24 PAX strong showed for Bastille this AM.  I did my best to challenge the Bastille faithful to a heart-pounding warm up, what with my favorite warm up set pieces of the jack sequence and consecutive merkin variations, followed by a blitzkrieg of introductory programming.  What lies at the heart of the workouts I find most challenging are those that call upon the whole body (burpees, anyone?), inside and out, corporeal and incorporeal.  So not just your arms, your legs, and your core, but also your central nervous system, lungs, your heart, your mind, and your will.

The goal with anything is to get more out of what you have, a lot of juice for a little squeeze, if you will. What makes us more than the sum of our parts?  Is it grit?  Constitution or character?  Or is it simply the ability to tackle the challenge directly in front of our eyes.  One rep at a time.  We cannot handle 100 merkins in our mind, but can we handle one?

It reminds me of the movie scene (pasted) from Gattaca.  Upon losing to his brother for the first time ever in a swim, Anton asks his brother how he did it.  “I never saved anything for the swim back,” Vincent screams.  This quote means a lot to me because Vincent couldn’t rely on genetics, pedigree, or politics to succeed.  The only thing that made him special was his work ethic, while others were content to rest on their laurels.  I also like this because it is a reminder to just do what’s ahead of you, what is here right now.  That is hard enough.

This goes beyond working out.  The seemingly inconsequential decisions we make each day: do we stare at our phones too long around our loved ones, do we procrastinate too much on work that must be done, do we miss opportunities to say something special to someone who might need it?  These small parts add up to who we are, and over time, you become the sum of your actions.  So we must choose wisely.  What is comforting is that we get a choice, and we can and should only focus on one decision at a time.

This is as much a missive to myself as it is to others.  As always, your backblast awaits.

24 PAX set out to find out what they were made of, inside and out.

Four Corner Escalator/De-escalator

• Corner 1: 20 Jump Squats
• Corner 2: 20 Jump Squats, 20 Tuck Jumps
• Corner 3: 20 Jump Squats, 20 Tuck Jumps, 20 Fingertip Merkins
• Corner 4: 20 Jump Squats, 20 Tuck Jumps, 20 Fingertip Merkins, 20 Burpees

And then back down:  

• Corner 4: 20 Jump Squats, 20 Tuck Jumps, 20 Fingertip Merkins, 20 Burpees
• Corner 3: 20 Jump Squats, 20 Tuck Jumps, 20 Fingertip Merkins
• Corner 2: 20 Jump Squats, 20 Tuck Jumps
• Corner 1: 20 Jump Squats

I think Champ may have beaten Ito in a sprint?  Not sure because I was almost spilling merlot myself somewhere in the back of the pack.  The combination of these exercises hit in just the worst way, and by that of course I mean the best way.

Mosey to the roller rink:

Elevens (1 squat, then 10 merkins, 2 and then 9, always adding to 11), with 5 burpees at the halfway point on each trip to and from the other side).

Method of transportation: Proper bear crawl form (knees perpendicular, backs straight, legs do not go past elbows on crawl, butts not suspended).  Hell of a job by everyone here.  When you do bear crawls this way (ahem, properly), they are very difficult.  You don’t work your shoulders that much; if you are doing them right, you work your core.

Moleskine:

Kudos to Coco, who is passing the site Q torch to Dean Wormer.  Coco’s contributions to F3 need no introduction – he’s a guy who can push the pace and be the first to pick up the six, a recruiter extraordinaire, and a veritable dynamo with the energy he brings to his interactions with you.  Dean Wormer, thanks for stepping up to perpetuate the starfish.  We have no doubt that Bastille will flourish under your reign.

Shout out to Eddie the Eagle, who from my vantage point is pressing B repeatedly on the Sega Genesis controller of life, accelerating pretty darn quickly right now.  He went full-out beast mode in today’s workout: an EC ruck, leaves the ruck on during the workout, suggests a marathon ruck instead of a paltry 22-mile ruck for ATT, and then EHs some dude crushing solo burpees in the park (who does that?  oh yeah, we do) with a couple of others.  Eddie, keep eating buddy.  Don’t save any for the rest of us.  Keep inspiring us with that energy and tenacity.  I freakin’ love it!

Welcome FNG Gepetto.  T-claps to Adolphus for bringing him out (and for belting out the count like an animal).  Gepetto, when you tell us you moved here from Italy and your hobby is wordworking, yes sir, that will be just enough for us to go on for your nickname!

Band Camp convinced me that we need to do another Game of Thrones workout now that dragons are torching people and Westeros is at war with itself.  We both commiserated about how we could not sleep after watching the last episode, seriously one of my favorite moments in cinematic history.  I waited 7 years to see that kind of dragon action.  Coming soon to an AO near you? Stay tuned!