The Fort 6 year Anniversary – Making Getting Better a Priority!

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September 29, 2012 the landscape of Fort Mill changed dramatically. Some men from north of the border grabbed the attention of a few men south of the boarder and said we may have something for you. Double D, Santini, Senator Tressel, World Wide Leader, Red Banjo, Assassin, Peach and maybe others made the commitment to come to a “workout” on that Saturday morning. It was very skeptical, but I am sure each of them will say it changed their lives.

Here we are 6 years later, meeting in the same park with more than 200 regular participants (800+ over the years) at 37 workouts across The Fort/Lake Wylie area. Thank you to those that gave it away and thank you to those that said yes!! I think it is safe to say, IT’S MORE THAN A WORKOUT!!!

Today we recognize the 6 years with 6 Qs leading a beat down in 1st F style. On September 21st, Jekyll led us in our Invergence, which reminds us of the 3rdF and that there is something bigger than ourselves. Serving, Praying and Worshiping together happened then. On this day, we are getting better physically and having some fellowship with 70 of our PAX,

Format was a rapid fire approach where each Q has 10mins to lay it on the PAX. Old Bay would keep time and blow the air horn (maybe tweet the horn??), and then the next Q jumps in.

YHC asked for FNGS, (none) and explained the plan of attack, and then the Horn Sounded

The Thang:

  • Wegmans for COP
    • Mosey down path out to grass
    • Circle up and some traditional and not so traditional exercise moves.
    • We did notice another “Boot camp” group in the gloom. T-clapps to them, however also saw 2 holding clip boards…..not F3!!
    • Horm Blows
  • Funhouse on Q
    • Mosey to the hill for Jacobs ladder
      • Burpees
      • Squats
      • Some mary to fill time
      • Horn Blows
  • Jwow on Q
    • Mosey to top of hill for partner work
    • step ups/lunge walk up and down hill
    • squat jumps/lunge walk up and down hill
    • Plank hand slap with partner
    • Horn Blow
  • Twister on Q
    • Mosey to tree line
    • Army Crawl to tree /SSHs
    • Sprint to tree/Merkins
    • Army Crawl to Tree/SSHs
    • Sprint to tree/merkins
    • 2 rounds
    • Run Path until Horm
    • Horn Blows
  • FLUX on Q
    • Mosey back to hill
    • 6s – do following 6 times
      • bear crawl up hill
      • diamond merkins
      • bear crawl back down hill
      • Some filler in there of something aweful
      • Horn Blows
  • Assassin On Q
    • Mosey to play grownd
      • Dips
      • Derkins
      • Burpees
      • multiple rounds with running around the playground until…..
      • Horn Blows

The PAX was dripping wet from rolling in grass but also from the humid beat down that just occurred. Thanks to all the Qs for bringing it and having fun out there.

I brought up to the PAX “WHY”? Why F3 versus the many other options we have even outside of fitness and self help books. Why do we get up early and why do we do CSAUPS and why do we attend 3rdF and give away our time at various community organizations???

Pockets, Spud and Assassin all shared their Why. Thank you! I’m sure there were many more that would undoubtedly impactful.

I mentioned my why was straightforward for me. I want to continue to challenge myself physically, surround myself with like minded guys heading in the same direction and reach more guys for Sky Q and HIS purpose. I feel F3 has positively impacted my life in all 3 Fs and why would I not give it away??

See you in the GLOOM!

Cake Boss

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5

A little movin’ & rollin’ with Florence

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I’ve been chompin’ at the bit to Q this new official Ruck AO, the Fire Ant, and this morning was the perfect time. Over the last few years, it’s developed a standard consistent with harder AO’s and I was not about to drop the ball today.

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to post up at my folk’s house in Wilmington, NC where they recently had Hurricane Florence followed by 1-2 tornadoes pass through. It’s always different seeing storm aftermath in person; the images, the smells, the sounds of cleanup and water pumps getting rid of standing water. I’m not quite sure how I was going to be impacted but I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. After all, neighbors are still unable to get in their houses. Perspective teaches me I need to keep my mouth shut and stay hydrated as I chip in to do a small part. After tree #4 came down and got hauled off, I had a revelation. What if I cut this next tree into the perfect lengths that would compliment my upcoming Fire Ant Q? Couple that with a previously-prepared Weinke and there you have it, we were set.

With a truck bed holding (8) 40-50lb logs, 18 of us converged on the Golden Corral/Fire Ant parking lot at HT. After Change Order laid down the disclaimer, us 12 Ruckers moved over for our warm-up jog around the lot.

After that, we kept the rucks on the ground and did our warm up:

Wind Mills

Moroccan Night Clubs

10 Forward & Reverse Arm Circles

Slow Squats

SSH

Grab a partner and meet at the rucks.

Catch me if you can with your partner and 3 Hand-Release Merkins. We went around the big loop once then a smaller loop after that for 2 loops total.

Head over to grab the logs. A brief explanation on where they came from and how they’d be used. We had to move both the rucks and the log and we’d work as a team to do it, looking to relieve the men with the logs.

Line up 2×2 with logs in the front. If you had a log, carry it overhead at the front and the rest of us would look to relive you en route. We made our way to the start of the Harris Teeter wall.

Lunge walk with a log press the length of the wall.

Bear crawl while rolling the log back to the starting position.

2×2 in formation with logs overhead to the 9-round parking lot & circle up.

If you have a log, hold it at 90 degrees and if you don’t hold your Ruck at 90 degrees. Each PAX does 3 curls going around the circle. If you’re not curling, you’re holding at 90.

On your back with legs straight and feet at 6″. Doing a log or ruck press for quite a few reps.

Get in 1 line, shoulder to shoulder. Seal team sit-ups with the rucks on front and keeping your head off the ground.

Same formation, flutter kicks with heads off the ground.

Back in 2×2 formation with logs overhead and offering relief, we made our way back to the original starting position. But before we finished, we got back in the seal-team line, on our backs and did bicycles with the rucks on front, both forward and reverse.

And so…that was it.

Announcements: Fire Ant AO moving to TCES in 3wks. Follow Spiderman for further details. Sign up for Paradise Reading Center: check with Copay and Deacon.

Prayers/Praises: Safety for all the PAX doing races (Bourbon Chase, CLT Marathon, Ragnar, Rucks), wedding anniversaries, Prayers for Half-Shell’s buddy who lost his son recently in a very sad event. We do not understand but we need to have faith in our Creator that he’ll somehow have something positive come from this. Prayers for his family and for all the scouts injured, those who witnessed and for their families.

Enjoy your day & make an impact.

Maximus.

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The Bacon is Back!

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  • QIC: Anchorman
  • When: 10/27/2018
  • Posted In: Pre-Blast

Are you man enough to run 1k?

The fastest CSAUP in all of F3 Nation returns for another trip around the track.  Fast 5!

You and 4 teammates run, ruck, walk (in Jedi’s case on his hands) a total of 5k.

The only requirement is that one Pax on your team must be EITHER over 200 lbs or a respectable (50 and over).

Also NEW this year since we are just before Halloween, if the team adds some costuming into their attire, they will get a time bonus.  What does that mean?  I have no idea.  This was Zima’s add on and you know how he is.   I just bring the bullhorn and bacon.

Families welcome to come watch.  It’s an hour or so from start to finish – inc a kids run around the track after so have them wear sneakers!

We are currently still securing a location – just know it will be at a track at one of the Fort Mill schools Saturday October 27 at 9am.  Sign up now!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSelRAT64BLadNwYSSl_3qqcDsfrHfYLXe6Zfm3y0ehYDSvCRg/viewform

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16

Rolling Dice at Crow’s Nest

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Today’s Q was super special to me. It’s my first day after a long weekend getaway with the M and my first post after GoRuck Selection which inspired me to push harder and discipline myself further in everything I do. I have become more persistent in house chores, time with my family, time with my God and intensity in workouts.

This Weinke was partially tested on some elementary kids at church Sunday night so I had the kinks worked out haha

The callout was put on Twitter for a ruck friendly Q, so a couple of PAX strapped up as well as YHC.

After a short disclaimer we went over to the well known at this point rock pile to find a new friend for the morning. With the coupon we jogged over to the east side road and lunge walked with the rock held overhead between lightpoles. Then reverse lunge to the next light pole. This was a VERY LONG 9 minutes

At the eastside parking log I had some cones set up and a colored cube (Awanas cube if anyone wants to repeat this and can snag one from church, could do a regular die also of course)
So I had matching colors on the cones, every PAX would roll the die and then state a number of reps. It had to be over 10 was the only rule, to be fair no one went crazy we only had one set of 20. Then the group would bear crawl to the cone and the PAX in charge would look under the cone and pick 1 of the 3 exercises available. These could be repeated. We went for 14 cones before setting out for the next set.

Examples of exercises
Run a lap
Clap Merkin
Merkin
Burpees
LBCs
Big Boys
SSHs
Overhead clap
Flutter Kick

nothing too crazy because the bear crawl to each cone really gets the sweat rolling

Then we took our friendly rock and carried it towards CoT, however to help with the overheating I decided we would cool off and take a break by low crawling across the soaked grass rolling our rock along with us. Never leave a friend behind right? This came with lots of mumblechatter and drenched clothes. Dropped the rocks off for some quick MoM

Rosalita
Crab Cakes
Flutter
Freddie Mercury

To close it out 5 8-count bodybuilder OYO

9 PAX in the name-a-rama
Please pray for those chasing after the Ragnar trails this Friday night. That’s mostly whats on everyone’s minds right now. Stay safe on the trails in the mornings too.

Until next time

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10/1/18 – Quagmire BackBlast – 4 Corners to Kick off the Week

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10 HIMs joined YHC to kickoff the week and the month with 4 corners of pain.

Warmup

  • Mosey around the parking lot
  • 35 Side-straddle-hops
  • 12 Windmills
  • 11 4 count merkins
  • 20 4 count mountain climbers
  • 20 4 count Moroccan Night Clubs

Mosey to parking lot corner & partner up for accountability and encouragement

We’ll be doing a workout at each of the 4 parking lot corners, about 50 yards apart. We’ll start with 1 rep and we’ll be going to 11.

Corner 1 – Burpees, Corner 2 – Merkins, Corner 3 – LBCs, Corner 4 – Jump Squats

Total Reps = 66 each corner/exercise & ~2200 yards

Mosey back to corner 1

  • 10 diamond merkins, sprint to Corner 2
  • 10 wide arm merkins, sprint to Corner 3
  • 10 diamond merkins sprint to Corner 4
  • Mosey to Corner 1
  • 10 wide arm merkins, sprint to Corner 2
  • 10 diamond merkins, sprint to Corner 3
  • 5 burpees, sprint to Corner 4
  • Mosey to Corner 1
  • 10 diamond merkins, sprint to Corner 2
  • 10 wide arm merkins, sprint to Corner 3
  • 5 burpees, sprint to Corner 4

Mosey to COT

1 minute left – Captain Thors to 5×20

COT

Announcements

  • Ragnar
  • #218in18

Prayers

  • Family routine
  • Marraiges
  • Brothers getting married (with broken foot)
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Six every 3 at Quagmire

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Quick disclaimer, then to start, a volunteer PAX chose 3/6 out of 3/6, 4/8, 5/10. So, 6 burpees every 3 minutes, or the best the Q to do to maintain that throughout the workout.

Then, it was:

Mosey to Home Depot w/ BK’s, HK’s, SS’s.

6 every 3.

Warmup w/ SSH, WM’s, Flutters, MNC’s, 1-leg scissor lifts, etc.

6 every 3.

Six balls in parking lot. At each do 1 then 2,3,4,5,6 reps w/ mode of transport:

  • Broad Jump / Toe squats               6 every 3.
  • Crab Walk / V-ups w/ 3 sec hold               6 every 3.
  • Lunges / Squat Thrusters (leave ground)              6 every 3.
  • Bear Crawl / Donkey Kicks                6 every 3.
  • Straight Suicides / Monkey Humpers               6 every 3.

Jog, sprint behind HD to People Chair wall. 3 x we did PAX count 5 sec each x 12 = 1 min each time. Run across to opposite wall.

Jog to red balls. Half group went to ball 2, 4, 6 and did that many bombjacks. Other half did American Hammers.                       6 every 3.             Switch groups.

Jog back, finish with 10 Panther Pound  Eagle Pound Burpees (minus the roll on the macadem). We had done our best to stick to 6 every 3 but with some improvisation and timing issues, probably ended up around 58 or 68 burpees.

A brief discussion about the clock of your life. Where are you on the clock right now? What are things you want to do in that time? Is there anyone you need to talk to in that time…and how much time do they have left?  YHC has a strained relationship with parents and they are further along on the clock.

YHC’s clock with lifespan of 72 is 8:36.

Announcements, Convergence 9-29, Ragnar 10-5, .Praises, Royale for new 1st F leadership role. Thanks Jedi for the opportunity and for taking us out. Thank you PAX for following.

 

 

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2

A not So slow Burn

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There was perfect weather for 29 PAX that came out for YHC third Q. I wasn’t feeling extremely confident because my first two attempts at Qing were less than stellar and this was a large turnout. After spending some quality time earlier this week coming up with what I thought would be a not-so-moderate workout I took a deep breath, said a little prayer and got busy.

The Thang

We started promptly at 5:15 with a welcome to my first FNG, the disclaimer and then we moseyed down the hill to the parking lot across from Lowe’s for some stretching.

COP:

Broga (toe touches, elbow lifts, leg stretches)

Hillbilly walkers x 25

Cherry pickers x 15

Windmills x 15

Moroccan night clubs x 25

Side straddle hops x 25

Burpees x 5

After the warmup was done we moseyed to the parking lot behind Lowe’s where the real fun began. We partnered up and started with a round of Dora 1-2-3s.

Parking lot runs and….

100 Merkins

200 LBCs

300 Overhead claps

We threw in an extra parking lot run for good luck and knocked out another 5 burpees before moseying to the parking lot in front of Empire Pizza.

COP:

Imperial walkers x 20

Low slow squats x 25

Hello dollies x 25

Burpees x 5

Moseyed back for CoT and had a little time to fit in 25 American hammers, 20 monkey humpers and more broga before calling it quits.

CoT:

Count-o-rama

Name-o-rama

FNG – My coworker and good friend, Gary Del Toro, was welcomed and almost immediately dubbed “Strawberry” because of the Mets t-shirt he was wearing. Later in the morning at work he said he really enjoyed meeting everyone and definitely planned on coming back.

Announcements

Praises and Prayer Requests

It was a great group of HIMs that definitely made me stronger mentally and physically, I hope I returned the favor. Thanks Smithers for the chance to lead!!

Barney Fife

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5

The Hive 2018:39 (Shovel Flag hand off)

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10 HIM gathered in the gloom for a split Q and passing of the shovel flag.

Tesh began:

SSH x25
Windmill x10
Imperial Walker x10
Lap around the parking lot (counterclockwise…)

COP:
5 Kettlebell burpees
10 Snatches (5 each arm)
3 reps of this

Partnered up and Lined up facing the stadium:
Farmer carry both bells while partner planks & shoulder taps
Repeat with partner doing overhead claps instead of planking

Switch Q to BandCamp:

Bear Crawl towards the stadium until we ran out of pavement
Al Gore for the 6 and then Al Gore+Moroccan Night Clubs x10
Honeymooner–>Downdog rinse and repeat
Bear Crawl back to our bells. Moved to the wall outside the gym.

COP:
5 burpees
10 Overhead chest presses
10 Reverse Lunges w/ kettlebell held at the beltline
Reverse Lunge w/ single arm press and hold for 10 count
NAMED EXERCISE: The Solo Tesh: (standing)
– single-arm overhead press the kettlebell and hold for 10 seconds
– return kettlebell to clean position and hold for 10 seconds
We did 3 reps on each arm
20 Goblet Squats
10 Overhead chest presses

Wall Sit with bell intermittently held over our heads during storytime. Rinse and repeat.

Mary:
Flutter x15
Superman x10
Peter Parker x10
LBC x10

NMM:

In honor of Tesh’s two years of steady leadership at #TheHive, this workout drew some from his first post at The Hive: https://f3thefort.com/2016/02/15/afraid/ Q-ed by Geronimo.

The Solo Tesh comes from a workout Tesh lead when he was the only PAX to post that morning. https://f3thefort.com/2017/02/24/2017-08-the-hive/ Looking at the dates and this tweet https://twitter.com/tesh_F3/status/966993038554882048, it appears that there may have been multiple solo posts for Tesh at The Hive. One aspect of his leadership that I appreciate and respect is how quietly he leads. He leads by example with little desire for fanfare . It was this solo-post tweet that got YHC to attend his first kettlebell workout: Tesh’s model encouraged me at The Hive at all. I’m grateful for Tesh’s work and honored to carry the shovel flag for #TheHive (and if necessary post in the gloom solo……ah February…..).

During storytime on the wall sits, I referenced the Poverty Simulation some of the PAX are putting on 10/13/18 at FBC in Fort Mill. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sc-thrive-poverty-simulation-york-101318-registration-49847017772. https://twitter.com/F3_ablock/status/1045695473707814912 I did not grow up in poverty, and specifically remembering my dad saying that folks could just work harder and would be successful. That was because my old man had worked hard and he was successful. But he also had a lot of advantages that allowed his hard work to pay dividends. Not everyone is so lucky. In my teaching, I see students that struggle with much more than the nuts and bolts of course work and assignments. The outside influences of poverty on college students is especially troubling. Consider a student that takes on debt to attend school to better themselves but is forced out of school after 3 years to work because their family needs the income. They have all the debt of a college degree with none of the job prospects. Understanding someone’s lived experience is a powerful tool. Hopefully PAX will take advantage of it.

Band Camp dismissed.

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2

Prepare for a White Out

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YHC was called off the bench to deliver the game winning pain. There was no weinke just some ideas floating in YHC mind in what to do…not a good way to lead, Wasn’t sure if any PAX would show up as well since competing with Reborn’s Beyond workout, just knew Bonsai HC earlier in the week.

Knowing that the annual Penn State White Out is three days away, what other way to deliver some pain at the Ranch then to do some crowd favorite waves!

Mossy to student drop off at Springfield MS for COP:

Windmills, IW, merkins, squats and one other just cant remember

First wave was the elbow plan burpee wave. PAX lined up in a line in elbow plank. First PAX did 2 burpees while rest of PAX stayed in plank. Once first PAX was done, down to plan and next PAX does 2 burpees, and so on. did 3 straight rounds. If we had more PAX it would have visually looked like a wave within a stadium.

Individual Dora 1-2-3: 50 merkins, 100 LBCs, 100 squats. Between each one, run the drop off loop.

finish at the driveway behind school and lunge walk up hill to first school entrance.

Mossy to Elem School drop off/front door. 20 step ups, 5 burpees, repeat twice.

Mossy to…..playground!

Elbow Plank Pull-up wave (crowd favorite). Plank with 5 pull ups per PAX, repeat 3x’s.

Ended with big boys situps, 6″ Moroccan nightclubs (lay on back, feet 6″off ground while doing MC), 5 burpees, and 5 more pull ups.

Mossy to COT, and since we had a few minutes to spare, run around the drop off circle.

Thanks Jiffy for bringing in the back up Q, it’s always fun to Q at the Ranch due to the number of places/things you can do.

Prayers: Bonsai and M in guiding their 2.0, Trucker’s M for going back to Grad School and patience within the house, Peabody’s M’s birthday, and colleague of Truckers in Raleigh who was just diagnosed with a brain tumor.

Trucker

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0

Carport Broga at Footloose

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We had 16 pax brave the weather which ended up not being an issue.  After a brief intro and disclaimer we took a short mosey to the first carport at church #1.  Broga was the warmup for our first stop.  The pax was introduced to cat call and pigeon stretches.  Another mosey on to the second carport behind FBC.  We continued broga with some more leg stretches and arm stretches.  Mulble chatter was becoming an issue so I threw in set of burpees.  It got quiet quick.  Mosey to our next stop at the upper parking lot of  COG.  A couple of more warmup sets with merkins and peter parkers.  Finished up the broga with some upward dogs and walked the dog.  More burpees then our final mosey to the meat and potatoes.

Before diving in pax got a short switzer on #getinthegame.  Referred back to the invergence and the service opportunities with CAH, paradise GFit and reading opportunities.  Find out your spiritual gifts and put them into action.

On to the main event.  A couple of rounds of 1/2 parking lot of toy soldiers, knee grabs and lunges then run the other have of lot and back.  I asked pin up if he cracked a sweat yet.  He said no.  Wrong answer.  Ran the whole lot that time up and back.  Not much chatter after that.

We did a pax choice DORA. 100 Merkins, 200 Moroccan night clubs, 300 LBC’s and 400 squats.  The Pax partnered up and alternated run across parking lot while partner worked on exercise.  By the time we got to the squats we had to call an Omaha.  Ended up doing 200 squats and 200 monkey humpers.  More burpees in there somewhere.

Mosey back to COT for a little mary and wrapped up the burpees. Ended up with 33 in total.

Thanks Beacon for the opportunity.  Always a good group at Footloose!

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