Ballroom 4 Corners

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We had 4 at the Ballroom for a 4 corners beatdown.

We moseyed and warmed up with SSH, Windmills, Morrocan Nightclubs, Mountain Climbers and some stretching.

The Four Corners:

1. MERKINS, FLUTTERS  AND SQUATS

2. WIDE ARM MERKINS, LBC AND MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS

3. DIAMOND MERKINS, BB SITUPS AND CALF RAISES

4. CDD, AMERICAN HAMMERS AND BOX CUTTERS

We did 3 rounds starting with 10 reps of  each exercise and returning to the middle for 5 burpees each time. Round two was 15 reps and round three 20 reps.

The four braved the cold and took on this beatdown with only minimal mumblechatter.

We ended with COT

Thanks to Triple Lindy for the opportunity to lead.

 

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Power of Ranch

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Another split Q for two IR guys: Ruby Slippers (restricted arm movement) and Harry Carry (restricted jumping-related exercises).  Total of eight pax in attendance.

Ruby started and did:
Took the PAX to the front of the school for some leg work. Planned 4 laps around the car rider loop with an exercise to be completed in each turn of the loop. At the completion of a lap the PAX were instructed to head to the benches from some Bulgarian Split Squats and Step Ups.  Here was the flow:  Lap 1 – 10 Jump Squats in every turn and then complete 15 BSSs per leg and 15 Step Ups per leg,  Lap 2 – 10 Jumping Lunges in every turn and the complete 15 BSSs per leg and 15 Step Ups per leg,  Lap 3 – 10 Squats in every turn and then complete 15 BSSs per leg and 15 Step Ups per leg,  Lap 4 –  10 Alt. Lunges in every turn and then complete 15 BSSs per leg and 15 Step Ups per leg.  Legs were definitely pumped after those 4 laps.  The PAX were passed on to HarryCarry for more torture.

Harry Carry (focus on arms) :
Thang 2.1: grab a bench and derkins (20X IC)

Thang 2.2: Suffer in place:
Pax split into two groups (P1 & P2): half ‘suffer in place’ while the other half do the exercise noted for 1 minute straight.
Suffragettes do Low plank, Exercisers do Merkins
Suffragettes do wall sit, Exercisers do bobby hurleys
Suffragettes do Balls to the wall, Exercisers do leg lifts
pax swap places and we go through the above again.

Thang 2.3: Fish tracks
move forward per the below, then stop and do exercise noted
bear crawl – merkins
crab walk – LBCs

Run to COT and do Big Boy Sit ups and mak tar jais. Fini.
Prayers for Senator who has since contracted COVID.

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F3 The Fort – Adopt a Highway (#2)

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****March 5th 2022- 7:45am – 8:00am****

Men,

We have officially signed up for the Adopt-A-Highway Litter pick-up program.  Our adopted Highway is US21 from Peachstand south to Sutton Rd. (2 miles). We will have a sign installed to promote this section of the highway.  We are encouraged to complete 4 pick-ups a year (once a quarter).  All supplies will be provided.  All we need to do is show up.  The SC DOT will come out and pick up our bags along the route after completion.

**Our NEXT Clean-up date is tentatively scheduled for March 5th. (start time )  7:45 am – 8:00am**. There is no time expectation for participation.  Stay as long as needed or head out early.  Modify as needed. Plan for 2 hours if you complete the 1-mile loop.  We split up into two groups last time and met at the halfway point.

We will begin at the Peachstand (rear of the building) and coordinate.  I have 30 vests and all supplies.

Fogerty will be the main contact for this event over the next two years.

Here are some of the logistics:

• Make sure your group knows that in case of bad weather the cleanup will be postponed. Litter collection should never be done in the dark or in bad weather.
• Notify local news media who may have an interest in publicizing your group’s activities. • Remind your group of the appropriate clothing. Long pants and long-sleeved shirts and sturdy shoes help avoid scratches and irritation from poisonous plants. Light or brightly colored clothing will make them easily visible to passing traffic.
• Be sure you have all the materials and supplies you’ll need beforehand, including first aid kits.
• Check with members of your group to be aware of any allergies that might be important (such as bee-stings, etc).
• Work out a plan for what you will do in the event of an emergency. Find out what the quickest route to the hospital is.
• Park vehicles at both ends of the adopted section.

• Volunteers must be at least 13 years old to participate in Adopt-A-Highway cleanups. Children under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult on all Adopt-A-Highway cleanups.

The state does provide adopt-a-highway orange and blue bags.  Orange bags are for trash and blue bags are for recyclables if you want to recycle.  Your group is also provided with orange safety vests.   We do require four pickups every year, usually once every quarter.  All that is needed to be done after trash is picked up is to call or email me and I will send one of our crews to pick up the bags.

It is volunteers like you who are going to make a difference by speaking up and doing what they can to help their community.  Please let me know If you have any questions, I will be glad to assist you.

Thank you,

Sherry J. Johnson
Administrative Specialist/
Adopt-A-Highway Coordinator
SC Department of Transportation
803-327-6186 O I 803-327-6184 F
JohnsonSJ@scdot.org

District Four Maintenance
338 Robertson Road West
Rock Hill, SC 29730

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The Bradley and Hey Buddy WODs

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First Honey Badger of the year – and so far the hardest.

Bradley

On January 3, 2010, while on a dismounted area reconnaissance patrol in the vicinity of Badvan village, his 13-man platoon-sized element was attacked by indirect mortar fire and an improvised explosive device. The initial attack threw an Airman and a Soldier into an adjacent creek, critically wounding the Airman and mortally wounding the Soldier. A second Soldier was mortally wounded and thrown 200 meters across the village by the blast. Airman Smith, without regard to his own safety, immediately rushed from his covered position, and into the waist-high water of the creek to save his fellow Airman and recover the killed Soldier. After moving the victims of the improvised explosive device attack to the Casualty Collection Point, Airman Smith volunteered to retrieve the soldier thrown across the village. Determined to never leave a comrade behind, Airman Smith proceeded at extreme risk, and without regard to his personal safety, along the eastern edge of the village to the Soldier’s remains. Airman Smith retrieved the fallen Soldier and began maneuvering back through the village toward the extraction site. Airman Smith waded back through the waist-high creek and proceeded toward the Casualty Collection Point. Upon arrival, a second Improvised Explosive Device detonated, killing Airman Smith and the platoon medic instantly.

10 Rounds For TIme

100 meter Sprint

10 Pull-Ups

100 meter Sprint

10 Burpees

30 seconds Rest

 

We finished the Bradley with twenty or so much minutes to spare, so we jumped into the second planned hero WOD on the agenda.

Hey Buddy WOD

This hero workout is dedicated to Patrolman Christopher Mark Goodell of Waldwick, NJ, who died on July 17, 2014, due to a collision between a truck and his stationary unmarked police car. Chris’ badge number was 38, hence the 38 total repetitions per round (10/10/10/8). The 5 rounds represent the 5 years he served as an officer. Chris specifically liked running and bodyweight movements. “Hey Buddy” was Chris’ signature greeting.

250M Run (Buy-In)

5 Rounds: 

10x Lunges

10x Air Squats 

10x Sit Ups

8x Burpees

250M Run (Buy-Out)

 

’Twas an honor to lead this morning. Bonus was seeing Tube Sock after a few years.

Punch List out.

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1st Annual The Fort Weight Loss Challenge

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The weight-loss challenge for 2022 has been established to create some focus on the Queen.  The goal is fellowship, accountability, support, discipline, and a little motivation.  Pax will depart on a 90-day journey beginning January 3rd, 2022, and ending on approximately April 2nd or 3rd.

There will be a buy-in and payouts to the top 3 places – determined by “percentage of weight loss”.   Uhaul has agreed to be the holder of the buy-in with a tracking spreadsheet created for each pax to help monitor their progress.  Good Luck Pax!

T-Claps to Uhaul for assisting with this endeavor!

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QSource 2022.01

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Greetings and happy new year.  For QSource this year I’m going to attempt putting together short articles on topics from our fellow pax around The Fort.  They will be for you to digest and discuss as you go about your week.  So, for the first week, I am volunteering as tribute to guide this effort and open myself (and this approach) up to criticism.  The first topic is disruption, which seems befitting as this is the first step in a new direction.  I’m going to try to convince you that disruption is not only a prerequisite in the process of improving one’s life but a basic necessity of life.

If we explore our existence from the basic levels, we can find some things that are necessary for our own survival which may not be self-evident.  Observing the world around us, we see all objects in the world on an endless timeline of actions/reactions that are both completely random and completely predictable all at the same time (chaos theory).  Then there is life.  With life comes a stored memory of these actions and reactions which will dictate how behavior is changed (adaptation) and how life changes through the generations (evolution).  In the same way, we need proper conditions conducive to life (food, water, shelter), life also needs something to adapt to or it can not be called life at all.  Therefore, the status quo is not only “less desirable” it is a hostile condition that renders life useless and leads to self-destructive behavior.  It may be the reason why “I’m fine” is both true and everything but.

As a Control Systems Engineer, I deal with measurement and control on a fundamental level to the extent that I see it in everything (feedback).  Because we can not learn anything about a process while it is at steady-state (read: status quo), we have to inject a disturbance (read: disruption) in order to see how the system behaves.  Only then will we learn anything, and only then will see if the system is capable of handling the process.  Only with disruption will you ever know of competence, which some psychologists are now seeing as a basic psychological need:  “Competence concerns the experience of effectiveness and mastery. It becomes satisfied as one capably engages in activities and experiences opportunities for using and extending skills and expertise. When frustrated, one experiences a sense of ineffectiveness or even failure and helplessness.”  Link

Let me give you a metaphor.  Let’s say you try to develop the ability to do a handstand.  Your entire muscle chain from your fingers to your hip flexors will develop in the process, because you will use every muscle to help you stabilize.  Your muscles will get stronger, your nervous system will develop, and your balance will improve.  With practice, you will learn how to balance with less and less effort.  This will eliminate the need for muscle recruitment and lead to atrophy… unless you don’t stop at just a handstand.  We can not become intoxicated with the pride of holding a longer handstand when it is at the cost of your overall capability.  The skill is a basic practice that is helping to become more competent at the simple activity of moving and controlling one’s own body.  The disruption that instigated the need to do handstands needs to be replaced with a new disruption.  You must now learn to walk on your hands, then walk up stairs on your hands, etc.

Because we know that disruption is needed for life, we now have to figure out how to use disruption to “influence movement to advantage”.  That’s where you, dear reader, come in to play.  Due to our own shortsightedness or perhaps even willful ignorance, we can often not see our own need for disruption or perhaps the proper disruption that precedes advantage.  Advantage is a “superior circumstance” that is not defined by our own feeble senses or fickle emotions, but by the community as a whole.  Advantage is any condition that promotes the health of all life that is influenced and helps all things thrive.  This unconditional service to all life (of which we are a part) is what is defined as love.  In other words, love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (Cor13:7)

As a leader, we must be constantly using disruption to increase competence and seek advantage, but it can not stop.  We must constantly be challenging the status quo and asking others to do the same for the health of our society.  Give them a reason.

 

Cultivate virtue in yourself,
And it will be true.
Cultivate virtue in the family,
And it will be overflowing.
Cultivate virtue in the town,
And it will be lasting.
Cultivate virtue in the country,
And it will be abundant.
Cultivate virtue in the world,
And it will be universal.

Therefore:
See others as yourself.
See families as your family.
See towns as your town.
See countries as your country.
See worlds as your world.

~Tao Te Ching

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Pantheon Party of 4

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YHC rolled into Pantheon about 10 till 5:15 to find Slapshot cooling down from doing what he does at ungodly hours of the morning. Shortly after 38 Special pulled up and there was some mumblechatter until 5:14 and we could see Flounder rolling up on a bicycle to make 4 PAX

We promptly began, YHC disclaimed the bunch and we started a warmup right there with the following:

Windmills

Cherry Pickers

Plank Position- Honeymooners and Downward Dogs, stretched out the dogs considerably

SSH

Low and Slow Squats

Moroccan Night Clubs

Cyclops

After warm up we moseyed over to the bike racks and I told the PAX the plan

DORA

We broke up into two teams, plan would have been to break up into two teams regardless of PAX showing. Point is to keep the group together in cadence to ensure proper form, picked that up from Boss Hog a couple weeks ago and loved the idea

Job was to complete the following:

100 Merkins

200 Dips

300 Squats

Team 1 PAX began on the Merkins and Team 2 went off to run a lap (Small lap around parking lot)

When Team 2 returned we picked up where team 1 left off and continued through the progression.

Once completed we Moseyed back to the front of the parking lot where a series of cones were set up for a series of exercises making our way across the parking lot.

At first cone 5 burpees OYO then we jogged to 2nd cone where we did 5 more burpees, then we lung walked to 3rd cone where we did 5 more burpees, next we bear crawled to the next cone did 5 more burpees and finally broad jump burpeed to the final cone where we finished with 5 more burpees

Last challenge was at the Ampitheatre, quick mosey over to the base and YHC explained the challenge.

Starting at bottom of hill we did 3 Worst Merkins Ever

Moving up to 2nd, 3rd, and 4th levels of Ampitheatre we did 10 big boys at each level and then finally did 30 monkey humpers

Mosey back to shovel flag for 2 minutes of Mary

Hello Dollies and the lowest hurdle ever (stretch)

Fishsticks joined us then, he was running the streets of TC for the fun of it and we think using Drones to spy on us 🙂 j/k

YHC shared a message I have picked up from David Goggins “Can’t Hurt Me” about hardening our bodies and minds to prepare for the next inevitable obstacle, challenge, trial etc. To do this we need Discipline not Motivation, which is fleeting.

Flounder shared a new year challenge to re-engage, re-commit to being the best men we can be and getting back into good habits like spending time in the Word.

Prayers, Praises and Announcements were said and then YHC worked in the namorama I had temporarily forgotten.

Great Morning, Aye

 

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Loops in the Dark

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A thunderstorm with high winds rolled through The Fort around 0200hrs and woke YHC. As I sat in the parking lot at 0509hrs, I began to wonder if it had done the same to other PAX, and that I may be running alone this morning.

I didn’t have to fret long, as a rush of vehicles and one running Band Camp ascended upon the AO.

A total of 8 PAX started the day off right with the Pledge of Alliance at 0514hrs. A disclaimer was given and we began warm ups with:
20 SSH IC
10 Tappy Taps IC
10 LSS IC
Then we ran from Veterans Park, up Main Street, took a right on 160 and ran to Unity Street.

The Thang
RUn a series of expanding “loops” in the Whiteville Park neighborhood, with varying exercises assigned to each loop.
Loop 1 – Run down Unity St, left on Elliot St, left on Springs St and left on 160. 10 Merkins at every corner.
Loop 2 – Run down Unity St, left on Leroy St, left on Springs St and left on 160. 10 Sumo Squats at every corner.
Loop 3 – Run down Unity St, left on Hill St, left on Springs St and left on 160. 10 Wide Armed Merkins at every corner.
Loop 4 – Run down Unity St, left on Oak St, left on Springs St and left on 160. 10 CDD at every corner.
Loop 5 – Run down Unity St, left on Elliot St, left on Springs St and left on 160. 10 Monkey Humpers at every corner.

The established neighborhood can be pretty dark in the gloom, but all PAX were able to push themselves and others (as a few partnered up). 4 miles was the goal and most PAX got them all in. 

We all met back at CoT at 0600hrs for announcements, prayers and praises.

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Bushy-Co-Q

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Six pax for the Bushwood bootcamp on this REMARKABLY PLEASANT morning on December 29th.

The Q was shared by Ruby and HarryCarry, both of which are recovering from injuries so we Q’d what we could actually do.

Started with Ruby: focus on legs/running and core.
Pax started at the top of the hill on the back side of the school. Set-up a starting line at the top of the hill with 5 stations approx. 20 yards apart traveling down the hill. At the starting line PAX had to complete 25 squats and then would travel down the hill to the next station. There was a core exercise and a mode of transportation back up the hill to the starting line written at each station. Here’s the flow: Starting Line = 25 squats, Station #1 = 30 LBCs & Broad Jump back to the starting line to complete 25 squats, Station #2 = 30 Flutters(counting 1 leg only) & Apollo Ono back to the starting line to complete 25 squats, Station #3 = 30 Freddy Mercury’s(count 1 side only) & Lunge Walk back to the starting line to complete 25 squats, Station #4 = 30 Gas Pumpers & NUR back to the starting line to complete 25 squats, Station #5 = 30 American Hammers(count 1 side only) & RUN back to the starting line to complete 25 squats.

BREAK BREAK BREAK: Let the record show NUR was actually found to be written as “NER” on the pavement. 🙂

Hand off to HarryCarry: focus on arms. 

Thang 2.1 = Bench work
pax at benches and do: Step ups (10x per leg); Derkins; Butt-touch squats; Incline Merkins; Dips; calf raises (all 10X IC).

Thang 2.2: Prison Yard Burpees
Four cones about 15′ apart, in a square.  Start at cone 1 and do SIX burpees, then bear crawl to cone 2 and do FIVE burpees; bc to next cone do FOUR burpees, et cetera to ONE burpee.  It’s only 21 burpees in total.

Thang 2.3: Pass the Ammunition
Pax plank on a curb, approximately arm’s length apart.  Pax do three curb merkins and then:
pass a cinder block down the line while still in curb-plank, pass it back to the beginning pax and repeat curb merkins. repeat until burned/pax drop out.

Thang 2.4: Pull up bars
NOTE: poor excuse for pull bars at CRHS, but we made due.
Pax on bar, do 10 pull ups, we cycled the pax through (some did plank or dips while waiting for the bar to open up.  Then we did 10 toes to bar.  Same cycle through.

Fini.  Run back to COT, with the  cinder block getting handed off among the Pax.

COT: Prayers/Praises.  All Pax, led by Ruby, named something they praised for in 2021.

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B.L.O.C.K P.A.R.T.Y

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7 men shunned the fartsack and tackled Block Party this glorious December morning. Disclaimer was disclaimed, a brief warmup was performed (SSHs, Low Slow Squats, and Imperial Walkers) then we were off. Here’s what we did:

  • Bat Wings – 20 forward arm circles, 20 backwards arm circles, 20 seal claps, 20 overhead claps – all in cadence)
  • LBCs – 20 (IC)
  • Outlaws – 15 (IC) left, 15 (IC) right
  • Carolina Dry Docks – 20 (IC)
  • Kraken Burpees – 20
  • Plank Destroyer – Begin in Plank position, perform a Makhtar N’Diaye ending back in Plank position, perform a Merkin, perform alternating Shoulder Taps, perform a Plank Jack. Back to your feet. 11 rounds
  • American Hammers – 15 (IC)
  • Rosalitas – 20 (IC)
  • Tempo Merkins – 10 (IC)
  • Y-rises – 20 (IC)

We ran from the park to Fort Mill Animal Hospital, to Fort Mill Town Hall, to First Baptist, to Fort Mill PD and repeated the loop twice  we added the Clebourne loop and one last trip up and down Main to finish with 2.36 miles.

NMM

Thanks for the opportunity to Q, Kermit. It is always an honor to lead the #HIM of the region and meet a couple new guys. Welcome back, Sawdust and pleasure to have our Charleston brother, Big Diff in the house. Great push this morning Badlands and Seamstress.
I teased this workout with low mileage and new exercises. I’m now feeling all the chest and shoulder work.
As we approach the new year, what are you planning to work on? Weight loss? A new job? What is the one thing you have put off year after year? What have you shelved because of fear of the unknown, lack of money, or perceived lack of experience? Why not try it in 2022? Worst case scenario- you learn something. Stop asking what if it doesn’t work out and start asking what if it did. You don’t want to look back on it and say I wish I would have. Don’t live with regret. Try and see.

-Italian Job

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