Saturday, March 24, 2012

25 MAR 2012 - Hang Power Cleans


HEAVY:
Hang Power Clean
Between Sets, complete:
5 Suspended/Ring Push-Ups
5 Suspended Fly

Use the phase information to the right for reps and load. Take no more than 20 minutes on this section. Complete sets + reps listed, and rest for approximately 90 seconds between each set.

INTENSITY:
Rest Day

RESET:
3 Rounds of:
Plank, total of 2 minutes hold
10 Iron Cross
Wall Sit, total of 2 minutes hold
10 Suspended Body Saws

Click on Exercises and Terms for explanation of exercises.


Friday, March 23, 2012

24 MAR 2012 - Ball Slam, Box Jump, Mile Run, Burpees, Pull-Up

HEAVY:
Bench Press
Between Sets:
4 Dumbell Clean and Jerk
4 Around The Worlds, each direction

INTENSITY:
For Time:
30 Ball Slams
30 Box Jumps
1 Mile Run
30 Burpees
30 Pull Ups

RESET:
10 Sampson Stretch, each leg
2 Man Makers
10 Spiderman Stretch, each leg
4 Wall Walk-Ups
10 Leg Lifts
6 Ab Roll-Outs

Six Seconds To Live - Lt Gen. John Kelly

On Nov 13, 2010, Lt General John Kelly, USMC, gave a speech to the Semper Fi Society of St. Louis , MO. This was four days after his son, Lt Robert Kelly, USMC, was killed by an IED while on his 3rd Combat tour. During his speech, General Kelly spoke about the dedication and valor of our young men and women who step forward each and every day to protect us.

During the speech, he never mentioned the loss of his own son. He closed the speech with the moving account of the last six seconds in the lives of two young Marines who died with rifles blazing to protect their brother Marines.

"I will leave you with a story about the kind of people they are, about the quality of the steel in their backs, about the kind of dedication they bring to our country while they serve in uniform and forever after as veterans. Two years ago when I was the Commander of all U.S. and Iraqi forces, in fact, the 22 ND of April 2008, two Marine infantry battalions, 1/9 "The Walking Dead," and 2/8 were switching out in Ramadi. One battalion in the closing days of their deployment going home very soon, the other just starting its seven-month combat tour. Two Marines, Corporal Jonathan Yale and Lance Corporal Jordan Haerter, 22 and 20 years old respectively, one from each battalion, were assuming the watch together at the entrance gate of an outpost that contained a makeshift barracks housing 50 Marines.

The same broken down ramshackle building was also home to 100 Iraqi police, also my men and our allies in the fight against the terrorists in Ramadi, a city until recently the most dangerous city on earth and owned by Al Qaeda. Yale was a dirt poor mixed-race kid from Virginia with a wife and daughter, and a mother and sister who lived with him and whom he supported as well. He did this on a yearly salary of less than $23,000. Haerter, on the other hand, was a middle class white kid from Long Island . They were from two completely different worlds. Had they not joined the Marines they would never have met each other, or understood that multiple America 's exist simultaneously depending on one's race, education level, economic status, and where you might have been born. But they were Marines, combat Marines, forged in the same crucible of Marine training, and because of this bond they were brothers as close, or closer, than if they were born of the same woman.

The mission orders they received from the sergeant squad leader I am sure went something like, "Okay you two clowns, stand this post and let no unauthorized personnel or vehicles pass. You clear?" I am also sure Yale and Haerter then rolled their eyes and said in unison something like, "Yes Sergeant," with just enough attitude that made the point without saying the words, "No kidding ‘sweetheart’, we know what we're doing." They then relieved two other Marines on watch and took up their post at the entry control point of Joint Security Station Nasser, in the Sophia section of Ramadi, Al Anbar, Iraq.

A few minutes later a large blue truck turned down the alley way - perhaps 60-70 yards in length, and sped its way through the serpentine of concrete jersey walls. The truck stopped just short of where the two were posted and detonated, killing them both catastrophically. Twenty-four brick masonry houses were damaged or destroyed. A mosque 100 yards away collapsed. The truck's engine came to rest two hundred yards away knocking most of a house down before it stopped. Our explosive experts reckoned the blast was made of 2,000 pounds of explosives. Two died, and because these two young infantrymen didn't have it in their DNA to run from danger, they saved 150 of their Iraqi and American brothers-in-arms.

When I read the situation report about the incident a few hours after it happened I called the regimental commander for details as something about this struck me as different. Marines dying or being seriously wounded is commonplace in combat. We expect Marines regardless of rank or MOS to stand their ground and do their duty, and even die in the process, if that is what the mission takes. But this just seemed different. The regimental commander had just returned from the site and he agreed, but reported that there were no American witnesses to the event - just Iraqi police. I figured if there was any chance of finding out what actually happened and then to decorate the two Marines to acknowledge their bravery, I'd have to do it as a combat award that requires two eye-witnesses and we figured the bureaucrats back in Washington would never buy Iraqi statements. If it had any chance at all, it had to come under the signature of a general officer.

I traveled to Ramadi the next day and spoke individually to a half-dozen Iraqi police all of whom told the same story. The blue truck turned down into the alley and immediately sped up as it made its way through the serpentine. They all said, "We knew immediately what was going on as soon as the two Marines began firing." The Iraqi police then related that some of them also fired, and then to a man, ran for safety just prior to the explosion. All survived. Many were injured, some seriously. One of the Iraqis elaborated and with tears welling up said, "They'd run like any normal man would to save his life." "What he didn't know until then," he said, "And what he learned that very instant, was that Marines are not normal." Choking past the emotion he said, "Sir, in the name of God no sane man would have stood there and done what they did." "No sane man." "They saved us all."

What we didn't know at the time, and only learned a couple of days later after I wrote a summary and submitted both Yale and Haerter for posthumous Navy Crosses, was that one of our security cameras, damaged initially in the blast, recorded some of the suicide attack. It happened exactly as the Iraqis had described it. It took exactly six seconds from when the truck entered the alley until it detonated.

You can watch the last six seconds of their young lives. Putting myself in their heads I supposed it took about a second for the two Marines to separately come to the same conclusion about what was going on once the truck came into their view at the far end of the alley. Exactly no time to talk it over, or call the sergeant to ask what they should do. Only enough time to take half an instant and think about what the sergeant told them to do only a few minutes before, "Let no unauthorized personnel or vehicles pass." The two Marines had about five seconds left to live.

It took maybe another two seconds for them to present their weapons, take aim, and open up. By this time the truck was half-way through the barriers and gaining speed the whole time. Here, the recording shows a number of Iraqi police, some of whom had fired their AKs, now scattering like the normal and rational men they were - some running right past the Marines. They had three seconds left to live.

For about two seconds more, the recording shows the Marines' weapons firing non-stop the truck's windshield exploding into shards of glass as their rounds take it apart and tore in to the body of the ( I deleted) who is trying to get past them to kill their brothers - American and Iraqi-bedded down in the barracks totally unaware of the fact that their lives at that moment depended entirely on two Marines standing their ground.

If they had been aware, they would have known they were safe because two Marines stood between them and a crazed suicide bomber. The recording shows the truck careening to a stop immediately in front of the two Marines. In all of the instantaneous violence Yale and Haerter never hesitated. By all reports and by the recording, they never stepped back. They never even started to step aside. They never even shifted their weight. With their feet spread shoulder width apart, they leaned into the danger, firing as fast as they could work their weapons. They had only one second left to live.

The truck explodes. The camera goes blank. Two young men go to their God. Six seconds. Not enough time to think about their families, their country, their flag, or about their lives or their deaths, but more than enough time for two very brave young men to do their duty into eternity. That is the kind of people who are on watch all over the world tonight - for you.

We Marines believe that God gave America the greatest gift he could bestow to man while he lived on this earth - freedom. We also believe he gave us another gift nearly as precious - our soldiers, sailors, airmen, U S Customs and Border Patrol, Coast Guardsmen, and Marines - to safeguard that gift and guarantee no force on this earth can ever steal it away.

It has been my distinct honor to have been with you here today. Rest assured our America, this experiment in democracy started over two centuries ago, will forever remain the "land of the free and home of the brave" so long as we never run out of tough young Americans who are willing to look beyond their own self-interest and comfortable lives, and go into the darkest and most dangerous places on earth to hunt down, and kill, those who would do us harm.

God Bless America , and SEMPER FIDELIS !"

IT WOULD BE NICE (GREAT!) TO SEE the message spread if more would pass it on. Semper Fi, God Bless America and God Bless the United States Marine Corps...

Often Tested, Always Faithful, Brothers Forever.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

23 MAR 2012 - Annie

Annie Sakamoto

HEAVY:
Rest Day

INTENSITY:
"Annie"
50-40-30-20-10 Rep Rounds of:
Double Unders
Sit-Ups

RESET:
3 Rounds of:
10 KB Windmill, Right
10 Iron Cross Hip Stretch, Right*
10 KB Windmill, Left
10 Iron Cross Hip Stretch, Left

*Iron Cross Hip Stretch - Lie flat on your back, place both arms out to the side, at 90 degree angles from your torso. Lift the stretching leg up to 90 degrees. Keeping your leg straight and your lower back on the ground as much as possible, lower your raised leg/foot, across your hips to the opposite side of your body (i.e. if you are using your right leg, lower your foot across your left side). Your leg should essentially lay the same direction as your arms.

Sort of like this.......


22 MAR 2012 - Run, KB Swings, Walking Lunge

HEAVY:
Front Squat
Between Sets, Perform:
10 GHD Situps
10 Air Squats

3-4 Sets. Spend no more than 20 minutes on this section.

INTENSITY:
For Time:
400m Run
100 KB Swings (1.5p/1p)
150 Walking Lunge Steps
400m Run

POST:
2 Rounds of:
10 Around The Worlds (pick a direction)
10 Spiderman Lunges
Squat Bridge, 60 Second hold

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

21 MAR 2012 - Heavy Work: Snatch


HEAVY:
Full Snatch
Between Sets:
7 Diamond Push-Ups
7 KB Sumo Deadlift, High Pull (1p/.5p)

3 to 4 Sets. Take no more than 20 minutes for this section. Use the Heavy Work section to the right for "Phase" information. ---->

INTENSITY:
Rest Day

RESET:
5 Rounds For Quality:
Cobra Pose, 60 second hold
10 Toes to Bar
Plow Pose, 60 second hold
10 KB Wood Chops (each direction)

Monday, March 19, 2012

20 MAR 2012 - AMRAP, 400m Run, Box Jumps, GHD Situps, Ball Slams


HEAVY
:
For 4 Sets, Complete the follow:
8 Man Makers (AHAP*)
6 Ring Dips
4 Strict Pull-Ups
Rest approximately 120 seconds between sets.

This Heavy portion of the workout should take about 20 minutes.
*AHAP - As Heavy As Possible.

INTENSITY:
AMRAP in 15 Minutes of:
400 Meter Run
20 Box Jumps
15 GHD Situps
10 Ball Slams (20/12)

RESET:
3 Rounds of:
5 Bridges
Center Splits, 30 Second Hold
5 Suspended Push-Up to Pike
Seated Pike Stretch, 30 Second Hold

Excellent video on flexibility work!

Sunday, March 18, 2012

19 MAR 2012 - Helen

HEAVY:
Rest Day

INTENSITY:
"Helen"
3 Rounds for Time of:
Run 400 meters
1 1/2 pood Kettlebell Swings, 21 Reps (or 55 pound dumbbell swing)
12 Pull-ups





RESET:
3 Rounds, For Quality of:
10 KB Walking Lunge
30 Second Seated Pike
10 Push-Pikes*
30 Second Squat Bridge
10 Scorpions

* Push-Pike - start in the push-up position, raise the hips up and bring the head through the shoulders to maximum contraction. Return to the push-up position without letting the hips sag. This is one rep.

18 MAR 2012 - EMOM, KB Overhead, Row

HEAVY:
Full Clean
Perform 3 Pistol Squats between sets
Perform 2 DB Thrusters between sets

This should take about 15 minutes to complete. Follow the phase chart to the right --->
Post loads to comments.





INTENSITY:
EMOM, 20 Minutes
First, Odd Minutes:
5 KB Anyway Overhead
Even minutes:
100m Row

*Penalty: Any round in which reps are not completed results in a penalty. For each penalty point, perform 1 x 10m (mini) Gasser.

RESET:
Place a set of rings 12" above your maximum reach, then:

3 Rounds Of:
15 Ring Jump-Up and Touch
20 Air Squats
15 Right Leg High Kicks
15 Left Leg High Kicks