Exercise Casserole

Preamble:

No FNGs but we did welcome back Viking.  And it’s always good to see everyone, regulars, and not-so-regulars since we are all brothers ITG.

Warm-O-Rama:

Mosey to parking lot behind rec center for:

• Weekpickers x11
• Hillbillies x11
• Copperhead Squats x11

The Thang:

Everyone grabbed some curb space for wheel of merkins including 5 incline merkins, rotate 90 degrees for 5 more with one hand on the curb, rotate 90 degrees for 5 derkins and another 90 degrees for 5 with the other hand on the curb.  Rinse and repeat for a nice 40 merkin warm-up.

Next, everyone found a space on the rec center wall.  We did 5 donkey kicks in cadence (sort of) and on last kick, held it for about 5 seconds (maybe more).  Repeat…this time with 10 kicks and hold for about 10 seconds (seemed more like 30).  Finished it off with 15 donkey kicks and about an hour of hold time (or 20 seconds if you were actually counting).  No mumble chatter but lots of grunting and groaning so I knew everyone loved it.

Back out to the parking lot for a round of worst merkin ever…a wide merkin + a regular merkin + a diamond merkin = 1 rep.  We did 10 of varying levels of quality.  YHC did not try these at home beforehand and it showed.

Back to the wall where I explained the inspiration behind my preview gif of a guy jumping off a bridge.  Planking and facing the wall IC (1) right arm to the wall then (2) left arm then (3) right arm back to the ground and (4) left arm back to the ground.  I think we did 15 to start and another 15 for good measure.

Back out to the parking lot for an improvised 25 BBSUs since everyone was doing things so fast.

Mosey to the pitch center circle.  On the way, I realized I had forgotten to include burpees in the workout so I decided to add a round of circle burps with high knees.  Those are always a crowd-pleaser.  We recovered with an Indian run around the field and back to the center circle for a round of ATMs.  IC we did 10 Alternating shoulder taps (alpha count), 10 Tempo merkins (like a copperhead squat but with a merkin), and 10 regular Merkins.  The chest was starting to get warmed up about this time so I asked for a recovery 10 count.  I then instructed the PAX to do it again so they started a 10 count again but about halfway through I caught on and had them drop and give me another round of IC ATMs.

I suddenly remembered I had remembered to include burpees in the workout.  The PAX were told of the four triangles of cones, one in each corner of the pitch.  They were to find a cone and on my command perform one burpee, bear crawl to next cone, perform two burpees, bear crawl to third cone, perform three burpees and bear crawl back to starting cone.  We rinsed and repeated as follows:

• Burpee / Duck Walk
• No Surrender / Crawl Bear
• 25 BBSUs at each cone / lunge walk

Finding we still had a little time left, we lined up on the goalie box line, sprinted to the far end line and then moseyed back to the flag for some mary including:

• Dying cockroach
• Boats and Canoes
• V-ups with American hammers
• Mountain climbers
• Plank for time

COT:

Tebow is organizing a book study to start within the next week or two.  It’ll be on Bob Goff’s newest book “Dream Big” (or is it Dream Big?).  Either way, HERE IS A LINK to the book on Amazon.  If you’re not already on a text thread with Tebow and are interested in participating, hit him up on Slack.

I shared a little bit about the significance of today for me.  I won’t repeat it all here but I honored my oldest son who turns 24 today.  He lives with and is disabled by a mental illness.  I encouraged everyone to be aware that mental illness is all around us but, due to the stigma often associated with it, we don’t know the extent of its impact on our community.  If you or someone you know seems to be struggling with anxiety, depression, mood swings, or anything you can’t really understand, pay attention, and don’t hesitate to get help (and don’t assume it’s a mental illness just because you are depressed or anxious).  If you are unsure where to go or what to do, ask me or Hitchcock (who is a mental health professional).  We can at least give you some possible next steps to take and just hear you.

Thanks for letting me lead and for pushing me to get stronger every workout.  Until next time…Speedo out.