Tag: Barney Fife

We’ll Make It Breathable

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I know Beacon had this idea in mind but as you’re reading, think about an area of your life where you can push yourself just a little bit more. Not in the sense of looking to DO more but rather, looking to BE more. This comes from pushing yourself. Push yourself to meet guys at another workout, push yourself to be present for others, push yourself to be more engaged. When you get comfortable with your routine, you coast rather than accelerate.

23 was the number at Footloose this morning and evidently, not everyone knew who was on Q. Once they learned, I was happy that nobody left. We started with 23 and we finished with 23. My ask of the PAX was this: I don’t know what you’re carrying on your mind as you roll in here at 0515 but as you’re here for the next 45mins, be HERE, be present, enjoy the guys to your left and right.

Once we were disclaimed, we took a long mosey over to and up Main Street to the Methodist Church to circle up in their parking lot.

Wind Mills

Imperial Walkers

Hillbilly Walkers

5 Burpees by special request

Squats

Moroccan Night Clubs

Carolina Dry Docks

5 more Burpees by special request

Mosey over to behind the Baptist Church

Switzer to explain the deal. Partner up while partners start on opposite ends of the large parking lot.

Each partner bear crawls to their respective 1st island then run to meet their partner in the “middle” of the lot. 20 Single count merkins, run back to that previously-mentioned island and crawl bear back to your starting point. Remember, push yourself just a little bit more.

Rd 2 was crab walk to that island, then run to meet the partner, 20 Wide Arm Merkins, run back to the island and walk crab back to your starting point. Remember, push yourself just a little bit more.

Mosey back to our starting parking lot for a little plank work.

20 Mountain Climbers

10 Peter Parkers

10 Donkey Kicks

10 Parker Peters

2min plank hold

2min Al Gore

1min Burpees

Remember, push yourself just a little bit more.

1min Side Straddle Hops

7min of Mary

WWII Sit-Ups

Flutter Kicks

Freddy Mercury

Heels to Heaven

Protractor

Remember, push yourself just a little bit more.

And that was it…well done.

Announcements:

  1. Mini-convergence at Slow Burn tomorrow to pray for and send Wegmans off on his F3 mission trip to Peru. (Broga will be at 0500 at Slow Burn AO)
  2. Engage in the running training plan that Anchorman and Barry Manilow are leading guys through
  3. Read your newsletter b/c I forgot the remainder.

Prayers:

PRAY

 

Until next time.

Maximus

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Rockin’ Slow Burn

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Slow Burn

Nine Pax showed up as   cool weather prevailed.  Suspicion was on the mind of a few as they noticed  a mini head lamp was noticeable on the Q’s noggin. Disclaimer. MOSEY on down to Lowes.

Slow mosey followed by some high knees, butt kickers & side shuffles.

Chatter, Chatter, Chatter

Warm ups:

SSH

Old Man Windmills

Imperial Walkers

Cherry Pickers

Moroccan Night Clubs

Peter Parkers

Plank Stretch

Downward Dog

Honeymooner

Mosey behind Lowes

Some more chatter

The Pax were curious as why the Q was searching the bushes with his mini headlamp. A mini speaker appeared in his hand along with a modified “Board of Pain”

THE THANG

Partner Up

2 Excercises/Alternate/Complete Reps/3 minutes longSlow Burn

1-Mtn Climbers/Squats X 20

2-Bomb Jacks/Partner Plank Hand Taps x 20

Mosey around the parking lot

3-LBCs/Pank Jacks 20x

4-Merkins/Jump Rope 20x

Mosey around parking lot

5-Lunges/American Hammer 20x

6-CDD/Low Slow Squats 20x

Apache 10 Counts provided opportunities for the Pax to talk about how they came to F3 & how they got their nick names.

MUSICAL HIT LIST

Van Halen Right Now

Billy Joel Pressure

Led Zeppelin Rock & Roll

Journey Any Way You Want It

Tom Petty Runnin’ Down A Dream

Led Zeppelin The Immigrant Song

Indian Run back to COT

Prayers & Praises

Thanks goes out to Wide Right who asked me to sub for him!! Thanks to the Pax for allowing me the honor to lead you in the Gloom!

 

Boogie Down out!

 

 

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Just for Kicks – Foot Loos

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About 18 men awoke to a nice dark morning before the roosters crowed. It was for more than just for kicks, it was because they are courageous to take on the challenge that was before them.  Here’s what went down

Warmup:      Moroccan Night Club, Wind Mills, some funky Imperial Walkers, Low slow squat.    Let’s mosey

What’s Up: A Dora Set – 100 Merkins, 100 Squats, 100 Flutters, 100 CDD, and helped finish off the teams that needed some bold encouragement. Small Mosey around the parking lot to hear words of encouragement from Joshua 1:9. Wall Sits, with individual counts down the line, and yes, we did wall sits again. Don’t be alarmed because two times a charm.  Time to Mosey again.  Left and then Right curb merkins followed by a friendly squat walk up the steps.

Wrap Up: More merkins, Mtn Climbers, Parker Peter, Peter Parker, Moraccan night club.

Fun was had by all and we even had some runners join in at the end. GREAT way to start a morning.

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Can Longshanks do Moderate?

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So the question came up after Hasselhoff made a call to the bullpen last second as to whether YHC could lead a moderate workout and not get banned from leading it again. 15 PAX showed up to find out the answer.

The Thang

Mosey around the First Baptist Parking lot with some High Knees, Butt Kickers, and Toy Soldiers (already grumbling of not moderate).
Circle up for some COP
SSH x 20
1 Burpee (had to get that mandatory Shanks Q requirement out of the way)
Windmills x 10
Imperial Walkers x 10
Squats x 15
Mountain Climbers x 15
Plankarama

Mosey over to the steps at First Baptist
Run up and Down – do 1 Merkin
run up and down – do 2 Merkins
run up and Down – do 3 Merkins
run up and Down – do 4 Merkins
run up and Down – do 5 Merkins. Plank for the 6

Mosey over to Church of God Lot by the stairs for A Dora 6 pack. 1 partner runs the stairs up and down while the other performs the exercise.
100 LBC’s
100 American Hammers
100 Flutter Kicks
100 Hello Dolly
100 Dying Cockroach
100 Big Boy Situps

Mosey to the Church of God Side way for some people’s chair and Merkins

Mosey back to First Baptist steps for 5 more trips up and down the stairs. This time at the bottom Squats. 2, 4, 6, 8, 10. Mosey to the flag for COT.

Announcements – Reading at Steele St. Monday and Wednesday 4-5. Christmas Party December 1st. No Fast 5 this Saturday.

Prayers – for those with teenagers.

Moleskin
I realized today that throughout this “moderate” workout YHC didn’t give a single 10 count to catch our breath. Got me thinking about where that applies in life. Often in life I feel when going through something tough, God doesn’t always give us a breather as he needs us to push through whatever it is we are struggling with and that we trust Him to get us through to place where we can get a break.

Shanks out

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5077 steps

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11 for a moderate… plus …

 

Felt like we needed to run a bit …

Stretched it out, then set up the beatdown with a stroll around the back of FM Middle, where the letters for the AO were strung out under light poles that went forever..

At each letter, do the exercise, then there was a nice long stroll in between around the pickup area.. to the next letter.. each letter had two rounds ..

T – 25 SSH, 25 SSH

H – 20 Merkins, 20 CDD

E – 25 LBC, 7 Burpees

Y – 15 Windmill, 30 Plank Jack

A – 15 Flutters

R – 20 Shoulder tap, 20 Lunges

D – 20 MNC, 20 Imp Walker

Dr J and Major Pain brought a basketball, so to wrap, we shot it out for a burpee challenge.

 

Spoke briefly about Encouragement. I mentioned Strawberry as someone who I believe has been encouraged by the PAX he has met at some very hard posts in the few weeks he’s been with us. Seeing him come back again and again gives me encouragement that F3 is having an impact. 

Props to the Pax for putting up with me.

Gilmore’s fancy watch said we took 5077 steps.

Prayers for the family of Gilmore’s friend Stephanie. Magnum attending a funeral of a fallen servant, F3 Popper, who we hope to see soon and Deacon’s dad Wayne.

 

Aye — 

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Nihil Gastrocnemius

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TL:DR version

Have to stay off my left calf. I may miss some things or get the order wrong, since I had to modify my plan heavily.  We destroyed some quadriceps…

We took a stroll to the empty side of the AO parking lot and circled up for some

  1. Low Slow Squats
  2. overhead claps
  3. merkins
  4. “under the fence” merkins x 7 (can’t find in the exercises, but I know it’s common, accidentally fired my left calf and almost ate pavement, I had to stop and had everyone get up)
    1. Start in down dog
    2. bend arms like a Carolina dry dock
    3. keep them bent and push up into Honeymooner
    4. Reverse to down dog
  5. Stretching from sumo position, drop the six and extend each leg with the toe up

Next we partnered up for some modified Dora.  Each mover would go one way and start the stationary exercise when they got to the end, while the partner did the moving exercise.  The length was from one center line to another (about 19.5m)

  1. Toy soldiers – Squats x100
  2. Leg Sweeps – LBC x200
    1. Recommended modification for the sweeps was to squat with the six just above ground, extend the left leg and shift with the six almost dragging, bring the feet together, turn 180, extend the right, and continue)
    2. Deacon has SOLID sweeps
  3. A bit of talking about encouragement, and how we as men, (especially YHC) can easily tear down someone without thinking about it
  4. Open Tee Stance  walk – high knees across the body x300
    1. Open Tee Stance – walking with toes at 45’s away from center, the back knee is just above the pavement, and the front foot lands directly in front, come up and step in front of the back knee.  This kills the quads
    2. High knees across the body not  unlike the imperial walker, but higher and combat oriented
  5. 10 count to breath
  6. 10 burpees
  7. 10 count again
  8. Squat walking, with ducking and double punch – flutter
    1. At this point we changed it up to just two lengths, no counting, just flutter

Circle up and get some more leg stretching like in the warmup.  But that was just the interlude.  Some more circle exercises were on their way

  1. Forward split circular fingertip pushups
    1. Legs out with toes up, on your fingertips, sway back going down, and forward over the hands going up
  2. Horse Stance (Al gore, if you want) and 100 2-count punches
  3. Horse Stance and 25 2-count upper cuts
  4. 15 Imperial Walkers
  5. 15 Hillbilly Walkers

Finished with some forearm stretching and back to COT where we did Name O Rama (and my phone decided not to continue recording after 2seconds), and welcomed FNG “Shazam” to F3!! Announcements and prayer and break for the day.

Background on the modification

I’ve got a massive backlog of exercises that don’t involve running, carrying people, and the normal, exhausting, certain-death at other AOs.  Most of these revolve around my shaolin background, and I had built a fun tour of the DT Fort Mill around them…  But fate or my body had other plans…

Early AM yesterday YHC was leaving my son’s school conferences and hopped off the curb onto my left foot and the same muscle pull I experienced at the Hive two weeks ago reared its ugly head. I once again got the chance to hobble around town like someone had given my calf the Tonya Harding treatment.  I thought my number was  up.  I sent messages looking for a backup Q and began praying that when I woke up in the morning I’d be healed.

That didn’t happen.  But the spasm or whatever it is calmed down enough that at 0400 this morning I could put weight on the left without too much pain.  So I geared up and drove down to Footloose in the delightful weather we’re having, and selected exercises that didn’t require anyone to fire their calves.

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No Fear = No EnCOURAGEment

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22 boot campers (including 1 FNG) and 5 runners posted to THE Ballroom this week looking for some #Encouragement along the pothole-filled road of life.  YHC offered a full Disclaimer for the benefit of our FNG (T-claps to Barney Fife on the EH) tipped the cap to Sir Topham Hat, who passed the Q baton to YHC due to work travel.  The word of the month (Encouragement) served as the inspiration for today’s adventures in the gloom, so thanks also to Chicken Hawk for his continued wisdom with that program.

Encouragement:  root word = Courage

Courage (noun): strength in the face of fear

With this backdrop, the workout unfolded with the objective of getting pax in touch with their own sense of #Fear to illustrate the experience of #Courage and the need/ability/practice of exercising it and #Encouragement of their brothers.

The Thang

warm up run to the football field

COP — SSH, IWs, Hillbilly walkers, Bombjacks, merkins, burpees

Line up along sideline, 3/4 pace sprints — to near hash/back, then far hash/back, lastly far sideline/back

Circle up for the Main Event (Fear or Favorite)

Pax were asked to identify the exercise they most #Fear when they hear the Q say “The next exercise is ___________.”  They were also asked to imagine their #Favorite exercise they like to call when they are Q.  Then we launched into 30 mins of Pax-suggested/Q-chosen exercises.

Plank jacks (Fogerty), Gravedigger (Culture Club), Partner Carry (Bass-o-Matic), V-up Roll-up (Polaroid), Sprints (FNG!), Moroccan Night Clubs (Assassin), Jack Webb (Magnum), Squats (Strawberry), Burpees (Pinup), Merkin (Rebel), Knee Tar N’Dyae (Rebel), Tunnel of Love (Twister)

Mosey home

Final ab work — American Hammer, Flutter

COT

Moleskin

T-claps to the pax for the enthusiastic participation, mumblechatter and #Encouragement throughout.  Apologies to those pax whose exercise I missed and those who I mismatched in the list above.  I know we started with Fogerty catching much flak for a stuttering proclamation of “Plank Jacks” to get us rolling.  Bass-o-matic challenged himself and all the pax in the early going with the Partner Carry call-out.  Yes, YHC quickly claimed FNG/Half Dome as partner (purely for teamwork purposes, I can assure you…it had nothing to do with his svelte frame).  Pinup threw down the gauntlet, claiming Burpees as both his Fear and his Favorite (1500 in September seems to prove the point — well done!).  Strawberry (on only his 2nd post!) showed he knows the proper rhythm of a workout by calling for Squats immediately after Jack Webb (get this man into Q school ASAP!).  And Twister had his mic drop moment with Tunnel of Love to cap it all off.  Fun times throughout!

Welcome to FNG/Half Dome, who posted at the behest of Barney Fife (kudos to both)!

Finally, just a recap on the theme to reinforce the message.  YHC, in my prideful youth and throughout a very long stretch of adulthood, deluded myself that I was purely self-motivated, and no outside influence, inspiration or good words could make a difference to my spirit or performance.  While my M openly claimed her need for affirmation and #Encouragement, I laughed those things off, as though those who needed them were weak, meek and timid.  I also claimed to have few worries or fears throughout these periods.  A-ha!!!   There it is — the smoking gun.  Since #Courage can only exist in the midst of #Fear, I must’ve needed nor displayed any #Courage throughout these years.   And in the absence of feeling #Fear and gathering up #Courage, I had no recognition of the need or value of #Encouragement.  And, so it follows sadly, that in the absence of my personal experience of these, I fumbled and floundered in expressing #Encouragement to those around me who longed for it.  This shortcoming became a significant blind spot and weakness in leading others, including my family.  Yes, sad.  Yes, true.

While I still have plenty of room for growth in the area of #Encouragement of others, my ship turned around when I became more sensitized to my own fears, and I felt the power of #Encouragement from others, and I demonstrated the #Courage that was somewhat dormant inside me.  So, the lesson here — soften your heart, look yourself in the mirror, get in touch with your #Fear.  From that point, you may find immense personal growth opportunity and the ability to better relate and #Impact those around you through #Encouragement.

Thank you to Short Sale for the Q opportunity and to all the pax for making the experience real!

 

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6

A not So slow Burn

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There was perfect weather for 29 PAX that came out for YHC third Q. I wasn’t feeling extremely confident because my first two attempts at Qing were less than stellar and this was a large turnout. After spending some quality time earlier this week coming up with what I thought would be a not-so-moderate workout I took a deep breath, said a little prayer and got busy.

The Thang

We started promptly at 5:15 with a welcome to my first FNG, the disclaimer and then we moseyed down the hill to the parking lot across from Lowe’s for some stretching.

COP:

Broga (toe touches, elbow lifts, leg stretches)

Hillbilly walkers x 25

Cherry pickers x 15

Windmills x 15

Moroccan night clubs x 25

Side straddle hops x 25

Burpees x 5

After the warmup was done we moseyed to the parking lot behind Lowe’s where the real fun began. We partnered up and started with a round of Dora 1-2-3s.

Parking lot runs and….

100 Merkins

200 LBCs

300 Overhead claps

We threw in an extra parking lot run for good luck and knocked out another 5 burpees before moseying to the parking lot in front of Empire Pizza.

COP:

Imperial walkers x 20

Low slow squats x 25

Hello dollies x 25

Burpees x 5

Moseyed back for CoT and had a little time to fit in 25 American hammers, 20 monkey humpers and more broga before calling it quits.

CoT:

Count-o-rama

Name-o-rama

FNG – My coworker and good friend, Gary Del Toro, was welcomed and almost immediately dubbed “Strawberry” because of the Mets t-shirt he was wearing. Later in the morning at work he said he really enjoyed meeting everyone and definitely planned on coming back.

Announcements

Praises and Prayer Requests

It was a great group of HIMs that definitely made me stronger mentally and physically, I hope I returned the favor. Thanks Smithers for the chance to lead!!

Barney Fife

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5

Carport Broga at Footloose

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We had 16 pax brave the weather which ended up not being an issue.  After a brief intro and disclaimer we took a short mosey to the first carport at church #1.  Broga was the warmup for our first stop.  The pax was introduced to cat call and pigeon stretches.  Another mosey on to the second carport behind FBC.  We continued broga with some more leg stretches and arm stretches.  Mulble chatter was becoming an issue so I threw in set of burpees.  It got quiet quick.  Mosey to our next stop at the upper parking lot of  COG.  A couple of more warmup sets with merkins and peter parkers.  Finished up the broga with some upward dogs and walked the dog.  More burpees then our final mosey to the meat and potatoes.

Before diving in pax got a short switzer on #getinthegame.  Referred back to the invergence and the service opportunities with CAH, paradise GFit and reading opportunities.  Find out your spiritual gifts and put them into action.

On to the main event.  A couple of rounds of 1/2 parking lot of toy soldiers, knee grabs and lunges then run the other have of lot and back.  I asked pin up if he cracked a sweat yet.  He said no.  Wrong answer.  Ran the whole lot that time up and back.  Not much chatter after that.

We did a pax choice DORA. 100 Merkins, 200 Moroccan night clubs, 300 LBC’s and 400 squats.  The Pax partnered up and alternated run across parking lot while partner worked on exercise.  By the time we got to the squats we had to call an Omaha.  Ended up doing 200 squats and 200 monkey humpers.  More burpees in there somewhere.

Mosey back to COT for a little mary and wrapped up the burpees. Ended up with 33 in total.

Thanks Beacon for the opportunity.  Always a good group at Footloose!

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Always Ready

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Maximus at a “Moderate?” I mean, c’mon, Slow Burn isn’t always moderate. That said, I appreciate the opportunity to Q no matter the AO so thank you Smithers for thinking of me. I tried to honor the AO by pushing the PAX and keeping everyone together.

So here it is:

Warm up jog to the lot next to Lowe’s for a warm-up circle of:

SSH (Only for Trucker), Imperial walkers, Wide-Arm Merkins, Donkey Kicks and 10 Burpees (more to come)

Line up shoulder to shoulder on the wall in the peoples’ chair position

Starting at one end, we’d lunge walk to the other end of the peoples’ chair wall.

Next series, PAX line up shoulder to shoulder in a plank position with their feet on the all. Starting at one end, the PAX would bear crawl to the other end.

Jog around the back of Lowe’s heading toward the ever-changing car repair shop. The interesting thing here is that while finishing the jog, I heard a conversation between Chicken Hawk and Wide-Right where the latter mentioned he hasn’t Q’d yet and was interested in getting on a Q schedule. So, I did an about face, confirmed what I thought I heard and gave him the opportunity as soon as we circled up in the repair lot. After a brief mention to the PAX regarding the Q change for the next several minutes, I think he led us in the following:

LBC’s, Mountain Climbers, 10 Burpees Dips, Derkins Peter Parkers, Parker Peters, SSH and 5 Burpees…he then handed it back to me.

Now, jog to the large lot on the other side and circle up:

Flutter kicks w/ a press

Box Cutters then reverse box cutters

A short 3-tier suicide series with jump squats as you return to the starting line.

So that was in; we keep the group together, encourage the chatter and give a man his opportunity to lead us. Just another day in THE FORT.

Leave no man behind but leave no man as you found him.

Maximus

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