Tag: Half Shell

Set those goals and discipline will take you there

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11 hearty Pax posted to Alcatraz looking for that perfect mixture of pain and fellowship. I was stoked to be able to lead alongside a well-known Master of the Beatdown, our own Jekyll. We agreed ahead of time that YHC would take the 1st half and this is how we started:

Full Disclaimer was given for our FNG (my wife’s cousin Joe) who I had been EH’ing for some time along with Old Bay and Destiny. Old Bay gets the assist as he agreed to drive Joe to Alcatraz. Luckily, my legal training has prepared me for denying and disclaiming all liability.

Mosey along Windward with some Butt Kickers, High Knees and karaoke mixed in.

COP, all IC: SSH * 20, Imperial Walkers * 15, Merkins * 10, Windmills * 15, Diamond Merkins * 10, Squats * 15, Plank Series, MNC*15, Wide Arm Merkins * 10

The Thang:

Grab cinder blocks from Jekyll’s car and mosey to the near baseball diamond. Partner up and prepare for a modified Dora-Milwaukee Baseball Trivia style. With the monthly theme of Discipline swirling in my head and heart all week, my thoughts turned to the sport of baseball as it requires so much mental and physical discipline to reach the highest level. So, our exercises would be informed by some trivia about my hometown of Milwaukee and its’ teams. To Wit:

  1. 1954-1st National League city to pass 2 million in attendance- not New York or Chicago, but Milwaukee-do 54 chest presses total
  2. 1979 1st time there were Co-Rookies of the Year in the AL- 79 block swings– The co-rookies were Alfredo Griffin, Toronto and John Castino, Minnesota. John happens to be my cousin and his discipline and determination at baseball made a large impression on me and grew my love of the game immeasurably.
  3. 1982- 1st and only World Series appearance for the Brewers- 82 overhead presses
  4. 2008- Brewers end 26-year playoff drought- 108 LBCs w/block

Closed out my portion with 20 leg throws/partner and 20 partner hand-clap Merkins.

Cue Jekyll:

With Short Sale testing the cerebral and the chesticles, I thought wise to focus on the ol back and stumps.  We moseyed the loop around the park stopping for a few upper, middle, lowers- ala: pearls on a string.

Keeping with the baseball theme- we ran bases as such:

  • Bear Crawl to 1st, do 5 Burpees, crab walk to 2nd, More Burpees, Bear Crawl to 3rd, You guessed it-5 Burpees and Crab walk home
  • Squat walk to 1st, tip toe lunge to 2nd, squat walk to 3rd, tip toe lunge to home
  • Partner carries swapping as needed for everyone to get 2 full laps
  • Wheel barrow with partner swapping at each base

We probably did some more but I (Jekyll) had sweat in my eyes the entire time.

Short Sale had great words of wisdom RE: theme of the month Discipline.  YHC offered his two cents:

  • Ephesians 6:4 Fathers do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord
  • Hebrews 12:11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

NMM (from Short Sale):

After COP, I mentioned our first thoughts on Discipline. I often blur the line between Discipline and punishment towards my kids. Discipline should be a way to moderate their behavior and show them the “guardrails” in life. YHC can be heavy handed at times and I need to be less of a taskmaster. Also, be more disciplined and do a better job of treating our 2.0s equally and not showing favoritism. Discipline is also the bridge that takes us from our current accomplishments towards the goals we have set for ourselves. Personally, the gap between my accomplishments and my goals can be very wide sometimes. Need to focus more on serving my M and less on selfish pursuits. Jekyll’s bible verses above were spot on. All the advice I need is right there in Scripture, just need to take the time and give my faith walk greater attention.

I was honored to lead with Jekyll and humbled at the opportunity. Thanks Senator Tressel for the nod. To me, Alcatraz is one of the finest AOs, and that is a testament to the Senator’s leadership.

Short Sale and Jekyll out.

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4 Corners of Body Destruction

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No, we did not do the Body Destroyer for 45 minutes, Birdcage! However, there was consistent feedback that this was a brutally different workout. Welcome to “ya never know what ur gonna get with Straight Up!”

A big shout out to all the men that joined me. I was very, very proud of them, and especially proud of Short Sale, Nomad and Sparky. Seriously, this was not an easy workout. A special thanks to Crawdaddy who helped with the group activities and leading his team. Here is what we did. If you decide to copy it for one of your Q’s, feel free to but you have to invite me because I want to do it again!

I. Beginning: Disclosure mentioned; No FNGs

Theme: First thought on Discipline today:  “It was character that got us out of bed, commitment that moved us into action, and discipline that enabled us to follow through.” (Zig Zigler)

A head’s up that we will have teams. Divided into teams. Advised we will be competing against each other’s team.

2 running lines to warmup. During warmup, ask person you are running next to:

1, If you had unlimited time, what would you consider to be your favorite thing to do with your time?

2. If you had unlimited money, what would you do?

II. Running Warm-up: 2 line Groups 

Gradually moseying around The Ranch/school doing toy soldiers, butt kickers, high knees fast,  one leg hops, side straddles.  

Another thought: “Discipline, for the Christian, begins with the body. We have only one. It is this body that is the primary material given to us for sacrifice. We cannot give our hearts to God and keep our bodies for ourselves.” (Elisabeth Elliot)

III. 2 Circle up Warm-ups around school

First Circle in front of school: 8 merkins, 9 squats, 11 toe raises, 10 second Shoulder Stretch

Second Circle in back of school: 8 SSHs, 8 Ab Bigodas, 10 second Partner hamstring stretch

Meant to read this one to the guys: “The battle of prayer is against two things in the earthlies: wandering thoughts and lack of intimacy with God’s character as revealed in His word. Neither can be cured at once, but they can be cured by discipline.” (Oswald Chambers)

IV. Workout Segment: (Entire Soccer) Field challenges

Team Straight Up vs. Team Crawdaddy

**Reminder that if someone on your team is not finished with the exercise and you are, then join in and do it with them to help them succeed and be a teammate! Do all exercises together as a group; push your team; form is crucial; your captain will make you do it again if you do not do it correctly!

Start in the middle of the field and race to your corner

Corner #1:

7 bropees

20 Parnerkins (Partner Derkins) (each partner has their turn)

(Similar to parts of a 1 legged Hail Mary without the bench) 13 Single leg in the air dips each side; after you go down one, then give the other partner a high five, then go on the the next dip, then a high five, . . . so you want to sit next to each other but in opposite directions

8 Squerkins each

15 Deep Squat creating an X on the way up

Leap frog to the half field line

Plank position crawl (keep your back flat, abs tight) from half field line to the next corner to Corner #2.

Corner #2:

7 bropees

9 Dive bombers (“Under the hedge/fence” and clap one of your partners hand once “under the fence”)

14 Skull Crushers doing at same time with your partner/team

17 alternating lunges each side

Tunnel of Love with your entire Team (no coupon); 2 pass throughs per person

65 imaginary towel hops in unison as a team

Wheelbarrow with partner to next corner cone (switch half way); go to Corner #3 (or back to the mid-field cone if we are out of time)

Corner #3:

7 bropees

19 Canoe Crunches (like Boats to Canoe but no boat and rather row your canoe back “through the water”; doing both sides is one)

14 total Walking merkins – 2 left, then 2 right equals 4; face your partner, do not go the same way. Pass each other every time.

18 Boxing puncher planks (one PAX fist to another PAX’s fist; no pushup)

Plank (10 sec hold) to 6 inches (10 sec hold) – 2X each

Partner carry (Fireman’s carry) to half field line (Parter up on your team and whichever partner has enough in him to do it!). Then switch to . . .

Alternating Broad jumps with partner (pass the other partner on each jump) until corner cone #4

Corner #4:

7 bropees

13 Pattycake (single) Merkins

4 Burpee Squat next to your partner; do at same time

36 Squats

18 Frog crunches (on the ground in standard crunch position, legs bent at 90 degrees in air with insides to feet touching each other only; then with hands in prayer position, reach to the connection point of your feet)

Lunge and reach (10 each side pretending you are picking up a can from a shelf and putting it way up high)

Weekend at Bernie’s to middle of field; switch half way

WOWWY! There were a lot of exercises! Did we make it all the way through all 4 Corners of Body Destruction? Well, . . . almost. I would say both teams had about 2-3 exercises left. It was a close race to the end to see who would finish first. To hard to tell. Until next time, Team Crawdaddy!

V. Mosey back to COT

I encouraged the PAX to focus on being disciplined in all aspects of life, especially their time with God.

“God does not discipline us to subdue us, but to condition us for a life of usefulness and blessedness.” (Billy Graham)

Announcements

Whetstone – consider getting involved; see Rebel (newsletter) if you have questions about it

Praises

Prayer requests.

Sending out into Thursday’s work day and special prayers for the children starting school and for dad’s to be encouraging to their kids for the year.

Thanks for the opportunity, Backdraft! Aye!

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Board of Pain Tabata style

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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

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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!

 

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Golden Corral , buffet of choices

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It was a humid July morning at 18 HIM met for a assortment of pain.  12 choose YHC for BC and 4 WhatDid ruck beat down.  Zima and MacGivor went for a sweat fest run.  The 12 boot campers went off with me.

20 SSH

  1. 20IW

20 Moroccan Nightclubs

run 100% across parking lot, 10 bombjacks

Set up for a Rock Hill Wakkers Starfish (Change Order new what was coming):

100 merkins

100 LBC

100  Squats

50 Pike Presses, between each stations 10 burpies

Next up a Merkin Wave for 7 rounds . Crowd pleaser.

Jack Webb

Sprint back across parking lot for 10 more bombjacks.

series of Wall Sits including each PAx doing Bear Crawls.

finish up with another set of merkin wave.

.Annoucements, praises and prayers.

read your newsletter.

Always an honor to lead.

 

 

 

 

 

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