Being Vulnerable is not a sign of weakness but a sign of strength

P.S.A attendance is highly recommended. March 27th mark your calendars. F3 St. Louis very own Miyagi and Aerobie has brought light to a sensitive subject that’s right Suicide-mental health awareness. A subject we try and avoid talking about at all or till it’s to late. YHC will be on Q at the Panethon if you can’t make it to the west side of town Stang is on Q at Tomahawk and will also discussing the subject.

I am encouraging you to step up and share your experience. Whether it be about yourself or family member or even a friend. YHC will testify how this subject has effected my life. Please remember what we talk about in COT stays in COT it’s okay to be vulnerable. We are stronger together rather than alone.

Quotes
Don’t be ashamed of your story it will inspire others. Author Unknown

“You don’t have to control your thoughts. You just have to stop letting them control you.”

”I hide all my scars with an I’m fine.”

The bravest thing I ever did was continuing my life when I wanted to die. – Juliette Lewis

The world is a better place with you in it.

Suicide doesn’t end the chances of life getting worse, it eliminates the possibility of it ever getting any better. – unknown

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Barney Fife’s Burpee Ball Beatdown at The Ballroom

I’m having serious football withdrawals and wanted to try something new, so on a very cold morning, I decided we would toss the pigskin around……in the dark. I’m very grateful for the patience of all 12 PAX that came out, I’m sure they thought I was nuts for wanting to play ball in the dark.

COP

After a quick disclaimer, we moseyed over to the other parking lot and circled up for a little stretching. (toe touches, elbow lifts, leg stretches) and then:

  • 15 Hillbillies
  • 15 Cherry Pickers
  • 20 Windmills
  • 25 Side Straddle Hops
  • 30 Moroccan Night Clubs

Moseyed around the school to the bridge where we circled up again for:

  • 15 Merkins
  • 30 Flutters
  • 15 Diamond Merkins
  • 30 Dying Cockroaches
  • 15 Box Cutters

Moseyed our way onto the football field and formed two lines of PAX on the goal line. We all took turns running out to the 10-yard line and trying to catch the ball….in the total, pitch black darkness. If the ball was dropped, for any reason, everyone dropped and did 5 burpees. (It was amazing to see how quickly everyone’s passing and catching skills improved….DRAMATICALLY.) After throwing and catching the ball each PAX ran to the back of the line and began jogging in place while waiting for their next turn. After approximately 40 burpees we switched over to monkey humpers when a pass was dropped. After another 40 monkey humpers, we moseyed back up the hill to the main parking lot and circled up for a round of mary.

COT

We finished up with announcements, prayer requests, praises and thanking God for allowing us to enjoy another beautiful morning with our F3 brothers.

Thank you Short Sale for the opportunity to lead!!!

Barney Fife

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2

Call a Kotter Today

It was an honor for Walker and I to head across the River on this cool and cloudy gloom to lead 6 of The Fort’s Finest HIM who decided on this day they would not allow the Fartsack to overtake them. Thank you Smuggler for the opportunity. Thank you to the men of The Fort to allow us to visit you this weekend.

WARMUP

YHC led the warmup with the following in cadence: Side Straddle Hops, Imperial Walkers, Low Slow Squats, Merkins, Peter Parker Peters. We then took a quick mosey over to the wall in front of the Tennis Center for what was to commence below.

THE THANG

Once we arrived at the wall we went through 2 rounds of Irkins, Dips, Step-Ups, and Derkins all in cadence. We then headed back to Runde Park for some curls, Tricep Extensions, Squats w/block overhead, Bent Over Rows, & Lunges (All with the Paving Blocks in the parking lot). YHC then handed over the Q-Stick to Walker for the following:

We began with the infamous Starfish workout. 25 Body Squats at the center each time we returned, and 25 Merkins, 25 Diamond Merkins, 25 Wide Arm Merkins, & 26 Staggered Merkins.

Then Walker led us in some core work with a lot of Flutters and One Legged Flutters (each leg). Then we circled up for for some cardio doing the Original Burpee (no push up, no jump, and hands touch the ground before you thrust your feet). We were 20-seconds on and 10-seconds off for I think 20 times.

We then did a round of 7’s with Merkins at one end and Jump Squats at the other. Walker had about 3 minutes left and we finished with more flutters & Merkins (WHO WOULD HAVE GUESSED).

Great work to all HIMs who showed up this morning. Thank you again.

NMM

This was not mentioned at the  COT, but I want to remind all PAX of the Fort to stick to the challenge given by Maximus at the Christmas Convergence. Take some time TODAY and call a former FNG whom you haven’t seen in a while and get them back out into the gloom. We all fail at this so let’s make it a point. One man a week is all you need to do. Aye!

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Convergence & Invergence-March 8-Baxter HT and The Shack.

Joe Davis Run-March 9.

Operation Sweet Tooth Run-March 30 in Tega Cay beginning at Runde Park.

PRAYERS/PRAISES

Prayers and praises were mentioned and were lifted up by Walker.

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3

Leg Day at the Ballroom

It was definitely a blessing to Q on one of the two clear days this February.  12 HIM were gathered in the gloom knowing only that they were destined for some leg pain. After a quick disclaimer and a cursory check for FNGs we started in on the fun.

Warm up

Stage one

Quickly circled up for some
SSH x20
Low Sloooow Squat x10
Tappy Taps x10

Stage two

A quick mosey over to the south parking lot and another circle
Single leg stretch x4 (one foot planted with knee bent and six near the earth, the other straight out to the side with toes up, hold and keep the six down when transferring to the opposite foot)
Windmill x10
Imperial Walker x20
Ray Finkles (straight leg kicks) x10 each leg

Stage three

Another mosey around the east side and stopping by the bridge for a third circle
Moroccan Night Clubs x20
Monkey Humpers x10 (4 count)
Little Baby Arm Circles x10 forward and reverse (4 counts)
Monkey Squats x10 (4 count)

The monkey squats produced some noises not often heard at a moderate workout, good thing it was just the one set.

The Thang

We moseyed over the bridge to the football field and, to my dismay, they had it chained up on the south end. We continued our mosey up the north end with the hope that my plans wouldn’t be foiled. When we got there, our mosey was fruitful and we lined up at the 0 yard line (end line? I don’t know, I don’t watch the fooseball!)

We counted off by threes for teams of 4 and I explained our new game to the PAX. We would be doing an “Indian run” style relay type workout that wasn’t really either. But without all the silly running slow. No, we don’t need all of that when we can be exercising in place!

How it works

1. At the end line, everyone would begin doing the chosen exercise for that circuit.
2. The first PAX would high tail it for the 10 yard line, stop, and engage in the exercise in place
3. The next PAX would run to the next available 10 yard mark, stop, and engage
4. Etc
5. The last PAX would then run past the PAX holding the 10 yard mark, giving him a little shoulder tap, and then proceed to the next open 10 yard mark and engage.
6. The first PAX, being on the 10, would then run past everyone, tapping the first PAX on the way, stopping at the next open 10 yard mark
7. Repeat
8. Everyone who ended up on the other end line would engage in the exercise while they wait for the remaining PAX to filter in.
9. Same thing, back to the other side.
10. 10 count and go back to #1!!!

We performed all five exercise below when my “0555” (get back to COT) alarm went off. Every stop was AMRAP
1. Al Gore (that’s right, just hold that nice, deep stance)
2. Lunges
3. Gorilla humpers (wide stance monkey humpers!)
4. Calf raises
5. Imperial Stormkickers (straight leg kicks across the body)

Back to COT

Mosey back to COT and Mary until the six was in with
Window Wipers x10

Six was in, but we had time left for about 15 seconds of leg lifts before the alarm went off

COT

We stood up and YHC shared a bit about what is on my heart when I think of the February word, “Live”. We constantly hear about the tragedy, specifically with children, when people put themselves front and center and children fall into neglect and mistreatment. Good people can, and must, pick up the slack (though “slack” is far too weak a word), but if we can demonstrate living 3rd to those around us, maybe (and I didn’t articulate this well this morning) it will begin to rub off on others.
Then shared Proverbs 11:25, which has been a focus of YHC since his formative teens, “The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.” (I replaced “water” with “refresh”, which is how I remembered it. In my mind this all ties in well enough to go on for another 8000 words, but for now, let’s live 3rd in a way that shows overt honor and virtue that is attainable.
Announcements about all the k’s people are going to be running (read your newsletter).
Asked for prayer requests and they were given. Closed with a prayer by YHC and fist bumps all around.

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Black Diamond #3 at the Ranch – Get Some

Expected rain all morning, but instead we got a comfortable 40 degrees with wetness all around us.  Perfect for what we were about to get into.

Reminded the Pax that this was a Black Diamond workout and immediately had a reaction that made it clear that some were unaware lol.  Since I dislike warm-ups, I got right to our “warm-up”.

1 – I’ve done this before  w/ my speaker & the Seconds app on my phone (get it if you don’t have it – it’s an awesome timer / tabata app w/ the ability to add music).

  • First 5 minutes of warm-up:  each minute on the minute, we’re all going to do 35 really fast side straddle hops and 8 burpees.  Every minute.  End result is 175 ssh’s and 40 burpees in 5 minutes.
  • Next 5 minutes of warm-up:  no break, right into merkin mode.  11 merkins, 10 diamonds, 9 merkins, 8 diamonds, 7 merkins…down to 1 merkin.  I think we were warm.

2 – 1/4 mile burpee fun:  we moseyed over to the circle in front of the Middle School, which is a perfect 1/4 mile loop w/ some hills in it, which I failed to recognize when throwing this together.  We partnered up and I gave the Pax the bad news.  I set up my phone w/ it’s bright light stop watch timer to help.

  • Sprint with your partner the 1/4 mile loop as fast you can.  Why you might ask?  Because when you finish and see your time for that loop, you both have that many burpees to split halfsies on.  Back in High School, low to mid 50 seconds was acceptable for the 400m dash.  That’s not what we’re capable of anymore – ranged from 70 seconds to 85+ seconds, which meant each partner had 35 to 45 burpees to do apiece.
  • Round 2 – do it again.  Only this time, the challenge was that if you beat your prior lap time, you can cut the burpees in half.  Well no one beat their time, haha, so we still cut it in half anyway.  Most laps were in the 80-90 seconds range this time, which meant, 40-45 burpees to split w/ your partner, or 20-25 a piece.

3 – Pretty sure after this the Pax hated my guts.  From there we hit the longest straightaway I could find.  Same partners as before.  This time Partner 1 lines up 10-20 yards away from Partner 2.  Partner 1 starts back pedaling as fast as they can while Partner 2 has to sprint to catch them.  Wherever they are caught, you stop right there and do an exercise, then a mode of transportation back to the starting line.  We did 4 of these (each partner chased 2x and back pedaled 2x):

  • First round (once caught) – 15 bear crawl merkins, followed by broad jumps back to starting line
  • Second round – 25 lunge jumps (do each leg and that’s 1), followed by bear crawl back to starting line
  • Third round – 35 american hammers, followed by lunge walk back to starting line
  • Fourth round – 45 wide arm merkins, followed by bunny hop back to starting line

4 – We had 5 minutes, so had to make the most of it.  Quick DORA against the Elementary wall by CoT.  Partner 1 does Jump Squats and the timer was Partner 2 running to wall and doing 15 Mike Tyson merkins (those are honestly some of my least favorite merkins:  feet flat on wall at base of wall, merkin position, bring you six to the wall with feet staying put and then all the way forward so that your hands are almost at your ribs as you go down for merkin).  Once Partner 2 finished their 15 rep count, the partners switched.  Think most teams got to 100 or so jump squats before our time was up.

2 Ruckers, 1 Runner and 16 Black Diamond Boot Campers was the count.  Thanks to Jiffy for the chance to do whatever I want without having to worry about how terrible it sounds.  Appreciate everyone kicking a$$ and finishing it all.

Prayers:

  • Dark Helmet’s M is traveling this weekend – travel mercies
  • Dirty Harry’s M has last day of work / transitionary time for new opportunities / jobs
  • Olaf’s continued progress on limiting ADHDs adverse impact on his life
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5

10 Accelerating Together

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Golden Corral Corrals 3 FNG’s

From a last minute Q request from ______, Lutefisk grabbed 3 FNG’s from his neighborhood. You should try it… I posted the Men’s Health link and left an open invite and got three suckers to join us.  The disclaimer was given thoroughly and we reminded the PAX and informed the FNG’s of the 5 core characteristics of F3.

With that, a mosey around the auto parts store brings us to COP. Warm-up with:
-Windmills
-Low Slow Squats
-Imperial Walkers
-Hillbilly Walkers
-ChaChing Mercuries (Freddie Murcuries, start slow, then fast, then slow, then fast)
-Mountain Climbers
-Right Arm / Leg High
-Crab position for Dips
-Left Arm / Leg High

Mosey to the front of Harris Teeter. 9 pillars in front of the building. Line up and bear crawl to first pillar, 1 burpee. Bear crawl to second pillar, 2 burpees. You get the idea.  AYG run back to starting line. Rinse and repeat with broad jumps and squats.  Enough of that…

Mosey to the walls, partner up with someone of similar speed, that is your opponent – split into two teams with YHC as the judge for the contests. One pax at a time while the rest held position:
-Bear crawl to other side and back while the rest hold wall sit
-Duck walk to other side and back while the rest held plank
-AYG to other side and back while the rest hold BTTW
-Crab walk to other side and back while the rest hold chillcut
-Wheelbarrow to other side, flapjack, wheelbarrow back while others hold Al Gore
After each round, losing team does 5 krakken burpees, winning team does 5 flying squirrels

Mosey to parking lot, get back with original partner and complete as much Dora 1-2-3 as possible. Got through almost half of the squats.  COT

After counting off and name-o-rama, we got to the fun part. Name those FNG’s.
First up, Jim. Found out he loves Star Wars. F3 name = Solo
Next, Jason. From Long Island. He must like bagels. F3 name = Lox
Last, Justin. His last name is Earley.  F3 name = Tardy

Announcements, prayers, praises, and a prayer concluded our awesome morning. It’s always a pleasure to have an opportunity to lead these men that I look up to and admire for their awesomeness.  Lutefisk OUT.

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8

Frozen Shart Run

Apparently according to reliable source if one farts when it is 20 degrees below 0, it will freeze to you pants… try at your own risk.

We met at Foodlion did some Broga, ran down the street, around the ‘hood and back for about 2.7 miles.

Good times!

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Alcatraz – Cake and the Ripper

It is GROUNDHOG Day and all I could think about was repeats. Repeating the same exercise for 60 mins would be rough. Shoot GInsu did Plank at The Ranch for 45 mins once…..but I was not going to subject myself or the PAX to that mental tourture. Instead, we had Cable Guy and his GI issues. the were in full force , especially in the squats. Anyway, cable guy and I flipped a coin on who would go first and I got the first half……so away we went

  • Mosey all the way around the park and came back to pick up Lutefisk and Mile HIgh for COP
    • Plank Series
  • Mosey to other side of bball fields
    • Merkins
    • Imperial Walkers
    • Hillbilly Walkers
    • Squats
  • Mosey to short steep hill by the firehouse
    • Time for DOP (Dice of Pain)
      • Roll the Dice, run to bottom of hill, perform exercise, run back up hill
    • Merkins
    • Squats
    • Lunges
    • Frog Hops
    • LBCs
    • ????
    • Burpees
  • Mosey to Playgroung and hand off to Cable Guy
    • Fishstix tagged out and we picked up Jekyll at COT

Cable Guy lined us up for some suicide repeats

  1. Burpees
  2. Merkins
  3. Bombjacks
  4. ??????
  5. Suicides touch every line up to 12 lines

Mosey to middle of lot for Mary

  • Protractors
  • Flutters
  • dying cockroaches
  • Pretzel Crunches

COT:

8 PAX came to Alcatraz today and 4 hit up  Qsource after. It was a great day of fellowship and something to be said for smaller groups pushing each other. Mile High inspired me as each time he was called for a 10 count, he had us do something during the 10 count……disruption!!  Made us all better and t-clapps brother for the dedication to get your King in order!

G3L – Get Right, Live Right, Lead Right, Leave Right

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Accumulating Around Rite-Aid

Lightning Backblast

22 degrees didn’t scare off 6 pax from Golden Corral.  No FNGs, so the disclaimer was light and we quickly got to moseying around the parking lot.  Quick stop near the launch point for a warm-up:

  • 30 SSH
  • 10 Windmills
  • 20 Imperial Walkers
  • 20 Mountain Climbers
  • few others that have escaped YHC

Mosey to far corner of Rite-Aid

The Thang – 4-Corner Accumulator
At each corner of the Rite-Aid, we stopped to do the exercise for the round.  Run between each corner, and plank up for the six after each round.

Round 1- 1 burpee at each corner
Round 2 – 1 burpee, 2 Crab Jacks at each corner
Round 3 – 1 burpee, 2 Crab Jacks, 3 Run Stance Switch
Round 4 – 1 burpee, 2 Crab Jacks, 3 Run Stance Switch, 4 merkins
Round 5 – 1 burpee, 2 Crab Jacks, 3 Run Stance Switch, 4 merkins, 5 plank jacks
Round 6 – 1 Burpee, 2 Crab Jacks, 3 Run Stance Switch, 4 merkins, 5 plank jacks, 6 box cutters
Round 7 – 2 Crab Jacks, 3 Run Stance Switch, 4 merkins, 5 plank jacks, 6 box cutters
Round 8 – 3 Run Stance Switch, 4 merkins, 5 plank jacks, 6 box cutters
Round 9 – 4 merkins, 5 plank jacks, 6 box cutters
Round 10 – 5 plank jacks, 6 box cutters
Round 11 – 6 box cutters

Finished right on time. Headed back to COT.

Thanks Falcon Crest for the opportunity to lead!

Onward!
-old bay

 

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