Category: Richmond, VA

  • Uno Dos Tres

    We stayed ‘on-campus’ and focused on keeping the heartrate up, upper body work and stretching.

    Warmup: Upper Parking lot: 20 SSHs, 10 Man-maker Merkins, 15 knee-ups, stretching exercise
    Warmup: Lower Parking lot: 20 IWs, 10 Diamond Merkins, 15 American Hammers, stretching exercise
    Warmup: Upper Parking lot: 20 Russian Soldiers, 10 Stagger arm Merkins, 15 Crunchy Frogs, stretching exercise
    Warmup: Lower Parking lot: 12 Don Quixote, 10 Stagger arm Merkins, 20 Flutters, stretching exercise
    Wall Courtyard: 10 single count air-press (People’s chair), 10 BTTW hip slaps in cadence, 15 Donkey Kix OYO
    10 single count milkers (People’s chair), 12 BTTW Australian Mountain Climbers in cadence, 15 Donkey Kix OYO
    10 single count Lalannes (People’s chair), 12 BTTW ToeTaps in cadence, 15 Donkey Kix OYO
    Railing for Derkins/Outboards: Single count: 10 Pull-ups, 10 Derkins, 9 Pull-ups, 9 Derkins, etc.
    Upper Parking lot: 5 minutes of Tabata Burpees
    Wall Courtyard: Angry Donkeys (11s with single count Air press People’s Chair and Donkey Kix. We did these together.)
    Far Parking lot near the Wall Courtyard: 10 Mike Tysons, bear crawl across, 10 Squats, crab walk back.
    Far Parking Lot: Line Jump: 20 count in cadence, stretching exercise, 3 times
    Lower parking lot: 60 count 6-inch leg lift, stretching exercise.
    Time’s up.

    Announcements:
    I put on Slack that we are having a Blood Drive under the channel “Freed to Bleed” (a new channel I set up). It will be WEDNESDAY, October 20 from 10 to 3 at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Midlothian (off Hiway 288, south of the James). We need donors and volunteers for the day of the drive.

    For those interested in learning a little Español:
    Uno, Dos, Tres, Cuatro, Cinco, Seis, Siete, Ocho, Nueve, Diez
    Arriba: Up
    Levántese: stand up
    Ándale: Come along
    Siéntese: Sit down (on your six)
    Recuperar: Recover

  • Beast me

    Four posted for the most recent Punisher. Mosey from the sunny parking lot to the nearby shade for startup COP with SSHs, IWs, DQs, Helicopters, Shoulder Taps, Suzanne Somers, and Freddie Mercuries.

    Move to the area adjacent to the school wall and begin Cumulative Short Field Beast running east to the sidewalk at the edge of the school grounds and back, completing six reps of the first exercise at each of three stops out and three stops back. Round two, repeat the first exercise and add the second exercise at each stop. And so on. Exercises were Reverse Crunches, Two Count Mountain Climbers, Forward Lunges, Imaginary Jump Ropes, Carolina Dry Docks, and Two Count Standing Overhead Presses.

    Relocate 25 yards from the Beast finish and circle up for five rounds of five WWIIs each. Hop up and complete Bat Wings – in cadence completion of 20 Small Forward Arm Circles, 20 Small Backward Arm Circles, 20 Seal Claps, and 20 Overhead Claps.

    Mosey back to the parking lot and YHC took us out.

  • Santa Hate Me

    Doozy and Florence posting at Rock N Roll. Who would have guessed? Here’s the DL :

    Warmarama :

    20 SSH IC

    10 Russian Soldiers IC

    10 Imperial Walkers IC

    10 Don Q’s IC

    10 Cherry Pickers IC

    10 Merkins IC

    THE THANG :

    Mosey to the big boy baseball field at the back of the park

    Santa’s Ladder on baseball outfield – run to opposite end of outfield and do 10 burpees. Run back to starting point then back to the opposite end of outfield and do 9 burpees. Repeato until you complete 6 burpees then switch to Merkins for the 5 to 1 reps. Now do the entire Routine again but this time do Merkins for the 10 to 6 reps and Burpees for the 5 to 1 reps

    Mosey to Basketball Court

    2 sets of SheHateMe – Do 20 lunges, 10 Burps (Burpees without the push up and the standing), and 10 Merkins from one end of court to the other. (There and back)

    COP :

    50 WWII’s

    DONE

    Numberama

    Name-arama

    COT :

    Doozy and YHC shared some deep conversations about M’s and 2.0’s this morning. Thank you for sharing and listening brother.

    NMMS :

    Santa’s Ladder took a lot longer than YHC thought it would. Das a big outfield.

  • Back To School (Night)

    Thirty Four perennial 4th graders posted for a Back to School version of Field Day. Bus after bus after bus pulled into the parking lot (in the case of Hardywood, it’s a true statement) to bring the heat and feel the pain. The uniform machine was strong, with West Enders dawning their usual and respected popped collars. D’Ville stepped up their game in a big way, bringing a Mechanicsville sponsorship into the fold. Well done men! Free oil changes, or something, for everyone!

    7:01 – Let’s mosey to the field. Four teams of 8/9 were establishe.

    Crab Soccer opened up the games. Eight minute games. Tight matches on the pitch ensued, with Team Southside (including YHC on a borrowed contract from City Proper) took both matches in style. There were no controversial goals.

    Olympic Relays were next: Wheelbarrow out to the cone, BooYah Merkins x 10, switch and wheelbarrow back. Team City Proper won the podium. Sack Races were next. Form varied, and there were surprise performances. Mudface showed serious agility and speed, while TYA and Bone Thugs showed neither. Handshake took a Matrix dive in slo-mo in a valiant effort to cross the line in front. To no avail, he came up five feet short. Once again, City Proper took the podium.

    Marathon: COVID appropriate Tunnel of Love across the field. For a third time, City Proper took Gold.

    Merkin Egg Toss: Several rounds. After each round, distance got greater and Merkins got more difficult. Merkins x 10 / Chuck Norris Merkins x 10 / Diamond Merkins x 10. Team D’ville took the entire podium, Gold, Silver and Bronze. Competition is now fully on.

    Tug Of War: Gladiators came together in epic battles of muscle torque and gusto. Not really, but it sounds good. In the end, Mudface and company were too much to handle.

    BTTF:

    Announcements: 1st Inaugural 3rd Annual F3RVA Retreat is next Saturday at Gomer’s family farm in Amelia. Contact me or Gomer for the address. Gates open at 1:00. Cornhole will commence around 2:30. Sign up in Google Docs, Monthly Challenges. This is a bring your own everything event. We will provide a grill, you bring the rest. There are no formalities other than corn hole. There is plenty of room for yard games. Have a baseball catch, play birdie ball, Try Hard may bring his ropin’ station – who knows. Do bring a dish for the group to share.

    COT: Let us be ever mindful to remember where we came from. For me, I come from F3RVA in many ways. I miss you all dearly, and am always grateful to be with you, my brothers. Today was a special honor for me to lead. As we grow and separate from various phases of our lives, let us not forget where we came from. Embrace your heritage, embrace your upbringing. Hold them tight and never allow them to be forgotten.

    It was a pleasure to lead.

  • We Will Leave the Light On…

    Just like a Motel 8, we tend to leave the light on just in case a familiar face shows up out of nowhere.  Today, Cecil and Quest did just that.  11 weathered veterans joined up for a classic Gridiron pounding.  Here is how it went down:

    • COP
      • Punitive burpees
      • SSH
      • IW
      • DQ
      • Arm circles
      • Merkins
      • LBC
      • Scorpion kicks
      • APD
    • Mosey to the grassy knoll for 10 minutes of burpees
    • 4x set of 20 PLT
    • 10 pull-ups
    • Mosey to the football field for a one man Dora
      • 100 bench kicks – 4 sets/25 reps
      • 200 dips – 5 sets/40 reps
      • 300 LBC – 5 sets/60 reps
    • Intervals 30 seconds on/30 seconds mosey around the football field
    • Mosey back to the parking lot for COT with YHC taking us out

    Always good to see some old faces.  Quest is 51 years young and ripped!   Also, welcome home Blue Moon!   Good to have you back at Gridiron after visiting family in Germany.  Lots of laughter and great fellowship.  Glad we left the light on to see some faces we have not seen in a while.

    God is good all of the time! Attila

  • He Wears Short Shorts

    A dozen tolerated the resurgence of humidity for a stroll down the road. Grove to Woodlawn to Leonard to Wisteria to Patterson. West on Patterson turning on Maple for 4s, 5s go to Chanticler and then back to Maple, and 6s went all the way to Three Chopt and back to Maple. Maple to Grove to home.

    Wheelie took us out.

    Moleskin: Once again TYA is a fashion pioneer.

  • They Never Made it Past the 50

    At 5:30 am, 5 SOJ studs converged at The Swamp for another round of Twin Team action. Humid conditions and extra abrasive asphalt could not diminish our enthusiasm. Here is brief summary for your viewing pleasure:

    Mosey to JRHS parking lot for warm ups: Russian Soldiers, Don Quixotes, Imperial Walkers, Helicopters, Arm Circles, Dead Man Hang, Cherry Pickers.

    Exercise 1: Tour de Twin Team. We ran around the perimeter of both schools, stopping periodically to do 20 Merkins, 20 WWII sit-ups, 20 squats. Completed 5 sets.

    Mosey to the track/football field for Exercise Two

    Rd 1: lunge walk to 10 yard line, run back to end zone, bear crawl to 20 yard line, run back to end zone, lunge walk to 30 yard line, run back to end zone, bear crawl to 40 yard line, run back to end zone, lunge walk to 50 yard line, run back to end zone.

    Rd 2: Same pattern, but run to yard markers and alternative between 20 flutter kicks and 5 burpees.
    Rd. 3 – Same pattern, but alternate between butt kicks and high knees.

    *Completed an additional round of 20 Merkins, 20 WWII’s, and 20 squats on the track.

    Mosey back to BWES – On the grass hill near the baseball field – hill repeats until YHC calls time.

    Walk back to the flag for Numbers/Names/Announcements.

    Gumbo took us out.

    Final Thoughts: It was great to see Gumbo and Limehouse return to Twin Team. Props to them for also running to and from the workout. Lots of strong mumble chatter about kid’s sports and the WFT’s thrilling win last night (maybe that was just me). As always, it was honor to lead.

  • Farting through Raintree

    Four scholarly gentlemen gathered at Currahee wondering who had the Q. YHC had a plan so off we went.

    The Route

    • Around the school and through the woods towards Raintree drive
    • Right on Raintree
    • 15 minute warm up
    • 10 – 1 minute fartleks with a 30 second recovery
    • Turn around after 5 reps
    • 15 minute cool down

    Numbers, names, light announcements before YHC took us out.

    Moleskin

    Great camaraderie this morning for another soupy run. Thanks for the positive attitude for something different this morning. Great catching up with the crew. See everyone soon.

  • Music

    Almost all kettlebell exercises. A variety of items different from the usual offering. This link is the source of the exercises I used. I brought my music (Beatles, Rolling Stones, Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin, etc.)

    https://www.gbpersonaltraining.com/33-kettlebell-exercises-from-beginner-to-advanced/

    Warmup: SSHs, Stretching exercise, Russian Soldiers, another stretching exercise
    After the warmup, we did the following all the way thru:
    Slingshot (around body) 10 each direction
    Halo 10 each direction (handle points up in front, upside down in back)
    Single Arm Deadlift (Keep back straight) 10 each side
    Single Leg Deadlift (Same leg goes up as the arm with the kettlebell) 10 each leg
    Partial Turkish Getup (leg bent at knee is the same side as arm with KB) 5 each side
    Goblet Squat (handles pointing down, deep squat) 10 in total
    Racked squat 10 each side
    Racked lunge 10 each side
    Alternating Single arm swing 20 in total
    Clean and Press (bend knees, keep KB close to body) 10 each side
    Squat and Press
    Bottom up Clean (KB upside down at rack, hold 5 seconds) 10 each side
    Overhead squat (KB held with arm straight above head) 10 each side
    High Pull (A swing but pull the KB to the shoulder at top of swing, then push back and finish the swing) 10 each side
    Snatch 10 each side
    At the end, we did about 5 minutes of stretching exercises and started again at the top of the stack with the “slingshot”. We got to the “Bottom up Clean” and time was up.

    This was my first Q at Circus Maximus. I would have written up this back blast sooner but my wife and I are working out with a 17 pound kettlebell. He’s 3 months old and can’t go to daycare because of a potential Covid exposure at the daycare. (By the way, Jane and I are both vaccinated.) We’re pitching in and helping out our daughter and son-in-law who both work for a living.

    Our son and daughter live about 15 minutes (in different directions) from where we live. We can provide support with care for their children. My son has a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old. The 5-year-old is now in kindergarten, although we did some day care for him this summer.

    When Jane and I were raising our son and daughter, we did not have the luxury of nearby grandparents. My parents were about 700 miles away. They also died before either of our children had much of a chance to know them. In fact, my mother died before our daughter was born.

    Jane’s parents lived an hour and 45 minutes away. Our children know them a lot better (Jane’s parents are also both gone now) but not like our grandchildren are likely to know us.

    It is great to be here.

    Announcements:
    Field Day Saturday
    Freed to Bleed: will be October 20 (a Wednesday)

  • A Leap Frog Re-do

    The first Q for YHC in over a year and five studs showed up to join in. The beat down went as follows:
    Run to bottom of hill to circle for warm up. DQ’s, Helicopters, Smurf Jacks, Russian Soldiers, OYO 20 2 count Mountain Climbers, 15 Carolina dry docks, 10 Burpees.
    Mosey over to first light pole. Goal is to use every light pole all the way up the Hill to Forest Hill Rd. A leap frog is in order. Partner 1 performs 5 Merkins, while partner 2 runs to next light pole and gets in plank position. Partner one completes Merkins, then runs to partner 2, “tags” partner so they can begin 5 Merkins as partner 1 continues to the next light pole to hold Plank. This increased by 5 till each partner has done 20. Exercises change to holding Al Gore/Jump Squats to finish out light poles.
    Mosey to Grassy hill. 11’s are called. Starting at bottom of hill, 1 Lt Dan, run to top of hill, 10 WWII sit-ups, run back down and so on.
    Mosey to front entrance of school for a welcomed exercise with no running. It’s a Lazy Dora! Partner up, 100 Merkins, 200 LBC’s, 300 Squats. 1 partner performs 10 Merkins, while partner 2 is holding plank. At the completion of 10, switch and partner 2 completes 10 while partner 1 is holding plank. Continue to 100. 20 LBC’s while partner is holding 6”…HOLD IT! Up to 200. 30 squats while partner is holding Al Gore, up to 300.
    Mosey back to flag.

    Announcements: Field Day this Saturday at Dog Pile.

    YHC took us out.

    Today was a pleasure to be back on the Q sheet and to be in great company! You Men crushed it! The leap frog was introduced not too long ago and was a little clunky on the flow, so YHC decided a great time to bring it back for another try and it seemed to work well. That Hill is no joke!

    Have a great day, Gents!