Tag: Gecko

Remember the Simple Joys in Life and Smile

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Today was my first Q since my dad passed away two weeks ago.  I wanted to plan the workout to celebrate his life and accomplishments, but I had a hard time putting it on paper.  We had some late arrivals so the disclaimer was brief.  We moseyed to the elementary school parking lot for warm-ups (SSHs, Windmills, Imperial Walkers, Plank Stretches, Mountain Climbers, Peter Parkers, and Parker Peter).

After warm-ups, I spoke about my dad’s adventure climbing the pyramids in Egypt.  I remember reading about the pyramids as a kid and my dad telling me, “I’ve been there.”  Since there are no pyramids in the area (although there is a building that looks like one in Regent Park), we ran up Dave Gibson Blvd to the bank parking lot to simulate the climbing of the pyramid.  Next, we ran over to the Cycle Bar.  I mentioned that my dad was a builder.  He started at a very young age, became a foreman for the building of several skyscrapers in Boston.  He wanted his family to grow up outside the city so we moved to Martha’s Vineyard.  He started his construction business during a tough economic cycle. He pushed through and built many houses on the island.  Back to the workout, I called this segment, “The Builder”.  Starting at the Cycle Bar, we started with 5 merkins, ran to the other end, and 5 squats.  We continued to weave back and forth through the parking lot adding 5 reps at each pass.  At the last row, we work finished with 30 reps.

My dad enjoyed exercising, especially running.  He did not start actively running until his mid 40s.  He coordinated several road races to raise money for different causes.  He also enjoyed the competition of running with his friends and racing to the finish line..Sound familiar?  As a group, we ran around the parking lot, it was good to see the Pax racing each other to the finish line.  Next, we moseyed back to the bank parking lot for some Ab exercises.  Later in life, my dad attended Jujutsu classes and use to talk to me about how important it is to exercise your core.

Finishing up the workout, we ran back down to the school and did a burpee builder at each light pole (28 in Total). My dad was a tough guy.  Forearms like Popeye and swung a hammer like John Henry.  In January, my sister and I came across a Christmas card from one of my dad’s running buddies.  Inside the card it said “You’re my best friend.”  We both laughed at it thinking it was funny for a grown man to write this, but they had developed a bond over the years to be best friends.  I can speak from experience that it is easy to not to talk about your “feelings” and “problems” and chalk it up to being tough and your ability to handle things yourself.   Having a group of men you can count on, to be there when you need them just as important as physical exercise.

 

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Burpee Bizarre

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We had 11 men show up on Wednesday at Pantheon.  After the disclaimer, we ran around the parking lot to get the blood flowing.  Next, we circled up for some warm-up exercises (SSH, Imperial Walkers, Windmills, Plank Stretches).

We began the difficult part of the workout.  For the next 10 minutes, we would do 10 burpees each minute with a five second rest in between each set.  After completion, we ran around the big loop to the front of the school.  We did a series of exercises in cadence (Squats, LBCs, Lunges, Flutters) running between the cross walks after each one.

Next, we returned to the top of the parking lot and repeated the 10 minute burpee exercise.  It was difficult, but most completed the burpees, a total of 200.

Great job by everyone.  Today we showed how much we can do when you are surrounded by others who want to improve themselves.

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Intervals at the Swamp

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I have been on a motivated 1stF acceleration tear recently and this continued with some relentless pain. Some might even say it was terrible. Introduced multiple uncomfortable exercises that targeted those obliques and hips. Penguins were a crowd-pleaser. Cookout Squats were also a fan favorite. Nut crushers took the cake. See the Workout summary if you are like me and get geeked out on the data. Stay Frosty my Friends! OLAF
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Hangin with Stang: Expectations

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So, to set the Expectations upfront, this won’t be as good as my last post 😉

Stang asked for someone to Q Hangin w/ Stang who had not yet done it.  So, seeing as I’ve never even been, I volunteered.  I don’t know if that’s a function of how much I miss you guys and want to get back out there or how much of a glutton for punishment I am to throw myself into the center of something I’ve never been a part of.  Those in attendance can decide which it was.

Fittingly, expectations were the topic that came to mind when Stang confirmed my appointment.  I’ve had a lot of those to work through recently.  I feel like expectations can be a blessing and a curse.  We have to first understand what we’re asking of others and what others are asking of us.  But more importantly, how was it communicated?  Was it fair?  Could it even be met?

I think expectations break into 3 real parts:

Expectations we have for ourselves.

Expectations we have thrust upon us.

Expectations we have of others.

Each one of these can have a dramatic effect on our relationships.  What happens to that relationship when expectations are not met?  This is true of the expectations we have of ourselves and how it affects our attitude.  How does the view of an employee or a direct report change when they don’t meet expectations?  What are you willing to do to make amends if you don’t meet someone’s expectations?

Many of us are driven men.  You’d have to be to get up before 5 am to do the things we do.  But how do we let our expectations affect those around us, especially our M’s and 2.0’s?

We had some great conversations about family, our own, and work expectations.  It’s so good to know that we are not alone.  We all have a story that we can learn from.  Make sure to share that story so others can benefit and learn.

I hope I met the PAX expectations today.  It was so good to be back out.  I miss the group so much not being able to come out and participate.  I look forward to getting back out in the gloom soon, even just to walk and say hi.

— Splinter

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The Bubble Meets Cindy

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Today, after the pre-ruck, 11 Pax, five of whom did the “double,”  Met Cindy for a bit of a beat down.  Congrats to those that doubled down!!

The thang:

Pretty simple, the Pax meandered around Baxter Village un and down stairs stopping here and there for 1) 20 or 10 curls, 2) 20 or 10 prone presses, 3) 20 or 10 squats and 4) 20 or 10 rows, each arm.  The Pax completed four rounds with a lot of walking with their Cindy or ruck.

Moleskin – we all have burdens, but with the help of others and faith in the Sky Q our burdens will be lessened.

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PreMurph weird exercises at Quagmire

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Disclaimer was disclaimed to these seasoned veterans.

Brisk Mosey from StartEx to Kohls parking lot, lots of complaints already.

Circle up then instruct the PAX to assume the FLLP, forward-leaning-listening-position, some people call it a high plank but I don’t hang out with those kind of people.
Read first fun fact about Memorial day:

Sprint around the Kohls and Ultra back to circle up.

Introduction to the new “weird” exercises:
First exercise is the “Side Straddle Burpee”
“The what?” disgruntled PAX
you heard right ladies. Now start Side Straddling and when I say down you perform a burpee. Its not in cadence so get moving.
We did that for a few burpees past when everyone wanted to quit so everyone got better.

Time for another loop around the shops.

Circle up again for some “Cha Cha Merkins”. It’s a simpler form of the breakdance merkin because you don’t have to bring your leg all the way through but you do have to cha-cha your feet in order for the outside of your hip to be able to touch the ground. Its a merkin that instead of your chest touching the ground you’re letting your hip droop so the outside touches which also makes one shoulder work harder than the other. And that’s why we alternate hips. It’s all about finding that right balance.

Then we did some “Suicide Squats”. It’s three squats in one, the gift that keeps on giving like Russian stacking dolls, Start in the original starting position then lower into a little baby squat, then return to standing, then go down to a proper parallel squat, then return to standing, then finally go down to a deep ankle squat, then return to standing. Congratulations thats one rep.

Time for another lap around the shops.

Next up was some “Cookout Squats” Think about having to put your knees together to balance a full plate of food at your grandma’s backyard while you sit in a rickety lawn chair. Only you don’t get the lawn chair and there isn’t a plate of food on your lap. Start standing with your knees together and your toes slightly in. Then squat down as far as you can go. It only takes about 6-7 of these evil guys to get the IT band and your outer hips to feel the fire.

Then bear crawl for about 10 or so parking spots to do some derkins before bear crawling back.

Now its time for the “NutCrackers” a truly crowd-pleasing experience. Drop into a low slow squat and hold at the bottom. Now rotate your knees inward until you hear the nutscrack then rotate them outwards until you can feel it in your hips. I dare you to try and do more than 10. (Its a four-count exercise)

Time for one last lap before the final exercise.

Final exercise was the “Penguin”

Stand upright tall with hands by your sides. Then in cadence you are going to reach down and touch your right knee but you can’t bend forward at the waist, Its all obliques. Then rotate over to the other side, Now you understand the name right? If you don’t you are probably doing it all wrong. This also is one that will sneak up on you 24-36 hrs later.

Finally finished with new and exciting exercises so its time for a quick suicide in front of the shops before heading back to COT.

Count-A-Rama, Name-A-Rama, Announcements and last but not least Prayers and Praises.
Now whos coming over to my house for the Murph? Shoutout to @ChaChing for pushing me to do the Murph and for Larell Lake Ridge Hood for joining us.

Thanks for the opportunity Mile High to lead such a great group of guys.

Stay frosty my friends!

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Great Way to Start the Week

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It was a privilege to Q the newest AO “Sweep the Leg” this week.  The term in one of my favorite movies, “Karate Kid”.  Lots of life lessons, bad 80s music, and my Hollywood crush, Elisabeth Shue. What a beauty!

Ok, back to the workout.  Pretty simple and repetitive.  Run a lap around the parking lot.  In the main lot, there were exercises (Carolina Dry Docks, LBCs, Merkins, Jump Squats – 20 of each) at each one of the four light poles.  Sprint between the light poles.  Run a lap around the parking lot..Rinse and Repeat.

Great job by everyone.  Lots of men getting better and encouraging each other.

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BLIMPS at The Bubble

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This was the first workout at the new location of The Bubble.  Moved by somewhat popular demand from the home of the temporary JWOW outdoor exercise pavilion (conveniently located on Daphne Circle) to the Baxter Mushroom pool, seven (7) PAX undertook a 6:00 AM work out effort.

 

Missing were the PAX that complained (sic) about the location of the JWOW Pavilion – Flat Tire, 98 Degrees, Assassin and Pusher.  Odd as the mushroom pool is about a :03 minute walk.   However, in all fairness, Pusher was DR and Assassin had a work call at 6:30.

 

After a bit of  a moderate warm up, four rounds of Blimps followed by a 1/3 mile run commenced.

Round One – 5, 10, 15, 10, 10 and 10

Round Two – 5, 20, 20, 15, 15 and 15

Round Three – 5, 30, 30, 30, 30 and 30 (oops Q didn’t follow the Wienke)

Round Four – 5, 20, 20, 15, 15 and 15

Round Five – 5, 20

This completed the inaugural Bubble workout at its new home.

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OLAF’S Inchworm Suicide at TheSwamp

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Disclaimer was disclaimed and a short mosey was started…. Or so the unsuspecting PAX thought.
So plan is to mosey around the whole outer prerun loop of Rivergate stopping every tenth of a mile to perform an exercise all together in cadance. Once we make it back to Best buy it’s everyman for himself for the next loop. But where does the Inchworm Suicide come in? Glad you asked. Instead of going from one cone to the next you must first go back to the previous cone before proceeding. So start at Best buy and jog to stop sign going towards home depot. Free space ten count, lucky you. Go back to best buy then return past free space and to next cone at turn into homedepot garden section. 10 SSH cadance count style. Next back to cone for free space 10 count then to wall beside Target for 5 over the wall jumps. U get the idea so to save everyone some time bc reading is hard I’ll just list the remaining exercises and post a picture of the workout summary map.

10 burpees to start the party,
Free space 10 count,
10 SSH,
5 wall getovers
10 Merkins,
5 Suicide squats aka goldilocks squats,
10 Chacha merkins,
5 Regular squats,
10 CDD,
5 lunges,
One other uperbody exercise,
10 burpees to end the party.

Warm hugs as promised to all surviving PAX at COT.

Over 4 miles logged by most, suspect the front runners got closer to 4.5miles. Great work gents and thank you to @ChaChing for the opportunity to lead. Until next time
Stay frosty my friends!
Olaf

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7th Year Convergence for The Fort

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The 7th Year Convergence for The Fort followed an exhilarating Invergence from the night before.  Hoping to continue that acceleration, the 4 Q’s had a plan to talk about the 4 Skills needed for Virtuous Leadership: Vision, Articulation, Persuasion, Exhortation.

CakeBoss to start us out with Vision: Recognizing advantage and the movement required to achieve it.

Disclaimer and welcome
“Go Hard or Go Home!”

Take off for 100 yard mosey up path, Get in 3 lines – Indian Run across WEP

Break into 4 lines, 2 groups of seal teams -20 seal team sit ups in cadence

Back into 2 lines , Everyone plank – Tunnel of Love (25 guys per line) – Plank series while guys army crawling under

Crowd pleaser for sure!

7 Burpees for 7 Years!

Vision is what I spoke about and the men that saw the advantage of F3 and planted it (moved towards it) in Charlotte, the The Fort and we continued to give it away in Rock Hill & Lake Wylie.

Hand off to Maximus

Articulation: Describing vision to others in a clear manner. Being able to tell others where we’re going and being able to describe that vision to others.

So, with that said, we’re going over to the top of the big hill to start with drill bits:

½ the group goes one direction while the other goes the opposite way

At each white post (drill bit), 10 Jumping Lunges (10 each leg)

10 Jump Squats

Mosey to the base of the other hill, the one with the statue on it:

NUR (backwards run) up the hill

3 Burpees at the top

Bear Crawl down

5 Burpees at the bottom

Hand off to Fun House for the “P”.

Persuasion – The initiation of first Movement.  Convincing people to move in the direction of advantage, abandoning their Status Quo,

YHC gave an awesome yet forgettable speech about Persuasion.  Then the Thang:

Circle Up – Duck, Duck, Goose – One guy runs around the circle the rest of us plank, the next guy goes when the running guy finishes.  Planking excercises were called out: High Plank, Low plank, Mountain Climbers….. Audible called to get the next guy running after 1/2 a lap around the circle of Pax….. Peter Parker, Parker Peters….. Audible called to get the next guy running after 1/3 lap around….. Mak-Tar-Jai, Left Hand High, Right hand high…..Done.  That took 10 minutes!  60 guys is a lot of guys to be running around in circles.

Stay in circle, 5 minutes left, Jack Webb: 1 Merkin to 4 Overhead hand claps.  We got to 8!

Hand off to Pusher for Exhortation!

Exhortation – Incentivizing The Breach Of Obstacles.

Burpees x 10 OYO
Flutters IC x 10
Mosey to a corner of WEP
Burpees x 9 OYO
Flutters IC x 10
LBCs IC x 10
Mosey to another corner
Burpees x 8 OYO
Flutters IC x 10
LBCs IC x 10
Rosalita IC x 10
Mosey to another corner
Burpees x 7 OYO
Flutters IC x 10
LBCs IC x 10
Rosalitas IC x 10
Hello Dollies IC x 10
Mosey to another corner
Burpees x 6 OYO
LBCs IC x 10
Flutters IC x 10
COT
Naked Moleskin – The name-o-rama took forever.  That is a good thing. When 60+ PAX post to celebrate something that has obviously changed their lives, then change is happening!  Thanks to Maximus who put this awesome weekend celebration together!  His leadership is not only Effective (Using VAPE) but he is a Virtuous Leader! (Check out the Q Source for the 5 C’s Virtues of Virtuous Leadership) Can’t wait to see what year 8 brings to The Fort!  More importantly, who it brings!  Time to go EH someone.  See you in the gloom.
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