17 men ventured out into the gloom to try their hands (and shoulders and legs) on the Week 0 IronPax workout. Shout-outs especially to [tag Hotbox] and [tag Katniss] for breaking the 30-minute mark.
Workout:
100 Merkins
800 meter run
75 Merkins
1,200 meter run
50 Merkins
1,600 meter run
25 Merkins
2,000 meter run
Who showed up:
Ode to a decade when cars were fast, rock was king, and a slide ruler was a calculator.
Musical Bears made its debut.
Shredtember Day 2
WOR:
50 Side Straddle Hops
Butterfly stretches. Arms Circles. Toe touches.
Rock Around the clock.
Clock merkins, 1 per hour, forward and back. (24 merkins)
Clock Burpees, 1 per hour, forward, and if you can make it, back.
Jailhouse rock
Any combination of Grave diggers, Kettle bell swings, and bent over rows
The Twist
Any combination of American hammers, Block weighted American hammers, and the twist dance move.
(Workout, Crawl, Find a spot)
Setup: Arrange coupons in a tight circle, 1 per pax. Remove 1 coupon and pax from the circle and move them to the center of the circle.
Action: Call out an exercise (i.e. big boy situps to 50) everyone in the circle begins the exercise. Whenever the first Pax gets to 50, he begins to bear crawl around the outside of the circle clockwise. The pax who was in the middle of the circle immediately jumps out to fill in the open spot vacated by the first PAX. This means that now there is one spot too few, like musical chairs. After the first PAX completes a full trip around the circle, he looks for an open spot to land (signified by an unoccupied coupon).
Finish: As each PAX finishes the rep count, he begins to bear crawl clockwise around the circle. Everyone must go their original spot, or if it is occupied, past it until they find a new spot. The last PAX will not be able to find a spot. He ends up in the middle of the circle. It’s his job to call out the next exercise, with either 25 or 50 reps.
We did a lot of rounds of Musical Bears. Most Pax agreed that this workout was harder than expected.
Sparrow, Panhandle, Davinci, Aloha, Wet burrito, Bad Debt, Bloomer, 8-Track, BOGO, Panda Express, Big Mac, Beaker, Saga, Jolly, Crack, Banks, Cookies, Cheese, Tortuga, Y2K, Katniss, Gummi Bear
Having missed out on the previous three weeks of nonsense, YHC was eager to dive back in, and SAGA had provided the perfect opportunity, a chance to Q a musical-themed beatdown. 14 unsuspecting PAX (Beaker, Katniss, Hot Box, Sparrow, SAGA, Crack, Jolly, Tortuga, Big Mac, Cookies, Panhandle, Shiplap, DaVinci, Noodles, Captain Crunch (QIC)) posted with me to start the week in style.
Warm-o-Rama
No One Mourns the Wicked (6:40) / The Wizard and I (5:09)
Intro to Rivalry: green team vs white team. Best team in each category earns one point
What is this feeling? (3:33)
Popular (3:45)
Defying Gravity (5:54)
Penalty Time: No Good Deed goes unpunished!
No Good Deed (3:32)
For Good (5:07)
Despite having planned to be done with time to spare, too much time adding up scores to determine which team won made transitions larger than budgeted. Even dropping a song, we ran overtime.
COR/NOR/COT: Prayers in celebration of Cookies’ housing situation being sorted for the near future — prayers for the PAX traveling
MOLESKIN:
Planning this Q, it was really fun remembering how much I loved this musical when it came out.
The bulk of the play is messing with the ideas of who is good and who is wicked, and who gets labelled or judged as good or wicked.
As a literature major, let me be the first to say that there is plenty of hogwash in Postmodernism, but one of the goods it provides is a wealth of opportunities for gaining a new perspective. It’s an opportunity to maybe judge people a little less, to see them (hopefully) a little closer to how God sees them.
Listening through it again for this Q, I was reminded by the harsh, foolish and ill-informed words of the crowds that we should be slow to judge others. Jesus tells us twice in the Gospel of Matthew that what we bind on earth is bound in heaven and what we loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. In a very real sense, what judgements we render upon our neighbor are damnation or salvation to them. May we be slow to judge others, and abounding in mercy, even as God has shown us mercy.
PAX:
Heist, Sparrow, Cookies, Shiplap, Hotbox, Tortuga, Katniss, Jolly, Gummi Bear
WOR:
– air squats
– merkins
– bent over rows
– curls for the girls (and for the arms race)
– arm circles
THANG:
– Murph. Only Murph.
MOLESKIN:
July 4th provides an opportunity to celebrate our country and the freedom’s we enjoy. What is freedom? Freedom is the capacity to choose wisely and to act well as a matter of habit (and virtue). When considering how to be free, we should remember the weaknesses and vices we must first conquer. St. Thomas Aquinas defines effeminacy (not to be confused with femininity) as an unwillingness to put aside pleasure in order to pursue what is difficult, and sloth as an aversion to what is difficult. In other words, the effeminate man skips the Murph because he enjoys sleeping in. The slothful man skips the Murph because he loathes the hard work of the Murph. We must conquer both of these weaknesses if we want to be properly free and choose the Murph (or any other good). So let’s be grateful for F3 for teaching us the discipline necessary to conquer weaknesses that limit our freedom, let’s be grateful for the freedoms we have inherited as citizens of this country, and let’s strive to be men that deserve what we have been given.
COT:
Prayers for . . .
– the Armenians that have recently encountered Sparrow and the Gospel for the first time,
– Cookie’s entering his last week of work,
– Tortuga’s wedding anniversary is today,
– Hotbox 2.0 has a birthday today,
– Heist is expecting a baby Sept 20.
As a beautiful sunrise lit up the clouds over MASTODON, 14 PAX (Archive, Aloha, Jolly, Sparrow, Whittler, BOGO, Jailbreak, Cookies, Bloomer, Banks, Beaker, Katniss, Captain Crunch) wandered their way into some pleasant weather and some odd muscle groups.
Warm-o-rama
Motivators IC x 7
Mountain Man Poopers IC x 15
Abe Vigoda IC x 7
Michael Phelps OYO
Squat Form (90 or bust!)
40 Certified Squats – no one goes up until everyone is at 90
MOM-E:
5 Bonnie Blairs (each side)
5 Derkins
5 Dips
Plank for remainder
(then 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, then descend back to 5)
Work Like an Animal
Around the BASE of Hoffa – Bear Crawl 1st half / Crab Walk 2nd half
Dutch Skate while the fireman watches on
Broad Jump(Frog) / Duck Walk to the parking lot
6MOM
Curb Stomp your partner
Crunchy Frogs (aka Dutch Bazookas) IC x 40
COR/NOR/COT: prayers for traveling PAX — praise for DBC’s safe return — for Archive’s return to the Gloom — for our eyes to see and our ears to hear those who need us this week.
This workout was designed so that someday, somewhere, a man would make an intelligent comment about the Old Testament, and get some raised eyebrows from those around him. “How would you know anything about that?” they ask incredulously. “Well, you see, I one time did this workout…
“Motivators”, which were actually side straddle hops.
Tap-y-Taps.
Calf stretches.
Mountain man poopers
etc.
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Hold Superman like you’re hovering over the face of the waters.
Progress to Al Gore
God makes man: Man Makers X 10
Calf raises around the garden. Eye to eye with your fellow PAX, enjoying relationship and a non-stressful exercise. Pass an apple from PAX to PAX until somebody succumbs to temptation and bites the apple.
Saga bites the apple. All hell breaks loose. 10 burpees.
Pax pair up and complete 100 merkins and 100 squats together, then choose an animal and do that crawl up the hill, two-by-two. Circle up at the top of the hill to form an ark, then do flutter kicks and leg raises. The ark lands on Mt. Ararat.
“Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, … And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower… and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” PAX TOWER/Human Pyramid.
God calls Abraham to leave his home. Abraham follows God. Abraham believes God’s promise even though in his own lifetime he didn’t see all of it fulfilled. The promise was true, and Abraham became a mighty nation. AMRAP Big boy situps 2 Minutes.
We give Isaac a miss.
Jacob grasped the heal, we do one set of pull ups, your personal max. God renamed Jacob into “Israel” Jacob had 12 sons, who became the 12 tribes of israel. One of them was Joseph.
Chest presses while we learned that Joseph was enslaved by his brothers. God had a plan for Joseph to be the leader of Egypt, a savior of his people, and the training ground for all of that was slavery and prison. Joseph saved his family by storing up grain before the entire world got hit by a famine.
Joseph’s family (Israel and his sons) were saved by traveling to Egypt and getting fed, but eventually things took a turn for the worse. Pharaoh enslaved the Jews. They spent their time making bricks. The PAX did 20 grave diggers, then a rifle carry up hoffa.
God gives Moses a special upbringing and leadership training, and then tells him to go talk to Pharaoh. Moses complains, but it turns out God was right. Moses tells Pharaoh that God says “let my people go.” During the 10 plagues, God told his people to paint their doorways with the blood of a lamb, so that the angel of death would pass over their house. That sounds strange, but Christians also believe that the blood of Jesus is also able to spare us from death. PAX do squat thrusters reminiscent of painting an overhead doorway.
After 10 plagues and the death of his son, Pharaoh lets them go.
God gives Moses the 10 commandments while they are in the desert. Pax do 10 block merkins (later in the workout).
God’s people make it right up to the edge of the promised land, but they refused to obey God and go into it, so he told them they could wander for a while (40 years) while they thought about it. PAX go for a fast jog (a fog) with an emphasis on picking up the 6, which creates the sensation of wandering.
PAX enter the promised land and enjoy some much needed rest.
The Old Testament is a beautifully written collection of history, poetry and prophecy. It tells the story of a God who desires relationship with us. If you find yourself asking “Why God?”, read the Old Testament and ask yourself “Why People?” People do some silly things, and God keeps moving towards us in relationship.
COT. Prayers.
In the immortal words of Dolly Parton: “Hit ’em where the sun don’t shine.”
In contrast to Wednesday, the sunrise was crowning the trees in glory at AO-TAR PIT, as 10 intrepid PAX (Big Mac, Beaker, Draper, SAGA, Panhandle, Noodles, Hot Box, Da Vinci, Katniss, Capn Crunch(QIC)) gathered for what promised to be an atypical day. The Q did have a plan, but the details were yet to be filled in in their entirety. Without much explanation and some odd warnings, they began their adventure. The objective was to work out some muscles we haven’t used since grade school.
Warm-O-Rama:
– Goofballs IC x20
– Abe Vigoda IC x10
– Batwings IC x10
– Mountain Man Poopers IC x20
Recon Jog
Thang 1: DIY OCR
We all pray in different ways, and in our own way we lended our thoughts and support to those brave souls entering into the Frontline OCR. We divided into two teams of 10 and took turns making stuff up, establishing routes for us to race across or around the playground, performing different exercises or feats of athleticism against members of the other team.
Highlights include Bear Crawls, more Bear Crawls, Bear Snake, Bear Indian Run, pull ups at extreme heights, Dolly Partons(reprise), Derkin sprints, gimpy one-legged-race + burpees (gimpees?), and a kiddy slide that almost defeated the entire gathering of the PAX, and Hot Box and Beaker closing out the day showing everyone how it’s done on the 5 meter beam cross.
Thang 2: Adult Duck Duck Goose
Inspired by one of (not yet)FiA’s workouts, the PAX circled up for a bit of Duck Duck Goose before continuing their OCR. Like normal duck duck goose (or grey duck???), except that all the PAX perform a standing exercise, and when you get called “duck” you perform 10 merkins. Afterwards, we continued the choose your own OCR.
COR/NOR/COT: prayers of thanks for Noodles’ opportunities and the many blessings of life — thanks and intercession in the midst of SAGA’s trials/blessings — for Panhandle’s daughter in Mexico — for the Frontline OCR crew and their endeavors and camaraderie
We did PT with sandbags. Pretty simple stuff.
WOR:
20 Bat Wings
20 Goofballs
40 Slow Merkins lifting alternate leg (the moaning started here)
THANG 1:
PAX take turns with Sandbags going from lantern to lantern around the AO Path
At each lantern:
PAX with the Fat Man (120lb sandbag) calls an exercise from the pool of suggestions or comes up with something of their own and all the PAX do that exercise.
Fat Man does 10 reps
Small Bags do 20 reps
Bagless do 40 reps
Once complete do the holding exercise for the 6
Drop the bags and someone else carries it.
|
Sandbag |
Bagless |
Holding Exercise |
|
Chest press |
Merkins |
People’s Chair |
|
Side Lunges |
Plank |
|
|
Bent over Rows |
Tricep Dips |
Boat |
|
Squat-press |
Air Squats |
Reverse Plank |
|
Curls |
Leg curls |
Canoe |
|
Good Morning |
Al Gore |
|
|
Overhead squat |
No Surrenders |
Side Plank |
|
Split Squat |
Low squat |
We had enough sandbags and PAX that everyone had one turn with Fat Man, and had a small bag about every 2nd or 3rd lantern.
THANG 2:
Man Rise up Hoffa, sandbags included, Sandees/Burpees at the top. Shiplap did his sandies with the Fat Man followed by Nantan Banks getting in his own 10 bonus reps. YHC tried one with the Fat Man and found it could barely be lifted overhead, so the workout ended abruptly.
Mosey back to the flags was definitely slow today.
NOR: Aloha, Archive, Banks, Beaker, Big Mac, BOGO (FNG), Cookies (Q), Dress Code (FNG), Gummi Bear, Hotbox, Jolly, Katniss, Picasso, Shiplap, Sparrow, T-Bone ¡Respect!, Tortuga ¡Respect!, Wet Burrito ¡Welcome Back!
Backblast, 4/10/21, AO Tarpit, 5:30 AM
Twelve brave PAX came out on an overcast warm morning for a beatdown at AO Tarpit. After a quick WOR of walking arm circles and Michael Phelps, high knees skips, grapevines and a short mosey, we partnered up at the track.
Thang one: Distance Dora
B.I.B.L.E.
Broad Jump Burpees
Inchworm
Bear Crawl
Lunges
Ephesians 2:8
Partner one ran a lap around the track while partner two made his way around the track doing Broad jump Burpees. Flapjack: partner two ran, partner one did broad jump burpees.
We repeated this pattern with Inchworm, Bear crawl, and then Lunges. Once partner two finished his run after his lunges, both partners walked together while reciting Ephesians 2:8 – “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God.”
Repeated as time allowed.
Thang two
Mary
Back at the flag. We completed 25 flutter kicks IC, then 22 more with PAX calling out the verse, Eph 2:8, in place of the count. One, two, three, By, one, two, three, grace, One, two, three, you, One, two, three, have, One, two, three, been, One, two, three, saved, etc.
NOR: Archive, Banks, Big Mac, DaVinci, Jolly, Katniss, Noodles, Panhandle, Saga, Shiplap, Tortuga (Q), Whittler.
COT: We lifted up Whittler who has an exam on Monday that he is continuing to study for this weekend, Noodles and his continued job search, and Saga who has some training today and a difficult classroom situation that will be coming to a head soon.
Moleskin: One way to think about grace is as God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. By grace we have been saved. We have been adopted as God’s sons and been made co-heirs with Christ through nothing more than the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was given freely, at a great cost. And it was not plan B. Earlier in Ephesians it says that we were “chosen in him before the foundation of the world.” Christ’s sacrifice to purchase our salvation was Plan A. This is the God we serve. Let’s live into that reality.
Good work on the verse, fellas. Keep it up.
Backblast, 4/2/21, 5:30AM, AO Ground Zero
Eleven PAX posted for this morning’s festivities. @Cookies, @DaVinci, and @Sparrow modified as needed and rucked to spare their knees and/or ankles.
The rest of us warmed up with a 1.4 mile jog over to the Blanchard Road hill, located next to Crossway Books. We ran the hill slowly the first time, made the return trip back down and did it again, increasing our speed each rep so that by the fifth ascent we were at an all out sprint.
Once hills were finished we sprinted the length of the island on Crescent Street that starts just east of the College Ave train station and goes to the end of the block. @Shiplap crushed us. (I think he might need to gain some of that weight back to slow him down a bit.)
The return trip got us back to the AO just after 6:15. We ended up just shy of 5 miles for the run.
NOR: (in alphabetical order) Beaker, Cheese, Cookies, Crack, DaVinci, Jolly, Katniss, Shiplap, Sparrow, T-Bone, Tortuga (Q)
COT: We prayed for T-Bone working to finish a deal with work, Crack and his work trip out east next week, for new believers Sparrow and his team witnessed to from Iran last week – for the strengthening of their faith, Sparrow whose feeling were hurt (not by @Jolly or anyone from F3, surprisingly).
Moleskin: Keep working on our verse of the week, and don’t leave the six behind: check in with your team and encourage/ push the stragglers to finish off the first part of Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith.” Next week we add the next chunk, “and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”
F3 Wheaton 