Back Blast 2-Jan-2020 Thursday Cloverfield at the Garden 05:30 Crock Pot Q

PAX: 8

Nice and Slow

Captain Crunchberry

Jolly Rancher

Iceman (R)

Domino

Nino

Gypsy

Crock Pot (Q)

Weather: 40 deg F, still air (but that may have been because we stayed tight to the building)

Disclaimer/FNG

YHC is not a professional, nor has he received any certification or training. Everything Q says is merely a suggestion. You as a PAX are here voluntarily on your own free will. This will likely be a high intensity exercise, so if you have any medical condition or physical limitation, you should consider not participating. You are encouraged to modify everything as necessary according to your ability, disability, injury, fitness level, etc.

Warm Up:

Thang:

The PAX headed straight for the hill of stolen souls for some hill climbs. We did intervals of 3 minutes work and one minute rest. We began with a 5 rep exercise at the bottom of the hill, then climbed the hill in a prescribed way. We did as many rounds as possible during each work interval.

Here was the protocol of Ground Exercise : Hill Climb

Bird Dog*: Run up hill

Curb Dips : Defensive slide w/ left foot forward

Wide Merkins : Defensive slide w/ right foot forward

Prisoner Get Up : “Surrender” run**

Plankaround*** : Monster Walk****

Reverse Crunch : Super Mario

Asymmetric Left Merkin : Carioca (left foot forward)

Asymmetric Right Merkin : Carioca (right foot forward)

*Bird Dog: From plank, lift right hand and left leg in a controlled fashion, pause at the top, lower slowly. Repeat with left hand and right leg. Not for speed. Momentum is the enemy. Keep the plank intact.

**Surrender Run: Run with arms extended overhead, hands all the way up, palms forward. It sucks when you can’t pump your arms to run.

***Plankaround: Hold Plank for 5 seconds, rotate to a left side plank for 5 seconds, rotate in the same direction to a ‘crab’ plank (inverse of a plank, belly button up instead of down) for 5 seconds, rotate in the same direction to right side plank for 5 seconds. Each ‘rep’ or ’round’ should hit all four positions.

****Monster Walk: Walk / shuffle / run, but ALWAYS keep feet wide like a sumo squat. Using a Speed Skater jump-hop is cheating, hence my all-caps screaming of the word “ALWAYS”. The goal would be to have your feet no closer than 2x shoulder width. It’s more of a pivot-shuffle, unless you’re Domino, who Monster Walks faster than I can run…

*****Asymmetric Merkin: Merkin with one hand on curb and above eye level, the other hand on the ground and near belly button. Think of alligator walks, but doing merkins instead.

YHC wrote ‘coupons’ in the back blast so I felt obliged to at least do something. My eye was on the clock so we had to be fast. There was too much time to just do a straight set of man makers but not enough time for a lot of sets.

YHC started a set of 10 squats, followed by a set of 10 curls, followed by a set of 10 overhead press. Upon asking Gypsy for a 10 count, he immediately hit the deck and began a set of merkins on the coupon (while doing the ten count). These weren’t the short throw, 25%-to-75 range of motion, head-bobber merkins that lots of people do (you know who you are…). These were legit, pec on the deck, straight-as-an-arrow planked merkins. On his third, we all jumped in for the rest of the set of 10. It was evidence of iron sharpening iron.

COT:

CoR/NoR

Announcements- Sign up for IronHorse Challenge 2020. Get out to new sites, meet new people, lead more workouts. If you want to Q the Loco at the County, I know a guy.

Message- Ezra wrote in 2 Chronicles, “But you must be strong and not discouraged. The work that you do will be rewarded.” – 2 Chronicles 15:7.

To be honest, when I first read this book I was bored to tears. It’s a chronicle of Israel’s history. I’m not particularly a history buff, don’t remember dates well, and I (still can’t) pronounce all the people’s names. But if you look closely, there are some gems. This verse is one of them.

God’s people went through waves of obedience, where things went well, and disobedience, where things fell apart. In one of those roller coaster rides, God called a guy named Asa and told him that even though Israel had been a mess for a long time, God was about to turn them around.

Basically Asa had courage, even though things hadn’t yet actually began to show progress. This verse was to encourage him to continue, even though there was no evidence (yet) that things were getting better.

Maybe you’re in that place now. Maybe you know what you should be doing with your health, relationships, and your spiritual walk. Possibly you’ve even started doing the right things and maybe they haven’t begun to pay off. This verse is for you. Be strong, have courage, do the work that you know is right (even when no one is watching). It’s a promise, the work you do will be rewarded. What kind of work are you doing in 2020?

Intentions- I apologize, I don’t recall any specific intentions, but I know multiple PAX expecting children, so for now I’ll specifically pray for them. We closed in prayer as a group, asking God for his blessing on the PAX, their families, and the impact each of us can make on relationships and people in 2020.

NakedMan Moleskin: Iceman (R) made an insightful comment about how the message applied to parenting. As parents we have to talk the talk and walk the walk. Our kids are watching us. We’re their example. But even that isn’t a ‘sure thing’. Keep doing things the right way, even if you have a knuckle headed kid who continues to create waves. The work will be rewarded, but you have to be consistent and do it, even when there isn’t evidence of progress.

Until next meal,

Crock Pot