12 PAX warmly welcomed me into the land of the Q.  I’ll admit there were some nerves that started the night before and inspired 4 distinct alarms across three devices to avoid starting my Q campaign with a fartsack.  Little sleep was achieved, but that made for even more accessible adrenaline to power through my virgin experience.

Obligatory disclaimers were disclaimed, and we jumped into warmups.

Warmup (at the AO):

• SSH x 25
• Willie Mays Hays x10
• Imperial Walker x10
• Arm Circles x10
• Reverse Arm Circles x10
• Slow Merkins x10
• Apolo Ohno (Skaters) x10 (cadence spaced for balance and strength)
• Mosey to church parking lot

Main Event

• Location 1 (church parking lot):
  • Sungods (potentially some naming attribution rights violations with other claims to the name Sungod in the Exicon, humbly submitted with apologies): progression of paired exercises of Merkins / Shoulder pressups starting with 1x Merkin and 2x Shoulder Presses, proceeding to 2x Merkins and 4x Shoulder Presses up to 10x Merkin and 20x Shoulder Presses
  • 10x Imperial Squat Walkers
  • Mosey to tennis courts
• Location 2 (tennis courts):
  • Shuffles covering 4 tennis courts. First court is forward run, then backwards run to starting line.  Rotate 90 degrees and shuffle to the left to end of tennis court two; shuffle right to the starting line. Rotate 90 degrees, backward run to end of court 3 and forward sprint to starting line.  Rotate 90 degrees, shuffle right to end of court 4, shuffle left to starting line.
  • (Recover)
  • Repeat shuffles, adding Sungod reps at end of each court. At end of first sprint, complete 1 Merkin and 2 presses, backwards run to starting line to complete 2 Merkins and 4 presses, and onward through the progression.
  • Mosey to AO
• Location 3 (AO):
  • Modified Rail Road Tracks – Bear Crawl: Divide PAX into two groups of 6 and line up spaced evenly on the lines of the parking spots. All PAX enter plank and PAX at bottom of hill bear crawls to the front of the formation.  PAX now at bottom bear crawls to the top of the formation and process repeats across the parking lot.  Important Note: this movement was officially not a race
  • (Recover)
  • Modified Rail Road Tracks – Swan Lunges: Same process in reverse, sub out bear crawls and sub in swan lunges (lunges with wrist taps above head and elegant push out to sides).  Some lines were blurred but momentum was maintained.
  • Insurance policy on the shoulder burns, one last round of Sungods starting from 10, working down to 2 counting by 2’s.

MARY

• 25x flutter kicks, followed by holds in various positions
• 10x Sleeping Hillbillies (Hillbillies laying down)
• 10x single leg flutter kicks with clap under leg

COT

• Prayer requests: Three weeks ago, YHC humbly requested thoughts and prayers for his grandfather, Joseph Cione, battling post-surgery complications, and for the family supporting his fight. YHC shared that Joseph passed yesterday, peacefully.  He was a force of determination, joy, and love in his 95 years of life and 70 years of marriage, and leaves a brilliant legacy for YHC and his children, dozens of other grandkids, great grandkids, great great grand kids to carry forward.  YHC is grateful for the opportunity to share a brief bit of his journey and the support from PAX in these times of reflection and celebration.
• Closing thoughts: “The secret to making excellent brisket is making lots and lots of really $hitty brisket.” ~unattributed memory from 3-4 years ago. The point: becoming great at something requires the courage to suck at it first, in the service of growth and improvement. Our ego often shuts down the privilege of sucking and we don’t have the courage to start out bad at something and to be bad at something for a period of time.  We’re left not growing to our max potential as we allow the need for immediate success to prevent getting started.  May we all embrace the opportunity to make $hitty brisket, so that someday we may make delicious brisket.

COFFETERIA / KOMBUCHERIA

• Coffee was shared on premise, along with Kombucha from YHC’s M’s company Tribucha, craft brewed right here in the triangle, and taking the nation by storm. If you need a bubbly fix, you know a guy.

A humble thank you to all for a virgin Q experience that won’t be forgotten.

AYE!