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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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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10 Accelerating Together

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What day is it? It’s Hump Day

8 men showed up for the workout this morning.  T-Claps to Band Camp for bringing an FNG “Cow Bell”.  He’s is from Oklahoma.  It was the best we could do after the workout.  After a quick disclaimer, we jogged around the carpool circle to the side of the school for the following warm up exercises:

SSH x 10

Imperial Walker x 15

Plank Stretch

Squat x 10

Moroccan  Night Club x 10

Next, we moseyed to the Amphitheater and performed several rounds of exercises up and down the hill.

Round 1:  Slow mosey up hill, Monkey Humpers (set of 15 on each level).

Round 2:  Lunge walk up hill, Burpees (set of 5 on each level).

Round 3:  Slow mosey up hill, Squats (set of 15 on each level), backwards lunge down the hill.

Round 4:  Run up to each level and back down to the hill.  Rinse and repeat for all four levels.

Next, we jogged around the carpool circle to the front of the school. We lined up along the crosswalk for a series of cadence exercises.

Bear crawl / merkins, 10 and 5 count

Crab walk / LBCs, 10 and 10 count

Lunge walk/Squats, 10 and 10 count

Backwards bear crawl / Carolina Dry Docks, 10 and 5 count

Back to COT

Announcements:

Read Newsletter

Prayers:

Funhouse’s Brother

Mile High (Traveling)

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Golden Corral Corrals 3 FNG’s

From a last minute Q request from ______, Lutefisk grabbed 3 FNG’s from his neighborhood. You should try it… I posted the Men’s Health link and left an open invite and got three suckers to join us.  The disclaimer was given thoroughly and we reminded the PAX and informed the FNG’s of the 5 core characteristics of F3.

With that, a mosey around the auto parts store brings us to COP. Warm-up with:
-Windmills
-Low Slow Squats
-Imperial Walkers
-Hillbilly Walkers
-ChaChing Mercuries (Freddie Murcuries, start slow, then fast, then slow, then fast)
-Mountain Climbers
-Right Arm / Leg High
-Crab position for Dips
-Left Arm / Leg High

Mosey to the front of Harris Teeter. 9 pillars in front of the building. Line up and bear crawl to first pillar, 1 burpee. Bear crawl to second pillar, 2 burpees. You get the idea.  AYG run back to starting line. Rinse and repeat with broad jumps and squats.  Enough of that…

Mosey to the walls, partner up with someone of similar speed, that is your opponent – split into two teams with YHC as the judge for the contests. One pax at a time while the rest held position:
-Bear crawl to other side and back while the rest hold wall sit
-Duck walk to other side and back while the rest held plank
-AYG to other side and back while the rest hold BTTW
-Crab walk to other side and back while the rest hold chillcut
-Wheelbarrow to other side, flapjack, wheelbarrow back while others hold Al Gore
After each round, losing team does 5 krakken burpees, winning team does 5 flying squirrels

Mosey to parking lot, get back with original partner and complete as much Dora 1-2-3 as possible. Got through almost half of the squats.  COT

After counting off and name-o-rama, we got to the fun part. Name those FNG’s.
First up, Jim. Found out he loves Star Wars. F3 name = Solo
Next, Jason. From Long Island. He must like bagels. F3 name = Lox
Last, Justin. His last name is Earley.  F3 name = Tardy

Announcements, prayers, praises, and a prayer concluded our awesome morning. It’s always a pleasure to have an opportunity to lead these men that I look up to and admire for their awesomeness.  Lutefisk OUT.

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Alcatraz – Cake and the Ripper

It is GROUNDHOG Day and all I could think about was repeats. Repeating the same exercise for 60 mins would be rough. Shoot GInsu did Plank at The Ranch for 45 mins once…..but I was not going to subject myself or the PAX to that mental tourture. Instead, we had Cable Guy and his GI issues. the were in full force , especially in the squats. Anyway, cable guy and I flipped a coin on who would go first and I got the first half……so away we went

  • Mosey all the way around the park and came back to pick up Lutefisk and Mile HIgh for COP
    • Plank Series
  • Mosey to other side of bball fields
    • Merkins
    • Imperial Walkers
    • Hillbilly Walkers
    • Squats
  • Mosey to short steep hill by the firehouse
    • Time for DOP (Dice of Pain)
      • Roll the Dice, run to bottom of hill, perform exercise, run back up hill
    • Merkins
    • Squats
    • Lunges
    • Frog Hops
    • LBCs
    • ????
    • Burpees
  • Mosey to Playgroung and hand off to Cable Guy
    • Fishstix tagged out and we picked up Jekyll at COT

Cable Guy lined us up for some suicide repeats

  1. Burpees
  2. Merkins
  3. Bombjacks
  4. ??????
  5. Suicides touch every line up to 12 lines

Mosey to middle of lot for Mary

  • Protractors
  • Flutters
  • dying cockroaches
  • Pretzel Crunches

COT:

8 PAX came to Alcatraz today and 4 hit up  Qsource after. It was a great day of fellowship and something to be said for smaller groups pushing each other. Mile High inspired me as each time he was called for a 10 count, he had us do something during the 10 count……disruption!!  Made us all better and t-clapps brother for the dedication to get your King in order!

G3L – Get Right, Live Right, Lead Right, Leave Right

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22 at The Swamp on this cool January morning

We got a break from rain to come out and enjoy a good end to the week

We had 3 groups, Runners, Ruckers and Bootcampers

Those who chose the bootcamp route got YHC as Q

Was nice to be back, haven’t been to the Swamp in a bit so thanks to Cha Ching for the call-up!

We took a nice mosey over to Just Fresh where we circled up to get a warm-up in

Did some SSH, Squats, MC, Peter Parker, Parker Peter, Moroccan night clubs, Plank o rama, Plank Jacks, Imperial Walkers

Moseyed over to the Red balls to partner up and do some suicides with a twist of course

Start at the stop sign with your partner and do 1 Burpee, run to the first ball together and do 10 Partner handslap merkins and run back to start together and do 1 Burpee.

Run to 2nd Ball together and do 10 partner handslap big boy sit-ups and return to stop sign together and do 1 Burpee.

Continue this alternating plan until everyone completes 9 rounds

Early finishers do squats until the 6 was in

Mosey over to a wall where we did some wall sits while each of us takes a turn and runs out and completes one Burpee

Short rest then repeat but increase to 2 Burpees

Change it up next round and do BTTW and 1 Burpee

Round 2 BTTW and 2 Burpees but go 2 PAX at a time this time so our shoulder s dont crumble!!!!

Mosey back to COT area to finish up with some AB Lab

Announcements, Yeti coming up and some PAX training for a GORUCK Heavy in a few months!!! Good luck with training and stay healthy everyone.

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Pantheon – A little bit of everything

6 Pax braved a possible deluge of 40% chance of rain. YHC was duped to take the Q by an unnamed #HIM that was on a mission to get YHC to post this week.  Mission was successful.  YHC took the bait, set the alarm and made a weinke.  Needless to say, YHC needed the kick in the ass to get moving after that start of this year.  So here it is:

The Thang:

Easy Mosey to Bus lot – COP

SSH X 50, Imperial Walkers X 20, Squats X 20, Mountain Climbers X 20, Merkins X 10, Hill Billy Walkers X 20, Moroccan Night Clubs X 20, Carolina Drydocks X 20.

Suffuciently warmed up, mosey to the hard top in back of school

Wind sprints by each Pax, other Pax did excercises (merkins, mountin climbers, flutters, etc) X 3 rounds.

Mosey to the amphitheater for a Jacob’s Ladder to 7 with Squats at bottom and Burpees at top.

Mosey to the Pillars o’ Pain in front of school and pair up.  Pair run small parking lot circle while the Pax pops a squat for a long wall sit.

A couple of minutes of Mary and done.

COT – Announcements – Yeti!  Step up to Q for March, especially if never Q’d.  P&P – Pray for my brother Scott going through a divorce, 38 Special has a doc appt for his back, BG’s mother in law recovery!

Naked Moleskin – PAX, as the guy who “tricked” me to Q, he reminded me this morning that “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him that is alone when he falls, and has no one to lift him up”. Ecclesiastes 4:9-10  Notice that the verse DOESN’T say “Picks him up”.  It specifically says “LIFTS” him up.  My shield lock saw that I was down, he lifted me up. Seeing my need for help, he lifted me from my original sloth position and into a position to act, to lead.  The picking up is physical, the lifting up is everything that matters. Thanks unnamed fellow Pax.

 

#Jekyll

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Disrupting 12 days???

As I type this up, I realize that copy and pasting right after the workout would have been a very easy task but I decided to wait but build up the suspense….or something like that.  At the Swamp gathering, we divided into 3 groups – runners, ruckers and bootcampers.

As YHC led the bootcampers away from COT off into the gloom, we did a quick mosey that included butt kickers, high knees and side to side shuffles.  Once we reached our destination, we circled up to get in some quick warm up and stretching given the cooler temps.

Starting out we did: SSH, windmills, Moroccan night clubs, low slow squats, smurf jacks, and some hamstring and back stretches along with downward dog and honeymooner.

Once stretching and bodies were somewhat defrosted, we got into the Thang.

Given our first week of Q source was disruption, what better way to mix things up and disrupt the status quo than pick on something everyone was familiar with – the infamous “12 days of Christmas”.  With this in mind, YHC went with “12 days…since NYE” which was still true and this was only the beginning.  Each exercise was going to have a bit of a twist and was going to make the PAX challenge not only their bodies in the early gloom, but also their listening, math and memory skills!  Here’s how we started out and in true “12 day” style, started with 1, then moved to 2 and back to 1, then to 3 to 2 to 1, then to 4….and so on.  Whatever number you’re on, that’s how many exercises were done unless there was a multiplier included after the exercise (for example see #4 which is x2 meaning 8 of each variety of calf raise.  Also where there’s 2 exercises listed, you got to do both at the designated number.

1. Lap / run (which included up and down the set of stairs and around the parking lot for a short loop)

2. Cracken burpees (if you don’t know what this is, a regular burpee with 3 hand release merkins at the bottom and a Lake Wiley special!)

3. Fluttters & Rosalita & American Hammer (3 sets of each and double count with flutters and hammers)

4. Calve raises (all 3 varieties – inside, regular, outside) x2

5. Smurf jacks x2 (this is a squat position while doing SSH)

6. WWII big boy (legs in butterfly position and big boy situp)

7. Diamonds & Hand release

8. Jump lunge (each leg)

9. Dips x2

10. CDD x2

11. Plank ski jump (1 full cycle is 1 count)

12. Squats x3

13. Bonus round…Toe Taps

A few PAX made it through the 12 days and were looking for more, so in true disruption fashion, YHC was happy to accommodate with a 13th bonus day!

Headed back to COT with 4 min remaining, we managed to get in a few minutes of Mary while we were joined by our fellow runners and ruckers.  Wrapping up with name-o-rama, announcements and TAPs, YHC was happy to be called upon to lead.

Even with the disruption we face every day, no matter how big or small, it’s how we handle the change that makes us better.  Even if throwing in a small curve ball into something like “12 days” gives you pause to think about change, applying this “pause” to everyday life for bigger curve balls is great practice for the game of life. Slowing down life to wait for the curve balls that will come across the plate is a patient man’s game. Disrupting the status quo for controlled (or even uncontrolled) practice…there’s nothing wrong with that game!

Shady

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The runners take on Pantheon

Thanks to Gears for putting the word out and doing some quality marketing for a rare Bootcamp Q by YHC, and an equally rare BC participation from Gears & Zima.  As I waited in the gloom, the cars kept coming in.

Circled up, disclaimer was given and the 3 runners took off and the rest of us moseyed around the parking lot for a nice warm-up.

COP – SSH, IW, Low slow squat, Merkins, Mountain Climber, Peter Parker

Mosey to the bottom of Hubert Graham hill for a little BLIMPS.  Run to the top -5 Burpees, back down for 10 Lunges(each leg), back up for 15 IW, Down again for 20 Merkins, up again for 25 Plank Jacks, last trip down for 30 Squats.  Mosey back to school parking lot for a round of 11.  Start on the curb for 1 Mike Tyson(look it up) Bear crawl across parking lot for 10 Hello Dolly(in honor of Carol Channing RIP) jog back for 2 Mike Tyson, and so on and so on. The Mike Tysons were a real crowd pleaser, especially with the runners.

Another Mosey around the parking lot, with an AYG to finish at COT just in time for some Mary.

All in all a great morning, awesome to see some faces I hadn’t seen in a while, and it’s always fun to have Olaf around.  Thanks to Royale for making the long trip over the bridge to join us.

Announcements – Q-Source, Joe Davis, Special Honey Badger workout on Monday, and of course The Yeti!

Quick discussion on the Word of the Year, a few guys shared their word and why it was chosen

Prayers & Praises – Mile High is thankful for coming out for 6 months and the change it has made in his life. Prayers for sick friends & family members as well as injured Pax.

 

 

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