Tag: Shady

Millstone jumps out of the blocks

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Backblast disclaimer: Strap yourself in because this is going to be a bit more detailed than my normal backblasts so this can be used for future reference as this AO gets off the ground…

5 gathered for the kick-off of The Fort’s first IR friendly AO.

  1. YHC gave a short disclaimer of “don’t get hurt more and MODIFY as needed”.
  2. YHC then took a quick inventory of current injuries so special attention could be addressed and quick weinke adjustments could be made in my little squirrel brain.
  3. Partnering and picking up the 6 were enforced out of the gate, and throughout, as this AO is also heavy 2ndF focused.
  4. If max heart rate is 220, we’re aiming for 50-60% for those keeping track b/c we want to get heart rate up so you break a sweat, but given the injury you may have, don’t overdue it and pay attention to your body.

I would encourage all future Qs and future attendees to pay mind to the above.  I think this will also support those headlock guys you’ve been working on forever (old, young, big, small, etc.) because the IR workout will/could require heavy modification, “you do you” mentality, but definitely 2ndF friendly to wet the FNG whistle for what F3 is all about.

After the basics were covered, we took off in a #slowsey fashion (slow jog / fast paced walk / you do you but pick up 6) over to the Founders bank parking lot for warm-up.

Warm up included:

  • front and backwards big arm circles 10x / direction
  • 10x windmills
  • 10x cherry pickers
  • back stretching led by Drop Thrill given his back injuries (which I liked this b/c it gives an IR guy a chance to do a stretch or exercise that helps them)
  • 10x squats, merkins, lunges (Boss Hogg modified the merkins for superman hold due to his IR shoulder)
  • More arm and shoulder stretching, quad stretches, hamstring stretching
  • Core work: 20 LBCs, 20 flutter, 20 freddy

I would say encouragement and incorporating IR stretching and warm-up exercises that cater to IR PAX is key here.  I also think that extra stretching and Core work are key to a good warm up for the IR crowd but paying attention to what the IR PAX can do and ensuring you are attentive to their injury.

Next we moved on to The Thang!  #Slowsey over to the small park where the #Millstone monument is located, only to find out many of the PAX didn’t know this existed so they got a history lesson as part of their #DRP.  PAX were then instructed to:

  • At own pace, up and down set of stairs 3x (or AMRAP for the 6)
  • #Slowsey to benches by the park where you did one or all of 10x dips, 10x/leg step ups
  • #Slowsey to small parking lot for core work 25x double count LBC
  • More back stretching and hamstring stretches while on the ground
  • #Slowsey down the sidewalk all the way back to Millstone for 20 calf raises (3x in all different calf raise directions) and/or 40 plank jacks
  • Rinse and repeat
  • Changes in the small parking lot for core work included 25x flutters, flipped over for superman and release 4x rounds, 10x gas pumpers or crunchy frogs depending on what you could do

As the PAX circled down the hill and faced Main St., the lovely aroma of BBQ took YHC’s attention to take everyone up Main St. to Pucker Butt where we did 30x squats, 30x merkins, 30x LBC (merkins were replaced with more core or more legs for Boss Hogg #Lucky).  Back down the hill and over to COT for some Mary.

Mary consisted of 10x American Hammers, 20x LBCs, 20x Flutters, and Protractor for the remaining min or two.

PAX then numbered off and name-o-rama.  YHC asked for immediate feedback from the PAX and the biggest takeaway for me was: pay attention to who’s in attendance, adjust as needed, make sure someone is with the 6 for encouragement / 2ndF….and if all else fails, have fun and most of all, don’t get hurt!  Had a great time, can’t wait for next week, we all broke a good sweat thanks to the push and the humidity.  Let’s keep this rolling and send me ideas, FNGs, don’t wish for guys to be on IR but if they are, send them our way!!

AYE!  Shady

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19

Burning Down The Colosseum

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Gladly accepted the Q request from Jekyll a month ago for an AO i had never posted to.  He told me the Qs really bring the pain. Visited the week prior to get the lay of the land and he was not joking. With that I couldn’t slack off. 26 PAX 3 FNG got after it in the Gloom this morning. Really dig these MONSTER number  Workouts.

Here’s how it went down.

Mosey up to second Left turn to Parking spaces.

Bone the Fish.

3 Shuffle Right 3 Shuffle Left 3 Karaoke 1-1-1–Really crazy to do this with these numbers.

Warmup

SSHx15 MNCx15  Hillbilly Walkers x 15

Imperial Walkersx15 Dips x 15

The Thang

9 exercise stations 20 reps per. Except #1. Thanks Pothole! Mode of travel listed at each station for return to middle. All returns to middle do 5 burpees- Mosey to next station

Station 1- Abs 30 American Hammers Ct 1 side- Sprint to light pole/cone 5 Low Slow Sprint to next station

Station 2- Legs 20 Block Squats – Bear Crawl to Center

Station 3- Arms 20 Wide Arm Merkins– Bear Crawl to Center

Station 4- Abs 20 10 Peter Parkers/ 10 Parker Peters- Bear Crawl to Center

Station 5-Combo Al Gore w/bricks  10 Lateral Raise 10 Lateral Row = 20 reps Sprint to cone – 5 merkins Sprint to next station

Station 6- Arms 20 GTOs Ground to Overhead- Crawl Bear to center—–Really how does a Pax break a cinderblock in half????

Station 7-Abs 20 War Hammers combo WWII sit-up 1x American hammer- Crawl Bear to Center

Station 8- Legs 20 Monkey Humpers  Wheel Barrow to center and switch after burpees to station 9

Station 9- Pass the Ruck- Stand Back to back and pass back and forth in circular motion 20x  Mosey to center.

Rinse and Repeat

All PAX completed roughly 1.5 rounds. From the mumble chatter throughout the #Beatdown it appeared to be successful.

Return to COT to name the FNGs and hand off the Shovel flag.

Thanks Again for the Opportunity to lead.

Good Luck Hardwood and Great work Jekyll. Will see me more regularly at the Colosseum.

Duck Out!

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Don’t poke the Q

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Cars pulling in right up to the starting time.
Disclaimer and intro.
Mosey with dynamic stretching along the way.
Circle up for some warmup and a small sample of Broga.
Back to kettle bells
Did the following exercises 3 sets of each 10-15 reps each set followed by an ab exercise.
Every three exercises we would mosey and do 10 burpees ( this quieted down most poking of the Q.)
Goblet squats, figure 8s, KB Swings, single arm rows, shoulder presses, single arm curls, clean and jerk, and reverse lunges.
COT
announcements- invergence and convergence
Prayers- Airborne son leaving for US Army boot camp. God Love the USA.
Trucker- learning everyday lessons on raising kids and being a good father.
All the kids going back to school today.

Also had a good reminder and to just love your kids and not worry about always if their the top or best at something. Just show them you love them.

Backdraft out.

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New Stuff

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Wow!! 20 at Slow Burn – AWESOME!!

The idea was to utilize string of pearls and always go back for six AND introduce a few “newish” exercises

After the mandatory disclaimers etc, the workout commenced with brief warm up:

THE THANG

10 Windmills, 10 LSS, 10 Merkins and Annies

Mosey to parking lot of Accounting Firm for:

First round of a string of pearls:  15 partner merkins, 15 Turkish Get Ups, 15 double count Gas Pumpers and 15 Merkins.  The stops were:  west corner of Lowe’s, east corner of Lowe’s, Lowe’s contractor entrance and back to the starting point.

Second round of a string of pearls:  same stops with 15 Superman Merkins, 15 LSS and duck walk to station #3, 15 Bomb Jacks and 15 Diamond Merkins

Final Component:  6 rounds of Jack Mary Web as suggested by Spitz, who was not present.

 

Moleskin

Based on comment from Renaissance, let’s all continue to, as Q Source envisions, getting “better.”

 

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1

Caution: The Minnow Pond may contain hills

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Man, that sucked…I mean, that was awesome. Pardon me as oxygen is still hard to come by this morning. It was in the 70’s with 4,000% humidy, we averaged 7:45/mi for 3.25ish miles, did some low-rep exercises along the way and I tried really hard to keep the merlot in the tank. Jedi was disappointed we didn’t hit every single hill in Fort Mill but Dirty Harry enjoyed the gun shop hill repeats.

For further detail that is both short on eloquence & wit, see below…

Disclaimer & welcome to Pet Sounds from the sun-blotting region of CARPEX…YOOOOOOOOOO

Took off out of the parking lot for an estimated .5mi loop around Main St, ending up back at the lot for:

Windmills

Jump Squats

Carolina Dry Docks

SSH

Jump Squats

Wide-Arm Merkins

Moroccan Night Clubs

Jump Squats

Diamond Merkins

Made our way to the base of the gun shop hill (Massey St)

Run up the hill to the Church then back down to the base of the hill. Repeat 2 more times for 3 total round trips then mosey to the steps by the stop light.

50 Calf Raises then a lengthy explanation of how to get to our next destination: Harris Street Park by way of Spratt St then Harris St.

At the Park’s parking  lot: Dips, Mountain Climbers, Peter Parkers, Merkins

This is where it began to look much better on paper. It was very simple, run up Jackson St to Hwy 160. You see, the problem with this single-road route is that it consists of roughly a 3/4mi gradual uphill climb that in the gloom, gives you the mirage of never ending. Right about that .5mi mark is where Punch List almost witnessed the splash, but hey, I’m the Q, I can’t splash. So I started walking then met the PAX at the stop sign where I see Shady is already leading the next exercise…show-off. #gazelle

Once we collected the 6, we made our way back to the AO for 5min of Mary.

And at this point, I’ll thank Shady for the chance to Q the Minnow Pond, thank the Lord I didn’t die, ask the PAX to consider pushing themselves at something a little different, and spend part of the day looking for oxygen.

Maximus

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10

Field of muggy dreams

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12 boot campers in total for a humid, gloomy morning.

Warm Up
Mosey run
SSH (IC 13x)
Windmill (IC 13x)
Imperial Walker (IC 13x)
Low Slow Squats (IC13x)
Merkins (IC 13X)
Peter Parker (IC 13x)
Plank stretches
Downward dog
Honeymooner

Thang 1: Field of Dreams (modified)
Count off by fours. 1’s to first base, 2’s to second base, 3’s to third base, 4’s to home plate.
Home plate: do 15 burpees then run to first base.
First base: do AMRAP of: Monkey humpers until relieved by home plate group
Second base: do AMRAP of: Incline Merkins until relieved
Third base: do AMRAP: LBC until relieved.
Repeat, and on subsequent “runs”do these:
First base: Imp walkers, Squats,
Second base: dips, step ups
Third base: Flutters, Mtn climbers,
We got two complete runs in.

Thang 2:
Merkins (IC 13X)
Sally routine, doing Leg lifts (two ruckers joined in for this)

Fini, COT

This was my 45th birthday and the first time I got to do a true birthday Q.  Truly a blessing to have another year in the books.  Looking forward to another year to try raise my family as God would have us to do.  AMDG!

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Inaugural swimming (or running) with the fishes

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8 dipped their toes in the unknown waters mostly unsure and anxious of where this ride was going to take them so hats off for the trust and willingness to try something “new”.  As the PAX did some stretching while we waited for 0515 (good work on the stretching!), some mumblechatter started to arise, but was quickly snuffed out.

Headlamps and reflective gear were encouraged and these HIMs were prepared…as you’d expect when you read the royalty who’s who that was in attendance. While there was a brief disclaimer, we wasted no time and took off into uncharted waters aside from the weinke YHC had scribbled together previously and had it locked away in my head (no time to carry around paper and read in the dark).

From the veterans parking lot / COT, we mosey’d up to the park where there are stairs and stopped at the first set of benches for a “warm up” which consisted of 20 dips and 20 derkins; rinse and repeat (FYI, stretching and any real warm up can be done prior to 0515….#JustSayin).  Once complete with the 2 rounds, we took off for the “Sweet Baby Jesus” church for some partner work.

Upon arrival at the church, we partnered up where partner 1 ran around the church, then up and down the 3 sections of the stairs while partner 2 did flutters.  Once partner 1 completed their set, there were plank hand slaps for a count of 10 (and in some cases double counts, again, #JustSayin and probably unclear instructions from YHC #MyBad).  Once hand slaps were done, partner 1 and 2 swapped and ran and fluttered.  We did this for 3 complete rounds.  And there may have been an Omaha in there for a quick Elvis trip….no names will be disclosed but luckily the nearest bathrooms were on the path of our next stop.

Off to Harris Street park we went, which was very well lit on the way down and a good amount of side street.  We met at the basketball court for 2 quick rounds of 25 merkins and 50 LBCs.  After the 2 rounds, we headed towards the path to get to WEP.  This path was not well lit, actually about as pitch black as it gets, so the head lamps were a must have.  This path went on and on…and on until we finally took the hard left towards the WEP parking lot.  As we got to the first drill bit, we planked and fluttered while we waited for the six.  Six arrived and we started clockwise around track to the first drillbit for 5 burpees.  Second drillbit, 5 burpees….third drillbit, 5 burpees.

Left the park and headed towards the Founders bank where we did the clockwise loop down Clebourne Street towards Main Street and down the Main Street hill where we stopped just over the railroad tracks.  With 5 minutes remaining, we had time to run up the hill and do 20 LBCs and 20 merkins.  Then back down the hill to COT.

Numbered off, name-o-rama, announcements and prayers and praises were had.  Dark Helmet on Q for next week, and please remember to bring headlamps and/or reflective gear for future reference.

Shady

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5

Should I see stars in the daylight

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As new pain was looming in the air, there was a quiet murmur across the 15 PAX.  Shady jumped in to provide the quick disclaimer, was on point of the 1st half of fun, and began the mosey over to the path where a drill bit warm-up ensued.  Drill bit warm-up included: SSH, merkins, squats (ghost bit got some love), windmills (with some cherry pickers), then finally toy soldiers with stretching and skipped the last drill bit (I just realized this!!)

Ran over to the small wall parking lot where we lined up to attempt sets of 10, then 9, then 8…you get it.  At the bottom we did side squat into a 180 jump side squat = 1 rep (so we did this 10x), then ran and jumped over the small brick wall where we did 10 each leg jumping lunges.  Then back down over the wall for 9, back up for 9….  We made it to about 3 before time expired for round 2.  Shady ran the PAX back to the WEP parking lot, down the back path as if you were going to Harris Street park, then stopped in front of the dreaded monster grassy hill.

A short message from Shady consisted of: do the difficult thing, push the extra 1 degree or percent for the next 30 min.  Yes it will be hard, but…get….over….it.  Then turned it over to Gandalf!

Gandalf loved the hill so much we stayed there where at the top and bottom we did the following:

  • 5 burpees
  • 10 Russian Twists + the 5 burpees
  • 15 merkins + 10 + 5…
  • 20 flutters + 15 + 10 + 5
  • 25 (I think we made it this far but here’s where I’m drawing a blank from exhaustion)

Once Gandalf had enough fun here, he took us to the playground where we partnered up and 1 partner plank walked around the playground while the other partner did 5 pull ups.  Then swap until we made it around the playground.  THEN we lined up across the field for a quick 100-200 yard jailbreak where we were lucky enough to do 30 wide arm merkins.  Since the bell had sounded, we made our way back to COT.

COT took over for the normal counting, name-o-rama, announcements, and prayers and praises.  Enjoyed getting better with everyone and special thanks to Slash for the invite and special pairing of Shady / Gandalf!

Shady

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2

So…you want to do pyramids and running. We can do that

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16 gathered for a quick disclaimer on the beautiful Friday morning, and even more beautiful new pavement.  We took off for a quick mosey and circled up for some warm-up which consisted of: SSH, slow windmill, superman Moroccan night clubs, imperial walkers, merkins and stretching.  Stretching with some downward dogs, honeymooners and then some laying on our backs with some pulling of the knees to chest, and knee over side to stretch our backs.

Once the crew was warmed up we made our way over to the pull up bars where the following unfolded…very quickly.

  • 10 chin ups
  • 20 diamonds
  • 30 1 legged squats (15/leg)
  • 40 carolina dry docks
  • 50 LBC
  • 40 CDD
  • 30 1 leggged
  • 20 diamonds
  • 10 chin ups

Sounds not so bad but we added running between each exercise from the pull up bars down to the cross walk by the football field entrance.

For a quick “10 count” of sorts, the team received the following message: what are you doing today that makes you better where you’re being intentional?  It doesn’t have to be something big, but it can be you physically, mentally, helping your 2.0 practice a sport, unload the dishwasher when you’re not asked to do it….

Off we went to the next area of fun what had been deemed for the run over, “the teacher’s smoking lounge / aka the outside eating area outside the cafeteria” where there are picnic tables to use!

  • 20 step ups, each leg
  • 20 derkins
  • 20 dips
  • 10 burpees
  • 10 bomb jacks
  • Repeat the 20s above (there was an extra set of bomb jacks in here too b/c someone had to say the un-sayable)
  • 5 burpees
  • 5 bomb jacks
  • 10 burpees
  • 10 bombjacks

90 seconds to spare and we headed back to COT for all COT things!  Appreciate the invite as always from Harry Caray and appreciated all the mumblechatter and push!

Shady

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2

Do a few things, but do them well.

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Jekyll asked me to Q at Colosseum like a month and a half ago. I had reservations, as the Colosseum is outside my radius of comfort for a weekday post and it’s not like the Q can leave early. Throwing caution to the wind I said sure, I’ll just make it an extra short shower before work…

Let’s roll!

Warm-ups
-Quick mosey to the first light- SSH
-Quick mosey to the next wide spot for slow count merkins and Imperial walkers.
-Quick mosey to the parking lot for some more COP.
Count off by 3 and line up behind one of 3 KB, 30# 40# and 50#
-All pax take turns for 20 KB swings, while the Q leads everyone else in squats, merkins and calf raises.
Main Course
4 cones that delineate 4 lines in the parking lot. Everyone lines up at one end line.
Lunge walk to the next line, bear crawl to the next line, then run the the end line.
25 merkins, then lunge walk walk, bear crawl, and run back to the original line.
Plank for the six.
Exercise- IC
This will be the pattern for the next 30 minutes or so.
Exercise 1: Flutter kicks 25 x
Exercise 2: Squats 25 x
Exercise 3: WW1 Sit-ups 15 x
Exercise 4: 6 in LBC’s 15 x then Monkey Humpers 20 x

Cool-out  with a pyramid of Suicide sprints.

COT

Hopefully that wasn’t too hard or too easy for most of the PAX. I had planned on about 6 PAX posting, what with Tater at Ballroom, Mile High at Golden Corral and Shanks at Block Party there were so many other options that it seemed inconceivable that more than 10 people would post to Colosseum. When I looked around and there were 22 other guys looking for a good push this AM, I really had a hard time believing it. Not saying everyone came just ’cause it was me, but I really did appreciate that everyone came to hang out with me in the Gloom. As always, it was my pleasure leading the PAX, pushing everyone a little bit, practicing my cadence, and maybe practicing my DI voice a little bit too.
Your Welcome!

Geronimo!

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