Today we did a recon in Paradise which is Fort Mill’s predominantly black community that has a rising poverty level.

We had no idea what to expect regarding overall engagement. Several Pax prayed for the community to engage in our workout. My greatest hope was to have a decent recon and then pray that someone from the community sees us and joins us.

God had bigger plans. We had 13 Pax in which more than half of the Pax were FNGs (7 total)! Several spectators who looked very interested and join after a few headlocks.  A few FNGs showed up 15 minutes before the workout. It was an amazing time in which all 3 Fs were covered. FNGs partnered with the OG Pax to jump start the fellowship. Several FNGs will headlock others in the neighborhood.

The Thang:

– Mosey to the basketball court for the warm-up.

– COP: SSH (30x), IW (20x), WM (15x), Sumo Squats (15x), MC (20x),  Merkins (15x).

– Mosey to the parking lot in Bethlehem Church.

– Partner up for pyramid drills: At each station/corner, do LBCs, Squats, Ski Abs in increments of 5 until the team hits 15 repetitions then countdown to 5 as a group. Lunge walk to each station.

– Mosey to the basketball court for 5 games of 5 on 5 up to 5 points. Shuffled team members after each game for continuous ice breaking and fellowship.

COT

Consider this when leading workouts at this AO:

– Paradise is your community, too. Don’t let the evil one convince you of anything contrary to that fact.

– Adding basketball to the workouts brings more inclusion of the community by meeting people where they are. Men like to hoop in Paradise. 

– The sun is up at 9 AM. Exercise the areas under the trees for shade to prevent overheating.

– Not all Pax have babysitting available Saturday mornings. Keep the workouts in the park so 2.0s can use the playground as their Daddies sweat it out.

– Discuss the 3rd F theme of the month with the Pax. The young Pax really appreciate and absorb that positive message.

– Not all Pax will have gloves and water bottles. Bring them for the Pax.

Bottom line:

The opportunity to engage, enrich and impact our community is now. Get involved. The workouts in Paradise will be on Saturdays at 9 AM at 600 Steele St, Fort Mill, SC. Use the following link to get on the Q schedule. 

bit.ly/F3TheFortQSchedule

Peace,

Deacon

Bounty posted that he needed some men to Q at School of Ruck. I raised my hand. This was before I knew how far it was from me… and that it started at 0500 rather than 0515…

As I drove under the light of a half-moon down 77… then down Celanese Rd… then down past anything that resembled civilization… (where the hell am I, anyway?) I remember thinking,
“it’s no joke to get out to “The School”, but once you are there, the possibilities abound.

The day before the Q, I had tweeted Winston Churchill’s quote, “If you are going through hell, keep going.” (Or for my trip out to Q, if you are going to York… Keep going…) I thought it would be fun to resurrect a ruck workout I had led a couple weeks ago that I called “Dante’s Inferno” where we traveled through the 9 “circles of Hell”. It looks something like this:

9 circles of Hell
Partner up, size matters…
Circle 1: Walk around the bus loop at the Elementary School

• 5 curls
• 5 overhead press
• 5 flutter presses (double count)
• 5 dips
• 5 sumo squats

Circle 2: Double time around the building

• 10 of each exercise

Circle 3: Overhead hold around the building

• 15 of each exercise

Circle 4: Catch me if you can around the building

• 20 of each

Circle 5: Lunge Walk around the building

• 25 of each

Circle 6: Crab walk around the building

• 30 of each

Circle 7: Bear crawl around the building

• 35 of each

Circle 8: Partner 1 Fireman’s Carry around the building

• 40 of each

Circle 9: Partner 2 Fireman’s Carry around the building

• 45 of each

Sadly, for time’s sake, we had to cut a little bit short and ended up skipping from Circle 7 directly to Circle 9. Needless to say, I am sore today…

NMM:
Each of us at different times faces difficulty. Our jobs, our families, our fitness, our faith, any number of things can be strained or challenged. Sometimes, you’ll want to quit. Sometimes, you’ll feel alone and like you are going through hell. Whether it’s a ridiculous workout, or whether it’s a personal challenge, the best thing to do when you feel like you have no more left, is to just keep going. If you quit and stop moving, you have guaranteed failure. If you keep moving, you may still fail, but then at least you can be taught what it was you were put through the test for in the first place. That’s not an option if you quit. The goal is not always to achieve some amazing thing. Sometimes, the goal is to learn on the way… through hell…

Helmet, out.

We are 1 week away from the PHOP Games, which will start at 0500, and not the normal 0515!!  I am excited and nervous.  I’ve never done anything like this and I am not sure how it’s gonna go.  Hoping all my worrying ends up being unfounded.

As far as the exercises:

Various excercises will be counted for two minutes as many reps as possible(AMRAP).

I will get out there Tuesday night to set up and finalize how to most efficiently and effectively move through the exercises.  I have hand drawn diagrams I’m working with.

If we finish early, we will get creative and do some more work, if we don’t finish on time we will go home disappointed.

The 8 exercises to be tested:

• LBCs
• Burpees
• Side Straddle Hops
• Hammer Swing on tire
• Tire flips
• Bear crawl around tire
• Cinder block shoulder press
• Cinder block shoulder shrug
• Cinder block swing

Proposed Schedule(subject to change)

0500  Welcome/Disclaimer/Warm Up

0505  Stage 1-All PAX do SSH, Burpees, and LBC together

0515  Stage 2-Half of PAX go to tires; half of PAX go to blocks

0535  Stage 3

0555  Clean up, collect sheets, COT

It is time to ramp up our efforts in Paradise!

We have had meetings with discussions on bridging the racial divide and seeking empathy. We have reached out to the Paradise community. We have held a turkey drive. We had an excellent community event with our recent Easter celebration. We have made contacts with our EH’ing efforts.

The framework has been planted. Now, we need the PAX to participate in workouts and fill in Q roles, as we officially set days and times to have a presence in the neighborhood.

This Saturday, May 20, 9:00 am, will be the launch of our first workout in Paradise. Saturdays will continue at 9:00 am. Run and Gun will also be moving to Paradise on Wednesdays at 6:15 pm (beginning in June) with a commitment at least through the summer.

Deacon will Q 5/20 and Santini will Q 5/27. We need to fill in the Q schedule from there. Please let Bolt know of your availability. Q’s register at: worshipplaning.com or enter on Q spreadsheet: bit.ly/F3TheFortQSchedule or mesage Bolt, thenewpauko@hotmail.com

Our first Saturday AO’s will be more of a soft launch and recon and we need you to understand that this AO may not launch under regular circumstances. We are targeting adult males but we also want to reach out to males in the 12-18 age range. We continue to EH our contacts and desire their presence immediately. However, each workout will need to be adjusted accordingly based on attendance.

Our goal for each Saturday is to have a standard F3 workout at 9:00 am followed by games (ie. pickup basketball, kickball, etc) at 10:00 am. These will be the Saturday time standards and events we follow and advertise in flyers, and for you to tell any friends you are EH’ing.

Wednesday’s Run and Gun workouts will be tailored to attendance.

Q’s, please consider bringing water, juice and/or small snacks, especially if younger males are attending our workouts.

We will continue to communicate to the community and post flyers starting this week.

We have a vision and there is a lot we can accomplish but we need your support! Feedback and suggestions are always encouraged. Let’s get out there and make a difference!

“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Luke 6:38

Aye! Bolt

The official Launch of F3.101

The MEN of F3 Rock Region will be taking the F3 experience to YHC’s home town of Great Falls. We have the opportunity to do a 1 Hour Men’s only Boot Camp workout along with a 5K run following the workout. The 5k is free and open to anyone, who would like to participate and better ourselves together.

Here is the 5K Route

👇👇👇👇💥💥💥

https://goo.gl/Si88WF

So this will be an awesome event to bring the entire family to participate in the run and see the festivities of The one and only Flopeye Fish Festival

Here is the link for the festivities

👇👇👇👇💥💥💥

http://flopeyefishfestival.com/index.html

Each month we will be visiting different small towns and communities, with the purpose, of explaining, our core principles and values of Being that Guy along with telling our WAS-NOW stories of how F3nation and with the daily Comradery, shield lock and accountability, has helped us to burn that sad clown boat and to strive to be a High Impact Male

We will introduce the 5 Core principles along with the Mission of the F3 Nation.

The mission of F3 is to plant, grow and serve small workout groups for the invigoration of male community leadership.

Our core principles are workouts are free of charge and open to all men. They are held outdoors — rain or shine, heat or cold. Men who participate also lead the workout in a rotating fashion, with no training or certification necessary. Workouts end with a Circle of Trust.

Where: Great Falls War Memorial

401 Dearborn St. Great Falls, SC 29055

Address Link👇👇👇💥💥💥

https://g.co/kgs/nv3Tah

When/Time: May 27th 0700 til 0900

Why: Because all men need what F3 Nation has to offer.

• Stronger Husbands

• Stronger Fathers

• Stronger Sons

• Stronger Leaders

• Stronger Friends

• Stronger Co-workers

For our Families, Friends, and Community. Leaders leading leaders through life’s daily battle and struggles.

Be that man, to someone you needed, when you were young or lost.

Also we will have a shirt available  for charity donations. Details coming real soon. Our design department are in the final design stages.

A portion of Donations will go to a Veteran’s organization of Chester County.

For donations and or information please contact:

• Please put shirt in commit block on PayPal and email

Email  F3rockhill@gmail.com

Pay Pal Account https://www.paypal.me/italianjob

Justin Smith “Blue Print” Dustin Jordan The “Italian Job” or YHC

Link to Flopeye Fish Festival

👇👇👇👇💥💥💥

http://flopeyefishfestival.com/index.html

https://youtu.be/sfh5a1KTAxI

On Saturday afternoon at 3:30 we will be meeting at Riverwalk (ending at River Park) with the children from Children’s Attention Home for a 2-hour float down the Catawba River. After you have exhausted your body through the Hog and Coyote enjoy a nice cool float down the river in the late afternoon supporting children that don’t otherwise have a father figure in their lives.

We have coordinated a great rate with the Twisted Beaver tubing company for $10 per inner tube and we will also be providing a boxed lunch complete with sandwich, chips, cookie and water at the end of the run.  All children from the home have been covered by an anonymous PAX contribution!

If you, your M and/or 2.0s want to participate please sign-up by sending $20 per head to paypal.me/BrianBrenner and you will have a raft reserved as well as a boxed lunch from McAlisters. Please also make note in the comments of PayPal if you need a life preserver for your 2.0. (If you plan to use your own equipment to Kayak or otherwise float down the river please feel free to do that as well and just pay for the boxed lunch ($10 per head), make notes as appropriate in the comments or send me an email brianbrenner09@gmail.com).

NOTE… Due to reservations with the tubing company we need to finalize our counts by June 2nd. I need to give them a raft count and life preserver count so they can be sure to have appropriate supplies. Registration will be cut off after June 2nd for anyone needing rafts or life preservers.

• When: 4/29/17
• Where:  The Dragon
• QIC: Walker
• The PAX:  Carna Asada, Copperhead, Red Ryder, Chernobyl, Yogi, Malware, Rasta, Triple Double, Hands, High  Pockets, Car Shark (FNG), Redwood, Walker (Respect)

13 strong men, young and old, posted on this muggy Saturday morning at The Dragon.  We worked hard and also talked about the word of the month, Sacrifice.

The Thang:

• Warmup:  Slow mosey to field behind the school.  Side Straddle Hops, Windmills, Morracan Night Clubs, Downward Dog, Upward Dog, various stretching movements.  I talked about the need for using correct form and demonstrated the proper technique to use for each exercise.

COP:  (1) Body Squats, Merkins, 20 reps each, 5 rounds: (2) Jump Squats, Diamond Merkins, 20 reps each, 5 rounds: (3) 180 Jump Squats, Merkins, 10 reps each, 5 rounds: (4) Body Squats, 10 reps, Blast-Off Merkins, 5 reps, 5 rounds: (5) 5 Prison cell merkins (15 actual merkins), (6) Heels 6 inches off ground between rounds for 1 – 1.5 minutes,  Total:  300 Squats, 290 merkins, 3-4 minutes of heels 6 inches off of ground.

Naked Man:  Since the word for the month is Sacrifice, I spoke about a particular scripture that gets to the heart of the matter, Psalm 51:17:

¹⁷ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
    a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

It is well and good and biblical that we sacrifice and put the needs of others ahead of our own.  However, Psalm 51:17 is speaking about sacrifices that are more profound and appealing to God.  We are depraved and wretched men – not one of us is good (that’s why Jesus sacrificed his life for us). What God seeks from us is a sober accounting of ourselves and the inward reflection that actually brings us to see our fallen condition from God’s perspective.  Once we embrace our absolute depravity and start actually seeing our sin for the severe offense it is to God, then Godly sorrow that leads to true repentance can be achieved.  The broken spirit and broken and contrite heart that is spoken of here is actually that point in life that we become sorrowful to the point of tears for the sins that we commit against God.  This sorrow cuts to the soul and our very essence and produces true repentance which God will not despise.  Therefore, as we move forward in life, let us seek a broken spirit and broken and contrite heart because these “sacrifices” are pleasing to God and draw us much closer to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Please read the newsletter for happenings / upcoming events.

Walker Out!

F3 Rock Hill 3rd Anniversary Saturday May 6th

This year marks F3 Rock Hill’s 3 year anniversary. Come join us in the celebration of epic comradery and growth.

Comradery is the spirit of friendship and community in a group, like the comradery of soldiers at war who keep each other upbeat despite the difficulty of their circumstances. Who is a comrade? A close friend or a fellow soldier — in other words, someone who comes to mind when you say, “We’re in this together.”

The workout will be lead by the Founders of F3nation Dredd and OBT,  at the the F3 Rock Hill original AO The Patriot.

Followed by a 2nd F breakfast and iron sharpening event at Saint Johns’ UMC. With Dredd and OBT addressing the PAX with a special message on leadership and growth of F3nation. 

NOTE: Breakfast will be provided from 0830 til 0900 at Saint Johns UMC. All inclusive. 

This will be a great opportunity to meet and sharpen Iron and push the rock with, Dredd, OBT and your brothers. Along with, being able to hear first hand, about what the the future holds for F3nation

https://youtu.be/sfh5a1KTAxI

• What: F3 Rock Hill 3 year convergence

• When: Saturday May 6th 2017

• Where:(1st F)  The Patriot  AO /(2nd F)St. Johns UMC Church… addresses are below

• Time: Boot/Camp 0700 til 0800 / 2nd F 0900 til 1030

For Directions see links below

The Patriot AO Address

https://goo.gl/maps/4gFvkbNF4rq

Saint Johns Address

https://goo.gl/maps/TYQsRBYuWbF2

Begin the morning with an introduction, gave the disclaimer, and confirmed that we did not have any FNGs this morning……….

Warm up:

IT was already a warm 60ish degrees to start this pre-summer morning………. the exercise portion of the warm up went like this:

• 21 Side Straddle Hops (SSHs) in cadence
• 11 Wind Mills in cadence
• 21 Moroccan night clubs in cadence
• Little Baby Crunches (LBCs) in cadence
• 21 Mountain Climber in cadence

(I think that was it………)

Medium pace mosey to the back parking lot to play a little ‘BlackJack’…… (as the 21 cadence calls aluded to).  So, as one of the purposes of these ‘BackBlasts’ are for newer ‘Qs’ to gather ideas for their own workout lead, I’ll try to explain what “BlackJack consists of…… i.e. how it’s ‘played’……. We started out lined up across one of the parking lot lines and did one (1) ‘Air Squat’ as a group ~ then trotted 30ish yards to another parking lot line and did twenty (20) Merkins…… the ran back to the orginal line and did two (2) ‘Air Squats” ~ out 30ish yards and did nineteen (19) Merkins.  This pattern continued until we were doing our last set of twenty (20) ‘Air Squats’ at our original line and one (1) Merkin at the line 30ish yards out……… each ‘set’ consisting of a total of 21 total exercises…. thus it’s name: Blackjack!  For those PAX keeping track ~ that’s 210 ‘Air Squats’ that we preformed this morning….. along with 210 Merkins!!!!  GREAT JOB, GENTLEMEN!

This was followed by Toy Soldiers, Butt Kickers, and Lt. Dans……. parking lot line to line ~ x3

We then moseyed back to the COT to finish out with a little ab lab……… and then discussed this month’s topic ~ sacrifice!

……. such a BIG word….. such a BIG responsibility for each of us…… but ~ as discussed ~ the sacrifices that we are called upon to do on a daily bases are not those BIG things that will draw attention to ourselves….. but the little things that each of us can do on a daily bases….. helping our loved ones without being asked, helping out a co-worker who is in need….. opportunities for sef-sacrifice are all around us….. we just need to have eyes to seen them!!!!!

Thank you for allowing me to lead, Gentlemen!!!!

Hot Sauce, out!

A rousing group of 3 arrived at Amberley Park this morning for a little recon work to check out the park for the upcoming May 6th launch of F3 Cincinnati. With headlamp on YHC did the scouting and spotlighted a deer while seeing the perfect AO for a fantastic beat down possibility – tennis court, soccer field, baseball field, running track, hill, pull up bars, playground, and even the well lit parking lot behind the police station.

For this recon mission, plants were brought in and they were assembled and ready to go.

Warm o rama
After the perfunctory disclaimer was given, the PAX moseyed to the police station parking lot where they triangled up and began the warm o rama which consisted of: SSH, imperial walkers, merkins, peter parkers, peter parkers, copperhead squats, cotton pickers, Abe Vigodas (windmills), toy solders, jack reachers, seal claps, and overhead claps. All were in the 10-15 rep range and all were in IC. Assuring everyone was sufficiently warmed, YHC began…

The Thang

YHC called the merkin mile – modified – the PAX moved to each streetlight around the police station and performed 5 merkins at each light pole. On return, the PAX moseyed to the top of the playground area to perform a series of left leg and right leg step ups, as well as dips, Irkins and Dirkins. Following this nonsense, a repeato was called and then the grinder…

The grinder consisted of approximately 100 yards – up the hill to the playground with 1 PAX performing LBCs and 1 PAX performing squats with the mode of transportation in between being a brisk mosey. This was repeated approximately 6 times with the PAX regathering to head “back for Mary”

Well – not exactly
First we need to get from here to there. Just as Lt Dan would do it, (I ain’t got no legs) we Lunge walked across the parking lot. Tick Tock still time on the clock, so the PAX moved forward on DB drills through the parking stalls and then finally arrived for…

Mary
Mary was quick with only time for Freddie Mercuries, Low Dollie, Low Flutter, Rosalita, LBC’s and of courses the Dying Cockroach all IC X 10.

And one to grow on…
YHC shared with the PAX that a great part of the fun of Qing is bringing your own creativity and sometimes signature to the beat down. For YHC it was only fair that the Burpee – In Cadence would be how we closed. It was indeed a #crowdpleaser

COT
YHC took the PAX out with prayers for Lynda Hall breast cancer surgery this Friday, Ryan’s sister in law’s fiance – Craig – abdominal cancer.

NMC
Slim pickins in the mumble chatter category today. All were evidently saving it for the LAUNCH.

MAY 6, 2017!!!! Gonna be Epic!