Tag: Hokie Pokey

  • The Gap and the Gain – from Triple Shift

    Date: May 15th, 2023
    Location: Rock City
    Weather: 71 % humidity and 75 degrees

    With all the ChatGPT generated backblasts hitting Slack, I wanted to go old school and work on my memory, thinking and writing skills. With Fracsac out of town, he asked me to pick up his Q and I gladly said ‘yes’. My goal for this year is to hit 250 workouts and Q at least 2 times a month. Needless to say, I’m missing the mark. Which leads me to the title of my backblast. I’ll explain at the end.

    Warm-Up: It’s 5:30am, I give the disclaimer and the five core principles. We headed to the rockpile and then out to the football field. Circle up on me and I give instructions that this will be a slow cadence session to focus on the ‘TUT’ or time under tension principle. We start off with 10 – 6 count man makers with the rock. Looking back, I should have made it a 8 count man maker. Next up is 15 – Low Slow Squats, 30 SSH, 10 Peter Parkers (LSC – Low Slow Cadence), 10 Shoulder Taps – LSC, 10 Parker Peters – LSC and finally 10 Floyd Mayweathers – LSC.
    The Thang: Because partner workouts always push us, I start off with Catch Me If You Can around the 400-meter track. Partner 1 runs backwards, and Partner 2 drops and does three burpees and sprints to partner 1 and tags him. They flip flop their exercises until they complete one lap. Plank up for the 6 or pick them up.
    The Thang 2: Partner workout on the football field. Partner one bear crawls out and partner 2 does 5 goblets squats with the rock then runs to tag partner 1. They flip flop the exercises until they get to the other goal line. To get back, partner 1 lunge walks and partner 2 does 10 overhead presses then runs to tag partner 1. They flip flop their exercises until they get back to the original goal line.
    With a little time left, I incorporated a modified Jack Webb with the rock. One hand release merkin with 2 overhead presses with the rock. We work our way up to 5 hand release merkins and 10 overhead presses. Back to the rock pile and just enough time for some Mary in a low slow cadence. 15 Big Boy Sit-ups, 10 Flutter Kicks, 10 Dying Cockroaches, 10 get ups (lie on the ground and get up without using your hands or arms then lay back down). Horses to the barn with Disclaimer as the winner…for now.
    Countoff, Namerama, and COT: Prayed for the men with friends that are ill and the ones that are suffering with loss.
    NMM – I shared some of the insights that I gained from reading the book “The Gap and the Gain”. I for one was always looking to accomplish a goal and when I reached that goal, it never brought lasting happiness. And on the many occasions where I missed my self-imposed goal, I thought of myself as ‘less than’, a failure, not good enough or not worthy. That’s called the Gap. The space between where we want to be and where we are. Simply put, a mindset stuck in the Gap is never a good place. In contrast, the gain is the area where we came from. Your starting line, your starting weight, your starting fitness level, your starting financial situation, etc. Comparison with others breeds discontent. Comparison with where you started breeds hope and contentment.
    Godliness with contentment is great gain – Apostle Paul

    Conclusion: The F3 NOLA workout at Rock City was an incredible experience that pushed us beyond our limits and strengthened our bonds of brotherhood. The combination of challenging exercises, beautiful surroundings, and the unwavering support of our fellow PAX created a memorable and uplifting morning. We left Rock City feeling accomplished, energized, and ready to take on any challenge. (This paragraph is ChatGPT)

  • Some Ran, some rucked, some did knees over toes – from Hokie

    Yep… runners ran

    Ruckers rucked … starting late and then finishing late

    Others explored Knees over toes training

  • No Knees Over Toes Tabata – from Scantron

    Started off with a brief backwards walk around the south end of the track to the parking lot behind the bleachers. Did a short warmup and then mosied over to the small levee behind the admin building.

    We did some up and backs over the levee, with each run ending in some derkins (10, 8, 6, 4, 2).

    That was followed by a Tabata with some complaints about not having a rock.

    6 exercises
    8 rounds of 30 seconds work/10 seconds rest

    Catalina Wine Mixer (complaints lessened after round 3)
    Calf Raises (complaints increased and Bogey tried to calf raise to the beat)
    Forward and Backward Arm Circles, Seal Claps, Overhead Claps (complaints decreased)
    Squats
    Flutter kicks
    Side to Sides up the levee and back (no more complaints)

    This was all accompanied by the following playlist, that when done right, ends with The Final Countdown finishing you out right at 45 mins.

  • Spin the Bottle for Burpees – from Fracsac

    5 Pax kicked off the week right by posting to the Renaissance. With the Q sheet empty, YHC assumed that meant the pax deferred to the site Q. Challenge accepted!

    Warmup facing the bacon with regular stuff and ending with a couple rounds of 15 to 1.
    15 SSH and 1 burpee
    15 squats and 1 burpee

    Today is National Travel and Tourism Day. So we toured the Big lake with the Suck at the flowers followed by Step ups and dips at the boardwalk.

    Moved back to the field for spin the bottle. Cones set up on each end about 100 feet apart. 2 balls and a bottle in the middle. All stand around the bottle while 1 pax spins. Who it lands on has to grab a ball and throw it at a pax. If the bottle is between two pax, each grab a ball. All other pax run in the direction of a goal. If hit, 3 burpees for runners. If miss, 3 burpees for throwers.
    Finish with Sunday mornings and COT

    NMM

    Apparently May 7 is the birthday of New Orleans. Now you know.

    Midway through spin the bottle, YHC gave a pass to burpees for the pax that could say the full name of the inventor of the burpee. YHC was disappointed that nobody knew who he was. 10 burpees OYO.

    The 15 to 1 was to recognize the winner of the Kentucky Derby, Mage, that pulled it off with 15 to 1 odds. Maybe Mage was behind the 7 deaths last week?!?!

    SYITG

  • And on this day…. – from Rudy

    Summertime humidity is rolling in. Gone are the glorious days of winter and spring (there was a spring, right?). 8 PAX started off at 6:30 for what would turn out to be a hot, sweaty celebration day.

    Warm Up: Some slow count stretching, IW and SSH. Get the blood flowing. Get ready. FracSac and Triple Shift attempted valiantly to correct the Q’s cadence calls, but the Q would have none of that.

    PAX – plank up while the Q explains the day. More griping about why the Q doesn’t have to do the planking. Answer: Because I’m the Q.

    The theme for today: On This Day – May 6th.

    Thing 1: Birthday Burpees. There are a wealth of options for celebrating birthdays on May 6th. Sigmund Freud, Orson Welles, Rudolph Valentino, Willie Mays, Tony Blair, George Clooney. But the PAX got to celebrate with Detroit’s own Bob Seger – turning 78 today.

    Q up the tunes, starting with Hollywood Nights. Bob would serenade us throughout the morning.

    EMOM – 78 burpees. 10 per minute for 7 minutes, finish with 8 on the 8th minute. Go.

    Thing 2: Sports! Head out to the field where a baseball diamond was laid out. 90 feet is a lot farther than it looks on tv. What else happened today? (2 penalty burpees for incorrect guesses from the PAX). 1915 – Babe Ruth hit his first home run, guessed correctly by Heisenberg. We’ll take a home run trot… Bear Crawl the bases, 5 burpees at each base. Go. (100 burpees – done for the day).

    and what else? in 1954, Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile barrier. Lets run the bases for 4 minutes, see how far you can get. Catfish led the way – getting about 6.5 laps done in 4 minutes. 1 mile would be about 15 laps…

    Onward to the Rocks!

    Thing 3: TV Shows. Pick a Friend (i.e., a partner) — 19 years ago was the last showing of “Friends”. 66 years ago was the last showing of “I Love Lucy”. So for today, Dora was renamed Lucy. 100 lunges, 150 merkins, 200 BBSU. PAX 2 timer – 5 each of overhead press, curl, row, and bench press. Go… (took a bit longer than expected – so we called it when Catfish and Heisenberg hit the finish line.

    Thing 4: Launches! 2002 – SpaceX. 1998 – iMac. We’ll Launch our Rocks. From one tree line – launch the rock, lunge walk to it. Rinse and repeat to the far tree line and back.

    Thing 4a: Failure to Launch – 1934, the Hindenberg. A real Quad Pleaser – 5 sets of 5 reps of Peoples Chair for 5 count followed by squat jump returning right back to peoples chair.

    Return the rocks, and back to the flag.

    COT: Several prayer requests offered. Thanks, Heisenberg for sharing with the PAX and letting us pray with and for you. And for all PAX in NOLA and elsewhere – lets them find comfort, strength and perseverence – through each other, through their faith, through us.

    Great Coffee, especially watching the storm roll through!

  • 70° and a backwards start – from Hokie

    0530 came around to see 10 Pax at El Diablo and all 10 embraced the morning walking backwards as is shown on YouTube in Knees over Toes

    3/4 around the track, 8 of us peeled off to the shelter and Scantron & Rougarou continued on for knees over toes

    The 8 of us embraced more knees over toes calf raises and tibialis anterior training mixed in with sit ups, merkins, shoulder taps, Derkins, lunges, and Bulgarian split lunges

    I love F3 and my F3 brothers

  • Charmin’s Foot Doesn’t Do That – from Bolt

    YHC gave the usual Wally Sprint disclaimer, “Runners run and stretchers stretch; push yourself stretch yourself, don’t hurt yourself. I’m not a trained professional.” Chain Link and Amazon DR from ATL joined the runners and Scantron kicked off the stretchers with knees over toes followed by stretches from yours truly. We discovered Charmin’s foot does not go vertical while in the runners stretch and we allow him to keep coming back anyway. We won’t leave you behind and we won’t leave you where we found you. We will, however, tease you relentlessly; where is Rudy when you need him!?

  • 6.7.6 – tibialis anterior mountain – from Hokie

    At 0600 there wax No Q so I took it

    At 0630 We started with 6 Pax on a Glorious beautiful Sunday morning and we finished with 7 (I know it is hard to believe anyone would be late in this group 😜) and we finished with 6 at coffee (Mayham had to go pack for Hawaii). Thus 6.7.6…

    The Thang

    Start with tibialis anterior exercises and then climb a mountain of reps and finish with tibialis anterior exercises and Sunday mornings.

    For more info on tibialis anterior exercises search Knees over Toes on YouTube:

    Tibialis raise x 20
    45° calf raise x 20
    KOT calf raise x 20

    The Mountain

    1 Burpee
    10 Merkins

    1 Burpee
    10 Merkins
    25 Step-ups (2 is 1)

    1 Burpee
    10 Merkins
    25 Step-ups
    50 Reverse Lunges

    1 Burpee
    10 Merkins
    25 Step-ups
    50 Reverse Lunges
    75 Air Squats
    100 Sit-Ups

    1 Burpee
    10 Merkins
    25 Step-ups
    50 Reverse Lunges
    75 Air Squats
    100 Sit-Ups

    Mosey to back of NOMA

    Tibialis raise x 20
    45° calf raise x 20
    KOT calf raise x 20

    SUNDAY MORNINGS!

    Thanks for opportunity to lead