Delusions Day

You know you must be doing something right when PAX figure out your the Q and they moan. Was pleasantly surprised by the number of PAX that showed up considering competing against the Nantan tour.

Festival of Popular Delusions Day

On June 6, 1944, over 150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, in France, beginning the push to retake Western Europe from the Nazis. A day before the invasion was the last day that Nazis could have had the delusion that their Reich would last 1,000 years, hence the day is celebrated on June 5th.

characterized by or holding idiosyncratic beliefs or impressions that are contradicted by reality or rational argument, typically as a symptom of mental disorder.

Dynamic Warm-up
Toy Soldiers
Butt Kickers
High Knees
Lunges
Everybody 2 bricks
20 – Moroccan Knight Clubs
20 – Plank punches front
20 – Overhead Presses
20 – LBC’s
10 – Lunges
20 – Curls
20 – Plank punches sides
20 – Squats w/ overhead press
10 – Lunges
20 – Hello Dollies
20 – Rosalitas
20 – lunges w/ overhead press
20 – Standing Tricep extensions
Jack Webs (1-2) 1,2,3,4,5, (15 Box Cutters, 10 Loungers) 4,3,2,1
20 – Roman chair – punches
Return Bricks to pile
Mosey back to COT stopping at Light Poles
20 – LBC’s
20 – Squats
5 – Merkins
20 – SSH
Total Mileage under 1 mile – does that equate to moderate.

Announcements
3rd F – Lunch Los Aztecas, Sweati, Hog Coyote, Care Center Lawn Care use Signup Genius 1hr, F3 Dads Saturday’s in June, Crossroads

Prayers
Winchester-Health issues
Dumpster Fire’s Brother Died 34
F3 brother in Lenior,NC Son with tumor waiting Diagnosis. Cornerstone working on clown car.

Always an honor to lead leaders. Thanks for the opportunity Short Sale.

Cornhole
Out

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Uptown Funk You Up

It was one of those crazy humid Carolina mornings where YHC actually had to turn on the AC on the way to the workout. You know it’s muggy when you’re already sweating with no sun, and no exercise. Bring 15 dudes into the mix and it got real sweaty real fast.

Disclaimer made, then circuitous mosey around the parking lot.
Circled up for: SSH, weed pickers, merkins, superman, low slow squats

The THANG
Uptown 50
I got this one straight out of the exicon. I read about it probably two months ago and had been looking forward to trying it since then. Two markers were set up (about) 50 yards apart on the basketball courts. PAX partnered up. The idea is to do 10 burpees then travel 50 yards via the prescribed means to the other marker, where you then do 10 more burpees and travel back to the start by the next mode of transport. There were 10 total lengths of 50 yards so 10 x 10 =100 burpees… plus whatever it took PAX to do 50 yards of burpee broad jumps. Lots of burpees.

Here were the modes of transport in order: Burpee Broad Jump, Crab Walk, Partner Carry (P1), Partner Carry (P2), Alligator Crawl, Wheelbarrow (P1), Wheelbarrow (P2), Nur, AYG (Sprint!), and Bear Crawl

Due to mumblechatter from PAX not wanting to scuff their fancy pants new running shoes up, Omaha was called on the Alligator Crawl, which was substituted for bear crawls. Great effort by everyone on pushing through this till the end.

Ab Doras

100 Boxcutters, 200 Big Boy Situps, 300 Freddies (double count)

P1 ran down and up the hill, while P2 did boxcutters. Flapjack and keep adding till you get to your number as a team. After boxcutters, runners went to end of the school and back for the big boy and Freddy rounds. Each pair made it pretty far into the 200 Big Boy Situps by the time 6:00 rolled around, and a couple of teams managed to break into the Freddies. Mosey back to COT.

COT
Announcements are all in the newsletter. Read it.
Prayers for Whopper’s job situation, Cha Ching with son #3 due to arrive any day, and safe travels for Tinsel’s sister who is flying to Ecuador. Very sweaty BOM.

Big thanks to Bones for the opportunity to lead.

Stay Classy,
Homebrew

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Goodbye Uncle Sam!

OK so moderate is a loose term but modify as needed!

Disclaimer given and were were off to mosey a short way down near Empire Pizza to COP

Start with 20 SealJacks

10 Diamond Merkins

20 Slow Squats

20 Peter Parker

20 SSH

20 Parker Peter

20 IW

Plank on Elbows and Hold it for 2 min

20 Moroccan Night Club

Mosey a short ways and partner up

Several rounds of one partner backwards run about 20 yards and forward back to starting point

meanwhile partner two stays in and completes exercise then flip flop

78 squats on the curb

78 calf raises

78 wide merkins

78 LBC

78 Flutters

78 Carolina Dry Docks

39 Burpees (Crowd Please) Run Forward

78 Wide Merkins

4 rounds of Al Gore

Finish with 2 rounds of Body Destroyers

Mosey back to COT

Uncle Sam heads back to his native Colombia with 2 O’s! Safe travels! Hope yo see him back!

 

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16 @ The Ballroom 5/15

  1. It’s always exciting to see cars come in hot around the curves of Pleasant Knoll Middle School to get to the workout on-time.  Everybody was in the circle when my phone alarm signaled it was 0515.  No FNG’s, but I disclaimed because a Q should always disclaim.
  2. We took off for a mosey towards the super far back parking lot with butt-kickers and high-knees.  Halfway to the lot we stopped for some warmup moves that included:
    1. SSH
    2. Seal Jacks (Jack Seals? Apparently I do them in reverse.)
    3. Weed Pullers
  3. At the back lot we did more SSH before grabbing a Cindy for some Walking Lunges ending with an All You Got back to the start line. We did that 2 times across the parking lot before we cleaned up the lot of random bigger Cindy’s.
  4. I broke out the Jumbo Cards for a round of Deck of Pain. As we went around the circle, I asked pax what Accountability means to them.
    1. Spades = Merkins
    2. Clubs = Crunches
    3. Hearts = SSH
    4. Diamonds = Monkey Humpers
    5. Face Cards = 10
    6. Aces could be 1 or 15, Dealer’s Choice.
    7. Jokers = 5 Burpees (no Jokers were pulled, hallelujah!)
  5. We had plenty of time left so we counted off by 2’s and did an Indian Run to the track where we completed 1 lap.
  6. We took a 20 count as we walked to the bleachers.  At the bleachers we ran up and down each stairway (4 rows) and then kept on running all the way back to the school.
  7. I gave the pax 2 options: Continue running around the paved path to COT or take the “shortcut” and Bear Crawl up the hill to COT.  It was about 50/50.

We did the Big Ball of Man thing.
Continue to pray for Badger and also our brothers who can’t seem to beat the fartsack. Prayers and Praises went out and up for Cornerstone’s MIL. Signup to cut the grass at Fort Mill Care Center, see Assassin for more info. READ THE NEWSLETTER!

I consider it an honor and privilege to Q a workout.  A big THANKS to Short Sale for the invite.

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If you build it, they will come..

The weather forecasts leading up to Slow Burn showed what could have been a soggy outing. In preparation, I made sure I had not one, but two Weinke’s prepared for the PAX. One bringing back a popular game from College past to keep us dry, “Roxanne,” with a slightly different spin, and the other a friendly mosey around the parking lots with a few exercises mixed in. Surprisingly, it ended up being a perfect day and with it, an impressive 30 PAX showed for the party.

Warm-up

Mosey to the parking lot in front of Empire Pizza

Along the way, did some butt kicks, high knees and side shuffles, left and right and circled up for some warm-up

SSH- x25

LSS- x10

Windmill-x10

Moroccan- x25

Overhead Claps- x20

Happy Jacks- 4 rounds- 5 SSH/ 2 jump squats- a nice new surprise for the PAX

Mountain Climbers- x 10

Annie- 1-2 (1) Total of 10-

The Thang

Mumble Chatter was in full force and hard to avoid with such a great number.

First Round-Same parking lot, PAX lined up close to the center back parking line and faced towards the curb heading at a slight decline. Kicked off the fun with a round of 7’s. PAX started with 1- CDD and sprint to the other side- 6 squats. Continue this pattern until the the flip-flop happens, and you are ending with 6-CDD and 1-squat. Great work out of everyone. Plank until the Six was in.

Second round-Mosey over to the parking lot next to the new restaurant Persia (not sure if that’s the name). PAX lined up along the parking space middle line facing the curb. Seemed to be a theme for the day. Next up- Modified ascending bear crawl until 13. 1-CDD then Bear Crawl to other side- 2 Derkins. Bear Crawl back to starting position, complete 3-CDD. Continue this pattern until you end on 13- CDD. Once complete, a couple of ten counts and off to the next destination. Amazingly, the mumble chatter had decreased significantly!

Third round– Mosey over to the right side of Lowes and all the PAX grabbed some space on the wall. I had originally planned for some chicken peckers, look it up. Instead we started a 10 count at one of the PAX line and continued with all PAX in a chair position. PAX joined in with instructions to push everyone to that great feeling of displeasure. Thanks for chipping in! As it got to the halfway point, I could hear the mumble chatter wondering what happened to the moderate workout, so I gave a quick leg shake break. Quick it was, and then back on the wall. We didn’t quite complete the entire line but I commend the PAX on the effort.

Next up Individual suicides- showed the PAX the lines to hit and off they went. 5 Merkins after first set and 5 flying squirrels after the second.  Took a break in between to highlight for the group the mission and 5 principles of F3. Hopefully the FNG’s heard it!

Headed back to the warm-up spot for some Mary work

Dolly-20

Reverse Crunch- 20

American Hammer- 15

Flutter kicks- 15

Mountain Climbers/Peter Parkers/Parker Peters

Back to COT

It wasn’t quite Six O’ Clock so we needed one more exercise to get us there, and Trucker happily offered up toe touches to get us home. Thanks!

Announcements– read your newsletter

Prayers/Praises– Badger, Glenn, Children, Teachers, Parents, Smithers, CSPAN, if I missed one I apologize

Thanks for the support PAX and for Shady and FMB for bringing FNG’s- Wide Right and Wilson

And Smithers for the opportunity to lead!

Frat BoySlowburn

 

 

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Hopefully Moderate at Slow Burn

It’s great to roll into this AO and see so many new faces. It’s encouraging to know we keep growing. Based on that I tried to do a better disclaimer than my normal. I was also a little nervous since I was doing the Ruckover later in the day as well as trying to hit the right level for moderate. But the weinke was set and of f we went.

Mosey over to first parking lot down road to Shutterfly for normal warm-ups. Nothing new or ground-breaking.

  • Split up into 2 groups for Indian Run down to Eternal Church parking lot. Since we were going downhill last man spring to front.
  • Partner up for Lazy Dora.
    • 100 Merkins (P1 does 10 while P2 hold plank, then keep switching to 100).
    • 200 LBCs (P1 does 20 while P2 does 6″ hold, then keep switching to 200).
    • 300 Squats (P1 does 25 while P2 holds air chair, then keep switching to 300).
  • Assemble at one end of parking lot back in 2 original groups. 1st group starts exercise and 2nd group starts after 1st group gets done with 1st exercise.
    • Run to 1st line – 10 jump lunges: run to 2nd line – 10 thrusters: run to 3rd line – 10 merkins: run to end of lot and then back to beginning
    • Run to 1st line – 10 bomb jacks: run to 2nd line – 10 plank jacks: run to 3rd line – 10 seal jacks: run to end of lot and then back to beginning
    • Lunge walk to 1st line – 10 squats: backward lunge to 2nd line – 10 squats: lunge walk to 3rd line – 10 squats: backward lunge to end
    • Run to 1st line – 10 jump lunges: run to 2nd line – 10 thrusters: run to 3rd line – 10 merkins: run to end of lot
  • Stay in 2 groups for Indian Run back to COT. Since we’re going uphill first guy in line drops for 5 merkins then runs to catch end of line and tell next guy to drop.

The run back was maybe a little more than normal for Slow Burn but everybody made it. Tried to use it as a shameless cross-promotion for PAX to post to Clydesdales. There’s always all runner levels there and a great way to get better at running. Always an honor to lead this group of PAX. Thanks Smither’s for the opportunity!

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Broga, Tater Special, and Quagmire Handoff

The plan for several months has been for YHC to receive the shovel flag for Quagmire sometime in May. Eventually, the 14th came out as the best option, so it only made sense when the call for a substi-Q went out on Friday that I should rise up to the occasion. Given the recent arrival of two new Monday bootcamps in the region, you never really know how many to expect come 0515. We had a respectable size (with 4 respectable PAX), with 11 posting to what turned out to be a beast of a workout.

(Mostly) full disclaimer given, with promise of no crawling (especially low crawls) and no balls-to-the-walls. Promise was given to start slow, but no promises for the time after the warmup.

Warm-o-rama

Long-ish mosey around Home Depot, behind Target, and out to Books-a-Million.

Rather than the standard exercises, today’s warmup was a couple sun salutations, replacing with the manly F3 names for poses because, well, Broga.

Once warm and limber-ish, we did a short mosey to the fountain for

The Thang

Twelve cones were spaced somewhat evenly around the fountain parking lot, including one cone on each traffic circle. On each cone was an exercise with a rep count. I referred to the workout as the “Tater Special,” as I got the idea from one of Tater’s Qs several months back. Basically, PAX run to the first cone, do the exercise, and return to the start. They then run to the second cone, do the exercise, then the first cone, do the exercise, then back to the start. And so on. Pretty simple. Not super original. But it’s great for PAX who want to push themselves, those who are recovering, and those who are new. Everything was modifiable, and everybody got a good workout. The exercises that were reached (I’m leaving out the ones that weren’t in case I bring this back…):

  • Burpees x 5
  • Jump Squats x 10
  • Merkins x 20
  • Freddie Mercuries x 30 double count
  • Prison Cell Burpees x 5
  • Jumping lunges x 10 double count
  • Diamond Merkins x 20
  • Flutters x 20 double count
  • Breakdancer Burpees x 5

That’s as far as the fastest men got. For those doing the math, that works out to 45 burpees, 80 jump squats, 140 merkins, 180 Freddies, 25 PCBs, 40 jumping lunges, 60 diamond merkins, 40 flutters, and 5 breakdancer merkins, plus over 2.5 miles of running. It doesn’t actually look like that much, but we felt every rep.

Grab the cones and quick, er, modified quick mosey back to COT.

Announcements, etc.

  • Cannoli Run on Saturday, Patriot Run on Memorial Day, if not doing Patriot Run, do the Murph pseudo-convergence.
  • Prayers for MOAB and ChaChing’s Ms, both of whom are fast approaching due dates for baby #3.
  • Prayers for wisdom and discernment, as well as trust and confidence, for, well, all of us.

We handed off the shovel flag after that. DaVinci had some great words; YHC didn’t. No surprises there.

Honestly, though I’m excited to take over as site Q, DaVinci’s are some big shoes to fill. Great leader, quiet and would prefer to sneak by under the radar, he is not one to be underestimated. Loyal, reliable, and solid, all would do well to learn from this HIM. It is an honor to get to follow after him.

 

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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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Moderately Crabby

Thanks to Smithers for allowing me to lead this morning.  23 HIMs started with the disclaimer and then took a little twist on the mosey down the hill to the back side of Lowes for the warm-up and beat down. Two lines formed up at the shovel flag and proceeded to Blacksnake all the way to the warm-up.  It was noted that surprisingly no one was injured bobbing and weaving while running in a line.

The Warm-Up was short and sweet to get the muscles ready and not tired.

  • Brisk 25 SSH
  • 25 Moroccan Night Club
  • 20 Imperial Walkers

The familiar Burpees that are often limited or lost at Slow Burn were tweaked slightly to provide a little 4×4 action!

Immediately following the 4x4s, we jumped right into a round Batwings.  All to a 4-count cadence:

  • 20 Forward Arm Circles
  • 20 Reverse Arm Circles
  • 20 Seal Claps
  • 20 Overhead Claps

After the shoulders were smoked, we met up along the wall of Lowes facing the side parking lot.  Everyone partnered up for some 123’s with a rotating exercise for the traveling partner. The partners completed their 100 Merkins, 200 LBC’s and 300 Squats while crossing the parking lot performing either Bear Crawls, Crab Walks, Lunge Walks, or Toe-Walks.  The parking lot had 3 distinct rows of spaces along each PAX to determine the length of their crawls or walks.

Following the 123’s we circled up for a bit of core work; Abs and Back.  I thought it was important to incorporate the most often forgotten part of the core.  This is where the real “crabbing” started among the PAX.  All exercises done in cadence:

  • 20 Crab Cake
  • 20 Crunchy Frog
  • 20 Crab Humpers
  • 20 American Hammers
  • 20 Crab Jacks
  • 20 Big Boy Sit Ups
  • 20 Mountain Climbers
  • 15 Merkins done with several pauses at 6″

The PAX moseyed its way back up to the top at their own pace in preparation for COT

At COT, the origin stories for  a couple of PAX were shared so that we can all get to know one another a little better.

Great work from all the HIMs who pushed through some serious shoulder exercises and goofy crab work.

 

MOAB…out

 

 

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Slow Burn Deck of Pain

The morning started out cooler than yesterday…and everyone noticed that right away. That’s okay, because what I had in store would keep everyone warm enough without question.

Started out with the standard disclaimer, then moseyed down the hill for the warm-up.

  • Butt Kickers
  • High Knees
  • Circle up
  • SSH’s
  • Cherry Pickers
  • Windmills
  • Imperial Walkers
  • Hillbilly Walkers

Mosey over to the side lot for the Thang.  Now, when we got over there the PAX saw the deck of cards and immediately knew what was coming.  I set the ground rules:

Aces are 1, Face cards are 10, we will use the value of the card and do that many sets of 10 of a given exercise, and each suite for that card will determine what exercise would be done.

We did 4 rounds in total, with a lap around the building in between rounds.

Round 1 – CORE; Round 2 – UPPER BODY; Round 3 – LOWER BODY; Round 4 – CARDIO with the ultimate goal to provide a solid and challenging total body workout!

So, we started out with a face card that meant we had to get after it right out of the gate with 100 box cutters.  And the mumble chatter turned at that very first exercise of round 1 ;-).

Overall, we did hundreds of exercises, some more than others, but the exercises completed for each round were as follows:

  • LBC’s (Hearts) – We did about 60
  • Flutter Kicks (Clubs) – We did 100
  • Box Cutters (Spades) – We did 100
  • American Hammers (Diamonds) – We did 80

Run a lap around the building

  • Merkins (Hearts) – We did 80 or 90
  • Carolina Dry Docks (Clubs) – I think we did 70
  • Moroccan Night Clubs (Spades) – I think we did 40
  • Overhead Hand Claps (Diamonds) – I think we did 50

Run a lap around the building

  • Squats (Hearts) – I can’t remember how many we did
  • Monkey Humpers (Clubs) – We did 100
  • Apollo Ohno’s (Spades) – I think we did 40 or 50
  • Lunges (Diamonds) – We did 10 each leg

Run a lap around the parking lot to save time and get the last round in

  • Peter Parkers (Hearts) – I think we did 40 or 50
  • Mountain Climbers (Clubs) – I think we were in the 30 or 40 range
  • SSH’s (Spades) – We did 80
  • Parker Peters (Diamonds) – I think we did 20

Mosey back up to COT

There was a lot of complaining, but I was really proud of all the PAX as they pushed through the pain and discomfort and came out their comfort zone.  Moderate is a state of mind, and I will admit that a lot of times I tell myself I can’t do something, but then when pushed by the PAX I find out, hey, it hurt like crazy, but yes, I can do that!  Today it was my turn to lead the PAX and push them.  I’m feeling it for sure now, and I know they all are too…but I wouldn’t change it for the world!

Smithers…Out!

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