Tinsel’s Birthday month pain fest starts at the swamp

I had the opportunity to sub for Sasquatch, we had 4 bootcampers, 4 ruckers and 6 runners.

I kindly asked the ruckers to join the BC but they declined the invitation to our pain fest.

After a quick disclaimer, Mile High, Cha Ching, Copyright and YHC moseyed for about 1/3 of a mile and did the warm up:

Side straddle hops, windmills, moroccan night clubs,  low slow squats and some cherry pickers.

Following the warm up we moseyed to the stairs next to the back of Just Fresh where some props had been dropped earlier, we started the following with a run up and down the stairs after completion of one circuit:

8 Carolina Dry Docks

8 man makers w/block or weights

8 sledgehammer swing each side

8 worst merkin ever W-R-D

8 touch ground squat

8 biceps curls w/block or weights

8 shoulder tap each side

2 tire flips

After 3 circuits we took a “break” and run around the block were Omega sports used to be to comeback to the stairs and props for 2 more rounds of pain.

With 3 minutes in we found a grassy area for some superhero workout: supermans and the famous Captain Thor, lots of mumble chatter here, one PAX commented that it was the hardest mary he has ever donebut never gave up.

With two minutes to spare we run back to COT to meet the runners and ruckers.

We finished up with announcements, prayers and praises.

Great work by everyone!!

Tinsel out… until the next day

 

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Preparedness and other life skills @ Quagmire

7 was the number for life lessons on preparedness by YHC.
The disclaimer was disclaimed and we were off for a short mosey after a brief intro on what it means to be prepared.
Circle up for some COP:
Morocan Night Clubs, Burpees, Suicide squats, windmills, a circle of merkins, a circle of humpers.

Discuss what being prepared during a workout means and asked PAX who had some form of emergency contact information on them in case of an emergency. 4 PAX had nothing so it was determined that the penalty was 10 merkins each, split into two sets cause YHC sadly can’t bang out 40 straight at the moment. A short plug for ROADID was given and then we were off for some more fun.
Mosey over behind smoothie store for some bearcrawl races. Half lap race each team finishing when the last member crosses the finish line. Those sucked plenty so we capped it at one full lap and mosey to find snowman’s truck full of goodies.
The truck was found and to nobody’s surprise there were heavy things inside that YHC asked the PAX to pick up and carry around. LIFE training on preparedness really kicked into full effect now.
Half of the PAXs planked up facing the other half while a ruck was placed in between each pair. Once YHC yelled out “go” the PAX on one side would jump up grab ruck and take off full sprint towards the end of Home Depot while the other PAX would perform 5 merkins then sprint to catch PAX carrying Rucks. This was a life lesson in kidnapping prevention. PAX had a lot of kids total so we did that a few times alternating the chaser and chase-E.
More lessons on preparedness with a discussion on who has emergency responder training? A scenario was created where three logs located in the back of the snowmobile represented fellow PAX that have suffered some life-threatening injury while participating in the beatdown. Challenged the PAX to respond as if real life situation and tested situational awareness of the group. PAX determined given the proximity of the injured logs it was probably best to carry each over to the emergency department on the other side of Rivergate shopping center since nobody except YHC had a phone and I refused to let anyone use mine as a penalty for being unprepared. Made it to the stoplight before stopping to reflect on what would have been the best plan for care in a real emergency. The consensus was that every situation is different and the more you can be prepared and think through the terrible situations beforehand the better prepared you can be to react. Dropped logs off at the snowmobile and humped it back to COT. Two minutes late but PAX was dragging after rucking those logs and kid snatching.

NMM: Thanks to the guys for accepting me for the idiot I am. Well at least giving me the respect to humor me while I am the Q and go along with my stupid absurd plans for a workout. They are always a little bit weird but never boring and I am grateful for the opportunity to lead.

Thanks for the opportunity JEDI.

Until the snow melts from all my warm hugs….
OLAF

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Black Diamond #3 at the Ranch – Get Some

Expected rain all morning, but instead we got a comfortable 40 degrees with wetness all around us.  Perfect for what we were about to get into.

Reminded the Pax that this was a Black Diamond workout and immediately had a reaction that made it clear that some were unaware lol.  Since I dislike warm-ups, I got right to our “warm-up”.

1 – I’ve done this before  w/ my speaker & the Seconds app on my phone (get it if you don’t have it – it’s an awesome timer / tabata app w/ the ability to add music).

  • First 5 minutes of warm-up:  each minute on the minute, we’re all going to do 35 really fast side straddle hops and 8 burpees.  Every minute.  End result is 175 ssh’s and 40 burpees in 5 minutes.
  • Next 5 minutes of warm-up:  no break, right into merkin mode.  11 merkins, 10 diamonds, 9 merkins, 8 diamonds, 7 merkins…down to 1 merkin.  I think we were warm.

2 – 1/4 mile burpee fun:  we moseyed over to the circle in front of the Middle School, which is a perfect 1/4 mile loop w/ some hills in it, which I failed to recognize when throwing this together.  We partnered up and I gave the Pax the bad news.  I set up my phone w/ it’s bright light stop watch timer to help.

  • Sprint with your partner the 1/4 mile loop as fast you can.  Why you might ask?  Because when you finish and see your time for that loop, you both have that many burpees to split halfsies on.  Back in High School, low to mid 50 seconds was acceptable for the 400m dash.  That’s not what we’re capable of anymore – ranged from 70 seconds to 85+ seconds, which meant each partner had 35 to 45 burpees to do apiece.
  • Round 2 – do it again.  Only this time, the challenge was that if you beat your prior lap time, you can cut the burpees in half.  Well no one beat their time, haha, so we still cut it in half anyway.  Most laps were in the 80-90 seconds range this time, which meant, 40-45 burpees to split w/ your partner, or 20-25 a piece.

3 – Pretty sure after this the Pax hated my guts.  From there we hit the longest straightaway I could find.  Same partners as before.  This time Partner 1 lines up 10-20 yards away from Partner 2.  Partner 1 starts back pedaling as fast as they can while Partner 2 has to sprint to catch them.  Wherever they are caught, you stop right there and do an exercise, then a mode of transportation back to the starting line.  We did 4 of these (each partner chased 2x and back pedaled 2x):

  • First round (once caught) – 15 bear crawl merkins, followed by broad jumps back to starting line
  • Second round – 25 lunge jumps (do each leg and that’s 1), followed by bear crawl back to starting line
  • Third round – 35 american hammers, followed by lunge walk back to starting line
  • Fourth round – 45 wide arm merkins, followed by bunny hop back to starting line

4 – We had 5 minutes, so had to make the most of it.  Quick DORA against the Elementary wall by CoT.  Partner 1 does Jump Squats and the timer was Partner 2 running to wall and doing 15 Mike Tyson merkins (those are honestly some of my least favorite merkins:  feet flat on wall at base of wall, merkin position, bring you six to the wall with feet staying put and then all the way forward so that your hands are almost at your ribs as you go down for merkin).  Once Partner 2 finished their 15 rep count, the partners switched.  Think most teams got to 100 or so jump squats before our time was up.

2 Ruckers, 1 Runner and 16 Black Diamond Boot Campers was the count.  Thanks to Jiffy for the chance to do whatever I want without having to worry about how terrible it sounds.  Appreciate everyone kicking a$$ and finishing it all.

Prayers:

  • Dark Helmet’s M is traveling this weekend – travel mercies
  • Dirty Harry’s M has last day of work / transitionary time for new opportunities / jobs
  • Olaf’s continued progress on limiting ADHDs adverse impact on his life
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Bear of a Time

The weather report was absolutely miserable, mid-30’s and pouring down raining, so we were all pleasantly surprised that it was rain free for the duration of the 45-minute workout and the morning felt great because of it.

We had a newer guy there I had never met before, Duck Dynasty, so I gave a disclaimer and told everyone to glove up and off we went.

Fast mosey with some Toy Soldiers along the way and some shuffles followed by a quick lap around the track before circling up for a quick CoP.

  • Windmills x8
  • SSH  x25
  • Peter Parker x15
  • Downward Dog/Honeymooner stretch
  • Tempo Merkins x10
  • MNC x20

I did this workout last time I Q’d the Abyss and we didn’t quite get through it, I was hopeful that with the colder weather and a faster CoP we would have just enough time and I was right.

1st Routine – Paula’s up & down the hill/road at the back of the school

6 cones placed about 30 paces apart going up the hill each with an “up” exercise and “down” exercise on them.  We would move 2 cones forward and 1 cone back until reaching the top.  Our method of movement was always via Bear Crawls 2 cones forward and Crawl Bears 1 cone back.  Once we reached the top/cone 6 we started over and performed the “down” exercise on the cone, which were the same exercises in reverse order.

  • Cone 1 – True Americans/Absolution x 10
  • Cone 2 – Donkey Kicks/Diamond Merkins x10
  • Cone 3 – Squats x30 /Groiners x10
  • Cone 4 – Groiners/Squats x30
  • Cone 5 – Diamond Merkins/Donkey Kicks x10
  • Cone 6 – Absolution/True Americans

A few of us finished this up, Jedi out in front followed by YHC, Cha Ching, and Wolverine.  Most of the rest of the PAX were about to finish up or maybe a cone or 2 back when I told everyone to finish up their exercise and bear crawl back to cone 1 and finish up to keep things moving along.

Last time we did the next routine on the grassy hill, but due to the weather, we kept it on the road for better traction.

2nd Routine – Burpback Mountain

Partner up and split 120 total burpees.  1 PAX NUR’s up the hill all the way to the top and mosey’s back down while his partner is doing as many Burpees as possible then switching etc, until 120 Burpees are accumulated.

Once we finished this we mosey’d back to CoT and had a couple minutes to spare.  I called out 20 Flutters IC and Cha Ching followed with 15 Crunchy Frogs.  That’s it, circle up.

CoT

Yeti is almost here and read your newsletter!  Continued prayers for this group of men and the ability to come out every morning together.  We also lifted up Prayers for some friends of Jedi’s family whose father committed suicide and Emma, Cornerstones daughter, who hasn’t been feeling well and pray her cancer stays away.

Thanks for the Q Copyright, I can’t wait to come back, I love this AO.

Until next time,

-FLUX-

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The Quagmire Coin Flip

FNG in the huddle so YHC disclaimed a proper disclaimer.  As the clock struck 0515, it appeared two vehicles were coming in hot.  We took a Capri Lap.  Pickup another FNG and Cable Guy.  The rain decided to make an appearance so YHC #ModifiedAsNeeded and moseyed the warmup under the Home Depot pickup spot.  Covered and dry!

Warm Up:
Since we picked up an undisclosed FNG, plank for another disclosure. Informed FNG’s that we often respond “AYE” in affirmation.  On each “aye,” do a merkin.  YHC felt the urge to discuss choices.  Some we make, some are made for us (insert a couple of aye’s).  Next, OYO 5 “aye’s.”  Recover.
Bring out the coin toss.  For today, the coin will determine the workout, which includes warmups, how we travel from one location to the next, and the thang’s. In the air, guess heads or tails.  Correct = 18 reps of said warm up (Feb 18th).  Incorrect = 28 reps (# days in Feb).  I have two columns with an exercise on each side (heads/tails). I also have the Q here on Friday.  So whichever side doesn’t get picked, we do the opposite on Friday.  Guaranteed 100% different workout!
1 – Tails. 18 windmills
2 – Heads. 18 shoulder taps
3 – Heads. 18 toe squats
4 – Heads. 28 groiners
5 – Heads (see a trend yet?). 28 peter parker
6 – Heads. 28 monkey humpers
7 – Heads. 10 burpees with tuck jump at the top
8 – Heads (seriously). 18 LBC’s

Mosey to the wall behind Home Depot – it pretty much quit raining now – for the thang:
On the back of the paper I filled in for Heads or Tails, a corresponding thang item was determined.
1 – wall work – 10 derkins (wall was slippery.  oops)
2 – wall work – 10 BTTW mountain climbers
3 – travel time – AYG to the fountain
4 – bat wings (18x forward arm circles, 18x reverse arm circles, 18x seal jacks, 18x overhead claps, 18x Moroccan nigh clubs)
5 – travel time – crab walk to parking lot across the way
6 – lut. dan’s – 1:4 work way up to 10:40 (squats and lunges)
7 – travel time – duck walk back to fountain
8 – partner up for black jack (always adds to 21, partner a = 1 merkin then plank while partner b = 20 lbc’s. flapjack. then partner a = 2 merkins then plank while partner b = 19 lbc’s.  Continue until smoked.  Time for COT anyway.

See you Friday for the other side of the coin.

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Legs on fire

This was my first Q of the year and the first one since the Christmas season brake I had to take and due to a scheduling mistake on my end I ended up with back to back Q’s which I loved so I can focus on different muscle groups each day.

Monday and Tuesday WO were brutal on upper body at Honey Badger Anniversary with Cheddah and Fire ant with Deacon so I decided to focus on legs and abs, noting else, PAX were in for a surprise as I usually bring my props but my shoulders, chest and arms needed a brake.

We had no FNG’s and a quick disclaimer was given while moseying around the parking lot followed by the warm up:

SSH

Windmill

Low Slow Squats

Mountain climber

Peter Parker

Burpees

LBC’s

THE THANG:

A “simple” routine to be repeated 7 times for a total of 49 reps of each of the following, a lap around the parking lot was completed after each circuit:

7 squat HAND TOUCHES GROUND

7 dying roach DC

7 lunges DC KNEE TOUCHES GROUND

7 rosalitas

7 squat jumps

7 flutters DC

7 monkey humpers 

7 circuits were completed with about 16 minutes to spare, great push by all the PAX with lots of mumble chatter about burning legs. We moseyed to a “comfy” grass area and had a visit of my favorite web exercise Captain Thor (1 big boy sit up followed by 4 american hammers, all the way to 10 BBSU and 40 AH) abs were burning by then so we had to go back to legs and found a wall for some people’s chair, everyone will hold position while PAX starting from the left end will perform 3 burpees, legs were on fire so the best thing to do was to rinse and repeat for a total of 2 wall circuits.

With about 5 minutes left on the clock we went back to the parking lot for some sprints, jog one way and sprint at 100% on the way back X 4,  some more mumble chatter then but everyone gave their all.

The lucky runners that missed leg day joined us at the end for announcements, prayers and praises at COT.

Thank you copyright for the opportunity to lead.

Tinsel out.. till the next day

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Getting over a case of the Mondays real quick

Clearly underestimated the setup time and came in hot to the Chic Filet parking lot at 5:14a.  Was super stoked to see our boy DaVinici in the gloom ready to put in some work after being on IR for the last 2 months.  Let’s get to it:

Mosey over to Home Depot for a quick warm-up that consisted of seal jacks, wind mills and mountain climbers.  The balance of the warm-up was a little more painful:

  • Descending alternate sets of merkins / diamond merkins starting at 11 reps – 11 merkins, 10 diamonds, 9 merkins, 8 diamonds…down to 1 merkin.  66 in all, as quickly as we could.
  • Next set was the same idea, only wide squats and super narrow squats – wide x11, narrow x10…you get the point.  Went super fast here, which hurt on the next part.

From there, we took a long 3/4 mile mosey behind home depot, target, down to Kohl’s then up Rivergate View Road and parked it front of Buffalo Wild Wings.  From there, the pax were able to observe the sea of yellow cones going the length of that straightaway – 10 cones (we only saw 9 until the very end lol) over a 1/4 mile stretch.  Quick and dirty – I give the exercise and rep count, you run to each cone and do the same rep / exercise at every cone the whole way down and then run back.  You get in a 1/2 mile per exercise / set (1/4 mile down, 1/4 mile back), and a ton of reps.  Sets as follows:

  1. 5 burpees per cone (50 burpees in total) – run back
  2. 10 big boy sit-ups per cone (100 big boys in total) – run back
  3. 15 jump squats per cone (150 jump squats in total) – run back
  4. Had three more planned out (a 15 rep, a 10 rep and then 5 burpees again), but time was running low.  Compromised at 10 merkins per cone (100 merkins in total)

At that point we had about 2 minutes, so we moseyed to the corner of Pet Smart and then sprinted back to CoT covering a good stretch, the length of the Pet Smart, Marshalls, Office Max and Best Buy store fronts.

Final count:

  • 166 merkins (66 merkins / diamond descending + 100 on the cones)
  • 150 jump squats
  • 100 big boy sit-ups
  • 66 squats (wide and narrow descending)
  • 50 burpees
  • 2.5 miles covered

So thankful to see DaVinci back this morning – he gave us some really encouraging words on preparedness – the importance of being ready for both the expected and the unexpected things that come up in our lives.  Thanks to Royale for making the trek up to Quagmire today, and always a pleasure to see the regulars on Mondays w/ Bones, Copyright and Jedi.

We said a prayer for our sick pax, especially those w/ sick 2.0’s, for travel mercies this week (Royale and myself going opposite directions, but nonetheless, a car-full of kiddos and spouses) and for the trials that we find ourselves in and how it will develop us into better HIM’s because of it.

Until next time – thanks fellas.  Always a pleasure to serve you guys and lead a beatdown!

ChaChing

 

 

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What’s The Plan?

We had 11 strong for a beat down at the  Abyss.  The pax was unsure if I knew what the plan was until we approached the workout written in chalk……then they knew.

The Thang:

Mosey in the parking lot with a sudden turn to make the last 1st and the 1st last.  Mosey some more and do some toy soldiers and karaoke.  Then mosey behind the school and circle up.

Imperial Walker x15, Cherry Pickers with a chain break at the top x 15, slow windmills culminating in a stretch, plank to mountain climbers x10, plank to peter parkers x11, plank to parker peters x11 and plank to mountain climber x1.

Mosey near the playground for a choose your own approach work out written in chalk:

100 merkins, 100 squats, 100 dips, 50 pull ups , 30 hanging knee lifts, run up the hill backwards 3x and run around track 3x.   Complete in any increments you would like.

When completed do 25 LBC, 25 Freddy Mercury, 25 Hello Dollies and 25 heels to heaven.

Mosey to grass hill and Jacobs ladder with alternating lunges (1 up to 7) on top and burpees (7 down to 1) on bottom.

Thank you for the opportunity to lead.  It was fun!

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Quagmire After the Superbowl

The Superbowl is an “unofficial” American holiday filled with chicken, chips, pizza, and beer.  It is hardly the ideal ‘prep’ food for a great workout.  Nevertheless 4 brave men meet in the gloom to work off our hangovers and prep for the week ahead.

After the typical disclaimer including a warning not to stand downwind of the Q (due to recent dietary choices) we were off with a mosey.

Long mosey around Home Depot…in front Target….to the (now vacant) Books a Million.

Warm-up

  • Windmills
  • Weed Pickers
  • Imperial Walkers
  • Slow Squat
  • Merkins
  • Downward Dog
  • Side Straddle Hops

Mosey over by the fountain

Round one 

  • 10 Squats
  • Bear crawl across parking lot
  • 3 Burpees
  • Lunge walk back
  • 10 Merkins
  • (REPEAT 5 x’s)

Finish with Flutters (20 cadence)

Round Two

  • Broad Jump Across
  • 20 Dips on curb
  • Side Shuffle back (Flip halfway)
  • 15 Durkins
  • (REPEAT 5 x’s)

Finish with Freddie Mercuries (10 cadence)

Round Three

  • 10/leg Step up on benches at fountain
  • Run 1/2 lap
  • (REPEAT 3 x’s)

Mosey to “grassy” area Mattress Store

  • Jack Web’s

Mosey to Office Max

Wall sits

  • 1 minute (x3)
  • Sit while others run top of parking lot and back (x1)

Plank (hold while others run to top of parking lot and back) (x1)

COT

Jedi asked for much needed family rest after busy couple of months.  I need prayer for new Team member at office.

As always….thankful for the ability to wake up and exercise and the opportunity to lead.

~ Bones

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