Tag: Cowbell

The Fort 6 year Anniversary – Making Getting Better a Priority!

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September 29, 2012 the landscape of Fort Mill changed dramatically. Some men from north of the border grabbed the attention of a few men south of the boarder and said we may have something for you. Double D, Santini, Senator Tressel, World Wide Leader, Red Banjo, Assassin, Peach and maybe others made the commitment to come to a “workout” on that Saturday morning. It was very skeptical, but I am sure each of them will say it changed their lives.

Here we are 6 years later, meeting in the same park with more than 200 regular participants (800+ over the years) at 37 workouts across The Fort/Lake Wylie area. Thank you to those that gave it away and thank you to those that said yes!! I think it is safe to say, IT’S MORE THAN A WORKOUT!!!

Today we recognize the 6 years with 6 Qs leading a beat down in 1st F style. On September 21st, Jekyll led us in our Invergence, which reminds us of the 3rdF and that there is something bigger than ourselves. Serving, Praying and Worshiping together happened then. On this day, we are getting better physically and having some fellowship with 70 of our PAX,

Format was a rapid fire approach where each Q has 10mins to lay it on the PAX. Old Bay would keep time and blow the air horn (maybe tweet the horn??), and then the next Q jumps in.

YHC asked for FNGS, (none) and explained the plan of attack, and then the Horn Sounded

The Thang:

  • Wegmans for COP
    • Mosey down path out to grass
    • Circle up and some traditional and not so traditional exercise moves.
    • We did notice another “Boot camp” group in the gloom. T-clapps to them, however also saw 2 holding clip boards…..not F3!!
    • Horm Blows
  • Funhouse on Q
    • Mosey to the hill for Jacobs ladder
      • Burpees
      • Squats
      • Some mary to fill time
      • Horn Blows
  • Jwow on Q
    • Mosey to top of hill for partner work
    • step ups/lunge walk up and down hill
    • squat jumps/lunge walk up and down hill
    • Plank hand slap with partner
    • Horn Blow
  • Twister on Q
    • Mosey to tree line
    • Army Crawl to tree /SSHs
    • Sprint to tree/Merkins
    • Army Crawl to Tree/SSHs
    • Sprint to tree/merkins
    • 2 rounds
    • Run Path until Horm
    • Horn Blows
  • FLUX on Q
    • Mosey back to hill
    • 6s – do following 6 times
      • bear crawl up hill
      • diamond merkins
      • bear crawl back down hill
      • Some filler in there of something aweful
      • Horn Blows
  • Assassin On Q
    • Mosey to play grownd
      • Dips
      • Derkins
      • Burpees
      • multiple rounds with running around the playground until…..
      • Horn Blows

The PAX was dripping wet from rolling in grass but also from the humid beat down that just occurred. Thanks to all the Qs for bringing it and having fun out there.

I brought up to the PAX “WHY”? Why F3 versus the many other options we have even outside of fitness and self help books. Why do we get up early and why do we do CSAUPS and why do we attend 3rdF and give away our time at various community organizations???

Pockets, Spud and Assassin all shared their Why. Thank you! I’m sure there were many more that would undoubtedly impactful.

I mentioned my why was straightforward for me. I want to continue to challenge myself physically, surround myself with like minded guys heading in the same direction and reach more guys for Sky Q and HIS purpose. I feel F3 has positively impacted my life in all 3 Fs and why would I not give it away??

See you in the GLOOM!

Cake Boss

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Always Ready

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Maximus at a “Moderate?” I mean, c’mon, Slow Burn isn’t always moderate. That said, I appreciate the opportunity to Q no matter the AO so thank you Smithers for thinking of me. I tried to honor the AO by pushing the PAX and keeping everyone together.

So here it is:

Warm up jog to the lot next to Lowe’s for a warm-up circle of:

SSH (Only for Trucker), Imperial walkers, Wide-Arm Merkins, Donkey Kicks and 10 Burpees (more to come)

Line up shoulder to shoulder on the wall in the peoples’ chair position

Starting at one end, we’d lunge walk to the other end of the peoples’ chair wall.

Next series, PAX line up shoulder to shoulder in a plank position with their feet on the all. Starting at one end, the PAX would bear crawl to the other end.

Jog around the back of Lowe’s heading toward the ever-changing car repair shop. The interesting thing here is that while finishing the jog, I heard a conversation between Chicken Hawk and Wide-Right where the latter mentioned he hasn’t Q’d yet and was interested in getting on a Q schedule. So, I did an about face, confirmed what I thought I heard and gave him the opportunity as soon as we circled up in the repair lot. After a brief mention to the PAX regarding the Q change for the next several minutes, I think he led us in the following:

LBC’s, Mountain Climbers, 10 Burpees Dips, Derkins Peter Parkers, Parker Peters, SSH and 5 Burpees…he then handed it back to me.

Now, jog to the large lot on the other side and circle up:

Flutter kicks w/ a press

Box Cutters then reverse box cutters

A short 3-tier suicide series with jump squats as you return to the starting line.

So that was in; we keep the group together, encourage the chatter and give a man his opportunity to lead us. Just another day in THE FORT.

Leave no man behind but leave no man as you found him.

Maximus

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BEYOND the JOY

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I’m sitting down to write this BB and literally can’t do what I challenged the PAX with at this morning’s BEYOND workout. Eliminate the distractions. Oh, what’s this text say, how about this tweet mention (can’t miss that), work email really needs my immediate response, man those kids left their cereal bowls on the counter, what time are we leaving today, etc, etc, etc. At times it can be funny but others, it can be really frustrating. I allow myself to continuously chase progress and other tasks rather than finding joy in where I am. It then leads to what you’ll read about later…burnout.

So there you have it, this BEYOND post will be focused on a struggle many of us face and that is running from joy, not finding joy where we are or honestly, not being a joy to spend time with. That latter one has been my challenge over these last several years because of those first two.

On to it. Car after car after car rolled into the Hive parking lot and you know the feeling, the feeling of way more cars than you were expecting. It doesn’t happen often but when it does, it gives you that kick in the pants, that extra motivation, that reminder of why you put your feet on the floor in the 4 o’clock hour. That’s what I was blessed to experience this beautiful morning as 33 other men, men that have pushed me over the years, men I’ve looked up to over the years, men who are about to bust it right along side me as we embark on something that typically looks better on paper. But that’s the idea, to push ourselves BEYOND our sense of normalcy both physically and mentally.

Funhouse escorted a group of 5 PAX for his killer initiative of RYAOA (T-claps on keeping that going) and the rest of us, 29 to be exact, circled up. After a quick explanation of BEYOND for the rookies and the search for any FNG’s, we discussed the plan with the weight, either Kettle Bell or Ruck…your choice. What I just realized, and to which nobody held be accountable, was that I forgot the all-important disclaimer. Men, never do that again. DO NOT START A WORKOUT WITHOUT A DISCLAIMER. You don’t have to be an attorney but verbalize the basics.

Starting on the curb nearest the tennis courts, run to the other side of the parking lot at 50% then 25% back. 10 Squats, 5 Burpee Broad Jumps then run to the other side at 75% then 25% back. 15 Diamond Merkins, 5 Burpee Broad Jumps then 100% to the other side followed by 100% back.

Switzer up for the first part of the discussion. I read the following definition: “Feeling of great pleasure & happiness.” After a few likely words were tossed out when I asked what word that defines, we got to the word of the day, JOY. I’m sure guys were wondering why in the world we’re talking about joy at an F3 workout, what kind of soft, starbucky-hands nonsense is this? That exact reason is the reason we’re discussing this word. It’s a word and feeling we don’t allow ourselves to enjoy often enough. There are people I enjoy being around and things I like doing but do I truly find joy in those situations? Said differently, do I enjoy being around those people or being in those moments and perhaps more importantly, do people find joy in being around me? Over these last few years, I’ve been operating like a hard-ass, focusing on task completion and moving from one thing to another. I can tell you, I’ve not been a joy to be around. While I was in it, I didn’t even realize it. How did I get here? Really, how do I get out of it?

That said, we split up into 4 groups, 1 for each corner of the large parking lot. In each corner, we did 10 Man Makers with your weight of choice. What varies is your mode of transportation between the corners.

  1. Lunge walks with the weight overhead.
  2. Bear crawl and transport the weight by any means necessary.
  3. Reverse lunge walks with weight overhead or held out front. (This was definitely better on paper as many of us had to modify to a bear hugging of the weight.)
  4. 4 Kettle Bell swings or Ruck swings followed by 4 walking steps.

After 3 of these 4, time got away from me and I had to audible and bring the group back to the center of the lot. As mentioned before, us task-completers run from one half-baked focus to another and we rob ourselves of contentment and joy in the moment. After weeks, months or years of doing this, we inevitably get burned out. Very rarely does something positive come after this stage. However, here in the gloom of our Hive AO here, burn out means something different. I was hoping to have 15mins left at this point but as it was, we had 6 and only got part of the way (you see, I tried to fill the schedule with too much and didn’t complete what I intended). See the irony?

  1. 21 Curls in cadence (3ct down, 1 up)
  2. 21 Flutter Presses in cadence
  3. 21 LBC in cadence
  4. 15 Overhead presses in cadence (b/c I didn’t have what it took to get to 21)

Closeout: We have a hard time refocusing once something bad happens or if it’s not bad, just something that temporarily knocks us off our trajectory. Oddly enough, our kids do a better job of getting back on track than we do. If something negative happens to you during the course of the day, how quickly are you able to course-correct? Are you able to move on from a less-than-positive comment made about you and not let it affect the rest of your day? Watch your kids and take note. Watch them get in a disagreement with a sibling, maybe pout, then start playing or hanging out with them 1-2hrs later. Could you imagine what it’d be like if we dusted ourselves off and went back at it? There’s joy in overcoming.

Listening to a podcast yesterday where Rob O’Neill was being interviewed, he briefly touched on this by saying something that hit me like a 50lb Kettle Bell across the bridge of the nose. A little background, Mr. O’Neill is the Operator on Seal Team 6 who fired the shot that killed the most wanted terrorist of all time, OBL. I’ve been fascinated by our military and specifically, SF, for years and imagine how quickly they need to pivot on a decision and adjust to chart a new course. His comment was this when discussing attitudes, “Are you having a bad day or did you have a bad moment that you’re milking into a bad day.” Don’t shake that off, marinate on that for a while and it might just change how you respond in that next bad moment.

Tesh, I appreciate your willingness to let me run BEYOND at the Hive.

Men of F3, I’m humbled by your company this morning and every morning you allow me to state my hospital name, age and F3 name.

No man left behind but leave no man where you found him.

Maximus

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The Encore at Slowburn

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What is the Al Girdle reference? Maybe I heard it wrong, my hearing is a bit sketch (metal shows). I googled the heck out of it, and crickets … someone help a brother out next time I see you.

Lets get to it, 2 days, 2 what I hoped were moderish/noterate work outs, but it’s possible that my 100% is 50% from Gilmore-esque PAX. Either way, it was keep’em moving and mix up the exercises, I guess I’ll just keep doing it until there are no invites.

The Thang,

Mosey to the far side of Lowes, circle up, OH Claps x 15, LBCs x 15, Windmill x 10, 2 burpees OYO, Mor NC x 15, Shoulder Tap x 15, Weed Puller x 10, 2 burpees OYO, Dying Cockroach x 15, LSS x 15, Travolta x 10, 2 burpees OYO

Mosey to the other side of Lowes, circle up, CDD x 15, Richard Simmons x 10, Arm high 1/2 situps x 10, 2 burpees OYO, Scorpion DD x 12, Imperial Walker x 12, Flutter x 10, 2 burpees OYO, Mahktar N’Diayes x 10, Hillbilly Walker x 10, Heels to Heaven x 10, 2 burpees OYO

Mosey to the lot in front of Empire Pizza, 4 stop suicides, 10 reps at each stop
Scorpion DD
Scorpion DD, LBCs
Scorpion DD, LBCs, Donkey Kicks
Scorpion DD, LBCs, Donkey Kicks, Bombjacks

Line up and move from one end of the lot to the other side: Karaoke L, Karaoke R, High Knees, Butt Kickers, Moset, 50% run, 75% run, 100% run

Another round of suicides, 4 stops, 10 reps at each stop
CDD
CDD, BB Situps
CDD, BB Situps, Mahktar N’Diayes
CDD, BB Situps, Mahktar N’Diayes, Burpees

Circle up: Dog Petter x 10, Jump Squats x 10, Freddie Mercury x 10, OH Claps x 21, 3 burpees OYO, Rosalita x 10, 3 burpees OYO, Monkey Humpers x 10, Hand Release Merkins x 10 OYO, Flap Jacks x 10, Back to COT.

Looks like we made it,

Barry Manilow

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Moderate? Is that french for ‘burpee’?

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With no inspiration hitting me at home, YHC decided to show up and see what the AO would speak to me today.  It was angry and made us do stupid things.

Mosey, warm up with burpee countdown between exercises.

Mosey down the hill to the playground at the elementary school where we counted off into groups and did round robins of swing crunches, LBC’s and mountain climbers twice.

Then over to the wall for some relaxing wall sits and a couple bttw.

Who doesn’t love running in circles?  Partnered up and while partner ran lap, 2nd Pax did LBC’s, WAM’s and CDD’s – flap jack at each lap.

Back over to the middle school hill for 10 bomb jacks, run up the long windy hill and 10 more at the top.

Fairly gassed at this point I heard the words ‘Jack Webb’ in the wind so we did that too.

Mosey for a close of Mary and COT.

As always, an honor to lead the men of F3.  Thanks for being there.

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SlowBurn Send-off For Rooney

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47 pax of TheFort posted this morning to show support for #HIM Rooney, who is moving to Seattle.  Rooney has not only impacted his brothers in F3, but many of our kids through his tremendous servant leadership as a principal in our school system.  There is no doubt he will be missed here, but that sadness is somewhat offset by the knowledge that he’ll be positively impacting families out west.

In anticipation (accurately) of a large crowd, it was decided the launch point and COT would be the Empire Pizza parking lot behind Chick-fil-a.  CakeBoss opened up with a few words about Rooney, then handed off to YHC.  We started with 25 side straddle hops, then moseyed up around Chick-fil-a (to pick up any twitterless pax that didn’t get the message).  We landed back at a parking lot near our launch point.

Warmup-O-Rama

  • Windmills (10)
  • Hillbilly Walkers (15)
  • CDDs (20)
  • Flutters (20)
  • Chopsticks (20)
  • Seal Jacks (20)

Mosey to parking lot in front of Lowe’s where a few cones had been set-up. Pax asked to partner up and told we’d be doing a Dora 1-2-3.  This was the same exercise Rooney had done during his VQ, which I had the privilege of posting to (was my 3rd post, I believe) at WEP back in November of 2014.  The turn-around point for the running was about 50 yards.

  • 100 Merkins
  • 200 LBCs
  • 300 Squats

After a 10 count, we moseyed to the parking lot on the west side of Lowe’s.  Cones were set up there for some “4 Corners” action.  Each cone had two exercises listed for each round.  Pax were instruction to alternate between the 2 exercises for the appropriate round (to 10 reps of each exercise).  They were told to move to the next cone when the group at the previous cone reached them.  No count-off by 4s done…pax could just pick a cone to be their starting point (lazy pax like YHC took the closest cone). Here were the exercises:

Cone 1
  • Round 1 – Flutters <-> Freddie Mercuries
  • Round 2 – LBCs <-> Heals to Heaven
  • Round 3 – Dying Cockroach <-> American Hammers
  • Round 4 – Chopsticks <-> Plank Jacks
Cone 2
  • Round 1 – Side-step lunges <-> Imperial Walkers
  • Round 2 – Bomb Jacks <-> Lunges
  • Round 3 – Monkey Humpers <-> Squats
  • Round 4 – High Jumps <-> SSH
Cone 3
  • Round 1 – Plank Punches <-> Dips
  • Round 2 – Merkins <-> 10 second Elbow Plank
  • Round 3 – CDD <-> Moroccan Nightclubs
  • Round 4 – Alternating shoulder taps <-> Parkers Peters
Cone 4
  • Round 1 – Box Cutters <-> 10 second Superman
  • Round 2 – Toy Soldiers <-> Speed Skaters
  • Round 3 – Donkey Kicks <-> Peter Parkers
  • Round 4 – Big Boy Sit-ups <-> Inchworm Merkins

We got through 3 rounds before time ran out and we headed back to COT

Naked Man Moleskin

After the workout, a couple dozen men gathered at Chick-fil-a to share with Rooney how he has impacted us (except for Dark Helmet, who served as a one-man roasting machine).  It was beyond evident that Rooney had a deep impact on many men, their kids, and their family, as a brother and a principal.  Rooney is an inspiring individual, and his courage to respond to God calling him across the country will undoubtedly also be an inspiration to those wondering if they should act on words from the Sky-Q.

Rooney, you have been an amazing example of “giving it away” everyday here in Fort Mill.  And now we have to let you give it away to another community (on the west coast, no less!).  But one thing is for sure: the world is a better place because of who you are and what you do.  No man, student, or family is left behind, nor are they left where you find them.  Strong work, brother.  Strong work.

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