Self Scouting and Kotter Fest @ THE Ballroom

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17 (or 18) hearty Fort Pax unpartook of the fartsack to join their brothers at Ballroom. Amazed to see some Kotters (like Free Bird and Deep Dish) as I pulled in. Always exciting to see some of the boys come back to the Gloom just like it’s exciting when new faces show up. Bro hugs ensued.

At the appointed hour, Disclaimer was given and we were off to the other side of PKMS for:

Warm-O-Rama ; Seal Jacks, Merkins/Plank series/Imperial walker, Squats, LBCs. MNCs. Then a nice mosey to the football field for:

The Thang;

7 of diamonds – 7 Plank Jacks in each corner of the field, Bear Crawl to Goal Post then Lunge Walk. Run Length of field 2nd Lap- 7 Plank Jacks & 14 Squats- Got some of the newer Pax to call the cadence, getting ’em ready.

To the track – Partner up, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN -3 BURPEES/PARTNER. RUN BACKWARDS AROUND TRACK. Round 2-5 Bombjacks, but run forwards.

Some Words ON Self Scouting in the New Year- Take to time to look back at your year with an eye towards improving in some area in 2020. Learn form your past mistakes but don’t let them define your trajectory. Your History is not your Destiny.

Back to FIELD – Captain Thor Lite – 1 Weezy, 4 Am Hammers then Jack Webb (6 rounds). Mosey to COT. Announcements- One Word Convergence, Grapevine Takeover. Prayers for healing Pax, Lost loved ones, marriages.

Great group this morning, Honored to Serve these fine men.

Shortest Of All Sales.

 

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Trifecta Tuesday

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On Tuesday the 7th, 15 #HIM descended upon Golden Corral to continue making 2020 a year of acceleration.  10 PAX started early as YHC encountered Dark Helmet leading a group around the grounds.  Fortunately, they did not mess up the sidewalk chalk – that came in handy later to give PAX some not so subtle reminders about what to do…..many times.

After the 10 extra credit (BTP) PAX joined for the boot camp or ruck, here’s what the boot campers did:

Mosey to COP – 12 low slow squats (D/C), hold the people’s chair after the 12th squat while doing 12 double count Moroccan night clubs, Imperial Walkers X 12 (D/C), Hillbilly Walkers X 12 (D/C).  Mosey some more……COP (continued), 15 SSH’s (D/C), 10 Windmills (D/C), 15 Merkins (D/C), 15 Mountain Climbers (D/C), 10 Plank jacks, then mosey to the main event.

The sidewalk chalk served as the guide, the date was 1-7-20 – those numbers add up to 28.  Every sequence was an exercise followed by a bear crawl a set distance (25-ish yards) (no one went as fast as Tesh would have), another exercise, a mosey back to the start line and repeat.  The exercises of the day were……squats and merkins – always adding up to 28.

26 squats, bear crawl, 2 merkins, mosey back

24 squats, bear crawl, 4 merkins, mosey back

22,6  20,8  18,10 16,12 14,14 12,16 10,18 8,20 6,22 4,24 2,26

The squats got less, the merkins more and all PAX got better,

Over 2700 merkins and over 2700 squats were done in total.  YHC heard about it later.

After one fast and one not so fast 10 count, we moseyed around the building to do, of course, 7’s – it was January 7 after all.

The exercises were Kracken burpees and Carolina Dry Docks – 6 KB’s a 15-ish yard lunge walk, 1 CDD and a mosey back to the wall, 5 KB’s, lunge walk, 2 CDD’s and a mosey back 4, lunge walk 3, 3 lung walk 4, 2 lunge walk 5, 1 lunge walk 6.

After Pusher proclaimed how terrible all this was (YHC thought Carolina Dry Docks would make him feel better), we had just enough time to get to COT for 2 minutes of Mary before the Ruckers saved us from going past the 0600 bell.

Slow Flutter kicks (D/C) x 15

Protractor at varying angles, finishing at 0 degrees and 0600 for COT.

Announcements:

1-29 Grapevine fundraiser for Classroom Ready – Celebrity bar tenders.  Who will be there? (#showtoknow)

Let Me Run seeking coaches for teams in schools in both Fort Mill and Rock Hill – reach out to Cyclops or Double D with interest and/or questions.

Word of the Year – Focus on it and live it out.  Use your shield locks to hold you accountable. Together, we all get better than we ever would alone.

Praises and Prayers – Lutefisk’s Father-in-law, Cyclops’s Dad, Tinsel’s brother, Duck Dynasty and his niece and for continuing to be a hope and light to others in a world that is often darker than we like.

Just prior to COT, YHC shared the 3 elements of a high impact relationship – 1) it meets you where you are  2) it provides safety to allow you to grow and 3) it teaches you about yourself.

Thanks to F3 and the high impact relationships it provides its PAX.  We have the privilege and honor to be sharpened and honed by many high impact men within our community when in one another’s presence – through all 3 F’s – what a gift it is.

As we all seek to make 2020 a year of acceleration, YHC is grateful for 2 things today:  1) To Lutefisk for the opportunity to Q – it’s always an honor and 2) To the brothers of F3 for being a reason YHC chooses the harder thing far more often than I used to.

Stay after it.  Keep going.  Kamwe Kuacha (Never Stop).

Honored.

Cyclops

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Chutes and Ladders at the Hive

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drug this up from a past Q I’ve done

Warmup – Mosey, Moroccan Nightclub, Hillbilly and Imperial Walkers, Windmills, Cherry Pickers, Plank, Honeymooner, Plank, Downdog, alternate calves in Downdog

Next started the pain

10 ManMakers

20 LBCs with Bell

30 Skullcrushers

Mosey w/ Bell

40 Curls (or 20 each arm)

50 Tricep Extensions

Mosey w/ Bell

60 Overhead Press

50 Flutters with Bell

Mosey w/ Bell

40 Goblet Squats into calf raises

30 Rows (15 each side)

Mosey w/ Bell

20 American Hammers

10 Turkish Getups with a butterfly or lat raise on your back to start (5 each side)

Still had 16 minutes, so PAX called exercises (Manmakers, Uhauls, etc, even rotate one bell and did rows and BBS)

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PRE-BLAST: The Brotherhood of the Traveling Pants (AKA: #BTP)

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Willpower is only the trigger to get a person started on a positive habit (#Brick). In order to maintain and continue #Bricklaying, a person needs to change the mental and physical environment in which they live, so that the habit can develop the “muscle memory” needed to go the distance. My #DRP list is lengthening, as is my ability to have #IMPACT in the men around me, and the following is intended to continue to put me on the right trajectory.

For the year of 2020, my word is “GO”.  In an effort to continue to #Accelerate my 1stF, and beginning on 1/6/20, I am instituting (for myself and anyone who wants to join me) an EC (Extra Credit) 15 minutes (of Boot Camp or running, or maybe even Broga) prior to every 45 minute workout. I will tweet and Slack the location with the hashtag #BTP the day before for those who wish to join me. (It’s a way to “trap” myself into an accelerating habit…)

For example, Monday I usually hit Honey Badger which is an hour workout. There would not necessarily be an EC prior to this (though there could be). Tuesday, I will be at Golden Corral. At 0500, I will begin an EC portion of the workout for those that want to join. It will launch from the same AO, and will be back at the AO in time for the 0515 normal start of the Post.

Clear as mud? Good. Ask me your questions. Otherwise, check your Twitter/Slack and #Accelerate with me.

Helmet, out.

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Snake Pit: New Year’s Day…

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“Under a blood red sky
A crowd has gathered in black and white
Arms entwined, the chosen few
The newspapers says, says
Say it’s true, it’s true”
– New Year’s Day, U2

It was New Year’s Day and the #Faithful convened at the Snake Pit to work. Nothing fancy, the sugarplums had danced out of everyone’s heads and there was no telling aroma of vodka being sweat out to indicate that this was different than any other morning. I guess even an 0700 start wasn’t late enough to entice some folks to post. U-Haul had some sort of TimeLife “Best of the Late 70’s” playing on the roof rack, and it was loud enough to entice a Spitz sighting. Spitz can hardly resist when “Radar Love” starts strumming the rhythm strings deep in his soul. Play it long enough and he’ll eventually meander over to tell some stories of the glory days of Fort Mill. “This used to be entirely wild boar paths through here…” Anyhow, with a promise of no running, we got going.

HIIT Style workout was on the menu: 60 seconds on 20 seconds off.

Curls
Goblet Squats
Chest Presses
Triceps Extensions
Pass-through Lunges
Clean and Press
LBCs
and more…

Finished up with a round robin of Mary and such then 3D took us out.

Until next time… Helmet, out.

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Jack of all Kinds and The ShovelFlag Switch

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21 Pax showed up for the Slug-fest that was a Cha-Ching and YHC’s Co-Q.  All Pax arrived on time for the special 0500 kick off. I was taking the #ShovelFlag at the end of the Beatdown so we wanted to do something brutally special to mark the occasion.

Quick disclaimer and we where off and rolling. Cha-Ching had the 1st 30 minutes and didnt’t disappoint.

Mosey to the end of the BEst Buy /Pet Smart Parking lot.  30 SSH- Mosey on to the other side of Home Depot 15 bomb jacks, run back to spot by Petsmart 20 smurfjacks, run back to HD 30 seal jacks, run back to PS, 30 plank Jacks.

Mosey over to the wide parking lot in front of PS.  Break up into two groups for a new take on Bone the Fish.

Bear crawl up two parking spaces then side crawl down the line then up two more, rinse and repeat. Total parking lot length was about 15 spaces.  At the end do 30 squat jumps. Bear Crawl down and back again , do 20 donkey kicks. Then we bear crawled up two spaces and side shuffeled the width of the whole parking lot. Continue this down the length and did 10 burpees to complete the movement.

Mosey over to the fountain 3 types of burpees before time expired on the first 30 minutes.

5x Kracken Burpees, 5x knee slap burpees and 5x 1 leg burpees.

At this Point I took the Reins:

The Shovel Flag Switch

Split PAx into teams of 3.

MAX REPS TO FAILURE

P1s = Body weight in the lower level of stair alley

P2s= Run between groups: up/down the stairs

P3s= Cinder blocks

Basic rules: P1 Starts on the bottom level of the outdoor patio across from Just Fresh doing Max Rep Body weight exercises.  P3 moves to the dead end side of the parking load and does max reps of cinder block exercises. P2 starts with P3 and runs roughly 100 yrds up and down the stairs to P1. Upon arrival they switch. P2 does body weight and P1 runs up and down the stairs to P3 and they Switch as per the above.  Rinse and repeat through the various exercise combos.

Exercises:

Round 1- P1- MTN Climbers P3- Block Squats

Round 2-  P1- LBCs P3- Block Swings

Round 3- P1- Squats  P3- Block Curls

Round 4- P1- Bomb Jacks- P3- OH Presses

Round 5-P1- The Claw( Thnaks PotHole)   : P3- Block Hammers

Round 6 P1- Merkins  P3- Squat Thrusts

Round 7 P1-Peter Parkers P3- Alt Hand Block Merks

Round 8 P1- BBS  P3- Man Makers

We Made it Through 6 rounds finishing on Squat Thrusters and Merkins.

With 4-5 minutes left we picked up the cindys, beatdown boards and laundry pile( it was decidedly warmer than some of us expected)  shuffled back for COT.

I accepted the Shovel Flag and look forward to growing the reputation of the #Swamp as a smoker AO in The FORT.  Appreciate Cha-Ching thinking of me to take over for him. It’s an honor!

Duck Out!

 

 

 

 

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Moving Weight

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4 PAX came out for the #DRP at the newly named Lake Wylie Ruck AO ” Tugboat. Poopdeck’s weight moving brother.

Ice-T dropped the Disclaimer for the both the boot camp and ruck, and they took off.

We rucked up grabbed the the Sandbag and started off on a 1 mile 14 min time hack.  We started as 3 and 38 special caught us at the turn.  good 2ndF while maintaining pace and passing the sandbag.

As we tuned into the boat ramp time was waning and with a 15 Man Maker penalty a ahead of us a shuffled was warranted. Around the long side and back down the middle right on time.

No COP/Warmup- That is what the 1 mile ruck was for.

5 pain stations were laid out across the parking lot.  It was supposed to be down the center light posts but LK’s behind on the power bill so I called an audible and spread them out.

It went like this:

Station 1

5 Man Makers 1 pax does MM with Ruck on with Sandbag

25 Merkins Ruck on

35  ruck swings

Station 2

5 Man Makers 1 Pax does MM w/ Ruck on and Sandbag

35 Ruck curls

25 Up-Right Rows

Station 3

5 Man Makers 1 Pax does MM w/ Ruck on and Sandbag

50 Ruck Squats 1 pax does with ruck on and sandbag

25 DC Flutter Kicks w/ Ruck Press

Station 4

5 Man Makers 1 Pax does MM w/ Ruck on and Sandbag

25 DC American Hammers w/ ruck in hand

25 Squat Thrusters 1 pax does with ruck on and sandbag

Station 5

5 Man Makers 1 Pax does MM w/ Ruck on and Sandbag

25 OH Presses 1 pax does with ruck on and sandbag

25 DC Mountain Climbers

We got through 4.75 stations and with 7 minutes remaining we competed Block hammers and did another 5 MM and headed for COT.

Great group to ruck with this morning. look forward to see this AO grow.

Duck Out!

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4 big boy corners

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Upon arrival, Darkest of All was already in 2020 form with the newly coined “traveling pants” extra credit.  A handful of brave (stupid) souls joined him for a 3-4 warmup prior to 0515.  As 0515 quickly approached, 10 was the number that came to play for what was an extremely warm late December morning.  Quick disclaimer and a short mosey over to the neighboring parking lot for some warm ups.  Started out with SSH, windmills, merkins, low slow squat, parker peters, then some stretching…yes, stretching.  Quad stretches followed by some shoulder and arm stretching.  Now that warming up was out of the way, YHC quickly mapped out where the 4 corners were going to take place.

Corner 1 – Old Navy; Corner 2 – Ulta; Corner 3 – Home Depot; Corner 4 – Best Buy / COT…this made for a 1.5 mile loop around the grounds we call Quagmire.  At each corner, the following exercises we performed:

  • 10 bomb jacks
  • 20 diamonds
  • 30 CDD
  • 40 jump squats
  • 50 flutters

Oh ya, the goal was to get to the corners via bear crawl….j/k, that would just be insane (please don’t anyone do this or Jedi may complain a little bit).  We used our legs and ran, but the goal was to run quickly.  Jedi and Cha Ching were the pacesetters while the rest of us mortals made sure we could still see them.

Once all had completed the one loop and all the exercises, making it around again with exercises in 15 min was not going to be worth the price of admission.  So we moved the 4 corners into closer range and proximity.  In the bigger Best Buy parking lot, we did a mini-4 corners but with a center starfish idea.  In each corner we did the merkin exercises with the center being 5 burpees (go do the corner, come back to the middle, repeat until all corners complete).

  • 20 wide arm
  • 20 diamond
  • 20 ranger
  • 20 partner derkins

With 7 or so minutes remaining, we did the same concept / idea but in MARY style.  In the center was 5 LBC.

  • 10 flutters
  • 10 hello dolly
  • 10 rosalita
  • 10 American hammers

Wrapped it up at 0600 and headed over to COT for name-o-rama, announcements and prayers and praises.  YHC didn’t bring any words of wisdom (like I have any…lol) today as this was a non-talking, mimimal mumblechatter, no-10 count kind of morning.  Yes, there was the occasional Jedi rib shot and DH “encouragement”, but pretty calm given the constant go.  Prayers go out to Milehigh who is nursing a knee injury.  Thanks for the call to lead, always appreciate it!

Shady

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Bear Crawls, Burpees, Battlestar Galactica

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To get the blood flowing, began with what ended up being a soggy mosey around the practice field, there was a fair amount of mumblechatter as the mud sloshed around.

Warm up in cadence:

  • Wind mills
  • Cherry pickers
  • Imperial walkers
  • Peter Parker
  • Parker Peter
  • Low Country Crab
  • Honey mooners
  • Downward dog

Quick recovery and off to the track for the main event.

The Thang

Run 4 laps on the track with 2 sets of 20 reps of a particular exercise on the turn.

1st turn

  • 20 Merkins
  • 20 American Hammers

2nd turn

  • 20 Caroline dry docks
  • 20 Flutters

Rinse and repeat for 4 laps. Thanks Trucker for the vote in confidence around the creativity.

Lined up on goal line for field round.

Burpee Dans

Starting at goal line, lunge walk in 10 yard increments, followed by burpee increasing by 1 burpee to 50 yard line. Run backwards to goal line and plank when finished.

Welsh Dragons

Starting at goal line and remaining in plan position, bear crawl 10 yard increments.

  • 1 merkin
  • 1 plank jack
  • 1 set of should taps

Rinse and repeat to 50 yard line increasing rep count by 1 per 10 yards. Run backwards to goal line.

Originally planned above exercises through length of field, due to time constraints, cut down to 50.

With 10 minutes left, called additional adjustment.

  • Run to 50 yard line, 50 calf raises,
  • Run to end zone, 50 mountain climbers
  • Sprint back

Mosey back to COT with a few minutes to spare.

Wave of Merkins

  • PAX remaining in plank, start w/ 1 merkin around the circle, followed by 2, and so on until time ran out.

Announcements: Short talk on word of year.

Prayers/Praises: Health, travels.

Thanks to MacGuyver for the field access, Cyclops for the opportunity, and 3D for the shovel flag reminder.

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Be A Helper

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Had a total of 7 men show up to end the year. I originally thought I wanted to do a partner workout till I reflected on the sermon of this past Sunday. It was set around looking for “The Helpers.” With that in mind I decided to do a workout that made everyone better together and focused on a no OYO.

So we all set out to four stations around Golden Corral and conducted a warm up at these 4 locations for a visual. We did one round of warm ups at each location with Side Straddle hops, Wind mills, Mericans, Cherry Pickers, Imperial/Hillbilly Walkers, and stuff.

So once the guys knew of the locations there was an exercise written at each Station. Between each station the mode of transportation was a brisk mosey. Station 1 exercise was a 50 double count of Flutter Kicks. Station 2 was a double count of Dying Cockroaches. Station 3 was a 50 count of LBC’s. Station 4 was a 25 count of The Claw (BRUTAL!!!).

We hit each station twice and then I gave the men a message/challenge for the new year. With all the challenges that we face we a lot of times only look at the bad things in life and push aside the positives. I opened up a little about my past of abuse, running away, and other struggles I faced growing up and informed them of “The Helpers” I had on my side to assist me in becoming a better person. To guide me away from the hardships of life to lift me up rather than leaving me in the gutter. I explained to them I don’t look at my past as something bad but something good, because of “The Helpers”. There was a lot more verbiage but the challenge I left the guys with was look out there and rather than bypassing it be That Helper. Be someone that gets into that Shield Lock. Or lifts someone up from the gutter.

After that we hit the Stations one more time. We were able to put in about 2.2 miles and about 500 reps of nothing but ab workout. These guys killed it and we did it together.

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