Trifecta Tuesday

On Tuesday the 7th, 15 #HIM descended upon Golden Corral to continue making 2020 a year of acceleration.  10 PAX started early as YHC encountered Dark Helmet leading a group around the grounds.  Fortunately, they did not mess up the sidewalk chalk – that came in handy later to give PAX some not so subtle reminders about what to do…..many times.

After the 10 extra credit (BTP) PAX joined for the boot camp or ruck, here’s what the boot campers did:

Mosey to COP – 12 low slow squats (D/C), hold the people’s chair after the 12th squat while doing 12 double count Moroccan night clubs, Imperial Walkers X 12 (D/C), Hillbilly Walkers X 12 (D/C).  Mosey some more……COP (continued), 15 SSH’s (D/C), 10 Windmills (D/C), 15 Merkins (D/C), 15 Mountain Climbers (D/C), 10 Plank jacks, then mosey to the main event.

The sidewalk chalk served as the guide, the date was 1-7-20 – those numbers add up to 28.  Every sequence was an exercise followed by a bear crawl a set distance (25-ish yards) (no one went as fast as Tesh would have), another exercise, a mosey back to the start line and repeat.  The exercises of the day were……squats and merkins – always adding up to 28.

26 squats, bear crawl, 2 merkins, mosey back

24 squats, bear crawl, 4 merkins, mosey back

22,6  20,8  18,10 16,12 14,14 12,16 10,18 8,20 6,22 4,24 2,26

The squats got less, the merkins more and all PAX got better,

Over 2700 merkins and over 2700 squats were done in total.  YHC heard about it later.

After one fast and one not so fast 10 count, we moseyed around the building to do, of course, 7’s – it was January 7 after all.

The exercises were Kracken burpees and Carolina Dry Docks – 6 KB’s a 15-ish yard lunge walk, 1 CDD and a mosey back to the wall, 5 KB’s, lunge walk, 2 CDD’s and a mosey back 4, lunge walk 3, 3 lung walk 4, 2 lunge walk 5, 1 lunge walk 6.

After Pusher proclaimed how terrible all this was (YHC thought Carolina Dry Docks would make him feel better), we had just enough time to get to COT for 2 minutes of Mary before the Ruckers saved us from going past the 0600 bell.

Slow Flutter kicks (D/C) x 15

Protractor at varying angles, finishing at 0 degrees and 0600 for COT.

Announcements:

1-29 Grapevine fundraiser for Classroom Ready – Celebrity bar tenders.  Who will be there? (#showtoknow)

Let Me Run seeking coaches for teams in schools in both Fort Mill and Rock Hill – reach out to Cyclops or Double D with interest and/or questions.

Word of the Year – Focus on it and live it out.  Use your shield locks to hold you accountable. Together, we all get better than we ever would alone.

Praises and Prayers – Lutefisk’s Father-in-law, Cyclops’s Dad, Tinsel’s brother, Duck Dynasty and his niece and for continuing to be a hope and light to others in a world that is often darker than we like.

Just prior to COT, YHC shared the 3 elements of a high impact relationship – 1) it meets you where you are  2) it provides safety to allow you to grow and 3) it teaches you about yourself.

Thanks to F3 and the high impact relationships it provides its PAX.  We have the privilege and honor to be sharpened and honed by many high impact men within our community when in one another’s presence – through all 3 F’s – what a gift it is.

As we all seek to make 2020 a year of acceleration, YHC is grateful for 2 things today:  1) To Lutefisk for the opportunity to Q – it’s always an honor and 2) To the brothers of F3 for being a reason YHC chooses the harder thing far more often than I used to.

Stay after it.  Keep going.  Kamwe Kuacha (Never Stop).

Honored.

Cyclops

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Jack of all Kinds and The ShovelFlag Switch

21 Pax showed up for the Slug-fest that was a Cha-Ching and YHC’s Co-Q.  All Pax arrived on time for the special 0500 kick off. I was taking the #ShovelFlag at the end of the Beatdown so we wanted to do something brutally special to mark the occasion.

Quick disclaimer and we where off and rolling. Cha-Ching had the 1st 30 minutes and didnt’t disappoint.

Mosey to the end of the BEst Buy /Pet Smart Parking lot.  30 SSH- Mosey on to the other side of Home Depot 15 bomb jacks, run back to spot by Petsmart 20 smurfjacks, run back to HD 30 seal jacks, run back to PS, 30 plank Jacks.

Mosey over to the wide parking lot in front of PS.  Break up into two groups for a new take on Bone the Fish.

Bear crawl up two parking spaces then side crawl down the line then up two more, rinse and repeat. Total parking lot length was about 15 spaces.  At the end do 30 squat jumps. Bear Crawl down and back again , do 20 donkey kicks. Then we bear crawled up two spaces and side shuffeled the width of the whole parking lot. Continue this down the length and did 10 burpees to complete the movement.

Mosey over to the fountain 3 types of burpees before time expired on the first 30 minutes.

5x Kracken Burpees, 5x knee slap burpees and 5x 1 leg burpees.

At this Point I took the Reins:

The Shovel Flag Switch

Split PAx into teams of 3.

MAX REPS TO FAILURE

P1s = Body weight in the lower level of stair alley

P2s= Run between groups: up/down the stairs

P3s= Cinder blocks

Basic rules: P1 Starts on the bottom level of the outdoor patio across from Just Fresh doing Max Rep Body weight exercises.  P3 moves to the dead end side of the parking load and does max reps of cinder block exercises. P2 starts with P3 and runs roughly 100 yrds up and down the stairs to P1. Upon arrival they switch. P2 does body weight and P1 runs up and down the stairs to P3 and they Switch as per the above.  Rinse and repeat through the various exercise combos.

Exercises:

Round 1- P1- MTN Climbers P3- Block Squats

Round 2-  P1- LBCs P3- Block Swings

Round 3- P1- Squats  P3- Block Curls

Round 4- P1- Bomb Jacks- P3- OH Presses

Round 5-P1- The Claw( Thnaks PotHole)   : P3- Block Hammers

Round 6 P1- Merkins  P3- Squat Thrusts

Round 7 P1-Peter Parkers P3- Alt Hand Block Merks

Round 8 P1- BBS  P3- Man Makers

We Made it Through 6 rounds finishing on Squat Thrusters and Merkins.

With 4-5 minutes left we picked up the cindys, beatdown boards and laundry pile( it was decidedly warmer than some of us expected)  shuffled back for COT.

I accepted the Shovel Flag and look forward to growing the reputation of the #Swamp as a smoker AO in The FORT.  Appreciate Cha-Ching thinking of me to take over for him. It’s an honor!

Duck Out!

 

 

 

 

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Block Building at Pantheon

Eight men showed up on a cold morning at Tega Cay Elementary school for the workout.  After a quick disclaimer, we ran around the carpool lane and stopped in front of the school for the following warm-up exercises:

SSHs

Imperial Walkers

Plank Stretches

Next, we each grabbed a cinder block along with a ruck and weight vest.  We partnered up for a Dora-like workout.  Partner 1 had a choice to either run to the end of the parking lot or briskly walk with a weight vest, ruck, or cinder block to the end of the pillars and back.  Partner 2 started with the cinder block exercises and switched out once Partner 1 returned.

Round 1 (100 Reps each):

Swing

Press

Calf Raise

Flutter

Merkin

Box Cutter

 

Once complete, we play catch me if you can around the carpool lane.  Partner 1 carried two of the cinder blocks around the circle while Partner 2 ran (fast) in the opposite direction to switch out with Partner 1.  It turned out to be a better idea on paper.

Next we finished out with round two.  We only got through a few exercises.

Round 1 (100 Reps each):

Curls

Squat Thrusters

Chest Press

Hello Dolly

Lunge

Row

 

COT

Great job by everyone this morning!

 

 

 

 

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Shoulder Work at Quagmire

13 men arrived at Quagmire Monday morning.  After a quick disclaimer and some leg stretches, we ran over to Kohls.

COP

SSH x 25

Imperial Walker x 15

Windmill x 10

Plank Stretches

Next, we began the meat of the workout.  We partnered up for burpee broad jumps.  Partner 1 started with the burpees while Partner 2 ran to the end of the parking lot near Ulta and back to Partner 1 to switch out. The total distance was around 320 yards (20 less than the Bills had in total offense).

I took a few minutes to talk about my grandfather who served in the Navy. He was someone I greatly admired growing up.  He had a strong work ethic and never let his age define him.  When he was in his eighties, he asked my brother and I to come to his house to help him dig a trench.  When we arrived, he was already actively digging the hole himself.  He was a loving and caring husband, father and friend. He passed away at the age of 99, less than six month from the century mark.

Back to the workout, we began a shoulder shuffle from Ulta back to Kohls.  I issued a challenge to push go as far as the pain would allow.  Once exhausted, get up, run to the next store front, and return to the back of the shuffle line.  Cha Ching and Slapshot killed it, they shuffled the full distance 320 yards without a break!

Once complete, we ran back to COT.

 

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Not really a merkinfest…more a don’t stop movingfest

20 PAX gathered for a Jedi inspired chilly morning at the Swamp.  This Friday AO is a great place to run around, see lots of parking lots, check out stairs and look at the water feature fountain…hard to pass up and a good place to be if you’ve never been.  Quick disclaimer and YHC was shot out of a cannon.  With the first mosey stop at Petsmart, the PAX followed the leader for some parking lot shuffles, karaokes, high knees, and butt kickers before progressing to the previously mentioned fountain.

Prior to getting to the fountain, we stopped in the back parking lot for some warm-ups which included: low slow squats, slow windmills, merkins (all counts of 10).  Given this is a Cha Ching AO, what better way to get the PAX warmed up than a Cha Ching inspired 60 seconds of blood pumping 33 SSH and 7 burpee – rinse and repeat for a 2nd min.  This was followed by some up/down dog stretching and then on to The Thang!

Mosey over to the fountain where it was time to get our merkin on…(not that kind of merkin so calm down).

  • 20 regular merkins
  • 20 wide arm
  • 20 diamond
  • 20 decline
  • 20 ranger
  • 20 incline
  • 20 hand release

After every round of merkins, PAX were instructed to run to the stairs – up, down, back up, then back down and back to the fountain…for the next set of merkins.

Since this was not enough fun, we partnered up and did some Dora with our new partner.

  • 100 bombjacks
  • 200 CDD
  • 300 American Hammers (double count…well, because)

As partner 1 did exercise in the “warm-up” parking lot by the stairs, partner 2 took off to the fountain and did 20 dips before returning and relieving their partner.  This took a good amount of time but the PAX finished American Hammer’s with the 6.

PAX took off towards COT but with 5 or so minutes remaining, MARY was calling our name so we answered the call.  PAX went around clockwise with ab exercises until the bell was rung.

Normal mix at COT, but the highlight of the morning was welcoming FNG, now Chicken Noodle, to the party to join the lineage of other “chicken” inspired PAX.  Thoughts and prayers to all prayers and praises raised.  Thanks as always to Cha Ching for the call…enjoyed every minute of it!

Shady

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Swamp Pain

17 HIM pushed through a nasty beatdown by YHC today at the Swamp.  YHC got to the AO about 15 mins early to check out the Broga dudes… no wait it was to prep the winkie.  Anyway, I ran the hidden greenway trail behind best buy to home depot (not target) and wrote 5 pain stations.  3 for the starting line and 2 halfway through the loop.

Started on time (barely) with a windmill warmup and that was it.   Mosey to the start.  The trail is about 0.65 miles with the loop back around a half mile.  We did it twice with the 5 plank position pain stations (ending with 25 burpees of course). Moseyed to COT area for COP burpees or flying squirrels, diamond merkins or merkins (all dependent upon how far you got on the loop). Hold  Did right arm and leg and left arm and leg for a while and ended with worst merkin ever x 5.  Recover for some painful Moroccan night clubs.  Next hold Al Gore and went around the circle naming some positive things going on in each PAX life.  Way to lift each other up!

Lastly we did some random parking lot drills in time for COT.  In COT we had a couple of guys get out of their shells and open up.  What a great thing!  Shield Lock!!!

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Keep It Together

15 PAX checked the weather report this morning and found that the pending rain storm was fiction.

The Thang

Mosey around the HT lot to the back side of the auto supply store for COP.

  • IW
  • Windmills
  • Potato Pickers
  • Monkey Humpers
  • Hillbilly Walkers

Mosey up to lot beside Walgreens for “The Rollercoaster”.  Simple routine for the PAX:

  • 30 Second Exercise
  • Lap Around the Lot (Walgreens and Jersey Mike’s)
  • 60 Second Exercise
  • Lap Around the Lot
  • 90 Second Exercise
  • Lap Around the Lot
  • 60 Second Exercise
  • Lap Around the Lot

Then we repeat… basically so it looks something like this:

90   #   #   #   #
60  # # # # # # # #
30 #   #   #   #   #
Exercise Duration
BTTW 00:00:30
Flutter 00:01:00
LBC 00:01:30
Squats 00:01:00
Burpees 00:00:30
American Hammer 00:01:00
SSH 00:01:30
Merkins 00:01:00
Bombjacks 00:00:30
Peter Parker 00:01:00
MNC 00:01:30
Parker Peter 00:01:00
Mountain Climber 00:00:30

Mosey back to COT for around 2 minutes of Mary.

NMM

The goal of today’s workout was to have all the PAX pushing together.  Often when we get into “routines”, we have some pax finish and others who do not.  Today’s goal was to keep it all together, so instead of reps, we essentially did AMRAP for time.

 

Announcements:

  • Nessie next weekend
  • Sometime in November will be a convergence with a panel about life lessons from the recent HTL.
  • Read your Newsletter

Prayers up for Marriages, Kids, and Sickness and Suffering.

 

Honor To Serve.

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OLAF’S Inchworm Suicide at TheSwamp

Disclaimer was disclaimed and a short mosey was started…. Or so the unsuspecting PAX thought.
So plan is to mosey around the whole outer prerun loop of Rivergate stopping every tenth of a mile to perform an exercise all together in cadance. Once we make it back to Best buy it’s everyman for himself for the next loop. But where does the Inchworm Suicide come in? Glad you asked. Instead of going from one cone to the next you must first go back to the previous cone before proceeding. So start at Best buy and jog to stop sign going towards home depot. Free space ten count, lucky you. Go back to best buy then return past free space and to next cone at turn into homedepot garden section. 10 SSH cadance count style. Next back to cone for free space 10 count then to wall beside Target for 5 over the wall jumps. U get the idea so to save everyone some time bc reading is hard I’ll just list the remaining exercises and post a picture of the workout summary map.

10 burpees to start the party,
Free space 10 count,
10 SSH,
5 wall getovers
10 Merkins,
5 Suicide squats aka goldilocks squats,
10 Chacha merkins,
5 Regular squats,
10 CDD,
5 lunges,
One other uperbody exercise,
10 burpees to end the party.

Warm hugs as promised to all surviving PAX at COT.

Over 4 miles logged by most, suspect the front runners got closer to 4.5miles. Great work gents and thank you to @ChaChing for the opportunity to lead. Until next time
Stay frosty my friends!
Olaf

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Canon X-50 count

10 PAX gathered on a cool(ish) morning when the entire town of Fort Mill had no running water. 8 for Laces In, 2 started 15min earlier for Laces Out

Disclaimer delivered haltingly as Sugarbug exited his vehicle at 5:14 & 58 seconds to join the group.

Mosey to Band Practice Lot:

50 SSH
Downdog –> Honeymooner –> ect.
50 Moroccan Nightclubs
25 Imperial Walkers
25 Hillbilly Walkers
A bit of mumble chatter about the high count

Mosey to the lot in front of the R-Wing
50 shoulder taps
Downdog –> Honeymooner –> etc.
30 Mountain Climbers (was planning on hitting 50 but looked up after 20 and the PAX were slowing down, at 30 most were just watching me count . . . )
0 Peter Parkers (had planned 50, but wanted to avoid the tacit mutiny)

Mosey to the pullup bars

Partner up
on partner holds position while the other partner does 10 reps. Then switch until both PAX had completed 50 reps each (i.e., 100 total).
– Merkins
– Squats
– Rosalita

Revealed the two kettlebells (30lb and 35lb) I hid prior to the workout

4 Pax on the pull-up bars
4 Pax on the ground

Pax on the ground split 2 with bells and 2 holding squat

Pax with bells did 10 KB swings and switched to hold a squat.
– Pax holding squat then switched to 10 KB swings
Pax on bars free hang until during the first 10 KB Swings
– then during the next 10 KB Swings PAX attempted to hold their chin above the bar
– after other PAX complete 20 total KB Swings back to free hang
– after other PAX complete 30 total KB Swings back to chin above the bar

2 rounds of this and then flip-flopped for 2 more rounds

Plank up in a line
Hold plank while 1 PAX jumps out and does 10 KB Swings (for an individual total of 50 KB Swings). PAX waiting in plank alternated between high plank and six inches everytime someone switched to the Kettlebell.

Mosey back to COT for some Mary (Joined by 2 runners)

– Called a yoga variation and added a crunch alternating to each side of the raised leg

(e.g., 4-count: 1 to the center, 2 back down hands above head, 3 to the outside of the raised leg, 4 back down. Notice the extended heel stays six inches above the ground…I may call this again and if enough PAX hate it…consider giving it a name.
– Rolled over for some Pigeon Lunges
– back over for Flutters until time

NMM:

As men, how much are we challenging ourselves with things we don’t like or don’t understand? Physically we do this in the 5am hour with demanding workouts, but do we try this in all facets of our lives? Consider taking in some art (play, movie, music, museum, etc.) you just don’t understand or trying to interact with something (someone?) you really don’t like.

The piece below by Conlon Nancarrow predates “electronic music.” He used a player piano reel to realize music that was so rhythmically complex, no human players at the time could accomplish it. In Canon X, there are two lines. One starts at a slow tempo and speeds up. The other starts fast and slows down. (So a graph of the tempos looks like an X.) This is a tempo canon rather than a traditional melodic canon. (Row, Row, Row Your Boat is a melodic canon.)

Canon X

This kind of composition may or not may be “enjoyable” to listen to. Or you might not “like” it. But it is fascinating. We don’t have to like something for it to be interesting or valuable.

40+ years after these pieces were written, a small ensemble began stretching what we once thought human musicians were capable of performing. They arranged some of Nancarrow’s player piano reels in an acoustic setting. See the original and the arrangement:

Nancarrow – Player Piano Study No. 2A
Alarm Will Sound – Nancarrow Player Piano Study No. 2A

I don’t know what this means for you in specific. But in general, I hope it encourages you to stretch your boundaries and grow. Because that’s part of what the Arts should help us do!

COT
Praise for the fact that most days we can turn on the taps and clean water comes out.

An honor to lead,

Band Camp dismissed

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A wee bit of everything at Pantheon

Unbelievable. Amazing. Has it REALLY been almost 4 years since YHC first posted to that fear-inducing AO known as Pantheon? What little I remember from that first WO was cursing the Q’s name (the evil Double D) and, more importantly, CSPAN coming alongside me and taking my mind off the merlot that was oh soo close to coming up. #The Full FNG Experience.  This is such an awesome AO that I wanted to include a little bit of everything.

The Pax seemed game for the plan. Mumblechatter was minimal but there was some grumbling and groaning. Mission accomplished.

WARM-UP: Mosey with Toy Soldiers, High Knees, Butt Kickers, Power Skips

COP around the flag (starting with The Pledge of Allegiance):

  • SSH * 25
  • HILLBILLY WALKER * 15
  • Merkins * 15
  • Squats * 15
  • Diamond Merkins * 15
  • Windmills * 15
  • Wide Arm Merkins * 15 (Initial grumbling & groaning ensued)
  • Mountain climbers * 20

MOSEY to AMPHITHEATER

JACOB’S LADDER- (7s) BEAR CRAWL UP, RUN DOWN-BURPEES  & SQUATS

Thoughts on FAITH: 3 f’S in F3 – 1st F is the Magnet, 2nd is the Glue, 3rd is the DYNAMITE. IT’S A BELIEF IN SOMETHING LARGER THAN YOURSELF. WHEN MEN OF FAITH COME TOGETHER FOR A COMMON CAUSE, THE RESULTS ARE AMAZING. DON’T GO IT ALONE

MOSEY to Basketball Court

Partner up:  opposite side of court, suicides on foul lines and meet in the middle for partner hand slap merkins.  15 reps, 3 rounds. Suicides, meet middle for partner Giddy Ups (crowd pleaser) . 5 reps per partner, 3 rounds, Suicides, meet middle for partner-assisted Sit-ups. 10 reps per partner

MOSEY to playground for a modified DORA – Partner Up- 50 Swing Lunges, 200 Bombjacks, 300 -LBCs Partner runs to end of the b-ball court & back

Mosey To wall- BTTW, then 5 Seal Jacks each Pax while the group does Peoples Chair.

COT: Olaf came running out of the gloom to join us at the very end. Must have been doing a brisk pace since he seemed to be on the verge of splashing last night’s dinner. But good of him to join.

NMM: Triple Claps are not sufficient to express my gratitude to Bing, Howitzer and Fish Sticks for staying on me to try out this thing we call F3. More like triple triple claps. I’ve tried to #give it away since that day and have told anyone who will listen what a game-changing moment that has been for me.

Thank the Good Lord that we ended up in this corner of the world known as The Fort. Home of many Highly Impactful Men. One awesome consequence – my 2.1 Pigeon is wanting to post more often. As a father, being exposed to this brotherhood is a great thing for my son. As we walked to the car to leave for the workout, he asked “Is this workout going to be hard”?   Well, yes, son, that’s part of what makes this F3 engine run. Sure seemed hard enough to me. What a great morning. Thanks to Bear Grylls for the opportunity to lead.

Short Sale out.

 

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