License to Ill at Quagmire

I love the opportunity to Q at Quagmire. Starting off the week, you need to make sure you wake everyone up with a good shake of the weinke. I wanted this one to be different, and boy was it. It looked REALLY good on paper…..

Met up at COT. No FNGs. Disclaimer was made and off we went.

Short short mosey around the parking lot in front of Best Buy/Marshalls to get the heart rate up and muscles warmed up. Then it was right into the main event.

I am an 80s kid. I graduated high school in 1988. I feel to this day that the 80s had the BEST music ever. I was a music junkie – I loved metal, rap, country, R&P, hip-hop, and so on, and went to several concerts of those musical genres. Probably why I am tone deaf. In 1986 a cutting edge cassette came out that I loved, and still do. I thought I would incorporate it into the workout.

License to Ill (by the Beastie Boys)

Form a circle with the PAX about 20-25yds diameter. Then we got right into it. The idea was a tabata style workout. You pick an exercise and do it AMRAP for the prescribed time. In this case, we would be doing an exercise AMRAP for the duration of the song played. No rest between exercises other than the transition between two songs (a few seconds). PAX would get rewarded with breaks if they answered trivia correctly. So here it is

Number / Song Title / Duration / Exercise (Note if Applicable):

  1. Ryhmin & Stealin / 4:08 / Warmup = WM / SSH / Arm Circles
  2. The New Style / 4:36 / Merkins
  3. She’s Crafty / 3:35 / Lunges w Jump Lunges
  4. Posse In Effect / 2:27 / Hello Dolly w Reverse Crunch / BBS (1)
  5. Slow Ride / 2:56 / Bear Crawl circle w CDD every 5 strides
  6. Girls / 3:14 / LSS w Bomb Jack or Jump Squat
  7. Fight For Your Right / 3:28 / Peter Parker to Parker Peter
  8. No Sleep Till Brooklyn / 4:07 / Bent Knee Alt Leg Lower (2)
  9. Paul Revere / 3:41 / Bear Crawl circle w CDD every 5 strides >> PAX earned 1 min rest here
  10. Hold It Now, Hit It / 3:26 / IW-HW combo
  11. Brass Monkey / 2:37 / Monkey Humpers (expect anything else w this song??)
  12. Slow and Low / 3:38 / Elbow Plank w Knee Touches to Ground
  13. Time to Get Ill / 3:37 / Merkins

NOTES:
(1) Reverse crunch / BBS = Start big boy situp position but instead of lifting upper body and lower back up and off the ground, you bring feet off the ground, knees almost to chest (goal is knees 90deg bend at least), then return feet to ground for 1 rep
(2) Bent knee alt leg lower = Start on 6, both legs off the ground, knees at 90deg bend with lower leg/calf parallel to ground, then extend one leg outwards to where it is min 6″ off the ground while holding the other leg up at start position. Return extended leg back to start, then repeat with other leg. That is one rep. Harder version is starting w both legs 6″ off the ground.

I brought an OLD boom box and the original CD I bought back in the day and we cranked it out (not too loud). It was a real burner, and it was definitely different. Brought back some fond memories listening to that CD…..complete with a few skips here and there for old times sake.

There was no time for talking. Just doing the work while jamming to some old school hip.-hop/rap. All the PAX did great cranking out the reps, with very little rest, and although there was not much mublechatter it was still a good time. Next time I’ll incorporate some hair band metal/hard rock.

Back to the COT for Announcements, P&P….a little late.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead.

-NASA

TClap |
1

Dora for Days

So with a Q assignment fail, Lutefisk made up a Dora that was a bad idea. Started w/disclaimer and mosey. Stopped after a short mosey for 1 burpee OYO “WitchHunt Style.”  Ran some more, 2 burpoees OYO.  Mosey, 3, Mosey, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.  You get the idea.  That was the warm-up.  For the Thang, break out JBL speaker to jam to some music cuz we’re not going far.  Partner up for Dora 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 near the new Green Olive, which is mighty tasty by the way.  Run the short lap whilst your partner climbs the rep ladder.  I only revealed through 6:

100 Merkins
200 Squats
300 Dry Docks
400 Mountain Climbers
500 Flutters
600 LBC’s

After PAX were smoked, revealed 700 burpees (just kidding). Mosey to COT for 3x Ab Lounge which brought us to 0600.  It was simple, but effective.  SYITG fellas.

TClap |
1

Alcatraz Fishermen

I’m writing this way past due and don’t have much, but what the heck, let’s give it a good ole college try.  Fishsticks warms us up with the ‘regulars’ and proceeded to crush our arms with some partner style work using the loose bricks.  I just remember hurting.  Then YHC ran a starfish exercise as a team.  In the middle was 5 body bag builders (a 10-count burpee).  Each corner was done twice with broad jumps and duck walks between the middle and the stations.  The corners were all combination exercises that created #pain.  So that’s it… all I can remember.  Just thankful to be able to work out with such great #HIM.

TClap |
0

Climbing the Ladder at Quagmire

Every now and then, the site Q pulls his own card to Q. Today was my day, and I’d be lying to say that I spent a ton of time putting together the perfect workout. In reality, I threw together something that I knew would be challenging for everybody, but accessible to anybody. I arrived early with my 2.0’s chalk to get the workout written, then parked and waited for the PAX to arrive.

0515 rolled around and 8 joined YHC (with Copyright silently running up at near-sprint speed) for the disclaimer. We set off for a quick mosey around Home Depot, through the alley (with high knees, butt kickers, knees-to-chests, heels-to-butts, and toy soldiers), and circling up near the always-vacant restaurant space.

COP

  • 10 Windmills
  • 10 Imperial Walker
  • 10 Merkins
  • 10 Peter Parkers
  • Downward dog, cross over ankle grabs, honeymooner

Mosey to the fountain for the Thang.

Thang

As stated above, this was designed to be challenging but also accessible. Go at your own pace and get as far as you can. Around the fountain parking lot were twelve exercises to do as a ladder. Start at station 1, do the exercise, run to station 2, do the exercise, run back to 1, do exercise at 1, run to 2, exercise, run to 3, exercise, back to 1, etc. It adds up. Fast.

Stations:

  1. 20 bomb jacks
  2. 20 merkins
  3. 10 burpees
  4. 20 squat jumps
  5. 20 archer merkins
  6. 10 Tony Hawk burpees
  7. 20 runner’s lunge high knee skips (apparently my current favorite exercise)
  8. 20 breakdancer merkins (they’re back!)
  9. 10 prison cell burpees
  10. 20 lateral lunge leg lifts
  11. 20 pseudo planche merkins
  12. 10 kraken burpees

A couple gazelles got into the round going to prison cell burpees, but didn’t make it to them. Everybody got to the round of breakdancers, though not all got to enjoy those. All in, everybody got over 1.75 miles of running, 80-90 burpees, 200+ merkins (not including the merkins in the burpees), and a lot of jumping (120 bomb jacks, anyone?). Actually, reading this, it doesn’t look like much. My body says otherwise.

Olaf decided to ruck it, and we heard about it the whole time. He’ll definitely be feeling it later.

Mosey back to COT. A few announcements (read your newsletter), and a few PAX shared some pretty big prayer requests.

No big message today, just a good workout to get back into the swing of things after spring break. I’m always encouraged and pushed by the guys who post to Quagmire. We aren’t big on the flashy, but we work hard. Great group of regulars. If you haven’t posted to Quagmire in a while, come out and see us.

Jedi

TClap |
4

Being Still at the Pantheon

4 warriors met in the gloom at the Pantheon. No FNGs present, so the disclaimer was short and we started with some stretching.

Warmup

2 sets Single leg stretch – one foot planted with knee bent and six near the earth, the other straight out to the side with toes up for a mental count of 30, hold and keep the six down when transferring to the opposite foot
Side split for mental count of 30
10x split fingertip pushups – Fingertips on the ground, sway back as you sink, sway forward to put weight on the fingers as you push up

Mosey to the back parking lot
20x SSH
10x “Werewolf” merkins

The Thang

Mosey to the swings for some fun.
Here we did an exercise using the swings with feet on the swings and palms on the ground in plank position.  (The surface of the playground is this rubbery stuff, so it makes what we were going to do easier on the wrists.) Then a run across the playground (the short way) to the sidewalk by the fence for another exercise. Always running between each.
SET 1
10x Mantis strike pushups – Do half a merkin and explode up with enough force to get some air. Flip those hands over and land on the back of the wrist with the hand folded in (fingertips up for the mantis strike were demonstrated, but definitely not required).  Alternate every pushup.
10x squats
SET 2
10x knees to chest – Pull the knees into the chest while on the swing, it feels easy the first few times
10x Pretzel crunch (each leg)
SET 3
10x mantis strike pushup
30 second hold – No name for this one. Left elbow and knee on the ground. Right palm on the ground. Right leg straight and as high as it can go with toes pulled in towards the knee.  Keep it high for the entire time.  Both sides
SET 4
10x knees to chest
10x squats – Asked for an audible from Slapshot and got squats

The next thang

Mosey to the amphitheater
Here the plan was to follow the sidewalk.  PAX ran up the left side and down to the end of the sidewalk and performed a number of reps before running back to the main path, up a branch and down again.  There are four ends, so each time there are four exercises.
SET 1
5x Squats, 5x single leg touch the ground (think single leg deadlift, but straight leg down and up), 5x burpees, Bear crawl the length of the last path and back
SET 2
After a 10 count… YHC still needed some air and spoke a bit about how he spent a lot of time ‘being still’ when trying to understand things he can change and should, can change and shouldn’t, and can’t change at all.
Then… Rinse and repeat from SET 1
SET 3
YHC needed some more air, so we assumed “bow and arrow” stance.  Right knee bent (90 degrees), left leg straight. Right hand at right temple, palm out, left arm extended over left leg in a fist with thumb down.  30 seconds and shift to bending the left.
Called out to each PAX for new exercises and got:
Tesh -> 10x 4-count Russian Twists
Slapshot -> 10x Merkins
JWOWW -> 10x donkey kicks
YHC -> 10x Monkey squats

When set 3 was completed there was six minutes left. Time for one more mental position.  Again, no name that I recall, but…
Stand on the right leg, slightly bent. Left knee high with toe pointed down. Back slightly arched, looking over the right shoulder and behind, right arm extended with palm up, left hand palm up by the right armpit.  Hold for 30 seconds (there was a lot of hopping on YHC’s part) and then switch to the other side.

A quick Mosey to COT and enough time for 10 4-count flutters and 20 4-count Russian twists.

COT

At the request of the PAX, YHC expounded a bit on ‘being still’ when dealing with situations where one can, can and shouldn’t, and cannot at all take actions.

YHC practiced with things like job interviews and personal relationships praying and setting defined action dates.  Often starring at the phone, desperately desiring to make an ill-advised phone call… the wait until the date and time was crucial.  It was never about lengthening the wait to condition the mind, so much as making wise decisions about not stirring a pot that doesn’t need stirring.

Announcements were announced. Lots of stuff happening.  Stuff your faces with a cannoli and mow lawns with Assassin!

Prayers and praises were offered and the PAX went home with a little more peaceful warrior in their blood.

TClap |
0

The Art of Merkin Cadence…

What is more difficult than doing 20 merkins first thing in the morning? Trying to do 20 merkins first thing in the morning in cadence and remembering to breathe! I was doing well until I hit merkin #11 and it was downhill from there. I got to 19 and decided that breathing was more important than following my weinke to a T.  After catching my breath and drastically cutting down on my already small warm-up, I decided to go ahead and mozy over to the band parking lot to begin our workout. Here’s how it went down…

The Thang:

William Wallace #1

PAX breaks up into even groups, dispersing to four corners with radio in the middle playing 90″s grunge. (make sure you know exactly how to do the routine so that explanations come easy!) While each person holds a plank, one group member does a bear crawl to the center for 20 triceps merkins and then run back to the group. Each man does each exercise once. Next is 20 big boy sit-ups, 20 LBC’s, and 20 squats. That is a long plank hold!

We then took a quick break to talk about something that was weighing on my mind so I thought I would share with PAX. From time to time I get a feeling that I should reach out to a certain person and it will nag at me until I finally give that person a call or have some quality face-to-face time with them. I feel like it is God telling me that that person needs me for some reason. I encouraged the PAX to not let this feeling pass you by and to reach out to someone if they’ve been on your mind.

William Wallace #2

Instead of holding plank, PAX stayed in Al Gore position throughout.

Bear crawl to center for 20 wide arm merkins, 20 LBC’s, 20 big boy sit-ups, and 20 calf raises.

on to the last portion of our routine…

Partner up, size matters

Lazy Doras

100 total merkin to be done in a rotating fashion. One does 10 merkin while the other holds plank until you reach 100. Partner carry to the next position and alternate between 100 squat jumps while partner does flutter kicks. Partner carry again to next position and 100 LBC’s while partner holds squat.

Thank goodness we didn’t get to the 50 burpees and superman holds!

Mozy back to COT where we finished the workout with our 40’s (40 merkins, 40 LBC’s, 40 Squats, 40 bomb jacks)

Name-o-rama, announcements and prayers.

It was a great workout with a great group of men and we were all able to get better!

Thanks so much for the opportunity to lead, Lil E!

 

Cheerio,

Slash

TClap |
0

Is There a Name for That? GC, 4.9.19

It’s been a long time since YHC had the opportunity to Q at the region’s buffet of pain. When the call came out requesting my service, I readily accepted and then immediately forgot about it. Good thing our buddy Lutefisk has that reminder email set up!

A few brave (read: ill informed) PAX pre-ran before the group of 10 – scratch that, 11 when Duck Dynasty came in hot – gathered for the disclaimer at 0515. Once that was done, we set off on a mosey around the parking lot for a string-of-pearls style warmup.

Moseys included side shuffles, high knees, butt kickers, toy soldiers, and forward-moving hillbilly squat walkers. Every little bit we stopped for a warmup exercise or two.

Pearl 1: 25 SSH + 5 burpees

Pearl 2: 10 Windmills + 5 burpees

Pearl 3: 20 Moroccan Night Clubs + 5 burpees

Mosey up to the church parking lot for the fun. Basic plan: circuit work done as a group. Exercise, run a lap, exercise, run a lap, and so on. Each round of the circuit gets progressively harder and therefore more enjoyable.

Circuit 1

  • Round 1
    • Jumping Lunges (20 in cadence)
    • Merkins (15 in cadence)
    • High Knees (100 – 50 per leg)
  • Round 2
    • Jumping Lunge half turns (10 in candence I think)
    • Diamond Merkins (15 in cadence I think)
    • High Knees (100 – 50 per leg…this I’m sure of)
  • Round 3
    • 3-pulse Lunge Jumps (20 in cadence; drop into lunge and pulse three times “Thigh Master” style, then jump and switch legs)
    • Slo-mo Merkins (10 in cadence; 5 count down, 5 count hold at the bottom, 5 count up)
    • High Knees (100 – 50 per leg)

Circuit 2

  • Round 1
    • Squat Jumps (15 in cadence I think)
    • Carolina Dry Docks (20 in cadence)
    • Run Lunge High Knee Skip (5 per leg; do a runner’s lunge with hands on the ground, back leg comes forward and through as you jump up, same leg goes back behind as you come back down to runner’s lunge)
  • Round 2
    • 3-pulse Sumo Squat Jump (10 in cadence, same idea as 3-pulse jump lunges above)
    • Dive Bomber Merkins (10 in cadence) RUN TO COT
    • Run Lunge High Knee Skip (5 per leg)

Circuit 3

  • We only got to one round here, with no running between…
    • DaVinci cartwheels (20 – 10 per leg; check the exicon as these are there)
    • Donkey Dogs (10 per leg; one-legged downward dog, the leg that is up comes forward to same-side elbow, then back in the air)
    • Burpees (15)

And that’s 0600. Already in COT, so quick count, name-o-rama, announcements, and prayers.

No big message to share today. Proud of the guys. We got at least 2.5 miles of running mixed in among all the other stuff. It looks like there are some exercises that could use a name, so I’m open to suggestions.

Always an honor to lead. Thanks for the opportunity, Lutefisk.

-Jedi

 

TClap |
3

Old School Slug Fest at the Corral

Man, I have to give props to our boy Lutefisk for taking over this AO as Site Q and really elevating the attendance and holy cow the consistent FNG’s rolling up here.  It’s so great to see, and likely the only reason I got 14 to come out to my Slug Fest of a Q.

After taking it easy for a week post P200, I decided to turn it on and give the pax a reason for getting up so early.

Warm up was quick – side straddle hops x20, windmlls x 10 and we were off for the real warm-up:

  • Burpee Mile – from COT, I led the pax on a very brisk mosey behind the Teeter, through the apartment complex, up the steep hill, out to 160, down to the gas station and back through the Teeter parking lot and ended back at the steep hill out back.
      • The kicker was that we stopped every 0.2 of a mile and knocked out 5 burpees along the way.  Finished w/ 25 burpees, and then tacked on 5 more just for good measure and a round 30 count.

Next up, a simple Dora…on the hill…with burpees.  We partnered up on the level ground about 3/4 up the hill near the fire station and I informed the pax:

  • Partner 1 runs down the hill, knocks out 5 burpees, and back pedals up the hill.  Meanwhile, the partner not running works on the rep count of the following exercises (partners switch on and off as they complete the hill) –
      • Merkins x100
      • Jump Squats x200
      • Crunchy Frog (Witchhunt special) x300 (we may have cut this off at 200 count)

This stunk.  Back pedaling hills is evil.  Once we finished there, the wounded pax were led back over to the Teeter parking lot via another mosey.  Next up, the Jedi version of Jack Webbs – holy smoke show:

  • On the curb – 1 dip per 4 crab cakes…up to 10 dips / 40 crab cakes.  I  never want to do another crab cake again.  So many crab cakes – appropriate given it’s Golden Corral.  Arms were toast.

From there, we did side shuffle suicides on the full length parking lot which brought my heart rate to 110% of what it’s supposed to do and finished w/ 1 min to spare at COT where we knocked out 11 merkins, 10 diamonds, 9 merkins and 8 diamonds.

Encouraged the pax to read up on Jedi’s Muggo posting about his Greatest Fear and then spoke briefly on something that’s been on my heart .

What would you do differently throughout your day / week / life if you lived eternally focused and NOT from a temporal perspective?  How might you interact w/ your kids or wife or those around you differently?  How might you come to practice more patience / endurance?  Would your timing expectations change?  How might your desires / things you’re asking God for change?

Appreciate all the pax that shared prayer requests and came out to play this fine Tuesday morning.  I was definitely sore so hope each and every one of them walked away in better spirits and a little vomity.

Cha Ching

TClap |
5

No Pity on the Fools at Quagmire

Jedi here, stepping in for Mr. T to get his backblast from April 1 posted…

Vinny was the scheduled Q, and even mentioned this to Mr. T Sunday morning. Much to Mr. T’s surprise, Vinny called him up late Sunday night requesting a substi-Q. This late change of plans caused for some confusion in the wee hours of Monday morning, but at 0515 Mr. T took control, gave a disclaimer (with some assistance), and off we went.

Mosey around to Sport Clips parking lot with some high knees, butt kickers, and shuffles along the way. That was the warm up. For the rest of the workout, Mr. T rolled out the dice, of which there were four. Simple rules: roll the dice, he’d announce and lead the exercise to some pre-determined number that may or may not be a multiple of 10, rinse and repeat.

Exercises:

4 – low slow squats

5 – mountain climber

6 – Freddie mercury

7 – LBC

8 – You Call It

9 – Rosalita

10 – American Hammer

11 – Peters on the wall (Peter Parkers in BTTW position, not the other possible definition)

12 – People’s Chair

13 – You Call It

14 – Crab walk/bear walk the circle

15 – Run (to a new location; we did this a few times, ending up in front of Home Depot, outside Just Fresh, in front of Tuesday Morning, and outside Casual Pint)

16 – High Knee Skip

17 – Plank hip dips (on your elbows)

18 – Side plank, arm (and leg) high, both sides

19 – You Call It

20 – Plank hands to elbows

21 – Peter Parker/Parker Peter

22 – Hello Dolly

23 – You Call It

24 – Burpees

With four dice, you can assume most of our rolls ended up in the middle numbers.

Return to COT for number-o-rama, name-o-rama, announcements-o-rama (not actually a thing), and praises and prayers.

Welcome (no longer an) FNG, The Admiral.

Mr. T would like to thank Vinny for the opportunity. It’s difficult to tell if there was sarcasm in his text saying as much.

I would like to thank Mr. T for stepping up. I know it’s been hard for him to get out and post consistently lately, but it’s always good to see him. It’s probably especially difficult to come back and Q after not Qing for a long time. I think it was safe to say he was a bit nervous, but he still took control and led the PAX through a solid beatdown for a Monday morning. It was also great to see the PAX gather together and encourage him throughout the workout.

TClap |
9

Spring workout at the Buffet of pain Golden Corral

Great morning and great weather!

8 strong came out to get stronger

Nice mosey for a half mile to warm up

COP

Seal Jacks 15

Slow Merkins 10

Slow Squats 15

Peter Parker 15

Parker Peter 15

MKC 15

mosey for a big loop

15 Burpees

Partner up size does not matter

Each partner sprints 2 short laps 2 times while partner 1 does squats meet up and do 10 handslap merkins (Repeat 5 times each for a total of 100 hand slap merkins)

All Mosey for a big lap

15 Burpees

Partner up and do squats while the other partner sprints 2 laps. Meet up and do 10 hand slap big boy situps (Repeat 5 times each)

Mosey for a big lap

5 Burpees

COT

 

TClap |
2