Great showing of pax on a fairly warm morning. The garbage bin in the parking lot was especially pungent, which was nice. 14 total gathered before YHC issued the disclaimer, and Quickbooks moseyed us out to a remote place for Warm-up. The exact exercises escape me, but it was something like:

– SSH
– Imperial Walkers
– Hill Billy Walkers
– Merkins
– Mountain Climbers
– and several others I can’t call.

At some point, we moseyed to another location to complete the warm up. Like a college student’s memory of the previous weekend, the details are fuzzy.

The Thang
Pax ran to one of the flat parking lots where a cone and lantern were set up, shedding light on a list of eight exercises. About 70 yards away (other side of the parking lot) another cone was placed.

Partner up, size doesn’t matter. Partner 1 was to do a moving exercise from one cone to the second, while partner 2 alternated between a pair of stationary exercises. Once partner 1 reached the second cone, he ran a loop back to the first cone. Also during this time, partner 2 started the moving exercise. Once partner 1 got back from his loop run, he started on the pair of stationary exercises until partner 2 reached the second cone. Rinse and repeat until all pairs of stationary exercises were completed.

The moving exercise was: 1 pair of lunges, 1 broad jump, 1 bombjack. Then 2 of each, then 3…and so on until the second cone was reached (most pax got to about 5-6 before they reached the second cone). The stationary exercise pairs were as follows:

-20 Plank Jacks and 20 Monkey Humpers
-10 Merkins and 10 Box Cutters
-10 Dry Docks and 10 Plank Jacks
-20 Apolo Ohno and 20 Chop Sticks

Pax next ran to the parking lot just below the launch/COT point (next to the wall) for some Crawling Dips with Crab Walks. Explanation: Lining up on the curb, all pax were to hold a dip position. First pax was to crab walk to end of line, while the rest of the pax dip-suffled (kind of a side-ways crab walk on the curb) up to toward the front of the line. We completed one rotation, and several pax modified the crab walk to bear crawls.

Pax then moved to People Chair with Jack Reachers (10 count). Quick repeat of that, then back to COT, with instruction to scale the wall to get there.

Naked Man Moleskin
Today the shovel flag for TheBallroom was handed off. Huge T-Claps to Change Order for launching and leading this very popular Tuesday AO, about 2.5 years ago. It didn’t start out as moderate, but changing it to be so a few months after it launched was a great move. Also T-Claps to CakeBoss for taking over as SiteQ (who was also involved with the launch).

During the workout, discussed the same message I gave at Run-n-Gun last week (CakeBoss was the only one to have to hear it a second time). If you read that backblast, no need to continue reading (#cutandpaste). 1 Corinthians 15 talks about “dead” seeds growing into living, renewed bodies – bodies that we won’t have any idea what will look like until that time. If we take that same concept and apply it to the seeds of Christ’s message that we cast in peoples lives, we also quickly discover that we don’t have any idea how those seeds will grow. After I accepted Christ in college, I returned home and very much wanted my two closest friends back there to have the same relationship with the Lord. I began casting seeds, with a pretty specific plan in mind of how they would grow. But they didn’t follow the path I had planned. Not even close, as a matter of fact. It was disappointing, but God had other plans. During the brief times we had together (college was far from home), I continued to cast seeds, and pray.

I believe that’s what God wants us to do: keep sharing his message and his love through our words and our deeds (casting seeds) and let him take care of the germination. In the case of my two hometown buddies, both of them are now strong followers of Christ, and I feel like I had nothing to do with it. Perhaps some of the seeds I casted helped in some small way…15 years later than I had planned, but exactly the timing God had planned!

Thanks, ChangeOrder, for allowing Quickbooks and me to Q!

14 PAX came together at The Ballroom after a long Memorial Day weekend. Too many Hot Dogs and hamburgers maybe but the PAX were ready to get better and stronger.

I asked the PAX to think about all the PAX around them and that we all come from different backgrounds and careers and experiences however in the COP/COT everything is level and we are all in the same soup together….regardless of speed, strength or demographics. Roll that around for a bit…

The Thang:

Mosey across Gold Hill Road (don’t get killed) to office park for COP

• Plank
• SSHs
• Squats
• Merkins
• Big Boy Situps
• Peter Parkers
• Hello Dollys
• Parker Peters
• LBCs
• Moracan Night Clubs
• Imperial Walkers
• Sumo Squats

Mosey to back of office park and wall sit

Partner up

• Partner 1 – Run steps and around building and back
• Partner 2 – Carolina Dry  Docks
• Wall sits until 6 is in
• Partner 1 – Run steps and around building and back
• Partner 2 – Lunges
• Wall sits until 6 is in
• Partner 1 – Run steps and around building and back
• Partner 2 – Freddy Mercurys
• Wall sits until 6 is in

Mosey down to front of day care

• Partner 1 – Run up hill to stop sign and back
• Partner 2 – Dips
• Wall sits until 6 is in
• Partner 1 – Run up hill to stop sign and back
• Partner 2 – Calf Raises
• Wall sits until 6 is in
• Partner 1 – Run up hill to stop sign and back
• Partner 2 – Hello Dollys
• Wall sits until 6 is in

Mosey back to COT

• Rosalitas
• Flutters
• Superman x 2

Great work by all PAX! Was a good sweat for post holiday weekend and always humbled and honored to Q….thank you Change Order for the lead.

So with all things being level in the COP/COT we really are dancing with ourselves what we think of ourselves. Are we prideful and think we have it all together or are we humble and/or insecure in ourselves and think we don’t deserve to be standing in this COT with these other HIMs. Well I believe most of us fall in the ladder and we should all realize we are fooling ourselves. When we are loved by Sky Q who sent his son to deal with our mess in this life, we should realize everything is level at the foot of the cross and my Audience is the one who did that for me. So I can do as many burpees for him as possible, and be the best husband for him I can, and best father and worker/employer for HIM that I can be……because its all level at the cross! Sky Q sees you as perfect through his Son.

Announcements:

• June 9 – Foundation for Ft Mill Schools Golf tourney
• June 10 – Columbia Team Gutters and Gringos Bowling tournament
• June 17 – Hog and Coyote & CAH floating down the river event

Prayers and Praises:

• Trucker and his mother in-law
• Spitz son Eli procedure
• Praise for Quickbooks parents 50th anniversary

14 # HIMs enjoying great weather, great fellowship and a moderate work out on this beautiful morning.  It was a great Pax wide discussion on the theme of the month of Maturity.  Thank you to those #HIMs that stepped up to share their perspective on those areas of generational brokenness that they are overcoming and those areas where we continue to struggle even though we see the need for change.

COP – Thank you to Fire Marshall Bill for stepping up and leading an impromptu lead of the COP.  His cadence was perfect and he lead with purpose.  Beautiful Work!!

The THANG!

Mosey to the parking lot to do a little crossy back and forth across the parking lot width wise then running length wise.

Crossy road

 – Lunge

 – Backwards lunge

        Run lap

 – Broad jump

 – Burpee broad jump

        Run lap

 – Bear crawl

 – Backwards bear crawl

        Run lap

 – spider man/ Alligator walk

 – backwards spider man (Cancelled from winkie)

       Run lap

Curb arama split into two groups Indian run

 – Plank walk

 – toe tap

 – crab walk

Mosey to cinderblocks at the back of the of the Dunkin Donuts parking lot for some impromptu curls, arm extensions and squat extensions

It was a great morning with lots of mumble chatter.  Nice job by all and thank you for the honor of being Q

Aye!

This backblast will be as simple as Change Order’s pole dancing – short and odd. We had a FNG show up this morning and as we began to introduce ourselves, Anchorman was questioned why he introduced himself as his F3 name, not hospital name. YHC gave the standard statement and we strolled around the parking lot to halfway down the road towards the warehouses. YHC threw on his ruck and offered a spare, but no PAX accepted. Circled up for:
15 SSH
15 IW
15 good mornings
15 merkins
15 LBCs
25 hello dollies
15 Moroccan nightclubs

lined up in 2 lines. Line 1 did suicides up the hill while line 2 did merkins and LBCs till first line was done, flapjack. Mossy to warehouse wall for wall sits and pass the ruck down the line and back. Ab Lab: LBCs, boxcutters, rosalitas, flutters (crowd pleaser as the cadence changed), and big boy sit ups. Wall sits again with 1 OH press then pass down line and back.

Introduced the FNG to Jack Webbs – only went to 7 since this is a moderate AO. Line up and sprint to/back the length of parking lot.

Mossy to other end of parking lot, wall sits for 2 10-counts, 10 merkins, rinse and repeat. Change Order poll danced on Anchorman and Anchorman felt something hard……

Mossy to storage center and the railings. Was hoping to do reverse pull-ups, but the lower bar interfered so modified. 10 erkins on top bar, 10 declines on lower bar, 10 erkins on lower bar, 10 derkins on top bar. 20 LBCs OYO and 20 flutters, then mossy to COT.

As always an honor to Q the Ballroom. Prayers to Mr. T for finding the fire again to post, YHC M’s Aunt with Lung and Brain cancer, CAH and fostering of kids. Read the newsletter and good luck to the PAX running in the P200.

Trucker

When a man fails to show for a workout because of the weather, YHC has been known to look unfavorably on such behavior. This morning was cold (low 30s). It was rainy. And though it didn’t rain during the workout, it was wet and cold and could’ve opened up at any moment beyond the drizzle that was gently covering us in mist (just to make sure we were extra chilled).
Maybe I should have called folks out. Maybe Barry Manilow and I should have packed it in when we were the only ones in the parking lot at 0515. Maybe we should have headed over to Golden Corral and worked out there… We considered all of those things… But we didn’t… we worked as two instead.

Mosey down to the Cul-de-sac
Circle up (line up?) for the following:

• Windmills x 15
• Weed Pullers x 15
• Squats x 10
• Merkins x 10
• Richard Simmons x 15

Mosey up the hill and across Gold Hill to Publix.

4 corners escalator:
Round 1 = 10 reps
Round 2 = 20 reps
Round 3 = 30 reps
Then escalator back down to 10 of each… (30 again, 20, 10 — 6 rounds total)
Corner 1: Merkins
Corner 2: Squats
Corner 3: LBCs
Corner 4: CDDs

Then mosey back for COT.

===========================================

NMM:
When no one was there but me and Barry to work this morning, I initially thought, “this is stupid. I should either go back to bed, get a hot beverage with Barry, or go be around the other pax at a larger workout.” Then this thought lodged itself in my little brain…
What would a LEADER do?
Well crap… That ruined my plans to succumb; my plans to be an object to be acted upon, and not to be a force to act. I committed to lead a workout at a certain time and at a certain place. If I fail to follow through in the small things, then I will more easily fail to follow through in the big things… How you do anything is how you do everything, or so they say…
Later in the day, I thought, “write a Backblast for two people? Sure… then I can complain about things, or bust guys balls for not showing or whatver.” Then, that same thought…
What would a LEADER do?
Crap again. No call outs. No making this about me and whether or not I was butthurt or not over attendance or anything else. No. It’s not about me. It never has been, and I hope that I can do better to make it so it never will be…

Men. I love you all. This cause continues to give me direction and it energizes me to improve every aspect of my life. You are my brothers. You have unknowingly helped me survive some of the worst days of my life over the past 18 months or so, just by being there. By your showing up, and just being you, you have lifted my spirits. By showing up and making workouts terrible, you helped me leave a lot of frustration and angst out in the gloom instead of in my home. I may have missed you this morning, it’s true, but we all have things that keep us out from time to time. I’m not worried about that at all. Just keep coming out. I need you. We all need you. Don’t think that we don’t notice when you aren’t there. And definitely don’t think that your being there doesn’t matter. It does… to you, and to me, and to everyone else that you may come in contact with. This is true not only of the Gloom, but elsewhere also. You showing up makes a difference. Anchorman said to me once that sometimes a guy may come out in the morning and he’s just hoping that there may be someone to talk to about something that’s going on in his life. So we should show because we might be the only one that is there to hear him that day…
You can fake being interested, but you can’t fake being present. SYITG.

Helmet, out.

12 pax gathered at the Ballroom for some fun and games (and music). YHC issued the disclaimer and we cranked out some SSH before moseying down into the business park. We turn onto the road that ends at a fence next to the car dealership for a little warm up. Being that it’s now 4 days after the workout, and I’ve Q’ed another workout since then, my memory may not be 100% on the exercises we did.

Warm-up:

• Windmills
• Cherry pickers
• Hillbilly Walkers
• Mountain climbers
• Peter Pointers
• Peter Parkers

Most pax were not familiar with the Peter Pointers (which is an Assassin speciality). Upon demonstration, one pax said “Are we really doing this?”. Yep, and Anchorman certainly had the best form.

Pax then moseyed to the parking lot below the infamous wall. There, we found a deck of cards and small speaker. Each pax was to take a turn flipping the top card of the shuffled deck. An exercise was done based on the card that was flipped, as per the following:

Spades – Scorpion Dry Docks
Hearts – Hello Dollies
Clubs – Monkey Humpers
Diamonds – Dips

Royalty cards were as follows:
Jacks – 5 Bomb Jacks in place
Queens – Lunges out to parking lot island
Kings – Sprint to road and jog back
Aces – Scale wall and run around

During the workout, pax jammed to enjoyed 80’s rock, a la Spotify over the speaker.

Pax did great, and it was an honor leading. Thanks to ChangeOrder for allowing me to Q!

Nine men ignored the forecast and posted at Ballroom and were blessed by a rain free work out in the gloom.

The Message:

What is empathy? Empathy is to understanding as agape is to love.  Crawl into your skin kind of understanding.  Empathy is created through relationships or through experiences.  Empathy cannot exist without Love.

Empathy is reaching out to that alcoholic, person whose marriage is broken, person that is showing signs of depression, is out of control with spending because you have been there, you can relate and you can help show them another path.  Whose life is God calling you into?

The Thang:

Mosey across Gold Hill Road to the small hill and run some hill repeats.

   High knees

   Butt kickers

   Side shuffle

   Karaoke 

   Toy Soldiers

COP – SSH, Hill billy walkers, merkins, peter parkers, parker peters

Wall work:

  Wall sit/ air press

  15 Mule kicks

  Wall sit / press

  15 Mule kicks

Deck of cards – at the bottom of the hill paired up and grabbed a coupon.  As one partner was doing the number on the card, burpee then number on card of exercise the other partner was running to the top of the hill and back.  Partners flap jack.

  Clubs – squats

  Hearts – overhead press

  Spades – Dips

  Diamonds –  curls

Mary

COT –

Eight men met on a cool December morning for one of the few remaining moderate workouts in 2016!  We had four Q’s today and this is what we did:

The Thang:

Bassomatic led the group out of the parking lot and down to the last lot on the left for COP:

COP (all in cadence)

Merkin x 10, SSH x 20, windmill x 15, IW x 15, Carolina dry dock x 10, left arm/right arm high (can’t remember the rest)

Hand off to Ditch Witch: 

Standing Hamstring stretch (left leg over right, reverse), arm circles-small/large – forward/reverse (can’t remember what else we did)

Hand off to Senator Tressel:

Form 2 lines along the curb, one behind the other.  Start running in place.  First group bearcrawls to the opposite end of the curb while the second group runs in place.  When the first group gets to the end, the second group bearcrawls to the opposite curb and joins the first group.  Do the same thing and get back to the start.  Rinse and repeat.

Back to the curb for 7’s.  1 derkin, 6 dips, 2 derkins, 5 dips, 3 derkins, 4 dips, etc.  All the way to 7

Mosey to the far end of the lot and form a single line.  Lunge walk 2 lines, do a burpee, lunge walk 2 lines, do two burpees, continue until you get to 5 burpees.

Mosey out of the back lot and head up to the hill on the right hand side (backed up to Ft. Mill Ford)

Jacob’s ladder pt 1:  bombjacks at the top.  Start at one and work up to 5.  Plank up until the six is in.  Do 10 merkins in cadence.

Jacob’s ladder pt 2:  squats at the top.  Start at 1 and work up to 5.  Plank up until the six is in.  Do 8 diamond merkins in cadence.

Hand off to Cake Boss:

Mosey back up to the road to a nice grassy spot near the front and circle up:

LBC x 15,  Hello Dolly x 15, Merkin x 10, Flutter x 15, protractor (10, 45, 90 degree)  mountain climber x 15 (can’t remember what else!)

Moleskin

I had planned to go to the Colosseum this morning, but changed my plans late last night when I received a  text from the site Q, Change Order,  looking for someone to lead the group.  I was happy to help, but going in, my plan was to recruit some new blood to assist with Q duties. Bassomatic and Ditchwitch volunteered to help as well as our ‘old faithful and reliable’ Cake Boss. I see a lot of new guys at various AO’s, but don’t see enough of those guys at the Q spot.  I visit the Ballroom semi-regularly and feel that this is a great location to break in new Q’s.

My thanks to Bassomatic, Ditchwitch, and Cake Boss for volunteering to help lead the group today. I thought everything flowed pretty well.  Too much planning or over thinking of a workout can sometimes kill it. Often times, the best workouts are those that are spontaneous and ‘off the cuff’.   It was a pleasure to lead the group and also to have some new guys take the reins.  If you are reading this (yes, I am talking to you, TPS and Bait Shop), and have not Q’d yet, find a workout you like and have the site Q get you on the schedule.  I guarantee you will be glad you did it.

Announcements/Prayers/Praises

Read you newsletter!

Prayers or a sister with cancer, families traveling over the holiday, families in crisis. Praise for White Lightning’s daughter (sweet 16 today!)

mod·er·ate

adjective
ˈmäd(ə)rət/
1. average in amount, intensity, quality, or degree.
“we walked at a moderate pace”

verb
ˈmädəˌrāt/
1. make or become less extreme, intense, rigorous, or violent.
“we should moderate the burpees”

I had to look this up before my Q at The Ballroom. I wanted to make sure I delivered what was expected at the AO. Coming off my first Goruck Tough, this was sounding like the perfect Q for me. Ease back into things. One thing though, moderate did not mean easy. Pax started rolling in and it was a frosty 28 degrees.

Start with the 5 core principles of F3
F3 workouts …
1. Are free of charge
2. Are open to all men
3. Are held outdoors, rain or shine, heat or cold
4. Are led by men who participate in the workout in a rotating fashion, with no training or certification necessary
5. End with a Circle of Trust

Disclaimer (longer than my normal “don’t die” disclaimer)

THANG
Mosey to the bottom of the street for COP

COP (All exercises in cadence)
• SSH X25
• Windmills X10
• Low Slow Squat X20
• Merkins X10
• Mountain Climbers X20
• SSH X25

Walk over to parking lot…

Rounder: Do an exercise then run a lap always facing in the same direction (Forward, Side Shuffle Left, Backwards, Side Shuffle Right, Repeat

• CDD X10, run
• Monkey Humpers X15, run
• LBCs X40, run
• MNCs X30, run
• Squats X20, run
• Hello Dollys X15, run

Mosey to parking lot across from Ballroom

Escalator: Do an exercise at cone, then proceed to next cone with varying modes of transportation

Cone 1: 10 Burpees, Bear Crawl to next cone
Cone 2: 20 Merkins, Lunge Walk to next cone
Cone 3: 30 Squats, Reverse Lunge Walk to next cone
Cone 4: 40 LBCs, Reverse Bear Crawl to next cone
Cone 5: 50 SSH

Little time left over? Use the cones for Merkin Suicides!

Basically a suicide run with 5 points (cones) but you have to do the number of merkins at each cone (Cone 1 = 1 merkin, Cone 2 = 2 merkins, and so on.

Mosey back to the AO via climbing the lower parking lot wall and finish with a few minutes of Mary.

COT and BOM led by Anchorman

NMM
Had a great time this morning and it was great to see everyone push themselves. Moderate was definitely not easy this morning. Everyone worked up a sweat and my legs were actually a bit sore walking up the stairs this morning. Tclaps to Freebird for staying out front the entire time. Additionally, Tclaps to Green Thumb for making it to his second workout. Great mumblechatter this morning. Thanks to Change Order for the opportunity to Q and I hope to come back again soon guys. I really enjoyed it.

Announcements (which are in the Newsletter)
• Sign Up for Joe Davis Run
• Sign Up for the F3 Christmas Party
• Something else I’m forgetting

Praise and Prayers
• Pray for a friend of Pax who lost his wife
• Pray for families
• Prayers for the families in Chattanooga who lost their children in the bus accident

Humbled to Lead
Zima

16 dusted off their dancing shoes, made their way through the fog and came out for a Presidential morning. Pre-launch talk about breakfast pizza and the weather. With the disclaimer read, we moseyed.

The Thang

Mosey to warehouse parking lot and circle up.

SSH x 15

(Slow) Windmill x 10

Imperial Walker x 10

Squat x 10

Cherry Pickers x 10

Stretch routine. Stretch with toes pointed out was a crowd-pleasing twist.

In honor of Trucker’s attempt to dedicate an exercise to each President, YHC decided to finish out the list and added one for the President-elect.

38. Gerald Ford: 1st President to hold office w/o being elected by the people = 38 – gas pump (LBC to Dolly)
39. Jimmy Carter: Was a peanut farmer = 39 – curb dips
40. Ronald Reagan: Survived assassination and oldest elected President = 40 – lunge right
41. George H Bush: Initiated Operation Desert Storm = 41 – lunge left
42. Bill Clinton: “I did not have sexual relationships with that woman” = 42 – head bob merkins
43. George W Bush: Lead war on Terrorism = 43 – gorilla humpers
44. Barack Obama: 1st African American President = 44 – ballerina (squat with calf raise)

President-elect Donald Trump :  Back pedal approx 30 yards.

Partner Up for DORA 1-2-3

Partner 1 runs to second light

Partner 2 starts exercise.

100 Merkins (single count)

200 Flutters (single count)

300 Squats

Wall sit x 2 (counting down the line 1-16 and back down)

Mountian Climbers x 15

Carolina Dry Docks x 15

Moset toward COT for Mary

Mary :   Boats & Canoes (thank you, Change Order) , Banana / Superman (Anchorman) , Protractor (Package) and Travolta (Barry Manilow)

COT

During the workout and in COT, we discussed the Margin. What are we doing with our extra time? We all talk and/or think about being a better father, husband, co-worker, friend, neighbor, (fill in the blank). But what are we doing to make that a reality? What actions are we taking to move us from where we are to where we “say” we want to be?

CSPAN shared his BullsEye principal.  M>2.0s>ShieldLocks>Blades>Work. Obviously, the vertical relationship (the most important one, BTW) is with the Sky Q.   We also discussed struggles of not being able to communicate or handle opposing views. This election has really divided some folks; people that are close to us, people we call our friends, people we love. Great advice is to Ask>Listen>Recall. You don’t have to agree, but respect them, and your relationship with them, enough to listen.

As always, I am humbled to lead such a group of HIM. Thank you for the opportunity.
See you in the gloom!
Beacon