Your partners name is your workload

Finally a great temperature this morning! That didn’t stop Lutefisk from dishing out a nasty mid-week beatdown!!! Quick disclaimer and ran to the rear of the school the long way. A nic e little warm-o-rama with your typical windmills, mountain climbers, imperial walkers, lbc’s, merkins, and Superman Moroccan night club combos. Follow up with a quick lap to the location of the thang

The Thang: partner up, size matters but not physical size. After we partnered up,  informed the PAX that it was the size of their partner’s name that mattered. I whipped out a board of pain with all 26 letters of the alphabet with a corresponding rep count and exercise. You are to spell your partner’s F3 name. I put some rock music on and we went after it. It had a little bit of everything. I ended up knocking out 100 burpees. Some pax were up BTTW for a total of 8 minutes. Everyone did a ton of SSH. We all helped poor Uber finish his partners name (Dennis The Menace) then took a lap and a 10-count followed by a mosey back to the pillars. We knocked out one more name “pantheon” before COT.

PAX were smoked, it was a good day.

Prayers needed today for Dennis the Menace’s brother who gets test results today. Prayers for marriage. Prayers for other struggles.

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September 11 Memorial Stair Climb

Today I was honored to lead 39 men of the Fort in my version of a 9/11 Stair Climb…. I asked these gentlemen to bring rucks or sandbags and headlamps. This was to simulate the equipment worn by the first responder’s who entered the World Trade Center to do their jobs. We also had Charetta appear courtesy of Dirty Harry…she was our victim that needed to be  carried up and down the NaFo bleachers ….everyman carried their fare share of weight.

The workout was simple!!!!  There was no warmup….we didn’t need one….

The object was to climb the bleachers 27.5 times up and down carrying a ruck or sandbag….the goal 1980 steps or 110 stories….NaFo bleachers are 36 steps up and down…the men of the Fort  conquered this simple request but there was a catch…..when they came back down they had to do 9 inclined merkins and 11 squats… I think most did more than the required amount and for that I’m in awe…. I love being part of this great nation

Before the climb I shared a little about my experience that day 18 years ago as an NYPD officer and I asked each man to reflect between the hours of 8:46 am to 10:28 am these were the hours that changed my life and change the world as we knew it….I also wanted to remember my friends who gave their lives to save as many people as they could that morning :

NYPD PO MARK ELLIS TRANSIT DISTRICT 4

NYPD PO RAMON SUAREZ TRANSIT DISTRICT 4

PAPD PO ANTONIO RODRIGUES PORT AUTHORITY BUS DEPOT

I worked with these gentleman and they will never be forgotten…

Thank you Punchlist for letting me.lead these great men .

We had one FNG Lassie….welcome

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Burpee Broad Jumps for EVERYONE!!!

7 was the number at Pantheon, sans the SiteQ (whom YHC still needs to give some P200 hardware).  Seems everyone posting for a good beatdown got their money’s worth. And even if not, the standard fare of FunHouse mumble chatter was worth its weight in hot air.

The Thang

Started with a warm-up lap around the “big loop”, with some shuffles, toy-soldiers, and a few COP warm-ups, consisting of (in no particular order):

  • SSH x25
  • Cherry Pickers
  • Imperial Squat Walkers x20
  • Windmills (of acceptable quality, according to FunHouse) x10
  • Mountain Climbers x20
  • Peter Parkers x20
  • Superman >> Paratrooper – with some Moroccan Nightclubs added in x10
  • perhaps a few others exercises, lost in the annals of this 47 year old mind

The Main Event

Pax moseyed to a cone in front of the main entrance.  They observed a second cone about 100 yards away.  We then split into 2 groups.

Group 2 ran down to cone 2 and did the first stationary exercises on the list
Group 1 started at cone 1 and performed the moving exercises for 100 yards to reach cone 2
When group 1 reached group 2
  • group 1 ran a “little loop” lap back to cone 1 and began the first stationary exercise on the list
  • group 2 began the moving exercise for 100 yards to cone 1
When group 2 reached group 1
  • group 2 ran little loop lap back to cone 2 and began the second stationary exercise
  • group 1 began the moving exercise for 100 yards to cone 2
The moving exercises:
  • 1 pair of lunges, 1 broad jump, 1 burpee, then 2, then 3,, 4, and 5 until opposite cone (100 yards away) was reached

Stationary exercise:
1) Plank punches
2) Monkey Humpers
3) Box cutters
4) Dry Docks
======  Ran out of time ======
5) Deep Squats
6) Plank Jacks
7) Apolo Ohno
8) Chop Sticks

For a few minutes, we a couple ab exercises, then about 30 seconds of total body destroyers.

 

Great work by all men!  Thanks to Bear Grylls for the opportunity to lead!

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Reminisce about the “Pain”theon

I haven’t been to one of my old favorite AOs in WAY to long.  We start to get spoiled with so many great  F3 options that it gets easy to stay close to home. I love Funhouse’s idea of Ass Kickin’ April and getting out to 30 different AOs during the month.  I challenge each of you to answer the call and post to a different AO and meet some new PAX once every few weeks!

So when I was asked to Q again at the Pantheon I answered the call.  I started DMing some of the Lake Wylie guys to see if they wanted to come with me and we had several show up this morning too!  I was quite surprised to see 24 PAX there at 5:15…. two were FNGs EH’d by Bones and two were 2.0s that Uber brought with him.  The FNGs were named “Grout” and “Safe Word”, respectively.  ALL of them did great on a challenging workout today.  Sorry to the 6 men that were cut out of the video Namorama.  I recalled 3 from my terrible memory, but 3 have been left off the tags…comment below and I’ll add you.

The Thang

Long disclaimer with new FNGs

Dynamic Warmup Lap

COP with SSHs – Imperial Walkers – CDDs – LS Squats – Merkins – Windmills – Mountain Climbers

I pulled some of my old favorite Weinkes from the Pantheon and put them together.

Evolution #1

Took two lanterns with me and we moseyed to the graded hill on the NE corner. Love that hill area and we did “8s” (because 7s is too hard of math for me it seems..)

Bottom of Hill 1 Bomb Jack

Top 7 Merkins

up and down the hill switching until you hit 7 Bomb jacks and 1 merkin

Evolution #2

I celebrated my one year anniversary back in 2016 at the Pantheon as Q.  I pulled out this terrible idea and we did it again.

Burpee Celebration

I counted in year 1 that I went to 147 workouts that year.  We would do the following.

17 burpees to start

Complete a lap in the parking lot

10 burpees at the start until we completed 13 laps. (10 x 13 = 130) + 17 = 147 burpees

With only 25 minutes of time that was a little ambitious.  Many finished 9 laps.  Some +/- 1 lap…

6am back to COT

Got to name our FNGs, Todd and Jason…both did great today.  Todd went first, said something about having a safe word after a pineapples reference that came from living in Hawaii…that was it for him…

Jason does sales somehow related to tile splash or tiles…Grout stuck!

Announcements – Prayers and time to go!

Thanks Bear Grylls and Fish Sticks for having me come out and share.  I really enjoyed being a part of the Pillars of Pantheon series as well!  Great idea and addition.

An Honor to Lead,

Royale

 

 

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Sweating it out at Golden Corral

15 #HIM met on this muggy morning at the Golden Corral for a good old fashioned beatdown.  Lutefisk had to substiQ for me last Friday and by coincidence he didn’t have a Q lined up today so lucky me and lucky PAX I stepped up to bring the pain at one of my favorite A/O’s.

Started with the disclaimer and we were off.

 

Warm Up

  • Mosey to the back of Harris Teeter
    • I intentionally asked the PAX to circle up pretty close to the dumpsters.  If you are on #SLACK and you read the fabulous piece Crab Cakes wrote last week then you would know why
  • SSH X 20
  • Imperial Walker X 15
  • Merkins X 15
  • Mountain Climbers X 10
  • Recover and mosey to the tire shop

Activity 1

  • 30 Durkins
    • Lap around the tire shop
  • 30 Dips
    • Lap around the tire shop
  • 20 Box Jumps
    • Lap around the tire shop
  • Elbow plank and wait for the 6
  • Mosey from the tire shop to the parking lot in front of Baker’s Buzzin

Activity 2 (11’s)

  • I instructed the PAX to partner up and size did matter
  • This activity was 11’s and consisted of burpees and merkins (hopefully all of you know what 11’s are and if not it pretty much means the exercises have to sum to 11.  Example 10 burpees and 1 merkin, 9 burpees and 2 merkins, 8 burpees and 3 merkins etc….)
  • There are a total of 10 rounds.  The method of transportation was different for each round.
  • Round 1 was 10 burpees at the beginning then wheelbarrow to the end of the parking lot (it’s a long way away) and then complete the 1 merkin.  The partner that was holding partner #2’s legs had to carry that partner back to the start.
  • Round 2 9 burpees then the second partner had to wheel barrow to the end.
  • We did the wheel barrows and partner carries for rounds 1-4
  • Rounds 5 – 7 were bear crawls and run back
  • Rounds 8 – 10 were crab walks and run back

Surprisingly enough I looked at my watch and it was 5:59.  Time to mosey back to COT.  As you can imagine there was a ton of moaning and groaning, that translates to #WINNING.  The PAX got their money’s worth

At COT we had an #FNG Sam and his handle is Mach3.  Went through the announcements, prayers and praises and Funhouse took us out with a prayer.  Couldn’t have asked for a better start to the day!

 

Mile High Out

 

 

 

 

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Pantheon – 5 at 5

5 PAX took the DRP and came to Pantheon for a 3rd Q in 5 days from YHC.  It was a hot and humid morning, who would have thought that of Tega Cay in July?  Needless to say, YHC brought a Weinke and a speaker.  That’s all that is needed.  And we’re off….

The Thang

Big Lap around parking lot to COP

SSH X 30, Windmills X 10, Squats X 15, Merkins X 10, Mountain Climbers X 15, SSH X 30

Mosey to WalMart Way, bottom of the hill.  Hill repeats with 5 Flying Squirrels at top and 10 Squats at bottom.  Rinse and repeat X 3.

Mosey back to Shovel Flag.  Turn on the tunes and get ready for the 10 minutes of burpees.  6 burpees in 1 minute X 10 sets.  Crowd pleaser.

Mosey to the Pillars.  Wall sits while one PAX sprints to end of sidewalk and back.

Done

COT – Prayers for travels, returns, in route babies, patience for parents with kids during summer break, prayers for stop being an asshole to the M (that’s mine).

FunHouse

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Pantheon of Pain – The “Gam Guillotine” – Redux

This BB is going to be easy, at least for the workout part for in honor the Q of my first workout – Jekyll – I decided to recreate his Q nearly verbatim. With the help of Gears I was able to find his original back blast. This is yet ANOTHER reason to do these things!! (You’re welcome Funhouse)

Pantheon of Pain- the “Gam Guillotine”

COP:
15-20 of the following
SSH, Squat, Calf Raise, lunge, Apolo Oh- No, Good Mornings, IW, and some other leg stuff.

The Thang:

Mosey to the grass field park near Trailhead park, to the trail that leads up to the dreaded power lines and Heart Attack Hill.

Run the Camelback.  5 squat on southend , 5 jump squat on Northend.  1 round is up and back. 5 rounds total.

Lungewalked 1/2 way, crabwalk 1/2 way.  backward  walk up hill.

Run Camelback: 5 air squat, 5 Mary Catherines, 5 rounds (includes extra hill)

To Memorial Gardens. Bearcrawls and lungewalks around the flag

Pledge of Allegiance

Back for COT.

>> It was just as horrible today as it was 3 years ago, even though I am in much better shape now. As we were progressing through it, myself, Mr T, and Fishsticks started to remember some of the details of that day. It was just as humid, but slightly hotter. Mumblechatter was epic. And it hurt ALOT back then. I remember almost passing out on round 8 of the hill.


Wednesday June 29, 2016

That was the day my F3 journey all began. That’s the day I started transforming into a better person, in many ways, than what I was before.

My good friends Mr T and Qwerty were working on me for a few months to come out to try this thing they called F3. I just got over a major surgery where I was out of action for a while, which really put me in a bad place mentally and physically. They knew I was down and out. They were there for me. It’s awesome they said. You are very active, and it’s a great FREE workout they said. You’ll meet some great people they said, maybe even develop more friendships they said. And it will help you become a better man they said. Seriously? All this I thought was just another phony sales pitch from another Ponzi scheme, another get ripped quick scheme or something. for usually if it sounds too good to be true then usually it is.  I kept making excuse after excuse, but they were consistent in trying to motivate me to try it. Just once they said, and we will stop.

After a lot of constant yet polite and respectful nagging from them, I decided to throw caution to the wind and say WTF. One super hot and muggy summer morning Mr T came by and picked me up in that awful-WTF-early time, and off we went. (btw – I committed to do this a week or so earlier but had trouble waking that dang early). I met up with a bunch of fellas I had no idea who they were, what kind of people they were. Then one of them asked us to do all kinds of weirdly painful exercises. Running up a stupidly steep hill in the dark, no lights. Walking on my hands and feet (??!!). Introducing me to this God-awful exercise called a Good Morning (burpee). After a while I was expecting some frat house hazing to be honest, so I was a little on guard. But I kept going along, for the conversations during this was pretty dang good. Rather I was just listening, I could not talk – no breath to do so. Then we circle around an American flag in a park and say the Pledge of Allegiance. That was flat out inspiring. Next thing I knew it was over and I was on a rush. Then we sealed it with some open conversation and then a prayer. Wow.

The rest is now prologue to a wonderful set of chapters added to the ongoing book of my life that everyone I’ve met through F3 has helped write, the solid foundation that my future can build upon.  Looking back now, boy were they right. I cannot thank Mr T, as well as Qwerty who was assistant EH, ever enough. I can only keep trying to do for them what they have done for me.

Thanks to everyone I’ve met along the way. Your push, pull, inspiration, support, wisdom, accountability, leadership, motivation, and more has been truly transformational for me.

Love y’all. God bless.
-NASA

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Q Group at Pantheon

6 PAX took the DRP and headed to Pantheon, unknowingly that the Q was non-existent.  No worries, 3 of us said we go it and Group Q was made.

YHC had the warm up. The Thang:

Big Lap to COP

SSH X 25

Merkins X 10

IW X 20

Moroccan Night Clubs X 20

Squats X 20

Mountain Climbers X 20

6 count Burpees X 10

Hand off the FishSticks, run to back of school to bb court.

Bear Crawl 5, 5 merkins – length of the court

Lunges 5, 10 Squats – length of the court

Crab Walk 5, 10 LBCs –  length of court

Crawl Bear 5, 5 Carolina Dry Docks – length of court

Wall sits with over head hand claps to 40

Hand Off to Corn Hole for last 15 minutes, mosey to play ground

Swing Crunches X 20, step ups each leg X 20, 5 pull ups or 10 modified

Swing Crunches X 10, step ups each leg X 10, 5 pull ups or 10 modified

Run back to COT, had 4 minutes of Mary

COT

Naked Moleskin – Welcome Dennis the Menace FNG.  Prayers for safe travels this week for M’s and 2.0 travelling alone. Prayers for sleep, less anxiety for the PAX.

FunHouse

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