Obscure Parking Lots

8 PAX gathered in the grass outside the construction fence at Walter Elijah Park in the gloom.

Mosey to Springs Corporate parking lot.
Karaoke down one side
Butt Kickers up
Karaoke down the other side
Toy Soldiers back down

Pick up the shirt-less Sasquatch for a total of 9 PAX

Mosey to Springs Corporate lower parking lot
Plank for 6

Mosey to Pike Electric Parking Lot for some yoga. Or as Sasquatch calls it, “A commercial for RPG on Fridays.” Mostly we stuck to DownDog–>UpDog with some one-legged planks involved.

Mosey on to FBC Parking Lot

COP
31 SSHs
21 Squats
11 Imperial Walkers
11 Hillbilly Walkers
21 Merkins
16 CDDs

Mosey up and down the stairs at FBC
Mosey to St. John’s and wall sit on a column
11 Moroccan Night Clubs in the wall sit
Plank with feet on the wall, 6-inches, back to regular plank

Mosey to the backside of FBC
Squats for 6
Bear Crawl half the parking lot
Plank – JLos
Bear Crawl back
Squats

Mosey across Tom Hall to Bank of America
Squats for 6
Mosey to Subway/N5 parking lot
Handstand walk the wall down the parking lot
Found a board of pain
10 Bomb Jacks
20 Lunges in cadence
15 Squats in cadence
40 Calf Raises OYO
15 Squats OYO
Flipped the board over
50 CDDs OYO

Mosey to Founders parking lot
Squats for 6

Mosey to Springs Corporate lower lot
Plank for 6
Some yoga

Mosey to COT
11 Mountain Climbers
11 Peter Parkers
11 Parker Peters
Some more yoga (Lizard Pose)

NMM:

With all that’s going on in the world, it can be difficult to stay present in the moment. That’s one thing I love about the workout. All you have to focus on is the work in front of you. We can only live NOW, there is not other moment in which to exist. Getting through the tough moments reminds me of a moment from the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt where she gets through things 10 seconds at a time. She believes “I can do anything for 10 seconds.” So she just counts down from 10 to 1, and then repeats the process.

A bit nonsensical to mix Eckhart Tolle with Kimmy Schmidt. Yet here we are.

Announcements
Blood Drive on 7/28 – see Rebel’s note in the newsletter
Sweati 8/15

Prayers for those suffering

Great to lead and be pushed by the PAX present.


Band Camp dismissed

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Lt Michael Murphy “The Murph”

Today we Honored Lt Michael Murphy. We had 12 Pax do the Murph. For those of you living under a rock the Murph is :

Run 1 mile

100 PULLUPS

200 MERKINS

300 SQUATS

Run 1 mile

It was hot and humid but all powered through to complete and honor one of our Nations Hero’s.

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True Americans

It’s hot outside, guys. 74 and humid at 0615 as YHC rolled up.

 

I saw a few PAX conversing and heard there were pull ups being done. How did I know that Trucker would be there talking about how many pull ups he could do? Maybe just a hunch. It was good to see a few guys starting off with a little bit of acceleration prior to the Weinke. The clock struck 0630 and YHC took the reins for the first half of the morning.

NO warmup/COP.

Short Mosey down Windward, right at Anchorage Community

Quadzilla in Anchorage Neighborhood

Down the hill to the white brick mailbox and back to the entrance x 5

Mosey back to Runde

 

Squatzilla – Parking Lot

3 space lunge walk, 10 squats. Mosey back.

6 space lunge walk, 20 squats. Mosey back.

9 space lunge walk, 30 squats. Mosey back.

12 space lunge walk, 40 squats. Mosey back.

15 space lunge walk, 50 squats. Mosey back.

 

Ass Webbs

1:4 Squats/Squat Pulses, 2:8, 3:12 and so forth to 7:28 before YHC’s 30 minute portion was up. You guys got lucky. 

 

Italian Job Takes the Helm

Mosey over to baseball field – it was at this point IJ decided to do what YHC didn’t do – bring a message. Today we were honoring Sunshine – as it was his last post prior to reporting to Parris Island by way of the Four Seasons… we as Americans are able to choose what we want to do, we can choose to sit back and mail it in, or we can bring it and push hard for this workout. Likewise, in our life we are able to sit back and coast (typically leading to much deceleration), or move forward and push ourselves to better our families and communities. So the next iteration was to honor America and Sunshine’s call to serve.

 

All American Elevens – foul pole to foul pole

True Americans / American Hammers. This one took quite some time, and was rather difficult. Thanks for the push, IJ.

 

Mosey back to parking lot

Ab Lab – 

(15 IC) Boxcutters, Flutters, Pretzel Crunch

Last two minutes: 10 Eskimo Merkins to close it out

 

What a workout! It was great being able to talk to Kaiser during most of the second half. That dude is a #HIM and always has a great insight into the Word and the world. The mumble chatter was also very pleasing today.

 

Announcements: YHC can’t remember!

Prayers/Praises:

Cash – he is self sufficient right now but it could be soon that hospice care begins. Pray for the Lord to heal him.

Sunshine is reporting for duty to the USMC next week. Pray for him as he leads through bootcamp with the principles he has picked up at F3. Pray for Funhouse and his family as they part ways – that the void not be seen as a loss but as an opportunity for Funhouse’s arrow from his quiver go out into the world and change it.

Families – that our concentrica truly knows our heart is with them. We as dads tend to be a little hard shelled in that our kids may not know how we rely on the Lord and have faith. If we can soften our hearts and allow our children in to see how much we love the Lord, it will ultimately help them in their faith.

Pray for strength for YHC, for I am but a weak man.

Unspoken prayers.

 

Trucker, thanks for the privilege to lead such a fine group of men alongside the #HIM that is Italian Job.

 

Punch List out.

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Snowman suicide at Sweep The Leg

YHC was late to the party placing cones for the beatdown so my man Gears lead the charge from StartEx. YHC was rolling up as the PAX were rolling out so I quickly parked and jail broke it towards the elementary school parking lot untied shoes and all.

Disclaimer was quickly disclaimed, thank you Maximus for providing cues as YHC struggled to be able to talk and tie shoes at the same time.
The Snowman Suicide was on tap for the unsuspecting PAX and boy was it going to be a doozy.

During this trying time, everyone is dealing with something and I wanted to remind everyone that Life is a team sport. And developed a beatdown that allows every single guy an opportunity to jockey for the top spot. This allows for the man out front to be continually pushed so that no one gets to take a break, no matter their individual fitness level.

Just as with anything in life, we are going to have setbacks, and we must remember that during these setbacks we must focus on the path forward and learn from the experience. It is also during these times that we must share that experience with our fellow PAX and those close to us; To allow them to learn without having to make the same mistakes for themselves.
“CLEAR THE PATH”
“LIGHT THE WAY”
The details:
Ten cones are placed along the route from the Elementary school teacher parking lot through the carpool dropoff lane over to the bus lot all the way around to Dam road.
Each cone has an exercise written on it. Every exercise will be performed 10 times.
This is a suicide workout but not just any suicide. It’s a slinky suicide of life so you go up 3 cones then back 2. Meaning that everyone will start by performing the exercise listed at cone#1 then the PAX will sprint past three cones to cone#4 to perform the exercise before coming back two cones to cone#2 to complete the exercise.
Then run to cone#5 to do the exercise, then back to perform the exercise listed on cone#3 and so on and so forth all the way up to cone#10.
So each time the guy in the lead is making progress by one cone but it’s taking him a lot of effort and having to backtrack a ton.

Here comes the kicker:
The kicker is that when the man in first-place finishes the exercise after coming back to cone #2 he then yells “Charge or Onward” and starts to run towards cone#5. Every person that he passes that are still on their way back to cone#2 skips the exercise at cone#2 and joins the leaders heading to cone#5. The leader has already cleared the path and is now lighting the way towards the next cone/challenge of life. Everyone can learn from the leaders experience and head towards the next challenge together. COVID SIDE NOTE: When I say together let me clarify that the distance between cones was large enough that social distancing was easy to maintain along the route (a full-sized road with no traffic) and ample hills to naturally separate the PAX. It is an extremely difficult process that allows every PAX to pick each other up and challenge themself to get better.

Here is the list of exercises
#1: Mack Tar Jighs
#2: Suicide Squats
#3: SSH
#4: Bomb Jacks
#5: ChaCha Merkins
#6: Bobby Hurleys
#7: Hand Release Merkins
#8: Jump Squats
#9: CDD
#10: Burpees

I try to hit all of the 3S2T in all of my Q’s and I feel this one delivered. The speed, strength, and stamina were definitely worked on and the constant switchbacks and hills really focused on the mental and physical toughness aspects. The look on guy’s faces during the beatdown showed the struggle but the encouragement was strong.

I think we made it through the burpees then back down to the Cone # 4 before having to jail brake all the way back to COT.
Great work was put in by all and I think the leaders got in over 4.6 miles and who knows how many exercises.
Count-A-Rama, Name-A-Rama, Announcements and Prayers and Praises before a circle of man.

It was a pleasure to witness the longest shooting star I have ever seen with you gents.

Thank you to Gears for the opportunity to lead these great HIM.
Stay Frosty My Friends!
Olaf

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APFT volume 2 of 7

APFT vol 2 of 7 results:

2 mins AMRAP merkins for count, 2 mins AMRAP big boy sit ups for count, and timed 2 mile run.

Points are awarded for count/time bracketed by age group. Personal Record (PR) is for GC’s APFT’s from June thru December 2020, not necessarily PAX PR of all time. 1st attempt pax are PR

PAX, # of reps/time (scores), total points/ave points, +/- previous ave (PR?)
Maximus, 83 merkins (100), 70 bbsu (94), 13:08 (100) = 294/98.0 +2.3 PR
Gekko, 80 merkins (100), 56 bbsu (89), 14:34 (99) = 288/96 PR
Cha Ching, 92 merkins (100), 70 bbsu (93), 13:59 (95) = 288/96 PR
Dark Helmet, 79 merkins (100), 57 bbsu (85), 16:06 (83) = 268/89.3 -4
Nature Boy, 54 merkins (77), 85 bbsu (100), 13:45 (90) = 267/89 PR
Olaf, 70 merkins (95), 48 bbsu (67), 13:52 (95) = 257/85.7 +3 PR
BOT, 90 merkins (100), 50 bbsu (69), 14:53 (86) = 255/85 0
Change Order, 62 merkins (96), 57 bbsu (85), 17:28 (71) = 252/84.0 -1.7
Body Wash, 72 merkins (99), 39 bbsu (61), 14:50 (84) = 244/81.3 +4 PR
Lutefisk, 57 merkins (82), 53 bbsu (73), 16:29 (72) = 227/75.7 +6.4 PR
Falcon Crest, 52 merkins (76), 51 bbsu (71), 16:21 (73) = 220/73.3 PR
Tardy, 69 merkins (94), 52 bbsu (72), 20:12 (37) = 203/67.7 PR
Lox, 45 merkins (77), 36 bbsu (64), 19:13 (56) = 197/65.7 PR
Hacksaw, 68 merkins (96), 63 bbsu (76), 18:03 (31) = 175/58.3 PR
Shop Vac, 36 merkins (78), 12 bbsu (44), DNF (53) = 175/58.3 PR

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Punch List hand off to Maximus at The Coop

2 guys showed at The Coop for a little pre-Ruck and life chat then the phone rang. With his Concentrica in order, Punch List had to head home. Thankfully, I attended most of elementary school so I knew how to read and really, that’s all I had to do. With the already-scripted Weinke on the Steve, I proceeded to Q the 9 other PAX through a rather nice tour of our mill town’s eastern most high school. Some would call this AO the best we have. I’m not sure on that one but it is definitely the most used.

Once the PAX were made aware of the unintentional Q bait ‘n switch, they were then disclaimed and led off into some dynamic stretching movements through the parking lot. I’m still not too sure what that means but hey, so it is written, so it’ll be done.

The message from Punch List to the PAX today was about community and truly loving your neighbor as we have the perfect example to follow .

The first stop was for some Hops & Burpees:
5 SSH (all in cadence)
1 Burpee (eventually all Burpees would be in cadence)
10 SSH
2 Burpees
15 SSH
3 Burpees
20 SSH
4 Burpees
25 SSH
5 Burpees
20 SSH
4 Burpees
15 SSH
3 Burpees
10 SSH
2 Burpees
5 SSH
1 Burpee

John 13:34-35: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Go ahead and think about that for a few moments.

We tend to judge others by their actions yet we judge ourselves by our intentions. What if we gave others the same measure of grace that we give to ourselves?
REPEATED

Mosey to the top of the hill by the pull-up bars for a set of 11’s:
10 pull-ups, run down the hill for 1 Bobby Hurley at the stop sign. Run back to the top.
9 pull-ups, run down the hill for 2 Bobby Hurley at the stop sign. Run back to the top.
Repeat all the way until you complete the last set which consisted of 1 pull-up & 10 Bobby Hurley’s.

Mosey to the goal line on the nearside of the field:
Bear crawl to the 50 with 2 Merkins every 10 yards.
Crawl bear back to the goal line with 2 Merkins (was CDD but that’s not in the cards for me right now)  every 10 yards.

COT

Punch List had more planned for the PAX but I got a little long-winded so it’ll have to wait for next time.

Pray for Cash!!

Punch List (by way of Maximus)…out
SYITG

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DIY DORA + Hill Repeats

This was YHC’s second Q at MP – and what a joy it was. I scanned through all *cough* ten *cough* of the back blasts to ensure the weinke was worth the price of admission.

As the HIM rolled in, the clock struck 0513 and we headed to the flag to say the pledge of allegiance. 

0514: Disclaimer, quick run down of the warm up lap and a hint at the plan for the day. 

And we’re off.

.55 mile loop at a 6:45 pace up Main St, left on Clebourne, left on 160, back to the gravel lot for a quick few movements.

 

Dynamic Warm Up

Karaoke in Gravel Lot, facing 160 out and back

Side Shuffle in Gravel Lot, facing 160 out and back

Butt Kickers

Circled up for Wind Mills in the paved lot.

It was at this moment that the bat flippers thought I wouldn’t get the required mileage due to the stop for the wind mills. I enjoyed their words and snickered on the inside as we prepped to head out.

 

Weinke

The weinke was to be simple, but effective; a DIY DORA, if you will.

Start at the base of Massey St and mosey up to the end of the Sisk Memorial Church Parking Lot

Upon arriving at the end of the lot each PAX was to do the following:

10 Merkins

20 Squats

30 LBCs

Mosey back down the hill, rinse and repeat ten times to total 100-200-300.

After that first lap, it got awfully quiet. As we passed each other, like ships in the night, each PAX put in the work necessary to conquer “Hill One.” Esso did give me a good laugh. At one point he and I passed and he whispered “I hate you right now.” 100% worth it.

Fish Sticks, Long Duck, Maximus, and Gears led the pack as the rest of us hobbled behind. I am sad to say that nobody completed the full 10 rounds, though a few hard hitters made it 9. 

As quickly as it started, it ended, and we ran back to COT across 160. 3.9 miles total.

 

Naked Man Moleskine

This weinke, again, was simple yet effective. YHC has been attending Sweep The Leg and the hills have been my downfall. My goal today was to target a weakness and attack it, in the hopes to become better. That is the life we as leaders must live, or else we will become stagnant and fail. 

We should have this perspective with our faith as well. I think of Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 9:26-27.

26 Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. 27 No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

This is the way we must live out our faith. For if we run aimlessly and without plan, the enemy will overtake us. Take some time today to focus on your current path and what trajectory you are on – intentional or unintentional. 

 

Thanks, Shanks, for the fun times today.

Punch List out. 

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Burpee Prison

Seven PAX in total on a warm humid morning.

started with: Mosey Run (Toy soldiers, Butt Kickers, High Knees)
Warm up:
SSH (IC 12x)
Windmill (IC 12x)
Imperial Walker (IC 12x)
Moroccan Nightclub (IC 12x)
Low Slow Squats (IC12x)
Peter Parker (IC 12x)
Plank stretches
Downward dogs
Honeymooners

Thang 1 Prison Yard Burpees
Divided pax into two groups to use two half-courts.
Setup on a half-basketball court (this is your prison yard). Ten burpees in corner 1, then bear crawl to corner 2. Nine burpees in corner 2, lunge walk to corner 3. Eight burpees in corner 3, bear crawl to corner 4. Seven burpees in corner 4, lunge walk to corner 1. Continue in similar manner 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, ending with 1 burpee. Sum is 55 burpees this round.
When done: flutter kicks for the six

Short mosey run

Thang 2 Bench work
At the school’s benches:
20 incline merkins
20 Dips
20 step ups, 10 ea leg
20 decline merkins
20 butt touch squats
20 calf raises

Short mosey run

Thang 3 Back to Prison
Start at the first cone again but begin with 6 burpees and transverse around like the above. Thus doing 6,5,4,3,2,1 burpees. Sum of 21 this round, and 76 burpees total.

Short mosey run

Thang 3 Global Warming
Did: bobby hurleys, squats, monkey humpers, LBC, Freddie mercuries, gas pumpers, amer hammers

Thang 4 Sally routine
Moby’s “Flower”, we did leg lifts: bring Sally up= legs up; bring Sally down= 6 inch leg hold.
Song is about 3:30, I think about 23 ups/downs.

Fini
COT

NMM: Praises for my 20th wedding anniversary coming on July 1st.

Addiction takes many forms.   Pornography is one of those addictions.  Don’t let it put your mind in a prison.  There is help out there: shield lock, pastors, counselors.  Seek and you shall find.

 

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Rust removal via building pyramids

22 HIM descended upon Golden Corral, 6 of whom opted for the Fire Ant.  Prior to arrival YHC wrote out the exercises with sidewalk chalk around the grounds and was quickly reminded how rough the parking lot surfaces were around the grounds.  While it made for a few challenges to write things out, all was sketched legibly enough for the attending PAX to enjoy.   The fun was about to begin.

The boot campers ventured off with YHC around the A/O grounds.  Cabana Boy and Slow Jams were also present but YHC could not find them in the tags.  Cobains.   YHC was coming off a week of vacation and looked forward to getting back out with the PAX.  It was time to roll

Here’s what we did.

Mosey to Grace Presby parking lot for the warm up (just before the signs went up for voters).

Imperial and Hillbilly Walkers x 10 (D/C and I/C – Olaf  decided to make the exercise literal

5 burpees after each

Low slow squat x 10 holding into people’s chair after the 10th rep to do the following (all D/C and in cadence)  Morroccan night clubs x10, air press x 10 and shoulder tap x 10

Recover to standing position for 5 more burpees before 15 SSH D/C I/C and off to the Harris Teeter wall for:

Wall Sits while each PAX did 3 burpees.  Cha Ching had the best burpee form.  YHC did not.

Mosey to the back lot, into the fresh country air with accompanying humidity and the main event: Partner Pyramid Work – DORA style.

PAX paired off – 16 made for 8 teams of 2.  While Partner 1 started the pyramid, partner 2 ran to the opposite end of the lot, through the clean smelling aforementioned air, did an assigned exercise for each trip and returned to switch off, picking up exercises where the partner left off on the pyramid.

Run #1 & 5 – 10 burpees

Run #2 & 6 – 10 squats

Run #3 & 7 – 10 diamond merkins

Run #4 & 8 – 10 wide arm merkins

The pyramid was 10 lines total – 5 lines down and 5 lines back up

10 burpees

10 burpees and 20 squats

10 burpees, 20 squats and 30 merkins

10 burpees, 20 squats, 30 merkins and 40 flutters

10 burpees, 20 squats, 30 merkins, 40 flutters & 50 jump squats

50 jump squats, 40 flutters, 30 merkins, 20 squats & 10 burpees

40 flutters, 30 merkins, 20 squats & 10 burpees

30 merkins, 20 squats & 10 burpees

20 squats & 10 burpees

10 burpees

Work was done around a little mumble chatter (but just a little), PAX got better and finished just in time to mosey briskly to COT for a 1-minute geometry class.  A protractor ab exercise was completed for 60 seconds at varying degrees.  For some reason, 0 degrees was the preferred choice but we never quite got there.  At 0600, we called time and circled up for name o rama, announcements, prayers and praises

Announcements:

Convergence at WEP on 7-11

Classroom ready notebook fundraiser is in full swing and runs through the end of June.    Questions – reach out to Bonsai.

Praises were offered up and prayers were offered up for those battling addictions and for families as well.

NMM – In a time of crisis, all of us benefit from routines, disciplines and accountability – staying true to the values and standards that make us the leaders we are called to be – at home with our families, at our places of work and in our community.  In any crisis, a person can only rise to the level of their training.  As we work our way through this pandemic it is YHC’s hope for all PAX that they look around and know that no matter what they are going through, we all can use the unforeseen events of the past months as opportunity to enhance our resolve, encourage one another and to help one another accelerate in our development of all dimensions – physical, mental, professional, spiritual, the list goes on.

My thanks to Lutefisk for the call out and opportunity to Q.  It was good to get out in the gloom and accelerate with a great group of #HIM.  I’m thankful for all of you.

Honored,

Cyclops

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Great Way to Start the Week

It was a privilege to Q the newest AO “Sweep the Leg” this week.  The term in one of my favorite movies, “Karate Kid”.  Lots of life lessons, bad 80s music, and my Hollywood crush, Elisabeth Shue. What a beauty!

Ok, back to the workout.  Pretty simple and repetitive.  Run a lap around the parking lot.  In the main lot, there were exercises (Carolina Dry Docks, LBCs, Merkins, Jump Squats – 20 of each) at each one of the four light poles.  Sprint between the light poles.  Run a lap around the parking lot..Rinse and Repeat.

Great job by everyone.  Lots of men getting better and encouraging each other.

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