Mega Tight Mile

I had the pleasure of Qing the High Intensity workout at Shipwreck this morning! 10 pax accepted the challenge and I wanted to make sure to deliver what they signed up for. We did a variation of a merciless mile, but this one was different…It was a Mega Tight Mile.

We ran down to the track and COP lasted about 15 sec just to give instructions. The HIT workout is only 30min so we got right to work!

Mega Tight Mile looked like this: 4 cones placed around the track at each cone you stop and do work!

Lap 1: 10’s

10 Burpees

10 Plank Jack Merkins

10 Tuck Jumps

At the end of Lap 1 you completed 40 reps of each exercise.

Lap 2: 20’s

20 Ski Ab’s (Counting only middle)

20 High Knees with a Twist (High knees but touch opposite elbow to knee…basically a standing Freddy Mercury)

20 Front Back Jumps (Jump forward, Jump Backward)

At the end of Lap 2 you completed 80 reps of each exercise.

Lap 3: 30’s 

30 Mountain Climbers (Double Count)

30 Plank Jack Shoulder Taps (As you do shoulder taps your legs spread apart while holding plank)

30 Squat Jumps

At the end of Lap 3 you completed 120 reps of each exercise.

Almost Done Finish Strong!!

Lap 4: Time Challenge

To finish our Mega Tight Mile I challenged the Pax to give it all they got!

For the last lap all you have to do is run!…but the catch is if you don’t finish your lap in under 2:15 you owe us 20 burpees!

Lucky all the pax are mega tough so everyone fished in under 2:00min so no burpees were done.

Instead we finished the workout with some ab work

In Cadence 10 Box Cutters, 10 V-Crunch.

Congrats You did  it!

After completion we met up with the Moderate Workout guys for Name-o-Rama, FNG naming, and Prayers a praises.

Shout out to 3 FNG’s QT, Airwolf, and Bartman

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I Love Cindy

Borrowed part of this #beatdown from  Dirty Pipes down at F3JOCO. Visited those guys at the Mad Mule in Benson NC and this workout just called for testing in The FORT.   Little did I know it would end up taking 12 cinder blocks, 4 pavers, 1 sandbag, and 3 rucks to accomplish the workout.  Having prepped and arrived early to setup I could see the headlamps of the pre-runners making early morning laps. All Set to COT for bring some pain. HOLY COW!!! The cars just kept rolling in to the lot. Clown Car after Clown car.  Thank goodness Copyright brought more cinder blocks than requested.

Quick Disclaimer and we are off. Had to tote the extra supplies with us as we ran to warmup.  Much appreciate the support of guys that jumped on the extra weight.

Mosey to the Fountain

Circle up.

SSH x 20     MNC x 20    Hillbilly Walkers x 15

Imperial Walker x 15     Weed Pickers x 15

Fountain work

Derkins x 15 OYO

Dips x 20 OYO

Irkins x 20 OYO

Decline Diamonds x 20

It ain’t fun unless you do it twice.

The Thang I Love Cindy

Partner up–6 stations

Station 1  OH press Max reps

Station 2  Blocked BBS Max Reps

Station 3 Block Squats Max reps

Station 4 Curls 1 block or 2 pavers Max reps

Station 5 Tricep Press 1 block or 2 pavers Max Reps

Station 6 GTOs Max reps

Partner 1 does max reps while Partner 2 runs 4 cone suicide. Plank the 6 rotate upon completion of group.

Talk to Group about Doubt in their lives.

Read- Pray- Surround Yourself with those to talk it out with. Don’t go into seclusion.

Partner Carry back to COT only ~600yrds—-It was awesome and the PAX loved it!.

Not sure what Punchlist and Lutefisk were going for with the midrift shirts in the Name-O-Rama but hey, You do You Bros!

Thanks for the Tap to Lead Cha-Ching. Awesome experience to lead a literal HERD of PAX through the Swamp.

Duck Out!

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That was a lot of sit-ups

My 2nd of 3 Q’s in 3 days. Always a pleasure to Q The Swamp!  Now that I am Ruck free and with no big race on the schedule I’m free to just do regular old Bootcamps. My favorite workouts combine a good amount of running(big surprise) with a bunch of other stuff so that is what we did today and  was glad to have a bunch of guys to share it with.

Started off with s nice mosey warm-up with some dynamic warm-ups of butt kicks, high knees, shuffles and some karaoke.

Circle up in the HD parking lot for COP consisting of SSH, IW, Carolina Dry Dock, Peter Parker, Mountain Climbers, then a series of Downward dog to Honeymooner. Back on our feet for Windmills, Apollo Ono(look out for the car), and just for fun some Monkey Humpers.

Mosey to the bike racks at HD for the main thing. Partner up for a nice BOMBS routine. One partner does the exercise the other does a lap around Home Depot.  There  were some complaints that the lap was a little long even though I assured them it was only about 1/4 mile  I was accused of measuring Zima miles.

50 Burpees, 100 Overhead claps, 150 Merkins, 200 Big Boy Sit-ups(crowd favorite), 250 Supine Pull-Ups(only because I hate squats and I needed an S).  We did not make through all the pull-ups, headed back to COT for a few minutes of Mary, ending with a Body Destroyer.

Announcements – Convergence 5/24, Honor Badger at Golden Corral 5/21 wear Red, Read your newsletter

Praises for Lutifisk daughter, Dungaree’s 1 year anniversary, prayers for kids cancer relapse.

Challenged the PAX to take the role as the leader in their home.  We are called to lead, do not be a passive bystander or even worse do not take or accept the role as another child in the house.  Be the man/leader you are called to be.

Thanks as always for the opportunity to lead this great group!!

 

 

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Off My 4th Point of Contact to Q

The disclaimer was remembered, although, I was reminded that it was incomplete. F3 cannot be sued.
Moseyed to the HD parking lot – High knees, butt-kickers etc. Karoke is not a good warmup if you are nursing plantar facitis.
Circled up for IW, HW, Morrocan NC, Plank/Down dog/Honeymooner and slow/old-man/windmills.
Moseyed to the back of Target where the bad ideas started – probably as a result of being a slug for sometime. We did several rounds of 7’s between the walls, by the dumpster; interrupted by the Peoples’ Chair. Rd 1 – Mode: Bearcrawl, Peter Parkers and Parker Peters. Rd 2 – Mode: Lungewalk, Monkey Humpers and Squat Jumps. Rd 3 – Mode: Crabwalks, Rosalitas and Freddie Mercury. Rd 4 – Mode: Hop, Calf-raises and Bomb Jacks.
Moseyed 10 feet to long, back wall of Target for Peoples’ Chair and Donkey Webbs. After the previous bad ideas Donkey Webbs were a badder idea.
Moseyed to Best Buy for a brief taste of core exercises. I needed the core to start working of my large sit-up muscle.
COT: Prayers for families and loss of loved ones and for difficult conversations to be had with friends. Praises for new jobs and wedding anniversaries.
The word for May is mentorship. We saw examples this morning – young men, mentored by fathers and friends holding friends accountable. Pastor Tony Evans has a quote – “We are born male, but we choose to be men”. Maxim #3 in “Mansfield’s Book of Manly Men”: is “Manly Men, build Manly men.”
Thank you Jedi for getting me out of bed with the opportunity to Q. It is always an honor. Tater.

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Dora for Days

So with a Q assignment fail, Lutefisk made up a Dora that was a bad idea. Started w/disclaimer and mosey. Stopped after a short mosey for 1 burpee OYO “WitchHunt Style.”  Ran some more, 2 burpoees OYO.  Mosey, 3, Mosey, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.  You get the idea.  That was the warm-up.  For the Thang, break out JBL speaker to jam to some music cuz we’re not going far.  Partner up for Dora 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 near the new Green Olive, which is mighty tasty by the way.  Run the short lap whilst your partner climbs the rep ladder.  I only revealed through 6:

100 Merkins
200 Squats
300 Dry Docks
400 Mountain Climbers
500 Flutters
600 LBC’s

After PAX were smoked, revealed 700 burpees (just kidding). Mosey to COT for 3x Ab Lounge which brought us to 0600.  It was simple, but effective.  SYITG fellas.

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Friend or Faux – April BEYOND

For those newer PAX who aren’t familiar with it, BEYOND is a roving AO started by Maximus last year that is designed to push us beyond, both physically and personally. The workouts are supposed to be tough, and the message is supposed to be challenging. Combining the two is what makes this workout unlike the others.

After a brief hiatus to restructure it a bit, BEYOND made its return this morning with YHC on Q. It was humbling to be asked to kick it off, and definitely challenging to prepare. I tend to be good at putting together difficult workouts, but I usually don’t attach a message, as I do so much “messaging” for my job. But I accepted the challenge, struggled through preparing, and hoped that maybe a few PAX would make the effort to post.

To my surprise, 13 PAX joined YHC at Rivergate on a Thursday at 0500 (yep, not a normal day to be at Rivergate or a normal time to start). These men came ready to push it, so a disclaimer was given with a reminder that this is going to be harder than normal, so try not to modify. Dig deep and get it done; you didn’t come for it to be easy.

Following the disclaimer we took off on a fast mosey (avoiding a cement truck!) around Home Depot to Target for the warmup and message intro (content of message will be below).

Warm Up (such as it is)

  • 50 (NOT low-slow) squats in cadence (don’t know the best way to actually list the numbers here, so I’m doing total count, not cadence count, which would have been 25, if that makes sense…)
  • 50 merkins in cadence
  • 100 SSH in cadence

RUN to parking lot in front of Pier 1. Time Hack: 4 minutes.

All PAX arrived with about 30 seconds to spare. Circle up in plank – aka, forward listening position – for next part of message (see below). Next round of workout:

  • 50 jumping lunges in cadence (25/leg)
  • 50 diamond merkins in cadence
  • 100 high knees, single count

RUN to Just Fresh parking lot. Time Hack: 4 minutes.

All PAX arrived with about 30 seconds to spare. Circle up in plank for next part of message (see below). Next round of workout:

  • 25 triple-pulsing sumo squat jumps in cadence (“20 would have been fine”)
  • 50 pseudo planche merkins (request for exicon name change to “flippin’ merkins”)
  • 50 bomb jacks

RUN out to 49, down to 160, and around CVS to parking lot by Friday’s. Time Hack: 5 minutes.

All PAX arrived with no time to spare. Close to the burpee penalty. But alas… Message given in plank then next part of workout:

  • 30 triple-pulsing lunge jumps in cadence (“that’s more than 25”; “do you want to walk in circles forever?”)
  • 50 breakdancer merkins in cadence
  • 50 tuck jumps

RUN to the (no longer) dead end road in front of Home Depot. Time Hack: 5 minutes.

Bones led the PAX on a creative route that cut out roughly .2 miles, so all PAX arrived with a minute to spare. Message given then last round of exercises:

  • 50 squat jumps in cadence
  • 5 slo-mo merkins (request to call them “ferkins” for “f@$%(* merkins”)
  • 20 run lunge high knee skips

RUN to COT. Time Hack: (a very generous) 3 minutes and 30 seconds.

All PAX arrived with time to spare. End in plank for the final thoughts before recovering at 0600 on the dot.

Standard COT with all the bells and whistles.

Message content:

We have been talking a lot lately about being vulnerable and open about our lives and the struggles we face. There was a big push in March when we discussed Mental Health Awareness, and we’ve continued to encourage this among the PAX. And that’s great, and it should continue to be encouraged. But, as we pursue this, we need to be aware of what we are actually asking of people and consider if we – as individuals and as a group – are ready to actually take on what we are asking.

In our culture today – American culture, US Christian culture (for many of us), and F3 culture as well – we have placed a high value on being authentic, which is really what we are wanting when we want people to be vulnerable. We want them to be authentic. To be “real.” A lot of this comes from seeing so many prominent leaders crash and burn after some secret part of their life comes to light, usually in very embarrassing ways. We don’t want to be taken in or lied to, so we promote authenticity. But this heavy emphasis has led to a sort of initiation rite within our various groups. “I want to trust you, but only if you’re willing to be open and honest with me.”

So we try it. And somebody shares something like, “I really struggle with playing too many video games” (totally a made up example, so I’m not calling people out). I for one would not be able to relate with that person very well; if I’m honest with myself, I don’t see that as a big issue (though it definitely can be for the person dealing with it). Or it goes the other way, and in a spirit of authenticity, somebody shares something “big,” like an ongoing struggle with same-sex attraction. How would that be received in an all-male group such as F3? Now we are all uncomfortable. That’s too big or too weird of a struggle for us to relate with. It’s easy for us to relate with each other on marital struggles, or alcohol, or gambling. Or a big one in men’s groups would be porn. We can relate on these issues. But something big? Nope.

So, now we have limits. We have a scope of “acceptable” struggles. It has to be big enough that it doesn’t look like we are hiding something, but it can’t be so big that it’s intimidating or awkward to those in the group. And this inevitably leads to a couple big issues.

First, we have made certain struggles acceptable. We EXPECT you to struggle with something like porn, and if you don’t, you’re lying. You’re not being honest with yourself or others. So now we are essentially requiring this struggle as a rite of passage, but it also holds us back, because now you aren’t allowed to actually get past this struggle. You may improve a bit, but in order to be “real,” you need to continue to struggle with it, because if you somehow manage to get past it, then you’re untouchable or unrealistic. How can I relate with you now that you’re not struggling with what I’m struggling with? I need you to struggle so that I can feel better. So we hold each other back.

But, this scope of “acceptable struggles” also encourages a “faux authenticity,” a fake honesty where somebody either says they struggle with something they don’t struggle with in order to fit in, or they under-share, holding back the big struggles so they don’t overwhelm the group or get shunned. You come across as being authentic, because you shared a real (or, realistic) struggle that we can relate with, but in reality your struggles are completely different and you’re just struggling silently in a crowd. And we don’t take the initiative to ask questions or press deeper, because your struggle fits our expected framework. So we build this community essentially based entirely at the surface level, where we think we know each other, but we’re all withholding something, all the while seeming authentic and vulnerable.

So what do we do with this? Because I don’t think I’m alone in seeing this and living this out.

Are we actually ready to embrace real authenticity? Are we ready to meet people where they are – where they REALLY are – whether the struggles seem small or huge? And then, are we ready to walk with them out of these struggles and into victory, rather than holding them back so we can feel better about our own struggles? Are we ready to ask the hard questions, and have those questions asked of us?

Because I know that there are men in our group who are dealing with some awful stuff. And we say we want them to be vulnerable and share. But do we really want that? And are we ready to love them and embrace them and carry them when they do?

For those struggling right now, this is not a call for you to start having verbal diarrhea all over COT. That might be your thing, and I guess that’s fine if it is. But for most of you – most of us – it’s a call to start small. Find a guy or a group of guys – a shield lock – with whom you build mutual trust and can share openly and love freely. This is admittedly hard, especially if you’ve been burned in the past. But it is also freeing, especially when you realize that your struggle – that struggle you’ve carried with you for years and years – is not who you are. And there are people around you who will love you even if they know your junk, because your junk is not YOU.

We talk about leaving no man where we find him, but are we ready to really embrace this and walk with each other through the junk? Are we ready to BE authentic and also allow others to be as well? To foster true authenticity rather than force faux authenticity?

Imagine the impact this can have on our group – on our community as a whole – if we have small groups of men how are truly open with each other and walking with each other out of our struggles. It’s a big task, but it’s worth pursuing.

Are you ready?

Thanks to WitchHunt for the opportunity to lead and the encouragement to push the PAX physically and personally. This was a huge growing opportunity for me as I prepared, and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to think through all of this. I hope some of you out there can get something out of this as well.

Jedi

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Papers Of Pain

For the second Q this week I actually suckered 15 more PAX to come out to one of my workouts.  No really I feel extremely blessed that 15 HIM actually decided to crawl out of the fart sack and post.  My Twitter advertisement for the BOARD OF PAIN and a challenge to see how far you can get in it certainly had a factor to play in the strong showing.

After my usual goofy disclaimer and a short mosey around the parking lot (trying to keep the running to a minimum due to an annoying heel spur that does not seem to want to go away) we went to COP: SSHx20/Windmillx10/Nancy Kerrigan’s X10(each leg fwd and reverse)/Produce Pickersx10/Reach To Sky-Touch Toes-Down Dog-Honeymooner-reverse sequence.

MAIN EVENT

I did not have a board so I printed out the exercises on 7 sheets of paper and taped them to a store window for all to see.

100 Burpees/150 Calf Raises/100 Ski Abs/100 Merkins/100 Squats/200 LBC’s/100 CDD’s/100 Russian Hammers/100 Makhtar D’iayes/100 JumpSquats/100 Mountain Climbers/200 Shoulder Raises/100 Mary Cathrines/100 Hello Dollies/100 Wide Arm Merkins/100 Squat Jacks/100 Nipplers/100 Burpees

After a good 35  minutes of this Jedi got the furthest through the papers by getting to Shoulder Raises, great job!  I myself improved from CDD’s my first time on the board to Makhtar’s this time out. 

Prayers for all sick and injured Pax out there and people battling cancer.  Q source is heating up and read the Muggo! Till next time, peace.

 

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Flag Day

15 High Impact Men rolled up to the Crow’s Nest for a very humbling day for myself.  I did a quick disclaimer as we did have a FNG in the house and we moseyed on over to one of the side parking lots for some COP.

SSHx20/Windmillx10/Reach To Sky,Touch Toes, Down Dog,Honeymooner/Annie’s/Produce Pickersx10 

We then moseyed on over to the back playground which where all the fun toys are.  With the crowd at the Nest this morning I decided against having each individual PAX doing monkey bars swings while the rest of the PAX did Burpees as it would have taken forever and most of the PAX would’ve beed smoked within the first 15 minutes of the workout, so I went right into the …

Main Event

My very first post was the Crow’s Nest during the very first time there was an F3 workout there and in honor of this I borrowed from Flux’s workout all the way back from last March 5th, 2018.  He had us do crazy 8’s so I followed suite but with a little modification.  We all did 8 Pull Ups/ 8 Merkins/ 8 Squats for 8 rounds.  In between each round we traveled in between the parking lot islands in a figure 8 pattern but each time there was a different mode of travel. First was a normal run, then bear crawl curb to curb, then Crab Walk curb to curb, then bunny hop around islands, then pylo skip around islands, normal run, bear crawl, finishing off with a run.

Co-Main Event 

Bear Crawl up ramp to park area with plenty of stone seats where I had us do Elevens of Step Ups(each leg) and merkins.

Moseyed on over to side wall for some people’s chair while end Pax did 3 burpees each. Much to the chagrin of Flux, Qbert had the best burpee form though Flux’s bear crawl is second to none. Moseyed on back for COT.

Observations-never drink a protein shake before a workout or it might splash back up on you.  Luckily I was able to hold it down as it would have been real embarrassing to splash merlot while Q’ing.  Also welcome FNG Meltdown!  Someone wanted to name him Chernobyl but that would have been just wrong(LOL).

Grateful and honored to receive the Crow’s Nest shovel flag from Flux.  He has truly been a great leader. The 13 months I have been a member of F3 have been some of the best months of my life.  To many more adventures with you crazy people! Prayers for the families of some high profile murders that have been in the news lately, God give them strength.  Till next time, peace.

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42nd Birthday Q at Poopdeck

Day 3 of 3 of back to back to back Q’s

I couldn’t find a better way to start my birthday but to Q and push my F3 brothers to get better so I asked Peg for availability about a month ago so he can make arrangements.

We started with a quick warm up and 42 reps of the following:

Windmill, yes 42 in cadence

Moroccan night clubs

Low Slow Squats

Mountain Climbers

It was a simple routine, and we split into 2 groups, a group of 3 PAX will do the props exercises and the group of 6 PAX will do the calisthenics exercises and then switch,  basically 42 reps of each of the following exercises:

CALISTHENICS:

flutters
merkins
bbsu
werkins
squat touch ground
CDD
rosalitas
shoulder tap
calf raises
SSH
plank jack
LBC
monkey humpers
mountain climbers

TINSEL UTENSILS

bent over row with cindy or dumbell
biceps curls with cindy or dumbell
overhead press with cindy or dumbell
slam ball
sledgehammer swings
battle rope waves

tire flip

Due to time we split the tire flip between 3 PAX to complete the 42 flips so each one did 14 tire flips. Once smoked and with about 12 minutes to go we found a wall and did people’s chair while one PAX will do 4 burpees, starting from one end and going all the way down to the last PAX. since it was 9 of us we only reached 36 burpees so at the end we had to add 6 burpees each to complete 42.

Next one up was BTTW and 3 runners got back just in time to join us so everyone will hold BTTW while one pax will do 3 merkins starting on one end all the way across for a total of 36 merkins, we had to complete 42 reps so we all did 6 more merkins each.

With only a couple minutes left we finished it up with 42 LBC’S.

Back to COT for announcements, prayers and praises.

Again, what a great way to start my birthday.

Tinsel out…

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Legs on fire

This was my first Q of the year and the first one since the Christmas season brake I had to take and due to a scheduling mistake on my end I ended up with back to back Q’s which I loved so I can focus on different muscle groups each day.

Monday and Tuesday WO were brutal on upper body at Honey Badger Anniversary with Cheddah and Fire ant with Deacon so I decided to focus on legs and abs, noting else, PAX were in for a surprise as I usually bring my props but my shoulders, chest and arms needed a brake.

We had no FNG’s and a quick disclaimer was given while moseying around the parking lot followed by the warm up:

SSH

Windmill

Low Slow Squats

Mountain climber

Peter Parker

Burpees

LBC’s

THE THANG:

A “simple” routine to be repeated 7 times for a total of 49 reps of each of the following, a lap around the parking lot was completed after each circuit:

7 squat HAND TOUCHES GROUND

7 dying roach DC

7 lunges DC KNEE TOUCHES GROUND

7 rosalitas

7 squat jumps

7 flutters DC

7 monkey humpers 

7 circuits were completed with about 16 minutes to spare, great push by all the PAX with lots of mumble chatter about burning legs. We moseyed to a “comfy” grass area and had a visit of my favorite web exercise Captain Thor (1 big boy sit up followed by 4 american hammers, all the way to 10 BBSU and 40 AH) abs were burning by then so we had to go back to legs and found a wall for some people’s chair, everyone will hold position while PAX starting from the left end will perform 3 burpees, legs were on fire so the best thing to do was to rinse and repeat for a total of 2 wall circuits.

With about 5 minutes left on the clock we went back to the parking lot for some sprints, jog one way and sprint at 100% on the way back X 4,  some more mumble chatter then but everyone gave their all.

The lucky runners that missed leg day joined us at the end for announcements, prayers and praises at COT.

Thank you copyright for the opportunity to lead.

Tinsel out.. till the next day

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