The American military does “After Action Reports.” The U.S. Army, in particular, is a learning organization. Although I have not been in the military, I’m trying to approach this Back Blast in that light.
Planned to do Warm Up, the Thang, Mary. Thang would consist of three rounds of six exercises, with difficulty increasing in each round. Thus, Merkins-Diamond Merkins-Decline Merkins; Squats, Bulgarian Split Squats, Elevators; As-many-as-you-can-do Pull Ups; Front Lunges, Back Lunges, Side Lunges; High Planks, Low Planks, Commandos; Burpees, Burpees with Shoulder Taps; Burpees with one leg elevated during the push up. Indian run with five-pound coupon between first and second sets; Indian run with ten-pound coupon between the second and third sets.
What did I learn from this exercise?
The beat down was OK, but not great. In particular, my assumptions got in the way of the PAX. See: everyday wisdom on the subject of the word “Assume.”
1.) Too worried about having enough. Spliced-in the Indian Runs when it would have been better to stick to the simple chain of three sets. Ended up only completing two sets. This crowded us out of enough time to do merkins and burpees to get that nice buzzy feeling in the shoulders.
2.) Mistakenly assumed that Trojan’s pavilion had low cross rafters that would serve for pull ups. That’s the way it is at Steel Town and the Swamp, so it must be that way at Trojan, right? Wrong. Thus, on the fly, we had to shift to the playground. So either drop the pull-ups or concentrate the beat down at the playground and bring the lanterns over there. Well, as a result of participating in F3, now I can do more pull ups than at any time in the last forty years. So, I’m not going to cut the pull-ups. Get to 20. Freak out my sons when they come home.
3. When I Q’ed, time went way faster than it seems to when I’m just exercising. This can be disconcerting.
4.) Weird things happen with my voice in some positions. Harder leading with a straight face when you sound like you’re twelve again.
5.) PAX were all good sports about it, so work out the bugs and do better next time.