Tuesday Morning Pain

2016-11-02Leave a comment

QIC: Maximus, Ginsu
When: 11/01/16
Pax: Seacrest, Gump, Snap Hook, Nomad, Package, Dark Helmet, Tesh, Crash, Lil E, Sir Topham Hat, Maximus, Ginsu
Posted In: The Colosseum

Thorough disclaimer and lots of banter about Seacrest not posting for his own called pre-run.

Jog to the back parking lot for a little warm up consisting of Side Straddle Hops

Carolina Dry Docks

Squats

LBCs

Lots of American Hammers

Mosey to the lot with the wall for some up and overs

Start on the line and run to the wall, jump over, jump back over and back to the starting line. Repeat 4 more times for a total of 5.

Pick your favorite spot on the wall and get used to it for a series of varied Muscle Ups. Q calls the up and down with occasional 10sec holds at the top.

Mosey to the playground.

½ the PAX does 15 Swing Crunches with the other ½ does 20 Merkins. Flapjack then repeat the set. We need to get with Rooney to have Pull Up bars reinstalled ‘cause it’s just not the same without them.

End with a varied pace of Peter Parkers.

Hand off to Ginsu.

Mosey to the football stadium stairs for jump squats (x15)

Run up stairs, calf raises (x40)

Run back down to bottom of stairs & burpee (x5)

Repeat 2 more times for a total of 3 rounds

Mosey to football field goal line

LBCs (x15)

Roll over for clapping merkins (x10)

Roll back over for LBCs (x15)

Boat & canoe…for what seemed like forever

Still on goal line, lunge walk toward the other end of the field until signal

Upon Q signal, sprint to other goal line

LBCs (x20)

Back to lunge walk/sprint length of field

Clapping merkins (x5)

Rinse & repeat once more for total of 3 times

Mosey to COT for some Mary

Dead cockroachs (x15)

Protractor for a while

COT

Prayers for our country, our marriages, our jobs.

Gump closed us out in prayer to SkyQ.

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Pyramid of Pain makes landfall at the Abyss

2016-11-022 Comments

QIC: Pusher
When: 11/2/16
Pax: Wild Thing, Vinny, Royale, Witch Hunt, Bart, Da Vinci, Cornerstone, Bones
Posted In: Abyss

9 Men posted to the Abyss after being warned that the Pyramid of Pain would be making its first appearance. A surprise appearance by Witch Hunt who gave away his Q at the Pantheon was a welcome surprise. YHC greeted all men including a few new to me, made a few smart comments about Bones and fraternity life, gave an awesome disclaimer and away we went.

The Thang

Mosey around the parking lot including high knees, lunges, toy soldiers and butt kickers

COP

Mtn Climbers x 20

Dry Docks x 10

Merkins x 10

Parker Peters x 10

Windmills x 10

IWs x 10

SSH x 20

Everybody warmed up?1?

Mosey to the back of the school

Pyramid of Pain

10 Exercises with a lap in between

Upon completion of the first 10, rinse and repeat with (2) laps in between each exercise

50 Merkins
40 Flutters
30 Dry Docks
20 Flying Squirrels
10 Squat Jumps
10 Bombjacks
20 Derkins
30 Dips
40 Freddy Mercuries
50 Jumping Lunges (crowd pleaser)

Over the course of the workout, we covered 3.4 miles and really enjoyed some fellowship. At the completion, each man shared how far he got on the Pyramid and will be held accountable to improvement next time.

Moleskin

Witch Hunt – Man the guy has IT! It is obvious he has a passion for F3 and is in really great shape. Hang around people like him and you will get better
Cornerstone – Heart of gold for this man. He took it upon himself to become a knowledge expert on his daughters cancer. The nickname fits him!
Royale – A true #HIM. Started Lake Wylie with Dark Helmet and deserves a tremendous amount of credit for its success. Oh and raising 4 kids at the same time!
Da Vinci – If you have been around this guy, then you have seen the transformation. He has leadership in his veins and just took over as Site Q.
Wild Thing – Good to have him back. Got injured post the Delta. Yep he did the Delta. Only a real man could complete that (And he didn’t really know what he was signing up for!)
Bones – Not many know this but a little brother for me in the fraternity at USC. Fantastic to watch this kid become a father, a successful businessman/chiropractor and a leader. Proud of you!
Bart – New to me but clearly not new to fitness. From Alabama (hence the name) but a 30 year resident of Lake Wylie. I see many bright things in the future for this guy
Vinny – I already like this guy! Left a rap lyric out there this morning and he finished it. I see many shared “old school” similarities with this guy!

Read your newsletter. Lots of great things coming up.

I would like to thank Italian Job for this backblast. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then hopefully he will be honored. Every backblast that he writes is like this. He is a true #HIM who pays close attention to all those who post. I hope to incorporate his style in my future backblasts.

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Halloween Fun @ Guns-n-Moses

2016-11-02Leave a comment

QIC: Royale
When: 10/31/2016
Pax: Redwood, High Pockets, Dollywood, Drifter, Royale
Posted In: Uncategorized

5 PAX showed up bright and early (maybe not early High Pockets) for a fun Halloween themed workout. Full disclosure, I’m not original with themes, so I totally stole this from Witch Hunt and his Q at the Deep on Saturday. But it was too good to pass up.

The Thang

Quick jogging lap to COP
SSHs IWs Merkins CDDS – your get it – the usualy stuff to get warm!

The next 35 minutes we spent going “trick or treating”. It went like this:

Split into two groups. Dollywood and me – High Pockets, Drifter and Redwood the other
There were three Halloween buckets spread about 35 yards from the center bucket.

In the center we would pick or “Trick” or “Treat” as the mode of transportation to the other bucket 35 yards away.
Those modes consisted of:
Crab Walk
Jog 2x
Lunge Walk 2x
Inch Worm
Karaoke
Broad jump
Bear Crawl 2x
“Frankenstein” Walk (aka Toy Soldiers)
Lt Danger’s!
Lt Dans
Side Shuffle

At one bucket was the number of reps we would complete of the unknown exercise. It ranged from 1 to 25 in intervals of 5. Several of the middle numbers repeated like 10 & 15.

The other bucket had the exercise which included:
Bombjacks
Hand release Merkins
Flutter Kicks
LBCs
Freddy Mercurys
Dragon Walk Merkins
SSHs
Diamond Merkins
Squat Jumps
CDDs
Partner Plank Derkins
a 10 count!
Burpees
Ranger Merkins

There were 14 rounds of this configuration. The only one I recall that everyone cheered for was 1 burpee. (I made up for that on Tuesday)

Great to see the York PAX again, it’s been too long since making the trip to the south of Lake Wylie!

Happy Halloween!

Royale

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Happy All Saints Day

2016-11-021 Comment

QIC: Chicken Wing
When: 11/1/16
Pax: Training Wheels, Figaro, Felini, Drop Thrill, MacGyver, Double D, Keilbasa, Birdcage, Chicken Wing
Posted In: Block Party

As the day after Halloween, YHC had no clue what to expect as far as PAX attendence, but it was a great group on a fine morning where it all began in The Fort. As the Block Party is a weekly Q school flavor, rookies and veterans can certainly use tune ups and YHC was case in point with no watch!! I have to say that is my achilles heel, so shout out to Double D’s watch with no light, Keilbasa’s fine jewelery that he purchased from the black market overseas, Figaro stepped up and grabbed a watch that told time and was also visible in the darkness.

MacGyver came in, almost hit a departing walker, we started a minute late waiting for the 6, but we did end at 6:01 to make up for the tardy PAX.

Disclaimer given, trivia about who knew what 11/1 was, Keilbasa guessed it right off, pretty sure he was going to go drink all day as well!

With that, we were off on a mosey around the path for a bit, threw in some high knees, butt kickers, side shuffle, and backwards job. Circled up a few hundred yards down off the path in the grass.

Warm Up
Low Slow Squat x 11 IC
Monkey Humpers x 20 IC
Merkins x 11 IC
Mountain Climbers x 20 IC

Mosey across WEP to the hill for Elevens.

Low Slow Squat at the top of the hill, Burpees on the bottom. Start with 10 on top and 1 on bottom.

After that beautty, we headed over to the playset for a modified DORA.

Partner up.

P1 does pullups, P2 runs the outside of the playset. 2 rounds
P1 does merkins, P2 runs the outside of the playset. 2 rounds
P1 does squats, P2 runs the outside of the playset. 2 rounds

Heat to COT for abs.

PAX led aborama.

Time at 6:01.

Nameorama, Prayers, Praise from each PAX. Close out prayer.

NMM

Each PAX is a leader. It is up to this group to carry that water to ‘infect’ our community with values that will lead us out of the current trajectory that our political system, media, and social media are portraying. It all starts with making yourself better, so in turn you can make the guy next to your better, and so on. Make no mistake about it, what we have in The Fort is special. Let’s use this gift we have been given for the greater good. Always an honor to Q. Thank you all for following this am.

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The next step in building Empathy

2016-11-01Leave a comment

QIC: Chicken Hawk and Deacon
When: 11/12/2016
Pax: All PAX
Posted In: Uncategorized

October 28th was about starting the conversation and Saturday, November 12th from 0600 – 0700 at Eternal Church is about rolling up our sleeves and stepping into the fire. This is not a convergence. This is a call to the #HIM that left the convergence and have a desire to do something to influence change, the #HIM that has the passion and desire to step into the fight to figure out how to change the trajectory of this social issue that plagues our culture. If you can make it or even if you can’t and you have a perspective please share it with me and I will bring it to the conversation (brianbrenner09@gmail.com).

Pre-work for this session to think about before joining the discussion:

Define what we are trying to accomplish coming out of the convergence?

o Build empathy through relationships?

o Build relationships through invitation of more black men to F3?

o How do we effectively invite?

Should we put a Q in charge of building a plan and driving our activities to reach within the community to attract people that don’t look like us?

o What would this Qs objectives be?

How do we create more experiences for the men to grow in empathy toward the black community?
Do we need a new AO or do we already have AOs co-located to the black community that we invite them too?

o Which part of the black community are we trying to connect to? Paradise or middle/professional/ working middle class?

Define what obstacles we have in reaching the black community?

o What are the opportunities for overcoming the obstacles?

How do we reach the black community to invite them into F3?

o Military connection?

o Churches?

o Community events?

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An F3 Thanksgiving – A Tradition Unlike Any Other

2016-11-01Leave a comment

QIC: Santini, Mission Impossible, Chef McGruff, Chef Change Order and Pusher
When: 11/24/16
Pax: All Pax of F3 the Fort, Rock Region, Area 51, SOB and Cousin Eddie's from out of town
Posted In: The Ranch

Several years ago, the men of the Fort gathered together for the 1st Annual Thanksgiving beatdown. The goal of the workout was simple…cancel as many calories as possible in the AM prior to the feast later in the day. Like most F3 initiatives, this initial workout was simply the firecracker that brought men together and has led to a celebration of all 3 Fs amongst the Pax.

Over the years, we have met many new FNGs including a lot of Cousin Eddie’s visiting from out of town. We have incorporated a Chef and some fried turkey because who doesn’t love turkey! More importantly, this has become one of the singular events of F3 the Fort with over 100+ men exercising their bodies, their minds and their souls.

This year, we will continue to build on the theme of Thanksgiving. You see, we are all very blessed and have a lot to be thankful for. The moment that you can begin to look at your life in this manner will be the moment that the stresses, pains and perils of life will simply fade away. Call it a “glass half full” approach or call it “faith”, focusing on what you have to thankful for should not be done just one day a year but should be celebrated daily. It is not a rose colored glasses approach because these stresses and pain are very real to those involved. It is a mind shift similar to getting up at 4:30 AM every day, completing a CSAUP, Qing a workout, being a Whetstone partner, etc. All of those felt weird the first time. Heck, maybe they still feel a little weird! But weird becomes special, weird becomes necessary and weird ultimately challenges you. Being focused on thankful is just another weird challenge that will be accepted by those who post on 11/24/16.

So what do we have in store for you on 11/24:

Thanksgiving Day Workout

Location: The Ranch (Springfield Elementary School)

Time: 6 – 7 AM

Q: Santini, Mission Impossible and Pusher

Chef McGruff and Chef Change Order will provide fried turkey

Double Down Opportunity

Baxter Turkey Trot – 1 mile, 3 mile and trail options

Registration is open to Pax, Ms and 2.0s – Registration is Free but Limited

Location: Baxter Village Hall (3387 Richards Crossing)

Time: 9 AM

Registration: http://www.go-greenevents.com/event/id/5201

The First 300 registrants will get a free Turkey Trot T-shirt!

All participants are asked to bring Coats, Blankets or Canned Goods to be donated to the Fort Mill Care Center and the Clothing Closet for Fort Mill School District. Donations will be accepted at Packet Pick-up and at the race.

Opportunity to volunteer for the race: Turkey Trot Volunteer Page

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Halloween Scream at the Armory

2016-10-31Leave a comment

QIC: Chicken Hawk
When: 10/31/16
Pax: Deacon, Assassin, Bonsai, Package, Couples, Destiny, Lug Nut, Librarian, Spitz, Hanny Manny, Cotton Eye, Tesh
Posted In: The Armory

13 Men enjoyed (or not) some partner work helping to sharpen each other. Thank you to the PAX for the opportunity to lead the pax through this unprofessional hack of a trainer. The weather was warm but the chatter was even hotter. AYE!

Message:

Margin: Margin is this dimension of time that is available after the requirements of life. The question is are you aware of how you are investing your margin? Are you aware of Where are you squandering your Margin?

Are you spending your margin on your own pleasures? Or Are you investing your margin to improve your marriage, to prepare for the next chapter in parenting or in your relationship with God?

Cop

– SSH

– Seal Claps

– Merkins

– Hill Billy Walkers

– Mountain Climbers

Lap

Partner:

Wall

Bear crawl while partner holds weight in front of them in wall sit x2
Bear crawl while partner is in handstand x2
Bear crawl while partner holds weight over head in wall sit x2

Bench

Thruster step ups while partner bear crawls up and down steps x2
Dips with weight while partner side shuffles in parking lot to edge of building and back while doing chest press with weight
20 Derkins while partner does squats with weight

Mary on the curb… 3 minutes worth… my favorite

Mosey to Parking lot for Dora 1-1-1

While partner does suicide sprints w/o weight

100 high pulls
100 plank rows
100 Lat extensions

Mary

Enjoy your Halloween night brothers!

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Trick or Treating at The Deep 10/28/2016

2016-10-31Leave a comment

QIC: Witch Hunt
When: 10/28/2016
Pax: Bart, Royale, Da Vinci, Whopper (FNG), Witch Hunt
Posted In: The Deep

What perfect weather we had for a little Halloween fun at The Deep. Small chill in the air but nothing that would keep the Pax away.

When 6:30 am hit, we had 4 Pax and 1 FNG (Thats 2 FNGs for Lake Wylie this week. Lets keep the momentum. T-Claps to Royale for the EH). Gave the extended disclaimer with the FNG present and we were off.

Quick mosey to the elementary school parking lot across the street for the warm up which consisted of:

SSH IC x25
Wind Mill IC x10
IW IC x10
Cherry Pickers IC x10
Mountain Climbers IC x10
Peter Parkers IC x10

Now that we were good and warm it was time to start the fun so we moseyed to the track.

The Thang

The Tombstone

Starting at the end of the first turn I placed 7 cones spread evenly across the track forming an upside-down U, or Tombstone shape. At each cone was an exercise to be performed by the Pax 10 times. Starting at cone #1 we ran the full length of the tombstone ending at cone #7 and performing that exercise then returning to cone 1. At cone 1 you waited for the six while performing burpees. Once six was in you returned to cone 7 repeated exercise, except this time you stopped at cone 6 on the way back. The plan was to continue this sequence adding one cone on each lap. however to save some time for the rest of the workout, I called an Omaha and shortened the laps after we added cone 4, so we stopped at cone 4 for the remaining laps instead of continuing all the way to cone 7.

The exercises on the cones were as follows:

Grave Diggers
Jump Squats
Merkins
CCD
V-Up Twists
Dips
Burpees

After a quick talk about tolerance, we were onto the next thing.

Trick or Treating (The F3 way)

We moved onto the football field inside the track. I placed one bowl in the middle of the 50 yard line and 2 other bowls in front of the goal posts. The bowl on the 50-yard line contained various modes of transportation, varying from easy [Treats] (I.e. Jog, bear crawl) to hard [Tricks] (i.e. Burpee Broad Jump, Lt. Dan). After splitting into two teams, one Pax would select a mode of transportation from the center bowl then head to there bowl in their corresponding endzone. Once they retrieved a piece of paper from there bowl they would jog back to the 50 yard line and meet up with the other group. One bowl contained numbers and one more contained exercises, the combination would determine whether it was a trick or treat (We ended up doing 10 Kraken Burpees, OUCH!.)

Unfortunately I didnt record the combinations we came up with but the Pax seemed to enjoy and punishment was delivered.

Finally time was running low so we took a long mosey back to COT, completing approximately 4 miles of running during the workout.

Thanks to the Pax for push and all the hard work.

Announcements

Christmas Party
Joe Davis Run
Read your newsletter

Prayers

All our solders overseas fighting the good fight
All Pax on IR

Now back to the hunt…

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Where Two or Three are Gathered…

2016-10-31Leave a comment

Posted In: The Fort

Matthew records the words of Jesus, “Where two or three are gathered… I am with them” (MT 18:20). It was a good thing ’cause we were three HIMs needing help to keep our shoulders from splitting open this morning.

Warm up:

20 SSH, 20 LSS, 20 Moroccan Nightclubs, 20 overhead claps, 20 Carolina dry docks, 15 merkins, 40 calf raises, and a couple of laps around the parking lot.

The Thang:

Ignoring the urge to dress up for Halloween, YHC slightly adjusted the weinke, as we needed four for the plan. As any Soldier knows, “no good plan ever survives the first shot,” thus, we pressed on.

With kettlebells at the ready and a flashlight on the board, the three of us performed the followings sets:

Each exercise was rewarded with fartlek-like sprints before continuing to the next.

80 Kettlebell right arm tricep extensions, 80 KB left arm tricep extensions, 80 LBCs w/KBs, 80 Russian KB swings, 80 KB Squats, 80 R and 80 L KB floor presses, 80 R and 80 L KB lunge presses, 50 R and 50 L KB military presses, and 80 KB calf raises on the curb.

We paused for what I’ve dubbed “the Apache Ten-Count” (between the Kettlebell swings and the lunge presses) to learn a bit more about one another. Interestingly, we each have a connection to New York State, are hoping the Cubs can pull out a miracle, and think frying seafood is a waste of good seafood. The workout ended with the COT.

Thoughts:

Yesterday, I responded to a tragedy: a Soldier in my battalion awoke to discover his 5-month-old daughter had died in the night. Come, Lord Jesus, Come! Men, the theme of the month is all about the time we make. I am reminded to take time for my children. We do not know how long we will be here, nor how long we will have the health we (hopefully) enjoy this day, but this I do know, I’m grateful for God (Sky Q), for my family, for the men of F3, and for what this newly adopted lifestyle of F3 participation means to me.

Aye!

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What Once Was Clydesdales

2016-10-30Leave a comment

QIC: Barry Manilow
When: 10/26/16
Pax: Newman, Lugnut, Greenwave, Spitz, Anchorman, Culture Club, Mainframe, Rebel, MASH, Twister, Santini, Gridlock, Corruption, Stang, Deacon, Bullwinkle, Short Sale, Airborne, Bubba Gump, Chaser, Zima
Posted In: Clydesdales

What used to be Clydesdales is now a collection of runners of every shape and size. If you aren’t quite sure about your desire to run, come on out, start with one day a week. No man left behind.

Start with a count off and hope we can come back at the end with a +/- 2 variance.

Your options:
The Pineapple Loop: run with “those guys”, “the big guys”, the slow guys”. No man left behind, we’ll walk a bit if needed, and some will run through, SLOW, more like a mosey … this one goes about 3.25ish miles. No gear required.

Walmart: Someone always heads that way, run along the road, make sure someone has a light, the sidewalk is uneven. To Dam Road and back is about 3.8 miles … continue and circle Walmart and your number will be closer to 5 miles … Follow Corruption and you may end up at Gold Hill Road, 6+ miles round trip.

Clydes-Trails: Bring a light. I will never know what those trails look like.

Bisquit Run: To Hardees and back offers a well traveled 4.2 miles, turn around at WEP if 3.4 miles is more your pace … The Kingsley Loop will also add a 1/2 mile if 4.2 isn’t enough.

Ruck (I think): Only assuming that Spitz and Lugnut will let you join them for a 60 minute ruck, launching at 5am and joining COT at 6am.

Reassemble at COT (80% … apparently duty calls for many on Wednesday morning)

Announcements

Prayers and Praises

Thanks to Gridlock for keeping this one rolling, 22 is a big and diverse group of PAX.

Looks like we made it,

Barry Manilow

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