Tag: Chicken Hawk

Unexpected

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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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Aces UP for a blockparty beat DOWN

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After a quick disclaimer, we took off for the track around to park to make pit stops at each of the posts for some warmup exercises.  At each post, we started with the following exercise and then 2 burpees after each one…for a bonus.

  • SSH x25
  • Imperial and Hillbilly walkers x10
  • Moroccan night club x30
  • Squats x20, Cherry pickers x10

After warmup, we moseyed over to the playground for the Thang:

  • Merkins: 10 diamonds, 10 military, 10 regular, 10 wide arm, 10 derkins
  • Run lap around playground
  • 20 chin-ups
  • Run lap around playground
  • 50 flutters
  • Run lap around playground

Rinse and repeat…during one of the laps, we had two men down due to uneven concrete slabs during the run.  Note to self – be careful out there for the uneven terrain!

Next we found some benches for the next set of fun.

  • 40 dips
  • Run lap around playground
  • 20 step-ups (10/leg)
  • Run lap around playground

Rinse and repeat.  As time was winding down, we had time for one last circuit.  Similar to round 1, we gave this another shot with some modifications.

  • Merkins: 5 diamonds, 5 military, 5 regular, 5 wide arm, 5 derkins
  • 20 LBCs
  • 20 step-ups (10 each leg)
  • 20 LBCs
  • 50 flutters
  • 20 LBCs

Quick run back to COT to wrap up the morning for name-o-rama, announcements, prayers and praises (CSPAN style), and closed out with our prayer!  Great work men and we missed you Fire Marshall Bill…get better my friend!

Shady

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RPG: Broga & Run on this nice mild morning in November

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10 for Broga and 9.5 for run

It was a great morning of mumble chatter especially Rebel and Fogerty jabbing about wearing tights in 50 degree weather and using the M’s yoga mats.

Sasquatch led us in Broga and we don’t know our Right and Left but we know where the Waffle House is and where the Bank is so we were able to follow instructions.

YHC gave a simple tapper run for the crew down Regent Parkway to apartments and up Pikeview to back gate through Keswick neighborhood back to Regent Parkway straight back to COT for a 3mi fellowship run

Good coffeteria chat and quality time with the PAX

Thanks for the Q and Sasquatch and Bassomatic’s leadership at this AO……strong!!

Cake Boss

 

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The Coop: Beat the temperature day and we did it! #25

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It was a cool morning and when I say cool I mean Fonzie cool. PAX came in from all directions and we had met the temperature of 25 degrees. I was proud that the men did not stay in the fartsack where it was easy….but rather said yes to accountability and posted with their brothers.

Had to get the PAX warm, so away we went……

The Thang:

Mosey around parking lot

  • Shuffle
  • Mosey
  • Toy solders
  • more Mosey
  • COP
    • Plank
    • Merkins
    • Imperial Walkers
    • Squats
    • Peter Parker
    • FLutters
    • Parker Peters
  • Mosey
    • 1’s wall sit with shoulder presses
    • 2’s 5 box jumps, 10, derkins, 15 dips
    • Flapjack
    • Mosey to front of NAFO school

Had 12 cinder block stations, partner up

  1. Run around islands of parking lot
  2. perform exercises below with as many reps as possible while waiting on partner
    1. Flapjack until all 12 are completed
  • Bear crawl with Block drag
  • Block swing
  • Floor to Shelf L/R
  • Curls
  • Tri-extensions
  • Leg raises with Block
  • Bear crawl with Block right/left Merkins
  • Squat to overhead press
  • Bent Rows
  • Burpees
  • Sumo deadlifts press
  • LBCs

Time was up and so the PAX moseyed back to COT with blocks in hand

  • Wrap up with Freddy’s and Hello Dolly’s

Thank you Wegmans for the opportunity to Q

  • The Fort Christmas Party is this Saturday 12/1
  • Christmas convergence at Palisades Elementary School 12/24
  • Prayers for the many dealing with health concerns, lost family members and injuries

Individually we can be picked apart and crumble, however when we stand together and support each other we are indestructible. Like the cinder blocks we used, individually they don’t do much but with many of them……makes a solid foundation. Hold a brother accountable and likewise and you will become a solid foundation for your family, friends and community.

Cake Boss

 

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Too cold for a TOGA at Block Party

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There was quite the bite in the air on this Fall morning.  A little different than the balmy 55-degree weather the day before. PAX rolled in and everyone looked very excited to get rolling. Quick disclaimer for the Vets and off we went (might have been a little less stretching than initially forecasted).

 

Mosey up the hill to the smaller parking taking a left and heading to the right parking lot for the warm-up. As we were getting to the top of the hill a late arrival came in hot (not really it just sounds better). JWOW joined shortly after we started the warm-up and I must say there had to have been some hustle by him to get there that quickly. I appreciated the effort.

 

Warm-up

Toy soldiers to stretch the legs

Shuffle left and then switch sides working around the lot

High Knee stretches

Carioca to finish

Mosey to circle up

Imperial Walker- x30

Overhead claps- x30

SSH- x30

Seal Jax- x25

Squat (mumble chatter indicated my delivery was confusing) x15

Windmill- x15

Parker Peter- x15- hold

Honeymooner stretch to Downward dog and repeat

Recover

Mosey across to next parking lot of the business I can’t recall.

Informed the PAX that DORA was the call. Partner up. Initially I had planned these to be individual with laps in between sets. I think this was a better option.

Partner One runs the not so small loop while Partner 2 completes the following. Switching until completion.

100- Merkins

200- Squats

300- Flutters

Quick chat about the word of the month- Vulnerability. I appreciate the PAX sharing and making themselves “vulnerable” to the group with their personal challenges. We all have them.

Mosey took us next to the knee size wall in front of the building just across the street. PAX all found a spot to work through the Three rounds of the following:

Step ups- step to the top of the wall, 10 each leg

Derkins- 10

Dips- 20

 

Mosey back down back where we did DORA to the taller wall space.

Each PAX grabbed small wall and sat in a squat position while each PAX counted backwards from ten.

With a little time to spare, next up was a sprint to the other side of the parking lot and back. Perform 5 burpees. We did this a total of 2 times.

 

Mosey back to COT

 

With 2 minutes left, we did some American Hammers, Hello Dolly, holding it six inches, 90,45,90, six inches.

 

Announcements

CHRISTMAS PARTY! Sign-up- Someone said Ugly Sweater- T or F?

Xmas Eve Convergence

Joe Davis

 

Praises/Prayers

Safe returns from Holiday week

Family

Health to get out and post

 

Our kids (Chicken Hawk’s son)

Strength/Wisdom

State of our Country

 

Thanks for the opportunity to lead Shady and for the PAX who were there to support.

 

Frat Boy

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Tour around the Ranch

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Warm up:
Moseyed over to the Middle School. During the run we did high knees, butt kickers and karaoke.

SSH
Windmill
merkins
Broga for a few minutes

Then we moved over to the side of the school where we did three rounds of the following exercises.
5 Flying Squirels
bear crawl up the hill
20 LBCs
30 sec Wall Sit

Repeat 2 more times and switched out the movement up the hill to backward bear crawl and then forward crab walk.

Continued to move around the side of the school over by the football field where we ran a series of sprints (50%, 50%, 75%, 75%, 95%)

Then moved over to the playground on the backside of the elementary school
Split the pax up into 3 groups for 5 rounds

Group 1 – Pull ups
Group 2 – Swerkin Crunch – merkin and crunch on a swing
Group 3 – Run loop

Groups would start at 1 worked up to 5 adding one for each round of exercises for stations 1 and 2 and then run loop. Pax were told to stay with your group to encourage each other and to help those who may have needed the extra encouragement.

Got back to COT in time for the Airborne Specials (hip exercises)

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1+1=Terrible Downpainment

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19 Pax descended on Block Party including 3 for Pathfinder for an old school beatdown by YHC and Mash. Little did YHC know when I suggested to Mash that he co-Q with me that it would be his 50th Birthday at Block Party #Respect.

Mash and I have been friends for many years and I already had tons of respect for him. He is a good Christian, Husband and Father coupled with being a military veteran. Our children are the same age so we have lots in common. More importantly, he has demonstrated being a true #HIM since joining the Fort several years ago.

The Thang

Full Disclaimer

Mash on Q – Mosey out

COP – lots of chatter here…I may have been contributing

SSH

Moroccan Night Clubs

Windmills

Merkins x 15 (YEAH!)

Mosey to gravel lot and partner up

Dora 1,2,3

100 Merkins

200 Flutters

300 SSHs

Pusher on Q – Mosey to hill

Bear crawl up hill – #turrible

Dirty McDeuce powered by Halloween Candy

Side Note: Avg American eats 3.4 pounds of candy on Halloween; Candy has calories (duh!); 1 minute of Burpees equals approximately 10 calories;

All exercises IC x 12; Calories are based on “Fun Size” portions

Starburst (40 cals) – Squats

Skittles (63 cals) – LBCs

M&Ms (73 cals) – Wide Arm

Take a lap

Kit Kat (70 cals) – Jumping Lunge

Snickers (80 cals) – Flutters

Twix (80 cals) – Carolina Dry Docks

Take a lap

Reeses Cup (90 cals) – Bomb Jacks

Baby Ruth ( 85 cals) – Freddy Mercury

Butterfinger ( 85 cals) – Diamond Merkins

Take a lap

York Patty ( 50 cals) – Burpees

Crunch ( 60 cals) – Rosalita

Hershey ( 63 cals) – Burpees

Mosey Home

 

Moleskin:

  • Happy #Respect Birthday to Mash
  • Christmas Party on 12/1/18
  • Pre Christmas Drop In on 11/2/18 with Shady at Armor Artis
  • Be a HIM in your community…lots of examples were shared
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Charter Band-aids for Little Warriors – PreBlast

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As most of the PAX in the Fort and Rock regions knows my 5 year old daughter (Emma) is a leukemia survivor. We still make a trip every 4 weeks to get blood drawn to check her counts at Levine Children’s Hospital. We also stepped up and raised money last year (Christmas time) for a fellow brother bout-time out of Area 51 son Jennings who has leukemia also.

It has come to my attention that the budgets have been cut in some of the pediatric departments and the first thing to go is usually the character band aids. You say how important is to have these band-aids? Well as far as the cancer kids go every time the have their PORT’s (Port is a small medical appliance that is installed beneath the skin. A catheter connects the port to a vein) which for some kids is traumatic they get a band-aid over it. For others that are done with treatment such as my daughter Emma has to go back for the next 21 years to get checked (mainly blood counts). This not always easy for instance this past Wednesday she was poked 3 times. Well at the end the band aid can put a smile on a child’s face. This also goes for those kiddos that have to constantly get blood work done not just cancer kids.

So what I am challenging you to do is every week you go grocery shopping buy at least one box or more of character band-aids girls or boys. Also Spread the word in every COT. I will tweet out what AO’s I will be at and if anyone wants to step up and help me collect that would be awesome.

I also challenge others in different regions to pull together and do the same thing. My goal is to gather as much as possible and split it between Levine Children’s Hospital and Novant Health Hemby Children’s Hospital (St. Jude Affiliate Clinic) before Christmas.

Let a simple act of kindness put a smile on a little fighters face.

AYE. Lets do this.

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Block Party Beast Beatdown

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YHC was excited to get the reminder of my pending Q at Block Party. You see, it’s been a bit since I’ve Q’d and I haven’t been as committed to my First F as I should. Would I be dying trying to call cadence? What exercises should we do? Would anybody even show up? After a restless night of sleep, I got up, picked up my boy Atticus, and cruised to the spot where it all started in The Fort…WEP! One of my questions was answered right away as cars started rolling in the parking lot. And they kept coming. Seeing all the PAX (18 in total!) definitely humbled me and got my Qdrenaline flowing. After a quick disclaimer, we took off.

THE THANG

Mosey to the first mile marker with some high knees and butt kickers thrown in. Plank series at the marker, flip to crab for some dips (crab dip?), and back for more planks. Merkins and then back to moseying.

We stopped at each marker and did more stuff including but not limited to squats, LBC’s, wide arm merkins, mountain climbers, Peter Parkers, etc.

After completing the circle, we headed over to the brick wall at the UC Synergetic visitor parking lot on 160. Everybody grabbed a seat on the wall and watched while the guy on the end burpee broad jumped his way to the other end of the group and took a seat. Everybody got a turn and great fun was had critiquing form and jumping ability.
Next up was a bear crawl race up the big grassy hill to the main parking lot. While catching our breath, YHC talked about the word of the month, Encouragement. I shared that Barnabus was one of my favorite men of the Bible. Acts 4:36 tells us his name means “son of encouragement”. That’s exactly what he was during his missionary journeys with Paul. I want to be an encourager and our kids certainly need that from us. Some of the best words you can say to your kids: You got what it takes! I believe in you! The challenge to encourage someone that day was issued.
Next up was the meat of the workout, THE BEAST.
The Beast = 6 stations, 6 exercises at each station, 6 rounds. After each round, plank up and wait for the 6.
1st round – jumping lunges
2 – Freddy Mercury
3 – Low Country Crabs
4 – American Hammers
5 – Flutter Kicks? I can’t really remember?
6 – Burpees (crowd pleaser)
A quick look at the watch indicated 3 minutes till 6 so jailbreak to COT

Announcements
We had a lot. Christmas Party, upcoming workout, CAH volunteer opportunities, etc. As they say, read your newsletter
Prayers and praises were shared and Chicken Hawk closed up out.
Thanks Shady for giving me the opportunity to Q! I needed the kick in the pants to get back out there and I loved every minute of it.
AYE!
Flat Tire

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Conveyor Belt of Pain

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10 HIMs arrived to  see silhouettes of YHC’s untold horror in the backdrop of gloom at The Hive. After disclaiming that YHC is terrible at counting before 0800 the regular disclaimer was administered.

Things started out normal with some SSH to get the blood moving.  It’s really a great way to make the PAX feel like a regular workout is on the horizon.  Then we moved into a wide leg stance (sorta sumo) and dropped our six’s close to the pavement to get the hips opened up. Moving from one leg to the other, we stretched out the hamstrings and other muscles some people tend to forget exist. From there, we inched our feet out as close to a full split** as each man could handle, put our fingertips on the ground, and did fingertip pushups.
**except Band Camp, who surprised everyone in a full split without making a face

From there we went to the Conveyor Belt across the parking lot.  Each station had two parking slots between them and each exercise was given a brief demo before we dropped our bells at various stations and jumped on board.  The slots were:

  1. KB Swings (40 and a 30 were available)
  2. Box jumps (30x24x20)
  3. 3/4″x72″ Iron Staff – wrist rotations (I looked this up, pronation and supination of the wrists)
    1. Holding the staff straight forward, rotate to the left and right
    2. The work experienced with these is in hand placement, speed of rotation, and stopping momentum
  4. 10lb Training  Mace – barbarian swings
    1. Swing the mace to align it with the chest at shoulder height to the left and right, when the arm close to the ball crosses the body, it’s on the bottom.  When it’s on its own side, the top
  5. 3/4″x72″ Iron Staff – tip ups
    1. Hold the staff vertically with forearm horizontal
    2. let the staff fall down to horizontal, using only forearms, pull it back to vertical (mostly the first two fingers)
    3. Alternatively, with arm hanging, adjust the staff so that the long end is behind you and use only forearm muscles to bring it back to vertical (mostly the last two fingers)
  6. Tricep Extensions with that 40 pounder
  7. BB bag – ~14lbs of steel BBs in a 9×9 canvas bag
    1. hold the bag with one arm at eye level as far away as you can from your body, gripping it by its side with fingertips (so you’re looking at a square), the opposite hand is at your side.
    2. Let go of the bag and as you pull that hand down to rest, the other snaps up to grab the falling bag, again, with fingertips, raising it back into position.  There should be some hang time.
    3. Alternate hands, trying to keep the bag floating in the air with a bit of hang time
  8. Curls – 25lb bell
  9. Squats
  10. “Pick your own Mary” with a 25lb bell (YHC didn’t have enough slots for everyone, so this one came from the aether)
  11. Same as above, but disappears after a few seconds, explanation below

Timing:
There is always a traveling PAX. The PAX starting at station 11 did a small amount of Mary, then high-tailed it for station 1, taking over that station (at this time station 11 disappeared). The displaced PAX from 1 then bear crawled over two parking spaces to 2, relieving that PAX of that station, who would bear crawl to 3.  This continued until station 10 ran back to station one.

After a full circle of fun, everyone took a nice, restful run across the parking lot, and picked up where they left off.

This went on with everyone working together in harmony until there was about 2 minutes left in the workout and we were one station short of a full circuit.

Everyone circled up by the gear, YHC ran to grab a phone (pulling something in my calf halfway there…) and ended with COT.

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