It was the personification of the “gloom” – cool, thick and soupy fog, wet ground, clouds covering a brilliant full moon attempting to fight through and shed its glow on the 5 brave souls who made it out for a Tobacco Road beat down.
YHC led the group on a 3/4 mile warm up run to the pull up station on the ATT where we commenced on a creative variety of merkins, alternating with a pull up variation as follows.
First the Warmup:
SSH x 20
Slow Good Morning x 10
Windmill x 10
Imperial Walkers x 10
Hillbilly x 10 (shutters at the image indelibly left in our minds of Doogie at a recent TR)
The Thang:
Breaking up into a group of 3 and a group of 2, one group would do the merkin variation (push) while the other group would do the pull up variation (pull) and switch.
10 regular merkins/5 pull ups
switch
10 slow merkins (4 count down, 4 count up)/5 pull ups
switch
10 hand release merkins / 5 underhand grip pull ups
switch
10 wide grip merkins /5 underhand grip pull ups
switch
10 diamond merkins / 10 overhand grip Australian pull ups
switch
10 mountain climber merkins / 10 underhand grip Australian pull ups
switch
10 caterpillar merkins / 5 overhand grip pull ups
switch
10 travelling merkins to the right / 5 undehand grip pullups
switch
10 travelling merkins to the left / 10 overhand grip Australian Pullups
10 derkins / 10 underhand grip Australian Pullups
switch
10 erkins / 5 over hand grip pull ups
switch
10 standard merkins / 5 under hand grip pull ups
switch
Shake it out and Mozy 3/4 mile back to the bathroom building for a merkin ring of fire with kettle bell up right rows and bent over rows in the rotation
The pax made one rotation performing each of these:
standard merkin x 10
erkin x 10
derkin x 10
reverse grip merkin x 10
upright row 45 lb kb x 20
and then each of these:
standard merkin x 10
erkin x 10
derkin x 10
reverse grip merkin x 10
bent over row 45 lb kb x 20
Damn, that is a lot of merkins, no wonder I almost blacked out.
but wait, there’s more!
YHC wanted to work in some kettlebell swings (given Cardiac showed up for EC, expecting kettlebell swings, but had to settle for a solo burpee fest – we’ve got to keep the site Q happy!)
Each pax took a turn cranking out standard kettlebell swings with the 45 lb kettlebell. Inspired by Sweats educational efforts, and example, we tried to focus on form, but then settled for survival.
As the full moon finally fought through the clouds, Sweats went first on the kettlebell and we honored him by holding a superman pose while he executed 50 flawless kettlebell swings.
While each of the other pax took a turn on the kettlbell swings, the non-swingers rotated in a plank-around the world – plank for first 10 swings, right arm high for 10 swings, reverse plank for 10 swings, left arm high for 10 swings, then superman for 10 swings and rotate.
Mary:
45 flutter kicks IC
25 Heels to Heaven IC
CoT: Grateful for this group of encouraging, challenging brothers…
Moleskin: Site Q meeting next Thursday at Tobacco Road (?) – all are welcome. Coming up with themes, focus, The BULL, CSUAPs, and what local causes to support.
This year is off to a great start for the pax – thanks for all the support, organization and leadership.
-Boucher
