10/20/30 at Cannonball (Back to the Basics)

12 PAX appeared in the gloom. We got the Kettlebells out and No FNGs present, but a lot of new faces in the gloom. Gave a basic disclaimer as we moseyed around the parking lot and through the dark tunnel and into the old Church Parking lot were Whitesnake took control of the COP. He has a VQ coming up so I hit him up yesterday and asked him if he wanted to lead us in the COP and he said “heck yah” . He was prepared, he later told me that he watched a Video online of Dredd showing how to lead a COP. Whitesnake killed it with some Imperial Walkers, Produce Pickers, Sun Gods both ways, MNC’s and then some fast paced until we slowed him down Wind Mills (something we all get a little fast on when we do them for the first time). I remember Jedi stopping me and setting me straight. I then went into the middle of the COP and had everyone hold an Al Gore and I briefly talked about all the new faces and that when leading up to the VQ’s remember you are the one in charge and to take lead and men will follow you. Also keep in mind that it is only exercise and not surgery so it is ok if you mess up.

We then moseyed over toward the New Parking lot and on the way we did some Toy Solders. Picked up our Kettle Bells and did the Following

10/20/30 (3 reps)
Big Boys with a Kettlebell raise and push over the head to the knees
Tricep Ext.
Lawn mowers (15 each arm)
Then take a lap with the Bell

10/20/30 (3 reps)
Kettlebell squat thrusters
American Hammers counting the right side only
Skull Crushers
Then take a short bear crawl lap with the Bell to the first cone and back

10/20/30 (3 reps)
Turkish Get ups 5 each side (not a popular one just ask Whitesnake and the Pax with the Ruck on
KB Swings
Shoulder Presses 15 each arm
Then take a lunge lap around the second cone with the Bell

Ended right on time with cheers that the Turkish Getups were done.

Announcements as usual Canoli Run, Savage Race, Heavy Coming up, New River Men’s Breakfast, F# Dads May 25th, Memorial Day Convergence, Read your news letter.

Prayers and Praises, O’Reilly had a friend end his life recently, Roger (Riverboat) and his battle with cancer, Traveling Pax and sick Pax.

Thanks to all that came and got better. I am glad to be out there with each of you . You make me stronger. Kudos to Whitesnake for leading the COP.

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Relays at Abyss

Been trying to come up w/ ideas that force guys to naturally push themselves harder than they would normally.  What better way than to do some team relays w/ punishments and a time hack that forces us to push it to be under the time challenge.

Took the pax on a quick mosey to the back of the school, one lap around the track and then a warm-up in order of merkins, downward dog, honeymooner, peter parkers, wind mills, squats and moroccan nightclubs.  Relay time.  On the long hill in way back of Palisades Elementary.

Instructed the pax to count off by 2 (we had 14) so we had two teams of 7 – Team 1 vs. Team 2.  I then asked the pax to count off by 2 again within their teams.  This apparently was too much counting  for these particular guys at 5:20a.  Lots of grumbles from the crowd, but they finally got it.  My intent was to “evenly” (we had 7 per team) split each of the teams so that half would be at the bottom of the hill and the other half would be at the top of the hill.  Half of each of the teams ran to the top of the hill and the half at the bottom started each relay:

  • Relay 1 – first guy in line on each of the teams sprints up the hill and tags their teammate at the top of the hill, who then sprints down the hill and tags the next guy up.  This particular relay lasts as long as it takes all team members to sprint 4 times (two uphill, two downhill).  While all the sprinting is happening, the rest of the team is doing 3 exercises (you switch exercises once a runner finishes at your end of the hill).
      1. 6 inch holds
      2. Jump knee tucks
      3. Big boy sit ups

WINNER – Team 1.  Team 2 does 6 KRAKEN BURPEES while Team 1 does 6 normal burpees

  • Relay 2 – wheel barrows.  First TWO guys in line on each of the teams (at the bottom of the hill) wheel barrows half way up the hill (it’s a solid stretch) and then switches w/ the guy holding his legs.  Once they get to the end, they tag their teammates on the other side and they wheel barrow down the hill switching midpoint.  Same idea – entire relay lasts for all pax to do one wheel barrow hill.  Exercises done for this relay, with a switch in exercise taking place each time a partner changes on the wheel barrow was as follows:
      1. Diamond merkins
      2. Lunge jumps
      3. American hammers

WINNER – Team 2.  Team 1 does 8 KRAKEN BURPEES while Team 2 does 8 normal  burpees

  • Relay 3 – ruck run.  First guy in line on each of the teams has a ruck that they carry and they sprint up the hill, tag their teammate on the other side by throwing a ruck sack at their face, who then runs down the hill.  This relay lasts as long as it takes all pax to complete 2 full hill sprints w/ the ruck sack.  Exercises during this relay that are cycled through were:
      1. Carolina dry docks
      2. Side straddle hops
      3. Plank on elbows

(HIGHLIGHT – DUCK DYNASTY FOUND HIS CALLING.  THIS DUDE THREW A RUCK SACK ON HIS SHOULDER AND SPRINTED LIKE HIS LIFE DEPENDED ON IT, PICKING UP MAJOR GROUND FOR TEAM 2 ON HIS LEGS!)

WINNER – Team 2.  Team 1 does 5 KRAKEN BURPEES while Team 2 does 5 normal burpees

From there, we only had 7 minutes, so it was time for a quick Time Hack.  I started the timer on my phone that is as bright as the sun, and as a team, we did one lap on the track w/ a stop in the middle for 15 merkins.  We did it in 1 minute, 10 seconds (clock stops upon last guy finishing).

  • Time Hack Challenge – do two laps on the track, stopping once during each of the laps at midpoint to do 15 merkins in 2:35.  We did it in 2:50, a 15 second party foul.  That meant 15 burpee penalty…wa wa.  If I had more time I wanted to do a 3 lap time and a 4 lap time hack w/ the same burpee penalty.  Would have been fun.

Flew back to COT, did our burpee penalty and ended 1 minute past 6am (shame on me).  Prayers were shared for kids, travel mercies for Witch Hunt and family, new beginnings at work, and healing.  Thanks Copyright for the chance to lead this awesome group of Lake Wylie pax.  Crazy to see the explosive growth out here.  Had a blast!

Cha Ching

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Incentive

Spring is definitely here and so were 11 PAX ready to push themselves at the Crows Nest.

After giving a quick disclaimer we took the long mosey around to the back of the school where we circled up for a QUICK warm up.

  • 8 Windmills
  • 20 SSH’s
  • 10 Low Slow Squats
  • 10 Tempo Merkins

So a little backstory, not long before I took off for my 1st leg of the P200, I realized I forgot to sync some music to my watch.  So in a hurry, I quickly downloaded some “curated” playlists from Amazon.  I actually liked what I ended up running too, but there was one song that didn’t really fit the vibe, however, it had a great message.  The song was called “Perspective” from the Artist Blueprint.  It’s all about being equal and aware of what’s going on around you.  Being thankful for what you have and being considerate to everyone’s different cirucmstances.  In God’s eye’s we’re all equal.

I wanted the PAX to hear the song, however looking back on it, most of them we’re probably concentrating on not touching the ground than listening to the lyrics, but it was a nice follow-up to the quick warm-up and definitely setup the theme of the workout to follow nicely.

I told them that for the duration of the song we would plank (about 3.25 minutes).  If any one of us touched the ground, picked and arm up, etc., we would do 5 Burpees at the end of the song for each person that didn’t make it all the way through.  He only says Perspective 4 times during the song, but when we heard it we would drop to six inches, then back to plank the next time.  It turned out to be about 2 minutes of straight planking and then 1.25 minutes of 6″ to finish out the song.  4 of us didn’t make it, 20 Burpees for all.

So that theme I mentioned earlier, it was all about pushing us together, to go faster, and harder.  We would either succeed as a group or fail as a group.  “NoOYO”

1st routine: (timed)

  • 10 merkins
  • 25 yard Crab Walk
  • 10 diamond merkins
  • 25 yard Crab Walk back
  • 10 Merkins

I actually called an Omaha on this one, not really intentional, but the Crab Walks kept hitting my lap timer on my watch, so I lost track of our group time.  Crab Walking can be tough on some of the PAX so we just moved on to the next routine.

2nd routine: (timed)

  • 24 Merkins
  • 24 Squats
  • 24 American Hammers
  • Lap around the parking lot island
  • x2

It took ALL of us 3:50 seconds to complete this set.  So we did it again, this time advising the PAX that we would do 1 Burpee for every second passed 3:50… everyone responded with a time of 3:01.  Knowing that the PAX really pushed it to beat the  1st time, I said we were going one more time and boy did they respond, 2:45!  Amazing what a little incentive will do.  I wonder what would have happened if I said one more time??

3rd and final routine:

  • 10 SSH
  • 10 Lunges
  • 10 Flutters
  • 5 Burpees

We had 90 seconds to complete this, which I knew was generous, but we had plenty of time left… if we went over 90 seconds, 1 Burpee per second team penalty.

As soon as the last man was done, we repeated, this time adding +1 (cadence), so 12 SSH, 12 Lunges, 12 Flutters, 6 Burpees.  This took us 1:12, still well under 90 seconds.  Lets do it again, +1.  We continued this until time was almost up, we managed to get to 9 before passing the 90 second mark and came in at 1:42, so 12 Burpees before heading back to CoT.

I really enjoyed this workout, it came off really well and loved how we all pushed ourselves and picked up the six to continue to beat the buzzer.

I’ll be bringing this one back in one form or another.

We ended up the usual way, sent up some Prayers for Peg’s daughter who’s been dealing with some concussions, and also for Rocket, an F3 brother from Lake Norman, who is having a biopsy on his lungs today.  We pray that everyone is OK.

Thank you for the opportunity to lead these men today Iced-T.

Until next time,

-FLUX-

 

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