Simulation Training for May Event

Seeing that many of the past Q’s at the Fire Ant have been ratcheting up the physical training, it was time for some simulation training since there are a few new newbies. 19 PAX chose to post this morning.

YHC acted as the cadre and asked for 1 rookie and seasoned PAX. Instructions were given – 5 minutes to get the PAX in formation, ruck up, sandbag ups, and move to the bus drop off. Off they went.  They were 30 seconds late, but Q decided not to penalize.

Next , 2 rookies were assigned team leader and assistant team lead. They were given – 10 minutes to get to big tree with 100 merkins and 100 LBCs. Off they went. As they headed towards the big tree, the TL/ATL stopped and had all PAX do 25 merkins and LBCs. The PAX stopped 2 more times, and then at the big tree finished the 4th set. They went 3 minutes over. I informed the PAX that it is critical to listen to detail. I didnt say all PAX had to do 100 of each, I said you had 10 minutes to get to tree with 100 of each. The PAX could have broken these out to each PAX.

Next, 2 new rookies were assigned TL and ATL. They were given 3 minutes to get to the basketball courts. They made this time – well 15 seconds late…. Each PAX had to do 20 manmakers due to previous penalty.

Lastly, 2 new rookies were assigned. They were given 5 minutes to get to flag poll with each PAX doing 100 flutters. The TL and ATL listened well since they informed PAX the full directions.

The key is to listen to the details by the Cadre in order to not get additional penalties.

Announcement and prayers conducted

 

 

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SlowBurn – Wegman’s Send off to Chimbote

Today at SlowBurn it was about Wegmans and his choice to say YES to a calling to serve. He heard this calling and it spoke to his heart and he accepted the opportunity to be vulnerable, uncomfortable and go into the world for his creator Sky Q. The cool thing about mission trips is we think its about serving others, but in reality its about Sky Q working on us.

38 PAX came to show Wegmans support. They were running, rucking, boot-camp and even Broga was represented. for 45 mins everyone got better in some fashion, but for YHC I felt led to honor Wegmans by pulling some of his work from previous workouts. I felt the best way to respect a man is to use his material. So away we went.

The Thang:

Warm Up mosey to lower lot

  • Typical COP stuff 5-7 exercise moves
  • Line up at end of lot for some others
    • High Knees
    • Butt Kickers
    • Karaoke
    • Shuffles
    • sprints

Mosey to far side of Indian Restaurant

DMB from Wegmans Ranch workout

  • Duckwalk – 20 yards
  • Merkins – 10
  • Bearcrawl back – 20 yards
  • 3 rounds

Mosey to Far side of Lowes

From the Wegninator’s Coop workout

  • Partner up
    • #1 = Wall Sit
    • #2 =
      • 10 Broadjump Burpees
      • 10 Powerskips
      • 10 Plankwalks (right and then left)
    • Flap jack
    • 3 rounds

Mosey to opposite side of Lowes

From Wegmans’ Slow Burn workout – The Triple Check

Groups of 3

  1. Al Gore
  2. Plank
  3. Run Lap around parking lot
  • 3 rounds, with each person rotating position

Mosey back to COT

Wegmans’s shared his WHY during the workout and serving others and his willingness to be vulnerable in a strange place and open to see what Sky Q will do.

Many in the group have been on mission trips before and I believe that we all have intentions of serving and helping others, however these trips are about what Sky Q teaches us about ourselves. Gives us perspective and understanding that everyone around the globe are all children of HIS and we should love each other.

Best to you Wegmans and look forward to hearing the lesson’s learned.

Cake Boss

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Fire Ant 2-5-19

15 Pax posted at Fire Ant for unseasonably warm January morning.  We had a large crowd this morning – looks like training may be picking up for the May Custom. Also, big welcome to Jiffy and River Rat as first timers to Fire Ant.  Hope to see you both next week.

The Thang

Brisk ruck around on the school.  Stopping along the side of the school for the following:

Rucks Off

Side Straddle Hops x 30, Windmills x 10, Imperial Walkers x 15

Rucks On

Merkins x 10, Slow Squats x 15, Peter Parkers x 10, Lunges x 10, Parker Peters x 10, Monkey Humpers x 10, Ruck Curls x 10, Overhead Press x 10

Ruck to front of school and line up along first pillar.  Will do a movement from first pillar down to crosswalk – roughly 25 yards* – stopping at every other pillar for an exercise.  Combinations are listed below.  There were 10 pillars, so each exercise was done 5 times.

Bear Crawl – 3 merkins

Lunge Walk – 5 squats

Overhead Carry – 10 presses (5 each side)

Duck Walk – 5 monkey humpers.

Crab Walk – 5 big boy situps

Ruck around school one more time.  Circle up for ab lab.  Flutters x 20, Big Boy Sit Ups x 15, American Hammers x 8.

*My judge of distance is terrible, so I could be way off on the 25 yard listing, but it sounds right.

Overall distance covered was 1.34 miles.

 

 

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The Ranch – Where you need to prepare for the unexpected!!

8 Ruckers were out marching around when 16 more PAX arrived at the cold Ranch. YHC was expecting low numbers since the temp was 20-22, but I was thrilled to see the men circling and getting ready for the unexpected.

The Thang:

Mosey to entrance
COP

SSHs-20
CCDs-18
Seal Jacks-20
Wind Mills-15
Imperial Walkers-20

Mosey to baseball field……it was creepy dark!!

3 rounds of Crawl, Walk Run

Home to 1st-bear crawls
1st to 2nd-lunge walk
2nd to home-Run

Mosey to bridge

Two lines and Partner is next to you
Wheel barrow little baby Jesus up steps alternating when needed

Indian Run to Football field

Partner Carry to playground

With Partner: 1 does exercise/1 runs lap
Pull ups
Derkins
Swing Crunches
Dips

Burpee Indian Run back to COT

IT was a fun filled day at The Ranch and the PAX worked hard and pushed each other. Message was about being prepared and no matter if its preparing for breakfast or for retirement, as a leader we need to be ready for the expected. Today my Director resigned from our team and company. We don’t know who our leader will be or what our organization will look like, but as leader of my work and home I need to look in the mirror and say, Get After It! There is no waiting to see where the chips fall,  but to get out in front and lead. Reflect on all things in your life and address those things that you need to get prepared for……finances, stronger marriage, tough talks with the kids and death. Don’t leave these for someone else to take care of.

Thanks Jiffy for the lead…..humbled and honored!!

Cake Boss out!

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Intentional

Today’s brisk temperature did not stop the Pax from posting at The Coop. We had 3 pre-ruckers that joined us for a high impact workout. All 15 of us pushed each other to get better.  What an amazing morning with my F3 brothers!

The Thang:

Mosey to the parking lot in front of the school

COP: SSH (30x), IW (20x), WM (15x), Sumo Squats (15x), MC (15x), Moroccan Night Clubs (15x)

Mosey to the pull up bars: Jacobs Ladder with burpees at the bottom, pull ups at the top 9x

Mosey to FMES:Balls to the wall, People’s Chair 4x

Moleskin:  

High impact men, you must be intentional with your time. Our time on this planet is limited and life moves at very a fast pace. Respond to the Great Commission by intentionally investing time to build God’s kingdom. Do not let the ways of the world distract you from His calling. Be intentional with your family by studying and serving them. Identify and address the needs of your wife and children.

“Impact is never about knowing all the steps ahead, but about taking one intentional step after the other.” ― Bidemi Mark-Mordi

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Unexpected

AO covered (Circles = COP)
green mark is shovel flag, COT, and mary location

QIC: Band Camp

After thinking for a while about preparedness, expectations, disappointment, last minute changes and our reactions, YHC tried to devise a workout that would be in the mold of an F3 bootcamp format but would also disrupt expectations in uncomfortable ways to give PAX as change to work on their response. What follows is my attempt to put this (again unconventionally) into a BackBlast. The exercises are listed out of order and with no set number of reps. My general plan was to create unexpected changes and I chose exercises and reps based on what I felt would be unexpected in the moment.

11 PAX gathered in the cold December gloom for my lengthy version of the disclaimer and set off. The strategy (unbeknownst to the PAX) was for a faster than standard “mosey” and short (ADD-esque?) unpredictable COPs (see map above). Occasionally we’d just plank up and then wait for half a second before running off again. Chicken Hawk, a wise PAX, sniffed out my plan after the first “plank and mosey.” When we arrived at the second circle and YHC planked up, Chicken Hawk planked up with one hand on my ankle to prevent my quick mosey. YHC was forced to call for some plank jacks and mountain climbers and we were off again!

Among the exercises we did mostly in cadence (but in no particular order) were:

Merkins
Mtn Cimbers
Plank Jacks
Burpees
Burpees + bomb jacks
Windmill
Downdog-->Honeymooner
Mike Tysons-->Bear Crawl
Dips
Step ups
Dan Taylor (1:4 squat/lunges) sequence (YHC may or may not have demonstrated a weakness of multiplication around the numbers 24-28)
Alternating Shoulder Taps
Non-alternating shoulder taps
People's Chair (cold slick surface, one PAX walked their 6 down the wall...)
BTTW
BTTW merkin
Peter Parker
Pigeon Lunges
Cossack stretch (can easily be mispronounced...)
Flutters
LBCs straight up to 0600

NMM:

The Advent season (advent is Latin for “coming”) is about preparing and anticipating the coming of Christ. How do the expectations of a F3 workout or any situations affect our responses when what happens does not align with what we anticipated?

Jesus, the Messiah, came as a tiny baby in a dirty stable born in a poor town to an unassuming carpenter who had contemplated leaving his finacé quietly due to the unexpected pregnancy. Certainly not the expected “savior” the Jewish people were waiting for to liberate them from Roman occupation. See also CakeBoss’ tweet How did their expectations of a savior change their response to the Messiah’s message….?

Every morning I like to think of an F3 post as a chance to be more prepared for the unexpected. Then Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, has a nonsensical quote about Iraq. But after further inspection it doesn’t sound as nonsensical.

as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know.

Donald Rumsfeld 2/12/2002

It is my hope that F3 helps PAX train and prepare for the known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns. If you’re interested, composer Phil Kline set this Rumsfeld quote in an art song. Enjoy and SYITG!

Prayers for Unity Presbyterian as they recover from the recent fire.

Announcements: convergence on 12/24 at Palisades

–Band Camp dismissed

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The Ruck Taper That Wasn’t…Here at the Fire Ant

Oh, you didn’t tote a ruck and join us at the Fire Ant this morning? But, you know how to read. Lucky you; you’ll feel as if you joined us in this perfect gloom. Well, aside from smoked shoulders, jail-breaks, curls, squats, lunges, weird-shaped circles, flutters and joyful times of getting yelled at. That’s basically the entire Weinke right there.

But for you more literary types, I’ll humor you just this time. 17 of The Fort’s finest Ruckers converged on the now guaranteed-to-please Fire Ant and we even had a non-typical out there which is always welcome. If you’re not a Rucker yet you’re still reading this, I owe you one. In addition, I highly encourage you reach out to Spiderman or DaVinci (Ruck Q’s) and see if they can wrangle an extra ruck for you to join us out there one morning. It’s a great time of fellowship and you’ll even learn a little more about your limits. Here’s a hint, you can take more than you think.

So the disclaimer was disclaimed, we fell in 2×2 and took it over to circle up around the flags. This next part was a bit of a mind game. While routine is something we all enjoy and can keep ourselves in check with, when it comes to a workout, it doesn’t always have the same benefit. We had fit, strong PAX out there this morning so I tried something slightly different and broke our typical 5min routine. We started off with 31 squats (with ruck) then 32-4ct flutters with ruck press.

Fall back in line for a 20yd 2×2 to our next stop. Rucks overhead 2×2 to the end of the drop-off lane…yup, that sucked too. Make a hard right, rucks on and lunge walk 1/2 way to the back. About face and reverse lunge walk the rest of the way to the back lane. Rucks overhead and 2×2 about 40yds down the back lane. Drop the rucks for an all-out jail break to the end of the lane (nearly 60yds). Catch your breath and jail break back to your ruck. Guess what was next…rucks overhead 2×2 back to the start of the lane.

5 Man-Makers & 10 Hand-Release Merkins

2×2 over to the bottom of the tiered stadium hill

Bear crawls up the hill in between the levels.

Level 1: 20 full Mak Tar Jai’s (yup, suck-fest)

Level 2: 20 Peter Parkers

Level 3: 20 Parker Peters

What goes up, must come down. We’ll now reverse bear crawl in between the levels.

Level 3: 20 Upright rows

Level 2: 20 Curls

Level 1: 20 Bent over rows

Rucks on 2×2 back to the drop-off lane.

Squats around the world. In a circle, PAX hold the Al Gore and each man does 1 full squat  going around the circle. We did 7 total rounds.

Same idea but this time with a shoulder press. Hold ruck up overhead and do 1 full press when it’s your turn. We did 7 total rounds.

Same idea now with ruck curls. Guess how many rounds we did…7.

3-tier suicides with 5 ruck thrusters each time you come back to the start.

A high number of SEAL-team situps with awkwardly positioned rucks.

And that was it.

So much for the taper…

Announcements: Read the newsletter, keep collecting band-aids and support the Paradise Reading Center Monday/Wednesday 4pm.

Prayers: Double-Down in Louisville, PAX doing the GRT in Wilmington this weekend, PAX running Kiawah this weekend. Family relationships this Holiday season. It’s not always easy but help us to stay focused on opportunities to share grace and love. Sick kids, sick M’s, our teachers and education leaders, and several others I’m missing.

Until next time.

Maximus

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Constantly Moving Through The Swamp

It is always a pleasure to get the “call” to the lead the PAX  and this opportunity didn’t disappoint.  The Swamp is my “home” Friday AO so I was well aware of all the nooks and crannies it had to offer.

After a separating ourselves from the droves of men with backpacks (12 of them) I gave the usual disclaimer explaining that these men were there at their own risk and that the only thing I could promise is that they would return “stronger” than they set out.  I also explained that we would be “moving” the entire time so ‘buckle up’ and enjoy the tour.

Quick 3/4 mile mosey around Home Depot to the Khol’s parking lot.  Along the way we did some active stretching including butt kickers and high knees.  Warm up included several exercises to warm the muscles up such as:

  • Windmill
  • Imperial Walkers
  • Potato Pickers
  • Mountain Climbers
  • Right/Left leg over opposite leg with body twist (on our 6)
  • Downward Dog
  • Honeymooner
  • Side Straddle Hops

Quick mosey 100 yards —- 50 Slow Low Squats

Bear Crawl 50 yards

25 yard mosey

Merkins:

  • 30 Regular
  • 20 Wide Arm
  • 15 Ranger
  • 10 Diamond

Crawl Bear 50 yards

Mosey to Verizon: 50 Moroccan Night Club (Jedi wasn’t amused)

Mosey to “alley” behind Home Depot:

Wall sits while one PAX goes out and does 10 Berpees

Lunge Walking (down alleyway)

  • Varying steps (3-10) then exercise:
  • Merkins
  • Squat Jumps
  • Burpees
  • 10 Squat Jumps (to cap it off)

Mosey toward COT

Halfway stop for 10 more Burpees

Almost there……but first one last Suicide to really gas ourselves.

We finished strong and as I promised every man came back to COT stronger than he had left.  We reconnected with our backpack brothers and lifted some prayers and praises up.  In total 19 men got better (12 Ruckers and 7 Bootcampers)

Bones

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Honoring a Hero at the Badger Den: The SCHMALLS

11 posted this AM to honor Marine Gunnery Sgt. Justin E. Schmalstieg whom, as assigned to the 1st Explosive Ordinance Disposal Company, 7th Engineer Support Battallion, 1st Marine Logistics Group, 1 Marine Expeditionary Force gave his life clearing the way for his teammates.

The workout started with a brief 200m jogging disclaimer consisting of some toy soldiers and lunge walks. We then brought it back to the launch point for warm ups including hand-release merkins and Moroccan Night Clubs. And…that was it. We then read the bio of Gunnery Sgt Schmalstieg and walked through the workout today, coined the Schmalls.

800m run (on the track)

Then 2 rounds of the following:

50 Burpees (100 total)

40 Pull-Ups (80 total)

30 Single Leg Squats each leg (60 total each leg)

20 KB swings (40 total): We used cinder blocks

10 Handstand Push Ups (20 total)

Then another 800m run (on the track)

We had a few minutes left so we didn’t let that go to waste:

Staggered merkins in cadence on the cinderblocks

LBC’s with cinder blocks at full extension

Squats with cinder blocks stretch out overhead

Curls

Lastly, American Hammers without the cinder blocks.

The Hero Book has been pasted to Love Handle as he was the one man today who hasn’t Q’d the Honey Badger. If you are a man that hasn’t yet posted to the Honey Badger, consider this your encouragement. Sure, there is some cocky smack talked dished out in advance. It’s all to push each other to be just a little better than yesterday. When you complete one of this workouts, you feel both educated and pushed…really pushed. The recognition of a fallen HERO helps to put your present suck into perspective. And when you transition from 50 burpees to pull-ups and hand-stand push-ups for the second time, perspective helps.

After all, as the Navy SEALs say…The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday.

Maximus.

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700 Club

14 Strong Men showed up at The Fire Ant for some Ruck Training.

In Preparation for next week’s GoRuck event in Wilmington – we completed a mission simulation with a TL (Team Lead) and ATL (Assistant Team Lead)

Dirty Harry and Wegmans  voluntold the roles as they are training for their first GoRuck events.

The mission was simple, but tough. Get the group (and several coupons) to a starting point, complete the 700 club workout, and get back in time for COT.

The Thang (700 Club):

100 reps each of seven exercises:

Hand Release Merkins

Squats

Overhead Press

Curls

Ruck Swings

Big Boys Sit Ups

Flutters (with Ruck Press)

This would require a pace of approximately one rep every three seconds with no time for rest.

The group completed the mission. With a reward of carrying Bonsai and Husky back in addition to the coupons.

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