BEYOND – CONFIDENCE & SELF-WORTH

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Being the BEYOND Q has been something that I’ve found to be quite intimidating after the first few that I attended. I’ll admit, I’m not the most experienced in the 3rd F. How will I find a message that will resonate with the PAX? Will it impact them? Will it move them? These are all of the questions that have been on my mind since getting on Q schedule for BEYOND.

5 brave PAX split from the group and went off into The Gloom with YHC.

Pre-Amble:
Throughout the majority of my life I’ve had the luxury of being able to take the easy way out when things got tough. High School Sports Injury? Rehab is too hard I’ll just find something else. Finding out the career you want involves hard classes and real work? Find something easier that takes less effort. Tough time finding a job? Take the first and easiest option instead of facing rejection. I can’t even count the number of goals I’ve set for myself and just sat back watched as goal date just floated on passed.

What do all of these easy way out decisions lead to? Regret. They lead to happy hours and late night talks about how I could’ve done X, but (insert lame excuse here). They lead to late nights saying I should’ve been Y, but (insert lame excuse here).

Where does all of that come from? What makes it so easy to compromise? I think it comes from not knowing who you are as a man, or what is important to you. I’ve spent most of my life trying to assimilate into whatever peer group would have me. Tupac summed up my teen years the best, “I hung around with thugs and even though they sold drugs, they showed a young brother love”. The quickest way to make friends in college? Find the party or hang out in front of dorms and meet the smokers. So far, probably not the most High Impact Men to surround myself with.

Enter F3 about 2.5 years ago. This group of men has given me confidence. It has built enough self-worth in me that I can now look people in the eyes when I talk to them. It has given me the desire to want to finish what I’ve started, to complete the task, to not accept not meeting the standard. The saying we’ve adopted is “Do the Harder Thing”. That is how I want to live my life.

Today the feeling of regret stops. Today we come back to one task, one goal that has eaten away at me slowly for 18 mos…

THE THANG
About halfway through our F3 Custom GoRuck Challenge, after carrying heavy logs and each other, Cadre Danny and Cadre Flash challenged us to a PT Test.

100 Burpees
Run 1.1 Mi
50 Burpees
Run 1.1 Mi
Time: 32 minutes (for the vent they added an extra few minutes)

My time the first time was over 40 minutes.

All participants finished in 31 minutes or less!

Thank you Maximus for the opportunity to lead.

Until next time in the gloom,

Wild Thing out!

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Gym Jones and a little DORA

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It’s been a while since I’ve been back to my old stomping grounds at The Deep and thought this would be a great way to warm up for BEYOND coming on Monday. 9 PAX answered the call in The Gloom. Here’s what went down:

Quick Disclaimer and Mosey over to the parking lot in front of The Office (slight location adjustment was needed due some leftover splashed merlot).

A brief warm up followed.

THE THANG
A while back Facebook into me to Bobby Maximus and some of his Gym Jones challenges. It goes like this: Set a timer for one minute. Starting at one increase by one Burpee every minute until you can no longer complete the number of Burpees in that minute. This group pushed themselves to the limit and made it 15! For those who don’t want to do the math that’s 120 total Burpees

With all the PAX sucking wind we slowly moseyed over to the building and partnered up for a little DORA. With a partner complete 100 Dips, 200 Squats, and 300 double count Flutters while their partner ran to the parking island and back.

With the PAX sufficiently smoked, we moseyed back to COT.

MOLESKIN
F3 has impacted my life in more ways than I can count. I shared today that for most of my life due to various factors including being bullied, I have never had the confidence to look people in the eyes while speaking with them. I didn’t feel worthy. It felt intimidating. While I’ve held leadership positions, I’ve never known what it took to be a leader. F3 has given me the confidence to finally do that. The mental shift that happens when all of a sudden you lead and others follow is life changing. It’s downright empowering. These 45 minutes or hour leadership sessions have not only impacted my relationships, but my professional life as well.

There’s your preview for BEYOND. Check out the next BB for PART II.

Wild Thing Out.

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Audible! Dora 1-1-1, Concentrica and Impact

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5 gathered just as the lights came on at DBES for a KB workout to start the week off right.  After choosing our tunes (Southern Rock at the Q’s request), we were off.

Mosey around the parking lot (without Bells) and back for warm-up.

SSH x 10

Windmills x 10

Moroccan Night Clubs x 10

Imperial Walker x 10

Squat x 10

Peter Parker x 10

Parker Peter x 10

The Thang 

Time to grab your KB and get after it.   YHC had planned for us to partner up a complete a Dora 1-2-3. With just 5 PAX, I decided to audible and adjust the rep count.

Complete the exercise (or a portion of it) and mosey across the parking lot, down to second light and back. Less reps = more running, but we all appreciated a break and most ran at the halfway point of total reps. Rep s are TOTAL, not per arm.

Lawn Mowers x 100

Curls x 100

Tricep Extensions x 100

The “10 count” portion of this workout was talking about the Shield Lock and Concentrica, where your priorities should be versus where they are. If you haven’t listened to the Concentrica podcast (or even if you have), I recommend you give it a listen. I also recommend the Minivan Centurions post.

Squats x 10

Dips x 10

Step-Ups x 10

Shoulder Presses x 10

KB Swings x 10

Mosey to COT for Mary

Flutter x 10

Hello Dolly x 10

Rosalita x 10 LBC x 10

Naked-Man Moleskin 

We talked  about the monthly theme of Impact.  We all impact others, whether we do it intentionally or not.  Where are we having an impact?  Is it the type of impact we want to make ?  Is it negative (change/improve)? What are you allowing to impact you (positive/negative)?

Focusing on the ‘Concentrica’ that you have, think about where you spend your resources, time and energy. You will know where your priorities are if you think about which priority receives the bulk of those resources. If it’s where you want it to be, great!  Help someone else striaghten there’s out. If it’s not, get to work.

COT 

Continued prayers for Badger’s family, Bob the Builder, all PAX on the IR, PAX suffering from illness. Hold each other and yourself to a higher standard. To hold someone accountable, we must first be accountable. Iron isn’t sharpened on a soft stone.

Thanks to Polaroid for the opportunity. See you in the gloom!

 

Beacon

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6/19 GC Ruck

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With the first of my 3 Q’s this week we jumped ventured into the world of GoRuck with their Wednesday Workout from last week. It went something like this:

Partner Up and grab a sandbag
Movement: One mileish to Tega Cay Elementary switch sandbag as needed
PT with your partner: 50x Sandbag Front Squats
50x Ruck Merkins
50x Ruck V-Ups
Movement: Ruck back to COT

YHC got a little aggressive with the distance and movement which impeded finishing the second round of PT

PAX put in great effort. I’m sure I’m missing some from the tag.

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Impact on the Yard

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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!

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2022 US World Cup Training

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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)

Great time by all and a privilege to lead!

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4×5 At Collesium

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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!

LOVE IN JESUS, STANG

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Beyond Adversity

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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.

Trucker

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Some new things at Slow Burn

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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.

  • Cone 1: 10 Carolina Dry Docks, 10 Donkey Kicks, 10 alternating plank arms high.
  • Cone 2: 15 Monkey Humpers, 10 Bomb Jacks, 20 High Knee Taps.
  • Cone 3: 15 Squats, 20 Calf Raises, 20 side to side jumps.
  • Cone 4: 10 Merkins, 10 Dips, 20 Mountain Climbers.

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.

Aye! Bolt

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Christmas In June – Footloose Breakdance Style

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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?

Thanks for the opportunity to lead.

DT out.

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