5/5/2022 (Cinco de Mayo), 5:30am | Halleck Park, Papillion | The Steel Mill AO | 50 degrees and post-rain sloppy
PAX (16): Low Flow, Folsom, Rooney, Feeny, Haggis, Duracell, Mr. Miyagi, Skidz (trophy winner), High Life, Irish Car Bomb, Cop-a-Squat, Legolas, Shingles, Brando, Chernobyl, Nelly (QIC)
Welcome 05:30
Nelly opened up the workout by giving a rundown of the F3 name, 5 core values, and mission statement. Nelly forgot to ask for FNGs; High Life reminded him and dinged 10 points from his Q exam score. Nelly asked for FNGs, but there weren’t any present – the PAX must have ignored my FNG request in the pre-blast. Finally, I hit ’em with the “Despite my chiseled physique, I’m not a professional” line, and got a pity laugh or two, which was much-appreciated. I notified PAX I would bring a little StL flair to my Q from when I remote-posted at #ao_neverland back in December.
Warm-O-Rama 05:32
20 side-straddle hops IC
10 imperial walkers IC
15 cherry pickers IC
10 big ones IC
10 monkey humpers IC
PAX moseyed over to the open field past the playground and had their coupons and weights in-tow, ready for some adult recess.
Pre-Thang 05:35
Everyone’s heard of bear crawls. This is bear BRAWLS. I learned bear brawls from our StL brothers @Alfred, @NoSale, and @Fiddy. We had cones set up at a starting-line and a second cone about 25 paces out. One partner bear crawls from the start cone to the finish cone while the other blocks against him like an offensive lineman. Once the finish cone is reached, the partners swap and brawl back to the start cone. Al Gore to the 6. When 6 is in, PAX take turns leading an exercise.
Bear Brawl down and back, then Nelly called out 20 coupon grave diggers.
Bear Brawl down and back, then High Life called out 20 coupon squat thrusts
Bear Brawl down and back, then Folsom called out 20 toe-touch merkins
Bear Brawl down and back, then someone called out 10 more coupon grave diggers for me. I was going cross-eyed from breathing so hard, so I missed who picked it up for me.
Thang 05:45
The “King TUT workout” – TUT is short for “time under tension”. I explained that I have a lot of resistance training under my belt, and that some of the most effective and gain-provoking workouts I ever completed were ones that maximize “time under tension” on the muscles. Many exercises can be just slightly tweaked to become “tut” exercises. You modify the starting position of the exercise from a “resting” position to a “working” position.
Example 1: Dumbbell shoulder presses. Instead of doing shoulder presses where a large percentage of each rep is spent resting at the bottom of the movement, we can reverse this idea.
Make the dumbbell shoulder presses an alternating, single-arm movement. The base position is fully-extended over the head, as in a rifle carry. Perform a slow-and-controlled drop of the weight on the right arm, and push back up to full extension. Perform a slow-and-controlled drop of the weight on the left arm, and push back up to full extension. The opposite arm that isn’t moving stays WORKING and CONTRACTED while the other arm moves.
Example 2: Lateral raises. Instead of doing lateral raises where both arms rest at the bottom of the movement, we simply reverse this idea.
The starting position is shoulders contracted, up, with the weight out at the sides. One arm stays up while the other arm performs a side lateral DROP and comes back up to the starting position. Repeat. Fry.
The effect is that all the target muscles are under tension for the entire set instead of resting for most of the set. This sparks major gains.
This is a 2-man King TUT grinder. One partner stays put and works through in-place king tut resistance exercises while the partner does traveling king tuts (a second cone was placed about 50 paces from the starting point since we thought 20 paces wouldn’t give the in-place guys enough time to finish their movements). When the traveling partner gets back, they swap. Rinse and repeat until Omaha. Each partner individually works down the exercise list; there is no need to execute it as a relay.
I attempted to play my Nelly playlist for everyone to have some spicy music to keep their mind off the pain, but my speaker must have died. I used my phone but it wasn’t very loud. Queue price-is-right failure horn. High Life deducted 25 points from my Q exam score. I am sad.
I gave a brief demonstration of the movements below and the PAX got to it.
IN-PLACE KING TUTS
20 dumbbell twisting toe taps
20 alternating shoulder presses
20 alternating DB rows
20 weighted V-Ups
10 alternating lateral DROPS (not raises 🙂
20 alternating lip busters
TRAVELING KING TUTS
DB creeping lunges w/ weights
rifle carries
farmer carries
bear crawl
king tut super marios (rifle carry super mario – weight stays overhead)
Omaha 06:05
We did one round of Mary for a PAX count – rancid style American hammers – there were 16 of us.
Announcements
First Friday lunch at Pacific Springs golf course by Village Pointe. Our brother Grease Fire is the chef there.
Animal House is gathering interest for 75-hard. Contact him or Schrute to get signed up.
Brick Builder is May 21 – sign up online. Details on Twitter and Slack.
Prayers for Farva’s uncle Steve who is having a kidney transplant.
Prayers for Chernobyl’s aunt who is having surgery soon.
COT
I gave the backstory of my introduction to F3 through my friendship with #TheSteelMill site-Q @HighLife. I shared some of the struggles I was going through back in Nov and Dec 2021. I shared the workout theme of St. Louis and that the inspiration for my COT message is a St. Louis HIM, @NoSale. He is someone who really went the extra mile for me during a time of extreme emotional hardship in my life, and his efforts are what convinced me that F3 is, unequivocally, an organization worth my commitment. I challenged my brothers to represent that supportive energy, and how the power of Godliness and goodwill changes lives. I finished by mentioning the message on the card we all get with an F3 gear purchase:
“You may never grasp the impact your purchase has on families across the world. A portion of every purchase helps F3 nation plant, grow, and serve more workouts to change men and restore families. You may never meet the HIM whose transformation started with your support, but we thank you on his behalf!”
I’m sure any of us can read that and feel like it’s talking about us, at least at one point in our journey.
Dane Wyrick