Welcome to Q school from Senator Tressel and Ginsu! 19 PAX posted to sharpen their leadership skills.

Senator Tressel started off with guidelines on safety:

• Always start with a disclaimer as a reminder, especially to new guys, that this is a voluntary workout led by non-professional fitness leaders. F3, nor the Q for the day assume any reliability if you get sick or hurt.   Be aware of your physical limitations and modify the workout if you need to.
• Workouts are rain or shine, but should be cancelled if the conditions are unsafe. Usually this will be due to lightning or ice, but can be for other reasons.  The Q should use good judgement and make the call to cancel if he feels the conditions are not safe.  It’s OK to cancel a workout.  There will be another one tomorrow, the next day, and the day after that.  BE SMART.    Spring’s Maltz Challenge at NAFO was sighted as an example of what not to do.  The Q should also determine what exercises are safe to do (i.e. – no partner carries up a wet hill)
• Always start with a warm up. ‘Surprising’ the Pax with 30 burpees to get things start might be fun, but is ill-advised.    Today, we did the Tressel  standard warm up which includes lunge walks, knee and ankle pulls, toy soldiers, arm circles and pulls.  Jogging and stretching are always good to start off a workout.

After the warm up, we moseyed to the back of the school for COP. ST led off with 25 side straddle hops and 10 merkins and then invited some of the newer Pax to lead exercises and practice counting. Things we stressed today:

• The proper way, official, F3 way to start exercises in cadence is:  THE NEXT EXERCISE IS……, STARTING POSITION…MOVE….IN CADENCE… . EXERCISE!  (this is commonly done incorrectly)
• COUNT MORE SLOWLY. ST is of the opinion that guys, in general, count too fast.  Slower counting is more effective for conditioning and leads to better form.  Your count should match your body movement when counting.
• PROJECT YOUR VOICE so everyone can hear.
• If your AO has pull up bars use them as much as possible.  The Abyss does have pull up bars so we split into three groups and did pull ups, step ups, and one lap around the track (3 reps were planned, but we only had time for one).

After each group got through a round of pull ups, we all assumed the plank position in a a tight circle for today’s message. Working the monthly theme or other message into the workout is not required, but can be an effective addition to the workout.    This is something unique to the Fort region.

Senator Tressel normally does not do a message, but felt compelled after reading an article about the reasons that people commit acts like the recent mass shooting in Las Vegas.  The writer opined that loneliness, frustration, unhappiness, and lack of purpose can lead people to commit heinous crimes.  The mission of F3 addresses these issues.  ST shared that the greatest thing that F3 has done for him is make him a much happier,  ‘at peace’ man.

ST handed off to Ginsu for the 2nd half.

Mosey to the front parking lot.

For the second half of the workout, we focused on the following:

• Simplicity – Keep the workouts simple! Creativity is encouraged, but not at the expense of a solid, well organized workout. Keeping your workout simple makes organization easy and is less confusing for the PAX. Repetition (e.g. DORA, Jacob’s Ladder, etc.) is a good way to keep workouts simple.
• Simple does not mean EASY! Burpees, pull-ups, merkins, bear crawls, etc. are all SIMPLE exercise options. But they are not EASY. Challenge the PAX with good workouts, keep it simple, but not EASY.
• If you can’t do it, don’t Q it! – Challenge your PAX, but don’t turn a 45 minute workout into a CSAUP event. Use good judgment and don’t ask your PAX to do something that you can’t do yourself.
• Pick up the SIX! – F3 is not like other workout groups. Here, it is you vs you and we pick each other up. We also EH new PAX weekly that are often as out of shape as the rest of us were when we began. Pick them up, encourage them. Appoint one of the PAX to hang back with them, if necessary.
• Write your BackBlasts! This is part of the responsibility of being a Q. The simpler your workout, the easier the BBs are to write. It takes 5-10 minutes to do this. Just get it done.

With all this talk, you would think we didn’t actually do any work…we did. We kept it simple.

• 4 cones in the shape of a square 50 yds apart. Do the following exercises at each cone, run to the next:
  • 5 burpees
  • 10 merkins
  • 10 big boy sit ups
  • Vinnie’s choice – 10 Freddie Mercury’s (4 count)

COT 

• Announcements
  • Fast 5 – November 4th
  • CAH – Saturday, October 14th
  • BBQ Competition in Waxhaw
  • October 21st – run in Tega Cay to benefit Community Cafe
• Prayer Requests
  • Marriages
  • Vegas
  • ST’s sister
  • CakeBoss’s sister

Thanks for the invitation Lake Dub!