“Get ur rear in gear” workout

What a morning to workout! Wonderful weather. Many blessings. 12 other workout warriors joined me.

Today’s workout was a “get my rear in gear” style workout. I have been struggling with injuries, lethargy and stress. Not a good mix. So thankful for opportunity to provided to me by Kaiser. First Q since early Feb 2020 that I can recall. (My memory can play tricks on me at 97, Dark Helmet.)

5:00 4 for Warm-up. We did about 18 exercises in 13 minutes.

5:13 13 Circled Up, Mumblechatter

5:14 Disclosure, sighting of an FNG, my message (Words make alive!) below shared:

From the fruit of their lips people are filled with good things, and the work of their hands brings them reward. Proverbs 12:14

The soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crashes the spirit. Proverbs 15:4.

Words can heal. The tongue can be soothing and a tree of life (James 3:9),

Words are like fruit or food for us; we need them to live.

We also need words coming from the outside to affirm and validate us. We do not live by bread alone but by good words, especially those in line with God’s.

2 Questions posed to the PAX:

  1. Are you aware of the great power even your offhand words can have to bless others?
  2. How can you put this observation about how words can make alive into practice – in thought, attitude, word or deed? PAX challenged to make it happen today!

5:17-6:00

Social distanced group single file run around 1/2 of parking lot over to pull-up bars.

Session 1:

Group 1: 1 min each X 3 rounds of: Chin-ups or Pull-ups (your choice), Burpees, Dead Hang, The Hill

Group 2: Burpee broad jump to stop sign then into 10 Peter Pointers, then run back to start; Sprint to stop sign then into 10 Peter Pointers, then run back to start; Bearcrawl to stop sign, then into 10 Peter Pointers, then run back to start; repeat until Group 1 is completed

Session 2:

50 good form reps of each, any order you want:

Plyomerkins

Split squat jumps (knee touching down, 50 each side)

Thumbs up merkins

Flying Squirrels

Session 3: 5 minute continuous abs, 1 min each exercise

Twisting Pistons

Rolling Jackknife

Scissor V-ups

LBC Crunch and Twist (both sides)

Starfish crunch

Session 4: Switched Group assignments from Session 1. One round completed each.

COT:

A few unhappy (non)smiles about the workout they just did. Thanks for the push, fellas.

A BIG PAX WELCOME TO FNG: COPPERTONE!! (Hospital name: Brandon) (He did great!)

Announcements: Shield BD bash at The Ranch 5/17/2020.

Prayers: for a specific PAX’s child, another’s brother, another’s friend challenged with marital difficulties and the hope of opening up to other’s.

My prayer for all PAX: from today’s subtheme: Your words can make alive!

Lord, each of us has a host of people around us who are eager for, and

desirous of, words of blessing and affirmation from us. We are often too

distracted to deliberately praise and appreciate people every day. We earnestly

pray for you to find us ways to say to others, “Well done good and faithful

servant.” (Matt 25:23) Amen.

 

 

 

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9/11 NaFo Tower Climb

Today on the 19th Anniversary of September 11th I had the privilege and honor to lead the men of The Fort in my version of the Tower Climb.

We honored my friends who gave it all to make sure the citizens of NY would be safe.

POLICE OFFICER RAMON SUAREZ TD-04 NYPD

POLICE OFFICER MARK ELLIS TD-04 NYPD

POLICE OFFICER ANTONIO RODRIGUES PAPD

We started with a two lap ruck walk around the track and then jumped right into the climb.

The goal was at least 30 times up and down with 9 inclined merkins and 11 squats at the bottom. There was some mumblechatter, it was hot and humid but the men of the Fort did not disappoint….if you completed 27.5 times you climbed the equivalent of the Towers.

I was proud to lead and share my experiences from that fateful morning that changed the world as we knew it.

It was also great seeing DIRTY HARRY return to the gloom

We end with COT and prayers for all the people lost and the people affected still.

FIDELIS AD MORTEM…..ALWAYS FAITHFUL

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Take no fish/prisoner

22 showed up to get better….22 left better (more tired like YHC, but they took the red pill today).  Pledge of allegiance was properly performed, very short disclaimer (I think) but 5 core principles were done for the FNG…YHC tried to wait for what he was told about 2 PAX coming in HOT only to realized they were already there.  Upon that notification, we were off at a 7 min pace.

We ran down Academy street to the open parking lot by the top of the hill before we got to all the churches…did some planking while we waited for the 6…counted off to make sure we started and left with the same number.  At this point, YHC explained the drill and early route.

  • 10 – hand release merkins
  • 20 – squats
  • 30 – American (no, not russian twists) hammers

We did these in the parking lot, ran down the hill, were greeted from the Footloose PAX (welcome FNG) with some proper form (I guess) monkey humpers.  Very nice call Trucker – brownie points…  We ran to the corner of Tom Hall where we did our 10, 20, 30 – then ran to Hardees for another 10, 20, 30.  Waiting for the 6 we planked…as we should.  Once all PAX were in attendence, YHC instructed the PAX to run up Spring St and cross over to Unity where we would do 10, 20, 30.  At each “up and over” (basically creating an L), we would perform the exercises at either Unity or Spring depending on the up and over…always doing the exercise at the “over” cross street.  Once we reached Summersby (all the way in the back of the neighborhood), we ran back to Hardees.  Due to bad time management by YHC, this caused everyone to run all the way back to COT so you’re welcome for the non-rest.  Sorry, not sorry.

At COT, we named our FNG – Trickle (welcome!!).  D2D race for announcements which sold out in about 5 hours to the surprise of everyone.  Prayers and praises – we had a little of both.  Overall, just the right amount of suck but we got better and that’s the goal.

Shady out (thanks Shanks for the gap in schedule!)

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New Fellowship Ruck AO Official Starts 9/10 at 5 am

The fellowship ruck Sole to Soul that we have been doing unofficially for about 3 months has been gaining momentum so we have official start  date of 9/10 at 5 am. We shoot for  4 plus miles every Thursday starting at Panera Bread in Kingsley followed by Hanging with Stang afterwards. What better way could you start your day with a awesome mumblechatter while rucking and a great conversation afterwards with a great sunrise. Join YHC as we launch this AO. I look forward to seeing you in the Gloom.

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Dealing cards at the Block Party

Just a heads up that this BB will be low on words (atypical for me) but hopefully, motivating for you to go try this.

Here’s the deal, simple yet effective was my intent today. For those that did the Bert at Honey Badger yesterday, this was a good round 2. The deck of cards entered my arsenal roughly 5 years ago and it’s been several months since they’ve made their way out to the gloom. That ended today.

14 men showed up today with the “threat” of rain (we had 2 ruckers join us at the end for COT).
Seeing a few new faces, check.
Disclaimer, check.
Mosey some distance making our way to a parking lot for a few warm-up activities.
Mosey to another parking lot in an effort to keep our voices from carrying over to “the house.”

For those not aware how this goes, each suit represents an exercise. Each number represents the number of reps 2-10. Jacks=11, Queens=12, Kings=13, Aces=14.

4 Jokers = 25 4ct Flutters
Diamonds = Mountain Climbers
Clubs = Jump Squats
Spades = Diamond Merkins
Hearts = 8ct Burpees

That totals (100) 4ct flutters and 104 each of the other exercises.

Until next time
SYITG
Maximus

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Big Words & Others’ Plans

15 PAX in the gloom at Pantheon for a workout featuring some big words and other people’s plans. A Backdraft WOD from the stricter quarantine period and 38 Special’s from All the Yogging

Warm-Up
– SSH x21
– Moroccan Night Club x15
– Yoga sequence
– Merkins x10
– Shoulder Taps x10
-Did the first round of the Thang as PAX still considering it the warmup.

The Thang

See above. Modified the the reps so we hit the full numbers after 10 stations and right at 0600. On the second loop, we had to reverse course to station 3 and then finished at station 1 for time.

NMM:

The school exterior has new modifications for entrance and exits to keep kids physically distanced as the start of school is right around the corner. YHC has been thinking a lot about failure and how to encourage better failure and better growth. If the Chapel HIll experiment is any indication, the best laid plans of mice and men for returning to school during COVID-19 will fail. How will the PAX of The Fort respond for our families, our schools, and our community?

We’ve all failed in our lives and I pray we can use failure to make things better.

COT

Lots of praises for good things: children’s athletic success, marriage length, parental birthdays, grant awards. Prayers to remember the good during our moments of tribulation.

Band Camp Dismissed

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Federal Agent Bootcamp at The Snake Pit

I was planning a bootcamp workout in lieu of our usual KB workout at The Snake Pit to explore our site more fully in hopes of establishing a bootcamp in the future.

We arrived to be greeted by 50+ federal agents in the parking lot.  After Uhaul endured a full body cavity search, we began with a mosey with K9 units in hot pursuit.

It was a 1ish mile loop around campus with muscle ups on a wall, switchboard operators, wall sits, squats, fwd and bkwd lunges, bear crawls, merkins, running stairs, step ups, box jumps and ab work.  Closed with some stretching.

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Running Focus

9 men showed up for the workout at the Colosseum.  I decided to slow it down a bit and focus on form mostly due to getting my butt handed to me at the Honey Badger 24 hours earlier.

We began with a short mosey to the Middle School playground for some warm-up exercises.

SSH x 20

Imperial Walker x 20

Moroccan Night Clubs x 20

Windmills x 15

Next, we ran to the front of the school.  I explained five things that I learned to improve my running.  We practiced each technique by running to the school sign and back.

  1. Breath using both your nose and mouth.  It takes alot of practice, but over time it becomes easier to do.
  2. Good posture, head high and back straight.  Keeps airway open and helps avoid injuries
  3. All body parts should move in the direction your body is running.  Sounds obvious, but watch your arm and shoulder movements while you run.
  4. Cadence or the number of steps per minute.  This can vary by runner, but typically you should aim for 160-180 steps per minute.  A few years ago, I had a bad case of plantar fasciitis.  I was told by an experienced runner to slow my pace down and focus on increasing my cadence.  Within two weeks time, my feet were back to normal.
  5. Mentally prepare yourself. If you are running a race or setting a goal, you’ve got to believe you can accomplish it.  Surround yourself with people who are going to encourage and support you.

Next, we ran to the top of the hill to the bank parking lot.  We performed plank squares with each arm and leg.  We ran back down the hill to the school sign for some ab exercises.

Back to COT

 

 

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Are my arms supposed to be so floppy…?

Well, there was a bit of smack talk on the Slackiest of Slacks on Sunday night which led to a barn burner of a workout Monday morning…  There was also some Tweeting on behalf of Tweeterless-YHC about the lack of adult supervision with JWOW being DR rocking a banana hammock and a piña colada…

The PAX began with some warmup SSH, Tappy Taps, Hillbilly and Imperial Walkers and then a quick run to the cones to explain the pain program for the morning…

The plan for the morning was TWO count them TWO DORAs…  Concern from the Q that we would run out of time, but clock be darned we set off with lifting heavy things.

First, the time keeping device…  either a short run, probably only 15 meters away for 5-10 burpees, PAX able to chose their burpee count, OR roughly 80 meters or so with 10 Merkins at the cone.

While this was the time keeping device, the following were the sets of pain for the PAX:

DORA #1

1) 50 Snatches     2) 100 Skull Crushers

3) 200 Kettlebell Swings     4) 300 Chest Press

DORA #2

1) 50 UHauls     2) 100 Big Boy Sit-ups (w/ press)

3) 200 Hammer Curls     4) 300 Flutters with a Press

Believe the PAX all completed the assignment and there was much weeping and gnashing of the teeth by the PAX.  Noodle arms in the present, but beach worthy upper bodies by Thursday.

For those hyper focused on the playlist of choice… Gen X Mix on Amazon Music

IMG_1104

The Armory – 2020-07-20

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Quality Questions

12 PAX gathered, brief disclaimer and we’re off at what was collectively determined as “not mosey” pace.

Each stop:
5 burpees
10 Carolina Dry Docks
15 Jump Squats
20 Hello Dollys (some in cadence, some not)

At the Harris Street Park basketball court, we bear crawled cupcakes (line touches). FYI, baseline to baseline is a long way.

6 stops total.

Visited the monument to state sovereignty and the “faithful” slave. Talked about the kinds of questions we ask. YHC grew up in this town and never thought to ask why these monuments were here. Minnow Pond meets at “Veteran’s Park,” but “Confederate Park” is just up the hill… a monument to separatists that fought against the armed services honored at Veteran’s Park. Longshanks typically leads the pledge of allegiance before a workout, yet there are monuments to those who flew a different flag designed to replace the “stars and stripes” just across the railroad tracks. Interesting…

YHC is reading, because that is how academics solve problems. Recommended for non-academics as well. #accelerate

Ta-Nehisi Coates:
“None of us were promised to end the fight on our feet, fists raised to the sky. We could not control our enemies’ number, strength, nor weaponry. Sometimes you just caught a bad one. But whether you fought or ran, you did it together, because that is the part that was in our control.”

How are the questions we ask reinforcing togetherness or keeping us divided? Can we ask better questions?

Welcome FNG from West Charlotte: “Chimay”
May have broken his back, good thing I was also the one who EHed him.


Band Camp dismissed

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