Tag: Dr. Evil

The DaVinci Cones® Redux

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Forecast called for a warmish start for December, but a high chance of rain, so I wasn’t sure if we’d have a crowd or just a few. Very glad to see a bunch of cars when I pulled up. We ended up with 14 including YHC.

The Thang

Ran around the parking lot to warm up the legs, with a little side shuffle then circled up for some COP:

SSH x 15
Low, slow squats x 15
Slow, old-man windmills (just 10, since I was reminded it’s just a 45 minute workout
Merkins x 10
A little downward dog and honeymooner to stretch out
Mountain Climbers x 15

Then a short mosey to the traffic circle in front of school. I spoke briefly about our theme of the month, which is “Gifts.” At other workouts, the Qs have spoken about Gifts, be they tangible, material things that we give and receive, or intangible, like the gifts of time and support and love.

My message was about the holiday phenomenon of the REGIFT.

Today, I decided to reuse a workout I led earlier this year at the Abyss. It worked pretty good then, and worked well today, too.

Here’s what we did:

Partner 1 acts as a timer, going halfway around circle drive to the Cone using the prescribed means of conveyance (bear crawl, crab walk, etc), then runs the second half while Partner 2 does the prescribed exercise (squat jumps, merkins, etc); then switch

1. Bear Crawl | Squat Jumps
2. Lunge Walk | Merkins
3. Crab Walk | LBCs
4. Lt. Dangers | Plank Punches

Then a mosey around to the side of the school for some Wall Sits.

Have a seat, won’t you? A PAX from either end of the row runs out to the center stripe in the driveway, does 3 burpees, then runs back to the wall.

Finally, a mosey around to the track behind the school.

This is one of the set-it-and-forget-it workouts I like to uses. It’s self-paced and allows for some cardio as well as a variety of body-weight exercises. Plus, if someone finishes and there’s still time on the clock, we can always rinse and repeat.

Start at Cone #1 at one end of the track, do the exercise and prescribed reps, run to the other end of the track, do #1 on Cone 2 at  that end, and so on.

Cone #1
1. Slow Squats (20)
2. Curb Dips (20)
3. Mtn. Climbers (20 d.c.)
4. Curb Derkins (20)
5. CDD’s (20)

Cone #2
1. Imperial Wlkrs (20 d.c.)
2. Jump Lunges (10/leg)
3. Freddy Mercurys (20 d.c.)
4. Flying Squirrels (10)
5. Peter Parkers (10 d.c.)

NMM

All jokes aside about gifts and regifts, at COT I shared my feelings about what a gift F3 is to me. I was able to thank DarkHelmet again for EH-ing me for weeks, finally convincing me to post at the Deep on a warm Saturday in April of 2016.

I was hooked from the very first workout.

Mind you: it nearly killed me (curse you, Jack Webb!), but the remarkable thing to me was how I felt welcomed from the moment I got out of my car. I was supported and encouraged during that first workout, and that encouragement and support has continued to this day.

I challenge each of us to continue offering support and encouragement to FNGs and long-time PAX alike.

The world may beat us down. This group can help build us back up.

So during this time of giving, I want to thank all of my brothers for their gift of friendship and support and encouragement.

I feel blessed to be a part of this group.

DaVinci

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Chasing Victory, Monopoly Lessons

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As I was thinking about my Q. I was struggling to bring something personal to this workout. I then realized it was the last day for the month and with the months theme of victory. I knew exactly what I was going to do. There are several life lessons learned from one of my favorite board games.

Short Warmup around the Bounce and Bowl parking lot.
High Knees, Butt Kickers, Side Shuffle, 5 good form Merkins
Disclaimer given. Missed it at the beginning as was talking about Victory.

COP – 51 SSH (you know why), IW, LBCs, MT Climbers

Mosey to Marina Parking Lot
Partner up
Partner 1 runs to middle rolls dice
Partner 2 planks until Partner 1’s return. Move forward number of stations as rolled on dice. Perform exercise.  Flapjack.

Stations
1-(GO)-20 SSH
2-20 CDD
3-20 Hello Dollies
4-10 Inch Worm Merkins
5-20 Mountain Climbers
6-60 Calf raises – 20 each position
7-(Jail) 10 Burpees – (Just Visiting)-10 Windmills
8-10 Wide Arm Merkins
9-20 LBC’s
10-20 Monkey Humpers
11-20 Peter Parkers
12-20 Mac Tar Jai
13-(Free Parking)-10 Bomb Jacks
14-10 Diamond Merkins
15-20 Russian Twists
16-20 Seal Jacks
17-20 Ski Abs
18-20 Sumo Squats
19-(Go To Jail)
20-20 Merkins
21-20 Freddy Mercury’s
22-20 Lunges 10 per leg
23-20 Parker Peters
24-20-Plank Punches
Back to Go, Take a Lap of Parking Lot
Interruptions: Short discussions about life lessons learned from the Game (not in order and not all covered)
https://gutsisthekey.com/2013/01/21/18-life-lessons-from-monopoly/
1. The game must be played with others. It is no fun to play alone.
2. You choose a game piece that represents you to other’s playing the game. It is like a public persona. You get to choose this image.
3. Baltic Ave or Boardwalk; You could end up on either one. It’s all the roll of the dice.
4. You only get paid as you keep on going around the board.
5. You can make a lot or lose a lot, just by where you happen to land in life.
6. Chance can be a good thing or bad but sometimes you hope for it cause it seems the only way to change your circumstance.
7. Nobody likes to go to jail, unless they are in worse trouble playing the game.
8. If you build on what you get, it can help you get more and win the game.
9. You can profit a lot, when others visit your places; especially if you have them developed.
10. There are costs with everywhere you go and everything you do.
11. You can not stay still for very long. Sometimes you can skip a turn but this may be good or it may be bad.
12. Sometimes you can move extra spaces and this may be good or it may be bad.
13. A cheater can ruin the game for everybody.
14. Sometimes you have to give some away, so people you like can stay in the game.
15. You never know what to expect in the game.
16. A good game takes a long time.
17. It’s only a game and the point of it is to have fun.
18. The only thing you get to keep when you quit the game is the relationship with the person you played with.

What does Victory look like for you? Are you chasing the right things?

Announcements
Christmas Party – Things to bringC
Children’s Attention Home – 36″ or larger Duffel Bag, Alarm Clock, Umbrella
Operation Sweet Tooth – Toy any age – Unwrapped
Regal Manor clubhouse
BYOB
Deep AO – Change of Time to 7AM – Pusher and Double D on Q
Berwick area – Looking to develop AO on that area (Udder, Wild Thing, Flipper, One Shot, Cerrano, Axl, Vinny)
Children’s Attention Home – Friday Dec 8th. Needs Head count locked down by this weekend.

Prayers/Praises
Missionary Family lost 20 bags of belongings (entire life in those bags). People stepped up and donated bags and stuff.
Suicide of a friend. Tough time of year.
Brother in laws father stage four cancer.
Opening up your home for Thanksgiving. Need to keep that up for Christmas.

Always humbled by the eagerness and willingness of the PAX. Lots of mumble chatter within the group and between the teams. Appreciate the opportunity to Q.

Cornhole
Out.

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Made it Matter – Quagmire 10/9/2017

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What a day a Quagmire this morning. Drizzling and humid.  Perfect for what I had in store. I told the Pax before we started that I was going to step out of my comfort zone and try to work a message into my workout. Normally I stick to sweat and pain but felt a calling for something more.

When 5:15 arrived there were 11 Pax ready to get started. Got the legal stuff out of the way and we were off.

We started with a slow mosey along with:

  • Toy Soldiers
  • Butt Kickers
  • Knee Pulls
  • High Knees

We circled up in front of Pet Smart for some stretching.  A whole lot of moans and groans from the Ragnar folks, so we spent some extra time getting loose. COP was:

  • Wind Mills x10
  • Weed Pullers x10
  • SSH x25
  • MCs x 30
  • Imperial Walkers x15
  • Merkins x10
  • Down Dog/Honeymooner
  • Mountain Climbers x15
  • Down Dog/Honeymooner

Recover and time for The Thang:

I told the Pax we were only doing 4 exercises today: Merkins, V-Up Twists, Jump Squats and Burpees. Simple and Easy (wink, wink). We would be moving between four corners (Front of Pet Smart, Front of Zoes, Front of Mattress Store and Front of Best Buy) performing the aforementioned exercises a set amount of reps.   (Unannounced to the Pax it was the total amount of reps performed in each cycle which would be significant.)

The plan was to perform all the exercises at each corner for the below reps:

  • 1st Cycle – Total of 28 reps for each exercise. 7 at each corner. Example:
    • 1st Corner – 7 Merkins, 7 V-up Twist, 7 Jump Squats, 7 Burpees
    • 2nd Corner – 7 Merkins, 7 V-up Twist, 7 Jump Squats, 7 Burpees
    • 3rd Corner – 7 Merkins, 7 V-up Twist, 7 Jump Squats, 7 Burpees
    • 4th Corner – 7 Merkins, 7 V-up Twist, 7 Jump Squats, 7 Burpees
  • 2nd Cycle – Total of 33 reps for each exercise. 8 at the first 3 stations then 9 at the last.
  • 3rd Cycle – Total of 49 reps for each exercise.  12 at the first 3 stations then 13 at the last.
  • 4th Cycle – Total of 58 reps for each exercise. 14 at the first 2 stations then 15 at the final 2 stations.

Unfortunately we ran low of time and were only able to finish cycle 1,2 and half of cycle 4. We skipped cycle 3 completely.  Then we all moseyed back to COT for an explanation of the reps:

  • On December 14, 2012, a young man walked into an elementary school in Newtown, CT and 28 lives were taken. Young Boys. Young Girls. Teachers. Mothers. Sons. Daughters.
  • On December 16, 2007, a young man walked around the campus of Virginia Tech and 33 lives we taken that day. Innocent students. Daughters. Sons. Brothers. Sisters.
  • On June 12, 2016, another young man walked into a nightclub in Orlando and 49 lives were taken. Friends. Co-Workers.
  • On October 1st, 2017, a man knocked out the window of his Las Vegas Hotel, opened fire and 58 lives were taken that day. Dads. Husbands. Mothers. Wives. Friends.

168 people lost their lives in these horrible events.

I designed a simple workout around the 4 deadliest shooting in modern American history and 45 minutes wasn’t enough time to complete the workout. 

These victims deserve your attention and emotion. There is no right way to react to such evil and madness. However SILENCE IS ACCEPTANCE. If we begin to accept these actions as normal then the madness starts to win.  We are better and these victims deserve better.

This is a call to make a positive impact on our world and F3 is a perfect vehicle to start this change. Use it and share it. Start headlocking in your community and build strong relationships with the current Pax. Change can happen one person at a time.

If not F3, then something. Anything. Dont wait for the madness to hit your doorstep. Be a positive light to the world now.

Dont wait for the next bad thing to happen to make these victims lives matter. THEY DESERVE TO MATTER.

Today we honored those that lost there lives. Today and forever, you matter.

Newtown, CT

Virgina Tech

Orlando

Las Vegas

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Week 1 of Q School at the Abyss

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This Wednesday started a month long opportunity for the PAX of Lake Wylie the hear more about the important responsibilities of a Q from veteran leaders around the Fort Region.  We’ll have Wednesdays in the month of October dedicated to teaching these valuable lessons.

This Wednesday started with the 1st Nantan of the Fort region, Double D!  It was a real pleasure having him share the history and some knowledge about F3 and important aspects of the Q.

Here’s what we did.

Mosey around the parking lot with some High knees, butt kickers, side shuffles and toy soldiers until we circled up.

I started the warmup  with the reason we count in cadence.  Cadence helps validate your authority to lead.  If you do an exercise that would normally be done in cadence WITHOUT counting  you are giving that authority to lead the group.  We broke down the three parts of counting in cadence.

ANNOUNCE the next exercise

MOVE the men into position

START the movement in cadence

After this instruction we went around the circle and had the men pick and exercise and count it out for the PAX

I handed it over to Double D and he shared more great tidbits about counting in cadence.  He asked the men who has not yet been a Q or only one time.  We had just a few guys that have not done so.  Double D had them come out and lead for an exercise.

Next we moseyed to the hill.

We discussed preparing for your Q.  Idea #1: Keep it simple.  If it takes you too long to explain, you can lose the men. If it’s too complicated to remember, the PAX will do their own thing.

With that in mind, we did 11s

Top of Hill 10 Merkins

Run down do 1 Big Boy Sit-up

Up the hill, reduce merkins by 1

Down the Hill add 1 to sit-ups

Easy to write, hard to do.  After this we moseyed to the circle by the front of the school.

Last words of wisdom for the group.  If you are not going to be with the PAX (you split the group up) make sure you pick exercises everyone knows.  I shared my experience leading just the weekend before at the Convergence.  Of the 20 exercieses I had that day, I picked a few exercises that the men didn’t know. Some of my favorites, the V-Up Twist and Squat Burpees (Thanks Witch Hunt).  Be careful not to make my same mistake.

We then bear crawled around the large circle…painful!

ran back to COT

Announcements

Praises and Prayers

Double D led us out in prayer.  Great to be with all the men and to have him there!

An Honor to Lead,

Royale

 

 

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The Swamp Thing

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Warmup:

Mosey to parking lot in front of Old Navy

 

COP

SSH x 48

Windmills

Moroccan Nightclubs

Low Slow Squats

Merkins

Mountain Climbers

LBCs

Freddys

 

Mosey to back of Valvoline to hill

Jacobs Ladder

7 Squats/1 Merkin

7 LBCs/1 Bombjacks

 

Mosey to Fountain/Roundabout

Dirty McDeuces

All exercises in cadence

Do all 4 exercises, run lap

 

20 Merkins

20 Lunges

20 LBCs

 

20 CDDs

20 Squats

20 Freddys

 

20 Ranger Merkins

20 Reverse Lunges

20 American Hammers

Mosey back of Home Depot

People’s Chair

Everyone take a seat. Pax on end runs

out, does 5 burpees, runs back

 

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“Maybe Just a Little” Bear Crawl’s at The Abyss

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Another great morning in Lake Wylie at the Abyss.  After my last Q, I promised another PAX little to-no Bear Crawl’s/Crawl Bear’s and tried to stay true to my word.  YHC wasn’t feeling spry on this fine morning after 2nd F the night before (1st annual Lake Wylie FFB draft), but we all hung in there and every PAX did a great job!

After a quick disclaimer we moseyed around the school and did some toy soldiers and karaoke’s along the way until reaching the basketball hoops where we circled up for some warm-up exercises.

15 SSH IC
15 Squats IC
15 Windmills IC
15 Cherry Pickers IC

Still at the hoops, DORA 1-2-3’s awaited us for the 1st excercise.  We partnered up and ran to the 4th hoop and back (maybe 50 yards each way?)  while splitting 100 Merkins, 200 LBC’s, and 300 Squats between us.Once we were finished, I thought we needed some more running so we did some Spartan sprints to the 4th hoop all together as fast as we could.  Moseyed back to start and did 5 Merkins.  We repeated this 5x until we were all pretty winded.

Short mosey to the hill that leads up to the gate and then Bear Crawled up to the top and Crawl Bear to the bottom.  Everyone seemed to mutually hate this, including YHC, but none of us quit on each another and it’s always nice to see everyone pitch and finish the last few yards with the sixth together.  5 Burpees awaited us at the bottom.  We repeated the hill again, but this time went backwards-up and forwards-down and 5 more Burpees at the bottom.  Time was running short so we only made it about half-way up the 3rd time while doing some Lt. Danger’s before heading back to CoT.

Thanks Bones for giving me the opportunity to Q The Abyss, everyone did outstanding today as always. I have a feeling I’ll be back…

-Flux

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More than a Workout (at the risk of sounding cliche)

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It was an 80 degree humid, gloomy morning at the Abyss. As we waited for the majority of the PAX to arrive, Witch Hunt pointed out something unique about this AO (important for anyone who with a VQ coming up). At around 5:12, just when you think not many PAX are going to show up, 7 cars come barreling in. Always good to see a lot of PAX at this great AO.

There were no FNG’s present so a super brief disclaimer was given and a challenge question about discipline was issued by YHC. Without question, the men who consistently post and workout in some fashion are disciplined enough to get up early and improve physically. What is an area of your life where you lack the same level of discipline?

And with that we moseyed to the bus circle behind the school (high knees, butt kickers, side shuffles) to warm up.

Warm up (IC)

20 SSH
20 IW
20 WM
30 MNC

The Thang

Mosey to the paved hill

Round 1 – Lunge Walk halfway up, run the other half, 10 merkins at the top, run down to the bottom for 10 merkins (plank for the 6)
Round 2 – Duck Walk halfway up, run the other half, 10 burpees at the top, run down to the bottom for 10 burpees (plank for the 6)
Round 3 – Bear crawl halfway up, run the other half, 10 deep squats at the top, run down to the bottom for 10 deep squats (plank for the 6)
Round 4 – Lt Dan’s (walking lunge, lunge, squat), 10 donkey kicks at the top, run down to the bottom for 10 donkey kicks (plank for the 6)

Recover

Mosey back to the bus circle and partner up

Round 1

P1 – Two suicides* (using the 4 basketball goals as our mark each time)
P2 – Hold a plank
Flap jack

*Later named Twoicides (TM by DaVinci) on Twitter. Nice work!

Upon announcement of the twoicides, and during, the mumble chatter was everywhere and none were too happy with YHC.

Round 2

P1 – One suicide
P2 – Hold a one armed plank
Flap jack

After a few 10 counts to recover, we moseyed to the wall

Peoples chair while PAX (one at time ran to the blacktop for 5 Monkey Humpers)
1/3 of the way through we lowered on the wall, 2/3 of the way, lowered again

With legs thoroughly burning and mumble chatter about inevitable soreness, we slow moseyed back to the shovel flag for some ab work (IC).

American Hammers
Modified Freddys (Knee, Knee, Crunch)
Protractor (6 inches to 20 degrees)
Hello Dollys

COT

Check the newsletter (Ragnar, Nun Run, etc…)
Prayers and Praises

Cornerstone’s wife – kidney stones
Cornerstone’s daughter Emma
Cobra Kai’s wife Jennifer and treatment
Wild Thing and Wife’s new baby born 8/22
Witch Hunt – Good report from the Dr. and he’s back!

Moleskin

It was another great day to post and always great to be out with F3 brothers. Great job grinding it out by all the PAX!

As mentioned earlier in the workout, discipline is something each of us has or we wouldn’t continue to post. But what part of your life lacks that same discipline and causing you grief? I could list some examples but you know what I am talking about. Give it some consideration and ask God for guidance and strength.

I have been involved in F3 since September 2015. After struggling through the first couple dozen workouts, I felt better than I had in a long time and I was thankful to my F3 brothers for pushing me and proud of myself for doing something about getting in shape. I wish I could remember the workout when it finally clicked that I was doing really well in some areas of my life while failing in others. I was putting in efforts, sometimes even doing well but I wasn’t the best husband or father I could be. I was a walking heap of good intentions. I fully intended to help more with chores, spend more time with the kids after a full day at work, etc… But I was failing to turn my good intentions into action.

I was living 1st instead of 3rd and there were areas of my life that needed to be overhauled.

Over the last 2 years, there have been many folks along the way (too many to name) that have helped push me and encourage me to be a better man. Just know if I have posted to a workout that you Q’d or posted along side you, Thank you!

When I have the privilege of leading a workout, my goal is to encourage you to be better men as well. I hope that you felt encouraged today. You certainly did that for me!

Thank you Bones for the opportunity!

Until next time…

Hauschka

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