BEYOND – Empathy in a Culture of Hurry

The more hurried you are the less compassionate you’ll be. – John Mark

Slow down. We need to slow. down.

COP
SSH + Quick yoga flow + tappy taps + Merkins

Hold High Plank:

In today’s culture, we spend too much time focusing on self. It makes sense. In western culture, the individualized self is the highest goal in our society. We spend so much time focusing on what we desire. We follow those who have the same ideologies. In short, we hate each other and we want more of ourselves. We believe that we are God and only want to be surrounded by others created in our image. What does that say about us as a society?

Aiken Arms
10 Merkins
10 Plank Jacks
10 CDD’s
10 Donkey Kicks

Ass Webbs
Squats + Al Gore Pulses 1:4 – 10:40

Hold High Plank:

We only like things we want to like and curate things we want to see-further creating and hardening our ability to never have to see things we don’t want to see or disagree with. It’s not only desensitizing, it’s dehumanizing. Politics, sports teams, religion, name it. We are able to find what we desire to find and shut out anything we don’t want to hear/see. If we don’t like the news we see we can seek out and find the “news” we want. Using the mediums we currently use (social media specifically), when we see an opposing view that doesn’t align with ours, we aren’t obligated to disagree in a thoughtful and relationship keeping way. Instead the relationship doesn’t matter therefore the disagreement can be toxic, mean, and harsh. Trying to understand each other should be normal, unfortunately it has become a superpower in today’s culture.

Bear Crawl Circuit
Bear Crawl across parking lot
Low Plank in wait for six + 30 seconds
Bear Crawl back across lot
Low Plank in wait for the six + 30 seconds
Repeat w/Al Gores

Hold Al Gore:

You know what really is the driver behind all of this? Fear. A professor at Chapman University started a “Survey of American Fears” in 2014. You know what has been seen as a trend since the beginning of it all? People are beginning to fear what they see in the media. The top 10 fears from 2019 can be directly correlated to the top media stories of the past year. Basically the stories we see are whipping us up into a frenzy and fanning the flames of fear. How big will the fire get before it consumes us all? It really comes down to one question: What do we fear?

Punch Webbs 1:4 – 10:40
Dive bomber Pushups
Plank Jacks

A few Moseys in between rounds due to the difficulty of the Webb.

Hold High Plank:

I asked the question of what do we fear? We fear the other. Whatever the other is for you. white. black. republican. democrat. sunni. shiite. jew. german. christian. atheist. We have to dive head first into that dark and muddy part of our heart. Not put it away. Not shy away from it. Not run from it. What’s down in those depths? If we consider how Jesus actually walked and look at his ethos as he went about his life, we find someone who was afraid of no one and no thing. And this prevented knee jerk reactions. Prevented him from picking up a sword and taking down Rome. And if He wanted to do that, nothing could have stopped him. This made it possible for empathy to radiate from his very being. Because there was actually room for it as opposed to being filled with fear.
He chose to die willingly for others – namely his enemies. If you’re a follower of Jesus, ask yourself: Why are you afraid?

Aiken Legs
20 Squats
20 Box Jumps
20 Bonnie Blair’s (Jump Lunges)
20 Bomb Jacks

Hold High Plank:

What would it look like if we laid down our fears, our weapons, our hate, and picked up enemy love instead? This empathy is not easy. It is a hard won, practiced enemy love.

The difference between fear and enemy love is a difference of franticness and peace.
Fear is frantic.
Fear goes at a speed love does not.
Fear is fast. Fear is frantic. Fear is distracted.
But love?
Goes about three miles per hour.
Three miles per hour it the average pace of someone who is walking purposefully yet gracefully.
Most of Jesus’ miracles happened on his way somewhere else.
We have to go at a pace that can be interrupted. That can be responsive to the moment in front of us.
If you walk at a pace that is in step with our Lord, don’t be surprised if empathy and enemy love show up.
You can’t love someone when you are hustling (for me – I think bedtime with small children).
But when you say no to the hustle? You can be stopped. You can step into the holy moment of grace.
Jesus did it.
He felt other people’s pain. He leaned into their space. He understood their hurt. He waited and didn’t hustle past.
He loved.

Mary
Seal sit ups x 30
Straight Leg American Hammers x 15
Straight Leg LBC’s x 11
World War I sit ups x 5

Announcements
Yeti – Doty – Manion

Prayers/Praises
Band Camp’s travels to DC this weekend with the band.
Chicken Wing is having hip surgery next week.
Prayers for all traveling this weekend and the frenzied fear that is the current virus situation.

Thanks Dirty Harry for the tap to lead the inaugural BEYOND of 2020. Looking forward to what this will become.

Punch List out.

TClap |
16

Minnow Pond-Triangle of Pain

21 men cane to minnow pond from all directions and walks of life

the plan was simple

run, exercise, run, exercise, run, exercise

starting at memorial park across from launch point

💥10 Donkey Kicks

run up Massey

💥10 Merkins

run down Spratt

💥 10 leg raises

run back to memorial park

5-7 Rounds

60-75 reps of exercises as each round we increased by 1 rep

3.5-4.0 miles🙌🏻🔥💪🏻🥓

TClap |
2

4 Corner Crusher

YHC had the privilege to cross the river and Q for 11 at Minnow Pond. Conditions were stellar: 67 and dry. Here’s what we did:

The Thang

Run to First Baptist (.3 miles)

  • 4 Corners
    • 10 Burpees at each Corner                           (40 Burpees)
    • 20 Merkins at each Corner                           (80 Merkins)
    • 30 Shoulder Taps at each Corner              (120 Shoulder Taps)
    • 40 Squats at each Corner                           (160 Squats)
    • 50 SSHs at each Corner                               (200 SSHs)
    • 40 MNCs at each Corner                             (160 MNCs)
    • 30 LBCs at each Corner                               (120 LBCs)
    • 20 Seal Jacks at each Corner                      (80 Seal Jacks)
    • 10 Burpees at each Corner (2.2 miles)     (40 Burpees)
  • Return to Veterans Park (.3 miles)
  • Circle the lot twice (.2 miles)

Total Miles (3.0)

NMM

Thanks for the opportunity to Q today, Longshanks. I wanted to mix up the run this morning by adding the element of a full-body beatdown. As you can see above, we did some work. I also wanted to keep us in the parking lot as a reminder that we should always have eyes on our brothers. Though we have varying fitness levels and some guys got to the next station before others, its a reminder that we are all living life in different phases. Some guys have already been where you are now. Other guys are stepping into a phase where you are currently. Just the same as a workout, we should always look out for the guys ahead and behind us. Call the guy you haven’t seen in a while. Reach out to the guy that seems a little down. We are called to be our brother’s keeper. If he falls down, we are to help him up.

Let’s take care of each other. Let’s be intentional.

Aye!

Italian Job

TClap |
1

Primetime at Block Party

14 PAX gathered in the warm early February gloom. Unbeknownst to them, Cheddah had laid a hurting on YHC a few Saturdays ago…. once YHC has found a weakness, he addresses it. Meaning we were in for the Deion “Primetime” Sanders inspired circuit.

Quite a few PAX I didn’t know, so after some introductions we started a little mosey:

Warmup:
SSH circa 55 (went till PAX started to stop. Still haven’t made it to 100 as Chicken Hawk did at #TheHive in the rain around January 2019….maybe one day…)
IW x10
HW x10
Peter Parker x10
Parker Peter x10
Updog –> Honeymooner
–Mosey–
Bulgarian Split Squats x6ish
–Mosey–
Dirty Hookups x11
–Mosey–
Monkey Humpers x15
–Mosey to FBC parking lot–

Thang

Primetime

Leg Sequence:
100yrd sprint w/ Neon-Deion worthy high step at the end
Reps
2 – Deck Squat
21 – Gorilla Squat
24 – Monkey Humper
37 – Bear Squat

Repeat

Cardio Sequence:
100yrd sprint w/ Neon-Deion worthy high step at the end
Reps
2 – Burpee
21 – SSH
24 – Mountain Climbers
37 – High Knees

Repeat

Upper Body Sequence:
100yrd sprint w/ Neon-Deion worthy high step at the end
Reps
2 – Hand Clap Merkin
21 – Merkin
24 – Ankle Touch Merkin
37 – Carolina Dry Dock

No time to repeat –> Mosey back to COT

Some stops along the way to catch the 6
Dips, Erkins, Box Jump
WWII Situps, Flutters

NMM
Thinking a lot about about my “Input” (word of the year). Can’t expect different results without putting something different into the system.

Grateful to lead, and grateful for another day. Big thanks to Geronimo for pushing the tempo of the Mosey (seriously, I love the push).

Lots of prayers for those suffering illness and loss.

–Band Camp dismissed

TClap |
4

LE TOUR DE WEP Dora Style

Great morning for a Q, my third one of the week, I was super pumped since my sidekick Sonic (2.1- 8 years old) accepted to take the lead roll and co Q with me.

This time I brought my battle rope and chatters started early, we welcomed all PAX. Drop Thrill was in charge of the milkshakers so off they went.

With the Bootcampers we grabbed the rope and moseyed/walked across the wet and cold grass to the playground for the warm up, many PAX whined about getting  their toesies wet but the idea is to get out of your comfort zone and accelerate, this is why you leave your fartsack every morning. We explained that we will move as a team and our team will be as fast as the slower PAX so we all encouraged each other to get better (this is what F3 is all about)

Warm up led mostly by Sonic:

Side straddle hops
Windmill
Weed picker
Low slow squat
Moroccan night clubs
Low slow merkin
Mountain climber

I mapped the park on my phone for 15 stops and we run in between stops (picture attached), we used the walking trail to run around the park. The idea was to complete the following Dora:

100 merkins (4 stops x 25)
200 carolina dry docks (5 stops x 40)
300 overhead claps (6 stops x 50)

We went back to our starting position at the playground for some fun with the battle rope.

Our team was split into two groups for some Tug of war competition, PAX enjoyed this part as adrenaline kicked in while pulling the rope in a friendly competition. I’m definitely repeating this in my Q’s

.

We had abut 11 minutes left so it was time for our superhero visit and the crowd started cheering:

Captain Thor
1 big boy situp,  4 american hammers
2 big boy situps,  8 american hammers
3 big boy situps,  12 american hammers
Progressive to 10 big boy situp,  40 american hammers

3 rounds of Superman to stretch the abs, honey mooners, downward dogs and tunnel of man for Sonic back and forth to finish our beatdown,

we finished our day running back to COT carrying the rope as a group.

We met with the milkshakers for namearama, announcements, prayers and praises.

Thanks to Slash for the opportunity to lead this great group of PAX, some of them I had only seen once or twice but it’s all about the camaraderie.

My 2.1 Sonic really enjoyed this as he does everytime he comes to F3 with me, all PAX welcomed him as one more of us encouraging him every minute, he’s only 8 but not afraid of the gloom.

TINSEL and SONIC are out!!

 

TClap |
1

Black Diamond at the One Word Convergence

If you’re going to call it a Black Diamond, well then I owe it to the guys who show up for it to give them a true Black Diamond.  Even if that makes 12 guys hate your guts for 40 min.  They’re mad because it sucks, which they willingly signed up for.  I think the below was sucky and vomitty at times, but we’re all better men because of it.  Here we go:

“Warm-up” – 5 exercises, 5 rep counts, we do 1 exercise every minute on the minute (EMOM).  Translation, the faster you finish the one exercise, the more rest you have until the next minute starts up again.

Minute 1 – 20 burpees (do it, its possible)
Minute 2 – 30 jump lunges
Minute 3 – 40 toe touches
Minute 4 – 50 carolina dry docks
Minute 5 – 60 side straddle hops

From there, we broke into two groups.  I informed the pax that we’d be doing a good old fashioned indian run, but notched up a level since it’s a Black Diamond.  Call it a “competitive” indian run.  3 laps around the full Harris Teeter complex (behind the store and then out to the road near Wendy’s).  Measured the lap online and 1 lap was 0.33 miles.  3 laps = 1 mile Indian run.  Guy in back drops and does 3 burpees and then has to haul a$$ back to the front of the group and the last guy drops again.  Do this for all 3 laps.

One team starts on the far side of the parking lot (near Pizza Hut), the other team starts on the opposite end of the parking lot (Moe’s).  Goal is beat the other team to the finish w/ loser having to burpee broad jump 100 yards.  Since the two groups ran in opposite directions, at one point every lap you had a good feel for how your team was performing vs. the other team and the hope was that it would speed up the laps…you can say it worked.

For the first lap I knew we’d have a better understanding of how competitive this was going to be – we passed the other team coming towards us at the same exact spot in the lap (going opposite direction) and both teams were going hard and I’d say were dead even.  This was the point when things got a bit vomity.  Fast forward 3 laps, and without really seeing the other side of the parking lot, I think team Pizza Hut won it out.  In an effort to compromise and make everyone feel equally terrible, we shared the punishment.  We did about 80 yards of burpee broad jumps, turned around and bear crawled back the 80 yards.

Next up – a Jack Webb spiced up for a Black Diamond.  2 exercises w/ a 1:4 rep ratio, up to 10 reps of the first and 40 reps of the second.  Mack Tar Jai / Jump Squats.  1 mack, 4 jump squats, 2 macks, 8 jump squats.  Somewhere around the 6 mack tar jais and 24 jump squats is when I got the feeling some guys might lay down.  I challenged the pax to give it all they got and finish strong, by doing some sort of rep, even if the jump squat was modified to a squat.  Some needed it, others didn’t.  We all finished.  Final rep count – 55 mack tar jais, 220 jump squats in about 10 minutes.

We had 5 minutes, so as promised, we ended where we started with a repeat of the every minute on the minute (EMOM).  Going down for that first burpee of the 20 in minute 1, after 220 jump squats almost ended me.  Arms went down, legs froze and wouldn’t move.

The Black Diamond takers finished and limped over to CoT to close it out.  Great effort fellas.  My only requirement was to make it harder than most workouts we get on a regular basis, so hopeful it met your expectations.  Until next time!

Cha Ching

 

TClap |
8

Long Duck at The Coop

It was a brisk morning at The Coop. As Site Q I feel led to write a quick Backblast for LD.

COP
30 SSH
20 Wind Mills
20 Tappy Taps
Mosey to Pull Up Bars

Partner up. Partner 1 runs down and up hill once while other partner chips away at the board of pain.

100 Pull Ups
100 toes/knees to bar
200 Merkins
200 Big Boy Sit Ups

Mosey to parking lot – 2×50 yard sprints

Back for COT.

Great lead by Long Duck!

TClap |
0

Bear Crawls, Burpees, Battlestar Galactica

To get the blood flowing, began with what ended up being a soggy mosey around the practice field, there was a fair amount of mumblechatter as the mud sloshed around.

Warm up in cadence:

  • Wind mills
  • Cherry pickers
  • Imperial walkers
  • Peter Parker
  • Parker Peter
  • Low Country Crab
  • Honey mooners
  • Downward dog

Quick recovery and off to the track for the main event.

The Thang

Run 4 laps on the track with 2 sets of 20 reps of a particular exercise on the turn.

1st turn

  • 20 Merkins
  • 20 American Hammers

2nd turn

  • 20 Caroline dry docks
  • 20 Flutters

Rinse and repeat for 4 laps. Thanks Trucker for the vote in confidence around the creativity.

Lined up on goal line for field round.

Burpee Dans

Starting at goal line, lunge walk in 10 yard increments, followed by burpee increasing by 1 burpee to 50 yard line. Run backwards to goal line and plank when finished.

Welsh Dragons

Starting at goal line and remaining in plan position, bear crawl 10 yard increments.

  • 1 merkin
  • 1 plank jack
  • 1 set of should taps

Rinse and repeat to 50 yard line increasing rep count by 1 per 10 yards. Run backwards to goal line.

Originally planned above exercises through length of field, due to time constraints, cut down to 50.

With 10 minutes left, called additional adjustment.

  • Run to 50 yard line, 50 calf raises,
  • Run to end zone, 50 mountain climbers
  • Sprint back

Mosey back to COT with a few minutes to spare.

Wave of Merkins

  • PAX remaining in plank, start w/ 1 merkin around the circle, followed by 2, and so on until time ran out.

Announcements: Short talk on word of year.

Prayers/Praises: Health, travels.

Thanks to MacGuyver for the field access, Cyclops for the opportunity, and 3D for the shovel flag reminder.

TClap |
4

Litter Bugs and 4 Corners

Birthday Q with a good crowd. Humbled.

Mosey to the big lot by Empire, the plan was to do some dynamic warm-up, unfortunately, one large vehicle kept me from setting up the majority of the morning here. Little did we know that dodging trash was another thing.

Back and forth across the lot
high knees, butt kickers, windmill walkers, squat walkers, karaoke L, karaoke R, toy soldier
…. and enough dodging trash, mosey over to the Lowes lot
power skip, bear crawl*2, 75% run, 100%, 100%

mosey to the lot by Persis and circle up
Freddie*10, Morrocan NC*10, Carolina DD*10, OH clap*10, dying cockroach*10, richard simmons*10, HR merkin*10, imperial walker*10, LBC*10, hillbilly walker*10, flutter*10, LS squat*10, shoulder tap*10, windmill*10, rosalita*10, calf raise*2*10, Travolta*10, monkey humper*10

split in 4 groups for 4 corners, hit a corner, back to the middle for 5 makhtar n’diayes between every corner, corners included
10 stationary lunge, 10 shoulder taps IC
10 inchworm, 10 SSH IC
10 scorpion DD IC, 20 OH claps IC
10 HR merkins, 10 hillbilly walker IC

Find some grass for a full 10-40 Jack Webb (with a couple on the backtop)

Little did I know that at this point there was some expectation of a Matt Foley (Jack’s less intelligent younger brother) … we’ll do 2 next time

back to 4 corners, flip the boards for a second round, no middle this time, clockwise rotation
10 hello dolly IC, 10 seal jacks IC
10 donkey kicks, 10 weed pullers IC
10 plank jacks IC, 10 squat jumps
10 V-ups, 10 flying squirrel

time. back to COT.

prayers for Cash, among others.

Honored and humbled by the quantity and quality of PAX, a who’s who of HIM.

Looks like we made it,

Barry Manilow

TClap |
4

The 2 Wisemen Visited The Fort

3D led off with some running and warmup then to the Pike Engineering brick wall for wallsits with arms up, alternating legs and the 5 burpees each HIM starting from the end.  Run to Massey Hill. Jacobs Ladder to 7 with squats at bottom and Merkins at the top.  Several PAX were losing clothing.  3D led mosey back to WEP playground for Q handoff to LTrain.

LTrain
Partner work

5 sets
10 merkins, partner holds plank
250 yard run

5 sets
15 squats, partner holds Al Gore
250 yard run

5 sets
20 big boy situps, partner holds plank
250 yard run

Indian run around WEP (~.5 mile)

End with Mary

TClap |
1