- AABCs: Lay on back, legs straight out in front, feet hovering 5″ off the ground (can modify as necessary). Keeping both feet together (option/modification: one foot at a time), write each letter of the alphabet, keeping toes pointed.Goal is to keep feet less than a foot off the ground. Make this fun: uppercase, lowercase, cursive…even numbers!
- Alligator Push-ups: Push-ups with one arm positioned forward from the body while the other hand is in its regular position. Alternate hands after each push up. Can be performed stationery or as a traveling exercise.
- Alternating Shoulder Taps: From the plank position, alternate touching your left hand to right shoulder and right hand to left shoulder. Can be counted Cadence or OYO.
- Angry Donkey Kicks: While in bear crawl/semi plank position, kick both feet up & back above your body.
- AO: Short for Area Of Operations, location of the Workout.
- Ascending Curb Crawl: Locate PAX on quiet curbed street. Starting position Bear Crawl facing opposite curb. Bear Crawl to other side, turn & place feet on curb to complete one decline push-up, crawl back and complete two decline pushups, continue to 13.
- BackBlast: A write up of what happened in a Workout. Responsibility of the Workout Q.
- BeatDown: A tough, challenging workout under the loving hands of a Q.
- Belly to the Wall: Standing upside down on your hands with your feet above your head facing any type of structure that will support your body. As close to the wall as you can as the name implies. This takes practice and great CORE strength.
- Bear Crawl: Walk on ground with both hands and feet, like a bear. Knees soft & slightly bent.
- Bicycle: Starting on back with legs at 90 degrees and hands behind head, alternate touching right elbow to left knee, then left elbow to right knee.Simulating a bicycle movement.
- Boat / Canoe: The Boat position would be while on sit bones with legs pulled up to chest and arms beside body. Canoe is when legs and back are straightened while keeping both off the ground. Q calls out Boat or Canoe.
- Boo Boo Bear Crawl: Similar to Bear Crawl but with either leg held off the ground all the time so the back leg has to basically hop forward.
- Brooke Burkes: From plank position with elbows on the ground, rotate hips to one side almost touching hip to the ground. Return to plank position, rotate to the opposite side touching other hip almost to the ground. That’s one rep. Slow controlled movement from side hip to plank. Works well with cadence count.
- BRR: The Blue Ridge Relay. A SWAG we love.
- Bulgarian Split Squat: Stand in front of bench facing away, reach one leg behind and rest the top of the foot on the bench. Descend with control bringing your back knee close to the ground, keeping torso upright. One leg at a time, then switch to opposite leg. See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CvEs-TOIKM
- Burpee Broad Jump: Combination of burpee with a broad jump forward at end of burpee.
- Burp & Push: Begin a traditional burpee with a single push-up at the bottom, then complete burpee movement. Drop back down for a second burpee with two push-ups, then three push-ups, etc. Pyramid up to 5, or 10. Additional challenge: work the pyramid back down reducing reps back to 1.
- Burpee: A multi-step, full-body exercise in which you move from standing to push-up to squat to jump. 1) Stand with your hips shoulder width apart & hands at sides. 2) Squat down placing hands on the ground in front of your feet. 3) Shifting your weight into your upper body, kick legs back & out finding plank position. 4) Push Up. 5) Jump feet up to hands. 6) Return to standing and jump. That’s one rep! Repeat.
- Cadence: (“C”) Exercises done on command of the Q, in rhythm. Example is Q shouting “1, 2, 3, 1…1, 2, 3, 2′′ as a four-count cadence. Why do we count this way? It keeps everyone together and it has the unspoken benefit of not giving the group a set number that they are exercising to — like, say, 10 pushups. The leader starts counting and the group starts doing reps, not knowing when the end will come. This keeps participants from modifying their effort level simply to ensure they reach a certain goal and pushes them past limits they otherwise might place on themselves. Watch this F3 video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRTitxnE-mI
- Camel Walk: Walk on ground with both hands and feet, like a camel, try to keep legs straight (difference from Bear Crawl is the attempt to keep legs/knees straight).
- Candlestick Burpee: A burpee in which you add a movement between the push up & jump up. After pushup, jump feet to hands, then rotate body so bottom is on the ground roll back to heels to heaven, then as you roll forward, land on feet to standing, then jump. That’s one rep! See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkDzSqivD0ACarolina
- Dry Docks: Modified push-up in a pike position to work your shoulders. Bend only your elbows, causing crown of head to reach closer to ground. Keep legs straight.
- Carousel: Pax in a circle on their backs heels up. First pax jumps up, going around the exterior circle pushing feet down. Pax hold legs fighting to keep heels off the ground. Once runner #1 returns to position, Pax move legs/heels back up to start position. Repeat until last FiA finishes the circle.
- Circle of Trust (COT): A key part at the end of every FiA workout. Circle of Trust involves Pax congregating in circle post beatdown for attendance count,name-o-rama, announcements and most importantly a closing prayer, intention, or inspiration sending FiAs off with uplifting, positive thoughts.
- Coffeeteria: Where the Pax gather post-workout to drink coffee, chatter, and enjoy a little more girl time.
- Comms: Communications of any kind or type.
- Convergence: The act of bringing together FiA’s typically from various sites and/or regions for workouts, SWAGs, or other events.
- Clock Pushups: Find a hill and line up in plank position at 12 o’clock. 5 pushups. Move to 3 o’clock, 5 pushups. Move to 6, 9, or whatever Q calls out and do 5 pushups in each position.
- Crab Walk: Balancing on your hands and feet with your front facing the sky and your hips thrust upwards. Walk like a crab.
- Crawl Bear: Same as Bear Crawl, except backwards. Often combined with Bear Crawl, as in, “Bear Crawl up and Crawl Bear back.”Crockpot Squat: Regular squat but lowering body slowly on first 3 counts, lifting up on 4th count. Good form is keeping hands on back of head with elbows held back, weight on heels, and back kept straight. Key to this move is low & slow.
- Crunchy Frog: Done in cadence, in a V-like sitting position, first wrap your legs with your arms. Quickly open yourself up by moving your arms out to your sides and extending your legs out in front of you. Bring them back in. Repeat. See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a12o3DgMjas
- Curtsy Lunge: Lunge variation where in lieu of bringing the back leg straight back, you bring toes back and across the body to the opposite side then lunge down. Alternating sides. Option to add a side leg lift prior to returning the moving leg back to starting standing position.
- Dan Taylor: Leg exercise that is a cousin (of sorts) to Jack Webb. Named after Lt. Dan in Forrest Gump, it combines 1 squat followed by 4 lunges (alternating legs) in ascending order (maintaining the 1:4 ratio). It will leave the PAX feeling like “they ain’t got no legs”. Deck of Despair: A routine done with a deck of playing cards where each suit is an exercise and each card dictates the number of reps you do of that exercise all the way up to an Ace being 14 reps. Exercise complete when all 52 cards have been flipped. (Good for introverted Q’s.)
- Decline Push-up: Legs raised or elevated so that the push-up accents the arms.
- Diamond Push-ups: Push Up while positioning both hands directly beneath chest with thumbs and forefingers touching forming what might look like a diamond between your hands.
- Dirty Mac Deuce: A routine — 4 sets of three exercises done to 12 repetitions at a four-count, with 12 seconds of rest in-between each set. Each set consists of a chest/core/leg.
- Dolly: Ab exercise done lying on your back, legs raised about six inches from ground. Keeping legs parallel to ground, separate legs outward then return to start.
- Donkey Kick: On all fours, lift one leg up, foot flexed, heel to the sky, leg at 90 degree angle & pulse extending leg up & down. Switch legs. (Exercise can be performed with reps or for time.)
- Dora 1-2-3: Partner exercise, 2 Pax work together to reach cumulative exercise goals of 100, 200, and 300 reps. Partner 1 executes as many reps as possible while Partner 2 sprints 100 yards down and back. Switch back & forth until team goal is reached. Exercises are a top-to-bottom of body progression, i,e, 100 push-ups per team (chest), 200 LBCs per team (core), 300 squats per team (legs). Modified Dora 1-2-3 is 50, 100, and 150 reps.
- DoubleDown: Posting for two Workouts, SWAGS or any other Thang one right after the other in the same morning or day.
- Duck Walk: The duck walk is an exercise done by squatting and walking slowly, while relying on your hips, quadriceps, hamstrings & gluteal muscles for support.
- Dying Cockroach: Core exercise performed lying on your back with hands/arms lifted toward the sky (think 90 degree angle from arms/shoulders). Next lift legs up bending knees at 90 degree angle.Alternate extending one leg at a time down to an inch off the ground, returning to knee bend, switch to other leg. Movement can be performed with arms stationary above head, or alternating arms with legs. See video here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XLEnwUr1d8
- Elevens: also written as 11s. An exercise in which you start with 1 rep of one exercise and 10 reps of another exercise, then add one additional rep to the first exercise and subtract one rep from the second. The sum must always add up to 11.
- Emotional Headlock (“EH”): How most PAX are recruited to FiA — by someone they know and trust putting them in an EH telling them how wonderful FiA is and why they need to post.
- Empty Wheelbarrow: A belly up plank walk with someone holding your feet. Essentially a crabwalk with partner holding feet.
- Escalator: Routine involving mix of exercises as long as reps go up by 10. For example, 10 jump-ups, 20 burpees, 30 pushups, 40 squats, 50 lunge-walks.
- Fiddler Crab: Perform a crab walk movement except in a sideways direction.
- Flutter kicks: Ab exercise done lying on your back. Legs off the ground, alternate kicking legs as if you’re swimming. Usually done in cadence.
- FNG:Friendly New Gal. A female enjoying her first Post.
- Forties: Forties are a high-rep variation of Elevens. You start with 30 reps of one exercise and 10 reps of another exercise OYO, then subtract 5 reps from the first exercise and add five reps from the second. Repeat OYO until you have 10 reps of the first exercise and 30 reps of the second. The sum must always add up to 40. Example: Forties with Dips and Pushups starts you with 30 Dips and 10 Push Ups, then 25 Dips and 15 Push Ups, then 20 Dips and 20 Push Ups, then 15 Dips and 25 Push Ups, then 10 Dips and 30 Pushups.
- Four Corners: Usually done on a football field or area with four corners. Run to first corner, do 10 reps. Run to 2nd, 10 reps. Run to 3rd, 10 reps. Run back to start, 10 final reps.
- Four Corners Escalator: Combination of Four Corners and an Escalator. Four exercises. 10 reps, run to next corner, 10 reps+20 reps next exercise, run, 10, 20, 30 reps, run, 10, 20, 30, 40 reps, run to start. Can go back down escalator: 40, 30, 20, 10, run, 30, 20, 10, run, 20, 10, run, 10.
- Froggers: Starting from a plank position, thrust your feet forward, landing outside of each hand. Thrust backwards to original plank position. Repeat.
- Hand Release Pushups: (aka Crossfit Pushups) Pushups performed lowering all the way to belly on the ground, lifting hands off the ground, backdown and up pushing back up to plank/starting pushup position.
- Happy Jacks: Do 5 jumping jacks in cadence then after the 5th one everyone does two jump squats. (Like this… Jacks IC: One, two, three, ONE! One, two, three, TWO! One, two, three, THREE! One, two, three, FOUR! One, two, three, FIVE! Quickly followed by two jump squats. Repeat 4x or until no one can breathe.
- HC: Abbreviation for Hard Commit, as in, “yes, I will be there”.
- High Five Pushup: Partner plank move facing each other perform push up in unison and on up move reach out and high five each other, repeat pushup in unison with opposite hand high fives, this completes one rep.
- Hillbillies: Similar to Imperial Walkers but knee comes up to elbow on same side of body as side that knee is raised.
- Hip Dips: From Side Plank position, lower & raise hips.
- Imperial Squat Walker: Cousin of the Imperial Walker. This 4-count exercise starts with hands clasp on head. Count 1 = a squat. Count 2 = stand up and bring one knee up to the opposite elbow. Count 3 = a squat. Count 4 = stand up, other knee to other elbow. Q should be mindful to count at a pace that allows/encourages a nice, deep squat.
- Imperial Walker: Standing, hands on head as if you’re doing a sit-up. Lift your knee to the opposite arm’s elbow. This is an ab exercise so it’s important to engage the core.
- Indian Run: Single-file line of runners in which the last Pax runs to the front.
- Rinse, repeat. “Creative Indian Run” has been known to happen, where the last Pax calls out a traveling exercise (bear crawls, crab walk, burpee broad jumps, walking lunges, etc) & while Pax in line performs, she runs to the front of the line. Rinse, repeat with each Pax attempting to call out a new exercise.
- Jack Webb’s: A push-up then air press combination initiated on the Q’s command, with an ascending rep count of each, usually up to 10. (1 pushup, 1 air press, 2 push-ups, 2 air presses…10 push-ups, 10 air presses)
- LBCs: The “Little Baby Crunch.” Aka a crunch.
- LBFCs: Aka Little Baby Flutter Crunch. On your bottom, feet do flutter kick while upper body does crunch. Ignore number of times your legs move, only count crunches.
- Leg Throwdown: Partner 1 lies on their back, Partner 2 stands above at Partner 1’s head. Good idea for Partner 1 to wrap hands around Partner 2 ankles as an anchor. Partner 1 raises legs above & Partner 2 pushes them toward the ground. Goal is to keep from letting feet touch the ground, & lift them back up, for further repetitions. Can also vary by pushing legs side to side.
- Manmaker: Starting from standing position, move to plank position, one arm row with right arm, push up, one arm row with left arm, pushup, return back to standing, jump. That’s one rep! Variations can include using weights, in which case you would have a weight in each hand for the row, performing the push ups with hands on weights, you would also lift the weights overhead during the jump. Another variation has involved the addition of side squats & a center squat after the jump.
- Monkey Humpers: A half-squat performed while threading arms between legs, grabbing your ankles. This restricts movement to a half-squat type exercise but increasing the burn.
- Mountain Climbers: From plank position, bring knees in toward chest and back to plank. Typically performed with quick motion, just as running.
- Mountain Climber Push up: Perform three mountain climber leg movements then one push up for count. 1,2,3, down (IC).
- Mumble Chatter: The practice of continual chirping over and around the Q’s cadence.
- Name-o-rama: The part of COT where PAX announce their birth name, FiA name, and age.
- OYO: Any exercise done On Your Own, as opposed to in cadence.
- Partner Decline Pushup: Pushup performed with your feet up on your planking partner’s back.
- Pax: People in attendance.
- Peter Parker: In plank position move left knee toward left elbow with foot flared out, repeat other side. You should look like Spider-Man climbing a wall.
- Parker Peter: Just like Peter Parker, however pull left knee across your body to the right elbow, & repeat opposite leg to opposite arm.
- Pickles: F3 group working out in an FiA AO.
- Plank Jacks: Jacks while in the plank position, jumping feet out & in.
- Post: To show up physically for a workout or event.
- Prayer Squat: A body-weight squat performed with hands together/clasped in front of your chest. Similar to a goblet squat but without the KB/dumbbell/weight.
- Pretzel Crunch: Start in sit-up position with legs bent, heels on the ground. Lift your left leg and put your left foot on your right knee. Put your left arm out straight and your right arm bent behind your head. Bring right elbow to left knee, then back down. Switch sides and repeat.
- Pretzel Stick: Similar to the pretzel crunch, but with legs straight out and cross one foot onto the opposite knee. Upper body same as pretzel crunch. When you lift for the crunch move, raise both upper and lower body so that you are again trying to bring one elbow to the opposite knee. Switch sides and repeat.
- Prisoner Squat: Bodyweight squat performed with hands on your head or laced behind your head.
- Protractor: While laying on your back, Q calls out various angles to hold legs at, such as 10, 30, 45, 90 degrees. Also fun to engage the Pax and call out other FiA’s to determine leg degree.
- Q: The leader of a given workout, or anything other FiA event, including a SWAG, or any other Thang for that matter. (Derivation: “Qrusader in Charge”aka the #Q.)
- Raggedy Anns: In sumo squat position, alternate side crunches dropping hand to ankle/knee while targeting obliques. Great to count this exercise in cadence. Remind PAX of proper form, straight back, hips tucked. It is a side to side movement.
- Reverse Crunch: Same position as LBC. Head and back stay on the ground. Bring knees to chest to work lower abs.
- Reverse Plank: Same as plank except facing upwards with arms behind the body and on heels.
- Ring of Fire: Circle up in plank position. PAX holds plank while one FiA does reps of exercise. When she finishes the next FiA does reps until all in circle have done it. “It burns, burns, burns, that Ring of Fire” (Can be variety of exercises, but great for abs at finish.). Depending on size of Pax, could chew up a lot of time, remember to keep Pax moving! 😉
- Rosalita: Ab exercise done laying on back, legs raised to 90 degrees. Keeping legs perpendicular to ground, separate legs outward then return to start.
- Route 66: An exercise in which you start with 1 rep then add one additional rep at an interval until you hit 11. Example: Route 66 along the light posts starts you with 1 exercise, like a burpee, then 2 at the next, 3 at the third, etc. until you reach 11. The sum total of all reps is 66.
- Rowboat: Sit with hands on ground behind bottom, bring knees in & out at chest level in a rowing movement.
- Russian Twist: While on sit bone in partial sit up position with heals just off the ground, twist at the waist so that both hands held together almost touch the ground beside your waist, alternating in cadence from side to side. Often times done with bricks in hand.
- Scorpion Dry Dock: A Carolina Dry Dock with one leg hoisted in the air higher than your bottom.
- Scorpion Push-up: A push-up performed with one leg hoisted in the air higher than your bottom.
- Seal Jacks: Jumping Jacks but with arms in front instead of overhead.
- The Skinny: What really happened that day. The commentary of the workout, and all the fun stuff that transpired in addition to The Thang.(Known as The Moleskin by F3.)
- Slurpee: Burpee with 2 push ups.Smurf Jacks: Jacks performed in the squat position.
- Sparky Crabs: From the crab position (on hands and feet, face up, back and bottom off the ground), lifting one hand and opposite foot, touch hand to that foot, return switching to opposite side. Best performed in cadence. (Named for Sparky who shared this exercise with Pax.)
- Speed Skaters: Side to side lunge movement while reaching hand across the body to the opposite foot. One lunge to each side completes 1 rep. Can be performed quickly or slower motion to perfect form.
- Spiderman Crawl: Similar to Peter Parkers and a bear crawl combination. It’s a low crawl similar to the way Spiderman climbs a wall.
- Squat Thrust: (Aka Spartan Burpee) Burpee without the push-up.Squish ups: Two person exercise. FiA 1 in pushup position with FiA 2 behind holding FiA 1s legs at her waist. FiA 1 does pushup with his legs elevated, followed by FiA 2 performing one squat using the body weight of FiA 1s legs. Begin again for # of reps called by Q.
- Starfish: An organization (like FiA & F3) built along the principles set out in “Starfish And The Spider”. A leaderless organization, or (put another way) an organization wherein each person is a leader and leading all the time. A Starfish grows by cutting off its own leg (or whatever) and watching it turn into another Starfish.
- Star Jack: Combination of Jumping Jack and Squat Jump usually done OYO. From balled up squat position jump up and spread your arms and legs into an X or “star” then return to balled up squat position.
- Star Jack Burpee: Similar to burpee but includes a StarJack instead of the jump at the end.
- Step ups: On a low wall, raise each leg one at a time up on the wall. Sometimes the second leg can be brought up to the chest before placing on wall.
- Suicides: Best performed where there is good distance to run, such as length of a basketball court, soccer field, etc. Start at one end, sprint ¼ way,touch the ground, sprint back to end line touch the ground, sprint to mid/halfway point and touch the ground, sprint back to end line and touch the ground, sprint ¾ way and touch ground, sprint back to end line and touch the ground, sprint to far end and touch the ground, sprint back to original end line. Rinse and repeat.
- Super Mario: A run of varying distance (typically 2-5 miles) where Pax starts out together, stopping at designated points along the way to perform strength exercises. This also allows the Pax to regroup. Bonus/extra exercises are offered to faster runners, allowing slower runners to lead the Pax for a period of time. (This run, performed once a month in Metro, is a wonderful example of No Woman Left Behind.) (Named by Peel, the Site Q where we first experienced the true glory of this run.)
- Superstar/Banana: Starting in Superstar (aka Superman) position, hold until Q calls “Banana”, then roll over onto your back with arms and legs staying lifting (like shape of banana). Continue as Q calls position of Superstar or Banana. Goal is to rotate into these two positions without the need to use hands or legs for assistance. (Named for Superstar who shared this exercise.)
- Supines: A sit-up executed from flat on your back until touching your toes.
- SWAG (Strong Women Achieving Greatness): A convergence of sorts where FiA gather to compete in events to further their greatness and set goals achieving higher success. (FiA’s positive spin on the CSAUP.)
- Tabata: A four-minute routine that involves 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest repeated 8 times, for a total of 4 minutes. Can be repeated several times with various exercises for a total workout.
- TAP: Short for Thoughts And Prayers. Quick way to let a FiA Sister know you love her and are thinking about her.
- Tempo Push Up: Pushup, in cadence, with 3 count down, 1 count up.
- Thang: The workout. What was done that day.
- Tilt-A-Whirl: (aka Kickin’ Planks) Start in plank position, rotate to right side plank, while keeping leg straight lift bottom leg/right leg up, tap left hand & right foot. Return to side plank, rotate to plank, then rotate to left side plank,again while keeping leg straight lift bottom leg/left leg up, tap right hand & left foot. Return to plank. That’s 1 rep! (Lobstah favorite!)
- Tortoise & the Hare: Two Pax of similar speed, one with a rock or other weighted object starts running with a small head start. 2nd Pax attempts to run down the 1st, tagging them and switching. Continue until Q calls or return to start.
- Tricep Dips: Preferably on elevated surface such benches, low walls, or even curbs. While facing upward with hands on surface and legs on heels, lower body to work back of arms, shoulders and core.
- Triple Check: Teams of three. 1st Pax in Wall Sit, 2nd in front in plank position, 3rd sprints 100 yards and back, rinse and repeat times three.
- Triple Nickel: Start at base, run to opposite end and complete called exercise for 5 reps, run to base and complete called exercise for 5 reps, repeating this 5x. (5/5/5=Triple Nickel). Extra challenge to perform on hill starting at the bottom.
- Tunnel of Love: While Pax plank side by side, one by one someone crawls under the tunnel of planking pax. Once through tunnel, plank on the opposite end.
- Turkish Get Up: Laying on your back, use only one arm and your legs to “get up” to full standing position. See this video demonstration. Half
- Turkish Get Up: Same, but only going to kneeling position vs full standing.
- Upright Row: Using a weight (of any kind), hold with a close overhand grip at waist level, bring weight up to your chest & back down.
- V-Up Roll Up: Start laying flat arms above head, perform a sit-up, while bringing straight legs up to 45 degrees as well and touch your toes.
- Virgin Q (aka VQ): A PAX’s first Q. Something to be celebrated & encouraged.
- Wall Sit: Sitting against a wall with knees bent at a 90-degree angle for a period of time TBD by the Q.
- Wall Sit w/Air Presses: Wall sit while performing overhead air presses.
- Walking Planks: From plank position, a 4-count exercise in which you put each elbow to the ground and then back into regular plank, continuing up down movement until Q calls.
- Wheel of Push Ups: Grab a piece of curb, and perform a set number of incline pushups. Staying in the plank position, rotate 90 degrees clockwise until your body is parallel to the curb with left hand on the curb and right hand off it. Repeat the same number pushups. Rotate 90 degrees more and perform the same number of decline pushups. Rotate 90 degrees more. Repeat with right hand on the curb and left hand off.
- Wide Arm Push Up: Pushup with hands more than shoulder width apart.
- Windmill: Begin standing with feet wider than shoulders and arms straight out from your sides. While keeping legs and arms straight, touch toes with opposite hand, reaching across your body.
- Xs and Os: Starting position — On your back with legs and arms extended in an X position (all six inches off the ground). When Q calls out “O” the Pax will move into a seated V position with arms and legs tucked into the body. Hold the position until the Q calls “X”. PAX resume the X position with legs and arms 6 inches from the ground. Repeat as Q calls the varying X and O position until halt.