Category: Richmond, VA

  • The First of Many

    14 Strong, for DOOKIE’s VQ. Made sure I ran through the disclaimers before we started….

    Warmup at the tennis courts, your normal warm-ups (Side Straddle Hops, Ukrainian Soldiers, etc.) and ended with High Knees and Butt Kicks.

    Workout 1 – (Double) Triple Check – 1 – Squats, 2 – Plank, 3 – Stadium run with 5 Merkins at the Bottom. I was inspired by Dealer a couple weeks back to do this, I also saw the Huguenot FB team doing bleachers runs the other day. After, headed to the football field

    Workout 2 – Four Corners Escalator – 1st Corner (10 – Burpees), 2nd Corner (20 – Carolina Dry Docks), 3rd Corner (30 – WW2’s), 4th Corner (40 – Monkey Humpers). After, headed to the Lane of Light Posts

    Workout 3 – Street Light Progressions – Run to every light post, and perform a jump squat. Start at 1, and progressively increase. There were 11 light posts. On the way back sprint to every other light post, whoever was there first got to choose their exercise (count of 10). Threw in a wild card of bearcrawl the grass hill.

    Finished with Count Off, Namerama, COT.

    Just wanted to thank all who have pushed me to Q, truly enjoyed it, and as the post name states, hoping to the be the first of many!

  • Everybody loves a comeback story… THIS AIN’T IT!

    On a beautiful Thursday morning, 13 gridiron gents made their way to the football field to display unbelievable feats of glory and dynamic bursts of speed that would put professionals to shame. Warby wearing an authentic Brady jersey as he quests for more points to win the Summer Cup… Crabby wearing a Taylor Swift shirt of some type to inspire everyone to hate the Chiefs even more… and Rudy… um… Rudy using his ND football namesake… to … um… inspire hope… that just wasn’t there… again.

    Led the Pax to the track where we warmed up with ole’ Side Straddle Hops, leg stretches, arm circles, and a NEW EXERCISE (which became our punishment when the other team scores) called “Donkey Clappers” – a sit up with a clap under your leg as you come up; alternating legs.

    Teams were divided evenly 6 on 6 and the charitable team took on an extra player; the injured Cookie who broke both his fingers saving orphans from a fire or some story like that. Team 1: Fandango, Warby, Crabgrass, McGruff, Festivus, Flyboy, and Cookie vs. Team 2: Rudy, Orby, The Duke, Buckshot, Merman, and Bru.

    The team punishment for the other team’s TD was 6 “Donkey Clappers” in honor of the 6 pts a TD is worth. Flyboy disputed this number and said let’s make it any number. We had to educate him on what TDs were actually worth in football without the extra point. He continued to “fly” off the topic and discuss more numbers and shape discrepancies.

    Immediately, Team 1 was on the offensive attack scoring 5 TDs and Rudy’s team had 0. It was unprecedented from the numbers they were putting up. Warby and McGruff were overpowering the defense and scoring TDs like crazy. Fandango’s throws were surgeon-like and precise, Crabgrass was a technician finding open receivers left and right, moving the balls to the right location, Festivus used his elusiveness to get open constantly, Flyboy and Cookie had locked down defense across the middle and on deep threats. Team 2 tried… it was cute… they tried.

    Team 1 gathered together and collectively decided that since we were in the spirit of GIVING (a whoopin’ to Team 2) that we should give up a player to help. Rudy didn’t WANT a player, but we know what Rudy NEEDS sometimes and Crabgrass decided he would help lift Rudy up and went over to Team 2. Not only did we, Team 1, take on an injured player from the start, but we charitably gave a rocket of an arm and a hell of a tactician to Team 2.

    Team 2 now marched up and down the field, cutting up Team 1 with passes from The Duke, to Merman, to Orby, to Buckshot, to Bru and to the endzone. Rudy was pretty contained for the most part with triple coverage. Soon, the score was 5-1, then 5-2, 5-3, 5-4, … it was looking like a game finally. Maybe… just maybe… they could comeback and raise Rudy up on their shoulders in a GAME WINNING TOUCHDOWN AND COMEBACK FOR THE AGES …

    But … nah… this ain’t that kinda a story, bruv!

    But then, the heroes of Team 1 gathered up their strength and said “Don’t break tradition! Rudy’s gotta lose!” This mantra, like lava festering in a volcano waiting to explode, erupted onto the field and Team 1 using their unbelievable strategy of dink, dunk, fake right, fake left, LONG BOMB to our open man, scored to make it 6-4. Then, with insult to injury, scored again to make the final score 7 – 4… The heroes of the game… the charitable team that took on an injured player… that kicked off first… that gave up a player to help… that LET the other team score to feel good about themselves… THAT TEAM won the game!

    But it’s not about the game… it’s about waking up in the morning and going out with a bunch of like minded souls to play like our childhood selves… because one day, one day will be the last day we will ever be able to run again… catch a football in full sprint again… laugh with the boys on a field of battle again… Today … we all won in the game of life (bumper sticker). Today, we all put the player who we think we are up on our teams shoulders and carried him off the field… to fight another day. Well done, men.

    Points given out today:

    Deadly Combo : Warby + McGruff (1pt each)

    Defensive Juggernaut: Crabgrass = played defense for BOTH TEAMS (1pt)

    Best Dressed: Warby = Wore an actual Tom Brady Jersey to the game; females ripped it off his chiseled body before the game was played (1pt)

    Ended with COT; discussed VQ week next week : The Duke -Monday, Festivus – Tuesday, Flyboy – Thursday, Matlock – Friday

  • Jumbo Sized Basketball Court

    A dozen dashing dominators took to Mary Munford for a State Farm downrange beat down. I brought the bag of tricks and the PAX of 45MOM rose to the occasion! Great to see some old friends and meet some new ones at a great AO. The beast doing pull-ups with a weighted vest saw the following…

    • warmarama
      • Mosy, Dips, Circle Up
      • Intro, Disclaimer, SSH, Soldiers
      • Plank for Mission, Credo, 5 core principles (merkins for wrong answers)

    THE THANG

    • COP 1 – Merkin Jax Suicides
      • A State farm favorite, suicide format on what ended up being a JUMBO basketball court
      • Bear Crawl Down each quarter, crawl bear back
      • 2 Merkins at free throw, 4 PLank Jax at Baseline
      • Ladder up to 8 merkins and 16 plank jax by the end
      • SWOLDIERS WERE SMOKED
    • Mosy plus Dips
    • COP 2 – 11’s
      • We don’t often do enough back/pullup work in F3 – we solved this today
      • Side 1 = Pull-ups
      • Side 2 = Lt. Dans
      • All pax pushed hard on this one, took a solid 20minutes to get through this long circuit
    • MBTTF
    • Finisher: PAX LED MARY

    Names, Numbers, Announcements (See slack)

    Prayer requests: OBT’s son Alex serving overseas for his safety

    NMS

    I am so thankful to come back to what still feels like a second home. Really well timed COT message from OBT about how the rules/principles are just guidelines, the spirit of which can be applied as makes sense when starting up new locations and regions. As i’ve started to grow Central PA region, I’ve ran into that alot. Where perhaps you need to adjust/tailor the spirit of the “rules” (principles) to fit the situation or region you’re in. At the end of the day we support the mission “Plant, grow, serve small workout groups for men for the invigoration of male community leadership” – that’s what it’s all about!

    Thanks for coming out guys way to push it! Honor to lead

    -State Farm

  • Half n Half

    It was a swampy start to the day and half the guys wanted brocode and the others wanted tempo work – so we split up and did both.
    And then we were done.

  • Not That Bad Out Here

    The Crossing Crew was expecting another sweltering night on the blacktop………but just before the workout started, some clouds rolled in and even a nice breeze! It was time to put in some work.

    Mosey to the field for Warmup:
    Jazzercise, Don Quixotes, Imperial Walkers, House Partys, Overhead Claps, Crab Cakes, Opus Merkins, Freddy Mercuries, Alabama Prom Dates. Might have missed a couple.

    Exercise One: Swole Circuit.
    Grab a block from the fire pit and complete the following:
    40 cleans with lift
    50 Bench Press
    50 curls
    25 single arm shoulder press on each side
    30 tricep extension
    40 Upright Row
    50 forearm curls
    50 diamond press

    Mosey to the back of the church, stopped at a couple points for Monkey Humpers and LBC’s

    Exercise Two: W.O.D
    On the wall complete Donkey Kicks, Chicken Peckers, Booyah Jumps, Wallabama Prom Dates, Wall War 2 Sit-ups, then run to the side entrance and back.

    4 total rounds completed. Just enough time to run back to the Flag.

    YHC took us out

    Final Thoughts: In the summer, the pavement at the Crossing can turn into a glove melting hellscape. As the backblast title suggests, today was not that bad. Great job by House Party showing up and pushing through. Hope to see him on the mend soon. Overall, an excellent effort by the PAX.

    SYITG

  • Ruckhenge 061825

    15 men gathered at the Stony Point SC for this week’s edition of RH. Great to welcome some new pax and welcome back some others. Welcome to Lil Jon (FNG) too. We covered 3.3 miles of some streets and trails, and threw in a few off the cuff activities to remind the Freedom Ops lads of what’s in store come October. Not even a really sick tree could dampen the spirits of this group though as we returned for coffee and bagels, if just a little late.

    Summer Tour continues at Satan’s Hill Friday 6/20

    Dookie VQ @ the Forge Thursday 6/19

    July 4th Convergence — details on the way!

    Other upcoming events include:

    Home Grown Half – 8/16;

    Night Ruck – September;

    Freedom Ops (GrowRuck) Raleigh – October

  • Manndate Couple

    4 men posted this humid morning to pump some iron.

    COP – mosey around the parking lot, various cop exercises to get warmed up.

    Thang

    Tabatha – 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off, 6 reps of each exercise.
    Squats, curls, WW2s, calf raises, demon crushers, flutter kicks, kb swings, lawnmowers, boat canoes, lunges.

    Some grams to close out. Numbers, names, Trout took us out.

  • Sh*t Happens

    7 HIMs ventured out to The Green Mile this morning for the final workout at this location. It has been decided to relocate the AO to the neighborhood across the street – Harper’s Mill (more details to come) as we have been getting some PAX members to show up from this hood. Magnolia Green is apparently full of men who are comfortable with their dad bods. RIP Magnolia Green. Anyway, back to the 7 HIMs… They showed up for what Hey Boo Boo (F3 Amelia) thought was going to be an easier workout after talking about the AO with Hardywood, but were hit with a Deck of Card(ish) Parking Spots Beatdown. Hardywood informed the group that YHC doesn’t mess around and brings the heat. Mumble chatter was light as we were catching our breath, however one conversation stuck out between Heist and Bluey – the precise time of the morning that your first shit takes place. Bowel movement regularity is a thing, and these fellas made sure to flex and compare their habits! Here is how the workout went down:

    Warm Up: Mosey to bus parking lot for IC exercises including SSH, Deadman hang, Imperial Walkers, Merkins, LBCs, Knee to Chest, Roscoe’s Mom, Thread the Needle Stretch

    COP 1: Deck of Cards Parking Spot Beatdown – Perform 4 different called exercises for the quantity on each bus parking spot moving from 1-13 repeating after the 4th exercise. Different MOT between each space.

    Round 1: Chest – Merkins (Quantity 1, 5, 9, 13), Crocodile Merkins (Quantity 2, 6, 10), Wide Grip Merkins (Quantity 3, 7, 11), Hand Release Merkins (Quantity 4, 8, 12); MOT: Bear Crawl

    Round 2: Legs – Jump Squats (Quantity 1, 5, 9, 13), Lateral Lunges 2 Count (Quantity 2, 6, 10), Alabama Prom Dates (Quantity 3, 7, 11), Monkey Humpers (Quantity 4, 8, 12); MOT: Forward Lunges

    Round 3: Abs – WW2 (Quantity 1, 5, 9, 13), LBCs (Quantity 2, 6, 10), Flutter Kicks 2 count (Quantity 3, 7, 11), Box Cutters (Quantity 4, 8, 12); MOT: Crab Walk

    Round 4: Cardio – Burpees (Quantity 1, 5, 9, 13), SSH (Quantity 2, 6, 10), Plank Jack Shoulder Taps 2 Count (Quantity 3, 7, 11), Mountain Climbers 2 Count (Quantity 4, 8, 12); MOT: Broad Jump

    Time called and moseyed back to the flag for numbers, names, announcements (Summer Tour at Satan’s Hill Friday, Home Grown Half and SOJ CSAUP in the Fall) Prayers (Woodstock’s (F3 Amelia) daughter expecting a newborn any day now, YHC’s mother in law battling cancer/stroke and hospitalization.

    Thanks for showing up today fellas! Always great to connect with the F3 Amelia HIMs and excited to continue with this as we move the AO to Harper’s Mill. Heist to get the word out to all with updates on this as we continue to plant, grow and serve the SOJ area. Have a blessed day fellas and go out today and be the best version of yourself!

  • Thick, Soupy Gumbo

    10 early risers looking to sweat off some excess found their way to First Watch and bellied up to the counter for a heaping, steamy, thick bowl of Gumbo. The menu included:

    Warm-up lap around the parking lot and circle up for COP, including your ordinary course warm-ups and some amazing grunting and growling from the PAX.

    Mosey over the the church steps for 3 rounds of exercises:

    • 10 derkins on the steps – lunge across the bricks – Al Gore for the 6 – 1 Burpee
    • 10 fast feet, 10 derkins – lunge – Al Gore – 2 Burpees
    • 10 gas pumps, 10 fast feet, 10 derkins – lunge – Al Gore – 3 Burpees

    Mosey down the way to the wall for 11s – 10 Donkey Kicks – run across – 1 Box Cutter – repeato swapping reps until 1 and 10.

    Mosey around to the back steps and partner up for a Proper Dora. Partner 1 runs around the parking lot while Partner 2 does 1 merkin, 2 squats, 3 SSHs = 1 rep. Flapjack and add up the reps until you reach 100.

    Mosey back to the Flag for 3 minutes of Mary with Hello Dollies, Rosalitas, Freddie Mercuries and 30 seconds of American Hammers.

    Numbers, Names, Prayers and COT

    Announcements –

    • Summer Tour is in full swing. Check Slack for locations.
    • First Watch launch will be moved to Flatwater for time on the River next week, pending water levels.
    • HR Derby at Huguenot Little League, Tuesday July 15 – don’t go to NoToll that day or your will be lonely.
    • Homegrown Half – Aug. 16 – see Slack or Draper for details

    Prayers for health, healing and peace.

    No More Gumbo For You!

  • Ruck-a-ccino

    7 HIMs came out on a humid morning to pound pavement! Suns out, guns out was today’s theme. We set a good pace and off we went. Today we discussed hunting, lots of hunting, how flyboy can’t be patient for 8 hours but also can’t tell the difference between rabbit poop and other species, including his own.

    Stirred up some ideas for VQ week next week, glad to see the guys making a commitment to that, excited to see what they have in store for us.

    prayers for Rudy that he brings his A game Friday, Cookie and YHC are concerned about level of intensity…