Wednesday, December 21, 2022 | Top Rope | Aldrich Elementary School | 6 degrees, feels like -4!
23 Pax: Da Kine, Chop Sticks, T-Swift, Grip-n-Rip, Steeple, Longneck, Home Alone, Kill Switch, Chippendale, Old Spice, Doppler, Schnitzel, Jump Street, Tea Party, Superfly, Canadian Bacon, Bogey, Motorboat, Greenhouse, Beaver, Kryptonite, Flowers, Barbershop
QIC: Barbershop
5:00 am – On days like today, pre-runs are an absolute necessity for old Barbershop. Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one who thought the same. I was joined by 8 other PAX and had some wonderful mumble chatter. Starting the birthday celebrations off right!
5:30 am – I welcomed the Pax to F3 and stated the mission to Plant, Serve and Grow small workout groups for the invigoration of male community leadership.
5 core principles of F3. 1) Open to ALL men. 2. Always Free. 3) Always held outdoors, 4) Lead in a rotating fashion and 5) Ends with a Circle of Trust (COT).
There were no FNGs today.
I am not a professional fitness instructor. Therefore, the PAX were instructed to modify as necessary.
The cold weather is officially here. I wanted to get the moving and grooving to get the blood flowing. We took a nice mosey around the backside of the school and over to the parking lot for the west dodge medical plaza for a little warm-a-rama.
5:35 – Warm-a-rama
Warm-a-rama started off with some dynamic stretching to help loosen up all of the different leg muscles. The format was we would do one exercise across three rows of parking spots, then turn-around and do a different exercise coming back. The pairs of exercises were:
High-Knees and Butt-kickers
Walking Swing Kicks and Hip Openers
Lunges and Super Mario Jumps
Karaokes both directions
Defensive slides both directions
We than slowed it down with more static stretching
Tappy Taps
Big Ones
Runner’s Stretch
Hip Circles
5:43 am – Pre Thang
Today’s Pre-thang is a little deal I’m going to call B-Ball for Burpees. Here’s the deal: The PAX are going to shoot 5 shots. Lay-ups are worth 5 reps, free throws are worth 10. A made shot will result in those reps being merkins, a missed shot results in burpees. You may also have noticed that 5 x 5 = 25, meaning that the PAX can’t just shoot 5 lay-ups. Two guys got to be heroes and actually shoot free throws. If that doesn’t happen, we will just add on 10 burpees.
Doppler stepped up first and got all the grief for his stature. He was cool as a cucumber and nailed his lay-up from the left side forcing all the PAX to eat their words. 5 Merkins. Beaver stepped up next and walked to the free throw line. Shot was a brick of the right side of the rim – 10 burpees. Greenhouse was next. Stepped to the line and put up a pretty shot from the free throw line… that unfortunately rattled out – 10 more burpees. Superfly was next and… was NOT EVEN CLOSE! Hit the left side of the backboard wide of the square, didn’t get the rim – 10 more burpees… and Superfly did a couple extra for not even hitting the rim.
We had a dilemma. Here we were at 35 reps but had only taken 4 shots… this will not do! Chop Sticks stepped up and decided to shoot a lay-up. I think the 30 burpees we had just done left his muscles a little fatigued as his shot rattled free – 5 more burpees.
At the end of the day, we ended up doing 35 burpees anyways! We will start having regular basketball practice from now on before I try this again at a beatdown.
5:50 am – The Thang
After the basketball fun concluded, the PAX circled up and counted off into 4 groups for some good old-fashioned Second-F Pain Stations. Group 1 was the push group while the other groups would complete the exercises on the sheet. Each station also had a list of questions for the PAX to discuss. Always one of my favorite formats to get some good mumble-chatter, and since I’m celebrating my birthday, we’re going to do it, dadgummit!
Station 1
35 Jump Squats
PUSH!!
Station 2
30 second wall sit
Merkins
Flutterkicks
Australian Mountain Climbers
What was your favorite birthday?
What’s the best piece of advice you ever received?
Station 3
30 Second Balls-to-the-Wall
Oh Yeahs IC (10 Each Arm)
Ranger Merkins
Donkey Kicks
Alternating Lunges
When do you feel the most “In your element?”
What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you?
Station 4
Apollo Ohnos
Werkins
LBCs
Alternating Side Squats
Dive-bombers
What Quality Do you like the most about your best friend?
What’s the worst Christmas song of all time and why is it “Wonderful Christmastime?”
6:08 am – Mary
This morning was unbelievably cold, so what better way to commemorate that than with 15 Frozen Flutters – NO CADENCE. PAX has to hold each move until they hear my count
20 E2K’s – 10 on each side
We then did some Rancid-Style Hammers to finish.
6:15 – Name-o-Rama and Announcements
The Name-a-rama was completed – see above for list of those who posted.
Announcements:
It’s cold! Especially the next two days, take precautions, bundle up, try to expose as little skin as possible
Several sites are changing location to shelter a bit from the cold:
– Golden Spike will be at the Trident site in the parking garage
– Oracle will be in the FNB parking garage. Only one timeslot – 6 am
– Respect Pop-up tomorrow in the Trident parking garage
Prayer Requests:
Legacy Apartment Tenants
Freed to Bleed on Friday. Still a few slots available, you can also donate at any time
Impact Retreat Jan 5-7. Prayers the attendees experience some serious growth
Safe Travels for all during the coming cold days
Jump Street’s hip and potential surgery
Slow Clap’s son Cole and Mulligan’s son Xavier
Pitstop’s M Lindsay
COT: Thanks to all you fine HIM who decided to help me celebrate my 35th birthday. I joined F3 almost a year and a half ago and it has been such a gift to me in my life. It’s made me a better dad, husband, and man. Made me more patient, more kind, more resilient.
One of my favorite gifts to receive has been shown to reduce stress, lowers blood pressure, releases dopamine, builds a sense of trust and safety. Anyone know what it is?
A HUG!
Because it’s my birthday and I’m in charge, my request from the PAX is to receive a hug from each and every man in attendance. So following the prayer, instead of a circle of fist bumps, we’re doing a circle of hugs.
Thanks for an awesome celebration of my 35 years. Here’s to 36!!
Aye!
-Barbershop