Friday, July 22nd, 2022 – THE FARM – Springfield, NE – 5:15 a.m.
PAX: Echo, Milo, Farva, Black Tuesday, Low Flow, Tony the Tiger, G-String, Harding, Star Hops, Schrute
QIC: Duracell
5:15 a.m. – 72 Degrees… Warm Morning
The PAX gathered at the shovel flag. Duracell covered the F3 Mission Statement: To plant, grow, & serve the invigoration of male community leadership through small workout groups. The Credo was recited: We leave no man behind & no man where we found him. Duracell stated the 5 core principles: Always outside, open to all men, always free, led in a rotating fashion, & ends in a COT and advised the PAX that he is not professional & to modify as needed.
We began with a mosie of 200 yards to near some buildings with cement walls for Warmarama.
Warmarma: 20 side straddle hops, 12 tappy taps, 12 sun gods, 12 reverse sun gods, 5 slow burpees (Slurpees), 5 fast burpees, 10 alternating merkin/Carolina dry docks.
Pre Thang: For the pre-thang, we ruined the song “Balls to the Wall” which is almost 6 minutes long. PAX chose their spot on the wall & used the wall for roughly 1 minute of each of the following exercises: Balls to the Wall (with a few shoulder presses OYO for PAX that felt up to the challenge), Wall Squats while alternating lifting one leg off the ground, Chicken Peckers, back to the Alternating Wall Squat, Wall Walk-Up (start in Balls to the Wall, walk your hands out until near parallel to the ground & walk hands back into Balls to the Wall OYO), Upside Down Mountain Climbers (start with feet on wall, lift butt off the ground so you’re up on shoulders, march your feet)
The Thang: The basic concept is: Upper body exercise, followed by cardio, repeat… We had 2 different cardio that we used: Run 100 yards, or a HIIT cardio activity. We started with a demo of the Pickle Pusher Merkin because we did it a bunch: Start in a bear crawl position, rather than go straight up & down for the merkin, we pushed forward with our hips in dive bomber fashion & went back up with our 6 headed in a 45 degree angle up & backward. This recruits lats, core, & hips into the merkin.
Round 1: 20 Pickle Pusher Merkins, run. Round 2:20 Pickle Pusher Merkins w/ right leg off the ground, bear crawl 25 yards. Round 3: 20 Pickle Pusher Merkins w/ feet planted at the base of the wall, run. Round 4: 20 Pickle Pusher Merkins with left leg off the ground, 10 Double Jackass Burpees (start next to the wall, go down to the bottom part of the burpee, 2 donkey kicks onto the wall, finish the burpee). Round 5: 10 Pickle Pusher Merkins with feet on the wall (these are hard), run. Round 6: 20Double Hand Release Merkins (all the way down in the merkin, lift hands, push up hard enough to lift your hands off the ground at the top), 15 Brokeback Mountain Climbers (do a mountain climber, while raising hands off the ground to clap each time your feet switch). Round 7: 20 Diamond Merkins, run. Round 8: 20 staggered merkins (one hand up by your shoulders, the other by your rib cage), Lunge walk 25 yards. Round 9: 20 Diamond Merkins, switching sides from the previous round. Broad jump burpees 25 yards.
This workout had a pre-made playlist with several musical cues. When “Hurt” by Johnny Cash started, we gathered our cones & mosied back to the shovel flags to begin our core finish & did core for the remainder of Hurt & the entire “Everybody Hurts” song by REM.
Core Finish 20 Spiderman Merkins I/C (start in plank, while lowering down to the ground, lift your right knee to your right elbow, switch. This is probably the hardest core exercise we did.) 20 Flutter Kicks I/C. Yoga Belly: (Start on back, holding both knees to chest, kick one foot out & hold off ground, hold for 10 seconds, then raise your hands forward for 10 seconds, put your hands behind your head for 15 seconds, switch sides.) 20 Freddie Mercurys I/C. 15: right hand to left foot. 15 left hand to right foot. 20 Backward Freddie Mercurys. Held Scissor Kick Position, only switching when the Q called Switch. Finished with Sarpy Slammers around the circle.
COT While preparing this workout, I recalled that a college dream of mine was to be a trainer. It was very satisfying to me to realize that I was now training PAX when I Q’d. The COT message was to never stop setting goals & chasing your dreams. You’re never too old, too busy, too out-of-shape to run a marathon, lose 50 lbs, get a 6-pack, or whatever your goal is. Just never let anyone tell you that you can’t & most importantly, never tell yourself that you can’t.
AYE! Duracell