Tag: Cha Ching

WHETSTONE…Relaunches at THE FORT

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Several weeks ago, it was announced that our region, THE FORT, would be closing all Saturday AO’s and holding a convergence at FMHS to get the PAX together as we thank Rebel for his leadership of Whetstone and relaunch it under Repeat and World Wide Leader (WWL). I was excited to hear we’d be getting many of the region together but I wasn’t expecting what came next. It was a text asking if I’d Q the workout.

Q, like part of it, half of it or …? The response was, THE WHOLE THING. I love to Q every chance I get but to do so on a day like this, well, I better make sure it includes a little something for everyone. Or, almost everyone.

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And this is where I let life get the better of me. I try to follow the 48hr rule on posting a BACKBLAST, especially when they’re significant but I let life and travel get in the way. It is now Saturday, one week later, and I’m just finishing this BB. Life can get challenging, it can get stressful, it can get you riding the highs or down in the lows. And this past week, our family has experienced some of each. Maybe this was the week where I really came to realize how valuable having a Whetstone partner can be. Someone that I can share the highs with and someone to help get me out of the lows; or to keep me honest when it’s my own doing that has me on the outside looking in on the joys of life.

That said, I’ll take you back to last Saturday, April 21 where we had a a few pre-ruckers and a total of 58 PAX converge to re-kick off this critical program.

We got ourselves into an odd-shaped kidney-like shape for the disclaimer, the announcement of why we were there this beautiful morning and to acknowledge our 2 FNG’s in the PAX. We counted off in 4’s then took off toward the big parking lot for a warm up jog in 4 lines. This jog included some karaoke’s and 4 lines doing an indian run which was way harder than it appeared on paper.

In these last 2 years, Whetstone has brought together some extremely HIM. One of those men has gone through a tough 18mos and he was gracious enough to share some of his story to include the impact Whetstone had on his life as we circled up to hear his words. I know he wouldn’t endorse this comment but anytime Mr. Clean wants to share experience or wisdom, the PAX listens. And listen we did.

After backing the group back out to a circle-like shape, I was giddy to honor Santini in the only way I knew how…with a deck of cards. However, on this day we utilized 1/2 the deck and considered it our warm up:

Hearts = Side Straddle Hops

Diamonds = Carolina Dry Docks

Spades = Squats

Clubs = Merkins

Then a little action from the Burp-Merk: Standing, we then dropped to a plank, did 5 merkins then jumped up. That equals 1 and we did 5 total.

This was when we got to listen to our very own Nantaan, Cake Boss, as he shared the impact Whetstone has had on him. Yet again, another powerful testimony.

Then off to do 4 corners in the lot with:

Corner 1 = Dancing Crabs x 15ea and Dips x 20

Corner 2 = Dying Cockroach x 15ea and Flutters x 20ea

Corner 3 = Burpees x 10 and Jump Squats x 10

Corner 4 = American Hammers x 25 and Freddie Mercury x 20ea

Mosey over to the wall for B2W while doing 5 “push ups” followed by 15 calf raises. We did this 3 times.

To close out our testimonies, my man Chicken Hawk laid it down for us. He shared the impact Whetstone has had on him, his marriage, his family…his life. Life isn’t meant to be traveled alone. Well said brother.

6ct Burpee which I needed a little help from the Helmet of Darkness to remind me the steps. Remember the line, “If you can’t Q it, don’t do it?” Yeah, me too but I obviously didn’t follow that too closely here.

This is where the cat-herding became evident. The PAX exhibited patience with me as we attempted a modified DORA series consisting of:

50 Flying Squirrels, 50 Diamond Merkins and 50+ Flutters

We then took off for the main entrance to the football stadium and lined up in 4 lines facing down the hill. Once everyone readjusted, it was 15 American Hammers, 15 Flutters and 15 Hello Dollies. This was done several more times.

Well, that put a bow on the workout portion of this convergence and after the COT, FNG naming of RBG and Whiskers, we then handed it off to World Wide Leader and Repeat to lead the Whetstone discussion.

Announcements: The relaunch of Whetstone. Thanks to Rebel for getting this off the ground 2 years ago and to Repeat / World Wide Leader for taking the reigns.

Prayer Requests: Badger. Camp Care 5K. Jennings Palmer’s transplant. Olive’s 8K in memory of Sweet Tooth. Elmer.

Honored and appreciative of your patience.

Maximus

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6

More Than a Workout at “The Creek??”

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I was wondering whether or not to post a backblast, since this was an unofficial gathering. But the 5 core principles were met, there was a shovelflag, and more importantly – this is exactly what F3 is all about.

One of our dear PAX, Witch Hunt, who – I found out after a long time digging through his entire Twitter feed to find his VQ date – is one of the original core reasons we have any AOs on this side of the bridge, has been unable to post almost at all since the birth of his 2.2 (his third kid, still not sure how counting them works, wouldn’t the first be 2.1 and so on and collectively they are your 2.0s?). It had been decided at recent CoTs that we were going to try and bring the workout to him. So we got some guys together and found a time that Witch Hunt could go for a run and Royale met up with him and they ran over to the clubhouse to find several of us waiting for him. Surprise!!

Why did I need to find Witch Hunt’s VQ date though? Since this was a surprise mainly to get him back to a workout, I went and found his first BackBlast on the website so we could do the same Thang. May 14, 2016. I didn’t have much time to do recon in my neighborhood to see exactly how we could replicate this workout but I had some vague ideas of what was around.

After some hellos and virtually no disclaimer…, sorry lots going on in my head at the time and no one was listening to me anyways since it was so informal, we did a long mosey through the neighborhood trail and found a deep, steep hill to attempt some hills with Krakens at the top. This was a quick Omaha since the hill was not “flat” at all….. and you could barely find any footing. So instead we did laps around the gazebo and did 5 Krakens, then 4, 3, 2, and finally 1. This was simply labeled ‘The Deep’

Next we ran all the way back to the clubhouse for some ‘F3 Baseball’. Seems I have not spent much time, if any, on a baseball diamond so our diamond was much much larger than I’m told it’s supposed to be. One pair of PAX would run a lap around the clubhouse and pool while the rest did an exercise at the current “plate”. All pairs had to finish a lap before moving on to the next “plate”. This was a lot of merkins…

Home – Merkins
First – Squats
Second – LBCs
Third – SSHs

Something I added in to the mix, my neighborhood is redoing the mulch on the playground so I offered to move a couple of pallets of mulch from the parking lot =)

We then did a few hundred feet or bear crawl to get back to home plate.

Last thing on the original backblast ‘Walk the Plank’. This needed some modifying because I’m not sure what a front plank is, when there was also a pushup plank and a forearm plank on the list. Either way, we started in plank for :30 rotated up on one side for :30 rotated to the back for :30, other side for :30, then forearm for :30. This was definitely pushing the limit, which means it was the perfect time for 5 burpees to finish things off.

Name-o-rama
Announcements
Prayers/Praises and a super long 2nd F in the parking lot afterwards. YHC had a blast on this one everyone. This is the real reason I keep posting.

P.S. Jedi could not stop laughing the whole night. Also, be warned if you ever ask him about a Doctor in Paraguay.

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7

Tires, sledgehammers, dumbbells and ropes

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I saw that Royale was on Q once again so I decided to step up and steal the Q from him, great opportunity to lead a group of 19 PAX that decided to get better. Jedi, Olaf and Cha-Ching went for a pre run unaware of the beat down that was planned staring at 5:15.

Quick disclaimer  and welcomed one FNG (Hawkeye)

We started the warm up with a 2 minute run around the parking lot and then circled up for the following:

20 Windmills

20 LBC’s

20 side straddle hops

10 worst merkin ever, non stop from werkin to merkin to derkin

We moseyed to the boat-trailer parking lot  for the real thing, quick explanation of the workout, we had 4 station/corner setup,  we split into groups 1 to 4 and one group went to each corner, from station  1 to 2 and 3 to 4 we run, from station 2 to 3 and 4 to 1 we bear crawled, exercises were listed as follow:

STATION 1

-> 15 big boy sit ups

-> 20 rosalitas

-> 30 Sledgehammer swings (15 each side)

-> 30 Heel Touches SC

-> 30 Dying Cockroach SC

STATION 2

-> 10 two hand triceps ext

-> 15 two hand biceps curls

-> 25 dumbbell swing

-> 30 Makhtar N’Diayes

-> 50 Carolina drydocks

STATION 3

-> 10  Tire flips

-> 15  Low slow squats IC

-> 20 lateral lunges  (10 each side)

-> 30 jump squats

-> 50 calf raises

STATION 4

-> 10 diamond merkins

-> 15 wide arm merkins

-> 20 regular merkins

-> 30 battle rope wave SC

-> 40 plank jacks

-> 50 Shoulder taps

Each group was able to complete 7 stations (one full round of all 4 station plus 3 stations depending on the order each group started), timing was of the essence, first full round was completed in about 17 minutes (26 minutes into the workout) but exhaustion sat in and second round took longer, everyone pushed themselves hard and that “extra 40%” effort was burned during the second round.

With 2 minutes to spare we sprint back to COT for announcements, prayers and praises.

Welcome back Brickhouse and FNG Hawkeye!!

Tinsel out…

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10

Where is Spring??

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18 Men showed up on a very chilly April morning. The pre-ruck was very well attended, and the ruck portion was being Q’ed by Olaf and there seemed to be several implements of torcher that were assembled for the rucking PAX to carry around.  5:15 came and the disclaimer was given(in spirit if not actually) and the entire group was challenged to begin thinking of prayers that needed to be shared at COT. No prayers for your neighbors sick cat, what do YOU need your brothers to know and pray for in your life?  With that the Ruckers were dismissed and the rest of us circled up for some COP.  SSH, IW, Squats, on your side for some hip flexing and strengthening – Jane Fonda – Leg Circles forward and reverse, back kicks.  All on your side 5 count then flip sides. Strong loose hips are key to injury prevention.  Mosey to lay out the cones for a 5 corner workout tour around the Golden Corral. 1st cone at the bottom of the hill(10 Bomb Jacks) Cone #2 at the top of the hill(20 LBC) Cone 3 around Auto Parts and Oil change(10 CDD) 4th cone at COT(15 Squats) Cone 5 at Dominos(15 Merkins) You vs You workout, you choose how fast you want to push it, how hard you want to work.  The PAX did awesome, everyone finished at least 4 full laps and a few did 4 plus, Mileage count was over 3 miles, pretty strong for a 45 minute boot camp.  Final mosey to COT

Announcements – Strawberry Fields, Guidance & CAH, Bonsai has Beyond next Tuesday at GC

Prayers & Praises – Continued prayers for Badger – Prayers for patience and wisdom with young kids(especially boys), Prayers for healing for the young kids in our community growing up in dysfunctional or non-existent homes, prayers for patience and energy to continue dealing with the racial injustices that many of us don’t want to admit exist.  I appreciated the hearts of the men who shared this morning, and challenge the PAX to press into being vulnerable with our real struggles and needs so that we can properly car for each other.

 

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3

Diamond at the Deep

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I’m a little late posting this so I may be a little fuzzy on some of the descriptions, but here it goes…

We had 10 on a wet and somewhat rainy morning at The Deep.  It was good to see Cakeboss and Funhouse supporting Lake Wylie during their Ass Kickin’ April and we also had a couple of out-of-the-area guys Squirt and Ma Bell.  Ma Bell was 68 and was an inspiration to us all.

Speaking of inspiration, I took the family on vacation the week prior to this workout and needed a little last minute help to come up with some ideas.  Lucky for us all I stumbled across a Cha Ching backblast from the Abyss that looked pretty nasty so I’d like to give credit where it’s due.  I also don’t want to take full responsibility for all the suck we endured during this workout, there was a lot of it.

Warm-A-Rama

Even though its a PITA to load up a bunch of cinderblocks into your vehicle before the workout, it always makes it worth it when everyone sighs as soon as you open your trunk/tailgate.  So we all grabbed a cindy and carried it to our warm-up location.

No blocks required for the warm-up, but I went with random numbers of the below exercises (usually favoring more).  It keeps everyone guessing and is kinda like a guilty pleasure of mine because I usually do extra when people “think” I’m going to be done.

  • SSH
  • MNC
  • Windmill
  • Cotton/Cherry Picker
  • Low Slow Squat
  • Peter Parker
  • Parker Peter
  • Plank Jack

The Thang

We started with some Tabada’s.  Cha Ching recommended this great app called “Seconds” so I grabbed it and set it up the night prior.  I disappointingly couldn’t get the music to work, but I’ll fix that next time…

We had 1 minute to do the following x 5 sets with a small 12 second break between sets.  When all 5 sets were finished, there was a 20 second break and the next 5 sets started (12 seconds between sets)

1st Set

  • 50 Seal Jacks
  • 10 Merkins

2nd Set

  • 15 Merkins
  • 5 Burpees

I actually started thinking we would do 40 Seal Jacks and 10 Merkins, but the gang finished up with like 15 seconds to spare after the first set (and that was before the 12 second break between sets).  I couldn’t have that, so 50/10 for the next 4 sets…

So we ended up doing 240 Seal Jacks 25 Burpees, and 125 Merkins.  Ouch.

Now lets grabbed those blocks! We carried them a little further up the parking lot to the football field.  Sadly, the gate wasn’t opened.  I wasn’t about to have us all walk across the street to the other football field so I decided that we all needed to jump the fence.

1st exercise was “Bear and Block” which is exactly what it sounds like.  We all got in bear crawl position and kept the block between our feet.  We then pulled the block up to/past our head and bear crawled until the block was between our feet again.  Rinse and repeat until we covered the width of the football field.  I heard a lot of grumbles from the crowd so I was going to Omaha and have us throw the blocks back to the start point, but we were then worried about the damage to the field (rightfully so) so I Omaha’d the Omaha back to the original idea.  We were going to crawl back the way we came.  If there is a lesson learned here it’s that we shouldn’t complain.  I made everyone do 25 CDD’s when we got back to the start line.

2nd exercise, find a parter.  Partner A carries both cinderblocks the width (and back) of the football field while Partner B does squats, then vice-versa.

For the 3rd and what turned out to be final set of exercises, we played Catch Me If You Can with our partner.  We lined up so we were now traversing the length of the field instead of the width.

This is where my memory really starts to get fuzzy.  I started making this stuff up from here on out picking and doing whatever felt like it would be the worst at the time.  The numbers are lacking and I don’t remember all of the exercises, but hopefully I’ll pass enough along that you get the general idea.

I remember the 1st one.  Partner A did 20 LBC’s while Partner B NUR’d.  When Partner A finished he would chase down and tag his partner and then they would both do 50 more LBC’s together and then Broad Jump back to the finish line.  We then repeated this formula 5 more times (6 chase downs in all) mixing in ridiculous numbers of exercises and making our way back to the starting line in painful ways.

Here are the ways we made it back to the starting line:

  1. Wheelbarrow Walk
  2. Crawl Bear
  3. Crab Walk
  4. Lt. Dan
  5. Sprint
  6. Broad Jump

Some of the exercises that we did, either wile your Partner was NUR’ing or together included:

  • Squat Jumps
  • Lunges
  • Merkins
  • Diamond Merkins
  • CDD
  • American Hammers
  • Flutters
  • LBC’s
  • Burpees
  • Plank Jacks
  • and more…

Luckily time was running low and we couldn’t get to the next exercise.  Now we’ll never know how amazing Block Webbs would have felt after most of us could already not lift our arms past our shoulders.  We still had to get overcome the fence and make it back to CoT.  This time we decided to (poorly) build some steps with the cinderblocks to make it easier to get across.  It was pretty comical but we did it.

CoT

Consisted of the usually announcement, praises, and prayers.  I wish I could remember more, but as always, we continue to pray for others and put ourselves 3rd. F3 is an amazing thing, I am humbled to be a part of it and continue to pray that others will be led to it.

I apologize for less than stellar recollection of the workout and CoT.  I’ll do a better job of jotting it down somewhere post workout.  Some said it was the toughest workout they had in years, some couldn’t post on Monday because of how badly they still hurt, but there is no arguing we all got stronger and better on this day.

Until next time…

Flux

 

 

 

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0

Too much work at Golden Corral

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Here’s what the bootcampers did after the ruckers took off with Wild Thing.

Dynamic Warmup around parking lot

Then COP

20 SSHs – 20 MNCs – 10 Slow Cotton Pickers –

10 WA Merkins – 20 Moun Climbers – Yoga – 15 Plank Jacks

 Partner Up

 Dora 1-2-3

100 Burpees

200 Sumo Squats

300 SSHs

While other partner ran around the parking lot triangle

 To Fort Mill BBQ Lot

11s with Bear crawls

11 WA Merkins

1 Bomb jack

Run backwards to start

I had 2 other evolutions on the Weinke, but I miscalculated on how much 11s would suck with the distance and number of bear crawls.  Most of the PAX got to 11, but it hurt!

During our 10 counts I shared some quotes and insight that I’ve been gathering from my most recent reading, Jordan Peterson’s “12 Rules for Life.”  The rule I reviewed was Rule #8 : Tell the Truth – or at least Don’t Lie!

Attached are the quotes:

Tell the Truth or at least Don’t Lie

An honor to lead…

-Royale

 

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1

4 Corners . . . with some “Elders”

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I will keep this backblast shorter, but I will say it was a lot of fun today at the Pantheon! Thanks to Fishsticks for letting me Q.

Some Pre-work:

1 group of runners headed out to who knows where at 4:45.

Fishsticks and I did some extra ab work that I call high octane abs. It hurt.

Disclosure given. Lots and lots and lots of chatter. Completely dark. Did I mention there was lots of chatter?

Short mosey to the lighted area for a different dynamic stretching workout after some high knees and butt kickers.

Some confused minds about what we were doing since very few had done this style of warm-up before (~8 exercises). Eventually I shifted to some traditional SSHs and the crowd went wild. It was like the PAXs’ bodies woke up.

At this point I inconveniently forgot a few demos of a few of the exercises to come for the main event.

The Thang:

We broke up into 4 teams of 5 and went to each respective corner on the soccer field. Fortunately, it was not very muddy.

I’d tell you the 20 different (and difficult) exercises that we did, but  . . . that means I’d have to type them out right now and I feel lazy after a long day of work. So if you are reading this, feel free to retweet it and comment what your favorite one was even if you don’t know the name of it. We did do Tunnel of Love and People’s Carry between cones.

I had a second round prepared, but, oh well, . . . time slipped away from us. Beware of next time. Round 2 was scheduled to be harder.

COT: Main Announcements: Convergence coming up; Praises: Lutefish’s daughter rocked it; Prayer: let’s continue to pray for children going through difficult times and Badger and his family.

Thanks to everyone, including the “Elders” for their hard work today!

Lastly, I think I missed one of you on the list. So sorry. My memory can only remember 19 out of 20 without a recording. Feel free to identify yourself.

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27

Hump Day… Whatever… Pantheon 4/4

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11 came to Pantheon ready to tell Hump Day to go pound sand. Too often, men look at Hump Day as the day that they check out and coast to the weekend. We aren’t those kind of men, so we will push hard and make it count everyday…

Warm-up:
1 lap around the lot to the side lot
Windmill x 10
IW x 10
Merkin x 10
PP x 10
Moroccan Nightclub x 20
Squat (with a hop) x 15
SSH x 20

On to the fun…
Mosey to playground (in parentheses are the mods)
20 burpees (15)
400M run (down and back)
20 Pull-ups (Supine pulls)
400M run (down and back)
20 Handstand push-ups/CDD (20 or 10-10 or 20)
400M run (down and back)
20 Swerkins (LBC)
400M run (down and back)
20 Knees to Chest

Once complete, we headed to the back lane for Hair Burner Relays
2 teams
Each team performs an exercise while the front men do a hair burner of 100M (50) then Overhead carry back
Exercises will be determined by the winner of the heat…

Mosey back to COT

=================================

NMM:
A couple of thoughts…
– If you are at a workout with Cha-Ching, Straight Up, Longshanks, and/or Jedi, you will likely be behind them. You should know that going in, so you don’t feel bad when it happens.
– Straight Up may not actually be from this planet. Dude is fit…
– CSPAN is still one of the wiser men I know, despite his current injury-related inability to do a proper Merkin…

Helmet, out.

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6

Man in the Arena

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Perfect gloom conditions.  15 studs out for a beatdown.  Opened with Teddy Roosevelt’s Man in the Arena.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Warm up:

  • warm up 70%  sprints between each exercise
    • SSH, Squat, SSH, Merkin

The Thang:

  • 4 corners- run in between- (abt 30 yards) Rinse/Repeat x 5
    • 3 burpee
    • 4 bombjacks
    • 5 merkin
    • 6 squat
  • Ark Loader Series- 30 yards, Rinse/Repeat x 3
    • Bear Crawl down, 10 merkins
    • Lunge walk back, 10 squat
    • crab walk down, 10 LBC
    • Backward Bear Crawl back, 10 CDD
  • 6 minutes of Mary
    • flutter
    • rosalita
    • protractor
  • Sprint Series
    • 2 x 70%
    • 1 X 85%
    • 5  X 100%

COT

Naked Man Moleskin

Jedi and Straight Up were out front today, all morning.  No surpise here.  Lots of great mumblechatter as the men answered the call for a beatdown and were all in.

 

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2

Risking it All and Going Beyond

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Better conditions led to 14 PAX posting at Golden Corral for this week’s edition of BEYOND. Turnout was improved in part because Rad cancelled the ruck workout, encouraging the usual ruckers to join the fun, while he bailed and went yogging at Sea Legs instead.

After Copperfield gave the disclaimer, the 14 BEYONDers took off for a short mosey around the perimeter of the main parking lot, incorporating butt kickers, high knees, toy soldiers, toe walks, and heel walks. We then lined up at the shovel flags (we had three…I don’t know where the third came from…) and did 10 merkins at the island, jog to the next island, 10 more merkins, etc. for a total of 40 merkins. This was followed by a short mosey to the HT loading docks for some final warming up. (Note for GC Q’s – people drive like MANIACS behind HT, so keep the PAX out of the main roadway if possible.)

Brief COP included 10 windmills, 10 low slow squats on our toes (in relevé, if you will), then a couple yoga lunge stretches on each leg. Then partner up and jog around to the HT wall facing the six of O – O – O – O’Reilly for the Thang.

The workout sets were generally done in Stand By Your Man style, with one PAX performing the prescribed reps of some form of merkin while the other does some other exercise, then switch places until all merkin reps completed. Once done, run around oil change place and O’Reilly and back to the HT wall with your partner. Pretty simple…ish…

Let’s get going.

The original plan was to build this week’s message off of what was covered at BEYOND last week, but that had to be modified when we had only three last week and fourteen this week. So, we started with some quick catch-up. If you want a recap of last week, check out that backblast. Main point to remember for today: dig deep and determine your purpose, as this will give a filter through which to handle today’s questions.

Living with purpose inherently involves risk.

During this first set, discuss with your partner how you would define “risk.”

Set 1: Breakdancer merkins (20-16-12-8 reps each) while partner does Rockette Chair (People’s Chair with alternating leg kicks)

Plank it up for the six, then hold it while we chat (with rotation to side, reverse plank, and other side).

Risk can have a variety of definitions, but generally it is an action that exposes you or somebody else to the possibility of harm or loss. We all face risks every day, from driving to relationships. Some risks are bigger than others, but we live lives of risk. Taking risks is necessary for growth and gain, in work and in life. Without some level of risk, we won’t get better.

Risk and sacrifice are different, but related.

During this set, discuss with your partner how you would define “sacrifice.”

Set 2: Mike Tysons (15-15-15-15 reps each) while partner does BTTW (with shoulder taps for the brave).

People’s Chair for the six, then stay for the talk.

Sacrifice is the act of giving up something you want to keep in order to get or do something else (and potentially better). You could say that sacrifice is the realization of the potential loss involved in the risk. Sacrifice has an intentional, willful component to it – you choose to give something up, whether under compulsion or not. Today, most of us sacrificed more sleep to post (thanks for that!), and in doing so also took the risk of maybe getting a good workout, maybe making our day a bit rougher because our arms won’t work after, etc. Silly example for an obvious point.

Personal examples of risk and sacrifice.

During this set, discuss a current or recent example of risk or sacrifice in your life.

Set 3: Pseudo Planche merkins (15-15-15 reps each) while partner does breakdancer. It’s like the breakdancer merkin, but without the merkin, a little more jumpy, and ideally a bit faster.

Return and breathe while waiting for the six, then for the talk.

An easy example of sacrifice in my life was giving up our life in Africa to return to the US. Again, for more on this, refer to last week’s backblast. But for the risk component, there were two risks that weighed heavily on our last year in Africa and played into our decision to return. The first was our son’s health. He was premature and had some health issues that went with it. He also began having seizures while we still lived overseas. As a father, was I willing to risk his health to continue living and working in Zambia? Then, we wanted more kids, but my wife is a high-risk pregnancy, and we lived in a place where premature babies die more than they survive, and maternal mortality is high as well. These risks paired with other circumstances played into our decision to return, giving up our identities, our home, our relationships, etc.

Much of the reason for me wanting to talk about all this today stems from a conversation with Cha Ching and Olaf from several months ago. They may not remember it, but it has stuck with me ever since. We were talking about the new security training I’m helping develop for our new workers, and there are three main questions that come out of this training. These questions are what I want to leave with everybody today (with one more set thrown in for good measure).

The first two questions to consider:

How much am I willing to risk in order to achieve my purpose? (This makes more sense if you spend the time determining your purpose.)

What, if anything, would be an unnecessary level of risk or a risk that would actually hinder accomplishment of your purpose?

No need to answer the questions this time, as they take time to really work through.

Set 4: Battering rams (drop to six inches, then, using your arms and not your feet, thrust your torso forward so your hands end up between ribs and hips; 20-20-20 reps each) while partner does Monkey Humpers. For some, this proved to be a somewhat inappropriate combination of moves. #badplanning #somethingsyoucantunhear

Pressed for time, we gathered following the run around the buildings for the final point. I actually left out two full sets, but I don’t think anybody’s arms are particularly missing them (see below for what we missed).

The final question to ponder: Do I believe strongly enough in my purpose that I’m willing to sacrifice everything for it?

Simply put, are you willing to die to achieve your purpose? Fourteen years ago, my answer would have been a lot different. But now, with a wife and children, I hesitate. If I know that they will be taken care of, then I’d probably be willing to die. But what if the tables were turned? Would I be so committed to my purpose, to my faith, that I’d be willing to sacrifice my family? I’ve never been in that situation, so I don’t know. But this is a reality faced by many in other parts of the world. For some, it’s a daily reality, being faced with the possibility of losing everything for what they believe.

What would you do? Do you have a commitment to something that is so strong that you’re willing to sacrifice everything for it, even your family?

Time never seems sufficient to cover the topic, but discussion doesn’t need to end when the workout does.

We ended there and ran back to COT to meet up with the bootcampers.

Announcements

  • Deacon reminded us of the opportunities in the Paradise community, with the reading program on Mondays and Wednesdays and G-Fit on Saturdays. Take a risk and make an impact in the community.

Prayers and Praises

  • Pray for those involved with the Palmetto 200 this weekend.
  • Keep praying for our wives and kids.
  • Pray for those with mental health issues and the practitioners who care for them. Specifically, pray for Copperfield’s M as she deals with some very difficult situations.
  • Bolt’s neighbor passed away last week. Pray for this man’s family and friends and others who are dealing with this loss.
  • Prayers for one of Decibel’s employee’s dad, who is in the hospital.
  • Bonsai and his wife are praying about a few things right now; prayers for wisdom and discernment as they consider some options.
  • Deacon has a friend with serious health concerns. Prayers for him as he seeks care at Mayo.
  • Praises for F3 and the impact it has had on our lives.

It was an honor to get to lead this group, and I really appreciate Maximus pushing me to do two BEYOND Qs in a row. If you haven’t had opportunity to do this yet, talk to him. Whether or not the other PAX benefit from the message you bring, your life will be changed by working through the material in preparation to lead. Definitely worth it. And I’m happy to not do it again for a while.

-Jedi

Missed sets

For those wondering what we missed for lack of time, the remaining sets were:

Set 5: one-arm merkins (16-12-8 reps each) while partner does bomb jacks.

Set 6: Scorpion merkins (16-12-8 reps each) while partner does jump squats.

You’re welcome.

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