The Art of Merkin Cadence…

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What is more difficult than doing 20 merkins first thing in the morning? Trying to do 20 merkins first thing in the morning in cadence and remembering to breathe! I was doing well until I hit merkin #11 and it was downhill from there. I got to 19 and decided that breathing was more important than following my weinke to a T.  After catching my breath and drastically cutting down on my already small warm-up, I decided to go ahead and mozy over to the band parking lot to begin our workout. Here’s how it went down…

The Thang:

William Wallace #1

PAX breaks up into even groups, dispersing to four corners with radio in the middle playing 90″s grunge. (make sure you know exactly how to do the routine so that explanations come easy!) While each person holds a plank, one group member does a bear crawl to the center for 20 triceps merkins and then run back to the group. Each man does each exercise once. Next is 20 big boy sit-ups, 20 LBC’s, and 20 squats. That is a long plank hold!

We then took a quick break to talk about something that was weighing on my mind so I thought I would share with PAX. From time to time I get a feeling that I should reach out to a certain person and it will nag at me until I finally give that person a call or have some quality face-to-face time with them. I feel like it is God telling me that that person needs me for some reason. I encouraged the PAX to not let this feeling pass you by and to reach out to someone if they’ve been on your mind.

William Wallace #2

Instead of holding plank, PAX stayed in Al Gore position throughout.

Bear crawl to center for 20 wide arm merkins, 20 LBC’s, 20 big boy sit-ups, and 20 calf raises.

on to the last portion of our routine…

Partner up, size matters

Lazy Doras

100 total merkin to be done in a rotating fashion. One does 10 merkin while the other holds plank until you reach 100. Partner carry to the next position and alternate between 100 squat jumps while partner does flutter kicks. Partner carry again to next position and 100 LBC’s while partner holds squat.

Thank goodness we didn’t get to the 50 burpees and superman holds!

Mozy back to COT where we finished the workout with our 40’s (40 merkins, 40 LBC’s, 40 Squats, 40 bomb jacks)

Name-o-rama, announcements and prayers.

It was a great workout with a great group of men and we were all able to get better!

Thanks so much for the opportunity to lead, Lil E!

 

Cheerio,

Slash

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Burpagedon

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A disclaimer was given and PAX ran a warm-up lap for COP.

COP
SSH x 15
IW x 10
Squats x 10
Bonsai Cherry Tree Pickers x 10
Windmills x 10
MNC x 10
Sun God’s x 20
Merkins x 8 IC
MTN Climbers x 10

YHC had thoughts of bear crawls after burpees, but threw an audible and we did those first.

Bear crawls to every other HT post x 5 Merkins, crab walk to next second post x 10 crab cakes. On the way back we did x 5 CDD and 10 LBCs.

YHC had asked my 2.0 what to do for the Q, and after showing him his options, he adamantly decided on “a lot” of burpees, and further stipulated 100 was not “a lot.”

With that in mind:
Round 1: x 10 reg. Burpees x 10 sea monkey Burpees (2 hand release and a monkey have before jump) with one extra sea monkey to make it 101
Run a lap (.2 mi)

Round 2: x 10 left legged Burpees x 10 right legged Burpees
Run a lap (.2 mi)

Round 3: x 10 knee tuck Burpees x 10 squat Burpees
Run a lap (.2 mi)

Round 4: x 10 plank jack Burpees x 10 spiderman Burpees
Run a lap (.2 mi)

Round 5: x 10 reg. Burpees x 10 kraken Burpees
Run a lap (.2 mi)

Wall sits while PAX did OHP while we went down the line and did x 10 Squats. Finally ended with a round of Mary.

COT
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Thanks Lutefisk for the opportunity to lead, and the PAX for sticking with it today.

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First Lieutenant Ashley White-Stumpf

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YHC actually woke up for this Q!

10 Pax showed up at 0500 with 1 arriving a little late but joined after we finished the warm-up.

Warm-up:

Moseyed to lower parking lot

Standard warm-up consisting of Morrocan night clubs, Al Gore Nightclubs, Windmill, Hillbilly Walker and Imperial Walkers.

The Thang:

Congregrate at the pull-up bars to learn about First Lieutenant Ashley White-Stumpf.

5 Rounds:

20 Pull-ups

10 Toes to Bar

21 Walking Lunges

400m Run

Once the 6 finished, we did a little Walk like an Egyptian, Ranger Merkins and some abs.

 

Thank you to Dirty Harry for the opportunity to lead!

Wegmans

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Back to Basics at The Deep

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After my Q on Thursday I feel like Q #3 this week would a good opportunity to go back to basics.  As the Lake Wylie guys celebrated 3 years since the launch of the Deep this week I forget that we have a lot of “newer” faces around.  I wanted to make sure we can get the “why” of a lot of the things we do in F3 shared and engrained with the PAX.

This morning looked like it was going to be a wet one.  At 6m when I woke up it was POURING. But looking at the weather it showed a break for our 7-8am hour. I had planned a weinke with lightning options and no lightning ones.  Regular rain is the BEST and not a determining factor on the weinke.  (Core principle #3; to be discussed later)

I was successful at dragging Lancelot out of bed (but not The Lorax) so we were glad to see so many guys, including a few 2.0s at The Deep at launch time.  Gave the disclaimer and we did a couple dynamic warmup laps around the parking lot until we circled up for COP.

During COP; Gave the proper instruction on what it takes to lead the group in cadence.

Announce the exercise – move the men into position – begin the exercise and count in cadence – I completed SSHs as the example

Then I asked for some of the newer PAX jump in the middle and to lead a specific exercise.  From memory I think it went like this…

Lancelot – Windmills

Captain Jack – Imperial Walkers

O’Reilly – Daisy Pickers (or non-descript produce pickers)

Whitesnake – Squats

Bono – Moroccan Night Clubs

John Wick – Merkins

Next we moved to the back on of the school, the lightning had held off (so did the rain) so I gave O’Reilly the choice of our next Evolution; Dora 1-2-3 or Lazy Dora.  He’s been reading up on the lexicon so he was smart and picked Dora 1-2-3

Partner Up

Partner 1 does exercise while partner 2 runs about 30 yards down the straightaway then switch

We did:

100 Merkins

200 Squats

300 single count Flutters

For our 10 counts I asked all who knew the 5 core principals of F3?

  1. Free 2. to all men 3. held outdoors (rain or shine) 4. lead in rotation by a member of the group 5. closes with a COT

Next Evolution we moseyed over to the east parking lot

On Thursday several of the PAX did not know what a Kraken burpee was!  Since this was a Lake Wylie day 1 Original I had to share and spice it up.  All credit for this goes to Shady who wrote this up in a black diamond BB a few weeks ago.  He called it “Krack Webbs”.  When I announced it to the group, several guys were not happy with what was to come.

  • 1 Kracken burpee (1 burpee + 3 hand release merkins for the pushup part of the burpee)
  • 4 squats
  • Repeat all the way up to 10 Kracken and 40 squats totals equal 55 Kraken burpees & 220 Squats

About halfway through this terrible idea we heard some lightning.  I coached the guys on proper procedure when leading.  Rain = Great, Lightning = take care of your PAX.  We used this parking lot just in case of lightning, so we could easily move under the awning at the east side of the school.  Lesson learned = be mindful of your surroundings and have an alternate place in your plan for safety.

Finished the Krack Webbs under the awning as a little rain started. I wanted to quit at 8 rounds, but somehow we kept going!  That one pushed us all!

Evolution 3

Wall sits with a twist.

We were already under the awning so we would sit on the wall, left to right would bear crawl and we would just keep going.  When we ran out of wall stay under the awning and hold Al Gore while the group continued to bear crawl.

Last thing we did was at the request of Link… he mentioned crab walks so we continued down the hallway for the last 20 yards doing that.

At the end I shared I quote I found from Santini and shared it with the PAX.

Why do we do have Three Fs?

“It’s not an accident.  Men of purpose and impact are intentional about their lives. Men who become part of F3 start to explore the idea of Faith.  In many cases, this starts with asking questions like, “What do I believe?  What do I value? What is important to me?  Is there more than just writing a mortgage check?  Who can I share the things that concern me, scare me, or challenge me?”  These questions drive a man to assess his measure of impact in the world around him.” ~Santini

COT

Announcements – Savage Race 5/18 we are planning an F3 Dads day at the Deep 5/25

Prayers and Praises – New homes for Wildthing and Bones (Link); Healing for those fighting cancer and other ailments.

An Honor to Lead!

~Royale

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Smokey VQ

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“Final 4” NCAA theme workout to work 4 muscle groups.  Freezing 32 degrees, but we got warm fast!

Tomahawk (Kettle Bell)

 

Warmup: (10 minutes)

  • Side-straddle Hops (25)
  • Windmill (25)
  • Low Slow Squats
  • Moroccan Nightclub
  • Cherry Pickers
  • Jog around the parking lot

Exercise: (35 minutes)

  • LEGS
    • Lunge (1 min) Exercise group A
    • Squats (1 min) Exercise group A
    • Run to the end of the parking lot!
    • Calf Raises (1 Min) Exercise group B
    • Sumo Squat (1 Min) Exercise group B
    • Run to the end of the parking lot!
  • ARMS
    • Curls L (1 min) Exercise group A
    • Curls R (1 min) Exercise group A
    • Run to the end of the parking lot!
    • Skull Crushers (1 Min) Exercise group B
    • Chest Press (1 Min) Exercise group B
    • Run to the end of the parking lot!
  • CORE
    • Big Boy Sit-ups (1 min) Exercise group A
    • Flutters (1 min) Exercise group A
    • Run to the end of the parking lot!
    • Freddy Merc (1 min) Exercise group B
    • Box Cutters (1 min) Exercise group B
    • Run to the end of the parking lot!
  • BACK
    • Kettle Bell Swings (1 min) Exercise group A
    • Upright Row (1 min) Exercise group A
    • Run to the end of the parking lot!
    • Bent over Rows L (1 min) Exercise group B
    • Bent Over Rowes R (1 min) Exercise group B
    • Run to the end of the parking lot!

 

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UNO (a VQ dream)

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3D’s VQ premiered an UNO workout with 12 guys.

(3D finally got access to post this.  Sorry for the delay.  It was so popular DropThrill has used it since.  Some of this is copied from his BackBlast.)

Shuffle the deck of Uno cards and whatever the number is, you perform that number of reps with the exception of 0 being 10. The color of the cards determines the exercise. You have to play your cards just like in Uno. Color on same color, or same number on same number.

Blue = Kettlebell curls
Green = LBC’s
Yellow = Squats with or without bell
Red = Upright rows
Skip = Run a lap
+2 = Two reps of 2 exercises from the list (player’s choice)
+4 = Four reps of all four exercises
Reverse = Do the same exercise you just performed
Wild = Change color

Sounds simple right? It is, until you get stuck on a color or number for a while.

If you dont have a card to play, you draw another card and have to do a Burpee.  The crew flipped this and in the spirit of camaraderie, everyone did a Burpee for every card drawn.

Folks tried to call out Uno, but we didn’t have a contingency for this.  Something to add for next time.

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What’s in Your Bucket?

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9 men started their Easter Week off right on a cool morning (I was gonna bring my 2.0 this morning who turns 13 today but there was no luck getting him up).  A couple guys showed up that were up late watching some TV Show about Games or Thrones or the combination of the two.  Thanks to those who did and to bad to the others that didn’t.

I showed up with a trailer full of Buckets filled with Ziplock of Dirt.  A couple of the Pax seemed intrigued while a couple were confused.  Since I work for a Civil Engineering Firm I get paid to play in the dirt.  Typically I have to carry buckets full of Dirt around on a jobsite and no matter how good of shape I am in It always gets the best of me.  So I instructed the Pax to grab a bucket and lets mosey.  I did challenge them to grab  2 Buckets if they felt brave.  We took a short mosey to our normal area to circle up and do our COP: Nemo was running behind but caught up quickly after with his bucket.

Moroccan Night Clubs (10 in Cadence)
Cherry Pickers (10 in Cadence)
Sun Gods both ways (10 in Cadence)
SSH’s (30 in Cadence because it should always be 30 – I think I heard DOAH say that)
Merkins (10 in Cadence) – Hold into Downward Dogs into Honeymooners

I then explained  that the bucket of dirt is to symbolize what you are carrying around with you daily in life like Bills, struggles in marriage, children, Work and so on.  I wanted the Pax to carry the bucket around whole work out. If someone struggles then another Pax will take a couple bags out of their bucket and put them in their bucket to help them out. And when they start doing better we put the bags back into their bucket. Sometimes on my job sites I have to carry buckets of dirt around and it challenges me. Just like when you think you’re in good shape and you have everything under control in your life your bucket seems to get heavier.  I had a couple other small talks about this message that I threw in there for some 10 counts.  Fill your buckets with Joy and not Burdens.

So we went over to the Loading dock where we split up into 1’s and 2′ so we didn’t get over crowded on the dock and did 15 of the following while we jogged back and forth from the Dock to the Curb: Big Boys, Burpee’s, Mt. Climbers, Merkins and Monkey Humpers.

We then took our Buckets over to the Big Green Monster and did a 12 Ladder.  Bomb Jacks up top and Sumo Squats at bottom.  Lots of Slipping and Slidding today on the Green Monster.  It showed it’s teeth this morning.  Nemo went down along with some nice shoes turned into old mud shoes.

Had a few minutes left so we did a little Nascar Circle (sorta like Duck Duck Goose).  Each Pax would run around the Circle of Pax while each held a Bucket Squat and the second time while we held the Buckets over our heads.

Long mosey back with the buckets.  Not Fun!!!

Announcements about the Savage Race and Cannoli Run, Prayers for Injured Pax and traveling Pax.  Closed in Prayer remembering what this week really is about.  Oh and Homebrew announced that Me, I Two Ferns is getting Baptized this Easter Sunday!!

 

 

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History at The Hive

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Pulling into the HIVE early to set-up shop YHC was surprised to see 2 cars already there! Rebel was enjoying a few ‘Be Still’ minutes and Geronimo was getting after it in the parking lot with what appeared to be his Ruck. The rainy weather was holding off & it was a perfect 65 degrees-A great morning to be in the Gloom!

The cars kept rolling & rolling in….17 PAX in total

5:15am- No FNG’s so hit the disclaimer and off we went

COP: Mosey to band parking lot and return back.  Exercises in cadence-

  • SealJacks x 20
  • IW x 15
  • HW x 15
  • Windmill x 10
  • Cherry Picker x 10
  • Plank, Honey Mooner-Downward Dog, Plank
  • Merkins
  • Mountain Climbers x 15

The Thang:

Today’s workout was built around the History of the Hive. All repetition #s, exercises & stories shared were specific to this AO.

4 stations here we go:

Station 1- History Lesson- What is the most famous saying @ The Hive? “5 @ The Hive”. The PAX passed the test with flying colors. In honor of “5 @ The Hive” we hit a 5 cone drill Jacobs ladder style:

  • Cone 1) Inch Worm Merkins & Goblet Squats
  •  Cone 2) Triceps Ext & Reverse Lunges
  • Cone 3) Bicep curl w/ Shoulder press & Burpees
  • Cone 4) BackRows & Swings
  • Cone 5) Upright Rows & Fwd Lunges

Kudos to the PAX as they just got after this station. Little time for mumble chatter with the exception of those as they finished Cone 3 with Burpees.

Station 2- History Lesson- How many years has the Hive been an AO? How many site Q’s have there been & who are they? The PAX again pulled together and we went with 3 years (almost 4 years) and 3 sites Q’s- Longshanks, Tesh & BandCamp!

In honor of this we went 3 rounds of the Site Q’s assigned exercises:

Longshanks-Thrusters, Tesh-The Standing Tesh or Bi/Tri, Bandcamp-Swings

  • Round 1: 9 Thrusters, 9 count Standing Tesh, 9 Swings
  • Round 2: 9 Thrusters, 18 Bi/Tri Superset, 9 Swings
  • Round 3: 9 Thrusters, 9 count Standing Tesh, 9 Swings

Station 3- History Lesson- Geronimo’s Gauntlet (This needs to be in The Exicon) 

We did our best rendition of the 2018 Hive version of Geronimo’s Gauntlet. A Pax favorite it was started by no other than Geronimo himself and it goes something like this- *Line up all the Kettlebells lightest to heaviest. One by one, Pax go down the line and perform bent over rows at each KBell. (3 rows each side for time today). The waiting Pax can plank up, Al Gore, etc… With 17 KBells lined up our lats got some serious work. The heavy 40-50lb KBells at the end of the line gave us all an example of how JWOWW, Geronimo & Tesh get after it. Strong work Men!

Station 4- 5:58am and we escaped the planned AMRAP station due to time. Better to be over prepared than not enough. YHC took a moment to read  from the theme of the month and take just a moment to “Be Still”.

COT- Announcements from Newsletter, upcoming events

Prayers/Praises: Rebels 28th Wedding Anniversary. Prayers for all families traveling for the upcoming Spring Break week.

It was an honor to be with the Pax this morning- Thanks BandCamp for the opportunity!

Weezer

 

 

 

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Spring break, spring break!

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What a great morning for a run around Wally World! Cool air and a nice breeze countered the 100% humidity for a comfortable loop of a tried and true Flight Plan classic. The numbers were low by current standards. That can be attributed to 3 things; 1) No looming CSAUP or road race; 2) Some regulars having participated in Charlotte Race Fest 1/2 marathon this Saturday and 3) Spring Break!

The last on the list allowing for a few of the PAX to have an impromptu coffeteria while M’s & 2.0s were tucked snuggly in their beds. A nice cameo from Tesh as we enjoyed our Starbucks. Tackling all the worlds’ problems and comparing who had a better SOI, Twister or Double D.

Annoucnments:

AKAY2 led by Funhouse continues

 

 

 

 

 

 

Canoli Run – May 18th – https://runsignup.com/Race/SC/FortMill/SPNCannoli5kRunAndFamilyWalk

Prayer Requests:

Safe travel for all PAX going bi-coastal for Spring Break

Hootie’s Mother In Law for biopsy results that will be received today

Will – Friend of Cyclop’s M who is going into rehab

NMM

For me right now, all is good. I’m not saying I have it all figured out but I know that I’m blessed. I’ve got some time off from the students but that honey do list is long for my Spring Break. So I’m making sure I get this out quickly.

See you in the gloom,

Boeheim

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TABATA FRIDAY

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14 men kicked off their Friday morning with a good sweat at The Swamp.  About 1/2 left with their rucks, and the rest of them did this:

The Thang:

Short mosey up and around one of the  large parking lots,  and stop in the front of the Sprint store for COP:

SSHx25,merkin x 10,  IW x 20, windmill x 15, squat x 20, small arm circles (20 F/20R), large arm circle (10F/10R).

Take a lap around the parking lot and stop at the same spot for Tabata:  8 exercises, 8 sets of each exercise, 20 secs per set, and 10 secs rest in between each set.  The exercises were:

  1.  Carolina Dry Dock
  2. Flutters
  3. Squats
  4. Mountain climbers
  5. Freddie Mercury
  6. Jumping Lunges
  7. Merkins
  8. LBC’s

COT

This is my ‘go to’ workout when I have no time to plan a workout.   I accepted the Q invitation from Cha Ching last week, and I didn’t look at the date.  When the reminder came through on Tuesday, I thought,’ oh crap, not this week!’  Work and family obligations have been especially challenging lately,  and I was not planning on squeezing in anything else this week.  But, I canceled on Cha Ching the last time he scheduled me, and I didn’t want to do it a 2nd time.  So, the Tabata fit the bill.  You can make this workout as hard as you like depending on which exercises you pick.  Today’s workout was about in the middle of the tough scale and I designed it to suit my current fitness level and my sore knee.

There was very little mumble chatter today, save for one moment when one of the Pax let out a rather loud release of gas  (not sure who).  Someone said, ‘dude, you may want to check that’,  and the response was ‘no, I’m good.’  That made me laugh.  Not sure why fart humor still makes mature men crack up.

We had a good crowd today and it was nice to see some new and familiar faces, and also a banged up face (hope you are feeling better Jedi).    I’m glad I was able to fit in this Q and, as always,  it was a privilege to lead such a fine group of men.

Announcements/prayers and praises:

This month is Mental Health Awareness month.

Prayers for Twister’s niece who committed suicide, Cornerstones daughter, and Senator T’s mother.

 

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