Honeynut from F3 Birmingham not in pax names. We had Filet and Conductor present as well – both 2.0s of Brady Bunch. Need to get them in the database.

Introduction

YHC with the anniversary Q here – one year ago, Exile drug me out of bed to a Geek Squad Q and literally carried me on his back during part of the Q. It sucked. But I got stronger.

In the last year, I’ve had a ton of fun with frisbees, rucking, beatdowns, and mumblechatter. I’ve met some real HIMs, enjoyed a shield lock that kept me on track in the middle of lockdown, and lost 35+ lbs. Y’all are the real MVPs – thanks for helping someone who didn’t work out plug in and start prioritizing fitness. Thanks to everyone who’s come pick up the six when I’ve been running slow or nursing the knee and foot. Your encouragement and friendship means a ton to me. Let’s pay it forward and EH more folks in our lives.

Back to a summary of today’s beatdown. Ping pong balls were on the brain. Not sure why. But I figured time to prove why anything – and I mean anything – can become a beatdown.

Warm-O-Rama

I have come to love the expectations of the standard warm-o-rama. It’s comforting and familiar, and a good way to get the body going. SSH, Weedpickers, Imperial Walkers, sun gods, and Michael Phelps. DigEm had words to say about how it was too standard or something, but I couldn’t really hear him over how awesome the warm-o-rama was.

The Thang

PART ONE: THE LOTTERY

If ya don’t play, you can’t win.

50 ping pong balls in a box. Exercises on some. Pax names on the other. A ball was drawn at random by a pax, and then directions on the ball were followed. If a ball with a pax name was called, that pax had one minute to make us do any exercise.

Jitterbug, my brother in law, was drawn first. One minute of burpees. We had dips, squats, mountain climbers, BBS, and a half dozen more, as well as some quality time with Brad Pitt (plank destroyers) and Scamper (jumping wall taps).

Soundtrack included Haken, Primus, and Oysterhead. Ended up being about 15-18 minutes.

PART TWO: BEER PONG

Made the PAX count off into two teams, which will hereafter be referred to as Team 1 and Team 2. I joined Team 1. I snagged a frisbee, and began to tell them about the team sport that was coming their way.

Then I ditched the frisbee and we ascended the stairs to reveal… our beer pong stadium. Please note: no Cold Ones™ were hurt in the making of this segment. This was a beer-free beer pong match.

Teams alternate throwing. A pax cannot throw the ball again until everyone on his team has had a turn. When a throw was made, the team that missed did a merkin (most pax stood back up, making them effective burpees).

Standard beer pong rules apply. Two re-racks. Defense allowed on bounces.

When a ball was successfully landed in a cup, the cup was emptied of its water and the exercise on the bottom of the cup was read. All pax (both teams) participated in that exercise, before throwing resumed. Plenty of misses resulted in plenty of burpees, and exercises included wall step ups, smurf jacks, BBS, squats, burpees, wide merkins, and probably more.

Team 2 crushed Team 1, but since we all ended up sweaty, we all won. No team eliminated all cups, but Team 2 eliminated a few more than Team 1.

Soundtrack included Run The Jewels and El-P.

COT

Welcome FNGs Babe and Bonilla. Happy belated Bobby Bonilla day to the Mets fans out there – since they’re still paying him $1M/yr on July 1.

Honeynut from F3 Birmingham joined – he extends a warm welcome to come join them if we’re ever in the area! BOGO from F3 Franklin was in town as well – great to see him.

Thanks to F3 Raleigh for having tried Beer Pong before and having something to build on.