“Logically, that meant that the Q of each workout had to be a self sustaining leader , with all of the authority and resources he needed for his group to flourish. Each workout Q had to be big, and the center of the Starfish (what we came to call F3 Nation) had to be small. We needed to create a culture and a system for transferring PAX into Qs.”

Excerpt from Freed to Lead by Dave Redding and Tim Whitmire

YHC was thrilled to be asked to Q the Ballroom by Change Order. Since Atticus had not yet Q’ed a 1st F, we decided to partner up and go for it. Atticus was clearly excited and this was a fantastic opportunity to bring some new exercises to the AO.

10 PAX (including 1 FNG) posted and away we went…

Atticus on Q

Mosey to industrial parking lot and circle up

COP – all exercises done to 17 IC

Windmills

Moroccan NC

Squats

Merkins

Mtn Climbers

Russian Twists

Freddy Mercury

Atticus discussed the upcoming 3rd F where we will be discussing common questions of the Bible. Specifically he mentioned John 17:17 “sanctify them by the truth, your word is truth” in reference to those who question the Bible and its teachings. A good reminder for all and another reason to post at Chicken and Wisdom

Mosey to end of lot, partner up

Partner 1 runs to end of lot while Partner 2 does Burpees – aggregate 100 (A real crowd pleaser)

Mosey back to end of the lot, circle up

Duck, Duck, Goose – duck runs around Circle while PAX are completing exercises. Once he picks a goose, he sprints around hoping to not be caught. If caught, he has to do Diamond Merkins or Bombjacks in the middle until next goose is chosen.

Handoff to Pusher.

Mosey back to end of lot

Bear crawl up hill 3 times

Lunge walk to 2nd light, sprint to end x 2

Bear crawl to 2nd light, spring to end x 2

AYG Spring

6 Minutes of Mary

COT

Moleskin:

• F3 Dads starts this weekend at 9 AM – Anchorman on Q
• Hog and Coyote on June 18th
• Read your newsletter

Glad to have Wheels and Anchorman back from injury. Glad to have Atticus as a neighbor and a friend.

Pusher out!

14 pax posted to The Ballroom for the moderate option on a weekday morning packed with activity across the entire region of The Fort.

The Thang

Mosey to Postal Route parking lot

COP — Mtn climbers, Peter Parkers, Windmills, IWs, Merkins, CDDs

Plank sequence

Mosey to Founders Credit Union parking lot

COP — Low slow squat, Monkey humpers, Fwd lunge, Side lunge, Backward lunge, Parker Peters

Plank sequence

Mosey to KOA parking lot

Burpees x20 OYO

Mosey to Publix & partner up
Partner 1: People’s chair
Partner 2: Derkins x20
Flapjack
Rinse & repeat for 5 cycles total, alternating b/t Derkins & Dips; replace People’s Chair w/Balls to the Wall for the last 2 cycles

Mosey to far end of Publix & keep partner
Partner 1: People’s chair
Partner 2: Step ups (10x each leg)
Flapjack
Rinse & repeat

Plank sequence

Mosey to Allen Tate parking lot

COP — Russian Twist, Flutter, Chopsticks, Hello Dolly

Mosey back home

Plank sequence

Burpees x20 OYO

Plank sequence

COT

Naked man moleskin

107 pax posted to workouts today across the region — thanks to all the pax at The Ballroom today for taking the #DRP! #TheFortCounts

Shout out to McGruff who’s hanging tough as he regains form from months of recovery — great to have you back in the gloom!

Solid effort from Wildcat on his VBC (Virgin Boot Camp) after posting Monday as FNG at Flight Plan — welcome aboard!

It was a pleasure to be graced by the presence of Sen T, thanks to a late start that did not allow time for him to make it to WEP.  Second fiddle is still in the orchestra!

Today felt a little like a music festival as we toured the smaller stages leading up to the marquee lights at Publix with Barry Manilow and Culture Club in tow.

The brief message today focused on Truth — especially the Truth that exists deep in our hearts.  It is a challenge to listen for the Truth in the heart (which is rooted in goodness) and avoid being distracted by the Voices in our heads.  Since the theme for May is marriage, the challenge to the pax is to listen for Truth as it relates to marriage and don’t let the negative voices keep us from appreciating the love that is the center of the relationship with our Ms.

Thanks to Change Order for the opportunity to Q — always an honor and a privilege!

12 PAX joined the moderate dance at The Ballroom on a perfect Tuesday morning, only 2 could name a song by Barry Manilow … study up. Welcome, Disclaimer …

The Thang
Mosey downhill, 1/2 way to the circle
SSHx10, LBCx10, SSHx10, LBCx10
Mosey to the circle
IWx10, Dying Cockroachx10, IWx10, Dying Cockroachx10
Mosey to the far end of the lot
MN Clubx10, Squatx10, MN Clubx10, Squatx10
Mosey back to the circle
Windmillx10, CDDx10, Windmillx10, CDDx10
Mosey 1/2 way back up the road
BoxCutx10, MonkeyHx10, BoxCutx10, MonkeyHx10
Mosey to the bottom of the lot
Bear Crawl to the top

Pseudo Suicides in the lot
Squatsx10, run 4 lines, Scorpion DDx10, back to Squatsx10, add 4 lines … continue for 5 runs.

Mosey to the other end of the lot (by the grass … soft on the knees)
Split the group in half, group 1 starts 75 SSH in cadence while the other runs 50ft up, 50ft back, they pick up the cadence while group 2 runs, back and forth, continuous cadence to 75
Same with 100 LBCs in cadence
Same with 100 Squats in cadence

To the grass for Makhtar N’Diayesx10, mosey 50 ft, Bombjacksx10, mosey back to grass, Kneetar N’Diayesx10 (included was a short explanation of Senator Tressel’s flawless form and execution one morning at The Armory when everyone else was near death), mosey 50ft, 10xMerkins, 10xDips

Back to COT. Thanks to Change Order for letting me lead at The Ballroom, one of my personal favorite AO’s.

Looks Like We Made It,
Barry Manilow

This backblast might be “better late than never”, but just barely. My apologies to the pax for being so tardy.

YHC got to the AO early to set up some cones for the main part of the workout, down in the parking lot at the bottom of the hill. While setting up, a security guard approached with flashlight in hand asking “Are you one of those workout guys?” My response in the affirmative brought his approval, and he carried on. Moments after, it occurred to me that an invite to join us sometime would have been good, and giving him an F3Nation “EH” business card would have been even better. I’m going to keep a stack of them to my car from now on, so if anyone would like a dozen or so assist with your EH’ing, let me know next time we cross paths.

At 0515, a quick disclaimer was issued to the solid group of veteran #HIMs, and off we moseyed to a nearby parking lot. A last minute text signaled CakeBoss would be coming in hot, so we stayed within visual range from the shovel flag for warm up.
COP Warmup:

– Windmills x10 (IC)
– Imperial Squats x10 (IC)
– SSH x 20 (IC) >> Lunges in/out
– Sealjacks x20 (IC) >> Lunges in/out
– Plank Jacks x15 (IC)
– Mountain Climbers x10 (IC)
– Alternating Shoulder taps x10 (IC)

The pax moseyed down to the parking lot at the bottom of the service road. Before starting the main event, I spoke briefly about Fatherhood, somewhat continuing on the discussion from the 3rdF event the Friday before.

Main Event: Ring of Fire
Not the Jekyll version (which involves cinder blocks and bear crawls), this modified version required pax to work their way around 12 cones (set up in a circle), each with a different exercise and count. Four steps to this, really.

– Perform exercise written on cone
– Run to cone on opposite side & back to middle
– In the middle, plant for 10 sec, then do 5 bomb jacks or squats
– Run to next cone and repeato

More discussions about Fatherhood, and we moseyed to a parking lot about half-way up the service road. Pax spread out about arm’s length apart and planked for Railroad Tracks, where each pax takes a turn jumping down the line, over the legs of all the pax, the dropping back down into a plank.

We moseyed further up the service road and found some wall for People’s Chair with Jack Reachers to 10. Repeato.

Mosey back to where we started for a bit of Mary
– Low slow flutters (10x)
– Hello Dollies (10x)
– Rosaletta (10x)
– Chopsticks (10x)
– LBCs (10x)

Just before COT, I wrapped up the discussion on Fatherhood with a quick review of the questions ChickenHawk provided in the 3rdF theme of the month slide for the newsletter (see below).

Naked Man Moleskin:
Just like leading workouts, I am no professional when it comes to being a father. I think most of us would admit that. But the fellowship and experience we share in F3 can help dads like me be better than I would be on my own. Studies have shown that daughters have tendency to marry a man of similar qualities to their father. Dads with daughters, how does knowing this affect the way you father your little girl? When your child is born, they are fully dependent on you and your M. By the time your girl grows up and moves out, she will be full dependent on something other than you. You have 18 years to make sure that dependency is on God, and not some knucklehead that can’t possibly fill the God-shaped hole in her heart.

While girls often grow up to marry a man like their dad, boys will often grow up to *become* their dad. It’s been said that we are each a copy of our dad, with a bunch of stuff we’ve put on top to cover up the things we don’t like about our dad. Sons model our heart’s behavior, not just what we say we are doing or what we tell them they should do. It’s ok to tell my son he should be reading his Bible. It’s better if he sees me reading it myself. But it’s best if he see me learning and living out what I read from His Word. And, for the record, I fall short of this very often.

Finally, be sure you check out these questions from ChickenHawk about fatherhood. And, for that matter, check out the entire document he put together (look in the 3rdF section of the last newsletter).
– What is your view of a Father’s role to your children?
– What mistakes, successes, lessons and/or wisdom would you share?
– How has your life experience shaped your approach to fatherhood?
– How do you approach fatherhood differently than your father?
– How has God/Jesus shaped your view of fatherhood?
– What do you think is the one, single most important attribute of a Father?
– What advice do you wish you had when you started?

An honor, as always, to lead the pax in a workout. Thanks so much to Change Order for allowing me the privilege.

AYE!
-old bay