Choosing Not to Cheat – Ballroom Style

Honestly, YHC was stoked to Q the Ballroom this week. First, I had not visited the new site since moving from PKES. Second, I had not seen a lot of the Pax at this site and third the weather was perfect with a mild 60 degrees at launch.

I have struggled with moderate workouts for many years because I don’t view these men as “moderate”. If you define men who get up around 4:45 to post in any weather conditions and workout for 45 minutes while sharing fellowship and faith throughout as moderate, then so be it.

I recently spent some time in fellowship with other Pax and was reminded of the book by Andy Stanley, Choosing to Cheat. The gist of the book is that we are all cheaters. We cheat on our work by spending time with our wife. We cheat on our wife by spending time with our kids and so on. This book hits home for me. While work/life balance is unattainable and a #Oprahbomb, I find that I get the validation that I so desire from work and gravitate to working harder for more validation. I asked the Pax who posted to choose not to cheat for the next 45 minutes on their workout and to hold each other accountable in doing so.

The Thang

Mosey to football field

COP

SSH x 30

Windmills x 15

IW x 15

CDD x 20

Plank Jacks x 20

Night Clubs x 25

Mosey to 50 yard line

Burpee Ladder Starfish

2 Burpees in middle

Sprint to corner

20 Mtn Climbers

4 Burpees in middle

Sprint to corner

10 merkins in cadence

6 Burpees in middle

Sprint to corner

20 Squats in cadence

8 Burpees

Sprint to corner

20 Bomb jacks

10 Burpees

Ladder back down

Partner up for Ab Ladder

5 Situps

Sprint

5 Situps plus 10 flutters

Sprint…you get the idea

Finished with 5 sit-ups, 10 flutters, 15 Freddy, 20 LBC, 25 American Hammer

Random ladder of burpees and abs to finish…lots of complaining here

 

Moleskin

  • Prayers for Badger and Bullwinkles Dad
  • Lots of upcoming events…read your newsletter
  • Praise for Barney Fife and Boogie Down

Thanks to Short Sale for the opportunity. Love what you have done at the Ballroom!

Pusher out!

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#TheCoop

7 PAX showed up on this cool, foggy morning for a pre-Thanksgiving beatdown.

Disclaimer  was disclaimed.

Word of the month: Victory. As such, YHC requested the PAX consider, “In what parts of your life do you celebrate victory?”.

We took advantage of the circle we were already in and started the warm – up with:

10 – Low Slow Squats

10 – Slow windmills

Mosey: Kereoke Left/Right –>Mosey: Knees to Chest, Ankles to Hip –> Mosey: High Knees, Butt Kickers

COP to finish Warm-Up:

10 –  Hill Billy walkers

10 – Goofballs (By Request)

30 – Merkins

Honey Mooners, Downward Dog

10 – Peter Parkers

10 – Parker Peters

Honey Mooners, Downward Dog

Mosey to Pull – Up Bars

Partner#1: 8 pull ups, Partner#2: 8 squats  – 3 SETS

Partner#1: 5 toes to bar, Partner#2: 15 SSH  – 3 SETS

Partner#1: 5 pull ups (or whatever grip necessary to get your chin over the bar), Partner#2: 5 flying squirrels  – 3 SETS

During recovery, YHC read the Definition (via the word of the month document) of Victory.

Mosey to Wall:

+BTTW, followed by 15 derkins

+Peoples Chair, while each PAX ran 15 yards and completed 5 flying squirrles

+20 Donkey Kicks

During recovery, YHC provided the PAX some things to consider –> When we pray for the Spirit’s help…we will simply fall down at the Lord’s feet in our weakness. There we will find the victory and power that comes from His love.

–>Nothing paralyzes our lives like the attitude that things can never change. We need to remind ourselves that God can change things. Outlook determines outcome. If we see only the problems, we will be defeated; but if we see the possibilities in the problems, we can have victory.

Mosey to BOP – All single count:

+10 Bomb Jacks – Run lap around basketball court

+25 Merkins  – Run lap around basketball court

+10 Jump Squats – Run lap around basketball court

+25 Merkins  – Run lap around basketball court

Plank until 6 in.

Mosey to bottom of hill and during recovery, YHC read 1 Corinthians 15:57-58

But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

+40 Yard Jail Break to the top of the hill. Mosey to COT.

COT –

+Count-O-Rama, Name-O-Rama

+The PAX gave insight as to what Victory looked liked in their lives.

+Announcements, Prayers and Praises.

All the PAX put in great effort.

TClaps to Chicken Hawk for putting the Word Document together and for the PAX sharing their thoughts on Victory.

Thank you SugarBug for the opportunity to Q.

#CoopStrong

 

 

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Santini has all but signed off of Twitter.  He prefers to “call” people and meet them “face to face”.  Pssshhhhhh. Whatever that is…  Therefore he did not see my Q assignment a few months ago and was unavailable to my reminder yesterday.  I tried a couple of Q replacements but no dice… Insert AO site Q.

Cold but not as cold as Monday.  At one point I thought McGuyver was going to go shirtless.  Lawd!  Strong 1st F Pax: McGuyver, Handy Manny, Javert, STH, Greenwave.

The Thang

  • Stretchy stretcherson
  • Lungwalk 15 yards, run 15 yards,
  • Squat walk same
  • SSH, IW, Merkins, CDD

Wheel of Fire

  • 8 cones each with an exercise set equidistant from the center.  That’s right, equidistant.  About 25 yards.  Pax will do exercise on cone, bearcrawl to center, perform 10 burpees, run out to the next one.  Rinse/repeat until complete.
    • 15 merkins
    • 30 lunges
    • 25 LBC
    • 25 Carolina Dry Docks
    • 30 X&O
    • 25 Squat
    • 25 Flutter kicks
    • 25 Plank Punches
  • 3 sets of 30 seconds step ups
  • 5 sets of sprints
  • Wheel of Fire- 5 burpees in middle, half number of reps on cone.

End

Naked Man Moleskin

Q’s:  this is good Mumblechatter and 2ndF builder through 1st F Pain.  You’re all pretty close together, its constant movement and relationships are built through pain which there is plenty of here.  Consider adding some tunes or blue tooth speaker in the middle.

Holidays can be equally great and tough.  Remember there can be a lot of pain- and I don’t mean your “pain in the ass in-laws”.  Some folks are really hurting, missing deceased loved ones or just lonely sad clowns.  count your blessings and for Pete’s sake- just say yes ma’am now through the weekend.  A whole lot smoother, I promise.

Jekyll.

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Backblast: 17 for 17 at The Colosseum

16 men joined YHC for some fun on the concrete at The Colosseum.

After the disclaimer was said we moseyed around the parking lots until we found the perfect spot for a warmup.

WARMUP:

  • side straddle hops x20
  • windmill x10
  • squats x30
  • merkins x15
  • mountain climbers x15
  • LBCs x15

Mosey about 10 feet to the first set of painted road arrows. There are 17 of these over about 1/10th of a mile stretch. We did the follow exercise at each set of arrows and then hauled it back to the start:

  • 1 burpee
  • 1 burpee + 3 merkins
  • 3 jump squats
  • quick break for some Captain Thor – up to 6 x 24
  • 5 carolina dry docks
  • 2 big boy sit ups
  • finish up with boats and canoes x a lot

Mosey to COT

Announcements included T-giving day convergence, Christmas party.

Praise for Ginsu’s daughter (successful surgery), prayers for marriages, family.

Ginsu took us out in prayer.

Thanks for the opportunity, Jekyl. See you next time.

 

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10 at Varsity for some kettle bell fun and 2 sprints.

Disclosure, No FNGs

 

Warmup:

SSH, Merkins, Low Slow Squat, and Hillbilly Walker

 

Partners

-1 runs a lap

-1 lifts a kettlebell

-Overhead Press -right arm

-Lawn Mower – right arm

-Overhead Press – left arm

-Lawn Mower – left arm

-Curls – right arm

-Tri Extension

-Curls – left arm

-Tri Extension

-Snatch -right arm

-Dead Lift

-Snatch – left arm

-Dead Lift

 

Everyone on line.  Lunges with kettle bell pass thru until thighs quiver.  Then drop the kettlebell and sprint to the end of the parking lot.  X 2

Slow Mosey to the Wall.  10 count for each PAX,  wall sits with the bell.  Who had to be the one who says “arms straight out”.

Balls to the Wall, 5 count for each PAX.

Slow Mosey to COT for Mary.

-American Hammer, V Ups with the Bell. LBCs with the bell, Hello Dolly with the bell

 

Discussion of Victory.  Pursuit of Excellence.

Prayers for our country based on all the recent tragedies, including the latest in Texas.

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WhatDid brought Sally to the Ranch

The Ranch, a staple go to AO here in the Fort had 10 HIM show up to get better.  That’s as simple as we kept it.

YHC gave a disclaimer as we had an FNG present. All moves are suggestions, you’re here on your own will, modify as needed and off we went.

My chicken scratch weinke is attached to this post. The highlight – 3 minutes of Sally Up, Sally down merkin fest. Great idea until about minute 2 for most of us. Those merkin beast out there today – great job men.

Welcome to FNG Octane. Who of which, is of Respectable status. He was in my driveway ready to go at 4:45.  It’s never to late for us to get out there and crush it- as proven by Octane. Pax -go out there and EH even our older brothers.  They’ll teach us a few things along the way.

Announcements:

  • Fast5 – Get on a team and ask Anchorman and Zika for details
  • Christmas party on 12/1.
  • Get involved with G-Fit. Which moved to Saturdays at Steele Street park at 3 PM.

Prayers/Praises

  • Praises for all the great Fort AO’s
  • Family, Wives/Children

Until Next time…WhatDid out

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300s at the Ranch

I’m a little late getting this posted so I don’t recall all the finer conversation points and stimulating discussion points we went shared. But I’m still within the 7 day back-blast window!

Mosey to back of school for pretty standard warm-up. SSHs, Hillbilly Walkers, Windmills, Mtn Climbers, Peter Parkers, Squats.

Mosey to larger lot for warm-up ladder. On one end Merkins, the other Donkey Kicks. Start with 5 on one end and 20 on the other. Go up and down by 5 each time: 5/20, 10/15, 15/10, 20/5. Each time you pass thru the middle 3 burpees.

Mosey to behind school for walkin BTW. Walk on hands all the way down the wall then Lt Dan walk (lunge, lunge, squat) back to start. Only called this once so we had plenty of time for the 300.

Mosey to front of middle school. It’s a semi-scientific fact that 30 reps of anything is right about the point you want to hurl things or insults at the Q. So based on hard science and a plan for not letting Straight-up lap all of us, we started the 300. Pretty simple, 30 reps of 10 exercises. After each exercise run 1/2 lap and wait for PAX. Exercises:

  1. Single Leg Lunges using bench – 15 each leg
  2. Scorpion CDDs – 15 each leg up
  3. Dips using bench
  4. Jump squats
  5. Derkins using bench
  6. Seal Jacks
  7. Calf raises (30 regular, 30 in, 30 out)
  8. Flutters
  9. 10 Box Jumps, 10 Step-ups each leg
  10. Plank Jacks

Great work by all the PAX. We were able to get through the complete 300 with about 1 minute to spare. All the PAX stayed together and encouraged each other to finish strong. Thanks again Backdraft for the opportunity.

Logging off,
Mainframe

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Taking things for granted and getting your $hit together

Conditions cold, clear, and 46 degrees

Every star in the sky was shining bright

Disclaimer

Warmup-O-Rama

Run to playground at Elementary School – partner up

Partner 1 run a lap around fence

Partner 2 = lap 1 AMRAP flying squirrel, lap 2 AMRAP LBC, lap 3 AMRAP squats

I then found a basketball…which turned out to be a perfect display of how bad we shoot…lots more flying squirrels

Mosey to pull-up bars 1-2-3-4-5

ABLAB = with all my favorites with partners running

Pullups 1-2-3

Mosey

Finished with a minute of flying squirrels, minute of LBC, and a minute of plank

COT/Prayer or Praise/BOM

NMM

Sermon was about taking life for granted. I talked about travels, family, work, and how my stuff has gotten complicated over the last few weeks. On Sunday night I did the Capital Ruck Tour in Atlanta with a blind Marine who did the entire ruck with us. A few times on our route our path got dark and I wanted to complain about my path getting dark and hard to see (+I forgot my headlamp), and I quickly realized how “silly” that sounds after hearing John’s testimony on Sunday night. Each day we should realize how good we have it rather than waiting for things to be taken away to make us understand…

Cheddar shared a great message in COT about getting your $hit together as men because tomorow is not guaranteed…

AYE!

CSPAN

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The Armory 2017.42

There were only 6 at the Armory this day.  I suppose some were intimidated by the forecast of rain, but mother nature for some reason waits for 6am for these kinds of things.

Warmup
SSH, Windmill, Mountain Climbers, Peter Parkers, Merkins

The Thang
Mosey to the playground patio for some not so good ideas…

Drop sets:
Snatch x10 EA, Monkey Row x15 EA, Front Row x20
Sitting Leg Raises x20, Russian Twist, Freddy Mercury
Dead Hangs from chain 15 sec (not to self: this is much harder than a rope, don’t try this without gloves), from horizontal bar 30 sec, modified dead hang 60 seconds… hopefully no one has to hang on to anything to save their lives.
Mil Press x10 EA, Tricep Ext x15, Skull Crusher x20
Sitting Leg Raises x20, Russian Twist, Freddy Mercury

For legs was the slow lunge walk with bell pass through, then sprint for a total distance of 100 yards.   3 rounds: 20/80, 30/70, 40/60… FNG Tenure ran like he was storming Normandy.  He can carry his weight really fast when needed.

Mosey back to COT for some Protractor round robin.

Moleskin
A hope that all those affected by the untimely deaths of kids from the community may be met with some understanding and the trust that we love the One in control.

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Control

19 High Impact Men posted for a moderate workout in the misty gloom today. Smuggler made a strong come back, kotter style. Stang lead the second stretch-o-rama which made the Pax grunt like they were in a birthing center. Asphalt came to  COT and blessed us with his powerful testimony.

The Thang:

Strech-o-rama for warm-up

COP: SSH (10x), IW (10x), HBW (20x), Sumo Squats (15x), MC (20x), Jumping Lunges (10x), Swimmers (10x) Freddie Mercuries (15x),

Toy Soldiers, Shuffle Left, Shuffle Right, Back Pedals, Karaoke Left, Karaoke Right, Power Skips

Dips (15x), Extreme CCDs (10x) and LBCs (20x)

Decline Merkins (15x), Extreme CCDs (10x), and Flutters(20x)

Incline Merkins (15x), Extreme CCDs (10x), Heels to Heaven (20x)

Wall Merkins, People’s Chair (3x)

Partner Drills: One partner runs to the light post and back while the other does the following until the team does a total of 100 Merkins, 200 Monkey Humpers, 300 Flutters.

Strech-o-rama for cool down

Moleskin:

God is in control. Type A people, like myself, struggle to understand that reality. Reality became very clear when the Colombia Mission Team and I were stranded in Miami right before Irma hit.

I brainstormed solutions to “control” the situation like:

– Get another flight to escape the hurricane (reality check: the airport was closing).

– Take a train (reality check: the train station was closed).

– Find a hotel for shelter (reality check: all local hotels were closed).

We prayed and then escaped the storm by driving in what the media claimed would be 15 mile/hour traffic.

God was in control and His plan was far greater than ours. Instead of 12 men going to Colombia, he sent 17 of us to Florida to help hurricane survivors. Instead of serving 1 organization in Columbia, we served 5 organizations in Florida. Instead of engaging a few donors to raise money for the mission trip, He engaged over 1K people in our church/community to collect supplies for the hurricane survivors in Florida. Instead bringing a few supplies to Colombia (less than the 50 lbs limit), He had us bring over 10K lbs of supplies to  people who needed it in Florida.

I’m glad that God is in control. His plans are far greater than what we can imagine.

Peace,

Deacon

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