Braving the “elements” at Slowburn

By now, it’s a well-traveled story about the threat of inclement weather for our Friday AM post at Slow Burn. Fortunately, 10 other men joined me as we decided to give it a go anyways. After some comments the perfect road conditions, attire and an assessment by Pusher, we circled up.

Greeting…check
Disclaimer…check.
Mosey…check

We got to our first spot for our oh, so creative warm-up in the Lowe’s parking lot:
Moroccan Night Clubs
Wind Mills
Squats
Side Straddle Hops
THEN DO IT ALL AGAIN
Moroccan Night Clubs
Wind Mills
Squats
Side Straddle Hops

Mosey to the Lowe’s wall (you know the one where we keep it vertical via our backs while in the seated position. Yeah, we did that but here’s the twist:
We started with a 60sec plank (plus/minus)
PAX on the wall and starting at one end, each man would come off the wall for 10 Merkins then return to the wall. We did that through our 11 PAX.
Another 60sec plank (plus/minus)
PAX on the wall and starting at one end, each man would come off the wall for 15 Dips then return to the wall. We did that through our 11 PAX.
Final 60sec plank (plus/minus)

Mosey to the “smokers” parking lot next to Persis for the first mini Ab Lab
Flutters
Heels to Heaven (or modify to knees to Heaven if needed)
Grave Diggers (left & right)

Dora (Persis to Empire): Get a partner for the following:
Partner 1: 100 Carolina Dry Docks
Partner 2: Run to Empire Pizza and back

Partner 1: 200 Dips
Partner 2: Run to Empire Pizza and back

Partner 1: 300 Bent Over Rows
Partner 2: Run to Empire Pizza and back

Back to the smoker’s lot for the rest of Ab Lab:
LBC’s
Peter Parker
Parker Peter

Mosey to the parking lot in front of Empire Pizza:
3-tiered gassers but upon the return from each tier:
Tier 1: 5 Merkins
Tier 2: 10 Merkins
Tier 3: 15 Merkins or 5 Burpees

Take it COT.
Announcements: Read your newsletter that comes out on Sunday cause there’s a lot in there. Doty Run, BEYOND restarting in March.

Prayers: Recovery for Cash, Marriages, Co-worker fighting cancer, Friend’s daughter

Hootie & Twister…THANK YOU.

Maximus

TClap |
3

Minnow Pond-Triangle of Pain

21 men cane to minnow pond from all directions and walks of life

the plan was simple

run, exercise, run, exercise, run, exercise

starting at memorial park across from launch point

💥10 Donkey Kicks

run up Massey

💥10 Merkins

run down Spratt

💥 10 leg raises

run back to memorial park

5-7 Rounds

60-75 reps of exercises as each round we increased by 1 rep

3.5-4.0 miles🙌🏻🔥💪🏻🥓

TClap |
2

Block Party with Cake

Block Party 2/18/20

Warm Up

  • Mosey to drill bits
  • 1st 5 burpees
  • 2nd 5 burpees 10 Merkins
  • 3rd 5 burpees 10 Merkins 15 overhead claps
  • 4th 5 burpees 10 Merkins 15 OHCs 20 squats
  • 5th 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 leg raises

Mosey to playground

partner up- 2-3 rounds of each

  • Pull-ups 10
  • Swing crunches 20
  • Monkey Humpers 30
  • Lap 

Stairway to Heaven

  • 10 Dry docks 2nd light
  • 20 V ups 4th light
  • 30 Sumo Squats 6th light
  • Until time runs out

Great group of PAX today. The mumblchatter was quality. Solid work by all. Thanks Esso for the Q!! Honored to lead💪🏻

TClap |
0

Trifecta Tuesday

On Tuesday the 7th, 15 #HIM descended upon Golden Corral to continue making 2020 a year of acceleration.  10 PAX started early as YHC encountered Dark Helmet leading a group around the grounds.  Fortunately, they did not mess up the sidewalk chalk – that came in handy later to give PAX some not so subtle reminders about what to do…..many times.

After the 10 extra credit (BTP) PAX joined for the boot camp or ruck, here’s what the boot campers did:

Mosey to COP – 12 low slow squats (D/C), hold the people’s chair after the 12th squat while doing 12 double count Moroccan night clubs, Imperial Walkers X 12 (D/C), Hillbilly Walkers X 12 (D/C).  Mosey some more……COP (continued), 15 SSH’s (D/C), 10 Windmills (D/C), 15 Merkins (D/C), 15 Mountain Climbers (D/C), 10 Plank jacks, then mosey to the main event.

The sidewalk chalk served as the guide, the date was 1-7-20 – those numbers add up to 28.  Every sequence was an exercise followed by a bear crawl a set distance (25-ish yards) (no one went as fast as Tesh would have), another exercise, a mosey back to the start line and repeat.  The exercises of the day were……squats and merkins – always adding up to 28.

26 squats, bear crawl, 2 merkins, mosey back

24 squats, bear crawl, 4 merkins, mosey back

22,6  20,8  18,10 16,12 14,14 12,16 10,18 8,20 6,22 4,24 2,26

The squats got less, the merkins more and all PAX got better,

Over 2700 merkins and over 2700 squats were done in total.  YHC heard about it later.

After one fast and one not so fast 10 count, we moseyed around the building to do, of course, 7’s – it was January 7 after all.

The exercises were Kracken burpees and Carolina Dry Docks – 6 KB’s a 15-ish yard lunge walk, 1 CDD and a mosey back to the wall, 5 KB’s, lunge walk, 2 CDD’s and a mosey back 4, lunge walk 3, 3 lung walk 4, 2 lunge walk 5, 1 lunge walk 6.

After Pusher proclaimed how terrible all this was (YHC thought Carolina Dry Docks would make him feel better), we had just enough time to get to COT for 2 minutes of Mary before the Ruckers saved us from going past the 0600 bell.

Slow Flutter kicks (D/C) x 15

Protractor at varying angles, finishing at 0 degrees and 0600 for COT.

Announcements:

1-29 Grapevine fundraiser for Classroom Ready – Celebrity bar tenders.  Who will be there? (#showtoknow)

Let Me Run seeking coaches for teams in schools in both Fort Mill and Rock Hill – reach out to Cyclops or Double D with interest and/or questions.

Word of the Year – Focus on it and live it out.  Use your shield locks to hold you accountable. Together, we all get better than we ever would alone.

Praises and Prayers – Lutefisk’s Father-in-law, Cyclops’s Dad, Tinsel’s brother, Duck Dynasty and his niece and for continuing to be a hope and light to others in a world that is often darker than we like.

Just prior to COT, YHC shared the 3 elements of a high impact relationship – 1) it meets you where you are  2) it provides safety to allow you to grow and 3) it teaches you about yourself.

Thanks to F3 and the high impact relationships it provides its PAX.  We have the privilege and honor to be sharpened and honed by many high impact men within our community when in one another’s presence – through all 3 F’s – what a gift it is.

As we all seek to make 2020 a year of acceleration, YHC is grateful for 2 things today:  1) To Lutefisk for the opportunity to Q – it’s always an honor and 2) To the brothers of F3 for being a reason YHC chooses the harder thing far more often than I used to.

Stay after it.  Keep going.  Kamwe Kuacha (Never Stop).

Honored.

Cyclops

TClap |
1

Litter Bugs and 4 Corners

Birthday Q with a good crowd. Humbled.

Mosey to the big lot by Empire, the plan was to do some dynamic warm-up, unfortunately, one large vehicle kept me from setting up the majority of the morning here. Little did we know that dodging trash was another thing.

Back and forth across the lot
high knees, butt kickers, windmill walkers, squat walkers, karaoke L, karaoke R, toy soldier
…. and enough dodging trash, mosey over to the Lowes lot
power skip, bear crawl*2, 75% run, 100%, 100%

mosey to the lot by Persis and circle up
Freddie*10, Morrocan NC*10, Carolina DD*10, OH clap*10, dying cockroach*10, richard simmons*10, HR merkin*10, imperial walker*10, LBC*10, hillbilly walker*10, flutter*10, LS squat*10, shoulder tap*10, windmill*10, rosalita*10, calf raise*2*10, Travolta*10, monkey humper*10

split in 4 groups for 4 corners, hit a corner, back to the middle for 5 makhtar n’diayes between every corner, corners included
10 stationary lunge, 10 shoulder taps IC
10 inchworm, 10 SSH IC
10 scorpion DD IC, 20 OH claps IC
10 HR merkins, 10 hillbilly walker IC

Find some grass for a full 10-40 Jack Webb (with a couple on the backtop)

Little did I know that at this point there was some expectation of a Matt Foley (Jack’s less intelligent younger brother) … we’ll do 2 next time

back to 4 corners, flip the boards for a second round, no middle this time, clockwise rotation
10 hello dolly IC, 10 seal jacks IC
10 donkey kicks, 10 weed pullers IC
10 plank jacks IC, 10 squat jumps
10 V-ups, 10 flying squirrel

time. back to COT.

prayers for Cash, among others.

Honored and humbled by the quantity and quality of PAX, a who’s who of HIM.

Looks like we made it,

Barry Manilow

TClap |
4

The 2 Wisemen Visited The Fort

3D led off with some running and warmup then to the Pike Engineering brick wall for wallsits with arms up, alternating legs and the 5 burpees each HIM starting from the end.  Run to Massey Hill. Jacobs Ladder to 7 with squats at bottom and Merkins at the top.  Several PAX were losing clothing.  3D led mosey back to WEP playground for Q handoff to LTrain.

LTrain
Partner work

5 sets
10 merkins, partner holds plank
250 yard run

5 sets
15 squats, partner holds Al Gore
250 yard run

5 sets
20 big boy situps, partner holds plank
250 yard run

Indian run around WEP (~.5 mile)

End with Mary

TClap |
1

Moving to keep warm on a windy day

Cyclops and YHC(Bass-o-Matic)  were blessed with the opportunity to have the Q at the Fort.  As we discussed that we had nothing really planned, nobody would have believed it as it came together nicely.

A brief intro, disclaimer and welcome Slim Jim from the New Bern PAX we started right into the warmup as we waited for stragglers to roll in.  We did the typical SSH, Windmills, merkins, imperial walkers, peter parkers and plank jacks.  A brief challenge to the group on how do you plan for the unexpected and how do you respond to those situations?  Now that everyone was ready we split off with Milkshake and moseyed to one of my favorite walls across from the memorial park.

Since the PAX looked a little tired we started of with some wall sits.  This is where it started getting a little saucy.  Round 1 each PAX did a 10 count with an arm variation until we go to the end.  Short 20 second break.  Round 2 Each PAX did 10 bombjacks till we made it down the line.  Saw some great form from the pax.

Changed it up and went to the plan position.  Each PAX held the plan until we went down the line with plank jacks.  20 second recovery and then repeated with mtn. climbers.

Rinse and repeat.  Went back to wall sits with squats for round 1 and SSH for round two.  Funny how quick 30 minutes went and then it was time to hand it over to Cyclops.

We moseyed from the Springs lot to Footloose – a good sojourn.  Once all PAX came in, we circled up for a 10-20-30 pyramid:

10 burpees OYO, 20 squats in cadence (because Bass-o-Matic did no leg work in his half of the Q ; – ) and 15 double count merkins in cadence.  After merkin completion, PAX stretched out from the plank with salutations to the left and right then holding 6 inches off the ground while Tesh gave an efficient 10 count.

We moseyed from Footloose to the front of the Fort Mill Police Department, held a belated veterans day Pledge of Allegiance to honor all who serve, and then moseyed on to Main street for more “fun”.

On the main street benches, PAX did 20 dips and 20 derkins OYO and then we moseyed to the Founders Bank lot for the “main act”

7’s –  6 Kracken Burpees on the horizontal parking space line, lunge walk to the opposite side (because we needed more leg work), 1 Carolina Dry Dock, mosey back to the line, 5 kracken burpees, lunge walk, 2 CDD’s, mosey back……etc. etc. etc. all the way down too 1 KB and 6 CDD’s to finish. PAX finished at this lot before moseying by holding a squat position and did 10 Moroccan night clubs in cadence.  A quick recovery via a 10-count and we moseyed back to the East side of WEP.

At the .1 mile drill bit – Pax bunched up for some more work:  15 double count flutters in cadence, 10 burpees OYO (just because) and 10 double count diamond merkins.  A little mumble chatter came about…but just a little – likely due to the love of burpees and diamond merkins.

A quick mosey back to COT brought us to a few minutes of Mary – which included 15 box cutters in cadence and 45 (ish) seconds worth of protractor work – PAX seemed to enjoy holding legs 6 inches off the ground after completing box cutters making the transition to the protractor more “fun”.  For some reason, pre-mature a count off started at this point – I don’t know why.

We wrapped up at 0730 per custom and moved to name-o-rama, announcements. praises and prayers.

Praise for the health care providers who are caring for many sick friends and family, who are in our thoughts, including Tesla’s Mom and Cyclops’ Dad who are battling forms of cancer.  And for Assassin who is working through an infection and awaiting biopsy results. Slim Jims grandson who is recovering from illness. Kenyan’s loss of his M; prayers for comfort and peace.

Read your newsletter.

 

TClap |
2

You want me to take that coupon to the top of that hill HOW??

The morning started simply enough with a warm-up mosey around WEP with stops at each pain station to warm up and explain the ins and outs of the first half workout…

Station

  1. Carolina Dry Dock to Bear Crawl in the direction of the next station in an ascending fashion…
    1. 1:4, 2:8, 3:12, 4:16, 5:20 and then run to the next station
  2. 5 Burpees then 25 Low Slow Squats finishing with 5 burpees before running to the next station
  3. 25x Shoulder Taps in cadence to 25 Lunge Walks (each leg) then running to the next station
  4. 60 count Honeymooner to allow for reset, 20x Merkins in Cadence, 20x Low Slow Squats in cadence and running to the final station
  5. 25x American Hammers in cadence, 25 Plank Jacks in cadence
  6. Rinse and Repeat course until halted by JWow

Then began the real pain…  after unloading coupons in the shape of cinder blocks from the back of the Slash-mobile we wandered off to a secluded portion of the park…

JWow found many ways to carry the coupons up a hill in an irrational and chaotic way…  A grand time was had by all.

TClap |
0

Swamp Pain

17 HIM pushed through a nasty beatdown by YHC today at the Swamp.  YHC got to the AO about 15 mins early to check out the Broga dudes… no wait it was to prep the winkie.  Anyway, I ran the hidden greenway trail behind best buy to home depot (not target) and wrote 5 pain stations.  3 for the starting line and 2 halfway through the loop.

Started on time (barely) with a windmill warmup and that was it.   Mosey to the start.  The trail is about 0.65 miles with the loop back around a half mile.  We did it twice with the 5 plank position pain stations (ending with 25 burpees of course). Moseyed to COT area for COP burpees or flying squirrels, diamond merkins or merkins (all dependent upon how far you got on the loop). Hold  Did right arm and leg and left arm and leg for a while and ended with worst merkin ever x 5.  Recover for some painful Moroccan night clubs.  Next hold Al Gore and went around the circle naming some positive things going on in each PAX life.  Way to lift each other up!

Lastly we did some random parking lot drills in time for COT.  In COT we had a couple of guys get out of their shells and open up.  What a great thing!  Shield Lock!!!

TClap |
2

Merkin Mania

It was a chili morning and I was over at Cross Town Rival FMHS to lead a WO at Laces In. I got there a little early to loosen my old bones and fortunately for me I ran into Pusher. This was a good thing because whether he knows it or not I like to soak up what he has to say. Good Dude. My grand-dad always told me two things (one I can’t say here, Snake knows what the other is) and the other is – Always listen when a wiser man is speaking. Alright enough of that, we circled up and I gave a disclaimer and I added also to please look to your left or right and get a visual of who is here because we will be moseying around in the dark and I want to make sure we all know who is all here.

I did my traditional Moseying COP:
30 SSH IC with 20 Wide arm Merkins IC (Werkins)
Mosey
20 Seal jax IC with 20 Ranger Merkins IC (which are regular Merkins if u ask Jedi) and I agree
Mosey
15 Smurf jax IC with 10 Diamond Merkins IC

Thang 1: We then found some curb and did one of my new favs – Wheel of Merkins

Grab a piece of curb, and did a 5 incline merkins. Staying in the plank position, rotate 90 degrees clockwise until your body is parallel to the curb with right hand on the curb and left hand off it. Repeat 5 merkins Rotate 90 degrees more and perform the same number of decline merkins. Rotate 90 degrees more. Repeat with left hand on the curb and right hand off it.

Did this from 5 down to 1.

Thang 2: Knocked out a string of pearls 5 squats, 10 Bomb jax, 15 Mt Climbers and 20 Big Boys then back down. I tried to keep everything in cadence. I like that so we all can stay on track and together.

I took a minute to discuss picking up the six and the fine line of when to do it and when not to. What I mean by that is when do you let the six give that extra push on his own. Hope this makes sense.

Thang 3: 11’s with Mike Tysons and Squats.

Thang 4: Wheel of Merkins Again. This time not stopping between reps 5 through 4, Rep 3 on its own then 2 and 1 without stopping.

Rounded out the last few minutes with some ab work. I did 10 flutters in cadence and Stang said that is weak.

Announcements:

Diaper Drive, Coat Drive, Nessie

Prayers for Duck Dynasty’s pregnant sister, Rebel’s daughter getting married this weekend and our Children.

Thanks again for the opportunity to lead Cyclopes!

Two Ferns!

TClap |
2