WOW!!! 26 for the Ballroom.  25 BCers and 1 IR’d walker.

Workout – Blast from the Past.

 

As if last week’s focus on 70 TV themes wasn’t enough, YHC went in for a return to the early exercon with BLIMPS.

The workout –

Brief warm up of 20 SSH, 10 Windmills and a run around the school to the far side and the “wall.”   At said wall, the PAX executed a round of wall sits whilst the PAX from each end executed two burpess and we worked our way inward.  Followed by BTW.

Afterwards we ran to the field with one lap around the track and divided into four teams at the goal line.  For the remainder of our time here we did four rounds, maybe five, of BLIMPS.  Every 10 yards the pax moved themselves by running, bear crawling, broad jumping and duck walking after the BLIMP was finished the pax ran to the opposite end zone.  What are BLIMPS?

  • Burpees 5
  • Lunges 20
  • Imperial Walkers 15
  • Merkins 20
  • Plankjack 25
  • Squats 30

What was the moleskin?  There wasn’t one . . . YHC was so taken by the 26 pax at at AO he couldn’t think.  However, if there is one it should be this – men, savor every moment with you children if you have them.  Do not complain.  It is amazing and the time is so short when they are little that you cannot comprehend it until they are older.  SAVOR IT!!

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Merkin Mania

It was a chili morning and I was over at Cross Town Rival FMHS to lead a WO at Laces In. I got there a little early to loosen my old bones and fortunately for me I ran into Pusher. This was a good thing because whether he knows it or not I like to soak up what he has to say. Good Dude. My grand-dad always told me two things (one I can’t say here, Snake knows what the other is) and the other is – Always listen when a wiser man is speaking. Alright enough of that, we circled up and I gave a disclaimer and I added also to please look to your left or right and get a visual of who is here because we will be moseying around in the dark and I want to make sure we all know who is all here.

I did my traditional Moseying COP:
30 SSH IC with 20 Wide arm Merkins IC (Werkins)
Mosey
20 Seal jax IC with 20 Ranger Merkins IC (which are regular Merkins if u ask Jedi) and I agree
Mosey
15 Smurf jax IC with 10 Diamond Merkins IC

Thang 1: We then found some curb and did one of my new favs – Wheel of Merkins

Grab a piece of curb, and did a 5 incline merkins. Staying in the plank position, rotate 90 degrees clockwise until your body is parallel to the curb with right hand on the curb and left hand off it. Repeat 5 merkins Rotate 90 degrees more and perform the same number of decline merkins. Rotate 90 degrees more. Repeat with left hand on the curb and right hand off it.

Did this from 5 down to 1.

Thang 2: Knocked out a string of pearls 5 squats, 10 Bomb jax, 15 Mt Climbers and 20 Big Boys then back down. I tried to keep everything in cadence. I like that so we all can stay on track and together.

I took a minute to discuss picking up the six and the fine line of when to do it and when not to. What I mean by that is when do you let the six give that extra push on his own. Hope this makes sense.

Thang 3: 11’s with Mike Tysons and Squats.

Thang 4: Wheel of Merkins Again. This time not stopping between reps 5 through 4, Rep 3 on its own then 2 and 1 without stopping.

Rounded out the last few minutes with some ab work. I did 10 flutters in cadence and Stang said that is weak.

Announcements:

Diaper Drive, Coat Drive, Nessie

Prayers for Duck Dynasty’s pregnant sister, Rebel’s daughter getting married this weekend and our Children.

Thanks again for the opportunity to lead Cyclopes!

Two Ferns!

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4×4 Fun

I haven’t been to Colosseum in a long time. I’ve been doing the ruck WOs on Tuesdays so it was good to shake up the routine. It was also great to see so many cars rolling in. I haven’t seen several guys in a while due to being under a ruck so it was great to be out in the gloom with them again.

Go time arrived and disclaimer was attempted. Mosey around loops in front of school with high knees, butt-kickers, karaokes both ways. Circle up for normal warm-ups: SSHs, windmills, Peter Parkers, Parker Peters, and some Hillbilly Walkers.

Moseyed over to side lot. Today’s theme was simple, 4 exercises done 4 times. First off was Bear Crawl from top of parking line to curb, 4 Merkins, Crawl Bear back to top of parking line, 4 Donkey Kicks. Repeat 4 times.

Mosey over to lot behind school. 5-Worst Merkins (Wide, Normal, Diamond), 10-Big Boy Situps, 15-Plank Jacks, 20-Shoulder Taps then run to other side of lot. Repeat 4 times.

Mosey to loop in front of school. Starting at center of loop: 10-Burpees, 10-Mtn Climbers (4 ct), 10-Lunges (each leg), 10-Smurf Jacks, then run around loop to center spot of on other side. Repeat 4 times. Lots of good mumble-chatter during this segment, except for Tesh who almost lapped everyone.

Slow mosey over to front of middle school for some Wall Webbs. Start in People’s Chair, walk out on hands into Merkin, walk back up on hands into chair for overhead claps. Normal ratio of 1:4. I cut it short at 6:24 so we had time for some mary (and my legs were starting to burn). Back at cars to finish up with 10 tiny circles clockwise, 10 counter-clockwise, then 20 flutters. Time’s up. Hopefully the PAX got their money’s worth today.

Continued prayers for Stang’s family as they mourn the passing of his grandfather as well as all of the kids that Cornerstone is involved with in their treatment group.

Thanks to Jekyll for the opportunity!
-Mainframe

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13 at Footloose

Good group at Footloose this morning. Got some burpees in and a few good stretches. Ran over to Church of God and found the stairs where we spent a good amount of time looking them over and examining the exterior of their fellowship center a few times. Got a good mile or so in this morning, for a Moderate group.

Spoke for a minute about finding Joy in the Christmas season. I heard Gekko’s sermon and it hit me hard that if we don’t have Joy at Christmas, when we observe the birth of our Savior, then we need to “get right.” I am HAPPY to talk to anyone who is struggling with this. The vulnerablity of the PAX at COT and BOM is an important part of F3, and why we are here.

 

Assassin

 

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Parking lots, Stairs, 4 Corners & a Couple of Thoughts

19 Showed up to take the DRP.  After a quick disclaimer and Q check for FNGs, we were off on a slow mosey.

Warm-Up 

Slow mosey to upper portion of back parking lot of FBFM.

Windmill x 10

Moroccan Night Clubs x 15

Low Slow Squat x 10

Imp Walker x 10

SSH x 15

Cherry Pickers x 10

Merkins x 10

The Thang

Mosey down to lower part of parking lot

Overhead Claps x 10

Lunge x 10

Moroccan Night Clubs x 15

Squat x 10

Flutters x 10

Moroccan Night Clubs x 10

Overhead Claps x 25

Wall Sit , Arms High, Several 10 counts

Mosey across street, down stairs to lower lot.

4 corners with a stair climb and descent after each round

Round 1 x 10

Round 2 x 15

Round 3 x 20

Merkin

Flutter

CDD

American Hammers

Mosey to COT for Mary

Mary was Dealer’s Choice (5 minutes)

Windshield Wipers

Weezy Jeffersons

Freddy Mercurys

Flutters

Hello Dollys

NMM 

YHC asked everyone to consider whether they have a relationship with their Lord and Savior….or just their Savior. A lot of us (YHC included!!) forget the Lord part of the relationship. For Him to truly be your Lord, you must surrender all to Him and be willing to have your life disrupted for His purpose. Easier said than done. Based on the response from the PAX, this is a topic that should be discussed often.   Also, touching on the monthly theme of Presence, are we really present with our M and 2.0s?   Are we just “there” or do they really feel our “presence”?

Honored and humbled, as always, to lead such a great group of leaders.

SYITG

Beacon

 

 

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August 2018 – Impact Convergence

On the morning of Friday, August 3rd, 61 Men of High Impact joined Homebrew, Deacon, & Jiffy for some #Convergence work.

For this Round Robin of Pain, we separated the PAX into 3 groups and rotated to each station for 12 minutes.

Station 1 – Jiffy:

He had setup a row of 4 cones in the bank parking lot and ran the PAX through the following exercises.

  • 5 Burpees OYO
  • Straight suicides
  • Lunge walk, 10 squats at each cone
  • Bear crawl, 10 merkins at each cone
  • 15 American Hammers in cadence
  • Suicides with 3 Bomb Jacks at each cone
  • Broad jump to each cone, 5 lunges each leg
  • Crab walk, 5 diamond merkins at each cone
  • 15 LBC’s in cadence

Station 2 – Deacon:

Find a partner

One partner runs to Pizza Hut and back while the other does a series of exercises until the team does merkins (100x), Squats (200x), LBCs (300x).

  • Partner Drills (Round 1) – Partner Big Boy Sit Ups (15x for 2 rounds), Partners Push Ups (15x for 2 rounds), Partner Leg Lifts (15x for 2 rounds)
  • Partner Drills (Round 2 if time permits) – Partner Wheel Barrels to each side of the parking lot (2x for 2 rounds), Partner Ski Jumps (15x for 2 rounds)

Station 3 – Homebrew:

4 Corners and Burpee Roll

PAX were divided into four groups, with one group being sent to each corner. Complete all exercises listed at your corner then bear crawl to the center. At the center was a large foam die. One PAX would roll the die for the group to determine how may burpees everyone would do. Amazingly, only one 6 was rolled all morning – I’m lookin at you IceT. Once the burpees were completed, crab walk from the center to the next corner going clockwise. Rinse and repeat until all corners are done or time runs out.

  • Corner 1
    • 40 SSH
    • 40 Plank Jacks
    • 40 Mountain Climbers
    • 20 Crab Cakes
  • Corner 2
    • 15 Merkins
    • 30 CDD
    • 15 Wide Arm Merkins
    • 5 Kraken Burpees
  • Corner 3
    • 10 Donkey Kicks
    • 50 Calf Raises
    • 40 Monkey Humpers
    • 20 Lunges
  • Corner 4
    • 10 Big Boy Situps
    • 20 Hello Dollys
    • 30 Dying Cockroaches (double count)
    • 10 Boxcutters

There were prayer requests for family, school returning and those with health needs.

Cakeboss took us out in prayer.

Great job, Homebrew, Deacon, & Jiffy!

– Ginsu

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Barney Fife’s Ballroom VQ

The Message:

Since this was my VQ I was not overly confident and could feel the butterflies doing side straddle hops in my stomach. I had made a homemade deck of workout cards that I was looking forward to trying out. However, the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry and my plan quickly fell apart. I am ashamed to admit that I underestimated my fellow PAX. My plan was based on a group of what I assumed would be 5 – 10 that would eventually draw 5 cards each by the end of the workout at which time we would compare hands for a modified game of poker.

As I stood in the gloom waiting to give my first disclaimer I was pleasantly surprised to watch the steady stream of vehicles arrive, one after the other. By the time 5:15 rolled around there was a total of 26 of us and I was less nervous and could feel the support in the air. I quickly realized that I would have to modify my plan but I was happy to do it because no matter what happened I knew I was among good friends that would be quick to help if necessary.

After stumbling over a barely adequate disclaimer we started with a CoP warmup:

  • Windmills
  • Side straddle hops
  • Hillbilly walkers
  • Carolina dry docks

After the warm up it was time for a short mosey to the football field.

The THANG:

The PAX lined up on the goal line and planked while one person at a time sprinted to the 40 yard line, drew a card and brought it back and called their exercise out in cadence. After each PAX brought one card back for a random beat down that worked the legs, arms and abs we split up into 5 groups on the field. Each group used the 5 workout cards that they had drawn from the pile and moved to the next group of cards when they were done. After each group worked through all 5 sets of cards we lined up on the 40 yard line for more sprints:

  • 10 yard sprint, imperial walkers back
  • 20 yard sprint, power skip back
  • 30 yard sprint, hillbilly walkers back

We moseyed back to the parking lot for CoT where I explained to the group what an enormous impact my F3 brothers have had on my life since I began coming in April and we all welcomed FNG Flyby to the family.

Thanks to Short Sale for giving me the opportunity to Q, I thoroughly enjoyed it and promise to make it SUCK more next time. Thanks to all the PAX who came out and showed their support.

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What is a minute really?

What is a minute?  It’s not very long, and they go by SO fast!  Today we had 14 PAX and we learned how short/long a minute can be!

Started with a disclaimer, and then a mosey down to the parking area past the Empire Pizza strip.

Warmup:

  • 25 SSH’s in cadence
  • 10 Windmills in cadence
  • 25 Mor. Nite Club’s in cadence
  • 25 Overhead Hand Claps in cadence

And then we got right into it.  We were not going to do much running, in fact at this point we had done exactly half of the running we were going to take on this morning.  Instead I utilized a bit of technology (having some of the standard technological issues) to setup a solid 34 minute workout in minute increments.   We did two rounds, with a 2 minute break between rounds.  The list below are the exercises we did for a minute (30 second breaks in between).

Didn’t look like too much on paper, but we got our sweat on for sure, even without the running!

  • Side Straddle Hops
  • Merkins
  • LBC’s
  • Calf Raises
  • Squats
  • Dips
  • Plank
  • American Hammers
  • Wide Arm Merkins
  • Flutter Kicks (the final round of flutters was performed at COT).

It’s been a busy summer, but I enjoyed being able to take the opportunity to Q the workout today.

COT:  Prayers

  • Bob The Builder’s recovery
  • Popper’s recovery
  • Traveling mercies for those heading out of town over the upcoming holiday

Thanks for the opportunity…

Smithers…out

 

 

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Old School WEP.

As cars rolled in one after another I was greeted by faces of men I knew and a few of some I didn’t. It is always great to be back Qing at the home where The Fort took shape. It was even better sharing this Q with my friend Mainframe. We got started with Mainframe giving the tasteful disclaimer. We then took off and the rest went something like this.

normal warm up stuff, mosey over to short wall for 15 derkins, 15 dips, 20 step-ups, mosey down to small lot in front of springs, 15 donkey kicks then bear crawl to other side, 1 merkin, crawl bear back, 10 DKs then bear crawl to other side, 1 merkin, crawl bear back, and then 5 DKs then bear crawl to other side, 1 merkin, crawl bear back

Mosey up the hill to upper lot and divide up into 3 groups. 2 groups working, 1 group resting for 2 rounds (1&2, 2&3, 1&3, 1&2, 2&3, 1&3). First was 10 burpees per set so total of 40 burpees per PAX. Run down hill and back to top. Second was 16 jump lunges (64 total per PAX). Run down hill, then run backwards up hill. Third was 15 monkey humpers (60 total per PAX). Run down hill, then run backwards up hill. Times up and over to you.

Was glad that was over. Wasn’t sure my portion would hold up to what we just did.

Start with Merkins 10 normal, 10 diamond, 10 wide arm.

Move over to light pole.  20 shoulder presses, 20 flutter kicks, bear crawl to other light pole 15 CDDs 10 big boy sit ups. crab walk back to light pole 15 Moroccan night clubs 15 hello dolly’s in cadence, bear crawl back to light pole 15 shoulder pressed 10 grave diggers each side.

Circle up for Jack webs 1-5, 4-20

stay in circle for plank hold while we run around the clock hurdling the other PAX.

Mosey down hill to veteran memorial Pledge and moment of silence for Fallen Local Firefighter Richard Sheltra.

Mosey over to wall. take a seat while pax do broad jumps and both leg single jumps.

Mosey to short walls do 10 derkins, 10 box jumps and 10 dips on wall X2.

Mosey to yet another wall. BTW but while up in cadence 5 presses and 10 Peter Parkers.

Mosey back to COT.

announcements- Cannoli run, reading in Paradise, and Strawberry Festival.

Prayers- Sheltra family, Badger and Family

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Today + You = History

10 Pax posted to #THEBallroom for another chapter in Redwood Originals month.  This was YHC’s first Q (or even post) to the not-so-new site now at Pleasant Knoll Middle School.  Prior experience the past 18 months as Site Q at #BlockParty prevented earlier posting.  Great AO# — @Ginsu should give this one consideration for future Convergences.

Site Q request was for me to cover a bit of “history” of The Fort as part of the workout and message.  It’s a story that truly reflects God blessing men who step into the unknown with faith, which is what every FNG does the first time he posts.  The history of The Fort is really the history of every member of the pax, from 2012 all the way to April 2018 and beyond.

The Thang

Mosey around to back of school

COP — usual IC warm up routine, particularly important on a 30 degree morning in mid-April!

Mosey across bridge to breezeway leading to athletic fields

It’s not too impressive in a BB to talk about the fact we did “a whole lot of sitting around” but that’s what transpired.  Of course it was in the People’s Chair while each pax recounted the story of his initial post, which AO, who EHd him, who Qd, etc.  Each rendition was interspersed with some form of merkins, CDDs, balls-to-the-wall, monkey humpers, squats, bombjacks and/or burpees.  We covered stories of 9 pax and then moseyed to the football field.

Circle up for some Mary — a rundown of the familiar but effective Hello Dollies, Freddie Mercurys, Flutters, Superman and Penguin (including reference to Burgess Meredith for the #Respectables among the pax)

Line up for suicides across the football field

Plank sequence

Pause to recount YHC’s EH story and honor OBT for that gift.

Another suicide sequence

Another plank sequence, topped off (for Longshanks) with Mahktar N’Dyae

Run home

COT

Thanks to Short Sale for the invitation to Q at The Ballroom.  It was a great morning with a lively and dedicated collection of the pax.  Truly an honor to lead on this day.

Short Sale posted to S2S last week when I had the privilege of leading the discussion that day, and he heard me talk about the launch of The Fort as being one of many instances where God showed up in amazing ways during a period of life transition to bless those who move forward in faith.   Too often I try to seize CONTROL when facing transition periods either out of PRIDE or in response to ANXIETY.  Reflecting in prep for S2S on my experience amid life’s transition points proved to me that God has repeatedly come through every time (!) in ways I could never have imagined and on a scale I would never have asked for.  And yet, I tremble each time I see a transition on the horizon.  Oh ye of little faith!

Upon reflection, the story about the launch of The Fort is a powerful one for me and the pax who experienced those lean early days, but for the rest among us, it is just names, places and dates.  Kind of like my history classes back in high school.  I had a hard time connecting to them because they were foreign to my experience…I had no immediate way to connect so history classes became all about pure memorization for me.

But, in the recounting of the history of The Fort at The Ballroom, we heard it from the mouths of those who lived it.  We heard about pax who’ve moved onto other pastures (Howitzer, Bing, Red Eye) who had EHd one of those present, leaving behind a legacy of their contribution to The Fort’s history.  We heard about workouts where present-day pax swore to God they’d never return if he let them survive that first day (Anchorman).  We heard about pax who did not return for YEARS, waiting until scores of pounds were shed and cigarettes were sworn off (Culture Club), only to be remembered upon later return by CSPAN who disallowed a name change.  We heard about AOs that don’t even exist anymore (the sandbag workout — can’t recall the name).  This was history that each man connected to, because it was HIS STORY.

And that is true for each day.  God willing, we are given a new day each morning to make a choice, to lay another piece of our history in place.  A piece of The Fort’s history.  A piece of the history of God’s people.  No, I don’t feel worthy to receive this daily gift.  But God sees that I am worthy of it.  And he sees you’re worthy of it, too.  So, go ahead, take the DRP and go make some history.

 

 

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