The Big Event – Shovel Flag Handoff

So the hype has been great, and the STRONG showing this morning proved it has value!  26 HIM’s all came out on what was a pretty cold 48 degree March morning (that WIND).

This was not an ordinary workout.  Barry Manilow was handing over the shovel flag to YHC, as I was stepping into the role of Site Q for Slow Burn.  Barry started the workout for the first half, and then we handed off the Q to me for the last half.

I’ll do my best to get Barry’s portion right:

Mosey all the way down to the far side of Lowes and circle up for the following:

  • OH Hand Claps 10x
  • Moroccan Nightclubs 10x
  • LBC 10x
  • Imperial Walker 10x
  • Travolta 10x
  • Dying Cockroach 10x
  • Hillbilly Walker 10x
  • HR Merkins 15x

Mosey to the Triangle Lot

  • Moroccan Nightclubs 10x
  • OH Hand Claps 10x
  • Grave Digger 7×2
  • Squat 10x
  • Mak Tai Jai 10x
  • Knee Tai Jai 10x
  • Calf Raise Regular 10x
  • Calf Raise Toes Out 10x
  • Calf Raise Toes In 10x

Mosey back to the side of Lowes

  • Wall Sit with Pop Out Burpees
  • Bear Crawl/Toy Soldier to the second island and back
  • Wall Sit with Pop Out Burpees

The official Q Handoff….Barry Manilow Done, Smithers is up…

Mosey back to the Triangle Lot for 4 corners, circle up and count off in 4’s

Three different rounds at each corner station.  Finish one round and rotate to the next corner.  Once returning to where you started, perform the next round’s exercises.  The Rounds looked like this:

Round 1:

  • Corner 1 (CORE) – 30 LBC’s in Cadence
  • Corner 2 (UPPER) – 20 Carolina Dry Docks in Cadence
  • Corner 3 (CARDIO) – 30 SSH’s in Cadence
  • Corner 4 (LOWER) – 20 Low Slow Squats in Cadence

Round 2:

  • Corner 1 (CORE) – 15 Flutters in Cadence
  • Corner 2 (UPPER) – 15 Shoulder Taps in Cadence
  • Corner 3 (CARDIO) – 15 Peter Parker’s in Cadence
  • Corner 4 (LOWER) – 15 Calf Raises in Cadence

Round 3:

  • Corner 1 (CORE) – 15 Wheezy Jefferson’s in Cadence
  • Corner 2 (UPPER) – 30 OH Hand Claps in Cadence
  • Corner 3 (CARDIO) – 15 Imperial Walker’s in Cadence
  • Corner 4 (LOWER) – 15 Jump Squats OYO

Mosey back to COT

Countoff (26), Name-O-Rama, Announcements, Prayers, and the Shovel Flag Handoff!

I’m really looking forward to this opportunity as Site Q for Slow Burn.  I will do my best to keep the Q schedule full and diverse, remember it’s a moderate site, but challenge us to push it just a bit more than comfortable (and beyond).

Smithers…Out

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4

Beyond 2018.07

This morning was a good day for some positive influence.  There were two options this morning, but everyone decided to try something a little harder and go Beyond.

Mosey to the basketball parking lot for some warmup.
SSHx50, Hillbilly walkers x20, Typewriter merkins x10 (I wasn’t the only one!)

Mosey to the paved path behind the half wall.  I went over the word of the month, anxiety.  I used to have extremely high anxiety with a life of distraction.  I would become anxious about anything and everything, so to get by, I had to constantly keep my mind off of things.  One day, I decided to put all my focus on my anxiety.  Everything I feared, I would think about constantly until I was tired of thinking about it.  I would fight the beast until somebody won.  The main one was, does God exist?  You have to figure this out for yourself.  The answer is going to be yes or no, but what that answer means is going to be different for everyone.  So figure it out, come to a conclusion, and make it your assumption from that point going forward.  When you doubt again, remember the time you came to the conclusion (even if you don’t know why) and move on.

Balls2wall shoulder taps x10, Muscle ups x10 w/ a 20 sec 6inches hold within the set. (3 rounds)

Mosey to rock pit paste the gate of the school.  I ask if anyone had seen “Fight Club”.  I love this movie because it shows the most basic problems of Sad Clown Syndrome, even though it pursues completely destructive pathways to fix the problem.  One scene Tyler asks “How much can you know about yourself if you’ve never been in a fight?”  I love this self-analysis of learning oneself, but I don’t care about fighting.  Instead, I asked myself “How much can you know about yourself if you’ve never been hungry?” I explain to the PAX that for the past week (Sat-Fri) I did a strict water fast for a week.  I had always wanted to know what it was like physically, emotionally, and spiritually, but had always been afraid because of anxiety of losing weight (irrational fear of being the guy that’s too skinny).  There are about a dozen reasons why I did it, but one was to face a fear.

Find a pet rock for…
Clockwork deadlifts:
I call out a time, you lunge in that direction, set the rock down, reset, lunge out, pick rock up, repeat

Clockwork deadlift
Al Gore calf raises x20 (w/ pet rock)
Clockwork deadlift
Jump squat (w/ pet rock)
Clockwork deadlift
Russian twist (w/ pet rock)
Clockwork deadlift
Al Gore calf raises x20 (w/ pet rock)
Jump squat (w/ pet rock)

This exercise to help you remember how to lift a load in awkard positions so hopefully you don’t teak your back one day picking up a grocery back off the floor behind you.

Mosey back for 6MOM
Freddy Merc x50
Flutter (good form, hollow body) x20
Dying cockroach x50

And that’s the game…  Loved leading this morning.  Go Beyond!!!

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8

Be Still

18 pax posted ’round the Shovel Flag at Slow Burn for some usual Fri 1st F and 2nd F engagement. Well, at launch, we actually had 17 pax and reports of an 18th enroute.   Disclaimer was proclaimed.  February theme of #Worry was noted and the pax were informed that YHC would not disrupt the the Slow Burn rhythm of #moderation and #mumblechatter, though this adventure would force them to talk out their worries.  With that, we launched.

The Thang

Warm up run around CFA through Drive Thru lane

Karaoke lap around CFA through Drive Thru lane

COP alongside CFA — SSHs, Hillbilly walkers, Imperial walkers, Mtn climbers, Windmills

Lugnut posted at this point, so we moseyed on down to the parking lot between the retail strip and Lowes

10 strong form burpees OYO (requested by Twister)

SSH

10 strong form burpees OYO

Partner up to complete all exercises together and talk out your anxieties/worries
Round 1: Merkins x5 + Squats x20, Merkins x10 + Squats x15, Merkins x15 + Squats x10, Merkins x20 + Squats x5
Round 2: CDDs x20 + Bombjacks x5CDDs x15 + Bombjacks x10CDDs x10 + Bombjacks x15CDDs x5 + Bombjacks x20
Round 3: Partner legthrows x20 + LBC x5, Partner legthrows x15 + LBC x10, Partner legthrows x10 + LBC x15, Partner legthrows x5 + LBC x20

Line up along curb

Bear crawl to center parking line, sprint to other side, jog back
(Rinse and repeat for 3 total cycles)

Run home

COT

NMM

Slow Burn has such a great vibe.  It’s always a treat to Q at that AO — it’s Fri, plenty of energy, plenty of mumblechatter, guys looking out for each other and challenging each other, great 1st and 2nd F warm-up for 3rd F experience at CnW afterward.  S/O to Hard Drive for launching it and to Barry Manilow for continuing to carry the torch.  Well done!

As the pax gathered, it appeared Spitz would be the last one in…until he made it to the circle and alerted the crowd that Lugnut was still inbound.  Glad we were able to get him onboard before departure.

I kept the Weinke in the moderate zone, and there were plenty of breaks to discuss Worry and Anxiety.  Somehow I awoke on Sat with a little soreness in spots, so clearly my fitness level needs some attention.

Thanks to pax for engaging fully in dialog and sharing re personal anxieties.  If you haven’t read Chicken Hawk’s February theme one pager, take a look here.

“Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10)   This has become one of my go-to verses in times of worry and anxiety.  I could go on forever about worry/anxiety…I’m closer friends with those two than I ever thought I was or wanted to be.  But when I leave it all in God’s hands and just allow myself to “BE,” I mostly come to realize that (a) my worry is worthless, (b) it’s mostly CREATED by me and (c) it’s too much ABOUT me.  There are many ways to turn this verse into a meditative prayer that cuts through anxiety.  Here’s one:

Be still and know that I am GOD
Be still and know that I AM God…
Be still and know that I am God…
Be still and know THAT I am God…
Be still and KNOW that I am God…
Be still AND know that I am God…
Be STILL and know that I am God…
BE still and know that I am God.

Here’s another:

Be still and know that I am God…
Be still and know that I am… 
Be still and know that I…
Be still and know that…
Be still and know…
Be still and…
Be still…
Be.

Try ’em and let me know what you discover.

Thanks to Barry Manilow for the chance to lead.  Always an honor.

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6

Read directions and go…

Short mosey over to band practice parking lot with some high knees, butt kickers, and high skipping.  Next we circled up for the following warm-up:

  • SSH, Imperial walkers, cherry picker, mountain climbers, Moroccan night club, hillbilly walker
  • Stretching – downward dog, honeymooner, sitting down with knee up pressing elbow on knee to stretch your back, and last we laid on our backs and pulled knees to chest

Then on to the fun.  Staying on the practice field parking lot, we had 2 sets of activities spaced out 40 yards.  One station had cinder blocks for us to play with.  We split into 2 groups where the goal was to perform the first exercise on the list (some OYO and some in cadence) then run the 40 yards to the other set of activities starting at the top of the list, performing that exercise, then back to station 1, etc.

Station 1 – w/ blocks

5 Block shoulder press (x2)

10 Lunges (10 each leg) with block

20 Curls

30 Dips on block

40 American hammer with block (single count)

50 LBC

60 Ski jumps

60 Calf raises

50 Plank jacks

40 Squats with block

30 Bench press

20 Row with block

10 Merkins using block alternating arm (10 / arm)

5 Plank alternating shoulder taps (5 each)

 

Station 2 – no blocks

5 Burpee

10 Diamond merkins

20 Knee to chest jumps

30 Mountain climbers

40 Monkey humpers

50 Seal jacks

60 SSH

60 Moroccan night club

50 Shoulder presses

40 Crab cakes

30 Flutters

20 Flying squirrel

10 Durkin (get partner to put feet on back)

5 Dive bombers

 

Wrapped up and mosey’d back to COT and met up with #lacesout group.  We all had the pleasure of having FNG – Gilligan join us from Florida.  Thanks Pusher for dragging him out!  Had a great time and glad we made it through all exercises with no PAX left behind!

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2

Winter Olympic games

Mosey over behind the school to the hill with the light poles. Worked our way up the hill stopping at each light pole doing a different exercise at each.

 

SSH

Hill Billy Walker

Carolina Dry Docks

Low Slow Squats

LBCs

 

Move back down to the bottom of the hill for arm circles (forward/backward)

 

The Thang:

When I accepted the opportunity to Q I decided I would try to do something that would incorporate the upcoming winter olympics.  I also want to try and use some coupons (cinder blocks and 2 logs) that I had acquired over the past year.  With that I came up with the following “events”

 

1. Speed Skating – Apolo Ohnos

2. Cross Country Skiing – Carry logs down to cones (switch with partner) and back

3. Moguls – jump over cinder block and back

4. Bobsled – with resistance bands partner 1 would do high knees while partner 2 provides resistance
  – round 2 broad jump

5. Ski Jumping – 180 and 360 jumps

6. Biathlon –

7. Nordic Combined – Big Boy sit-up with partner passing cinder block

8. Curling – With cinder block – chest press and overhead press (rotate once team on the log gets to the cones)

 

 

All teams would continue with their exercise until team on event 2 completes their event (down and back)

After looking back on the Q I would have slightly changed the directions for the pax and everyone would perform the same exercise while one team took turns on the log carry working their way down the list.  I have found as I continue to gain more experience q’ing a workout I find myself trying different things.  Some of those things I feel go really well and others I use as a lesson learned.  I take this as a lesson learned to ensure I provide more directions to the pax for better organization.  As in life if you are comfortable with the status quo are you truly making yourself better?  Don’t be afraid to fail and if you do fail and you are able to learn from it is it really a failure?

 

 

 

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3

I hate you, I love you, I hate that I love you

Weather – 35 degrees and not sunny with a slight wind coming in from the northeast.

13/14 PAX (not sure the total number but 21 was the total between Laces In and Laces out) showed YHC some love by posting on this beautiful Thursday morning. No joke I thought most would post the Celebrity Q CSPAN on the Track considering it is P200 training season. Though he PAX showed some love, YHC didn’t show it back. Here’s how the beatdown went:

The Thang

Mosey around the parking lot with some Butt Kicks, High Knees, Karoake and Toy Soldiers. Circle up for COP

SSH x 25
IW x 15
Windmills x 10
Mountain Climbers x 15
Peter Parkers x 10
Parker Peters x 10
Low Slow Squats x 15

Mosey over to the hill.
1 partner runs to the first speed bump while partner exercises. Plank after each round of exercise.
100 Hip Thrusters (plenty of jokes about thrusting and humping)
100 Merkins (jokes stopped after they realize whats happening)
100 Squat Jumps
At this point the PAX realize its a deconstructed burpee.
100 Burpees (aka 100 I Hate You’s)

Mosey over to the Large Gym Parking lot where cones were setup
Exercises done Cupcake style (formerly known as a suicide)
40 SSH, run to first cone, 20 Carolina Dry docks, run back to start, 40 SSH, run to 2nd cone 25 LBC’s, Run Back to start 40 SSH, run to third cone 25 Squats, run to start 40 SSH, run to last cone 5 Burpees, run back to the start.
Mosey 3/4 a big lap until over at the 5 Burpee cone.
Rinse and repeat but the start line is at the Burpees.
5 Burpees, run, 25 squats, run, 5 burpees, run, 25 LBC’s, run, 5 burpees, run, 20 CDD, run, 5 burpees, run, 40 SSH. Finish at SSH. Mosey back for 2 minutes of Mary – LBC’s and Flutter Kicks

COT and BOM with Laces Out

Announcements – Yeti 2-24, Reading with kids on Mon/Wed (contact Deacon/Copay), Saturday coffeteria at Peach Stand following workouts, read your newsletter.

Prayers – Corruptions Mom having Surgery today, FMHS teacher that had open heart surgery this week, marriages, families, kids, our community

Moleskin
1. Thanks Lil E for the opportunity to lead this morning.
2. Great Push this morning by All PAX. Moderate amount of complaining. I can handle that. And yes, I have love/hate relationship with burpees.
3. 1 month into 2018 and how are we all with our 1 word. As some of you may know my word is Patience. It has already taken on many forms throughout the first month. The biggest takeaway thus far is to remember to take a deep breath every now and then and just let it all go out instead of keeping everything inside.
4. Just Breathe

Shanks out

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8

Taking it easy at the Golden Corral

After two Qs last week, YHC’s creativity was all but spent. Nevertheless, when Old Bay asked if I could fill in for Boeheim, I agreed to help. I still have that Twister spinner I made for a previous Q, so I already had something “prepared” in case I didn’t have time to come up with something new.

Not being satisfied with repeating something, I decided to at least update the board a bit (and tried cutting off a finger in the process, so ignore the blood stain if you see it). This will come in handy later, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

14 cold-ish PAX (well, 13, as Cake Boss came rolling in late) posted to Golden Corral before dividing up – six to ruck with Mainframe, Old Bay to run by himself, and seven for the bootcamp. Disclaimer was given (probably my best yet), and off we went. The first couple minutes of the mosey around to the back parking lot were spent explaining what we were not doing: no somersaults, no inverted burpees, no flips, etc. Apparently people get concerned when they find out it’s a Jedi Q. Incorporating knees to chest, butt kickers, and karaoke, we wove around until we found a good spot in the corner of the back parking lot to warm up a bit.

COP/Warm-up

My warmups are getting a bit repetitive, but it seems I feel the need to stretch the hamstrings and open the hips with:

10 windmills IC

10 low slow squats IC

10 hillbilly walkers IC

10 merkins IC

Downward dog with cross body ankle grabs (probably the weirdest move of the day)

Not feeling quite warm enough, we moved over to the curb for some dips and crab cakes, Jack Webb style: one dip and four crab cakes (single count, with hands on curb), all the way up to ten and forty. Our shoulders got nice and toasty, though there were many modifications including a fully-seated version of the crab cake, but since Cake Boss has 60 pound weights at the end of both legs, grace was extended.

Shake it off, then mosey around to the front of Harris Teeter for the remainder of our fun.

The Thang

As mentioned, the Twister spinner made a reappearance for today. Basically, spin the spinner, do the exercise as prescribed, then run across the parking lot to the stop sign and back. Rinse and repeat. The exercises:

Two Arms

Donkey Kick (x20)

Merkins (x20)

Burpees (x10)

Dips (x20)

One Arm

Donkey Kick (x20)

Merkins (x20)

Burpees (x10)

Dips (x20)

Two Legs

Donkey Kick (x20)

Burpees (x10)

Squat Jumps (x20)

Bear Crawl

One Leg

Donkey Kick (x20)

Burpees (x10)

Squat Jumps (x20)

Bear crawl

The first spin resulted in one-arm merkins, which was a real crowd pleaser following the Jack Webb dip/crab cake combo. That, and they’re one-arm merkins. Other exercises completed include burpees (normal, one arm, and one leg), donkey kicks (normal and one leg), dips (normal and one arm), bear crawl (just normal), squat jumps (normal), and merkins (normal). I can’t remember the order, but it was pretty balanced, and there was a lot of running involved, ending with a quick run to COT to meet the ruckers and runner.

Announcements

  • Read your newsletter
  • Yeti is coming up. Sign up and do it.
  • February second Tuesday lunch will be at Pasquel’s (with either a hard or soft q sound, depending on who you ask) rather than Fort Mill BBQ.
  • Maybe some others, but Decibel was in a hurry.

Praises and Prayers

  • ChaChing’s grandpa passed away over the weekend, so prayers for the family and ChaChing and his wife as they travel north today.
  • Cake Boss’s thirty-something plumber Jason had a stroke (and answered the phone in the hospital)
  • Decibel’s son’s classmate Violet has meningitis
  • Prayers for the community in light of recent events

As always, it was an honor to lead these men, and you can ask any of the bootcamp guys – it wasn’t bad. You need not be afraid of a Jedi Q. We don’t always do weird inverted stuff. Sometimes I need an easy day.

-Jedi

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4

Creative Misery at the Rock

When Smuggler organized this Q combo, he must’ve known a lot of PAX were looking for that Saturday morning push. After some banter back and forth between the WEP Q’s and us Alcatraz Q’s, we were pleasantly surprised to see car after car after car roll into Runde Park this Saturday morning. The weather was warm and the PAX were primed with the early mumble chatter. With the typical “don’t hurt yourself and don’t sue if you do hurt yourself” disclaimer, we took a very abbreviated (10yd) mosey to the right side of the parking lot (a slight teaser for what was coming).

Jog to the other end of the lot and back then repeat.

Walking lunges 1/2 way down then high knees to the end. Same thing on the way back to the start.

Windmills & deadlifts to warm up the legs a little more then mosey to the top of “THE HILL”

PAX squat for 20sec then jog to the base of the hill followed by an all-out sprint back to the top of the hill and squat for the six.

Repeat for a 40sec squat hold then the jog down/sprint up and squat for the six.

Repeat for a 60sec squat hold then the jog down/sprint up and squat for the six.

Find some curb and 50 calf raises each leg.

Mosey to the field for a circle up.

This was when I think they really lost my mind…Lt. Dan’s (1 squat and 4 jumping lunges (2ea side counts as 4)) and we went to 8:32 before handing it off Tesh!!

With Tesh on Q, you just had a feeling this was going to get bad.

With the PAX in a very long plank:

5 Merkins

10 Mountain Climbers

5 Merkins

10 Peter Parkers

5 Merkins

Various Tesh-approved CORE exercises

Mosey to the fence line:

Merkin-Turtle crawl (can’t explain…you had to be there)

10 Merkins

Bear Crawl 50yds

More Tesh-approved CORE exercises

10 Bombjacks x 3 rounds

Mosey to the playground and split into 4 groups

Rotate through 5 pull-ups & 10 dips. For those waiting, hold the Al Gore pose.

Yet more Tesh-approved CORE exercises

Repeat the above 2 lines

Closed it out with 6min of Mary which couldn’t end fast enough.

Announcements: Yeti (Newsletter), Reading in Paradise

Prayer Requests: Praise for Palmer family, Cornerstone’s family, continued prayers for the Family & Friends affected by the recent tragedy’s our community has experienced, our officers, job transitions, marriages.

I’m sure Smuggler will get a little verbal backlash on this but hey, it made us better and everyone crushed it.

Maximus & Tesh

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6

Slowburn – Pain Stations +

25 PAX gathered at slowburn for a saucy workout.  We gave a quick disclaimer and welcomed 2 FNG’s.  It wasn’t long and we headed out for a short mosey.  We circled up and I turned over the warm up to Fogarty for his V Q.

Fogarty started us off with some of the usual:

SSH
Imperial Walkers
Speedy Windmills
Peter Parkers
Mtn. Climbers
Merkins
Moroccan night clubs
2 double merkin burpees (where’d that come from?)

Fogarty turned it back over to YHC for another Mosey. I gave a shout out to Quickbooks for his intro that he did a couple of weeks back and I tried to do the same giving a little background on YHC. I’ll spare you all the details. Dark Helmet was observant to realize that my years of marriage did match up to how old my son is. That dude’s sharp! I closed out the intro with Romans 5:4. Look it up, it’s a solid verse on building character.

On that note we moseyed to the back of Lowes for some chalk scribble that was planned for the PAX.

We broke into two groups with 3 stations. Each group started on either far end would do an exercise and sprint to the middle station do an exercise and then return back to their starting point for the next exercise. Instructions seems easier that the PAX wrestled with, but they quickly got the hang of it. Here are the pain stations:

Station 1:
Merkins
Shoulder Taps
CDD’s
Mtn. Climbers

Middle Station:
Calf Raises
Squats
Lunges
Donkey Kicks

Station 3:
Leg Raises
LBC’s
Hello Dollies
Flutters

Round 1 15 of exercise run to the middle and then back for the next exercise until all 4 exercises are complete then run to the opposite Station. Do the same thing 15 of each run to the middle. When finisished with 1 and 3 then rinse and repeat with 10 of each exercise. This took us right up to time.

Jailbreak back to COT. Welcome to the fold Moab and Jake Brake FNG’s.

Thanks for the opportunity to serve!

Bass-o Out. <><

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6

Laces In – Not for the weak minded or those that are hungry!

4 Runners came at 0500 to get some laps in at the track. Daytona is around the corner, but they are preparing for P200 and using their feet. Crawdaddy saw his course for P200 and decided it was time to get training…no messin around!

14+YHC took to the campus of Fort Mill High School. After required discaimer and no FNGs, away we went for a mosey

COP

DID a bunch of stuff….the usuals

  • SSHs
  • Merkins
  • Squats
  • Imperials
  • Peter Parkers
  • Mtn Climbers
  • Flutters
  • Parker Peters
  • Inch Worm Merkins
  • Hillbilly walkers
  • Mosey to front of school for some people’s chair on the wall and 20 overhead presses
  • Mosey to benches for 20 dips 15 derkins 2 rounds

Warm Up over

YHC spoke to the men about the things we keep putting off and avoid doing as much as possible. Tough conversations, the house projects, the doctors visit and most importantly the relationships that need some work or simple phone call. 

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, -Romans 5:4

By pushing through the tough stuff and the hard things we get stronger and we become the men Sky Q built us to be. Avoiding and masking the pain and suffering we only become weak minded and have no character, as we are not who we should be in all areas of our lives. Continue to get better and build character!

Mosey to main driveway entrance

8 exercises – 15 reps each – run down hill and back up in between each exercise. Fun time had by all!

ski hops
lunge Hops
inch worm Merkins
leg lifts
wide arm Merkins
Merkins
sumo squats
donkey kicks
Mosey back to COT with a few ab stops along the way
YETI is 2.24
Sign up to participate as receiver of pain or giver of pain. See Anchorman!
Prayers for Karson Bailey Whitesell and her family as well as first responders and our community.
Thanks Lil E for lead
Cake Boss
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