Steve and Shooter are right, we need to be able to insert a GIF into backblasts. Y’all had the same image in your mind when you read the title, be honest. Welcome to a Spartan Murph!
A regular murph intensified with obstacles. 100 pullups, 200 merkins, 300 squats. The obstacles: rope climb, two logs used for squats or squat thrusters, and a tire flip station. Once you finished your 5,10,15, you got your choice of which “extra” equipment you wanted. As always, Grundy went full on beast mode doing the entire thing with a 30 pound pack. At one point, he picked up the tire and carried it around like a child. Bird, as always, intensified. Using the dip bars to do his deep merkins. Zoolander called out various grips and types of pull ups. The group even added an extra half mile at the end. We had a FNG, Devon, who kept repeating over and over again: “Yall are crazy”. He even splashed a little merlot in there.
COT, Jose prayed us out, and we named the FNG. We were thinking Merlot, Pignot…but once he lost his phone(the youthful eyes of Baby Yoda found it) we decided to call him E.T. Hopefully he’ll post tomorrow. Thank everyone for posting or if you’re just reading this backblast. SYITG
Category: Backblasts
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THIS IS SPARTA!!! – from Zoolander
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Mothership 2024-06-01 – from Catfish
Conditions – Warm & Wet
The Thang
Quick Mosey over to the peristyle for a warmup:
Hip Circles (clockwise) x 5 (in cadence)
Hip Circles (counterclockwise) x 5 (in cadence)
Abe Vigodas x 10 (in cadence)
Grass Grabber x 10 (in cadence)
Imperial Walkers x 20 (in cadence)
Mountain Climbers x 20 (in cadence)
Merkins x 10 (in cadence)
Peter Parker Peters x 20 (in cadence)
8-Count Bodybuilders x 10 (in cadence)Everyone grabbed a column and held a People’s Chair for a round of Bat Wings :
Forward Arm Circles x 20 (in cadence)
Backward Arm Circles x 20 (in cadence)
Overhead Claps x 20 (in cadence)
Seal Claps x 20 (in cadence)
Moroccan Night Clubs x 20 (in cadence)Did a round of donkey kicks (x 15 in cadence) to finish up the leg burn, then took a mosey over to the garden area my the sculpture garden fence for:
Alternating leg step-ups (8-count) x 20 (in cadence)
Irkins x 20 (in cadence)
Bulgarian Split Squats x 20 (in cadence)
Derkins x 20 (in cadence)
Bulgarian Split Squats (other leg) x 20 (in cadence)Continued the mosey toward the foundry. Stopped at a hill along the way for:
V-Ups x 20 (in cadence)
Big Boys x 20 (in cadence)
Hello Dollies x 20 (in cadence)Finished the mosey to the foundry and then grabbed a quarter murph. After this, grabbed two rounds of a Merkin Ring of Fire (base position – plank), two round of a Jump Squat Ring of Fire (base position – Al Gore), and Two rounds of a V-Up Ring of Fire (base position – on back, legs 12” off ground).
Moseyed over to the Museum west side steps for:
Calf Raises x 20 (in cadence)
Side Leg Lifts (left leg) x 10 (in cadence)
Side Leg Lifts (right leg) x 10 (in cadence)Back to flag for COT, coffee afterwards @ PJ’s.
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Inaugural Lakefront Rugby Sevens – from Brexit
12 HIMs graciously posted for my Virgin-Q in full knowledge that it would likely be an absolute shambles. I had to do something British-themed for my first ever Q so, with it being the day of the London Sevens which is an annual rugby sevens tournament, I decided to do a Rugby Sevens inspired workout. You may not know it, but the US is part of the World Rugby Sevens and they’re sometimes pretty good at it (although sitting at 9th in the standings right now). Sevens is a much more simplified version of rugby, which is probably why the US is better at it than normal rugby, played with seven players instead of the full 15. Thought that by focusing on sevens it could be a good intro to the game.
Warmup:
Side straddle hops, arm circles, grass grabbers, toe touches, imperial walkers, peter parkers, merkins (only messed up the cadence once)Got into pairs and moseyed to the shaft passing the rugby ball between each other. The Rugby ball can only go backwards so each player had to sprint ahead to pass the ball backwards to his teammate. You could not move if you didn’t have the ball. Any dropped passes meant 5 burpees which is the number of points you get for a touchdown in rugby, aka, a try.
7 burpees on our own at the gazebo after regrouping. Continued the passing drill to the shaft with the addition that the person without the ball had to do a single burpee while the person with the ball moved ahead of him. It appeared that I had over-estimated the hand-eye coordination of the group (to be fair, some of the pairs were geared up more than others…only so many rugby balls in circulation here so some were forced to use toy footballs that got completely taken with the wind with each pass…) and so was running a little behind schedule but we made up for this for a quicker than expected Sevens (staying on theme) – derkins and sister Mary Catherines. Bear crawl one way, run back.
Moseyed to the rugby pitch, no passing this time.
Get into teams and then did a passing along the line drill. A dropped pass was 7 burpees for the team (this was changed to 5 burpees for the team that YHC joined in with). The other team did merkins/squat jumps in the meantime (merkins on way up, squat jumps on way back).
YHC gave his best attempt at explaining the rules of touch rugby in about 3 minutes and then game-on – 15 min (7 min halves).
Skins v Shirts with Shirts kicking us off. Good formation to start with but it seemed like some of the players got confused with the fact that you are actually allowed to run forwards, you only have to pass it backwards…not too much territory made in the opening play. The Skins got the first try after a good line break (apologies, can’t remember which HIM scored first as I left it a week before I wrote this), but the Shirts re-grouped and came back strong to score two tries in quick succession. After a high-risk move to intercept the ball by the Skins didn’t pay off (if you don’t catch an interception and fumble it, it means a possession turnover), the Shirts were in a commanding position. In the closing minutes of the game, the Skins had their backs against the wall in defense but held firm to win a turnover deep in their own territory. From this position, Zoolander scored a highly controversial try to level the game in the final seconds. The try was awarded against a fierce appeal from the Shirts about a forward pass…this decision was in no way affected by the fact that the impartial ref had jumped into the game a few minutes beforehand and had started playing on the side of the Skins.
Throughout the game, there was some obvious flouting of the offside rule and a little bit of confusion on the number of touches before a turnover, which wasn’t helped by a very forgetful ref, however we had some great runners of the ball on both sides and, all in all, was very impressed with the ability of the HIMs to pick up the concept of the game very quickly. Obviously a testament to the Q. It was great way to get some good cardio in while having some fun. Next time we’ll be introducing scrums…After a few reminders about time running out, we moseyed back, no passing the ball. No time for any core.
Announcements – Spartan Beast, T-shirt ordering and Bogue Chitto trail run on June 15.
COT – Russo closed us out with a special prayer for Grundy and his soon-to-be new addition to his family.
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The Roger Rabbit, The Sprinkler, & The Running Man – from Steve
What do these have in common? They’ll all be featured in a Russo-choreographed dance routine that his daughter will perform as her first “contemporary” solo with her dance company sometime in 2025. That’s right, few knew it before this moment, but Russo is a regular Bob Fosse (minus all the smoking, drinking, and infidelity, of course).
During the warmorama, we mulled over some of the moves that he had already scratched from his repertoire (Moonwalk, Walk Like and Egyptian – “overused,” “cliche” he says), some that he was on the fence about (Electric Slide, The Snake), and others (The Robot, The Chicken Wing) that he was confident would add texture, but was having trouble working into the routine without making it feel a bit too heavy-handed. Hey, it’s a delicate balance.
Hearing about all this dancing had me jazzed for our coupon beatdown, a retread of something YHC did solo last week:
100 Squat Thrusters (25 reps, x4)
200 Curls (40 reps, x5)
300 Chest Presses (50 reps, x6)In between each set of reps we slalomed the columns (a Russo original, inspired by his love of ski ballet, apparently) over to the stairs for 10x calf raises.
Another talent you may not know about Russo: he can expound upon the technical brilliance of Mad Max Fury Road and also give me the cliff notes to an epic, 4-hour YouTube review of the Star Wars hotel, all the while keeping the rep count in his head. (This seems to be an F3-honed skill that happens once you hit the 7-8 year mark; though Russo, being mathematically minded as he is, was of course on the fast track.)
YHC envisions a day when we might combine the previously mentioned dance moves with our 25 lbs coupons. I mean, hell, I already felt like I was lifting up Jennifer Grey as I was doing the squat thrusters today. Could be a whole new era for F3. Or, at the very least, a new category in the lexicon: 80’s Power Pumps. I know I’d be down for the playlist alone.
COT, and the man himself, Russo, prayed us out. See you gents tomorrow for what we all know will be a punishing beatdown from the tyrants Pickaxe and Chainsaw!
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24152 – Venti – from Sea Man
A mass gathering pushed from RP on the levy route with 2FNGs…and a slew of 2.0s! Welcome new PAX Lois Lane, and Rocket
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TIL YOU cant no more – from Mobydick
Every time I Q I am concerned this 74 yo isn’t going to give the pax their money’s worth. Having been routinely beat down to MY limit by you young punks. So I came up with a plan. After a rather routine warm up of SSH Arm circles toe touches torso twists scissors hops butt kicks etc etc I laid out a simple plan. Each pax was to do each exercise to his limit. Til YOU can’t do any more. That was a short list. Freak Nasty Squats Leg Lifts Merkins. All done slow and complete without concern for count just til there wasn’t any thing left. In between each set of those was a lap. The thang went to 3 sets of limits each a little shorter than the last. Closed out with stretches COT and a prayer of gratitude for the strength we each found with in ourselves.
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On Constancy – from Charmin
This was the first time in a long time where YHC was the only Rucker/ by myself.
Being fine with some alone time, YHC was able to reflect on the benefits on being constant, namely that that is where the benefits come from. YHC doubts that every Pax wants to wake up and post at 5:30 every morning, however, the benefit is that we are able to prove to ourselves that we can step out of our comfort zone and do hard things.
It was also nice to end the workout seeing that Mahatma had joined us part way through the workout. He said that he was listening to a book and that caused him to miss the 5:30 start. What he later revealed was that the book was ‘100 short ways to take a nap’.
COT focused on filling our jars of oil with the time we have and praying for others who need some oil in their jars.
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Standards at the Scramble! – from Shooter
7 HIMs posted on a mild Thursday gloom to get in some work. Arrived with Jose10k getting in some pre work, while Hammer was doing some stretches on his own. Out of the shadows arrives Waterpik with his pre mosey to the Scramble. BD came over through the park with ruck sack in tow, as Chewy walks up with a Ruck as well. . Oh wait, what are these late headlights coming in. Has Cowbell returned? Negative, its Bird rolling in Hot as the warmup is under way..
15IC SSH, Hillbillies, Windmils 10IC Bridges, wife pleasers, glute stretch and hold.
Ruckers 20 out and back, while runners journeyed original route adding an extra loop through the Hermitage. Runners had some time to spare so completed 20IC Elbow to knee left/right, LBCs and 20 Merkins OYO..
Annoucments: BEAST and don’t forget the shirt order.. Hammer has the Q Saturday and PickAxe may be part of the planning so prepare..
Chewy closed us out with COT and until ther next Gloom 👊🏼 👍🏼✌🏼!!
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Your Core Will Thank You Later – from Space Cowboy
Another humid morning at Kennarie Ridge but the PAX showed up promptly at 530 and ready to go for their Wed beatdown. Those participating included our full time Kennarie Ridge residents, Boo Boo and War Eagle, but also some welcomed guests like Pool Boy, Mahatma, and FracSac. At 5:30, I gave the disclaimer and we headed for the pad.
Warmerama
Low squats x10
Grass grabbers x10
Slow Abe vigodas x10
Forward arm circles x 15
Backwards arm circles x 15
Hillbillies x 10
SSH x 20After warmups, we headed to the concrete path that encircles JPAX.
Thang 1 – The concrete path that encircles JPAX consists of 24 total light poles. This workout consisted of 12 separate groupings with each containing a first exercise that covers the distance over 2 light poles along JPAX walkway; and, a second exercise that is performed at the 2nd pole. This process continues every 2 poles (that’s every 2 poles, not 1 pole, Frac) until we completed the path around JPAX.
1. High Knee Claps
Imperial Walkers x 25
2. Lunges
Mountain Climbers 2-1 x 40
3. Butt kickers
Twisted knee taps x 40
4. High Knees
Burpees x 20
5. High Knee Claps
American Hammer 2-1 x 25
6. Lunges
Freddy Mercury 2-1 x 40
7. Butt kickers
Flutter kicks 2-1 x 40
8. High Knee Claps
Imperial Walkers x 25
9. Lunges
Mountain Climbers 2-1 x 40
10. Butt kickers
Twisted Knee Taps x 40
11. High Knees
American Hammers 2-1 x 25
12. High Knee Claps
Flutter kicks 2-1 x 40
We completed the entire circle around JPAX with time to spare so we proceeded with Thang 2.Thang 2 – We headed to the front of JPAX where we commenced with 11’s consisting of Box Jumps and Marine Burpees. Unfortunately, we had to cut it short due to time but we completed at least 7 rounds (Mahatma was the lead).
Headed back to flag. COT. -
It’s good to be back with the Gipper’s!! – from Shooter
With the summer season here and the opportunity to post again at the Gipper.
YHC figured the best way to do it would be to take the Q. Jose 10k head locked YHC for the pre-miler but you better not be on time or your late is what I gather as he was already moseying when I arrived. Stated a quick GM and hello to Moby while he was planting the flag and off I went to try and catch Mr. Anderson.. Before the turning point joined up with Jose 10k and returned to the AO with the PAX now at 4. Jumped into our warmup of 15IC Imperial walkers, Hillbillies, SSH, Grass grabbers, Toe Touches, Cherry pickers, front claps. 10 OYO arm circles forward and reverse and finish with selflove..
Plan was to touch all the memorable spots around on Covington with some reps along the way. First stop SB admin building with a series of hop scotch and back pedal, 30-40% sprints and Carioca back 2x, leg lunge 2 parking spots and bunny hop 2 R/R till the end.. Moseyed to the flag pole for AL Gore and some George Thourogoods while we completed a ring to 5 of 8 count bodybuilders. Moseyed to the backside of Justice center.. Partner 1 did stated exercise with the benches while Partner 2 moseyed up the steps and completed a Burpee. 2 rounds each of jump overs, Freak Nasties and bench Mountain climbers. Moseyed to the front of Justice center for step ups P1 and P2 up the steps for choice of 5 count Merkins 2x.. Time of 10 mins remaining had to make sure to get in the Rocks so moseyed over and instructed medium rock or the option of a cylinder block. Overhead press 20x, Curls 20x, Rows 20x and Chest press 2x 40 reps each.. Returned coupons and moseyed back for 3 mins of Core. LBCs, Flutter kicks and 💯s 100 OYO..Appreciate the morning with you gentlemen and prayers extended for intentions of BBQs coworker and the loss of his mother, prayers for Jose 10ks coworkers surgery and prayers for Einstein’s son with the closing of his job at the end of the month and the landing of another to come soon…
Always enjoy the gloom with you gents and until the next 👍🏼👊🏼✌🏼!!!!
