Expect the Unexpected

As the first Q to kickoff the Block Party December to Remember, I knew I had a huge shoe to fill seeing the lineup Bobber scheduled. So I figured I had to take a page out of my Yinzer’s Q book and do something that I am not a fan of – burpees. If you have ever posted to one of my Q’s, you know there will be plenty of merkins and pull-ups, but not burpees nor running. Well, expect the unexpected.

I pulled in to the parking lot with some ideas, but no Weinke. When I mentioned this as we were standing around waiting for 05:15 start, you could imagine the mumble chatter!

So the Thang:

Was about to mossy when I called a Switzer and circled up for some stretching, then we mossy to Hobo parking lot for a little bit of COP. Low slooowww squats, merkins, and OH claps. Lines up at dumpster and for 5 rounds: 5 burpees, 10 squats, 15 merkins, run to Main Street Gazebo and back and rinse and repeat. Tesh was on round 5 when most PAX were on round 3…but his shirt was still on so maybe that slowed him down.

Mossy to “The Hill”. I figured most of the PAX won’t travel west of the Peach Stand on a Saturday to experience #BAOPS, so why not bring it to them! NUR up the hill and perform 1 burpee. Run down the hill, 10 LBCs. NUR up to 2 burpees, run down to 20 LBCs. NUR up to 3 burpees, run down to 30 LBCs. NUR up to 4 burpees, run down to 40 LBCs. NUR up to 5 burpees, run down to 50 LBCs.

Run to the park across from Main Street/160 intersection. 10 merkins, run up the stairs to the Xmas tree for 20 Freddie Mercury’s. Run back. Rinse and repeat by adding 5 additional reps at each end, with running the stairs in between. I realized I still had 8 minutes, so went back down the ladder to 15 merkins then 10 merkins with runnign the stairs in between each set with Freddies at the tree.

There is a snippet of what you  would experience at #BAOPS @ Alcatraz. Fill up your gas tank, get your M’s approval, and get your passport stamp some Saturday at #BAOPS – YOU WON’T REGRET IT

Thanks for the opportunity to lead!

Prayers go to Splinter’, Bobber, Trucker, and more recently Orange Crush son!

Trucker

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Beatdown at #TheFort

10 Forters and 2 Milkshakers in #TheFort COT. Longshanks and YHC split the #TheFort Q. I knew that my weinke would be a bit easier than Longshanks’, because he’s a beast, so I took the first half.

Jog around the parking lot and to the Municipal Lot near the railcar for the warmup.
10x SSH
10x Imperial Walkers
10x Hillbilly Walkers
10x Tempo Squats
10x Tempo Merkins
10x Mountain Climbers
Honeymooner
Downward Dog
10x Peter Parkers

A quick jog to the scent of bacon and we played 4 corners. Improper Pig to Fort Mill Animal Hospital to The Cutting Room to Hobo’s.
Round 1: 10x Monkey Humpers and 10x Carolina Dry Docks (every other stop)
Round 2: 10x Merkins and 10x Big Boy Situps
Round 3: 10x Flutters and 10x Rosalitas

Another jog down Academy Street to Fort Mill Church of God for some partner Dora.
100 Merkins
200 Dry Docks
300 Squats

Longshanks gave us a minute or two to stretch/recover for his beatdown.

We had 2 options: 1)includes burpees or 2)includes burpees The consensus was option 2 (Bounty Hunter tried to convince us Option 1 would be better).
Uggggg
To the Hill for some Burpee Repeats
Bottom of hill for 10x Burpees
Top of the hill for 10x Burpees
Bottom of hill for 9 Burpees
Top of hill for 9 Burpees
All the way down to 1 and 1.

I definitely modified to deconstructed burpees and still Tesh lapped me a couple of times. I’m pretty sure he did an extra 50 Burpees.
We had time for a few sets of Ab exercises: Dying Cockroaches, Gas Pumpers, and Big Boy Situps and then a slow mosey back to COT.

NMM: Work hard and do your best. My F3 brothers are inspirational and push me to work harder. For that I am extremely appreciative. I lift each of you up daily and give thanks for our time together.

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Stationary 11s Sprint

11 PAX gather, about 8 of them on time…

Warm Up:

Lap for late comers to catch up
Side-straddle Hops
Imperial Walker
Hillbilly Walker
Moroccan Night Club
Plank
Some yoga
Mountain Climbers
Some yoga
Monkey Humpers

Move to bells
Thang:

5 rounds:
5 Manmakers
10 Goblet Squats
15 Calf raises (with bell)
20 Swings

(total 100 swings)

Move to start of parking lot paint facing cones.
Left side:
5 Power Clean
4 Front Squat
3 Push Press
2 Snatches
1 Manmaker
Sprint 50 yards to cones and sprint back
Repeat on Right side

Did some planking as active recovery. Rinse and repeat

Stationary 11s (started at 0550)
10 merkins, 1 snatch (1 right and 1 left)
9 merkins, 2 snatches (2R/2L)
etc.
Sir Topham Hat finished (but he’s a knight, so…)
Everyone got to at least 3 merkins, 8 snatches

NMM:
Stopped w/ 2 minutes left for a brief message.
The present moment calls for our best work. Our best work as parents, husbands, community members. But we’ve got to let go of expecting the same outcomes we’ve always had when doing our best work.

We finished strong with 3 manmakers

Prayers:
For moves, jobs, M’s health, and the kid that was airlifted to the hospital at a pep rally yesterday at FMHS.


Band Camp dismissed

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16 for minutes at The Ranch

15 PAX joined YHC this morning for minutes at the Ranch. I wanted to try something a little different which can be a challenge but thankfully, all were willing to test it out. It was touch and go with ShopVac and Nature Boy at the start but fortunately, they decided to stay with us.

Here’s the deal. One exercise for 1 minute followed by a 10 second rest. Then an exercise for 1 minute followed by a 10 second rest. We did that from 0515-0600. The exercises are listed below but know that there is a 10 second rest between each.

Side Straddle Hops
Windmills
Jog
Squats
Calf Raises
Run
Peter Parkers
Parker Peters
Run
Carolina Dry Dock
Air Press
Run
Left side lunge
Right side lunch
Run
Box Cutters
Freddie Mercury
Run
Wide-Arm Merkins
Overhead Claps
Run
Jump Squats
Squats while on the balls of your feets
Run
X’s & O’s
Flutters
Run
Diamond Merkins
Bent over rows
Run
Reverse Lunges
Run
Plank
Run
LBC’s

Back to COT

Simple yet hopefully the PAX found it effective.

Until next time.
SYITG

Maximus

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Be Men!

1 Corinthians 16:13; Be vigilant; stand firm in the faith; BE MEN; be strong. (Shatnerized)

I’m grateful for the opportunity to VQ this fine group of HIM this beautiful muggy morning at Varsity. Thanks Harry Carry for the invite!

7 was the count for a moderately hardish full body workout, good way to end a long, hard week. Effort = Reward and all present put forth the effort this morning.

0515 Circled up at the shovel flag for a quick disclaimer, YHC most likely forgot a couple things, but we were off anyway.

Moseyed on down the way toward Sugar Creek Elementary, but stopped about halfway there for some warmups. SSHs, windmills, imperial walkers, Moroccan nightclubs… YHC was informed that I needed to let everyone know when we were starting each warmup exercise… so we continued down the hill for the main event.

Thang 1

At the bottom of the hill we were introduced to the board of moderately hardish pain. This included 4 groups of exercises split up by a little movement, all to be done OYO. Dark Helmet took a look at the board and decided to go do something easier at the IPAX makeup… J/K

Group 1

50 Highknees

30 Makhtars

20 Half-burpees (down and up, no jump)

Run backward up hill to stop sign at JROTC building, then run back to the board.

 

Group 2

50 LBC Toe Touches

30 Squat Jumps

20 Wide Merkins

Side shuffle around elementary school rear parking lot, and back to the board.

 

Group 3

50 SSH

30 Hip Thrusts (on your back)

20 Alternating Lunges

Sprint up hill to stop sign at JROTC building, then run back to the board.

 

Group 4

50 Parker Peters

30 Seated Flutter Kicks

20 Merkins

Run rear parking lot loop, back to the board.

A few did Group 1 again while waiting on the rest of the PAX to finish, and then on to Thang 2.

 

Thang 2

Since Harry Carry called out Capt. Kirk’s natural Bear Crawl technique, PAX bear crawled up the hill, from the Sugar Creek parking lot to the stop sign at the JROTC building. A couple PAX made it all the way, most needed a break. After that enjoyable crawl, we returned to the shovel flag for the following 6 or 8 minutes of Mary;

 

High planks, then reached out with left arm and right leg and switch. Balance was an issue for some…

Side planks, including side hip thrusts and switch.

Super mans

Went around the circle, each PAX picked an ab exercise to include protractors, merkins (core was engaged), box cutters, leg lifts, flutters, LBCs, and body destroyers.

 

Was that Mars in the sky? It looked bright and red to me so yeah, Mars.

 

Count-o-Rama, Name-o-Rama, Announcements, Prayers/Praises, Closing Prayer

Thanks again for the opportunity, thanks all for the effort and support. Be men!

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Dealing cards at the Block Party

Just a heads up that this BB will be low on words (atypical for me) but hopefully, motivating for you to go try this.

Here’s the deal, simple yet effective was my intent today. For those that did the Bert at Honey Badger yesterday, this was a good round 2. The deck of cards entered my arsenal roughly 5 years ago and it’s been several months since they’ve made their way out to the gloom. That ended today.

14 men showed up today with the “threat” of rain (we had 2 ruckers join us at the end for COT).
Seeing a few new faces, check.
Disclaimer, check.
Mosey some distance making our way to a parking lot for a few warm-up activities.
Mosey to another parking lot in an effort to keep our voices from carrying over to “the house.”

For those not aware how this goes, each suit represents an exercise. Each number represents the number of reps 2-10. Jacks=11, Queens=12, Kings=13, Aces=14.

4 Jokers = 25 4ct Flutters
Diamonds = Mountain Climbers
Clubs = Jump Squats
Spades = Diamond Merkins
Hearts = 8ct Burpees

That totals (100) 4ct flutters and 104 each of the other exercises.

Until next time
SYITG
Maximus

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Living Third

Very brief warmup… Run lap at front of NAFO, plank til 6 is in, 2 exercises paired intentionally for burnout, cadence count until Q is burned out… repeat, repeat, repeat, you get the idea. Discussion for the morning was about Living Third.  

Lap

Plank Jacks 

Merkins

 Lap

Mountain climbers

Wide grip Merkins 

 Lap

Peter Parker’s

Diamond Merkins

 Lap

Bomb jacks

Monkey humpers

 Lap

Ssh 

Squats 

 Lap

Seal Jacks

Jump squats 

 Lap

LBCs

American hammers

 Lap

Flutters 

Big boys

 

Galatians Ch 5 v13 For you were called to freedom, brothers.  Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love  r serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word:  “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

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Lost in Translation @ BP

8 pax came out for my first Q at block party and 2 Ruckers.

Started out with a lap around WEP, followed by COP. COP included Moroccan night clubs, squats, mountain climbers, cherry pickers, etc.

The Thang
YHC came with index cards, each with an exercise with a number in a different language.
Pax guessed the language, number and exercise, and we completed the guess.
We then completed the correct exercise, if guessed incorrectly.
For each incorrect answer pax had 5 burpees, and for good measure, we ran the hill after each turn.

Thanks Bobber for the opportunity. Great AO that I will definitely be back to.

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