Author: Chaplain

At 5:30 am, we fired up The Forge once again. 9 strong emerged from the gloom to challenge themselves and continue on a journey of self-improvement. A summary for your viewing pleasure:

No warm up needed – started out on the grassy knolls: bear crawl up, lunge walk across, crab walk down.

COP: No counting needed! – walking Russian Soldiers, walking helicopters, walking arm circles, walking Hillbillies, walking Lt. Dans. 20 count Alabama Prom Date oyo.

Mosey down to the ampitheatre for the Balls to the Wall Challenge. One man runs to the bleachers while the PAX assumes the position. 25 ct. LBC’s between each set. Keep going until everyone has run.

Mosey to west side for a triple check: Heals to Heaven, Elbow Plank, Weaving under the handrail to the tree – sorry for those who went further on the first set!

Back towards the flag completing 2 burpees at each light pole.

Got in some much needed stretching to close out the final 2 minutes.

Counterama, Namearama. YHC lead us out.

Prayers for Doublemint who was facing a challenging day. He provided some great perspective on how the group has assisted with mental strength and pushing oneself out of you comfort zone. A welcomed discussion to balance out our normal juvenile banter.

Great work to all the PAX today – you guys killed it!

At 5:30 am Huguenot High School welcomed an eclectic mix of Forge regulars, visitors, and a special lady smoking the chronic in her car. The stage was set for an epic beatdown that was sure to be enjoyed by all.

Mosey to the lower circle for warmups that included the following: Don Quixotes, helicopters, cherry pickers, dead man hang, Russian Soldiers, LBC’s, hand release merkins.

Exercise 1:
Using the lower parking area that is divided into 3 sections:
Broad Jump Burpees, Broad Jumps, Broad Jump Burpees.
Turn around and complete: Plank walk, crab walk, plank walk.

A late arriving Hardywood infused the group with energy and propelled us to the finish line.

Exercise Two: At the base of lower grass hill: Bear Crawl up the hill, reverse bear crawl down. Repeat x 5.

Exercise 3:

Mosey to the big hill and partner up. Partner one does a suicide style run using 3 no parking signs as the turnaround points. Other partner does WWII sit ups.

Audibled to 2 parking signs for the second and third set. Partners alternated between running and doing flutter kicks then hello dollies.

Exercise 4: At the school: Rotate between Tooth Fairies, 20 count chicken peckers, 20 count dips until time was called. Back to the flag!

Names/Numbers

Announcements: Celebrate dry January by getting your drink on at Kindred Spirits in February. See Slack for details.

Greenbow took us out. Specific prayers for Last Call’s MIL and all those battling COVID.

Final Thoughts:

It was great to have Fin stop by this morning. He is part of F3 in Greenville, NC and was in town for a couple days for a swim meet.

Also happy that Greenbow’s comeback tour reached our neck of the woods.

Glad we got this workout in despite all of the uptick in COVID cases. Stay safe out there!

There’s a lot to love about being outside early in the morning: the crisp cold air and the crunching of the frost beneath our feet can be magical at times. But there is no better treat than running through a cloud of ganja smoke in route to the warm-up circle.

It was an honor to lead!

6 high flying hoop aficionados ignored the 28 degree temperatures and embraced a basketball themed beatdown. According to the PAX, the NBA draft was last night, so it all tied together nicely.

Cold, quiet mosey to the lower circle as our bodies adjusted to the weather.
Warm up:
Don Quixotes, Cherry Pickers, Dead Man Hang, Russian Soldiers, LBC’s, Alabama Prom Dates .

Exercise One: PAX count off. One man dribbles out 5 light poles, right handed out, left handed back. All others do exercises together for the duration. Rotate dribblers each time. The following exercises were completed:
Jump Squats, Hand Release Merkins, Hold Plank, Lunges, Bear Crawl, Side LBC’s, Calf Raises, Copperhead Squats, Plank Jacks, Flutter Kicks, Ball Dippers.

Exercise Two: Indigenous Peoples Run to the front of the school. Man in the back dribbles while weaving through the PAX, then passes to the back of the line.

Exercise Three: Form a circle and complete WWII sit-ups while passing the ball back and forth. We stopped when the first person got to 50. Luckily Fresh Prince burned through them.

Exercise Four: Elevens. Up and down the grass hill completing Merkins and Hello Dolly’s.

Mosey back to the flag. Circle up and complete one minute of jump squats while passing the ball around.

Numbers/Names

Announcements: See Slack for details on Thanksgiving and Black Friday events.

Prayers for those impacted by COVID.

YHC took us out.

10 members of the Huguenot High School JV boy’s fitness team arrived on a campus for another 5:30 am practice. 70 degree temperatures ensured that everyone would be putting forth MAXIMUM EFFORT. With each drop of sweat hitting the pavement, our popularity and social status was sure to grow.

Warmarama:
Mosey to the lower circle for an abbreviated warm up consisting of:
Don Quixote’s
Helicopters
Cherry Pickers
Alabama Prom Dates
Jog back to the bottom of the hill.

Incline Curb Crawl: Pax lined up on the curb in plank position and begin working their way up hill. Man in the back breaks off and does 2 burpees, then runs to the front of the line. We stopped at a light pole and reversed down the hill. Sorry for those who got double burpee’d at the switch point!

Mount Chaplain Descent
First rep: run down the grass portions, Bernie Sanders across parking lots. At the bottom, complete 50 squats then push yourself (fast mosey?) back to the top.
Second rep: repeat with Carioca right on parking areas, 50 calf raises at the bottom.
Third rep: repeat with Carioca left on parking areas, 50 1 count lunges at the bottom.

Props to Fresh Prince for extending the bottom of the mountain all the way to the rail. Seemed to work better. DTH and Hardywood led WWII sit ups, hand release merkins and flutter kicks while the PAX made their way up the hills.

Circuit: 15 reps of Jerkins, 15 dips, tooth fairy up the staircase, then jog back around. Pax rotated between the exercises until time was called.

Lot of wide ranging mumble chatter this morning. Topics included stilettos, vegan barbeques ( aka “Woke Smoke”) and one PAX member’s early modeling career (a dream deferred??). We were educated on the birthday of the Navy and Virginia’s own Thomas Jefferson’s role. DTH has begun composing old time country tunes (I left my heart on Mount Chaplain……..) A swoled up Bone Thugs reminded Cooper who the true Alpha of the group is.

Announcements:
Shoe drive continues with SOJ appearing to dominate.
Beer mile at the Carillion on Saturday – seek Slack for details
Congrats to Doozy on his work related success.

YHC took us out in prayer.

2 heavily sterilized, social distance warriors broke free from the confines of home to enjoy another epic beatdown at The Forge. With plenty of elbow room and no one on the Q sheet, the possibilities were endless. Here’s how it all went down:

Mosey to the lower circle

COP

Snuff  facilitated the warm-up.  As best as I can remember we did Side Straddle Hops, Don Quixote’s, Arm Circles, WWII sit ups, American Hammers, Merkins, Lunge around the circle. I am probably missing a couple.

The Thang:

Hot potato passed to YHC. Mosey to the bottom of the hill.  Partner one runs up to the first parking sign and back. Other partner: flutter kicks. Snuff recommended 2 burpees at the top of each hill. Rd 2 – run to second sign, partner does LBC’s. Rd 3: WWII sit ups and furthest sign .

Pt. 2, Snuff decided on  Bear crawling in between each light around the large traffic circle. At the various lights we completed the following (10 count): Box Cutters, Lt. Dan’s, Copperhead squats, Rosalita’s, Mt. Climbers, Jerkins, one other.

Mosey back to the amphitheater. Chaplain recommends Partnering up: Combine for 100 Incline Merkins, 200 SSH’s, and 300 flutter kicks. Partner box jumps up the amphitheater,  10 dips on the picnic table, then runs back around the perimeter.

Mosey back to the flag.

Prayers for everyone in the group. Hoping we can support one another, and our community, through these challenging times.

It was a great to have Snuff co-Qing this morning. He has been killing it since joining the group not too long ago.

At 5:30 am we fired up The Forge, elevating the temperature at Huguenot High School to 70 degrees. 4 malleable men emerged from the gloom, hoping to get hammered – or something along those lines. Here’s how it all went down.

Mosey down to the circle

COP
My son Jake was very interested in this workout. He had a lot of wild ideas, and specifically recommended a football style warm up, so we gave it a shot.

Form a line and complete the following: rotating squat walk, deep lunge walk, power skips, karoaoke (x 2), walking leg pulls. I don’t know any of these are in the Exicon, but it seemed to do the job.

Flange and Fresh Prince rolled in just in time.

Exercise 1: Route 66
Complete 1 incline merkin at the first light, increased by one at each light. I believe there were ten lights

Exercise 2: Mount Chaplain

From the base, bear crawl up each hill.
First parking lot – Burpee Dans (burpee plus 4 count lunge walks) across.
2nd parking lot – Broad jump burpee across.
3rd – Burpee Dans
4th – Broad jump burpees, then up to the summit.

On the descent: crab walk down and repeat the same pattern with the burpees.

Exercise 3:

Rotate through a circuit of 20 jerkins, 20 dips, 20 chicken peckers. We completed 4 rounds.

Exercise 3: Hillicides

partner up – one person does a suicide style run up the hill, breaking it into 3 sections, up and back. other partner does LBC’s for the duration. rotate
Second round: repeat with Alabama Prom Dates
Third round – repeat with Flutter Kicks.

Mosey back to the flag

Counterama, Namearama

Announcements: Discussed possible dates of the next Puppy Pile.
Support our members heading out in the mission field.

Flange took us out in prayer.

Excellent work by the PAX today.  The light rain made for a nice backdrop. We had some amazing individual efforts. Fresh Prince’s broad jump appeared to be double that of YHC. Posh was a beast on the Jerkins. Flange was smoking the hillicide run portion.  The highlight was definitely the random dude walking his dog as Flange and I were doing Alabama Prom Dates. Think he might adjust his route moving forward.

It was an honor to lead!

7 cold weather warriors ignored the 20 degree temperature for the latest 45 minutes of madness known as The Forge. Tobit was the hero that we all need, rocking the shorts. Lots of mustache mumble chatter to kick things off. Apparently, several members of our brethren have been mistakenly identified as pedophiles or old west characters. That’s messed up!

Today’s Q was not inspired by a bible verse – but rather that snarled, cartoonish face of Raider’s coach Jon “Chucky” Gruden, saying “You gotta pound that rock!” It is football season, after all.

Pax all grabbed a rock out of the Chaplain mobile and moseyed down to the amphitheater.

Warm Up: Don Quixotes, Cherry Pickers, Arm Circles, Alabama Prom Dates, Wilson’s Wife, Plank Stretches.

COP #1

Partner up:
Round 1: Partner One does box jumps to the top of the amphitheater, 30 monkey humpers, run down the stairs. Partner Two does Merkins of choice.

Round 2: Partner One – box jumps followed by 30 ball dippers, return. Partner Two – chicken peckers.

Round 3 – Partner One – box jumps followed by 30 squats, return. Partner Two – flutter kicks.

Fresh Prince went to grab a rock.
Other PAX circled up for Failure to Launch with 5 second countdown between jumps. Completed 3 circles.

Mosey to the soccer field for COP #2

Partner Up –

Rd. 1 – Partner One runs the length of the soccer field (with rock), side shuffle across, Bernie Sanders back, side shuffle to home. Partner two completes rock overhead presses for the duration.

Rd. 2 – Partner One runs the length of the soccer field (with rock), side shuffle across, Bernie Sanders back, side shuffle to home. Partner two completes squats for the duration.

Rd. 3 – Partner One runs the length of the soccer field (with rock), side shuffle across, Bernie Sanders back, side shuffle to home. Partner two completes rock WWII sit ups for the duration.

Rd. 4 – Partner One runs the length of the soccer field (with rock), side shuffle across, Bernie Sanders back, side shuffle to home. Partner two completes rock tricep extensions for the duration.

Indigenous Peoples run around the school, with person in back doing 2 burpies, then running to the front

Stop at the curb circle and do a curb crawl, with person in back doing 2 burpies, then running to the front.

COP 3

From the base of Mt. Chaplain – complete 10 Merkins at each parking lot (DTH’s suggestion), 50 calf raises at the summit, 50 rock LBC’s at the base. Mosey back to the flag.

Counterama, Namerama,

Announcements:
discussed the mustache challenge
Merkin Challenge next week at the Forge – shooting for 900. May be an alternative workout for those who are interest.

P Trap took us out in prayer.