#218in18 Kick-off Convergence BackBlast

76 PAX (including 4 FNGs) met in the gloom at Harris Teeter this morning to kick the year off the right way.

Group 1 – Jedi

Start with 60 seconds of plank tutorial, then a fairly lame attempt to explain the exercise “routine” for the upper body station. The routine, to be done in increasing AMRAP style:
· Incline Merkins
· Low Country Crab Boil (One leg, one hand dips)
· 90° Turn clockwise
· Staggered/Uneven Break Dancer Merkins (Left hand on curb)
· Staggered/Uneven Carolina Dry Docks (Left hand on curb)
· 90° Turn clockwise
· Pseudo Planche Merkins
· Donkey Kicks
· 90° Turn clockwise
· Staggered/Uneven Break Dancer Merkins (Right hand on curb)
· Staggered/Uneven Carolina Dry Docks (Right hand on curb)
· 90° Turn to starting position

Start with 10 reps for each exercise, then add 2 reps each round after that (10, 12, 14, 16, …). Only the elite few made it past the round of 12.

Group 2 – Peabody

An absolute honor to lead a convergence and had so much fun working with all the guys. Here’s the fun of the cardio Q.

SPRINT Relays!!!  

3 team

60 Yard sprint

Team members are doing Seal Jacks, side straddle hops, or flutters while teammate runs.

Winning team selects penalty exercise for 2 losing teams. (Unknown is losing team has to do the penalty exercise too but only half the reps).

Rinse and repeat the sprint relay races once teams are mixed up.

Mary to follow:

  • 50 LBCs
  • 25 Flutters
  • 10 Freddie Mercury’s

Lists of fun to hear the encouragement of other Pax and see the competition bring out the most in guys.  Saw lots of guys really push hard to win for their team.

Group 3 – Jekyll

Motley Crue and 80’s hairband soundtrack

  • COP: SSH, IW, Squat
  • 5 Burpee OYO, 4 OYO, 3 OYO
  • Lt Dan: squat and jumping , 1:4 ration
    • 1 squat: 4 jumping lunge, 2 squat: 8 Jumping lunge…10 squat: 40 jumping lunge
  • 5 burpee OYO
  • Calf Raises 25 each: Straight, Toes Out, Toes In
  • Donkey Kicks

COT

Welcome FNGs Iron City, Humps, Hillary, and Juliet

Prayers by CakeBoss for leadership.

– Ginsu

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Ballroom Beatdown

So as I stepped outside this morning my first thought was “this is 44 degrees?” As the wind cut straight through my workout gear.  I was cold…so I guess we need to keep moving to stay warm.

At 5:15 sharp we stared off with a mosey down the entrance road to the bend by the field for our warmup. The warmup consisted of the following, all in cadence:

  • SSH – 15
  • Imperial Walkers – 15 (in honor of the new Star Wars movie coming out this week)
  • Move aside for a better late than never greatly missed kotter, Uncle Cracker (who EH’d me into F3 just 10 short months ago)…treated with a wave
  • Windmills – 10
  • Low Slow Squat – 10

Then it was time to mosey around to the wall at the back of the school for The start of The Thang

  • Everyone grab some walls for The People’s Chair as each PAX took their turn with a 10 count
  • A little talk about the word of the month, Gifts
  • Balls to the Wall in the same fashion as The People’s Chair…each PAX with a 10 count (the counting pace was MUCH faster this time around…Hmmm)
  • A couple of 10 counts to recover
  • Another round of People’s Chair, same as before
  • Another round of Balls to the Wall, only this time a single count like when we count off at COT

Mosey across the bridge to the football field and partner up…size does not matter

For a series of 3 exercises one PAX will stay in the end zone while the partner runs to the 50 yard line and back, then switch.  Plank for the six.

  • LBC’s
  • Merkins
  • Flutter Kicks

Break

  • Carolina Dry Dock’s
  • Hello Dolly’s
  • Wide-Arm Merkins

We still had some time left, so it was perfect for a little Reince and repeat.  The only difference was on the last set of 3 we ran to the 30 yard line, but ran back at 75%

After a couple of 10 Counts I had one more beatdown attempt.  We all lined up on the goal line, and ran to the 50 yard line like normal, then continued to the other goal line at full out sprint…100%.

Took a couple 10 Counts and did the same thing back to the other goal line.  At this point I was so close to passing out, I honestly don’t know how any of the PAX was doing.  I just know they all beat me back to COT!

Mosey back to COT for a few minutes of Mary where we got the following exercises in (Probably a few others) all in cadence:

  • Mahktar Jai – 10
  • Side Stradle Hop (Twister style) – 10
  • Peter Parker – 10
  • Superman’s
  • LBC’s – 10
  • Imperial Walkers – 10
  • Morrocan Night Club’s – 15

Name-o-Rama, Announcements, Prayers and Praises

Then off to the cars…

Smithers….Out

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Sweatin’ To The Oldies @ #Slowburn

26 HIM came out for a warmer-and-drier-than-the-day-before “moderate” beatdown.  Welcome and disclaimer given and then I turned it over to Clark Kent for a little VQ Warm Up that went a little something like this:

10x Goofball
10x Windmill
10x Cherry Picker
10x Low Slow Squat
10x Side Straddle Hop

10x Merkin

Polaroid took back over and we moseyed to the back of Lowe’s for 2 rounds of:

30x Dips
Bear Crawl to the line
Lunge back to the rail
30x Calf Raises
Mosey to the side of Lowe’s for 1 round of Deck of Pain
Hearts = SSH
Diamonds = Bomb Jacks
Spades = Merkins
Clubs = Carolina Dry Docks
Jokers = 10 Burpees – – – – Dangerfield pulled the Joker!Mosey to the front of Lowe’s for a quick ab workout:

10x Flutter
10x LBC

Mosey back to the Warm Up circle for some Sweatin’ To The Oldies with
“I Get Around” by The Beach Boys.

Start in a squat and every time “I get around” is said you go up and down.  It’s 2m8s of squattin’ and hopefully the guys were feeling the Slow Burn.

Most of the PAX gave AYG to the Chick Fil-A hill and a mosey back to COT.  Great job!
Announcements:
-Turkey Day Convergence 11/24 0600 @ The Ranch
-Christmas Party 12/1 1830 @ Regal Manor Clubhouse
-Paradise Turkey Giveaway Bring a FROZEN turkey to an AO on Saturday, November 18th. Why? To bless the Paradise Community with turkeys for Thanksgiving. This turkey giveaway will reduce the financial burden for underprivileged families in this neighborhood as they prepare for the holiday. We will also eat lunch with the community during this event to further build relationships with our brothers and sisters in Paradise. Read the pre-blast for details regarding this fruitful event. Contact Deacon with questions.

Pinup prayed us out.

It’s always an honor Q’ing.  Thanks, again, Barry Manilow.  Peace.
~Polaroid

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4 Corners at the Ballroom

We had 22 PAX at the Ballroom for some 4 corners work.  We took a short mosey with some toy soldiers and high knees thrown in there and headed toward the back parking.  Before starting out we had a brief intro on the theme of the month Victory. YHC challenged the PAX to think of where you are seeking victory.  The place where we most need victory is in our relationship with Christ.  With that seed planted we started our COP with COP consisted of SSH, windmills, Moroccan knight clubs, Merkins and a few Yoga exercises.

Now on to the meat and potatoes.  Did I say we were doing 4 corners? Yeah, I thought so.  In each corner there was a list of 4 exercises.  Make a lap for each # return to the middle for 5 burpees or bomb-jacks.  The 4 rounds were as follows:

15 Reps. for each exercise:

  1. LBC’s, Flutters, Hello Dolly’s, and American Hammers
  2. Calf Raises, lunges, Sumo Squats, and regular Squats
  3. Peter Parkers, Mtn. Climbers, SSH, Parker Peters
  4. Shoulder Taps, John Travolta’s, CDD’s, and Merkins

Back to the center for some encouragement on victory.

20 Reps for each exercise:

  1. LBC’s, Flutters, Hello Dolly’s, and American Hammers
  2. Peter Parkers, Mtn. Climbers, SSH, Parker Peters

Mossy back to COT.  We ended up doing 10 additional for a “That’s what she said comment” although no one owned up to it.  The ballroom moderate ended up being not so moderate. Didn’t hear any complaints.  Thanks for the opportunity!

Bass-o-Matic

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Control

19 High Impact Men posted for a moderate workout in the misty gloom today. Smuggler made a strong come back, kotter style. Stang lead the second stretch-o-rama which made the Pax grunt like they were in a birthing center. Asphalt came to  COT and blessed us with his powerful testimony.

The Thang:

Strech-o-rama for warm-up

COP: SSH (10x), IW (10x), HBW (20x), Sumo Squats (15x), MC (20x), Jumping Lunges (10x), Swimmers (10x) Freddie Mercuries (15x),

Toy Soldiers, Shuffle Left, Shuffle Right, Back Pedals, Karaoke Left, Karaoke Right, Power Skips

Dips (15x), Extreme CCDs (10x) and LBCs (20x)

Decline Merkins (15x), Extreme CCDs (10x), and Flutters(20x)

Incline Merkins (15x), Extreme CCDs (10x), Heels to Heaven (20x)

Wall Merkins, People’s Chair (3x)

Partner Drills: One partner runs to the light post and back while the other does the following until the team does a total of 100 Merkins, 200 Monkey Humpers, 300 Flutters.

Strech-o-rama for cool down

Moleskin:

God is in control. Type A people, like myself, struggle to understand that reality. Reality became very clear when the Colombia Mission Team and I were stranded in Miami right before Irma hit.

I brainstormed solutions to “control” the situation like:

– Get another flight to escape the hurricane (reality check: the airport was closing).

– Take a train (reality check: the train station was closed).

– Find a hotel for shelter (reality check: all local hotels were closed).

We prayed and then escaped the storm by driving in what the media claimed would be 15 mile/hour traffic.

God was in control and His plan was far greater than ours. Instead of 12 men going to Colombia, he sent 17 of us to Florida to help hurricane survivors. Instead of serving 1 organization in Columbia, we served 5 organizations in Florida. Instead of engaging a few donors to raise money for the mission trip, He engaged over 1K people in our church/community to collect supplies for the hurricane survivors in Florida. Instead bringing a few supplies to Colombia (less than the 50 lbs limit), He had us bring over 10K lbs of supplies to  people who needed it in Florida.

I’m glad that God is in control. His plans are far greater than what we can imagine.

Peace,

Deacon

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Bullwinkle’s Wallsitting and Lunge fest

23 Pax joined at the Ball Room in Fort Mill for sweat filled gloom and fun on 10/03

The thang

Warm-up Mosey – with Butt Kickers, High Knees, Power Skips, Slow Walking Lunges and Toy Soldiers to get the legs good and ready for the what was to come

Warm-up Circle, exercises in cadence

  • Merkins (10, four count)
  • Arm Circles (lots)
  • Moroccan Night Clubs (20, four count)
  • Low Slow Squat (15, slow four count)
  • Imperial Walker (15, four count)
  • Windmill (10, slow four count)

Mosey to the hill for Jacob’s ladder: 6+1

  • Merkins on bottom
  • Bear crawl up hill
  • Squat jumps on top
  • Mosey down hill

Two Ten Count recovery

Mosey behind the school to the wall

Part 1 of Bullwinkle’s Sitting and Lunging around, as follows

  • 30 second wall sit followed by 20 lunges forward, turn around, 20 lunges back
  • 30 second wall sit followed by 19 lunges forward, turn around, 19 lunges back
  • 30 second wall sit followed by 18 lunges forward, turn around, 18 lunges back
  • 30 second wall sit followed by 17 lunges forward, turn around, 17 lunges back
  • 30 second wall sit followed by 16 lunges forward, turn around, 16 lunges back

Ten count recovery

Mosey to bridge to work calves

  • 30 seconds of calf raises follow by 15 seconds of rest.  Rinse & repeat X 6

Mosey back to wall

Part Il of Bullwinkle’s Sitting and Lunging around, as follows

  • 30 second wall sit followed by 15 lunges forward, turn around, 15 lunges back
  • 30 second wall sit followed by 14 lunges forward, turn around, 14 lunges back
  • 30 second wall sit followed by 13 lunges forward, turn around, 13 lunges back
  • 30 second wall sit followed by 12 lunges forward, turn around, 12 lunges back
  • 30 second wall sit followed by 11 lunges forward, turn around, 11 lunges back

Ten count recovery

OYO Max Merkins

+5 Merkins

Mosey back to front of school for COT

Bullwinkle out.

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5 Year Anniversary Convergence BB

Saturday, September 30th 2017 was a special Convergence for the PAX of The Fort. On that day we celebrated 5 years of using these small workout groups to invigorate male leadership in Fort Mill. To honor the occasion, 88 PAX gathered at one of our favorite AOs (Nations Ford HS) to celebrate the day and the leaders that made it all happen.

We also celebrated 6 Friendly New Guys that joined us that morning. Welcome Tubs, Band Camp, Jughead, Atari, Hat Trick, and Saul.

It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, however. Here’s how we got better:

Warmup (led by Ginsu)

  • Mosey to the football field
  • 30 Side Straddle Hops
  • 10, 4-count windmills
  • 30 Moroccan night clubs
  • 10, 4-count merkins
  • 10, 4-count Peter Parkers
  • 10, 4-count Parker Peters
  • 10, 4-count LBCs
  • 20 low slow squats

Split into groups (Run, Regular Bootcamp, Black Diamond, Ruck, Moderate Bootcamp)

Run (led by Birdcage)

  • 800 meter indian run
  • 1000 meter 10k pace with 1 minute rest x2
  • 200 meter 1 mile race pace 200 meter cool down x4
  • 400 meter sprint corners recover straights
  • 1600 meter cool down
  • 5 miles total

Bootcamp (led by Royale)

  • Mosey over to the concrete football field
  • 10 merkins
  • Lunge walk 10 yards then do 3 burpees
  • Next ten yards bear crawl then 3 more burpees
  • Rise and repeat until we hit the other goal line
  • 10 count – going over the Five Core Principals of an F3 workout
  • Next phase we broke into 4 groups
  • At each corner of the end zones there were 5 exercises written on a board.  We would complete in your group and then run to the next corner. Everyone would hit al 4 corners.
    • Corner 1
      • 20 Merkins
      • 30 Lunges
      • 30 Dying Cockroaches
      • 30 Ski Abs
      • 3 Kraken Burpees
    • Corner 2
      • 20 Ranger Merkins
      • 30 Squats
      • 40 Freddy Mercurys
      • 40 Shoulder Taps
      • 10 burpees
    • Corner 3
      • 20 Durkins
      • 20 Jump Squats
      • 50 American Hammers
      • 30 Monkey Humpers
      • 10 Mountain Climber Burpees
    • Corner 4
      • 20 Wide Arm Merkins
      • 20 Sumo Squats
      • 20 V-Up Twists
      • 20 Bombjacks
      • 10 Squat Burpees
We talked about the word of the month – Leadership.  I shared we all have an opportunity to lead through F3, just like we all have the responsibility to lead in our homes.  I know I struggle with the balance of work and family time.  As the leader of our households we need to support our Ms and be the examples to our children.
  • Mosey over to the round about
  • Each man would take a lap around 1st doing Lt Dans
  • Finally we would bear crawl.
  • Mosey to the football field for the last 30 seconds and some LBCs

Black Diamond (led by Backdraft)

  • Mosey from warm up top pull up bars
  • Pull ups/ Burpee challenge – 9 pull ups 1 burpee., 8-2 , 7-3 until finished.
  • Mosey to stadium run the bleachers
  • 10 derkins
  • 10 dips
  • Mosey to track run 1/4 mile as fast as you can. U vs. U
  • Mosey to end zone. Count off by 2s. split into groups first person flips tire 10 times than run end zone to end zone while next person flips tire everyone else continuously do 10 merkins, 10 squats, 10 big boy sit ups. Keep going until all of group is finished.
  • 10 min 100 burpees. Do 10 burpees every minute on the minute. U vs. U
  • Mosey to 50 yard line 5 minute of Mary
  • Sideline sprints x 2 first set after you run 10 tuck jumps. 2nd set 5 hand release merkins

Ruck (led by Trucker)

2 20lb, 3 40lb, and 3 60lb sandbags were snagged from back of car as 8 PAX tucked down to the elementary school and dropped the sandbags next to the telephone poles. The 8 PAX carried the telephone pole around the parking lot. Left telephone pole where we found it and rucked backwards up the hill to the pull up bars. What’s a WO by Trucker without pull ups? YHC challenged the 8 PAX to do 2 sets of 5 pull ups with ruck on.

Rucked into stadium and lined up in 2 columns for sandbag throws from one end of football field to other and back. Then rucked up and down the football stand stairs from one end back. Rinse and repeat with sandbag throws and stadium stairs. Threw sandbags again down to other side of endzone and then formed 2 lines abs flipped tires from one end to other. Sandbag threw back to other endzone and climbed stadium stairs one more time. Finished with a 20 count flutters. Great work by seasoned and rookie ruckers.

Moderate (led by Short Sale)

  • MOSEY to Elementary School
  • Grab some Wall. Wall Sits while Pax at each end jumps out of line for 5 squats
  • Repeat with 5 Bombjacks.
  • Count off by 5’s and mosey to back of the parking lot
    • Number 1’s go to station #1
    • 2’s start at Station3, etc.
  • Stations: 3 minutes/station. Q calls stop & go
    • 1: 10 Merkins, 20 Calf raises
    • 2: 20 LBCs, 20 Monkey Humpers
    • 3: 10 SSHs, 20 Moroccan Night Clubs
    • 4: 10 Scorpion Dry Docks, 20 Squats
    • 5: 20 Imperial Walkers, 10 Apollo Ohnos
    • 6: 10 Broad Jumps, 20 Flutters
    • 7: 10 Bombjacks, 20 squat jabs
    • 8: 10 handclap merkins w/partner, 10 partner Derkins- Beloved by veteran Pax and FNGs alike
    • 9: 10 Jump Squats, 10 CDD’s
    • 10: 10 Dips, 5 jack Webbs
  • Mosey to Stop sign at bottom of hill for some Mary- Hello Dollies, Flutters, Protractor

MESSAGE ON LEADERSHIP- F3 gives us a great platform to grow our leadership skills and build confidence as a leader. The Pax will let you know if/when something has gone wrong but will also be there to lift you up. Also, the best leaders don’t focus on their ROLE, they focus on the GOAL. So, be the leader you were called to be.

Great group of men came to work. Veterans guided the FNGs and encouraged them at every step of the way. YHC kept reminding the group that it is UvsU out here. Some quality mumble chatter about what moderate means. Smiles all around when moved on from the stations.

Wrap Up

What we have at The Fort is special. It is a strong group of PAX led by men who live with intentionality. I am sure that each of us would agree that it has impacted our lives in ways that we will never be able to describe. At some point for each of us, we were gifted F3. We were headlocked by someone who recognized the impact that F3 had on them and how it could help us. With that in mind, let’s pay this gift forward. Be the leader you were called to be and use your influence to headlock the sad clowns around you, FNGs and Kotters, that are where you once were. Be a leader.

Ginsu

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