Tag: Straight Up

WHETSTONE…Relaunches at THE FORT

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Several weeks ago, it was announced that our region, THE FORT, would be closing all Saturday AO’s and holding a convergence at FMHS to get the PAX together as we thank Rebel for his leadership of Whetstone and relaunch it under Repeat and World Wide Leader (WWL). I was excited to hear we’d be getting many of the region together but I wasn’t expecting what came next. It was a text asking if I’d Q the workout.

Q, like part of it, half of it or …? The response was, THE WHOLE THING. I love to Q every chance I get but to do so on a day like this, well, I better make sure it includes a little something for everyone. Or, almost everyone.

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And this is where I let life get the better of me. I try to follow the 48hr rule on posting a BACKBLAST, especially when they’re significant but I let life and travel get in the way. It is now Saturday, one week later, and I’m just finishing this BB. Life can get challenging, it can get stressful, it can get you riding the highs or down in the lows. And this past week, our family has experienced some of each. Maybe this was the week where I really came to realize how valuable having a Whetstone partner can be. Someone that I can share the highs with and someone to help get me out of the lows; or to keep me honest when it’s my own doing that has me on the outside looking in on the joys of life.

That said, I’ll take you back to last Saturday, April 21 where we had a a few pre-ruckers and a total of 58 PAX converge to re-kick off this critical program.

We got ourselves into an odd-shaped kidney-like shape for the disclaimer, the announcement of why we were there this beautiful morning and to acknowledge our 2 FNG’s in the PAX. We counted off in 4’s then took off toward the big parking lot for a warm up jog in 4 lines. This jog included some karaoke’s and 4 lines doing an indian run which was way harder than it appeared on paper.

In these last 2 years, Whetstone has brought together some extremely HIM. One of those men has gone through a tough 18mos and he was gracious enough to share some of his story to include the impact Whetstone had on his life as we circled up to hear his words. I know he wouldn’t endorse this comment but anytime Mr. Clean wants to share experience or wisdom, the PAX listens. And listen we did.

After backing the group back out to a circle-like shape, I was giddy to honor Santini in the only way I knew how…with a deck of cards. However, on this day we utilized 1/2 the deck and considered it our warm up:

Hearts = Side Straddle Hops

Diamonds = Carolina Dry Docks

Spades = Squats

Clubs = Merkins

Then a little action from the Burp-Merk: Standing, we then dropped to a plank, did 5 merkins then jumped up. That equals 1 and we did 5 total.

This was when we got to listen to our very own Nantaan, Cake Boss, as he shared the impact Whetstone has had on him. Yet again, another powerful testimony.

Then off to do 4 corners in the lot with:

Corner 1 = Dancing Crabs x 15ea and Dips x 20

Corner 2 = Dying Cockroach x 15ea and Flutters x 20ea

Corner 3 = Burpees x 10 and Jump Squats x 10

Corner 4 = American Hammers x 25 and Freddie Mercury x 20ea

Mosey over to the wall for B2W while doing 5 “push ups” followed by 15 calf raises. We did this 3 times.

To close out our testimonies, my man Chicken Hawk laid it down for us. He shared the impact Whetstone has had on him, his marriage, his family…his life. Life isn’t meant to be traveled alone. Well said brother.

6ct Burpee which I needed a little help from the Helmet of Darkness to remind me the steps. Remember the line, “If you can’t Q it, don’t do it?” Yeah, me too but I obviously didn’t follow that too closely here.

This is where the cat-herding became evident. The PAX exhibited patience with me as we attempted a modified DORA series consisting of:

50 Flying Squirrels, 50 Diamond Merkins and 50+ Flutters

We then took off for the main entrance to the football stadium and lined up in 4 lines facing down the hill. Once everyone readjusted, it was 15 American Hammers, 15 Flutters and 15 Hello Dollies. This was done several more times.

Well, that put a bow on the workout portion of this convergence and after the COT, FNG naming of RBG and Whiskers, we then handed it off to World Wide Leader and Repeat to lead the Whetstone discussion.

Announcements: The relaunch of Whetstone. Thanks to Rebel for getting this off the ground 2 years ago and to Repeat / World Wide Leader for taking the reigns.

Prayer Requests: Badger. Camp Care 5K. Jennings Palmer’s transplant. Olive’s 8K in memory of Sweet Tooth. Elmer.

Honored and appreciative of your patience.

Maximus

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6

Old School Beat Down at The Fort

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23 Pax joined YHC and Old Bay for Day 12 of 12 for Ass Kick’n April.  Lazy site Q saw The Fort on the calendar and volun-told YHC to Q.  Agreed and Old Bay made a plan to bring back the pain old school style.

The Thang:

Run around WEP, circle up for COP:

SSH X 50, Imperial Walker X 20, Hillbilly Walker X 20, Windmill X 10, Squat X 20, Plan Jacks X 20, Sumo Squat X 20, Merkins X 10, Lunges X 20, Mak tar Jai X 20

Mosey to the hill for a Jacob’s Ladder:  1-7 – Burpees up top, Squats at bottom

Quick Ab Lab with slow and fast Freddy Mercury X 20

Hand over to Old Bay

Run to parking lot and get a Coupon made of wood or a fire hose!

Drill bits with a deconstructed burpee – 10 Bomb Jacks, 10 Thrust Outs, 10 Merkins

Rinse and repeat for 6 drill bits – with the damn coupons

Head up the back hill to upper soccer fields – with the damn coupons

Wind sprints with partner – add an exercise to each sprint and with the damn coupon – 4 cones with a myriad of painful stuff to do with the damn coupon

Back to COT

Great to be back for a Saturday workout at WEP! What a spectacular place to have here in Fort Mill.

Funhouse

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9

Unrealistic Expectations at BEYOND

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We’ve all ages and abilities come to BEYOND since launching in January and while there have been some struggles along the way, I think the feeling is unanimous; we’re getting pushed physically and being challenged mentally, emotionally and spiritually. For those that are upcoming Q’s, the hardest part seems to be how to deliver a meaningful message and a good down inside of 45mins.

Well, it was now my time to pick the topic for the latest rendition. The launch was set for Varsity (NaFO) and the topic was one I’ve dealt with for years but didn’t know it was a problem until the last few weeks. You see, it wasn’t until some adversity and personal challenges that I realized my trends or perhaps more importantly, my tendencies. So what happens? I have these expectations of what I need to be and who I need to be which are of course, often times unrealistically high. When I fall short, which happens more often than not; I feel like I don’t measure up and reside on the line boarding failure. It’s a vicious cycle that leads to me being a less-than-desirable person to be around.

After the welcoming of a zealous FNG (Abscess) who was EH’d by Mr. FNG himself, Ginsu, I took a minute to walk through the disclaimer, what BEYOND is all about followed by the F3 CREDO: Leave no man behind and leave no man where we found him. This was done for me years ago and it is my promise to make every effort to pass it on. We then took off for a short mosey through the lot and circled up:

Plank Jacks x 10

Ski Abs x 10

Carolina Dry Docks x 10

Squat Calf Raises x 10

Forward Arm Circles x 10

Reverse Arm Circles x 10

Mak Tar Jahs x 10

This is where I let the PAX rest for a few minutes as I walked through my above challenges and what it turns into. It was also a good time to talk about how this life is not meant to be walked alone; queue the WHETSTONE relaunch coming up this Saturday 4/21. The feeling this leads to is what Scripture explains in Luke 22:31 where Jesus says, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat.” These last few years have been a test, almost a sifting process that I have now begun to realize.

What we also realized was the neatly placed cones 50 yards apart in the parking lot. With all 20 of us lined up on one side, we sprinted to the other end and back at the following levels of effort:

50%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 25%

Mosey to the pull-up bars where 1/2 the PAX did 20 pull-ups (1 for each man that posted) while the other 1/2 did ankle grabs with their legs straight up against the wall. Each man cycled through 2 sets of each exercise and we made our way out to the adjacent roadway for:

4×4’s: Drop to a plank, 4 merkins, 4 full mountain climbers, jump up = 1 set. We did 10 sets.

With PAX on opposite sides of the road, we dropped to a plank with our hands in the road and our feet on the curb. We plank-walked down the hill about 25 yards to the cone then bear crawled back to the start. We switched sides and did it again, this time about 20yds down and bear crawled up.

It was now time for the ATM’s:

(10) 4ct Alternating shoulder taps

(10) Tempo Merkins: 3ct down and 1ct up

(10) Fast Merkins

We did 3 sets of this.

We then moseyed back to the cones for another sprint series that looked like this:

100%, 100%, 50%, 100%, 25%.

COT for a reminder of Whetstone and our FNG naming.

Loved every minute of it and thanks for the platform to share a piece of my story. I hope you learned a little tidbit and that I fulfilled my promise to not leave you where we found you.

Until Next Time,

Maximus

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1

4 Corners . . . with some “Elders”

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I will keep this backblast shorter, but I will say it was a lot of fun today at the Pantheon! Thanks to Fishsticks for letting me Q.

Some Pre-work:

1 group of runners headed out to who knows where at 4:45.

Fishsticks and I did some extra ab work that I call high octane abs. It hurt.

Disclosure given. Lots and lots and lots of chatter. Completely dark. Did I mention there was lots of chatter?

Short mosey to the lighted area for a different dynamic stretching workout after some high knees and butt kickers.

Some confused minds about what we were doing since very few had done this style of warm-up before (~8 exercises). Eventually I shifted to some traditional SSHs and the crowd went wild. It was like the PAXs’ bodies woke up.

At this point I inconveniently forgot a few demos of a few of the exercises to come for the main event.

The Thang:

We broke up into 4 teams of 5 and went to each respective corner on the soccer field. Fortunately, it was not very muddy.

I’d tell you the 20 different (and difficult) exercises that we did, but  . . . that means I’d have to type them out right now and I feel lazy after a long day of work. So if you are reading this, feel free to retweet it and comment what your favorite one was even if you don’t know the name of it. We did do Tunnel of Love and People’s Carry between cones.

I had a second round prepared, but, oh well, . . . time slipped away from us. Beware of next time. Round 2 was scheduled to be harder.

COT: Main Announcements: Convergence coming up; Praises: Lutefish’s daughter rocked it; Prayer: let’s continue to pray for children going through difficult times and Badger and his family.

Thanks to everyone, including the “Elders” for their hard work today!

Lastly, I think I missed one of you on the list. So sorry. My memory can only remember 19 out of 20 without a recording. Feel free to identify yourself.

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27

Colosseum Classic (yes, wall and light poles)

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Beautiful 50F AM at the Colusseum
Mosey through Pickup Lanes x2
Mosey Hill with the light poles
Worked our way up the hill stopping at each light pole:
  • 30x SSH
  • 10x Slow Windmill
  • 25x Moroccan Nightclub
  • 20x 4-count mountain climbers
  • Plank – Reg, L, Reg, R, 6”, Reg
  • 10x Merkins
  • 15x Al Gore calf raises
  • 10x Burpees
YHC had just read “What Radical Husband’s Do” a couple of points were shared.
Give Acceptance to your Wife… Criticism comes from a place of Judgement… which means you are suggesting you are the judge (you aren’t)
Over the wall 11’s + 2
  • Big Boy Sit-ups (1, 2… 10)
    • Over the wall
  • Donkey Kicks (10, 9… 1)
    • Over the Wall
  • +2 Burpees (+2 each round)
Encouragement of the PAX was strong finishing this one
Drop the Rope… most small fights are like tug of war. Everything is small. Drop the rope more often.
Box jumps on Benches x20 until 6min to go…
Mary
  • American Hammer’s
  • Flutter
  • Holly Dolly
  • Protractor
  • Straight up picks – some rendition Holly Dolly + Dying Cockroach
  • Jekyll picks – Rosalita
Twister showed us all out to count (loud under that GHMS awning!)
COT
Ephesians 5:25
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ has loved the church (people) and gave Himself up for her.
Prayers
  • T-Squares wife Michelle Angeldorf – surgery colon (laproscopic) 4/11
  • Jekyll – Mrs. Ann Griffin passed away
Praises
  • Straight up – that Longshanks crushed 2 Spartan Races this weekend
  • Longshanks – that Mom got to be around for Spring Break

Thanks Jekyll for the opportunity

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1

Hump Day… Whatever… Pantheon 4/4

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11 came to Pantheon ready to tell Hump Day to go pound sand. Too often, men look at Hump Day as the day that they check out and coast to the weekend. We aren’t those kind of men, so we will push hard and make it count everyday…

Warm-up:
1 lap around the lot to the side lot
Windmill x 10
IW x 10
Merkin x 10
PP x 10
Moroccan Nightclub x 20
Squat (with a hop) x 15
SSH x 20

On to the fun…
Mosey to playground (in parentheses are the mods)
20 burpees (15)
400M run (down and back)
20 Pull-ups (Supine pulls)
400M run (down and back)
20 Handstand push-ups/CDD (20 or 10-10 or 20)
400M run (down and back)
20 Swerkins (LBC)
400M run (down and back)
20 Knees to Chest

Once complete, we headed to the back lane for Hair Burner Relays
2 teams
Each team performs an exercise while the front men do a hair burner of 100M (50) then Overhead carry back
Exercises will be determined by the winner of the heat…

Mosey back to COT

=================================

NMM:
A couple of thoughts…
– If you are at a workout with Cha-Ching, Straight Up, Longshanks, and/or Jedi, you will likely be behind them. You should know that going in, so you don’t feel bad when it happens.
– Straight Up may not actually be from this planet. Dude is fit…
– CSPAN is still one of the wiser men I know, despite his current injury-related inability to do a proper Merkin…

Helmet, out.

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6

Man in the Arena

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Perfect gloom conditions.  15 studs out for a beatdown.  Opened with Teddy Roosevelt’s Man in the Arena.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Warm up:

  • warm up 70%  sprints between each exercise
    • SSH, Squat, SSH, Merkin

The Thang:

  • 4 corners- run in between- (abt 30 yards) Rinse/Repeat x 5
    • 3 burpee
    • 4 bombjacks
    • 5 merkin
    • 6 squat
  • Ark Loader Series- 30 yards, Rinse/Repeat x 3
    • Bear Crawl down, 10 merkins
    • Lunge walk back, 10 squat
    • crab walk down, 10 LBC
    • Backward Bear Crawl back, 10 CDD
  • 6 minutes of Mary
    • flutter
    • rosalita
    • protractor
  • Sprint Series
    • 2 x 70%
    • 1 X 85%
    • 5  X 100%

COT

Naked Man Moleskin

Jedi and Straight Up were out front today, all morning.  No surpise here.  Lots of great mumblechatter as the men answered the call for a beatdown and were all in.

 

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2

Final Prespect Q at the Ranch

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 Name-O-Rama.  11127355-7E37-4F2A-9B9E-F19861396FC7

YHC thanks Jiffy for the opportunity of one last Q as a Prespect and for the PAX who attended.

Not many posts to the Ranch from my end, but I had been eyeing up the facilities for weeks during 2.0’s soccer practice. Made good use of the the soccer fields and all the trees and light poles.

Arrived early,  fortunately enough lighting in the gloom for the planned weinke, set up 3 cones in front of one soccer goal approx. 10, 15 and 20 yards away and placed the 43 lb sandbag near the opposite goal.

Arrivals, no FNG’s, and a really ‘succint’ disclaimer. I believe we may have had one late arrival.

Moseyed around the parking for 2 laps with high knees, butt kickers, toys soldiers and shuffling. Jogged to far end of the further soccer field for SSH, merkins, flutters, GoofBalls, MNC’s. The real fun began with stage 1:

Stage One. Making use of 27 crepe myrtles lined up, we did bear crawls for one tree with 5 merkins, lunge walk one tree with 5 squats and continuing with adding 1 more tree until the end. Wow, this was tougher on the thighs than expected.  The RETURN lap was jog 3 trees, bear crawl 1, sumo walk 1 until the end. The first lap started near the trees, but by the second lap we were spread out across the soccer field.

Stage Two, Act One. Soccer field. Partner up, one PAX ran the length of the field and kicked a soccer ball into the goal from the closer 1st cone, the other PAX carried the sand bag overhead until handing off to the kicker for the return run. A missed shot meant running a lot further to track it down and replace it at the first cone for the next kicker/group.  MEANWHILE, the other PAX cycled through 5 LBC’s, 5 Flutters, 5 American Hammers. This continued until all 5 partner duo’s had gone.

Act Two and Three had the kickers move back 5 yards, while PAX cycled through…Act Two: 5 bombjacks, 5 Jump Squats, 5 Calf Raises. Act Three, 5 yards further back cycling through 5 Donkey Kicks, 5 left side crunches, 5 right side crunches.

YHC along with about 5 other PAX missed shots on goal.

We finished with 2 laps around the fields using the light poles. 3 burpees at every pole which ended up amounting to 45 burpees. For good measure, we finished 4 more burpees in COT to reach the magical “49” for the workout.

The brief message of the workout was to “Be Inspired, Become Inspiring.” Observe our PAX and follow their lead. We have PAX with different personalities and different involvements to inspire us to become better from the fitness side, to the community/philanthropy efforts, to the betterment of ourselves from the faith and spirituality side.

Prayers to sick or injured family members and friends. ChickenHawk noted to make use of the Easter holiday season to seek out, learn and improve yourself in your faith. Use the extra time to connect with family members.  G-Fit and CAH every Saturday needs PAX involvement, ESPECIALLY during Easter when regular PAX may not be able to post. HELP IF YOU CAN!

3 days to 50 for me, but my first RESPECT post will probably be with the Lehigh Valley PAX back in PA. Looking forward to first Respect post back in the Fort.

Aye! Bolt

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iFLIJfBSEK8BLAEPZWWh-VTD8sYuv0-H/view?usp=sharing

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0

We Have Something Good Here

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The faithful grew to 10 this week, some new, some old, but the buffet of pain has been a common stay. Starting off at 0500 is a Q’s dream as it provides ample time to deliver the Pax some pain.

A call was put out the night before for the PAX to bring some 65lbs or their weapon of choice, and all kinds of coupons showed up.

We did a warmup COP style and went off to the track. I promised out P200 PAX that the running would not be excessive, but I would not have been present based on past experiences, so I am sure it seemed like a mountain to them. Great courage on coming out and working through the post P200 pain.

First up was The Looney.
We ran a warm up lap to clear the track of debris and moved benches, lonely cones, and general trash off the track where our dreams came true.

7 400 yard sprints round the oval at AYG pace. After each lap, 20 yards weighted lunge. The book called for 65 lbs, but all shapes and sizes were had.

After we hit 4 rounds, it was all down hill, although I am not sure the breathing was any easier. We then proceeded to the Brenton with our remaining time.

The Brenton was 5 rounds of 30 yards bear crawls, then broad jumps back with 3 burps after each set of 5 jumps. In succession, this ended up as a killer. Great way to spend 10 minutes of your life right there.

At that point, we were on our way back to COT. We finished with peer led ab work. Did we care about the 6 quitting time? NOPE, The Honey Badger said to have all PAX lead, so we ended at 6:03.

Thanks men for the opportunity to lead. Wegmans is on Q next week.

COT.

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6

The Hive 2018.09

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Warmup then mosey to the strip (the lighted concrete path in the breezeway).

Hit all the major KB exercises: KB swing, Russian Twist, Snatch, 1L deadlift
Next we take the heaviest 2 KBs and do fireman carries 80yds out (switch hands, come back) while each Pax calls out an exercise.
Last we do core exercises and protractor with arms holding kettlebell.

And that’s it…  Short and sweet

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