The site formally known as The COOP.

Let me start off by saying cancer sucks. It took one of our PAX last week and I am still mad about it. Jay Griggs known in the gloom as Cash, 51 battled this aweful disease on and off for about two years. He left behind his wife Christine and two kids Katie (14) and Will (12). We came together today to do a workout for him and also to rename this AO in his honor. We wanted to give a name that if someone who didnt know Cash would ask we could explain that the name was in his honor and keep Jays legacy in The Fort going. More on the name at the end.
We statrted with a disclaimer and quick dynamic warmup.
51 SSHs in cadence.
Mosey down the hill for some instructions.
3 cones at bottom of hill. do the first cone run up hill to nafo crosswalk do 10 bombjacks, run back to pull up bars do 5 pull ups, run down to bottom of hill for the next cone, keep repeating until YHC stops the group.
Cone 1- Merkins and Squats
Cone 2- CDDs and American Hammers
Cone 3- Alternating lunges and Alternating Shoulder taps
At each of the cones we did a total between the two exercises 51 reps.
Mosey back to Cot.
We took this time to let the Pax know the AO formally known as The Coop was now to be known as Ring of Fire. One of Jonny Cashs greatest hits. So when someone says how did this palce get the name we can explain.
Announcements and naming of FNG.
FNG- Sappin Patel- Spam
reach out to funhouse to help with at risk middle school kids on their off days from school_ takes palce at forest hill church.
8th annual anniversary party of the Fort. held Oct 2nd 630-930 at 3399 Pleasant Rd. Convergence the following morning at 0630 first baptist fort mill.
Prayers-
for the family of Cash.
marriages and keeping real with raising shorties.
Backdraft Out.

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ENCOURGAGEMENT

For my VQ, I wanted to incorporate our word of the month, Encouragement. Since starting F3 this year, I have been given a great deal of encouragement. Encouragement to come my first time, encouragement to keep coming, encouragement to keep going during the workouts, and encouragement to improve some areas of fitness that I needed to improve. My biggest area of opportunity is and probably will always been running, so I wanted to incorporate some running into our workout. I knew that one of the biggest issues with VQ workouts is running out of time, so I wanted to be sure we used all of our 45 minutes together. I decided to come up with an exercise for each letter of ENCOURAGEMENT and running between each exercise.

We first took a quick mosey down the road to get warmed up with SSH, Imperial Walkers, Windmills, Moroccan Nightclubs, and a few others. We then took a mosey with a few moving stretches down to the location of the Weinkes. There are 13 letters in the word ENCOURAGEMENT, so we did 13 different exercises.

  • E- burpees
  • N- squats
  • C- big boy sit-ups
  • O- dips
  • U- calf raises
  • R- bear crawls
  • A- worst merkin ever
  • G- squat jumps
  • E- merkins
  • M- mountain climbers
  • E- Carolina dry-docks
  • N- imperial walkers
  • T- LBC’s

We followed this up with some mary before heading back to COT.

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the BLIMPS Casino

13 PAX and ideal weather conditions on hand.

Mosey run to front of middle school
Warm up:
SSH (IC 12x)
Imperial Walker (IC 12x)
Windmill (IC 12x)
Moroccan Nightclub (IC 12x)
LSS (IC 12x)
Merkin (IC 12x)
Peter Parker (IC 12x)
Plank stretches
Run to back side of elementary school
For a portion of this run: Railroad Ties routine: PAX low plank and person at back of line runs/jumps over them. Cycle through like an indian run.

At back of the middle school:
Thang 1: Blackjacks
start w/ 1 Merkin
run to other side do 20 LBC’s
Run back and do 2 Merkins
run to other side do 19 LBC’s
procced until 20 merkins and 1 LBC
The casino closed this blackjack table a bit early (at ten mins) to accommodate other events. Most Pax got to 15 merkins. Recommend doing Elevens (not 21’s) next time.

Run to next pain station (short distance)
Thang 2: BLIMPS (Cones spaced 15-20 yds apart)
Start at cone 1- B for burpee, do 5 of them
Run to cone 1 – L for lunge, do 10 each leg
Run to cone 2 – I for Imperial Walkers, do 15
Run to cone 3 – M for Merkins, do 20
Run to cone 4 – P for Peter Parkers do 25 (modification)
Run to cone 5 – S for Squats, do 30
rinse and repeat until time is called
Run to COT area

Thang 3: plank routine
Sally gets up/down (Moby song)
Start with low plank
High plank on the “up”
Low plank on the “down”
Thiry-one changes during the 3:22 duration of the song.

COT

Announcements: Fast 5k on 10/27; CAH charity event this Saturday 10/20.
Prayers for healing of loved ones and guidance to the healers in charge of their care.

Great words of encouragement shared amongst all PAX. Don’t forget these timely favorites:
“A word of encouragement during a failure is worth more than an hour of praise after success”
“Fall seven times, stand up eight”

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Tomahawk 2018.38

So today I had the privilege to Q at Tomahawk.  After driving what seemed like a time i could have squeezed in a Lord of the Rings movie, I finally made it out to Doby’s Bridge Elementary.  I’ll make the backblast short and sweet.

There was a warmup that consisted of the usual suspects:  SSH, Windmills, Merkins, Peter Parkers…

The THANG consisted of three parts

Lunge walk with bell pass through.  Lunge steps not in cadence but on my “Step!” and sprint when I say “Go!”  This was broken up by burpees (everything was broken up by a few burpees), KB swings x20 and snatches x5 each arm.

Next was a DORA but one runs with your partners and your own bell to the end of the parking lot and back.  Exercises were 100 Merkins, 100 LBCs, 100 squats

Last (I think) was mobility.  Wide sumo squat and hold, left, right.  Then work it out with a low slow quat in cadence.   Superman hold to an overhead clap for shoulder mobility.  Then work it out with some plank work: merkins, shoulder taps, 1 arm holds, 6 inches, mountain climbers.

Finish it with a few minutes of mary.  Flutters with bell, protractor with bell, LBCs with bell.

BTW… that some nice new blacktop.

 

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Stop the Sprints already. The Coop

Disclaimer-
Mosey to football field 400 meters around track dynamic movements.
Mosey 400 meters around track at your pace (U vs. U)
Line up on the side lines count off by 2s
While P1 does exercise P2 sprints sideline to sideline.
E1- squats, merkins, American hammers
E2- bomb jacks, CDDs, flutter kicks
E3- jumping lunges, overhead presses, rosalitta
E4- squat to calf raise, hand release merkins, box cutters
Move to goal line- Lunge walk to five yard line do 1 burpee keep going to other end zone 1 burpee every 5 yards.
At other end 13 burpees OYO.
Bear crawl to the 50 yard line.
Mosey to benches 15 dips while partner planks, 10 dips, 5 dips.
Run 400 meters.
Mosey to pull up bars 5,4,3,2,1 while partner does Balls to wall.
COT.

Remember People willing to give all for you. Give you family and friends the best of you.

Prayers- Jobs, families, those in hurricanes path

Announcements- Invergence, reading in Paradise community

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No ___ Collusion Here!

Youts brought the pain on his V-warmup!  After an assist on the disclaimer, we immediately moved into Low Slow Squats and Mountain Climbers.  A quick story about a sinking ship and a husband and wife…the husband gets in the lifeboat and sends the wife back to the ship to die – what?  is this a joke?  where’s the punchline? wait….here it comes…”let’s mosey”….well, we weren’t expecting that.

Mosey the parking lot for a bit and then circle up for SSH, windmills, Moroccan night clubs, planks, downward dog, honeymooner, and peter parker.  Move right into some burpees – sprint – bigboy sit ups – sprint – flutter kick – sprint – and merkins – sprint.  So much for a V-warmup.  This dude needs to be on his VQ!  I think we now know that all of that work was to get our attention – for the end of the story….the husband isn’t a “class A” jerk afterall…the wife has a terminal illness and he needs to stay alive for the kids.  Wow…we really should not judge, especially when we don’t know the whole story.

We also shouldn’t abandon our plans when the going gets tough – or in this case when the warm-up Q led almost the exact same workout as the Q?  How did that happen – collusion?  I’ve never even met Youts before, let alone skated (err – I mean worked out) with him.  After contemplating an impromptu-Q, I offered up the main course that I had originally planned.

So, there was an ask in the pre-blast for SkateOrDie to do the McTwist or something like it.  I opted for a version of the McNasty (and apparently Youts had the same idea and paved the way)…

We mosey’d to the asphalt marching band football field and got into the plank position.  I provided some instructions for the exercise and off we went.  The group of 14 was divided into groups of 3 (two groups had 4).  PAX 1 (extra PAX shadowed), PAX 2, and PAX 3.

    • PAX 1 will perform ab exercises (1) Heels to heaven, (2) Flutter, (3) Freddy Mercury, (4) American hammer, (5) LBC during each of the fives times through the circuit
    • PAX 2 will sprint to the opposite end of the field and relieve PAX 3 (taking over burpees)
    • PAX 3 will sprint to the opposite end of the field and relieve PAX 1 (taking over abs)
    • PAX 1 will sprint to the opposite end of the field and relieve PAX 2 (taking over burpees)
    • Rinse and Repeat until everyone has complete each station and the ab exercises 5 times

Upon completion, the group mosey’d to the pull-up bars and broke into 3 person groups; PAX 1 3 legit pull-ups, PAX 2 provided assistance as needed, PAX 3 wall sit; rinse and repeat 3 times with pull-ups and 2 more times with chin-ups.

Mosey and bear-crawl back to COT for 2 minutes of Mary.

Count-o-rama, Name-o-rama, Annoucements, Prayers/Praises, BOM

As always, I appreciate the opportunity to lead.

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Not a lot of Running, He Says…

YHC started off a muggy morning disclaimer proclaiming that we would not be doing a lot of distance-running, which was interpreted by the PAX as we would not be doing a lot of distance, running or for some of those more hopeful, that we would not be running at all. False, although strength was the focus some running (1.7miles) was built in.

Warm-Up

  • Quick mosey around the lot
  • Circle up w/ Bells for:
    • 10 Swings
    • 20sec Around the World, reverse direction for 20sec
    • 20sec Figure  8’s, 20sec reverse direction

The KB Thang

  • KB Strength Movement/Suicide Combo – PAX would perform reps of called KB movement followed by a suicide in the parking lot. After each round of KB/Suicides, PAX advance forward 1 parking lot line, decreasing the distance of suicides. Called KB movements in order to the best of my memory:
    1. KB Swings x20
    2. Goblet Squats x10
    3. American (Overhead) Swings x10
    4. Shoulder Press (Right) x10
    5. Shoulder Press (Left) x10
    6. Bent-over Rows x20 (10x each side)
    7. Clean and Press x10 (5x each side)
  • Tabata Round
    • 20sec on, 10 sec off for 8 sets, alternating KB Swings and Bombjacks
  • Gauntlet
    • Perform all  exercises and reps from the KB Strength Movement/Suicide Combo  in succession. No suicide in between, but rather the 6inch Plank
  • The Closer
    • 10 KB Swings, 10 Burpees
    • 8 KB Swings, 8 Burpees
    • 6, 4, 2,

SWOLEskin

Nice work by a steeerong  and sweaty group this  beautiful muggy morning. Thanks to Polaroid for providing the tunes for this morning’s shred session, your speaker game is on point.  A lot of guys pushing hard this morning, from Skate or Die showing the speed on the suicides to Pinup finishing his final burpee set during COT. Way to get up and make your morning count.

Annoucements

  • Bolt takes the Tomahawk reigns next week
  • Check out Skate or Die on Twitter for an opportunity to win either a Ford Mustang or Jeep. Fundraiser by the Nation Ford HS Baseball team working to leave a legacy with new facilities for future classes.
  • Reach out to Assassin in regards to mowing the Life Center (if I’m wrong correct me in the comments section)  Weekly sign-up. Polaroid working to knock it out this week

Over & Out

-General

 

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CSPAN Send off Convergence

141 Men came to show the Respectable**CSPAN** some Respect!!

He leaves The Fort and heads north or as Dredd refers to Yankee land. Not gone forever but just up the road 600 miles to start a new chapter in life and in F3 as he will launch F3Philly.

I am not the most eloquent with my back-blasts and I am usually to the point with posting the workout, add some words and being done, however since I can’t get Italian Job to write this up and Double D challenged the PAX to think of one word to represent CSAPN, I think that is the best way to document this convergence.

Thank you CSPAN for being all of these things and more to you r brothers in the PAX. As posted on Twitter and many of these were repeated multiple times:

brother
camaraderie
commitment
confidence
connected
consistent
courageous
dedicated
empathetic
example
genuine
handsome
HIM
honorable
humble
humility
impact
influence
influencer
insightful
inspiration
integrity
investor
legend
magnanimous
model
respect
selfless
servant
shepherd
solid
squaredaway
steadfast
steady
wise

The Workout looked like this:

WWL at the Q:

  • Mosey around the lot
  • Line up; karaoke, side shuffle, high knees, butt kickers, toy solders, lungewalk, power skips
  • COP
    • SSH, squat, merkin, moroccan night club, 10 Flying squirrels
Double D at the Q:
  • Run to practice field
  • Plank sequence
  • Split into 2 groups on each sideline
  • Sprint to center and back to sideline
  • Monkey humpers x25
  • Rinse + repeat with Merkins x 25
  • CDDs x25
  • Burpees x25
Longshanks at the Q:
  • Burpees
  • Lunges
  • Inch worm Merkins
  • Maktar Ndiayes
  • Plank Jacks
  • Squats.

Dredd at the Q:

  • Prayer for CSPAN
  • Merkin/Ab Lab series
  • Truth Nuggets and Leadership development with Major Payne, Wegmans, & Drop Thrill
  • Mosey to hill behind Bob Jones Stadium
  • Prayer for CSPAN heading to F3Philly…..”CSPAN Coming”
  • More Merkin/Ab lab series

COT:

141 Count, Name O’rama, 2 FNGs (Bikini & Manzel), Skinny Jeans pray out over CSPAN and his IMPACT on men and for Sky Q’s kingdom.

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BEYOND – Discussion on Perseverance

Cobains for the late BB, but wanted to make sure that YHC got it out in the ether. First off, thanks to Maximus for the Q. When asked to Q Beyond, it does bring with it a deep message or at least reflection for the Q, and hopefully, YHC did Beyond a service by bringing an impactful message to the PAX. 14 of us descended upon Block Party in near perfect conditions for a message on Perseverance. We started as usual gathered around the entrance to WEP and had plenty of 2nd F prior to the WO.

Read the definition of Persistence and asked the PAX to think of a situation in their life where they had to persevere.

noun
1. steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement.
2. Theology. continuance in a state of grace to the end, leading to eternal salvation.

With that, we were off with a mosey to left along the path until we came upon the hill towards the back of WEP. We circled up for a nice warm up. Warm up consisted of some usual merkins, planks, peter parkers, mountain climbers, parker peters, CDDs, squats, and windmills…probably not in that order.

Next up, with the hill looking unused and lonely, we had to make sure she felt appreciated. So the PAX lined up and we did elevens of Burpees and Squats with a run up the hill in between. That was a little longer than projected on the wienke, so modifed the next set to sevens of Merkins and Bombjacks with a bearcrawl up and a backward bearcrawl on the way down.

James 1:12
12 Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

Mosied to the playground. Partnered up.

Partner 1 did pull ups / Partner 2 ran the loop and flapjacked. We did this with chin ups next, then toes to bar, then knees to elbow.

Perspective – Think about whether we are standing still or in motion. We are moving at about 1000 MPH compared to the earth center, or 67kMPH from the sun’s perspective. We are not standing still, even if we feel like we are. We are heading in a direction even if we feel like we are standing still, that may face obstacles, but with perseverance and our brotherhood within F3, we can and will overcome the challenges that we each face.

Still partnered up, 20 partner Merkins.

20 Seal Sit Ups

5 Junk yard dogs.

Mosey back to COT.

Proverbs 3:5-6   

5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 

6in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

COT.

 

Prayers for family, CSPANs new adventure, prayers for courage.

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