Know before you show…

Leave a comment

Tuesday’s are a treat here in The Fort so why should Tuesday, November 24 be any different? In an effort to ensure the PAX got their money’s worth, I decided to post the Weinke on Slack ahead of time. This gave them the choice of whether or not they wanted to make a run at it. That said, 14 PAX joined me at the Colosseum to give it a run.

Warm-up run around the drop off lanes for both schools, taking us back to the basketball hoops.
50ea I/C: SSH, Merkins (harder to actually do this than write this), Flutters

Line it up for sprints down/back: 50%, 75%, AYG

Mosey to the 1/2 wall: 25 Muscle Ups, 25 Mike Tysons, 15 get over the wall

Mosey to the back bus road. Nur up the road to the top. Run down but stop at each light pole for 10 Hand-Release Merkins, 20 Jump Squats, 30 Freddy Mercury’s (count how you wish since I tend to change my mind)

More was on the Weinke so it’ll have to wait for another day.

Loads of prayer requests and praises to be grateful for. Safe travels and for those not traveling, see you at the Convergence, Thursday at the Ranch.

Maximus

TClap |
3

A taste of The Fort TexMex Style

Leave a comment


YHC got the nod to Q one of the OG workouts in the San Antonio region since was traveling for work so here is how it went down.

0529 One minute call
0530 Introduction of visiting Q and Disclaimer
Distribution of headlamps and spare light-emitting devices
0531 Mosey down from St. Lukes’s parking lot immediately offroading into ankle break valley towards the Olmos Basin Trail. Hopefully, everyone remembers the disclaimer.

Finally found the trail and we mosey for a bit before stopping to drop off the first cone (freshly purchased the night before) where PAX were lead in 10 SSH in cadence.
This pattern of a short mosey followed by a quick exercise, Pearls on a string style, continued until we reached the soccer fields loop where the intensity was increased and more than one exercise was demonstrated for the seasoned PAX.
Then the main event was finally started. Learning to take CHARGE:
Main event consisted of a two cones forward one cone back style suicide but the difference is the ability to learn from the leading PAX’s “experience”. Everyone starts the race at the same starting point and runs past cone 1 to cone2 to complete the exercise listed at cone2. Once complete run back to cone1 to complete the exercise listed on cone1. As soon as the first man completes the exercise listed on cone1 he yells out CHARGE and everyone heads past cone3 to cone4 to complete the exercise listed on cone4. After completing the exercise on cone4 run back to cone3 to perform the listed exercise. Again the first man to complete the cone3 exercise yells out CHARGE and everyone runs past cone5 to cone6 and so the sequence goes. This type of exercise is my favorite because it allows everyone no matter the skill level the chance to be in the lead and to help the team move forward. I hope that the 9 PAX were able to get this concept given the short amount of time spent actually playing CHARGE because of YHC’s poor clock management.

The list of exercises are listed below: rep count 10 of each
SSH Side straddle Hop
CDD Carolina dry docks
Cha Cha Merkins
Peter Parkers
Burpees
Jump Lunges
Bomb Jacks
Suicide Squats
Jump Squats
Apollo Ohno
Shoulder Taps
Burpees, Yes Again
Penguins
Imperial Walkers
Bobby Hurleys
Hand Release Merkins
Plank Jacks
and the crowd favorite the 8 count body bag builders. Burpee with a plank jack.

NMM:
I apologize to the PAX for the main event being short-lived because of YHC’s lack of time management, lowlight navigation in unfamiliar terrain, and the great 2ndF mumble chatter that filled the morning air. There is a special trust/bond that exists within this great organization we call F3 that allows a complete stranger who normally lives 1200ish miles away to lead a bunch of men with whom he has spent less than a few hours with through a workout with crazy exercise names and be treated like a lifelong member. I am very grateful to Dredd and OBT and all of the many OG’s and Redwoods that helped this organization grow and continue to give it away to other men in this great nation and beyond. I believe that F3 truly is a great solution to a problem that many men don’t know existed, including myself. It was an honor to be allowed to lead you men and it’s great to see the #acceleration you #HIM are doing in growing the San Antonio region. I know you gents will continue to EH guys, plant workouts and build leaders for the invigoration of male community leadership. I expect great things from you guys and if there is anything you fellas need feel free to contact me on the nation’s slack or Twitter and I will be happy to help.
Thanks to Hannibal for the opportunity to lead and Cobains for the late backblast.

Garrett Purvis
36 “Build your guardrails out of bricks”
Olaf

@g_purve on Twitter
Olaf on Slack

TClap |
0

Spoon Feeding Instructions

Leave a comment

Learning to give clear instructions and the power of commanders intent.

Gekko was supposed to have the Q this morning but life called and he had to answer. Prayers for him.
5:15 struck and SlowJams brought out an FNG so the disclaimer was disclaimed and an overview of F3 was made.
YHC called his own number and grabbed some cones and headed towards the Home Depot for the warm-up.
Luckily I have been fortunate to get to spend some time with Tesla during the few times I show up for a PreRun at Quagmire so I learned that he had not led his VQ workout yet. So I gave him a heads up that today was his chance to practice leading a few exercises in cadence during the workout so we could all give some feedback before his big day.

YHC started the warm-up off with some SSH and some windmills then passed it over to Tesla to lead some SSH and some merkins. He did pretty well after a few corrections and will be ringing that second bell in no time.
Passed the baton over to Console to lead a few other exercises since he is fairly fresh to the game and I have missed his first couple of Q’s because of scheduling conflicts. As expected he shined like the stud he is. Way to live up to the hype and not be frightened by the thought of being compared to Tesla.

On to the Thang.
Mosey over behind Home Depot on the way to Target and get in a few seconds of peoples chair while waiting on the 6 to join.

Continue over to the Kohls parking lot for the meat and potatoes portion.
This part was supposed to be a lesson in preparation and the chaos that is unavoidable when a leader fails to convey the message clearly.
So YHC started out with no clear instructions to the PAX rather giving them just a single instruction meer moments before they needed it. The PAX were stumbling over each other because my instructions were not delivered in a clear and confident manner and there seemed to be no method to the madness. We started at one end of the parking lot and were moseying to the first street light pole performing the exercise then coming back to the starting line to perform some burpees before going to another light pole but sometimes we would come back to the starting line and other times we would just move on to the next light pole and exercise. The objective was to show how failing to communicate a plan, even a bad plan, was ineffective in achieving the mission (the current mission that I always try to achieve when leading a beatdown is to push every member of the PAX outside of their physical comfort zone while keeping everyone together as well as possible and allowing each member to not feel like a burden to the group or that they should have stayed in the fartsack).
When there is poor leadership the entire group is at the mercy of the commands of the Q. The Q is forced to either abandon the guys at the 6 or handicap the guys at the 12 in order to keep everyone on the same page. Just as in life each one of us men is at different places along our journey and therefore has different needs.

Once we finally got down to the end of the parking lot I let the PAX know my intended message for the workout and apologized for the intentional poor leadership.
Gave the PAX new clear instructions on how to proceed on the way back across the parking lot and turned them loose to go at their own pace. We spent the remainder of the time working through the exercise and encouraging each other to push ourselves to get better.

Finally, it was time to jailbreak back to the COT for Count-A-Rama, Name-A-Rama, FNG naming (welcome GuyTai), announcements, and prayers& praises.

Thank you to the men that showed up and pushed yourselves to get better. Hopefully, I was able to challenge you to look at the people that you lead and reevaluate how well you are communicating instructions to your team. Are you spoon-feeding them one bite at a time or are you laying out the buffet and letting them get after it?

Remember that those you lead are faced with many decisions every day and you want them to have the knowledge and confidence that they can make the decision without having to go into a holding pattern while they run it up the chain of command and await a response.
Set clear expectations, communicate them often, and allow your people to react and overcome.

Garrett Purvis 36
Build your guardrails out of bricks!
Olaf

Stay frosty my friends

TClap |
0

Balls of Pain to start your Thanksgiving week off right

Leave a comment

Because of technical difficulties by YHC I had no idea who had the Q this morning so as we waited for 5:15 to roll around I was frantically planning a backup beatdown just in case.
So 5:15 is when we start so without any more suspense I gave a steller disclaimer and led the 7 other gents towards Homedepot.
Warmup:
SSH
Merkins
Windmill
Peter Parkers
Parker Peters
Burpees (In Cadence)
At some point, Flounder joined the party so we had a solid 9 HIM ready to get better.

Mosey over to the front of Target for some Balls Of Pain
Suicide style. 10 reps each
Squats,
Merkins,
LBC,
Jump Lunges,
Regular Lunges,
Diamond Merkins,
Bomb Jacks,
Jump Squats,
Wide Arm Merkins,
Burpees,
Flutter Kicks,

Pick up the six then head over in front of Old Navy for some four corners.
Starting out with 25 SSH at each corner with NUR and sprint on the long sides with bearcrawls on the short sides.
Then move to the next round of 5 merkins, 10 merkins, 15 merkins, then 20 merkins at each corner.
Power Skip the short sides sprint the long sides.
Finally last round was a sprint round. 1 burpee, 2 burpees, 3 burpees, and 4 burpees with a sprint from each corner to the next.
Stopped to get in some dips at the fountain which must have been dirty because someone recently soaped it up and it was full of bubbles a plenty.
Ended with a jailbreak to the COT flag with staggard starts for those that wanted a head start so we could all be pushing until the finish.
A little bit of mary and count-A-rama, name-A-rama announcements and prayers and praises before our WarDaddy Flounder took us out with some touching words.
Great work by all. Tclaps to Tesla for crushing a preRun and still finishing out front for the main thing.

Garrett Purvis 36
Build your guardrails out of bricks!
Olaf

TClap |
0

Ow, my Arms-ory

Leave a comment

Welcome to another edition of a #SkateOrDie beatdown.  This one the result of Uhaul (as former site Q of the Armory…when did that happen?) attempted to not be there for my workout.  He was there, so I guess that didn’t  “work out” for him!

The warmup:

Moseyed the bells over to position them for use during the main event.  Continued to mosey around the parking lot, picking up Uhaul and  Shatner along the way.  Some dynamic stretching and SSHs rounded out the pre-work.

On the the main event:

– 5 cones marked the stations for the following exercises:

– 20 KB swings, 20 KB Squat, Curl, and Press, 20 (10 each arm) KB Clean and Press, 20 KB Thrusters w/ O/H Triceps Extension, 10 Man-makers w/ the bell

– Travel between the cones was by way of bear crawls w/ the bell and back to start was by way of lunge walk w/ KB pass-thru.

– Rinse and Repeat 3x.

– Circle up for PAX-led Mary for last 5 minutes.

– Discussed Thankfulness in advance of the upcoming holiday (and no running with the bells).

– Thankful for the opportunity to lead!!!

 

 

 

TClap |
4

Douangdara

Leave a comment

11 men posted at Honey Bader on a cool damp morning.
Disclaimer given and we were off with a mosey run (side shuffles, high knees, toy soldiers included)
Circle up for the WARMUP
SSH (12x I/C)
Windmills (12x I/C)
Imperial Walkers (12x I/C)
Morrocan N/C (12x I/C)
Low Slow Squats (12x I/C)
Arm Circles (12x I/C)
Peter Parkers (12x I/C)
Plank Stretches (12x I/C)

Run to school entrance
Plank
Read the account of the 31 US soldiers killed in the Extortion 17 Chinook helicopter shot down in Afghanistan (copied below).

Bench work
Derkins (17)
Step ups (20)
Dips (17)
Butt touch squats (17)
Incline Merkins (20)
Calf raises (17)
Leg lifts, grab post (17)

Run to pull up bars
Pull up routine:
Regular pull up (8)
Switch grip (6 and 6)
Toes to bar (11)

All pax grab a cinder block go to street
All pax Plank
Read hero story of 1st class Petty Officer John Douangdara, 26, and his Military Working Dog Bart (copied below)
Relay/block routine #1
Run to distance #1, run back to start
Blocks: do 13 curls, 13 squats (13+13=26)
Run to distance #2, run back to start
Blocks: do 13 curls, 13 squats
Run to distance #3, run back to start
Blocks: do 13 curls, 13 squats

Flutter for six, with block

Relay/block routine #2
Crawl Bear to distance #1, run back to start
Blocks: do 13 OH Press, 13 KB swings
Crawl Bear to distance #2, run back to start
Blocks: do 13 OH Press, 13 KB swings
Crawl Bear to distance #3, run back to start
Blocks: do 13 OH Press, 13 KB swings
Flutter w/ block for six,
Return blocks

Pull up routine again:
Regular pull up (8)
Switch grip (6 and 6)
Toes to bar (11)

To the street, a little mary to collect everyone:
Gas pumpers,
American Hammers

Run suicides to three cones.

Run to shovel flag.
Mary: Freddie Mercuries, Mountain Climbers, LBCs

Fini, COT
TWO FNG’s!  first is “Poppins” (a chimney sweep) EH’d by Refugee, and “Yeti” (2.0 of Sasquatch).

Take Aways: Need lights for the cones to see better in the dark.

Extortion 17
On August 6, 2011, a U.S. Army CH-47D Chinook helicopter approached a landing zone in Afghanistan 40 miles southwest of Kabul. The helicopter, call sign Extortion 17, was on a mission to support the 75th Ranger regiment that had secured an insurgent compound and were tracking down fleeing enemy militants.

As the chinook approached the landing zone, two enemy fighters ran out of a building and launched rocket propelled grenades. The first round missed the helicopter, but the second struck its rear roto blade. The resulting explosion caused a disastrous imbalance and tore the chinook apart. The helicopter spun out of control and crashed. There were no survivors.
The loss of 31 us military service members was devastating singular loss. Those killed were some of the U.S.’s most highly trained and battle-honed commandos.

In past Honey Badger workouts, I have chosen other Extortion 17 members to honor: Snr CPO Kraig Vickers; CPO Stephen M Mills; Specialist Spencer Duncan; Senior Chief Petty Officer Heath Robinson

Today we honor:
Petty Officer 1st Class John Douangdara, and military working dog Bart
John (nick named “Jet Li”) Douangdara was born on December 29, 1984, in Sioux City, Iowa. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy on February 15, 2002, and served at posts in the US, Europe and Iraq. In 2008 John became an Assault dog handler and deployed multiple times to Afghanistan to support SEAL team operations; and was the lead dog handler for SEAL team six. John and One of his dogs, toby, saved the lives of six Canadian service members, where unfortunately his dog died of injuries received in the actions. Later, both john and his dog received honors from the Canadian military for their actions.
On Aug 6 2011 1st class PO Douangdara (aged 26)  and his military working dog Bart were killed in the extortion 17 chinook crash from being shot down by enemy fire.
John is survived by his parents and four brothers and sisters.
Today There is a dog park named after John in Sioux City Iowa. John is laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery and was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star with Valor, and the Purple Heart.

TClap |
0

11/20/2020 – Mettle Forger – *POWER*

Leave a comment

A power workout is one where strength is used at high velocity.

Warmup – 10 each of:

  • Parking Lot Mosey,
  • Morrocan Nightclubs,
  • Low slow squat jumps,
  • Merkin Side Planks

The Thang – a superset of two exercises for 3 rounds at 30 secs, 45 secs and 1 minute.

Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4
Exercise Half Squat Shldr Press Launch Spartan Cake Crunch Throw Full Squat SandKettle Launch Half Squate SB Rev Launch
Weight 50 lb sandbag 40 lb sandcake 40 lb kettlebell 20 lb sandbag
SuperSet Crab Toe Touch Burpees Wrestler Sitout Bombjacks

Announcements:

  • F3 Christmas Party,
  • Sugar Daddy Mount Mitchell Ruck Event,
  • Thanksgiving Convergence

Prayers/Praises:

  • Guidance for siblings in life recovery,
  • Guidance and Wisdom for Scientists, Doctors, and Researchers finding a cure and vaccine for Covid19
TClap |
1

Laced Up Tight

Leave a comment

31 degrees at Laces In? Sure, I’ll take it. I gave the PAX a heads-up, shown below…

At the risk of potential “over-hyping,” here are a number of things to consider for Laces In:

  1. Minow Pond will be converging with us.
  2. AKA will be converging with us.
  3. Looks to be the coldest morning of the week.
  4. Gloves highly recommended.
  5. If you want to stretch or warm up, show up early.
  6. Wheels up 0515 and it’ll be GO-TIME.
  7. You’ll be warm by 0525.
  8. If you’re prone to FOMO, then you should post.

The 12 of us arrived, commented about the cool temps and all the men in tights, were disclaimed and we took off for a lap around part of the gym lot.

Circle Up:
20 x Fast-Paced SSH
10 Burpees
Another lap but this time, just a bit shorter
Line up at one end of the parking lot and bear crawl to the other end of the lot.
Sprint 1/2 way back, 10 Burpees, Sprint the rest of the way

Mosey over to the circle by the stadium:
20 Bomb Jacks
30 Flutter Kicks I/C
Run up the hill to the stop sign and back down
40 Jump Squats
40 Merkins I/C
Run up the hill and back down
10 Burpees

Mosey back to the gym parking lot.

Line up on the line for 2-Tier Grounded Suicides:
Bear crawl out 20 yards, crawl bear back. Bear crawl out 40yds, crawl bear back
10 Wide-Arm Merkins
Crab walk out 20yds, walk crab back. Crab walk out 40yds, walk crab back.
10 Wide-Arm Merkins
10 Burpees

30 American Hammers I/C
20 Flutter Kicks I/C

COT: There are very heavy prayers on the hearts & minds of our PAX. Remember, do not walk alone.

Thank You, Slapshot

Maximus

TClap |
11

12ish Days of Christmas at Snake Pit

Leave a comment

Been a while since I was Q at the ol’ Snake Pit and as I’m not scheduled for next month, I figured it was time to pull th5e 12 Days of Christmas workout out of the bag.

After a short warm up, we got after it.  Despite what U Haul said, we got to day 9.

Just like the song, you repeat each set every time you add another exercise.

1 – Run/Walk
2- Turkish getups
3- Goblet squats
4- LBCs
5- Shoulder press
6- Chest press
7- American hammers
8- Calf raises
9- Sumo squats
10- Lunges
11- Lawnmowers
12- Dead lifts

 

TClap |
1

Nov 2020 GC APFT

Leave a comment

11/17/20 Golden Corral APFT results

NAME                             MERKINS               BBSU                 RUN                   TOT/AVE
Grassy Knoll               68 (100%)               35 (63%)          17:32 (70%)      233 / 77.67%
Lutefisk                        57 (82%)                 55 (75%)           16:05 (75%)     232 / 77.33%
Grout                            50 (82%)                 40 (68%)           16:58 (75%)      225 / 75%
Cat 5                              64 (91%)                 40 (62%)           21:28 (40%)      193 / 64.33%
Crop Duster (FNG)    31 (55)%                42 (60%)           16:59 (71%)      186 / 62%

TClap |
0