The Q slept snockered in his sack when there are arose such a clammer
His neighbors returning in such an early morning stammer.
With duty in mind he transformed from a board into a a leaping lord!
Away to Audubon he sojourned to confront the coming horde
Hoping the barbarians would be nil!
He found 4 hungry packs looking for their fill!
With no plan or blanky to follow, the Q was showed himself to be quite hollow!
But 20/20 would not wallow! Side Stradle did they hop, arm circles were no flop. Mountain climbers to a new height! The BLIMPS burpees did not bite. Onward and upward they found some bricks in these rep were no new tricks. Away flew the gas from the PAX morning ass, oh did the birds and trees wither, no would dare dither!
To the notional flag our Q and pax returned, for pull ups and Mary by call, it was no fun for all!
Alas the time was nye!
In COT Thoughts of comparing religions and ideas for 2020 by Father Krister Stendhalk
When you are trying to understand another person or idea, you should ask that person or adherents of that idea and not its enemies.
Don’t compare your best to their worst.
Leave room for “holy envy.” (You should be willing to recognize elements in the other religious tradition or faith that you admire and wish could, in some way, be reflected in your own religious tradition or faith.)
Late last week Kuch and I were contacted by Gideon asking for us to step in as Q’s for the initial beatdown throwdown at the newest AO The Chamber of Horrors. Our AO originators Gideon and Tool would be unavailable to Q so, as usual, Kuch and I stepped up. Gideon agreed to attend and offered to monitor the time so we would stay on track.
The agreement was that a brief 5 minute warm-up would commence. Then each Q would alternate 10 minute rounds of exercise for the remaining 40 minutes. The challenge was for each Q to come up with a challenging and creative beatdown and then the PAX would vote on a winner at the end. In order to avoid wasting time running all over UNO’s campus we agreed to centralize the location of our rounds. 16 PAX joined the 2 Q’s, disclaimer was given, sort of (sorry about that; my energy and desire to stay on time got the better of me), and off we went.
Warm up:
Mosey a lap around the parking lot and circle up.
SSH x 20 IC
Windmills x 10 IC
Arm circles fwd/rev x 10 each IC
Self love x 10 IC
Mountain climbers x 10 IC
Round 1 (High Rise):
T-claps to Gideon for helping me set up the baseball diamond prior to 5:30 and to Kuch for the cones and tape measure which allowed us to play some F3 Baseball. PAX divided into 4 teams (1 at each base) and would perform said exercise then perform another exercise in transition to the next base. Due to the numbers we split into 2 groups of 5 and 2 groups of 4. The goal was for each group to complete 150 reps of said exercise as a team and then rotate to the next base. It dawned on me quickly that the groups of 4 would be passed up and possibly create a log jam, not to mention each group member perform a good bit more reps than members of the 5-PAX groups, so it was announced that 4-PAX groups would complete 120 reps total instead.
Home plate: merkins then broad jump/bunny hop to first base
First base: squats then bear crawl to second base
Second base: shoulder taps (1 is 1) then crab walk to third base
Third base: lunges (1 is 1) then crawl bear to home plate
Round 2 (Kuch):
Prior to 5:30 several PAX assisted Kuch in moving our monster truck tire into position so T-claps to those men. Kuch then announced we would split into 3 groups of 6 and complete a rotating circuit for the allotted 10 minutes.
Group 1: Each PAX would flip the tire, jump through, and return to the back of the line until the tire had reached group 2. Then plank.
Group 2: Plank while group 1 flips tire. Then group 2 flips tire back to the start line where they would hand it off to group 3.
Group 3: While groups 1 and 2 do their thing, group 3 sprints to where group 2 is planking and back, then holds an Al Gore until the tire returns to the start line.
Each group would rotate through all 3 stations until Gideon called time. Once again T-claps to Gideon for setting up the cones for the next round while Kuch’s round was going on.
Round 3 (High Rise):
With cones set out 10 yards apart in a line, the same 3 groups of 6 PAX would perform Plank Hurdles. PAX #1 sprints 10 yards and then holds a plank. PAX #2 sprints to the 20 yard marker while hurdling PAX #1 in the process. PAX #3 hurdles PAX #1 and #2, etc. until all 6 PAX have hurdled and planked. Then PAX #1 hurdles all the way to the end, followed by PAX #2, etc. until all 6 PAX are at the last cone. Rinse and repeat back until Gideon calls time.
Round 4 (Kuch):
Shirts vs Skins soccer. Thanks again to Kuch for providing a light up soccer ball (or brick depending on where you kicked the ball). The soccer goals that are always at the field were moved into position, PAX was randomly split into 2 teams, and a very competitive match on the ant hill covered pitch commenced. A tightly fought match ended in a 1-1 draw until Gideon called time so as is the case in most soccer games, there were no winners.
Mosey back to the flag where the PAX voted YHC as the winner with the final tally being 11-7. It was then decided by Gideon that since I received 11 votes, Kuch then performed 11 burpees as today’s losing Q. Numerous other PAX joined in because that’s what we do at F3 (but not me since I won).
Count off, name-o-rama, announcements, intentions, sweaty ball of man. Once again it was a pleasure to lead the PAX. This was the second showdown between Kuch and I. The score is now tied at 1. We shall meet again.
For our last 2019 Rock City we looked back on the year that
was.
Warm-up
We hit the most popular RC warm-up exercises of 2019
according to those that write backblasts:
SSH x 19 – Still the popular starter. We did 19 for the year 2019.
Hillbillies x 20 – A surprising replacement of
the customary IWs. Hillbillies seem
wildly popular at RC. We did 20 because
I forgot to stop at 19
Grass Grabbers x 19 – I’m sure the popularity is
based on the name. The clap at the end
feels silly, but it doesn’t keep us from doing them.
Windmills
(aka Abe Vigodas) x 10 – Lots of Qs find these to be a warm-up staple, but you
will have to do them prior to 5:30 anytime Spartacus is on the schedule.
A Sea of Crimson
Our first Rock City Workout of 2019 happened on July 7th. That just happened to be the day of the
College Football National Championship.
War Eagle must have been feeling good that morning as he delivered a
brutal beatdown, on par with the beating his Crimson Tide took later that
night.
We paired up for a quasi-dora with the following exercises:
250 curls
200 squats
150 rows
100 shoulder presses
50 burpees
While pax #1 did the exercise, pax #2 ran 40 yards and back.
Iron Pax
This morning we paid tribute to the Iron Pax workouts of 2019
by reenacting Week Zero. This time we
did one round instead of six and we did the reps together.
24 squats
24 merkins
24 Lunges in cadence
400 meter run
Sgt. Bovia Tribute
We saved my favorite Rock City Workout of the year for
last. It was the tribute Boo-Boo Qd for
Marine Sgt. Joey Bovia. Sgt. Bovia was
killed in Afghanistan on August 31, 2010.
The Tribute consisted of 31 reps of 8 different exercises. This morning, we did as many as we could in
the allotted time.
31 merkins
31 Big Boy Sit-ups
31 Squats
31 Push Presses
Time ran out before the 31 burpees. We brought our rocks back to the pile and
moseyed to the flag for the COT.
NMM
Smallest numbers at Rock City all year.
The 5 guys that posted were there to work
though. We made it through a lot more than
I thought we would. I honestly expected
that I would have to cut the Iron Pax or Bovia workout, but that was not the
case.
Looking back on the National Championship themed
workout that started the year, who would have thought that LSU would be playing
those same Clemson Tigers for the Natty after the 2019 season. And who could
have forecast the Alabama program falling off the face of the earth like they
did. I don’t even think they made a bowl
game this year. Seems like the end of an
era.
YHC
was relaxing at home after a calm and quiet Christmas day with the family, when
he received a reminder text for his Q at Okwata tomorrow morning. So, after a few minutes of thought I had a
basic workout prepared and was ready for the next morning. As I dozed off to sleep, I was inspired by
the Christmas spirit, hopped out of bed, and scribbled some notes on a random
piece of paper. YHC had to incorporate
a Christmas theme to the workout
11
PAX (JV coming in hot) met at the flag at Okwata the morning after Christmas
and moseyed to the intersection of Canal Blvd and Lakeshore Drive for
warmup. Warmups consisted of SSH x 26,
Imperial Walkers x 15, Grass grabbers x 10, Shoulder taps x 30, Arm circles x
10, and self-love.
The
PAX remained in our circle and counted off.
We did one round of the following exercises at the count / number of
reps next to the exercise.
8 Count body builders
Jack Webbs
American Hammers
Squats
BURPEES
Penguins
Merkins
Monkey Humpers
Hillbillies
Bonnie Blairs / Lunges
Big Boy Sit Ups
Flutter Kicks
After the first round – PAX were ready to go again. This time to the theme of the Christmas classic – The 12 Days of Christmas”. Shuffles started us out with “On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me – 1 8 ct. body builder. After the first 2-3 rounds of the song, the PAX got the hang of it. Each PAX enthusiastically called out their exercise and we were able to complete the entire song with a few minutes to spare.
In
the remaining time, PAX did two laps of Bernie Sanders (run backwards up the
hill and forward back down the hill).
Mosey back to the flag for finish at 6:15.
COT,
announcements, intentions, and gratefulness for the Christmas holiday. YHC is thankful for the opportunity to lead
and for the participation of the PAX in the post-Christmas workout.
My boy Screw Top was still nursing an injury following his marathon so for what felt like the 20th time I chose to step in for him as Q. I had not been a Q for a few weeks and wasn’t scheduled to Q for several more (not sure how I let that happen) so I took the opportunity to lead. 11 PAX joined myself on what has to be the greatest collection blacktops in the city at UNO. Disclaimer was given and off we went.
Warm up:
Took a lap around said parking lot and circled up.
SSH x 20 IC
Windmills x 10 IC
Concrete grabbers x 15 IC
Self love x 15 IC
Arm circles Fwd/rev x 10 each IC
Mountain climbers x 15 IC
Thang 1:
Moseyed over to the sidewalk along Elysian Fields. PAX gathered for what felt like the traditional Indian Run. However I found something on the exicon to change it up and we did a Prisoner Indian Run down to the traffic circle at Elysian Fields and Lakeshore Dr.
Thang 2:
Here is where the modification begins. I wanted to do 11s. But in honor of Michael Thomas being a bad man and breaking the single season catch record we did 13s. The modification didn’t stop there. I was inspired by Tua’s VQ a few weeks ago and stole from his playbook. So for the Double Modified 11s (AKA 13s) the PAX would run in the bike lane of the traffic circle. Once they ran half the circle they would stop and perform 12 Carolina dry docks and 1 squat jump. Run the other half the circle and do 11 CDD and 2 squat jumps, etc. until the last round was complete with 1 CDD and 12 squat jumps. The Q was stunned to find that much traffic at 5:40 AM 2 days prior to Christmas but thankfully we were able to avoid any incidents.
Thang 3:
Mosey over to the nearest parking. With Christmas coming up I was inspired when I found Santa’s Ladder on the exicon. PAX would start at one end of the parking lot and run to a randomly selected spot (that huge light post looks good) where we would perform 10 burpees, run back to start and perform 9 burpees, and so on until we got to round 5. Rounds 5-1 would be merkins. Plank and wait for the 6. As everyone was catching their breath I explained to the PAX that completing the ladder consisted of also performing the runs with rounds 10-6 being merkins and 5-1 being burpees. However due to time constraints I opted to modify and perform only 6 rounds.
Mosey back to the flag in time for some Mary. Flutter kicks, Freddy Mercury’s and some other exercise that I can’t remember x 20 each IC. Count off, name-o-rama, announcements, intentions, and sweaty ball of man. As always it was a great time leading the men of F3. Hopefully trying the new location at the traffic circle didn’t scare anyone but there was WAY more traffic than I anticipated so I will store that in memory for future beatdowns.
You know Charmin and Hokie and Tool
and Sogo
Heisenberg and Mop and Rev Sox and Belloq
But do you recall
The most famous reindeer of all?
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Had a very shiny nose
And if you ever saw it
You would even say it glows
All of the other reindeer
Used to laugh and call him names
They never let poor Rudolph
Join in any reindeer games
Then one foggy Christmas Eve
Santa came to say
“F3, with your fitness so fine
Won’t you do some burpees tonight?”
Then how the reindeer loved him
As they shouted out with glee
“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
You’ll go down in history”
The Warm Up
SSH – 25
Imperial Walkers – 20
Peter Parkers – 20
Grass Grabbers – 20
Hillbillies – 20
Reindeer Games
The Pax split up into two teams of 4:
Mop, YHC, Tool, and Heisenberg vs. Charmin, Sogo, Hokie,
and Belloq
The teams will play the reindeer games while one pax
member plays the role of Rudolf. He misses out on the reindeer games while
doing burpees. Finish 30 burpees and tag another pax member to take your place
as Rudolph.
Game One
F3 dodgeball –
standard dodgeball but once you are out, you hold plank or do merkins until a
teammate catches the ball and you can reenter the game. The team with the most
players out at the end of 9 minutes loses. Each team had one player out so
dodgeball was a tie.
Game Two
Rarajipari –
get your team’s baseball to the dog park statue only using your feet. Once you
get to the dog park, travel back to the top of the largest hill. You can’t kick
the ball twice in a row. Team Belloq wins game 2 by climbing the hill first.
Game Three
Ultimate Frisbee
– standard Frisbee rules but do 3 merkins for every turnover and 5 merkins when
you are scored on. Team Belloq wins game 3 at a score of 2-0.
Game Four
Merry Christmas Ya
Filthy Animals Race – Relay race: bear crawl round one, crab walk round
two, duck walk round three. Race down to the cone like an animal and back.
First team to finish wins. Team Mop wins game 4.
Mary
You can’t skip Mary
on Christmas Morning
American Hammers – 20
Hello Dolly – 20
Flutter Kicks – 20
Penguins – 20
Circle of Trust
Count off, Name-O-Rama, and announcements. Remember to
pray for all those who are alone or experiencing loss this Christmas season.
Find a way to bring family and community to someone who is on the outside. Pray
that we will continue to push one another to improve in 2020.
Six Pax plus the QIC were able to slip out of their festive homes to sneak in a Christmas morning workout. Pop-a-lock wanted to co-Q to prepare for his VQ and birthday Q on January 8th at the Birdcage. After the standard disclaimer the Pax mosyed around the parking lot and circled up in front of the Grand Stage. The following Warm up exercises commenced led by Pop-a-lock and QIC.
SSH x20
Windmills x20
Self Love x12
Arm Circles F/B x12
Grass Grabbers x12
As a tribute to the Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker, the Pax performed Imperial Walker Squats from the front of the stage to the track… and the Pax thought they were going to get a brake on Christmas morning.
After a mosey to the field in front of the zoo, the Pax paired up into Naughty and Nice Pax. The Naughty Pax Reindeer crawled 25 yards sprinted to the end of the field, Reindeer crawled another 25 yards back, then ran backwards to the Nice Pax, and flap jacked the following exercises.
Elf on the Shelf (Al Gore’s)
Shiny Bicycles (Freddie Mercury’s)
Chimney Climbers (Mountain Climbers) Name credit to Pop-a-lock!
Next up was a Christmas Wreath of Fire. 4 rounds, one for each week of Advent.
Once complete the Pax made their way to Santa’s Workshop (the Shelter) for the following exercises led by Pop-a-lock in cadence:
Left leg step ups x15
Right leg step ups x15
Dips x 15
Incline Merks x20
The Pax rounded out the Christmas morning workout with a quick circle of MARY, complete with a little coal for the stocking, if you know what I mean…
Little Baby Elves x20
Hello Santas x20
The Pax mosyed back to the flag for COT, nameorama, announcements, and a closing prayer. We attempted to EH a passer by. He took our picture, but I know he thought we were crazy because we all EHed him at the same time! That is an area of oppotunity in 2020.
YHC was ready to start my 46th trip around the sun this morning with a beatdown in the gloom. Quick disclaimer and we were off on the running path for warmup mosey, the long way around to the band stand.
WARM UP 45 SSH IC, 20 Grassgrabbers IC, 20 windmills IC, 10 Self Love IC, 20 Peter Parkers IC, followed by 45 LBCs 4 count IC..
THANG 1 – BLIMPS at the lightpost intervals, followed by….another BLIMPS across magazine to the fountain.
THANG 2 – Thanks to some sunday recon by YHC’s 2.0s, the PAX were able to locate some brick coupons that had been stowed since August. These were a donation from pile in YHC’s neighbor’s yard. This particular neighbor is an accomplished writer, atheist curmudgeon and all-around new orleans character. I encourage the PAX to look him up, Don Spears and his most famous epistle – “In Search of Good P______.” P does not mean persimmons. The lord works in mysterious ways.
PAX paired up for CBGB (Curls, Brickbys, Goblet Squats, Brick-flys ), one PAX lifts while the other runs with the bricks up two lights and back and flapjack, until all PAX complete. Repeat.
THANG 3 – Mosey over to the wall. Dodo Bird (With two bricks assume the People’s Chair, brick in each hand and at rest down your sides is the default position. In cadence or OYO, (1) side shoulder raise [arms straight and lifted to the sides to shoulder height], (2) back to default, (3) front shoulder raise [arms straight and lifted in front of you to shoulder height],and Wonderbra (assume the People’s Chair position. Start with bricks close to body at chest level. Push bricks up over head fully extending arms, bring bricks back down to chest position, then push them straight out in front until complete arm extension reached. Return to starting position). 3 sets 3 each. 10 count between.
The PAX then “stashed” the bricks in an orderly fashion with the hopes they will again be there for the Skinny and Birdcage in upcoming weeks.
PAX then circled up in front of the fountain for some quick core work then back to the flag.
COT
Countoff, name-o-rama, announcements and intentions. Thanks for the opportunity to Q
In signing up for the Q on Dec 23rd, I wanted to bring a little Christmas history into view as I created a Christmas themed workout. In modern times, the commercialization of the Christmas season along with a growing antagonism toward the Christian religion has lead to the increased removal of the word Christ from Christmas. However, the word Xmas has its roots back in the first century. As I explained to the PAX this morning, the Greek letter X is pronounced ‘Chi’ and it was commonly used to denote followers of Christ. The Greek letter X has many references to Christ. It was used as a memorial for fallen martyrs in the Roman coliseum, chiseled onto homes of true believers, and even used as a reference to the cross. So the next time you see the word Xmas, don’t be put off, think about Chi(ristos) during this blessed Christmas season.
DISCLAIMER AND WARMUP
I gave the disclaimer and off to the rock pile and headed to the middle of the football field. Warmup with 24 SSH, 24 Squats, 24 Mountain Climbers, and 24 Windmills. Rudy really enjoyed the 24 Windmills as he was chirping the whole time!
After the warmup, we broke up into 4 groups of 3 and each group would head to one of the corners with their coupons. At the corners, there were 4 sets of exercises to perform. As two of the pax members in that corner were performing their designated exercises, the remaining pax member would head toward the middle of the field and perform 10 – 8 count bodybuilders with their rock. Once they completed their 10 reps, they would head back to their corner and then rotate until all three pax members completed their 8 count bodybuilders. Once completed, they would run 500 meters on the track without their coupon to the next corner and then perform the next set of exercises with pax members rotating to complete the 10 reps of 8 count bodybuilders. The exercises are as follows:
Corner 1 – 12 Side Lunges, 12 Curls, 12 Angle Grinders, and 12 Reverse Crunches all IC
Corner 2 – 12 Squats, 12 Merkins, 12 Rows, and 12 Plank Jacks all IC
Corner 3 – 12 Lunges, 12 Shoulder Presses, 12 Wife Pleasers, and 12 Parker Peters all IC
Corner 4 – 12 Bonnie Blairs, 12 Supermans, 12 Straight leg deadlifts, and 12 Catalina Wine Mixers all IC
If all the exercises were completed, it would have formed an X on the field. But, alas, that was not meant to be due to the time constraint of 45 minutes. I believe we only got half of it done. Oh well, at least we performed a slash. :-(.
COUNT OFF, NAMERAMA, AND CIRCLE OF TRUST
Thankful for my F3 brothers and prayers to God for families suffering battling health issues, loneliness, depression, and isolation during this Christmas season. Extremely grateful for the health given to me so I can lead and serve my family and my community!
To
quote the late great Johnny Mercer, ‘baby,
it’s cold outside.’ Or at least it was last Wednesday at The Foundry. When we
got out of the car, it was 39 degrees with wind gusts of 20+. To get the blood
pumping, I issued the disclaimer & then we mosey’d from the flag to the
museum. Once at the museum we did the warmup.
Warmup:
Side
straddle hops – 15 in cadence
High
knees – 15 in cadence
Butt
kicks – 15 in cadence
Mountain
climbers – 15 in cadence
Windmills
– 10 in cadence
Self
love
Next
we did The Thang:
The Thang:
Mountain
climbers – 25 in cadence
Irkins
on fountain – 25
Mountain
climbers – 25 in cadence
Box jumps
on fountain – 25
Mountain
climbers – 25 in cadence
Dips
on fountain – 25 in cadence
Next
we partnered up and did a Dora 1-2-3. We did 100 merkins, 200 LBC’s & 300
calf raises. While one partner was doing the exercise, the other partner would
run a lap around the museum
Lastly,
we did a burpee circuit on the museum steps. We ran up & down the steps of
the museum & then did 1 burpee. Then we ran up & down the steps again
& did 2 burpees. And so on until we reached 7 burpees.
Once
we completed that, we took a quick water break & then mosey’d back to the
flag. Once at the flag, we did the count-off, name-o-rama, announcements,
intentions & prayer. It was a cold day, but a good day. And, as always,
thanks for the opportunity to lead, fellas
