If ever any of you guys watched cartoons in the mid eighties (or 2010’s as it’s been remade), you may remember Voltron: Defender of the Universe! This precursor to the Power Rangers idea of separate robots fighting bad guys then combining to form a badass robot to take on the main villain was playing nostalgically in my mind as we passed a Mardi Gras morning at Grandmother’s House. You see, each lion would come from a different environment: volcano, jungle ocean, dessert, and cave. Similarly, each member of the PAX came rolling in on feet or wheels from their own point of origin, and three of the four brought their own flavor (it must have been THE Manny’s birthday because we all brought him beatdown presents;)
There was a warmup lead by Steve (the black lion)
I recall some seal jacks, windmills, perhaps imperial walkers, and I think we started with good mornings (all too apropros)
He then brought us to the end of the covered walk way leading to the stairs where we teamed up: p1 sprint to 4th column for 25 merkins, then run backwards to his starting point to tag his partner. Meanwhile, p2 is doing peter parkers. Next round to the 8th column for 50 plank jacks, with p2 doing squats. Final round, to the end, mountain climbers (was that each leg Steve?) and more peter parkers.
With the blood really flowing, Shooter (the yellow lion) led us on a mosey to the marsh where we each took a station and rotated until we had all completed each one. Station #1 was monkey bars A & B, pull up and laterally traverse each consecutive set of bars, while…..station #2 was dipping during monkey bars A and Australian pull upping during monkey bars B. Station #3was at the swing set doing the poor man’s TRX: feet on the swing , hands on the ground, knees in and out. Final station on the court was bear crawl to half court and crab walk the rest of the way. Next, we ran a set of suicides and a lil’ rinse and repeat. Back to Grandma’s…..
I (the red lion) took the PAX to my favorite place – AB CLAAAAASS! Starting with a newly invented exercise, I conservatively put us a about mid column and, once again in teams, p2 held p1’s feet while p1 did a sit up. Immediately, p2 spins around and onto his 6, while p1 runs in front to hold p2’s feet for another sit up. This progression was continued until reaching the stairs. Sit up Caterpillar? Ab Crawl? Indian Sit up? Name, I suppose, to be determined. With precious few minutes remaining, I brought the pain: All 25 count IC, freddy flutters, LBCs, and 100s.
count, name, announce, pray.
For the record, THE Manny was the blue lion, and we were green lion-less
- Keith – leader of the group and pilot of the Black Lion.
- Lance – hot-headed ace who pilots the Red Lion.
- Pidge – young genius who pilots the Green Lion.
- Sven – stoic pilot who initially flies the Blue Lion.
- Hunk – muscular yet soft-hearted mechanic who pilots the Yellow Lion.
