Swings at Block Party

YHC had two plans in case the setup for the Strawberry Festival hindered the better workout, but a quick walkthrough of WEP revealed that everything was normal and the fun could begin as hoped.

12 PAX appeared in the gloom, 4 runners ran, 8 campers booted. No FNGs, issued the disclaimer anyways.

Starting with a mosey half way around WEP and stoping to warm up the no leg parts in the field the PAX enjoyed the following:
20x SSH
10x Low Slow Squat
10x Werewolf
10x Tea stance dips, each leg – Standing normal, step the right leg over the left and space about shoulder width.  It’s awkward. Now sink until the left foot comes up and the left knee hovers over the ground.  Now hold both arms out with palms out, dip down until the knee brushes the dirt.  Do this ten times and reverse.

Now mosey back to the trail and over to the playground.

PAX paired up (8 was the magic number, worked perfectly!). One partner has his legs hanging on a swing, hands in the wood chips, doing one of three painful exercises until their partner comes back. The other runs about 50m away to perform a set number of exercises. The groups worked together. No man was left behind.

YHC demonstrated palm to back of hand pushups for advanced mode. After a few on the swing, knuckles were preferred.  The flips caused a lot of wood chips in the face.

Swing exercise | Partner exercise 
Pushups | Squat Jumps x10
Knees to chest | Calf Raises x20
Pike (plank to down dog) | Squat Jumps x10

Pushups | Squat Jumps x10
Knees to chest | Calf Raises x20
Pike | Squat Jumps x10

Broga break
10x windmill
Down dog
Honeymooner
Justifier on the ground, pressing up with arms to stretch abs. Isolating left by looking over right shoulder and a slight right twist, reverse, then center. Good stretching all around

Back to the swings for another set

Pushups | Flutter x20
Knees to chest | Box Cutter x10
Pike | Bomb Jacks x10

With only six minutes left we moseyed the remaining trail back to COT with enough time for:
Squat Calf raises x 20
Bomb Jack’s x 3 (with a four count)

The runners rolled in and someone may have referred to Polaroid as “A shining unicorn in the gloom” as he ran through the fog.

Circle up for announcements and a prayer.

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6 years, God only knows where I might have been….

6 years ago YHC rang the bell for the first time with a handful of rag tag HIM’s. There were 3 workouts, total, in The Fort. A lot has changed!  YHC was blessed enough to be able to come to Block Party and Q on a day that has changed my life.  32 other PAX joined YHC in the gloom for some fun for Day 20 for Ass Kickn’ April Y2!

The Thang:

Long loop around WEP

COP

SSH X 50, Squats X 25, IW X 20, Mountain Climbers X 25, Plank Jacks X 25, Slow Sumo Squats X 25, 6 count Burpees w/ hand clap X 10, SSH X 10 – Mosey to playground

DORA 1-2-3

Partner up, 100 Merkins, 200 Squats, 300 LBCs. Go.

Huddle Up

Got the PAX together to briefly talk about what F3 has done for me.  I had initially thought that F3 would always be a physical challenge, and it is, but I would never have guessed how much the 2nd and 3rd F’s would come into play.  Having 32 other men show up at 0515 to work out under my lead, shows exactly what F3 is all about.  Supporting your F3 brother celebrate a special, life changing day by doing burpees and dodging fire ants.  The 1st F is the magnet, always pulling you in.  The 2nd F is the glue, keeping you connected and active.  The 3rd F is the dynamite, serving others, putting yourself 3rd and sharing this crazy thing F3 to all men around you. Off to the hill for Jacob’s Ladder.

Jacob’s Ladder – 8’s – 1 Burpee at top and 7 Bomb Jacks at Bottom. Add, subtract, flippy flop, you know the drill.

Off to COT, but lets do some more while we count down to 0600.  30 seconds of Mountain Climbers, Plank, burpees….. Saved by the Bell. Done.

Great Tuesday morning.  So humbled and blessed with the HUGE turnout this morning.  I couldn’t be more excited about being a part of F3!

FunHouse

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History at The Hive

Pulling into the HIVE early to set-up shop YHC was surprised to see 2 cars already there! Rebel was enjoying a few ‘Be Still’ minutes and Geronimo was getting after it in the parking lot with what appeared to be his Ruck. The rainy weather was holding off & it was a perfect 65 degrees-A great morning to be in the Gloom!

The cars kept rolling & rolling in….17 PAX in total

5:15am- No FNG’s so hit the disclaimer and off we went

COP: Mosey to band parking lot and return back.  Exercises in cadence-

  • SealJacks x 20
  • IW x 15
  • HW x 15
  • Windmill x 10
  • Cherry Picker x 10
  • Plank, Honey Mooner-Downward Dog, Plank
  • Merkins
  • Mountain Climbers x 15

The Thang:

Today’s workout was built around the History of the Hive. All repetition #s, exercises & stories shared were specific to this AO.

4 stations here we go:

Station 1- History Lesson- What is the most famous saying @ The Hive? “5 @ The Hive”. The PAX passed the test with flying colors. In honor of “5 @ The Hive” we hit a 5 cone drill Jacobs ladder style:

  • Cone 1) Inch Worm Merkins & Goblet Squats
  •  Cone 2) Triceps Ext & Reverse Lunges
  • Cone 3) Bicep curl w/ Shoulder press & Burpees
  • Cone 4) BackRows & Swings
  • Cone 5) Upright Rows & Fwd Lunges

Kudos to the PAX as they just got after this station. Little time for mumble chatter with the exception of those as they finished Cone 3 with Burpees.

Station 2- History Lesson- How many years has the Hive been an AO? How many site Q’s have there been & who are they? The PAX again pulled together and we went with 3 years (almost 4 years) and 3 sites Q’s- Longshanks, Tesh & BandCamp!

In honor of this we went 3 rounds of the Site Q’s assigned exercises:

Longshanks-Thrusters, Tesh-The Standing Tesh or Bi/Tri, Bandcamp-Swings

  • Round 1: 9 Thrusters, 9 count Standing Tesh, 9 Swings
  • Round 2: 9 Thrusters, 18 Bi/Tri Superset, 9 Swings
  • Round 3: 9 Thrusters, 9 count Standing Tesh, 9 Swings

Station 3- History Lesson- Geronimo’s Gauntlet (This needs to be in The Exicon) 

We did our best rendition of the 2018 Hive version of Geronimo’s Gauntlet. A Pax favorite it was started by no other than Geronimo himself and it goes something like this- *Line up all the Kettlebells lightest to heaviest. One by one, Pax go down the line and perform bent over rows at each KBell. (3 rows each side for time today). The waiting Pax can plank up, Al Gore, etc… With 17 KBells lined up our lats got some serious work. The heavy 40-50lb KBells at the end of the line gave us all an example of how JWOWW, Geronimo & Tesh get after it. Strong work Men!

Station 4- 5:58am and we escaped the planned AMRAP station due to time. Better to be over prepared than not enough. YHC took a moment to read  from the theme of the month and take just a moment to “Be Still”.

COT- Announcements from Newsletter, upcoming events

Prayers/Praises: Rebels 28th Wedding Anniversary. Prayers for all families traveling for the upcoming Spring Break week.

It was an honor to be with the Pax this morning- Thanks BandCamp for the opportunity!

Weezer

 

 

 

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The Hive: Kettlebells, rain, tabata. What could go wrong?

0505 show up to the hive for prep. Layout cones and other various gear needed.
0510 see cars and trucks and more cars and trucks pulling into parking lot.
0514 Disclaimer and see another truck pull in (its Stang, we start to mosey for warm ups.)
0515 Warmups of various types.
0522 Start a Tabata that has to called out by Q due to speaker not working. ended up being great. I love mumble chatter and it was rolling good this moist morning.
8 stations- 2-3 PAX per station they went as follows.
Goblet Squats
Figure 8s
Shoulder presses with rucksack
Jump Rope
Alternating bicep curls
American Hammers
1 arm KB swings
Alternating hand on KB merkins
0600- Mosey with gear back to COT. The rain really started to pour down.
Prayers and Praises.
AkA- if you don’t know you better ask somebody.
Q Source
prayers for marriages and kids.

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Armory

11 men showed up this morning at the Armory for my second Kettle Bell Q.  It was good to see Trucker in the crowd.  I made sure to emphasize “Modify if necessary” since he is recovering from an injury.

Warm-up:

Leg stretch (Butt kickers, knees to chest)

Plank stretch (Honeymooner, downward dog)

SSH x 15

Merkin x 10

Windmill x 10

Next, we moseyed to the main parking lot near the light post for some partner exercises. Partner #1 would perform a stationary exercise while Partner #2 would be in motion.  Once Partner #2 completed the exercise, he would flipflop with Partner #1. Below are the exercises:

Round                    Stationary                      Motion  

1                                KB swing                          Jog around the parking lot

2                               Squat                                  KB carry between light poles

3                               Figure 8s                            Bear crawl

4                              Upright row                      Burpee broad Jump

5                               Curl                                      Lunge walk

6                               Shoulder press               Jog around the parking lot

7                               Skull crushers                  Inch worm merkins

8                               Tri-extensions                  Squat walk

 

Great job this morning! Lots of good chatter and encouragement.

 

Prayers:

Families in Alabama impacted by the Tornado

Comfort for families grieving a loved one

Healing and comfort for families dealing with illness

Healing and speedy recover for injured Pax

 

 

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Always Play the Hits at Footloose

18 at Footloose on a cool morning.
Welcome, intro, disclaimer, lets go
Mosey down the hill to the lot across from FM Church of God

Dynamic warm up back and forth across the lot, exercise 1/2 way, jog it out to the other end; butt kickers, high knees, toy soldiers, squat walkers, windmill walkers, soccer knees out, backwards run, powerskip, bear crawl, crawl bear, 50%, 50%, 75%, 75%, 100%, 100%

Jonah Hill (3 broad jumps, 3 merkins, 7 times)

Suicides across the lot, LSSx10x3, CDDx10x2, BB situpsx10x1
Suicides across the lot, Imp Walkerx10x3, Merkinsx10x2, LBCsx20x1

Circle up for the GREATEST HITS
Mahktar N’Diayes x 10
Matt Foley (1 x animated squat, 4 x Dying Cockroach, 2-8, 3-12)
Travoltas x 10
Monkey Humpers x 10
Shoulder Taps x 10
OH Claps x 49

Split the group, 1/2 snake the church stairs, 1/2 do the exercise, flip flop x 3
inchworm merkin squat jumps (that’s one thing)
merkin clock
bombjacks

Mosey back to First Baptist lot, Dynamic cool down, squat walkers, soccer knees out
Final exercise: SSH x 10

Thank you Beacon for the opportunity to lead

Looks like we made it,

Barry Manilow

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The Cones Return at Laces In

15 Pax fought off the fartsack and posted to Laces In on this chilly morning.  Seeing 28 degrees is just under my over 30 degrees no tights rule, Tclaps to Stang and Senator Tressel rolling with shorts.  #RealMen   I wanted to keep moving this morning to keep everyone warm.  This is one of my favorite workouts and was excited to bring it back from the vault.  Here is what we did:

Warm Up: Run lap around student parking lot.  COP coming back to stadium which included, SSH, Imperial walkers, Windmills, Peter Parkers, Merkins to Squats.

Main Course: Mosey to hill leaving school.  10 cones.  Perform exercise at first cone then run hill.  Perform exercise at first cone then second cone, run hill.  Perform exercise at first cone then second then third, run hill.  So forth and so on.

  1.  10 Burpees
  2.  20 Merkins
  3.  20 Mtn Climbers (Double count, like you have to ask)
  4.  20 Carolina Dry Docks
  5.  20 Flutter kicks
  6.  10 Lunges (each leg)
  7.  15 Jump Squats
  8.  20 Freddie Mercuries
  9.  20 Dips
  10.  20 Monkey Humpers

Appreciate all the pax telling me how much they were enjoying the workout everytime we started a new lap.  We made it to around Dips.  Bandcamp was king for the morning and made it to the last round.  We had a great group today and appreciate the support.  Without these guys pushing me, I would have been in my comfy, warm bed this morning.  Thanks for the push and accountability.  Aye

Prayers for Rock Thrill’s Mother, Stang’s house, Bonsai’s child care, Bandcamps co worker with cancer.

Until next time, (Which might be a while considering how bad I am at writing these things!)

STH

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The Thing.

YHC’s first ever KB Q!!

A brief warmup: 25 SSH, 20 Squats, A run, stretching and 10 Turkish Get Ups – mostly because YHC likes saying this

Extended Dora:

  • 100 snatches
  • 100 curls
  • 100 KB Swings
  • 300 Goblet Squats

Wrap Up – 20 flutters follwed by :05 of Jim Eubanks hip flexor work!

Moleskin:  are we really encouraging those that are different from us?  Or we only offering enouragement to those like ourselves?

 

It was an honor and privilege to lead!!!

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On the first clock at Block Party

Thanks to Shady for the Twitter reminder of my Block Party Q as I haven’t been checking my email much lately which would have included the reminder from  Worship Planning.

I had already been planning a “clock” workout for my VQ KB workout the next day at Tomahawk, so I ran with that and applied it to Block Party with a “bigger clock.”

Arrived, set out all the cones in the field in clock formation 12-11:00 along with “the worm” 120 # coupon at 3:00.

Back to parking lot just in time and a quick disclaimer with no FNG’s. (This would not be the case the next day). A mosey around about a half lap of WEP which included high knees, butt kickers, side shuffle. A brief circle of warmups which included a couple back stretches needed by the Q.

Headed to the clock. Each hour had an exercise on a cone a distance away to run to from the epicenter. We first did the clock as a group, then followed it partnering up.  At the end of each ‘cross’ were the following: 12:00 sprint to top of hill, 3:00 worm carry, 6:00 lunge walk, 9:00 partner carry (or modified). The other times included various exercises (of which I cannot now list as the M threw away my weinke), but included calf raises, squat thrusters, merkins…

The bonus on this fine morning was a “Let Me Run Burpee Challenge” cow bell that every PAX had to ring once during the workout and, wherever you were at the time of ringing, 5 burpees were required.  Total 45 burpees were completed.

Thanks to PAX for the cleanup at the end. Ran out of time to get some core work in. No Name O Rama video embedded here as you couldn’t see faces anyway.

Announcements included the Invergence on Sept. 21, G-Fit moving to Saturdays at 3:00 pm with a call to PAX the post if you can and support the kids, after school reading program in Paradise on Mondays and Wednesdays, Ragnar coming up with Sunday morning trail runs, BRR this weekend with many F3 teams.

Prayers to sick family members and PAX going through marital hardships.

Thanks to Shady and all PAX that posted and gave the clock a go.

Aye! Bolt

 

 

 

 

 

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Suffering in Silence

18 assembled this morning for some bells (6) and #Beyond (12). YHC decided to change things up slightly. We did the Name-a-Rama first. Read on to see why.

NMM

You’ll also note that I’m posting the Naked Man Moleskin before the workout. Sometimes the message is more important than the workout. Today was one of those days. #Beyond is designed to take you out of your comfort zone and push buttons we would rather leave untouched. Today’s discussion was on depression.

Some facts:

  • There are 123 suicides in America every day
  • The highest suicide rate is adult males between the ages of 40 and 54
  • White males accounted for 7 out of every 10 suicides in 2016

These sobering statistics spoke to me because our PAX fit right in the sweet spot of these ranges. The average age this morning was 44 – right in the thick of these numbers. Depression effects men in different ways. This group is sandwiched in between the traditional silent, strong fathers who went to work and provided for their families and the more progressive, open generations of their sons who share parenting duties and aren’t always the breadwinners of the household. Many men never mastered either of these roles and now feel lost. We’ve married capable women who take care of everything from the children to the social agenda, leaving men to feel a void of purpose. Around this age, men look around at their neighbors and ask, “why am I not as successful as my neighbor?” Outside of our homes, we are lonely. We’ve lost track of our college buddies and only connect with our co-workers on a water cooler level. We feel like we haven’t accomplished enough. For all intents and purposes, men in their mid-40s often feel neutered – unable to provide the ways their dads did and unwilling or unprepared to be Mr. Mom to their older children. To make matters worse, a job loss or divorce often leads these men into a downward spiral of addiction and despair. Chances are, you’ve felt this way or know someone who does. It becomes our responsibility to reach out to these men and invite them into a brotherhood of love. Medical professionals recommend a few steps to battle depression. I added number 5:

  1. Seek social support
  2. Support your health (get enough sleep, control stress, and go outside)
  3. Exercise
  4. Eat Healthy
  5. Give your concerns to God

All of these are incorporated into what we do each morning at F3. Social support comes in the form of other men who are battling or have battled this demon themselves. To me, its finding blades and stones to sharpen each other. It’s the second F – Fellowship. Doctors recommend finding outlets to blow off steam, exercising and getting outside. How else better than exercising outside in the elements pushing past pain with your brothers in the Gloom? This is the first F – Fitness. Finally, acknowledging that there is a higher being that loves you and wants what is best for you. Rather than telling God how big your problems are, tell your problem how big your God is. This is the third F – Faith.

I realized that the reason F3 is growing is because it is the answer to the question we never knew we had. It is the antidote to society’s poison of depression. We all struggle, from project managers to pastors. We all battle life. Why not surround yourself with guys who can build the 3 Fs right beside you? Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 says it best: “Two are better than one because they have good return for their labor. If either of them falls down, the other can help them up. But pity anyone who falls and has no other to help them up. Also if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”

Interpret those three strands however you wish. I like to think of them as me, God, and my brothers. That dream team can win any fight. Grab your shield and suit up, we’ve got a battle to wage.

The Thang

  • Mosey to the front of the church
  • Hold the Plank for the duration of Disturbed “Sound of Silence”
    • Listen to the lyrics. Acknowledge that many men battle depression in silence. We weren’t made to fight alone.

Mosey to the upper parking lot

  • 1 Minute of Squats
  • 40 SSHs (IC)
  • 10 Prison Cell Pushups
  • 40 Imperial Walkers (IC)

Mosey to the front of the church

  • 1 Minute of LBCs
  • 1 Minute of Flutters
  • 1 Minute of Rosalitas
  • 1 Minute of Freddie Mercuries

Mosey to the side lot

  • 1 Minute of Mountain Climbers
  • 1 Minute of Alternating Shoulder Taps
  • 1 Minute of Ski Abs
  • 10 Burpees

Mosey to the upper parking lot

  • 40 Overhead Claps (IC)
  • 35 MNCs (IC)
  • 40 Little Baby Arm Circles (IC)
  • 45 Overhead Press (IC)

Mosey to the front of the church

  • 1 Minute of Box Jumps
  • 1 Minute of Irkins
  • 1 Minute Dips
  • 1 Minute of Merkins

Mosey back to COT

  • Butterfly Stretch
  • Left Leg out Stretch
  • Right Leg out Stretch
  • 10 LBCs (IC)
  • 10 Pretzel Crunch Left (IC)
  • 10 Pretzel Crunch Right (IC)
  • 10 Pretzel Stick Crunch Left (IC)
  • 10 Pretzel Stick Crunch Right (IC)

-Italian Job

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