Leading a workout for a group of high-impact men can be a bit of a challenge. There are a lot of factors: what to do, where to do it, who’s all gonna be there, will someone spill merlot, are people gonna Q-shop me the night before, etc.
But being the Q for the day is also both a privilege and a reminder that we are here to accelerate male community leadership. It even comes with a “Q-drenaline” boost! Finally, Q-ing is also a bit of an art form, one that might get a bit messy no matter how well you plan. And so I want to start with a piece of advice I’ve gotten several times: No one knows what your plan was; they don’t know if you did something “wrong.”
That said, the rest of this article is going to revolve around helping you plan the perfect Q (even if it’s on the fly). It is structed like a workout itself, moving from site arrival, through warmup, various “thangs,” Mary, and ending with some final thoughts on taking your Q to the next level.
Workout template
The morning of, arrive early, and scope out the site if necessary. Take a look at who’s there, in case you want to modify or ask another pax to keep an eye on someone. The weather might also inspire a change, such as doing shelter work in the rain (or, conversely, calling bearcrawls up a muddy hill).
Say hello to all the pax in the minutes leading up to the Q, and especially introduce yourself to anyone you don’t know.
If you need one, don’t be afraid to bring a “weinke,” or notes on your Q. If you put the time into making it, why not make sure to get it right? Plus, it’s fodder for the mumblechatter.
Warmup
The purpose of a good warmup (besides providing a time for mumblechatter) is to prepare us physically for the exercises ahead. As such, you might focus on muscles that will be hit in the main “thangs” to come.
Keep in mind the weather…if it’s cold, starting with stretches might not be best. Instead, you could do cardio, like sidestraddle hops, to get the muscles warm first.
A typical warmup looks like:
- CARDIO
- Mosey somewhere nearby
- Side straddle hop to keep the cardio going
- MUSCLE exercises like:
- Don Quixotes
- Imperial Walkers or Hillbillies
- Sir Fazio + Seal Clap + Overhead Clap + Hallelujahs + Sir Fazio Reverse
- Good mornings, calf/runner’s stretch, or other similar stretch
- Penalty burpees if somebody’s late!
Thang 1
“Thangs” are usually about 10-15 minutes of exercises grouped around a theme. The theme might be a format like Four Corners or 7’s, a particular muscle group, or both. Really good “thangs” also take advantage of the location.
Location
Each site is unique, so it can be particularly fun to find a part of the site that is well-suited to a format of exercise, like a hill, baseball diamond, a “pickle” or circle around something, rock pile, etc.
Have a plan for how to get to the location. It can be as simple as moseying, or you could do a series of exercises like Pearls on a String to get there.
If you don’t know the site well, use Google Maps and satellite views. You can often get as granular as counting streetlamps! But nothing beats having attended the AO at least a time or two before you Q.
Be a good neighbor! Be aware of other people and the group’s noise levels. Don’t plan to stop the group for exercises right in front of someone’s yard or around a ton of houses. Other types of sites like parking decks might have noise echo, so if it’s residential, you might avoid or adjust.
Format
By giving your workout a structure, you can communicate it easier to the Pax. If something takes more than 10 seconds to explain, it might be too complicated. That doesn’t mean not to do it, but maybe simplify it, or consider leading everyone through it together once vs. standing around and explaining.
Common bootcamp and hi-tempo formats
| Format | Description | Ways to modify |
|---|---|---|
| Pearls on a string | Stop for a series of exercises as your run towards a destination. You might do 5 exercises at the first stop, then 5 and 10 at the next, and so on. Variations include a burpee at each streetlamp or named ones like “Pain Train” that involve a specific sequence of exercises. | Add weights. Add a partner DORA. |
| Four corners | Each corner has a certain exercise. The exercises often are the same, like 20 of something in each corner, or grow like “7 of Diamonds” and is 7-14-21-28. You either run from corner to corner “around the clock” or you return to the center in between each corner. Usually on a field or parking lot. | Add weights. Add a partner DORA in the center. Turn it into a rack ’em, stack ’em. |
| Rack ’em, Stack ’em | Similar to four corners, except after each stop, you run all the way back to the beginning in between each, and you repeat each exercise as your “rack ’em up.” | Add partner work, isometric work, sprints or bearcrawls instead of moseying, etc. |
| DORA | Teams of 2 pax working together to reach cumulative exercise goals of 100, 200, and 300 reps. Pax 1 executes as many reps as possible while Pax 2 runs 100 yards down and back. Flapjack until team goal is reached. Exercises are typically a top-to-bottom of body progression, i,e, 100 merkins per team (chest), 200 LBCs per team (core), 300 squats per team (legs). | Change the reps, like 50-100-150, double them, or add a fourth set. Change the mosey to sprints, bearcrawls, etc. Do them on a hill. |
| 7’s | Pick two points, such as a top and bottom. At the bottom, you start with 6 of one exercise. Then you run to the top and do 1 of a different exercise. Back to the bottom, you now do 5, then 2 at the top. So the totals add up to 7. Make sure to pick exercises that suck with low reps, like burpees. If you use “regular” exercises like merkins or squats, consider making them tougher by adding jumps, like Kraken merkins or jump squats. | Do them on a hill. Go up to 11’s. Add a middle-point stop. |
| Games | If you’re in a creative (or competitive) mood, you might come up with a game. It could be a spin off soccer or basketball with penalty burpees. Or it might be something with cards that represent exercises, carnival-style games, or so on. Note! These games might require a lot of planning and coordination with the Site Q’s and preblasts! | Perform the game at an interesting locale, like when the paddleboarders were attacked by some pax on a boat with water balloons at Jordan Lake. |
| Also see ltd run and weights! | It can be fun to throw in some ltd run formats into a standard bootcamp, too! | Pair with a DORA. |
What’s the difference between bootcamps and hi-tempo? Hi-tempo is very similar to bootcamps, except the idea is to give max effort as much of the time as possible. Here are some guidelines:
- Keep the exercises simple so they can be executed quickly but also with good form.
- Reduce or eliminate rest-time. No ten-counts between thangs. Make pax run to pick-up-the-six vs. squatting or planking or whatnot.
- If you do group work, tell people to pair with others who will push them.
- Find hills.
- Mix in sprints.
Common limited run and weight formats
| Format | Description | Ways to modify |
|---|---|---|
| Benchwork | Exercises done on a bench. Often a mix of upper- and lower-body. Upper ex: irkins, derkins, dips, abyss merkins, creature merkins. Lower: step-ups, step-downs, Bulgarian squats. | Wear a ruck or add weight. |
| Tabata | Pick a high-intensity exercise like burpees, squat jumps, Kraken merkins. Do it for 20s, then rest 10s, and repeat x4. Use an app to cue the time changes; my favorite free, ad-less one is Tabata Timer (Android). | Change the time intervals, like 40s/20s off. Change the number of sets, like you do everything twice but go through the whole circuit twice. |
| Stations | Stations can be made with various equipment, such as kettlebells, dumbbells, ruck plates, sandbags, battle ropes, jump ropes, pullup bars, benches, and boxes. | Mix up equipment. Use flippable cards for the station so people can choose between one or the other. Mix up muscle groups. |
| DORA | Same as in the bootcamp, except with weights. You might focus on a particular muscle group, like an upper-only or lower-only body DORA. | Mix up the equipment you use. Instead of a walk or mosey, maybe benchwork, bearcrawls, murderbunnies, or something else. |
Muscle groups
In general, there are three main muscle groups. Each of these have complementary muscles groups. As you plan your workout, be aware of what muscles groups you’re exercising.
Try to have a muscle group that gets a larger portion of the work. The goal is to be sore in that muscle group the following day. Within the muscle group, consider burnout…if everything is just merkins, your chest might get overworked while missing out on delts or other muscles. You can adjust this by mixing up the type of merkin: standard, werkin, diamond, alligator, hand-release, kraken, etc.
- Upper-body
- Arms: biceps and triceps, also forearms
- Chest, shoulders, and delts
- Mid-body
- Abs and obliques
- Hip and back
- Lower-body
- Quads and hamstrings
- Calves and shins
Finding exercises
Now that you have a format and muscle group in mind for your “thang,” fill it up with exercises. There are a ton of resources, including:
- Backblasts from each region’s site, for each AO. Recent ones are often in the
#1stfchannels in Slack, or go to the website, such as here for Carpex. - The F3 Exicon. You can even download that as an Excel sheet and then ctrl+f to search through it easier.
- YouTube has entire routines for all sorts of workouts. Some of my favorites are HasFIT for ltd run and weights and Sean Vigue for power yoga for men.
- Follow fitness people on social media.
- Ask fellow pax to help plan, co-Q, or even VQ with you.
- Refer to some of our group’s special collections of exercise tips, such as:
- The Kettlebell Form doc that Bronx Bomber put together.
- The Stretching and Active Recovery doc for cooldowns and yoga flows.
Variations on a format
After you get comfortable with a format, you can experiment to make it more challenging. For example, let’s take a Four Corners workout and look at how it can be organized in different ways to make it different.
| Variation | Exercises |
|---|---|
| Vanilla four corners | From center, run to each corner and do 10 of the same exercise, such as squats. |
| 7 of Diamonds with upper/lower body alternates |
|
| High reps of the exercise to make it suck |
|
| Target one muscle group |
|
| Variations of same exercise |
|
| Pyramids and ladders (or both) make it longer, plus you can do something else in between | Round 1
|
Thang 2
Thang 2 can be something totally different than Thang 1, or very similar. See the description for Thang 1 for location, format, and muscle group ideas.
Totally different:
- Complement Thang 1, such as lower-body vs. upper-body.
- Get different partners or don’t do partner work anymore.
Very similar:
- Do the same format, but vary the exercises, such as:
- Round 1: Standard merkins, squats, situps
- Round 2: Werkins, wide-stance or sumo squats, hello Dolly’s
- Round 3: Diamond merkins, people’s chair, American Hammers
- Do the same Thang, but now it’s up a hill, with rocks, etc.
- Keep the same partners from the previous Thang.
Thang 3
Same as Thang 2. In a typical 45-min bootcamp, you might not get to this, but it’s always good to have a backup. One tip is to think of your “thangs” as modular blocks that you can move around, stack, or adjust as needed into longer or shorter things. Even if you don’t have long, you might have time for, say, a people’s chair and balls-to-the-wall little circuit on your way back to the flag.
Mary
Usually back at the flag, the last 5 minutes or so are often reserved for ab work. It’s a nice time to gather everyone back together and transition to the end of the workout.
- This can be a good time to farm out the Q to other Pax, by going around the circle and having everyone lead an ab exercise.
- To make this tougher, consider increasing the reps and then following with an isometric hold. Example: instead of 20 LBCs in-cadence, call 40 and then finish with a 1-minute chillcut.
- Instead of abs, you might call stretches, yoga, or isometric work.
COT
The Q leads the count-a-rama, name-a-rama, any FNG-naming, announcements, praises, and prayer requests. While most also close out the time in prayer, you also have other options, such as asking another pax to take us out, or ending with an inspirational word or quote.
Finishing touches and final thoughts
Have a signature move. Examples are certain pax who like to 100s, chillcuts, or control-freak merkins.
Be creative and don’t be afraid to mix it up. Mixing it up keeps it interesting and fun, but trying something completely new can be hard. So think of ways to incorporate elements that seem familiar but add something new, like the MASH baby (25lb medicine ball that passes from pax to pax) or a shared sandbag during a ruck.
Make it hard. Guys will feel more accomplished when the workout is finished if it is right to the edge of what they can do. A good gauge is, when you think of something and then say to yourself, “oh, man, I don’t really want to do that," then it’s just about the right difficulty.
Have fun, don’t take it too seriously, and be flexible. Don’t worry about PAX talking while you’re talking. These are grown men who want to have fun, let them. They will appreciate the workout more if they are having a good time and aren’t being told to shut up.
You need to be the cheerleader. When you pass a PAX in the other direction, know them by name and say good work. If they are in front of you tell them good job pushing the pace, etc. Try to make a comment to as many people as you can. This way they know you’re holding them accountable for effort.
Thank you
YHC consulted with some of Greater Carpex’s finest for input on this article. Make sure to catch their next Q!
Bronx Bomber, Earhart, Flenderson, Lookout, Parker, Pierogi, Saban, and Squatter
By Clockwork
“Good words are worth much, and cost little.” - George Herbert