Escalating in difficulting

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For this workout, YHC borrowed heavily from a my Q while on vacation at Ocean Isle the week before.  As we often do in F3, however, it was made more difficult this time.  The focus for this workout was to remind ourselves that we can always dig deeper.  It was fast paced and after completing something that seemed difficult we moved onto something that sounded even more horrible.  Each PAX dug deep and crushed it.

Warm up:

  • Mosey lap around the parking lot
  • SSH X35
  • Merkin X 15
  • Mountain Climber X10
  • Windmill X10
  • Imperial Walker X10

The Thang:

Merkin Suicide

Line up on the line in front of Harris Teeter.  The parking lot has four small islands between Harris Teeter and Fort Mill BBQ.  5 Merkins on the line, then run to the first island, 5 merkins, run back to the start, for 5 merkins.  Then run to the first island again for 5 merkins, continue to the second island for 5 merkins, head back towards HT but stop at the first island again for 5 merkins.

With the suicide run and the requirement to stop for 5 merkins anytime you passed the island that was a total of 65 merkins broken up by a fair amount of running.

Dora 1,2,3

Partner up to complete a series of exercises together with your partner.

Partner 1 would complete the exercise while partner 2 would run the full length of the parking lot.

  • Bomb Jacks X100
  • Squats X200
  • Shoulder Taps X300 counting only the tap on the right shoulder

Partner Burpee Plank

Partner 1 would hold an elbow plank while partner 2 completed burpees.  After each burpee partner 2 will jump over their partner in the plank position.  This was completed in a ladder with one partner completing 10 burpees, switch for the other partner to complete 10 burpees.  Descend in number until complete.  10, 8. 6. 4. 2, Done.

Announcements:

This BB is late posting.  Announcements are outdated.

Thank you Decibel for the opportunity!

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4

Sharknado Strikes The Poopdeck

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I always tell folk that the Poopdeck is the best AO around; It showcases amazing views, is expansive, has some gnarly asphalt for merkins and MARY, and always has a breeze coming off of the lake.  However, this morning, 6 PAX faced an impeccable storm generated by the F3Lake Norman crew with Burner and Olive (Tclaps to you guys!!).  After a brief intro and disclaimer, we moseyed:

COP:

20 SSH IC

20 Imperial Walkers IC

20 Hillbilly Walkers IC

10 Windmills IC

10 Cherry Pickers IC

30 MNC IC

Mosey to Waterfront

The Thang:

“Sharknado” – brought to us by Burner, via Olive at a mean, July 4th beatdown at the Warthog @F3GrandStrand

After remembering how glorious Sharknado is, it was described and commenced

15 Burpees OYO

run a lap around the waterfront parking lot – a little over .15 mile

20 diamond merkins

run a lap around the waterfront parking lot – a little over .15 mile

20 big boy situps

run a lap around the waterfront parking lot – a little over .15 mile

20 wide arm merkins

run a lap around the waterfront parking lot – a little over .15 mile

20 scorpion dry docks

Rinse and Repeat, aiming for 5 cycles.  I believe that Wildthing described it as “hateful.”  Due diligence had been achieved.

At 10 til, we circled up for some MARY  right on the waterfront as the sun was rising:

Flutters

X’s and O’s

Freddie Mercury’s

Box Cutters

Mosey back to COT

Great push by all PAX!  I also appreciate you’s guy’s support!

Announcements:

If in need of retiring a flag, take it to your local American Legion Post.

Ragnar coming up, as is a Delta Ruck event

CAH is doing great work even with the move in time.  Always looking for continued support.

Prayer

I appreciate the opportunity to lead.  F3 has given me so much in a short amount of time (5 months in), and I continually look to give back however possible.  See you in the gloom.

Droppin’ the bass,

Flea

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Fun filled morning at The Deep

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I have to admit I was excited to get the invitation from Royal to come out to the Deep and Q.  This gave me the opportunity to visit another AO and share the Bonsai Tree which deep down all Pax have a love hate relationship when they hear me call that exercise.

So I started out the workout with the typical F3 disclaimer, but really reinforced the part about pay attention to your body because it was already extremely warm and very humid.  Last thing I want is for someone to have a heat stroke.

After that bit of a warning we moseyed over to the track and football field for a little warmup and quickly I realized I left my wienkie at home so I had to try and remember everything I had planned.

Warmup:
SSH
Hilly Billy Walker
Merkins
…honestly I can’t remember if there was anything else

The Thang:
We started out with the first half of the Merkin mile and for the merkin count we did (9 merkins and 6 merkins) for laps 1 and 2.  The way this works is you do 9 merkins at the begging of the lap and then at the opposite corner you do 9 again.  Then on lap 2 you do 6.

After everyone completed 2 laps we moved over to the middle of the field and luckily there were flags placed out on the field 3 in a row going across the field and a series of about 8 rows (NOT BY THE Q) so we used them to do the following:

Start on one side an do a cross country skier action and you work side ways toward the first flag and then bear crawl to the next flag.  One you reach the end of that row jog up to the next row.

Row 2: Hop down the line moving feet apart and back together working down the line to the flag.  Repeat bear crawl until the end

Row 3:  Ski hop down to flag, repeat bear crawl

Row 4:  Face toward goal post with feet together and hop to the right toward flag, repeat bear crawl

Row 5: Face left and repeat same as #4.

Rinse and repeat back up the field

After completing this series of exercises we moved over to the track and did LBCs and flutters so I could catch my breath before the completing the merkin mile.

Complete merkin mile with merkin counts of 3 and 1

Move back over to the field where we partnered up and did the following:

Partner 1 put exercise band around waist and Partner 2 held band with resistance as #1 broad jumped to next row of flags.  Then partners performed 5 rounds of the Bonsai Tree each.  Rinse and repeat for Partner 2

Next Partner 1 has band around waist and with resistance from P2 runs to the second row of flags (approx 30 yds).  Then P1 and P2 take turns doing hamstring curls.  Rinse and repeat going back.

At this time the sun was starting to peak over the trees and it was time to head back to the truck for some coupons (aka cinder blocks) and grab some water.

After grabbing the blocks we started with over head carry as we worked our way around the school stopping to do various exercises such as chest press, LBC, upright rows, wall sits.  However Olaf decided to bring his poppers with him and thew one toward the Q while on my six so we had to stop and do burpees for his shenanigans.  After several exercises we would continue make the loop around the school with overhead carry while moving.  We also stopped for balls to the wall and burpee box jumps (do a burpee and then jump on top of cinder block then jump to other side of block and do another burpee (repeat 5 times).

After completing the loop we ended back up at COT just in time and maybe a minute or two more of extra credit.

Lots of prayer request where thrown out for Pax and families including Lutekfisk mother, Cornerstone’s 2.0, jobs and 2.0s and Ms.

Gentlemen it was an honor to be invited to Q and lead a bunch of #Hims.  Thanks to the fellow Fort Mill (Lake Ridge) pax for coming out and thanks to Lake Wylie pax for showing as well.  This is a great AO and I encourage others to go out and check this place out.

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Freedom to Choose

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The Thang

Mosey to “big parking lot” of St. John’s United Methodist for stretching, focusing on back, hips and glutes.

Mosey to “front/side lot” of St. John’s United Methodist for warm-up

Windmills x 10
SSH x 10
Imperial Walkers x 10
Hillbilly Walkers x 10
Moroccan Nightclubs x 20

Back to FIrst Baptist Churches fort Mill lot for “The Serpentine”
3 stations laid out amongst the 4 islands in the lot. Jog, bear crawl, sprint, power skip or whatever to each cone, perform the exercise and move on to the next. We moved up one row and down the next. Hence, the “Serpentine”.

Mosey to front steps of FBCFM

Calf raises x 10 (maybe it was 20)

Mosey down Confederate St. to back entrance of Church of God
Used back wall for Dips / Derkins x 10 each (rinse & repeat)

Mosey into breezeway for People’s Chair
Mosey into Parking Lot for 4 corners x 2 rounds
Plank for the six

Serpentine & 4 corners consisted of:

Seal Jacks (4 count) x 10

LBC’s x 10 (4 count)

Hello Dolly’s x 10 (4 count)

Burpees x 5 (sorry, had to break Moderate code)

Mountain Climbers x 10 (4 count)

Merkins x 10 (single count)

Bombjacks x 10

Monkey Humpers x 10 (4 count)

Carolina Dry Docks x 10 (single count)

SSH x 20 (4 count)

Plank Jacks x 10 (4 count)

Box Cutters x 10 (4 count)

“Your Choice” x 10 (2 of those)

“Your Choice” x 20 (2 of those)

Mosey back toward COT for Mary
American Hammers x 10
Box Cutters x 10
Flutters (or “Aquaman thingy’s”) x 10
Travolta’s x 10
COT – Prayers for Smithers, Molder, Smithers’ M & family as her dad fights on. Prayers for Ponch, having wrist surgery. Prayers for Gopher and his M on biz decisions  I’m sure I’ve missed a few and I apologize for that.

Naked Moleskin

We have freedom to choose. We can’t control what “happens” to us. We CAN choose our response. We can choose how to live our lives. Every day is made of 100’s or 1000’s of choices. Which choices are you glad you made? I have a lot. Which choices would you change? I have a lot of those, too!

Achievement or accomplishment (personal, career, family, fitness, financial, faith, etc) is the culmination of our choices. We remember the magic moment that the achievement occurred. Too often, we dismiss the 100’s or 1000’s of choices we made to get us to that point. Choose your greatness. You are free to do so.

As always, I’m honored and humbled to be surrounded by such high impact men & grateful for the opportunity to lead.

See you in the gloom.

Beacon

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Board of Pain Tabata style

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As the Pax started to gather around this morning I gave a heads up that they needed to get loosened up because there wouldn’t be a warm-up this morning.  Some heeded my warning and some didn’t.  When it hit 5:14 I began to give the normal speech and tell the group we were about to take on the Board of Pain.  However there was one catch to it.  We would work our way through the Board of Pain, but we weren’t going to be counting.  We would do 7 rounds of Tabata each exercise.

For those who don’t know what Tabata is it is where you do a set of exercises for a predetermined amount of time by exercising for 20 sec and then take 10 sec off and keep rotating through.  For us we rotated exercises after 7 rounds of 20/10.  Needless to say I didn’t get to 100 burpees, but I was fine with that.

During the workout I failed as a Q because I had promised music and when I attempted to play the music the speaker wasn’t working.  I believe it had to do with the 150% humidity that morning, but its still a failure on my part.  Luckily fellow pax Change Order and Lutefisk saved me by performing for us several songs including Ice Ice Baby timed perfectly during one of our 10 second counts.

The Thang:

Burpees
Calf Raises
Ski Abs
Merkins
Squats
LBCs
CDC
Am Hammer
Mac Tar Jai

100 Maracain Night Club because I didn’t want to have to Jump Squats for the last 2 minutes

This workout was one of those workouts where you get all 3 Fs during the 45 minutes which was awesome to be apart of.

It was an honor to lead!  Thanks for the opportunity

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Oshi Shinobu

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What a great morning for a workout with 14 men at The Swamp.  We quickly split off as Ruckers, Runners and Bootcampers.  A short mosey led us to our 1st stop for the warmup:  15 SSH, 3-burpees, 10 Windmills, 3-burpees, 10 Moroccan Night Clubs, 3-burpees, 15 SSH, 3-burpees.

Good and warm we mosey’d to backside of Jush Fresh to the stairs.  Partner Up.  P1 Holds Plank, P2 runs stairs, Flip/Flop; P1 Flutter Kicks, P2 runs stairs, Flip/Flop; P1 Hello Dollies, P2 run stairs, Flip/Flop and finally P1 Wall Sits,  P2 runs stairs, Flip Flop.

Short stroll to the Fountain w/a round-a-bout version of 4-corners.  Working in Decending order w/4-stations;  8, 6, 4 and 2 reps at ea.  Starting at Fountain, Incline/Decline Merkins, run to top of lot, Squats, run around to fountain, step-ups (ea leg), run to bottom of lot, burpees and back to fountain.  Rinse and repeat to next descending count.

I wanted to do something a little different with the PAX this am and introduce a little Jiu Jitsu warmup so we mosey’d over by the Q’s truck and pick up some Martial Arts belts.  Partner up, P1 places belt around himself and sprints while P2 offers resistance by holding him back across the lane.  Rinse&Repeat x 2.  From there we demonstrated what each warmup is for and how to execute it in BJJ with:  seated shrimping, breakdance, alligator crawl, gorilla walks, leg drag drills and finished w/another bout of the belt resistance drills w/new partners and ab-work.

COT

Always a struggle getting moving in the am and putting our bodies through the workouts but love the results and who I get to do it with.  In Jiu Jitsu we always finish w/a bow and handshake to one other with the statement of “OSS!” also known as “ossu”, means Oshi Shinobu, which conveys the idea of “persevering when pushed”. In other words, never give up, have determination, grit and withstand the most arduous of training.

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Tower of Babel

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IMG_0271

Pantheon (Tega Cay Elementary)

Disclaimer: As I’m not a professional, no one even bothered to pay me for the free beat down this morning

Warm-a-rama I: Short mosey around the big loop, including high knees, butt kickers, side shuffles, toy soldiers

Warm-a-rama II: To ball field for some SSH, Merkin, Moroccan Night Clubs, Imperial Walkers, Hillbilly Walkers

Thang I: Indian Run: Last man drops, does 5 burpees, sprints to front of the line

Thang II: Line up on baseline, first guy runs a suicide while the rest do exercises listed below, then the suicider does a 10-count (Sputnik with the Russian 10-count and Straight Up with the Spanish 10-count, hence “Tower of Babel”)

  • 10 sets Jump Squats, 6 sets alternating one-foot Calf Raises, 4 sets Burpees, 5 sets Carolina Dry Docks, 5 sets Mountain Climbers

Thang III: People chairs for 10-counts from 10 PAX, balls-to-the-wall for 10-counts from 10 PAX (note: someone called out no hands balls-to-the-wall to no avail BUT Crash called out one-handed and did it, both hands – impressive)

Mary: we had 2 minutes for abs: protractor angles were quite specific this morning (27 degrees???)

COT: 10 PAX posted this morning, including Jedi in his first week, prayers for family health, travel, and for PAX to be a light in a dark world.

Skin: Nothing like your very own personal sweat splatter puddle along the court baseline. Smells like… victory.

 

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Preblast – S2S – Sharing to Sharpen (3rd F)

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  • QIC: Chicken Hawk
  • When: 07/27/2017
  • Pax:
  • Posted In: 3rdF

Starting Thursday, 7/27 at 0620 until 0645 after your 1st F post (or in lieu of) join Pax for a new 2nd / 3rd F opportunity at Panera Bread @ Kingsly outside in the screen patio area.  This is not a bible study per se, this does not require any deep knowledge of the Word, this doesn’t even require that you know and follow God to participate.

The purpose of this AO is to give men an opportunity to roll up our sleeves and to share our burdens and struggles and to get support and encouragement from those that we sweat with every day.  The idea is that this time together will be part 2nd F and being in community with our brothers, it will have tentacles of Whetstone and the idea that we sharpen each other (Iron Sharpening Iron) and it will have flavors of 3rd F where we seek answers in God’s word.  In some ways, this will be an opportunity to test the “living word” for answers to every day struggles and for men to come alongside each other to encourage and strengthen each other.

The format of discussion will go something like this…

  • Q will bring the topic of a struggle they are wrestling with personally. This can be a very personal struggle or trial or it can be something of this world that is bothersome to them that they can’t come to grips with.
  • Pax will engage to give their perspective on their experiences/struggles with the topic
  • Q will take the opportunity to look into the Word to find scripture that supports, acknowledges, gives encouragement or guidance around the topic
  • Pax will give perspective on how they have handled, overcome, found hope around the topic.

Please join if you are available on 7/27 and any Thursday thereafter at 6:20 @ Panera Bread.

AYE!

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The Coop 2017.29

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I was greeted this wonderful morning by over 20 gentlemen that all came to get stronger.  This is not an AO on my routine schedule, but I love it and sneak over here for the pull-up bars on occasion.  It’s the first time I’ve gotten to Q here so guess what?  We’re all going to be sick of the bars before we leave.

Warmup: SSH, Merkins, Freddys

Break up into groups of 3.  Groups of 3 will provide adequate rest between exercises.  This workout is to build strength, not endurance.  Just don’t check twitter while occupying the bench and we’re cool…

Upper body superset: (this is drop set, each exercise is a similar muscle group but an easier movement, so you do more reps)
4 pull-ups, 6 negatives, 8 assisted (one partner gives you a foothold)
Once done Al Gore till the 6 comes in, 10 jump squats, al-gore 30 seconds, 10 jump squats
Core superset:
8 knees to chest, 12 hanging tuck toe pointers, 16 bicycles
Al Gores and jump squats

Repeat the whole thing!

At some point I tried to be a good Q and have a discussion about the topic of the month, and then someone farted…

Stay in groups and head to the bottom of the hill for a 3man Dora.  100 merkins, 100 squats, 100 LBCs.  This is more or less a warmup for your legs, and cool down for your upper and core.ki

Stay in groups for a 3man relay race up the hill and back.  If you don’t almost lose control of some bodily function on this one, you have something left in the tank…  Back to COT.

Moleskin

At COT I gave an explanation of why I train, but to sum it up: I like having solutions to problems.  Some solutions come as physical abilities.  Read the newsletter.

 

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5

Pre-Blast – The Lake Wylie Shirt

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April 9th, 2016.

That was the day that Royale and Dark Helmet opened the Saturday AO, “The Deep” and, in so doing, effectively launched F3 Lake Wylie. Along with the success of Quagmire and The Swamp, The Deep provided the Pax in Lake Wylie an identity and a new community where we can fulfill the mission of F3 to Plant, Grow and Serve.

Because of the amazing support of the men of The Fort region and the dedication of the Lake Wylie Pax, we have quickly expanded to six AOs: Quagmire, Sea Legs, The Abyss, The Poopdeck, The Swamp and The Deep. These workouts continue to see increasing numbers of men consistently posting week after week. With this growth in popularity has come the call for a shirt to represent the Pax of Lake Wylie.

We are answering the call.

On July 20st, 2017, we will release the first F3 Lake Wylie shirt. The shirt lists our current AOs and the Three F’s of Fitness, Fellowship and Faith centered around an anchor which represents not only the aquatic theme of Lake Wylie, but also symbolizes strength and stability in troubled waters.

Many of us find that F3 serves as an “anchor” in our lives, supporting us and encouraging us to being better men in world that is very often trying to tear us down.

  • It is the anchor of F3 that wakes us up to post in the gloom instead of heading to a gym for fern workouts.
  • It is the anchor of F3 that allows us to fellowship and share our lives with other like-minded men.
  • It is the anchor of F3 that encourages us to be HIM through growing our faith and acknowledging something bigger than ourselves.

This is why the anchor is the perfect representation of the Pax of Lake Wylie.

Thank you for all your continued support of F3 Lake Wylie.

Now GO BUY A SHIRT…or two! Sales runs through Aug 2nd.

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