Tag: Circus Maximus

Godwin

  • Community Property

    Thirteen (!) of the best men from the West End came to the back of Godwin for a very special comedic episode of Circus Maximus. Music from Weird Al and some other comedy bands.

    Warmups to “Like a Surgeon” and “My Bologna”: SSH, Ukrainian Soldiers, IW, Arm Circles, LBCs, Flutters, maybe something else.

    “Eat it”: High Pulls transition to Swings during the Chorus

    “Dick in a Box” by the Lonely Island: Floor Press, Box Cutters (of course)

    “Amish Paradise”: Partner wheelbarrows with ten pushups (2 times each)

    “Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo” by the Bloodhound Gang: Hammers and APDs during the Chorus. Lots of great lyrics in this song for all newcomers. “Marinate the nether rod in the squish mitten” is a good example.

    “Smells Like Nirvana”: Halos and Jump Squats during the Chorus.

    “Loud Ass Car” by Wolves of Glendale: OH Press and Lunges during Chorus

    “I Glued my balls to my Butthole Again” by Obscurest Vinyl: Sit & Press and OH Pulls. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on glue.

    “White & Nerdy”: Side Lunges and Curls

    “Fat”: Sumo squats (thanks Seymore for showing us the right form) and Burpees during the Chorus

    “Community Property”: Steel Panther: Triceps and Cleans. Nothing clean about this romantic song. “You’re the only girl that I like to screw when I’m not on the road”.

    “Headline News”: Some stretching to this parody of “Mmmmmm, mmmmmmm”. Cut it off before we got to the verse about the old news story about cutting it off. “And then, there was this guy who, made his wife so mad one night that she cut off his weiner, and when he finally came to, he found little Mr. Happy was missing, he couldn’t quite explain it, It’d always just beeeeen theeeeeeere, mmmmmmmm, mmmmmm”

    Announcement, Prayers and the best coffee in Richmond.

    Until next time,

    Weird Al Whitesnakovic

  • Sex in Driverless cars

    We took a Waymo “robotaxi” while we were in Austin, Texas. No driver (and no tip!) We discussed over post-workout coffee how this might impact high school dating.

    Disclaimer

    Warmup

    • 20 SSHs in cadence
    • 20 IWs in cadence
    • 10 Don Quixote in cadence
    • 20 Copperhead squats in cadence
    • 10 Merkins in cadence
    • Stretch (Right foot/right hand; Pfannkuchen)

    Move to covered walkway for Ring of Fire. I led off with

    • 15 Lawnmowers OYO, Mosey to end of walkway and back
    • Repeat the first exercise and add 15 curls, Mosey to end of walkway and back
    • Repeat the first two exercises and add 15 tricepts, Mosey to end of walkway and back
    • Repeat the first three exercises and add 15 Squats. Mosey to end of walkway and back
    • Repeat the first four exercises and add 15 Calf raises. Mosey to end of walkway and back
    • Repeat the first five exercises and add 15 Flutters, Mosey to end of walkway and back
    • Repeat the first six exercises and add 15 Skull Crushers, Mosey to end of walkway and back
    • Repeat the first seven exercises and add 15 Sit N Press, Mosey to end of walkway and back

    Mosey back to the flag for

    • 20 Heels to Heaven in cadence
    • 20 APDs in cadence
    • 20 Crunchy Frogs in cadence

    Finished!

    Announcements:

    2nd Tuesday, 2nd F: Firehouse Subs in Innsbrook

    1st Weekend in May: CSAUP. Slack for details

    COT

    In the third temptation of Jesus (Luke 4: 9-12), the devil tells Jesus to throw himself down from the pinnacle of the temple because God will protect him. Jesus responds “Don’t put the Lord your God to the test.” The point; it’s one thing to ask for God to protect you from things you couldn’t prevent. But if you do something stupid, that’s on you.

  • Come for the Coffee, Tolerate the Death Crawls

    11 KB warriors took the F3 path less traveled at Circus Maximus today.  Here is how it went down:

    • COP
      • SSH
      • IW
      • DQ
      • Helicopters
      • Arm circles
      • DMH
      • Merkins
      • LBC
    • KB Beast – different exercise and different means of traversing the length of the bus loop
      • Sit ‘n press and KB carry
      • High pulls and right-hand overhead carry
      • Curls and left-hand overhead carry
      • Tricep press and death crawl
      • Sumo squats and weighted lunges
      • KB swings and riffle carry
    • Run the bus loop
    • Mary – 1 legged crunches, each side and H2H
    • COT with YHC taking us out

    The PAX comes for the coffee and tolerates the beat-down is pretty much the official motto of Circus.  Great work from the PAX today.  Death crawls suck!  Great to see Fireman Ed.  He has a birthday Q on Saturday at Gridiron.  T-claps to Offshore for consistently providing coffee.  Thanks to Fudd for eventually showing up and realizing that the workout goes much faster when you miss COP. 

    Continued prayers for Roger Roger, Fudd and Fireman Ed.  God is good all of the time!

    Attila 

  • Thankful to be Q’ing again

    After a hiatus to take care of treating my cancer (which has gone well overall so far) I was back again leading the PAX with some kettlebell workouts. Admittedly I did drop 5 pounds in kb weight; otherwise I would have struggled more.

    The workout went like this:

    COP: SSHs (just kidding I don’t do those for COP), DQs, helicopters, DMH, HRMs, MCs and FMs. Mosey to back of school.

    Doras with a theme of 52 (upcoming birthday): 52 sit and press, 104 bench press and 208 LBCs. Mosey toward other side of school. 2 sets of 13 lawnmower pulls each arm.

    4 corners: 13 burpees, 26 high pulls, 39 curls (I struggled on this one) and 52 coupon squats (gotta build those legs for pool season). mosey back; 2 sets of 13 lawnmower pulls each arm.

    2 sets of 13 triceps and swings combo.

    Finished with coupon wall sits and a couple sets of halos.

    Gypsy is hosting a help him with chainsaws, shoot stuff and drink beer on 3/22. Hope everyone has good medical insurance and a good time. I will be Q’ing on my birthday on 3/29 at Gridiron. Attila took us out in prayer; it was good to see everyone out there. Also enjoyed coffeeteria ala Offshore; Al Gore would have been proud of our discussion.

    Fireman Ed

  • Smooth Up In Ya

    Tani Katane gazed upon us as she slithered around the hood of my car while 80s glam rock got us ready to sling some iron.

    Disclaimer.

    COP: SSHs, 1 Burbee, Arm Circles, 2 Burbees, DQs, 3 Burpees, Cherry Pickers, 4 Burbees, Mt Climbers, 5 Burpees, Fudd finally arrives, Dead Man Hang, 6 Burbees. Now it’s time to work!  

    The Thang: 15 KB Press, Sit & Press, Squats, Lawn Mower Pulls, High Pulls, Curls, & Overhead Press. Then  12 of each.  Then 9. 6. 3. Take a lap.

    Somewhere in the middle of this routine, a song by the Bullet Boys came on called “Smooth Up In Ya” reminding us middle-aged men to make sure we get our prostates checked.  

    Next Up: Lindsay: 30 Step-ups on the picnic tables seats (single count).  10 Flutters/KB Press.  20/20.  10/30.  Take a lap.

    W/ a perfect 12, ya gotta do a Triple Check: Timer runs.  P2: Calf Raises.  P3: Curb Overhead Pulls. 

    BTTS(tamper)F.  

    60 seconds left: FMs.

    Recover.  

    Numbers.  Names.  

    Announcements:  2 events on 3/22:  SOJ Chili Cookoff at Lwood’s crib and Fun on the Farm w/ Gypsy – fellin’ trees, shootin’ skeet and drinkin’ brews.  On 3/24, the Alamo, which has been an FNG magnet, turns 2. On 3/26, Heist turns 40 and will bless the Green Mile w/ a B-Day Q. And lastly, the csaup no one requested, but the one we all wanted is here: Century Classic 2.0. It will start on May 2 and end after your legs fall off. But hey, at least it’s not a Grow Ruck.

    Prayer requests: None spoken.

    YHC took us out.  

    Moleskin: On an average day, when not much seems to happen, remember that we are blessed to have families, jobs, homes, food. So much is going right all the time. We are so fortunate to have the gift of life. May we all recognize the blessing it is just to be alive.

  • ??!? What exercise?

    3rd F (Faith): thank you Atilla for taking us out this morning. Prayers for pax brothers, family, and friends.

    2nd F (Fellowship) YHC will be hosting a field day at my farm in Mineral (Ataraxia) on Saturday 22nd starting at 11am. Bring your chainsaws, shotguns, and beer steins. We will take out a few trees and run them threw the multcher. Once we wrap, I have 2 cases of skeet and 2 skeet launching machines. Let’s see who has the best shotgun skills. Oh did I mention the Cooling pond beer that will be on tap as well.

    1st F: The Thang: Worm Burners

    This one is an easy one to Q: Called exercise to be completed by the PAX while a single pax pushes a 35lb bench plate across the parking lot and back as a timer: Think Bear Crawl, but both hands on the plate pushing it along. Called exercises were given to each pax. You just tel the guy to right what you did and move down the line as the pacer does a Worm burner.. But some how we ended up with all sorts of exercises that were not orginally called. Run through this rotation twice.

    Finish up with a few rounds of burners (the Kettle bell does not touch the ground) :

    7 up-right rows, 7 tea bag squats, 6,5,4,3,2,1.

    7 clean and press, 7 Swings, 6,5,4,3,2,1

    7 American Hammer, 7 chest press 6,5,4,3,2,1

    7 Plank pull troughs, 7 Merkins 6,5,4,3,2,1

    3 mins of Mary remain.

    All done: time for coffee.

  • A True Circus

    A dirty dozen of familiar faces and some welcomed strangers gathered for a mumble-chatter convention attached to a deceptive KB beatdown.  Here is how it went down:

    • COP
      • SSH
      • IW
      • DQ
      • Helicopters
      • Arm circles
      • DMH
      • Merkins
      • LBC
    • KB 4 corners, prostitute-style with weighted lunges between corners
      • 105 KB curls
      • 75 high pulls
      • 45 KB swings
      • 15 tricep presses
    • 4x check
      • Run
      • Overhead pulls
      • Sit ‘n press
      • Lawnmower pulls
    • COT with YHC taking us out

    Fudd was more than fashionably late today.  White Deer made sure he knew that.  The entire PAX knew White Deer was back, as his mumble-chatter/clipboarding was at its normal, high intensity.  As they say in Spinal Tap, “this one (e.g. White Deer) goes to 11. Mr. Rogers went lower weight to combat injuries, but enjoyed a scholarly conversation with Pigskin.  At one point, I hear that Pigskin was all in favor of executing Hitler, a boiling hot take.  Whitesnake reappeared in a boot, yet set a pace on the 4 corners.  Welcome Warby!   Great to see you; hopefully we did not scare you.  Welcome back Fireman Ed!  An answer to prayer to see you brother!  Finally, the outlet for the coffee pot did not work.  Offshore is working with the fine staff at GHS to address.  We have confirmation that the coffee pot still works.

    For those that have not been to Circus, this is par for the course.   Come join the circus sometime!

    God is good all of the time!

    Attila

  • It’s 70 & Sunny Somewhere

    A faithful foursome gathered in the Circus gloom for another week of KB workouts.  Here is how it went down:

    • COP
      • SSH
      • IW
      • Ukrainian soldiers
      • DQ
      • Helicopters
      • Arm circles
      • DMH
      • Jazzercise
    • 12 x 12 de-escalator – 12 exercise, 12 reps; rinse and repeat with dropping a rep each cycle
      • 60 lawnmower pulls – right arm
      • 60 lawnmower pulls – left arm
      • 60 KB lunges – right leg
      • 60 KB lunges – left leg
      • 60 KB swings
      • 60 high pulls
      • 60 curls
      • 60 tricep presses
      • 60 halos
      • 60 sumo squats
      • 60 calf raises
      • 60 thrusters
    • Add a little Mary since the area under the bus loop stayed dry
      • 20 WWII sit-ups
      • 20 cross crunches – each side
      • 20 H2H
      • 20 2x flutter kicks
      • 20 reverse crunches
      • 20 LBC
      • 20 2x hammers
    • COT with YHC taking us out

    A dry Q was the plan.  A dry Q was attained.  T-claps to Offshore for continuing to prepare coffee in these elements.  Thankful the bus loop covering remained dry so we could get some Mary in today.

    Stay safe and sane out there.  God is good all of the time! 

    Attila

  • Advanced Civilization

    After the workout, coffee included a discussion on home electric generators. When the power fails in Goochland, Blue Moon lives ‘off-the-grid’ using a propane powered electric generator. Offshore (and likely the rest of us) just lives “off-the-grid” when the power fails. We have discovered that an advanced civilization has developed in Goochland.

    It was a thoroughly wet day, so we went to the far end of the covered walkway.

    Beginning with the standard disclaimer: “I’m not a professional, while you are here, try not to add any injuries to what is already afflicting you, etc.”

    Warm-up: All in cadence

    • 20 SSHs
    • 20 IWs
    • 20 Copperhead squats
    • Right over left, left over right hamstring stretch

    We stayed in a circle and I passed out 5 sheets of paper inside of plastic sleeves with 2 ‘pictures’ of a KB exercise. If you didn’t like that exercise, you could turn the sheet over as most of the sheets had another KB exercise on the back. We had 5 stations plus a timer. The timer did a Farmer’s carry; carried his own KB in one hand, another 25-pound KB in the other hand and walked part way to the end of the walkway and back. Then we rotated counterclockwise. In that manner, everyone did each exercise, including the farmer’s carry once in the rotation. After finishing with one rotation, we did a farmer’s carry to the end of the walkway and back with our own kettlebell, swapped out some of the exercises and made a 2nd round.

    In total, we did 3 rounds of this except after the last round, we took a mosey around the bus loop.

    Below are the exercises we chose from.

    Single Leg Deadlift Standing on one leg and holding the kettlebell in one hand lean forwards keeping your back flat.

    The same leg that goes back is the same arm that you are holding the kettlebell with.

    Go down as far as your hamstrings will allow and then return to the top position.

    Your standing leg can have a slight bend during the movement.

    Clean Start with the bell between your legs and knees bent, Lift KB to your shoulder. Thumb should point backwards at the bottom of the movement. To prevent banging of the forearms, try to take the arm around the KB rather than the KB around the arm. Aim to keep the KB as close to the body as possible.
    Clean and Press After the clean, press the KB overhead. As you link the 2 exercises together it is important to take a short pause between each movement.
    Side Lunge Holding the kettlebell in both hands close to the chest take a sideways step, push the hips back and drop into a side lunge position.

    Keep your chest up and weight on your heels.

    One leg should bend while the other remains straight.

    Curls There were several versions of these.

    ·       using a towel to lift the kettle bell,

    ·       squat and do the curl,

    ·       curl with the heavy part of the kettlebell out,

    ·       curl with the heavy part of the kettlebell in,

    ·       curl with both hands grabbing the bell instead of the horns.

    Thruster Combines 2 exercises the Squat and the Press for maximum energy expenditure.

    Start from the racked position and drop down into the Squat, next drive up from the floor and use your momentum to drive the kettlebell overhead.

    Next control the kettlebell back down into the racked position and repeat.

    Windmill Start with the KB overhead and the arm locked straight. Spread your feet to double shoulder width apart and angle your feet at 45 degrees. Push your hips out to the side with looking at the KB take the opposite hand down and touch the floor between your legs. Try to keep both legs straight.
    Skull Crusher Lay on your back, take KB with both hands from the ground/top of your head to overhead straightening your arms.
    Bob and Weave Hold the kettlebell high up the chest with both hands and step out to the side, duck down as if trying to get underneath a low doorway and then bring your other foot across to meet the foot that stepped out.

     

    Make sure that all the movement comes from a hinging at the hips rather than bending forwards at the lower back.

     

    The back should remain flat throughout the movement.

    snatch Start with a single hand swing, KB between legs, swing the KB up at around head height, pull the KB towards you and then push up. Next throw the KB out and absorb the mass at the bottom of the swing.
    Overhead squat Hold the KB overhead with a locked out arm. Next drop into the squat position by pushing your hips backwards, all your weight should be on your heels. At the bottom of the squat push up from the floor back to the starting position. The KB should remain overhead throughout the exercise.
    Overhead press Standing position with KB at Shoulder, press up and fully extend arm.

    We finished up with

    • 20 KB Swings OYO
    • 20 Triceps OYO
    • 20 Heels to heaven
    • 20 APDs
    • 15 KB Hammers in cadence
    • 20 KB flutters in cadence
    • 60 count 60-inch leg lift

    Announcements.

    TOMORROW IS VALENTINE’S DAY!!!

    COT

    “If someone succeeds in provoking you, realize that your mind is complicit in the provocation.” Epictetus

    Epictetus was a Greek Stoic philosopher. He was born into slavery at Hierapolis, Phrygia and lived in Rome until his banishment, when he went to Nicopolis in northwestern Greece, where he spent the rest of his life. He died in 135 AD.

    Epictetus taught that people are responsible for their feelings and actions, and that living virtuously is the key to a good life. Epictetus’s teachings had a religious tone that appealed to early Christian thinkers.

    Stoicism is a philosophy that emphasizes virtue and self-control as a way to achieve a good life. It originated in Ancient Greece and was influential for centuries.

    Core beliefs

    • Virtue: The practice of virtue is enough to achieve a good life.
    • Cause and effect: The universe operates according to a rational structure of cause and effect.
    • Self-control: We can control how we approach things, even if we can’t control the events that affect us.
    • Simplicity: A simple, peaceful life is the most virtuous.

    Stoicism values

    • Wisdom,
    • Justice,
    • Courage,
    • Moderation,
    • Temperance

    Stoic practices

    • Focus on what you can control
    • Make choices that are in your character
    • Don’t let what you consider good or bad come at the expense of your values
    • Prepare for unexpected blows, but don’t blame or criticize others
    • Focus on the task at hand

    Stoic thinkers

    • Zeno of Citium,
    • Epictetus,
    • Marcus Aurelius,
    • Seneca

    Stoicism influenced Christian, Jewish, and Islamic thought, as well as natural law and political authority theorists. It also influenced existentialism and Neo-orthodox Protestant theology.

    We finished with fresh percolated Coffee.

  • Stay Dry, Get Stronger

    Ten noble warriors fought off the fart sack on a cold and wet morning to pound some KBs.  Here is how it went down:

    • COP
      • SSH
      • IW
      • DQ
      • Helicopters
      • Arm circles
      • DMH
      • Merkins
      • LBC
      • APD
    • KB escalator – 10, 15, 20, 25 reps; add reps and a new exercise with each iteration
      • 70 high pulls
      • 70 tricep press
      • 70 swings
      • 70 sumo squats
      • 70 curls
      • 70 lawnmower pulls, each arm
    • Run the loop
    • Lindsay with KB presses and WWII sit-ups
    • Run the loop
    • Rifle carry KB down the bus drop off; KB lunge ½ the bus drop off; around the world down the bus drop off
    • Stretch and COT with YHC taking us out

    There was a wet workout Q and a dry workout Q.  We went with the covered, wet plan.  Let’s focus on getting stronger, not sick.  Good to see all of the PAX today, a robust showing for a wet Thursday.  T-claps to Offshore for getting the coffee prepped on a wet morning.  Last I checked rain and electricity were a tricky combination.

    Frozen Triangle on Saturday will be moist.  Lunch next week at Joey’s (Tuesday at 12 noon).

    Continued prayers for our brothers Fudd, Mr. Rogers, and Fireman Ed, plus our injured comrads. 

    God is good all of the time!

    Attila