Speak Victory

 

What an amazing morning in the gloom on this Fall day. Spitz posted early for a pre-run. We had a couple of young Pax present to push us. Twister was wide open and fueled with enough caffeine the town of Fort Mill. #LoveIt

 

The Thang

 

Leg Warm-Up: Toy Soldiers, Shuffle Left, Shuffle Right, Back Pedals, Karaoke Left, Karaoke Right, Power Skips

 

COP: SSH (10x), IW (10x), HBW (20x), Sumo Squats (15x), MC (20x), Peter Parkers (10x), Parker Peters (10x), Pepper Grinders (10x), LBCs (15x)

 

Stretch-o-rama

 

3 on 3 basketball games for intense cardio.

 

Moleskin:

Many people wake up groggy and dreading the day. Starting your day with a negative mind set is a self-defeating choice. You lose the battle before it starts.

 

Start and end your day on a positive note. What you think and say become reality. Speak victory into the atmosphere to win the battle before it starts. When you are troubled, call on God and His angels to help ensure your victory.

 

Deuteronomy 20:4 NIV – “For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.”

 

Peace,

Deacon

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Ciabatta/Tabata whatever at the Yard

It was a balmy Saturday Morning heading to the Yard as I saw many headlamps off in the woods running the Ragnar.  We were getting ready to dial in our own pain for the gloom.  Hopeful thoughts that one of the PAX would bring an FNG or a Kotter to help keep the promise of a quasi moderate workout.  Unfortunately that wasn’t the case.

9 PAX took off for a quick mosey around the parking lot before diving into what would be a painful experience.  We started out with some stretching moves across the parking lot to limber up with knees to chest, toy soldiers, butt kickers, high knees.

Circled up for some warmup moves:  Moroccan nightclubs, cherry pickers, merkins, windmills etc.

The Thang:

Thanks to Anchorman a couple of weeks ago I borrowed his idea of a tabata workout.  30 seconds of exercise 15 seconds of rest. Two sets of each exercise.

Flutters, Low Slow Squats and Side straddle hops.

2nd round was pretty painful

Plank, Shoulder Taps and Peter Parkers

Didn’t realize that those were all in the plank position till it was to late.  Some serious grumbling during this one.

We finished up with a couple of rounds of wall sits and lunge walks to through the parking lot.

Had a brief discussion about the theme of the month Control and how as men we try to control things around us.  We should rely on God and give Him control of our lives so our outcome would be more inline with his will.

Thanks for the opportunity to serve!

Bass-O-Matic

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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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Only you can define Moderate and reflection from my 30’s

After a 2 1/2 year Slowburn Q ban, YHC was honored to lead 24 #HIMS on a “Create you own Adventure” workout in the 80 degree 150% humidity gloom. After a brief discussion on the moderate and an even shorter disclaimer, we left the CFA parking lot destined for glory.

The Thang

Mosey down to the Parking lot in front of empire pizza. Circle up for:
SSH x 10
Windmills x 10
IW x 10
Peter Parkers x 10

Mosey to the lot in front of Charandas and circle up again
Slow Squats x 10
Slow Merkins x 10
Slow Sumo Squats x 10
Slow WideArm Merkins x 10

Mosey to the Parking lot next to what used to have the bouncy stuff and grab a piece of chalk. Talk the chalk and write an exercise in a parking spot and then write x 40 after it. Partner up and go to a parking spot to start. Do the exercise in the parking spot then run a lap around the bushes (about .08 per lap) and then go to a different spot. You and your partner decide which spots to go to and whether you want to do 40 each or 40 total (20 each).

Spots (exercises included)
LBC’s
Merkins
Burpees
Flutter
Dips
Plank Roes
Scorpion Dry Docks
WideArm Merkins
Freddy Mercury
Box Cutters
and more ab exercise

with about 8 minutes left to go YHC called time

Mosey over to strip in front of the stores as I gave a short testimony about reflecting on my 30’s (don’t worry the longer version is in my moleskin at the bottom). As promised, since its my Birthday everyone got a cupcake (its what we called a suicide growing up, but with youth taking their lives at a younger age due to the pressures put on them, we decided at Basketball to call them cupcakes no instead of suicides).

After the cupcake we moseyed back to CFA for COT and BOM

Announcements – CAH workout next Friday still looking for a Q (contact NASA if interested), F3 Dads this Saturday

Prayers – Smithers in-law close to passing from Cancer, Dark Helmets friend also close to passing from Cancer, Marriages, Qbert’sDar 64 year old father who lost his job yesterday

Moleskin
1. Would like to thank Barry Manilow for allowing be back to Q at this wonderful AO and to all the PAX who came out (or posted elsewhere) that have wished me a happy birthday.

2. Moderate – what does it mean. Well it all means something different to all of us, what it doesn’t mean is easy. Think about moderate this way. If i’m someone who doesn’t drink alcohol very often, 1-2 drinks may be a moderate amount. If I drink a little more frequently 3-4 or a six pack might be moderate. Whereas an alcoholic may think moderate is 7-8 drinks. The point is this applies to your fitness level as well. What I think is moderate may be different than what someone else thinks is moderate. The key is to keep posting and keep getting better.

3. Life in my 30’s – Short Version -turned 30 in 2007, seperated from wife and started going to church again in 2011, divorced finalized in 2012, started going to F3 in October 2013, lost my father to cancer in June 2014, got remarried in August 2015, turn 40 today. Now you see, its more complicated than that. Long Version – In 2007 i thought I had it all was married had a couple of dogs, had a job teaching and coaching, everything was good (just not great). But something in me wanted more. I wanted a family. At this point in my life I was working a lot and my wife at the time worked a lot too. We weren’t going to church, had no relationship with God/Jesus, and really had no time for each other. Was even told my wife at the time that she didn’t want me and that we didn’t have time to be intimate. I turned to Porn. When that wasn’t enough I cheated on my wife. That lead down the path to separation and divorce. It also lead me back to going to church and listening to God’s word. My divorce went final in October 2012. In December 2012 I started dating Elizabeth. In September 2013 we broke up. While broken up I decided to give this F3 thing a try. Santini Q’ed and I already knew half the guys as I was teaching/or had taught many of their kids. On that first Saturday in October in 2013 I struggled through the workout and was given the name Longshanks (evil king in Braveheart). I would post sometimes, just not often. In March 2014 I asked Elizabeth to marry me before heading off to a Spartan Race in Charlotte. She said yes. 3 days later my dad called to tell me he had Pancreatic Cancer, 3 months later he was gone. Married my M in August 2015, and turned 40 today.

4. Back when I was in my early 30’s I thought I had a good amount of guy friends, which may be kind of hard when you teach elementary school PE and there’s only 3-5 guys in the entire school. When I went through my separation and divorce I realized that the almost all the guys I considered my friends were actually just husbands of my ex-wifes friends. I had almost nobody to turn to. Luckily a few guys pointed me back to the church. I got involved in volunteering and being part of a mens a group. Shortly after that I started coming to F3, although at first I didn’t make it a workout priority, I would go on Saturdays if I woke up on time (not always easy when coaching and getting home late Friday nights). If I didn’t wake up to go to F3, I would just go to the gym and do a fern workout. I realized something was still missing so I made it a point to start going to F3 more often. About the same time I started going more often I engaged and that was celebrated by the PAX and my dad learned he had cancer and eventually passed and the PAX where there for me during that too. The thing I’ve realized over the last almost 4 years of coming to F3 is that as long as you are willing to be part of the PAX by posting regularly, the PAX will be there for you when you need it. I know that from being a part of F3, my faith is stronger, my relationship with my M is better, and I feel like a better leader in my house and my community.

5. Keep Posting. Keep mentioning your prayers and praises. Keep getting better!! We are all in this together.

Shanks out (mic drop)

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