Fun and Games Friday @ The Swamp

On a cool Friday morning, things got weird quick. After we ditched 5 ruckers led by Zima, the 17 bootcampers moseyed to a parking lot with some shuffles on the way. Warm-o-rama started with some windmills, peter parker peters, mountain climber merkins, super low super slow squats followed by smurf jacks. We went on to do some T-bombs and a superman hold which led to sun gods and Moroccan NC’s whilst in superman pose. This warm-o-rama made for much mumble chatter.

Next, mosey to the walls between target and home depot for some wall work, where PAX started with a derkin ladder from 10 to 1, running to the other wall in between. Next was ascending testicles, with feet starting at 10 degrees for a 10 count, then 45 degrees for a 10 count, followed by full BTTW 10 count. Mix in some leg work with a squat countdown. Start with 10 squats and hold Al Gore for a 10 count. Not too bad, until you do 9 squats and hold Al Gore for a 9 count. Repeato until 1:1.  Ouch…

Numbered off 1’s and 2’s to split into teams.  Regal forgot he was a 2.  Fridays are hard.  When we finally got the teams even, both teams hold BTTW and one at a time run to other wall and get up BTTW then call for next teammate. First team to have everyone BTTW on the other side wins.  Team 2 won both.  Probably because Regal was on team 2.

Mosey to parking lot where we lined everyone up at the end of the lot. It was game time. Good ole Rock Paper Scissors. Everyone against the Q. If you beat the Q, you had to bear crawl forward approx. 10 yards.  If you tie the Q, 1 burpee.  If you lost to the Q, 1 kraken burpee.  In perfect statistical form, about a third beat the Q.  Next, round two, where the winners bear crawled another 10 yards, the ties did 2 burpees, and the losers did 2 kraken burpees. This went on for a total of 6 rounds and I’m fairly certain I saw 1 or 2 PAX who lost them all.  More ouch…. Regal won

Mosey to grassy hill to finish off the arms with 2 rounds of clock merkins on the hill, mosey back to COT where we met up with the ruckers. With 2 minutes left, busted out the JBL for some linkin park workout. Let the Bodies Hit the Floor (LTBHTF).  On the lyrics “1, 2, 3, 4” we did a merkin. On a “LTBHTF” it was a donkey kick.  Hold plank in between.  Made it just under halfway though the song for a 6am COT.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead Cha Ching!

~Lutefisk

TClap |
4

Burpees, Bearcrawls, and Barf!

A great crowd this morning at The Abyss.  We had a bunch of runners and a bunch of bootcampers and 1 FNG.  Those that stayed for the bootcamp probably wish the would have joined the runners, I know I did.  This workout was hard and we didn’t complete it, but there is always next time…

We started with the typical mosey to get the blood flowing a bit, we circled around the parking lot and did some shuffle steps, NUR, and back to mosey before circling up for warm-a-rama around the basketball hoops.  I decided prior that the warm-up was going to set the precedence for the workout (hard) and warm-up the muscles we’d be using a lot (shoulders, core, arms).

Warm-a-Rama

  • 10 Windmills
  • Elbow plank (called on random PAX for 10 counts, at least 2 rounds)
  • Back to regular plank – 10 Merkins
  • 9 Diamond Merkins (Q-Shame, I didn’t have one more in me)
  • Recover with 25 SSH IC
  • Back to Plank – 10 Peter Parkers
  • 10 Parker Peters
  • 6″ hold – Called on Random Pax for 10 counts (at least 2 rounds)
  • 25 Moroccan Nightclubs IC

We then moseyed to the grass hill for the next exercise.

For the first routine we paired up and started at the bottom of the hill on the sidewalk.  PAX A was to do Burpees while PAX B went backwards up the hill (NUR) and forwards down the hill x4.  After 4, we switched and PAX B continued the Burpees while PAX A ran backwards up/forwards down x4.  We did this until we reached 120 Burpees… a few of the PAX finished, most were over a 100 when I called it for time (I had another routine I wanted to get to).  Our Friendly New Guy thought this was a great time to splash merlot, so he did, but he kept on trucking right after.  He definitely brought the GRIT!

Congratulations and welcome Doubtfire! No better way to start F3, it’s all uphill from here!

We then took the short mosey to the paved hill the leads up to the rear gate to the school.  For the 2nd routine I brought back Paula Abduls, I’ve never done them on a hill so I thought that would be a nice (painful) new twist.  Paula’s aren’t really an exercise, its just a movement, 2 forward, 1 back, which is a nice metaphor on life.  Life isn’t a consistent line straight up, we all have setbacks, we all get knocked down, but it is how we respond to those set backs that contribute to our success.  We all know that through failure we become better, this is a nice way to build an exercise around that idea.  I didn’t have the energy to hammer that point home during the workout so I thought I would take the opportunity to point that out here.  In any case, back to the routine…

6 Cones were placed up the hill about 25 paces (50ft. or so) apart. We would always move in this order, 2 (cones) forward, 1 back until we reached the 6th cone and then we would work our way back. If you ever plan do this keep in mind cones will be hit multiple times depending on where they are placed, so plan accordingly.  Each cone had an exercise on it:

  1. True Americans x10 (hand release merkin & a plank jack =1)
  2. Donkey Kicks x10
  3. Squats x25 (this was meant to be a break)
  4. Crab Jacks (think plank jack, but in crab position) x10
  5. Diamond Merkins x10
  6. Absolution x10 – I haven’t done these before, but they will be back.  They were awesome and it was also a bit humorous watching the PAX get the coordination down for these.  It’s an 8-count exercise that goes a little something like this:
    • Start in plank position and perform a single Groiner (cadence “1” jump feet forward, “2” jump feet back), then Mahktar N’ Diayes to Chillcut position (cadence “3” & “4” with drop to each elbow), then Chilly Jack (cadence “5” feet out, “6” feet together), and finally Mahktar N’ Diayes to plank starting position (cadence “7” and “ONE, TWO, etc.” with rise on each hand).

Oh and I almost forgot to mention… we always went forward 2 by way of the Bear Crawl and backwards 1 by way of the Crawl Bear.  Brutal.

None of us made it back down, but we did all make it to the top, so I called it with about 5 minutes to spare to head back to CoT.

With only about 2 minutes left we did a couple of Ab exercises, I called LBC’s x 25 IC and called on Bones who did another 20-25 Flutters IC until we hit 6:00AM.

Announcements, praises, prayers

Read your newsletter!

Prayers for school teachers and our children as they head back to school.  Prayers for injured PAX and those with nagging injuries.

See ya’ll Monday at the Quagmire 🙂

-Flux

 

 

 

TClap |
2

Pre-Blast: September ’18 – Back to (Q) School

Men,

The Mission of F3 is to plant, grow and serve small workout groups for the invigoration of male community leadership. In order to invigorate male leadership, we must strive to invigorate and encourage new males to step up and become leaders. One of the best ways we have to accomplish this is to help new PAX learn what it takes to Q.

This is especially important this year as we push to expand the number of leaders in The Fort with our #218in18 FNG Campaign. We are encouraging SiteQs to schedule VQs throughout the remainder of this year. To support this effort, we need to make sure we provide the resources needed to these new leaders.

We’ll be launching Q School at Golden Corral (centrally located for everyone in the region) every Tuesday in September (4th, 11th, 18th, 25th). Q School will be led by a few of our veterans (who are also trying to get better at these opportunities to lead). Q School will feature both Q101 (perfect for new guys or those that want to get a handle on the basics) and Q201 (a more advanced session focused on some of the more detailed aspects of Q’ing).

Here is the schedule:

  • September 4th – Q101 – CakeBoss + Longshanks
  • September 11th – Q101 – Senator Tressel + Bones
  • September 18th – Q101 & Q201 – Double D + Royale
  • September 25th – Q101 & Q201 – Pusher + Dark Helmet

This is a great opportunity to work together to continue to develop leaders across the Fort Mill/Indian Land/Lake Wiley area. Contact Ginsu or any of the Qs listed above with questions.

– Ginsu

TClap |
6

August 2018 – Impact Convergence

On the morning of Friday, August 3rd, 61 Men of High Impact joined Homebrew, Deacon, & Jiffy for some #Convergence work.

For this Round Robin of Pain, we separated the PAX into 3 groups and rotated to each station for 12 minutes.

Station 1 – Jiffy:

He had setup a row of 4 cones in the bank parking lot and ran the PAX through the following exercises.

  • 5 Burpees OYO
  • Straight suicides
  • Lunge walk, 10 squats at each cone
  • Bear crawl, 10 merkins at each cone
  • 15 American Hammers in cadence
  • Suicides with 3 Bomb Jacks at each cone
  • Broad jump to each cone, 5 lunges each leg
  • Crab walk, 5 diamond merkins at each cone
  • 15 LBC’s in cadence

Station 2 – Deacon:

Find a partner

One partner runs to Pizza Hut and back while the other does a series of exercises until the team does merkins (100x), Squats (200x), LBCs (300x).

  • Partner Drills (Round 1) – Partner Big Boy Sit Ups (15x for 2 rounds), Partners Push Ups (15x for 2 rounds), Partner Leg Lifts (15x for 2 rounds)
  • Partner Drills (Round 2 if time permits) – Partner Wheel Barrels to each side of the parking lot (2x for 2 rounds), Partner Ski Jumps (15x for 2 rounds)

Station 3 – Homebrew:

4 Corners and Burpee Roll

PAX were divided into four groups, with one group being sent to each corner. Complete all exercises listed at your corner then bear crawl to the center. At the center was a large foam die. One PAX would roll the die for the group to determine how may burpees everyone would do. Amazingly, only one 6 was rolled all morning – I’m lookin at you IceT. Once the burpees were completed, crab walk from the center to the next corner going clockwise. Rinse and repeat until all corners are done or time runs out.

  • Corner 1
    • 40 SSH
    • 40 Plank Jacks
    • 40 Mountain Climbers
    • 20 Crab Cakes
  • Corner 2
    • 15 Merkins
    • 30 CDD
    • 15 Wide Arm Merkins
    • 5 Kraken Burpees
  • Corner 3
    • 10 Donkey Kicks
    • 50 Calf Raises
    • 40 Monkey Humpers
    • 20 Lunges
  • Corner 4
    • 10 Big Boy Situps
    • 20 Hello Dollys
    • 30 Dying Cockroaches (double count)
    • 10 Boxcutters

There were prayer requests for family, school returning and those with health needs.

Cakeboss took us out in prayer.

Great job, Homebrew, Deacon, & Jiffy!

– Ginsu

TClap |
2

Sweatin’ With an Oldie: DaVinci at Quagmire

https://youtu.be/0H6KtpAaCio

It was great Q-ing at Quagmire this morning. We had a dozen (12) post including an FNG. For his benefit, I reviewed F3’s mission as well as our 5 core principles. Add to that the disclaimer and we were off.

The Thang:

Mosey to parking lot in front of Old Navy

COP
SSH x 20
Windmills (Abe’s cos I’m old) x 10
Moroccan Nightclubs x 20
Low Slow Squats x 15 DC
Merkins x 10 DC
Downward Dog (stretch the calves) Honeymooners (the back)
Mountain Climbers x 20 DC
LBCs x 20 DC

Mosey to back of Valvoline to hill

Jacobs Ladder
10 Merkins at bottom/1 Squat at top

Mosey to stairs/raised patio near fountain

5 up and over laps with Bones setting the pace

Mosey to Fountain/Roundabout

Dirty McDeuces
All exercises in cadence
Do all 4 exercises, run lap around traffic circles at either end of parking area

20 Merkins
20 Lunges
20 LBCs

20 CDDs
20 Squats
20 Freddys

20 Ranger Merkins
20 Reverse Lunges
20 American Hammers

Walked over to fountain, found some bench

20 Dips OYO

2 min jog to COT for name-a-rama

Welcome FNG Regal.

Thanks to Jedi for the Q.

TClap |
5

Wonder Twin Powers

13 Pax gathered at the Deep for an unheard of beatdown by YHC and Ginsu. So heres the backstory….YHC was given the honor of Qing the Deep by Shakespeare (Keep up the great leadership!) One of the Pax that YHC wanted to get to know better was Ginsu, our 1st F Q. So, in an unheard of move that was borderline ridiculous, we went for it. Ginsu added a bit of variety by  bringing his speaker to play some tunes throughout the workout. Lots of mumble chatter came from this.

The Pax of Lake Wylie are known for giving it their all and they did not disappoint. Gansu was prepared and YHC brought an old school Dirty McDeuce (courtesy of OBT) to the group.

The discussion was impact which was a carryover from the 3rd F Convergence from the day before. YHC admires the impact that Pax of F3 the Fort are making in the community. However, the best opportunity/need for impact is those who fall into your first 2 circles of Concentrica. The M and 2.0s. Fittingly, Bones posted with Link, his 2.0 who brought it for the workout and clearly Bones is making an impact with this one.

The Thang

Mosey across the street to Oakridge Middle – Pusher in the lead

COP

Windmills

Morrocan Night Clubs

SSH – no less than 30

Mtn Climbers

Merkins

Mosey to track for the Dirty McDeuce – First song is Ice, Ice, Baby by Vanilla Ice – let the mumble chatter begin!

4 sets of exercises, 3 exercises x 12 – IC, followed by a lap

Exercises focused on chest, core, legs

Round 1 – Merkins, LBCs, Low slow squats

Round 2 – Wide arm merkins, Dollies, Lunges

Round 3 – CDD, Rosalitas, Monkey Humpers

Round 4 – Diamond, Flutters, Mtn Climbers

Handoff to Ginsu

A few words on the intentionality of impact

Intention leads to Actions and that leads to Impact

Sprint work

50 yard sprint, 3 hand release burpees, 50 yard mosey x 3

LBC, Big Boy, Flutter x 20 in between

50 yard sprint, 10 merkins, 50 yard mosey x 3

V Ups, Captain Thor, Boats and Canoe x 20

50 yard sprint, 10 jump Squats, 50 yard mosey x 3

Freddy, hello dolly, protractor

Thunderstruck was played…uh oh!

Started with a V Up for every “thunder” based on request by Bones (what was he thinking) we switched to a burpee.

Mosey home

 

Moleskin

  • Thanks to Ginsu for the music. Definitely made the pain feel a little better
  • Thanks to Shakespeare for the opportunity
  • Thanks to Shady for coming over from Tega Cay
  • Ruck options upcoming –  See Royale
  • Training opportunities for Ragnar – See Royale
  • Read your newsletter

Pusher out!

 

TClap |
3

Still in Abyssness

I seem to keep having my last Q in the Carolinas at least once a week now. Gonna need to stop calling it that until I got a final date for when I leave. Bones gave me the Q for abyss at sea legs, came up with something on the spot that went more or less like this today-

Mosey to basketball court, COP

Mosey to the back road. At top of back road, tried having us do rugby sprints, learned its kinda hard to do it coming downhill, didn’t realize the angle was as steep as it was when trying to stop suddenly for six inches. Did this all the back to basketball courts

WIth a partner, each man does 30 pullups  altogether, switching off to run to give breaks between sets. I love my pullups, and 30 is ambitious I think for most people.

After this went on to main event. Tried explaining the whole routine before starting, but learned it was alot easier to just go round by round and have the PAX follow along till the habit picked up.

ISLAND HOPPING

4 islands nearest us in parking lot, do a set of an exercise and run to next. then,Far away islands, run to each and do 15 LBCs.  last island near middle by COT, 10 burpees before moving on to next round. rounds were as follows:

1.10 merkins

2.20 squats

3.20 monkey humpers

after going through one cycle of this, PAX had it down pat. 10 minutes, left, started over with intention that everyone do as much as they could before time. Pax in lead got to monkey humpers again before COT called.  As usual, Jedi was beast mode and in the lead and never looks like he’s dying haha.

Had lunch with Qbert today who was present, I asked him what the general impression was of ” a whopper Q”, if it had any general characteristics . He answered that it was that nobody ever knew what it was going to be or what to expect. Really, Really glad to hear that because honestly, my biggest thing that I want to avoid at all costs, is to be too predictable or cliche when I lead the beatdown. So its good to know.

TClap |
2

Jedi’s Post-iversa-Q

You would think that I’d have some sort of snarky intro to open my backblast for my anniversary Q. But, writer’s block. I blame peanut M&M coma. #keepingitclydesdale

YHC was pleasantly surprised when 11 PAX joined me in the gloom for my poorly hyped celebration. I blame the site Q…  Special recognition goes out to Phish, who is in town for the training YHC runs for his job. Poor soul didn’t know he’d be seeing me in the gloom before putting up with me all day. Anyway, the disclaimer was given and we jumped right into our warm-up. SSH, low slow squats, Moroccan night clubs, and windmills were all done in cadence to some forgotten number before we rolled out.

When I was EH’ed a year ago, my very first post was to a running AO. I hate running (shocker, I know), and at that point I hadn’t run in well over a decade. Not intentionally, anyway. Copperfield gets credit for bringing me out, and since he was training for his marathon, we did a lot of running for my first week. So, to commemorate my first post, we went on a run around Rivergate, working out to right around one mile (we cut out the full loop done for pre-runs, which is ~1.6 miles). Final destination: the fountain.

Mini Moleskin 1

My first big takeaway from jumping into this F3 thing was, you have to put yourself out there and do the uncomfortable thing if you’re going to get better. I hate running, but more than that I hate getting vulnerable and walking into a new situation where I may or may not be accepted. The first couple weeks of posting were more of a mental battle, trying to get over myself, step out, and meet some people because, let’s face it, I had no friends. I wasn’t going to make friends by sitting on my six, so I had to do the uncomfortable thing. Like running. Or meeting a group of guys I’d never met before in a dark parking lot in the wee hours of the morning.

Back to the workout…

Next to the fountain were 10 balloons (taped to cones so they didn’t blow away). Inside each balloon was a card with an exercise and a number of reps. Pretty simple here: pop a balloon, the group does the exercise for the given number of reps, then we all run a lap around the parking lot. Originally the run was around the traffic circles, but that got shortened after the second round.

Exercises completed:

  • 100 hillbilly squat walkers
  • 1000 burpees
  • 400 jump squats
  • 700 squats
  • 500 diamond merkins

Reps were evenly distributed among the PAX, but those completing their reps first were encouraged to pick up reps from those still working. As a team, all reps were completed, with probably some extras thrown in for good measure.

Mini Moleskin 2

After surviving the first couple weeks with F3 last year, I realized that this group was special. It’s been years – probably at least a decade, if not longer – since I’ve had a group of guys who are willing to step in and help out in a moment’s notice, with pretty much anything. Guys who are willing to encourage you, push you, or be a total idiot with you. We aren’t in this life alone, and F3 is a tangible example of that reality. We aren’t made to do it alone, so stop trying, get over yourself, and reach out. There are people around ready and willing to help.

Back to the workout…

With just a couple minutes left, we had to get back to COT. We could run (blech), or we could partner carry. Having recently dropped weight through the generosity of food poisoning, I wasn’t as burdensome as I have been in the past. Nevertheless, Witchhunt took one for the team and carried this Clydesdale halfway back. I lucked out in that deal, as he weighs maybe 160 pounds. All PAX gathered at COT for a final word.

Mini Moleskin 3

In addition to having a group of guys around to help out or be an idiot with, the community here goes deeper than that. These guys are willing to step in and carry your burdens when you can’t. We have PAX in our region who have gone through some awful experiences, just in the past year. Watching the community step in and do for them what they can’t do for themselves at their times of greatest need has been incredible. We can carry each other in a workout, but it’s something entirely different to carry each other through the hardest times. It is an honor to be able to be a part of this.

It’s not about the workout. It’s not about ourselves.

It’s about our brothers.

This is why we do it.

And this is why we give it away.

There were announcements. Read your newsletter.

As for prayers, here were a bunch, but the big ones I remember are recent friends and/or family members of PAX who have died of cancer. Pray for those left behind as they mourn the loss yet continue on.

Thanks to all the PAX who posted with me this morning, and for those who didn’t post but have been a part of this journey. It is an honor to get to serve you.

Jedi

TClap |
10

Beyond- Freedom has never been easy.

Always an Honor to Q. To be able to push men Beyond their comfort zone. To teach and be tought.  America has given me freedoms that most of the world can not even fathom. Freedom has been given to us all by the selfless acts of men and women willing to give themselves up so that we can live like other country.

We started with a disclaimer. Let all know who I was and checked to see if we had any FNGs. None present so made amentsl mental note to self that I need to work harder on bringingthis gift to other men in my reach. We took off with slow mosey that led into some dynamic movements Stopped for Pledge of Allegiance and then circled up. We warmed up to the acronym FREEDOM (Flutter kicks, Rosalita, empty wheelbarrow, Everests, donkey kicks, outlaws, and Mtn. Climbers) we than did 17 Merkins in cadence followed by 76 SSHs in cadence.
We moseydto drop off in front of school did the next 5 exercises followed by sprint Squat jumps, merkins, bomb jacks, CDDs, burppees 10 of each.
Mosey to small car circle. Get into discussion on true freedom and that is through Jesy=us CHrist. Q had found verses in bible that talked about freedom through him and matched it up with some good exercises. Fastest each round would get to read next verse. Here they are if you want to li=ook them up.Romans *:16- 10 jumpsquats. john 8:32 burpees- 1 peter 2:16-17- 10 grave diggers each side, 1 cort. 6:12 10 jumping lunges, 1 cort. 9:19 10 tony hawk burpees, Acts 13:39 10 bomb jacks, 2 cort. 3:17 15 squats, Psalm 119:45 20 CDDs, romans 6:6-7 20 merkins, gal. 5:1 10 hand release merkins, Gal. 5:13 20 Monkey Humpers, Psalm 118:5 20 flutter kicks. COT. Prayers, and Praises.
Thank You was an Honor.

TClap |
1

Taters beat down

23 Pax, 19 for Bootcamp and 4 Ruckers

Welcome FNG Mill-Billy

It’s been a while since Tater had the Q and he did not disappoint!

He gave the disclaimer and we were off to mosey, Toy Soldiers, Butt Kickers, Knee to chest, Karaoke

COP Did a few exercises here to get nice and warm before we mosied over to the fountain and partnered up

Dora 1-2-3-4 100 Derkins, 200 Step-ups, 300 Dips, 400 LBC one partner ran the loop while the other partner did the exercise

We got through one full round and started our way back down before we stopped and returned to the COT area to do a little Ab-Lab

Excellent work! It was not an easy workout and we were all challenged!!

Great work Tater and the PAX!!!!!!

TClap |
0