It was a blessing today to Co-Q with my 2.0 and experience him stepping up to help lead the Pax through all his self-doubt and anxiety as we have all experienced when we were asked to step out of our comfort zone.
After many challenges of getting him to think through a plan, a sleepless night and pure unadulterated anxiety… he ultimately stretched the Pax out and completed 5 rounds of COP exercises with perfect voice commands to command the pax. With no Weinke in hand no less. #Impact
The message:
We spoke about impact. We spoke about impact from the perspective of the impact we have on others and thinking about what do we want others to say about us at our own funerals. What Impact do we want them speaking about? But we also spoke about those things that have an impact on us. As unpleasant, vulnerable or difficult as they are we need to recognize those things that have a positive impact on us (i.e. F3) and keep doing them. Keep going and letting them have their impression on us.
The Thang:
Mosey to side parking lot for some stretching and COP lead by Shin Guard
COP included
Merkins
Squats
Moroccan Night Clubs
LBC
Mountain Climbers
Mosey to Basketball lot
Rugby Sprints including CDD, Merkins, Flying Squirrels, High Low Flutters
To the wooden tree boxes split into 2 groups group 1 doing or toe touches x2 rounds Dips x 2 rounds and Irkins x1 rounds and group 2 running while group 1 does exercise.
Mosey to wall for some wall sit, bear crawl indian run x2 then some other fun wall activities.
COT
It was a pleasure to lead today and I’m very proud of my 2.0. Aye!
5 pax and 10 young men joined together to spend some quality time together at Guidance to talk about leadership and the #1 thing you can control in leadership and that is our own, individual response to circumstances.
To start with the end… in COT asking for prayers three of the boy’s prayers revolved around going home. That was a prayer that I can’t even comprehend but I think it became a little more real this past week as we can feel for the young immigrant children sitting in “camps” separated from their parents and these children like the young men from Guidance… just want to go home and be with their families.
Today’s theme was leadership and by golly we were going to live it.
SSSSSLLLLLLOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW Mosey to church field at the top of the hill.
Circle up with some stretching lead by Tyrees and we then moved into some COP. Then Curry entered the circle and helped complete a few more exercises in cadence.
Then we started a friendly competition. Identified 4 team leaders to select their teams. Which took slightly longer than expected but we got there. Competing in the following events.
Balance – stand on one foot holding the other for as long as you can, then jumping until you fall
Strength – Hold the longest Plank… Senator Tressell and Pony tail were boss at this event. Respectable… very respectable
Speed – Sprint suicides by team… first one to finish gets points
Agility – Dribbling the ball down the fields
Agility 2 – Dibble the ball down, circle the cone and come back
Small sided games (1 team against the other, first goal wins)
Cakeboss did warmup I’m sure he did the usual SSH and Merks. I was fashionable late as usual QT was calling my name, thank you Lord for such nice facilities! I did make it to his 10 burpees OYO and plank curb walk 10 steps to the left then 10 back to the right x 2.
The Thang
I had Q for this part of workout. Workout we did I call 4×5. Here’s how it goes: Each exercise counts off in 4’s all the way to 20. 4-8-12-16-20. Start doing 4 count one end of parking lot then a different mode of transportation to other end of parking lot (about 75 feet) away for every different exercise. Reps go up each end of parking lot. Here’s the different rounds.
1) Hand Release Merkins with Duck Walk in between
2) Sumo Squats With Bear Crawl in between. Every other Bear Crawl was backwards.
3) CDD with Lt. Dans in between
4) Burpees with Power Skips in between. Omaha was called after 12 burpees.
5) Monkey Humpers with Inch Worm Merkins in between.
6) Time was almost up so one last backwards bear crawl 75 feet then back to COT for 2 sets of ablab. Rosalita and Hello Dolly x 10 in cadence.
Sweati is coming up July 14th sign up. It’ll suck but most CSAUPS do! I’m doing a 10k that day on trails (surprise) so it will suck too!
Last but not least my two cents or my message. I’m guilty of this big time and struggle daily. PUT DOWN THE PHONES! Invest quality time with your wife and kiddos. No phones at dinner table. Do a puzzle together. Read a book. Take your kids outside they are only little for so long. Spoil your wife. MAKE MEMORIES! I love each and every one of you guys in F3. Let’s do life together men. If anyone wants anyone to talk to I’m your man! I love helping and being of service to others. Sorry so late for backblast!
Adversity: A state or instance of serious or continued difficulty or misfortune through showing COURAGE in the face of adversity.
The Beyond workouts have been influential in pushing us all beyond our normal tendencies. As each of the Q’s created hard, meaningful, powerful workouts, the messages have been even more impactful. I dug deep into why F3 has been so impactful to me for the past 5 ½ years and realized that if I wasn’t Headlocked by Sen Tressel and Decible, I would never have found the reason why I am who I am, nor stepped outside of my comfort zone. As many know, I am not one to speak messages or bring attention to my birth defect. Yes I love to rattle the Q’s and bring sarcasm – but that is to hide my anxiety and self-awareness. Growing up with a birth defect being extremely skinny and frail had a huge negative impact on me: from being prohibited from playing organized sports, to ridicule, to hash words, to being left out. Growing up I became extremely self-aware of how I was different, how I looked, and how people looked at me. Up until college, I had no self-esteem. I was shy and timid. A college roommate encouraged me to hit the gym with him and from that point on, I became a gym rat for the sole reason to make my body look normal. That never happened, and I knew it wouldn’t. But I had to find a reason – COURAGE – to face Adversity. When Sen Tressel approached me about F3, he knew that I worked out religiously, but I bet he knew I was missing something. That was the fellowship and faith aspect of my life. Don’t get me wrong, my wife is my treasure, and she see’s through all my fallacies and understands the importance of my working out. Adversity has smacked me right in the face more often than not, and without the courage of my F3 brothers, pushing me, encouraging me, accepting me, I would not be a better man, husband, nor father. If you asked me 20 or 25 years ago to participate in a GoRuck Tough, a Mudrun, a 5k, a CSUAP, I would have said something that is not print worthy. We all deal with Adversity, we deal with it differently, but courage is the root of the means to fight adversity. I will never be normal, I will never be as strong as Maximus or as fast as Sen Tressel or courageous as Dark Helmet, or a leader like CSPAN, but without F3 and our brothers locking shields together, adversity would overrule our lives and we would not find the courage to push each of us through the hard time.
So the Thang represents one of the hardest WO’s F3 experiences. I thank Jekyll for introducing the board of pain many years ago. But I wanted to put a twist on it – different exercises and a little more running. I wanted each of us at Beyond to encourage each other to push through the adversity that the box of pain presented.
Ran ½ mile to the FMHS ROTC pull up bars. Conduct each exercise listed on box of pain, then run around the parking lot (approximately 0.3 miles). Complete as many as you can until Q halts WO.
100 LBCs
50 Burpees
25 Pull Ups
100 Big Boy Sit Ups
150 Squats
100 Merkins
100 Mountain Climbers
Wrap up with round of 10 count Abs:
A = American Hammers
D = Dying Cockroaches
V = V-ups
E = E2K (oblique crunch with RL on L knee then switch
R = Rosalitia
S = Sit ups
I = Imperial Walker on your back (bicycle)
T = Tummy Tuck (LBC)
Y = Yo Rosalitia this is Dolly (Start in Hello Dolly brings legs together then bring legs up)
Run back to COT
Thank you Maximus for allowing me to Q Beyond and for us all to find Courage to fight through Adversity everyday. F3 is a conduit to each PAX finding the courage and accountability to get through whatever Adversity your are dealing with, and F3 brothers are the foundation to help each of us through adversity.
Thanks to Smithers for the opportunity! Reaching respectable now allows me to feel a little more comfortable at a moderate workout. No more razzing from the PAX!
Arrived early, set out things. Put in the bifocal contacts to help see taped-on-arm weinke (as usual). The bifocal contacts did not really help too much but this weinke was almost memorized. Welcomed the PAX. Lots of new faces for me. Highly recommend to get out to different workouts and meet new guys. Read the disclamer.
Mosey along Empire Bldg with high knees, toy soldiers, shuffle it up. To middle of parking lot for warmup exercises: SSH, WM, LBC, Merkins, Goofballs, IW, Flutters, MNCs. Then to curb for a couple new exercises for many…
Rocky Balboas (boxing motion, alternating toe taps on curb), Twist Merkins or Nipple Scratcher Merkins (hands on curb, on drop down, one leg twist through trying to get each “nipple”…hey, it’s in the exicon…to touch the curb), RB’s again, Mike Tysons (feet on curb in flat position, squat, on the up, do a merkin), RB’s again. Back to middle of parking lot for…
…4 corners explanation. 4 cones at the corners with 3 exercises each. Complete exercises, plank until ALL PAX done, mosey to middle for core work. Broke into groups of 4.
We got through one cycle. Core work included LBCs, Hello Dolly, Freddy Mercury, Protractor, and… I think here…maybe in warmup…”point/whip the finger” one leg flutters. Ok, I made this name up. An exercise I do, on six, one leg tucked under butt, one leg flutter, lower as safely as you can from flat to on your elbows. The flutter leg is the ‘pointer’ of the 5 body appendages.
To side of Lowes. Stayed in groups of 4 and had 4 stations.
Station 1 sprinted length of Lowes and yelled “turn” at the corner signaling other groups to turn around. (This was to have e1 finish about the same time.)
Station 2, 2 PAX carried the #120 Worm coupon until hearing “turn” then handed off to other 2. Good job PAX in improvising the alternating carry as I had not indicated so.
Station 3 Burpees until finish.
Station 4 Lunge walk until hearing turn then back.
Oh yea, PAX carried and passed around a 30# coupon the whole workout. I did not say, but this coupon was intended for a peoples chair line pass w/ overhead press, curls, etc, if we had time. We didn’t.
We covered good standards of a workout including small group, partner and individual work. And for a moderate workout, maybe a little less running, a few less reps and nice mix of moving and rest time. Weinke it so that PAX are finishing exercises about the same time.
COT.
Noted to PAX to talk with your kids about things in the news, including recent suicides and the immigrant situation. They are seeing these things and it is our job as fathers to talk with them the best way we can.
Prayers for Foley who is dealing with cancer.
Sweati on the way! No details yet makes it all the more intriguing. G-Fit in Paradise and CAH workouts need Q’s! Use this opportunity to take a small step to #ServeCommunity. F3Dads Camp Thunderbird camp coming up near end of summer.
Shout out to NASA for his work and commitment to CAH.
All are invited and encouraged to attend the 4x/week F3 gatherings in Fort Mill to improve your mind and spirituality. It is an open environment and all men will feel comfortable.
I saw my opportunity and took it. Beacon offered up the lead this week for Footloose and I had an evil plan in mind. It had been a while since I q’d a 12 Days of Christmas fun fest, probably since last Christmas if not beyond so I quickly found a list and checked it twice.
As with the equally evil song The Twelve Days of Christmas, you repeat each exercise just like you repeat each gift until you have covered all twelve. In this case no singing off key was required.
The Thang went something like this:
1-Run around the church building
2-Turkish getups
3-Jump squats
4-LBCs
5-Diamond Merkins
6-Imperial Walkers
7-Rosalitas
8-Slow flutters
9-Low slow squats
10-Lunges (ten each leg)
11-Merkins
12-Burpees
Sadly we ran out of time and we made our way back to COT and hit round eleven. I’m sure noone is sad we missed out on twelve burpees. Especially me.
It’s a simple you v you style workout, and I hope it made you get a little stronger and sweat a little more, I know I was sore today the more I sat at work today.
I hope what I shared about money will make you think as well. We have so much and are so blessed in many ways. What are you doing to make a difference and impact your world?
I felt like I had been preparing for this Q for a long time. I am such a different person, husband and father because of F3 and I really wanted to celebrate my first year in F3 with some of my new closest friends. Then I had a terrible idea to do exercises I absolutely loathe. Looks like I’m truly part of F3 now…..
After a solo ruck around the AO to make sure everything would work out the way I wanted and create a plan B, we got started right on time.
Full disclaimer was given since we had an FNG show up brought out by Hauschka!
Quick warm up mosey with some Partner Carry Catch Us If You Can where partner 1 carries partner 2 and after a head start is then chased by partner 3, rotate and repeat. Did some lunge walking to stretch out and then….
The Thang
2 min AMRAP 1 minute rest (some rests were longer but only barely) building up to my most hated exercise
10. Big Boy Sit-Ups
9. Clockwork Merkins on the hill
8. Monkey Humpers
7. Hill Crawl Bear
6. Donkey Kick
5. Balls to the Wall (1 minute because geez….)
4. Mak Tar Jai (spelling??)
3. Pull-Ups
2. Diamond Merkins
1. Hand Release Prison Cell Merkin Burpees #Lexicon #IceBreaker2018
Everything went super smooth, lots of mumble chatter the whole time which meant the PAX was enjoying it as much as possible or trying to distract themselves. It was great to see everyone pushing their own individual limits
Slow mosey back to CoT and because Q school taught me that anything on the Weinke is fair game, we spent the last 2 minutes just laying down on the pavement with some Jedi-protested stretching
CoT
Sweati 7/14 at First Baptist Fort Mill
GoRuck Light 6/30 with HomeBrew, Davinci, NASA in Columbia
BEYOND at Quagmire 6/25 with Wild Thing
Whopper still job hunting
Wild Thing has a thing he is doing, ask him yourself
Super TClaps to Alex “Fixer Upper” Brown for finishing his first post and thank you Bones for the opportunity to lead
A group of 22 pax converged at the HT lot for another edition of Golden Corral. Once the runners took off, and the ruckers marched on, 3 Pax joined YHC for the bootcamp workout. Here is what we did:
Mosey around the HT parking lot and pause for a quick warm up of knee pulls, ankle pulls, toy soldiers, lunge twists and arm circles. Mosey a little further to the perfect spot for COT:
All in Cadence:
SSH x 40, merkin x 10, squat x 20, mountain climber x 30, alternating lunges x 15, CDD x 15, LBC x 20
Mosey to front of HT store and face the front parking lot:
Full parking lot suicides (stop at each concrete island in lot). Repeat 2 more times.
Mosey to the side of the HT store:
Balls to the wall/hold, bear crawl to the O’Reilly parts store and balls to that wall. Bear crawl back to HT store.
Peoples chair against HT store, 10 overhead claps, lunge walk to O’Reilly parts store and peoples chair against that wall. Lunge walk back to HT store.
Repeat #1 above
Repeat #2 above
Plank it up for a quick talk on the word of the month: IMPACT
I mentioned to the Pax that one of the strongest aspects of F3 is the network that has been built over the years. There is strength in numbers and I the best example of the impact of a large network was the flood relief provided to Columbia two years ago. Hundreds of men organized a relief effort in an incredibly short time. It was an amazing thing to see and to be part of. Another way you can have impact through your F3 relationships is reaching out to your Pax when they need encouragement or just a note to let them know you are thinking about them. A quick text or phone call can make a huge difference when you are down.
Back to work. Indian Run around the whole lot and circle up for quick ablab:
Hello Dolly x 20, Freddie Merc x 20, Superman hold x 30.
End with the Body Destroyer (lie flat on the ground, breath deep, relax, no talking)
COT
Naked Man Moleskin
Was good to be Q at the Corral after an extended break including some time on IR. It’s still one of my favorite AO’s. Something about being under the lights makes it pretty cool. We had a good group today. My apologies to Manifold and Curious George for not learning your names before we started the workout. My calls for 10 counts from ‘you guys down there’ were a little awkward. Glad to have you men, and Bones with me today. Hope to see you again soon.
I shared my thoughts on the word of the month, IMPACT, with the group (which is a rarity for me). I’m not much for breaks when I Q (other than 10 counts) so we did this in the plank position.
It was an awesome, very humid, morning at the Corral and a pleasure to lead such a fine group of men. Thanks for the Q spot, Decibel!
Announcements/Prayers/Praises
Go Sleeveless for Cheech, this Friday, June 22 at all workouts
Prayers for Dark Helments friend who was killed in a motorcycle accident, F3 Elmer who has luekemia, and for a friend of Drop Thrill , whose child who has recovered from a serious illness.
6 Pax had an amazing time of fellowship this morning at The Block Party. Having a smaller group allowed each man to freely share what was on their minds. Today is Juneteenth and I am rejoicing! T-Claps to Band Camp for being knowledgeable and happy about Juneteenth. #TrueHIM
Circle up, count by 4, each group goes to a corner
Pyramid Drill: At each station/corner, do Flying Squirrels, Donkey Kicks and George & Weezy’s in increments of 5 until we hit 15 repetitions then countdown to 5 as a group. Jog to each station.
Mosey to the curved parking lot along 160
Partner up. Partner Big Boy Sit Ups (15x for 2 rounds), Partner Ski Jumps (15x), Partner Leg Lifts (15x for 2 rounds), Partner Squats (15x for 2 rounds), Pepper Grinders (15x), Scorpions(15x)
Mosey to COT
Moleskin:
Today, we discussed our theme of impact. In order to have significant impact on others you must put others first. Put God first, others second and yourself third.
We say “I am third” and even wear that saying on our clothing. How often do we really put ourselves third? How often do we really help others without a selfish agenda?
There are daily opportunities to be third, like opening the door for someone. Be there when someone is struggling. Serve the poor instead of retreating to your privilege. Listen, actually listen, to someone else’s opposing perspective instead of impatiently looking for opportunities to prove they’re wrong and you’re right.
8 PAX seeking to a better version of themselves posted in the steamy gloom this morning.
WarmUp:
Started out with a mosey around the parking lot.
COP:
SSH x30
Merkin x10
Mountain Climber x10
Honeymooner à Downdog à Honeymooner
Imperial Walker x10
Hillbilly Walker x10
Mosey back to the grab our bells.
The Thang: COP with kettlebells
Kettlebell Swings x10
Merkins x10 (single count) (80 total)
Kettlebell Swings x10
Big Boy Situps x10
Set the weight down and rotate to the right
Rinse and repeated until we were back at our own gear (8 times)
Mosey to the parking lot curb and setup with the 4 rows of spaces in front of us.
Lunge-walk with pass through to the other side
Stop at each set of parking spaces for 10 merkins (40)
Leave bells & run the length of the lot and back to the bell
Lunge-walk with pass through back to where we started
Stop at each set of parking spaces for 10 squats
Back to COT for some Mary. SkateorDie mentioned that we were at 120 merkins….so:
Merkins x10 in cadence (20 total)
Hand-release merkins x10 to reach 150 total merkins for the day. 170 if you count the warmup in-cadence merkins.
Flutter w/ press x10
American Hammers x10
Finished with a leg stretch sequence:
Seated Forward Bend, Pigeon Lunge, Butterfly
NMM:
I usually do a kettlebell workout on Fridays at the Hive. About ¾ of the way through the workout when most of us had sweated more than seemed humanly possible for 5:45am, Polaroid quipped, “They trained you well at the Hive.” I love this thought of being in training.
2 Corinthians 5:4-6 (taken a bit out of context, don’t tell my Christian studies professor friends)
“These tents [bodies] we now live in are like a heavy burden, and we groan…As long as we are in these bodies, we are away from the Lord.”
We are put here for a purpose, and being in these bodies is part of that purpose. It is good and right that we should push ourselves physically and train to be better. Everything is connected. If we can be better physically, we can be better emotionally, mentally, and spiritually as well. As PAX, we must focus on our growth as a whole person. Training for this life starts in the gloom.
My first time out at The Tomahawk. Great AO! Props to Polaroid for asking me to Q and motivating me to get out of my comfort zone of AOs.
Prayers:
A PAX dealing with some medical issues both with family members and himself. Prayers for healing and strength on this HIM and his family.