ImpromptQ at The Coop

The Coop has had quite a month, and with a VQ on the schedule I was excited to see that momentum continue to grow. Sadly, our Q was a no show. As the Site Q, I led the PAX this morning in an impromptu Q.

Mosey to Bus Loop for COP
SSH x 30
Tappy Taps x 10
Low Slow Squat x 20
Hold Al Gore 45 Seconds
Pulsing Al Gore x 16
Merkins x 10
Yoga Flow w/Runner’s Stretch

While trying to figure out the weinke during the COP, we were holding Al Gores. At that time, I asked the PAX to enlighten me if their least favorite workouts. Cleverly, Cheddah answered “This one!” So we pulsed. A nice little burn to start us off. While moseying around prior to COP I decided upon our first endeavor.

Weinke

Partner Up
DORA 1-2-3 at Traffic Circle/Staff Parking Lot
100 Big Boy Sit Ups
200 Squats
300 SSH

Mosey around back of school to Lunch Tables

Derkins in Cadence x 10
Step Ups in Cadence x 20

Note to self: NEVER do derkins next to Haggis unless you have perfect form. That man is an animal.

Mosey to Pull Up Bars (Much to Trucker’s delight)

Wall sits while outer two PAX do 5 pull ups and work their way toward the center.
Rinse and Repeat but change up grip on your pull ups.

Mosey back to Shovel Flag

Hip work Courtesy of Airborne, one minute each side.

In all, we had a solid morning of varied movements. There’s some freedom in being able to make up the weinke on the fly, though I can say I was a more distracted than usual. The PAX who showed are true HIM, though. Lastly, we ran 2.5 miles.

A Burpee penalty was discussed for Mighty Mouse. If we can get him to show, we may have to proctor said penalty… though we all know we’ll help him out. That’s how we roll. Let’s just hope everything is ok for him.

Announcements

Hardwood on Q at Varsity this week!
QvQ coming at you on October.
Christmas Party coming up… get your ugly sweater on.
Read your newsletter.

Prayers/Praises

Kaiser – praise for God’s promises. There are over 700 promises in the Bible.
Chicken Hawk – pray for marriages. Pray that we as apathetic men can step up love our wives the way they need it.

Hope everybody enjoys their day, and holds their loved ones tight.

Punch List out.

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Honoring 5 heroes from 9/11 at the Honey Badger

16 PAX joined me to honor our fallen heroes, this time I went off the book and decided to do my own version and honor some of the heroes from the tragedy of 9/11.

-During the September 11 of 2001 attacks, 2,977 people were killed (excluding the 19 hijackers) and more than 6,000 others injured

-The immediate deaths included 265 on the four planes (including the terrorists), 2,606 in the World Trade Center and in the surrounding area, and 125 at the Pentagon

-Of those who perished during the initial attacks and the subsequent collapses of the towers, 343 were New York City firefighters, 23 were New York City police officers and 37 were officers at the Port Authority.

We had hundreds of heroes that day but I decided to honor 5 that made a great impact, they are not in any specific order but here are their names:

  1. NYPD Officer Moira Smith was the first officer to report the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 when she saw the first plane strike the first tower of the World Trade Center. Smith, a 13-year veteran, ran into the towers and began assisting in the evacuation. Officer Smith is credited with saving hundreds of lives that day, giving her own in the process. She was the only female NYPD officer to die on 9/11.
    She was survived by her 2-year-old daughter and her husband.
  1. Welles Crowther was an investment banker working on the 104th floor of 2 World Trade Center (the south tower). When United Airlines Flight 175 struck the south tower, Crowther remained calm. Just minutes after the plane hit, Crowther called his mother to let her know he was okay. He then began assisting others in evacuating, at one point carrying a woman down 17 flights of stairs, only to return to the 78th floor to continue helping others.
    Crowther had made it out of the building and was running back into it with a “Jaws of Life” tool when the tower collapsed. He was 24 years old.
  1. Mark Bingham ark owned a public relations firm, the Bingham Group. He was a passenger on board United Airlines Flight 93. Bingham was among the passengers who, along with Todd Beamer, Tom Burnett and Jeremy Glick, formed the plan to retake the plane from the hijackers, and led the effort that resulted in the crash of the plane into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, thwarting the hijackers’ plan to crash the plane into a building in Washington, D.C., most likely either the U.S. Capitol Building or the White House. Before their final mission, Mark called his mother and told her that he loved her very much. His mother, Alice Hoagland, is a former flight attendant. Since Mark’s death, she has become a world-renowned expert on airline safety as well as an activist for LGBTQ issues in memory of her heroic son.
  2. Ronald Paul Bucca was a Fire Marshal with 23 years on the job with FDNY. An Army Special Forces reservist, Bucca was known as “The Flying Fireman” after a spectacular fall from a tenement fire escape. Bucca, a marathon runner, died responding to the 78th floor of the south tower moments before it collapsed.
    He was the only FDNY Fire Marshal to be killed on 9/11.
  1. Retired United States Army Officer Rick Rescorla was working as the head of security at Morgan Stanley on the 44th floor when tragedy struck. Rick was there during the bombing at the Trade Center in 1993 and believe that the Towers were still a target for terrorists. He even predicted that a plane might be flown into them one day. He implemented security procedures for Morgan Stanley, including having practice evacuations every three months.
    On 9/11, Rick systematically helped the firm’s 1,000 employees out by ordering them through the stairways. He sang a Cornish battle song to boost morale, as he had done for his troops in Vietnam. After someone told him that he also needed to evacuate Rick said, “As soon as I make sure everyone else is out”. He was last seen heading up the tenth floor when the Tower collapsed.

WARM UP

We started with a slow mossey around the parking lot with some toy soldiers in between runs.

Back to COP for warm up exercises:

Windmill

Moroccan night clubs

Low Slow Squats (crowd favorites)

Cherry pickers

THE THANG

Mosseyed to the pull up bars area were some utensils had been setup for the following 9-11 format WO, 9 exercises with 11 reps each and then RUN down the hill to the stop sign and NUR back up, RINSE AND REPEAT, the plan was to do this 5 times, one for each hero but due to time restriction we completed 4 circuits with just enough time to run back to COT for announcements, prayers and praises.

11 pull ups BAR

11 big boy situps

11 toes to BAR

11 sledgehammer swing

11 knee raises BAR

11 merkins

11 slam ball to ground

11 Carolina dry docks

11 tire flips

It was a tough workout but it’s totally worth it when honoring our heroes; everyone pushed themselves through it with lots of mumble chatter but at the end we left better men!!

I was honored to Q the Honey Badger this week, thank you Dirty Harry for the opportunity to lead. #NeverForget

TINSEL out…

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3 X 12 at Varsity

Eight men in total posted at Varsity for a Tabata routine workout on a somewhat breezy morning.
Started with six pax and then an additional two Iron Pax gents joined in about 20 mins into the workout.

Warm Up
Mosey run
SSH (IC 10x)
Windmill (IC 10x)
Imperial Walker (IC 10x)
Merkins (IC 10X)
Plank stretches
Downward dog
Honeymooner
5 Pullups OYO

The tabata routine noted below was three sets of four exercises repeated three times, hence 3×12,

Thang 1:  I used the Seconds Pro timer to prompt us through the thang.  Also had tunes going.
Interval routines: exercise for 32 seconds, rest/transition for 10 seconds
Set #1:
Imperial Walkers
Dips
LBCs
Bobby Hurley’s
Repeat 3x

Short mosey Run

Set #2:
windmills
American Hammers
Step ups
OH claps
Repeat 3x

Short mosey Run

Set #3:
Derkins
flutters
Cherry pickers
Bomb jacks
Repeat 3x

Thang 2:
Sally routine (Moby’s song Flower): Leg lifts (down position should be 6″ off the deck)

Fini, COT

The 3×12 tabata was decent, but I’d bump it up to 45 seconds on exercise next time.

Doing the Sally  routine with leg lifts is a different take on the high plank/low plank version of it.  But it still rage-worthy by the twentieth time Moby cycles through “Bring Sally Up, Bring Sally Down”

Playlist:
The Man (Killers)
Got Nuffin (Spoon)
Higher Ground (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
Come on feel the noise (Quiet Riot)
South Bound Suarez (Led Zeppelin)
We Will Rock You (Queen)
Fire (Hendrix, live)
See Emily Play (Pink Floyd)
Living in the USA (Steve Miller Band)
Flower (Moby)

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Bleachers of Pain

Going to start off saying this is Punch List’s fault. I talked to him earlier and asked him 2 muscle groups he wanted to hit during todays workout. His choices were quads and back.

We had 2 FNG’s at The Coop ready to hit it. I started promptly with opening credits and a disclaimer, and ran to the football field bleachers for a quick warm up and examples of exercises.

The THANG:

I had the PAX partner up and I explained the WO. There where 8 exercises. 1 partner did the exercise while the other would do a lap up one side of the bleachers and down another then back to swap out with their partner. The rep count for each exercise was 100 reps.

The Exercises:

1: Dolphin Kick/Reverse Crunch (100 reps). They had a choice. The Dolphin Kick is done while lying belly down on the bleachers. Keeping belly and chest down you lift feet up together as high as you can to get a nice burn in the lower back area.

2: 1 foot on bench Lunge (50 reps each leg). With one foot stationed on the bleacher the other extended out and basically do a Lunge/squat using just that one leg.

3: Superman (100 reps). While lying face down on the bleacher putting arms straight out over your head. You lift feet/legs and arms up leaving belly on bleachers.

4: Sit Down Feet up Squat (100 reps). This is just performing a squat but lowering yourself onto the bleacher. You then while seated lift your feet off the ground for a brief second then raise yourself up into the standing position.

5: Wide Merican (100 reps). Self explanatory.

6: Step Up Knee Up (50 reps each leg). Step up on the bleacher with one leg. While up on the bleacher use other leg and lift it up 90 degree.

7: W Superman (100 reps). While lying face down on the bleacher you take your arms and bend them forming a W with your arms and head. While keeping your waist and legs on the bleacher you lift chest and arms up. Bring your arm back to try and touch your elbows keeping the W form. Working both lower back and between the shoulder blades.

8: Kneel Down to Stand Up (100 reps). From a standing position go down to your knees one at a time into a kneeling position. Then stand up one leg at a time. Alternating which leg goes first.

The results: This was a beast of a work out. While doing the exercises and going up and down stairs the movement kept everything loose and moving. Fatigued yes but mobile. Once leaving the site and making it home to go back to those stairs is when you felt the pain. To those having to go up flights of stairs or siting at a desk and getting up several times (me today) just remember this is Punch List’s fault. Thank you guys for coming out and supporting and pushing each other. This is what I look forward to and why I keep coming back.

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Burning Down The Colosseum

Gladly accepted the Q request from Jekyll a month ago for an AO i had never posted to.  He told me the Qs really bring the pain. Visited the week prior to get the lay of the land and he was not joking. With that I couldn’t slack off. 26 PAX 3 FNG got after it in the Gloom this morning. Really dig these MONSTER number  Workouts.

Here’s how it went down.

Mosey up to second Left turn to Parking spaces.

Bone the Fish.

3 Shuffle Right 3 Shuffle Left 3 Karaoke 1-1-1–Really crazy to do this with these numbers.

Warmup

SSHx15 MNCx15  Hillbilly Walkers x 15

Imperial Walkersx15 Dips x 15

The Thang

9 exercise stations 20 reps per. Except #1. Thanks Pothole! Mode of travel listed at each station for return to middle. All returns to middle do 5 burpees- Mosey to next station

Station 1- Abs 30 American Hammers Ct 1 side- Sprint to light pole/cone 5 Low Slow Sprint to next station

Station 2- Legs 20 Block Squats – Bear Crawl to Center

Station 3- Arms 20 Wide Arm Merkins– Bear Crawl to Center

Station 4- Abs 20 10 Peter Parkers/ 10 Parker Peters- Bear Crawl to Center

Station 5-Combo Al Gore w/bricks  10 Lateral Raise 10 Lateral Row = 20 reps Sprint to cone – 5 merkins Sprint to next station

Station 6- Arms 20 GTOs Ground to Overhead- Crawl Bear to center—–Really how does a Pax break a cinderblock in half????

Station 7-Abs 20 War Hammers combo WWII sit-up 1x American hammer- Crawl Bear to Center

Station 8- Legs 20 Monkey Humpers  Wheel Barrow to center and switch after burpees to station 9

Station 9- Pass the Ruck- Stand Back to back and pass back and forth in circular motion 20x  Mosey to center.

Rinse and Repeat

All PAX completed roughly 1.5 rounds. From the mumble chatter throughout the #Beatdown it appeared to be successful.

Return to COT to name the FNGs and hand off the Shovel flag.

Thanks Again for the Opportunity to lead.

Good Luck Hardwood and Great work Jekyll. Will see me more regularly at the Colosseum.

Duck Out!

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Extortion 17 – CPO Mills

Fourteen men came out Honey Badger for a Hero-based workout.

Disclaimer
Short Mosey
Warmup:
SSH (IC 12x)
Windmill (IC 12x)
Imperial Walker (IC 12x)
Cherry pickers (IC 12x)
Low Slow Squats (IC12x)
Merkin (IC 12x)
Peter Parker (IC 12x)
Plank stretches
Downward dog
Honeymooner
Run to ROTC building,
Read Extortion 17 page 152 of Hero book, text is copied at end of BB.

Thang 1 Honoring Extortion 17
Pax count off by three’s and report to their station.
Each station has three exercises; Pax do exercise for 1 minute, then get a 8 second rest/transition. Go through all three and then repeat that cycle one more time (used a timer app on the cell phone to prompt transitions).
Station 1 (6 mins)
1 Curls, block
2 squats, block
3 KB swings, block

Station 2 (6 min)
1 LBC
2 dips
3 American Hammers

Station 3 (6 min)
1 Knees to chest
2 Mtn Climbers
3 Low plank

After first six-minute set, all pax run to parking spot #31 (approx. 950’ one way)
Do 17 burpees
Run back to ROTC building
Pax rotate to next station

After second six-minute set, all pax run to parking spot 17
Bear Crawl to spot 31
Do 6 burpees
All Run back to ROTC building
Pax rotate to next station

After completion of third set: pax wall sit. Read CPO Stephen Matt Mills bio (was on Extortion 17), text is copied at end of BB.

Thang 2 Honoring CPO Mills
Wall sit and all pax hand over 15 lb slam ball. Back and forth for 6 loops.
Short mosey run
Do global warming routine for a few rounds.  End with 8 burpees OYO.

Then 5 min of mary.

Fini, COT

NMM
I last Q’d Honey Badger in May and honored Extortion 17 back then, with a secondary Thang honoring SCPO Kraig Vickers (also on Extortion 17).

Today’s routine was slightly confusing for the first round, but all pax got the hang of it for the remainder.

Had an FNG, last name spinner and he got “Fidget” as his nickname. I forgot to reiterate the five core principles of F3 for the FNG…should have done that at the beginning of the workout.

Prayers for school starting peacefully and with patience.

Extortion 17

On August 6, 2011, a U.S. Army CH-47D Chinook helicopter approached a landing zone in Afghanistan 40 miles southwest of Kabul. The helicopter, call sign Extortion 17, was on a mission to reinforce American and coalition special operations troops. Insurgents fired at the Chinook, severed one of its rear rotor blades, and brought it crashing to the ground. All 38 onboard perished instantly in the single greatest moment of sacrifice for Americans in the war in Afghanistan. Those killed were some of the U.S.’s most highly trained and battle-honed commandos.  31 US service personnel, one canine, and 7 Afghans were on the flight.

CPO Stephen “Matt” Mills
Chief Petty Officer Stephen Matthew “Matt” Mills, was born Oct. 25, 1975 in Austin, Texas.
Shortly after his high school graduation, Matt enlisted and reported to the Great Lakes Naval Training center in Illinois in January 1997. Upon completion of basic training he was stationed aboard the USS KINCAID and served for three years.
Very early on, Matt knew he wanted to be wanted to be Navy SEAL and in June 2000 he entered Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training.
Upon completion, the Navy commissioned Matt Mills as a SEAL reporting to SEAL team Three on Sept. 11, 2001. Mills later completed the process that it takes to become a member of the elite Team 6.
Matt Mills completed numerous deployments around the world in support of the Global War on Terror and was a highly decorated combat veteran, having served in Iraq and Afghanistan and earned numerous awards including:
Two Bronze Stars Medal with Valor
Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with Valor
Presidential Unit Citation
Purple Heart

Chief Mills was an avid hunter and enjoyed anything outdoors. Matt is survived by his widow Keri, sons Cash and Bryce, daughter Zoe, his parents Steve and Cheryl, and siblings Michael and Ashley.

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Four Corners

Today at Varsity we had nine men venture out for what I hope was a good beatdown.

Warm Up consisted of a short Mosey around the NAFO parking lot, SSH, Windmills, Morroccan Night clubs and Cherry Pickers.

Then we proceeded over to the Marching Band practice lot and used the four corners and the center for our workout. Three rounds of three exercises at each corner 25x , 20x , 15x with returning to the center after each corner completed for 5 Burpees.

Corner 1: Merkins, Flutters, Squats

Corner 2: Wide Arm Merkins, LBC, Mountain Climbers

Corner 3: Diamond Merkins, BBS, Calf Raises

Corner 4: CDD, American Hammers, Box Cutters

COT ended our beatdown

 

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A whole lot of stuff

11 pax joined in on this muggy morning. Dew point was almost the same as the temperature, which meant we were in for a sweat bath. I got there a bit early to scope out the AO. Harry Carry went off for a solo pre-run (he’s nuts). Then it was 0515, disclaimer was given, pax was reminded of mission/purpose of F3, and we were off towards the back of Nation Ford.

Warmup: SSH, LSS, Windmill, IW, Neck Rolls

Thang 1: Moseyed to front of NaFo and partnered up. We met up with Sasquatch. He was 90 seconds late, but was able to spot us in the dark. P1 grabbed a lifting rock and we walked to the front parking lot. P1 did an exercise with the rock (curls, SQTS, overhead press, tricep ext, bent row) while P2 ran/bear crawled/NUR, side shuffle/ran to the end to complete an exercise (CDD, jump SQT, flutter, merkin, LBC) and then came back to flap jack. A lot of grumbling with the bear crawl from pax, which I expected. But holy cow Sasquatch was like a freaking horse trotting up the parking lot doing his bear crawl.

Enough of this nonsense, rocks were put back where we found them. We got in a single file line for a fellowship paced Native American run to the pull up bars. One catch, the six had to complete a burpee before jogging to the front. Everyone loved that, NOT!

Thang 2: At the pull-up bars, with same partners, P1 did 5 pull-ups and amwrap knee ups while P2 completed 25 SQTS. 3 rounds. Not as easy as I thought it’d be.

Mosey back home for some Mary, which included the Pickle Pounder. Note to self, don’t do PP at this NaFo. Ended with Have a Nice Day, where we star gazed or meditated for 30 seconds on how we can impact someone’s life today.

I don’t get out to F3 on Weds, since the M posts at FIA. I encourage her to go as much as possible, and I feel as though she has benefited as much as I have from F3. Today’s workout was focused on a whole lot of stuff. I have ADHD, I get bored easily, and I don’t have very good memory. So I wanted to challenge myself, to try and lead a workout with multiple exercises to keep us stimulated. Also, a lot of the exercises were not cadence led or partner reliant. It was you versus you, modifying as needed to make it more or less challenging. Everyone did a great job!

Announcements: Invergence, Convergence, Q School in September. Check the weekly newsletter

Lots of prayer requests. Praying for you all.

Thank you for the opportunity to lead!

 

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Field of muggy dreams

12 boot campers in total for a humid, gloomy morning.

Warm Up
Mosey run
SSH (IC 13x)
Windmill (IC 13x)
Imperial Walker (IC 13x)
Low Slow Squats (IC13x)
Merkins (IC 13X)
Peter Parker (IC 13x)
Plank stretches
Downward dog
Honeymooner

Thang 1: Field of Dreams (modified)
Count off by fours. 1’s to first base, 2’s to second base, 3’s to third base, 4’s to home plate.
Home plate: do 15 burpees then run to first base.
First base: do AMRAP of: Monkey humpers until relieved by home plate group
Second base: do AMRAP of: Incline Merkins until relieved
Third base: do AMRAP: LBC until relieved.
Repeat, and on subsequent “runs”do these:
First base: Imp walkers, Squats,
Second base: dips, step ups
Third base: Flutters, Mtn climbers,
We got two complete runs in.

Thang 2:
Merkins (IC 13X)
Sally routine, doing Leg lifts (two ruckers joined in for this)

Fini, COT

This was my 45th birthday and the first time I got to do a true birthday Q.  Truly a blessing to have another year in the books.  Looking forward to another year to try raise my family as God would have us to do.  AMDG!

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HIIT with Led

Six men arrived at NAFO to get the Led out on a pleasant, cool morning.

Warm Up
Mosey run
SSH (IC 10x)
Windmill (IC 10x)
Imperial Walker (IC 10x)
Low Slow Squats (IC10x)
Merkins (IC 10X)
Peter Parker (IC 10x)
Plank stretches
Downward dog
Honeymooner
5 Pullups OYO

Grab a block and mosey to benches

Thang: HIIT Routine
This is where the Led Zeppelin playlist comes out.
Set A: Do the below 32 seconds on, 10 sec standing rest in between
Curls (with block)
Cherry Pickers
Squats (with Block)
Dips
Bobby hurleys
Set B: Do the below 40 seconds on, 20 sec rest in between (rest is a Low Plank)
Mountain Climbers
LBC
Derkins
Amer Hammers (w/ block optional)
plank walks
Set C: Do the below 45 seconds on, 15 sec standing rest in between
Burpee
Imp Walkers
Squat Jumps
step ups
SSH

Repeat the above sets.

Return blocks.

Fini, COT

Some PAX Feedback: Workout went by fast. Set B was rough…the low plank rest was not really a rest.

Prayers include: Twins expected for Lovehandle, Friends/family diagnosed recently with cancer.

Led Zeppelin playlist:
The ocean
Rock and Roll
South Bound Saurez
Good times/bad times
Dancing days
Misty mountain hop
Immigrant song (…I come from the land of the ice and snow….)
whole lotta love
Ramble on

As much as I like “When the Levee Breaks,” I just couldn’t find its place in a HIIT routine playlist. I don’t know, maybe next time.

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