(Un)Bear-AB-le Ladder

Kermit originally was the substitute-Q for this week but was battling a sore knee the last couple days, so I accepted the opportunity to take the Q on short notice the day before.  My plan was to come do a site visit later that evening since I have only posted at Laces In a couple times and am not too familiar with the FMHS campus.  Well life got in the way of that plan as my M was rear ended pretty much immediately after I clicked accept on the worship planner invitation (her and 2.0s are fine).  So my site visit didn’t come to fruition and I was gonna have to wing it….

The mid 20s temps weren’t going to deter the 5 PAX from getting better this morning and so at 0515 the standard disclaimer was given as an army of headlamps descended on the parking lot like a band of wild hooligans {Soul to Sole).

Moseyed past some sort of Soul to Sole mating ritual  (Maximus moseyed through them) over to the pavement football field where we warmed up with a brief CoP (all in cadence) – 20 SSH, 10 Cherry Pickers, 10 Hillbilly Walkers, 10 Merkins

Thang Part 1 – (Un)Bear-ab-le Ladder

Bear Crawl to each ladder rung and complete Ab exercise – Crawl Bear back to Goal Line

10 yard line – 10 American Hammers

20 yard line – 20 Shoulder Taps

30 yard line – 30 Flutters

40 yard line – 40 LBCs

50 yard line – 50 Plank Jacks

Al Gore for the 6 at each goal line return with a couple 10 counts to keep the group together

Totals:

150 Yards of Bear Crawls, 150 Yards of Crawl Bears, 50 American Hammers, 80 Shoulder Taps, 90 Flutters, 80 LBCs,  and 50 Plank Jacks

I was a little unsure how that bear crawl combined with ab work would play out – definitely tough but I think I will keep it in the back pocket for future Q’s.

 

Mosey to St Phillip Neri Parking Lot for Part 2.

Thang Part 2-  Half-DORA – Partner 1 Runs to end of Parking Lot and Back while Partner 2 completes exercises – switch and repeat

50 – Jump Squats

100 – Merkins

150 – Calf Raises

We probably had time for the full DORA but there was mumblechatter about hills early in the workout so I wanted to make sure and get some hill sprints in to reward the PAX for coming out.

Mosey to hill entrance where we had time for  2 sets of 5 Burpees/hill sprint and a set of 5 burpees followed by a sprint back to COT.  More solid mumblechatter around Cuban food and the need for Cohiba to host a dinner party.

Finished at 0600 – Name-o-rama, announcements, prayers, and praises

I suppose one should expect unpredictability when you kick it with Laces In –  However, the last minute audibles all panned out this morning and we definitely didn’t have any Ray Finkles in the group.  Thanks for the opportunity!

-Badlands

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QSOURCE 2022.04 – LDP (F3)

Good morning!
David Green / 53 / CSPAN (Can’t Seem Place A Name)
Welcome to Qsource – today we are talking topic F4 “LDP” for week 4 (posted Jan 23, 2022).  I always like to start with a story of how we got here. In my life journey, I always get positive feedback on the way I develop leaders, so while I am not an expert, I want to share with my thoughts regarding ways I see leaders developing
opportunities for other leaders.

First off, leadership is not necessarily a God given gift, most leaders have a long trail of failures followed by a few triumphs that everyone remembers, if you are ready to understand that it takes a perfect combination of God Given gifts / Opportunities / Arrogance (a positive fear of failure) / and determination or grit to be a successful leader, please continue to read on. Side notes for another day, you can take that leader and move them to a site across the street and they will transform into a failure because one of those variables being off – seen it happen and push on if you are currently in a bad leadership situation.

Here is my BLUF –
1. Lead with love
2. Show them leadership and the work
3. Allow them to do the work with your oversight and with limited responsibility for failure
4. Give them all the work with some responsibility
5. Step yourself out of the situation, let them work, cheerleader them to their success

First story is Zima, an absolute great guy. Liked F3 but was very comfortable keeping us at arm’s length, I applied the steps above and got him involved with First F (fitness), he enjoyed it, got super energized and I just rode beside him for a few years as he did the same technique to other men. Now every Zima mile you run, and I’ll toss in a sarcastic “that mile was 2.87 miles”, and “you are welcome”. Zima is now an extremely successful husband, father, and real estate leader in our community.
Second story is our man Dark Helmet, he was looking for so much more when he showed up at F3. I used the technique above and added the Double-D treatment that I got upon my arrival. #ALR (Ask Listen Remember) this gave me the opportunity to see the benefits DOAH could bring with a very specific form of leadership and communication skill to improve our group. He just needed more #4, and #5 has been so enjoyable to watch. Helmet is now on ‘fire” for all things leadership, and he showed up thinking he found what he needed, but really F3 found the leader that we needed.

I’ll end with a few work stories. I use the same exact format when training General Managers. With General Managers it is more about #3, and building their confidence, getting some success, and gaining the trust of others on the team. On the topic of trust, #1 is how you develop leaders at any level, to take interest in someone and investing in them changes their worldview. Almost all my leadership success stories at work revolve around being their first boss who cared if they truly improved. Getting better was not always nice, it was calling out and addressing a defect, as loving as I could.  Leaders love authentic leaders and can sense, and call bullshit a mile away. Be very careful as you start an LDP because you may come across as “rough/mean” but authentic love will always come through, and drive the desired results.

I can go on and on – please start the discussion – and shoot me a DM or text if you want to continue the conversation.

AYE!

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Mental Battle WOD 2022

  • QIC: Drop Thrill
  • When: 03/27/2022
  • Posted In: Pre-Blast

Another year is upon us and in the tradition of F3, another March Mental Battle Month!  March 27 is the anniversary of the start of the Mental Battle, however feel free to use this workout any day in March or through the year.

The workout has been designed with the option of being for a bootcamp or a gear/kettle bell workout.  The first exercise would be for a bootcamp and the second for a gear workout.

Any questions reach out to dropthrill@ hotmail.com and visit @F3Battle on Twitter or the f3-mental-battle-challenge channel on the Nation’s Slack.

After warmup, partner up.

Each set will have stats about mental health and workplace mental health.  The workout will be in the form of a Dora 123.  As you are working with a partner (No OYO), each stat is doubled.  After all three sets are complete, if you have time repeat sets until time is up.

Round 1

  • 50,000,000 adult Americans experienced mental illness in 2019.
  • 56% of employees spend time looking for another job.
  • 27,000,000 Americans with mental illness are unable to receive treatment.

100 Lunges / Lunge-Curls
112 Merkins / Chest presses
54 Squats / Goblet squats

Round 2

  • 60% of employees do not feel their management helps them to deal with stress.
  • 33% of employees can’t afford their healthcare costs.
  • 80% of employees reported feeling emotionally drained by their work.

120 Calf Raises / Calf Raises with kettle bell
66 Lunges / Lunge Passthroughs
160 Moroccan Night Clubs / Tricep Extension

  • 65% of employees find it hard to concentrate at work due the environment at work.
  • Over 60% of youth with mental illness do not receive treatment.
  • Over 60% of employees feel they don’t get paid enough to save for an emergency fund.

130 LBCs
120 Box Cutters
120 Flutters

A few things to leave you with:

Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in America.

22 veterans commit suicide EVERY DAY.

I hope you’ll have some time to share among the Pax your mental battles or those of people around you, either during the workout or after.  This is honestly more important than the workout.

Again, please reach out for help if you need help.

If you or someone you know needs immediate help, please reach out to 800-273-8255.

Till next time.

The Thrill is gone!

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Fort Mill Tour – No Charge

We had 20 men show up this morning at Block Party.  Alot more than I anticipated, but it’s good to have a big crowd.  After a quick disclaimer, we did the typical warm-up exercises (SSHs, Imperial Walkers, Windmills).

I explained to the Pax, we would be on the move this morning, touring Fort Mill.  Our first stop was the Hardee’s parking lot.  Once everyone arrived, we did the following exercises:

20 Squats

15 Merkins

10 LBCs

5 Burpees

Next stop was Unity Church on Tom Hall, instead of taking the shortest route, we ran down Spring Street to Leroy and met at the front of the church.  The same exercises were done by the Pax.  We continue our tour around town to the Church of God parking lot on Academy Street.   Once exercises were complete, we moved to the next stop, the parking lot across from the gas station on Spratt Street.

Our fifth stop was the Fort Mill Church of Nazarene on Harris Street.  We took the longer route up hilly Massey Street to Harris Street.  Again, another round of exercises.  Our last stop was Walter Elisha Park.

We then made our way back to COT for one last round of exercises. Total distance was a little over 3 miles. The continued theme from Monday’s Q, “No Shortcuts”.  We took the longer route to each location.  The routes were hilly and more difficult, but we are better than when we started this morning.  Keep getting after it.

Great job everyone!

 

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Today’s Workout Brought to You by the #12 & Alan Magee

It was a chilly morning at Honey Badger, but 8 showed up to honor a WWII hero, Alan Magee

January 3rd is the anniversary of one of the most amazing tales of survival from WWII. It was #OTD in 1943 that the B-17F Flying Fortress, “snap! crackle! pop!”, of the 360th Bomb Squadron, 303rd Bomb Group, was lost on a daylight raid over Saint-Nazaire, France. Aboard was ball turret gunner Alan Magee.
Despite 28 shrapnel wounds, Magee had left his ball turret when it was damaged by German flak. He discovered his parachute had been shredded by the same flak and was useless. Just then, another flak hit then blew off a section of the right wing, causing the aircraft to enter an unrecoverable spin. Magee blacked out from lack of oxygen because of the high altitude and was thrown clear of the aircraft. He fell over four miles without a chute before crashing through the glass roof of the St. Nazaire railroad station. Rescuers found him on the floor of the station severely injured but alive.
Magee was taken as a prisoner of war and given medical treatment by the Germans. He recovered and was liberated in May 1945. He received the Air Medal and the Purple Heart. He passed away in 2003 at the age of 84.
We warmed up with 12 reps of SSH, Mountain Climbers, Merkins, and Windmills.
The Thang:
Buy in 17 burpees
Run 1200m
43 Merkins
43 LBC’s
43 Plank Jacks
Run 800m
21 Merkins
21 LBC’s
21 Plank Jacks
Run 400
11 Merkins
11 LBC’s
11 Plank Jacks
Buy out 17 burpees
After everyone completed the WOD, we moved on to the bars and blocks
12 pull-ups
Wall sit for 45 seconds
6 pull-up
Wall sits for 24 seconds
3 pull-ups
Wall sits for  12 seconds
We picked up the blocks.
12 reps of OHP, curls, squats, big boys, and chest press
Overhead carry the block down the hill to the stop sign.
6 reps of the aforementioned set
Overhead carry the block back up the hill.
Set of 3 reps
Finished with some Mary.
The number 12 had special meaning today as tomorrow (1/25) marks 1 year since I donated my kidney.  It’s been quite the year and I’m thrilled to report that Petra, my recipient, it doing great!  I learned about Alan Magee from Facebook and I also learned of Petra’s need from FB.  Yes, there are a lot of terrible things on social media, but there are some pretty awesome things out there too.  As @DarkHelment mentioned, it’s all about how you use it.
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Gaming at the Swamp

When I arrived this morning to check the road conditions around the AO, Grass Knoll and Slapshot had already started their prework activities.  It’s always great to see guys pushing themselves to get better. Once 38 Special arrived, we began the workout with a jog to the far side of Home Depot.  Warm up exercises:  SSHs x20, Imperial Walkers x15, Windmills x10.

We continued our journey to the front of Kohls.  We started with a lunge walk to the next cross walk.  At the crosswalk, we did 15 merkins and 10 squats.  We continued forward with butt kickers and toy soldiers stopping at each crosswalk for merkins and squats.

Next, we moseyed to the fountain.  Two guys ran a half lap around the parking lot while the other two men did the below exercises.  The groups flip flopped after the lap.

Exercises:

Dips

Derkins

Step-ups

Burpees

On our way back to COT, we did the sidewalk shuffle (sideways bear crawl) along the store fronts. We arrived at COT a couple minutes early for some LBCs and burpees.

During the workout, I shared a story about my childhood.  I enjoyed going to the arcade and playing videos games.  Back in the day, the ongoing joke was “Is that a roll of quarters in your pocket or are you happy to see me?”  We may need to explain this joke to some of the younger guys.  I wanted to buy an Atari but my parents were not willing to spend the money to buy one.  I was able to find a few jobs like shoveling snow and coal around the neighborhood.  Each week I would accumulate a little more money until I finally had enough money to pay for the gaming system. I felt proud when I made my big purchase.

The story is similar to your physical health.  It takes time to become stronger, run faster and longer.  Consistently attending workouts each day and even adding pre-workout activities will help improve your physical health.  “Each day” was emphasized since I am a firm believer that you should train your body to recover from a workout within a 24 hour period.  There are obvious exceptions like running races and participating in ruck events.

If you are struggling to get on track, please reach out to me.  We’ll put a plan together.

Fishstix

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VarsityDay – Bodywash and Sasquatch edition

Six pax showed up on a chilly Friday morning for some broga and a little beatdown.  After giving the disclaimer we moseyed over near the school entrance where there was some better lighting.
Sasqatch led a quick 5-minute warm up with some broga.

The group then moseyed over to the band lot for burpee suicides.  We only did one suicide at the start/end vs. ascending with each additional distance.

When complete, we moved over to the adjacent lot and paired up for a DORA with:
100 merkins
200 squats
300 LBCs

From here we went back to the school entrance and finished off with another 10 minutes of Broga.

Lastly we headed back to COT.

It was great to to see some PAX I hadn’t had the chance to meet before!

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Laces In randomness

11 Pax showed up at Laces In in some relatively balmy weather (45ish degrees).  Gave the disclaimer at 0515 and after a short warm-up with 20 SSH in cadence and 6 or 7 windmills (my count is a bit blurry from 5 hours ago) we were off.

 

From COT we moseyed over to the first parking lot for a riddle.  How do 17 merkins + 14 jump squats equal 6 burpees?  The PAX were very astute to the Buffalo Bills numbers and quickly figured out that 17 (Josh Allen) + 14 (Stefon Diggs) = 6 (Touchdown!!).  It was corny, but it was fun for YHC.  Since the group figured it out so quickly, we only did this once.

 

After this we moseyed again; this time over to the hill/entrance to the school.  From here we did 11’s with hand-release merkins at the bottom and ran to the top of the hill to do Freddie Mercury’s (nuring up the hill on one round).  I asked the pax to stay together to encourage both each other and mumble chatter…

 

Lastly we moseyed over to the band lot.  At this location we would do laps around the ‘field’ and do a corresponding exercise at the end of each lap.  The laps/exercises were:

Lap 1: 10yd to 10yd line with 10 Catalina wine mixers

Lap 2: 20 to 20 with 20 LBCs

Lap 3: 30 to 30 with 30 CDDs

Lap 4: 40 to 40 with 40 squats – cut this short due to time.

 

Headed back to COT.  Shared announcements and prayers/praises.

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Bday Q brought to you by 18 and 45

Warmup 18 rep each

SSH

Imperial walkers

Hillbilly walkers

Windmills

Cherry pickers

Morracan Nightclubs

Baby arm circles


Exercises 4 corners 15 10 10 10  at each corner respectively  Run between corners  

Squats

Hello dollies

Merkins

Supermans

Fwd Lunges

LBCs

Calf raises

Flutters

Side Lunges

BBS

Monkey Humpers

Rosalitas

Carolina Dry docks

Freddie Mercuries

Mountain climbers

Box cutters

Makhtar N’Diayes

Back lunges

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Slippery day at the Schoolhouse

Finally back to normal after the snow and ice storm this weekend.  The drive to The Colosseum was a little slick.  I arrived a little early to check out the track in the back lot.  Part of it was covered with ice so we would need to modify the running portion.

After the arrival of the Pax, we carefully moseyed to back of the school for the typical warm-ups.

SSHs x 20

Imperial Walkers x 16

Windmills x 10

Next, we walked over to the benches where I had stacked 15 cards with exercise written on each.   I explained the benefit of writing Backblast.  You have a library of past workouts to assist with your Q.  Today’s workout was similar to one I had Q’d five years ago.  Complete the exercise written on the card and run a lap.

Here are the exercises:

100 Merkins

80 Moroccan Nightclubs

100 LBCs

100 Carolina Dry Docks

100 Squats

80 Plank Jacks

100 Flutter Kicks

50 Lunges

20 Burpees

80 Side Straddle Hops

60 American Hammers

80 Plank Punches

100 Calf Raises

80 Freddie Mercury

80 Mountain Climbers

We got through all but the last three exercises (take home assignment).  We had a great time discussing marriage, 2.0s, Alabama, and work.

Thanks for the opportunity, Shower Curtain.

 

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