6 pax including an FNG, Seacrest, met for Murph training.
15 rounds … 7 pull ups – 14 Merkins – 21 squats…
The only thing tougher than 105 pull ups, 210 merkins & 315 squats was the naming process of our FNG Seacrest who plays and coaches lacrosse, got married and spent the 1st year in COVID lockdown, does advertising in the medical field, is based out of Philly … and then we discovered he auditioned for American Idol, alas Seacrest.
Thank you for the opportunity to lead
Light crowd even for a Monday. Jazz Fest? Personally dealing with a gimp shoulder, I wanted to offer a lower body focused beatdown with the option to modify the pace. The pax seemed to dig it and a good sweat was had by all.
Warm Up: SSH IC x 30, Forward Arm Circles x 20, Reverse Arm Circles x 20, Imperial Walkers x 20.
Beat Down: Simple circuit starting at the flag and run to shelter/benches for 20 step ups with each leg, continue down the gravel path past the band stand to the main loop for 30 LBCs, continue loop back to flag for 10 lunges with each leg. 20 step ups per leg were a source of debate with the leaders of the pack questioning the diligence of some of the other pax for their attention to counting. They did take a disproportionate amount of time. Most got at least 1.5 miles in.
Count off, namorama, and intentions. For their efforts, the Pax were rewarded with a voluntold Q spot in the coming weeks!
Dense bayou gloom surrounded the stage this morning for what was planned to be a traditional beatdown. YHC and JBL were in the middle of some light stretching when a bus full of PAX arrived: Eminem, Led Zeppelin, the Peppers, AC/DC, and Axel Rose stepped off a tricked-out tour bus and a thunderous rock beatdown commenced.
Warmorama: Traditional Goose warmup (SSH, WM, IW, AC, cherry pickers, self-love plus a bumper mosey.
The Thang
25 squats then bear crawl to the top of the stage for 15 freak nasties , high knee back repeato x4
4×4 merkin/mountain climbers then track lap repeato until playlist was done
Thunderstruck Finisher – high knees, squats on Thunder
Mary with 5 reps bicycle, 5 reps LBC repeat during
COT , Axel prayed us out, and the tour bus disappeared into the gloom.
Moleskin:
With the fog plus Kilos epic star wars beatdown fresh in my mind I couldn’t help but imagine this was jedi training on Dagobah with JBL as my Yoda.
See ya in the next gloom fellas
Paradox
Undeterred by the debacle at El Diablo and Rudy’s relentless whining and razzing me, YHC committed to reset and revisit the focus on the upper chest: place your left index finger underneath the right side collar bone and thumb vertically in the middle of the sternum, raise right hand overhead and note the upper chest movement: that’s where the focus is.
Warmarama: Rapper’s Delight edition
Including MNCs and a few burpees for Frac
The Thang: pair up, 3 stations: box jumps and step ups AMRAP with 10 dips being the timer.
5 upper chest exercises, 1 minute work/30 sec rest with a 10 rep target focusing on the area beneath collar bone/along sternum, while other two pair do legs/abs AMRAP
Rd. 1 Archer (thumbs at lower chest): Squats/LBCs
Rd. 2 Explosive: side lunge/BBS
Rd. 3 Diamond Inc. (touch pinkies at top): reverse lunge/penguins
Rd. 4 Pseudo Pike (hands at waist high): Bonnie Blairs/American hammers
Rd. 5 Plunge (wide grip): Rocky Balboas/crunchy frogs
Final refinement will include giving each chest move an F3-style name (one is definitely Rudy Booty) and limiting each beatdown to only one of the moves so it isn’t a total smoke fest. Feel free to watch the video and submit naming suggestions via mumblechatter. Grateful for all of u!
Conditions: 64 degrees, 87% Humidity, Wind 3.4 mph from ESE
Pax: The Sac, HC Mambi, War B*tch, Boo, Cyber, and YHC
Warm-up:
SSH x 25; Imperial Walkers x 25; Peter Parkers x 20; Windmills x 10; LBCs x 25
The Thang:
Line up near the stairs. One man runs up and around the stairs back to the end of the line. Each man moves up one position in the line.
• Position 1 – Big Boi Sit-ups
• Position 2 – Bakerd Lunges
• Position 3 – Merkins
• Positon 4 – Flutter Kicks
• Position 5 – Burpees
Everyone went through the line twice
Mosey to the middle of the field where we played some games with a couple of flying orb balls
• Game 1 – Keep the two flying orbs in the air as long as possible
• Game 2 – Divide into teams of 3. Each team counts down from 10 with each tap of the orb. Whatever number you are on when the orb hits the ground is the number of burpees you do.
• Game 3 – Everyone takes a seat around a giant square. Man in the middle taps the orb in the air and calls out someone’s name and trades places with that person. The person called has to run to the orb tap it and call out another name….etc. I can’t say this went well.
• Game 4 – 2 teams of 3. One team does burpees as long as the other team keeps the orb in the air. Teams switch roles once the orb hits the ground.
After the orbs died we moseyed to the soccer field to play some poker. The deck of cards was located at the south goal. Starting at the North goal, run to the deck and grab a card. Bring it back and do the exercise and number of reps on the card. Continue until you have 7 cards or time runs out. At the end we made our best five card hand. Losers did 10 burpees. YHC did a pool side stretch.
Mosey back to the flag.
Naked Man Moleskin
• First complaint from the pax formerly known as War Eagle came 35 seconds into the workout when he thought the mosey to the warm-up was too long.
• Second complaint from the pax fka War Eagle came 6 minutes and 20 seconds into the workout when we got down in the grass to do LBCs.
• Third complaint from the pax fka War Eagle came 8 minutes and 10 seconds into the warm-up when we headed to the stairs.
• I lost track after that.
• The flying orbs were fun and have lots of potential. YHC, Mambi and War Bleep, were professionals from the get go. Once we stopped to watch Frac, Boo, and Cyber C, we were embarrassed for them. It made sense why the ladies walking the track were pointing and laughing. Even with YHC’s literary skills, I can’t figure out how to explain what they were doing.
• YHC wanted to call it quits on the Orb Game #3, but War %*$#@ said we could figure it out. I was inspired by his never say die attitude, so we continued the game. We never figured it out.
• On Slack yesterday Frac declared that he is terrible at card games. He ain’t lyin’
• Frac ended the workout with one of the most unnecessary modifications of all time.
• Boo is starting a Book Club at Pontiff. Just show up 15 minutes prior to the workout.
YHC has a love/hate relationship with sprints. I’ll blame it on deep seated psychological trauma from high school football conditioning. YHC’s ancestors likely invented the spear to avoid sprinting from the sabertooth. Like “oh well , lets takes our chances with this stick cus running fast sucks”. Recently YHC has felt the need to address these ancestral deficiencies with tailormade beatdowns.
When beginning my Q journey a few months back, Goose handed down some deep wisdom nuggets about beatdown architecture: Always return to the classics. Shakespeare and Thoureau you say?? No sir, “try Steve and Akbar, those guys write a solid backblast”. I dove into the Northshore archives and after surveying several gems I selected a recent sprint work piece (run, float run) created by Northshore legend Akbar. Some of his initial work like the “the Merkin Trap” changed the way I Q so I knew I was in good hands.
Arrived to the Stage with a lonely black SUV and a single PAX in heavy stretch mode. Could it be?! ENRON! Returning from IR to get back into the mix. Great to have ya back brother. The newly minted Roughneck rolled in shortly after followed by Kilo and we got started
WarmOrama: SSH, IW, WM, AC, Cherry Pickers, high knees, butt kicks. Bumper/Stop Sign Mosey
JBL official warm-up
*I must pause here and recognize that JBL remains the alpha Bluetooth speaker in this pack. There may be contenders and challengers (lifejacket and Anker) that come and go but when the chips are down, and you need soul jarring thunderous rock there is only one Bluetooth speaker king.
Song: “Aint no mountain high enough”- High knees on whole song. Trigger words were the following: high enough=jump squat, low enough=2 deep squats, wide enough =3 merkins
THANG 1
Mosey to Rich Mans loop for sprint work.
Mosey, Sprint, Float, Sink (thanks Akbar)
Each light pole had a different gear. Started with standard mosey, then increased to sprint followed by down shift into float (which I’m learning is kinda a feel thing) followed by planking for the 6 and repeato. The key to the float is a “fast relax” with very little straining. Realizing as I type this sounds like my medical advice on not producing hemorrhoids. Our best effort was attempted. Completed 7 rounds.
THANG 2
Introduced the PAX to yet another cousin of Jack Webb. Today we meet his seldom seen uncle Mountain Jack Webb. Starting at the straight away with 2 Squat Chinooks then 4 mountain climbers (1 is 1) followed by lunge walks to the next cement line (roughly ten yards) and repeato. Increased increments by 2/4 reps respectively. Thanks to some quick Enron excel spreadsheet math we topped out at 28 squat chinooks and 40 MCs with a 60 MC burnout.
Headed back to the virtual flag (we miss ya goose!) in Indian run style.
Enough time for 20 Freak nasties and 10 Box Jumps and some mixed Mary
15 LBCs, 15 Penguins, 15 Wife pleasers, 20 Dolphin Hops
Count off, NameORama and Prayer intentions.
Come out to the peltch Saturday for Kilos VQ! (Star Wars theme has been promised)
Apologies to Enron for 45 minutes of sprints and mountain climbers on a bum knee. If it holds up after today, you can toss that Brett Favre copper sleeve in the can. Great to have you back, your premium grade mumble chatter has been missed.
T Claps for Roughneck coming back for more after Monday. Keep pushing brother.
Solid Effort fellas, thanks for letting me lead
Until the next gloom
Paradox
Round 1 … 5/10/15 pull ups, push ups, squats in 2 minutes 10 seconds
10 seconds rest
Rounds 2-16 … 6/12/18 in 2 mins 10 seconds
10 seconds rest
Round 17 … 5/10/15 pull ups, push ups, squats in 2 minutes 10 seconds
10 seconds rest
Round 18-19
5/10/15…5/10/15 … no timer
21 pax showed up for a Charmin/Disclaimer Que
Charmin led us out to the football field for a warm-up that included:
SSH x 21
Monkey Humpers x 15
Mountain Man Poopers x 10-15 based on vive
Hillbillies x 10-15 same as MMP’s
Hairy Rockettes x 10
Disclaimer took us over to the play ground and instructed everyone to get in groups of three (we had 7 groups).
25 mins total time of work (stay together as a team….every complete the work)
-800 meter run
-25 pull-ups
-50 merkins
-75 air squats
The goal was two complete at least two rounds.
We had a bunch of people finished two rounds (good sign for the murph coming up!)
After that we ran in over to the rock pile.
-Shoulder press, bicep curls, tricep extensions overhead
15,15,15 hold your rock until the group finishes
5 burpees
Repeat same exercises 12 reps of each hold rock until everyone finishes
10 ROCK on swings
Repeat same exercises 9 reps of each hold rock until everyone finishes
5 burpee rock ground to overhead press (I looks and feels like it sounds!)
Indian run ( which was more of an Indian sprint back to the flag)
A solid five PAX climbed the hill on another beautiful morning at Lumen Christi, awkwardly quiet at first about YHC’s choice of a smedium Superman shirt (with velcro cape). Why? Getting dressed in the dark? Delusions of grandeur? No, just cuz it’s stupid, and it might distract a little from what we were about to endure.
Warmup: the usual faves–SSH, WM, AC, cherry pickers, IW, self-love
Thang 1: 30’s
YHC had some exercise ideas, all utilizing the hill, but we needed a theme. The date was 4-26-22, so for the first Thang, we just added 4 + 26 to get 30. That’ll do!
Round 1, nonstop: 15 Hand Release Merkins at the bottom of the hill, then run over and 15 at the other side; 15 jump squats at the bottom, 15 on the other side; and 15 big boy situps on each side.
Starting to love the hill! So, Round 2, nonstop: 10 Hurpees (hand-release burpees) at the bottom, 10 at the top, and 10 on the other side; 10 Bonnie Blairs at the top, 10 at the bottom, and 10 back at the top; then 10 crunchy frogs at the other side, at the top, and at the bottom.
Thang 2: 52’s
Now that we felt intimately connected to the hill, we chose to remain there and added the number of the year to the total (4 + 26 + 22 = 52), partnered (and throupled) up to complete the following, Dora fashion:
52 Hurpees
52 Step-ups on the picnic bench (2:1)
52 shoulder/toe taps (plank and tap each shoulder and each toe = 1)
While Partner 1 hammered away at these reps, Partner 2 ran up the hill backward and back down forward (though after the hurpees, we switched to running forward up and down).
Mary: 20 leg raises, 20 wife pleasers, and 30 penguins.
The cape remained velcroed in place throughout the workout providing many performance enhancing benefits despite early mumblechatter suggesting otherwise.
COT and Paradiddle prayed us out. Lots to pray for, and lots to be grateful for. Thanks for posting, fellas, and for pushing hard together!
See You in the Gloom,
Goose
It’s tough when FNG’s come on weekdays. Smaller number of PAX means there’s nowhere to hide when you’re just trying to survive, but the soon to be named Roughneck never gave up despite the feeling of drowning that we all remember too well from our own first beatdowns. With YHC, Paradox, and Kilo mumblechattering about highlights from the Zoorich Classic on Saturday and crazy lingo being tossed about in the midst of grunting and sweating, it was with great interior fortitude that Roughneck remained smiling and in good humor to the end.
Warmup (all in cadence, x20) side straddle hops, windmills, arm circles, imperial walkers, self-love
Thang 1: Robot Dance (?)
-Song 1: “In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel–plank position for the entirety, but every time we heard “In Your Eyes”, we shifted to the next position in the following order: high plank, mid plank, mission impossible plank, back to mid, back to high, right arm up, left arm up, back to high plank, etc. This one’s over five minutes long, but it felt shorter due to mumblechatter about it likely being a catalyst/accompaniment for the conception of more than one of the PAX back in the 80’s, as well as a history lesson on the connection between Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins. This PAX has much to learn.
-Song 2: “Banana Boat (Day-O)” by Harry Belafonte–similar, but with squats. Every time he said “Day” shift to the next position: standing, mid squat, low squat, mid, back to high, etc. The PAX had much to learn here, as well, about the origins of this song and the experience of banana harvesters. YHC is happy to provide some cultural exposure to these millenial zombies.
Thang 2: Four corners/Baseball
1 PAX stationed at each corner of the field (bases) and did as many reps as possible (AMRAP) of the following exercise while PAX at “home plate” completed 15 burpees and ran to 1st, then each advanced to the next base once replaced:
1st base: merkins
2nd: squats
3rd: Big Boy Situps
Continued until all four PAX had a chance to do burpees at home plate.
Thang 3: Benchwork
2 PAX per bench, completed the following, in cadence x20: dips, L-leg step-ups, Irkins, R-leg step-ups, Derkins. Then, rinse and repeat x15. (1:1 for all).
Back to the flag for Mary: LBC’s, Leg Raises, Freddy Mercury’s
COT and named the FNG–Welcome Roughneck! Great to have you, man! Awesome work, and looking forward to growing with you!
See You in the Gloom,
Goose
