Bermuda Murph

It was a glorious Friday morning with a group of eager to work Pax. After a very thorough and intricate disclaimer we got to work.

The Thang was the MURPH!
Mile
100 Pull-ups
200 Merkins
300 Squats
Mile

Believe it or not we had enough PAX finish that we were able to work in about 3 minutes of MARY.

Great morning great group!

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Tinsel’s Utensils rolled in the Deep

Great morning to bring all the props out, we had 17 PAX (4×2.0’s) kids have become “regulars” at the deep, we also had the visit from EZ rider from the Gas House Region.

We started with a slow mossey around the parking lot followed by the warm up exercises led in part by 2.0 Sonic:

Side Straddle Hops

Moroccan night clubs

Windmill

Weed pickers

Low Slow Squats

Mountain Climbers

Low Slow Merkin

As with most of my regular Q’s I had setup stations with different exercises on each station, in this case they were about 40-5- yards apart, we divided the group into 4 teams to conquer the 4 stations:

STATION 1

USE WEIGHTS 

-> 10 man makers

-> 20 biceps curls

-> 20 bent over row

-> 25 overhead press

-> 30 triceps extension

Bear crawl to station 2

STATION 2

-> 10 diamond merkins

-> 20 wide arm merkins

-> 20 regular merkins

-> 30 battle rope wave SC

-> 40 Shoulder taps

-> 40 plank jacks

Crawl Bear to station 3

STATION 3

-> 10 burpees

-> 10  Tire flips

-> 20  Monkey Humpers

-> 20 lunges SC

-> 30 low squat (touch the ground with hand)

Bear crawl to station 4

STATION 4

-> 30 LBC’s

-> 30 Rosalitas

-> 30 Sledgehammer swings  (15 each side)

-> 40 Dying Roach SC

-> 20 slam ball to ground

Crawl bear to station 1

Once all teams have finished all station we circled up for Royale to pick one of 3 cards that will give us the next exercise which consisted of a modified jack webb, I have used this webb twice and it’s best known to some of Lake Wylie’s pax as the Vin Diesel webb :

1 KneeKhtar N’Diaye (kneel down on both legs and get up, alternating legs) – 4 squats

Progressive to

10 KKND – 40 squats

It works your quadriceps on every single move, lots of whining during this set of exercises, next time I’ll bring extra smoked Gouda cheese for the whine.

We couldn’t  finish one of my workouts without the visit of the famous Captain Thor:

1 Big Boy Sit Up- 4 American Hammers

Progressive to

10 BBSU – 40 AH

Again lots of chatter during this one and one complained about his only Ab muscle being ripped apart after we finished,  but he certainly got better at ABS. We followed it with some stretching superman’s for about 1 minute.

With all the FiA ladies rolling in we had to go back to COT but we still had 5 minutes to spare so we finished our bootcamp with some Mary.

COT

We talked about the invergence and convergence coming up on September 6th and 7th.

Prayers for injured PAX, friends and family that are going through a difficult situation with their health and our families in general.

Great morning and great group of PAX, everyone got better!!

Thanks O’reilly for the opportunity to lead.

Tinsel Out

 

 

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Shovel Flag Handoff @ The Deep

What a day!

This morning was a beautiful sight to see.  30 men came out to see the passing of the shovel flag from YHC to O’Reilly.  I have been lucky enough to call myself Site Q of The Deep since March(?) 2018 and have loved every minute of it.  When I was first asked to take over by Royale, I said yes without hesitation.  I didn’t know it at the time, but running this site was going to instrumental to my growth as a leader within our F3 region and in my personal life.  I remember when I first took over as Site-Q, there were Saturday’s that I wouldn’t make it out and just chalked it up to work the night before.  But it wasn’t long before I got my mindset on being present and taking on my leadership role.  When Royale asked me to take on being Site-Q, he didn’t want someone to just make a schedule and be absent.  So I changed work schedules accordingly and even if for some reason I had to work the night before; I still made it out the next morning.

Thanks to everyone that stepped up to Q during my tenure.  Without you, The Deep wouldn’t be where it is today.

The Thang:

Disclaimer for our 4 FNGs and the PAX.  Mosey across to the Elementary School.  COP exercises included: SSHs, Windmills, Moroccan Night Clubs, Merkins, Flutters and Mountain Climbers.  Maybe some other stuff but I forgot.

Shakespeare’s Q- Playground Dora

PAX partnered up.  100 pull ups, 200 Squats, 300 Freddie Mercury.  1 PAX work and other made a run around the playground area.  Swap on return.

O’Reilly’s Q- Track Work

PAX got into 4 groups and lined up on the track.  Each group took off and ran approx. 100M.  After the run, PAX completed various amounts of exercises as a group and then lined up for the next run/exercise.  It started as a slow mosey for 100M but it soon turned into a sprinting race between Witch Hunt and Two Ferns.  Which then turned into Witch Hunt, Two Ferns, Flux, Shakespeare, John Wick, and Wolverine… and some others… but they were behind me so I wouldn’t know.

Exercises after the run included (in no particular order): 50 Merkins, 50 Lunges, 50 Bomb Jacks, 50 squat jumps… and stuff like that.  You’d have to ask O’Reilly what he wrote on his Weinke.  I don’t remember.  I just remember doing all the exercises and reps.

NameORama and Ball of Man at the end.

Announcements (all in the past now)

Prayers- For our brother Riverboat who passed the night before.  He was Godly man who ministered the Word until his last moment.  Fighting a brain tumor and multiple recurrences of this over the years; he never wavered in his Belief.  We were lucky to have him come towards the end of a workout at The Deep and give him his name.  He prayed over us that day.  Riverboat will be missed on Earth; but we all know where he is and there is absolutely no doubt about it.

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Mega Tight Mile

I had the pleasure of Qing the High Intensity workout at Shipwreck this morning! 10 pax accepted the challenge and I wanted to make sure to deliver what they signed up for. We did a variation of a merciless mile, but this one was different…It was a Mega Tight Mile.

We ran down to the track and COP lasted about 15 sec just to give instructions. The HIT workout is only 30min so we got right to work!

Mega Tight Mile looked like this: 4 cones placed around the track at each cone you stop and do work!

Lap 1: 10’s

10 Burpees

10 Plank Jack Merkins

10 Tuck Jumps

At the end of Lap 1 you completed 40 reps of each exercise.

Lap 2: 20’s

20 Ski Ab’s (Counting only middle)

20 High Knees with a Twist (High knees but touch opposite elbow to knee…basically a standing Freddy Mercury)

20 Front Back Jumps (Jump forward, Jump Backward)

At the end of Lap 2 you completed 80 reps of each exercise.

Lap 3: 30’s 

30 Mountain Climbers (Double Count)

30 Plank Jack Shoulder Taps (As you do shoulder taps your legs spread apart while holding plank)

30 Squat Jumps

At the end of Lap 3 you completed 120 reps of each exercise.

Almost Done Finish Strong!!

Lap 4: Time Challenge

To finish our Mega Tight Mile I challenged the Pax to give it all they got!

For the last lap all you have to do is run!…but the catch is if you don’t finish your lap in under 2:15 you owe us 20 burpees!

Lucky all the pax are mega tough so everyone fished in under 2:00min so no burpees were done.

Instead we finished the workout with some ab work

In Cadence 10 Box Cutters, 10 V-Crunch.

Congrats You did  it!

After completion we met up with the Moderate Workout guys for Name-o-Rama, FNG naming, and Prayers a praises.

Shout out to 3 FNG’s QT, Airwolf, and Bartman

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Run, Kraken, Broga

13 men resisted the ever menacing fart sack and met in the gloom at the Bermuda Triangle for another great Friday.  With the shovel flag passed on from HomeBrew to Wolverine last week, I wanted to make this Q a bit different from my previous ones to help usher in a new era at the Triangle. At a recent site Q meeting the Fort’s Maximus was discussing a bootcamp consisting of a minimum of 3 miles running with a bare bones bootcamp mixed in and with Ragnar coming I thought to myself, what a great idea.

Disclaimer was given and we ran over to the basketball court for a quick COP. SSHx20/Cotton Pickerx10/Tha Windmillx10 all IC. 

Main Event

5 Kraken Burpees/5 Jump Knee Tucks/5 Donkey Kicks/ 5 Pull-ups/Run 2 Laps around track

Rinse and repeat 3 more times then we ran 4 laps straight for a total of 3 1/2 miles run.

Finished up with some Broga- Sun Salutation/Standing Half Lotus Left-Right Legs/Crow Pose

TAPS

Violence in America/ Travel Prayers.  Two Ferns is leading a prayer service at the local schools to pray over the kids, Tweet him for more info. Thanks for the opportunity to lead Wolverine! Peace!

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Highly Intense with a Dose of Moderate

Today was the “soft launch” for a new workout coming to Lake Wylie.  We meet at the usual time of 5:15, but have a couple of options.  The PAX can choose between a 30 minute moderate workout that is great for some of our respectables or guys who are needing a little rest or healing from an injury.  The site-to-be-named-later is held at Oakridge Elementary school, the school opposite from The Deep where we have our Saturday workouts.  At the end of the workout we would finish up in typical F3 fashion and then meet up at Starbucks for some 2nd F coffeeteria.

In any case, this morning I took the “high intensity” workout and decided to throw some traditions (no Warm-a-rama) out the door since we only at 30 minutes to get our WORK done.  I notified the PAX arriving a few minutes early to get their stretching in while they can.

At exactly 5:15 we took off for a fast mosey to the right side of the school.  I had a speaker with 8 rounds of a HIIT routine laid out to some music.  30 seconds of AYG burpees followed by 20 seconds of flutters.  All in all, I think most of us were between 75-100 burpees to start the morning.  A great way to warm up.

Upon completion we took off for another fast mosey to the back of the school where the playground was.  The workout was simple, run a lap around the playground and then do 15 dips and 3 “good” pull ups. I wanted the PAX to focus on form and getting them done right so I kept the reps low on purpose.

After that I gave the option to do some hill work across the street or whatever nastiness I can come up with on the fly due to only having about 10 minutes left.  Most were on board with the hill work and I was all for it until I heard Wolverine mutter that he picked that because most of the remaining minutes would be spent running to and from the hill.  He was right, so I scratched that immediately and we did the harder thing.

Back to the parking lot where we did the HIIT “warm-up”, we would start at one side of the lot, at the curb, and do 1 squat, bear crawl across the lot and do 1 merkin and then repeat going back and forth incrementing +1 each time #zimacount.  Some of us completed 7 rounds of this so do the math.

We quickly ran back and circled up for CoT.  I burned about 450 calories and we covered 1.5 miles, not too bad for 30 minutes!

CoT

20 in all showed up today including 4 FNG’s!  A great turnout!

The Deep is closed this Saturday for the Invergence.  Also, August 11th we are praying for Clover Schools (Contact Two Ferns for info).

We closed out in typical fashion and prayed for those in need.  One of our FNG’s M’s is having wrist surgery and another’s friend reached out with suicidal thoughts and needs help.

Until next time,

-FLUX-

 

 

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Neither Rain Nor Snow Nor Gloom Of Night…

IcedT ghost writing for Clavin.

13 Pax (2 from Gastonia) came out this morning in support of a Gastonia Pax who I personally work with.  With Gastonia being close by it only makes sense that every once and a while we should have a guest Q from that region to shake things up and find out how different regions operate.

Clavin opened with the pledge of allegiance and did a disclaimer and he started the COP right away with 5 Burpees/SSHx10/4 Burpees/Imperial Walkersx11/3 Burpees/Moroccan NightClubx12/2Burpees/LBC’sx10/1 Burpee

We then mosey’d on over to the side of the building where Clavin said his region was in a bit of a first F rut with every workout seeming to be the same so he had us do 5 Burpees/25 Big Boy’s/25 ‘merkins/25 Scorpion Dry Docks(both feet). Then we went to the Green Monster.

We continued the same bunch of exercises(however he Omaha’d 50 Scorpion CDD’s to just 25) on top of the hill, in the middle of the hill, on bottom of the hill, middle of the hill, top of the hill. With the Pax being smoked we mosey’d on over to the back parking lot where we did rugby sprints.  One Pax calls out an exercise and once he is satisfied we all run to first cone, run back, then sprint to far cone and walk back where another Pax calls a different exercise.  The Gastonia boys were introduced to the Kraken Burpee(thanks Royale) and other general F3 exercise’s.  We then mosey’d on back for COT.

Prayers for the mass shooting victims and all victims of violence.  We all must admit we live in a violent world but rejoice in the fact that there is strength in numbers and that is where F3 comes in. Traveling prayers and family prayers also. Thanks Clavin for coming on down to lead. Peace!

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Something to Crow About

14 PAX held down the fort while site Q iced T was DR doing a Spartan race.

Q-drenaline was strong with YHC, as the M is DR the next couple days, followed by a family vacation, so limited posting the next couple weeks.

Started off with a mosey (aka sprint) to the upper courtyard for COP
MNC x 20
2 burpees
LSS x 10
4 burpees
Windmills x 10
8 burpees
Peter Parkers x 10
16 burpees

Mosey back to front rock pile
Grab heavy Rock for three rounds of:
15 OHP, 15 Bent over rows, 15 goblet squats
After each round/crab walk to road closed sign, bear crawl/overhead carry w/ overhead hold while waiting for the six

Mosey down to jungle gym
2 pull ups, monkey bar around the loop, 2 pull ups, down

Mosey to lower courtyard for Dora 123
100 Derkins
200 Dips
300 Step ups (didnt quite get to 200)
Partner 1 did exercise while 2 ran down the hill and nured back up.

Two lines of Indian run back to COT
Got back early, so decided to get in as much Merkin around the world (1 merkin rotate, 2 merkins, rotate, etc) as we could, made it to about 10 before calling time.

COT
New Wednesday AO for Lake Wylie
Read your newsletter

Thanks iced T for the opportunity to lead and great push from the PAX.

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Q School Week 3

We’ve had some pleasant mornings this week and I was thankful that today was no different. I was grateful for temperatures in the upper 60’s and lower humidity.  It felt great out there.

Anyways, enough about the weather.  More importantly it was the final week of Q school and I was honored to take the lead for the “Advanced Q’ing” 201 class.

Royale and Wildthing took the previous 2 weeks and did an excellent job of explaining all the fundamentals and the “How”.  Royale took that a step further last week and really focused on preparing and having a back-up plan in case things went wrong.  I tried to answer the “Why” a bit more today along with some review of the important aspects of the previous weeks and tie it all up nice and tidy while delivering a message with the workout.  This is an “advanced”  way that we can push our boundaries even further, beyond the fitness aspect, and try to give the PAX some insight and motivation along with the workout.  Not unlike our “Beyond” workouts that we have occasionally.

Today started the same as any other workout, with a better than normal disclaimer and “Why” it is important.  F3 is an organization that isn’t liable and week after week we tend to gloss over this when we see the usual crowd.  In any case, it is part of what makes up the core of an F3 workout and needs to be addressed.

After the disclaimer we took a mosey around the track and did some toy soldiers and karaoke’s before circling up.

I reviewed with the PAX what “F3” stands for and went over the mission statement and 5 core principals,

Just so we’re clear, for anyone reading this, here is that info in print:

  • F3 – Fitness, Fellowship, and Faith.  The first 2 are pretty self explanatory, the 3rd isn’t tied to any specific religion, but a belief in something outside oneself.
  • F3 Mission statement – “Our mission is to plant, grow and serve small workout groups for men for the invigoration of male community leadership.”
  • 5 Core Principals
      • Are free of charge
      • Are open to all men
      • Are held outdoors, rain or shine, heat or cold
      • Are led by men who participate in the workout in a rotating fashion, with no training or certification necessary
      • End with a Circle of Trust

I don’t normally do lengthy CoP style warm-ups, but since the emphasis was on teaching today  we circled up.  I went over some more of the “Why” behind why cadence is important.

  • It creates rhythm
  • Promotes teamwork
  • Discourages budgeting your energy since the count is unknown

I called out some Merkins and Windmills and then called on a few of our newer PAX to call cadence for an exercise of their choice that I can no longer remember.  Ooops.

While I still had their attention I talked a little bit more about some Q responsibilities.

  • Q’ing should be taken seriously.  PAX want to complete the workout and feel invigorated and ready to take on their day, which leads my to my next point…
  • …Workouts are not built for the benefit of the Q, but for the PAX!
  • “If you can’t do it, don’t Q it!”.  Stick to your strengths. Your workout plan or “Weinke” should be an outline and not set in stone.  Adapt as needed and always have a backup plan.

Now back to that message and 1st routine.  The message was “How do we grow?”  F3 is really all about growth and finding those things that make us uncomfortable and sad and addressing them with the help and support of all the brothers of the morning gloom.  Everything we do is a continued attempt to push ourselves into the unknown, into discomfort.  We’re going to fail, that’s a part of life, but fortunately it’s also a requirement for growth.  This isn’t new news, we workout our muscles until failure, they heal and become strong. This is true for pretty much all aspects of life.  I shared a quote with the PAX from Calvin Coolidge that I liked;

“All growth depends upon activity.  There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means WORK”.

Now on to the 1st routine to get some WORK done.

Paula Abdul’s

10 cones were setup about 10 yards apart.  We would crawl 2 cones forward, do 5 merkins, and crawl bear backwards 1 cone and perform 10 squats.  We would continue in this fashion until hitting the 10th cone.  2 forward, 1 back, and always doing merkins when going forward and squats when going backwards.

Everyone made it to the end with a little extra push from the PAX that finished first.  “Picking up the Six” and/or assigning someone to do so is another great idea that was shared with the PAX today.

I shared some more insight and quotes with the PAX.  How being comfortable leads to boredom, self-absorption, and discontent.  F3 has a name for this of course, the “Sad Clown”.  We can combat this by not only be seeking out discomfort, but embracing it.  The secret to success lies in all the things we’re trying to avoid.  I then called on some experienced PAX to share some personal growth on things that used to make them uncomfortable, but they now can do without difficulty.

Back to WORK

Gasser’s (formally known as suicides)

The same 10 cones we just crawled through taking the scenic route we would now use for some gasser’s.  Pretty self-explanatory here, but for a little icing we would increment Burpees each time we got back to the start.  1 cone/1 Burpee, 2 cones/2 Burpees… and we ended at the 10th cone/10 Burpees. The 10th cone was about 100 yards down field.

While we all caught our breath, I took the opportunity to drive home the point of delivering the message with a workout.  We’re all unique and have specific strengths and weaknesses.  We can simply tap into our strengths and deliver them during the workout.  One man’s strength is another man’s weakness and we can utilize this group of people to deliver that message.  This is how we hold each other accountable.  This is how we grow.  This is F3.

I then told the PAX we would make our way back down the field where we started this journey the same way we came, Paula/Bearcrawls.  We made it to about the 8th cone or so before I called and it we mosey’d back to the flag and circled up for CoT and a few reminders for the future Q’s of our region.

  • Workouts should start and begin on-time
  • Backblasts are not only a responsibility of the Q, but a requirement!
  • Don’t be afraid to ask for help, we’re all in this together

We then finished up as we always do by counting off, name-a-rama, and announcements, praises, and prayers.

Homebrew, thanks again for the privilege to teach today.  It was an honor.

Until next time,

-FLUX-

 

 

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Q School 201 – The Weinke at Bermuda Triangle

I was the privileged Q that was able to lead week #2 of Q school following behind Wild Thing.  I got to the AO 10 minutes early to set up, guys were already pre-running… nobody ever seems to sleep in Lake Wylie!  By the 5am start we had 18 PAX with us.  Uber all the way from Tega Cay, one PAX, Crabby Cabbie – only on his second post to F3! I opened by sharing some of this message below.  Being the Q starts with being prepared.

Preparedness

There are four quadrants of preparedness: get right, live right, lead right and leave right “G3L” 

F3 is an Organization of leaders rather than an Organization with leaders. As such, every Member of F3 is asked and expected to be a leader both within F3 and in the other Groups in which he is a Member. This ethic arises from our Mission , which is to plant, serve and grow men’s small workout groups in order to invigorate male community leadership.

Within F3 a leader is called the Q, which we define as a leader who takes responsibility for the Outcome in the Groups of which he is a Member.

Some Outcomes are envisioned beforehand by the Q while others are thrust upon him by unexpected and sudden circumstance. For envisioned Outcomes, the Q can anticipate and get prepared for what will be expected of him to be Effective. But the Q cannot do that for unexpected Outcomes because they come upon him suddenly—for those Outcomes he must already be prepared to be Effective.

How do you prepare?

“The Weinke” – named after Panther QB, Chris Weinke (Carolina QB from 2001-2006) where he would have every play in a giant playbook on his arm.

Scout the AO – Check the Weather report – Check previous Backblasts for regular PAX in attendance

PREPARE! Doras, Ladders, partner work, stations, coupons

My 1st few Qs I wrote the COP exercises in permanent marker on my arm…

Write it down, keep it handy but try not to use it.

Create Evolutions!  Have more than you will use. 3-5 depending on complexity

Make it Tough, but a balance is needed for all level PAX.  Have an adaption plan in place.  Guys failing to work hard, get them back in line or adjust.

Adapt = tell a PAX what is OK to modify to.  Can’t sprint?  Jog ½ way and turn around.

Give the PAX a choice! Option #1 or #2

BE CONFIDENT – SPEAK LOUD – DON’T GIVE UP YOUR CONTROL – YOUR TIME TO LEAD!

 

WEINKE FOR BERMUDA TRIANGLE 7/19/2019 Q SCHOOL 201 (Full example)

Welcome each PAX

Disclaimer

Dynamic Warmup High Knees – Butt Kickers – Toy Soldiers – Soccer Legs out & In

COP

SSHs – IWs – CDDs – Merkins – LS Squats – Seal Jacks – Peter Parkers – MNCs – Broga

 

Evolution #1  BB Court

Partners modified LAZY DORA size does not matter

100 Swing Crunches – Partner Elbow Planks (in grass)

To BB Court

150 Merkins by 10s  – Partner Planks

200 Squats 25x – partner hold Al Gore

Alternative under picnic area

Dips and Derkins with Step Ups

 

Evolution #2

Speed Work

Field Sprints 4 cones plank when complete repeat 3x

Alternative

Bear Crawl to #2 or Jog to #3

 

Evolution #3 (Ran out of Time – Did not do, but had at the ready)

Bear Crawls and burpees between cones 5 burpees each cone

Alternative Lunges and Wide Arm Merkins or CDDs

 

Evolution #4 Ab Lab

Give all Pax another opportunity to count cadence

COT with Count, Namorama, Announcements, Prayers

I think the guys enjoyed the time together, maybe learned a little something to take to their next Q, and definitely worked hard!

A honor to lead,

Royale

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