“Backblasting” sans Trucker with a few Zimamiles

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10 gathered on a chilly morning.  YHC and JWOW were the first to arrive.  After JWOW got his passport stamped and was granted entry into Tega Cay, a pre-emptive stroll took place around the grounds before PAX began to trickle in.  At 1 minute before launch, a Zima sighting took place.  Once it was confirmed that no FNGs were present (there weren’t).  Disclaimers were given and off we moseyed around the ballfield to circle up.

COP – SSH x 10, Windmills x 10, Cherry Pickers x 10, Merkins x 10, Mountain Climbers x 10, Down Dog, Up Dog and a quick recovery followed by a short mosey to the First base line.

JWOW decided it would be a good idea to partner for a DORA 1-2-3 where partner #1 runs up a hill (aka Mt. Mulch) while partner #2 exercises.  The 100 was burpees (this was met with little to no approval), 200 squats (YHC’s form was subtly corrected by Geronimo – thank you, guardrail) and 300 flutters.  The climb was steep and the mulch made for fun later.

Following the DORA, PAX went to the base of Mt. Mulch where JWOW called for partner pushes – one pushing the other up the hill while the other leaned downhill against the other.  YHC was displeased when Gears decided to be especially difficult on this, but we persisted and reached the top along with all other PAX.  A lunge walk back down (carefully) Mt. Mulch and we switched positions.  After a successful round 2 of partner pushes and lunge walks, JWOW decided to call time and hand off to YHC for the second half.

We moseyed on the running path around Runde Park stopping at 4 spots along the way.

Stop #1 – Circle up for 5 burpees (because we had not done enough already), followed by a people’s chair with arms out.  While holding the people’s chair, we did 10 double count Moroccan night clubs and 10 shoulder taps in cadence. Mosey to:

Stop #2 – 4 burpees OYO

Stop #3 – 3 burpees OYO

Stops #4 & #5 – 2 burpees OYO and 1 burpee OYO

A quick 10 count was called and a mosey back to the ballfield to go “around the horn” for the main event of the second half.

YHC called for a change in partners so PAX switched up and we began a 4 corner beatdown that earned many not so subtle comments from PAX.

At each cone, PAX were to partner up and do the following:

Round 1 – 10 burpees, 20 hand slap merkins, 30 sumo squats (hands touch the ground) – rinse and repeat at cones 2, 3 & 4 for a sum total for 40 burpees, 80 hand slap merkins and 120 sumo squats.  PAX were pleased…..sort of.

Round 2 – 10 hand release hand slap merkins, 20 jumping lunges, 30 big boy sit ups – rinse and repeat at each of the 4 cones for a sum total of 40 hand release hand slap merkins, 80 jumping lunges and 120 big boy sit ups.

YHC and Cornhole strategically moved to a different cone from other PAX as “backblasting” had commenced prior to the workout ending.  Before round 2 was completed,  Zima eloquently observed that the exercises addressed opportunities for improvement: #truestory

Unfortunately, round 3 would have to be saved for another time as PAX completed round 2 at 0726.  We moseyed to the parking lot for 5 more burpess OYO and 2 minutes of Abs:

15 boxcutters in cadence

Protractor at different degrees (0 degrees was the crowd favorite)

In honor of Zima, a 30 second body destroyer was called.  0730 and COT was upon us.

Announcements – Read your newsletter – lots happening including the Yeti next weekend.

Prayers were offered for Fishstick’s Dad battling cancer, JWOW’s friend Anthony battling addictions and keeping his jesters at bay, for safe travels for Bonsai and his M this week and for families and our patience.

NMM – YHC (Q #2) was to lead a Q Source discussion following the workout and it reinforced the very thing that we must keep top of mind as to why we post.  We are, as PAX, one another’s guardrails.  We keep one another on the right path toward living 3rd and being better for those around us.  Regardless of where you are in your journey – 1st, 2nd or 3rd F’s.  Get out, post often, and plug into this great group of #HIMs.  Acceleration can not be achieved in isolation.  We go through nothing alone when we choose.

Thanks to JWOW for splitting this morning’s Q and to Smuggler for the opportunity.  YHC’s first post ever was at Alcatraz.  It was great to get back out with a fantastic group of #HIMs.

Honored,

Cyclops & JWOW

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Heads Or Tails

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Friar Tuck put it out on Slack that he needed a substitute Q for Slow Burn today. No one had responded so I figured i would take my 2nd Q in a 2 week span. Im starting my taper for my upcoming 50k next weekend and figured it would be a great way to keep moving. Before we started workout i gave Trucker a coin and told him the fate of our workout rested in his hands. Heads was Dora 1,2,3 and Tails was Baxter stairs. It was tails so we moseyed to Baxter corner beside McAllisters.

 

Warmup

Hill Billy Walkers 20

Merkins 10

Windmills 9

SSH 11

The Thang

Everyone grab a partner. One partner stays on bricks doing exercise while other runs across street up stairs across the front of building back down steps to relieve partner and flip flop.

Exercises are as follows:

Hand Release Merkins

CDD

Squats make sure hands smack the ground.

Flutter Kicks

Rosalita

Box Cutter

Monkey Humpers

Freddy Mercury

 

We ended the workout 10 minutes early for some Broga. There was so much moaning and groaning going on from the Pax that it sounded like we where in the maternity ward at the hospital. Stretching is so much overlooked and we need to do it daily especially with what we put our bodies through. A Broga only AO will be coming in the near future.

Thanks for letting a trail runner Q today Twister. We got 1.71 miles in so it was a good all around workout.

Love You Guys, Stang

 

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Guinea Pigs in The Swamp

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What does that title even mean? Well, it means that I stole a workout plan from the boys in F3 Lexington as we put a twist on the customary deck of cards. And since I wasn’t sure how much time this would take or how difficult it would be, we’d test this, Round 1, on 10 of The Fort’s faithful this Friday morning at The Swamp.

After the disclaimer, we took a mosey over to the Depot lot for some SSH & Windmills & a few stretches. We then moseyed over to the water fountain to read through the exercises and attempt to explain how this would be different from previous versions. And this is what it looked like:

We made it through about 85% of the deck and I think there is room to modify these exercises next time, too. Soooo, until that next time…

Read ya d*mn Newsletter.

Maximus

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Split Q / Shovel Flag Handoff at the Coop

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Lots of fun at the Coop on Wednesday. After a quick warm up which included 56 side straddle hops (representing 56 weeks of Punchlist’s leadership at the Coop) Punchlist delivered the first blow to the PAX.

Each Partner Wheelbarrows every other 10 yards for the length of the football field. At each 10 yard marker PAX performed that number of reps for each workout.

Endzone – Burpee Broad Jumps x 7
10 – Donkey Kicks
20 – Hand release Merkins
30 – Jump lunges
40 – Air Squats
50 – LBCs
40 – Air Squats
30 – Jump lunges
20 – Hand Release Merkins
10 – Donkey Kicks
Endzone – Burpee Broad Jumps X 7
Reverse Direction – All Together Now
Bear Crawls every 25 yards
15 Bomb Jacks at every 25 yard interval

2nd Round of Pain delivered by Kaiser

At the endzone performed a combination of exercises in cadence with the PAX
20 – Mock Tar Jays
20 seconds – Wide Arm Merkin – 6″ Hold Plank
10 – Burpees in cadence
5 sets of 10 push ups each
Run to the 50 yard line each set
Backpedal to the goal line each set

Group mozy over to the pull up bars. The bars were calling us and we answered. The pull up challenge was then initiated.

Started out with a group wall sit. Then 2 PAX would come off the line and challenge each other by doing 5 pull ups. Lots of mumble chatter erupted as each individual would get critiqued on their form. At the end of the workout New Site Q called out Old Site Q for a healthy & fun QVQ pull up contest. Group then ran back to COT to finish with very strong dose of Mary as the mumble chatter intensified.

Punchlist was honored for his leadership during the 56 weeks leading the COOP. He has truly been a strong leader to many including myself and I am honored to take the shovel flag from such a HIM!

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Dora Beatdown

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Seven years ago today I retired from the greatest police department in the world the NYCPD and  this morning I stand in the gloom with another great group of men that I had the privilege of leading in a Dora Beatdown and some added exercises that filled in our time at the end.

The brisk morning started with a mousey around the NAFO parking lot. We warmed up with some SSH, Tappy Taps, Windmills and Imperial Walkers.

The Dora consisted of:

100 Merkins

200 BBsitups

300 Squats

after that to fill in the time we did 25 knee ups, 25 flutters, 25 burpees, 25 LBC, 10 gaspumper and we held six inch plank several times to finish our beatdown.

COT followed…..we had 6 Bootcampers and 6 runners that split off after Broga

 

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Board of pain, faraway fences and bat flipper bear crawls

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Nearly 3 miles were achieved by some, significantly less by others (Slash & UHaul always chose Bear Crawls…).  Some very solid mumblechatter…  A little flatulence…  Short chat on Lent and the presence of Catholics in Fort Mill…  Probable hair styles for the Son of God…  All in all it was a pretty eventful morning…

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Runnin’ Long Laps at The Pond

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Minnow Pond on a brisk 35 degree morning? Sure, I’ll bite. This one’s gonna be short on content but heavy  on work. First I must say that it was good to see some of the not-so-regular guys at this edition.

We had 2 post for extra-extra credit, a few more post at 0500 for the extra credit. Finally at 0514, 10 of us made our way over to Ol’ Glory for The Pledge Of Allegiance. Have I said that I do love this tradition ‘Shanks has established.

Ok, it’s 0515 and here is your brief disclaimer to cover the bases. After that, we took off up the Massey hill just to pull a U-turn at the Church and run it back to the Minnow Pond parking lot for a little more warming up:

SSH & some 180 degree jump squats…THAT’S IT, after all, you just ran up and down that hill.

We then took off on our 1.1mi loop that we’d get more comfortable with. Again, go up the Massey hill but this time, go down to the gas station.
Post up at the gas station for our first set of exercises. Every time we stop, we’d be doing the same 3 exercises and the same number of reps.

(20) 2ct Flutters
(15) Jump Squats
(10) Hand-Release Merkins

Take off to make a R/T on Harris St
R/T on McCammon St
Straight through the light to the Founders Bank parking lot for

(20) 2ct Flutters
(15) Jump Squats
(10) Hand-Release Merkins

Take off to make a R/T on Clebourne St
R/T on Main St
Back to the Veterans Memorial flags for

(20) 2ct Flutters
(15) Jump Squats
(10) Hand-Release Merkins

So that is 1 lap and the goal is to do this repeatedly to ensure you cover the 3mi minimum but also including the exercises at each of the 3 stops on each lap.

Some of the PAX got close to 3mi. Some got over 3.5mi but all pushed and got pushed.

READ YOUR NEWSLETTER

Maximus

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F3 Mental Battle Day 2020 – 3/27/2020

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For all of F3 Nation: March 27 is a special opportunity.  Last year Miyagi and Aerobie did a huge service to F3 Nation by shedding light on mental health among men after the loss of a close friend of Miyagi.

If you are missing someone whom you’ve lost  due to mental health issues or suicide and who was an inspiration or major part of your life, lift them up and do this work out in their honor.

If you or a loved one struggle with depression, anxiety, and mental wellness, take advantage of the opportunity to lock shields with other HIM who have your back.   Work out with a special focus, having that person or that challenge on your heart.

If you’ve felt the loving hand of Sky Q as you walked through a past valley of darkness in your own life, take advantage of the opportunity to listen to another man who may be going through his own valley and wants to talk about it during or after the COT on March 27.

March 27 will be a day to celebrate our fellowship and our ability to make an individual weight into a team weight. Let’s do this thing. Looking forward to it.

Below you will find a guide or an idea how you can lead a Mental Battle workout on March 27.  You don’t have to use this guide, feel free to make up your own as you see fit.  We encourage you though to leave some time during COT to remember any Pax we have lost, family or friends lost or struggling with mental health issues.

I’ve provided body weight and also kettlebell options if you are Qing a gear workout instead of a boot camp that day.

First I provide stats in regard to mental health, then below using those numbers provide each round of exercises.

Do your normal COP warmup, then move on to the suggestions below.

9% of men in the United States have daily feelings of depression or anxiety.
33% of those men mentioned above take medication because of those feelings.
25% of those men actually spoke to a mental health professional in regard to their feelings.
85 – White men aged 85 and above have the highest rate of suicide in the United States.

9 – Turkish getups
33 – Kettlebell swings or Calf raises
25 – Curls or Big Boy (WW2) Situps
85 – Flutters

17% have a common mental disorder, e.g. depression, anxiety, phobias, etc.
43% of adults believe they have had a mental disorder at some point in life.
25% of people with eating disorders are men.
20% of people will have a diagnosable mental health condition in any given year.

17- Cleans / Flying  Squirrels
43 – American hammers
25 – Merkins
20 – Flutters

20 – Veterans commit suicide daily
75% of deaths by suicide are male
32% of Americans have anxiety disorders
36% of all psychological referrals are for men.

20- Lawnmowers / Diamond merkins
75- Rosa Litas
32- Clean and Press / Jump Squat
36- LBC’s

Some final stats to consider: In the US, 7% of adults have major depression, 17% have depression, 13% of youths aged 12-17 have major depression which equals 3.1 million.  6% of people have PTSD or 12 million.

As time allows, feel free to repeat the sets again and be sure to leave time for COT and discussion of mental health and our own personal battles.

Let’s lock shields brothers!

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter at @TheWestate and follow F3 Mental Battle at @F3Battle.

Also, on Mental Battle Day, please be sure to tag your tweets and other social media as #F3MentalBattle and #F3Battle2020.

  • The Mission of F3 is to plant, grown and serve small workout groups for the invigoration of male community leadership.

If you would like to listen to last year’s Roundtable podcast, visit:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/f3mentalbattle-3-27-19/id1218921251?i=1000431825661

or Pick Up The Six:

https://soundcloud.com/f3pickupthesix/pick-up-the-six-f3mentalbattle

Drop Thrill Out!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Thrillmania – Uno Style At JOC

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So our fearless Site Q apparently wasn’t feeling well, so he left Kenyan and I to lead the way at JOC and this is the nonsense I came up with.

Take one deck of Uno cards and use your numbers 0-9 as follows.  1-9 equals your rep and 0 = 10 reps.  Strange how we never found a 0 today.

Color determines exercise:

Blue – Merkins
Green – LBC
Yellow – Squats
Red – Lunges
Skip – Run a lap
+2 – Pick 2 exercises, 2 reps of each
+4 – All 4 exercises, 4 reps of each
Reverse – Repeat last rep, but keep going around the circle (rule change from real Uno)
Wild – Change color/exercise

It was a fun morning, got a little warm out there in the fog.  Speaking of the fog, I wonder if some Pax got lost in the fog.  Anyway, thanks Big Papi for inviting me to Q.

I’m Site Q now for The Fort’s 0630 IR Friendly/Low Intensity workout at WEP in Fort Mill Saturday’s .  Would love to have any of you Q or join us.  0630 each Saturday.

The Thrill is gone!

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Bright Colors for #F3forFaye

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Yesterday Spiderman & YHC had the realization that we were Qing at the same site today…I had the Golden Corral bootcamp which means he had the Fire Ant Ruck beat down. It’s always good to shake things up so we decided to do just that for this mornings edition.

As can be the case with our own lives, we sometimes over-complicate a workout and stray from the simple but effective model. I’ll go ahead and cut to the chase, I think this was certainly effective but it overshot simple pretty quickly. But hey, we were just looking to give the other 17 PAX that joined us an opportunity to chatter at our expense.

Enough rambling, here it is. We combined Ruckers & Boot Campers (wait, you can’t do that…oh yes we can) and split the combined group in half. We had 4 corners established covering most of the parking lot (corner of Harris Teeter to Red Bowl to the insurance office to the dog wash place). It was a large square-ish figure. Half went with Spider Man and half came with me.

Each corner had a sheet with exercises written on it but here’s the kicker, don’t just jog from one corner to another. Get on it. The ground is wet but “well lit” so you do you but GET IT.
For those present, you can remember all the fond times you had of poking the Q’s about how “things look better on paper” or “I bet these seemed easier in your head” or any number of other completely appropriate jabs that were thrown while trying to figure out the Ruck logistics but none of that matters ’cause you loved it and this is peer led (remember…we’re not professionals).

Corner 1 (with Rucks):
(5) 8-count Body Builders
(10) Squats
(15) Bent over rows

When your group is done, sprint

Corner 2 (w/o rucks):
(5) 8-count Body Builders
(10) Box Cutters
(15) Diamond Merkins
(20) Butt Kickers

When your group is done, sprint

Corner 3 (with Rucks):
(5) 8-count Body Builders
(10) Squats
(15) Bent over rows

When your group is done, sprint

Corner 4 (with Rucks):
(5) 8-count Body Builders
(10) Heels to Heavan
(15) Hand-Release Merkins
(20) Butt Kickers

Sprint back to Corner 1.

We did this full evolution about 3 times then brought the group back together for something we unknowingly stole from Tinsel (plagiarism is the finest form  of flattery, right?).
1 Merkin : 4 Shoulder Taps and we made it to 8:32 before having to cut it short for COT.

Important to remember today why we wore the bright colors. Remembering a little girl, Faye, whose life was too short but her impact will be far-reaching; to families and communities her or her family never knew.

Announcements: In the words of the eloquent Mainframe, “Read your da*n NEWSLETTER.” Hey, he’s right.

Prayers: Family members in battles for their lives. Communication in marriages. Cash’s recovery. Kids healing from broken bones.

Until Next Time.
Spiderman & Maximus

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