10 Pax at Alcatraz worked Barefoot on the dirt on Speed, Balance and Agility to strengthen Tendons, Ligaments and Joints.

Warmup by CakeBoss – lined up in Runde Outfield for Alternate Cardio and Body Weight Exercises.  Multi-Speed Running, High Knees Shuffles, Peter Parkers, Parker Peters, Hillbilly Imperial Walkers, Wall Sits w/Arm Presses.

The Thang by BearGrylls – moved to Runde Infield and partnered up.  REMOVED SHOES.  Moved Pax to each base for an exercise performed barefoot alternately in slow/fast speed by partners at each base.

  1. – Jump Knee Tucks – Plyo Merkin – Dynamic Lunge – Wrestler Sit Out – CROC CRAWL TO NEXT BASE – 5 One Arm Burpees/L – 8 BURPEES – one arm/one leg.
  2. – 180 Squat Jumps – Bug Jumpers – 1 Leg Squats – Crab Walkers – IMPERIAL WALKER JOG TO NEXT BASE– 5 One Arm Burpees/R – 8 BURPEES – one arm/one leg.
  3. Dynamic Lunge – Plank Kickout – Side Squat Jump – Donkey Kick – INCHWORM TO NEXT BASE – 8 BURPEES – one arm/one leg.
  4. Plank Side Thrust – Side Straddle Hops – Plank Arm Circles – Peter Parker Merkin – BEAR CRAWL – 8 BURPEES – one arm/one leg.

Discussed the themes of Freedom and Discipline.

Prayers:  Cakebosses Sister In Law Cancer Remission and for wisdom for his and my relationships with our brothers.  Prayers for wisdom and guidance for our principals and parents as the kids are starting school.

AYE!

6 Clean Shaven Men & Bearded Fellow

TClap |
7

Fate Dealt our Pain at Armory

Warmup:  Jog with kettlebell to circle of power, then 3 exercises in cadence:  low slow squat jumps, morrocan nightclubs, low slow wide grip merkins.

The Thang:   Partner up.  Deck of cards present. Partners drew 2 cards with an exercise on each.  We multiplied the numbers on each card together and did reps for those two exercises.  Aces multiplied the reps by 2.  If a joker was drawn, partners had to do 100 burpees total.  TWISTER drew the Joker!!!

Breaks – 1st:   wall sits with kettelbell pass through legs while a person! did bear crawls to the end. 2nd:  Indian run with kettlebell in right hand, then another lap in left hand.  3rd:  catch me if you can with partners with LBC’s as the exchange exercise.

Announcements  – 8/4 convergence.  Bear Grylls seeking BRR team.

Prayers:  Bullwinkle family illness, Assassin travel, Murphy/Sheaffer sympathy, Patrick Caldwell Chemotherapy.  Good start to August.

TClap |
2

DaVinci Cones Redux

Full disclosure: 6 of the Pax listed above were ruckers and their workout was led by NASA.

Today was the first time I’ve Q’d in a long time. I was a bit nervous, but have worked out all over this AO and sort of know the lay of the land. My Q Lane is more of the Set-It-And-Forget-It variety, and today was no different. With no further ado, here is:

The Thang

Long Mosey to parking lot in front of Old Navy. Circle up for some COP:

SSH, windmills —SLOW (you’re welcome, CSPAN), low slow squats, merkins, downward dog stretches, honeymooner, mountain climbers, peter parkers, freddys, LBCs

Mosey to the Valvoline for some hill work. Sevens or Jacob’s Ladder: merkins at bottom, bombjacks at the top

Mosey to the raised patio the the old Riverbleu only to find the ruckers using the spot, so it was off to Plan B. I had cones set up on the drive, one on either side of the fountain. Each cone listed 5 exercises and the required reps. Do the exercise, run a half lap to the next cone, do the exercise. And so forth until everyone had finished the circuit. Exercise were as follows:

Cone One:

  1. Slow Squats (20)
  2. Curb Dips (20)
  3. Mtn. Climbers (20 d.c.)
  4. Curb Derkins (20)
  5. CDD’s (20)

Cone Two:

  1. Imperial Wlkrs (20 d.c.)
  2. Jump Lunges (10/leg)
  3. Freddy Mercurys (20 d.c.)
  4. Flying Squirrels (10)
  5. Peter Parkers (10 d.c.)

Then we made our way to the Rivebleu raised patio for the following:

Divide up into groups of 3. First man runs the stairs, does 5 burpees, runs down the back stairs and back to the group while 2nd and 3rd man do squats. Then repeat with 2nd and 3rd man.

By this point, it was time to mosey back to COT for a couple minutes of ab lab. Freddys, Crunchy Frogs (demo and cadence from WitchHunt), LBCs.

Announcements:

Children’s Attention Home: Q or post to support these great kids who are victims of circumstance and are in need of positive male role models.

Delta signups have begun! Reach out to Wild Thing if you’re interested in joining a LKW team.

Prayers for pregnant Ms, for family struggling with addiction and recovery.

Moleskin

At COT,  I shared that today, 7/28/17 would have been my late father’s 75th birthday. In 2001, he died  of a massive heart attack at the age of 59. My father was a good man. A loving man and unfailing provider for our family. But he had personal struggles. He was an alcoholic. A workaholic. Never exercised. Attended church sporadically, especially during my years at home.

My dad didn’t have what I would consider close friends or a strong social network. He had a family, a career, a mortgage, two kids who stayed out of trouble. But he always struck me as lonely. Isolated. I daresay alcohol use was his way of self medicating: his way of trying to fill a hole and mask his feelings of isolation.

I am grateful to write here that I am not an alcoholic, although there was a time in my late 20s that I was definitely auditioning for the part. No one will ever accuse me of being a workaholic (though I do work hard). Though I may not eat the healthiest diet, I do post at workout consistently between 4 and 6 days a week.

But, perhaps most importantly to me, I have gained a strong network of men who support and encourage each other to become better.

My life is on a completely different trajectory.

I am not alone. I am not isolated. I am a grateful part of this community, and I thank each of you for being a part of my life.

TClap |
12

Theatre of Pain with Motley Crue

Met him in Vegas in 2008.

THEATRE OF PAIN WITH MOTLEY CRUE 

Warmup – jog around soccer field alternating high knees, butt kickers, side shuffle to l/r then gorrilla walks to left then right.  Circled up for chicken wing side straddle hops and seal cross straddle hops in cadence.

The Thang – 4 songs with a tour of 6 stations on  soccer field in between each song.

Song 1 – Dr. Feelgood – 4 mins of body quats during music/lyrics to squat jumps during chorus.  Knee tuck slaps during guitar solo.

Round 1 – in corners and middle of soccer field, 10 reps each at 6 stations for plank jacks, wide grip merkins, squat jumps, ab box cutters, L/R reverse lunges, and ab superman pumps.  Bear Crawl and Lunges alternating to each station.  Mosey to parking lot for song.

Song 2 – Wild Side – 4 mins of side straddle hops during music/lyrics to bombjacks during chorus and slow burpees during guitar solo.

Round 2 –  in corners and middle of soccer field, 10 reps each at 6 stations for plank thrusts, diamond merkins, double squat jump, ab flutters, plyo lunges, superman jacks.  Bear crawl and lunges alternating to each station.  Mosey to parking lot for song.

Song 3 – Girls, Girls, Girls – in tribute to all M’s.  American hammer during music/lyrics to hello Dolly’s ( Free Bird was thinking about my wife during this ) during chorus, to windshield washers during guitar solo.

Round 3 – in corners and middle of soccer field, 10 reps each of 123 plank hops and regular hold merkins.  Mosey to parking lot for song.

Song 4 – Home Sweet  Home – the closer, plank to sphynx pose during music/lyrics to honeymooners during chorus and downward dog during guitar solo.  Springled in a few childs pose and arm huggers at end.

Announcements – 8/4 convergence.

Prayers for all parents/children travelling during this time, freedom from daily restraints/expectations, freedom from addition for my brother Michael,  peace for the souls of my friends Ken, John and Micheal in their passing.

 

 

 

TClap |
3

Block Party – Q School With Double D and Cake Boss

15 or so PAX came to the latest installment of Q school with YHC and Double D.

Double D gave the intros and we quickly realized some PAX might have come for a regular beat down, only to find out we were teaching how to give a beat down.

Double D took the 201 PAX and I took the 101 PAX and we instructed best we could. (See documents on website)

Again, it was hot a mofo out there and we were dripping even teaching the beat down, not just delivering it.

We regathered at about 0550 and answered some final questions from the PAX.

t-clap’s to all the PAX looking to lead. Its amazing what can happen from leading a group of guys in a boot camp. Things start to happen and confidence is grown…..no more sad clown!

Thanks to Ginsu for  the lead and we look forward to all these new Qs in the mix!

 

TClap |
2

More pass the dutchie

10 at Armory this morning got better.

The thang:

Warmup
Windmills
Imperial Walkers
Sumo Squats
Good Morning Stretch

Lap, then back for:

Merkins
Carolina-dry docks

Mosey over to the low wall with bells for some pain circuits.

Circuit 1 (Lap between exercises)
10 Dips with bell
10 Skull crushers
10 Lawnmower pulls each arm
Circuit 2 (Lap between exercises)
10 Curls each arm
20 K-Bell swings
10 Deadlifts
Circuit 3 (Lap between exercises)
10 Figure 8’s
10 Round the world
10 Shoulder Press

Partner Up

Partner 1 runs large loop with Bell
Partner 2 runs opposite direction, meets him and takes bell
(This was fun)

Repeat

Then back to circuits

Circuit 1 (No laps!)
10 Dips with bell
10 Skull crushers
10 Lawnmower pulls each arm
Circuit 2
10 Curls each arm
20 K-Bell swings
10 Deadlifts
Circuit 3
10 Figure 8’s
10 Round the world
10 Shoulder Press

We circled up for a round of pass the dutchie, Tesh’s invention and always the growls from handling his and Peabody’s bells.

Lunge with bell to parking lot, take a lap, lunge back to wall for a quick round of LBC’s  and Protractors.

Big ending with big ups to Sasquatch on the news of a boy due in January (and soon to be Uncle Wegmans.) Continued prayers for Smithers F-I-L.

Always a pleasure —- Assassin ——-

TClap |
2

Board of Pain Tabata style

As the Pax started to gather around this morning I gave a heads up that they needed to get loosened up because there wouldn’t be a warm-up this morning.  Some heeded my warning and some didn’t.  When it hit 5:14 I began to give the normal speech and tell the group we were about to take on the Board of Pain.  However there was one catch to it.  We would work our way through the Board of Pain, but we weren’t going to be counting.  We would do 7 rounds of Tabata each exercise.

For those who don’t know what Tabata is it is where you do a set of exercises for a predetermined amount of time by exercising for 20 sec and then take 10 sec off and keep rotating through.  For us we rotated exercises after 7 rounds of 20/10.  Needless to say I didn’t get to 100 burpees, but I was fine with that.

During the workout I failed as a Q because I had promised music and when I attempted to play the music the speaker wasn’t working.  I believe it had to do with the 150% humidity that morning, but its still a failure on my part.  Luckily fellow pax Change Order and Lutefisk saved me by performing for us several songs including Ice Ice Baby timed perfectly during one of our 10 second counts.

The Thang:

Burpees
Calf Raises
Ski Abs
Merkins
Squats
LBCs
CDC
Am Hammer
Mac Tar Jai

100 Maracain Night Club because I didn’t want to have to Jump Squats for the last 2 minutes

This workout was one of those workouts where you get all 3 Fs during the 45 minutes which was awesome to be apart of.

It was an honor to lead!  Thanks for the opportunity

TClap |
5

Oshi Shinobu

What a great morning for a workout with 14 men at The Swamp.  We quickly split off as Ruckers, Runners and Bootcampers.  A short mosey led us to our 1st stop for the warmup:  15 SSH, 3-burpees, 10 Windmills, 3-burpees, 10 Moroccan Night Clubs, 3-burpees, 15 SSH, 3-burpees.

Good and warm we mosey’d to backside of Jush Fresh to the stairs.  Partner Up.  P1 Holds Plank, P2 runs stairs, Flip/Flop; P1 Flutter Kicks, P2 runs stairs, Flip/Flop; P1 Hello Dollies, P2 run stairs, Flip/Flop and finally P1 Wall Sits,  P2 runs stairs, Flip Flop.

Short stroll to the Fountain w/a round-a-bout version of 4-corners.  Working in Decending order w/4-stations;  8, 6, 4 and 2 reps at ea.  Starting at Fountain, Incline/Decline Merkins, run to top of lot, Squats, run around to fountain, step-ups (ea leg), run to bottom of lot, burpees and back to fountain.  Rinse and repeat to next descending count.

I wanted to do something a little different with the PAX this am and introduce a little Jiu Jitsu warmup so we mosey’d over by the Q’s truck and pick up some Martial Arts belts.  Partner up, P1 places belt around himself and sprints while P2 offers resistance by holding him back across the lane.  Rinse&Repeat x 2.  From there we demonstrated what each warmup is for and how to execute it in BJJ with:  seated shrimping, breakdance, alligator crawl, gorilla walks, leg drag drills and finished w/another bout of the belt resistance drills w/new partners and ab-work.

COT

Always a struggle getting moving in the am and putting our bodies through the workouts but love the results and who I get to do it with.  In Jiu Jitsu we always finish w/a bow and handshake to one other with the statement of “OSS!” also known as “ossu”, means Oshi Shinobu, which conveys the idea of “persevering when pushed”. In other words, never give up, have determination, grit and withstand the most arduous of training.

TClap |
7

Tower of Babel

IMG_0271

Pantheon (Tega Cay Elementary)

Disclaimer: As I’m not a professional, no one even bothered to pay me for the free beat down this morning

Warm-a-rama I: Short mosey around the big loop, including high knees, butt kickers, side shuffles, toy soldiers

Warm-a-rama II: To ball field for some SSH, Merkin, Moroccan Night Clubs, Imperial Walkers, Hillbilly Walkers

Thang I: Indian Run: Last man drops, does 5 burpees, sprints to front of the line

Thang II: Line up on baseline, first guy runs a suicide while the rest do exercises listed below, then the suicider does a 10-count (Sputnik with the Russian 10-count and Straight Up with the Spanish 10-count, hence “Tower of Babel”)

  • 10 sets Jump Squats, 6 sets alternating one-foot Calf Raises, 4 sets Burpees, 5 sets Carolina Dry Docks, 5 sets Mountain Climbers

Thang III: People chairs for 10-counts from 10 PAX, balls-to-the-wall for 10-counts from 10 PAX (note: someone called out no hands balls-to-the-wall to no avail BUT Crash called out one-handed and did it, both hands – impressive)

Mary: we had 2 minutes for abs: protractor angles were quite specific this morning (27 degrees???)

COT: 10 PAX posted this morning, including Jedi in his first week, prayers for family health, travel, and for PAX to be a light in a dark world.

Skin: Nothing like your very own personal sweat splatter puddle along the court baseline. Smells like… victory.

 

TClap |
6

14 pax posted to Alcatraz to get an early start to the weekend…well, 13 plus Pusher who posted as Bullwinkle was taking the crew out of the parking lot.  All veteran pax today, so limited Disclaimer and Bullwinkle (working his 2nd Q in 3 days) launched.

The Thang

Warm-up run to the cul de sac and back to the parking lot

COP — SSH, Prisoner Squat, Hillbilly Walker, Moroccan Night Club, Windmill

Mosey to the cones on the ball field

Bear crawl to first cone, Karaoke to the 2nd cone, Crabwalk to the 3rd cone, run to the 4th cone
(rinse & repeat for 4 total cycles)

Mosey back to parking lot and grab  coupon

Lunge walk across parking lot with coupon over head
LBCs x20 with coupon
(rinse & repeat back to other side of parking lot)

Squat x15 with coupon
Rows x25 with coupon
(rinse & repeat)

Return coupons

Handoff to Double D

Mtn Climber x20

Plank sequence

Mosey to home plate on ball field

Run to 1B 5 Merkins
Run to 2B 10 Merkins
Run to 3B 15 Merkins
Run home 20 Merkins
(Rinse & repeat 3 more cycles with Monkey humpers, CDDs & Freddie Mercurys)

Mosey to cones & partner up

Burpee cycle (split the aggregate number in whatever work for each pair)
Cone 1 = 5 burpees each (10 total)
Cone 2 = 10 burpees each (20 total)
Cone 3 = 15 burpees each (30 total)
Cone 4 = 20 burpees each (40 total)

Superman

Hello dollies x10

Flutter x 10

Penguin walk x10

Mosey home

COT

Naked man moleskin

ST ran into some scheduling challenges midweek and reached out for some help.  Since I’ve missed out on 1 (and maybe 2) Qs at Alcatraz over the winter/spring, I was happy to have the chance to be back in TC.  Inclusion of what was possibly  VQ with Bullwinkle was an extra teat.  Turns out Bullwinkle crushed his VQ at Footloose on Thursday, so he was more than ready to put some pain on the pax today.  Well done, brother!

Lots of mumble chatter among this group, led of course by Pusher and Change Order.  It certainly kept things lively throughout.

#Freedom is the theme for July.  We spent some time reflecting on the notions of Freedom FROM and Freedom TO.  The idea was to consider what obstacles are standing in the way of us seeing the beauty and abundance of the life that is around us everyday, but that we often miss among the busyness of our days and the negative messages from our culture/media.  Perhaps I need freedom from social media (Twitter, Facebook), TV/media, friends/colleagues who are bad influences, etc.  What might it be for  you that stands in the way of seeing the gift of a new day and the life associated with it?  What parts of your life do you want to be freed to choose to see or to live into as you move ahead?

Thanks to ST for the invite to Q.  Always an honor to be with the pax of Alcatraz!

 

TClap |
7