31 Pax descended upon Slow Burn for an epic adventure. A #noderate workout plus high humidity had been promised and both were granted on this day.
Personally, YHC loves what the Pax have done in creating moderate workouts across the Fort. As a result of their efforts, we have welcomed many great men who have contributed across all 3 Fs within our region. The success stories are limitless and we are proud of their efforts.
YHC felt a significant responsibility as Q of Slow Burn to lead a workout that would not be defined as moderate but would allow for modification and picking up the 6. These are the consistent themes from the Q101 document that CSPAN put together some 5+ years ago. Several #truths weigh heavily within this document which are simplicity and scalability. Simplicity as Q is defined as keeping it familiar, less complex and don’t be shy about stealing from others (Jekyll in this case) or backblasts. Scalability as Q is defined as – a scalable workout is one that is tough for the strongest of Pax, while at the same time not over-smoking the back of the pack. All workouts are no drop; without exception. Under no circumstance should we ever leave a Pax alone.
In keeping with these two principles, YHC was to Q a workout that was both simplistic and scalable while ensuring that the Larry Birds got all they could handle.
The Thang
Mosey around Empire Pizza building (the smell was horrible) and back to Empire lot
FYI CSPAN attempted to scare a cat during this sequence…not a good idea!
COP
Windmills
Merkins
SSH
Squats
Mtn Climbers
Mosey to Lowes parking lot – Q dropped the Weinke but Rebel had my back. Thanks!
Crazy 8s – Eight exercises done during each circuit
Burpees
Derkins
Dips
Squat Jacks
Bombjacks
CDD
Lunges
Plank Jacks
Circuit was done with 1 rep (This can’t be that bad, right?!? for each exercise followed by a mosey in a figure 8 pattern around Lowes and Empire lots
Add one rep to each circuit during each of the 8 stops
Mosey back to Lowes for Mary
LBCs
Big Boys
Gravedigger L and R
Hello Dolly
Superman x 3 (Cant ever remember all of the Sale brothers nicknames!)
Mosey Home
Moleskin
After the 6th round of the circuit, YHC noticed that the Pax were beginning to tire. In an effort to leverage #pride, each man was asked to grab a partner for the exercises to ensure completion. You never want to let a partner down!
Prayers to BTB, praise to Frat Boy, prayers to Maximus on his vacation travels
Sweatie is 7/14 at 6 AM at Footloose – Does anyone really know the details? Thats a true CSAUP!
Thanks to Smithers for his leadership of Slow Burn
What is a minute? It’s not very long, and they go by SO fast! Today we had 14 PAX and we learned how short/long a minute can be!
Started with a disclaimer, and then a mosey down to the parking area past the Empire Pizza strip.
Warmup:
25 SSH’s in cadence
10 Windmills in cadence
25 Mor. Nite Club’s in cadence
25 Overhead Hand Claps in cadence
And then we got right into it. We were not going to do much running, in fact at this point we had done exactly half of the running we were going to take on this morning. Instead I utilized a bit of technology (having some of the standard technological issues) to setup a solid 34 minute workout in minute increments. We did two rounds, with a 2 minute break between rounds. The list below are the exercises we did for a minute (30 second breaks in between).
Didn’t look like too much on paper, but we got our sweat on for sure, even without the running!
Side Straddle Hops
Merkins
LBC’s
Calf Raises
Squats
Dips
Plank
American Hammers
Wide Arm Merkins
Flutter Kicks (the final round of flutters was performed at COT).
It’s been a busy summer, but I enjoyed being able to take the opportunity to Q the workout today.
COT: Prayers
Bob The Builder’s recovery
Popper’s recovery
Traveling mercies for those heading out of town over the upcoming holiday
Thanks to Smithers for the opportunity! Reaching respectable now allows me to feel a little more comfortable at a moderate workout. No more razzing from the PAX!
Arrived early, set out things. Put in the bifocal contacts to help see taped-on-arm weinke (as usual). The bifocal contacts did not really help too much but this weinke was almost memorized. Welcomed the PAX. Lots of new faces for me. Highly recommend to get out to different workouts and meet new guys. Read the disclamer.
Mosey along Empire Bldg with high knees, toy soldiers, shuffle it up. To middle of parking lot for warmup exercises: SSH, WM, LBC, Merkins, Goofballs, IW, Flutters, MNCs. Then to curb for a couple new exercises for many…
Rocky Balboas (boxing motion, alternating toe taps on curb), Twist Merkins or Nipple Scratcher Merkins (hands on curb, on drop down, one leg twist through trying to get each “nipple”…hey, it’s in the exicon…to touch the curb), RB’s again, Mike Tysons (feet on curb in flat position, squat, on the up, do a merkin), RB’s again. Back to middle of parking lot for…
…4 corners explanation. 4 cones at the corners with 3 exercises each. Complete exercises, plank until ALL PAX done, mosey to middle for core work. Broke into groups of 4.
We got through one cycle. Core work included LBCs, Hello Dolly, Freddy Mercury, Protractor, and… I think here…maybe in warmup…”point/whip the finger” one leg flutters. Ok, I made this name up. An exercise I do, on six, one leg tucked under butt, one leg flutter, lower as safely as you can from flat to on your elbows. The flutter leg is the ‘pointer’ of the 5 body appendages.
To side of Lowes. Stayed in groups of 4 and had 4 stations.
Station 1 sprinted length of Lowes and yelled “turn” at the corner signaling other groups to turn around. (This was to have e1 finish about the same time.)
Station 2, 2 PAX carried the #120 Worm coupon until hearing “turn” then handed off to other 2. Good job PAX in improvising the alternating carry as I had not indicated so.
Station 3 Burpees until finish.
Station 4 Lunge walk until hearing turn then back.
Oh yea, PAX carried and passed around a 30# coupon the whole workout. I did not say, but this coupon was intended for a peoples chair line pass w/ overhead press, curls, etc, if we had time. We didn’t.
We covered good standards of a workout including small group, partner and individual work. And for a moderate workout, maybe a little less running, a few less reps and nice mix of moving and rest time. Weinke it so that PAX are finishing exercises about the same time.
COT.
Noted to PAX to talk with your kids about things in the news, including recent suicides and the immigrant situation. They are seeing these things and it is our job as fathers to talk with them the best way we can.
Prayers for Foley who is dealing with cancer.
Sweati on the way! No details yet makes it all the more intriguing. G-Fit in Paradise and CAH workouts need Q’s! Use this opportunity to take a small step to #ServeCommunity. F3Dads Camp Thunderbird camp coming up near end of summer.
Shout out to NASA for his work and commitment to CAH.
All are invited and encouraged to attend the 4x/week F3 gatherings in Fort Mill to improve your mind and spirituality. It is an open environment and all men will feel comfortable.
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.
9 bootcampers and 7 ruckers landed at Golden Corral for a buffet of painful options. Drummond brought an FNG (later named “Manifold”) to partake in the meal. Don’t know about any of the other bootcampers, but YHC was thankful not to be part of the rucking group when Rad rolled the giant tractor tire out of the back of his truck. No bueno.
5:15 arrived, and after a disclaimer was offered, the bootcampers took off for a mosey around Rite-Aid, down to the auto-repair place, and back to the front of Harris Teeter. Stops were made along the way for various warm up exercises, including:
SSH
Imperial Walkers
Mountain Climbers
Sumo Squats
Peter Parkers
Dips
Windmills
38 Special came in hot, and caught up with us after our second stop on the warm-up run.
The Thang
At the stopping point in front of HT was the bucket of pain. But this time the instructions were different than previous BoP appearances. Here’s how it went:
First exercise was drawn from the bucket. Pax did 5 reps.
Second exercise was drawn. Pax did 10 reps of it, then repeated the 5 reps of the first exercise
Third exercise was drawn. Pax did 15 reps of it, then 10 of the second exercise, then 5 of the first.
Routine continued until 5 exercises were drawn (which had 25 reps). Once completed, pax took a run around the entire front parking lot of the shopping center. We had time to do this twice. Here were the exercises.
Round 1:
5 merkins
10 burpees
15 squat jacks
20 POGO (10 each leg)
25 plank punches
Round 2:
5 jumping lunges
10 low, slow squats
15 moroccan night clubs
20 flying squirrels
25 Crab Cakes
After our second round (and run around the parking lot) we had time for a few minutes of Mary:
Flutters
LBCs
Chopsticks
Alphabet Soup
American Hammer
Time was up, and we headed back to COT.
Excellent work by all men. T-Claps to Mainfold for his first post, and to 38 Special for his second post (in as many days). Thanks to Decibel for the privilege of Q’ing.
What happens when you’re granted the honor of Qing at an AO you’ve not been to much and therefore, not to familiar with? Why, you scout it on Sunday with your kids after Church of course. Completely normal, right? For this group, you’re expected to “bring it” so you’d better know the turf. For those Ft. Mill’ers who’ve not frequented The Abyss, put it on your short-term bucket list. I didn’t explore much of it due to our card playing but this place is a gem.
Once the 16 of us rolled in on this beautiful Wednesday morning, I quickly noticed the footwear NASA was sporting and got a little concerned…for him. He let me know that he and a few other PAX would be breaking off to do a busted-foot-friendly-workout so I felt a little better about what we were getting into. The people-pleasing side of me wanted to make sure I had a little something for everyone so after typical butchered disclaimer, we took off for the basketball courts for our warm up:
Windmills
Side Straddle Hops of course
Super mans
Hand-Release Merkins
Jump Squats
Mosey back to the main lot and I had to grab the deck of cards I slipped under the cone. As many but not all were familiar with, each suit is a different exercise and the number on the card represents how many reps. Jack = 11, Queen = 12, King = 13 and the Ace = 14 (not 1).
Hearts = Wide Arm Merkins
Clubs = Carolina Dry Docks
Diamonds = Jumping Lunges
Spades = BURPEES (Yup, we did that)
After we recognized the deck must have been front-loaded with Wide-Arm Merkins and Jumping Lunges, it wasn’t long until we started getting smoked and a few 10-counts were necessary. In the end, we completed it all which totaled 104 of each, that’s right, 104 Burpees.
There was still a little left in the tank and on the clock so we had to round it out with Dying Cockroaches, descending 10ct leg lifts and the finisher…Lt. Dan’s. The latter was a lesson I would remember the rest of the week.
Bones, I appreciate the opportunity and I look forward to the next time.
Leave no man behind but leave no man where you found him.
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.
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!
It happens every week. I usually go when I Q because it’s like 15 minutes earlier than other workouts. But I’m glad that Nomad in his effort to help those that struggle with the fartsack, keeps me in rotation.
So we ran 5.5-6.5 (see me for the 5.5, MacGuyver for the 6.5). It was a great route with some challenging hills (check Strava). Sam Smith. Harvest Pointe. Nuff said. YHC was the 6.
Oh, Cyclops had his first post at LO. The yearlong EH from STH paid off. He was there too. Thanks for the opportunity and the push guys. Great to meet MOAB!
