Author: Jim Huddle

  • ET Phone Home

    Baker’s Dozen at Heartbreak Ridge today. But no ET. What Whitesnake said was true. ET got a permission Slip not to be here in order to get ready for BRR. But Handshake was here.

    Pinto was released from Injured Reserve so that he could make it today. In honor of his return, we climbed no trees and handled no gas-powered equipment.

    Doozy and Posey (Doozy 2.0) were here. Last time I saw Doozy, he was inflicting a severe beatdown at Gridiron. Today was not up to a Doozy standard but I did my best.

    Somehow or another, I’ve missed Bacon Bits for about a month. Atilla showed up in between managing winning championships in baseball. Nice to have Flo here. Despite yesterday’s awful beatdown at Hoedown, Flo was back for more. We had Seymour and Rosie who worked Heartbreak into their rotation. In addition to those previously mentioned, great to have the usual suspects here (Lighthouse, Honeydo).

     

    And so it went like this:

    Warmup head-fake in the parking lot. We didn’t run anywhere.

    SSHs, Helicopters, IWs, Don Quixote, Plank stretch

    Mosey to Railings

    11s Hand Release Merkins and Ukrainian Hammers while running over/under railings

    Mosey to at the basketball courts behind the school and tried to avoid falling down due to the sand on the bottom of our shoes.

    15 People’s chair air press in cadence

    10 BTTW hip slaps in cadence

    15 Donkey Kix OYO

    15 People’s chair milkers in cadence

    10 BTTW Australian Mountain Climbers in cadence

    15 Donkey Kix OYO

    15 People’s chair Lalanne in cadence

    10 BTTW Toe Taps in cadence

    15 Donkey Kix OYO

    15 People’s chair Muhammad Ali

    10 Dirty Hookup

    15 Donkey Kix OYO

    Mosey to the covered walkway:

    Run to the end but Belly touch every 2 poles.

    2X

    Bear crawl/crab walk to the second doorway

    Mosey to the benches in front of the school; 3X

    15 Dips single count Cadence

    15 Derkins single count Cadence

    10 Bulgarian split squats, right leg back, single count Cadence

    10 Bulgarian split squats, left leg back, single count Cadence

    Line up on curb near benches and burpee/broad jump to the loading dock

    Mosey to flag

    4 minutes of Mary

     

    Announcement:

    Hump Day (minus 1 day) Happy Hour tonight: Southside at Triple Crossing Beer in Midlothian. Questions? Contact Doozy

     

    Take out by YHC

     

    I was very happy to see so many people today! More than the normal numbers. It reminds me that once in a while, I should visit some other locations and meet some other people. As many have said, I am very grateful for F3 and the people I have met here. It has really made the move from Charlotte to Richmond wonderful.

  • Numerology

    At Circus Maximus, we did numerology. We did a triple check with 4 exercises and 5-man teams. Latter, we did 11s with 10 people.

    Warm-up:

    SSHs, Don Quixote, IWs, Ukrainian Soldiers, Hamstring stretch,

    Partner up:

    1 partner carries both bells, other does 10 merkins, around island to the end of the walkway closest to where we begin.

    Divide up into 2 teams with 4 partners and do the following 3X:

    Goblet squats

    Overhead press

    Situp using KB to anchor feet

    Timer runs to end of walkway and back

    Next, go to courtyard with your teams and do the following 3X:

    Steps ups

    Curls

    Jackknife

    Timer runs around the courtyard

    Back to middle of walkway and walk between the middle and the end of the walkway:

    11s: waiter carry between

    Triceps and Racked Lunge (both legs count as 1)

    We didn’t finish.

    Back to the flag.

    Announcements:

    2nd Tuesday lunch on the 12th. Location to be announced.

    Matthew 6:34 is “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

    There is more than one of these “don’t worry about the future” verses in the New Testament. This one is easier for me to grasp. To me, it says focus on what’s you’re doing right now. Where I used to work, we periodically hired consultants to promote various ‘programs’ such as the Quality Improvement Process. One of the programs had the mantra “Be Here Now”. I liked that. Focus on what’s in front of you. I don’t mean to suggest that you don’t think about and plan for tomorrow. But like many people, I try to multi-task. That often doesn’t work out well. Try to deal with what’s in front of you right now and get that done right so you won’t have to worry about it later because you messed up what you were doing right now.

  • Prime Number

    A prime number, 7, for Heartbreak Ridge. In attendance today were the essential food groups; Bacon Bits, Tater and Pigskin; 2/3 of the professoriate of VCU (Offshore and Lighthouse); the Championship Baseball Manager who destroyed the Roman Empire (Attila the Hun, congratulations on this past weekend’s 2 championships); and a White Snake fresh from rescuing ET from a pack of wild cyclists at RAMM.

    It went like this:

    A Warm-up mosey, Karioke left, backwards run and Karioke right in the parking lot.

    COP with 20 SSHs, 10 Manmaker Merkins, 15 Knee-ups and a stretching exercise.

    Mosey to Heartbreak hill for a Jacob’s ladder (run to top, 1 burpee and return to bottom, then 2 Burpees, etc. up to 7)

    Mosey over to the railings behind the Quioccasin parking lot and hand-foot walk the rails from the bottom to the top

    Mosey to the wall under the side covered porch of Quioccasin for;

    15 People’s Chair/air press in cadence, 10 BTTW hips slaps in cadence, 15 Donkey Kix OYO;

    15 People’s chair/milkers (moo), 10 BTTW Australian Mountain Climbers, 15 Donkey Kix

    15 People’s chair/Lalannes, 10 BTTW Toe Taps, 15 Donkey Kix

    Stretch

    Over to playground at Pemberton

    The following 3 times: 10 Pull-ups, 20 Merkins and 20 hook your feet Sit-ups

    Mosey to parking lot for BLIMPS; 5 Burpees, 10 Lunges (each leg), 15 IWs, 20 Merkins, 25 Plank Jax, 25 Squats

    Mosey to front of Quioccasin picnic tables for; 15 Dips in Cadence, 10 Bulgarian Split Squats in cadence (right leg back), 10 Bulgarian Split Squats in cadence (left leg back): 2X

    Back to start:

    20 Flutter kix in cadence, 20 APDs in cadence. 60 count 6-inch leg lift.

    Acabado

    No announcements. We’re not aware of a July 4 convergence.

    Takeout by YHC (first verse of “Be Thou My Vision”)

  • Animal Kingdom and Gummy Bears

    There were 6 for Heartbreak Ridge. I was returning from a week at Disney World where I saw one of Whitesnake’s relatives at Animal Kingdom. I was inspired to do the following workout.

    Warmup:

    Mosey to the front parking lot. All in cadence:

    20 SSHs

    20 IWs

    20 Skaters/touch toe

    20 Ukrainian Soldiers

    20 Alternating Lunge Twist Right/Left

    Mosey to the grass in front of the school

    Do the following series of 4 exercises 10X, then 9X, then 8X, etc.

    Burpees

    WWII

    Jumping lunge

    Merkins

    Find some wall, under the covered walkway.

    15 People’s chair air press in cadence

    10 BTTW hip slaps in cadence

    15 Donkey Kix OYO

    15 People’s chair milkers in cadence

    10 BTTW Australian Mountain Climbers in cadence

    15 Donkey Kix OYO

    15 People’s chair Lalanne in cadence

    10 BTTW Toe Taps in cadence

    15 Donkey Kix OYO

    Mosey to the benches over by the parking lot; 3X

    15 Dips single count Cadence

    15 Derkins single count Cadence

    10 Bulgarian split squats, right leg back, single count Cadence

    10 Bulgarian split squats, left leg back, single count Cadence

    To the football field

    Line up at goal line; Run to the other goal line but one belly touch every 10 yards.

    Alternating bear crawls and crab walks every 10 yards to the opposite 40 yard line. (3 bear, 3 crab)

    Backwards run to the goal line.

    Repeat belly touch, bear crawls and crab walks.

    Back to the flag for dollies, Travoltas and 30 seconds of plank.

    Announcements:

    The Bridge this Saturday. For details, see Slack.

    Prayers for Gypsy, Blue Moon, Pinto, Lab Rat and the people of Ukraine.

    I recently got back from a trip to Disney World. While we were there, one of our grandsons ate some Sugar Free Gummy Bears. If you want to read something truly funny, read product reviews of Sugar Free Gummy Bears. The following is one of the links I found. I could not complete reading this from laughing so hard. You will likely have to copy and paste the following to get the link to work.

    https://www.sunnyskyz.com/blog/2755/The-Reviews-For-These-Sugar-Free-Gummy-Bears-Will-Have-You-In-Tears-Laughing?fbclid=IwAR0nkN9KG0gfgqOJMEJ-iYBhCTrawyMm1syWeV1n4G2vXZ9uYwxezqujaUU

  • Heisse Kartoffel

    Circus Maximus had 6 for a Hot Potato today, including an FNG headlocked by Offshore. Fireman Ed receives credit for the coming up with the name ‘Bedpan’ (our FNG works at an Assisted Living facility.) Unfortunately, I forgot his hospital name! But he’s from Statesboro Ga, went to Wake Forest, knew Offshore before he moved here recently, his wife is from Atlanta, she’s part Lebanese, she worked at the Lebanese food festival this past weekend which apparently was a big success, he works for Beth Sholom assisted living, his children go to Godwin HS and Quioccasin MS and he lives about 1.5 miles from Godwin. They looked at a map and decided Richmond was the place to be. Not too big, not too small, just right. The Goldilocks of cities.

    YHC started off with the warmup: SSHs, IWs, Don Quixote, Cherry Pickers and the Plank stretch.

    Offshore took over and we split up into 2 groups of 3s for a triple check of KB swings, KB High pulls and the timer running to the end of the covered walk and back. 3X

    Next, Fireman Ed had us each do a different exercise (pole smokers, KB bench press, KB swings, KB Squats, KB Lawnmowers) while the timer ran around the island. 2X

    Wrapping up, Whitesnake with 11s: Sit and press and Step ups. Unlike earlier this week, no benches were destroyed on the step ups.

    That used up the time.

    Announcements:

    May 30 Memorial Day Convergence at 7:00 AM at Brown’s Island

    June 4 Blood Drive at Epiphany Lutheran from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Sign up at Redcrossblood.org

    June 4 is also The Bridge.

  • Missing Pinto

    3 of us at WTH today. Gomer did his own thing and Lighthouse and I did the following. Right on 3 Chopt Road to John Rolfe, right to Old Brick, right to the parking deck near Dave and Buster’s. A few exercises while I recovered my breath. Then up the stairs to the top of the parking deck, across the top level and down the other stairwell, 20 merkins and back up the stairs to the top level, over to the initial stairwell and down to the start. 5 times. A little stretching. Over to the little gazebo on the lake. 15 Dips in cadence, a little stretching and return around the lake back to the start. 2 or 3 times around the ‘island’ at the school. Total distance, about 3.5 miles.

    Pinto will be missed for awhile. He is on rehab. Prayers that he doesn’t get too frustrated with the length of his recovery.

    Announcements:

    May 30 Convergence at Brown’s Island

    June 4 Blood Drive at Epiphany Lutheran. Please sign up on Redcrossblood.org

    June 4 The Bridge

  • The Takeover is Over

    7 at Hoedown today. Here’s how it went.

    Parking lot at the corner

    10 Lunge Twist Right

    10 Lunge Twist Left

    10 Travolta Right

    10 Travolta Left

    20 Rocky Balboas (toe taps in a plank position)

    20 Deep Mountain Climbers

    10 Alabama Prom Date (one-legged) Right

    10 Alabama Prom Date (one-legged) Left

    Upper Parking lot

    5 minutes of burpees

    Wall Courtyard: 15 air-press (People’s chair) in cadence, 10 BTTW hip slaps in cadence, 15 Donkey Kix OYO

    Wall Courtyard: 15 milkers (People’s chair) in cadence, 10 BTTW Australian Mountain Climbers in cadence, 15 Donkey Kix OYO

    Wall Courtyard: 15 Lalannes (People’s chair) in cadence, 12 BTTW ToeTaps in cadence, 15 Donkey Kix OYO

    Wall Courtyard: 15 Muhamad Ali (People’s chair) in cadence, 10 Dirty Hookups in cadence, 15 Donkey Kix OYO

    Playground: Teams of three

    Timer: 10 Pull-ups, Dips, WWIIs: Clockwise rotation: 3X

    Upper Parking lot: Pair Up

    Bear Crawl to middle: 10 Hand slap Merkins, Mosey back: 3x

    Wall Courtyard: 11s Angry Donkeys (People’s Chair airpress and Donkey kicks)

    Run around the circular (oval) driveway

    Grassy area in the middle:

    20 Dollies

    20 Heels to Heaven

    10 Merkins

    60 second leg lift

    Tuckahoe Takeover must be over because I was able to sign up for the Q. It’s now starting to get warm in the morning. It wasn’t quite 70 degrees but it was humid. Get ready for the summer! Drink lots of liquids beforehand. And maybe bring something to drink after the workout is over.

    Prayers for Lab Rat, Whitesnake’s neighbor, Pinto and the people of Ukraine.

    Announcements

    May 30 Memorial Day convergence.

    June 4 Blood Drive at Epiphany Lutheran, Please sign up to donate blood at Redcrossblood.org. Also, we need some assistance with the blood drive, You can sign up to help with the Q-signup sheet. There is a tab (worksheet) for the Blood Drive. Less than 3 weeks to go. We have 6 donors out of 37 slots.

     

     

  • Cinco de Mayo

    Circus Maximus had 6 today for some warm-up exercises from the Wall Street Journal and some KB exercises I found on the internet, plus a few oldies.

    Warmup with SSHs, Lunge Twist out, Lateral Lunge Knee Hug, John Travolta, Skaters (right foot back, right hand to left foot)

    20 High Pulls: 20 Deep Mountain Climbers; 18 of each, 16 of each, etc.

    Slingshot 10 each direction (around body)
    Halo 10 each direction (handle points up in front, upside down in back)
    Single Arm Deadlift (Keep back straight, KB on ground, to KB at waist) 10 each side
    Single Leg Deadlift 10 each leg (Same leg goes up as the arm with the kettlebell, balance)
    Turkish Getup 5 each side (leg bent at knee is the same side as upraised arm)
    Goblet Squat 20 in total (handles pointing down, deep squat)
    Racked squat 10 each side
    Racked lunge 10 each side
    Alternating Single arm swing 20 in total
    Clean and Press 10 each side (start with KB on ground, bend knees, keep KB close to body)
    Squat and Press
    Bottom up Clean 10 each side (KB upside down at rack, hold 5 seconds)
    Overhead squat 10 each side (KB held with arm straight above head)
    High Pull 10 each side (A swing but pull the KB to the shoulder at top of swing, then push back and finish the swing)
    Snatch 10 each side (Start with KB between legs, End with KB above head.)

    20 Pull-overs (laying on back)

    20 Presses (laying on back)

    20 Rosalitas

    60-count 6-inch leg lift

     

    Announcements:

    June 4 at Epiphany Lutheran from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM: Blood Drive. Please register at RedCrossBlood.org. If you would like to sign up to help, you can go to the Q signup sheet. There is a tab for the Blood Drive.

    June 4 ALSO: The Bridge: Flatline is the man to see on details.

     

    The dynamic stretching exercises we used as warm-ups were a little difficult to do in cadence. They also required demonstration to explain. Surprisingly enough, the Wall Street Journal does have things in it other than business news. They have some good articles on exercise.

     

    The 60-count 6-inch leg lift was accompanied by complaints from White Deer. Seems he visually measured the height of my heels off the ground and it was higher than 6 inches. I’m not sure he’s right but, I’ll give him 50% of my pay for being Q today.

  • Digital Clock

    11 at Hoedown today for a new set of exercises from YHC. Riddle: How to you explain ‘clockwise’ to people who are used to digital clocks?

     

    Mosey to the Corner Parking Lot

    20 SSHs

    10 Arm Slap Merkins

    20 Deep Mountain Climbers

    20 IWs

    10 Diamond Merkins

    15 Gorilla Jacks

    Stretch

    20 Squats

    10 Stagger Arm Merkins

    20 Heels to Heaven

    15 Star Jax

    10 Stagger Arm Merkins

    Stretching

    To the upper Parking Lot

    Burpee Bear Crawl from mid court to edge

    Crab Walk back

    To the grassy area in back

    Divide into three groups; Circuit with 20 Hanging Knee-ups at pull-up bars, at the benches for 20 Dips, 20 Ukrainian Hammers close to the swings; 3X Cycle clockwise. To be fair, I didn’t announce the direction of rotation until EF Hutton asked.

    To the wall for Angry Donkeys (11s with People’s Chair air press and Donkey Kix)

    To the rails for 10 Bulgarian Split squats each leg, 10 derkins, 9 and 9, 8 and 8 etc.

    To the lower parking lot for

    3X 20 WWII, mosey, bernie up the hill and return

    To the petting zoo (there was a tent up for a petting zoo at the school this past weekend.) for

    Heels to heaven and a 60 count 6-inch leg lift.

    I don’t know about the rest of you but I was tired.

    Announcements:

    June 4: We have 2 events

    Convergence with Charlottesville and with men who are serving time or on probation. We would like RVA to do this once a month, 3rd Saturday to help lead with Vinny(?) from Charlotteville. It’s 1 hour from Midlo, followed with BBQ. Sorry I’m a little weak on the details but see Flatline for questions or additional details. F3 did something similar in Charlotte with a group of men in recovery from alcohol and drug addiction. The group was in-town so travel was real easy. This was rewarding. I went several times and lead exercises. I was always impressed with both the people there and the men from F3 who supported this. It’s a great opportunity to not only get in some exercise but to support men in the community who need a little support.

    AND, if that doesn’t work out for you, you have another opportunity! Blood drive from 10 to 3 at Epiphany Lutheran (west end of Monument where it intersects with Horsepen.

     

  • Lines on Football field

    Gridiron had 9 participants including Polly (FNG last week). Unfortunately, Homer was a little late and missed out on some burpees. You snooze, you lose. I was pleased to note that the football field was lined off.  That way, we knew where midfield was. No guessing!

    Mosey to tennis courts

    20 SSHs, 10 MM Merkins, 15 Knee-ups, (all in cadence), stretch

    Mosey to near pull-up bars

    5 minutes of Burpees, stretching exercise

    Using Pull-up bars:

    11s with Hanging Knee-ups and HRMs, stretching exercise

    Back to football field near fence

    10 Romanian Leg Lift (in cadence) Left leg then right leg

    Football field

    Burpee/Broad Jump to midfield, stretching exercise

    Jog to end

    11s with get ups and Ukrainian Hammers, stretching exercise

    Jog to Wall in front of school

    15 People’s Chair air press, 10 BTTW Hip slaps, (all in cadence), 15 donkey kix

    15 People’s Chair milkers, 10 BTTW Australian Mountain Climbers (all in cadence), 15 donkey kix

    15 People’s Chair la-lanes, 10 BTTW toe taps (all in cadence), 15 donkey kix

    Stretching exercise

    Mosey to the loading dock

    Behind the loading dock 10 Squats, climb wall and fence to loading dock, cross loading dock, climb down loading dock, mosey to asphalt for 10 merkins. 3X, stretching exercise

    Mosey back to football field

    Bear crawl/Crab walk to Midfield alternating every 10 yards

    Mosey to parking lot

    20 Heels to Heaven, 20 Rosalitas (all in cadence) 6-inch leg left to count of 60

    It’s always great to be out here. I had to miss coffee after the workout but I needed to help out with our grandson. His parents are out of town this weekend at a wedding and so we’re keeping their 10-month old. It’s a lot of work. Frankly, I don’t how we did it with our two or how they do it. He’s asleep now so I have time to write up the backblast.

    Announcements:

    Blood Drive June 4 at Epiphany Lutheran, west end of Monument where it runs into Horsepen, 10 to 3. Please go to Red Cross Blood donate and sign up.

    Richmond Bluegrass jam: (F3 Whitesnake is helping to pull this together) April 30 11am to 8PM, Parking available at James River High School, Midlothian, VA 23113, Free shuttles: Bring chairs/blankets RVABLUEGRASSJAM.com