Tag: Circus Maximus

Godwin

  • The Real Swirly Posts at Circus

    Nine of the faithful posted on a humid morning at Circus Maximus. Both staff parking lots are being repaved, so the pax gathered on the south side of the school instead of the staff parking lot near the bus loop. This is how the workout went, more or less:

    COP warmup sequence

    10 minute EMOM rotating between (i) right kb lunge, right kb snatch, right kb side lunge, and (ii) standing row.

    10 minute EMOM rotating between (i) left kb lunge, left kb snatch, left kb side lunge, and (ii) halo.

    Mosey to basketball court for a brief intermission from kettlebess.  Do traditional suicides, then bearcrawl from end to end.

    Remainder of workout was an AMRAP sequence consisting of 5 burpees, 20 kb swings, 20 sit and press, run around gate that was about 100m away, rinse and repeat.

    We were joined today by another Swirly, who hails from Raleigh. Since that Swirly claims to have been named 4 years ago, we will henceforth refer to him as the “Real Swirly.”  We discussed renaming RVA’s Swirly, and several excellent variations were suggested, including “Chunky Swirly”, which is defined by Urban Dictionary as follows:

    “A bully manuever. The act of shoving a victim’s face into a toilet bowl full of feces, urine and paper as it flushes. As in: Alvin failed to provide Hank with his lunch money. As a punishment Hank gave Alvin a chunky swirly.”

    No renaming action was taken. Great job, men! Jville

  • The Toughest Lindsay?

    A strong PAX of five emerged from the gloom for a KB beatdown that went something like this:

    The THANG:

    COP IC: Hammer Dance x20, Don Quixote x10, Hillbillies x20, Rosalita x20, MC American Hammer x20, Back Lift x10

    Mosey to basketball court.  25 KB swings and 5 burpees OYO.   Rinse and repeat 4x.

    Mosey to grass in front of front parking lot for Lindsays: Merkin Rows and WW II Situp Presses.  Take a lap around the front parking lot in between sets.   Mosey back to VSF for COT.

    NMM:  YHC recalled a Gumbo Q that was particularly hard, and wanted to see how he did with Qdrenalyne.  The called Lindsay would be tough without a KB.  The PAX confirmed that it was no joke, but pushed through and crushed it.  No shortcuts were possible on the laps between Lindsay sets because the front parking lot is torn up, and there is a Porta-John that needs servicing.

    Announcements:

    Now – New F3 RVA website is live (F3RVA.org).

    Today – Ultimate Frisbee at Atlee High School followed by a COTU visit – Ms and 2.0s welcomed – check website(s) for earlier Preblast.

    July 8th – Toga’s Dogpile swan song.

    July 12th – HDHH / Toga send-off at The Answer Brewpub – check website(s) for earlier Preblast

    August 7th – Charity golf tournament in Stafford – see Upchuck for details.

    September 16th – Reese Strong 5K –Signs ups will open soon. Join the F3 team.

  • In lieu of Counting Sheep

    Johnsonville’s pre-blast instructions re construction in process at CM helped guide some of the PAX to the correct alter AO this morning near the gridiron at Godwin HS. For Chum and Krue, their savvy served them well. It was a beautiful morning for the following:

    SSHs, arm circles, and slow low squats

    The 300:

    X25 APDs, X25 KB Right Snatches, X25 Merkins, X25 KB Left Snatches, X25 APDs, X25 KB American Swings, X25 Merkins, X25 KB American Swings, X25 APDs, X25 KB Right Presses, X25 Merkins, and X25 KB Left Presses

    The 200:

    X25 APDs, X25 KB Pullovers, X25 APDs, X25 KB Tricep Presses, X25 APDs
    X25 KB Pullovers, X25 APDs, and X25 KB Tricep Presses

    The 100:

    X25 KB High Pulls, X25 KB Squats, X25 KB High Pulls, and X25 KB Squats

    Hoops’ pick: X10 KB Merkins each side
    Cletus’ pick: X15 KB Bent Over Rows each side
    Krue’s pick: X5 KB Bottom Half TGUs each side
    White Deer’s pick: Boat/Canoe
    Chum’s pick: X15 KB Figure 8s/RTWs

    Mosey KB Carries – right hand suitcase, right hand waiter, left hand suitcase, and left hand waiter

    KB tracers – racked kaorokes and fwd/rvs triceps extensions

    COT: Numberama and Namearama; Announcements re D’Ville Frisbee/COTU gathering and Toga sendoff; prayers for Cheech’s family, J’ville’s friend and his family, WD’s father, travel mercies, and unspoken.

    Moleskin: Cletus and Hoops ganged up on WD the moment the three left the car this morning – Attila would have been pleased had he posted. J’ville’s text informing of sleep malfunction sufficed as YHC’s wake up alert. Touting the proven health benefits of somnambulism was not effective to prompt a J’Ville posting. There being no willing VQ candidates, YHC took the Q on the fly and kept it fast and simple. Chum and Krue – with their heavier KBs – impressed by hitting the called reps.

    The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
    Psalm 19:1 (NIV)

  • EMOM Day at Circus

    Three of the faithful posted at Circus Maximus for kettlebells. After a brief, typical warm-up, we did the following four rounds of 8-minute EMOMs.

    1st set (4 rounds):
    lunge right leg, curl right arm, press right arm, side lunge right. repeat for 1 minute
    standing row. repeat for 1 minute.

    2nd set (4 rounds):
    repeat above but with left

    mosey to front of school
    3rd set (4 rounds):
    halo. repeat for 1 minute
    diamond pushup on kettlebell

    mosey to outside of circus maximus
    4th set (4 rounds):
    kb swings
    goblet squat

    end with push ups from 10 to 1 (wide, regular, diamond)

    This was a not an easy morning at the circus, and YHC when home, crawled back in bed, and slept for several more hours. There was no room for mumble chatter

    Great job, men.

  • The tale of the lost Weinke

    Eight hard chargers posted for a soupy day at the Circus.  Here’s how it went down:

    Circle up in lot for warmup COP: SSH, hillbillies, imperial walkers, russian soldiers, scorpion kicks, T stretch

    15 min AMRAP: 10 kb squats, 15 deadlifts, 20 WWII sit-ups

    10 min EMOM: 20 kb swings odd minutes and 10 burpees even minutes

    12 min AMRAP: 10 close grip merkins w hands on the bell (these are awful), 5 kb shoulder presses ea hand, 10 leg raises

    Mary: 10 skull crushers and 10 Alabama Honeymoons

    COT and Attila took us out

    NMM: Let’s start with the issue of who had the Q.  This workout can be a bit like Batteau with nobody signing up till the last minute.  YHC logged on to signup only to discover that HoneyDo had indeed stepped up.  As YHC’s weinke was already prepared, YHC politely consulted with HoneyDo to see if he was OK giving up the Q.  Without hesitation, HoneyDo cracked another brew and gave up the Q.  Enter Johnsonville who waited till YHC started the 0530 speech to claim that he was in fact the one with the Q.  There was a second where the two rams were about to go at it, but British style manners prevailed.

    Toga: “No really, you take the Q.”

    JVille: “Oh no, I couldn’t possibly, you should do it.”

    Sad!

    Once we got to work, everyone kept up a good pace with Chum Bucket and Offshore lapping everyone on the AMRAPs.  White Deer and Johnsonville even managed a call and response of the rear end horn section.  Chili Fest at Denny’s is hard on F3!

    Re the title, yes, there was a weinke.  It was lost somewhere in the middle of the workout, and YHC could not find it in his short pockets or in the small area we were using for the AO.  The document revealed itself towards the end of the workout.  Was it stuck to YHC in some inconvenient location, did White Deer hide it in hopes of avoiding some of the workout, did Conspiracy return it during the COT with nobody noticing?  The world may never know.

    Stay Classy,

    Toga

  • 3 of 4 Corners

    8 Men gathered in within Sight of the Circus ti take advantage of the weather and begin their journey along the Appian Way. It was YHC’s turn for the Da’Ville takeover and we did this:

    COP

    All IC

    SSH x 15

    DQ x 10

    Arm circles x 10 small, 5 big repeato

    4 Corners (we only got to 3)

    Indian/Native American/Indigenous Persons Burp to Corner 1

    Pax Lines up and performs kettle-bell burpees

    the six runs to the front

    repeat to the corner

    Corner 1 52 halos (26 each way)

    Merkin Death Crawl of Crawling Death x2

    Right hand side

    5 death crawls

    2 offset  merkins using kettle-bell

    5 crawl deaths

    Repeat  on left hand side

    Lunge the rest of the way to corner 2

    Corner 2 52 Sit-up Press

    Beast to Corner 3

    6 Reps of excersise every 10 steps/lunge steps

    • Merkin Rows
    • Lunge, curl, press combination
    • High Pulls
    • Honeymoon Suite x 52
    • Snatch
    • Kettle-bell burpee with row after the merkin
    • I think that there was more but i cant remember

    Corner 3 52 Clean Press (26 each arm)

    Mosey back to the flag

    Announcements

    • Charlottesville is up and running and still needs our support. Consider and commit to get out there and help the efforts to get Charlottesville up and running. This week is Roanoke’s turn.  See Lab Rat
    • Cornhole & Rock ‘N Roll, a ReeseStrong Childhood Cancer event, is this Saturday, June 10 at Marty’s Grill in Mechanicsville.  The first band starts at 11 am.  The cornhole tournament starts at 12:30 PM.  To register or for more information, click here or see Phonics.
    • Fudd soiree this Saturday! It will be at his house and M’s are invited. RSCP at his preblast.

    Numberama

    Namearama

    Attila took us out

    NMS

    YHC was informed last weekend that 52 needed to be worked into whatever beatdown was done during takeover week. Apperently there was a remark made by people that seldom come to Da’Ville badmouthing Da’Ville. YHC complied and added 2 reps to each of the corners. When YHC rolled into the parking lot this morning he realized 2 things:1) YHC cannot make it on time to AOs that are three miles away from his house, but can make it early to ones that are 15 miles away.2) the AO is larger than remembered when everything was being planned.

    YHC got his 2.0s involved in this one so he cannot take credit for the names and some of the variations. This is one of YHC’s favorite formats and it works really well for kettel-bell. There was no White Deer this morning, fortunately Attila does a very good White Deer impersonation so mumble-chatter was not affected. There were only supposed to be 6 of the Honeymoon Suites, but the PAX wanted 52 so the PAX got 52. One day we will do this workout and make it to Corner 4

    Lady runners admired us, cars tried to hit us, and we saw Speed Lunging and we will be actively working to make that a new event in the next Olympics.

    Thanks again, it was an honor to lead

     

     

  • A Suboptimal KB Workout

    Seven (or was it eight?) PAX posted to the Circus for YHC’s virgin KB Q.  After a quick disclaimer that the workout may include dance-inspired exercises, the beatdown went something like this:

    The THANG:

    COP: Hammer Dance x20 IC, Don Quixote x10 IC, Windmill x20 IC, Men at Work x20 IC, Pickle Pounders x10 IC.  After each exercise, walkout Merkins OYO increasing from 1 to 5.

    Lindsay: Lunges and Merkins down the side of the school.

    Dora: Goblet squat, KB swings, Lawnmowers.  One partner exercises while the other jogs 20 ft to the ramp, crawl bear up the ramp, and jog back.

    Conveyor Belt: curls 5x each side, shoulder press 5x each side, upright rows 10x, KB bear crawl to next station.

    Merkin Ring of Fire.

    COT

    NMM:

    Welcome to the  June Merkin challenge!  By YHC’s count (not to be trusted), PAX completed 125 Merkins.

    Earthworm complained that there was too much running, despite walking all the 20 ft lengths in the Dora.  Johnsonville asked if this workout was optimized.  It was, but the objective function was to minimize WWII situps, with a constraint on a minimum number of Merkins.  YHC will need to incorporate multi-criteria optimization next time.

    Attila and YHC competed to see who could smell their gloves the furthest from their faces.  YHC’s gloves are soaking in Woolite in an effort to lose the next round.

    Krü continues to insist on finishing all reps during recovery periods, inspiring the other PAX to push themselves harder.  Tclaps!

    White Deer, Mudface, and Jville crushed the crawl bear.  The COP warmup must have gotten their juices flowing.  Their reward was more of the exercises during the Dora.

    Announcements:

    BRR runners and drivers needed – see TYA

    ReeseStrong (M Phonics) and Fudd party 6/10

    Crossover Clinic Moo & Brew 5k (Malpractice) 6/3

  • Ludus West End

    Six Gladiators broke the bondage of sound sleep, drove through driving rain, and posted to seek the rewards of Circus Maximus. YHC served as this week’s lanista and we trained as follows:

    Thang:

    X10 SSHs; X5 Forward Arm Circles; X5 Backward Arm Circles; X5 R Curtsy Lunges; and X5 L Curtsy Lunges

    1st Quarter – 10 Minute EMOM
    Odd Minutes: X8 R KB Lunge Curl & Press
    Even Minutes: X20 L KB Swings

    2nd Quarter – 10 Minute EMOM
    Odd Minutes: X8 L KB Lunge Curl & Press
    Even Minutes: X20 R KB Swings

    3rd Quarter – 10 Minute EMOM
    Odd Minutes: X12 R KB Snatch
    Even Minutes: X12 KB High Pull

    4th Quarter – 10 Minute EMOM*
    Odd Minutes: X12 L KB Snatch
    Even Minutes: X20 KB Pull Overs

    COT (inadvertently undertaken in reverse order):

    YHC closed us with prayer

    Announcements: Convergence at 0630 on Monday at Belle Island (Park at Tredegar)

    Counterama and Namearama

    Moleskin:

    Proper execution of the LCPs was elusive – with some more reps we’ll master this compound movement that promises to pair nicely with TGUs.

    *We fell short on 24 L KB Snatches today – homework for the amusement of your neighbors.

    Unspoken were the thoughts that EMOMs are the stock and trade of the unimaginative Q – mea culpa.

    Great to have Kru out for his sophomore showing at the CM – even brought two KBs. Those Gloucester boys are strong.

    Speculation was rampant concerning WhiteDeer’s impressive punch at the top of each snatch: was he one of those kids constantly raising his hand in class to the annoyance of his less eager classmates? Johnsonville’s conversion to a heavier KB is a success based on his strong efforts today. FlipPhone ripped through the EMOMs begging the question: does he need a heavier KB? ChumBucket stepped out from the protection of the bus lane cover and commanded the rain to stop – and it did, with the rain yielding to a dry and pleasant morning.

    Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. Let all that you do be done with love. 1 Corinthians 16:13-14

  • No sad clowns at this circus

    A magnificent VII (yes, seven) posted for this week’s version of Circus Maximus and we took a shot at the following:

    Startup COP with 20 x Side Straddle Hops, Imperial Walkers, Russian Soldiers, and Helicopters followed by Arm Circles x 15 (including small and big and both ways) and 15 x WWII Situps.  Jog a lap around the parking lot.

    Resume circle for 10 x Two Handed KB Swings, 10 x Goblet Shoulder Presses, 10 x Bent Over Rows, 10 x Overhead Triceps Presses, 20 x Merkins, and 10 x Two Handed Handle Curls.  Complete three rounds then walk the bus circle while weighted and alternating Suitcase and Waiter carries.

    Circle up again for 10 x Goblet Squats, 10 x Crab Pots (Lawnmowers, and per arm), 10 x Upright Rows, 10 x Backhand Triceps Presses (per arm), 20 x Wide Grip Merkins, and 10 x Two Handed Cup Curls.  Complete three rounds then walk the bus circle weighted and alternating Waiter and Rack carries.

    Circle on the grass for 10 x Overhead Lunges (per leg), 10 x Figure 8s, 10 x Kneeling Cleans, 10 x KB Merkins, and 10 x Standing Box Cutters.  Move to the curb for 20 x Pullovers, 20 x Skullsplitters, and 3 x Fast/Slow Curls (per arm).

    COT with Earthworm taking us out.

    Announcements – Charlottesville launch upcoming.

    Moleskin – It seemed important to YHC to start Helicopters going 5 starting left first then 5 starting right.  As White Deer points out, there really is no difference.  It did not seem important to start Figure 8s around each leg.

    YHC had a long list for his virgin Circus Maximus Q – did not get to some things. Next time.  Enjoyed it.

     

  • You were in the Army? Get him a heavier Kettlebell

    Eight strong came out to Circus Maximus before the rains came. 53 degrees and cloudy, perfect weather to toss around some kettlebells.

    Cop – SSH, Merkins, DQs,  LBCs, Helicopters, Mtn Climbers

    5 Sets of 10-20-30. 10 Halos, 20 Overhead Presses, 30 KB Swings. Run half a lap between sets.

    Lunge across parking lot, up hill, 5 Burpees, then Lunge back down.

    Head to Grass – 2 min of Boat-Canoe. 3 sets of 10 Merkin rows & 20 Mtn Climbers.  American Hammers, with & without Kettlebell. 3 sets of 5 Curls. 3 sets of 10 Lawnmowers. Finish with more Boat-Canoe.

    Earthworm took us out.

    NMS – Gomer Pyle came out for his 2nd Honeydo Q this week. He enjoyed the first one so much he came to CM without a Kettlebell. Luckily White Deer had one to spare.

    Mumblechatter focused on Jville and his Teapot form but with him not in attendance White Deer soon turned to his Mumblechatter muse Atilla.

    The PAX took on the Lunge across the lot for the 2nd time YHC has tried it. Time will tell if they will be met with the same posterior pain as the first time last year.

    The PAX discovered that Gomer was in the Army so White Deer insisted on upgrading his loaner kettlebell from his 20 lb one. He even got to test out the Chum Bucket 35 lb.

    Speaking of Chum Bucket, he was in the lead the whole beatdown. YHC should have asked Gomer if that 35 lb KB is legit.

    Hoops posted again, while Gumbo missed, adding further fuel they are the same person.  Good to see Earthworm back out- YHC reminded him that Heartbreak Ridge is awaiting his post there.

    A lot of these exercises were specifically targeted to help the PAX with their tennis game. Even with rain tonight Tennis Thursdays are coming to a court near you.

    Silent Assassin signing off.