It happens every week that I forget to ask someone to Q at The Estate. Friday night rolls around and there is absolutely no plan for the workout in the morning. The usual routine is to scour the Isotope backblasts to pick and choose from someone else's devious plan. This week was different. Well, it was sort of different. I still had no plan but decided to just go to sleep and wing it in the morning. Freedom taught me that art when Night Ranger was still at the Estate AO. We would call it Wing-it-Wednesday.
As the Pax rolled in slowly, with Tantrum, Turnpike and Sponge Bob already there from Excelsior, I explained to them the philosophy behind my "plan" and the reason for it: After running all summer long to be as fast as I could be for the BRR, I attended my first boot camp workout where I was going to try to "kill it" at The Foundry yesterday. Well, Don Ho dropped a bear crawl / burpee WIB that reminded me of how much better I had gotten at running at the expense of my chest, arms and shoulders. So The Estate today would be focused on upper body and we would focus on form. I would take it only as far as I could handle. As the saying goes, "Don't Q it if you can't do it." With an even number of Pax, we were able to have some partner accountability on form.
Here's how it went down:
Open with the Pledge of Allegiance
Warmorama
Side Straddle Hop x 20IC
Imperial Storm Trooper x 20IC
Toy Soldier x 15IC
Windmill x 10 IC
Seal Claps x 20IC
Arm Circles for a minute or so
Round 1
Group A – 10 slow deep dips
Group B – 5 full extension pull-ups (no kipping)
Flip-Flop
Round one was 5 rounds with the next 4 rounds dropping dips by 2 and pull-ups by 1 each round
Round 2
The Protractor x 3
The Protractor = Hands on the ground, feet on the wall. Hold body in 30, 60, 90, 60, 30 degree angles to the wall for 10 seconds in each position with a round 10 robin count by the pax.
Round 3
Curb Kickers x 50IC (that's 100 each leg)
Round 4
Partner Rows on the rings – 5 rounds of 5 rows (focus on form)
Partner row = Feet on your partner's shoulders while hanging parrallel to the group from the rings.
This is one of the only F3 exercises that works your back muscles
Round 5
Bear Crawl 1 parking space / 1 Merican / Crab Walk to start / Front Leaning Rest while Pax regroup
Bear Crawl 2 parking spaces / 2 Merican / Crab Walk to start / Front Leaning Rest while Pax regroup
Bear Crawl 3 parking spaces / 3 Merican / Crab Walk to start / Front Leaning Rest while Pax regroup
Bear Crawl 4 parking spaces / 4 Merican / Crab Walk to start / Front Leaning Rest while Pax regroup
Bear Crawl 5 parking spaces / 5 Merican / Crab Walk to start / Front Leaning Rest while Pax regroup
Jog 2 laps around the bus lot (1/4 mile)
Round 6
People's Chair + 20 air press IC + 20 seal claps IC (repeato)
Round 7
Cinder Block curls – 10IC (repeato)
Finale
Zamperini (cinder block overhead for as long as you can hold it)
COT
Prayer for a full recovery for Aaron Allen from Lake Norman Charter
MOLESKIN
It took a little convincing for Tantrum to stay after already running the River Rat 10K and Excelsior but Sponge Bob and Turnpike were not going to let him go home "early". YHC accomodated his request for no burpees since I had no set plan anyway. You don't always need burpees for a good workout.
While you don't see a ridiculous amount of reps in the list of exercises above, you don't need a ridiculous amount of reps to get a good workout. Focusing on full extension on your exercises allows your muscles to experience their full range of motion and tires them out quicker while building your endurance the right way.
During the curb kickers, we had a good conversation about the "Buddy Bench" at the Elementary school and all the positive words painted on it. Sharing was a good one so I let out some built up gas in the spirit of that word. Tantrum returned the favor later in the bear crawl / crab walk portion of the workout and Sponge Bob received the gift that was intended for yours truly due to a fortuitous change of direction in the very slight breeze this morning.
Sponge Bob found a basketball after the Partner Rows and took it the the playground which caused Turnpike's basketball instincts to kick in. Turnpike immediately broke down into a defense stance and seemed to be telling Spnge Bob to "bring it". There was some hustling and bustling but no one was injured. It ended with a slam dunk but I don't recall who dunked on who.
It seems that the success in the Zamperini challenge is directly correlated to age. Hasselhoff and Elmers conceded to each other in gentlemanly fashion at the 3 minute mark (8:01am) while the rest of the pax lasted 2 minutes 30 seconds at most.
Solid work this morning both in exercises and mumble chatter. It is an honor to be the Master Q of one of the Flagship AO's of the Isotope region.
Professor