No SSH at GC

Twelve at Golden Corral for a substi-Q on the hottest morning of the young spring!  74 degrees at post time but when Corn Hole ran in from his home dripping wet, all the sudden I felt a lot cooler.

This morning we focused on the theme of Accountability as it relates to our word of the year.  The question is do you have a word? How are you engaging with that word? How are you holding yourself accountable?  By this time of the year you should have your word engrained were you are thinking about it constantly and understanding how it intersects with your life.  You own it.  Tell someone what you want to change and ask them to ask you about it when they see you.

The Thang:

Start with a bit of stretching to loosen up a bit… it was no Broga but Senator appreciated it and I think others by the end of the post were hoping we would have spent more time there.

Mosey to the field at the church with some curb hops and such along the way.

Circle up with a COP (sort of) which included 20 Maq-tar-jai, 10 Knee-tar-jai and some 4 (1×4)Jack Webbs.

Mosey to parking lot for a partner exercise of 2 rounds each of merkins while the partner runs then squats while the partner runs.

Mosey to parking lot behind HT for some plate pushes with partner while pax goes through a series of exercises until we push through the full rotation.   Including dips, CCDs, lunges, and a bunch of other fun.

Another round of overhead plate carries with another series of exercises

Headed to the wall for some fun with passing the plates and pushing it back down to the other end. Then some wall stand walks and Australian wall walks… fun, fun and more fun!  Just ask Corn Hole

Headed back to COT with a bit of Mary before counting off!

It was an honor to lead the Pax through the morning and I’m better because of it.   Aye!

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Full body pain dished out at Alcatraz

Begin with disclaimer and went around the roadway circle for a “quick slow” mosey.

Circle up for warmup
-10x windmills
-10x low slow squats
– 15x peter parker
-15x parker peter
-downward dog / honeymooner
-10x plank jacks, recover
-10x cherry pickers

Mosey to other side of parking lot where the real pain began early:
-Merkin ladder: drop for 20 merkins, run 10 yards and drop for 19 merkins, run back 18 merkins, run back 17 merkins…. rinse and repeat until 10 merkins for a quick 165 merkin beatdown.  WOW

Mosey to baseball field where we completed the field of dreams: count off by 4’s, each base had 3 PAX. The 4’s started at home plate for 15 burpees – they are the timekeepers. When done, each base moved onto the next base until the cycle was completed by all.  1st base was AMRAP squats, 2nd base was SSH’s, and 3rd base was LBC’s.

Circle up around the pitcher’s mound so we can finish off our arms with Jack Webb’s.

It is now 0700 and time for Senator Tressel to take over with:

Mosey from the ball  field and head down to Tara Tea Dr (steep hill).  Form two groups and face the hill:
1.  Round 1:  run to the top off the hill and back, plank at the bottom until everyone is back, recover.   Slow squats on Q’s count with a few holds mixed in.
2.  Round 2:  run backwards to the  top and back, plank at the bottom, recover..  Slow, alternating  lunges on the Q’s count with a few holds mixed in.
3.  Round 3:  run to the top and back, plank at the bottom, recover.  Slow monkey humpers on the Q’s count with a few holds mixed in.
4.  Round 4:  run backwards to the top and back, plank at the bottom, recover.   Calf raises for an unspecified time while the Pax cacthes their breath.
5.  Round 5:  run to the top, run back down, then run back to the top, do 5 burpees at the top, plank until the 6 is finished.
Mosey back to the baseball field for tunnel of love.  The Pax attempted 2 rounds, but it was a bit of a cluster.    Lutefisk’s merkin fest was too taxing on the upper body, and sustaining a tunnel for 16 to pass through was ill advised at that point.
Circle up for 6 MOM (all in cadence)
Freddie Merc x 20, Hello Dolly x 15, American Hammer x 20.  Superman hold x 2.  End with the Body Destroyer (one of YHC’s personal favorites).
COT – prayers for sicknesses to be healed among PAX and their families and mother’s day with special shoutout to Mr Clean’s children and all children who have lost their mothers.
It is now 38 hours since the completion of this, and I still hurt. Everywhere.  Which is awesome. Thanks for the opportunity to lead!  -Lutefisk
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Bucket-o-Pain – New and Improved With More Awfulness!!!

9 bootcampers and 7 ruckers landed at Golden Corral for a buffet of painful options.  Drummond brought an FNG (later named “Manifold”) to partake in the meal.  Don’t know about any of the other bootcampers, but YHC was thankful not to be part of the rucking group when Rad rolled the giant tractor tire out of the back of his truck. No bueno.

5:15 arrived, and after a disclaimer was offered, the bootcampers took off for a mosey around Rite-Aid, down to the auto-repair place, and back to the front of Harris Teeter.  Stops were made along the way for various warm up exercises, including:

  • SSH
  • Imperial Walkers
  • Mountain Climbers
  • Sumo Squats
  • Peter Parkers
  • Dips
  • Windmills

38 Special came in hot, and caught up with us after our second stop on the warm-up run.

The Thang

At the stopping point in front of HT was the bucket of pain.  But this time the instructions were different than previous BoP appearances.  Here’s how it went:

  1. First exercise was drawn from the bucket.  Pax did 5 reps.
  2. Second exercise was drawn.  Pax did 10 reps of it, then repeated the 5 reps of the first exercise
  3. Third exercise was drawn.  Pax did 15 reps of it, then 10 of the second exercise, then 5 of the first.

Routine continued until 5 exercises were drawn (which had 25 reps).  Once completed, pax took a run around the entire front parking lot of the shopping center.  We had time to do this twice.  Here were the exercises.

  1. Round 1:
    1. 5 merkins
    2. 10 burpees
    3. 15 squat jacks
    4. 20 POGO (10 each leg)
    5. 25 plank punches
  2. Round 2:
    1. 5 jumping lunges
    2. 10 low, slow squats
    3. 15 moroccan night clubs
    4. 20 flying squirrels
    5. 25 Crab Cakes

After our second round (and run around the parking lot) we had time for a few minutes of Mary:

  • Flutters
  • LBCs
  • Chopsticks
  • Alphabet Soup
  • American Hammer

Time was up, and we headed back to COT.

Excellent work by all men.  T-Claps to Mainfold for his first post, and to 38 Special for his second post (in as many days). Thanks to Decibel for the privilege of Q’ing.

 

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Accumulator Around Rite-Aid

7 boot campers and 5 ruckers launched after YHC gave an “official” disclaimer (as per suggestion from Chaser on the weekly F3 round table conference call).  Boot campers were led by Hootie for a mosey around the parking lot, then circled up for COP warm-up.

  • SSH x20
  • Moroccan Nightclubs x10
  • Imperial Walkers x10
  • Merkins x10
  • Low Slow Squats x10
  • Windmills x10

The Thang

Handoff to YHC for a mosey over to the Rite-Aid for the main event.  We stumbled on 6 cones (each with an exercise) that would be the instructions for this part of the workout.  Each “round” would consist of running around the building, performing the appropriate exercise(s) at each corner, then planking up for the 6 so we all start the next round together.

Round 1- 1 burpee at each corner (running between corners)
Round 2 – 1 burpee, 2 crab jacks at each corner
Round 3 – 1 burpee, 2 crab jacks, 3 run stance switch
Round 4 – 1 burpee, 2 crab jacks, 3 run stance switch, 4 merkins
Round 5 – 1 burpee, 2 crab jacks, 3 run stance switch, 4 merkins, 5 plank jacks
Round 6 – 1 burpee, 2 crab jacks, 3 run stance switch, 4 merkins, 5 plank jacks, 6 box cutters
Round 7 – 2 crab jacks, 3 run stance switch, 4 merkins, 5 plank jacks, 6  box cutters
Round 8 – 3 run stance switch, 4 merkins, 5 plank jacks, 6 box cutters
Round 9 – 4 merkins, 5 plank jacks, 6  box cutters
Round 10 – 5 plank jacks, 6  box cutters
Round 11 – 6  box cutters

We managed to get all 11 rounds in before heading to COT. For those curious about the numbers:
24 burpees
48 crab cakes
72 run stance switch
96 merkins
120 plank jacks
144 box cutters
Total Distance run: 1.8 miles

Excellent work by all pax.  Great VQ warm-up by Hootie! Thanks to Decibel for the opportunity to lead.

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Taking it easy at the Golden Corral

After two Qs last week, YHC’s creativity was all but spent. Nevertheless, when Old Bay asked if I could fill in for Boeheim, I agreed to help. I still have that Twister spinner I made for a previous Q, so I already had something “prepared” in case I didn’t have time to come up with something new.

Not being satisfied with repeating something, I decided to at least update the board a bit (and tried cutting off a finger in the process, so ignore the blood stain if you see it). This will come in handy later, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

14 cold-ish PAX (well, 13, as Cake Boss came rolling in late) posted to Golden Corral before dividing up – six to ruck with Mainframe, Old Bay to run by himself, and seven for the bootcamp. Disclaimer was given (probably my best yet), and off we went. The first couple minutes of the mosey around to the back parking lot were spent explaining what we were not doing: no somersaults, no inverted burpees, no flips, etc. Apparently people get concerned when they find out it’s a Jedi Q. Incorporating knees to chest, butt kickers, and karaoke, we wove around until we found a good spot in the corner of the back parking lot to warm up a bit.

COP/Warm-up

My warmups are getting a bit repetitive, but it seems I feel the need to stretch the hamstrings and open the hips with:

10 windmills IC

10 low slow squats IC

10 hillbilly walkers IC

10 merkins IC

Downward dog with cross body ankle grabs (probably the weirdest move of the day)

Not feeling quite warm enough, we moved over to the curb for some dips and crab cakes, Jack Webb style: one dip and four crab cakes (single count, with hands on curb), all the way up to ten and forty. Our shoulders got nice and toasty, though there were many modifications including a fully-seated version of the crab cake, but since Cake Boss has 60 pound weights at the end of both legs, grace was extended.

Shake it off, then mosey around to the front of Harris Teeter for the remainder of our fun.

The Thang

As mentioned, the Twister spinner made a reappearance for today. Basically, spin the spinner, do the exercise as prescribed, then run across the parking lot to the stop sign and back. Rinse and repeat. The exercises:

Two Arms

Donkey Kick (x20)

Merkins (x20)

Burpees (x10)

Dips (x20)

One Arm

Donkey Kick (x20)

Merkins (x20)

Burpees (x10)

Dips (x20)

Two Legs

Donkey Kick (x20)

Burpees (x10)

Squat Jumps (x20)

Bear Crawl

One Leg

Donkey Kick (x20)

Burpees (x10)

Squat Jumps (x20)

Bear crawl

The first spin resulted in one-arm merkins, which was a real crowd pleaser following the Jack Webb dip/crab cake combo. That, and they’re one-arm merkins. Other exercises completed include burpees (normal, one arm, and one leg), donkey kicks (normal and one leg), dips (normal and one arm), bear crawl (just normal), squat jumps (normal), and merkins (normal). I can’t remember the order, but it was pretty balanced, and there was a lot of running involved, ending with a quick run to COT to meet the ruckers and runner.

Announcements

  • Read your newsletter
  • Yeti is coming up. Sign up and do it.
  • February second Tuesday lunch will be at Pasquel’s (with either a hard or soft q sound, depending on who you ask) rather than Fort Mill BBQ.
  • Maybe some others, but Decibel was in a hurry.

Praises and Prayers

  • ChaChing’s grandpa passed away over the weekend, so prayers for the family and ChaChing and his wife as they travel north today.
  • Cake Boss’s thirty-something plumber Jason had a stroke (and answered the phone in the hospital)
  • Decibel’s son’s classmate Violet has meningitis
  • Prayers for the community in light of recent events

As always, it was an honor to lead these men, and you can ask any of the bootcamp guys – it wasn’t bad. You need not be afraid of a Jedi Q. We don’t always do weird inverted stuff. Sometimes I need an easy day.

-Jedi

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Creative Misery at the Rock

When Smuggler organized this Q combo, he must’ve known a lot of PAX were looking for that Saturday morning push. After some banter back and forth between the WEP Q’s and us Alcatraz Q’s, we were pleasantly surprised to see car after car after car roll into Runde Park this Saturday morning. The weather was warm and the PAX were primed with the early mumble chatter. With the typical “don’t hurt yourself and don’t sue if you do hurt yourself” disclaimer, we took a very abbreviated (10yd) mosey to the right side of the parking lot (a slight teaser for what was coming).

Jog to the other end of the lot and back then repeat.

Walking lunges 1/2 way down then high knees to the end. Same thing on the way back to the start.

Windmills & deadlifts to warm up the legs a little more then mosey to the top of “THE HILL”

PAX squat for 20sec then jog to the base of the hill followed by an all-out sprint back to the top of the hill and squat for the six.

Repeat for a 40sec squat hold then the jog down/sprint up and squat for the six.

Repeat for a 60sec squat hold then the jog down/sprint up and squat for the six.

Find some curb and 50 calf raises each leg.

Mosey to the field for a circle up.

This was when I think they really lost my mind…Lt. Dan’s (1 squat and 4 jumping lunges (2ea side counts as 4)) and we went to 8:32 before handing it off Tesh!!

With Tesh on Q, you just had a feeling this was going to get bad.

With the PAX in a very long plank:

5 Merkins

10 Mountain Climbers

5 Merkins

10 Peter Parkers

5 Merkins

Various Tesh-approved CORE exercises

Mosey to the fence line:

Merkin-Turtle crawl (can’t explain…you had to be there)

10 Merkins

Bear Crawl 50yds

More Tesh-approved CORE exercises

10 Bombjacks x 3 rounds

Mosey to the playground and split into 4 groups

Rotate through 5 pull-ups & 10 dips. For those waiting, hold the Al Gore pose.

Yet more Tesh-approved CORE exercises

Repeat the above 2 lines

Closed it out with 6min of Mary which couldn’t end fast enough.

Announcements: Yeti (Newsletter), Reading in Paradise

Prayer Requests: Praise for Palmer family, Cornerstone’s family, continued prayers for the Family & Friends affected by the recent tragedy’s our community has experienced, our officers, job transitions, marriages.

I’m sure Smuggler will get a little verbal backlash on this but hey, it made us better and everyone crushed it.

Maximus & Tesh

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A runner Qs a Bootcamp

We had 7 Bootcampers and 6 Ruckers, the Ruckers were lead by Spiderman, the all looked like they were having a great time and they all thanked Spiderman for being so graciously easy on them(actually I just totally made that up. They all looked terrible)  Thankfully the rain stopped and the disclaimer was given and the Ruckers walked off while the BC guys started right in on a warm up routine of Squats, Jump Ropes(simulated), Lunge Walks, Toy Solders, Karaoke, etc.. Being sufficiently warm we moseyed to the back of HT and circled up for a little Hip & Leg work.

COP – Single Leg Quarter Squats, The Clam Shell(yes it’s a little awkward), Jane Fonda, Front leg lifts, The thigh master, Flutters and some Merkins just for fun.  Now that our hips and legs are ready to run lets go.

The Thang – Mosey to the bottom of the hill by the new apartments, educate the newbies about the hill that used to be there and how no GC workout was complete with out it. The new hill is paved nicer a little longer and not quite as step but it is still worthy of being run up and down several times.  The Q chose to do a round of 11s with LBCs at the bottom and Carolina Dry Docks at the top.  The Pax did great and nobody got lapped by Jedi. Next we were off to the back of the Oil Change place for another round of 11s with dips and derkins, an audible needed to be called as I noticed you can’t run around the Oil Chang place anymore, you have to take a much longer route around the Auto Parts store too. Oh well, everyone agreed that more running was better. We had to cut this sort of 11 due to the longer run, so we headed back to COT.  With 2 minutes still on the clock I made the mistake of asking Jedi for an Ab exercise and he delivered with some terrible rocking thing that I hope to avoid in the future.

Announcements- The Yeti & read your Newsletter

Prayers/Praises – Prayers for the family of the fallen Police Officer, and Praises for how the community has come together to support Law Enforcement.

A Brief challenge to remember Beginnings, and to remember that God’s Mercies are new every morning.

 

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Quick Adjustments at Quagmire

It was a cooler morning than anticipated when YHC rolled into Quagmire to set up the day’s activities. As soon as I got there, I realized my original plan wouldn’t work because there were two semis parked in the middle of the ideal workout space. But, I’m flexible, and quickly made adjustments to the weinke to accommodate, then drove off to meet the other PAX.

Ten HIMs beat the fartsack (and, to their dismay, failed to check the Twitter machine) to post this morning. As the clock ticked to 0515, a brief disclaimer was disclaimed (“You will go upside down today, so modify as necessary…and be sure to breathe”), and off we went for a mosey through the parking lots with some knees to chest, high knees, and toy soldiers before circling up outside Books-a-Million for a short COP.

COP

10 Windmills IC

20 Moroccan Night Clubs IC

15 Merkins IC

Quick stretch in downward dog then honeymooner, with some side to side low plank (6″) work and a brief battering ram for good measure. Recover to our feet and mosey to the red balls for some more warm up.

Originally, YHC was going to call this the “Paula Abdul” burpicide, but the lyrics to “Opposites Attract” actually say “two steps forward, two steps back,” which gets you nowhere, and that’s unacceptable. So, it went nameless. But, we did what worked out to two burpees and five LBCs at every ball (ten balls total), running forward two balls, do two burpees, then back one ball, five LBCs, etc., all the way across the front of Target. Lots of mumblechatter that this didn’t feel like just a warmup. But we were warmed up by the end, so the title fit.

With the six in, quick mosey to the (semi blocked) roadway between Target and Home Depot for

The Thang

Partner up for a Dora inspired, wall dependent workout. Partner one ran across the street to the broad wall facing Home Depot to complete two wall walks (plank to BTW to plank; aka “wall worm” in the exicon, but it’s one of two definitions, so wall walks was preferred). Partner two found a spot on the Home Depot wall to complete as many reps as possible of the prescribed exercise, When partner one returned, switch places, keep counting reps for a cumulative total.

Exercise breakdown:

100 air humpers with feet on wall (aka “glute bridge”)

200 Rockette chairs (Peoples Chair with alternating leg kicks, single count – it’s a good burn)

300 sit ups with straight legs up the wall (try to touch your toes!)

400 plank wall taps

500 calf raises

All groups made it to the calf raises, but no groups got through all 500 reps (that’s a lot of calf burning) before time demanded a quick mosey back to COT.

Announcements

  • Read your newsletter
  • Rooster was fun; keep an eye out for other CSAUPs coming up, like the Yeti on Feb. 24 (make an 18-man team if you need to, but try to be a part of it)
  • Read your newsletter

Praises and Prayers

  • Tater’s a grandpa (but he doesn’t know what to call himself). Grandson Fletcher was born at 32 weeks, so he’s in the NICU. Prayers for Fletcher and his parents.
  • Royale’s mom’s surgery went well; prayers for full recovery
  • Royale’s aunt was bit by a dog, so prayers for recovery there too
  • YHC’s in the middle of leading another missionary training that has been filled with bumps; pray for peace and wisdom

NMM

I didn’t get to share this at the end – I’m bad about actually having a message during the workout. The words come later.

My word for 2018 is “deeper” – deeper faith, deeper relationships, digging deeper, etc. It seemed innocuous enough when I chose it, but this past week has showed me that it is anything but. In my role of training and equipping new missionaries, I spend countless hours putting together week-long training events that directly affect the lives of people looking to live long-term in cross-cultural ministry. I love what I do, and though I’ll admit that there’s no perfect program, I think we’ve built a pretty good thing here.

So naturally, it’s extremely frustrating when I have to change things, especially last minute.

Like when it snows and the city shuts down on the first day, and I have to somehow provide food and transportation to 11 people. Or when I have to cram a 5-day training into four days without going outside the 9-5 schedule because of childcare constraints. Or when I have to teach somebody else’s session because the presenter has to attend to a family health issue and the backup presenter is out of town. Technology issues, schedule issues, supply issues, the list goes on. Just when I think I’m making progress (two steps forward), something happens and I need to change something (one step back). I feel completely out of control.

All I can do is trust God.

God answers your prayers, but it doesn’t always happen the way you expect.

More trust. Deeper faith.

I’ll let you chew on that.

-Jedi

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#218in18 Kick-off Convergence BackBlast

76 PAX (including 4 FNGs) met in the gloom at Harris Teeter this morning to kick the year off the right way.

Group 1 – Jedi

Start with 60 seconds of plank tutorial, then a fairly lame attempt to explain the exercise “routine” for the upper body station. The routine, to be done in increasing AMRAP style:
· Incline Merkins
· Low Country Crab Boil (One leg, one hand dips)
· 90° Turn clockwise
· Staggered/Uneven Break Dancer Merkins (Left hand on curb)
· Staggered/Uneven Carolina Dry Docks (Left hand on curb)
· 90° Turn clockwise
· Pseudo Planche Merkins
· Donkey Kicks
· 90° Turn clockwise
· Staggered/Uneven Break Dancer Merkins (Right hand on curb)
· Staggered/Uneven Carolina Dry Docks (Right hand on curb)
· 90° Turn to starting position

Start with 10 reps for each exercise, then add 2 reps each round after that (10, 12, 14, 16, …). Only the elite few made it past the round of 12.

Group 2 – Peabody

An absolute honor to lead a convergence and had so much fun working with all the guys. Here’s the fun of the cardio Q.

SPRINT Relays!!!  

3 team

60 Yard sprint

Team members are doing Seal Jacks, side straddle hops, or flutters while teammate runs.

Winning team selects penalty exercise for 2 losing teams. (Unknown is losing team has to do the penalty exercise too but only half the reps).

Rinse and repeat the sprint relay races once teams are mixed up.

Mary to follow:

  • 50 LBCs
  • 25 Flutters
  • 10 Freddie Mercury’s

Lists of fun to hear the encouragement of other Pax and see the competition bring out the most in guys.  Saw lots of guys really push hard to win for their team.

Group 3 – Jekyll

Motley Crue and 80’s hairband soundtrack

  • COP: SSH, IW, Squat
  • 5 Burpee OYO, 4 OYO, 3 OYO
  • Lt Dan: squat and jumping , 1:4 ration
    • 1 squat: 4 jumping lunge, 2 squat: 8 Jumping lunge…10 squat: 40 jumping lunge
  • 5 burpee OYO
  • Calf Raises 25 each: Straight, Toes Out, Toes In
  • Donkey Kicks

COT

Welcome FNGs Iron City, Humps, Hillary, and Juliet

Prayers by CakeBoss for leadership.

– Ginsu

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Let’s Get Physical!

11 Strong for a Jane Fonda inspired warm-up with Gecko to start things off along with a short mosey up the road and back we did some leg movements that may or may not be PG13!! We even had some karaoke and music provided by the PAX.

After a nice warm-up Gecko took us to the “Hill” for some hill repeats

1st round was plank at the bottom while  partner one runs to the top and back

Round 2 was Carolina drydocks while the other ran

Can’t remember if we made it to round 3 but I do remember being handed over the Q

So we mosied over to the wall to do some dips and derkins

1st round was 30 dips and 20 derkins

2nd round was 25 dips and 15 derkins

3rd round 20 dips and 10 derkins

10 count between rounds

mosied over to the field and kept our partners for a 4 corner burpee fest!

1st partner stays back and does LBC’s while partner one runs to the next corner and does 5 burpees (Flapjack) comeback and pick your partner up to go to the next corner

Partner staying back does SSH while the other partner runs to the next corner and does 10 burpees (Flapjack)

1st partner stays back and does LBC’s while partner one runs to the next corner and does 15 burpees (Flapjack) comeback and pick your partner up to go to the next corner

1st partner stays back and does Squats while partner one runs to the next corner and does 20 burpees (Flapjack) comeback and pick your partner up to go to the next corner

After the last round we mosied to the parking lot to do some flutters while the other partner runs across the parking lot and back (flapjack) Repeat 6 times

Finished up with a little AB Lab

Fun times!

Thanks Italian Job for coming across the river and enjoying Alcatraz for the first time! Glad to have you!

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