Grip Strength

AO:  The Patriot

QIC: Lucius

THE PAX: Bone; Lazlo; Noodle; Poe; Two Percent

THE WARM UP:

SSH; Windmills; Cherry Pickers; LB Arm Circles; Moroccan Night Clubs

THE THANG:

The PAX split into three pairs, which then took turns transporting a log between two stations.  The PAX performed the following rest exercises at the stations, while waiting for their turn to carry the log:

Rest Station 1 – As Many Sets as Possible:

 – 10 x Man-Makers (two 22-lb pavers, in cadence)
– 10 x Dead Lifts (two 22-lb pavers, in cadence)
– 10 x Mountain climbers (in cadence)

Rest Station 2 – As Many Sets as Possible:

– 10 x Derkins (in cadence)
-10 x Step-Ups
-10 x Dips (in cadence)
-10 x Step-Ups

After returning the log to its resting place, the PAX took to the football field for a Bear-Crawl Suicide (10 yards & back; 20 yards & back; 30 yards & back).

THE MARY:

LBCs; J-Los; American Twists; Freddie Mercuries; Merkins; Side-Shuttle Toy Soldiers; Good Mornings; Flutter Kicks

Requests to rename the QIC were summarily denied.

CIRCLE OF TRUST:

Some say that good things come in threes.  Like logs  and 22-lb pavers, positives can be hard to hold on to.  They require grip strength.  As you go through your day today, try to identify three things that have made your day better.  And if you can’t find three, go make them happen.  Repeat tomorrow.

 

Prep for 9/11 Stair Climb

 

AO: Compound

Prep for 9/11 Stair Climb

QIC: HIGHTOWER 

PAX: HT, NAFTA, Nano, Obadiah, FNG AdMan

Warmup:

25 SSH, Good Morning, hip flexor, down dog & up dog stretches. Followed up with Fellowship jog to parking deck, interval high knees, butt kickers and karaokes.

The Thang:

Once we arrived at the parking deck, YHC explained that our goal was to climb 1,000 steps, roughly half of the 9/11 challenge. Parking deck stairs 7 stories high, 150 steps to get to the top, so the PAX would go up and down 7 times.

Each PAX would lead the group all the way up, then rotate to the back to let the next man lead the next climb. The PAX alternated stretching and cadence count merkins on top of parking deck.

Mary:

Rotate around the circle to lead, including flutter kicks, box cutters, American hammers, LBC’s, and dead bugs.

CoT:

Prayers for PAX and family traveling. NAFTA & Nano families long distance travel.

New shirt order posted on Slack by MajPayne, closes mid Aug.

Bleacher Creatures

AO: The Patriot

QIC: Lazlo

The PAX: Buffet, Dr. D., Lucius, 2%, Vila, Horse Punch, Prenup, Bone, Sunshine, Speedo, JAG

This time of year I start getting antsy for football season to start. So we spent some time in the bleachers today.

WARM UP: SSH; imperial walkers; cherry pickers, arm circles; social lap

THA-THANG: 

-PAX lined up in front of one of 11 stations, plus one runner that starts after station 11. The runner went down the ramp, up/down the stairs, then across the bleachers to relieve station 1. That PAX relieved station 2, and so on. The stations were: walking lunge up/down the bleachers, racoon crawl, toe taps, inverted plank, dips, 2 burpees then up/down the steps, derkins, sit ups (feet under row 2), broad jump up the steps, inchworm, walking plank.

-Next, the crowd got excited and started a wave. PAX lined up facing the field in plank position. PAX at the end of the line did a merkin, then broad jumped over the other PAX to the end of the line. Did this from mid field until we reached the end of the stadium.

MARY: Penguin crunches, toy soldiers, flutter kicks, and LBCs

COT: Keeping the football theme, we read a quote from Lou Holtz: “Winners embrace hard work. They love the discipline of it, the trade-off they’re making to win. Losers, on the other hand, see it as punishment. And that’s the difference.” Nobody makes us get up to meet in the gloom. It’s the discipline that it takes to become a better person. Which makes us all winners in the eyes of Coach Lou, and your QIC.

Foursquare!

AO: The General

QIC: Maj Payne

The PAX: Jag, Two Percent, Sharkbait (2.0)

The heatwave had broken, and temps/humidity were inching downward, which likely contributed to the low numbers for this A.M.’s gloom. The PAX of F3ArlingtonVa enjoy punishment, and when the weather doesn’t bring it, the Q must step up. The following is a mostly accurate recounting of how the Foursquare beatdown transpired.

WU: SSH, IW, LBAC (front and back) right into Sealclaps, BWS and Merkins.  Finish with a lap around the track.

ME: Start with some 40yd lateral sprints. That is, 8 x 5 yd lateral skaters as fast as possible. @2 Percent was really good at these. The rest of the PAX, not quite the same, but we struggled through.

Then mosey across the field toward the stair tower. Stop just outside the stadium for 5 x sets of 10 x Aussie Pushups, then 10 x Merkins.  Keep moving to the stair tower where PAX competed the following pyramid routine: run down 5 x exercise, run up, 5 x exercise, run down 10 x exercise, run up, 10 x exercise, etc. Reps went 5,10,15,10,5. Exercises were BWS at bottom, Merkins up top.

Once complete, mosey on into parking garage for some accelerations up each ramp. Stop at bike rack gauntlet for 2 x bear crawl (down and back) through (under) the bike rack loops. SSH to keep moving once finished the bear crawl.

Onward to complete a lap around the school and back to the stadium for some F3 Foursquare. PAX marked out a boxed area with four joined squares on the field. The “king” serves from square 4. Max one bounce allowed in a player’s box, then he must tap the ball into another players box. If a player misses or has two bounces in his box, he must go to square 1 (AKA the toilet). After each player hits the ball, he must do an exercise. We started with 1 x BWS, evolved to 2 x BWS, and culminated with 1 x burpee, which worked the best.

Mary: around the horn for dealers choice, Jag chose 40 x Freddie Mercuries, Sharkbait led 25 x flutter kicks, Two Percent gave us 50 x lateral plank toy soldiers. YHC concluded with 50 x LBCs.

COT: Always a pleasure to lead this group!! Thanks for coming out today!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to the Apollo – 50th

AO: The Patriot

QIC: Maj Payne

The PAX: Horsepunch, Prenup, Lazlo, Dr. D, Bone, Two-Percent, Tea Party, Subprime, Jenner, Apollo, Vegan, Jag, Lucius

Saturday, marked the 50th anniversary of the first moonwalk. “The Eagle has landed,” said Neil Armstrong on that day, July 20, 1969, and he placed his foot on the moon’s surface shortly afterward.  Today, the 14 PAX honored the Apollo program as a whole, which succeeded in landing the first humans on the moon from 1969 to 1972.

Mosey around the track, interspersed with high knees, butt kicks and karaoke.  Circle up.

  • Side Shuffle Hop x 10
  • Imperial walker x 10
  • LBAC (front and back ) x 10
  • Merkins x 50 SC to honor the 50th anniversary of the first moonwalk.  Broken into 3 sets (30, 10, 10) Rest between sets…or hold plank…if your F3 name is Jag.

Main Event

Apollo 1

The Apollo program had a rough start. The Apollo 1 mission ended in tragedy on February 21, 1967 when a fire in the cabin killed all three astronauts on the launch pad. YHC asked if any of the PAX could name just one of them. Apollo, with what could be seen as an unfair advantage, being an active duty Air Force officer and pilot (and, well, named Apollo), responded correctly with fellow USAF pilot Lt. Col. and Command Pilot Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom. The others were Senior Pilot Ed White, and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee. Rest in Peace brothers. In memory of those three astronauts, we completed a ring of fire with each PAX completing 3 x Burpees.

Mosey over to pick up concrete blocks (AKA payloads). Almost all grab blocks (more PAX than blocks — it’s a good problem to have!) and continue on to the arena.

Space Race

The USA was not the only nation working to get to the moon first, and we were in the midst of a full-on space race with the Soviets now. The Soviets were the first to send   living organisms to the moon and back, including two tortoises, fruit fly eggs, and plants.  the PAX did not know the name of the Soviet spacecraft — the Zond 5.

Split into two groups – group 1 Americans, group 2 Russians, or something like that.

Russians head off into high orbit, which equates to a lap around the arena perimeter. Since we don’t have enough blocks, Two Russian pairs must buddy carry up the stairs and around the perimeter. Americans stay in low orbit for now, and pick up their blocks to execute 5 x curls, 5 x overhead press, and 5 x squats.  Repeat the cycle until the Russians return from their high orbit lap. Flapjack.  Repeato until both groups get to experience high and low orbit twice each.

Apollo 8

America eventually did leave low Earth Orbit. Which Apollo mission?  The PAX did not know and were treated to 8 burpees to help them remember that it was Apollo 8, for the next big Apollo anniversary.

Apollo 8 was the first to leave low Earth orbit, reach the moon and return to Earth. The three astronauts aboard orbited the moon 20 times before returning triumphantly to Earth. To honor this, PAX split into groups of 4, with three astronauts and a command module.  Command modules bearcrawled, and astronauts secured payloads over their heads for the walk to the moon (near Samara). Switcheroo as necessary, because no one wants to be a bearcrawling command module the whole time,  Once at the “moon,” complete 20 Burpees OYO in honor of the 20 moon orbits.

Apollo 11

Mosey onward to the basketball court for the grand lunar landing itself, Apollo 11. Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and one more flew this mission. Who knows? The PAX were not up on their Apollo trivia this day, and failed to guess Michael Collins.

To commemorate, the PAX completed an Elevens sequence across the width of the basketball court, frolicking as though in 1/6th Earth gravity. 10 hand release merkins on one side, skip to the other side, and 1 jump squat on the other, and so on. Skipping is harder than it looks in full Earth gravity…

Time to circle up for Mary.

Mary – Apollo 17

Given that time had run away from us with all the frolicking on the lunar surface, we stayed at the basketball court to commemorate the final Apollo mission, number 17. The mission resulted in several records, to include  the longest moon landing and the most lunar orbits (75).  Time was short, so instead of 75 reps, the PAX completed just 17 (in honor of the mission number) heels to heaven.

COT: It’s been 50 years since brave men set off into space to explore the unknown. The obstacles the PAX faced today pale in comparison to what the Apollo astronauts faced, but no matter what, there are always obstacles that stand before us in our pursuit of excellence. Break through those obstacles, whatever they are, and make the world a better place. Be the better father, husband, son, brother, boss or co-worker.  Be excellent and strive to make the world more excellent.  Aye!