A/C D/C, Lil Wayne, Brooks & Dunn @ SnakePit

Was expecting a wet one this a.m. and while the rain held off a bit, as predicted, we were blessed with an abundance of water from the sky.

Got to the site early to setup shop and hide coupons from COT view. Jwoww happened to drive past the secret location on his way in and the tires were compromised.

Quick disclaimer and off we went for a mosey down to the entrance of the field, circled back around to COT for a warmup.

  • Imperial Walkers
  • Wind Mills
  • Cherry Pickers
  • M. Night Club
  • Honey Mooner
  • Downward Dog
  • A couple additional stretches

We then moseyed to 1 of 3 pain stations for the main event and fired up the playlist.

The Thang

DMC – Duck Walk, Merkin, Crawl Bears

Had cones spread 15ish yards apart explained the exercise; Duck walk w/ KB to first cone, 5 merkins, crawl bear back to starting position. Rinse and repeat bringing your KB to the next station and increasing merkin count by 5. Uhaul in his brilliance asked whether we were going to the 4th cone, of course, why would it be there otherwise?

After the 2nd round, you start feeling the impact of merkins and crawl bear. #shoulderstrong

After we wrapped up, the first station, off to the 2nd.

Tire Carry Partner Work

Partner up P1 run with tire to 2nd light post and return serving as the timer. P2 complete exercises on board of pain. Each partner execute on exercise, rinse and repeat through exercises. Walked through exercises and asked Bird Cage to demonstrate Hay Makers as I failed miserably at The Hive last Friday. This is about when the rain decided to appear.

Exercises in order:

  • KB Swings
  • Hay Makers
  • OH Press
  • Upright Row
  • Clean, Squat, Press
  • Lunge
  • Goblet Squat
  • Curls
  • Man Makerss

Sadly, running out of time, we were unable to move to the 3rd painstation, packed it up and headed back to COT for a finale.

Roxanne by The Police

Perfect song to end the workout, while in plank position:

  • Roxanne = Merkin
  • Put on the red light = Plank Jack

With 2 minutes to spare, suggested Burp & Squat increasing reps by 1 to 5. 1 burpee followed by 1 squat and so on. That was met with minimal enthusiasm and we made it to 4 by time.

Announcements

  • Yeti

Prayers

  • Cash – was informed surgery went well and is recovering
  • Mother who’s child was killed by car
  • Unspoken
  • Family

Always enjoy the solid mumblechatter at this AO, makes embracing the suck that much more enjoyable. Thanks 3D for the opportunity.

Video evidence below:

Snakepit 2-19

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Red Barchetta – test drive

In recognition of Tesh accepting the EPRI Technology Transfer Award, YHC wanted to call 45 min of hand stands…..but YHC is still working on 15 seconds of headstanding so……..here we go.

Warm Up:

Mosey
Windmill x10
SSH x25
Hold Plank
Mountain Climber x20
Shoulder Tap x20
Hooneymooner–>Downdog combination (not enough)

Mosey
IW x20
HW x20

Thang:

Mosey towards the bus route hill

Electric
Elevens – Burpees – Gorilla Squats

Electric Power
Bear Crawl up the dirty hill. Backdraft was wearing new shoes, sorry. People’s Chair for a word of the year sharing time.

Electric Power Research
Red Barchetta – Designed to get the heart rate up, much like the song by Rush of the same name.
100 Yard Dash–>100 SSHs, run back to start point to plank/wait for six;
75 yard dash–>75 mountain climbers, run back to start point to plank/wait for six;
50 yard dash–>50 LBCs, run back to start point to plank/wait for six;
25 yard dash–>25 Merkins, run back to start point to plank/wait for six;
10 yard dash–>10 burpees, run back to start point and plank/wait for six.

Electric Power Research Institute
Imperial Squat Walker – Cruel cousin of the Imperial Walker. This 4-count exercise starts with hands clasp on head. Count 1 = a squat. Count 2 = stand up and bring one knee up to the opposite elbow. Count 3 = a squat. Count 4 = stand up, other knee to other elbow. We did these till 0600. Backdraft was a fan.

NMM:

The honor that Tesh is getting is from the EPRI folks a BFD. But Tesh isn’t one to “toot his own horn.” (No pun intended. I realize that’s what I do for a living.) Personally, I am not always comfortable sharing my accomplishments. Partly because I want to do even better and more; so I feel like my “accomplishments” are inadequate compared to my goals. Partly because I don’t like to feel like I’m bragging. And in part because I’ve seen folks work as hard as me and not have the same success; it feel dishonest to claim sole responsibility. So I want to draw attention to this accomplishment because Tesh deserves it, and I know he won’t draw attention to himself.

Where in your life can you draw attention to someone (2.0, M, blade, etc.) that deserves recognition but doesn’t toot their own horn? Where are you overlooking someone because they’re not shouting their merits in your face? (If you need help, consider all the unnoticed work your M does at their gig or at home….. Or perhaps the amount of times your 2.0 hasn’t brought home a poor report card…..)

Announcements:

Rooster 2/29
Yeti 3/7
Doty Run 3/14

Prayers:

Cash – surgery today
Chicken Wing – hip replacement

An honor to lead, thanks Hardwood for the call.

-Band Camp dismissed

 

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Giddy Up at the Ranch

Always good to Q especially a location that I was former site Q at. Start with a nice disclaimer and let everyone know they showed up to the best and hardest workout of the day in The Fort.
Mosey around school grounds at a brisk pace. Warmup 20 SSH, 20 merkins, 20 flutters repeat.
Mosey to pullup bars
5 pullups-20 big boys
4 pullups- 16 big boy
3 pullups- 12 big boy
2 pullups- 8 big boy
1 pullup- 4 big oy
work back up the ladder.
Mosey to bus parking partner up Wheel barrow around parking lot when you switch 5 bomb jacks each.
Mosey to wall Balls to wall/ chair sit with shoulder presses x’s 3 sets each
Mosey to benches 15 derkins, 15 box jumps, 15 dips
set 2 10 of each
set 3 5 of each
Mosey to COT
Announcements, Prayers, Praises
Keep everyone safe and injury free.
Keep praying for Cash.
Backdraft out…

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Wegmans at Snakepit

When asked to Q here I assumed it was too far. It was only 8 minutes from YHC house. The Coop is about 3, so hard to argue passing that one up.

Disclaimer was disclaimed and off we went. Took the bells over near one part of the parking lot. I had a box with exercises written down on them.

normal warmup. Nothing fancy. Nothing out of the ordinary.

partnered up. Partner 1 performs exercises while partner 2 runs the lap. The goal was to not let your partner beat your rep count, otherwise there was a man-maker penalty that was not enforced.

The exercises, in no particular order, were:

Squats,

Curls,

KB Swings.

Merkins.

Kid Launcher 45 degree angle shoulder raise.

Overhead press

some others?? Bobber destroyed the box with the exercises.

we also lunge walked and squatted some more

finished it up with some Mary

Thanks for the opportunity 3D!

Wegmans

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Wegmans and Repeat at the Coop

Since this was Repeat’s 2nd VQ, YHC led the warmup. Nothing fancy. Nothing special.

Partnered up near JROTC building. P1 runs to the top of the loop, 25 Merkins whiles P2 is doing LBCs. Switch once P1 returns. Next is 25 bomb jacks and flutters. Last is 25 monkey humpers and Rosalitas. Hand off to Repeat.

Repeat ran us up near the band field. There is a covered walkway with lights. At the first light we did 5 Merkins and 5 LBCs. At the next light we added 5 to each exercise so 10 and so on and so forth. Repeat estimates we did roughly 280 reps of each exercise.
Thanks for the opportunity to lead Punchlist.

Wegmans

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Preparation at the Armory

19 PAX at The Armory

Workout is pretty clear from the outline I think.

We ran a bit in between the reps for the Thang…..at an allegedly fast pace….pretty sure it was slow on the Fish Sticks scale. Also we did 60 SSH….a real crowd pleaser. Alternating between Mtn Climbers and a Yoga sequence over and over and over was also “well” received.

I did use my handy cheat codes on my forearms to keep myself on task. It’s cheaper than buying one of those quarterback play-caller wrist bands like OldBay has, but decidedly less cool. Forgot what DD (Downdog) stood….But on a Mosey Shady reminded me; at which point, I was glad for his assistance and that we’d already done that sequence in the warmup.

Mary to close out:
– Windshield Wipers
– Flutters
– restarted the Thang from 5 reps and built up (crowd pleaser) got to 10
– Pigeon Lunge

COT

NMM:
Advent is about Preparation. How are we preparing ourselves daily to handle our Jester(s) beyond just fitness?

Thanks to JWOWW for the invitation to Q. Great to have such a group of HIM present.

Band Camp Dismissed

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Colosseum- KISS (you know what it stands for)

Always one of my favorite AOS in the Fort. A great place that makes you want to work. I like to KISS (keep it simple st&#%d)
We had a little disclaimer and intro and were off.
couple laps around the parking lot and circle up for a quick warmup.
22 SSHs
10 windmills
22 Mtn Climbers
6 inches with slow 10 count x 2
head down road for dynamic stretching and let the games begin.
light poles
1. 5 burpees.
2. 5 burpees, 10 plank jacks.
3. 5 burpees, 10 plank jacks, 15 merkins
4. 5 burpees, 10 plank jacks, 15merkins, 20 squats
5. 5 burpees, 10 plank jacks, 15merkins, 20 squats, 25 LBCs
Mosey down road. Pick up piece of rip rap
10 chest presses, 10 curls, 10 shoulder presses x 3 sets
Hill repeats mosey to top 10 merkins, 15 squats mosey to bottom 5 burpees. flutter kicks until 6 finishes 3 sets.
Indian run back to light poles.
1. 5 burpees.
2. 5 burpees, 10 plank jacks.
3. 5 burpees, 10 plank jacks, 15 merkins
4. 5 burpees, 10 plank jacks, 15merkins, 20 squats
5. 5 burpees, 10 plank jacks, 15merkins, 20 squats, 25 LBCs
COT- like I said KISS.
announcements- thanksgiving convergence
Christmas Party sign up by Sat. Dec. 30th
Prayers and Praises

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Overcome

7 boot campers and 3 runners posted at Laces In/Out this morning.  The cool temperature was perfect for a hideous beat down. We did hill repeats because today’s message was focused on overcoming inertia.

The Thang:

COP: SSH (30x), IW (20x), WM (15x), Sumo Squats (15x), MC (20x), and LBCs (15x)

Mosey to the hill near the stadium to add inertia and do the following exercises. 

  1. 100 Yard Dash
  2. Jumping Squats (2x) 
  3. Big Boy Sit Ups (3x)
  4. Pepper Grinders (4x)
  5. Burpees (5x)
  6. LBCs (6x)
  7. Sumo Squats (7x) 
  8. Heels to Heaven (8x)
  9. Dips (9x)
  10. Calf Raises (10x)
  11. Merkins (11x)
  12. Penguins (12x)

Moleskin:

Why do we sometimes struggle to answer God’s calling and purpose for our lives?  Does our own inertia stop us from making a breakthrough?

The bible shows us that Paul initially hesitated when he was called to God’s mission field.  In the Acts of the Apostles 22, Jesus needed to encourage Paul to overcome his inertia. He kept telling Paul “Go,” “Get up,” “What are you waiting for?”

Paul eventually pushed through his inertia and fulfilled his mission.  Paul’s story is a great illustration of how it’s sometimes tough to start your mission but you must finish strong.  

Peace,

Deacon

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Downpour with Roxanne at Laces In

This morning was supposed to be very wet, and again the Weather professionals got it wrong. Knowing the anticipated challenges, I prepared a weinke that would allow for a covered area. And….not a drop of rain. Had to make some audibles on the fly to make sure the PAX got a good sweat in. To my surprise, 9 HIM showed up for the morning’s beat down. Only vets were present so I delivered a quick disclaimer and off we went.

 

Mosey to the main parking lot taking a left turn immediately because it was too windy for Trucker…mumble chatter champion. Completed the mosey and circled up in front of the drop off area near the front of the gym.

 

IW x 20

SSH x 25

Windmill x10

Overhead claps- x20

Happy Jacks- 5 rounds

MNC x10

Seal Jacks- x15

 

PAX headed over to the curb, lined up across and turned and faced the parking lot.

I spent a little time here sharing with the PAX about a recent pledge brother that took his own life last week. With that came a challenge, to think about Men that you can be impacting that need your support. Whether you think it is annoying or not, there are men out there that are desperately seeking another man to pick them up. All it takes is an additional call or text, anything to let them know you are thinking of them.

 

Ok, with that in mind, the PAX were instructed to do suicides to the fourth line with a numbered space. When you reach the 4th number perform the exercise listed and then run back. Hold a plank for the 6.

 

Round 1- Merkins x10

Round 2- CDD x10

Round 3- Burpees x10

 

Continued with the message to the PAX to make sure it stayed in the front of their mind during the workout. Reminding them that if it’s them that is struggling to not go through it alone.

 

Next Mosey was to the breezeway area at the football stadium.

 

Circle up. I had prepared a little Roxanne workout in anticipation of the downpour that didn’t happen. After some brief fumbling with the technology, off we went.

 

Roxanne, you don’t have to…- flying squirrels

 

In between- The Pax were doing Seal Jacks.

 

This got the blood going! Of course I am a sweater, but there some extra puddles around me during this. It looked like the PAX were enjoying it as well.

 

Immediately after the song, we jumped into the Deck of Death.

 

Spades- CDD

Hearts- Monkey humpers

Clubs- Plank Jacks

Diamonds- wide arm Merkins

Joker- 5 burpees

 

We made it through about ¾ of the deck and the runners joined us for the last few.

 

Back to COT

 

Announcements– Newsletter

 

Praises– for the PAX who showed up. I was reminded this morning that being in the gloom makes a positive impact on our daily lives. This does mean you necessarily have to participate in the workout if you are on the IR. I encourage PAX on the IR to show up with a partner and walk and enjoy some fellowship.

 

Prayers-

 

Bonsai’s Wife’s grandmother

Cyclops Dad

The family of my brother whose life ended too soon

My wife’s student who passed away

Injured PAX

Marriages

Any I missed

 

Additional thoughts on challenging us as men and fathers to enjoy the moment and practice patience as best as you can.

 

Mental Health- I will repeat this over and over, you are not alone. Engage, ask, and reach out. If not, this is just a workout.

 

 

Thanks for the opportunity and for showing up on this rainy day.

 

 

Frat Boy

 

 

 

 

 

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Bite size tennis ball family

A nice and cool morning turned into something a bit warmer about 3 min in.  9 PAX took the DRP and after a quick, and non-energetic into as called out by Jekyll, YHC jumped out to a quick mosey.  Stopping in front of the elementary school entrance, we circled up for a warm-up.

SSH x25, windmills x10, low slow squats x10, imperial and hillbilly walkers x10, merkins x10, and finished off with some stretching: lunge stretches including runners stretch and hamstrings as well as some downward dogs and honeymooners.  Enough with the stretching and off to The Thang!

Ran over to the parking lot in the back where the basketball hoops are located and grabbed a tennis ball out of the box.  Everyone was instructed to put their family’s initials on a ball (M and 2.0s) as this was going to be carried around by them for the morning for an extra reminder of why they’re trying to get better.  Family is always going to be with us and to get that extra push or to be mindful of what’s important, the tennis ball fam was going to tag along for the ride!  3 stations with written exercises were located throughout the parking lot.  Instructions were to run to the sheet of paper and do the exercise at the top and the run back to the center where the music was located for 1 burpee.  Then back to the sheet for the next exercise, back to the center and so on.  Once all the exercises were done from the 1 sheet, the PAX were told to run back to the center and finish with 5 burpees.  Then onto the next sheet until all 3 sheets had been completed.

Sheet 1:

  • 10 hand release merkins
  • 20 knee tuck jumps
  • 25 CDD
  • 30 lunges (total)
  • 50 plank shoulder taps

Sheet 2

  • 40 ski jumps (double count)
  • 30 squats
  • 60 calve raises (out/reg/in – 20 each)
  • 20 diamonds
  • 50 SSH

Sheet 3

  • 25 merkins
  • 40 mountain climbers (wrote single count, we did double)
  • 30 american hammers (double count)
  • 30 plank jacks (double count)
  • 50 LBC

Some exercises were done in cadence at sheet 3 to keep the PAX together.  There were a couple instances when we returned closer to the music where Pusher gave us some karaoke solos from the early 90s rap and beastie boys jamming….it was delightful.  Since we had a few min left, it was a race to sheet 1 where first place picked one exercise to do (Jekyll for the hand release), 4th place to sheet 2 with the selection (L Train I think with the squats) and second to last to sheet 3 (Hardwood maybe for the mountain climbers).  (and this is why you don’t wait until the weekend to write a back blast b/c I can’t remember Tuesday!)

We scooped up the sheets and headed for COT for a blinding name-o-rama, announcements, and TAPs.  Tennis ball families were retained by the PAX for their own usages.  Appreciate the call over to the Colosseum as YHC has been overdue for a Q.

Shady….AYE!

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