Tag: Cobra Kai

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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Lots of balls at the Swamp!

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Short notice Q for the swamp bootcamp this morning could very well be my last before I move to Everett Washington. A lot of Ruckers, only 5 of us for the boot camp.

Thang:

COP

mosy to target balls for the main event:

one armed merkin each arm and a regular merkin at each ball, running between each

15 squats and bear crawl to each ball

5 burpees and lunge to each ball

10 monkey humpers and crabwalk to each ball

last thing we did I beleive is a variation of belching, sprint to each ball and drop to 6 inches, sprint forward and repeat when Q says go. That one actually was pretty intense.

Kept things simple but painful.

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Block Party/Colosseum Colombia Team Send off!

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28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Matt 20:28

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8

61 PAX and YHC came to Block Party this day to show support to those that have felt a call to serve. As we are commanded to serve locally, nationally and globally this group of men are going global to get uncomfortable and grow closer to SkyQ. The support, prayers and encouragement from our brothers in the PAX is overwhelming and powerful. Anyone that has not realized it yet, F3 is more than a workout!

The Thang:

  • Ruckers when their separate way with Cobra Kai at the helm
  • Runners went looking for golf balls at FMGC with Pusher at the point
  • The rest of us followed YHC for a boot-camp with 40 or so of our brothers
    • Mosey down path, across the field out towards 160 for COP
      • All exercises were to 11 count for the 11 heading to Colombia
      • Plank
      • SSHs
      • Squat
      • Merkins
      • MOracan Night Clubs
      • Sumo Squat
      • Wide Arm Merkins
      • LBCs
      • Peter Parkers
      • Rosalitas
      • Imperial Walkers
    • Mosey to playground
      • Ladder work
      • Do exercise with designated reps, take a lap, add next exercise, take a lap…..
      • # of REPS Exercise COLOMBIA PAX MEMBER TOTAL REPS
        1 Merkin Bonsai 11
        2 LBC Bubba 20
        3 Squat Cake Boss 27
        Here from PAX on their WHY
        4 Burpee Crawdaddy 32
        5 Inch Worm Merkins Elvis 35
        6 Sumo Squat Fire Marshal Bill 36
        Here from PAX on their WHY
        7 Bombjacks Flat Tire 35
        8 Overhead Clap Italian Job 32
        9 Leg Raises Mr Bill 27
        Here from PAX on their WHY
        10 Lunge Hops Sir Topham Hat 20
        11 Donkey Kicks Trucker 11
    • Right up against time we finished
  • COT
    • We had 3 FNGs, Love Handles, Arrowhead and Homer
    • CSPAN prayed us out  an prayed over the whole team

YHC can thank you all for being a stable rock in my life. I can’t say enough about what F3 and each of my Brothers means to me and how it has changed my life. More importantly it has allowed me to reach men for SkyQ’s kingdom and that is the best achievement ever.

Peace Men

Cake Boss out!

 

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#RPG

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11 PAX posted to RPG for some Broga and miles.

Beautiful spring morning with a temperature of 54 degrees.

Disclaimer, disclaimed.

The Thang:

20 minutes of Broga (courtesy of Sasquatch) loosened up the PAX before we headed off on a 3.5 mile run through Regent Park.

NMM:

As the Q, one of my main goals, was to keep everyone together, or at least on course.  It goes without saying, running at 5am, through neighborhoods, on a newer AO, posses a challenge.

I fell short of my goal and had a couple of the PAX get lost in the neighborhood. I’m thankful for the opportunity to have the PAX give YHC the opportunity to develop and become a better leader by allowing YHC to make and learn from my mistakes.

In the end, everyone made it back to COT. YHC’s lesson learned: ask a PAX (or two) who is familiar with the course to pick up the six so QIC (YHC, in this case) can keep oversight of the other PAX.

F3 does develop leaders. For that opportunity, I am thankful.

COT – Prayers/Praises

Bass-o-Matic, thank you for the opportunity to Q.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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