Category: Richmond, VA

  • You Rang?

    8 members of the Addams Family came out to Rock n Roll on a slightly misty morning to put in the work.

    Warmup
    Mosey around the parking lot.
    Side Straddle Hops
    Helicopters
    Arm Circles
    Ukrainian Soldiers
    Imperial Walkers
    Standing Quad Stretch
    Tempo Merkins
    Mountain Climbers
    LBCs
    Knee Pulls

    Mosey to first workout area on the trail to start us off right with a Triple Check consisting of:
    Pullups
    LBCs
    Runner to downed trees and back. Initial instructions from YHC were spotty, with the group thinking the first runners were lost.

    Mosey to first gazebo and partner up for a DORA:
    100 Dips on Benches
    200 Single Count Flutter Kicks
    300 Copperhead Squats
    Runner to stump and back.

    Mosey about halfway through the paved trail for a Push-o-Rama:
    10 reps for each type of Merkin below with a 10 count rest in between
    Diamond
    Military / Shoulder Width
    Spiderman
    Hand Release
    Wide-Arm

    Mosey another quarter mile or so for a Leg-o-Rama:
    20 reps each exercise with a 10 count rest in between
    Jump Squats
    Left Leg Lunges
    Right Leg Lunges
    Copperhead Squats
    Calf Raises

    30 second rest

    Mosey BTTF, or maybe the falling sign?

    Circle of Fire – 10 Merkins of your choice.
    Plank until failure… some say Pierogi is still in plank position as we speak.

    Nice work everyone, thanks for coming out.

  • Flex Friday

    A magnificent seven assembled in the Bettie Weaver Elementary parking lot to round up some rogue kettlebells and cindy’s. The fine townsfolk witnessed the following:

    COP 1 – KB Complex

    • “X” = reps correspond to the round
    • 7 rounds: “x” clean + 1 push press + 1 squat
    • 7 rounds: 1 clean + “x” push press + 1 squat
    • 7 rounds: 1 clean + 1 push press + “x” squat
    • Slowzeyed around the parking lot after each 7th round.
    • Probably could have increased to 10 rounds! Next time…

    COP 2 – KB Train

    • PAX lines up on their six, backs to the curb. Pile the implements on one side and pass them down the line according to the exercise called until some distance is covered. We went to the end of the curb.
    • Trip 1 – Two double-count American hammers
    • Trip 2 – One seated overhead press

    Time was running short and our upper bodies were tired so we concluded with a down-and-back trip of the parking lot performing single leg RDL’s at parking stripe intervals and then a quick shavasana.

    Props to House Party and Big Rig for crushing a 2.5mi run beforehand.

    YHC took us out!

  • 17 Mountain Men

    First bootcamp of Windy Gap 2024 pulled together a handsome 17-PAX (including 7 FNG’s!) to the pre-dawn Carolina mountain gloom. These men of God answered the call to do something hard, to start their day with a transformative dose of the Daily Red Pill, and draw on one another’s strength to achieve victory over the flesh. Here’s how these HIM’s honored our Creator:

    The THANG: 

    WARMERAMA:

    • Assemble on the dark Basketball Court
    • Welcome & Disclaimer
    • Nancy Kerrigans IC ea side
    • Copperhead Squats IC
    • x5 Burpees OYO
    • Mosey over to the road in the lamplight
    • Don Quixotes IC
    • The Opus IC
    • Werkins IC
    • Diamonds IC
    • WWII’s IC
    • Flutters High & Low IC
    • LBC’s IC
    • REVIEW THE 5 CORE PRINCIPLES 

    COP #1: 

    • FIFTIES – x50 reps of variable exercises with a 30-50 yard mosey between stops
    • Merkins, Monkey Humpers, Squats, Dips, Lunges

    COP #2:

    • THE HILL – get up the steep grassy hill in Bear Crawl, with alternate lunge if needed
    • Front runners go back for the SIX, then Elbow Plank to REVIEW THE F3 CREDO

    COP #3:

    • LIGHT POLE ALLY
    • x15 Squats at each light back down to the bridge

    COP #4:

    • CATCH ME IF YOU CAN
    • Partner up and while one partner starts BERNIE, the other completes x3 BURPEES then sprints to catch partner and switch

    COP #5:

    • WALLORAMA
    • Hoedowns IC
    • Donkey Locks IC
    • Milkers IC
    • BTTW for Hip Slappers IC

    Mosey BTTVSF:

    • Circle up for 5min of MARY
    • Am Hammers IC
    • Rosalita Dips IC
    • Boat/Canoe until time

    COT:

    • Counterama # 17
    • Namerama
    • Announcerama (see Below)
    • YHC took the PAX out in Prayer

    NMS:  This is YHC’s 4th annual meeting on the mountain with God and close to 400 brothers. This being the 49th year of the Windy Gap men’s retreat, the mountaintop weekend embraces men in a place of need for renewal. Every year the F3 workouts have attracted more brothers, and always entertains a healthy percentage of FNG’s.  With at least 5 HIM’s over 50-70 years of age, the bootcamp followed a pattern of easily modifiable reps and shorter distances while maintaining a respectable challenge for all fitness levels. It was especially awesome to celebrate the return of Liberace and a number of other men from the Recovery Program who work as wait staff at camp. TClaps to these guys for breaking away from the status quo! Round two tomorrow at 0600 and hope to see some more of our veterans out who chose to retreat in their bunks this morning!  Yours AYE! ~DTH

  • Guess who’s doing a pre-run, before the pre-run?

    After assuming YHC would be the only PAX running before the beatdown at Twin Team, YHC was surprised to see Big Rigs truck in the parking lot. Apparently, he had already been running. We took off at 5am down Robious and circled back in time for a kettlebell workout with NTB. As always, great convo. YHC asked Big Rig what route he took before I arrived and he stated he ran up Twin Team road because basically, It doesnt make sense to come out to this AO and not hit Twin Team hill. YHC would have to disagree with that statement. Good work today.

    House Party

  • a very dark tour

    A graveyard shift record 5 (!) PAX decided to forgo sleep and met at 4:30am at Swift Creek Middle for a YHC led beat down. According to security footage this is more or less what happened…

    Graveyard shift

    Mosey around school, stopping out front for warmerama which included but was not limited to…

    • Side Straddle Hops
    • Hairy Rockettes
    • Dead Man Hang
    • Collard Pickers 🥬
    • American Hammers
    • Merkins

    Continue to mosey around the school, observing what could be used at future workouts.. ending up at the basketball courts for

    The Worlds Largest Lady of the night 4 corners(tm)

    10 HRM

    20 ball dippers 

    30 squats 

    40 LBC

    Short mosey to slightly overgrown baseball field for…

    7 of diamonds on the diamond. Do the exercises at each base including home plate. For the mode of transportation you face the same direction the whole time (run, Carioca left, Bernie sanders, Carioca right)

    7 burpees (28 total)

    14 flutter kicks 2 count (56 total)

    21 monkey humpers (84 total) 

    28 shoulder taps (112 total)

    Mosey to track for….

    Boberry biscuits two,  6 packs. Slow in corners, run on straights. 6 burpees after each lap. 

    Just enough time for a little broga to cool down. Numbers , names, announcements, YHC took us out 

    Beautiful morning, great to see what else the AO has to offer!

  • Three Lefts and Two Rights

    Eight gazelles set off in search of new-ish territory.

    Here’s where we went:

    • L on Pump
    • R on Carisbrook
    • R on Oakway
    • Continue on Green Mt
    • L on N Bank
    • L on Tunbridge
    • L on Whitaker Woods
    • Continue on Locust Hill
    • R on Weather Vane
    • R on Green Mt
    • Continue on Oakway
    • L on Carisbrook
    • R on Pump
    • L on Falconbridge
    • L on Raintree
    • L on Ridgefield
    • L on Pump
    • Circle Godwin as desired
    • Back to SF

    MOLESKIN

    Confused yet?  It really wasn’t that hard.  Just two big loops.  Mileage fell just a bit short of 4.5.  Apologies to those seeking more and for leaving Pigskin behind.  Maximum effort from Whitesnake and YHC.  The rest of them made it look easy.

    ANNOUNCEMENTS

    • 10 Year next weekend
    • Prayers for Choppa
    • Laura Teague 5k tomorrow

  • Iron Dog Gauntlet

    Great week of Q’s in SOJ, YHC felt he had to deliver a good one to close the week out strong. Caravans of clown cars rolled in and 19 HIMs emerged to take on a balmy Friday gloom. It went down something like this.

    Quick mosey to the first mailbox on the hill and back to the lot. SSH, Ukrainian Soldiers, Imperial Walkers, Arm Circles, Merkins, Alabama Prom Dates and light stretching honoring members of the PAX.

    Time to work!

    We began with the Iron Dog Gauntlet. Break out into 4 groups – 1 person begins the gauntlet, everyone else runs to end of parking lot and back. When they advance to the second exercise, a second member joins the gauntlet behind them, etc. Once done with all 5 exercises, you run until the group has finished.

    1. 50 LBCs
    2. 40 Squats with bands
    3. 30 coupon bicep curls
    4. 20 Merkins with bands
    5. 10 40# sandbag thrusters
    6. A lot of mosey’in

    Had some newer HIMs we wanted to intro to Satan’s Hill, so we did BLIMPS

    1. 10 burpees at the top
    2. 20 lunges at bottom
    3. 20 imperial walkers at top
    4. 20 merkins at bottom
    5. 20 plank jacks at top
    6. 20 squats at bottom

    Back to the parking lot for 2nd round of the Iron Dog Gauntlet.

    Closed out with 500 merkins as a group to honor Heist’s 500th post. Great job man!!

    Announcements – LURCH VQ Saturday at Rock N Roll. Bridge Saturday. VQ week 11/4-11/8. 3 Doors Down is doing Daddy/Daughter and Daddy/son events, check Slack for details. F3RVA 10 year next weekend, check Slack for details on events.

    Prayer Requests – Dumar’s dad his having surgery next week. Fandango’s son Dax will be meeting with an Endocrinologist. Schwab’s family had a recent and unexpected loss.

    Glad to see some of the news guys who have joined our Green Mile AO show up today! We had an FNG Justin, a.k.a. Schwab join us today, neighbors with Chipper who brought him out. Schwab grew up in Roanoke, went to high school with JJ Reddick and he eventually moved to Richmond. In the banking industry but that doesn’t come highly recommended. A very proud Highlander who graduated from Radford. A few names were offered up, but some just have a way of standing out above the others. Welcome, Schwab! Good to have you out there, look forward to seeing you at some more workouts!

    Finish strong tomorrow, great week of work. Until next time.

  • Are you motivated yet?

    6 guys came out for a workout to remember (or maybe forget?)

    COP — lots of exercises including the plank jack merkin and the Jack Squat

    The motivator
    Too hard to explain but it was fun.

    7’s
    get ups and merkin/burpees

    Triple Check
    Swing push outs
    dips
    Run to the thang YHC thought was a tree, but it wasnt and back

    4 corners
    10 WW2
    20 Flutters
    30 Jump Squats
    40 LBC

    4 corners pt 2
    25 WW2
    25 Flutters
    25 Jump Squats
    25 LBC

    Whew. That was it. Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.

    Peace out,
    Opus

  • No title just numbers

    Rolled my ankle last week and bailed 1 mile in. Guys had the route and I hobbled back.

    No COT or announcements since I wasn’t there.

  • Happy Belated Birthday

    The Circus was strong this morning with 11 PAX prowling the confines of our favorite bomb shelter school, Mills Godwin. After getting my bearings together and with the lights of the bus loop shining, we started some KB work.

    COP: DQs, arm circles, HRMs, MCs, plank jacks, Freddies. With a strong trumpet blast from White Deer, I ended the COP. Mosey to Pump Road side.

    I was planning to do Triple Checks around the indented area between the school and Pump Road. Given the area would have taken a couple PAX several minutes to navigate, I changed it. Pacer runs around 50 yards and back, partner 1 does sit and press, partner 2 bicep curls.

    Lindseys with high pulls and lawnmower pulls are next. We would mosey toward the bus loop after each set. The set of 30 high pulls proved to be a pain inducer.

    Next is the Fireman Ed loop. Line up on the curb. Pacer runs around bus loop. pacer finishes and the PAX rotate. Exercises included Bench Press, squats, Triceps, Coupon flutters, american hammers, tricep pull downs, sumo squats, lawnmower pulls and I forget the last one.

    Finished with coupon wall sits and some stretching.

    Big 10th anniversary at Dogpile. See slack for details. Please attend the next Firehouse subs gathering (me included since I work 1/2 mile from there) on the second Tuesday. Prayers for my father n law battling liver cancer.

    The reason for the title of the backblast was during namerama, White Deer mentioned his age and I said “Happy Birthday White Deer.” He then said, “my birthday was in July”. So most of the PAX decided to tell me when their birthdays were so I could wish them belated happy birthdays. So if I forgot your birthday, happy belated birthday to you.

    Enjoy the rest of your week and hopefully I will see you soon.

    Fireman Ed