Coast to Coast Qs

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A mid-week substi-Q request left YHC a bit concerned on how to fill an hour of pain. Fortunately, the request was picked up by an old friend of The Fort that now resides on the other coast, 88.

88 and YHC met early to get a lay of the land. He volunteered to lead us off, but needed to know where a few things were. It was a dark and chilly morning, and the wind was cutting.

14 PAX gathered just before 0630hrs, and all got to meet the brother from the Gold Rush Territory. With one fresh face in the crowd, a strong disclaimer was given, along with the 5 core principles.

The Fort broke off from Milkshake for a little mosey to the back side of the Pike Engineering.

COP
10 Merkins IC
20 SSH IC
10 Squats IC

Then we moseyed to the entrance of Pike Engineering, and did a set of Minus 2 at the masonry knee walls. Starting with 20 incline merkins and rotating with dips, we did all the reps and eventually made it to 0. The high numbers and pain cause confusion for several PAX, but we won’t name names here, will we Italian Job?

88 led us on a mosey back to WEP, where cones were laid out in 4 corners.
• First lap included 10 merkins at each cone
• Second lap included 20 squats at each cone
• Third lap included 30 Mountain Climbers at each cone
• Fourth lap included all of the reps – 10 merkins, 20 squats and 30 mountain climbers at each cone

88 handed off to YHC and we started at the front of the amphitheater.

Typically, if I have prepared a message, it’s because I need to hear it. Several things have prevented me from posting consistently over the last month, and I can feel it when I do make it out. So, in a plank position, I went over Q3.10 Consistency – “The Consistent Leader is constant and regular in everything he does. His followers are drawn to him because his steadiness provides a safe harbor from the howling winds of Chaos and Flux that blow periodically through their own lives. He is their rock.”

Recover and run one lap around WEP, performing 5 burpees at each swing. Cyclops and Italian Job led the way, with Clickbait giving chase. “5 more” burpees were continued in front of the amphitheater while waiting for the 6, or Stang to return from the woods. Stang was incredibly uncomfortable in the open area of the park, constantly gazing towards the trees. I’m not sure if the sun rising early helped either.

“Strong Routines are the framework of Consistency.” We in F3 know what to do. Wake up and exercise, everyday, We shouldn’t have to think about it, just do it. Remove unnecessary decisions, and create routines.

Next up, Dan Taylors. All the way across the WEP field. A few PAX wanted to play on the playground, and I heard rumblings of other shenanigans, but feared turning around to see what they were doing. The field was longer than I thought, but we got 55 squats and 220 lunges in.

“The Virtuous Leader focuses on bandwidth not perfection.” Reminded the PAX that consistency will help minimize the flux in our life. This isn’t about perfection, but about limiting the lows in our life. The things that keep us away from a healthy lifestyle that enables us to lead.

We moseyed back to CoT, and with a minute to spare, got 5 Mike Tysons – Bear crawl and Crawl bear in to close it out.

We welcome FNG Spit Valve, had prayers and praises for those at D2D and to those in Ukraine and affected by the conflict in Ukraine. T-claps to Clickbait who is organizing some relief efforts to that part of the world.

Thanks again to 88 for answering the call to lead! We look forward to your return.

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2

Laces Smorgasbord

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Laces had 10 PAX with a
Smorgasbord on the menu

Warmup
Big 4 corners
SSH
Carioca
IW
Butt Kickers
HW
Shuffle
Mountain Climbers
High Knees
SSH
Toy Soldiers
IW

Moseying with some of the following at stops
BTTW
Aussie Mountain Climbers
Mike Tysons (quite a few of these)
Bear Crawls
Bulgarian Split Squats
Some yoga

When we made it to the pull-up bars, YHC had stashed some kettlebells and cinder blocks.

Split into groups for
10 manmakers
Or
10 burpee pull-ups
Switched out
5 manmakers
Or
5 burpee pull-ups
Switched to the last group with called up and down weighted squats or pull-ups

Moseyed back towards COT
Stopped along the way for:
Box jumps on the loading dock
SSH at the bottom of a hill
Bulgarian Split Squats
Mike Tysons at COT

NMM:
When you notice that something isn’t getting done (in this case it was me counting SSH in cadence at the bottom of that hill), it could be because it’s your job to do it. Go take care of business.

PAX at Laces today demonstrated they’re capable of some awesome work. It motivates me to post with guys accelerating like so many of y’all are in The Fort. I consistently look forward to seeing how our efforts in the gloom help spark impact outside of the gloom.

—
Band Camp dismissed

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1

STL – Just Keep Going

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9 PAX at Sweep the Leg

3.75 mile route through Baxter, some got a little extra at the end.

Every stop we did the following exercises for the 6 to arrive. When the 6 was in, YHC called either one more exercise or we went back to moseying
Exercises:
5 burpees
10 merkins
15 squats
20 flutters
25 lbcs
Mostly we continued on after squats or flutters

When we arrived at Alison Park everyone had 5 pull-ups, but they called the up and down. Other PAX were doing merkins because there’s only one pull-up bar in all of Baxter. 40 merkins and 5 pull-ups for everyone at Alison. From there we continued our route

NMM:
The workout was designed to model the following scenario. Sometimes things are rough and you want them to change. But you find the change is just as rough or worse. So, you go back and forth. The point is: you don’t stop.

An honor to lead such a fast group.

—
Band Camp Dismissed

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5

Chest, Core, and Broga

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8 total (3 runners and 5 broga booters) ascended on Varsity for a chest and core smokefest followed by flipping dogs broga at the hands of Sasquatch. Here’s what we did:

The Thang

  • 10 SSHs (IC)
  • 10 Seal Jacks (IC)
  • 10 Low Slow Squats (IC)

Mosey around the lot to the breezeway

  • 10 Merkins (IC)
  • 10 LBCs (IC)
  • 10 Wide Arm Merkins (IC)
  • 10 American Hammers (IC)
  • 10 Scorpion Merkins (IC)
  • 10 Freddies (IC)

Mosey around the lot and back to the breezeway

  • 10 Staggered Merkins (IC)
  • 10 Hello Dollies
  • 5 Diamond Merkins (IC)
  • 10 Rosalitas
  • 5 Windmills (IC)
  • 60 second plank

Mosey around the lot and back to the breezeway

  • 10 Carolina Dry Docks (IC)
  • 10 Boxcutters (IC)
  • 10 Dive Bombers
  • 10 Butterfly LBCs
  • 10 Burpees

Mosey around the lot and back to the breezeway

  • 12 Derkins
  • Transition to Sasquatch for Broga

NMM

Today’s workout was not easy, but I’m reminded that we “get to” do this. We are privileged to have the freedoms and abilities to assemble at our leisure to workout and talk about anything and everything on our minds. In the current state of affairs, today was a reminder of how blessed we are.

Yesterday I watched a video of a father saying goodbye to his 6-ish year-old daughter as she and her mom evacuated their town mere the hours before being attacked. I cried at the thought he may never see his family again as a foreign country invades his homeland. It really put things in perspective. These atrocities are happening while I continue to live life with minor inconveniences. I was able to wake up this morning, drive to a workout, spend time with friends, and come home to a warm shower, in my home, and have breakfast with my family. It breaks my heart that we live in a world where there is utter disregard for the wellbeing of others. In times like these, it’s imperative that we hug our families tighter, show grace and compassion to others, and be the steadfast beacon of light in a dark world. We must stand firm in our convictions and quell the fears of our families. Join me in praying for the people of Ukraine. Ask for protection of the innocent and vulnerable and give wisdom to global leaders. Pray for our service men and women as they prepare for potential deployment. Ask for humility for the proud and pray for peace in the face of fears and adversity.

Aye!

Italian Job

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5

Fantastic Four at Footloose

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4 came to Footloose for some moderate work.

Mumble chatter varied… Dads doing cheer hair….diaper changes….Michael Jackson buying trains from Carowinds…

1 min per exercise,  10 sec rest

LBC, Rev Crunch, BB Situps, Heels to Heaven, Flutters, Superman, Freddie Mercury, Hello Dolly, Hillbilly Walkers, Imperial Walkers, Squats, Lunges, Calf Raises, Side Lunges, Air Drama, Monkey Humpers, Al Gore, Step Ups, Back Lunges

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0

Rankel and RJ

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Seven pax met at Honey Badger to honor two heroes and get some miles in.
Disclaimer given.  Began with stretches (honeymooner, downward dogs) to prep for the main event.  Two pax left for a run, leaving five for the hero workout portion.

Warmup
Ran a 400m loop
SSH (10x I/C)
Windmills (7x I/C)
Imperial walkers (10x I/C)
Moroccan N/C (10x I/C)

Hero workout #1: The Rankel [image with bio is attached]
6 thrusters (cinder block)
7 burpee pull ups
10 KB swings (cinder block)
Run a 400m loop
Repeat for 23 mins, as many rounds as possible

Light mary in between hero workouts: flutters, hello dollies, LBC (all 10x I/C)

Hero workout #2: The RJ [image with bio is attached]
800m run
50 feet of murder bunnies (cinder block; done on the grass section near the ROTC…great recommendation from the site Q)
25 merkins
Repeat (we got two good rounds in)

Put blocks back to their cozy stack.

Runners returned and all seven of us were able to get one (1) big boy sit up achieved before 0600.

COT
Prayer/Praises
Park, Tootie, and their entire family.
Our kids that are thinking through what/where to go after high school.
Joy and continued well-being for expectant pax/families.

Rankel Bio

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Heavy dice

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After a warmup of low slow squats, merkins, SSH, and swings, we took a quick mosey around the parking lot.

Uhaul eventually showed up and joined us, along with his playlist of “things that kinda sound like Metallica”.

Today, we let the dice decide our reps as we worked through a pre-determined list of pain. PAX took turns rolling 2 dice and we just did that number of reps. I had promised in Slack that today would be for heavy bells and low reps, which mostly held true. If any PAX rolled doubles, we added 5 burpees to the lineup.

The movement list is as follows:

Swings

Goblet squats

Deadlifts

Hammer Curls

Overhead press

Scull crushers/tricep extensions

Lawn mower pulls

Single leg deadlifts

Cleans

high pulls

Chest Presses

Snatches

Mozey

 

After 2 rounds through the rotation, a very suspicious truck pulled into the parking lot. “That can’t possibly be Tesh!” the group cried. We readied our kettlebells as our only defense against the intruder. Heartbeats quickened, palms sweated, pupils dialated, and we fixed our gaze upon the magnificence that was… Tesh.

Not nearly enough light ribbing later, Tesh joined us.

We accomplished 2 more rounds with his highness, and the burpees kept flowing – finally giving way to some Mary at the end of the workout followed by COT.

Solid crew this morning.

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No Arrival

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40-some pax posted to the region’s Ground Zero at WEP for a smorgasbord of pain, from 6@6 to Millkshake to a tried and true BC beatdown.  A very explicit and thorough Disclaimer was pronounced by Dark Helmet for the benefit of our FNG, and then the pax blasted off.

The Thang

The recitation of the 5 Core Principles quickly failed to meet DOAH’s standard, leading to some burpees.

Mosey around the parking lot with some toy soldiers and knee lifts mixed in, with the pax following onto the bandshell stage.

COP proceeded including more core principles along with some Merkins and DOAH’s proclamation that maybe the FNG’s fitness surpassed that of many of the pax present.  {Yes, he’s good at stirring the pot whether he’s poking at the Q or Qing himself.}

More mosey and more warm up exercises until the pax reach the far side of the WEP.

Enter stage left — the BAOPS boys via Clown Car — Trucker, Smuggler, Change Order & Longshanks, who just couldn’t stand the thought  of missing out on the best 1st, 2nd & 3rd F in The Fort on this given Saturday.  {Pro move by whoever made that call!}

Partner up for wheel barrow…to the playground…Yes…to the playground!…where the fun really starts.  {Fishsticks promptly cruised 85% of the way there to prove to his FNG that no matter what DOAH says, the FNG’s fitness had room for improvement.}

At the playground, each partner does 50 (yes, Five-O!) pull ups.  {Jiffy cranked out 30 in rapid fire.}

Some core work followed including LBCs and Rosalitas among others.

Handoff to Double D

Run to the bottom of the hill

Jacob’s Ladder with Donkey Kicks at the bottom and Sumo Squats at the top.  Traverse to the top via Bear Crawl and run to the bottom.

Mosey back to the parking lot with some Mary led by Jekyll

Climb the Stairway to Heaven via lunge walks, pausing for Carolina Dry Docks at each lamp post, starting with 5 reps and adding 5 more at each successive post.

Mosey down to the monuments with some Mary led by Longshanks

Circle up for an FNG introduction to Jack Webb by Change Order

Run home for final 2 mins of Mary by Longshanks

COT

NMM

A spirited pax at The Fort on this pleasant late winter morning!   Back to back weeks with a convergence at The Fort — thanks to the Alcatraz boys for adding their zeal to the day!

Maximus delivered the tailgate coffeeteria in the parking lot afterward and our FNG (EHed by Fishsticks) hung around long enough to learn the backstory of his name (Roy Kent) and to fill his rolodex with roofing customer prospects.

Welcome to Roy Kent!  Barry Manilow was quite vocal about the quality of the name and the importance of RK living up to it.  Well, if he doesn’t meet the mark, we can always default to what RK thought we named him — Rockette!

It was great to have Car Bomb among the pax today, fresh off his return trip from New Zealand, prior to his resettlement in another adventure.

The theme for the day was geared around the notion of life being an endless series of mountain climbs, peak after peak, with no arrival to the top in sight — ever.  Depressing, huh?  No, not for the HIMs of F3 and The Fort.  Give us the hard stuff.  We’re playing the long game and we know you can’t play it alone.  So keep posting, stay engaged with your brothers.  Together we’ll keep accelerating.

It was a treat to Q with DOAH for the first time.  We all look at him as just another member of The Fort, which of course he is.  At the same time, he also invests a huge amount of his life leading the 43 feet for the Nation.  Not only is it not easy being Frank {imagine how hard it must be for Traci his wife}, it’s also lonely at the top of any organization {how about leading one with 50,000 type A men?}, and it’s incredibly challenging to serve as the successor to any founder {would you want to try one Dredd’s shoes}.  Despite the small jabs, I say this with all seriousness — DOAH has taken on an extremely difficult challenge, one that he executes well with tremendous energy and virtue and that we all benefit from.  We’re fortunate that he calls The Fort “home” and that we get to take his crap on a regular cadence.  Thank you, DOAH!

Thanks to Grinder for the opportunity!  Always an honor to lead the men of this brotherhood!

SYITG

 

 

 

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4

QSOURCE 2022.08 – KING (Q1.2)

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Q 1.2: King

King: The daily discipline of physically training the body.

Let that sink in and we’ll break it down in sections.

Daily – One should be making repeated efforts to train. This doesn’t have to mean running 10 miles every day. It does mean putting in some sort of physical effort to invest in your body. On a given day, your body could benefit from lower impact activity like stretching, walking and yoga.

Discipline – You cannot slack. You must establish guardrails or involve others who will hold you accountable because after all, you cannot hold yourself accountable; don’t lie to yourself. Identify your tendencies that keep you from physically training your body on a daily basis and put the measures in place to keep you from ditch-diving. Establishing that is an example of discipline.

Physically – As part of the Get Right, you must put the physical work in so that you can be better equipped to handle what life throws at you. Additionally, I have found that if I get a solid workout or run in, my mind is cleared of the fog and I am open to correction, new ideas and ways in which I do just about everything, better.

Training – You’ll never arrive. You are constantly putting in work to get just 1% better. Identify a goal and make incremental improvements. When you’ve reached that goal, make another goal. Improvement is not made in the completion. Improvement is a process of continual training. As you’ve heard countless times, life is lived in the process, in the journey.

Body – There is a lot of reading and study to be done in order to better understand what both Christian and secular writers mean when stating that our bodies are temples. Regardless of your view, you know the basics of that inference. You should treat your body well, and in this case, that means physically training on a regular basis to keep your temple sharp and ready.

This relationship we have with our bodies begins with Fitness, hence why that is the first F. It is not negotiable; I must be physically able to perform the physical necessities of life in order to be effective. If I am unable to carry my kid after she breaks her leg or I am unable to put a suitcase in the overhead bin of an airplane, how effective am I? I would be more of a liability instead of an asset. I never know when “the time” will come so I must train on a daily basis, utilizing a variety of methods, to be ready.

Why do I push for 1% better through different training methods? If all I do is run, I can’t carry my kid. If all I do is rucking or weightlifting, what will I do when my kid wants to run a 5K with me; ask her to walk? Integrate a variety of training methods to challenge your body and build stamina. Stamina fights fatigue. Fatigue happens when you’re not trained for that next 1%. Fatigue keeps you from stepping up when only you can step up. When no one else can, you can…you must. In the words of the late Travis Manion and now memorialized by the Travis Manion Foundation, “If Not Me, Then Who?” In the end, fatigue makes cowards of us all. Fight the fatigue. Fight for that next 1%.

It is important to understand too, that no matter how far or fast you run, no matter how much you can carry, the inevitable time will come when you can’t out-King your Queen. The Queen is the next section in Q-Source and that too, requires discipline and guardrails. For this however, I’ll remain focused on the need for the daily discipline of the King.

A few years ago, F3 PAX around the country spread the initiative of the F3-250. The spirit behind this was to encourage PAX to participate in 250 workouts in a calendar year. This could be a great measure of accountability for men. If you have another man tracking with you on your way to 250, you’re more likely to put your feet on the floor when the alarm rings in your ear. Another tactic is to let someone know the night before where you’re posting. Set your clothes out and get everything else ready. That’s discipline. Find yours. Locally, there are men among us who are engaged in daily check-ins with other men as part of their daily discipline.

It takes a want-to in order to make this a reality, no one will do the work for you. Our world is full of excuses that will entice you to take a more comfortable or faster path. I challenge you to not succumb to that excuse. Why? Inevitably, the “stuff” is going to hit the fan and YOU will have to respond in a way that requires physical effort. You will not have the time to look for the easiest route or the route with the least resistance. You will have to act because only you can. Check that, you won’t have to. You GET TO.

How will you ensure readiness? By engaging your KING and having the daily discipline to physically train your body, your temple. If you need help or accountability, I will gladly walk with you. Just know, you won’t walk forever because I’m going to push you to run or carry weight while we walk.

I love you too much to let you stay static.

Maximus

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2

Chia Pudding

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Four men showed up on a rainy morning for a little broga, exercise, and some healthy recipes.

Sasquatch started us off with 15 minutes on broga.  Lots of good stretches and poses to get our bodies right.

Next, we moseyed around the parking lot with some dynamic stretching. We made our way to the bus drop off.  The workout was simple, exercises performed near the school, once complete, run a lap and perform the first exercise along with the next and so on, “The Accumulator”.  Below are the exercises we completed along with the count:

  1. Squats – 20
  2. Merkins – 20
  3. Flutters – 20
  4. Plank Punches – 20
  5. LBCs – 20
  6. Carolina Dry Docks – 20
  7. American Hammers – 20
  8. Burpees – 10
  9. Lunges – 20

We got through all but the last two rounds.  Before we ran back to COT, we completed the last two exercises less the lap.  During the recovery laps, we learned about several healthy dessert recipes, like Chia pudding (Chia seeds + almond milk) or banana ice cream.

Great job everyone!

 

 

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