Smashing Taboo on this Election Tuesday

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Today 11 men  joined together in the unseasonably warm but wet aftermath of a heavy rain that preceded us.  Plenty of puddles to step in but lots of good fellowship to counteract the wet.  My apologies to Long Shanks for getting his shoes wet by moseying through the fields

Message:  The challenge during partner activities was to engage in the taboo… to engage in dialogue around politics and religion.  The great deceiver has created societal roles that it is taboo to talk about politics or religion because he knows when we talk about difference, when we talk about our own pain and suffering that what we usually find is commonality, hope and support that he doesn’t want you to find.  This month take a leap of faith and make yourself vulnerable by speaking about something on your heart that you wouldn’t normally speak about. Find healing, support and hope in the men around you.

The THANG:

Started with some stretching… because we are old (except Falcon Crest but he played along)

Moseyed past the smelly trash can to the back parking lot for some Rugby sprints that included SSH, CCDs, Merkins, Sumo Squats, Hill Billy Walkers and maybe a couple others.

Mosey to the side HT wall for some wall sits and bear crawls from one end to the other (that is one long wall……….)

Mosey to Grace parking lot for the Starfish which included 8 pain stations within 1 Min. on and 15 seconds of transition which we did two rounds of that included 50#, 30#, 25# weights and a 10# ball.

This morning was a good work out but great fellowship among the pax.  It was a lot of fun connecting but also sweating!  Special call out to my partner, Old Bay,  for the good conversation on politics and religion.  I’m better because of the conversation.  Aye!

 

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Eight Face the Balls of Doom at Crow’s Nest

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YHC was less than enthusiastic about the chilly drizzle that greeted me on on my front porch in the gloom; hesitation gave way to excitement when I hit the driveway in anticipation of a hard workout and a strong showing from the Pax.  Here’s how it went down:

Warm-o-Rama:

Started with a slow mosey from the front of the school to the back, about 400 yards, with a decent cold drizzle smacking the faces of the men we ran and wondered if it would keep up, stop or get worse.  Most of us thought for a moment once again that the fartsack is where we’d rather be, but we shook it off as we circled up for the warmup:

  • 15 Windmills IC (at this point Nemo joined having arrived two minutes late, Pax gave him the requisite crap; he accepted it gracefully)
  • 20 SSH, IC
  • 15 Cherry Pickers, IC
  • 15 Imperial Walkers, IC
  • 15 LSS, IC

My mind having gone blank, YHC decide we were warm enough and we moseyed 400 more yards to the back of the school to begin Part 1 of the Thang:

The Thang, Part 1:

  • 5 rounds: 5 pull ups on the playground, 10 yard mosey to the side walk for 10 Merkins
  • Mosey back to the area where we warmed up for The Thang, Part 2

The Thang, Part 2: Balls of Doom:

YHC has two grab bags, one with 10 ping pong balls, upon which are written numbers from 5 to 25, plus the letter “Q” (puller gets to choose the number of reps); The second bag contains 15 plastic golf balls with excercises on them.  Pax took turns pulling one of each and this is about what we got:

  • Burpees – 25 (Flux of course!)
  • Big boy sit-ups – 10
  • Bomb jacks  – 10
  • Merkins – 20
  • Dips – 10 IC
  • CDD – 15
  • Derkins – 20
  • Crunch frog  – 20 IC
  • SSH – 25 IC
  • Triangle merkins – 20
  • Bomb jacks – 20
  • Run a lap (about 200M)
  • Lt. Dans – 25! (Flux again!)

Frankly there were a few more in there…that’s what happens with the Balls of Doom, fate decides!  Moseyed back to COT where we mentioned the F3 Christmas party, thanked the Lord for everything, lifted our brothers and loved ones in prayers for mercy and healing.  As always, I am grateful for F3 and the for the opportunity to lead.

Wolverine

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Footloose and Free thanks to All The Saints!!

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Today is November 1 and in some denominations they recognize All Saints day today. See below for more on that, but 3 runners took off early and 13 other PAX came to the dance floor for a litle two step with YHC – Cake Boss! We had a great crowd and was super proud of the hard work put in and the encouragement by all the PAX to keep pushing through. Such an honor to be part of this thing we have, F3, and to be part of this community! Aye!!

The Thang:

Footloose 11/1/18

Mosey to FMCoG parking lot
Toy soldiers
5 Burpees
Side lunges
4 Burpees
Butt kickers
3 Burpees
High knees
2 Burpees
Imperial Walkers
1 Burpees

Mosey across street and partner up for Dora 1-2-3

Partner 1-Run up hill to corner Partner 2-exercise move Flapjack
100 Merkins
200 step ups
300 dips
Alternate running up hill backwards

Mosey to front of FMFBC
Partner 1-bear crawls up church steps Partner 2-exercise move -Flapjack
Flutters
Freddys
Leg raises
Boats/canoes

COT

11/22 Thanksgiving Convergence at The Ranch 0600

12/01 Christmas Party – Sign up and enjoy a night out

Prayers for all the tragic deaths across the country and all dealing with health issues.  Prayers for unity in our country.

 

All Saints Day–This gets chalked up as a Catholic thing, but I want to share some information with everyone. Anyone that has come to JC, led someone else to JC and has lived their life for JC is considered a Saint. Its not meeting some criteria except that of what JC outlined in saying, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23

So my question and challenge to all of us is are we denying ourselves and bringing others to SKY Q? Our ministry starts at home with the M and 2.0s and then shield lock and whetstone partners. We don’t have to have some sort of degree or education to know what Sky Q has done in our lives and to share that with others so they too can be transformed. Being a Saint does not mean being perfect either. Moses, David, Peter and Paul were far from perfect, but they denied themselves for HIS plan not their own. Live it and watch how you influence others for HIM.

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Bad Cousin

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4 PAX including YHC rolled in before the 5AM start time at Bermuda Triangle this morning.  It was wet, balmy, and almost felt like a summer morning.  At 5, I gave the quick disclaimer and we took a mosey around the 1/4 mile dirt track that circles the encompasses the playground.  Along the way we did some shuffles and toy soldiers before circling up.

Warm-a-rama

  • Windmills
  • SSH
  • Low Slow Squat
  • Merkins
  • Moroccan Night Clubs

I then announced that since I already went to the trouble of getting out a bunch of cinderblocks for “My Deep Q” this past Saturday, I wanted to get some more use out of them and that the rest of the workout would use them, everyone grumbled…

As a quick block warm-up, I had everyone circle up again after grabbing 1 block and hold the cinderblocks out in front of them.  One at a time I had 1 PAX drop out of the circle and run/walk around the circle holding the block high overhead while the other PAX continued to hold their blocks out in front.  We cycled through all 4 PAX before getting to the big routine and telling the PAX to grab a 2nd block, which they all did reluctantly.

I got the idea from the Exicon, Greta 1-2-3 was the name, Dora’s cousin, however, there wasn’t a lot of detail there other than it was basically a Dora with blocks.  This sounded like a great idea!

We would pair up and perform the following exercises in typical Dora 1-2-3…4 fashion:

  • 100 Blockees (crowd-pleaser)
  • 150 Abyss Merkins (between two Cindy’s)
  • 200 Sumo/Cindy Squats (Block had to touch the ground)
  • 250 American Hammers (holding the block)

Each PAX would do as many as possible while his partner carries two cinderblocks across the soccer field and back.  All in all, this worked out great, but there were a couple Omaha’s here.  1st, the Abyss Merkins were supposed to be “Mindy’s” which is a name I just came up with that consisted of a Merkin with a cinderblock on your back.  While this is a pretty cool idea, it didn’t work well in this format since you needed your partner to get the block on your back so I switched them quickly to Abyss Merkins.  The 2nd Omaha was carrying the additional cindy across the field & back.  It’s a BIG field and instead of shortening the distance, I chose to lessen the weight after everyone had a chance to do it at least once, which BURNED.

The Omaha’s were necessary in the end because even though I had A LOT more planned, this routine took about 30 minutes to work through and we finished up right on time.  I’m certain I’m going to feel the soreness from this one tomorrow.  Strong group of PAX today and we all finished.  Olaf was pretty chatty about the whole thing though…

Announcements, Praises, Prayers

  • Christmas Party
  • Deep 7AM start time
  • Character Band-Aids
  • Prayers for SAT testing tomorrow
  • Prayers for Olaf’s Mother-in-law who is losing a final battle with cancer
  • Prayers for Two Ferns wife, who has been battling digestive issues

Thanks for the privilege to Q Homebrew!

Until next time,

-Flux-

 

 

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Starfish at Poopdeck

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This morning was a particularly important one for me to post at, but we will get to that in a few minutes.

Peg had “planned” on having a community Q this morning so after … wait who did the disclaimer? ooops

Flux took us around for a long mosey with shuffles and Toy soldiers and then some warmup
Windmill
Low Slow Squat
Merkins
Mountain Climbers
Moroccan Night Club

Peg took over for BLIMPS, we laid out a path and the mode of transportation was Lunge
5 Burpees
10 Lunge each leg
15 Imperial Walkers each side
20 Merkins
25 Plank Jacks
30 squats

Two Ferns was up to bat and we started at Sherwin Williams for a 10-20-30 with a full parking lot lap between each exercise
10 Burpees
20 Merkins
30 Squats

Cornerstone’s turn and we went a found some wall. First was 30 count balls to the wall then 10 merkins
70 count peoples chair (10 per pax) with some minor crop dusting by DaVinci, luckily I was on the other side
20 more counts of balls to the wall

DaVinci must have liked Two Fern’s idea so much that he also gave us a 10-20-30
Im not confident I have this one right but I think it was 10 LBCs, 20 merkins, 30 squats

Twitch ran us back to the parking spaces for bear crawl 5 spaces, 30 LBCs, lunge 5 more, 10 merkins.
We did this twice

Flutters to finish out the last :45 seconds

Announcements
Sign up for the christmas party!! Sign up soon please!!
Read your newsletter, if you don’t have it, ask!
Need to collect character band-aids for local and regional doctor’s office and hospitals
See Cornerstone or go here https://www.amazon.com/baby-reg/jeremy-holt-december-2018-charlotte/2HQFKC11T250D

Prayer Requests
Honestly I can’t remember them, please post and keep in touch with the PAX to find out what’s going on in their lives! Reach out, make someone know they matter

Well here goes……
Last night and most of yesterday I finally admitted that I have been wrestling against God and not letting go of a specific thing in my life. Ive been very open and clear that F3 has led me down a path of discipline that has overflowed into my life as a father, husband, employee and even church member. This new church has put a family in my family’s life who has literally be the best relationships we have ever had. It is clear that the relationship with these family friends are a benefit to both families and those around us, we have been growing in Christ together and I recently had a discussion with Picasso, the dad of this family, and some of the – not necessarily depressions, but certainly just bleh moments going on in my life lately and he wondered if God is stripping away the identity I thought made me who I was so that He could fill me up with Jesus instead. That has been in my head all summer and I have just refused to give up video games and the like; knowing EVERYTHING about comics, tv, movies, and games was EVERYTHING I was about in middle school through college. So the last time I fought God this hard was October 2008, when I finally gave up and begged God to change my life and put Jesus as MY King. So because of this feeling, I am really not wanting something big right now. Things are smooth, I am only 26 and have been married 7 years, out of college for almost 8, a father for close to 6 and a homeowner my entire adult life, I’ve even been unemployed in the past for months during all this and moved 3 times so I have had enough big things. So I remember some of my favorite, the most theologically charged, the most emotional and the most life changing words in the Bible – “But God” and I am done, I give it up. Ocotber 31, 2008 I gave my life to God for eternity following Jesus’ example and woke up November 1 to a new life and October 31, 2018 I decided to take a new step to lead a life different than before and today woke up and posted to F3 to confirm it and let those important to me know. I life of engaging with Him ceaselessly. I won’t just be a good moral father, husband, person anymore. I won’t just know God, I will enjoy Him and thrive in Him and abide in Him. Please push me in this. God, MY Father, I give my sin to you please take that last piece I was holding on to away from me. This will be a continual process. More to come.

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VQ At the Abyss

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The Abyss has been around, what, 2 years or so?  YHC has never made it down there, and that’s a shame.  Not only is it a great, well-lit AO, but the pax there represent Lake Wylie very well! Sure wish Siri hadn’t been lying to me all this time on how long it takes to get there.  At 4:45am, it seems every AO in TheFort can be reached in 15 minutes or less.

This cool halloween morning, the count was 14 pax.  The mumblechatter level made it feel more like 25. Excellent! YHC knew most of the pax there, but the hats and my historically bad memory for names threw me off (cobains Wolverine for calling you “Moreen”).

Disclaimer was issued as Flux was coming in hot.  We moseyed the opposite direction from where he parked, but made a loop for him to catch up.  Stopped in the same front lot for some warm-up:

  • SSH (IC) x25
  • Imperial Walker (IC) x20
  • Mountain Climbers (IC) x20
  • Flutters (IC) x20
  • Windmills (IC) x20

Moseyed around to the back lot to find 4 cones set up, one in front of each basketball goal (along long side of track).  Time for some Webb-o-Rama.  The exercises at each cone were to be done in a Jack Webb style, (1:4 ratio).

Cone 1: Burpees and Side Straddle Hops, then Bear Crawl to cone 2

Cone 2: Big Boy Sit-ups and American Hammers, then wheelbarrow to cone 3

Cone 3: Knee Tar N’Diayes and Run-Stance Switches, then wheelbarrow to cone 4

Cone 4: Traditional Jack Webb (merkins and overhead claps), then run around track back to cone 1

We did a total of 3 loops of the circuit.

Round 1: 1-5

Round 2: 6-8

Round 3: 10 (didn’t have time for 9)

Moseyed back to COT.

NMMS

I took just a few minutes after round 1 to share how my kids are at an age that I’m really proud of them.  But as a father, it is very important we don’t give them the impression that our love and pride for them is based on winning or achieving a certain status.  It should be based on them showing a good work ethic, passion, and self-motivation to try and use the gifts God has given them.  And shifting the perspective a little, I am incredibly grateful that God’s love for me is not based on how much I “win” or am “successful”.  Thank God for His GRACE that keeps me from having to accomplish things in order to earn His love.

 

Excellent effort by LW’s finest this morning.  Thanks for making me feel so welcome.  And thanks to Bones for the opportunity to lead.

Keep it spicy.
-old bay

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Tour around the Ranch

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Warm up:
Moseyed over to the Middle School. During the run we did high knees, butt kickers and karaoke.

SSH
Windmill
merkins
Broga for a few minutes

Then we moved over to the side of the school where we did three rounds of the following exercises.
5 Flying Squirels
bear crawl up the hill
20 LBCs
30 sec Wall Sit

Repeat 2 more times and switched out the movement up the hill to backward bear crawl and then forward crab walk.

Continued to move around the side of the school over by the football field where we ran a series of sprints (50%, 50%, 75%, 75%, 95%)

Then moved over to the playground on the backside of the elementary school
Split the pax up into 3 groups for 5 rounds

Group 1 – Pull ups
Group 2 – Swerkin Crunch – merkin and crunch on a swing
Group 3 – Run loop

Groups would start at 1 worked up to 5 adding one for each round of exercises for stations 1 and 2 and then run loop. Pax were told to stay with your group to encourage each other and to help those who may have needed the extra encouragement.

Got back to COT in time for the Airborne Specials (hip exercises)

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Deck of Burpees

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I always appreciate the opportunity to lead a workout.  I’ve also enjoyed #Pantheon each time I’ve been there.  Its a solid AO, with a lot of opportunity/locations to dish out the pain!

I decided with this workout, that I wanted to go simple.  Every time someone brings a deck of cards, I always think it will be easy and inevitably end up completely gassed.

5:15 Disclaimer and off we went…

Warm-up:

Mosey around the parking lot with some dynamic stretching.  Circle up and run through several warm-up exercises.  The usual suspects were there: SSH, Imperial Walkers, SSH, Hill Billy Walkers, SSGH, Merkins, Planks, etc.  You get the drill.

The Thang:

So cards it was – although with a slight twist.  Rather than each suit representing an exercise, the suit and the number/face card provided a matrix that was used to dish out more varied pain…

Each PAX took turns selecting a card from the deck and looking up the exercise on my phone (a bit hard to read).

Key:

[H] Hearts [D] Diamonds [C] Clubs [S] Spades AND # on card = number of reps; J, Q, K = 15 reps

2-5: [any suit]: burpees (56 in total)

6: [H] Merkins; [D] Diamond Merkins; [C] Wide Arm Merkins; [S] Hand Release Merkins

7: [H] Low Slow Squats; [D] Ground Touch Squats; [C] Sumo Squats; [S] Squats

8: [H] Alternating Lunges; [D] Alternating Reverse Lunges; [C] Alternating Jump Lunges; [S] Speed Skater (Apollo Ono)

9: [H] Calf Raise (both legs); [D] Tuck Jumps; [C] Single Leg Calf Raise (L); [S] Single Leg Calf Raise (R)

10: [H] Table Dips; [D] Shoulder Taps; [C] Crab Cakes; [S] PAX choice

J: [H] BCs; [D] Flutter Kicks; [C] Dying Cockroach; [S] V-ups

Q: [H] Heels to Heaven; [D] X’s and O’s; [C] Big Boy Sit-ups; [S] Protractor

K: [H] Scissor Kicks; [D] Weezie Jefferson; [C] Rosalita; [S] Plank Waterfall (each PAX 15 count)

A: [any suit] 2 line Suicides

This took us right up to time for COT.  Count-o-rama, Name-o-rama, Announcement, Prayers/Praises, BOM.

As always thanks for the opportunity and the push!

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1+1=Terrible Downpainment

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19 Pax descended on Block Party including 3 for Pathfinder for an old school beatdown by YHC and Mash. Little did YHC know when I suggested to Mash that he co-Q with me that it would be his 50th Birthday at Block Party #Respect.

Mash and I have been friends for many years and I already had tons of respect for him. He is a good Christian, Husband and Father coupled with being a military veteran. Our children are the same age so we have lots in common. More importantly, he has demonstrated being a true #HIM since joining the Fort several years ago.

The Thang

Full Disclaimer

Mash on Q – Mosey out

COP – lots of chatter here…I may have been contributing

SSH

Moroccan Night Clubs

Windmills

Merkins x 15 (YEAH!)

Mosey to gravel lot and partner up

Dora 1,2,3

100 Merkins

200 Flutters

300 SSHs

Pusher on Q – Mosey to hill

Bear crawl up hill – #turrible

Dirty McDeuce powered by Halloween Candy

Side Note: Avg American eats 3.4 pounds of candy on Halloween; Candy has calories (duh!); 1 minute of Burpees equals approximately 10 calories;

All exercises IC x 12; Calories are based on “Fun Size” portions

Starburst (40 cals) – Squats

Skittles (63 cals) – LBCs

M&Ms (73 cals) – Wide Arm

Take a lap

Kit Kat (70 cals) – Jumping Lunge

Snickers (80 cals) – Flutters

Twix (80 cals) – Carolina Dry Docks

Take a lap

Reeses Cup (90 cals) – Bomb Jacks

Baby Ruth ( 85 cals) – Freddy Mercury

Butterfinger ( 85 cals) – Diamond Merkins

Take a lap

York Patty ( 50 cals) – Burpees

Crunch ( 60 cals) – Rosalita

Hershey ( 63 cals) – Burpees

Mosey Home

 

Moleskin:

  • Happy #Respect Birthday to Mash
  • Christmas Party on 12/1/18
  • Pre Christmas Drop In on 11/2/18 with Shady at Armor Artis
  • Be a HIM in your community…lots of examples were shared
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ENCOURGAGEMENT

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For my VQ, I wanted to incorporate our word of the month, Encouragement. Since starting F3 this year, I have been given a great deal of encouragement. Encouragement to come my first time, encouragement to keep coming, encouragement to keep going during the workouts, and encouragement to improve some areas of fitness that I needed to improve. My biggest area of opportunity is and probably will always been running, so I wanted to incorporate some running into our workout. I knew that one of the biggest issues with VQ workouts is running out of time, so I wanted to be sure we used all of our 45 minutes together. I decided to come up with an exercise for each letter of ENCOURAGEMENT and running between each exercise.

We first took a quick mosey down the road to get warmed up with SSH, Imperial Walkers, Windmills, Moroccan Nightclubs, and a few others. We then took a mosey with a few moving stretches down to the location of the Weinkes. There are 13 letters in the word ENCOURAGEMENT, so we did 13 different exercises.

  • E- burpees
  • N- squats
  • C- big boy sit-ups
  • O- dips
  • U- calf raises
  • R- bear crawls
  • A- worst merkin ever
  • G- squat jumps
  • E- merkins
  • M- mountain climbers
  • E- Carolina dry-docks
  • N- imperial walkers
  • T- LBC’s

We followed this up with some mary before heading back to COT.

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