Conditions were sweaty and humid…it felt like August in South Carolina
Gekko was the running and nobody ran with #HIM
Cornhole had 10 for his Ruck Q
I had 11 for the bootcamp
13 stayed for Romans 4 that Gekko Q’d
All had fun, you should have been there…
It was a steamy morning at WEP, but that didn’t discourage Last Call during his VQ nor did it scare off any pax from supporting him. A lively and energetic group of 23 pax posted to honor and encourage him.
Santini had EH’d FNG/Wazowski (aka Ernie Bhend) so a full fledged disclaimer was pronounced and the baton was handed to Last Call to launch.
The Thang
Last Call took the pax on a warm up lap of WEP, then circled the pax up in the grass near the parking lot (YES, the grass! What a bold move for a VQ!)
COP
SSH x25
Moroccan night clubs x20
Mash up of Hillbilly Walker + Imperial Walker x20
Merkins x10
Peter Parkers x20
Slow squat x20
LBCs x20
Hand off to DD
Mosey to playground & partner up
Partner 1: Run lap
Partner 2: Continuous pull ups (keeping cumulative count with partner)
Flap jack
Rinse & repeat
Tip of the cap to Senator Tressel for his emphasis on need for more pull ups
Plank sequence including Makhtar N’Dyae ( requeted by Santini)
Mosey to the grassy area near the statues at the bottom of the hill & plank it up for commentary about Blue Ridge Relay. (Yes, it is a shame that The Fort has no teams competing this year in BRR. Thus, the next 30 mins of the workout became BRR-lite)
Run to top of hill almost to gazebo + 5 Burpees + run back down
Rinse + repeat for 5 total rounds
Mosey to pathway heading out the back of the parking lot & regroup with partner
Partner 1: Run down hill, up other side to trail intersection and back
Partner 2: Continuous merkins (continuing cumulative count with partner from earlier point)
Flap jack
Rinse + repeat
Plank sequence, squats, bombjacks
Mosey to bottom of hill at COT & regroup with partner
Partner 1: Run up hill to 4th light post and run back down
Partner 2: Continuous donkey kicks (keeping cumulative count with partner from earlier point)
Flap jack
Rinse & repeat
Mosey back to grass where Last Call started and circle up
Flutter x10
Hello dolly x10
Freddy Mercury x10
Rosalita x10
Penguin x10
Superman x3
Run to tent in middle of park
Run home AYG
COT
Naked man moleskin
Solid VQ effort by Last Call today — well done, brother! Welcome to the club and find a way back into the center of the circle somewhere ASAP so you can hone the skills and expand the experience.
Welcome to FNG/Wazowski (yes, he’s an eye doc)! You had the privilege (and pain) of enduring a tough workout on a particularly swampy morning — great job making it through to the finish today! A little merlot splash proves just how far you can push when challenged by other like-minded men. You’ve found a home here in The Fort for sure. Look forward to seeing you back in the gloom soon!
T-claps to all the pax for the support of Last Call and Wazowski today. Special recognition to Santini for EH of Wazowski and Sir Topham Hat for EH of Last Call two months ago. Also kudos to Peabody, Longshanks and others sweeping the six.
Welcome back home to Ginsu! Great to have you back in the gloom with your brothers. Look forward to hearing more about the China experience and your expanded family.
Did I mention the weather was warm and humid today?
That was a tough outing today – great work by everyone pushing through!
In the absence of any BRR activities in The Fort this year, I felt compelled to bring that experience home. It is an incredible event, and I am disappointed we won’t have any teams to represent The Fort this year. I know Rooney is running with Dredd & OBT on a 6-man team — way to represent us, brother! The hills and the pain and the sweat today were all reflective of the reality of what it is to run the BRR – but only the smallest taste of the joy of that event was gained today. Please consider BRR in 2018 – you won’t regret it.
The message throughout today’s workout revolved around the monthly theme of Discipline. When I saw Chicken Hawk’s message at the start of the month, I was immediately disturbed. The word brings about uncomfortable feelings for me related to punishment, reprimands and admonishment from parents, teachers and bosses. Discipline is something I experience as being imposed on me by someone else, which I never receive well. I quietly thought maybe I would check out on the theme for August.
Then, on a business trip this week I made some poor choices around web surfing in the lonely isolation of a hotel room. My re-entry back home included a volatile interaction with the M around my indulgence in a personal vice. BOOM! Discipline (or my lack of it) suddenly hit me between the eyes. It became very real very quickly…clearly this is the right theme for me this month.
I have much to learn still around Discipline. Santini mentioned during the workout and in a long conversation afterward that the root of the word Discipline relates to “learning.” The learning I’ve gained in the past few days has come through dwelling on my word for 2017 — CHOOSE — in the context of Discipline. In this frame of mind, I am beginning to see Discipline as part of my pathway from where I am currently to the future I CHOOSE to pursue. In this way, Discipline becomes part of the learning process of how I move toward the fuller, holier life I long for…because I CHOOSE to seek that future point, NOT because someone else is imposing anything on me.
Thanks to Bonsai for putting me on the calendar and for looping in Last Call for the VQ. We missed you today.
Thanks to all who posted and endured today’s workout. Your presence, effort, resilience, encouragement and support inspire me!
Union County was really where the glue of F3 took hold for me. Pax like Double E, Hairband, Glass Joe and Counter Top were with me through the early days and the rough days of watching my mom decline and eventually pass in December 2014. So needless to say the UC has a special place in my heart and I was happy to help out and q even though the site q was nowhere to be found.
So the thang went something like this…
COP
SSH
Imperial Walkers
Morocan Nightclub (a fan favorite)
Hillbillies
Afer we were warmed up we made our way to the bus parking lot, which was empty. Perfect!
I don’t have a name for the first round but it goes like this:
In the center ten merkins, at one end ten squats at the other end ten LBC’s. Repeat until you’ve completed ten of each exercise. Always stop in the middle for ten more merkins. And go!
I could tell the pax were really enjoying this already for all the grumblechatter I was getting so since things were too easy we next moved over to the benches for a little Cindy.
Cindy in this case involves ten merkins, ten step ups and ten dips. Go until the q calls time. After about twenty minutes of this nonsense we make our way over to the wall for people’s chair with arm raises. We completed rounds of 40, 50, 60 and 100 (thanks Shephered for the 100).
Oh we’ve got more time! So another round of Cindy and some stretching then we headed back towards our start point.
At this point a lot of folks were rolling into the school, so they got to see our weird movements and they probably were thinking of calling the police.
After some Mary and stretching and yoga we wrapped things up.
Great work everyone!
9 PAX arrived in some slightly cooler weather than the past few weeks and thankfully the rain held off for us and a good time was had by all,
The disclaimer was disclaimed and we began with a mosey around the car rider loop with some high knees, butt kickers and toy soldiers and then circled up to complete the warm up in cadence: 25SSH, 25 Moroccan Night Clubs, 10 Peter Parker, 10 Parker Peter, 10 Windmill, 10 Mountain Climbers. We then mosey over to the front of the school for the fun to begin
The Thang:
Bear Crawl Ladders
-Starting on the curb across from the school we were to bear crawl across the road and do 10 Monkey Humpers once arriving at the other side, then we were to reverse bear crawl (backwards) back to the curb and do 1 Derkin. Then bear crawl back and do 9 Monkey Humpers with 2 Derkins etc.
-Once this was completed we mosey around to the back of the school until I could see the back dividing wall and realized it was too short so we took a tour of some construction equipment and returned to the front of the school
-3 sets of 10 count waterfall peoples chair followed by feet against the wall in plank-45 degree-90 degree each for a 10 count (30 seconds total)
-We then mosey to the front of the school near the flag poles and took turns running the car pool loop while the rest of the PAX performed an exercise: Nolan Ryans, Al Gores, Dips, Flutters, Toe Tap on Curb, Calf Raises, Dry Docks, Low Slow Squat, Merkins
-Mosey back to COT for some Mary (LBC, Hello Dolly, Rosalita) then circle up for announcements and prayer
Good time and I appreciate the opportunity to lead.
Res-Q: When a Pax is down (IR, or emergency DR trip, or whatever) and another Pax meets the call for help and jumps in last minute to Q for him.
Birdcage thought it would be a great idea to play soccer (futból) on Saturday with his co-workers. Soccer is a smaller, more nimble man’s game as it turns out, and he jacked up his knee/ankle, so he reached out and I took the Q. It’s been a while, but it’s like riding a bike… a painful, burpee and pull-up filled bike… That’s a terrible bike. You shouldn’t buy it. It’s probably very expensive for one thing, and why would you want a bike that caused you that much pain? Plus, no WAY are you winning that sprint triathlon you signed up for with a bike like that… It’s basically useless… you’re an idiot.
0515, disclaimer, then off we go…
Warm it up Kris… I’m about to…
Circle around the main lot to the Band Practice Field
– Windmills x 10
– IW x 10
Cross the band practice field and weave around the drop off lane to the roundabout
– Richard Simmons x 15
– Moroccan Nightclubs x 15
Mosey to back parking lot
– Merkins x 20
– CDD x 20
Mosey to behind dumpsters
– Squats x 25
– SSH x 25
Mosey to pull-up bars, and now the fun begins… (that was a mile, btw)
Partner up, size always matters.
There will be an exercise at the top and at the bottom of the hill. There will be a different method of travel up the hill each time.
ROUND 1:
– Each partner does 15 pull-ups (if one is waiting, it’s people’s chair)
– Run down the hill
– 30 Flutters (partner cadence)
– Wheelbarrow back up the hill (switch as needed)
ROUND 2:
– Each partner does 15 idiot partner pull-ups*
– Run down the hill
– Rosalita x 20 (partner cadence)
– Wheelbarrow up (switch as needed)
ROUND 3:
– Each partner does 10 burpee pull-ups (if one is waiting, it’s people’s chair)
– Run down the hill
– LBCs x 20 (partner cadence)
– Bear crawl up the hill
ROUND 4:
– Each partner does 15 idiot partner pull-ups or 10 negative pull-ups
– Run down the hill
– Dying Cockroach x 15 (partner cadence)
– Backwards bear crawl up the hill (or just run if we are too smoked)
Then we did a little Mary by the pull-up bars until it was time for an all-out sprint back to COT.
NMM:
As always, it was a pleasure to lead. I’ve started ending all my Q’s with an AYG back to COT. Bones (Tunis Hunt from LKW) quoted someone as saying, “When your mind thinks you are done, you have 40% left (or you are only 40% done, or something like that). The point is, all of the times that you think that you just can’t hold on anymore, you can’t push any further, you can’t withstand any longer, the fact of the matter is, there is more in the tank. Make it happen out there, men…
Helmet, out.
A slight delay in posting due to technical difficulties ie I forgot my password. It was a little damp at the Armory on Monday, but that didn’t stop the 11 pax coming out for a wet beatdown. We started off with the usual disclaimer and went into a brief warmup of SSH, WM, LSQ and Mtn Climbers. At that point it started to rain so we moseyed over to the little porch are of the church. There was talk about going down to the funeral home awning, but I didn’t want to. No I’m not scared.
On to the Thang:
I tried to keep things simple so we did sets of 50. Bad idea. We did a 1/2 parking lot lap in between exercises. Another bad idea.
Curls, triceps extensions, Goblet squats, overhead press, calf raises. Did I mention that we did LBC after each lap.
The rain let up a little so we moseyed down to the short wall and did step ups, lawnmower pulls did some lunge walks and finished up with chest presses.
We had some discussion about discipline. I shared about a video series I’ve been watching by Andy Stanley on Guardrails. Guardrails are those things that might cause us to have a little damage but prevent us from going into serious danger. These guardrails can keep us away from falling into some bad situations or help us stay on track to meet our goals. Twister shared an example of a guardrail that he has been using in his life.
Thanks for the opportunity to lead.
11 Men, one of them a 2.0, descended on Pantheon with a Boot Camp gleam in their bleary eyes. YHC wanted to take them out of their comfort zone.
The Thang
Structured Running workout for first half:
6 Min Warm Up around the “track” with various warm up routines
5 Min build at ~ 9 min pace to prep for the main event
4x Repeats:
5 Min cooldown at ~ 9 min pace
After the run, which completed with a mosey to the back side of the AO, we hit COP for some dynamic stretching to loosen the muscles from the run:
Line up on the sideline of the basketball court
Mosey to swings, split into 2 groups for 3 rounds of:
Mosey around AO, including some toy soldiers to 6MOM with:
Close out with BOM
NMM
As I thought about the Weinke last night, I decided that I wanted to expose the PAX to some structured run workout training, as most likely haven’t done much of that. There is a funny story that Dredd will tell about an opportunity he had to train with the French Foreign Legion while he was in Special Forces. Basically he was extremely strong and, he assumed, fit when he went over. The French told him he’d never survive their training because he was too big. They commenced to show him that constant movement will show you real fitness, not just how much you can pick up. He barely made it through and many of his team didn’t actually make it through this training, despite being “big and strong”. This, among other things, created perspective for a well rounded fitness routine, e.g. the prototypical “Pearls on a String” workout you will hear about.
I’ve been running a ton lately and have really seen improvement since I’ve started to introduce this into my routine. Many PAX will sign up for an event and log a bunch of miles (unless you are Cornhole) in prep for a race, but it is just repeating the mileage. I believe that to get better, you need to have a well rounded routine, not just repeating the same old workout over an over. That’s the motivation behind today’s workout. In all things, getting out of your comfort zone is a way to grow… to get better.
Honor to Serve.
14 Pax came looking for a party at Block Party this morning only to be greeted with some pain and humidity. The temps didn’t feel bad this morning but the air was thick. I think all the pax were soaked after the mosey except for Weezer. Who should have been sweating with his VQ warm-up just ahead, however this cool cucumber delivered a COP like he’d been doing it for years. Here’s what went down…
Weezer on Q
COP: Mosey to the wall lot on 160. In cadence – SSH x 25, WM x 10, IW x 20, Low Slow Squat x 15, Morrachian Night Clubs x 20 12 single count slow merkins (focus on form), Mountain Climbers x 15
Pass off to STH – Mosey to lot above and find a spot on the ledge.
Single leg step ups x 10 each leg, 10 Burpees, 20 Dips. Rinse and repeat 3 times
Mosey to lot across from gun shop. Sprint the hill to the top.
50 Shoulder Taps – Run to 2nd light (50 yds), Bear Crawl to curb (20 yds), 10 Bombjacks – run back Ab work – Slow Freddie Mercuries 50 Mtn Climbers – Run to 2nd light (50 yds), Bear Crawl to curb (20 yds), 10 Bombjacks – run back Ab work – Hello Dolly 50 CCDs – Run to 2nd light (50 yds), Bear Crawl to curb (20 yds), 10 Bombjacks – run back Ab work – X&Os 50 Merkins (Crowd Pleaser)- Run to 2nd light (50 yds), Bear Crawl to curb (20 yds), 10 Bombjacks
Mosey back to COT. 2 Mins left so 10 Burpees and Protractor
NMM: Had a great group of Pax today. Lots of good mumble chatter and complaining. Which as a Q I’ll take the latter as a compliment. Tclaps to Weezer for stepping up to lead the COP. Next up will be the full meal deal for him. Seeming how he pulled off the COP like a seasoned veteran, the rest will be a cake walk. I spoke a little bit at COT about how Qing has helped me become a better leader at home, work and in the community. I encourage everyone to step out of their comfort zone and try it if you haven’t done so already. You will be a better person for it.
Prayers for Kielbasa friend’s family, Bonsai’s friends daughter, Ginsu’s adoption, & patience. Mission Trip and Tclaps for the support of the pax.
Until Next time –
STH/Weezer
5 other PAX decided to join YHC on this humid morning to Ruck a little and spend some quality time together. Thank you all for coming out and for working so hard this morning.
THE THANG
We began by Rucking 2×2 from the flag around the parking lot to the auto maintenance shop, back to Fort Mill BBQ, and then back to the maintenance shop. At each stop we circled up and performed the following exercises.
10 Merkins, 10 CDDs, 10 Lunges (Each Leg), 15 Ruck Curls, 15 Tricep Extensions, 10 Ruck Thrusts, 10 Ruck Swings, 10 Overhead Presses, 20 Flutters, 20 Ruck Presses with legs at 6″, 10 American Hammers, 10 Step Ups (Each Leg), 5 Man Makers, & 20 Squats.
During the Rucking we had time for some good conversation and catching up.
NMM
At the end, I circled the PAX up and asked one question. ‘How many times did it take each one to know the routine of the exercises at each stop?’ Most said somewhat after 2-times, but definitely after the third. I then stated that it doesn’t take us long as humans to get into a routine in life, whether it be exercise, emotional, or spiritual.
The only way to get out of the rut is to change something. Reach out to someone, first God, to ask for help getting out of the rut and then change something. Talk to a Whetstone partner, another F3 brother, your Pastor, a trusted friend, and yes, your wife. Humble yourself and ask for the help. You will be a better man in the long run if you do.
Announcements & Prayers with Bootcampers
This was an impromptu Q that I had forgotten I committed to while Seacrest was in charge, but I love to Q, so being reminded the night before made me a little happy (in my pants). When training I like to focus on “tactical” strength or “functional” strength. This means that you may be able to use the strength and endurance you cultivate during one of my workouts. Today I covered picking up a lifeless body.
Mosey to basketball lot for warmup (simply for space reasons): SSH, hillbilly walkers, windmills
Mosey to the bottom of the entrance hill and partner up for the main event:
10x Superman Squats (aka, squat picking up your partner from sitting to standing)
20x Jump squats
30ish Lunge walk holds then sprint to top of hill
Rinse and Repeat
Mosey to wall by the flag for 4 minutes of holds
6 in & B2W (you and partner alternate when one fails)
Mosey to half wall around back for quick dora, 100 Merkins, 200 LBCs, 300 squats
Start at edge of lot then run to wall do one muscle up and run back.
Last, 4 minutes of hold
Protractor 10deg & Support position on wall (alternate on failure)
And that’s all she wrote. This was a lot of fun. Prayers and announcements. Prayers for the guys at VC Summer that were told to go home (which suddenly got a lot more personal). Prayers for the #Give2Give campaign and the hope that we may reach more guys and improve the quality of life for the Sadclowns that know no better.