Tag: O’Reilly

Run, Kraken, Broga

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13 men resisted the ever menacing fart sack and met in the gloom at the Bermuda Triangle for another great Friday.  With the shovel flag passed on from HomeBrew to Wolverine last week, I wanted to make this Q a bit different from my previous ones to help usher in a new era at the Triangle. At a recent site Q meeting the Fort’s Maximus was discussing a bootcamp consisting of a minimum of 3 miles running with a bare bones bootcamp mixed in and with Ragnar coming I thought to myself, what a great idea.

Disclaimer was given and we ran over to the basketball court for a quick COP. SSHx20/Cotton Pickerx10/Tha Windmillx10 all IC. 

Main Event

5 Kraken Burpees/5 Jump Knee Tucks/5 Donkey Kicks/ 5 Pull-ups/Run 2 Laps around track

Rinse and repeat 3 more times then we ran 4 laps straight for a total of 3 1/2 miles run.

Finished up with some Broga- Sun Salutation/Standing Half Lotus Left-Right Legs/Crow Pose

TAPS

Violence in America/ Travel Prayers.  Two Ferns is leading a prayer service at the local schools to pray over the kids, Tweet him for more info. Thanks for the opportunity to lead Wolverine! Peace!

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Q School 201 – The Weinke at Bermuda Triangle

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I was the privileged Q that was able to lead week #2 of Q school following behind Wild Thing.  I got to the AO 10 minutes early to set up, guys were already pre-running… nobody ever seems to sleep in Lake Wylie!  By the 5am start we had 18 PAX with us.  Uber all the way from Tega Cay, one PAX, Crabby Cabbie – only on his second post to F3! I opened by sharing some of this message below.  Being the Q starts with being prepared.

Preparedness

There are four quadrants of preparedness: get right, live right, lead right and leave right “G3L” 

F3 is an Organization of leaders rather than an Organization with leaders. As such, every Member of F3 is asked and expected to be a leader both within F3 and in the other Groups in which he is a Member. This ethic arises from our Mission , which is to plant, serve and grow men’s small workout groups in order to invigorate male community leadership.

Within F3 a leader is called the Q, which we define as a leader who takes responsibility for the Outcome in the Groups of which he is a Member.

Some Outcomes are envisioned beforehand by the Q while others are thrust upon him by unexpected and sudden circumstance. For envisioned Outcomes, the Q can anticipate and get prepared for what will be expected of him to be Effective. But the Q cannot do that for unexpected Outcomes because they come upon him suddenly—for those Outcomes he must already be prepared to be Effective.

How do you prepare?

“The Weinke” – named after Panther QB, Chris Weinke (Carolina QB from 2001-2006) where he would have every play in a giant playbook on his arm.

Scout the AO – Check the Weather report – Check previous Backblasts for regular PAX in attendance

PREPARE! Doras, Ladders, partner work, stations, coupons

My 1st few Qs I wrote the COP exercises in permanent marker on my arm…

Write it down, keep it handy but try not to use it.

Create Evolutions!  Have more than you will use. 3-5 depending on complexity

Make it Tough, but a balance is needed for all level PAX.  Have an adaption plan in place.  Guys failing to work hard, get them back in line or adjust.

Adapt = tell a PAX what is OK to modify to.  Can’t sprint?  Jog ½ way and turn around.

Give the PAX a choice! Option #1 or #2

BE CONFIDENT – SPEAK LOUD – DON’T GIVE UP YOUR CONTROL – YOUR TIME TO LEAD!

 

WEINKE FOR BERMUDA TRIANGLE 7/19/2019 Q SCHOOL 201 (Full example)

Welcome each PAX

Disclaimer

Dynamic Warmup High Knees – Butt Kickers – Toy Soldiers – Soccer Legs out & In

COP

SSHs – IWs – CDDs – Merkins – LS Squats – Seal Jacks – Peter Parkers – MNCs – Broga

 

Evolution #1  BB Court

Partners modified LAZY DORA size does not matter

100 Swing Crunches – Partner Elbow Planks (in grass)

To BB Court

150 Merkins by 10s  – Partner Planks

200 Squats 25x – partner hold Al Gore

Alternative under picnic area

Dips and Derkins with Step Ups

 

Evolution #2

Speed Work

Field Sprints 4 cones plank when complete repeat 3x

Alternative

Bear Crawl to #2 or Jog to #3

 

Evolution #3 (Ran out of Time – Did not do, but had at the ready)

Bear Crawls and burpees between cones 5 burpees each cone

Alternative Lunges and Wide Arm Merkins or CDDs

 

Evolution #4 Ab Lab

Give all Pax another opportunity to count cadence

COT with Count, Namorama, Announcements, Prayers

I think the guys enjoyed the time together, maybe learned a little something to take to their next Q, and definitely worked hard!

A honor to lead,

Royale

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Productive little day at the office

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It’s not often that I get asked to Q all the way out in Clover, so knowing those guys and always trying to make the most of everyone’s time, I made it my personal goal to have the most productive little Monday they’ve ever had out at the Crows Nest.

Was pleasantly surprised to see two faces I wasn’t expecting – Maximus making the trek all the way out from Tega Cay (much thanks for the long commute!) and then Witch Hunt who we’ve been missing in the gloom for a couple months now (welcome back brother!).  I’m not one for warm-ups as many of you know, so at 5:12a I warned the pax to start stretching on their own.  At 5:15a ,the disclaimer was said and we then went on a burpee mile warm-up to see the AO since it had been a while since I was last there and wasn’t sure of where we’d be doing the exercises I had lined up.

  • Burpee Mile – starting w/ 5 burpees OYO at COT, we then ran 1 mile stopping every 1/4 mile to do 5 burpees.  25 burpees in total, 1 mile under our belt.

Second half of the warm-up was on the parking lot lines near the playground.  Starting at the first parking space, do the following:

  • Sprint up one side, side shuffle to the right, back pedal down the next line, side shuffle to the right, sprint up, shuffle, back pedal and so on and so on.  Once you get to the end of the spots (about 8 spots), side shuffle around the bend and do the same thing on the other side.
  • We then moseyed over to the next parking lot that was equivalent to the one we just left and did a similar drill, only do a quasi skip (one leg in front, one leg in back) back and forth down the full parking lot lines, back pedal to the line behind you and bunny hop over and back going left back down the line.  Do for all spots and then mosey back to the start.

With the warm-up and heart rate spike complete, we hit the playground for some 11’s.  Not your standard 11’s, but a play on the 21’s that Zima and Anchorman had us suffer through at the Sweati 2 days prior.

11’s = I give two exercises, you do 1 rep of the first, and 1 rep of the second.  Then do 2 reps of each, then 3 of each, then 4, then 5….then 11 reps each.  Ends w/ you doing 66 reps of each exercise in a short period of time.  We did the following:

  • Dips / Burpees…brought the cumulative burpee count to 91 (25 from warm up mile + 66 here)
  • Jump lunges / diamond merkins
  • Sprints / big boy sit-ups…yes, the runs, ughhh.  So we started on one cross walk and then had to sprint to the next one about 30 yards up (that’s 1 sprint) and do 1 big boy sit up.  You then sprint back to the original cross walk and then back to the one you started at (that’s 2 sprints) and do 2 big boys…you work that up to 11.  This one took the remainder of the time with having to sprint 30 yards back and forth 5 times in a row, then 6 times, then 7….ugh.  A few got to 10 sprints in a row before we had to call it.

Survey Says mumbled something about making the burpee count an even 100 at some point during the workout so I thought it was a very valid suggestion.  We got back to COT and everyone knocked out 9 more.

Final totals = 2.7 miles, 100 burpees, 66 dips, 66 jump lunges (1 = both legs so really 132 jumps), 66 diamonds, 66 (or close to) big boys and 66 (almost there) sprints.  Not a bad day at the office right there.  We didn’t really break, we didn’t really warm-up, and the pax didn’t really complain one bit.  Just came to work as they knew we would.

Prayers were shared for those suffering from cancer (Alex in particular, who is 22 yo), our kids safety / independence away at camp, job interviews and for those who find themselves living homeless – White Snake shared a really cool story about a guy he ran into Uptown who was rocking a F3 tshirt and offered to give it to him.

Thanks Iced T for the call to lead – looking forward to the next time.

Cha Ching

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Me Hearties Take on the Poopdeck, argh!

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Sixteen of the roughest, toughest Pax, along with an experienced FNG (Coach Steve, now and forever known as “Trench”) joined YHC on a steamy morning at the Poopdeck.  Here is how it went down:

Warm – o- rama

  • Short mosey around the Bowl-n-Bounce, peppered with Toy Soldiers, Butt Kickers & High Knees
  • 10 Wind Mills IC
  • 20 SSH, IC
  • 10 LSS IC
  • 10 Sungods forward, IC, 10 backwards

The Thang, Part 1

We divided in to 3 groups for a three stage beat down; each group completes all of the exercises in the stage together, then takes a short lap to the next stage.  Each group completes all three stages twice:

Stage 1

  • 10 Jump squats
  • 10 single count curls/arm (25 lb dumbell)
  • 20 Nolan Ryan’s (10/side)
  • 25 LBCs (single count)

Stage 2

  • 10 Lunges per leg
  • 10 WWII Sit ups
  • 10 Tricep hammers/ arm (20 lb dumbell)
  • 10 Diamond merkins

Stage 3

  • 25 SSH
  • 20 Flutters (per leg)
  • 15 Derkins
  • 25 CDDs

The Thang, Part deaux

Partner up to knock out this list, one exercising, one taking a parking lot mosey:

  • 100 Lunges
  • 75 Ranger Merkins
  • 75 Bobby Hurley Squats
  • 75 Carolina Dry docks
  • 75 Crab Cakes
  • 75 Werkins
  • 75 Monkey Humpers
  • 100 LBCs
  • 40 Flying Squirrels

I don’t think anyone made it past the dry docks before we called Omaha for some Mary (flutters, Freddy Mercuries, American Hammers, all IC)

COT:

Reminder of the Sweati set to take place this Saturday; 3rd F prayers at the local schools in the planning stage; Q-School at Bermuda Triangle continues on Friday.

Wolverine took us out.  As ever, I’m grateful for this group of men, and the chance to lead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Lake Wylie Q-School 101

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Class is session with YHC at the helm for Q School 101 in Lake Wylie. Today’s Lesson Plan: Disclaimer, 5 Core Principles, Counting Cadence, Scouting an AO and a little bit of pain.

Starting promptly at 0515 we dropped to plank to discuss some Q basics: Make sure someone has a phone and knows the general area. Brief discussion of F3 Roundtable call with PAX from F3 Houston. If you haven’t listened to it, do it. Just not on the way to work or around people that would judge you for crying. Next up the Disclaimer. One often missed part of the disclaimer is asking about existing injuries, which coincides with knowing what injuries or medical issues PAX may have and if any PAX are CPR or Medically Trained.

Mosey to the back parking lot of the school for COP, counting cadence, and the 5 core principles. PAX were much happier with this COP than my previous Q.

Mosey back around to the front of school for a lunge walk across the parking lot while discussing ways and tools for scouting an AO. Google Maps, Backblasts, drive-bys, and previous posts were mentioned.

Continue to mosey over to the start of the “dirt” path for one of my favorite partner evolutions, Bear Crawl Catch Me if You Can. This is was the pain portion of the morning. Partner 1 starts to Bear Crawl while Partner 2 drops for 3 Burpees and then runs to catch Partner 1. YHC quickly learned that this is not a dirt path, but one covered with glass like shards of rock.

Quick 10 Count to let PAX catch wind

Mosey towards COT for a modified DORA with 50 Prison Cell Burpees, 100 Squats, 150 4 count flutters. Admittedly YHC was a little over ambitious and we only made through the Burpees before the bell rang at 0600 for us to go to our next class.

Quick discussion about elements of a COT: Count-a-rama, Name-o-rama, Announcements, Shout-Out / Words of Wisdom. Followed by COT

Announcements: The Sweati on 7/20, Bones Q at The Deep 7/20, Royale has Q School 201 on 7/19.
Prayers / Praises: Capt Jack daughter with strep, FiA Launch, Ms, 2.0s

Until Next Time, Wild Thing out.

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Virtuous Leadership at Crows Nest

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15 men made it out to Crow’s Nest.  Here’s what they did.  Sorry to hear that Survey Says had to leave because he rolled his ankle during the pre-run.

COP

IWs – CDDs – SSHs – Ranger Merkins – Broga – MNCs – Mountain Climbers

Evolution #1

Mosey to brink columns that fence in the front playground

Partner Up

5 Muscle Ups

Partner does Merkins AMRAP

Rotate through 6 rounds. Those muscle ups got sketchy towards 25-30…

Next we planked in the front parking lot to Review the 5 Cs of Virtuous Leadership that we went over in Q Source Saturday.

The universal Essentials for a Shared Leadership Team’s (SLT) F3’s Leadership Virtues:

  • Candor: graciously telling the hard Truth and demanding to hear it from others
  • Commitment: unwavering loyalty to the Group and unflinching determination to accomplish its Mission
  • Consistency: to be unchanging in nature, Standard or effect over time
  • Contentment: stability of emotion engendered by the Consistent pursuit of Joy rather than Happiness
  • Courage: setting aside fear to turn hardship into grace

Hopefully, not much needs to be said in explanation of why the Leadership Virtues are Essential to every SLT. Just imagine trying to share Leadership with a man who does not tell the Truth, is constantly changing his Standards or is emotionally unstable. It simply cannot be done.

Mosey to back of school

Evolution #2

Round 1

Run to loading dock, jump up, complete 5 Squats

Partner Lunges AMRAP

Completed 4 rounds

Round 2

Run to Loading Dock, jump up, 5 Merkins

Partner doing Pull ups at playground

Sucked too bad so were only  completed 2 rounds

Round 3

Run to Loading Dock, jump up, 5 Merkins

Partner America Hammers

Completed 2 Rounds

Checked with the group on the 5 Cs of Virtuous Leadership

They got all 5 as a group – Saved themselves from a severe burpee penalty

Mosey towards front of school

Evolution #3

Wall sits with 25 overhead press in cadence

BTTW 30 secs counted by 3x random PAX

Wall sits with 25 overhead press in cadence

BTTW 30 secs counted by 3x random PAX

Mosey to COT right on time!

Announcements

The Sweati this weekend

Discussed the great FiA launch in Lake Wylie from the previous weekend. Guys are already getting FiA’d from this…what have we done?!?!

Prayers:

For PAX healing, two injuries today from Costanza’s pulled quad to Survey Says ankle. Got to be careful out here men!

An Honor to Lead,

Royale

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Life Skills with kettle bell babies at the Cannonball

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Disclaimer disclaimed while in plank.
Start the party with an Indian run complete failure on my part.
Circle up with kettlebells for some suicide squats, Merkins, and circle of kettlebell rows.
Bring your kettlebells and make a lap around half parking lot. a crowd pleaser for sure.

Then time for life skills. Again a failure on my part of explaining the difference between two rows or columns and two lines.
For the record, a line is what you learned how to stand in back in Kindergarten. You find the back of someone’s head and stare at it. That’s a line.

A row is where you are standing shoulder to shoulder with a fellow PAX facing in the same direction. If anyone wants to correct me I welcome the discussion.

Sadly in today’s broken world, there are some terrible, evil individuals out there they want to cause harm to innocent people. This mornings life training was an attempt to prepare fellow men for such a situation.
The first row of PAX dropped down to a plank with head up facing the church with the kettlebells in front of them. These PAX are going to be jumping up from plank, grabbing two kettlebells, their own along with kettlebell belonging to pax opposite them in row 2, and sprinting away from the starting point as if an active shooter attach was taking place and the kettlebells were their shorties. Use your imagination people! This could save someone’s life.
The row 2 PAX were instructed to also start in the plank position but facing the woods. When YHC says “go” the row 1 PAX jump up, grab kettlebells, and take off towards the woods. PAX in row 2 perform 3 hand release merkins before jumping up and giving chase to PAX in row 1 that just kidnapped PAX 2 shorties. Think of it as a modified “catch me if you can” exercise set.

Finish it up with a more successful attempt at the fuel tank farmer carry Indian run.
I had plenty more planned, let this be a lesson to newer Q’s: always plan at least double the amount of exercises than you think you have time to complete, but given the rapid growth of the @F3_LakeWylie region I wanted to get some future Q’s in the spotlight. Let us not forget that we are challenged to invogorate male community leadership. Great job to those men for going along with being voluntold.

Finish up with Count-A-Rama, then Name-A-Rama, praises and prayers before BOM.
Thanks for the opportunity TwoFerns to lead such a strong group of HIMs.
Until next time “Stay Frosty My Friends”
OLAF.

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4 Basic Exercises, Indian Runs, Achievement Recognitions and Pop Quizzes

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3 “Peg Leggers”, Me. Whitesnake and O’Reilly, met to get better (Cannonball Pre-run Staple to Peg’s house and back) before any other Pax showed up.

15 men Circle up on a muggy day and the disclaimer was given. I recently posted in Myrtle Beach and they added the Phrase “I do not know your injuries” to their disclaimer and I liked that so I added that.

We then moseyed to the far corner of the parking lot for my usual and now retired COP
Basically a Deconstructive “Worse Ever Merkin”
30 SSH in cadence – Because u should always do 30
20 Werkins in cadence
30 Seal Jax in Cadence
20 Merkins in Cadence
15 Smurf Jax in cadence
10 Diamond Merkins in cadence

A couple Kettle bell Indian Runs back and forth to the 2 parking lots with The “Thang” worked into them.

Also did 102 kettlebell burpees in recognition of O’Reilly loosing 102 pounds. My math was 102lbs divided by 15 pax = 10 each rounded up
Also recognized Costnaza and his weight lose and running achievements

3 rounds of The “Thang” in between the Indian Runs:
Kettlebell curls on my count till my arms hurt
Kettlebe Tricep ext. on my count till my triceps hurt
Goblet Squats with a kettlebell overhead press on my count till my legs hurt
Big boys with a kettlebell push over knees on my count till my gut hurt

Quiz with Kettle bell hold away from body until the new Pax told me F3 Mission Statement and 5 Core Principles (they did ok)
Quiz on Me – I asked a few personal questions about me and the Pax seemed to know me pretty well. Questions were pretty easy or I talk about myself to much.

A little time for some Wall sits and burpees and merkins sprinkled in.

My take on the whole thing, we all got better and very wet. So wet that I had to hang my clothes on my brush guard all day and they still didn’t dry by the time I went home. I guess that is what happens in 100% humidity and a lot of work getting done. Also, I told these guys again I didn’t want any new friends when I started this thing but crap now I do and I can’t see to shake them.

Till next time
Forever – I will be TWO FERNS!

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A

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12 attended the Poopdeck this morning and came ready to work.  I gave the usual disclaimer  and then informed the PAX that it has been awhile since I’ve been on the Exicon and decided to work my way through the whole thing.  Today of course, were exercises that began with A.  So we took off for a fast mosey along the “backside” of the Poopdeck.  Along the way we did some side steps, NUR, and Toy Soldiers before circling up for a quick warm up back at the starting point.

The Warm-up consisted of “ATM’s” so we held plank and performed the next 3 exercises in cadence.

  1. Alternating Shoulder Taps
  2. Tempo Merkins
  3. Merkins

Our next stop was at the front of the parking lot on the road between the Bowl n’ Bounce and Gas Station for some Ascending Curb Crawls w/Absolutions. I chose this spot specifically because there was some grassy area just past the curb that saved our elbows.

Starting at one side of the street/curb we would bear crawl across and perform 1 Absolution.  Bear Crawl back for 2 Absolution and continue onward until we reached 9 Absolution.

From there another fast mosey to the nice parking lot and a quick stop on the side building wall for some Ascending Testicles.  15/45/ degree Derkins in plank position with feet on the wall.  I didin’t make the PAX go full BTTW because there was quite a bit of grumbling.  OH YEAH!  The cat lady was spotted here as well so 5 Burpees for all!

Off to the main course for some A.L.A.R.M.S.  The Exicon says they are kinda like B.O.M.B.S. (which are kinda like Dora’s) so I planned this to be a partner routine, but had a backup plan if the PAX were odd numbered.

I had some cones set out to at the starting line and then another set 10 yards out and another set about 30 yards out from the starting line.

For the routine 1 partner would perform the exercise while the other PAX would Crab Walk to the 1st cone (10 yards) and then Apple Turnover and Bear Crawl to the 2nd set of cones (about 20 yards), and then finally sprint “AYG” to the finish (which was a tree about 30 yards out from the last set of cones).  Mosey back and switch.

The Exercises were:

  • Angle Grinders (50) – These were new and fun.  Start in plank, then go to downward dog, touch hand to opposite knee, back to plank and Merkin, then repeat with other knee, that’s ONE.
  • Lunges (100) – 2x Count
  • Alternating Shoulder Taps (200) – 2x Count
  • Russian Twists (300) – Single count (because time was running low).
  • M – This was the “Movement” by the other PAX not doing the exercise.

After finishing up we slowly moseyed back to COT and had enough time for some Hello Dolly’s and Freddy Mercury’s.

Today was a lot of fun and I think I’m going to enjoy working my way through the Exicon, there are a lot of great ideas in there and it has grown SO much since the last time I’ve looked at it.

COT – Consisted of the usual, Praises for Baby Snowball, and PAX travelling on vacations with their families.  Not many spoke up today so Prayers all around for the ones that were left unsaid.  Also, the YETI is coming sometime in July……..

Thanks for the Q Peg, it was a lot of fun and you were missed!

Until next time,

-FLUX-

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Webs at Bermuda Triangle for anniversary celebrations

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First time out at the Bermuda Triangle, longer drive than usual but it was totally worth it, good to see new faces out in the gloom.

Today marks my 2nd anniversary with F3 Nation and it’s also the first anniversary of the Bermuda Triangle AO, TCLAPS to Homebrew for leading this AO during this year so what better way but to combine the celebrations; 15 PAX decided to get better and were ready to start the party at 0500, some where disappointed to know that no utensils were in the menu but later found out that it was better that I left the utensils out.

After a short disclaimer, we moseyed to the front of the school for the warm up in cadence:

Windmills

Moroccan Night Clubs

Low slow squats

Low slow merkins

I’ve been nursing a pulled hamstring all week so I decided to keep the running part to a minimum; I had 4 cards in my pocket with predetermined webs, we circled up on a “grassy” area, even though most of it was dirt with patches of grass, time to start our webs series, first web LEGS:

1 Knee Tar Jie – 4 squats, progressive to 10 KTJ and 40 squats (55 KTJ and 220 squats total)

Some questions arose when the second card was pulled out of my pocket but you don’t get up at 4 am to to the easy thing, second web CHEST/SHOULDERS:

1 Worst Merkin Ever (wide, regular, diamond) – 4 Carolina Dry Docks, progressive to 10 WME – 40 CDD, after the 8th WME I decided to switch the 9th and 10th round to regular merkins only and the CDD stayed the same. Flux was a champ and decided to do WME on the 9th and 10th as well so some of us joined him in the action. (+-150 merkins and 220 CDD)

we moseyed back to the soccer field for a softer grassy area and on the way there the site Q asked me about the legendary Captain Thor web, well, that was our third web ABS:

Captain Thor
1 Big Boy Sit Up – 4 American Hammersogressive to 10 BBSU and 40 AH (55 BBSU and 220 AH total)

With about 7 minutes left in the clock, I pulled my last card for the fourth web series CARDIO:

1 burpee – 4 goof balls, progressive to 10 burpees – 40 GB (most of us finished the 8th round for 36 burpees and 144 GB) I learned about goof balls last weekend at Hog and Coyote and this exercise really gets your heart pumping,  yes you guessed, you look like a goof ball!!

My plan was to include all groups of muscles into one workout and we did it, great job pushing yourselves out of the comfort zone gentlemen!!

We finished with announcements about Q School at Bermuda Triangle, we included our injured AX, families and kids on our prayers.

Thank you Homebrew for the opportunity to lead!!

Tinsel out…

 

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