For those of us who missed Wednesday Iron Pax Week 0, or others of us who wanted to improve our prior time, 4 paxs; Noodles, Banks, FNG Shamu, and Gummi Bear met at AO Tar Pit at 5:30am this morning.
Warmup: Stretch on your own and jog around track.
Ironpax week 0 Times:
Gummibear: 26:03
Banks: 27:15
FNG Shamu: 30:41
Noodles: 31:40
NOR/COT: Prayers for the family and friends of a friend of banks, who just died.
Moleskin:
I fully expected to be doing this workout alone today. It is really awesome seeing three other guys show up at 5:30am on a saturday. I have no doubt that they helped significantly improve my time, simply by being there. It was also really neat seeing both Banks and Noodles, who did the workout on Wednesday, significantly improve their times today. But perhaps, the thing I am most proud of and awestruck by, is the moment of brilliance that occurred during naming the FNG. He told us about himself, and for some reason the name Shamu had just been sitting in my brain as this FNG’s given name. It has no relevance to anything he told us about himself, it was just destiny. It was encouraging seeing Shamu show up for the first time to an ironpax workout! I am really excited for F3 Wheaton to turn in some very respectable times this year for ironpax. We have far greater participation this year compared with last year.
Well, it finally happened. After some hard-hitting muscle-aching workouts, YHC had had enough. If he was going to make a 6-Pack this week and survive IronPAX, it needed some active recovery and a good stretch. Posting the EC preblast to the group, a few willing participants (Double Beef & Cheddar, Too Big to Fail, Shiplap, Banks, Big Mac, Crunch (QIC)) decided to give our Q the benefit of the doubt. On a nice warm, muggy Friday morning, we assembled in the Gloom.
Warm-O-Rama:
Run a quick half-mile, including the hill. Get a lather going. Then head to the tennis court for some good traction and a non-lumpy surface.
Check-in
Straight leg forward fold (note how far you can stretch)
Seated forward fold (hips then round back)
Squat Butterfly
Beginning
Begin in Child’s Pose, extending arms in front of you
Plank to Down Dog to Forward Fold
Extra: Hands interlaced behind your back, stretch knuckles to sky and lean forward slightly
Table / Mountain (Cycle x 4)
Forward Fold (toe-touch)
Table Pose (straight back, bend knees if needed)
Forward Fold (toe-touch)
Mountain Pose (hands raised but open in a Y-shape)
Low Lunge
Plank (knees if needed) / Up Dog / Down Dog
R Leg Lift then forward to Low Lunge to
Crescent Pose (arms raised but open, tail-bone tucked in, abs engaged)
Split Prep (hands down, forward leg straight, rest on back knee)
Walk hands forward and lift back knee, then raise forward hand high Low-Lunge+T-Plank (hold)
Lower back knee, reach high hand back for a quad stretch (hold)
Both legs back into Cobra
(Switch legs and repeat)
Warrior
Down Dog
Move R foot forward to Low Lunge
Turn out back foot 90 degrees and move into Warrior 1 (hands raised) (hold)
Warrior 2 (hands forward and back)
Reverse Warrior (move forward hand high, back hand rests)
Camel Cycle
Table Top to Kneeling (toes curled is slightly easier)
Half-Camel pose (hands out straight in front, then rotate gaze and hands straight up)
While still looking/reaching up, reach behind with your R hand to touch your R heel (hold)
(repeat this motion with the other hand)
Full Camel – work both hands back to your heels and open your chest to the sky
Pigeon stretch
Lying down, place R foot on left knee, raise left knee and pull gently towards your body with both hands
Half-Happy Baby – place your R hand in the arch of your R foot, keeping the 90 degree bend at the knee, straighten the opposite leg to the floor, and pull R knee gently towards the ground.
————–
Advanced Circuits (if time allows; attempt with caution)
Deep Lunges
Low-Lunge position, but elbows down alongside your front leg (or just reach your hands down as far as you can)
Side Lunge – rotate your straight leg out on the heel, hands planted for support
(switch sides)
Bridge(+Wheel) and Plow
Bridge on your back, bring you feet right below your knees. Lift your hips (inhale, then squeeze your glutes and abs before you engage your back muscles) and hold for 10 seconds. Repeat 3 times.
Wheel (crazy): from bridge, place your palms flat on the ground (by your ears, fingers toward your toes, elbows close) with your core engaged, then push upward with your arms, stabilize and then hold
Shoulder Stand / Plow: From your back, lift your legs up and support your lower back with your hands (elbows on the ground). Work your weight onto your shoulders, pointing your legs as high as possible. For Plow, slowly move your legs over your head to touch your toes to the ground (if possible). Hold.
————–
Spinal Twist (closing)
Grab your R knee in your opposite hand and pull it across your body, straightening your right arm out away from your body. (hold)
(repeat this cycle with your other leg)
Pull both knees to your chest and rest in an egg shape, rolling slightly on your back
Corpse Pose (hold for a while, relax, breathe)
Check-in
Straight leg forward fold (note how far you can stretch)
Seated forward fold (hips then round back)
Squat Butterfly
COR/NOR/COT: Prayer for Big Mac’s friend’s wife and their dealing with a bad cancer diagnosis – for the members of the group (present and elsewhere) for focus and clarity to be on mission today and through the week.
MOLESKIN: This was a surprisingly awesome workout. A little bit or muscle strengthening, a decent sweat, and some great recovery. I’m a yoga fan, despite having not done it in a long while, and I was surprised how amazing I felt heading home and having breakfast. Seemed like the rest of the group felt some good vibes as well. Probably going to be a regular feature, especially after IronPAX workouts.
I was fired up this morning to start the first ever IPC for the majority of the F3 Wheaton group. The mumble chatter from Banks, Captain Crunch, and Gummi Bear (IPC veterans) throughout the week just added to the anticipation.
Warm-O-Rama: Motivators x 6 (5 accidentally), Picking Daiseys down the middle, to the right, to the left. Standing quad stretch, Arm Circles forward starting small and progressing to big, Arm Circles backwards starting small and progressing to big.
Thang 1: IPC Week 0
50 Squats
40 BBSU
30 Merkins
20 Bonnie Blairs – 2 reps count as 1, or counting only one leg
10 Burpees
Run 400 Meter
Rinse and Repeat 4 Times
PAX Attended & Times: BigMac was a machine – I’m pretty sure he wasn’t even tired at the end!
NOR/COT: We give praise for the beautiful day, the group, and the ability to complete such a grueling workout. We pray for a great start to the year for the colleges starting today and especially Wheaton College where many of our F3 brothers work. We pray for the health and safety of our society and the leadership of the country.
Moleskin: We welcome T-Bone to the F3-Wheaton family. He picked a heck of a day to join. @banks always says that FNGs that start on a hard workout or in the winter usually stick around. If this hold true T-Bones will be a regular before we know it! IPC Week 0 really pushed the group and it is safe to say each of us leaned on each other at some point throughout it. Regardless of times (we all did pretty good) just completing this workout is a huge accomplishment. Have a great day!
Excellent showing of 18 PAX ready to enjoy the sunrise and cool morning weather. PAX in attendance: HotBox, Gummi Bear, Captain Crunch, Panhandle, Da Vinci, Shiplap, Wet Burrito, Smokey, Yoyorabbit, Tortuga, Taco Bell, Bloomer, Crack, TBTF, Sparrow, Katniss, SAGA, and Big Mac.
Disclaimer – I’m not a professional, don’t be like Michael Scott, make good decisions. F3 has no monetary cost, but all choices come with costs.
Economics – Study of the allocation of scarce resources (study of choice)
Warm-O-Rama
7 count motivators
Forward arm circles – Think about why you are here
Backward arm circles –
Tappy taps
Air squats – in cadence 10 count (Weight on heel, cross 90 degrees, fully extend hips when standing, don’t let knees pass toes.)
Burpees – 5 on your own (Chest touches ground, hands above head with feet off the ground)
Merkins – in cadence 8 count (Elbow passes 90 degrees, further out works shoulders, further back works triceps, middle gets the chest)
Lunges – in cadence 8 count (Back knee gets below back heel, front knee doesn’t pass front toe)
Black Widows – in cadence 10 count (Plank, bring one knee in, back foot pushes up to toe and return)
Thang: Mosey to area just south of basketball courts.
Economists assume decisions are made in order to achieve a set of objectives. For the next 5 minutes, objective, as many safely completed reps within time constraints.
1 minute each exercise option to increase challenge at 30 seconds.
Air squats (with jump)
Burpees
Merkins (with hand release)
Lunges (Bonnie Blairs)
Black widow knee slides
Recover for 10
Get to Hoffa as fast as possible.
Decisions are made within a context. Laws of nature, norms of humans all affect how we make our decisions. In fact the decisions and anticipated reactions of others create part of the context within which we make our own decisions.
Next set to be completed with a partner, one completing static exercises and observing the one completing active exercises.
Active are the same 5 as the prior round. Static are
Al Gore, Boat (30 seconds each side), Superman, Plank, Static lunge (30 seconds each side)
Return to area south of basketball courts. Objective: get to know your partner a little better.
Final set, instead of external monitoring, the suggested objective is to focus on form over quantity of reps.
Return to the parking lot.
Reflection – OT: work towards righteousness through the outside monitoring of the law, NT: transform your objectives so that external monitoring is not necessary. What are your objectives?
CoT
Praying for pure motivation, wisdom and grace in a challenging conversation, and for friends who recently called off a wedding days before it was planned.
Thanks for a great morning, for showing up, working hard, and for all the encouragement you give to me! I appreciate this group of men.
There was a solid showing of 11 PAX eager to get their week started out the right way. PAX in attendance were: HotBox, Gummi Bear, BigMac, Captain Crunch, Banks, Panhandle (FNG), Da Vinci, Archive, Shiplap, Wet Burrito, and TBTF
WoR consisted of a set of 5 motivators, 10 Mountain Man Poopers, and 10 tappy taps all done in cadence
We then set out to do a one mile ruck around the perimeter of the AO where we rucked the east/wide legs of the path and shuffled the north/south legs of the path
We added a stop at the base of Hoffa for some moderate PT. We did:3 minutes of EMOM – Ruck shoulder press, Ruck front squats, Ruck BBS, and Ruck Merkins x10 reps each exercise3 minutes EMOM – 10 manmakers
We then did a slightly shorter ruck through the AO where we again rucked the east/wide legs of the path and shuffled the north/south legs of the path
CoTPrayers for the kids, teachers, and staff as the school year commences as well as any parents/families that are managing elearning for their children.
You’re here at your own risk. If you don’t feel comfortable with an exercise, you don’t have to do it.
By proceeding, you assume the risk of injury.
Please repeat every exercise, and help me count.
Warmup
The first exercise is: 7 Motivators. Starting Position. Move. In Cadence.
The next exercise is, 20 Tappy Taps Starting Position. Move. In Cadence.
The next exercise is, 10 Tin Soldier Starting Position. Move. In Cadence.
The next exercise is, 10 Prisoner squats Starting Position. Move. In cadence, down up on my command.
The next exercise is, Little Baby Arm Circles (forward, backward) Starting Position. Move. In Cadence.
The next exercise is, Big Boy Arm Circles (forward, backward) Starting Position. Move. In Cadence.
The next exercise is, Crab cakes Starting Position. Move. On your own.
The next exercise is, Dying Cockroach Starting Position. Move. On your own.
What’s better than 1000 Merkins? (2000)
Five guys do Merkins, everybody else take another station. (Curls, Squats, overhead thrusters, big boy situps).
Whenever anyone wants to, they yell “I feel outstanding” and start running up Hoffa mountain. When they get down the mountain, they ring the gong and everybody switches to a different station. Can’t switch until someone rings the gong. Any runner can leave at any moment, even if the other runner hasn’t returned, as long as he yells “I feel outstanding”.
We all work out until our cumulative merkins reaches 2,000.
Pull up bars
Split into two groups. Same as above on the pull up bars, everyone else do squats while watching, switch whenever your runner gets back. Each group has to reach a total of 20 pull-ups per pax, cumulatively.
And now for something completely different:
Guantanamo
Pax on Backs with feet straight up in the air. Someone circumnavigates the group trying to slam each man’s feet to ground. Big Mac and Loafers try to blend in with the grass to not get re-injured.
Spoons
Whoever reaches the rep count first pulls a spoon, then everybody dives. Losers do 3 burpees.
50 Squats
20 Squats
30 Big boy sit-ups
100 LBC’s
20 Goblet squats
30 Block dips.
Winner: Archive
Global warming
Rotating circle leftward while holding an Al Gore (tree-hugger) pax choice exercise
20 Merkins (ship lap)
If you remember what the other pax choice exercises were, please reply in the comments below.
Truncated Merkin waterfall
5 per person, then 5 in unison.
The end.
Sadly, no manrise.
Naming of FNGs. Welcome Wing stop, Loafers, and Double mint.
Circle up. Name o Rama.. Announcements. Prayer. Lead on 3. Coffee and donuts courtesy of Banks. Discussed formation of a leadership team.
It was a great morning to be awake and get some work in while letting our bodies recover. The energy of the group was great from the start and YHC was excited to Q a different kind of workout.
Warm-O-Rama: We stretched every muscle under the sun in every possible way (forgot quads and calves….Thanks Banks).
Thang 1, on the parking lot: Exercise to the light pole then jog to the grass. Repeat exersize coming back
High Knees- This is when Banks was quick to mention YHC forgot to stretch the quads and calves, but kicks, karaoke, skip for height, skip for length, supermans (quad stretch), calf stretch on the curb
Mosey to the C.O.O.T.I.E.S, Hang from the pull up bar for a 10 count x 2.
Thang 2: Mosey around the AO. We would stride it out getting the heart rate elevated but didn’t push for too long, then would walk. Rinse and repeat around the Archive mile.
Mary x 25: Double LBCs, Gas Pumps, Leg Lifts, Oblique LBCs, Big flutter kicks.
COT: Praise for a beautiful world, the ability to workout, the PAX of the group. Praying for health of society and a great end to the week.
When posting the pre-blast for this workout I starting to think “ I may be losing it”. When Captain HC’ed and said “my love language is crazy, HC” I was relieved I’m not alone. In all, 4 PAX decided to partake (Banks, TBTF, Captain Crunch, and myself), even if it was before an almighty Captain Crunch Q!
We used two sand bag and two coupons for the circuit and gathered by the COOTIES.
Circuit 1 – 10 reps- full body: 2 rounds
Blockees, pull-ups, squat and press w sandbag, clean and squat w sandbag.
Circuit 2 – 20 reps – upper body: 2 rounds
Bench press w sandbag, bent over rows with sandbag, durkins, 1 arm rows with coupon
Circuit 3 – 30 Reps – arms: 1.5 rounds
Skull crushers w sandbag, curls w sandbag, upright rows, dips
It was a short EC (about 25 minutes) but all PAX involved felt the upper body burn!
17 PAX showed up for Da Vinci’s VQ. Beautiful morning.
Warmorama: Goofballs x 20, Motivators x 7, Windmills (large & small); leg stretches during speech about Joseph Campbell, George Lucas and the neglected Christian Yodas, a.k.a. the Desert Fathers, whose sayings were interspersed (nice free edition of the sayings in PDF form available here. Though I drew from this book which is alphabetical – today was from Antony).
11s (Burpees and Merkens) around the short loop (stopping at 11 lights). Mary for early finishers.
4 Corners (Coupon Merkens, Curls, Coupon Squats, Shoulder Press). 40/30/20/10. We quit early (starting at 40 was too ambitious). Next time 30/20/10 will work better.
Merken Mountain (Merken then bear crawl to where your hands were for another Merken, make it to the fence). No time for a planned Jacob’s Ladder, but will do it next time.
Ring of Fire (but without Bear Crawls, so wasn’t really a Ring of Fire). 6 guys named Mary exercises.
Circle of Trust: Welcome to FNG, Abraham, a.k.a. DBC (Double Beef n’ Cheddar). Da Vinci dropped the flag with 15 Merken penalty. Prayers for the start of school, and for pushing through with other daily exercises (diligence in work, love of family, neighbor, etc.).
Thanks for showing for my VQ, crew.
Abba Antony said, “I have seen all the snares of the devil spread out on earth and I said with a sigh, ‘Who can pass these by?’ and I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Humble-mindedness.'”
7 PAX (Shiplap, Too Big Too Fail, Banks, DaVinci, Sparrow, Archive, Captain Crunch(QIC)) continued their August with the singular goal of being too sore to do IronPAX. Shiplap brought some heat this morning with an EC sandbag/coupon circuit for the four PAX who wanted to kick-start their Monday.
Shiplap with that wild animal look in his eyes on a heavy-hitting EC:
Afterwards they kept the weight heavy as the sandbags left the AO for some time on the march and a small reminder of the pain in store next month.
Warm O Rama:
Motivators IC x 5
Mountain Man Poopers IC x 15
Standing leg and back stretches
Formation:
Ruck to the Falcon’s fields. PAX divided up into two teams, forming two side by side columns. Each team took one sandbag for the frontmost PAX, who set the pace, dropping the bag for the next PAX and falling in at the rear of their column (reverse scout-run style). Gung-ho PAX (Archive/Banks) initiated a ruck+sandbag shuffle, which set an accelerated pace for the remainder of the march.
Arriving at the closed football field, the PAX marched on for the baseball fields and a modified reprise of last years IronPAX “Killer Bs” workout:
Each team of PAX complete the following set on repeat.
Ruck Drag (10 yards)
10 Burpees (Jumping over rucks)
10 Bonnie Blairs (or standing lunges) while holding ruck
10 Big-Boy Sit-ups
PAX take turns running the sandbag down to the third base line and back to the group, handing off to the next PAX. AMRAP until time to ruck back, using the same formation and a faster pace.
Brief Mary:
40 ruck curls OYO
Copperhead Deep Ruck Squats IC x 20
COR/NOR/COT:Prayers for the group to continue pressing in hard this week to the challenges and obstacles that we will face. — To remember our need to share our weight and to take on others burdens — for strength and wisdom to protect and support those who are weak and resist those who are strong but evil. — Blessings on the good line-up of VQs this week!
F3 Wheaton 