Pulling into WEP this cold morning, I found two Pax were ready and willing to take on this workout. After a quick disclaimer, it was time to get busy.

We moseyed over to the field in front of the playground for a quick warmup:

• SSH x25
• Windmill x10
• IW x15
• Merkins x10
• Honeymooner/Down Dog
• Low Slow Squats x15

Warm. Good. Move over to the hill for some pyramid work.

The Thang

Pyramid 1

1. 10 push-ups, 10 squat jumps, 1 Backwards Run up Hill/Run Down
2. 14 push-ups, 14 squat jumps, 2 Backwards Run up Hill/Run Down
3. 18 push-ups, 18 squat jumps, 3 Backwards Run up Hill/Run Down

Pyramid 2

1. 10 CCD, 10 Bomb Jacks 1 Bear Crawl Up Hill/Run Down
2. 14 CCD, 14 Bomb Jacks, 2 Bear Crawl Up Hill/Run Down
3. 18 CCD, 18 Bomb Jacks, 3 Bear Crawl Up Hill/Run Down

Pyramid 3

1. 10 Burpees, 10 American Hammers, 1 Sprint Up Hill/Run Down
2. 14 Burpees, 14 American Hammers, 2 Sprint Up Hill/Run Down
3. 18 Burpees, 18 American Hammers, 3 Sprint Up Hill/Run Down

After a couple 10-counts to recover, we moseyed back to the field for some Iron Hulk.

1-by-4 Merkins to Overhead Press until you get to 10-by-40. This was a shoulder burner.

With less than 10 minutes left, we did a quick mosey around the park and back to the parking lot. Then finishing the final minute with the Protractor.

I designed this workout to really push the Pax. As Lil E said, “Witch Hunt isnt going to drive 25 minutes not to deliver some pain.” T-CLaps to Cooter for pushing through this workout after being off at Mardi Gras. Thanks to Lil E for the chance to lead.

Announcements
Bring Eggs with prizes to your AOs
Maltz Challenge tomorrow at Varsity

Until next time, back to the hunt…

What a perfect morning for a boot camp! No better place to post than Walter Elisha Park, where this whole @F3TheFort thing started.  I get pumped every time I drive up for a workout.  Except when Maximus is on Q but I digress.  9 PAX hit it hard this morning and this is what they did.

Warmup:

Mosey clockwise around the park around to the park sign

• 20 SSH
• 20 Imperial Walker
• 10 Cherry Pickers
• 10 merkins
• 10 plank jacks
• 10 wide arm merkins
• 10 squats

The Thang:

Mosey over to a mileage marker on the trail. We started with a 10 count exercise at the first marker and added an additional exercise with +5 reps at every marker.

1^st marker – 10 merkins

2^nd marker – 10 merkins + 15 flutter kicks

3^rd marker – 10 merkins + 15 flutters + 20 mountain climbers

4^th marker – 10 merkins+ 15 flutters + 20 MC’s + 25 LBC’s

5^th marker – 10 merkins + 15 flutters + 20 MC’s + 25 LBC’s + 30 squats

6^th marker – 10 markers + 15 flutters + 20 MC’s + 25 LBC’s + 30 squats + 35 SSH

After a quick 10 count by Bob the Builder, we were off on a moderate mosey down 160 to the UC Synergetic visitor parking lot.

Peoples chair with the guy on the far left peeling off to do burpee broad jumps to the end of the line and resume sitting. Everybody got a turn.  I love calling this exercise because it’s fun to make fun of everyone as they go bye.  It’s the little things people!  Lil E had the most impressive form but Bonsai was a close second.

Since our legs were burning from the wall sits, we did 10 bomb jacks to finish them off.

*Theme of the month Interlude*

We are talking about being intentional this month. For YHC, I’ve been challenged to be intentional about my role as the spiritual leader of my family.  It’s easy to disengage in that aspect of our lives and I’m certainly guilty of it.  We talked about how the first man ever created, Adam, fell short in that regard and that contributed to the original sin.  Adam should have been there when Satan came to temp Eve!  What the heck was he doing?  You’re going to let a talking serpent come talk to your wife and you aren’t going to intervene?  Come on man.  And then you let her talk you into eating some of the forbidden fruit?  SMH.  We have to be the spiritual leaders of our families men.  We have to engage, pray, love, forgive, and be intentional.

Next we headed over to the big grass hill. Bear crawl up and plank in the parking lot and wait on the 6.

Grab some curb for a round of curb merkins. 10 incline merkins, turn 90 degrees then 10 merkins with your left hand on the curb, turn and 10 derkins, turn then 10 merkins with your right had up on the curb.

Running short on time so we hustled to the side entrance of the Synergetic building for some step ups and Mary.

• 15 step ups each leg
• 10 Freddy Mercury
• 10 Boats and Canoes

Jailbreak to COT

Announcements & Closing Thoughts:

3F Convergence this Saturday followed by 1^stF extravaganza at WEP

Crab Cakes forced everyone to HC for his Q at Block Party on 2/28

I really enjoyed it this morning. Lots of physical progress has been made by this group.  Lincoln Log is killing it in his second month of F3.  Look forward to conquering the P200 with this stud.  Lil E is a great site Q and his beard game is on point.  Looks like he’s lost a few pounds too.  Bonzai rucked who knows how far to get to the workout this morning.  This guy’s like the terminator, he never stops going.  Shady is Bonsai’s wing man and I personally think they would make an awesome wresting tag team.  Just getting to know Cash Flow, Training Wheels, and Bob the Builder but love that they are getting plugged into this crazy world of F3.  Any time I post with Crab Cakes it’s a good time.  As it says on my twitter profile, I’m the second tallest member of F3 The Fort.  Want to know the tallest?  Crabby.

Thanks Lil E for the Q spot!

Flat Tire

4 of the best Fort Mill has to offer joined YHC for a COP filled jog around Fort Mill.

Warm Up

Jog out of WEP and over to the small Springs parking lot.  30x SSHs, 20x Imperial Walkers, 10x windmills, 10x peter parkers, 10x parker peters.

The Thang

Mosey to the Founders Bank Parking lot and circle up.  All exercises in cadence. 10x merkins, 20x squats, 30x LBCs, 10x diamond merkins, 20 sumo squats, 30 freddy mercurys,

Mosey to parking lot next to Veteran’s Park.  10x wide arm merkins, 20x lunges, 30x rosalitas, 15x mountain climbers, 20x monkey humpers, 30x hello dolly.

Mosey over to bottom of Massey St.  Sprint up hill to the speed limit sign and do 5 burpees and jog back down.  Repeat with 10 and 15 burpess.

Mosey up Massey St to the big parking lot for more COP.  10x Stagger Arm Right merkins, 20x (single count) jump squats, 30x russian twists. 10x Stagger Arm Left Merkins, 20x (single count) calf raises on curb, 30x flutter kicks.

Mosey to the back lot of the Springs building. 10 wall pullups, 20 sec peoples chair.  Repeato.  Mosey back to COT.

Moleskin

I borrowed liberally from Q’s recently done by Zima and Senator Tressel. Both of the workouts were not complicated, but very hard.  That is what I aimed to do with this one. Keep it simple, but effective. I think it worked as everyone seemed satisfied.

Also, I am 95% sure all of the exercises are the ones that occured…they just must not be in right order.  This is why a.) you either type your backblast up much faster (I should be doing this anyway) or b.) you follow your weinke a little more closely.

I appreciate everyone coming out and look forward to seeing them in the gloom next Thursday.

A couple days before the workout I reached out to Lil E to see if he had any open spots to fill that could be used to get a couple guys a chance to VQ.  Thinking he might come back with a date in late Feb or early March.  It just happened that later that day Lil E reached back out saying the Q for Thursday had to back and needed a sub.  I jumped on my phone to reach out to the two guys I had in mind and Frat Boy stepped up to the challenge.  During the conversation I told him I would share the Q with him.  What I failed to tell him before he committed was that we were going to be using cinder blocks at the workout.  He wasn’t thrilled when I told him, but he moved forward and did a great job for his VQ and honestly never should have turned the Q over to me.  He could have kept going without a problem.

Gave the disclaimer and introduced Frat Boy for his VQ.  Frat Boy grabbed the reigns and we took off with the blocks out around the trail.  Dropped the blocks off by the first post and moved to a parking lot across the street from the park for warmup.

Warm up:

Ran a lap around the parking lot mixing in butt kickers, high knees and karaoke left and right
Side straddle hop – 25
Imperial walker – 25
Merkin – 10
Windmill – 15
Moroccan night club – 25

The Thang:

Indian walk/run around the track – stop at each post using the block for each exercises

Post 1: Beach press – 40
Post 2: Rows – 40
Post 3: Dips – 20
Post 4: Burpees with overhead press – 10
Post 5: Hold block overhead for 45 seconds
American Hammers – 15

At this point Frat Boy turned over the Q to YHC and I decided at that point I didn’t want to run any further.

Low Slow Squat -10
Single leg Squat -10 each leg
Leg raises – 20
**Calf Raises on block – 50

Partner up and wheelbarrow down about 30 yards – switch and come back
**During the calf raises Cooter decided that he was done with using his cinder block and decided to smash it so he wouldn’t have to exercise with it.  Little did he know we were almost done and he had to pick up all the pieces and take it back to COT which was probably harder than just picking up the block.

Returned to COT for 5 minutes of abs.

It was a pleasure to see Frat Boy step up and get his VQ under his belt.  Fantastic job and I was glad I could be a part of the terrible stuff he came up with.  I would recommend that all AOs get Frat Boy on their Q list for Q2!

There was a 90% chance of rain forecast so I wasn’t sure what to expect when I pulled into the park. So naturally when I pulled in there were several PAX already gathered and no rain falling. Disclaimer butchered and off we moseyed to Spring’s parking lot.

Warm-up staying somewhat quiet: SSHs, IWs, Windmills, Merkins, Mtn Climbers, and some MNCs.
Line up for 12 count suicide. Each way counts as 1. Maybe I should switch to 6 count where over and back count as 1. But 12 sounds better.
20 Plank Jacks, 15 Ski-hops.
Another round of 12 count suicide.

Shared with the PAX a quote that stuck with me this week: Little people belittle people. Great people make others great. Belittling seems too common today especially in the world of anonymous comments, attention craving individuals, etc. But great is a big word. I definitely don’t consider myself great today and not sure I’ll ever get there. But I try to get better and try to help others get better. So I prefer little people belittle people. Good people try to make things better. With that, it was time to make us better with some lazy Dora.

Partner up.
100 Merkins – p1 does 10 merkins while p2 holds plank. Keep swapping until 100.
200 LBCs – p1 does 20 LBCs while p2 holds legs 6″. Keep swapping until 200.
300 Squats – p1 does 25 squats while p2 holds air people’s chair. Keep swapping until 300.
Another round of 12 suicides to get the legs working again.
Go back down the other side:
200 Freddie Mercurys – p1 does 20 while p2 holds legs 6″. Swap til 200.
100 CDDs – p1 does 10 while p2 holds plank. Swap til 100.
Final round of 12 suicides.
Finish up with 20 crab cakes since he was in attendance and then mosey back to the park.

I think this was the tallest group of PAX assembled with Flat Tire, Bonzai, and Crab Cakes. It was nice to feel short. Thanks to Lil E for the opportunity and always an honor to lead.

Logging off,
Mainframe

Five of Fort Mill’s finest descended on a car-packed parking lot at WEP. A few of the cars belonged to 3 wayward pax running in the spirt of old-school LacesOut. But the rest of the cards remand a mystery. One thing for sure was that they all missed out on a late-week beatdown.

Warm-up o’Rama
Pax started with a mosey on the path circling WEP in a counterclockwise fashion, stopping at each drill bit (and some imaginary drill bits) to perform warm-up exercises, which included (but not limited to):

* SSH x30
* Windmills x10 >> Toy Soldiers >> Run
* IW Squats x15 >> Butt Kicker >> Run
* Peter Parkers x15 >> High Knee >> Run
* Step Lunges x10, Mack Tar Jai (sp?) >> Shuffle left/right >> Run
* Parker Peter x10

The Thang
Once we reach the hill on the south-west side, pax discovered the an array of cones to be used for suicide circuits. Here’s how it worked:

Pax asked to partner up, size doesn’t matter.
The overall movements of this exercise is similar to a suicide where pax start at cone #1, go to cone #2, then back to #1, then to #3 and back to #1, etc. Total of 5 cones, but there are a few modifications to up the pain level.

• Each time the pax depart from cone #1, they must do 5 burpees
• Each time the pax reach (or pass) a cone as they travel away from cone #1, they must do the exercise on the cone. For example, if they are on their way to Cone 3, they must stop at Cone 2 and do that exercise (again).
• Traveling away from Cone 1, they pax should run. Traveling back toward Cone 1, pax must do the moving exercise written on the cone (like bear crawls) instead of running.
• Each team of pax must stay together. Some of the moving exercises involve partners.

For this exercise, there were 5 cones, where cone #1 was at the bottom of the steep hill. Remember, 5 burpees to start, and for each return back to Cone #1. The rest of the cones were labeled as follows:

Cone 2 – Mountain Climbers x20 w/ Crab Walks as return exercise
Cone 3 – Russian Twists x20 w/ Bear Crawls as return exercise
Cone 4 – Merkins x20 w/ Partner 1 Wheelbarrow as return exercise
Cone 5 – Plank Jacks x20 w/ Partner 2 Wheelbarrow as return exercise

Once done with the first round, another set of cones were set up as follows (still using the hill, but going the other direction on the path once we got to the top).

Cone 2 – Slow Sumo Squats x20 w/ Crab Walks as return exercise
Cone 3 – Plank Punches x20 w/ Bear Crawls as return exercise
Cone 4 – Hello Dollies x20 w/ Partner 2 Wheelbarrow as return exercise
Cone 5 – Dry Docks x20 w/ Partner 1 Wheelbarrow as return exercise

The hill seemed to get taller and steeper with every clime. Java and Figaro helped distract from the pain by discussing how certain red lights in Fort Mill are holding hostage the law-abiding drivers of this growing town.

Time ran out, and we headed back to COT. Excellent work by all men. Mucho thanks to Lil’ E for allowing me to Q.

I’ve been looking forward to Qing Laces In for quite some time.  Thank you to Lil E for the opportunity.  For days I had been wondering what to throw at the PAX.  Bear Crawls? Partner Carries? A series of complex moves that would require precious workout minutes to demonstrate? And then I caught myself.  Quit trying to one-up yourself! Quit trying to over-engineer something that shouldn’t be that hard to do.  So I decided to get back to basics.  Run, Merkins, Squats, etc. Guess what, a simple workout can kick your a$$. So that’s what we did.

THANG
Mosey to Parking Lot Circle

COP (All In Cadence)

○ SSH X25
○ Windmills X15
○ Mountain Climbers X25 HOLD
○ CDD X15 HOLD
○ Merkins X10 HOLD
○ Diamonds X5
○ SSH X25

Run a Lap of WEP and back to the Circle (Exercises Still In Cadence)

○ Merkins X15
○ Squats X25
○ LBCs X35
○ Rinse & Repeat

Run up the hill to the stop sign and back to the Circle

○ Wide Arm Merkin X15
○ Monkey Humpers X25
○ Flutter Kicks X35
○ Rinse & Repeat

Run up the hill to the stop sign and back to the Circle

○ Burpees X15 OYO
○ Mountain Climbers X25
○ SSH X35
○ Rinse & Repeat

Run up the hill to the stop sign and back to the Circle for COT

NMM
-Great work by all this morning
-#Cobains to Flat Tire for the 5 extra counts, everytime
-Thanks again to Lil E for the opportunity. Keep me in the rotation.
-It felt great to do a bootcamp without a ruck on my back
-Seemed like Java was out front the whole time. Solid work!

Announcements
-Yeti 02/18/17 (Signup now, there is something for everyone)
-Joe Davis Run this Saturday
-Empathy Discussions next Saturday at 0600 Eternal Church

Praise and Prayers
-Prayers for Java’s M who is pregnant and not feeling well recently
-Praise for Java’s M’s sickness leaving almost immediately after praying to SkyQ
-Prayers for families as illness is making the rounds
-Praise for YHC 2.0 doing much better Kindergarten

BOM

Honor to Serve
Zima

YHC must admit to a lack of enthusiasm last night/ this morning for the Q today. No particular reason – love the AO, love the usual crowd of brothers, don’t love the cold but for some reason, I just didn’t have that spark. Pulled into the lot at WEP and saw a few milling around and passed some of the #LacesOut crew putting in work on the roads and my spirits were lifted…somewhat. That special feeling of being part of a group that holds you accountable and inspires you was filling me but, again, something was just off. So, I shrugged out of the car at 5:10 and joined the smallish group that was circled up and getting ready to go. More rolled in and, with a good number of new faces to me, I gave an admittedly uninspired disclaimer and welcomed the FNG.

Still not quite feeling it, we moseyed over for a quick warm-up of SSH, low slow squats, Moroccan nightclubs, IW and a plank series. The mosey then took us to the little parking lot across from Veteran’s Park for the beginning of the Thang.

The Thang

Up and over the wall, up the hill for 1 squat and back down ot the far curb. Repeat with 2 squats, then 3, 4…on up to 10. (idea stolen from Bonsai)

Watching the Pax push and getting a push myself from Lil E, the feeling was coming back. Mosey on over to the semi-circular steps just down from Veteran’s Park.

Merkin Stair Climb was in the cards for two round…basically, just merkin your way up the 2 levels of steps (short bear crawl in between) then jog around the top past Santa and repeat. Wall sits while you wait. Feeling better and inspired by the effort of the Pax, we mosey over the to Pyramid Steps by the Fort Mill Church of God.

Pyramid Steps work – up and over the steps with 1 burpee on the other side, then back across the bottom for 5 lunges. Repeat with 2 burpees/4 lunges, etc. etc.

Time was running short so we began the mosey back. YHC asked Bonsai to take the lead back to Veteran’s Park so I could hang back with the FNG. A nice discussion at a friendly pace and we were quickly back to Veterans Park where the FNG led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Mosey back to WEP as I hung with Lil E and the 6 and we undertook a few minutes of Mary (dealer’s choice) before the COT.

Announcements (light but read the newsletter), prayers and praises lifted up and then BOM for the take out.

Today was one of those days that, if not for the accountability of F3, I would have been firmly squared away in the fartsack. Not getting better. Not meeting new faces. Not leading leaders. Not really BEING. This one was a re-confirmation of just getting out there. You don’t have to have your best to be moving towards your best. The Pax WILL inspire you in some way each and every time you post. Get out there!

TChaser, out.

There was a thunderstorm last night and apparently that made all the cockroaches scatter.  I thought I would be by myself, but Java rolled in right on time to accompany my misery.  By the time 5:15 rolled around, the rain had receded to a slight drizzle.

Run to covered walkway behind Springs.

Warmup

SSH x25, IW x25, Windmill x(something something)…

The Thang

Arc Loader but this time we do it at a march in cadance.  This prevents anyone being stupid by trying to be “first” when it’s really only important how long the muscle stays engaged.  Word smarter not harder.  If you want to a harder workout, look to your form not your frequency.

Crab walk, Bear crawl, Duck walk (Mass to Grass and legs go straight forward), Dragon crawl (crocodile walk… Peter Parker somethings because someone in F3 has a mancrush on Spiderman.)  entire distance of covered walkway by the wall.  I measured this on maps, and it’s over 75 yards.  (Dragon crawl was cut in half.)  Between each length, LBCx30 and quarter mile lap.

Balls to walls 1:30, wall sit for 1:30, Balls to walls, 1:30

Done-zo

COT

Prayers for Java’s next edition to the clan that is currently in the oven.

Tangent:  God gave you two eyes, because two perspectives give depth perception.  You go through life with the limited ability to experience it from your perspective.  Therefore you must rely on others’ witness accounts to develop your world view.  Make sure you find others that have a perspective that is far enough removed from your own to give you some depth perception.

A band of five men came together on a beautiful SC morning to push their bodies once again.   Here is what they did:

The Thang:

Dynamic warm up:  Knee pulls, ankle pulls, inchworm/downward dog, arm circles and toy solders.  Mosey out of Walter Elisha Park.  Head down North White Street and stop at the Veteran’s Memorial.  We paused to honor our flag with the Pledge of Allegiance.  Circle up!

COP

SSH x 40, windmill x 15, merkin x 10, Freddie Merc x 25, Morrocan night club x 40, diamond merkin x 10, Squat x 25, mountain climber x 40

Mosey to the bottom of Massey Street.  Sprint up the hill, do 10 burpees at the top, and jog back down.  We did this three times.

Mosey back up the hill and jog to the small lot at the back of the Springs building.  Face the wall.

Do 10 wall pull ups, then go right into extended people’s chair with overhead hand claps.  Bear crawl across the parking lot and crabwalk back.  We did three sets, but skipped the bear crawl/crabwalk on the last set.

Mini Mary:  20 LBC, 10 V-ups

Head back to Walter Elisha  for COT

Moleskin

We had a strong group today, and the small number of Pax allowed us to stay close during the workout . YHC decided to avoid the grass due to last night’s rain so we left the park and hit town.  We started off at the Veteran’s Memorial,  and then found our way back to WEP by way of the Massey St hill and the infamous brick wall at the back of the Spring’s building. (one of my favorite spots at this AO) .   T-claps to Lil’E, who has dropped some lbs and picked up some serious speed. He attacked the hill sprints and left us all in his wake.   Well done!  The wall pull ups are always a crowd pleaser  It’s great strength and cardio combined into one – love ’em.     It was an excellent morning and a privilege to lead such a fine group of men.

Announcements/Prayers/Praises

Saturday, Dec 3, 6am.  Meeting at Eternal Church office to continue discussion on race relations and how F3 The Fort can initiate change.

Christmas party on Dec 17 – still plenty of tickets.

Joe Davis Run on Jan 7

Check your weekly newsletter for details.

Prayers:  brother-in-law with intestinal cancer.  We prayed for Hope.