Laces out Q’Jacked!!

So today at Laces Out went a little like this. YHC rolled in and then Nomad popped out with his running vest on saying that we were going to run to Gardenia and do hill repeats. YHC looked at Nomad and told him “If I wanted to run Gardenia, I would walk out my front door and run Gardenia”. CSPAN then showed up with the key to track and the Q was officially Jacked.

The Thang

Head down to track. 1 mile warmup followed by some dynamic stretching.

Then 800 (minute rest)
400 (minute rest)
200 (walk the curve)
100 (rest 1 minute)

Repeat as many times as possible until 10 minutes left.

Finished with a half mile cool down (Faster pace for Birdcage) and some stretching.

Meet up with Laces In for COT and BOM

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Poopdeck Block Party

6 pax showed up for my VQ, no FNGs so a brief disclaimer was given, followed by a mosey around the parking lot.

COP:

Moroccan Night Clubs x 20

Imperial Walkers x 15

Windmills x 15

Merkins x 15

Mountain Climbers x 15

Downward dog/honeymooners

Inverted Mountain Climbers x 15 (fan favorite, thanks Jedi)

The Thang:

Before the main event we moseyed to the store front for some side shuffles and squats.  Pax side shuffled to next column squat, 180 turn, squat, rinse repeat to end.

Pax paired up for block BOMBS and blockless BLIMP (Hindenbergs?).  First pax performed exercise while second ran length of parking lot and back, setting the pace, until team reached 50 for each.

B – Blockies/run

O – Overhead press/run

M – Merkins/Cusack with CB instead of run

B – Big boy situps/run

S – Squats/run

B – Burpees (audibled and skipped this one)

L – Lunges/run

I – Imperial walkers/run

M – Monkey humpers/run

P – Plank jacks/run

Got x 20 curls in before we moseyed back for a quick balls to the wall.

COT:

Announcements – Invergence/convergence (YHC conveniently had wedding in Indiana to attend)

Prayers – Careers, wives, 2.0s, soon to be 2.0s, leadership

Thanks Wild Thing for the opportunity and Royale for the tips.

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JEEVE’S GROWN MAN GAME OF THREE SQUARE

Warm Up Mosey to the Warm-up circle, exercises in cadence

  • Side Straddle Hop (20, four count)
  • Imperial Walker (20, four count)
  • Low Slow Squat (20, four count)
  • Wind Mill (20, four count)
  • Hillbillie (20, four count)
  • Merkin (10, four count)
  • Peter Parker (20, four count)

Mosey around the parking lot

We counted off into three groups and split up to each off the three squares.

Square 1

  • Merkin – OYO 15
  • Hello Dolly – OYO 30
  • Carolina Dry Dock – OYO 25
  • Star Jack – OYO 20

Once each square was completed we went into 15 yards of frog jumps, then 15 yards of bear crawl and lunges back to the starting line.

After the first station, we did Moroccan Nightclub until the six was in.

After a 10 count, each group rotated to the next square

Square 2

  • Big Boy Sit-Ups – OYO 25
  • Shoulder Taps – OYO 40
  • Diamond Merkins – OYO 15
  • Squats – OYO 25

More frog jumps, bear crawls and lunges.

After the second station, we did overhead claps until the six was in

Discussed the October 3rd F theme of Control and its definition

Square 3

  • Flutter Kicks – OYO 50
  • American Hammer – OYO 50
  • Mountain Climber – OYO 50
  • Side Straddle Hop – OYO 50

More frog jumps, bear crawls and lunges.

After the third station, we did curb step-ups until the six was in

Discussed control and Jeremiah 29:11

Mosey over the a nice little hill and got into partners. We did 200 LBCs with rotating partners running the hill.

Mosey back to the squares. Due to one Pax being late he picked his favorite square and we all completed Square 2 together. More frog jumps, bear crawl and lunges.

Mosey back for COT

Discussed Control and Matthew 6:34

Jeeves’s full VQ is in the books! Glad to have that over!!!

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The Swamp Thing

Warmup:

Mosey to parking lot in front of Old Navy

 

COP

SSH x 48

Windmills

Moroccan Nightclubs

Low Slow Squats

Merkins

Mountain Climbers

LBCs

Freddys

 

Mosey to back of Valvoline to hill

Jacobs Ladder

7 Squats/1 Merkin

7 LBCs/1 Bombjacks

 

Mosey to Fountain/Roundabout

Dirty McDeuces

All exercises in cadence

Do all 4 exercises, run lap

 

20 Merkins

20 Lunges

20 LBCs

 

20 CDDs

20 Squats

20 Freddys

 

20 Ranger Merkins

20 Reverse Lunges

20 American Hammers

Mosey back of Home Depot

People’s Chair

Everyone take a seat. Pax on end runs

out, does 5 burpees, runs back

 

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Pantheon – Boot Camp (Do the harder thing)

Fish Sticks asked me to Q this one and I was pumped as this was one of my first AO’s I ever visited.  I didn’t have a long time to ponder on this one, so I knew like my RUCK workouts I wanted to make it a little “heavy”.  So I pulled up early and hid my sandbags, ammo cans, and Ruck for a fun filled workout.

I keep deciding that I must “do the harder thing” in my life.  It’s easy to slack at work, its easy to let the TV raise my children, its easy to fartsack, but I must do the harder thing.  That was the theme of this workout, and the 8 PAX fully embraced it.

The W/O

A normal mosey at Pantheon is a lap around the lot, well we chose the harder thing and lapped around the entire lot and building, stoping with some merkins to throw in there.

Circle UP

Side straddle hops

 Cherry Pickers (even though Cable Guy informed me cherries do not grow on the ground so we should use the strawberry picker term)

Moroccan Night Clubs

Windmills

Merkins – Hold Plank – Merkins – Hold Plank – Mountain Climber (That was for sure the “harder thing”)

Here we go:

So I lined up 8 different stations that we would rotate through.  One of the stations involved running, when the runner returned is when we would rotate.

Station 1 – 60lb Sandbag Toss (Lil E threw it like he was tossing someone an apple, killed it!!!)

Station 2 – Overhead Press – 30 Pound Ammo Can

Station 3 – Burpees

Station 4 – RUCK Swings – 45# plate

Station 5 – Box Cutters

Station 6 – Low Slow Squats

 Station 7 – Bomb Jacks

Station 8 – 40lb Sandbag run (trust me running is way harder with a bag)

I was super impressed with the PAX.  I had a “shorter” distance picked out for the first go around with the run, and after the first rotation through I asked lets make this longer and everyone jumped out and chose the harder thing and we looped the parking lot sprinting with a 40lb bag.

We went through this rotation twice, then I brought the PAX back to the main parking lot.  Typically in suicides we do it at the basketball court and have the prescribed lines, well the harder thing would be to do it across the long a$$ parking lot with dropping and doing 15 merkins at each stop.  Props again to cable guy for the most proper merkin I’ve seen in a while.  All PAX pushed themselves hard.

10 count then a chose the harder thing mosey back to our stations (we took the long indirect route).  Then ever PAX chose the harder thing and sprinted out the end of the mosey, even though our lungs were burning.

Back through for one last rotation on our stations, where everyone gave it all they had.

We then chose the harder thing again and made a long loop back to COT and held a on your six plank until we saw 6 hit a watch.

It was awesome and a pleasure to Q with these guys.  Everyone out there gave it there all and made me look slow on these sandbag carries!

Announcements

Ragnar

Read  your News Letter

P&P 

Expecting Mothers – PAX with sick family

Throughout the workout we talked a little bit about control.  I mentioned that we have to understand what we have control over and what we don’t.  We all have control over our mindset during this workout, and the ability to push as hard as needed.  We have the ability to show control and patience, as I mentioned my 3yo yelling at my 1yo and all I wanted to do was raise my voice in frustration and anger but a true leader shows control and mimics the desired results.  We also acknowledged how we have to relinquish control and follow the path for our life.

Half shell said something I’m going to leave you with that I will be pondering over for a long time to come, he said he was once told “calm is contagious” and that really stuck with me.

So with that I bid you farewell, and #calmiscontagious

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Bullwinkle’s Wallsitting and Lunge fest

23 Pax joined at the Ball Room in Fort Mill for sweat filled gloom and fun on 10/03

The thang

Warm-up Mosey – with Butt Kickers, High Knees, Power Skips, Slow Walking Lunges and Toy Soldiers to get the legs good and ready for the what was to come

Warm-up Circle, exercises in cadence

  • Merkins (10, four count)
  • Arm Circles (lots)
  • Moroccan Night Clubs (20, four count)
  • Low Slow Squat (15, slow four count)
  • Imperial Walker (15, four count)
  • Windmill (10, slow four count)

Mosey to the hill for Jacob’s ladder: 6+1

  • Merkins on bottom
  • Bear crawl up hill
  • Squat jumps on top
  • Mosey down hill

Two Ten Count recovery

Mosey behind the school to the wall

Part 1 of Bullwinkle’s Sitting and Lunging around, as follows

  • 30 second wall sit followed by 20 lunges forward, turn around, 20 lunges back
  • 30 second wall sit followed by 19 lunges forward, turn around, 19 lunges back
  • 30 second wall sit followed by 18 lunges forward, turn around, 18 lunges back
  • 30 second wall sit followed by 17 lunges forward, turn around, 17 lunges back
  • 30 second wall sit followed by 16 lunges forward, turn around, 16 lunges back

Ten count recovery

Mosey to bridge to work calves

  • 30 seconds of calf raises follow by 15 seconds of rest.  Rinse & repeat X 6

Mosey back to wall

Part Il of Bullwinkle’s Sitting and Lunging around, as follows

  • 30 second wall sit followed by 15 lunges forward, turn around, 15 lunges back
  • 30 second wall sit followed by 14 lunges forward, turn around, 14 lunges back
  • 30 second wall sit followed by 13 lunges forward, turn around, 13 lunges back
  • 30 second wall sit followed by 12 lunges forward, turn around, 12 lunges back
  • 30 second wall sit followed by 11 lunges forward, turn around, 11 lunges back

Ten count recovery

OYO Max Merkins

+5 Merkins

Mosey back to front of school for COT

Bullwinkle out.

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5 Year Anniversary Convergence BB

Saturday, September 30th 2017 was a special Convergence for the PAX of The Fort. On that day we celebrated 5 years of using these small workout groups to invigorate male leadership in Fort Mill. To honor the occasion, 88 PAX gathered at one of our favorite AOs (Nations Ford HS) to celebrate the day and the leaders that made it all happen.

We also celebrated 6 Friendly New Guys that joined us that morning. Welcome Tubs, Band Camp, Jughead, Atari, Hat Trick, and Saul.

It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, however. Here’s how we got better:

Warmup (led by Ginsu)

  • Mosey to the football field
  • 30 Side Straddle Hops
  • 10, 4-count windmills
  • 30 Moroccan night clubs
  • 10, 4-count merkins
  • 10, 4-count Peter Parkers
  • 10, 4-count Parker Peters
  • 10, 4-count LBCs
  • 20 low slow squats

Split into groups (Run, Regular Bootcamp, Black Diamond, Ruck, Moderate Bootcamp)

Run (led by Birdcage)

  • 800 meter indian run
  • 1000 meter 10k pace with 1 minute rest x2
  • 200 meter 1 mile race pace 200 meter cool down x4
  • 400 meter sprint corners recover straights
  • 1600 meter cool down
  • 5 miles total

Bootcamp (led by Royale)

  • Mosey over to the concrete football field
  • 10 merkins
  • Lunge walk 10 yards then do 3 burpees
  • Next ten yards bear crawl then 3 more burpees
  • Rise and repeat until we hit the other goal line
  • 10 count – going over the Five Core Principals of an F3 workout
  • Next phase we broke into 4 groups
  • At each corner of the end zones there were 5 exercises written on a board.  We would complete in your group and then run to the next corner. Everyone would hit al 4 corners.
    • Corner 1
      • 20 Merkins
      • 30 Lunges
      • 30 Dying Cockroaches
      • 30 Ski Abs
      • 3 Kraken Burpees
    • Corner 2
      • 20 Ranger Merkins
      • 30 Squats
      • 40 Freddy Mercurys
      • 40 Shoulder Taps
      • 10 burpees
    • Corner 3
      • 20 Durkins
      • 20 Jump Squats
      • 50 American Hammers
      • 30 Monkey Humpers
      • 10 Mountain Climber Burpees
    • Corner 4
      • 20 Wide Arm Merkins
      • 20 Sumo Squats
      • 20 V-Up Twists
      • 20 Bombjacks
      • 10 Squat Burpees
We talked about the word of the month – Leadership.  I shared we all have an opportunity to lead through F3, just like we all have the responsibility to lead in our homes.  I know I struggle with the balance of work and family time.  As the leader of our households we need to support our Ms and be the examples to our children.
  • Mosey over to the round about
  • Each man would take a lap around 1st doing Lt Dans
  • Finally we would bear crawl.
  • Mosey to the football field for the last 30 seconds and some LBCs

Black Diamond (led by Backdraft)

  • Mosey from warm up top pull up bars
  • Pull ups/ Burpee challenge – 9 pull ups 1 burpee., 8-2 , 7-3 until finished.
  • Mosey to stadium run the bleachers
  • 10 derkins
  • 10 dips
  • Mosey to track run 1/4 mile as fast as you can. U vs. U
  • Mosey to end zone. Count off by 2s. split into groups first person flips tire 10 times than run end zone to end zone while next person flips tire everyone else continuously do 10 merkins, 10 squats, 10 big boy sit ups. Keep going until all of group is finished.
  • 10 min 100 burpees. Do 10 burpees every minute on the minute. U vs. U
  • Mosey to 50 yard line 5 minute of Mary
  • Sideline sprints x 2 first set after you run 10 tuck jumps. 2nd set 5 hand release merkins

Ruck (led by Trucker)

2 20lb, 3 40lb, and 3 60lb sandbags were snagged from back of car as 8 PAX tucked down to the elementary school and dropped the sandbags next to the telephone poles. The 8 PAX carried the telephone pole around the parking lot. Left telephone pole where we found it and rucked backwards up the hill to the pull up bars. What’s a WO by Trucker without pull ups? YHC challenged the 8 PAX to do 2 sets of 5 pull ups with ruck on.

Rucked into stadium and lined up in 2 columns for sandbag throws from one end of football field to other and back. Then rucked up and down the football stand stairs from one end back. Rinse and repeat with sandbag throws and stadium stairs. Threw sandbags again down to other side of endzone and then formed 2 lines abs flipped tires from one end to other. Sandbag threw back to other endzone and climbed stadium stairs one more time. Finished with a 20 count flutters. Great work by seasoned and rookie ruckers.

Moderate (led by Short Sale)

  • MOSEY to Elementary School
  • Grab some Wall. Wall Sits while Pax at each end jumps out of line for 5 squats
  • Repeat with 5 Bombjacks.
  • Count off by 5’s and mosey to back of the parking lot
    • Number 1’s go to station #1
    • 2’s start at Station3, etc.
  • Stations: 3 minutes/station. Q calls stop & go
    • 1: 10 Merkins, 20 Calf raises
    • 2: 20 LBCs, 20 Monkey Humpers
    • 3: 10 SSHs, 20 Moroccan Night Clubs
    • 4: 10 Scorpion Dry Docks, 20 Squats
    • 5: 20 Imperial Walkers, 10 Apollo Ohnos
    • 6: 10 Broad Jumps, 20 Flutters
    • 7: 10 Bombjacks, 20 squat jabs
    • 8: 10 handclap merkins w/partner, 10 partner Derkins- Beloved by veteran Pax and FNGs alike
    • 9: 10 Jump Squats, 10 CDD’s
    • 10: 10 Dips, 5 jack Webbs
  • Mosey to Stop sign at bottom of hill for some Mary- Hello Dollies, Flutters, Protractor

MESSAGE ON LEADERSHIP- F3 gives us a great platform to grow our leadership skills and build confidence as a leader. The Pax will let you know if/when something has gone wrong but will also be there to lift you up. Also, the best leaders don’t focus on their ROLE, they focus on the GOAL. So, be the leader you were called to be.

Great group of men came to work. Veterans guided the FNGs and encouraged them at every step of the way. YHC kept reminding the group that it is UvsU out here. Some quality mumble chatter about what moderate means. Smiles all around when moved on from the stations.

Wrap Up

What we have at The Fort is special. It is a strong group of PAX led by men who live with intentionality. I am sure that each of us would agree that it has impacted our lives in ways that we will never be able to describe. At some point for each of us, we were gifted F3. We were headlocked by someone who recognized the impact that F3 had on them and how it could help us. With that in mind, let’s pay this gift forward. Be the leader you were called to be and use your influence to headlock the sad clowns around you, FNGs and Kotters, that are where you once were. Be a leader.

Ginsu

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sauerkrautless Tomahawk

Conditions were cool and clear and 55 degrees

Disclaimer was missed…Q forgot his watch…felt out of sorts…

Started with a COP warmup-o-rama…scratch that…

We did a series of exercises to loosen my back up back and forth across the parking lot

Weave in a bunch of kettlebell exercises throughout

ABLAB and stretches until 0602

COT/Prayer or Praise/BOM

NMM

I got home after waking myself up in strong F3 fashion to see the tragic news in Las Vegas…seems like just a waste…and how quickly a day and your outlook can change, reminds me that the devil is always playing his game, God is always smarter for He is the Creator and the devil is a creature…but give the devil his due because he knows how to divide us…with anthems, race, pride, gun control, and mostly our lack of faith in a true God….

#TAP

AYE!

CSPAN

 

 

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Completely Rucked… at The Swamp

When you accidentally snooze too many times and show up late to your Ruck Q at Golden Corral, the only reasonable thing to do is seek redemption the next Friday when the opportunity presents itself. I had watched a bunch of GORUCK Selection the prior weekend, so I wanted to carry a few themes over into the ruck Q. You know… to make it dreadful.

Warm up:

  • Windmills x 10
  • IW x 10
  • Squats x 10
  • MC x 10
  • Merkins x 10 (single count) (Crawdaddy accidentally did 11, so I thought since he wanted to do 11 so badly, I’d let us all join him in 11 more… so we did…)

Speed Ruck (sub 15min pace) to the Gander Mountain Parking lot where a pile of heavy things was stationed. As there were only 3 of us that morning, we only used the chain logs. (Which, maybe not surprisingly, are logs with chains attached to one end)

It’s time to play a little “It pays to be a Winner”. First “evolution” was to carry the log by the chain around the triangle end of the parking lot (to the left if you are facing the building). Whoever gets back first gets to choose their log for the next evolution.

I shouted “GO” and we were off. I felt a tiny bit bad for Crawdaddy as this was his first experience rucking, but not bad enough to adjust the weinke. These kids are a lot younger and fitter than I am, so they’d live… When you get back, put the log down perform the following exercises using your ruck:

  • Curls x 50
  • Overhead press x 50
  • Flutter with press (every time your left leg goes up, you press and that = 1)

For the second “evolution”, bear crawl your log down the length of the lot, dragging it by the end of the chain, then pick it up and run it back to the start. Since I won the running evolution, I picked the smallest log for the dragging portion. Upon returning to the start, perform the following with your ruck:

  • Upright Row x 50
  • Squats x 50
  • Bent over row x 50

The third evolution was a little different with only 3 of us, so since we were running low on time, I called it this way: Two of us were “dead”. Partner 1 carried partner 2 the length of the parking lot and then ran back to be carried by partner 3. Then partner 3 carried partner 1 back to the start while 2 ran beside… until he was told to dominate the people in front of him and then he ran back faster…

At this point we were out of time for any real fun as we had only a few minutes to get back to COT, so we ran the whole way back (rucks on and flag in hand), getting there just in time for a little overhead hold until the rest of the Pax got back from bootcamp. It isn’t a long or complicated weinke, but it hurt well enough…

Helmet, out.

 

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Laces Out Runner, sleeps in, still gets to Q Laces In

YHC normally posts at #LacesOut on Thursdays and enjoys the banter with the #LacesIn crew, as they get to sleep-in for the 0515 start (LO launches 0500). Thanks to Lil E for the chance to Q with our FMHS AO-mates.

YHC didn’t want to venture too far from my Thursday roots, so we headed for FMHS football stadium and track for our morning DownPainment.

Mosey around practice field x1
COP in center of football field
  • SSH
  • Windmill
  • Merkins
  • Mountain Climbers
  • Squats
  • Peter Parker
  • Parker Peter
  • 10 Count Honeymooner
Mosey to stairs at field level of football stadium
Everest x2
  • (up stairs) – lunge L, squat, lunge R, squat
    • 5 burpees OYO, Plank until the Six
  • (Down stairs) – recovery down
    • Reverse PAX order, Rinse Repeat
Mosey to goal-line of football field
Paula Abdul with Mary —> think 2 steps forward, 1 step back! YHC had placed Blinky running lights to give the PAX visibility in the darkness of FMHS football. PAX commented on how they loved the field of ground rubber pellets between their fingers in the morning.
  • 20 yard forward Crabwalk, exercise
  • 10 yard back Bearcrawl, exercise
  • Going to we hit 50 yard line
  • wait for six to do exercise
  • Crabwalk 20yards (20)
    • 20 LBCs
  • Bearcrawl 10yards (10)
    • 20 Flutter
  • Crabwalk 20yards (30)
    • 20 American Hammers
  • Bearcrawl 10 yards (20)
    • 20 Box Cutters
  • Crabwalk 20 yards (40)
    • 20 Freddie Mercury
  • Bearcrawl 10 yards (30)
    • 10 Captain Thor’s —> thanks to Dark Helmet for the cadence count!
  • Crabwalk 20 yards (50)
Dark Helmet commented “what’s next? Sprints?” So we Omaha’d and did sprints
  • Run 50 to 10
  • Backwards run to 50 (repeat until 20-10)
    • 10 Burpees OYO
Ring of Fire – to check if the PAX abs were still working, we got in circle head-in, feet-out at 45-degree to see if PAX could manage getting lefts pushed down. Maybe this is called Duck Duck Goose
PAX collected all the Blinky lights and moseyed to the stairs again
Box jumps on wall x21
Mosey back to back stadium wall
  • Wall Sits for 1.5min with hand claps on 2-count
  • Balls to Wall for 1min
Back to COT
Boeheim lead the COT
Prays to World Wild Leader and pregnancy, Cake Boss sister, Country, Families

 

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