Fountain Or Drain

What a glorious morning! The weather was perfect. We were blessed with a few respectables and plenty of #HIMs. The fellowship was amazing and the mumble chatter was high-quality. 

The Thang:

Mosey to the next parking lot near 9 Rounds. 

COP: SSH (30x), Merkins (15x), IW (20x), WM (15x), Sumo Squats (15x), Box Cutters(15x), Dying Cockroaches(15x)

Mosey to the parking lot at Grace Presbyterian Church. 

Partner up for a round of Dora with Merkins (100x), Squats (200x) and LBCs (300x).

Mosey to the parking lot at O’Reilly’s

Two rounds of Irkins(15X), Dips (15X) and LBCs (15X)

Two rounds of Derkins(15X), Box Jumps (15X) and Heels To Heaven (15X)

Mosey to the next parking lot at Harris Teeter for suicides with burpees.

COP: LBCs (15x), Heels To Heaven (15x) and Dying Cockroaches (15x)

COT 

Moleskin: 

Given our country’s divisive climate, it is important that we remain positive. Too many people are talking and thinking negative. Negativity is a huge energy drain. Reject negativity. Be a fountain of positive energy, not a drain.

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Rugby Sprints and Ab Work Work Great Together

It was a beautiful morning in the middle of the Teeter parking lot.  10 solid upstanding young men decided to choose the harder thing and push ourselves and each other (quite literally).  With YHC on Q you knew there were going to be some sprinting involved (hey – stick with a winner).  Asked the pax to think of one person that needed help from them today.  With that – the disclaimer was stated and off we went.

The Thang:

Little baby mosey up to the Grace Presbyterian parking lot.

Active WarmUp (European Soccer Team Style) :  High Knees, Butt Kickers, Slide to the Right, Slide to the Right, Toy Soldiers, Dipping Birds, World Wide Leaders (Power Skips – Trademark), Open the Gate, Close the Gate, Long Strides.

Presto – you’re warm

Little COP for some Ab Lab – Fluttes, LBC’s with your feet on the ground, Hello Dolly’s, Fredrick Mercury’s, More Flutters, etc.

Rugby Sprints (so predictable!) x 5 with Merkins, Mountain Climbers, Peter Park’s, Parker Pete’s, LBC’s.

Walk it off to get the heart rate down.

Then run (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) it back again x 5 with more ground exercises that I don’t remember.

Ab Lab Exercises were done at this point.

Huddle up, gents!  Take a knee.

YHC asked to think of someone that needs something from us TODAY!  (Not tomorrow – Not after breakfast)  It could be anything:  Help, To Listen, Attention, Time Together, An Apology, Forgiveness.  Think of that one person who you can serve today.  Service doesn’t have to be a huge production or program – it can be a simple task for one person in your life.

Back to the beat down.

Let’s go with the extra long bear crawls – haven’t done them in a while.  Then let’s do it again.  So cool!  Any fast bears got to do some burpees while waiting for the six.  Even cooler!

More Ab Lab Exercises were done at this point.

How about some Partner/Push/Sprint/Push with a Flap Jack and a Rinse and Repeat?  People were super psyched.

Hows about we head back to the COT general area for some more Ab Lab exercises to finish ‘er up?!?  Sounds fantastic.

COT

Asked the pax to follow through today.  Reach out to the one person in their life.  M, 2.0, family member, co-worker, neighbor, someone!  That is what service can look like.  That is what male community leadership can look like.  It can be simple tasks.  Just need to do it to get the ball rolling and help spread to others.  Aye!

Read your newsletter.  Endx.

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Sweating it out at Golden Corral

15 #HIM met on this muggy morning at the Golden Corral for a good old fashioned beatdown.  Lutefisk had to substiQ for me last Friday and by coincidence he didn’t have a Q lined up today so lucky me and lucky PAX I stepped up to bring the pain at one of my favorite A/O’s.

Started with the disclaimer and we were off.

 

Warm Up

  • Mosey to the back of Harris Teeter
    • I intentionally asked the PAX to circle up pretty close to the dumpsters.  If you are on #SLACK and you read the fabulous piece Crab Cakes wrote last week then you would know why
  • SSH X 20
  • Imperial Walker X 15
  • Merkins X 15
  • Mountain Climbers X 10
  • Recover and mosey to the tire shop

Activity 1

  • 30 Durkins
    • Lap around the tire shop
  • 30 Dips
    • Lap around the tire shop
  • 20 Box Jumps
    • Lap around the tire shop
  • Elbow plank and wait for the 6
  • Mosey from the tire shop to the parking lot in front of Baker’s Buzzin

Activity 2 (11’s)

  • I instructed the PAX to partner up and size did matter
  • This activity was 11’s and consisted of burpees and merkins (hopefully all of you know what 11’s are and if not it pretty much means the exercises have to sum to 11.  Example 10 burpees and 1 merkin, 9 burpees and 2 merkins, 8 burpees and 3 merkins etc….)
  • There are a total of 10 rounds.  The method of transportation was different for each round.
  • Round 1 was 10 burpees at the beginning then wheelbarrow to the end of the parking lot (it’s a long way away) and then complete the 1 merkin.  The partner that was holding partner #2’s legs had to carry that partner back to the start.
  • Round 2 9 burpees then the second partner had to wheel barrow to the end.
  • We did the wheel barrows and partner carries for rounds 1-4
  • Rounds 5 – 7 were bear crawls and run back
  • Rounds 8 – 10 were crab walks and run back

Surprisingly enough I looked at my watch and it was 5:59.  Time to mosey back to COT.  As you can imagine there was a ton of moaning and groaning, that translates to #WINNING.  The PAX got their money’s worth

At COT we had an #FNG Sam and his handle is Mach3.  Went through the announcements, prayers and praises and Funhouse took us out with a prayer.  Couldn’t have asked for a better start to the day!

 

Mile High Out

 

 

 

 

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Mountain trip to Dupont State Forest on August 3rd with Trail Running, Rucking and Biking options – there will be a 2nd F afterwords

3rd F

Alright we are 2 years ago we did a mountain trip to Roan Mtn. it was one of the best trips I have made with my fellow F3 brothers. After 10-16 miles we went to Daniel Boone Inn to refuel.

With this in mind I wanted to continue to do this hopefully every year. So on August 3rd we are going to do another mountain trip. This time it will be Trail Running, Biking and Rucking options.

Our destination will be DuPont State Forest. We will leave from the Newport Walmart at 6 am it is a 2 1/2 hr trip. we will either go to the Hooker Falls Access or the Lake Imaging Access. For runners we will try and get 12-18 miles in for Mountain bikers Vuvuzela has about 20-30 mile rout lined up.

 

2nd F

Afterwords will will go to Daddy D’s and refuel.

 

Make sure you bring water and something for energy do not come unprepared you will regret it. I did exactly that last time. This will be an unforgettable trip that we will try and do every year. we need to clown car to get there since there are no rental vans available.

Reach out to me if you have any questions.  I have attached links below.

Dupont State Forest Trail Map-1

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g49206-d2069003-Reviews-Daddy_D_s_Suber_Soulfood-Hendersonville_North_Carolina.html

www.Dupontforest.com

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TIREsome fun at Golden Corral

Gave disclaimer a few minutes early even though Dark Helmet tried to delay the start.

Moseyed over to O ‘Riley’s Auto Parts for the warm up:
SSH
Wind mill
Honeymooner / Downward Dog
Hand release merkins
More Honeymooner / Downward Dog
Mountain Climber
Even more Honeymooner / Downward Dog
LBCs

Then moved to the hill behind Quick Lube
Sprint to top of hill and jog back down
20 LBCs at bottom (repeat 4 times)

Next Pax ventured over to the field adjacent the Gold Hill YMCA.  Every time I drive by this area I am always intrigued by the tires that are sitting out there and no one seems to use them.  So I decided that we would put them to use.  Honestly I wasn’t expecting 15 guys to show up so I had to improvise on what to do until I could come up with something worse.

– had Pax split up in 4 groups (3 tires – 1 big tractor tire and 2 large truck tires)

– 3 Teams took turn rolling the tire down to the other end of the field and back will team 4 did merkins until the teams with the tires got to the end of the field and then squats until the teams returned.

– Team 4 took its turn with the tractor tire and other 3 teams did the merkins and squats

After that I came up with the bad idea that we would all line up in two lines shoulder to shoulder and lift the tractor tire overhead and pass it down the line.  Once it passed by you move to the end of the line.  We kept this going for about 30 + yards before someone almost dropped it on their head.

To finish out the workout we partnered up for a DORA
100 Burpees
200 merkins
300 squats

Needless to say doing a DORA like this at the end of the workout is a smoker.  Everyone was able to finish the merkins and then it was time to head back for COT where we arrived a few minutes early and knocked out about half the squats and a round of Mary.

It was an honor to lead and I appreciate the Pax patience as I adlibbed some of the workout trying to account for numbers.

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Climbing Ladders at the Golden Corral

Golden Corral – The AO that has been revived in recent months thanks to the leadership of Lutefisk.

13 men met at the Harris Teeter parking lot in the gloom on this cloudy morning.

Started with the disclaimer and we were off.

Warm Up

  • Mosey to HT doors
  • 50 YD Bear Crawl
  • Wind Mill X 10
  • Imperial Walker X 10
  • SSH X 15
  • Merkins X 10
  • Mountain Climber X 10
  • Recover and mosey behind red bowl

Once we got behind red bowl I instructed the PAX to partner up.  Size doesn’t matter but what matters is accountability and camaraderie.  Those two things have been a huge part of my success ever since I started F3.

Activity 1

  • Partner 1 50 YD Wheelbarrow
  • 10 Merkins
  • Partner 2 50 YD Wheelbarrow
  • Run back to the beginning (Elbow plank waiting on the 6)
  • Partner 1 50  YD Wheelbarrow
  • 20 Merkins
  • Partner 2 50 YD Wheelbarrow
  • Run back to the beginning (Elbow plank waiting on the 6)

Mosey from Red Bowl to Bakers Buzzin

 

Activity 2

CLIMBING LADDERS

7 stations.  Start at number 1 then move to number 2 and then start over.  Keep climbing the ladder.  You get the gist.

  • 1st cone 10 Burpees (run to 2nd cone)
  • 2nd cone 20 Hand Slap Merkins (Bear Crawl to 3rd cone)
  • 3rd cone 30 Carolina Dry Docks  (Crab Walk to 4th cone)
  • 4th cone 40 Squats (run to 5th cone)
  • 5th cone 50 Flutters SC (Bear Crawl to 6th cone)
  • 6th cone 60 LBCS (Crab Walk to the 7th cone)
  • 7th cone 70 Shoulder taps (Run backwards to the 1st cone)

All the Pax completed 5 out of 6 rounds and one group was halfway done with the final round before we had to mosey back to COT (Fishsticks was waiting for us).  We got in just under 3 miles and around 600 calories burnt.  Excellent push by the PAX.  There was very little mumble chatter towards the end coupled with some moaning and groaning.  Big win for the QIC.

FINAL NUMBERS (Including warm ups)

  • 50 Burpees
  • 140 Merkins
  • 120 CDDS
  • 120 Squats
  • 100 Flutters
  • 60 LBC’s
  • Several Miles
  • The last group can add 10 burpees, 20 Merkins and 30 CDDs to their total

Announcements were covered.

Prayers were said for Change Order’s mother, Pothole’s truck and safe travels for Fishsticks   and his family.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead Lutefisk!

Mile High out

 

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7-4-17-76

13 on hand plus and FNG as YHC took the Q at Golden Corral for the first time. Thanks Lutefisk for the opportunity to lead these Men.

Arrived early to survey the expected AO. The area chosen for the Thang I have only seen used once and coudn’t recall if there were lights or not.  There were thank goodness.  Unloaded the assortment of cindys, pavers, weight, rock, and Mama Ducks garden stone.

As the PAX began rolling in was advised we had an FNG on so I beefed up the disclaimer to ensure liability was understood.  Here comes Punchlist and Wegmans fresh of a 2 mile pre run.  Wegmans was kind enough to advise he was warm and ready to rock. Good on ya men.

Mosey around the back to the HT and found an  unsmelly location and circled the PAX up for COP.

MNC x 20 Staright into 20 Little Arm Circles x20

SSH x 20   Imperial Walkers x 20 Hillbilly Walkers X 20  WindMills x 20

Mosey over to the church parking lot for The Thang.

7-4-17-76

Carried over a bit of this #Beatdown from our friend Nasa’s  smoke show the day before with  little different twist.

Complete 4 exercises in rep sets making up the date of our Independence then run a lap of roughly 200m.

Looked something like this. Revolutionary War lasted 7 years- So 7 rounds.

RND 1

7- Merkins  4 Kracken Burpees- 17-LBCs- 76- Squats

Lap around Parking lot

RND 2

7- Werkins, 4- 4x4s modified to 4 squats+4merks — 17 BBS, 76- American Hammers 2ct

Lap around parking lot

RND 3

7- CDDs, 4-2CT Jump Lunges, 17-MTN Climbers 2ct, 76 Calf Raises

Lap around parking lot

RND 4

7- GTOs, 4-Burpees, 17- Peter Parkers 2ct, 76- Hello Dollies

Lap around parking lot

RND5

7- Diamond Merks, 4- 4x4s modified 4xsqts+ 4 Merks, 17-Parker Peters 2ct

Lap Around parking lot

RND 6

7- Dips, 4-2ct Jump Lunges, 17- 2 CT Ski Abs, 76-  Fast Step ups 2 ct

Lap Around Parking lot

RND 7

7- Bent over Rows 2x, 4- Kraken Burpees, 17- Box cutters, 76 1ct Crab Cakes

Lap Around Parking Lot.

Mosey back to  COT w/ jail Break through shopping Center parking lot.

1.5 minute Plank to close it out.

COT

F3 Dads- Through July.

Convergence 0515 7-4 Bring Snacks for CAH

Prayers Praises

Traveling PAX- Interviews up coming for FNG Realtree

Safety over July 4th Holiday

Great work was done by all.

Duck Out!

 

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A Return To The Corral Which Is Golden

Man, it’s been a long time. It’s been a long time since coming to the Golden Corral, or as it was often referred, the Buffet of Pain but it’s also been too long since my last post. No better way to knock the rust off than by saying yes to Lutefisk’s (just rolls off the tongue) invite and Qing Golden Corral yesterday. Trying not to lower the bar that has been established, I had to ensure the Weinke was full of all your favorite buffet options. After all, we’re not mailing this one in.

24 (23 really since Fish Sticks joined us at the end after getting his brisk miles) other hard-chargers, including feisty “Shin-Guard” joined me at 0515 to review the disclaimer and conduct a little warm up jog around the parking lot, ending up at the top, furthest from HT.

Warm-up:

Wind Mills, Jump Squats, Merkins, Diamond Merkins, Side-Straddle Hops, Carolina Dry Docks

Line up facing the Teeter. Run down to the store and Nur back to our starting point. REPEAT.

2 PAX at a time, run 1/2 way to Teeter then run back. We’d get through all 24 of us but the catch is that while you’re not running, you’re doing your best Flying Squirrels. See CSPAN, we still love you.

Reminder of 2 points (which is hard to stay accountable to when you don’t post for a while):

  1. C.O.T. Integrity – Don’t be a hypocrite. Be the same man outside the C.O.T. as you are inside it.
  2. Kotters – Bring ’em back. They’ll fight you but they want to be back AND we want them back.

More details were shared but you had to be there.

The Entree: 10 reps of 10 exercises and we’re cycling through 10 times (lofty desire). After each round, we’d run 1 set of 2-tiered suicides.

10 exercises were:

Burpees, Wide-Arm Merkins, Jump Squats, Mak Tar Jai’s, Knee Tar Jai’s (modified at the sight of bloodied knees to just doubling the yet to-be mentioned Jumping Lunges), Dips, Peter Parkers, Parker Peters, Jumping Lunges, Carolina Dry Docks.

We made it through 4 rounds.

HEY, welcome to Fish Sticks.

Until Next Time,

Maximus

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Partner Work at Golden Corral – Tuesday, June 18th, 2019

14 HIM joined YHC for some partner work at Golden Corral. They were invited to bring some extra weight for extra credit…some took me up on this offer…probably a bad decision.

Mosey to top of the road next to apartment complex for Warmup.

Warmup:

  • 25 side straddle hops
  • 10 4-count windmills
  • 10 4-count peter parkers
  • 10 4-count parker peters
  • 10 4-count merkins
  • 20 Moroccan night clubs

Mosey to the bottom of the hill for the Workout.

Workout:

  • Partner Up
  • Complete the following total reps per partnership. One partner does reps, the other runs to the top of the hill, does 10 SSHs, runs back down and flip flops with partner.
  • Reps
    • 100 burpees
    • 200 merkins
    • 200 big boy situps
    • 300 air squats

Mosey back to COT.

Announcements: upcoming Sweaty.

Prayers/Praise: Prayers for Bates family in Columbia w/ loss of son. Praise for fighting complacency. Praise for one of the PAX’s health improvement.

Always fun to lead.

– Ginsu

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Honoring the 4,413

Pax: Router, Uber, Slapshot, Crab Cakes, Tsunami, DaVinci, Wrangler, Change Order, Duck Dynasty, Lutefisk, Falcon Crest, Tardy, Half Shell

13 HIMs partook in what the pax didn’t know was a workout to honor the Allied soldiers who were killed on D-Day 75 years ago this coming June 6th.  With lots to accomplish in 45 minutes, a brief disclaimer was given and YHC promised the pax that they would leave knowing “one important thing” by the end of COT.  With that, we moseyed toward Grant Farm Drive for some hill work.  On the way we made a quick stop in the parking lot for 15 mountain climbers and 10 burpees.  We continued on to the base of the hill for what would be five sets of up and backs to the fire station.  Exercise totals at the top and bottom of the hill were a bit unusual but consisted of:

  • Round 1 (Utah) – 44 merkins (top) & 13 double-count flutters (bottom)
  • Round 2 (Gold) – 44 monkey humpers (top) & 13 big boy sit-ups (bottom)

The pax then took a brief break from the hills and half completed 10 burpees while the other half held Al Gore’s until burpees were completed.  When the burpees were finished the pax switched exercises.  (Running burpee count = 20 each)  Then, back to the fire station hill runs:

  • Round 3 (Juno) – 44 bombjacks (top) & 13 diamond merkins (bottom)
  • Round 4 (Sword) – 44 squats (top) & 13 low country crabs (bottom)
  • Round 5 (Omaha) – Crawlbear up to the fire station (really not fun and quite possibly a bad idea) with 44 SSHs followed by 13 8-count body destroyers at the bottom

With the D-Day beach landing runs completed we headed to the apartment complex entrance.  Along the entrance and the road there are 24 arborvitae trees.  After assuring the pax that identifying arborvitaes was not the “one-thing” we lunge-walked and at every other arborvitae we completed 2 burpees + 1 additional at the end.  25 burpees completed each.  (Running burpee count = 45). Rinse and repeat coming back to the entrance of the apartment complex.  25 burpees completed each.  (Running burpee count = 70)

Jog back to COT.  At COT, mid-plank we talked about why we did sets of 44/13.  The “one thing” for the pax to walk away from the workout with was that 4,413 allied heroes made the ultimate sacrifice on December 6th 1944.  (75 years ago)  These soldiers represented ~8% of the total killed in action during the battle of Normandy.  To show final respects, we completed the remaining 5 burpees to get us to 75 for the workout.   Name-o-rama ensued with announcements, prayers (M’s, teachers the 4.413) and praises.

Great job by everyone today.  Thanks to Lutefisk for allowing me to be the QIC.

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