80s Rock Block at The Ballroom

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5 men took a trip down memory lane at The Ballroom this morning for an 80s music-themed beatdown. Here’s what we did.

The Thang

  • 10 Low Slow Squats (IC)
  • 10 Imperial Walkers (IC)
  • 10 Seal Claps (IC)

Mosey to front of school

Perform the first exercise until you hear the keyword. At the keyword, you perform the second exercise, then back to the first.

Song 1 – “Who Can it Be Now” – Men at Work

  • Exercise 1 – Plank, exercise 2 – Plank Jack every time you hear “Who can it be” (13 Plank Jacks)
  • Mosey around the lot

Song 2 – “Your Love” – The Outfield

  • Moroccan Night Clubs, Overhead claps when you hear “Your Love” (21 Overhead Claps)
  • Mosey around the lot

Song 3 – “Jessie’s Girl” – Rick Springfield

  • American Hammers, Big Boy Situps when you hear “Jessie” (28 Big Boys)
  • Mosey around the lot

Song 4 – “867-5309/Jenny” – Tommy Tutone

  • SSHs, Burpees each time you hear “867-5309” (24 Burpees)
  • Mosey around the lot

Song 5 – “You Spin Me Right Round” – Dead or Alive

  • People’s Chair, Calf Raises on every “Spin me” (10 Calf Raises)
  • Mosey around the lot

Song 6 – “Take on Me” – A-Ha

  • Flutters, Freddies every “Take on Me” (16 Freddies)

Song 7 – “Down Under” – Men at Work

  • Dip position up, Dip position down on every “Down Under” (3 Dips)

Song 8 – “Another One Bites The Dust” – Queen

  • Hold People’s Chair, Knee Tar Jais on every “Bites the dust” (18 Knee Tar Jais)

Song 9 – “Roxanne” – The Police

  • Mountain Climbers, Merkins on every “Roxanne” (26 Merkins)

NMM

Thank you, Drop Thrill for the opportunity to lead this morning. Today’s workout was built to burn out one body part at a time. We didn’t cover much ground, but if you’re not sore later today, I’d be surprised.

As a reminder, F3 open to ALL men. We welcome men of all races, faiths, political views, income levels, sizes, ages, abilities, & sexual orientation. We respect differences even when we don’t understand them and cast no judgment. Our willingness to get better unites us. All means ALL!

Let’s continue to give away what was first given to us. All men need an outlet like this and friends like our brothers. F3 is a game changer. Let’s keep the ball rolling. I’m convinced we can change the world, one man at a time.

Aye!

Italian Job

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Broke loose at Footloose

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Footloose = Hill options. You don’t think so? I disagree.
28 degrees on this crisp Thursday morning in our once Mill town for 9 of us to converge at Footiest of all Looses…yeah, it doesn’t work well for this one. Anyways

Disclaimer and look we even have Crop Duster with us…yeah, he’s definitely lost.

Run to Minnow Pond AO
SSH / Butt Kickers

5 Burpees & 10 Merkins

Run up the hill to the parking lot on the right.
15 Squats & 20 Peter Parkers

Run down the hill and back up
25 Merkins & 30 LBCs

Run down the hill and over to the FM COG lot (the really nice lot)
25 Bobby Hurley’s / 20 Flutters I/C

Run up the adjacent hill and back down
15 Mountain Climbers I/C & 10 CDD I/C

Run up the adjacent hill and back down
5 Burpees

To the lot across the street, the other really nice one, for a ladder of sorts
1 Squat Jump on one end and 5 Burpees on the other with running in between
2 Squat Jumps & 4 Burpees
3 Squat Jumps & 3 Burpees
4 Squat Jumps & 2 Burpees
5 Squat Jumps & 1 Burpee

Back to COT

Thank You for entertaining me.
SYITG
Maximus

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Olaf’s in CHARGE at Bushwood

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The weather was clear but brisk and Uhaul was kind enough to provide everyone with some sweet pre-workout tunes to get the mood set. 0514 was the time so a one minute call was made by YHC. 0515 disclaimer was disclaimed in an energetic fashion then surprisingly 9 other men followed YHC on a quick mosey to the first of very many cones for the first exercise. All exercises were performed to a count of 10. Most in cadence.
exercises are as listed below:
SSH
Hand release merkins
Suicide squats
Chacha merkins
V-ups
Plank jacks
Burpees
Kryptonite night clubs
Brake dance merkins
Jump squats
Peter Parkers
Jump lunges
Imperial walkers lead by Grinder
Burpees (yes again)
8 count body bag builders

After we had gone through the exercise nice and easy the first time it was time to get uncomfortable. To push everyone to get better while not abandoning the 6 I explained to the PAX how we’re going to play “charge”.
Rules are same as always. Show to know. Needless to say the mumble chatter disappeared during the game.

TCLAPS to Grinder for stepping up and leading the imperial walkers.

Greatful for all of the PAX in attendance even the ones that went with hardwood just to see Tesch workout shirtless.

Thank you Ltrain for the opportunity to lead.

Stay frosty my friends
Olaf

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Drishti

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6 PAX in the rainy gloom moved over to the awning of the pyramid building for some Broga.

I lead some movements that required little hands on the ground to keep us from getting too wet:
Volcano Pose
Standing forward bend
Triangle
Extended Side Angle
Warrior 1
Warrior 2
Warrior 3
And a little Vinyasa flow through Surya Namaskar A

Experimented with leading out front and mirroring (e.g., I used my right foot, but called left to match the PAX). I prefaced it by saying: “if I mess up, do what I do, not what I say.” Which is pretty much happens when we’re leading anyway, right?

Bass lead the run portion:

Returned to COT for some more of Surya Namaskar A during the last few minutes prior to 0600.

A thought for today on Warrior 2. A “drishti” is a focal point that you gaze at over your middle finger in Warrior 2. The visual focus brings the pose into physical focus. What’s your drishti when you’re at your computer later today? Or right now reading this? Is your visual focus assisting your body’s focus? Your mind’s focus? Your spirit’s focus?

Do you want it to?

Thanks Body Wash for the opportunity to lead

—
Band Camp dismissed

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Lucky Jokers, My Calves Hurt

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8 HIMs reported to Varsity this morning, undeterred by the threat of cold weather and rain. We met at 0515 at the front entry awning of Nation Ford High School and promptly shared the requisite disclaimer, followed by a warmup.

We did some SSHs and then a bunch of planks, honey-mooners, downward dogs, and shoulder taps, and then I explained the game.

I decided to revise my deck of pain workout from The Armory to be used at Varsity, and I thought it worked out great.

We each took turns picking cards from the deck to determine what exercise and number of reps we would do…

Number of reps was determined by the face value of the card drawn, 2-13.

Spades = Jump Squats

Diamonds = Bench Dips

Clubs = Peter Parkers

Hearts = Derkins

Aces = 10 Burpees

Jokers = 100 SSH

We made it through the whole deck with about 7 minutes to spare, so you guessed it… Mary.

Each of us got a turn to pick an ab exercise, and we finished right at 0600 in time for COT.

Count-o-rama, Name-o-rama, and ended with prayers and praises.

Kelbasa shared a story with the group about a therapy patient he met who was a Green Beret in Korea and Vietnam who had a good attitude and kept moving even through a Covid diagnosis.

Prayers for those affected by Corona, and other needs. Many of us are battling mental and emotional demons, every day. Some are open about it, some have a harder time sharing our struggles. Never forget that sometimes we are the light or the rock for others around us, even if we don’t realize it. Post for eachother!

Thanks Splinter for the opportunity to lead this morning, I wouldn’t rather have shared this cold and gloomy morning with anyone else!

 

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Sore legs, laps, and laughter

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Due to scheduler difficulties, YHC didn’t know about this Q until a day or two before, which is fine, because there’s so darn much a guy can do in a Q at an AO that’s as diverse as the Ranch

Unfortunately, I was about 5 minutes late. I didn’t give myself enough margin this morning, my car was coated in ice and I’d not been over I77 on 160 in quite a while, and found out that those lights are awful now.  Thankfully Ruby Slippers was warming everyone up already, and I didn’t get much ridicule, and the Q reigns were handed over with a smile.

More warmup

Quick mosey around the parking lot followed by 10x SSH and 10x Low Slow Squat. Now I’m warm enough

The thang

Mosey north around to the traffic circle and take the long way to the school entrance. Everyone grabs a pillar for support.  Here we did some balance and strength exercises focusing on muscles that don’t get a lot of use for F3ers. This may sound a bit similar to my Ballroom Q earlier this week, and that’s because it is.  After a set of leg exercises, we took a full lap.

Each exercise was done on each leg for an OYO count of 30, except the last round in which we did 40 each leg. Each exercises is about keeping the leg up the entire time, and bouncing it as close to the maximum height achievable. The goal is to minimize the use of inertia gained from swinging your leg from vertical.

Round 1
  1. Knee at waist level, toes pointed down (knees at 90º angle), bounce knee up as high as possible
  2. Knee again at waist level, snap kick out, keep knee high
Round 2
  1. Knee bounces from above
  2. Kicks from above
  3. Leg straight out to the side, toe pulled up and turned inside (toward the ground), heel high. Raise as high as possible
Round 3
  1. Knee bounces from above
  2. Kicks from above
  3. Straight leg raises to the side from above
  4. Leg straight toes down, raising as high as possible directly behind
  5. Leg straight out front, turning out at the femur so the knee points as far away from center as possible, foot cocked out even farther outside and toe up. Raise up straight as high as possible
Round 4

Same as round 3, but with 40 count

After round 4 there was just enough time to mosey back to CoT

CoT

Announcements, Dam2Dam and teased the Yeti some more

Praises and prayers offered

NMM

During CoT I was pretty frank about what was going on with me yesterday and this morning. I was spiritually devastated by what happened at the capital… more so than when I saw the Trade Centers being hit with 747s 20 years ago. At a guess I’d have to say that I never considered myself to be all that safe in everyday life, but I always believed that our nation throughout all of the insanity and cult like worship of certain people over the years would be tempered and stronger for it.

But yesterday, seeing the injustice, the incitement to sedition, and then actual sedition, with no attempt to stop it… It hit harder than my worst break up. I was so affected that I wasn’t able to eat dinner last night (which, for a fellow of my size, is a pretty big deal).

I spent a lot of time trying to calm myself yesterday through prayer and meditation.  A few times I thought I had a handle on it and let God take the stress and concern. Lol, not so much…. I had to laugh, a lot, when I was laying in bed at 1950 last night as the M was trying to escape the 2.0’s room after bedtime, and my watch buzzed with this message:

I nearly called Ruby Slippers to tell him I couldn’t make it this morning. I knew I was going to be exhausted this morning. I’m sore in many muscle groups already. I didn’t think there was any way I could stand up and be a leader this morning.

But instead I prayed some more, and got a good night’s sleep. I showed up (late) and was able to enjoy some time with some great F3 brothers.

Fantastic mumble chatter this morning. The thing I remember most is being reminded  (3rd time this week) that I need to catch up on Cobra Kai.

I have to continue to remember that this world isn’t owned by me. My safety isn’t promised in any way. I’m blessed beyond measure.  My faith in God should be directing me to live as if nothing I have is mine. The evil one still owns this world and his corruption is everywhere.

Despite that, Jesus paid for my sins and I know where I’m headed when my time is up. My job is to remain well equipped for the fights that come my way.

My heart still hurts for this nation, and probably will continue to ache even if justice is ever served…

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Upside Down

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SkyQ was stirring the Site Q’s spirit 30 days ago, suggesting he needed to loop YHC in for a New Year’s Eve Q at The Ranch.  Little did he know 12/31 happens to be my birthday, so there was no way I could pass up the invite. 12 pax posted in the damp (but not rainy) Gloom to make it official.

The Thang

Warm up yog around parking lot

Extended COP — familiar set of exercises interspersed after every two with increasing rounds of Burpees, starting with 2 and increasing by 2 each round up to 12

Mosey to the picnic tables and partner up

Partner 1 = 12 Derkins + Partner 2 = Balls to the Wall  / Flapjack (3 rounds)
Partner 1 = 12 Bombjacks + Partner 2 = People’s Chair / Flapjack (3 rounds)
Partner 1 = Donkey kicks + Partner 2 = Plank / Flapjack (3 rounds)

Mosey to soccer field and muster up

The next series will involve moving down and back across the soccer field…BUT…in recognition that 2020 was a year when “holding ground” qualifies as success, the objective is to make the trek with backwards or sideways moves (ie, Carioca, NUR, Crawl bear, Backward or sideways lunge,  side shuffle).  The only acceptable method forward is Bear Crawl)

We proceeded to move back and forth across the field and each down/back was marked with a set of Burpees declining by 2 with each series (10-8-6-4-2).  Final traverse for all pax was a Bear crawl

Circle up for Mary

Series of core exercises, capped off with Superman rendition of Happy Birthday song courtesy of JWOW and Backdraft.

Mosey home

COT

Thank you to Ruby Slippers for the opportunity to tie off 2020 —  it was truly an honor to be in The Gloom IN PERSON with the pax to finish the strangest year any of us have experienced.

It was an upside down year given that no one could have foreseen a pandemic coming.  Or a stock market rally in the aftermath.  Or legalization of pot in some states along with criminalization of holiday family gatherings.

This upside down and backwards orientation aligns perfectly with the Gospel and sets the stage for a new approach to 2021.  I’ll pick my One Word for 2021 (Now) and review 2020 and make plans for 2021…all the things that I would typically DO in prior years.  But 2020 has taught me that NONE of these matter unless they’re connected to the will of my Creator.  Rather than focus my energies on what I’m doing, I first need to create space for what He’s doing…and then fit my part in as accompaniment ( I think that might be a musical term, Band Camp?).

Thanks to the pax who posted to help me celebrate the completion of my 54th year on the Big Ball.  And thank you to all pax of The Fort for carrying me and each other through an upside down year.

Cheers!

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5

The Bubble Meets Cindy

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Today, after the pre-ruck, 11 Pax, five of whom did the “double,”  Met Cindy for a bit of a beat down.  Congrats to those that doubled down!!

The thang:

Pretty simple, the Pax meandered around Baxter Village un and down stairs stopping here and there for 1) 20 or 10 curls, 2) 20 or 10 prone presses, 3) 20 or 10 squats and 4) 20 or 10 rows, each arm.  The Pax completed four rounds with a lot of walking with their Cindy or ruck.

Moleskin – we all have burdens, but with the help of others and faith in the Sky Q our burdens will be lessened.

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Bulgarian 7-10 Split

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11 PAX gathered in the crisp gloom.

Disclaimer was given.

Hard charge out of the gate.
With the ageless Straight-Up and Harry Carey moving quickly behind YHC, we hit the first mile at 6:56/min pace.

As the PAX regrouped into a circle at the Teacher Parking lot area of the elementary school, Poppins rolled his ankle. Splinter ran back to get his truck and transported Poppins to his vehicle. Unfortunately, he was done for the day.

Warm-Up:
Yoga
Merkins
Shoulder Tap
SSH
Burpees 10 in cadence
IW
HW
Yoga

Thang:
Mosey toward the “black-top” area between the schools and find a bench

Bulgarian Split Squats
-10 each leg
-10 more each leg
-10 more each leg (this was a crowd favorite)
Step Ups
-10 each leg
-10 more each leg
Bulgarian Split Squats
-10 in cadence each leg (this confirmed their crowd favorite status)
-10 more in cadence each leg
Box Jumps – 10

Moved to the track-ish area
Lined up on the front line
Bear Crawl across the track
Crawl Bear back
15 burpees in cadence
Lunge Walk to the other side
Burpee-Broad Jump back
Some Yoga

11s w/
1 Merkins – 10 Shoulder Taps
got to 5 merkins and 6 shoulder taps

Moved back to benches
more Bulgarian Split Squats
– 10 in cadence each leg
– 10 more in cadence each leg
– (crowd favorite status confirmed)

Mosey to COT
Finished the 11s
Freddie Mercuries
Some Yoga to close us out

Prayers for:
– Poppins’s ankle
– blessing of science and medicine
– strength for those facing COVID
– the Spirit to remind us this isn’t our permanent home

NMM:

Make someone, just one person, feel special today

Thanks Long Duck for the opportunity to lead.
—
Band Camp Dismissed

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Pyramid attempt at Fire Ant

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On Christmas Eve, Divac introduced us to the way he was going to run The Fire Ant AO now that he is in charge. And guess what, it’s not for the faint of heart. That said, I had to live up to the billing.
In recent months, I’ve noticed a great way to challenge the PAX is to post the Weinke on the socials ahead of time. It also holds me accountable to planning the proper beatdown. So here goes:

Ruck 1 mile at a sub 14min/mi pace to TCES. Full disclosure, Punch List led us at a 13:37 pace…giraffe.

10 Man Makers
20 Lunges (ea leg)
30 Merkins (single ct)
40 Real Squats (you know what this means)
50 Mountain Climbers (left/right = 1)
60 LBC’s (single ct)
70 Curls
80 Peter Parkers (40 I/C) – I believe this is where the leaders ran out of time.
90 Bent Over Rows (45 I/C) – I was really looking forward to these!
100 Flutters w/ Press (50 I/C) – Surprise, Surprise. I was really, really looking forward to these.

Ruck 1 mile back to the Start Ex at a sub 14min/mi pace. We made it about .25mi and I abruptly stopped everyone for a Switzer. The new instructions were to Jail Break back to the Start Ex to complete as many Flutters/Press as you can until 0600. The leaders arrived at a 10:05 pace and a heart rate that neared, “explosive.”

COT practices with the Golden Corral bootcampers.

SYITG,
Maximus

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