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Is that a Sledgehammer? No it’s an Axe.

As we all gathered up we noticed Pumpkin Spice had an odd-looking mace. First I thought it was a sledgehammer which is a great substitute for a mace. In reality, it turned out it was an Axe with something duct-taped around its head. Safety first all. Well for us it was good enough. It was also time to start the workout. We chalked up, which didn’t last long and started the warm-up.

EC: Dawgpound, Emeril, Cowboy, Katniss
FNGs: None
Warm Up:

Circled up at the top of the parking deck:
Bounce
Foot Trace
Tootsie Roll
Hips in a Barrel
Spinal Rotation
Ear to Shoulder
Neck Turn

The Workout:
It was time to have a workout with the mace where we didn’t standstill. Though there is only a certain number of ways to move with the steel mace. What better way than lunges. We started out lunge walking from the parking deck to Sir Walter Coffee. The mace head would go into the hand of the leg that was forward.

Circled up at Sir Walter Coffee:
20 Long Lever Deadlift Row (10 Each Side)
20 Lateral Lunge with a Ballistic Curl
20 Lunge Paddle Swings

Next, we did Uppercuts as we walked to the elevator entrance of the building,

Circled up for the following:

20 Legs to mace with the mace overhead
10 Canoes
20 Low slow flutter with the mace overhead

Uppercuts to Osha

Circled up at Osha:
20 Long Lever Deadlift Row (10 Each Side)
20 Lateral Lunge with a Ballistic Curl
20 Lunge Paddle Swings

Lunge walk down to the corner of the parking deck

20 Legs to mace with the mace overhead
10 Canoes
20 Low slow flutter with the mace overhead

John Cussack with the Mace to the far corner

20 Bow Draws
20 Grave Diggers
10 Death Marches (Lunge forward, Lunge Backward, Squat)

Mary:

Circled Up for Mary:
20 in cadence Homer to Marge
20 Supermans

Announcements:
Mulch Project

T-Claps (Recognition):
Prayer:

Bondo’s co-worker Matt is doing better
Siddiqui as he is determining his path forward.

Crazy Ivan

The Workout: warm up , then 5 rounds of rows, overhead press, goblet squats, tricep ext, and curls, 1 minute of work and 10 seconds rest.
popcorn Mary
Announcements: YHC is taking over as site Q.
Bass lake mulch sign up. Fuquay Q swap next month.
Prayer: Pumpkin spice’s wife, and Siddik

17 PAX for an Anniversary Rock Beat Down at GP

A huge turnout of 17 PAX ascended upon Ground-pounder looking for a rock beat down with a possible field trip.  Some ran during U-turn.  One showed up at 7:00 am.  Lots of mumble chatter from start to finish.  Great seeing Farva out for the first time since the start of the pandemic.  Very excited to see Dusty too (no pull-ups today).  Just an AWESOME turnout men!  Sorry Norm you were told the incorrect location.


FNGs
: Yes!  Welcome Lance Huber – NABS.  Thanks PAX who helped me with our welcoming speech.  Great job Pumpkin Spice for bringing him out.  Behind his naming, think of Lance “Nabs” crackers…way better then Armstrong or Phelps that were too easy (and too good).

Warm Up: Mosey around the parking lot to an adjacent lot and circled up for the following 10cc exercises:  good mornings, Daisy Pickers, sir Fazio Arm Circles, seal claps, overhead claps, Moroccan night clubs, static arm stretches and 25 SSH.  Ended with 5 burpees OYO.

The Workout:  I asked the  PAX to grab a medium-sized rock.  Let’s just say, some PAX were more zealous than others.  There would be no rock rotation.  In honor of my three year anniversary starting F3 at the Nut, I wanted to execute three exercise and then repeat two additional times.

LOTS of Rocks with three separate 10c exercises;  (Rinse and Repeat Three Times)

Curls for the girls, Tricep Extensions, Rut-rows

Goblet Squats, Slap Rocks, Wonder bras

Bus Drivers, Trunk Twists, Toe Taps

From our six:  6 inch hold with Rock over chest, Nipplers, Straight arm Tricep Extensions

5 Burpees OYO because Q messed up the count

Headed to the walls for 20 cc BTTW and People’s Chair.  Thanks a shredder for helping wit the count.

Back to our rocks for one last Rock exercise:  20 Ground-Pounders.  After 3 years, I finally learned there is a squat at the bottom rather then bend over.  Thanks Forceps!

No time for a field trip.  Kind of wish we did venture that way. I learned later, my trip planned to Veteran’s Park

Mary: 20 LBCs, Yoga stretches including Downward dog, Pigeon pose, leg-overs.  Have a nice day.

Announcements:  RUNE; Trash pick-up Sunday morning – See Slack/LED.

T-Claps (Recognition):  16-bit for incredible virtual Workouts!  Thanks Nemo for recognizing all of my Q activities in South Wake this year.

Prayer:  Martini’s mom entering hospice; other PAX struggling with parental care; All impacted by pandemic.  YHC took us out.  UNSPOKEN.

 

An incredible honor leading you men this morning.  Thank you for making my three year anniversary very special.

Old School, New School, Doppelgängers, and Disappearances

The use of heavy music was pre-blasted by YHC today for my first kettlebell Q at Crazy Ivan.  We moved not so heavy weight a lot of reps and listened to heavy music most of the time. 13 pax showed up on another rainy and humid morning under the garage for some 40/10 tabata kettlebell work. We had 6 in attendance for EC (3 running including YHC/3 yoga) with one disappearance for the main event. Where did Emeril go???

FNG’s: None
Warm Up: SSH, Good Mornings, Sir Fazios, and Frankenstein’s with a 2 loop mosey around the deck.
The Workout: 40/10 tabata with 8 exercises planned for 5 rounds but YHC called an audible for popcorn instead of final round.  This was a great mix of pax I don’t often see, so YHC wanted to test the creativity of the group for the final round… they did not disappoint!

4 Round Exercises were: Halos, Clean/Jerk/Press, Kettlebell Merkin, Swings, Midget Love Handles, Goblet Squats, Figure 8’s, and Lawnmowers.

The playlist stayed heavy throughout. At one point, the Dawgpound asked if a Metallica song was Godsmack.  The pax corrected him and went on to say that the song was new school Metallica (if by new school we mean 1997). Fonzie then says, “man, if that’s new school we should put on some Hanson or the Monkeys.” Playlist eventually turned to a lighter track with the  Foofighters that the Dawgpound guessed correctly followed by a 16-bit comment of “this playlist is kinda psychotic”. YHC responded, “yeah I know   I like it!” At the same time YHC mentioned that Boy George is a doppelgänger for Dave Grohl of the FooFighters.  Apparently, Boy George Has heard this before.  Then some actual old school Metallica Seek and Destroy came on.  Now that’s 1983. Of course, 16 bit says, “isn’t it all really old school nowadays?”   Good point.

Audible called to popcorn for pax to call 15 reps of anything including Mary moves. Exercises were: kick throughs, 2 rounds of Midget Cookie Pouches, standard merkins, 6 inches, LSF’s, Shoulder Press, Boobity-Boobitys, H2Ms, chest presses, LBC, and of course Lucky Charms calls burpees to just about blast us out!

Mary: Box Cutters, Pickle Pounders
Announcements: Sign up/pay up for the RUNE. Some guys are heading out at 0630 from Hilltop Needmore Park on Sunday for some adopt the highway action.
T-Claps (Recognition): LED for picking up YHC’s shovel flag as the blasting rain was coming in…good lookin’ our!
Prayer: Pax with moms in Hospice including Pablo’s family and Martini. My daughter Julia.  Thanks for letting me take the lead today fellas!

Bells, Miles, and Great Value Fritters

Fritter Foundation drummed up a new challenge for the group this year but there is no harm in doing a throwback. There was a throwback to old U-Turn last Saturday so why not a throwback to old fritter.

FNGs: Not today
Warm Up: SSH, Imperial Walkers, Hillbillies, Fazio Arm Circles F/R

The Workout: Pax did a group of exercises and then did one loop in the parking lot. When Pax returned they partnered up with a pax that finished near them. The two pax then squared off to see who could complete the exercises and do one lap. The first pax back added two reps to the first exercise for the second set. Pax did 3 sets of each group of exercises. When a new group of exercises was introduced pax completed a lap to see who their next partner would be.

Group 1:
1 Burpee
5 Overhead Press
10 Kettlebell Swings
20 Reverse Lunges

Group 2:
1 Turkish Getup
5 Tricep Extensions
10 Kettlebell Snatch
20 Squats

Group 3:
1 Double Merkin Burpee
5 Rows
10 Ground Pounders
20 Deadlifts

Pax did 2 minutes of lateral/diagonal speed slides between groups

Mary: Stretching, Have a nice day

Announcements: Rune sign up, Memorial Day Murph?

T-Claps (Recognition): Boy George 5 pack and showing the an HC mean something. Pumpkin Spice killing 2+ miles today during the workou

Prayer: Full House’s uncle, Mr. Terrific, Pax who are small business owners

Beach Bods

Summer is drawing near, right?  There’s at least some chance we’ll be out by the pool or on the beach, right?  Might as well get ready for it even if we’re only seeing ourselves in the mirror or hopelessly trying to show off to the M who, lets face it, hasn’t been impressed for some time.

FNGs:

Not today

Warm Up:

SSH x20

Good Morning x10

Sir Fazio Arm Circles x10 forward/reverse

Frankenstein x10

Imperial Walkers x10

Hillbillies x10

The Workout:

Focus on the torso, that was the name of today’s game. Upper body and abs.  The plan was for more but time is a thing and a thing we ran out towards the end.

Jack Webbs were the starter.  Started with 1:4 and worked up to 10:40

Next was a tabata style ab workout.   We did 6 rounds of each exercise, 40 seconds on and 20 seconds off.  The exercises were:

Low slow flutter

Gas Pumps – start with your legs up in LBC position, lower them down to 6 inches, and then bring them back up

LBCs

Dr. W – This is a “fun” 8 count exercise.  You start on your back with you legs out like you’re doing LSF.  Count 1 and 2 are to open and close them like you’re doing Dolly.  Count three is raising them up to 45° and count 4 is opening them up again like Dolly but higher.  Count 5 and 6 is sitting up and reaching through your legs and then coming back down and lastly counts 7 and 8 are bringing your legs back together and lowering them again.

Crab Crunch – Start in crab position and bring one elbow up to meet the opposite knee.  I made these up and decided I don’t like them, they didn’t seem very effective.  I also typed crap instead of crab each time I tried typing it earlier in this sentance and I think that was my unconscious self trying to tell me what I thought of them.

Mary:

Kind of backwards today.

Squats x20

Lunges x10 IC

Announcements:

RUNE challenge.  This is South Wake baby, of course its a running challenge.  Check the pinned message in the 1stF channel in slack.  Two teams will be drafted by those who put their names in the hat and their collective miles ran during the month of June will determine the winning team.

Prayer:

Continued prayers for Pumpkin Spice and his family as they try to help Sadiq get back on his feet and find a more permanent home. Also prayers for Pumpkin Spice’s new small group that is studying Revelations.  We talked about how that book might be the most popular among non-Christians as its probably the most non-bible like book of them all, what with it being doom and gloom and apocalyptic.   A chance to actually sit and study the book should prove insightful and bring a new appreciation to it.

Almost Twice

I had actually planned this workout two Fridays ago and did half of it solo before logging off to do some yoga.  I thought to revisit it this past Friday but I was solo again and just did a full workout worth of yoga.  Today I was determined to share it with someone.

FNGs:

Almost but not quite

Warm Up:

SSH x20

Windmill x10

Daisy Picker x10

Good Morning x10

Imperial Walker x10

Hillbillies x10

The Workout:

Two Dora’s were planned but not the kind where you partner up.  These were solo, meaning each of us did 100/200/300 reps of each exercise.  We did this by doing 10 sets of 10/20/30 of each exercise.

The first routine was

100 irkins

200 step ups

300 squats

After this we went in to our second routine.  Unfortunately we were only abet to get through 8 rounds so it came out to:

80 lunges

160 LBC

240 SSH

Mary:

We saw her enough during the 2nd Dora

Announcements:

Nothing new.  Check Slack for all the latest

Prayer:

Continued prayers for the young man Sadiq whom Pumpkin Spice has been housing for the past few weeks while trying to find him a permanent home.  Prayers for YHC as I have to lay off more people at work

 

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Just another manic…wait, what day is it?

Another beautiful morning in the garage.  All this working out in there reminds me I really need to sweep it out.  Chill cut planks and chill cut plank jacks this weekend have pieces of mulch and rock stuck in my forearms, possibly forever.  I don’t typically wear gloves when doing this because its a garage floor and not the Possum Trot parking lot but, man, I really need to clean this.

FNGs:

None

Warm Up:

SSH x20

Good Morning x10

Daisy Picker x10

Sir Fazio Arm Circles x10

Seal Claps x10

Imperial Walkers x10

Hillbillies x10

The Workout:

Today was some tabata style work, first focusing on our legs and then on our shoulders/upper body.  We did two rounds of two exercises, 40 seconds on and 20 seconds off, rotating exercises.  For example the first set was squat hold and squat jumps so we did a 40 second squat hold, rest for 20 seconds, AMRAP squat jumps for 40 seconds, rest for 20 seconds, and then repeat that and then move on to the next set.

2x Squat Hold/Squat Jump

2x Star Jump/Sumo Squat

2x Lunge/Reverse Lunge

2x Squat/Speed Skaters

Bolt 45s – did these as a burn out for our legs before moving on

Upper body and shoulder work consisted of:

2x Plank Hold/Merkins

2x Single arm plank (alternating)/wide grip merkins

2x Chill cut plank/Carolina dry dock

2x Air presses/Overhead claps

Mary:

WWII x20

Freddie Mercury x10

Homer to Marge x20

LSF x10

LBC x10

Announcements:

None really.  It’s good to see the 1st F channel in slack alive again as well as reading all the backblasts.  It’s adding some normalcy back in to everything.  Also be on the lookout for virtual races.  Most of the stuff we’ve all registered for has been cancelled but there are lots of virtual options popping up almost daily.

Prayer:

Abe’s wife who has an  interview today

My job and the stress involved in having to do another round of layoffs

Pumpkin Spice’s friend Kathy who lost her battle with cancer on Monday morning.  Pray for their friends and family and especially her husband Allen who has to deal with the loss of his wife.

 

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The Importance of Intentionality

EC: Cupid, Full House, Nemo, ShamWow!
FNGs: None, in spite of my best efforts to make one.
Warm Up: Mosey to GCF for warm-ups. Daisy Pickers ICx10, Imperial Walkers > Hillbilly ICx10, Fazio Arm Circles (both directions) ICx10, SSH ICx20
The Workout: Mosey to the bottom of the hill by Town Hall Burgers. PAX partnered up and it was now that I discovered a 13th PAX (@Oboe). He snuck in so quick and stealthy like that there were no punitive exercises. YHC knows the struggles of arriving on time all too well!!!

We did BOMBS with one partner running to the intersection and performing 5 star jumps before returning to switch with your partner. All reps are shared moving to the next exercise when one is done.

B – 50 burpees
O – 100 Overhead claps
M – 150 Mountain climbers IC
B – 200 Big boy sit ups
S – 250 Squats

PAX then mosey to the rail behind Jiffy Lube for 3 sets of 20 dips / low slow flutter with partners switching each time. Mosey back to the flag site (would have been a flag if YHC had remembered his)…
Mary: Homer to Marge ICx50
Announcements: Slack
T-Claps (Recognition):
Prayer: Wallaby, Bobby Dall’s sister, Full House uncle, healthcare workers. YHC took us out.

This morning I asked a series of 3 questions during the workout. First, what do you think is most important in your life? Next, where do you spend the majority of your time (pre-Covid-19)? And last, how do you spend your money (again, pre-Covid-19)? Make sure the answers to the last 2 questions support the first. It’s important that we are all intentional with our resources. Don’t coast through life men, find a problem and fix it. We are ALL counting on you!

Thanks for the opportunity to lead you men this morning. I’ll try to do better next time.

The Deck of Death

Another beautiful day on the inside of my garage.  It was chilly when I first got out there but things heated up quickly.

FNGs: Nope

Warm Up:

Windmill x10

Daisy Picker x10

Frankenstein x10

Butt Kickers x10

Moroccan Night Club x10

Imperial Walker x10

Hillbillies x10

The Workout:

The Deck of Death made another appearance today.  It’s a Containment Area favorite because its easy to set up, is stationary, and can consume most of the time.  It’s not a standard deck (I load it with some extra high value cards) but it makes us work.  Numbers counted for what they were, Jacks were 11, Queens 12, Kings 13, and Aces 14.  Today’s combination was:

Hearts – Chillcut Plank Jacks

Diamonds – Diamond Merkins

Spades – Side Straddle Hops

Clubs – Zebra Butt Kickers

Joker – 5 burpees and shuffle it back in to the deck

Mary:

American Hammer x15

LBC x10

Side crunch LBC x10 each side

Low Slow Flutter x10

Homer to Marge x10

Pickle Pounders x10

Announcements:

Nothing new.  Check Facebook and Slack for anything new.

Prayer:

Continued prayers for Pumpkin Spice and his family as they care for a young man who lost his family due to gun violence. They are searching for another family to take him in on a more permanent basis.

Prayers for all of us as we continue to deal with the stay-at-home orders and the stress of all the kids at home and everything else we’re all dealing with.

 

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