Tag: Cobra Kai

What….Gecko has a Ruck on?

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20 PAX came to the Swamp this morning to push themselves physically, bond socially, and encourage each other into the weekend.  8 men chose the boot camp option and 12 chose an option to Ruck.  After the initial shock that Gecko was standing there with a Ruck sack on we divided up and began the workout.

Boot Camp

Warm up

Mosey to (future) Tuesday Morning Parking lot

  • Windmills
  • Sumo Squats
  • Moroccan Night Clubs
  • Weed Pickers
  • Seal Jacks
  • Plank
  • Downward Dog….Honeymooner

The Thang

Using the red balls of Target I had placed a piece of paper with two exercises on them. The top exercise was done at the ball and the second was the mode of transportation to the next ball.

Ball One

  • Merkins
  • Bear Crawl

Ball Two

  • Squats
  • Lunge

Ball Three

  • Peter Parker
  • Crab Walk

Ball Four

  • Reverse Lunge
  • Broad Jump

Ball Five

  • Carolina Dry Docks
  • Crawl Bear

Ball Six

  • Sumo Squat
  • Reverse Lunge

Ball Seven

  • Wide Arm Merkins
  • Side Shuffle

Ball Eight

  • Squat Jump
  • Side Shuffle (flap jack)

Ball Nine

  • Hello Dolly
  • Mosey (back to beginning)

3 Burpees

We repeated this cycle three times with increasing reps.

  • Round 1: 10 reps
  • Round 2: 20 reps
  • Round 3: 30 reps

Mosey back to COT for 4 minutes of Mary.

Joined by the ruckers and did Nameorama, Announcements, Prayers/Praises.

I appreciate the opportunity to lead!

Bones

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Breaking Patterns

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What a great morning for a run. Low 50’s, no wind and 20 PAX for a post P200 Monday. Up in the rotation today was the newest member of the Flight Plan plans, “Loops of Choice.” They include a 2.5 mile loop that goes over the walking trail at the end of YMCA parking lot, out 6th Baxter, up Sutton and back to Starbucks. And a 1.5 mile loop that goes down market, comes up Sutton and back to Starbucks. Modify as necessary, find a running buddy, have some fellowship, attend COT, check the box.

Flight Plan is an AO that’s predictable. Because of safety, we stay on the north side of 77. We have 4 routes and run each one, once per month. Today’s route emphasizes, (maybe represents is a better word) those circles we find ourselves in. Don’t get me wrong, the workout is beneficial. And I love the sense of accomplishment of conquering the long climb up Sutton (twice) in the gloom. However, the round and round is indicative of what can become of us as men.

But F3 is there to break those patterns. In COT we were reminded of that by two very strong PAX. Pusher (along w/ Twister & Change Order) who has taken the monumental task of leading Q-source. The weekly study of how this group can shape lives, of not just ourselves, but our families and community. If you’re not involved, you’re missing out. If you’ve been going, you know what I’m talking about. The added support outside of fellowship of the gloom, is great.

The other PAX is Stang. What happens when something throws us off these loops we find so comfortable. Something devastating or tragic.  Or what if we struggle just to stay upright on the loops but don’t feel like we can tell anyone so we use other outlets to hide the burden?  Stang is going to lead the discussion on these topics Wednesday at The Tomahawk (Doby’s Bridge Elementary – Kettle Bell). The last 15 minutes of the workout will be a stretching session with discussion on these heavy topics. Things we need to be able to share and discuss if we are going to be the leaders we need to be.

It’s great to see these HIMs pushing us past the 1st F.

Annoucments:

  • See Above
  • Cristina Latini Memorial 8K – Saturday March 30th – Clown Cars leaving Baxter Starbucks at 7:00 for Huntersville or Virtual run 6:30 at Alcatraz
  • Cake Boss 40 Day Challenge – On going

Prayers and Praises

  • Rebel’s daughter getting her first real job
  • The safe return of all the PAX who ran the P200

Welcome FNG – Seuss! (EH’d by Cake Boss)

See you in the gloom!

Boeheim

 

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FTW – Forget The Winkie

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I had prepared a coin flip workout 5 weeks ago where we flipped a coin to see if we would use the right hand side or left hand side of the winkie for each exercise.  This week was to be the “other” side that didn’t get selected.  After seeing no FNG’s and giving a disclaimer, the ruckers (led by Maximus) took off and so did we.  Since our numbers were low (good luck p200-ers), Mile High suggested I ditch the winkie and see what happens.  So knowing nothing about what to do, I found us a nice little parking area to get warmed up.

WARM – O – RAMA:
– 15 x imperial walkers
– 15 x hillbilly walkers
– 10 x tempo merkins
– 10 count 6″ plank hold
– Back up for a 10 count: right hand and right foot high
– Flapjack
– 15 x LBC
– 10 Crunchy Frogs, OYO

Mosey to the wall hall between HD and Target:
– Hands on the wall, 10 x shoulder taps, dc
– Run to opposite wall, feet on wall, 10 x shoulder taps, dc, run back
– Wall sit, add on, one PAX at a time as follows:
(PAX 1) –> run to other wall, 10 x derkins, run back
(PAX 2) –> same, add 10 x SSH after the derkins
(PAX 3) –> same, add bear crawl instead of run to other wall
(PAX 4) –> same, add high knees instead of run back
(PAX 5) –> same, add 10 x merkins
Now reverse, so PAX 1 does them all, PAX 2 removes first exercise, PAX 3 removes first and second, and so on.  If you’re confused, just stop trying to figure it out.  It was so that we all ended up doing the same amount of work.

Mosey to water fountain for the thang:
YHC has either a 1 or 2 behind his back. Get it right, do the exercise and run a lap without the islands. Get it wrong, the lap is with the islands. YHC calls out the PAX one by one to guess, and they also get to call the exercise. First up, (1) #wrong 5 burpees + long lap. Second up (1) #wrong 15LBCs but HOLD UP.  We’re going to add on again.  5 burpees plus 15 LBCs + long lap.  Third (2) #correct 5 burpees + 15 LBCs + 10 double count heel touches + short lap. Fourth (1) #wrong 5 burpees + 15 LBCs + 10 DC heel touches + 7 merkins + long lap.  Last (2) #correct 5 burpees + 15 LBCs + 10 DC heel touches + 7 merkins + 30 dips + short lap.

Mosey to Office Max parking lot close to COT. Shuffle back and forth for about 15 parking lot lines. Jailbreak to COT.

All in all we hit 2 miles and did some great exercises and got to build on each other’s ideas.  Not a bad start to a Friday considering there was no plan.  Sometimes, no plans are the best plans.  I had a blast being able to lead for a moment today.  Mainframe had to take off to more bigly importanter things but we ended with a strong COT.  Announcements included a F3/crossfit event at WEP and operation sweettooth. TAP’s to the P200 PAX and all racers for health and safety.

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22 at The Swamp on this cool January morning

We got a break from rain to come out and enjoy a good end to the week

We had 3 groups, Runners, Ruckers and Bootcampers

Those who chose the bootcamp route got YHC as Q

Was nice to be back, haven’t been to the Swamp in a bit so thanks to Cha Ching for the call-up!

We took a nice mosey over to Just Fresh where we circled up to get a warm-up in

Did some SSH, Squats, MC, Peter Parker, Parker Peter, Moroccan night clubs, Plank o rama, Plank Jacks, Imperial Walkers

Moseyed over to the Red balls to partner up and do some suicides with a twist of course

Start at the stop sign with your partner and do 1 Burpee, run to the first ball together and do 10 Partner handslap merkins and run back to start together and do 1 Burpee.

Run to 2nd Ball together and do 10 partner handslap big boy sit-ups and return to stop sign together and do 1 Burpee.

Continue this alternating plan until everyone completes 9 rounds

Early finishers do squats until the 6 was in

Mosey over to a wall where we did some wall sits while each of us takes a turn and runs out and completes one Burpee

Short rest then repeat but increase to 2 Burpees

Change it up next round and do BTTW and 1 Burpee

Round 2 BTTW and 2 Burpees but go 2 PAX at a time this time so our shoulder s dont crumble!!!!

Mosey back to COT area to finish up with some AB Lab

Announcements, Yeti coming up and some PAX training for a GORUCK Heavy in a few months!!! Good luck with training and stay healthy everyone.

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

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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

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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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Big 50 Birthday bash

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Today was my 50th Birthday and Maximus allowed me to lead a Beyond so that I could take some extra time to discuss somethings that I have been pondering as I approached this milestone birthday.  To go along with our monthly theme of Vulnerable I took the opportunity to share some struggles as well.  With that we moseyed.

Warm up of SSH, Imperial walkers, Squats, Mountain Climbers, Merkins, and Plank Jacks

Moseyed to Rite Aid parking lot(some chatter about too much running, but I ignored it).

Sharing time #1 – Shared with the Pax that I feel like 30 year old me would have thought that 50 year old me would be “further along”.  Further along Professionally and Financially, Further along Spiritually and in Family.  In 2001 I was recruited to Charlotte for a position with a new company, for a salary that I thought would be my ticket ahead.  I had great plans that I could do this for a bunch of years, make a bunch of money and then I could check out and go do something that I wanted to do , maybe full time ministry or teaching.  Within 1 year it all blew up, I was demoted for not doing a good job, salary was slashed plans were gone.  17 years later we’re still feeling the affects.

First circuit – Partner up – Partner 1 does People’s Chair Partner 2 does a lap, then flip it.  Next Partner 1 does Plank, Partner 2 does a lap, flip it.  Next Partners do 100 Merkins as a team, 1 runs I does Merkins, flip it.

Sharing time 2 – Felt like I would be further along spiritually.  30 year old me would have thought I would have gotten past my need for man’s approval.  I would have thought that the sins that tripped me up back then would be conquered and pride & lust would no longer be an issue foe me, but they are still there.  Felt like I would be further along in family & parenting. My plan was to be an empty nester at this point, but here I am with a 7th and 9th grader still at home, and t top it off I’m not particularly better at parenting then I was when I 30.

Circuit #2 Partner again – Lap #1 Partner 1 does Al Gore Partner #2 does a lap.  Lap #2  Partner 1 does Flutters Partner 2 does a lap.  Lap #2 Team does 100 Big Boy Sit ups total while 1 partner runs.

Sharing time 3 – The truth is that when I look at my life with clear eyes I can see that my life has been Blessed beyond measure!  I have a job that I mostly enjoy, and work with great people(shout out to Royale) and I am well compensated.  I have a beautiful wife of 26 years and we have a great marriage that keeps getting better.  I have 5 awesome kids who are healthy and bring me great joy, and sometimes frustration.  To add to it I have found this thing called F3 and a group of friends and Brothers that I never even knew I needed!  To see my 50 year old life s anything but blessed is ridiculous.

Off to COT for 2 minutes of Mary

Final share – What I have found is that the only times that I get down about where I am at 50 is when I look around me at others and I compare myself to what  my perception of them is.  This can lead to pride but for me it mostly leads to despair.  What I am trying to learn is contentment as Paul describes it in Phil. 4, whether he had much or little Paul was content.  The source of this contentment is found in Phil. 3 where Paul shares that all of his achievements, any possession he may have or any legacy he may be able to boast about , all of is it is worthless, or as he calls is a big pile of manure, compared to knowing Christ.  Paul says he has 1 aim, and that is to Know Christ!!  The secret Paul learned is that all he need was Jesus and if he had Jesus he had all he needed, and if he had Jesus, he could never lose him so therefore he could always be content.  In whatever amount of years I have left let this be my aim; that I may know Christ!!

Thank you for the opportunity to lead.

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Cold Blooded at the Swamp

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So it was the coldest day of November (so far) but at least there was no rain.  A balmy 33 degrees to start the workout.  My goal was to keep the energy level high to keep the blood flowing!  Only 3 of the 15 men planned on rucking this morning, so I gave the disclaimer and the other 12 of us were off.

Mosey with a dynamic warmup to the Home Depot parking lot.

COP with IWs – Windmills – SSHs – MNCs – Mountain Climbers – CDDs – Plank Jacks – Merkins?

These days whatever keeps me moving is what I call.  I like to take Pushers guidance and change the count for each…which always gets the PAX talking! It’s almost impossible to get Jedi and Witch Hunt to stop chattering nowadays… which always adds a fun playful air to the warmup.

Enough of that stuff… moving on!  I like to find new routines in the Lexicon that we might not have done before.  I found these:

“The Dab”  (I was immediately asked why it’s called that…not idea just from the workout)

10 burpees in 1 minute

Run a quarter mile lap around the parking lot

Do this 4 times

It went pretty well…and it kept us warm unfortunately Half Shell “popped” his calf muscle… that’s not good for running! No man will be left behind so I tried to modify a little.  I’m sorry if it was not enough Half Shell…

Slow walk towards Target, but a bear crawl for good measure to keep everyone together for about 50 yards.

“Triple Check”

Teams of 3

1st PAX wall sit

2nd PAX Plank

3rd PAX run 50 yards and back.

Rotate through your team and complete this 3 times.

This took longer than expected so item #3 of the evolutions was left off and we moseyed back to COT.  With 2 minutes to spare more burpees were completed.

Namorama

Announcements & Prayers

An Honor to Lead,

Royale

 

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Not much of a game, but a whole lot of suicides

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So for some quick backstory, YHC had the Q at the Deep on 9/29, but was asked by our Nantan to be on of the Q’s at the convergence at WEP.  I was planning on doing a football themed workout there, but since I was losing that Q, I thought I would try to move it to the Swamp.  That being said, nothing about what this workout evolved into resembled anything like what I was originally thinking, but as always, it was great to lead these awesome PAX.

There were 16 at The Swamp on a morning that was back to being hot and muggy.  I gave a short disclaimer and we started promptly at 515, the PAX were really chatty this morning, which stopped almost immediately after I got started because there wasn’t much time to breathe after that, let alone talk.

We took a short mosey around the parking lot and did some toy soldiers and shuffle steps on our way to the parking lot by the fountain where we circled up for a quick warm up.

  • 10 Windmills IC
  • 15 Moroccan Nightclubs IC
  • 10 Low Slow Squats
  • 10 Merkins IC

I only had 1 “thing” planned this morning, we would have 2 teams and do the same thing over and over again mixing in different exercises.  I had 5 cones on each side of the lot/fountain spaced 10 yards apart.  We would start at the back island and essentially do suicides while stopping at each cone and doing an exercise of my choice.   The first whole team to cross the finish line at the other end of the lot by the far island got a point for some friendly competition.

Breakdown:

  • Run 10 yards, do exercise, run back to finish
  • Run 20 yards, do exercise, run back to finish
  • Run 30 yards, do exercise, run back to finish
  • Run 40 yards, do exercise, run back to finish
  • Run 50 yards, do exercise, and then go the final ~60 yards or so via a movement of my choice.
  • Mosey back to start and repeat with different exercises

Exercises:

1st set

  • 10 Burpees
  • 20 Merkins
  • 30 Squats
  • 40 LBC’s
  • 50 Alternating Shoulder Taps
  • Sprint to finish

2nd set

  • 10 Burpees
  • 20 Werkins
  • 30 lunges
  • 40 flutters
  • 50 SSH’s
  • Bearcrawl to finish

3rd set

  • 10 Burpees
  • 20 Diamond Merkins
  • 30 Monkey Humpers
  • 40 Rosalitas
  • 50 Overhead Claps
  • Lunge Walk to finish

4th set

  • 10 Burpees
  • 20 CDD’s
  • 30 Reverse Lunges
  • 40 Dying Cockroach
  • 50 Plank Jacks
  • Crab walk to finish

5th set

  • 10 Burpees
  • 20 Ranger Merkins
  • 30 Lateral Jumps
  • 40 Hello Dolly
  • 50 Seal Jacks
  • NUR to finish

6th set

  • 10 Burpees
  • 20 Crucible Merkins
  • 30 Calf Raises
  • 40 Box Cutters
  • 50 High Knees
  • Shuffle/split the distance to the finish

We finished up with 2 minutes to spare, 1st team consisted of YHC, Bones, Cha-Ching, and Mainframe and we won with 4 points.  The 2nd team consisted of Gears, Regal, Tinsel, and Moab and they won 2 of the sets.  Winning team had a choice of 10 more Burpees for everyone or 20 for the losing team, we chose 10 more Burpees for everyone.

Mosey back to CoT right on time.

  • Invergence tonight!
  • Convergence 9/29 at WEP
  • Prayers for Moab and his big interview
  • Prayers for Cancer
  • Prayers for our troops that fight and the struggles they have with PTSD when they are back home.
  • Prayers for victims and families who are dealing with Hurricane Flo

Thanks for the Q Cha-Ching!

Until next time,

-Flux-

 

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CSPAN Send off Convergence

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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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