Ring Around the Rosies

As children growing up, we’ve all heard the nursery rhyme “Ring Around the Rosies.”  If not, YHC will sing it to you or you could just read the lyrics:

Ring around the rosy A pocketful of posies “Ashes, Ashes” We all fall down

Well, that is what 6 men done in the gloom, minus turning into ashes.  For 45 minutes we stayed in the Circle of Pain and did four different routines with a run around the A/O in between.  When you hear Him’s groaning it makes YHC want to push them more because YHC knows they have the beast in them that wants to come out.  Now, the song much relates to the Bubonic Plague (Black Death), and I don’t care what Snopes.com says.  I could tell at the end of each routine the Black Death was hovering over us all.  What do you do when the Black Death is coming for you?  You run, and we did.  This is how it went down in The Ring:

Warmups: SSH ICX15, Smurf Jacks ICX15, Plank Jacks ICX15, Plank Dips ICX10, Arm Circles ICX10, Reverse Arm Circles ICX10, Chinook ICX10

After the warmup, we ran to a dentist office on Willow St. and turned around and ran back to the A/O.  There, we formed a Circle of Pain (the song played in my head.)

Our first COP routine was the Fire Drill.  Started off doing High Knees and each PAX shouted out the word “Fire.”  Hearing the word, we all dropped, rolled to our right and did a Merkin, rolled to the left and did another Merkin, then back to High Knees.

Ran back to the dentist office on Willow, turned around and ran back to the A/O to form another COP. (Ring around the rosies…)

Our 2nd COP was Global Warming.  Each PAX held Al Gore position as we shuffled to the right in a circle.  YHC shouted out “Stop” and then did various exercises after each Al Gore Shuffle.  They were: 10 Merkins, 10 Carolina Dry Docks, 10 Wide Arm Merkins, 20 LBC’s.

Ran back to the dentist office on Willow, turned around and ran back to the A/O to form another COP. (A pocket full of posies…)

Our 3rd COP was the Bear Crawl Ring of Fire. We Bear Crawled in the circle until YHC said “Stop.”  Upon stopping, everybody planked as I did 20 Merkins.  We bear Crawled again until YHC said “Stop” and the next PAX did 20 Merkins as everybody else planked.  We did this till all PAX did their 20 Merkins.

Ran back to the dentist office on Willow, turned around and ran back to the A/O to form another COP. (Ashes, Ashes, We all fall down.)

Our last COP was Blocktanamo.  Each PAX held out a block in front of them as one PAX ran in the circle and pushed down on each block.  I believe by this time the PAX was giving me a taste of my own medicine because my block was getting pushed down harder and harder.  We did this twice.

After I gave them enough of the ring, and since we had our blocks, this is what we did: Curls ICX15, Block Squats ICX15, and Bench Press ICX15.

Set our blocks to the side and spent time with Mary, who ever that is.  We did Boat/Canoe, American Hammers ICx35, Pickle Pounder ICX10

Shout out to all men who endured the Circle of Pain.  Good job men.

COT: John 20:24-29

There is nothing wrong experiencing doubt.  We need to remember that doubt is the other side of the coin of faith, like exhilaration is the partner of fear.  You cant have faith unless you first conquered doubt.  Thomas is an example for the way that doubt, pain, and sin can drive us into isolation.  His story also helps us see that we desperately need close friend like F3’ers to travel with us on our journey.  As we travel together we must remember our own struggles and make room for others who are hurting as well.