We’ve had some pleasant mornings this week and I was thankful that today was no different. I was grateful for temperatures in the upper 60’s and lower humidity.  It felt great out there.

Anyways, enough about the weather.  More importantly it was the final week of Q school and I was honored to take the lead for the “Advanced Q’ing” 201 class.

Royale and Wildthing took the previous 2 weeks and did an excellent job of explaining all the fundamentals and the “How”.  Royale took that a step further last week and really focused on preparing and having a back-up plan in case things went wrong.  I tried to answer the “Why” a bit more today along with some review of the important aspects of the previous weeks and tie it all up nice and tidy while delivering a message with the workout.  This is an “advanced”  way that we can push our boundaries even further, beyond the fitness aspect, and try to give the PAX some insight and motivation along with the workout.  Not unlike our “Beyond” workouts that we have occasionally.

Today started the same as any other workout, with a better than normal disclaimer and “Why” it is important.  F3 is an organization that isn’t liable and week after week we tend to gloss over this when we see the usual crowd.  In any case, it is part of what makes up the core of an F3 workout and needs to be addressed.

After the disclaimer we took a mosey around the track and did some toy soldiers and karaoke’s before circling up.

I reviewed with the PAX what “F3” stands for and went over the mission statement and 5 core principals,

Just so we’re clear, for anyone reading this, here is that info in print:

• F3 – Fitness, Fellowship, and Faith.  The first 2 are pretty self explanatory, the 3rd isn’t tied to any specific religion, but a belief in something outside oneself.
• F3 Mission statement – “Our mission is to plant, grow and serve small workout groups for men for the invigoration of male community leadership.”
• 5 Core Principals
  • • Are free of charge
    • Are open to all men
    • Are held outdoors, rain or shine, heat or cold
    • Are led by men who participate in the workout in a rotating fashion, with no training or certification necessary
    • End with a Circle of Trust

I don’t normally do lengthy CoP style warm-ups, but since the emphasis was on teaching today  we circled up.  I went over some more of the “Why” behind why cadence is important.

• It creates rhythm
• Promotes teamwork
• Discourages budgeting your energy since the count is unknown

I called out some Merkins and Windmills and then called on a few of our newer PAX to call cadence for an exercise of their choice that I can no longer remember.  Ooops.

While I still had their attention I talked a little bit more about some Q responsibilities.

• Q’ing should be taken seriously.  PAX want to complete the workout and feel invigorated and ready to take on their day, which leads my to my next point…
• …Workouts are not built for the benefit of the Q, but for the PAX!
• “If you can’t do it, don’t Q it!”.  Stick to your strengths. Your workout plan or “Weinke” should be an outline and not set in stone.  Adapt as needed and always have a backup plan.

Now back to that message and 1st routine.  The message was “How do we grow?”  F3 is really all about growth and finding those things that make us uncomfortable and sad and addressing them with the help and support of all the brothers of the morning gloom.  Everything we do is a continued attempt to push ourselves into the unknown, into discomfort.  We’re going to fail, that’s a part of life, but fortunately it’s also a requirement for growth.  This isn’t new news, we workout our muscles until failure, they heal and become strong. This is true for pretty much all aspects of life.  I shared a quote with the PAX from Calvin Coolidge that I liked;

“All growth depends upon activity.  There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means WORK”.

Now on to the 1st routine to get some WORK done.

Paula Abdul’s

10 cones were setup about 10 yards apart.  We would crawl 2 cones forward, do 5 merkins, and crawl bear backwards 1 cone and perform 10 squats.  We would continue in this fashion until hitting the 10th cone.  2 forward, 1 back, and always doing merkins when going forward and squats when going backwards.

Everyone made it to the end with a little extra push from the PAX that finished first.  “Picking up the Six” and/or assigning someone to do so is another great idea that was shared with the PAX today.

I shared some more insight and quotes with the PAX.  How being comfortable leads to boredom, self-absorption, and discontent.  F3 has a name for this of course, the “Sad Clown”.  We can combat this by not only be seeking out discomfort, but embracing it.  The secret to success lies in all the things we’re trying to avoid.  I then called on some experienced PAX to share some personal growth on things that used to make them uncomfortable, but they now can do without difficulty.

Back to WORK

Gasser’s (formally known as suicides)

The same 10 cones we just crawled through taking the scenic route we would now use for some gasser’s.  Pretty self-explanatory here, but for a little icing we would increment Burpees each time we got back to the start.  1 cone/1 Burpee, 2 cones/2 Burpees… and we ended at the 10th cone/10 Burpees. The 10th cone was about 100 yards down field.

While we all caught our breath, I took the opportunity to drive home the point of delivering the message with a workout.  We’re all unique and have specific strengths and weaknesses.  We can simply tap into our strengths and deliver them during the workout.  One man’s strength is another man’s weakness and we can utilize this group of people to deliver that message.  This is how we hold each other accountable.  This is how we grow.  This is F3.

I then told the PAX we would make our way back down the field where we started this journey the same way we came, Paula/Bearcrawls.  We made it to about the 8th cone or so before I called and it we mosey’d back to the flag and circled up for CoT and a few reminders for the future Q’s of our region.

• Workouts should start and begin on-time
• Backblasts are not only a responsibility of the Q, but a requirement!
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help, we’re all in this together

We then finished up as we always do by counting off, name-a-rama, and announcements, praises, and prayers.

Homebrew, thanks again for the privilege to teach today.  It was an honor.

Until next time,

-FLUX-