Grinding in the Gloom

Location: Gridlock
Date: 2024-02-17
Weather: Real feel in the mid-to-high teens, but no snow on the asphalt so we calling it a solid W

Q: Chewbacca
PAX: 8 – Splitter, Cowbell, Biz Markie , Buffet, Hoser, Axeman, Dr. Quinn, Chewbacca

Warm-O-Rama
Michael Phelps and Arm Circles
Various plank and hip-based yoga-fu
SSH
Mosey up to Coupon Corner

Tha Thang
PAX did a series 20 reps of 9 exercises, all with coupons, to hit upper and lower body (including our rhomboids if you were curious), followed by 40 step-ups on the shelter bench and a mosey around the parking lot. That was Round 1. All got thru 4 Rounds, some got in a 5th Round and maybe a little extra.
Approx. 720 reps, plus 160 step ups, and a little over 1 mile running.

To kick off COT a word was shared about it being better to thank God for what he does through you than to compare yourself to others or take too much stock in abilities, numbers, and assume a likely success. The root of this came from when King David fell to the temptation to count his many armies and rely on that strength. God put him back in place with losing the next battle! We should always give God the credit, even for what we may feel we do by ourselves.

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We Rucked Around, and We Found Out

Location: Gridlock
Date: 2023-11-06
Weather: Great – Low 40s and Clear

Q: Chewbacca
PAX: 5 – Muck, Sous Vide, Buzz Kill, 49er, Golden Shower

Warm-O-Rama
Various upper body static stretches, and few bend-and-hangs, couple of leg ones for the hams & calfs, then a little dyno-circle time for butt kickers and high knees

Tha Thang
At scoreboard hill we attempted an overzealous round of “21” (instead of ‘11’) and we found out the smarter, time-honored number of ‘11’ is used for good reason, especially with ROVS – “Rucks Of Various Size”:
BOTTOM: deep squat

Bernie up the hill>
TOP: Curls
rifle carry down the hill>
Switched halfway to Bent Over Rows at the Top and simple walk up/down
Modified with a halt for time when pax hit 10 count of Squats at the bottom.

Misc rucking around tennis court steps and then out to street.

INDIAN Lunge WALK in Street
Single file
Back caught up to front doing a rifle carry of their ruck
Rounds: 2

Shelter STEP UPs
Every 25….STOP…
….do 10 FLUTTER Kicks (4 count) holding ruck in cadence
Rounds: 2
Used this time to talk up Chad 1000 and what approach pax could take (slick with no weight, 20#-45#, partnered, etc.)

Rucked “over the river and through the woods” back to path and then to the parking lot.

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Wet Wookie Walking WO

Location: Sherwood
Date: 2023-10-20
Weather: Low 50’s and light rain

Q: Chewbacca
PAX: 3 – Buzz Kill, Jello Shot, Chewbacca

Warm-O-Rama
Not much. We rucked up and did lunge walks, knee pulls, and open gates as we headed to the street.

Tha Thang
Mumble rucked around the far side of stadium until we got to amphitheater-type stairs near Gate 1.
Did a series of exercises w/o rucks: burpees, incline merkins up the stairs, LBC, Freddy Mercury’s, derkins down the stairs, then curls and rows with rucks.
Then mumble-rucked the other king way around and stopped to do a few high step ups near the planters and then kept going back to the parking lot.
Got back with 5 min to kill so we did modified Mary focused on upper body
Closed out with some nice crisp SSH.

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Deck-O-Death, the Shawshank edition

Location: Gridlock
Date: 2023-10-14
Weather: 62 :clear,drizzle,rain,drizzle,more rain, then heavy rain back at the flag. 🙂

Q: Chewbacca
PAX: 16 – Axeman, Phalanges, Lincoln Log, Zebra, Flu Shot, Hoser, Wally World, Baby Driver, Incognito, Splitter, Molar, Radio, No Mas, Morpheus, The Count (DR), Chewbacca

Warm-O-Rama
Various stretchy things, including a few yoga-type thangs, followed by Dynos in a circle, then Mosey to Tennis Courts

Tha Thang
We divided into 4 groups at the corners of 2 combined courts with each group/team having a different suit of cards to create 4 stations (cardio, upper body,abs, lower body).
– teams rotated thru each station drawing a card and doing the exercise (reps were +10 to the card value, and 25 for face cards)
– when teams got back to their starting spot they instead went into the middle space between courts to do the “Ace in the Hole” which each had 100 reps
– when a team turned over a Joker (traditional) then everyone stopped and did 25 burpees, or a “Sad Clown” Joker had all Pax get on the line and sprint down to the very far end of all the courts

Quick Inspirational/Challenge Note:
For me, the rain made it awesome and memorable and reinforced one of the unique aspects of an F3 principle. Always being outside requires extra grit…it’s that sometimes hard to define quotient that had accelerated my servant leader growth.
To others, it may have sucked.
But it struck me that it’s a great analogy for life. When something hits you, rain or otherwise, do you brace for it and become trepidations or frustrated? Or embrace it? Squeeze out the value from it (like several of us had to squeeze out our shirts before North Lime)!

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Ah…rennet what 40 degrees feels like?!?

Location: Gridlock
Date: 2023-10-07
Weather: In the 40’s

Q: Chewbacca
PAX: 14 – 49er, Axeman, Buffet, Bam, Bo (DR), Chewbacca, Dr. Quinn, Lincoln Log, Molar, Muck, No Mas, TStark, Sous Vide, Wally World

Warm-O-Rama
Some stand around stretches, some Dynos, then follow the leader up thru the parking lot with different running motions

Tha Thang
4 rounds, all the same exercises in descending rep count (20,15,10,5) of the following 10 thangs:
-curls, sumo, calf raises, overhead press, rows, flutter kicks, press, skull crushers, American-hammers…and one other one I can’t recall!
-then rounds of step-ups:40,30,20,10
– finish the round with a s
All lap on 1 level of the parking lot, repeato

Perfect for a weekday…but to fill the time on a Saturday the pax could either star on Round 1 again, do 50 more step ups and a lap, and Somme turned the lap into a little sprint contest complete with trash talk…it was glorious

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Bengals,Buffet, and Booger Eaters OH MY!!

Location: Gridlock
Date: 2022-12-31
Weather: Drizzle fo shizzle, but then nothing but “Clouds in My Coffee”

Q: Chewbacca
PAX: 12 – Steve-O, 49er, Incognito, Radio, Axeman, Oshag, Santa’s Little Helper, Sous Vide, The Janitor, Splitter, Buffet, Chewbacca

Warm-O-Rama
Got started with assorted Arm Exercises and then Dynos such as Frankensteins, Butt Kickers and High Knees

Tha Thang
Mosey to Tennis Courts
Pax lined up and moved across 6 courts, doing a different exercise for each – spelling out B (burpees), E (empire walkers), N (no surrenders), G (good morning abbeys), A (alligator merkins), L (lunge walks), S (squat jumps)…then repeato back to starting line.

Mosey to Football Field for “Nickel Package”
Partner up for 5 turns each of coupon exercises and run down/up short hill while partner does
B – Big Bicep Curls
U – Upright Rows
F – 2×2 for two “Fs”: burpee, 2 merkins, 2 mtn climbers
E- Elf on the Shelf
T – T-merkins

Gorilla Complex
8 curls, 8 high lifts, 8 overhead press, 8 tris, 8 merkins, run down/up hill
Pax was so fast we did it twice! (adding in a Bernie version)

Then we had fun…
Pax played Ultimate Football with rotating call outs of fumble exercises for approx 4, 5 min qtrs

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180 degrees is Half Way around the Sun

Location: Gridlock
Date: 2022-02-26
Weather: About 28 degrees, w/ a little breeze

Q: Chewbacca
PAX: 13 – 49er, Country Road, El Fed, Geppetto, Incognito, Lansbury, Slick Willie, Raquel, Peach Fuzz, Sous Vide, Zebra, Chewbacca, Lincoln Log

Warm-O-Rama
Michael Phelps
Arm Circles
Tricep Pulls
Side Lunge
Runner’s Stretch
Dynos of Frankensteins & Quad Pulls

Tha Thang
We did 6 different thangs…tied to Q’s six-month anniversary of posting.
#1: Burpees, Squat Jacks, Big Bobby Hurleys, and a few T-Jacks…all at different times to different lyrics as we started with “Thank You, Lord” before a Mosey to the field
#2: Bear crawls across short field, crab walk back, then mash-up of No Surrender/Duck Walk forward, then the same backwards
#3: Pax completed a full cycle of moving-inclined-Merkins as they moved side-to-side down a line of coupons, Bernie to the end of the line, and go again until back at your starting coupon
#4: Wookie-Wannabes (variation on man-makers)
– burpee w/ coupon
– standing tricep extension w/ coupon
– squat thrusters w/ coupon
– toss coupon over back of head
-SSH and turn around for 1 full rep x 20 reps
#5: Dora 180’s
Pairs of HIMs complete 180 Saturday Nights (1 is 2 w/ coupon) and take turns Moseying down scoreboard hill and doing 40 LBCs at the bottom
#6: 180 degree Coupon Swings
Pairs of HIMs stand back-to-back and sharing 1coupon pass it clockwise after doing a full motion coupon (kettle bell) swing x20; switch to counter-clockwise rotation for another x20

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Coach Chewy’s Super Bowl 56 Prep Party

Location: Gridlock
Date: 2022-02-12
Weather: 32 w/ high overcast…dry ground…perfect

Q: Chewbacca
PAX: 13 – 49er, Axeman, Chewbacca, Country Road, El Fed, Geppetto, Hertz, Incognito, Muck, Possum, Radio, Sous Vide, Raquel

Warm-O-Rama
Frankensteins & Buttkickers x2
Arm Circles
Heisman Hops (3 each side – hold and crunch when you’re in that classic pose)
Then…
Fast-feet & Up/Downs, changing direction based on Q’s whistle and call outs…done for the length of THE Monday Night Football song by Hank Williams, Jr.
Mosey to the field

Tha Thang
Divided Pax into two groups: X’s & O’s
X: move around perimeter of the field (with HIM in the lead deciding to Mosey, Bernie, Karaoke, etc. stopping at each light post. Each stop had different letter with an exercise: B-I-N-G-A-L-S
Burpees, Inch worms w/shoulder taps (disclaimer: there was no good “E”), Never Cross Dolly, Air Dramas, Lunges, Sumo Squats – 6 reps each for a “pick 6”. Team keeps going until whistle.
O:
Mosey or Jailbreak etc to the end of the field, running back after each exercise. Use coupons to do 7 (for a TD & PAT) reps of 8 exercises (7×8=Super Bowl 56). The exercises spell out alternate spelling of an end zone showboat dance: S-C-H-O-B-E-R-D for the following:Squats, Curls, Heisman Hops, Overhead press, Brench press, Elf of the shelf, Row, Dips (alternating single leg)

Each team did 2-3 full rounds. All exercises done as a team in cadence.

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