Remembering 9/11

Our plan to salute the heroes and victims of 9/11 with an inaugural Monday Badlands workout was washed out by Irma last week, so we made some lemonade out of those lemons and came back on 9/18 with a sandbag workout featuring 25-, 30-, and 35-lb bags (no takers for the 35 – Osteen, we had made that especially for you, brother — next time!).  Much thanks for McDreamy for helping out with the careful calibration of the weight of the bags (“that’s pretty close to 25!”) and transporting them out into the humid Monday gloom.  The Pax came in at 16 strong, including one FNG, with yours truly, Slash, in the VQ role.  Thanks again to McDreamy for the many helpful Q tips and for loaning his copy of “Freed to Lead.”

WELCOME / DISCLAIMER / PLEA TO SHOW MERCY TO THE VQ FOR INEVITABLE RANDOM SCREW-UPS

WARM-UPS

• little baby arms circles, 15 IC; rinse and repeat other direction
• hillbillies 15 IC
• toy soldiers 15 IC

THE THANG

• 9/11s: We moseyed about 50 yards to the first street light, which was station 1 for what on this occasion we dubbed “9/11s,” which consisted of 9 burpees followed by 11 side straddle hops, OYO.  While waiting for the 6, we held one-legged Supermans (standing on one leg, slightly bent knee, tip at the hip, arms forward in flying pose, ungrounded leg point pointed behind, as straight out as possible).  Moseyed another 50 yards to the next street light, aka, station 2.  Rinse and repeat there, same with stations 3 and 4. We did four stations to remember the four planes that went down on 9/11.

After the fourth and final 9/11, we moseyed to McDreamy’s truck which was laden with the sandbags.  Everyone grabbed one sandbag and we formed a circle, and then engaged in the following exercises:

• Kim Kardashians: aka, weighted squats, bag held in front, get those butts out and chests up! 15 IC (which works out to 30 actual reps). Rinse and repeat.
• Simba squats: Squat into a shoulder press, 15 IC. Rinse and repeat.
• Overhead lunge walk; 20 steps OYO out, 20 steps OYO back, plank while waiting on the six.
• Little Kims: weighted pulse squats, 15 IC, rinse and repeat.
• Calf raises. Bag overhead, in cadence.  25 IC
• One-legged weighted superman (one legged bend over row, drawing back to chest with one arm). 15 reps OYO, rinse and repeat for the other arm.
• The butter churn. A front row, with the bag starting at the waist and lifted with both hands to the chin. 20 IC.  (Many thanks to Outhouse for the colorful interpretation of said movement — definitely the humor highlight of the workout!)

Running short on time!  6am already! The VQ way overestimated how much he could fit into the allowed time! Rookie mistake! Still, we partnered up for the following exercises on the field:

• Stand-by-me bear crawl. One partner holds both bags and walks forward 10 steps, while his partner bear crawls.  Return, and then switch positions.  Plank while waiting on the six.
• The Florida faceplant. You kneel; your partner puts a bag on your ankles and presses down on it; you fall forward as slowly as you possibly can; then spring yourself back up. 5 reps each, OYO.  Plank while waiting on the six.
• Hammer curls. Walked the bags back to McDreamy’s truck while curling, OYO.

Mosey to the flagpole. The Q held back with the 6, while McDreamy slid in seamlessly as wingman and ran the rest of the pax through flutter kicks.

COT / BOM

After running through the counterama (16) we got into the namearama and christened FNG Jim Wilson as “Cheese Steak.”  Welcome, brother!

Our prayer time included a request for prayers for a friend who had suffered a stroke, and from there, we continued the 9/11 theme.  We talked about how In March 2002, a clean-up crew was sifting debris from the south tower of the World Trade Center.  There, a firefighter uncovered a remarkable object – a chunk of concrete with a page from the Bible that was fused to it. The page was from the Gospel of Matthew, in which Jesus gave His Sermon on the Mount and specifically addressed retaliation:  “You have heard that it has been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That you resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also.”  We’ve all heard it – turn the other cheek.  Easy to say, not so easy to do.  It’s natural when attacked or mistreated to lash out, but Jesus has instructed us not to repay misdeed with misdeed, but to move forward in love and forgiveness.  We prayed for healing for the stricken friend, and for strength to forgive those who have done us wrong.