Backblasts

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Six Station Siege

AO: the-knoll
Q: Sooie
PAX: Juicy J, Piglet, Siri, AAA, G-string, Wolfpack, Half Lyfe, Roadkill, Pebbles, Sooie, Gold Digger, Legos, Papa Bear, Stubs, Étouffée, Eric Phillips Snapshot (Suncoast), Derby
FNGs: None
COUNT: 17
CONDITIONS: SHORTS IN JANUARY!!!

WARMUP:
– SSH
– BAC
– BBAC
– Seal Claps
– Don Quixotes
– Plank walkout
– Plank -> lunge -> one-hand sky touch thingy
– Good Mornings
– WMH OYO

THE THANG:
Having given the disclaimer and warm up, PAX counted off in by 2 and YHC handed out glow bracelets. 1’s got green (Team Qui-Gon) and 2’s got purple (Team Mace). We then misused to the field of battle where I explained the rules:
Two teams battle to control all 6 stations in a straight line (15 yards apart).
– Capture an uncontrolled station: First team to 50 combined reps of its exercise claims it.
– Hold a captured station: Leave at least 1 PAX (but max 2 defenders) doing SSH or Imperial Walkers.
– Attack: Only adjacent stations. When both teams start repping at the same station → race to 50 combined reps.
– Losers of a contested station sprint ~100 yards out-and-back to respawn.
– Scoring: 1 point when your team controls all 6 stations at once.

Stations & Exercises
1. Burpees
2. Monkey Humpers
3. Squats
4. WW2 Sit-Ups
5. Apollo Onos (speed skaters)
6. Merkins

It was absolute chaos but fun nonetheless. No idea which team won. There was much strategery. Of note: this is the fastest I’ve seen anyone do Monkey Humpers

MOLESKINE:
I spent more time thinking about the rules that I forgot to think about a moleskine. Thus a moleskine was born: don’t sweat the details so much that you lose sight of the big picture. 17 men came out for a wonderful start of 2026!

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
insane_train official launch tomorrow (1/7)! Derby has done an incredible job leading the charge and filling sandbags! Come out and support the launch of Nashville’s newest AO!

leanpax continues

COT:
Prayers lifted and coffee enjoyed.

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1st of the Year

AO: toratoratora
Q: 40 Minutes
PAX: greyalbum, Goodwill, Giving Tree, Hot Route, Space Baby, Ultratecht
FNGs: None
COUNT: 7
CONDITIONS:

WARMUP:

THE THANG:

MOLESKINE:

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

COT:

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New Year, Nw Start

AO: westeros
Q: Vector
PAX: Pep, Michelin Man, Grape, Black Lung, Papa Bear, Squatter, Sherlock, Spinal Tap, Tim the Toolman, Mudflap
FNGs: None
COUNT: 11
2025 is done. 2026 is fresh and new. Leanpax starts today. No better time to celebrate the turn of the calendar. New year, new starts. Let’s hit it HIM.

[Note: as per new WEIGHTSteros AOQ edict, I had to run a workout that used coupons. So use them we did.]

CONDITIONS: Crisp and new.

PLAYLIST:
[Despite accusations that this was created by ChatGPT – Pep how dare you, sir – and that it consisted of songs from CDs that were on the floor of my 1988 Pontiac Sunbird, songs from a diversity of decades motivated the PAX to start anew.]

– New Year’s Day – U2
– I Will Buy You a New Life – Everclear
– New Sensation – INXS
– Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag – James Brown
– Start Me Up – Rolling Stones
– I Want a New Drug – Huey Lewis and the News
– New World Man – Rush
– Begin the Begin – R.E.M.
– Someone New – Hozier
– Brand New – Ben Rector
– New – No Doubt

WARMUP:
SSH x 26, LBAC, Michael Phelps, Sea claps, RLBAC. Then some mild cardio of high knees, butt kickers, sprints. Then grab your coupon and away we go.

THE THANG:
20 reps each of coupon work:
– Coupon squats
– Coupon kettlebell swings
– Coupon presses
– Coupon rows
– Coupon curls
– Coupon overhead presses

Mosey to sign via lunges, then broad jumps.
Rinse and repeat x 4 (?5).
Break to run some sprints to make sure we don’t fall into the Chunks rule (with some age adjusted distances).

One last coupon work – pull throughs x 20

MARY of flutter kicks, prom dates, Freddie Mercuries, Hello Dollys, and low planks.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
– Leanpax starts today! Not too late to join, even if you ate a tub of icing this morning for breakfast.

COT:
– Prayers for work, Grape’s father, CubCadet safe return from PR after flights delayed in the Caribbean, and general cooling of emotions after this weekend’s global events.
– Always great to have Grape back at Westeros . . . I mean, WEIGHTSteros (sorry Michelin Man). Some classic Gilbertisms today including “The only thing new about Huey Lewis is the news” and “20 prom dates? That’s 20 more than I had in high school.”

Honor to lead you HIM – great start to the year. Stay at it.
SYITG, Vec

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5-9 mile Trail Run. 50K Training

AO: nashville-running
Q: Juicy J
PAX: Right Said, Chunks, Squatter, Juicy J
FNGs: None
COUNT: 4 plus 4 legged Luna
CONDITIONS: 34

WARMUP: light stretch

THE THANG: 5-9 mile Trail Run

MOLESKINE: Learned about dogs sniffin butts

ANNOUNCEMENTS: leanPax

COT: great conversation and even better sippin’ on homemade concoction from Squatter for Coffeeteria

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2 Year Anniversary!

AO: the-castle
Q: Chunks
PAX: Horizon, The Merchant, Mr. Pancake, hambone, Pep, Strutter, Cross-stitch, Fabuloso, Squatter, Space Baby, Juicy J, Brown Slip, Butterfingers, Victoria, Fanny Pack, Flipper, Abacus, Diddy Kong
FNGs: 2 Abacus, Diddy Kong
COUNT: 19
Celebrated the 2 Year Anniversary of The Castle’s start as an OTB workout.

Moseyed to the parking lot at the Drakes Creek baseball fields stopping for some Monkey Humpers at the traffic light.

Did some warm up exercises while having some story time about the start of the Castle. Grateful to Cross-stitch and Flipper for planting the seed before we got here. Thanks fellas.

Moseyed around the concession stand. Circled up for the Burpee Apocalypse with a lap around the stand after each set.

Moseyed back to the Startex with some more Monkey Humpers at the light. Then a sprint to the flag.

Finally, 5 mins of MARY and 5 Burpee buy out.

Announcements: LeanPax, Holy Smokers, F3 After Hours. Check Slack for all the details.

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: Brown Slip is the New AOQ. Congrats brother.

Prayer requests: Travel, Strutter’s family

COT: Was absolutely blown away, yesterday. I didn’t want to start an AO in Hendersonville and was told by several people. “Oh we’ve tried and it’s never worked”. Sunshine pushed me to do it along with Pep , hambone and others committing to coming up from Nashville and beyond. So we launched as an OTB workout, Jan 2024. To see 19 HIMs there, was beyond anything I could comprehend. There were times when it was 2 or 3 of us. Then Dilbert showed up and EH’d every single person he met. Then Strutter arrived from NC, bringing the energy from the mother land.

There are countless others to thank. Thank you all for showing up, leading and investing in the fastest growing AO in Nashville with the best coffeetria. I’m excited to see what is next for the HIMs beyond the Wall (Old Hickory Blvd). White House is growing and it’s just a matter of time before another AO is Hendersonville starts.

SYITG,
Chunks

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New Year Beatdown

AO: handsomizer
Q: Old Maid
PAX: Cuban Missile, Grape, Natural Ice, Old Maid, Salami, Spinal Tap
FNGs: None
COUNT: 6
CONDITIONS:
Cool and clear

WARMUP:
30 SSH
30 Baby Arm Circles
15 Air Presses
Good Mornings OYO
Willie Mays Hayes OYO
Worlds Greatest Stretch

THE THANG:
Mosey to stairs
Split into teams of 2
Partners take turns running stairs or doing exercise. At each landing, exercise changes.
Burpees
Merkins
Freddie Mercuries
Reverse Lunges

MOLESKINE:

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Eat clean until Valentines Day (I forgot what it’s called :man-shrugging:).

COT:
Prayers for Grape’s dad’s surgery, Old Maid’s brother, Salami’s healing

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4 mile run to Love Circle

AO: nashville-running
Q: Chunks
PAX: Chunks, DintyMoore, Crawlspace, Right Said, SalPal, Juicy J, hambone, Strutter
FNGs: None
COUNT: 8
CONDITIONS: chilly

WARMUP: upper left groin stretches

THE THANG: 4 mile run for Love

MOLESKINE: meetup at Star Bagle w Bomber

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

COT: good conversations at Star Bagel w the Bomber crowd. Coffeeteria

Juicy J finally meets the legendary hambone all expectations surpassed and then some.

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Chapter 26

AO: thebuffalo
Q: The Bobs
PAX: Giving Tree, Space Baby, Hot Route, Ultratecht, Makita (Anderson Fader)
FNGs: None
COUNT: 6
CONDITIONS: clear, cool, and optimal for werewolf sightings :full_moon:

WARMUP: SSH, Good Mornings, Willy Mays, Runner’s + World’s greatest stretch

Mosey on down to the lake, stopping halfway for Alabama Prom Dates (daily meditation: why Alabama??) and arrive at the piano pavilion

THE THANG: Relive your high school sports years and find a bench to ride. Perform the following circuit:

– Step-ups – 20 (10 each leg)
– Incline Merkins – 15
– Decline Merkins – 15
– Dips – 20
– Repeat x4 (5 sets total)

Mosey on back up the serpentine switchbacks to the playground. At the halfway point, stop for:
– 20 squats
– 20 merkins

At the playground, alternate between 10 pull ups and 1 minute of plank, until the remainder of the 45 minutes

Return to base

MOLESKINE:

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

– Nothing is stopping Goose from making more disciples of Seger; awaiting reschedule details for Night Moves, continue to check the general channels
– Moves: Night Edition. The royal Hipster is moving! (Don’t worry, he’s staying nearby). Which means free coupons in the form of furniture and boxes of old band hoodies and skinny jeans to get our pump on. Cauliflower vegan pizza and kombucha to follow as recompense (maybe). Date and time are TBD at the moment

COT:
– prayers of peace for Hot Route during season of health tests
– My mother is navigating the process of placing her mother in a dementia care facility

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End of the year!

AO: insane_train
Q: Wolfpack
PAX: Piglet, Stubs, Shakira, BTB
FNGs: None
COUNT: 5
CONDITIONS: Little nippy

WARMUP: Impossible

THE THANG: Played in traffic… with sandbags!
– Car = 5 Sandbag squats
– Truck/SUV = 5 Sandbag Presses
– Bus and Bigger = 5 Sandbag Rows
– Padiddle = x2 of exercise

Down to the first light and back. Switched Presses and Rows on return trip.

Ended with some Mary and hangs at playground.

MOLESKINE: Confirmed that Shakira can indeed speed walk with a sandbag. Impressive stuff.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: leanpax !!

COT: 2025 was tough with losing both of my grandmothers this year. It was also tough watching my parents be there for both of them over the past few years. Gave me an incredible model of what it truly means to take care of those that you love. I’m grateful for my parents and everything they give to our family. I hope to take these lessons into 2026 and care for and provide for my family, friends, community and myself with the same love and passion they have shown.

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Pain Training

AO: pain-train
Q: Wolfpack
PAX: Siri, Stubs, Piglet, Pebbles, BTB, Scoop, Smokey the Bear
FNGs: None
COUNT: 8
CONDITIONS: Perfect

WARMUP: Mosey to get Coupons

THE THANG:
11’s on the hill
– Coupon Presses at the bottom
– Coupon Rows at the top
Carry coupons to the wheelchair ramp. Lt. Dans all the way up with coupons. Return to hill.
11’s
– Merkins at the bottom
– Coupon Curls (for the gurls) at the top
Back to the ramp for Lt. Dans all the way up.
Return Coupons. Return to Startex.
Merkin Ring of fire up to 3 and back down
15 crunches. 10 leg raises, 10 crunches. 5 WWII, 5 leg raises 5 crunches.
Carolina Dry Dock ring of fire up to 3 and back down.
15 crunches. 10 leg raises, 10 crunches. 5 WWII, 5 leg raises 5 crunches.
Merkin ring of fire up to 3 and back down.
15 crunches. 10 leg raises, 10 crunches. 5 WWII, 5 leg raises 5 crunches.

MOLESKINE:
Happy to have my cousins BTB and Scoop to pain-train for a workout today along with their buddy Smokey.
Smokey and Pebbles were on a different level during 11’s!

ANNOUNCEMENTS: leanpax starts on Monday!

COT: Good vibes for the year ahead as we push ourselves to be better men.