‘Merica

Q:  Fish Fry

AO:  Patriot

The scene:  About 70 degrees, way humid and wet from storms last night

Pax:  11 Pax strong today with Fish Fry, LaForge, Moonshine, Vegan, Bone, Sunshine, Kodachrome, Dr. D, Jenner, Major Payne, Lazlo

Warmup:  Slow squats, seal jacks, lunge into warrior position, lunge into triangle stretch

The Thang:  YHC led the bold warriors through a workout of various Americana/patriotic songs to get us ready for celebrating Independence Day.

We began with an homage to the great American hero story of Rocky IV of Rocky avenging the death of his friend Apollo Creed by the evil Ivan Drago.  We reenacted the barn scene in Russia of Rocky doing hanging situps by doing War Hammers in cadence on the upbeats to the verses of “Living in America” by the legendary James Brown, and switching to Dollies on the chorus.  YHC is not sure how Dollies would help defeat Ivan Drago, but it certainly beat down the Pax.  YHC ignored the mumble chatter about the resemblance to jazzercise and moved on to the next number.

R.O.C.K in the USA by John Cougar Mellancamp was up next.  As before, exercise in cadence to the upbeats.  Aussie pullups on the bike rack to the verses and dips on the chorus.  From the bike rack, we moseyed to the benches for the next round.  Once we rearranged the benches, The Boss paced our workout of Split Squats into Derkins.  Though YHC could not keep up on the Derkins, he miraculously could keep the count to lead the brave men through the song.  Perhaps we need a new saying that those who can’t do, lead.

At this point, the workout strain was building up,but the crew was ready to go.  We broke from the workout in cadence to flat out exercise.  Bear crawl suicides were up next with American Bad A** by Kid Rock playing to provide some motivation for the grind.  Bear crawl to the first mark and then burpees, and crawl bear back were the drill.  Suicides started at the 5 year line and increased to the 25 yard line.  Burpees count started 5 and then dropped to 1.  Only a few elite Pax were able to complete the drill.

For the grand finale, just like any good 4th of July ended with fireworks, or “Firework” which was close enough.  Though the concept was incredibly corny, the exercises were anything but.  Returning back to our cadence theme, no American-themed workout would be complete without Merkins.  We did Merkins in cadence with breaks for star jumps on the chorus.  A few 10 counts were needed to get through this song.

We rounded out with some Mary of Freddy Mercuries, LBCs and even more American Hammers.

COT:  The simple thought from the COT came from a pattern that YHC noticed when curating the playlist for the day.   Many of the song reviewed for themes of love of America stemmed from a love of passions people have in America.  Songs honored warriors, praised farmers, partying, singing, faith, and a wide range of other things. From that, it was a good reminder to be about something.  Get up beyond the grind and think above the grind.  What inspires us is what prepares us to live for a greater purpose.