Category: Crows Nest

Charter Band-aids for Little Warriors – PreBlast

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As most of the PAX in the Fort and Rock regions knows my 5 year old daughter (Emma) is a leukemia survivor. We still make a trip every 4 weeks to get blood drawn to check her counts at Levine Children’s Hospital. We also stepped up and raised money last year (Christmas time) for a fellow brother bout-time out of Area 51 son Jennings who has leukemia also.

It has come to my attention that the budgets have been cut in some of the pediatric departments and the first thing to go is usually the character band aids. You say how important is to have these band-aids? Well as far as the cancer kids go every time the have their PORT’s (Port is a small medical appliance that is installed beneath the skin. A catheter connects the port to a vein) which for some kids is traumatic they get a band-aid over it. For others that are done with treatment such as my daughter Emma has to go back for the next 21 years to get checked (mainly blood counts). This not always easy for instance this past Wednesday she was poked 3 times. Well at the end the band aid can put a smile on a child’s face. This also goes for those kiddos that have to constantly get blood work done not just cancer kids.

So what I am challenging you to do is every week you go grocery shopping buy at least one box or more of character band-aids girls or boys. Also Spread the word in every COT. I will tweet out what AO’s I will be at and if anyone wants to step up and help me collect that would be awesome.

I also challenge others in different regions to pull together and do the same thing. My goal is to gather as much as possible and split it between Levine Children’s Hospital and Novant Health Hemby Children’s Hospital (St. Jude Affiliate Clinic) before Christmas.

Let a simple act of kindness put a smile on a little fighters face.

AYE. Lets do this.

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The Green Monster @ Crow’s Nest

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Monday morning came quickly…always a great day to get started the right way!  It was going to be dark (like most F3 mornings).  I was happy to see the Nantan Cakeboss and our OG for the Fort Double D roll in for their first experience at Crow’s Nest.  9 started to mosey with me after the disclaimer.

Dynamic Warmup as we headed back to the rear of the school.

-High Knees – Butt Kickers – Side shuffles – Toy Soldiers

COP

This is where #10 found us, respectable Olaf joined in.  We started to give him grief until he told us he RAN from his house to the AO.  That was more than the other 9 of us so we gave him the credit due!

-SSHs – Ab Vagotas – MNCs – LS Squats – Merkins – Peter Parkers – Parker Peters – some broga here and there…

Evolution 1

6 Pack #1

We headed over to the playground to find some pull-up bars

6 pull-ups then 6 CDDs count your way down 6-5-4-3-2-1 in reps

6 pack #2

Merkins and American Hammers 6-5-4-3-2-1 reps

Evolution 2

The Green Monster – I’ve been to Crows Nest more Mondays than not, but for some reason I have always missed the Big Green Monster workouts.  No better time than now to give it a try.  I had arrived early to check out the condition on the hill.  It was VERY dark back here, so I set up 3 lantern lights to give us just enough light.  I have to say, this was one of those “I love being here” moments that was etched into my memory from the dim lighting, guys running up and down this long hill, and feeling great putting in the work!

We did 11s

10 Merkins at the Top

1 CDDs at the Bottom

we switched each time up the hill until 10 CDDs & 1 Merkin

It was long, we broke a huge sweat, but that’s why we get out of bed a Zero-Dark-30 for F3 mornings!

Evolution 3

Moseyed back to a lighted area in the wet grass.  Sat down and did a crowd favorite – Captain Thors!

Ab workout like Jack Webb but 1 big boy sit-up to 4 American Hammers

Work your way up from 1:4 to 10:40, it always sucks…

Moseyed back towards the front of the school, we still had 7 minutes left, so we did Lt Dans from one long light post to the next.

Made it back to COT with 1 minute to spare so we finished with 10 more Merkins in cadence.

Moleskin

I’ll keep it short here, but throughout the workout I shared about the King, the Queen and the Jester.  The King can’t outrun the Queen and the Jester lies to you to get you to stay with him!  Talked a little about intermittent fasting for the Queen and the CSPAN-Bones podcast.  Lots of ideas and ways for the men of F3 to get better everyday!

COT

Announcements and sharing from Cakeboss about the weekend’s Bourbon Chase.

Thanksgiving Convergence – Christmas Party – Read your newsletter

Praises & Prayers

for marriages, praise for the safety and return of the Bourbon Chase men.

An Honor to Lead!

-Royale

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Dora Vol. 1 – No legs

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6 Pax came out to Crows Nest for a post-Ragnar friendly workout promised by YHC.  Only one PAX who ran (Royale) came out, but a promise is a promise.

We started by moseying down towards the playground, with a pit stop for COP and to pick up some cinder blocks I had dropped off.

COP (pretty much everything a x15 count) – Moroccan night clubs, imperial walkers, windmills, peter parkers, merkins

The Thang After carrying the blocks down to the playground, we started with 7s of pull ups and sit ups, then on the the main event.

Pax partnered up for DORAs – 200 over head press, 200 curls, and 200 bent over rows, while partner bear crawled to the loading bay and crab walked back.

Finished up with farmer walking the blocks back to where we got them, alternating partners every 30 seconds and made it back to COT with some time to spare.

We had about 5 minutes left, so to finish off the shoulders, we ended with 10 rounds of jack webbs (merkins/hand claps), after the PAX realized I wasn’t joking.

COT

Don’t remember much from COT, pretty late on writing this up… read our newsletter.

Thanks Flux for the opportunity to lead.

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Rolling Dice at Crow’s Nest

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Today’s Q was super special to me. It’s my first day after a long weekend getaway with the M and my first post after GoRuck Selection which inspired me to push harder and discipline myself further in everything I do. I have become more persistent in house chores, time with my family, time with my God and intensity in workouts.

This Weinke was partially tested on some elementary kids at church Sunday night so I had the kinks worked out haha

The callout was put on Twitter for a ruck friendly Q, so a couple of PAX strapped up as well as YHC.

After a short disclaimer we went over to the well known at this point rock pile to find a new friend for the morning. With the coupon we jogged over to the east side road and lunge walked with the rock held overhead between lightpoles. Then reverse lunge to the next light pole. This was a VERY LONG 9 minutes

At the eastside parking log I had some cones set up and a colored cube (Awanas cube if anyone wants to repeat this and can snag one from church, could do a regular die also of course)
So I had matching colors on the cones, every PAX would roll the die and then state a number of reps. It had to be over 10 was the only rule, to be fair no one went crazy we only had one set of 20. Then the group would bear crawl to the cone and the PAX in charge would look under the cone and pick 1 of the 3 exercises available. These could be repeated. We went for 14 cones before setting out for the next set.

Examples of exercises
Run a lap
Clap Merkin
Merkin
Burpees
LBCs
Big Boys
SSHs
Overhead clap
Flutter Kick

nothing too crazy because the bear crawl to each cone really gets the sweat rolling

Then we took our friendly rock and carried it towards CoT, however to help with the overheating I decided we would cool off and take a break by low crawling across the soaked grass rolling our rock along with us. Never leave a friend behind right? This came with lots of mumblechatter and drenched clothes. Dropped the rocks off for some quick MoM

Rosalita
Crab Cakes
Flutter
Freddie Mercury

To close it out 5 8-count bodybuilder OYO

9 PAX in the name-a-rama
Please pray for those chasing after the Ragnar trails this Friday night. That’s mostly whats on everyone’s minds right now. Stay safe on the trails in the mornings too.

Until next time

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PRE BLAST F3 The Fort 6th Annual Invergence

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Men of  The Fort,

On Friday, September 21st, we will celebrate 6 years of Fitness, Fellowship, and Faith in the Fort Mill area with our annual F3 Invergence party.   Bring a beverage, some food to share, and enjoy a relaxing evening with your brothers.   We’ll have presentations from your local leadership, take a look back at the previous year, and look ahead to what’s in store for 2019  F3 The Fort and F3 Nation.     This is the premier 2nd F event of the year so mark your calendars now,  and plan on being at Rush Pavilion on Friday night, September 21st.

This is a great FNG opportunity!

This is a Pax only event.  Make it up to your M and 2.0’s next weekend.
What:  Fort Mill Invergence (6th anniversary party)
When:  Friday, September 21, 5:30pm – 10:00pm
Where:  Bruce T. Rush Pavillion at the Anne Springs Greenway
Bring:  Food, drink, chair, cash (to cover the pavillion rental/donations to the F3 Foundation)
Please use the link below to RSVP and list what food you will bring:
6th year F3 The Fort Invergence Food Sign Up:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0F4CAFAE2FA7FD0-f3thefort

 

 

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Two’s Company, Three’s A Crowd

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We all know the Star Wars movies.  And in these Star Wars movies there are always lines in them that are in every movie, like “May the Force be with you.”  Likewise the line, “I have a bad feeling about this” came to mind knowing that several Pax just completed the GoRuck Tough and it was opening weekend for the NoFunLeauge.  If I did the GORuck Tough I would not have made this workout, that’s for sure.  That being said, myself and Wolverine braved the sweaty morning for our usual Monday morning F3 beatdown.

I did not bother with the disclaimer(sorry Q school) and we mosey’ed on down to the playground with some side shuffle’s mixed in.

COP

30x SSH

10x Sun Gods

10x Windmill

Down Dog/Honeymooner into 10x Thigh-master’s each leg

Now I had a few things planned for today but it was just me and Wolverine so when unfortunately no one shows to your workout, a good back up plan(well, I think it’s a good one anyway) is to whip out a Deck Of Doom.  Before the Deck Of Doom I did want to try something I read on the Lexicon called Donkey Kick-Offs.  This from the Lexicon, “Find the nearest wall and do 5 donkey kicks, on the 5th donkey kick hold the feet to the wall for 5 seconds and then up the number by 5 to 10 donkey kicks and a 10 second hold…”  This lasted to 15 and 15 before we were smoked.  We mosey’ed on over to the main playground area and…

The Thang

Deck Of Doom-Number on card corresponding to # of reps(or laps) performed.

Spades-Burpees

Hearts-Laps around the islands of the parking lot

Diamonds- Diamond ‘Mericans

Clubs-Squats

Finished off by heading back to COT and performing 10xFlutter Kicks and 10xBox Cutters 

Observations

The laps took the most time and was some solid Ragnar training.  Good mumble chatter with Wolverine, made the best of the low PAX turnout.  Till next time true believers!!!

 

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Oktoberfest

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Oktoberfest is actually a bit of a misnomer – the majority of the festival falls in September each year and it only ends in October. Like most things in life, practice makes perfect. So this Labor Day, 3 men took the opportunity to practice their Oktoberfest skills in hopes of becoming superior beerthletes by the end of the month.

PAX each grabbed two gallon jugs of water out of the truck and we moseyed to the back of the school. A gallon of water weighs 8.34 lbs and is approx. 3.785 liters. If you are anticipating 1 liter steins of beer, a gallon of water is great for training.

Warm-O-Rama

SSH, low slow squats, MNC, static shoulder stretches, crab cakes

Hold My Beer

A classic component of Oktoberfest is an event where a line of men each hold a full stein of beer in front of themselves, one handed, at arm’s length, for as long as they can. It is a test of stamina where the last man to lower his stein wins, thereby gaining the love of all the fräuleins and typically some additional free beer.  The advantage is definitely to those who train. So we did.

PAX jogged with their gallons to the top of the Green Monster, the large grass hill at Crows Nest. For 60 seconds, we held out a gallon of water in our right hands in the “toast” position. Classic example of easy to write, hard to do. Then we ran down the hill and did 10 manmakers. Return to the top (carrying the water the whole time) and changed to 60 seconds of the left arm in the outstretched toast position. Run to the bottom, then 9 manmakers. Rinse repeat until you get down to 0, switching arms each time.

It got real tough 6 or 7 rounds in when the shoulders were fatigued. There was some great mumble chatter while we were holding the toast position. Just three men toasting the stars with jugs of water on top of a hill at 5:30 in the morning. By the time we completed the routine there were only 10 mins left in the workout, so we had to skip Beermaid Relays (reserved for a future Q) and headed back to the front of the school. We jogged with the gallons, doing shoulder presses as we traversed.

Beiermeister Webbs

PAX traded their gallons of water for a second set of coupons – these were only 12 oz each. We popped the tops on said coupons and headed to the grass. This was a standard Jack Webb but with an Oktoberfest wrinkle – after each set of merkins take swig out of the coupon before proceeding to the overhead claps. Coupon must be fully empty by the end of the 10th round – and all of them were. There was a lot of burping, stomach churning, and chatter, but no merlot (lager?) was splashed. A fun variation on a classic. Great for weekend AOs and public holidays. As Flux noted, it was after 5:00 so completely acceptable.

Triangle up for COT.

Danka Herr Flux for the opportunity to lead.

Prost!

Homebrew

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Kettlebell Tabata + Weighted Indian Runs = Whole Lotta Pain

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Started off the morning by unloading some Kettlebells and Dumbbells of various weight onto the ground behind my trunk.  Weights ranged from 10-20 lbs.  Also, a 50 pound sandbag was dropped beside the weights… and, of course, a speaker to blare some heart-pumping music in the Gloom (c’mon peope, bring your music too!… *unless it’s Nickelback/Creed*).

Started off with a Mosey.

Circled up for Warm-O-Rama… 20 SSH, 10 Windmills, 10 Imp. Walker, 10 Hillbilly Walker… We’re warm.

The Thang:

Tabata time!  Everyone grabs 1 weight of their choosing and we complete 8 sets of one exercise.  AMRAP in 20 seconds, followed by 10 seconds of rest, again, X 8.  After completing the 8 sets, drop your weight, we pick up the 50lb sandbag, and indian run a distance away and back to our workout area.

Exercises completed were as followed:  Jack Press, Goblet Squat, One Arm Curl, Woodchop (reach up to side, bend turn to other side, lifting/lowering weight), and American Hammers.

End with COT, Name-O-Rama, and Announcements/Prayers.  Prayers for students/teachers on the first day of school and beyond.

Thanks Flux for the opportunity to lead!

 

*Side Note*- It’s Wednesday and my body still aches from this workout.  I must have done something right!

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A Summer Reunion at Crow’s Nest

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Great way to start your week.  5:15 bootcamp with 95% humidity! We gathered up in the gloom and I was happy to see 10 guys join me for our Monday morning beat down.  Two Ferns made his Crows Nest debut, Austin Powers returned  from his vacation across the pond and we had Viogt join us from Rock Hill at the request of Homebrew.  Excellent group this morning, especially after Olaf and Nemo ran up late to COP!

I quickly gave the disclaimer and we were off. Mosey down the service road to the back parking lot of the school with several dynamic warmup moves.  It’s funny how you go under the street lights and they TURN OFF when we stroll by… really tells us how wanted we are.

COP

Random counts of Imperial Walkers – Moroccan Night Clubs – SSHs – Merkins – Yoga – and Mountain Climbers

Didn’t take long to break a sweat, so we moseyed to the playground area farther back in the school.

We started a cycle of an easily written, but hard workout. UvU

Station 1 = 10 pull-ups

Station 2 = 20 Merkins

Bear crawl about 40 yards to next station

Station 3 30 Sumo Squats

Crawl Bear another 40 yards back to station 1

Rinse and Repeat 5 times

Once this was over I shared a few “motivational” words about being tougher than you think you are.  Completing this cycle was a big challenge, and everyone made it.  It’s opportunities like this that show you how far you can actually push yourself.  Keep it up throughout your day and challenge yourself to be better in everything you do!

Mosey around the school to a wall for next evolution

Wall sits for 60 second counts

Wall Plank with feet on wall then we did 10 in cadence shoulder taps. (real crowd pleaser)

Wall sit another 70 seconds of counts

BTTW 30 seconds of count.

Made our way back to the front of the school for the last 5 minutes of Ab Lab.

PAX went in clockwise circle picking the Ab exercise and counting the cadence.

Ended with COT and our prayers.  Shared a summary of the 3rd F Invergence from the previous Friday.

Honored to Lead

-Royale

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2

Not So Ultimate Frisbee

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On a comfortable morning at the Crow’s Nest, 4 brave Pax joined YHC for what I planned on being a fun but grueling workout.  Lately, the Q’s have been incorporating sports in the workout’s and being that in the book “Freed To Lead” it suggests that you borrow ideas and try to make them your own, I would follow this time tested formula.

I started the workout with a quick 5 Donkey Kick’s to get the Pax’s attention and then we mosey’ed on over to the COP area that is in one of the many parking lot’s in the Crow’s Nest.

I had ascending Donkey Kick’s to accompany the 10 warm up exercises starting with 1 Donkey Kick to 10 Donkey Kick’s after the final exercise.

10xSSH

10xSunGods-fwd and reverse

10xWindmill

10xCherryPickers

10xImperial Walkers

10xLSS

10xPlankJacks

10xHook/Hook, Uppercut

10xMountain Climbers

Plank Hold-10 second each Pax around the circle

The Thang

We then mosey’ed on over to the main event.  Unfortunately, since we only had 5 Pax on hand, my plan on playing a match of F3 Ultimate Frisbee landed with a dud so I had to Omaha.  I started us out just tossing the disc around while I tried to figure out what I was going to do and then when I saw one of the Pax drop the frisbee I figured there should be a punishment for dropping said frisbee.  We then just kept tossing around the disc and every time a Pax member dropped it(or there was a mis-throw) we had to do an exercise.

1st Drop-10 Burpees

2nd Drop-15 ‘Mericans

3rd Drop-20 Single Leg Squats (10 each leg)

4th Drop-25 LBC’s 

5th Drop-30 Plank Jack’s

6th Drop-35 Single Leg Flutter Kicks

7th Drop-40  Thrusters

8th Drop-45 Bomb Jacks

Final Drop-50 Curb Dips

With 15 minutes on the clock we mosey’ed on over to the pull up station and did Jack Webb’s with an ascending pull-up/squat combo.  Nemo was not pleased, and at the end we were all doing cheat pull ups.  We then mosey’ed on back to COT where we has 3 minutes of Mary(or Ab Lab as some call it).

Peg called out 12 Big Boy Sit Ups OYO

Nemo had us do 10xBox Cutters

Respectable Olaf has us do 20xFreddy Mercury’s

Wolverine had us Do 10xAmerican Hammer

I ended the workout with a Honeymooner/Down Dog combo

Observation/Prayers/Praises

Prayed for injured Pax members and discussed Bolt’s idea for a Sunday morning trail running AO at 7 Oaks.  Till next time…

 

 

 

 

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