Author: ragdoll

Posted on

For Bruce And Country

It’s 4th of July week and 11 PAX gathered by dawn’s early light for a USA themed workout powered by American icon Bruce Springsteen.

But first, preparty: Stats led Staples, Ragdoll, CheezWhiz, and LMP in a mini-Murf.  1/3 mile run around the track with five sets of 5 pull-ups, 10 Merkins, 15 squats. Ragdoll skipped the run, CheezWhiz dribbled in halfway through, and Little Miss Piggy squeaked in a set at the end.

PAX: Inspector Gadget, CheezWhiz, Little Miss Piggy, Stats, Staples, FNG Bob Barker (Jason), Nimbus 1500, Show Me, Mickey Mouse, Tebow, Ragdoll (Q).

I fire up “Born In The USA” and we do a quick stretchy warmup of cherry pickers, high leg kicks, good mornings and toe touches. Then we trot off to the edge of the parking lot.

Thang 1: Cold War Apocalypse
The Yurpee is a #F3Nolensville plyometrics variation of a burpee inspired by Russian Olympic trainer Yuri something-or-other. Handclap merkin + 2 tuck jumps.

In this epic battle of USA vs the Commies the PAX sprint on command from one edge of the parking lot to the other, approx 40 yards, and perform 9 Yurpees.

Then a quick mosey back to the other side of the lot where they perform 1 WWI, 1 American Hammer, and 1 Merkin (American Push-up).

Since this is an Apocalypse, on the next round we do 8 and 2, then 7 and 3, and so forth … I’m sure you understand math.

On the second round Little Miss Piggy says “this is gonna suck”. Don’t blame me, blame the Russians.

Fittingly, the last sprint is to the Boss’s soaring anthem “Born To Run”. We end with 1 Yurpee and 9 WWI, 9 American Hammers, and 9 Merkins. USA wins. Communism defeated. Mosey to the picnic shelter.

Thang 2: Smokey Mountain National Park
In homage to the great state of Tennessse and our national park system, PAX split into 3 groups and each move a picnic table to the grass, aligned bench to bench, spaced about 12 feet apart. We are going to traverse the Smokies.

Each group at their table performs:
– 5 Irkins on the ascending bench
– 5 Box Jumps
– 5 Angle Grinders on top of the table (very little room up there for this)
– 5 Derkins on the downward bench, and
– 5 4-count mountain climbers in between current table and the next table

Rinse and repeat, traversing each table. When a team finished the last table in line, instead of mountain climbers they bear crawl back to the first table.

We’re through hiking the Appalachian Trail, so do another round of all three tables. Air is getting thin at this elevation. Hard to do the angle grinders. Q needs a louder speaker. Can’t hear Bruce.

We’ve run out of time for my Thang #3, which was F3 Baseball. Bummer. So to kill the last 5 minutes we go bear crawl the bridge, just because we can. On the mosey back, Tebow and Nimbus get into a scientific discussion about how it’s harder to breath in the summer because trees are green.

Nameorama / COT
Welcome FNG Bob Barker (Jason). Gosh, the fog of war must have been thick because we thought about that name way too long.

Lifted up our injured brothers as well as those with sick family members. Prayers for a safe and relaxing 4th of July weekend.

Announcements

  • Independence Day CSAUP set for 7/4/19 @ 5:30am. Hero of the Day Workout. There’s been a lot of grumble chatter about the time, but NumbTucks says heroes get up early and so should you.
  • NightPath: free Ruck CSAUP July 27 with F3Franklin. Talk to Third Degree for more info.
  • F3Dads Camp in Tennessee in September!!!

 

 

Posted on

Old Fashioned Beatdown

PAX: 3rd Degree, Stats, Show Me, NumbTucks, Ragdoll (Q)

Let’s talk for a minute about poor life decisions.

Staying up until midnight the night before your Q because of a work function is a poor life decision.

Drinking too much whiskey at said work function the night before your Q is a poor life decision.

Performing a PT test with 3rd Degree in the minutes before your Q is a poor life decision.

Q did all of these things. I make poor life decisions.

PRE-PARTY AND SUCH
Round about 4:58 I look at the radar and see the rain has stopped and ol’ sparky has moved east, so we’re go for launch. Sitting at low 70’s, humid. Soggy ground. Muddy pavement.

Now here’s how this went down.

I show up at 5:15 to lay down some cones for our running Thang. But 3rd Degree is sitting there all lonely with no one taking him up on his call for a pre-party, sadly unrolling the shovel flag, and shuffling his soggy Deck Of Death from Tuesday’s workout.

So I guilt myself into this thing and agree to 2 minutes AMRAP pull-ups, followed by 2 minutes AMRAP merkins, followed by 2 minutes AMRAP situps. So I blow my arms out on the first two, and get about 90 seconds into the situps and just start laughing because I’m so miserably bad at them.

It’s 5:31 so 3D and I head back to the parking lot to meet up with Statsy and NumbTucks. Show Me pulls in late and parks his big black pickup truck about as far away from the group as possible. We wait for him while he huffs it in from Smyrna.

Disclaimer doesn’t need to include lightning but does include that I drank Old Fashioned’s last night, to my great detriment it turns out. We Side Straddle Hop to 20. We stretch thine legs. We mosey to the track.

THANG 1: Mile Run with Sprint Segments
3x around our humble track is a mile. I’ve placed cones at two segments within the track, marking a distance of approx. 20 yards. During these segments the PAX are to sprint.

We crank out 40 merkins in cadence. And then we run. Plank and wait for the 6 when you’re finished with a mile.

Q is the 6. I blame the Bulleit Bourbon.

They also did not plank for me. Though they did wait, so I can’t complain.

THANG 1.5: Lunge Walk
Must get to the bridge. Bridge is a quarter track behind us, so we lunge walk thata’way.

NumbTucks takes off like a scared kitten in a lightning storm. Says he hates lunges so he wants to get them done fast. Omaha about halfway there because lunge walking is silly. We mosey the rest of the way.

THANG 2: Crawl The Bridge
Simple rules. Bear crawl the bridge. Special request from 3rd Degree.

Turn around and do it again. This time Q says you will Crawl Bear the bridge, but also need to spend some distance Crab Walking it.

All those without alcohol in their bloodstream do Bridge & A Smidge. Go you!

Q requests a 12 count from Stats, because he wants 2 more than 10.

THANG 3: The Liberal Leap
To the tune of the recently-released Armin van Buren remix of Van Halen’s “Jump”, the PAX hold Al Gore position for the duration of the song. Each time he sings “JUMP!” the PAX squat jump.

Song is 3:40 and includes 40 squat jumps. 3rd Degree reviewed it on Yelp! as “Suitably miserable” or “Delightfully awful” or something … he didn’t like it. Or maybe he did. I don’t know.

THANG 4: Timekiller
Back to the pain ground for:
– 10 Under-(mud)doggies
– 10 Derkins
– 10 Copenhagens
– 20 Flutter kicks
– 20 American hammers

NAMEORAMA & COT
We prayed for all our F3 brethren, both present and in absentia. We prayed for strength in our families, and wisdom in career choices, and hope within our relationships of friends and community.

We reminded each other that when you step into the boxing ring, you’re gonna get some punches and bruises. But life takes place inside the ring. Be the man in the arena. Be present. Be involved.

POST PARTY:
Numbtucks, 3rd Degree, and Ragdoll did 12 Yurpees while Stats and Show Me went to snatch my cones (thanks guys).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to the PAX for their patience with me this morning. I had actually planned for a 2nd mile run and a good deal more merkins but my poor life decisions stunted my capabilities this morning. Thanks for pulling me along and leading the leader. You guys are da’ best.

Posted on

Ragdoll’s 1 Year Anniversary Q at The Pound

16 PAX bearly had any fun today as they celebrated Ragdoll’s 1 Year F3 anniversary. But my goodness, could conditions have been any more perfect?

Here’s what went down…

Preparty: Stats on point for a bear crawl / crawl bear bridge preparty.

PAX: Swinger, IG, Typo+, Stats, Nimbus1500, Mickey Mouse, Altidore, Kermit, Mufasa, Scrooge, Tebow, Staples, MicDrop, Hush Puppy, Netflix, and your faithful Q Ragdoll.

Warm-up: 

  • 20 Side Straddle Hops
  • Good mornings and hamstring stretches
  • Toy Soldiers (high leg kicks), 10 each leg

The Thang

From the parking lot, we mosey across “The Bridge” which has all the HIMs breathing a sigh of relief. Kermit is shocked… “twas a perfectly good bridge,” he says.

Oh what Kermit doesn’t know.

For the past year, the Nolensville Park bridge has been a symbol of my pain and weakness. Today that ends.

We partner up, as F3 leaves no man behind. Today we will encourage each other throughout the entire workout. And then we bear crawl the bridge.

Next we line up by our partners to do a Catch Me If You Can Indian Run. As the crew runs around the track, the last partners in line will drop to do 5 merkins, then sprint to the front of the line, tapping the last partners in line who then drop for their 5 Merkins. So on and so forth, we circle the track for .3 miles until we’re back to the bridge.

Now it’s time to crawl bear the bridge. “Why is doing this thing backwards so much harder?” Swinger asks. “Because bears weren’t made to crawl backwards,” I say.

Now back in the Feed Mill parking lot we line up for a quick Parking Lot Shuffle. Still in pairs we drop to do 1 Merkin at the top of the parking space, run to touch the curb, then backpedal to the top of the space to our right. We do this all the way around the lot, about 20 spaces in total.

We plank and wait for the 6, and then get on our backs for 20 counts of flutter kicks.

Oh look! A bridge! Time to teach that bridge who’s boss and bear crawl it. Kermit is shocked… “I think that bridge owes Ragdoll money,” he says.

We Al Gore while we wait for the 6, then line up for another Catch Me If You Can run. I forgot to give instructions, and somebody gets angry at somebody else for asking the Q what exercise they’re supposed to do while we run. It’s 3 Burpees this time.

We circle the track, another .3 miles. I’m pretty sure the crew started picking up the pace as we got close to that bridge, but sure enough — speed bump time.

You know what to do. Crawl bear that sucker.

Gosh darnit, we’re at time already. We mosey back to the parking lot and do a few high planks and one arm planks to close out the morning. Strong work everyone!

Encouragement

I think we all love and hate the Nolensville Park bridge.  I know for me it has been (more often times than not) a clear marker of my weakness.

But as I told the kids at F3 Dads on Sunday, it’s not about how fast you do an exercise, how many times, or even what form you do it in. There’s always going to be someone next to you who can go faster, do more, or perform better.  Rather, it’s about giving it your best each time you’re out there.

If you try your best today, your best tomorrow will be even better.

A couple weeks ago I bear crawled the bridge for the first time without taking any breaks. It took me nearly an entire year to accomplish that!

I know Scrooge had a breakthrough today as well and got through the whole bridge without stopping. Nice!!

Change happens one step at a time. You can only reach your goals by continuing to put one foot in front of the other.

You guys are all doing great, and every morning you’re out there you’re getting stronger and faster and making yourselves better. Keep putting one foot in front of the other.

COT

  • Scrooge’s mom is undergoing two biopsies. We pray for a good report and continued strength through a difficult season.
  • Lifting up a local Nolensville family who lost their husband/father in a tragic accident recently.
  • And continued prayers for Soccer Mom and his family as they spread the good word in Africa.

Announcements

  • Staples and Numbtuck’s smoker will be hosting a Brisket Fest this Saturday, 6:00pm at Staple’s house. Hit up Slack for details.
  • Monday morning there will be dual Memorial Day events happening:
    • Brentwood YMCA: Preparty Murph, Hero of the Day Workout 6-7, then Ruck Post-party.
    • Nolensville Park: Murph Challenge @ 6:00am

  Postparty

Was gonna be led by Kermit, but then Nimbus called audible and ran to his car to get his ruck. Then he brought Mufasa, Mickey, Kermit, Ragdoll, Stats and Altidore to the football field for a partner drag, 50 yards each partner. At this point Stats and Altidore looked at each other and determined this was a ridiculous idea and went back to get coffee. Then we did a 50 yard partner carry back to the starting goal line. Then we bear crawled some more. But Nimbus had no partner, so he just carried his (much lighter than my partner) ruck the whole time. I don’t know … I think Stats and Altidore had the right idea.

Proud to lead you all this morning, and thankful for the brothership we have to encourage one another and push each other to be stronger physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

~ RagDoll

Posted on

47 Attend the Inaugural F3 Dad’s Event at Nolensville

PAX: TV Guide, Altidore, Tap Out, Playboy, Swinger, Centerfold (FNG), Cheez Whiz, Typo+, 3rd Degree, Hot n Ready, Toad (FNG), Tiny Dancer, MicDrop, Staples, Oil Slick (FNG), Hush Puppy, RagDoll (QiC) and all our kids.

Today we learned about and practiced the core ideals of F3:

  • Fitness, Fellowship & Faith
  • Doing your best (even if you can’t do it the fastest or the mostest)
  • Leave no one behind
  • To lean on our friends and trust those who have our backs

Things even us grown-ups need to be reminded of daily.

Warm-up: 

  • 10 Side Straddle Hops
  • 10 Deep Squats
  • 6 Broad Jumps – Forwards & Backwards
  • 10 Merkins

Then we put them all together and shook them all about in sequence:

3 SSH + 3 Squats + 3 Jumps Forward + 3 Jumps Back + 3 Merkins

Thang 1: An Indian Run that Came Undone

We all lined up, dads with 2.0’s by their side, to do an Indian Run around the track.  Well, that was the intention. We started to run but I don’t think any families made it from the back to the front of the line.  Oh well. We tried. 

We did get a little jog in though, so that’s good enough.

Speed Bump: I have a 2.0 named Jedi Shark. His favorite exercise is the burpee, so we showed everyone how, and then did a few of ’em.

Then we ran back to field for Thang 2 where the rain let up!

Thang 2: A Beary Fun Relay Race

Two teams were created. Each team divided in half and lined up across from each other, about 20 yards apart. On Q’s command, the two teams relay raced each other.

Each family moved together, dad’s bear crawling while kids one-foot-hopped across the field. We reminded each other that we never leave anyone behind. Kids, stick with your dads and make sure he completes those bear crawls!!

Thang 3: Choose Your Own Exercise

Next we circled up and each family collectively chose an exercise for the group to perform. While the group performed the exercise, it was the dad’s job to run around the circle as fast as possible carrying all of their 2.0’s.

We did side straddle hops, and burpees, and planks, and merkins, and imperial walkers, and WWI’s, and American hammers and a number of other things that made us all tired.

Props to Hot N Ready who had the bulkiest load with 3 kids on his back at once.

Game Time! Sharks & Minnows

We split into two teams, lined up across from each other on the field about 30 yards apart.

One team was called sharks. The other team was called minnows.  On the shark’s command, minnows had to run across the field without getting tagged by a shark. If they did get tagged, then the minnow became a shark on the next pass.

The sharks gave quite a show of force and tagged all but 5 of the minnows. After a few rounds of this our fishing expedition was done and we called it a day.

COT & Nameorama

We chatted about how we all need friends in our life that we can trust – who will have our backs when things get tough. I’m thankful for my F3 friends and how we live out this charge every week.

We enjoyed getting to know all of our fellow PAX 2.0’s, and named a dozen or so FNG kids  (+ 3 FNG adults). Great job on making it out today and braving the rain!

It was a blast leading your families today! Thanks for the opportunity to share F3 with the younger generation. Can’t wait to do this again soon!!

~ RagDoll

Posted on

Thangs Ladies Love at The Forge

It’s two days post Valentine’s Day and the F3 men of Nolensville gathered at The Forge for an after-VDay support group to learn a little something about romance and the things ladies love.

3rd Degree with an intimate preparty: Numbtucks & 3rd Degree went out for a pre-date doing 10 burpees on the minute for 10 minutes. Precious.

PAX: Tebow, Sterno, Typo+, Show Me, NimbusFifteenHundredSyllables, Barney Fievel, Netflix, Aunt Bea on a scooter, Stats, 3rd Degree, MURSA, Dr. Little Miss Piggy, TV Guide, Old Hickory, Kermit, CheezWhiz, Numbtucks, and RagDoll (QiC).

Warm-up: 

  • 10 Side Straddle Hops
  • Toy Soldiers (high leg kicks) on your own
  • Butt Kicks on your own

Thang 1 that Ladies Love: Chick-Fil-A Parking Lot

If there’s one thing ladies love, it’s Chick-Fil-A.  Any day, show up at Chick-Fil-A between lunch and dinner and it’s slammed with preschoolers and yoga-pants.

So you wanna take your family out to Chick-Fil-A you say? Your lady will love it, but good luck finding a parking spot amidst 900 minivans. For Thang 1 we’re gonna practice parking at Chick-Fil-A … here’s how it works:

  • On one long aisle of a parking lot there are 6 parking spaces marked with cones. In each spot there is an exercise named: 30 Imperial Squat Walkers, 20 Yurpees, 25 Mountain Climber Merkins, 30 Roly-Poly’s, 50 Jump Squats, 20 War Hammers.
  • PAX mosey up the aisle looking for an open parking spot with a cone. If it’s open, one jumps in and does the named exercise.
  • The rest of the PAX continue around the parking lot and go down the next aisle where a mode of transportation is marked: Mosey, Duck Walk, Sprint, Crawl Bear.
  • PAX continue around and around the parking lot, alternating into open parking spots as available, and paying attention to the continuously changing mode of transportation down aisle #2. No double parking!

We do this for about 25 minutes until Meat Loaf is done singing “Out of the Frying Pan.” Everyone did great here and I think all found a parking spot. You’re set to take your family to Chick-Fil-A any day!

Except Sunday of course.

Thang 2 that Ladies Love: Sparking Joy with Marie Kondo

Oh yes, ladies love to organize their house like Marie Kondo. Who’s Marie Kondo you ask, you uncultured neanderthal? Well, ask your significant other – she knows. But for the uninitiated it’s something like this:

  • First you take all your crap out of your closets and dump it on your living room floor.
  • Then you go through each item and decide if it “sparks joy” for you. If it sparks joy, you keep it. If it doesn’t, you throw it out.

Simple, right? See, tuning into your feminine side is not hard gentlemen. Let’s practice.

We line up at one end of the parking lot and Q has a random PAX call out an exercise. We perform a number of them, and then Q has another PAX decide if the exercise sparked joy for them or not. If it sparked joy, we do more. If it did not, we sprint to the other end of the parking lot and still do more. We did things like…

  • Iron Mikes (they sparked joy)
  • Suzanne Somers (she did not spark joy)
  • Lieutenant Dan’s
  • Burpees
  • Merkins
  • Good mornings (thanks Netflix)

Thang 3 that Ladies Love: Remembering Important Dates

Ladies love it when you remember important dates, like their birthday! To practice we’re going to spell out the word BIRTHDAY with exercises.

We go around the circle to celebrate the significant others of our F3 men by remembering their birthday.  For example, I think Tebow’s wife was born on the 26th of some month, so we did 26 Burpees…

  • Burpees
  • Iron Mikes
  • Ranger Merkins
  • Tony Hawk Burpees
  • Hydraulic Squats
  • Duck Walks
  • American Hammers
  • Yurpees

Now, I don’t know why, but you all hooked up with ladies who were born in the 2nd half of the month. We did lots of things. But good for you – you got stronger.

Nameorama

Stoked to have my first FNG naming opportunity this morning as we welcomed Andrew “Scrooge” into our fold. Thanks for coming out brother – well done and hope to have you back soon.  MURSA with the 9th Man – good to have you back friend.

Announcements

Boy you were all chatty this morning. Let’s see if I can remember this…

  • Typo+ will be organizing a 2nd F lunch next Thursday. Details to come on Slack.
  • Stats is organizing a 2nd F outing to the Pistol Range on March 23rd @ 10:00am. Stay tuned for more info.
  • Sterno and Co. are helping us organize donations for refugee students at Tusculum Elementary. They’ll make a 3rd F Costco run for supplies soon – you can participate by sending money via Venmo to @jered-parks (that’s Altidore).
  • F3 Nolensville & F3 Franklin will be hosting a Convergence at Pinkerton Park in Franklin on Saturday, March 9th, 6:00-7:30.  That means no Forge that morning, but let’s all represent Nolensville and skedaddle down to Franklin to meet some other F3 brothers.
  • And MURSA has more gloves than he has hands, so hit him up if you need gloves.

COT

  • Prayers for Typo+’s mom who is having some reconstructive surgery following breast cancer on Tuesday morning.  Let’s all lift her up this week.
  • Let’s celebrate the new life of 3rd Degree’s 2.4, Coulson! Congrats bro!
  • And Numbtucks is down for the count with a knarly knee. Nice to see some true 2nd F & 3rd F being performed by Dr. Little Miss Piggy on the patient this morning… and some 4th F being performed by the patient. Get better soon dude.

Postparty was a Stats & 3rd Degree 16 rep Sunrise Sampler. Tasty!!

Glad to have you all out this AM! You’re getting stronger, you’re getting faster… and you’re getting dizzier every time you do a Tony Hawk Burpee. Peace!

~ RagDoll

Posted on

Polar Pain

The polar vortex blew in 17 PAX this morning to Broken Wheel where our theme was simply to keep warm and not die of hypothermia. It would have been a very Oregon Trail way to go, but, not on my watch!!

There was a Preparty, but: NumbTucks yelled something grumpy and unintelligible when I asked him what they were doing, so I let it be. To a bystander it looked like sprints between light poles with speed bumps of shivering.

PAX: Nimbus1500, CheezWhiz, Netflix, NumbTucks, Show Me, Creeper, Tebow, MicDrop, Stats, Gaylord Focker, Snowball, Barney Fievel, Steinbrenner (F3 Memphis), Sterno, Kermit, Inspector Gadget, and RagDoll (QiC).

Warm-up: 

  • 40 Side Straddle Hops
  • 10 LBAC’s forwards and backwards in cadence.
  • Stretch out the legs with some Toe Touches, Willie Mays Hayes and Good Mornings, and away we go!

Thang 1: Urban Typewriter

We’ve done the Typewriter a few times before on the glorious Forge football field, but we’re remanded to a parking lot this morning with only parking space stripes to guide us. So we’ll call this the Urban Typewriter.

  • Starting at the edge of the parking lot the PAX perform 10 Ranger Merkins (that’s a Merkin with your arms pulled back toward the bottom of your ribcage)
  • Then duck walk approx 40 yards towards the other end of the parking lot
  • Move forward approx 5 yards and perform 10 Burpees
  • Bear crawl back across the parking lot 40 yards
  • Repeat 10 Ranger Merkins and continue to serpentine your way through the lot, moving ahead 5ish yards each time you cross the lot.

Now, you kids that are over 35 should know what a typewriter is: that old writing machine where you press a key, and a hammer raises to strike an ink ribbon to impress a letter on a sheet of paper. Keys get pressed, the carriage moves right to left, until you get to a new line and it all starts over again.

Well, our typewriter looked more like one of those janky old rusty bits someone dug out of a dumpster behind Goodwill where all the keys are locked up, and you press one key and 5 letters all try to strike the ink ribbon at once, and it ends as a whole gobbed up inky mess that jacks up your paper.

I admit, performing the Urban Typewriter with little more than faint parking lot stripes to guide you is a challenging task, and as Q, I take responsibility for any unclear directions. The function was there – we’ll need to keep working on form.

At any rate, the PAX were breathing hard at the end of 10 passes across the parking lot.

Mosey 1: Catch Me If You Can

We line up for an Indian Run, 1.25 times around the the track. Last PAX in line drops to do 3 Yurpees (check the Exicon, courtesy of F3 Nolensville), then sprints to the front of the line, tagging the last person in line on his way past who then drops to do 3 Yurpees.

Thang 2: Wall Work

We pull off at the Snack Shack to do a Nimbus1500 favorite thing – Wall Walk-Ups. After pairing off…

  • Partner 1 does 5 Inverted Box Jumps (start at the top, jump down), while
  • Partner 2 does as many Wall Walk-Ups as possible (begin in high plank position, then walk your feet backwards up the brick wall of the Snack Shack, then down again).

Rinse and repeat this, increasing the number of Inverted Box Jumps by 5 each set – 5, 10, 15, 20 – until Q calls time or Barney Fievel breaks your phone.

Mosey 2: Catch Me If You Can (Redux)

Those who had already done Yurpees get to start at the front of the line while we continue our Indian Run. We complete another .75 times around the track and then stop off at the picnic shelter.

Thang 3: Arm To Table

We number off in groups of 4, each standing at the corner of a wooden picnic table bench. We do three sets of:

  • 5 Derkins
  • 5 Overhead Presses of the picnic table

I know there was some jealousy for those who didn’t get to do Yurpees on our Indian Run, so after circling up we all do 3 Yurpees together for good measure.

Nameorama / COT

I was impressed to have 17 PAX on what I think has been one of our coldest mornings of the winter so far… even while missing a couple regulars on IR. Great job men!

Creeper gave us a 9th Man overview of his life which included the fact that he is an Eagle Scout, how he started dating his wife when she was but a young intern at a local church (he assures us she was 18 and not his intern), and how he’s a professional wrestling super-fan. Who knew! I honestly don’t think we could handle any more info from Creeper than we got today – mind blown.

Continued prayers for Soccer Mom and fam. Keeping 3rd Degree and his fam in prayer as they prepare for 2.0. And healing for all our injured PAX.

Really enjoyed seeing you all and leading you this morning. Until next time, peace!

~ RagDoll

Posted on

The Jolliest Bunch of PAX this Side of the Nuthouse!

15 PAX shivered over to The Forge this morning to celebrate Christmas Vacation in the snow and cold. 

But first… Preparty: A disappointed Little Miss Piggy and soggy CheezWhiz were bummed to discover no one had planned a preparty, so they made one up. It looked like lunges and toy soldier kicks.

PAX: Nimbus1500, CheezWhiz, Little Miss Piggy, Netflix, Two Star, NumbTucks, Show Me, Creeper, Tebow, Altidore, Typo+, MicDrop, TV Guide, Stats, RagDoll (QiC).

Today’s theme is the 1989 cinematic classic Christmas Vacation, and we’re gonna channel our inner Griswold for the hap-hap-happiest beatdown ever. 

Mosey: 

At 35 degrees with flurries flurrying we hit the pavement to the tune of the movie theme song. We keep it merry with a little winding and jolly zig zagging.

Warm Up: 

Simple warm ups this AM. LBAC’s, forwards and backwards in cadence. Stretch out the legs with some cherry pickers, toe touches, and that move where you reach your arm all the way over your head and down your opposite leg towards your toes. 

Ruby Sues: 

Remember when Clark’s niece showed up and her eyes weren’t crossed anymore? “She falls down a well, eyes go crossed. She gets kicked by a mule, they go back to normal. I don’t know.”

We did about 10 Ruby Sues. They were kinda silly. 

  • From standing position, fall down the well: Drop to the ground into a descended Merkin position. 
  • Then get kicked by a mule: Rise to atomic position and do 4 mule kicks -(each leg straight back, 2x each). 

Thang 1: Cut Down Your Christmas Tree

We gotta select the perfect Griswold family tree. Partner up and form a line. Here’s the routine.

  • First you give your tree some love. Both partners Al Gore for a 5 count. 
  • Next you cut down your tree. Perform 10 Lumber-Plank-Jacks. That’s a Plank-Jack in diamond position (both arms together like the trunk of a tree). I know, it’s a stretch. 
  • Finally you carry your tree back to the car. Partner 1 carries Partner 2 approx 20 yards then mosey back to starting line.

Flapjack this nonsense, alternating partner carries until Q calls time. 

Thang 2: Griswold Family Dinner

Nothing could be quite as awkward and miserable as Christmas dinner with the Griswold’s … except maybe for bear crawling through this wet sludge. But it wouldn’t be complete without Snot the dog tearing across the dining table chasing a loose squirrel. 

So here’s the routine. Partners form a line at one end of the parking lot and then:

  • Partner 1 bear crawls the width of the parking lot (approx 60 yards) while
  • Partner 2 runs like a dog the width of the lot and back, until he’s caught up with the bear crawling partner at which point they switch, and
  • Partner 2 continues bear crawling the width of the lot while
  • Partner 1 runs like a dog, the remaining width of the lot, back to the opposite side and finally back to his bear crawling partner.
  • Flapjack the above until partners have collectively bear crawled the entire width of the parking lot and back.

Rinse and repeat this family dinner, except swap bear crawls for lunges. Then a third time with crawl bear.

 Round about this time we mosey towards the playground until we make a pit stop for…

Sally

This has nothing to do with Christmas. This has everything to do with giving our arms a break for 3 minutes and 26 seconds because we’re gonna need it.

To the song Flowers by Moby, starting from a squat position on every line “Bring Sally up”, rise to a stand, and on every line “Bring Sally down” lower back to a squat.

There’s more squats than stands, I’ll tell ya that right now. It’s good fun. Thanks Stats for the inspiration on this one.

Thang 3: 25 Days of Merkins

Upon passing through the playground fence, whence we PAX did so commence, a Merkin fest so ripe with pain we thought the Q had gone insane. 

To ease the pain, between each 25-rep set of Merkin variations we recovered by recalling one of our favorite Christmas Vacation quotes.

  • 25 Merkins
  • 25 Army Crawl Merkins
  • 25 Derkins
  • 25 Spider-Man Merkins
  • 25 Ranger Merkins

At this point Coach Numbtucks was in full force. Something about his grandma doing push-ups better than Tucker’s present form. Show Me lost his Christmas spirit. Netflix said he hated the Q. 

We forge ahead… 

  • 25 Diamond Merkins
  • 25 Merkin Jacks
  • 25 Travoltas

With mutiny drawing nigh we moseyed back to the parking lot. 

Nameorama / COT

Appreciate your prayers for my (RagDoll’s) family this week as we celebrate the life of my 93 year old Grandpa. We had a safe trip to Nebraska today following the workout and looking forward to some time with family.

Announcements

For those partaking in the Advent devotional, there’s a tentative coffeeshop discussion to chat about the book scheduled for the morning of December 20th (following workout at The Pound).  Stay tuned for more details – NumbTucks on point.

Always a pleasure to lead you gentlemen. Thanks for hanging out this morning – see you soon!

~ RagDoll


This Morning’s Playlist

Posted on

A Get Out The Vote Beatdown at Broken Wheel

14 PAX tagged up at Broken Wheel this morning as Precinct Judge RagDoll supervised an Election Day themed beatdown.

But first… Preparty: 3rd Degree, TV Guide, Creeper, Typo+ and SoccerMom hammered out 5 pull-ups, 10 Merkins and 15 Squats per round. 8 rounds in 9.5 minutes. Good job men!

PAX: ShowMe, MicDrop, 3rd Degree, Typo+, Creeper, TV Guide, Sterno, Hush Puppy, Tebow, Nimbus 2000, Soccer Mom, Inspector Gadget, Stats, RagDoll (QIC)

We all survived the night’s tornado scare and welcomed a slightly less gloomish morning due to the end of daylight savings time. Nice to actually see each other’s faces for the first time in weeks.

It’s 5:30am. 56 degrees. Polls are open. Let’s roll!

Disclaimer:

Warm Up:
We kicked things off with an Indian Run around the track, and let’s keep it patriotic with our Old Glory shovel flag in the lead. 1/3 mile around the track, then back to the parking lot for:

  • A bit of stretching including: Cherry Pickers (4 count stretch bending over at waist and touching ground forward, middle back then stand), next pull your arm over your head and bend to the side toward your opposite leg… I suppose there’s a name for that, but I don’t know what it is. Plus a few other nameless stretches and Good Mornings.
  • 20 Side straddle hops
  • 18 Tempo squats.

It’s 2018 – that’s 242 years of democracy! #America!

Thang 1: The Millard Fillmore
Millard Fillmore was pretty mediocre at most things, namely being a very mediocre 13th President. But there was one thing he did do right.

One day the Library of Congress caught on fire, so old Millard ran from the White House to lead the bucket brigade to save the building. Today we honored the one un-medicore presidential act of #13.

PAX partner-up and line up in the parking lot at the East light pole. Here’s the drill.

  • Politician (backpedal) across the parking lot to the middle light pole (approx 30 yards)
  • First partner wheelbarrows to the North edge of the parking lot (approx 20 yards).
  • At the edge of the parking lot both partners complete 3 Yurpees (Clurpee with 2 tuck jumps = 1). It’s named after a Communist – but you doing them reminds you to be thankful for democracy.
  • Second partner now wheelbarrows back to the middle light pole
  • Continue Politician across the parking lot to the far West light pole (approx 30 yards)
  • Same as before – partner wheelbarrow, 3 Yurpees, wheelbarrow back to the light pole.
  • Now both partners Politician all the way back to the starting light pole (approx 60 yards)
  • Imperial Walkers until all in.

Those proficient in mental geometry and spatial reasoning have recognized we’ve made the outline of an “F” in our Millard Fillmore work. Not everyone got it, and the fire is still burning, so let’s rinse and repeat but this time with 6 Yurpees at each wheel barrow turn. 3rd Degree war cried. Q got tired. Nice work everyone.

Thang 2: Great American 11s
QIC hasn’t been voted out of office yet so we gather at the middle light pole for another celebration of democracy.

Great American 11s are 11s with a decidedly patriotic twist — Merkins / Mountain Climbers, Lame-duck Session Walks, and American Hammers.

  • PAX form a line and perform 10 sets of 3 Merkins + 1 Mountain Climber.
  • Then Lame-duck Session Walk 15 yards (that’s a duck walk 2 steps + a hop forward… like a duck with a broken foot, kinda like Congress after midterms).
  • Perform 1 American Hammer.
  • Immediately go into your next cadence of 9 sets of 3 Merkins + 1 Mountain Climber.
  • Lame-duck Session Walk back to the light pole for 2 American Hammers, and continue on as 11s do.

Who’s a Great American? 14 PAX performing Great American 11s – that’s who!

Mary:
Circle up in the parking lot. On your 6 – we’ve done this routine before!

Keep your feet floating during entire routine: 8 count leg hold, 40 Scissor kicks, leg hold, 20 FlutterKix, leg hold, 20 Toes to the Stars (reverse crunch leg thrusters), leg hold, 20 Freddie Mercuries (bicycles), leg hold. And recover.

We made it fellas. Polls are closed. Time to get your “I Voted” stickers. Actually I don’t have stickers for you… but Tebow brought coffee. Thanks Tebow!

Counterama/Namerama/CoT:
It’s easy to get disillusioned during election season with all the negativity and broken promises. But we live in America and we are free, thanks to the sacrifice of so many men and women who have gone before us. They pledged to each other their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.

So today, enjoy your freedom. Lead with freedom. Worship in freedom. Live your freedom. And get out the vote!

Post-Party: 3rd Degree and Soccer Mom are still hungry for more. ShowMe and RagDoll join in for 6 more Yurpees for America.

Announcements:

Thankful to lead you men today!

– RagDoll


This Morning’s Playlist