wins”. At the Q’s discretion he will call out an exercise like merkins  to “weed out” the herd. If and when someone taps out they will then do an exercise AMRAMP until a winner is declared.

• EMOM Series: Utilizing your phone (and the SMARTWOD app) you can fill the remaining time by calling a series of exercises with a certain number of reps to be completed each minute on the minutes. What’s great about this is you can set the total time of the workout but modify the rep count to either increase or decrease the intensity of the workout.

• 5 Burpees OYO :  This is always a crowd pleaser. You can leverage this throughout any workout to help quite out of control mumble chatter or to give you a few moments to think on your next piece of the workout.

COT: I have two alarms on my phone set for my workouts. One at 5:58 to remind me to get moving towards COT and the second one right at 6:00am

We discussed doing the count, namearama, the video and leading into announcements and prayers. At todays Q School there were specific prayers for our veterans and all they do, have done and continue to deal with. Additional prayers for health and guidance.

Final thoughts on Q School:

1. Preparation is key to leading a successful Q. practice cadence, write your workout down, scout the site, and time box the workout to ensure everyone gets their money’s worth.
2. As the Q you are the example if you can’t do it…don’t Q it.
3. While leading the workout is 1^st F. Remember to ensure that 2^nd F is covered as well and keep ppl together.
4. Leverage the Site Q for ideas and for counsel if you are concerned about a certain type of exercise or course. (if you are around houses you may want to be quite or if there’s a fence that’s locked…don’t jump it)
5. Always have your phone on you (or ensure the site Q has theirs). It helps with the workout but from a safety perspective it’s good to have on your person.
6. Look at F3Nation for additional workout ideas. Your brothers from across the country are constantly putting together innovative ways to lead workouts in the gloom. Feel free to “leverage” their input and ideas.

Hope you all find this helpful! Be on the lookout for more Q School in the coming months! SYITG