The Kettlebell Tolls for Thee, at Cannonball

It was a misty morn as 14 gathered to sling kettlebells at Cannonball, including FNG “Silent Bob”, who was EH’d at Trunk or Treat by O’Reilly just this past Sunday.  YHC sort of forgot I was on Q till yesterday, so props for the promo from Two Ferns.  Post disclaimer for the FNG, here’s how it went down:

Warm-o-rama

  • 20 SSH IC
  • 15 Imperial Walkers, IC
  • 10 Windmills, IC
  • 10 Merkins, IC
  • 20 Moroccan Night Clubs, IC
  • 200 year walk with kettlebell held high, around the parking lot

The Thang, Part I

We split the group into two teams of 7 so we could divide and conquer 3 boards:

Board I – all with 25lb kettlebell

  • single arm curls, 10 per arm
  • Goblet squats, 10 (although group 2 did 15)
  • around the body partner pass, 15 revolutions each direction
  • take walking lap around the parking lot with kettlebell held high with one arm
  • KB swings, 10 IC
  • KB Merkins, 10 each arm
  • KB lunges, 10 per leg
  • take walking lap around the parking lot with kettlebell held high with one arm

Board II:

  • Lawnmowers, 10 per arm
  • Tiny Tim (75ish lb KB) deadlifts, 10
  • Alternating shoulder press ladder, 1-5
  • take walking lap around the parking lot with kettlebell held high with one arm
  • KB calf raises, x30
  • 2 handed triceps extensions, x20
  • Single arm chest press, 10 per arm
  • take walking lap around the parking lot with kettlebell held high with one arm

Board III:

  • 10 burpees, (without KB)
  • Flutters with KB, 15 IC
  • Freddie Mercurys, 15 IC
  • KB American hammers, 15 IC
  • take walking lap around the parking lot with kettlebell held high with one arm

The Thang, part II

  • People’s chair with KB, guys on the end do 3 leaping jump squats
  • BttW (or People’s chair mod), guys on the end do something I can’t remember
  • take walking lap around the parking lot with kettlebell held high with one arm
    • on the last leg, KB Lieutenant Dans (about 30 yards)

The Thang part IV:

  • Bear crawl relay, about 25 yards…not sure which team won
    • started by dragging the KB, then Omaha’d to simple bear crawl

For a non-running post Nessie workout we still got 1.4 miles in.  Prayers for healing and New River Women’s retreat.  Welcome to FNG “Silent Bob”.  It was an honor to lead.

Wolverine

 

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Hurpee Outbreak at the Quagmire

F3 grows through “addition by division”, this is a true statement and it’s a great thing to be a part of.  The downside is you simply don’t get a chance to get out to some of your original stomping grounds as often as you would like since there are so many choices closer to your home. Long story short, it was great to be out here and lead the other 11 men that showed for the Quagmire this morning.  I love the opportunities I get that brings me to these places (hint hint).

I’ve been working through the Exicon for most of my Q’s lately, it has been a nice change of pace to experience some of the craziness that our PAX have come up with across the nation.  So for better or worse, I give it a shot and see how it goes.  Today was the letter “H”.

We started with a mosey around the back of Best Buy which I guess isn’t normal because I heard some grumblings, but we did some shuffles and toy soldiers along the way and then quickly circled up for a round of Windmills in cadence.

1st routine was a timed “HIIT” exercise.  We only had what ever time we had left after we finished the below exercises to recover.

  • 5 “Hurpees” (Hand-Release Burpee)
  • 10 Hillbilly Squats (IC)
  • 15 Hello Dolly’s (IC)
  • 1 Minute timed x 6 Rounds

We then mosey’d to the parking lot behind the fountain (near the stairs).

2nd routine, which admittedly took longer than I wanted, was “Hindenburg Blimps”, though I ended up cutting the S off the Blimps so we did a “Hindenburg Blimp”.

Hindenburg Blimps are like 4 corners combined with Blimps so I took the parking lot islands and divided them up into 4 corners and we would run/sprint the long sides and bear crawl around the short sides of the islands.

  • Round 1 – 10 Bombjacks x4
  • Round 2 – 20 Lunges x4
  • Round 3 – 30 Incline Merkins x4
  • Round 4 – 40 Monkey Humpers x4
  • Round 5 – 50 Plank Jacks x4

3rd routine, we stayed in the same area and did some “Heartbreak Dora’s”.  Normally we would do this on a hill, but I thought the stairs would substitute nicely.  So we partnered up and did the following while the other PAX would run a normal lap around the parking lot islands and then up and down the stairs before tagging his partner and swapping.

  • 100 Hurpees
  • 200 Big Boy Sit-ups
  • 300 Squats

Nobody was able to get through the final routine, but that was more on me for having too much planned. I think about half of us were working on Squats by the time we finished up and mosey’d back to CoT.

CoT

  • Nessie on 10/26!
  • Prayers for Lutefisk and his father battling cancer and Duck Dynasty’s sister who is having complications with her pregnancy.

Thanks for getting me out here Mile High!  I always enjoy it.

Until next time,

Flux

 

 

 

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Ultimate Burpee Frisbee

Usually I cannot make The Deep on Saturdays due to my work schedule but I had vacation this week and O’Riely hit me up to Q it.  The Deep is usually the more light hearted of the F3 workouts due to the 2.0’s that show up so the challenge is to not only Q an hour long workout but one the doesn’t send the 2.0’s home crying.  I have in the past whipped out my frisbee in my Q’s but have never had a half hour game of Ultimate Frisbee but with this great AO I finally had my chance.

COP

In Cadence-SSHx30/Cherry Pickersx10/Tha Windmillx10/LSSx10

Co-Main Event

The first half of the workout was in the dark so I kept it in the parking lot with an exercise routine I found on the F3 Exercise list called the Billy Madison.  Since we were at a school it seemed appropriate.

12xCDD’s/12xBig Boy Sit-Ups/12xSquats/12xDonkey Kicks/12x Lunges/Bear Crawl for distance-Lap around School(Lap was too long so I shortened it to the parking lot in between rounds).  We never made it through all 12 grades due to time.

Main Event

Ultimate Burpee Frisbee! The rules are the Ultimate Frisbee rules with a F3 catch.  If the frisbee hits the ground both teams must do 5 burpees.  This penalty was reduced as the game… and the burpees went on.  The team that scored only had to due 5 burpees and the scored upon team had to do (at first 10 Kraken Burpees but that penalty was reduced as the game progressed). Team 1 won the match 3 scores to 2 and claimed bragging rights.  The Pax seemed to enjoy the game despite doing around 125 burpees.

Announcements- The Nesse is coming!  Lake Wylie’s first ever CSAUP will be dropping on October 26 at 6AM starting at TheDeep.  Come help our new region celebrate!  Special thanks to the men of TheFort for their support in this endeavor as they are the ones who started the region. Prayers for cancer and heart problems with some members of the Pax’s families and always prayers for this crazy but awesome world we live in.  Thanks O’rielly for the opportunity to lead.  Peace!

 

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Two Ferns in a Swamp

YHC was asked to Q at the Swamp by a HIM named Cha Ching (whom was DR and on IR) and I jumped at the request.

We started with a basic Traveling COP with a few stops along the way some SSH, Diamond Merkins, Seal Jax, Ranger (Regular) Merkins, Smurf Jax and Werkin’s. Nobody liked the amount I decided to do but oh well. Those are the reps that I like and I was my Q. We eventually made our way to where I had a speaker and a BOP set up with some side walk chalk.

The Thang was basically 8 exercises each for 1 minute and write down your reps in your parking space. Pretty basic but I love this workout and 4-8 is murders row to the legs.

1. Scorpion Dry Docks
2. Big Boys
3. Ranger Merkins
4. Jump 180 Squats
5. Donkey Kicks
6. Jump Lunges
7. Plank knee tucks
8. Burpees

Then take a run (timed) to the far fire Hydrant by the Home Depot which was shown to the Pax during the COP.

Return winded and then rinse and repeat the 8 exercises but with more reps! Goal was we didn’t have to run the Last lap if 50% or more of the PAX beat their Burpee count. They were successful or lied to me. Most were glad not to run the last lap.

This is a basic bootcamp I know but it will test u and blow u up!

Got to meet a few new PAX and that is why I always like Qing and different AO’s.

Finished up with a COT (announcements, a few prayers and praises and all thankful for another day).

Thanks for the opportunity to lead Cha Ching

I am enjoying this ride I am on and am not sure where it is taking me but all we can do is prepare and train.

TWO FERNS!

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Music Q/Football @ The Deep

Picked up a sub-Q from Homebrew and it was time to bring back what we’ve been missing so badly at The Deep…

 

FOOTBALL!

 

Disclaimer for our FNG (Two Stroke) and visiting member from California (88) and we were off.

 

Mosey to Oak Ridge Elementary Parking lot where we stayed for the first half of the workout.

COP included things like Windmills, Produce Pickers, Imperial Walkers, Hillbilly Walkers, maybe Merkins(?)

Music Q Time!- We did 4 songs with some exercises.  In between we cranked out 2 sprints of 30ish yards at 70% and 10ish yards at 100%.  About 10 seconds or so between each sprint.

Songs/Exercises included-

Phoenix/1901 – SSHs during verses/Morrocan Night Clubs during chorus

Hey Ya/Outkast- LBCs during verses/Freddie Mercurys during Hey Ya’s

Numb/Linkin Park- Plank Jacks during heavy parts/Shoulder taps through verse

All The Small Things/Blink 182- This one was my favorite.  American Hammers double count throughout the whole song.  Tried to get to 91 (x2=182).  We did the whole song with some breaks but the plan is to be able to do the whole songs without stopping.  I got to 52 before I had to break but kept the count and jumped back in.

Football Time!

Teams were formed.  Mostly even in size and ability.  New rules for the game were established.  Ultimate Football, dropped ball = change of possession.  When possession changes, new team starts at midfield.  When a team scores, the defense does 5 burpees.  Also had some cones marking out of bounds and end zone.

Highlights included:

-10 minutes of wet football, dropped passes, and no scoring.

-2 passing and 1 receiving TD by YHC

– Two Ferns breaking up a pass by attempting to break a pastor’s wrists/hands

 

Mosey back to COT and do some announcements/prayers

Announcements: Nessie and Party on 10/26, Regional Shirt launch!, and any donations for shovel flags needing to be made for future/current AOs.

Prayers: Survey Says Grandpa as he makes his journey to heaven (passed away during that morning), Wild Thing’s ankle and recovery, and healing for all PAX who are injured.

 

Thanks for the opportunity to lead as always O’Reilly!

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Cards & Bells

Yeah, why not take the deck of cards across the lake? What could go wrong? Oh, you mean Cannonball is a kettle bell workout…uhhhhh, ok.

Welcome to what went through my head as I penned the Weinke for this morning’s Q at Cannonball. During the TRAINING process for an upcoming event, I’ve spent a decent amount of time with the infamous deck of cards so the last thing I wanted to be called was selfish. I must share this with my “friends.” After all, we only have 45mins which, after a little warm up, means closer to 40.

So, once 14 others joined me and got disclaimed, we took off on our warm up jog with a little, and I mean a little, additional stretching. Back to the start for some warm up exercises consisting of:

Mountain Climbers, Peter Parkers, Merkins and Windmills

Soooooo, get comfortable with your bell and listen to today’s version of the deck of cards.

Like normal, each suit represents an exercise and the number/face on the card represents the rep count. Here’s the twist, I’m planning to get through the entire suit (numbers at random and are decently shuffled) before moving on. Once we finish a suit, we’ll do a little 4-corners visiting. I know, I know, you’re longing for a better explanation so for those still reading (hey Funhouse), you’re welcome:

Diamonds: Slow upright rows w/ the KB.

Run the 4 corners of the parking lot with 15 Merkins at each corner.

Hearts: 8ct Body Builders with a KB swing at the top rather than a jump. We made it through about 1/2 of these before I noticed the time was getting away from me. Yeah, I’ll blame it on that.

Run the 4 corners with 15 Chop Sticks at each corner. Think Flutters but in a “C” formation rather than straight up and down.

Spades: KB Curls. While challenging these were a welcome change.

Run the 4 corners of the parking lot with 10 Dips at each corner.

Clubs: KB Thrusters. We made it through 5 of these before losing to Father time.

It seemed a little too easy in the beginning but as has been the case EVERY SINGLE TIME we do the deck of cards, it turns into a heavy dose of humility. For those that travel with work and you’re not able to find an AO to visit, take a deck of cards with you to have your own workout in the hotel gym or parking lot. It’s a great alternative to running with the fern. Unless of course, you get to run with Two Ferns.

My message today was about training. I shared some personal training journeys I’m currently on and encourage the PAX to train for something. Don’t make the mistake thinking training is only possible in the physical sense. Training is putting a plan together to get better at something or in some aspect of life. Think about how you can train spiritually, mentally, emotionally or, in a relationship. If you’re not training, you’ll be stagnant which means you’ll become part of the culture. We need to be the “break the glass” people that our conentrica calls. However, if you’re not training, you won’t get the call.

Good times hanging & laughing with the boys of LKW.

Maximus

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Remembering the First Responders on 9/11

Getting the opportunity to Q on 9/11 is a big deal.  I’m happy to see that all the men who were given that chance took advantage by creating a tribute to those who lost their lives on that day 18 years ago.  I was not going to disappoint the men who showed up at the Abyss.  4 of those men arrived to kick it off at 5:15am so I shared my thoughts.

A special treat was having Boogie Down join us a few minutes into the warmup. As I was talking with him during the workout he shared with me that he lived in NYC during this terrible event. More on that later…

Today I wanted to honor the first responders who lost their lives on September 11th 2001.  They were:

343 firefighters (including a chaplain and two paramedics) of the New York City Fire Department (FDNY);

37 police officers of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department (PAPD);

23 police officers of the New York City Police Department (NYPD)

But that was not personal enough, so I gave each PAX a name of one of those 403 first responders and asked each of them to take some time today to look up this person.

I pulled the name of Martin McWilliams, who died at the age of 35 and was part of FDNY Engine 22.  He was a new dad, his daughter (Sara) was born only a few months before his death.  He was great at fixing things, he loved house projects and working on cars.  He played golf whenever he could and was an avid skier.  He was a daredevil, who tried flying lessons and skydiving.  His sister recalls that he was a terrible joke teller.  He would be 53 years young this year.

To pay tribute to these fallen heroes we did the following.

7 Burpees

Then 9 rounds of:

11 Pull-ups

11 Push-ups

11 Sit-ups

11 Squats

Finish with a 403 m Run around our small track = 2 laps

The combined reps for this workout would equal 403. I demanded that the PAX not short any of their counts today, as each rep represented a life lost.

We finished with 10 minutes to spare so we went to our regular hill.

Run down, at the bottom = 9 Bombjacks

Run up, at the top 11 Flutters (DC)

We finished up at COT.  I asked Boogie Down if he would share some of his recollections from that day.  It was moving, and I’m so glad he joined us to share his experience.  What caught my attention the most, was his remembrance of the smell of burnt “stuff” that lasted in Manhattan for months after the attack.  If he wants to share more, ask him next time you see him.

An Honor to Lead

Royale

 

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7th Year Convergence for The Fort

The 7th Year Convergence for The Fort followed an exhilarating Invergence from the night before.  Hoping to continue that acceleration, the 4 Q’s had a plan to talk about the 4 Skills needed for Virtuous Leadership: Vision, Articulation, Persuasion, Exhortation.

CakeBoss to start us out with Vision: Recognizing advantage and the movement required to achieve it.

Disclaimer and welcome
“Go Hard or Go Home!”

Take off for 100 yard mosey up path, Get in 3 lines – Indian Run across WEP

Break into 4 lines, 2 groups of seal teams -20 seal team sit ups in cadence

Back into 2 lines , Everyone plank – Tunnel of Love (25 guys per line) – Plank series while guys army crawling under

Crowd pleaser for sure!

7 Burpees for 7 Years!

Vision is what I spoke about and the men that saw the advantage of F3 and planted it (moved towards it) in Charlotte, the The Fort and we continued to give it away in Rock Hill & Lake Wylie.

Hand off to Maximus

Articulation: Describing vision to others in a clear manner. Being able to tell others where we’re going and being able to describe that vision to others.

So, with that said, we’re going over to the top of the big hill to start with drill bits:

½ the group goes one direction while the other goes the opposite way

At each white post (drill bit), 10 Jumping Lunges (10 each leg)

10 Jump Squats

Mosey to the base of the other hill, the one with the statue on it:

NUR (backwards run) up the hill

3 Burpees at the top

Bear Crawl down

5 Burpees at the bottom

Hand off to Fun House for the “P”.

Persuasion – The initiation of first Movement.  Convincing people to move in the direction of advantage, abandoning their Status Quo,

YHC gave an awesome yet forgettable speech about Persuasion.  Then the Thang:

Circle Up – Duck, Duck, Goose – One guy runs around the circle the rest of us plank, the next guy goes when the running guy finishes.  Planking excercises were called out: High Plank, Low plank, Mountain Climbers….. Audible called to get the next guy running after 1/2 a lap around the circle of Pax….. Peter Parker, Parker Peters….. Audible called to get the next guy running after 1/3 lap around….. Mak-Tar-Jai, Left Hand High, Right hand high…..Done.  That took 10 minutes!  60 guys is a lot of guys to be running around in circles.

Stay in circle, 5 minutes left, Jack Webb: 1 Merkin to 4 Overhead hand claps.  We got to 8!

Hand off to Pusher for Exhortation!

Exhortation – Incentivizing The Breach Of Obstacles.

Burpees x 10 OYO
Flutters IC x 10
Mosey to a corner of WEP
Burpees x 9 OYO
Flutters IC x 10
LBCs IC x 10
Mosey to another corner
Burpees x 8 OYO
Flutters IC x 10
LBCs IC x 10
Rosalita IC x 10
Mosey to another corner
Burpees x 7 OYO
Flutters IC x 10
LBCs IC x 10
Rosalitas IC x 10
Hello Dollies IC x 10
Mosey to another corner
Burpees x 6 OYO
LBCs IC x 10
Flutters IC x 10
COT
Naked Moleskin – The name-o-rama took forever.  That is a good thing. When 60+ PAX post to celebrate something that has obviously changed their lives, then change is happening!  Thanks to Maximus who put this awesome weekend celebration together!  His leadership is not only Effective (Using VAPE) but he is a Virtuous Leader! (Check out the Q Source for the 5 C’s Virtues of Virtuous Leadership) Can’t wait to see what year 8 brings to The Fort!  More importantly, who it brings!  Time to go EH someone.  See you in the gloom.
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Dirty D’s

Another great LKW start to a Monday morning. 16 PAX showed up to work off “whatever” they consumed during the NFL kickoff weekend.

I gave a good disclaimer, asked if anyone had any injuries I needed to know about, and off we went for a FAST mosey.  I announced where we would end up and let the PAX filter in as we started some CoP exercises, which included:

SSH (20)

Windmills (8)

MNC (15)

I then asked if anyone knew how many points the Steelers lost by the night before.  Since I stayed up for that debacle, I made everyone do a Flying Squirrel for each point my team lost by… so 30 Flying Squirrels, OYO.

Then finished up with something a bit different.  I had all the PAX get in plank and I yelled out down (6” hold) and up (back to plank) at various intervals for the next couple of minutes, this was fun.

I’ve been working my way through the Exicon and today was the letter “D”, so whatever exercises or routines I picked would be found in that section of the Exicon.

1st routine:

Dirty McDuece

Pretty simple routine (keeping it simple is good) that had the PAX doing 4 sets of 3 exercises followed by a lap after each set.

The sets included; 12 4-count Merkins (24), 12 4-count Squats (24), and 12 4-count Hello Dolly’s (24).

After doing about 100 apiece of those exercises we were all nice and warm.  Next up…

2nd routine:

Doracides

Another simple yet effective exercise that most PAX quickly understood and off we went.

We partnered up in typical Dora fashion and performed the following exercises:

100 Bombjacks

150 Step-ups

200 Dips

250 2-count Flutters

While PAX A was dong the reps PAX B was doing a short 10-yard Bear Crawl/Crawl Bear to kick off the “suicide” followed by sprints of about 25 and 40 yards before swapping with their partner.  Most finished, but I called this one a little early because get to my last routine.

3rd and final routine:

Del Brown

He was some fly fisherman or something, but the routine was simple, 10 diamond merkins, 25 yard crab walk, 10 diamond merkins, 25 yard crab walk back, followed by 10 more diamond merkins.  What I didn’t tell the PAX was is that I was timing them and if they didn’t beat their time on the 2nd attempt there would be a penalty.  Alas, we will never know, we were running short on time so I gave the PAX and option to finish up a couple minutes late and finish the 2nd set of the routine or head back… they quickly chose the EASIER thing and headed back. 

Oh well, there is always next time.

We finished up with the usual announcements, praises, and prayers in our CoT.  

Announcement – LKW official on 10/26, we’re launching with our 1st CSAUP that morning, the “Nessie” get your teams of 3 ready!  

Prayers for safe travels, (I’m on a plane as I type this), sick and injured PAX, and they death of a 19 year old girl who passed away recently. 

Thanks Iced-T for the opportunity to Q.

Until next time,

Flux

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