Tag: Whitesnake

T For Triangle

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YHC Answered the call from Hombrew to Q an AO I had never posted at. It will be fun he said- AND IT WAS. 12 PAX and an FNG from PHX where on hand for the fun.

It went something like this.

Disclaimer for FNG and Pax and off we go.

Mosey 1/2 way round trail and form up on the move for an Indian run. In my recon visit the Saturday prior I thought the trail around the field was longer. So the 1/2 lap mosey, 1/2 lap Indian run turned into 1.5 laps Indian run.

Circle up for COP

Quick hanging back stretch into 15 cherry pickers- 20x SSH- 15x Windmills- A Little mumble chatter by OOO O’Reilly prompted an on the fly round of 20x Monkey Humper w/ required Eye Contact to the above mentioned Pax.  Move to Plank and hold 30 secs- Short pontification, in the plank, on Forcible Contact to Strong Effect. 15x Peter Parker- 15x Plank Jacks. Recover.

Mosey to far end of Field for the Thang.

8 pain stations setup in a T pattern ran up and across the field.  Start at the bottom and work our way up.Since it was dark I gave a quick run down of the exercise requirements and modes of travel from cone to cone. Accountability Partners selected to make sure no bad modification or slack off in reps. Start together- finish together. Have Forcible Contact to Strong Effect on your Partner.

Rep counts per round set at 12-24-36

  1. MTN Climbers–Bear Crawl to next cone
  2. Bomb Jacks–Crab Walk
  3. Merkins- Burpee Broad Jumps
  4. Squats- Sprint to far cone in top of T.
  5. GTOs with Cindys and ruck sacks. AS info while my taped cindys were great on asphalt they didnt work so well in wet grass. Thanks Copyright for leaving those additional blocks in the van for us to use.. Nur to next cone.
  6. Box cutters–Lunge WalK
  7. 4x4s– Crawl Bear ( 4x4s are a crowd pleaser. Especially once the rep counts get up there) First page of Exicon and can be modified for better/more fun.
  8. Crabcakes- Long Mosey to bottom of the T as a pair and plank for the 6.

Rinse and repeat.  I was hoping for 3 rounds but we got two full rnds in. Great Job Men!.

A Few Observations:

I drastically underestimated the fitness level of my FNG from PHX. He worked hard but was not used to the pace, random assortment of exercises, and rep counts you HIM deal with for 45 mins in the gloom each day. He also never gave up, wanted to complete all reps and I held him accountable to it even if that meant pulling extra reps myself. The FORT is awesome for picking up the 6. That is what draws guys back daily. Regardless of fitness level someone will hold and push you to finish.

I missed alot of the good chatter and the real ability to lead the PAX as we were in the 6. Nothing terribly wrong with that except I wanted to help set the pace. Homebrew came back to PU the 6 once but I sent him on to start the group on the 2nd round.  As a leader we do what it takes push the group or the partner. Next time maybe a slight adjustment to ensure I am in the 43′ ahead and switch off a partner as needed.

Back to COT

Announcements P and P.

FNG to the middle. He was almost given a name prior to the actual Q&A period and some solid names came out but ultimately landed on Redeye. He is the VP of the company I work for and takes redeye flights religiously. Also a plus to drop a #BEATDOWN on a C-level guy I work with/for.

Thanks Homebrew for the opportunity to lead these Men.

Duck Out.

 

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30 of Everything

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18 at the Abyss for some 30th birthday themed fun.

COP

30 Moroccan Night Clubs
30 Peter Parker’s
30 Imperial Walkers

The Thang

Counted off to form groups of 3, each got a CB

Each pax:
Pull ups x 30
Push Press x 30
Plank for 6

Circled up for 30 body builder burpees in cadence (crowd pleaser) followed by a couple 10 counts

Swings x 30
Step ups x 30
BBS for 6

Squats x 30
Wide armed Merkins x 30
Diamond Merkins x 30
Farmers Walk to end of track and back
Crab Cakes/flutters/lbcs for 6

No time for Jack Webs… oh well.

COT
Read your newsletter.

Welcomed FNG Mudslide (works in corrosion prevention)

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Kettlebells, Bear Crawls, Oh My

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Assumed the Cannonball AO was about as far from me as the Deep and left the house early, only to arrive at the AO a solid 12 minutes before kickoff.  Was surprised to see one of the Church doors open and kettlebells visible from the parking lot.  I guess that kind of red carpet service you get when the site Q is the Assistant to the Parking Lot Manager of New River Church and one of their pastors frequents this new AO.

Once the pax funneled in, I took them for a quick loop around the parking lot and knocked out the warm-up:  (in cadence) SSH x25, windmills x10, overhead press w/ KB x10, halos x10 (counter clockwise & clockwise), merkins x15, downward dog / honeymooners and an attempt at Supermans w/ KB in hand (went over real well lol).

Ran the guys w/ our KB’s down to the far end of the parking lot and we got started:

  • 4 cones set-up (1st at the far end of the lot), the next 3 about 7 parking spaces apart.  Quick and dirty – do an exercise at the first cone, immediately lunge walk (w/ twist) w/ KB to the next cone, drop the KB, run back to the first cone (every time) and bear crawl back to your KB.  Once there, you do the next exercise, lunge walk w twist to the next cone, drop weight, run to the very first cone, bear crawl back to weight (now 2x the original distance)….you get the point.
    1. Exercise #1 – plank rows w/ kettlebell (10 reps per side).  Key here being to maintain flat plank the whole time as you hold body w/ 1 arm and pull w/ the other.  Lunge walk, run, bear crawl, (wait for all Pax to finish bear crawl – those waiting did upright rows w/ KB), then
    2. Exercise #2 – wood choppers (crowd pleaser).  It’s a play on the KB swing, but a little harder.  Start w/ KB above your head to the left then swing it down to the right side of your legs, and then swing back up to the left side of your head.  Key here is to not blow out your knee, but to actually accelerate as much as you can on the way UP.  10 reps going left to right, 10 reps right to left.  Lunge walk, run, bearcrawl 2x the distance (wait for pax, those waiting did curls w/ KB), then
    3. Exercise #3 – single leg RDL’s (romanian dead lifts) w/ kettle bell in the hand of the leg that is going straight back.  10 reps per side.  Lunge walk, run, bear crawl 3x the distance (those waiting for pax to get back did thrusters w/ KB), then
    4. Exercise #4 – toe touches w/ KB (20 rep count).
    5. Turn around and rinse and repeat whole cycle, only double the rep count for all exercises above.  Good stuff.  Bear crawled out at this point.
  • Next up were some good old fashioned super sets – two exercises given, do them back to back, no complaining.
    1. Alternating merkins w/ one hand on the KB at all times (10 reps per side) / bent over KB tricep extensions (10 reps per arm)
    2. Get ups (hold KB in each hand 5x each) / KB jump squats (10 reps)
    3. Big boys w/ KB press (15 rep) / KB american hammers (20 reps per side)
  • Only had a few minutes, so we gave ourselves 10 parking spaces to get back to COT and everyone did bear crawls back to COT w/ KB in hand (use it as a hand, no dragging, switch hands half way through).

    I have to say the effort level by everyone was awesome to see – not a single person was half a$$ing it – all were finishing each set strong and suffering through each of the long bear crawls.  I was especially proud of one of their newest pax, Mysterio, who did not give up on that last KB bear crawl stretch.  The dude had some serious fight – he’s going to be good one.

    Thanks Two Ferns for the chance to step up and lead at the new Lake Wylie KB AO.  Didn’t really know what to expect w/ a KB workout, but had a blast – hope the others did as well.

    ChaChing

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Cannonball for One and All

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Eleven of the roughest and toughest PAX joined YHC for my 12th Q of the year at Cannonball.  Here is how it went down:

At 5:16 AM as I waited for Whitesnake to limp his way to the group, disclaimer was given and a short mosey around the parking lot was commenced.  (Whitesake and his bum ankle did LBCs while we moseyed).

Warm-o-rama:

  • Imperial Walker – 15 IC
  • WindMill – 10 IC
  • SSH – 20 IC
  • Balance Merkins – 10
  • Moroccan night clubs – 10 IC forward, 10 IC reverse 🙂
  • 10 LLS, IC

The Thang Part I

We counted off by 4 for the 4 station kettlebell work out:

Station 1:

  • KB Swings – 20
  • Single arm row – 20
  • Goblet squat – 20
  • Take a lap and go to station 2

Station 2:

  • Curls – 20
  • Single arm floor press, 10 per arm
  • Tricep Extensions – 20
  • Take a lap to station 3

Station 3

  • Single arm snatch – 10 each arm
  • American Hammer – 20 single count
  • Tiny Tim deadlift (75lb bell) – 15
  • Take a lap to station 4

Station 4

  • KB Turkish get ups-5 each arm
  • Big boy situps – 20
  • Stationary reverse lunge -10 per leg
  • Rinse and repeat once

The Thang Part II

Balls to wall while guys on the ends did 3 burpees

Moleskin

Announcements: Savage race 5/18, Kids workout at the Deep on 5/25;

Prayers for Enrique, injured PAX, Thanksgiving.

Like you all, I get some much more out of this than I put in and I am grateful beyond words.

Wolverine

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10/20/30 at Cannonball (Back to the Basics)

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12 PAX appeared in the gloom. We got the Kettlebells out and No FNGs present, but a lot of new faces in the gloom. Gave a basic disclaimer as we moseyed around the parking lot and through the dark tunnel and into the old Church Parking lot were Whitesnake took control of the COP. He has a VQ coming up so I hit him up yesterday and asked him if he wanted to lead us in the COP and he said “heck yah” . He was prepared, he later told me that he watched a Video online of Dredd showing how to lead a COP. Whitesnake killed it with some Imperial Walkers, Produce Pickers, Sun Gods both ways, MNC’s and then some fast paced until we slowed him down Wind Mills (something we all get a little fast on when we do them for the first time). I remember Jedi stopping me and setting me straight. I then went into the middle of the COP and had everyone hold an Al Gore and I briefly talked about all the new faces and that when leading up to the VQ’s remember you are the one in charge and to take lead and men will follow you. Also keep in mind that it is only exercise and not surgery so it is ok if you mess up.

We then moseyed over toward the New Parking lot and on the way we did some Toy Solders. Picked up our Kettle Bells and did the Following

10/20/30 (3 reps)
Big Boys with a Kettlebell raise and push over the head to the knees
Tricep Ext.
Lawn mowers (15 each arm)
Then take a lap with the Bell

10/20/30 (3 reps)
Kettlebell squat thrusters
American Hammers counting the right side only
Skull Crushers
Then take a short bear crawl lap with the Bell to the first cone and back

10/20/30 (3 reps)
Turkish Get ups 5 each side (not a popular one just ask Whitesnake and the Pax with the Ruck on
KB Swings
Shoulder Presses 15 each arm
Then take a lunge lap around the second cone with the Bell

Ended right on time with cheers that the Turkish Getups were done.

Announcements as usual Canoli Run, Savage Race, Heavy Coming up, New River Men’s Breakfast, F# Dads May 25th, Memorial Day Convergence, Read your news letter.

Prayers and Praises, O’Reilly had a friend end his life recently, Roger (Riverboat) and his battle with cancer, Traveling Pax and sick Pax.

Thanks to all that came and got better. I am glad to be out there with each of you . You make me stronger. Kudos to Whitesnake for leading the COP.

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A Q of Ice and Fire

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Firstly, there are no spoilers contained in the backblast. YHC had been thinking about doing a GOT themed Q for a while. When I was offered to Q Crows Nest within 12 hours of a new episode dropping, I knew that winter had come.

14 men showed up and were disclaimed. Before we moseyed, the first game was explained.

Where are my Dragons?!

PAX were told that there were 3 toy dragons (dinosaurs if we are being honest) hidden around the AO. If any man found a dragon they were to let the whole group know and everyone would stop what they were doing and complete 20 Flying Dragons [flying squirrels] OYO. If all 3 dragons were not found with 5 mins left in the workout all the PAX would have a penalty – winter had arrived early and we would all have to do rounds of Climate Change. After this was all explained, we moseyed. Before the warm up began, Peg found the first dragon. So 20 Flying Dragons.

Wildfire Warmup

Lord Tyrion Leaps [SSH], Braavosi Night Clubs [MNC], White Walkers [imperial walkers], Gendry’s Hammer [American hammers], Benjin Starks [ranger merkins], The Hound [downward dog]

The Kingsroad

The Kingsroad connects the capital of the 7 Kingdoms, Kings Landing, all the way North to The Wall. It actually starts at Storms End, but whatever. PAX received a raven that white walkers were marching for the Wall and they needed to journey up the Kingsroad with reinforcements, or really bad stuff would happen. The Wall was on the opposite side of a parking lot from Kings Landing. PAX had to Lieutenant Bran (he don’t got no legs) there. At each pillar they passed they had to do 5 Iron Borns (Carolina dry docks AKA Pike pushups).

Once at the Wall, we needed to defend it. This entailed several rounds of Wall sits with PAX taking turns going beyond the Wall to do abyss merkins. Fortunately, for the realms of men, the White Walkers were defeated by the valiant efforts of the PAX. Flux also found the second dragon – so 20 more flying dragons. We then had to return to Kinds Landing. But as we had already found 2 dragons by this point we did not need to Lieutenant Bran – instead we did Welsh Dragons back, which was much shorter as the crow flies… though not necessarily less painful. Check the exicon; these ones are tough on the shoulders.

The Nobel Houses of Westeros

Stations were set up, each with the sigil, words, and name of a house of Westeros. There was also a corresponding exercise for each house. The lexicon came in real handy with this one. Complete station 1, run a lap. Complete station 1 again, then 2, and then run a lap. 1, 2, and 3, then run a lap… you get the idea. Here were the stations:

  1. House Greyjoy – 3 Kraken Burpees
  2. House Baratheon – 20 Leaping Stags (power skips)
  3. House Stark – 10 Dire Wolves (Werewolves)
  4. House Lannister – 20 Lion Kings
  5. House Frey – 20 Oblique Bridges (10 each side)
  6. House Martel – 30 Sun Gods
  7. House Targaryen – 20 Flying Dragons
  8. House Arryn – 3 Tony Hawk Burpees

We didn’t make it through all the houses before time ran out, but enough to get the sweat going. YHC also conveniently found the last dragon – sparing the PAX from global warming session, as we really didn’t have time for that anyway. I may work that into a future Q. We all moseyed back to COT, dragons in hand.

This was the most fun I have had creating a workout yet. Thank you to all the PAX who came out and endured a bit of nerdy fun, especially those who were up late watching GOT last night. And thanks to Iced Tea for the opportunity to lead.

Valar Dohaeris,

Homebrew

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Prime Counting with Bora

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Disclaimer made.

Mosey with dynamic warmup around the parking lot.

 Warm-o-Rama

All exercises were completed in sets of prime numbers. After each exercise bomb jacks were done in increasing fashion, also using prime numbers (2,3,5,7,11,13,17,19, 23…). There was no reason for doing this other than YHC wanted to see if anyone would figure out the pattern. I did this once before a while ago, so thought maybe someone would have it in the back of their brain. Props to Jedi who figured it out way quicker than I anticipated the PAX would.

MNC, windmills, mountain climbers, merkins, imperial walker, superman hold and other such things.

 

The Thang

Partner up for Board of Dora (Bora? Dor of Pain?). P1 does exercise on board while P2 nurs to the end of the basketball courts, does 1 bombjack then jogs back to the beginning. All counts were cumulative between the pairs. A few pairs finished in time and it was good to see the men going and picking up the six.  Board:

150 Burpees

300 Squats

150 Big Boys

300 Monkey Humpers

150 Merkins

300 Imperial Walkers

* Pick up the 6 when done

 

Copyright is the man for letting me lead the PAX at a great AO. Abyss is one of the few remaining workouts that men from both sides of the Lake regularly attend – a reminder of the old days.

Stay Classy,

Homebrew

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Drunken Murph

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Wow, where to begin with this disaster.  I guess from the beginning.  Waking up hung over on three hours sleep my M started the morning off by telling me how stupid I was for getting drunk then having to lead a workout a few hours later, that was not bad advise by the way.  I pull in to the Triangle with about a minute to spare and as soon as the Pax saw me they knew (I happened to be drinking with some of them the night before).  A disclaimer was given, and a background on who Lt. Michael Murphy was and then I started the COP right away with 5 OYO Burpees/SSHx20/SunGodsx20/Low Slow Squatx10.  Surprisingly no merlot was splashed though was very close calling cadence with SSH.

Main Event

1 Mile Run

I did 5 Pull-Up/10 Merkin/15 Squat x20 but most Pax did a 10/20/30 x10 rep range with the exercises.  Every rep of the merkins made my head pound, just awful. 

1 Mile Run

Most Pax finished in time for COT.

Observations- Don’t get drunk and Q a few hours later.  It might seem like the cool rock star thing to do but really, it’s not. It’s also a lot harder to control a group of men when they know you’re bombed. However no merlot was spilt, was proud of that.  Kotters to Austin Powers, we missed him.  Welcome FNG Survey Says.  He is the youth Pastor over at the local church I attend which I have renamed the Church of F3 as many Pax go there so I wanted to call him Joel Osteen but his childhood dream of being a game show host earned him the nick name Survey Says, with Steve Harvey being a close second choice (favorite game show-Family Feud).  As always fellas-PEACE! 

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Ladders everywhere at Crows Nest

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I’m very ready to be done with the cold.  Another day below 50 degrees, but we warmed up pretty fast.  At 5:15 we had 7 guys ready to start their week right. Disclaimer and GO!

Dynamic warm-up going behind the school

High Knees –  Butt kickers – Side shuffles  –>

I heard one of the PAX behind me say, “watch…next will be Toy Soldiers…”

Sounds like I’m being too predictable!  But I like toy soldiers, so we did them anyway…

COP

SSHs – Abe Vagotas – Daisy Pickers – CDDs – Merkins – Mountain Climbers – Broga – Crunchy frogs

Headed over to the loading dock, one of my favorite spaces at the Crows Nest.  If you haven’t been here, this AO has so many options, you can do almost anything! A Giant Hill, playground pull ups, rocks for weights, the loading dock…

Today would be filled with Ladders…

Ladder 1 = 10 down 1 up

11s with Derkins & Crunchy Frogs

10 derkins on the curb run to the loading dock overhang, jump up and do 1 crunchy frog

Ladder 2  = 10 up 1 down

Ran over to the brick “round table”

10 Step Ups each leg –> 1 Big boy sit up

Apache 10 count from Speed Handle (thanks for sharing)

Ladder 3 = 6 up 1 down

Over to the playground

6 pull ups –> 1 Deep Squat

Next was a new one for me Indian Merkin Bear Crawl?

Line up in plank head to toe

Last PAX bear crawl to the front while rest of the line does merkins

We made it two rotations before we almost crashed to our faces… my arms definitely did not want to work on the 2nd bear crawl!

Apache 10 count from Whitesnake (thanks for sharing)

Mosey to COT at the front of the school.  6am sharp!

Announcements

Savage Race 5/18  Cannoli Run same day, lots of other great things

Prayers

For Flux’s son Evan as he gets some testing down today.  Safe Travels. Celebration of Jesus and his resurrection! The Baptism of Two Ferns Sunday and his son Hound!

An Honor to Lead

~Royale

 

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Of Dice and Men

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6 men decided they liked the cold steel of a kettlebell more than the comfort of a fartsack. Disclaimer was disclaimed, and we were off for a mosey.

Warmup

sun gods, produce pickers, mountain climbers, some static stretching, downward dog, honeymooner… If you are actually reading the warmup portion of this backblast Tweet @toddbrodie2 a money emoji. He’ll give you $5 next time he sees you.

 

Farmer Carries

Partner up. P1 takes two KBs and farmer carries them the length of the parking lot and back (about 200 yards round trip). P2 AMARAPs the static exercise for the round while waiting. Flapjack. When both partners are done they do the partner exercise together. Then rinse repeat for each round.

1.       Static:  Merkins, Partner: 20 goblet curls (SC)

2.       Static: Boxcutters, Partner: 20 KB American Hammers (DC)

3.       Static: Bombjacks, Partner: 20 KB Partner Twists (DC)

 

Dice’n in the Dark

YHC’s cushy foam die made the trip to Cannonball this morning. PAX take turns rolling the die to determine the exercise. Reps are determined by the round: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 60, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10 though we did not make it nearly that far. Between rolls run to the top of the hill and back (without KB) and do an increasing number of KB swings (+1 per round). The die values were:

1 = Flutters w/ Press (DC)

2 = Goblet Curls

3 = KB Calf Raises

4 = Tricep Extensions

5 = Monkey Humpers

6 = Bent Over Rows

Great to be out in the gloom this AM. Both the mumble chatter and the sweat were flowing richly. Shout out to Two Ferns for the opportunity to have some fun planning a KB workout. If you haven’t been to this AO yet, you should definitely make plans to roll by and check it out.

Stay Classy,

Homebrew  

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