Alcatraz: Special Thx Uncle Sam VQ and Boss of Cake

I can’t even tell you really how many PAX came to Alcatraz for their DRP, because I thought I was a greeter at Walmart with all the men coming and then leaving it was a constant revolving door. Regardless, a majority of men got after it and with Uncle Sam making his VQ, we were all in for a treat. So after an attempt at introductions, disclaimers and usual office work, YHC handed it off to Uncle Sam.

The Thang:

 

  • Uncle Sam on Q:
We started off jogging to circle up on center field and warmed up the hipsters by shaking some Finkle Swings (5 reps/leg). 14 Moroccan Night Clubs followed up in a weird sequence since the VQ was stumbling into the rhythm.  The 18 Side Straddle Hops helped the inmates @ Alcatraz get the sensation that it was going to be easy but then they had to scrub the floors with some Annies (10 per arm).  24 Imperial Walkers and 24 Hillbillies thrusted them into Q’s arms.
  • Cake Boss on Q:
5 Burpees OYO
Mosey to the Playground for Mini Murph
Each PAX…no partner
1Lap around Park
50 Pullups
100 Merkins
150 Squats
1Lap around Park
Mosey to the Bball Courts count off 1’s and 2’s
1’s suicides
2’s Freddy Murcurys
flap jack
1’s suicides
2’s flutters
flap jack
Mosey to Hill behind Baseball field
Roll the dice of Pain, do the exercise, run the hill
10 Burpees, 10 Lunges, 10 LBCs, 10 Mountain Climbers
Hand off to Uncle Sam 
  • Uncle Sam on Q:
20 Groiners inspired a lot of grumbling  and some started crying “Parking lot!”, but we still had to do 24 LBCs and 8 Starfish Crunches to get our backs wet with the morning dew.  Partnered up we sprinted from base to base in the Baseball field as if we had hit a home run but stopped;ing for some Mountain Climbers at each base.  Inning was over and prisoners got to go back to their POD cell for some announcements, a lot of Turkey talk and a sweaty thanksgiving for all things good that come from SkyQ.
  • YHC spoke to the men about the “Real” things we are thankful about. Yes we all can be thankful for the obvious, but what are the things that when you realize how grateful you are you get emotional and it makes you want to be a better man. We need to focus on those things when life gets tough. When things and expectations are not going our way….and realize….that thing that makes us realize Sky Q loves me and my brothers are standing with me and everything will be fine!
  • Thanksgiving convergence
  • Christmas Party
  • Joe Davis Run
  • The Rooster CSAUP in Rock Hill

 

Thank you Senator for the opportunity!

Cake Boss & Uncle Sam

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Tour de Poopdeck

12 PAX posted on a chilly morning.

YHC started everyone off jogging then realized the disclaimer had been forgotten. Jogging stopped. Disclaimer made. Off moseying again + butt kickers, high knees, and karaokes.

Warm-o-Rama:

  • SSH, Windmills, MNCs, Finkle Swings (leg stretch – think Ray Finkle… or is it Einhorn?)

The Thang:

Jacob’s Ladder

  • We moseyed to a hill behind the bounce and bowl. Start at the bottom. Do 9 LBCs. Run up the hill and do 1 burpee. Run down, do 8 LBCs. Run up, 2 burpees. Buprees increase, LBCs decrease until you do 9 burpees and 1 LBC. Mosey to the front corner of the shopping center.

Lt. Dans for the length of the shopping center

  • Lunge, lunge, squat. rinse and repeat until you get to the last pillar. There was a good amount of mumble chatter for this one.

Modified Bataan Death March to the flagpole

  • Indian run where the last man stops to do 3 merkins before running to the front of the line. He taps the 6 while passing him, and the 6 then drops to do 3 merkins. Rinse and repeat until destination reached.

Shared some quick thoughts on victory (see below).

Bear Crawl ROF around the flagpole

  • PAX circle the flag and bear crawl around it 1 Lap. Everyone planks while each man takes turns doing 3 merkins. Repeat 3 times.

Butkus

  • 60 seconds of rapid step-ups onto the curb, followed by 30 secs of rest. Repeat 3 times.

Modified Bataan Death March to the shovel flag

Royale came to pick up turkeys for the Paradise community, and joined in for Freddy Mercuries to bring us to 6:00am.

 

Moleskin:

We talked about a little-known monument at the Poopdeck that honors Col. Thomas Neel and his family. Col. Neel was a veteran of the Revolutionary war, who fought in NC, SC, FL, and GA. He defended Charleston against the British in the siege of 1779. He was also a statesman, in the SC Provincial Congress and the NC Assembly. While Col. Neel is memorialized as a man of victory on multiple fronts, there is also a somber inscription on the monument that his wife, Jean Spratt Neel, was captured by Shawnees, murdered, and scalped.

We are a group of focused men who strive to make each other better. Victory is something that is not foreign to many of us. But are we being victorious in the right things? Are we building monuments to ourselves (careers, projects, egos) while at the same time our relationships with God, and our family suffer? Being victorious in the right things is just as important as being victorious. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world yet loses his soul?

 

Thanks to Wild Thing of the opportunity to lead.

 

-Homebrew

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Sweatin’ To The Oldies @ #Slowburn

26 HIM came out for a warmer-and-drier-than-the-day-before “moderate” beatdown.  Welcome and disclaimer given and then I turned it over to Clark Kent for a little VQ Warm Up that went a little something like this:

10x Goofball
10x Windmill
10x Cherry Picker
10x Low Slow Squat
10x Side Straddle Hop

10x Merkin

Polaroid took back over and we moseyed to the back of Lowe’s for 2 rounds of:

30x Dips
Bear Crawl to the line
Lunge back to the rail
30x Calf Raises
Mosey to the side of Lowe’s for 1 round of Deck of Pain
Hearts = SSH
Diamonds = Bomb Jacks
Spades = Merkins
Clubs = Carolina Dry Docks
Jokers = 10 Burpees – – – – Dangerfield pulled the Joker!Mosey to the front of Lowe’s for a quick ab workout:

10x Flutter
10x LBC

Mosey back to the Warm Up circle for some Sweatin’ To The Oldies with
“I Get Around” by The Beach Boys.

Start in a squat and every time “I get around” is said you go up and down.  It’s 2m8s of squattin’ and hopefully the guys were feeling the Slow Burn.

Most of the PAX gave AYG to the Chick Fil-A hill and a mosey back to COT.  Great job!
Announcements:
-Turkey Day Convergence 11/24 0600 @ The Ranch
-Christmas Party 12/1 1830 @ Regal Manor Clubhouse
-Paradise Turkey Giveaway Bring a FROZEN turkey to an AO on Saturday, November 18th. Why? To bless the Paradise Community with turkeys for Thanksgiving. This turkey giveaway will reduce the financial burden for underprivileged families in this neighborhood as they prepare for the holiday. We will also eat lunch with the community during this event to further build relationships with our brothers and sisters in Paradise. Read the pre-blast for details regarding this fruitful event. Contact Deacon with questions.

Pinup prayed us out.

It’s always an honor Q’ing.  Thanks, again, Barry Manilow.  Peace.
~Polaroid

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Backblast: 17 for 17 at The Colosseum

16 men joined YHC for some fun on the concrete at The Colosseum.

After the disclaimer was said we moseyed around the parking lots until we found the perfect spot for a warmup.

WARMUP:

  • side straddle hops x20
  • windmill x10
  • squats x30
  • merkins x15
  • mountain climbers x15
  • LBCs x15

Mosey about 10 feet to the first set of painted road arrows. There are 17 of these over about 1/10th of a mile stretch. We did the follow exercise at each set of arrows and then hauled it back to the start:

  • 1 burpee
  • 1 burpee + 3 merkins
  • 3 jump squats
  • quick break for some Captain Thor – up to 6 x 24
  • 5 carolina dry docks
  • 2 big boy sit ups
  • finish up with boats and canoes x a lot

Mosey to COT

Announcements included T-giving day convergence, Christmas party.

Praise for Ginsu’s daughter (successful surgery), prayers for marriages, family.

Ginsu took us out in prayer.

Thanks for the opportunity, Jekyl. See you next time.

 

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Light Pole Lane – a Colosseum BB for 10/24/17

Well… it was another day in paradise at The Colosseum.

THANG:
Mosey lap around the pickup loop in front of the school, then circle up at the end of “light pole lane”. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard anyone call it that, but those that have posted there know exactly what I am talking about, I think. We partook of some normal warm-up goodies like Squats, Windmills, Merkins, Moroccan Nightclubs, SSH, etc…

Next it was 1 burpee and add a burpee at each light pole until we get to the end and meet me there, plank for the 6. Then for no fun, we did a few burpees in cadence, which is, I am told, the proper way to do them.

Then we moseyed down the entrance road to the cross street of Patricia Ln, which is about the halfway point between the top of Dave Gibson and the left turn onto Light Pole Lane and to the schools. (If that makes any sense at all) Here, we played “it pays to be a winner” and we hoofed it to the top of Dave Gibson and pack to Patricia as fast as we could. MacGyver (shocker) was the winner, so he got to pick the ab exercise. 30 flutters… Then second place picked the direction to run… up the hill or down the hill… Naturally (I think it was Backdraft who picked) we went up the hill… #choosetheharderthing … then we bear crawled back for the 6.

We repeated this nonsense until about 0552, then we ran down to the corner of Light Pole Lane for a little ab work and an AYG sprint back to COT.

NMM:
A couple of thoughts:
1. Light Pole Lane is longer than I thought and I nearly killed myself trying to stay ahead of Pax until I finally ran completely out of gas and nearly splashed merlot.
2. If you are at a workout with MacGyver, he will most likely be The #King
3. If you are at a workout with Backdraft, he will most likely choose the harder thing, and will push you to do the same.
4. If you are at a workout with Longshanks, he will most likely talk a lot of crap, but he will do it while he is helping you along and making sure you ok. He does that part quietly because he has a rep to maintain.
5. If you are at a workout with Sparkle, he will most likely push harder than you.
6. If you are at a workout with Trucker, he will most likely fake complain a lot, but push harder than you.
7. Finally, if you are at a workout with me, you are not the dumbest guy there, so you got that going for you… which is nice…

Helmet, out.

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You don’t have Control

Friday mornings are my favorite.  Back at the place this whole F3 thang all began for me.  The men started gathering, and by 5:14 it was a large group…but no one that wanted to ruck…so NASA got to join the bootcampers.  I’m sure he was ready for his Q, but lots of guys were probably holding back for the Capital Ruck Tour on Saturday night.  20 PAX with me, so a quick disclaimer and we’re off.

A little dynamic warmup on our run with high knees, butt kickers, side shuffle.  Made our way to the back parking of  the old River Bleu.

COP: 15 IWs – 25 MNCs – 25 SSHs – 10 LS Squats – 10 Merkins – some yoga stuff – 15 planks jacks – 10 Parker Peters

Mosey over to the Fountain to put in some work

3 rounds of following:

10 Step Ups each leg

20 Durkins

30 Dips

quick 10 count time to mosey.

Move to the red balls for Burpicides

Shared a quick word around Control. See Moleskin.

run to each ball – 3 burpees – run back all the way down to the other side

Read to write, hard to do. After a FEW 10 counts time to mosey again.

Made our way closer to the COT, stopped at a nice patch of grass.

I saw someone had pulled out the Jack Webbs this week, it had been too long…

Jack Webbs to 10

Back to COT:

Ab Lab with American Hammers – Freddie Mercuries – LBCs

Announcements – Praises – Prayers

Moleskin:

I had something to share planed for the PAX.  But on the way to the workout I was listening to the radio.  Not something I normally do. A song came on by Logic.  It’s posted here.  Popular song about depression and suicide.  My nephew had previously shown me the video. That morning it almost brought me to tears.  I modified my message about control.  The trials of life and heartache of loss or depression show us many ways that we are not in control.  That even when things are good we can feel like there are bad.  Give that control to God and ask him for guidance.

Too many kids I’ve been hearing about locally that have lost that control and found no other way out than suicide.  We should be those men making a difference in kids lives so they know there is another way.  Start with your own kids.  Talk to them about life, and pain and failure.  Let them know that everything’s not perfect like social media makes it out to be.  Tell them about your failures and how you overcame them.  Just talk…

An honor to lead,

Royale

 

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Coliseum- Mumble Chatter- Not on my watch

After seeing twitter post about possible mumble chatter at my Q from some legendary yackers YHC decided to bring one of his old school simple but effective workouts to these guys. a nice 46 degrees to start the day had a few arriving in there sweatshirts, a few were mumbling about not knowing where their cold weather gear was. Little did they know the ones that showed up with it on would be wishing they hadn’t in a few.

Quick disclaimer and were off.

Mosey to basketball court, dynamic stretching toy soldiers, knees to chest.

Circle up SSHs, mtn. climbers, flutter kicks, Windmills, peter parkers, chopsticks.

Mosey to light poles. at each light pole perform 15 Carolina dry docks, 10 alternating jumping lunges, 5 burpees. 10 light poles. Flutter kicks until 6 arrives.

Return down the line except 15Air Squats, 10 merkins, 5 burpees. LBCs until 6 arrives.

Mosey to parking lot and pair up for DORA. 50 merkins, 100 squats, 150 LBCs while partner runs to wall and does 1 muscle up.

Back to COT with 25 yard bear crawl on the way.

COT.

Announcements- Fast 5, Family Ruck, Community Café 5k, The Fort Christmas Party.

Prayers- Passing of Cake Boss sister. PAX looking for work.

Praises.

 

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Mary Go Round at the Colosseum

Warm up:

20 x -SSH

20 x MNC

15 x Windmill

10 x Merkins

Plank

Honeymooner

Downward Dog

15 x Mountain Climber

15 x Squats

The Thang:

So after some short sprints and side shuffles through the parking lot, we partnered off.  Then a word on leadership.

Leadership doesnt have to happen alone!  Just like your partner during the workout a partner in life can help you be the leader you are meant to be.

And the Mary-go-round begins…..

Each round consists of doing one exercise followed by a lap around the parking lot.  Since one round of each set of exercises wasnt enough, we decided to rinse and repeat each round.  Between rounds as we waited for the six (usually me) we did wall sits for round 1 followed by planks for round 2.

Round 1:

10 x Freddy Mercury

10 x Rosalita

10 x Protractors

Round 2:

10 x Crab Humpers

10 x Carolina Dry Docks

10 x Flutters

Meet back at COT for announcements, prayers and praises.

Thanks for all the support PAX for my VQ!

A great time was had by all!

Announcements:

-Invergence Friday

-Convergence Saturday

Prayers of PAX:

-Family who lost father due to fire ants

-Missionary family resolving paperwork stateside to return to Asia.

 

 

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Poopdeck got TireD

Great attendance for my VQ, 14 PAX decided to show up and play with some toys.

Quick disclaimer and welcomed one FNG. Discussed about control and the power to influence or direct certain behaviors, especially our kids behaviors while they are growing up.

We started the warm up with a run around the parking lot, circled up and started with the following in cadence:

20 Moroccan Night Clubs

20 Low Slow squats

10 Windmills

10 Merkins

Then we moseyed down to the boat parking lot for a 4 station/corner setup with two big tires in the middle forming an X in between stations. Quick explanation of “benefits” and we split into four groups and one group went to each corner:

  • First  Corner:

10 Sledgehammer swings (choose between 8, 10 or 12 lbs sledgehammer)

15 big boy sit ups

20 American hammers

  • Second Corner:

10 lunges

15 squat jumps

20 monkey humpers

  • Third Corner:

10 Sand Bag Toss (choose between 40 or 60 lbs sandbag)

15 shoulder press

20 side straddle hops

  • Fourth Corner:

10 diamond merkins

15 regular merkins

20 count battle rope wave

After finishing exercises on each corner we bear crawled to the big tires, flip them 3-4 times (choose between 280 or 350 lbs tires) and then duck walked to the next corner; every time we finished a corner we repeated the bear crawl, tire flip and duck walk to move on to the following one.

Rinsed and repeated 3 times each corner for a speedy workout.

With 40 minutes into the workout we moseyed back to COT and finished strong with slow merkins: 5 diamond merkins, 10 regular merkins and 15 wide arm merkins.

Namearama and welcomed FNG “buckshot”

Announcements:

Ragnar Race

Community Cafe Race in Tega Cay

Fast 5 Race

Joe Davis Memorial Run

Prayers and Requests:

Family, kids, ragnar racers

We wrapped it up with a prayer we do with my kids were we thank God for our family, life, health, love, happiness, work and the necessary resources and provisions we receive every day to keep going on with our lives; we also ask that every kid in the world has access to a decent meal every day.

It was a great way to start a super busy day!!

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Poopdeck Block Party

6 pax showed up for my VQ, no FNGs so a brief disclaimer was given, followed by a mosey around the parking lot.

COP:

Moroccan Night Clubs x 20

Imperial Walkers x 15

Windmills x 15

Merkins x 15

Mountain Climbers x 15

Downward dog/honeymooners

Inverted Mountain Climbers x 15 (fan favorite, thanks Jedi)

The Thang:

Before the main event we moseyed to the store front for some side shuffles and squats.  Pax side shuffled to next column squat, 180 turn, squat, rinse repeat to end.

Pax paired up for block BOMBS and blockless BLIMP (Hindenbergs?).  First pax performed exercise while second ran length of parking lot and back, setting the pace, until team reached 50 for each.

B – Blockies/run

O – Overhead press/run

M – Merkins/Cusack with CB instead of run

B – Big boy situps/run

S – Squats/run

B – Burpees (audibled and skipped this one)

L – Lunges/run

I – Imperial walkers/run

M – Monkey humpers/run

P – Plank jacks/run

Got x 20 curls in before we moseyed back for a quick balls to the wall.

COT:

Announcements – Invergence/convergence (YHC conveniently had wedding in Indiana to attend)

Prayers – Careers, wives, 2.0s, soon to be 2.0s, leadership

Thanks Wild Thing for the opportunity and Royale for the tips.

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