20% More

Today was a day a long time coming, but more in the NMM.

10 Men showed for a soggy beat down at the Coop.  Here’s what we did:

The Thang:

Mosey, with some shuffle, to the practice field.

COP

  • SSH
  • Mountain Climbers
  • Windmills

Gassers, repeating 5 times with exercises below between

  • 20 yards
  • 50 yards
  • 100 yards

Squats till 6, then MNC till 6

  • 12 Merkins IC
  • 12 Burpees
  • 12 Monkey Squats IC
  • 12 Bombjacks
  • 12 CDD IC

Mosey to Rock Pile

  • Pick a rock, 12 Man Makers
  • Run a lap to sign and back
  • Repeat x3, upgrading rock after each

Mosey to covered area for some Boat and Canoe and American Hammer.

Mosey to Pull Up Bars

  • 6 Pack

Run to Bottom of Hill, Backwards Run Up the Hill then to COT

 

NMM

As we gathered for #BTP, I commented that my FNG workout was at the Coop 5 years ago and it was a VQ for One Niner (BB here) and how it would be neat for him to be there 5 years later.  As we finished the COP and were about to run the Gassers, a lone figure came trotting up in the gloom… none other than One Niner.

I charged the PAX with looking to push themselves 20% more throughout the workout today.  The idea was that we get complacent or comfortable in our routines, but imagine what impact you could make with just 20% more effort to break out of your plateau, regardless of the arena of life.  I saw lots of good effort today with guys really pushing it both on the gassers and the man makers.  This is how we get stronger… by pushing beyond where we’d normally stop.

 

Announcements:

Yeti, Doty Run, Q School – Check your newsletter.

 

Prayers up for Marriages, Punch List’s M with baby pending, and being willing to share with others when life is hard.

 

Honor to Serve.

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Back to the bells

I had the date on my calendar, but when I got a reminder over the weekend from 3D, I couldn’t help but be excited!

While I’ve Q’d my fair share at the old digs (The Tomahawk), this was my first official Q at the Snake Pit!  As I’ve thrown down some memorable Qs (there was the time…nobody was allowed to put down their bell for the entire workout, or the time we did the catch me if you can and we ran all the way out to Dobys Bridge Road, or the Ring of Fire (had to be there))…so what to do….what. to. do.

So there we were, the morning of…the PAX rolled in, a disclaimer was disclaimed, and off we went…the PAX lined up for an Indian run, man in the back performed 3 KB burpees before running to the front of the line as went meandered our way all the way around the perimeter of the school grounds.

The PAX rallied up at the bottom of a hill where they were divided into 2 groups of 4.  Stations (cones) were set up instructing the PAX on what exercise to complete.  There were 4 stations about 15 yards apart with exercises as follows:

1. KB swings, 2. Alternating Lunges w/ overhead KB triceps extension, 3. KB squat, curl, and press, 4. swap the bell for a 35lb brick and run to a cone about 25 yards away and back (this PAX was the timer).  Exercises at each station were completed while the PAX were running.  To rotate, the PAX that completed the run made their way back to station 1, while all other PAX bear crawled with their bell to the next station.  After 4-5 rotations through the stations, the PAX returned to the starting location for PAX-led Mary and COT.

Always an honor to lead!

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A Little Of Dis And A Little Of Dat

Despite the cold temps, thirteen HIM decided to get out of the old fart sack and accelerate their Thursday morning. It was a good opportunity to remind everyone that it was cold out and not to stick your tongue to a flag pole. Disclaimer was given and we were off.
Quick Mosey and we circled up. Exercises were done in reps of 20.
  • 20 Side Straddle Hops
  • 20 Windmills
  • 20 Low Slow Squats
Right off the bat, we bear crawled around the covered semi circle. Once the six were in another mosey over to the far parking lot.
  • 20 Plank Jacks
  • 20 Flutters
  • 20 Bib Boy Sit Ups
Moseyed over to the back of the school for some wall work.
  • 20 Wall Mountain Cimbers
  • 20 Peoples Chair Overhead Claps
  • 20 Wall Mountain Cimbers
  • 20 Peoples Chair Overhead Claps
A challenged the group to take some time out and focus on what is really import over the upcoming weeks. The birth of our savior.
Moseyed towards the side of the school.
  • 20 Donkey Kicks
  • 20 Dying Cockroaches
  • 20 American Hammers
Moseyed/Toy Soldiers/Lunges over to the front of the school where two cones were setup for a little Jack Webb. The loop was about a quarter of a mile in total and we had a cone setup on each opposite end. We definitely got some miles in on this segment.
Cone 1: 10 Partner Slap Pushups
Con 2: 1 Big Boy Sit Up 
 
Cone 1: 9 Partner Slap Pushups
Con 2: 2 Big Boy Sit Up 
 
We got down to about 5 and 5 or 4 and six depending on how fast you were running.
 
Moseyed back to COT for prayers and praises.
 
– JWOW

 

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Wegmans and Repeat at the Coop

Since this was Repeat’s 2nd VQ, YHC led the warmup. Nothing fancy. Nothing special.

Partnered up near JROTC building. P1 runs to the top of the loop, 25 Merkins whiles P2 is doing LBCs. Switch once P1 returns. Next is 25 bomb jacks and flutters. Last is 25 monkey humpers and Rosalitas. Hand off to Repeat.

Repeat ran us up near the band field. There is a covered walkway with lights. At the first light we did 5 Merkins and 5 LBCs. At the next light we added 5 to each exercise so 10 and so on and so forth. Repeat estimates we did roughly 280 reps of each exercise.
Thanks for the opportunity to lead Punchlist.

Wegmans

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RPG-Broga-Varsity Combo

Last Friday of every month will have a travelling Broga-RPG.  Varsity (at Nation Ford HS) was the location for November.  Nine pax came out for the 0500 start time to burn off after-Thanksgiving calories.

Broga
YHC was the lead-off man started the group with a some simple yoga positions, then Sasquatch brought us home with warrior poses.

The group split off: three went running; six stayed for boot camp.

Boot camp details:
Warm up
Mosey Run
Toy soldiers, high knees
Circle up and do:
SSH (In Cadence 16x)
Windmill (IC 16x)
Imperial Walker (IC 12x)
Plank Jacks (IC 16x)

Thang 1: Elevens
Mosey to JrROTC building
Run to bottom of hill, do 1 burpee
Run up to pull up bars, do 10 pullups
Incremental changes for the 11’s routine.

Thang 2: Wall Sits

Thang 3: Global Warming
Circle up, low stance position, all pax side shuffle about the circle, stop and do exercise called out (each pax had opportunity to call out an exercise):
Smurf Jacks
Imperial Walkers
Big Boy sit ups
Merkins
Squats
Etc.

The runners returned after traversing around 4ish miles.

Fini, COT
Prayers for pax traveling this holiday weekend, and for those that have lost a loved one recently.

Look for the traveling RPG-Broga coming to an AO by you; take advantage of the opportunity to get better!

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12 Days of Christmas

Today at the Ranch I had the pleasure of leading nine men in a 12 days of Christmas Beatdown. I know its a week before Thanksgiving but like everyone else we will skip to Christmas.

We started with a warm up of Windmills, Tappy Taps, SSH and Moroccan NC and then we moseyed to the back playground for some real fun.

Our 12 Days of Christmas :

1 BURPEE

2 MERKINS

3 SQUATS

4 MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS

5 BIG BOY’S

6 FLUTTERS

7 DIAMOND MERKINS

8 LBC’S

9 BOX CUTTERS

10 CDD

11 AMERICAN HAMMERS

12 WIDE ARM MERKINS

OH!!  I forgot there was a lap around the loop after every day. There was some singing and some complaining as well.

We ended with some Mary and Two Ruckers joined us for  COT!!

Thanks Jiffy for letting me lead these fine men.

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Veterans Day beat down at the Badger

Started with a light run and warm up routine.

Partner pull ups X 40

Discussed the importance of thanking a Veteran today for their service to our country.

Facts about Veteran’s Day
– Veteran’s Day originated as “Armistice Day” signaling the end of World War I on Nov 11, 1919 paying tribute to all soldiers fallen or living.
– There are 18.2 million living veterans that have served in at least 1 war as of 2018
– 9% of veterans are women
– of the 16 million Americans who served during World War II, about 496,000 are still alive as of 2018
– Random fact, the top 3 states with the highest percentage of Veterans were Alaska, Maine, and Montana.

The Thang

Rd 1 = 30 merkins, 30 squats, 20 BB situps, 1 lap
Rd 2 = 15 burpees, 20 lunges, 30 LBCs, 1 lap
Rd 3 = 25 Mac-tar-jies, 25 monkey humpers, 20 bomb jacks, 1 backwards lap

Rinse and Repeat

Finished with Mary

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Some of Us Got The Good Genes

Finally a break in heat and humidity on this fine morning at Runde Park.  Six men came to be challenged and I believe they left satisfied.

The Thang

Gears for first half.

Lap around the park calling out 3 stations on the route.

Circle up in the lot for a light warm up:

  • SSH
  • Windmills
  • Potato Pickers

Took off around the park loop, hitting three stations.  At each station 5 Burpees OYO, planked for the 6 at station 3.  Repeat with 5 Bomb Jacks OYO.

Hit the baseball field for Four Corners:

  • 5x Around The World Squats
  • 10x Squat Jacks
  • 15x Monkey Humpers

Plank for the 6 at station 4.  Repeat, but double the counts.

Another set of 2 laps around the park loop hitting the three stations with 10 Burpees OYO at each, then 10 Bomb Jacks OYO at each.

Hand off to Mr. Clean

PAX each grab a Cindy from the Suburban and head to everyone’s favorite hill.

PAX commenced with The Beast (6*6*6):

6 stations up the hill, 6 reps per exercise for 6 different exercises with Cindy.

  • Squat to upright row
  • Curls
  • Skull crushers
  • Chest press
  • Shoulder press
  • Lawnmower pulls

Moseyed back to the Lot for COT.

NMM

Confession: It has been forever since I Q’ed a boot camp.  With all the running and travel (and, if I am honest, excuses) it has been too long.

It was good to lead the men this morning through the first half and to push through the second half with them at my side.  It was the highest complement to have both Cable Guy and Fishsticks comment on how tough the workout was.  Also good to clown around with Wegmans while putting in work as his brother Sasquatch was sprinting up the hill with a Cinderblock.  And I couldn’t have asked for a better man than Mr. Clean to share the Q with this morning.

Missed seeing some of the regulars this morning… hopefully a temporal problem.

Announcements and Prayer Requests

  • Suffolk Punch has some sort of special with free (F3) beer.  Talk to Wegmans.
  • Prayers for Wegmans Father in Law and Prostate Cancer
  • Prayers for kids going through GI sickness that appears to be going around
  • Prayers for my leg to heal up after some sort of nerve issue

Honor to Serve

 

 

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QvQ 19.1 – Jiffy vs. Sasquatch

21 PAX showed up to the first round of QvQ 2019. This first round is the classic match up from last year, which was decided by ONE point! That’s right, the reigning champ versus his challenger.

Jiffy versus Sasquatch

Brief history: Sasquatch lost to Jiffy last year by one point. ONE point! It was necessary for the match up to be repeated given the level of intensity at which both of these #HIM operate.

The clock struck 0515 and I directed everyone’s attention to the championship prize. A custom F3 shovel flag curated by YHC.

The intent of this shovel flag is to be much like a championship belt. I hope that it passes hands over the years, and we write the name of each years’ reigning champ on the back of the handle. It shall be brought to CSAUPs as well at any time the champion posts and desires to gloat. See below for a glimpse of the trophy.

0515.

I had five minutes to lead a quick warm up to get the PAX ready for what was to come.
Once we got our Tappy Taps out of the way, it was time to get down to business.

The rule of order is the competitor who is earliest to arrive will get to decide who goes first. Jiffy arrived at about 0435, so he was the clear winner. He chose to receive and go on the offense first.

0520.

Coupon Roulette

We came upon a sinister circle with 20+ cinder blocks, 50/60lb dumbbells, and retaining wall blocks! He had us circle around the coupons and choose one.

With your selected coupon you will complete in cadence called by Jiffy:

Shoulder press x 10
Curls x 10
Squats x 10
4 Count Flutters x 10

Jiffy then rolls three dice. One determines the direction we rotate. Two determine how many coupons in that direction we shift.

Get to your next coupon, repeat. Roll again.

Next coupon, do equal amount of burpees to number of coupons we rotated. Repeat four movements.

Roll again. Next coupon, do equal amount of partner clap push ups to number of coupons rotated. Repeat movements.

We hit round four and I was praying for a miracle, because my arms were already smoked.

0530.

Sasquatch takes the reigns and moves us to the pull up bars for a very creative assembly line of face kicks.

Nine PAX line up at pull up bars. The rest at various nearby stations. Do one pull up, shift one bar to the left. Once you reach the end you then BTTW crawl back to the other side of the pull up bars. Then head out to the street.

The remaining PAX are either doing burpees at either curb on the street nearby or run/nur down and up the hill (AKA Quadzilla!). Once you finish your respective station, move to the next and tap somebody at that station to proceed.

That was super original, and also tclaps to Jedi for doing a full handstand walk with no wall support both times through.

0540.

Jiffy gets his second opportunity to remind us why he is the champ.

We remain at the pull up bars and count off by threes.

Group 1: four rounds of 5 burpees/10 squats and then end with 10 partner clap push ups.

Group 2: four rounds of 5 pull ups/10 Merkins and end with 10 partner clap push ups.

Group 3: run to bottom of hill a dm bearcrawl up. At each cone do 10 Carolina Dry Docks.

We made it through 2.5 stations before running out of time. A great use of the AO. I wondered how Sasquatch was going to answer this painful segment.

0550.

Sasquatch has us count off by fours. He then leads us on a brisk mosey to the turf field. As we approach, we see two sleds at the closest end zone, and two at the far end zone. He sets one group up at each sled and has us complete the following exercises as a group on repeat:

Seal Sit-Ups x 10
Jump Squats x 10

Meanwhile, one PAX from each group pushes the sled 100 yards across the field to the opposite end zone. Once they reach the end, swap with someone in that group and they then push the sled back to your original group. Continue that snake like move until time is called. Woof.

0600 couldn’t come soon enough. Those sled pushes were terrible.

We hit 0600 and head back to COT to vote. The votes were cast, the points were tallied, and a winner was decided upon.

The winner of week one of QvQ is:

Sasquatch

It was close, but this time it was decided by 7 points. Sasquatch was awarded a patch since he will be advancing to the championship on 10/30.

A great showing by both of our competing Q’s. I think I speak for everyone when I say that was one of the more difficult workouts as of late at The Coop. And we’ve had some tough ones!

I’m looking forward to week two. We’ve got the Airborne Bad Assery of Geronimo lined up to take on our very own 1st F Q – Shady!

Announcements

Broga at The Ranch tomorrow! A special recovery focused workout for those running Ragnar this weekend.
QvQ next week: Geronimo vs Shady!

Prayers/Praises

Wegmans’ father in law has prostate cancer. It’s slow moving, but it’s cancer. Pray that it can be eradicated without much detriment to his M’s father.
Pray for the multiple PAX with pregnant M’s. It’s a transitional time but it’s well worth it. Pray we can as husbands love our wives like Christ loves the church while they are going through so many changes.

Thanks for the great beatdown, men.

Punch List out.

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Sometimes You Are The Six/IronPax wk2

This is simply one PAX’s IronPax story.

Of course you can see who is posting this backblast, but that is really not relevant.

You can review the PAX in attendance and know which region and which AO this was held, but that is irrelevant, too.

IronPax was created by F3Greenwood for the Nation to step out of their comfort zone, to be tested and stressed physically. to organize a little competition, to see where you stand with your peers.  Throwing in a little competition to the Nation is a good thing; competition (much like running times in races) is definitely a driving force to maintain, build upon and evaluate individual’s fitness levels.

But ultimately it is about 2 things:

1) You vs. You.  How far, hard and/or fast can YOU push yourself? Where does YOUR fitness level stand? Do YOU need to post more to maintain YOUR desired fitness level? Are YOU taking advantage of the F1 opportunities in your region?

2) PAX supporting PAX.  When you are out there doing a weekly IronPax challenge, you are out there WITH OTHER PAX DOING IT.  You will not be left behind, and you will not leave others behind. Use your fellow PAX for inspiration. They are with you doing it.

After having done IronPax in the past, my goal this year was to simply finish each week’s workout. Week 2’s “Meatloaf Massacre” challenge was a super hard arm workout challenge. For this runner’s skinny arms,  adding in I have not been posting as much as I should recently, I knew I was going to have a tough time.

Cinder blocks were brought by a PAX. 12 men had taken the challenge on this day.

By round 2, I knew I was in trouble. This was going to be a struggle. I was ready to quit then knowing I was not going to finish. I kept going simply by the fact that other PAX kept going. Through round 3, into round 4, I had fallen way behind as my arms were nearly dead. I was watching the clock as we got closer and closer to 0600.

After 30 of 50 merkins in the last round (with one running lap to finish), I announced I was done. I didn’t want to hold anyone up.  But my quitting was not an option for 2 of my fellow PAX (who these PAX were is also irrelevant, but WE know who they were). “How many more Bolt?” was asked. It did not matter to them. I was getting  20 more done. “Ok, 5 at a time. We’re doing it with you. Let’s get it done.” Back on my knees in front of my cinder block with 2 PAX to my right. 5 merkins, rest. “5 more Bolt.” So 5 more, rest. Then 5 more, rest. And the last 5. “Go get your last lap done, Bolt.”  Before I knew it I was done.

I certainly was not expecting to be the six, but now I had an IronPax time to submit.

And that’s all that really mattered on this day.

I’m expecting I will need PAX support in the final 2 weeks of IronPax. And I know I will get it.

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