Footloose with Cake in the Cockpit

20 PAX including YHC hit the dance floor at Footloose. The idea is to workout so as Q I tried to be sure we got a good one in that the PAX could feel but also modify as needed

Flying is the safest form of travel and it may have to do with pilots that are accountable for the many lives on board their planes and so they take it  serious. The do pre flight safety-checks before every flight and if they skip it or get lazy, it could be the difference between arriving or crashing.

So man marriages in rough places and they don’t get there overnight….it takes time and it can be a long flight. I challenged the PAX on their “safety-checks and if they are performing them. 1 mile run with 6 Pain Stations in play with each representing a safety-checks, Away we went!

We did a mini dynamic warm up on our way to first pain station. Here is the wienke. Below is the moleskin.

NMS:

If we perform safety-checks with our M we will have better odds of landing the plane safely and at your scheduled destination.

  • Family – not logistics but emotional well being, likes, dislikes and direction of family members
  • Finances – top reason for divorce and can be solved with communcation and plan
  • Friends – Take interest in each others friends as its part of who they are
  • Fun – Be intentional with fun adventures like when you were “courting” each other…..lol
  • Fears – These guide decisions and if we don’t discuss them with M, we are makeing bad choices
  • Feelings – If you or the M is not feeling happy or feeling discontent, this does not just go away….need to discuss it and resolve it

Discuss these topics and do it often and your marriage will be safe!!

Thanks for Q Beacon

Peace!

Cake Boss

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Tires, sledgehammers, dumbbells and ropes

I saw that Royale was on Q once again so I decided to step up and steal the Q from him, great opportunity to lead a group of 19 PAX that decided to get better. Jedi, Olaf and Cha-Ching went for a pre run unaware of the beat down that was planned staring at 5:15.

Quick disclaimer  and welcomed one FNG (Hawkeye)

We started the warm up with a 2 minute run around the parking lot and then circled up for the following:

20 Windmills

20 LBC’s

20 side straddle hops

10 worst merkin ever, non stop from werkin to merkin to derkin

We moseyed to the boat-trailer parking lot  for the real thing, quick explanation of the workout, we had 4 station/corner setup,  we split into groups 1 to 4 and one group went to each corner, from station  1 to 2 and 3 to 4 we run, from station 2 to 3 and 4 to 1 we bear crawled, exercises were listed as follow:

STATION 1

-> 15 big boy sit ups

-> 20 rosalitas

-> 30 Sledgehammer swings (15 each side)

-> 30 Heel Touches SC

-> 30 Dying Cockroach SC

STATION 2

-> 10 two hand triceps ext

-> 15 two hand biceps curls

-> 25 dumbbell swing

-> 30 Makhtar N’Diayes

-> 50 Carolina drydocks

STATION 3

-> 10  Tire flips

-> 15  Low slow squats IC

-> 20 lateral lunges  (10 each side)

-> 30 jump squats

-> 50 calf raises

STATION 4

-> 10 diamond merkins

-> 15 wide arm merkins

-> 20 regular merkins

-> 30 battle rope wave SC

-> 40 plank jacks

-> 50 Shoulder taps

Each group was able to complete 7 stations (one full round of all 4 station plus 3 stations depending on the order each group started), timing was of the essence, first full round was completed in about 17 minutes (26 minutes into the workout) but exhaustion sat in and second round took longer, everyone pushed themselves hard and that “extra 40%” effort was burned during the second round.

With 2 minutes to spare we sprint back to COT for announcements, prayers and praises.

Welcome back Brickhouse and FNG Hawkeye!!

Tinsel out…

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Worthy Crew @ Block Party

18 PAX showed up strong on a beautiful spring morning. After the disclaimer, we shuffled out for a brief mosey replete with a Longshanks-style warmup: Butt kickers to Carioca around the Springs corporate center parking lot.

COP in front of the Springs corporate center (more on location later)

SSH x30
Imperial Walkers x10
Hillbilly Walkers x10
Windmill x10

Plank up ATM Variation:

Shoulder Taps x15
Tempo Merkins x10
Single-count Merkins x10

Head over to 8ft(ish) wall for some Muscle Ups x10 (oyo)

Plank up ATM Variation:

Shoulder Taps x15
Hand release Merkins x5

Mosey to UC Synergetic upper parking lot

Brief Thang:

Line Drill w/ Partner (Dora-sides): After both partners complete the line drill running, switch to bear crawl until exercises are completed. Partners strive for 20 Burpees, 100 LBCs, 200 Squats collectively. Mercifully, few had to bear crawl more than two line segments.

No Block Party is truly complete if the police don’t make an appearance. One of Fort Mill’s finest made a round through our parking lot. It appears, in YHC’s zeal to move from Springs Global to UC Synergetic, a stealth mosey of 18 PAX ignited a fire in the hounds of the mill hills. Despite our best efforts a local resident was not pleased with their dogs barking and asked for an officer to investigate. Once we’d been deemed nonthreatening, we completed the modified Dora/Line Drill.

To honor the dogs:

Plank up
Honeymooner to Down Dog
Hold Down Dog
Raise right leg high – bend the knee (open the hip)
Swing right leg forward between hands (knee to nose) into one-legged plank
Tap right knee to right elbow x5
Tap right knee to left elbow x5
Return to Down Dog
Repeat with Left Leg

Mosey down Massey hill to lower UC parking lot

Wall sit (till PAX began grumbling)
Monkey Humpers x20
10-count
Monkey Humpers x20
10-count
Derkins w/ feet on wall x10
Monkey Humpers x20
Derkins w/ feet on wall x10
Rest facing wall – 10-count
Calf raises facing the wall x20

Jump the wall and mosey up the hill

Word of the month is “Worthy.” This word has been on my mind for quite some time. Matthew 22 and Luke 14 give a parable about a great banquet or wedding feast where the invited guest (those “worthy”) don’t show up or actively refuse to attend. As a Christian, Jesus’s death has made my unworthiness worthy. But do I respond when he calls? How can I live in a way that is worthy of the blessings I’ve received and the gifts God has bestowed upon me?

Mosey back to COT (not past the dogs)

Mary: Flutters x20, Seating forward bends (right leg, left leg, both)

One last thought on worthiness. In Jedi’s BackBlast from his Beyond Q (https://f3thefort.com/2018/03/12/identity-and-purpose-digging-deeper-and-going-beyond/), he mentions the idea of our motivation. Is my motivation for being worthy for my own benefit/vanity, or is it to glorify God. It may be that my current struggle with the concept stems from a selfish or myopic motivation. Can I be more worthy of God in order to glorify God rather than myself? This is my goal.

As an aside (if anyone has made it this far in the BackBlast reading), the actual act of writing his BackBlasts served to solidify the message I tried to deliver during our workout. I’ve been working out at F3 AOs for 6 months now, and I’m beginning to see what Old Bay, who EHed me to my first workout, mention about how much more than a workout F3 is.

Grateful for the opportunity to lead and appreciate of all the PAX that showed up to work and grow this morning!

 

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Laces: Super 21 on Maundy Thursday

Laces In:

Slight Mosey to student parking lot

Warm Up – COP
SSH x20
Imperial Walker x10
Hillbilly Walker x10
Windmill x10
Cherry Picker x10

Mosey to Band Practice lot

Super 21s (variation) – Inspired by JWOWW’s VQ at the Hive which used a deck of cards and got me thinking about 21. Then I found Super 21s listed in the F3 Exercises………I wondered why I hadn’t done these before in a workout. Turns out doing Super 21s makes it difficult to raise your arms later…..like days later.

1 merkin to 1 low slow squat
repeat to 10 reps of each
Flutters x21
11-13 reps of merkin/LSS
Hello Dollys x21
14-15 reps of merkin/LSS
Freddie Mercuries x21
16-17 reps of merkin/LSS
Lap around the Painted Lot
18-19 reps of merkin/LSS
Box Cutters x21
20-21 reps of merkin/LSS
Rosalitas x21
(Total of 231 merkins and squats)

Slight mosey to side of Ceramics Studio

Found some curb – stretch calves
Calf raises x21
Wall Sits (slight discussion of the brass technique of multiple tonguing: generated a good deal of mumble chatter)

PAX mentioned (sarcastically?) that if we just did 19 more merkins, we would reach 250. With the challenge laid down, PAX completed 19 merkins and 19 low slow squats. (Total of 250 merkins and squats: except for Trucker who complete 280 and added that to the Name-o-rama so YHC wouldn’t forget.)

Plank up – Because Abiding (see note below) requires flexibility:
Honeymooner to Down dog variations
Stretch out the legs
Leg raises in down dog
One leg plank
Knee taps to elbow x5
Knee taps to opposite elbow x5
Repeat with opposite leg
Pigeon Lunges
Butterfly stretches
Seated forward bends (i.e., touch your toes sitting down)

Mosey back to COT
American Hammers x21

The word for the month is abide. Abiding in God is active alignment of our will to the Lord’s. This is opposed to “the dude” passively abiding in the Big Lebowski. I gave a brief message about how we can abide in what is happening around us or we can strive to abide in God. The word is not a passive acceptance our circumstances, at least not in a scriptural sense.

We also discussed, while sitting against a wall, how I approach my (music) studio teaching at Winthrop. There’s practice dedicated to maintenance/growth at technical elements and the physical skills required to play the instrument (this is how triple tonguing came up), and then there’s practice learning assigned repertoire. Practicing only repertoire means the physical skills needed for new piece/work must be learned from scratch…..every time. Having a set routine for maintenance and growth means the fundamentals on the instrument are already in place, i.e., you’re in shape. At this point, learning repertoire is simply a matter of applying skills you already possess.

My short (5 months) time with F3 reminds me of this model. A routine to develop ourselves (physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually) so that when we encounter challenges (repertoire) it is only a matter of applying skills we either already posses or are honing. One of the hardest parts of each workout for YHC is leaving the comfort of the bed for the gloom. Yet we are all on this planet (its own form of gloom) called to seek God’s purpose for us and abide in that. I’m grateful to have shared this morning with PAX doing just that . . . . even if that means YHC can barley raise his arms to type a backblast.

Not sure what happened at Laces Out. . . . I’m assuming they ran and can currently lift their arms.

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No 4Play at Block Party

7 at Block Party on a beautiful 50+ degree morning, fortunately the rain came through before the work out so although the pavement was wet we stayed dry because Chickens don’t like laying on the wet pavements and neither do Chicken Hawks.  Welcome back to Training Wheels after several months off after a mountain bike accident and welcome back to Fire Marshall Bill after a minor surgery that included frozen peas in the post op recovery.

This morning we talked about abiding specifically as we apply it to our trails and failures.  How much do we look to and rely on God to show up during these times?  how much do we recognize God in our trials and what he is doing in and through us.

The Thang!

No 4play today.  COP was not… straight into the post.

Mosey to the high wall for 10 muscle ups, plank, 5 hand stands the hang on the wall for as long as possible or unit Q says mosey

Power Skip to the end of the parking lot to the next set of walls in the courtyard.  15 box jumps, 10 box jumps, 25 dips, 5 derkins, 5 box jumps.

Mosey to the next wall in the parking lot for wall sits then indian style bear crawl to the end of the line, wall sit, etc as everyone bear crawls until we get to the end of the wall, finish with some Australian mountain climbers

Mosey to the flag pole for the pledge of the allegiance at the memorials

slide over to the parking lot and do timed (i.e. not in cadence) … Squats, lunges, jump squats

Mosey to the stairs

  • Bear Crawl up and back down and merkins at the top and bottom
  • Crab walk up and back down and SSH at the top and bottom

Mosey to the hill run backwards up and 5 burps at the top 2x

Mosey to parking lot and do two sets of suicides

Mosey to covering for 3 min. of Mary

Run to COT

It was an honor to lead

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#218in18 Kick-off Convergence BackBlast

76 PAX (including 4 FNGs) met in the gloom at Harris Teeter this morning to kick the year off the right way.

Group 1 – Jedi

Start with 60 seconds of plank tutorial, then a fairly lame attempt to explain the exercise “routine” for the upper body station. The routine, to be done in increasing AMRAP style:
· Incline Merkins
· Low Country Crab Boil (One leg, one hand dips)
· 90° Turn clockwise
· Staggered/Uneven Break Dancer Merkins (Left hand on curb)
· Staggered/Uneven Carolina Dry Docks (Left hand on curb)
· 90° Turn clockwise
· Pseudo Planche Merkins
· Donkey Kicks
· 90° Turn clockwise
· Staggered/Uneven Break Dancer Merkins (Right hand on curb)
· Staggered/Uneven Carolina Dry Docks (Right hand on curb)
· 90° Turn to starting position

Start with 10 reps for each exercise, then add 2 reps each round after that (10, 12, 14, 16, …). Only the elite few made it past the round of 12.

Group 2 – Peabody

An absolute honor to lead a convergence and had so much fun working with all the guys. Here’s the fun of the cardio Q.

SPRINT Relays!!!  

3 team

60 Yard sprint

Team members are doing Seal Jacks, side straddle hops, or flutters while teammate runs.

Winning team selects penalty exercise for 2 losing teams. (Unknown is losing team has to do the penalty exercise too but only half the reps).

Rinse and repeat the sprint relay races once teams are mixed up.

Mary to follow:

  • 50 LBCs
  • 25 Flutters
  • 10 Freddie Mercury’s

Lists of fun to hear the encouragement of other Pax and see the competition bring out the most in guys.  Saw lots of guys really push hard to win for their team.

Group 3 – Jekyll

Motley Crue and 80’s hairband soundtrack

  • COP: SSH, IW, Squat
  • 5 Burpee OYO, 4 OYO, 3 OYO
  • Lt Dan: squat and jumping , 1:4 ration
    • 1 squat: 4 jumping lunge, 2 squat: 8 Jumping lunge…10 squat: 40 jumping lunge
  • 5 burpee OYO
  • Calf Raises 25 each: Straight, Toes Out, Toes In
  • Donkey Kicks

COT

Welcome FNGs Iron City, Humps, Hillary, and Juliet

Prayers by CakeBoss for leadership.

– Ginsu

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The G.R.I.N.C.H. Posts to Colosseum

18 pax showed up at Colosseum to steal Christmas back from the GRINCH.  Though not a regular at this AO, YHC jumped at the chance to pinch-hit for Pusher.  And being so close to Christmas, it’d almost be a sin to not have a Christmas theme.

Fresh out of Christmas workout ideas (see Alcatraz backblast from 2 weeks ago), YHC took to backblasts from other regions and found a Grinch theme workouted posted in F3GSO. T-Claps to GSO’s CHiPS and WoJo for the idea.

Disclamer was delivered as a few pax were coming in hot.  25 SSH allowed them time to catch up.

Warm-up

We ran a bit, then stopped for 5 burpee broadjumps and a few toy soilders.

Moseyed some more (in the general direction of 160), stopping at various times for warm-up exercises, including:

  • Squats
  • Peter Parkers
  • Seal Jacks
  • Moroccian Nightclubs
  • Windmills

Our run end in the Velux parking lot.  A few pax tried to claim we were at Golden Corral (sarcasm, perhaps?).  On the hill of the parking lot, 3 stations were set up:

  • Bottom of the hill was an orange cone, representing “Whoville”.
  • Mid-way up the hill was a green cone
  • At the top of the hill was a lantern with this sheet:

GRINCH

To summarize, pax were to do the exercises, run down the hill, stop halfway for 5 squats, run the rest of the way and do 5 LBCs, then run backwards up the hill, stopping halfway for 5 monkey humpers.  Once returning to the top, pax planked up for the 6 before starting the next round.

Exercises were cumulative, so pax had to repeat all previous exercises for each round.  A smattering of #mumblechatter ensued when pax learned 30 HR Merkins would follow 25 CDDs.

We wrapped up with about 12 minutes left, so we headed back, with Jekyll (who ran to the WO from home) Larry Bird’ing most of the way back.

We stopped at a parking lot on the edge of campus and effectively did a lap of alternating bear crawls and lunges, with a couple segments of crab walks.

Finally we ran to where we had done the initial burpee broad jumps, and finished out with the same.

Moleskin

Great job by the pax.  Seems like we put on more miles than a typical bootcamp, and with some hills, yet the 6 was never far behind.  Prayer requests at COT:

  • For Trucker’s neighbor
  • For Orange Crush
  • For Fratboy’s friend
  • For Stang

 

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Long Route to COT

17 PAX on this 43 deg morning

Warmup: 1 Burpee, SSH, 2 Burpees, Moroccan Night Clubs, 3 Burpees, Imperial Walkers, 4 Burpess, Hillbilly Walkers, 5 Burpees

Wave Merkins to 10, Wave Grave Diggers to 10 followed by a few sprints at 50%, 75%, and AYG

Jacob’s Ladders

Set 1: Carolina Dry Docks 1 to 7 with bear crawl down; Jump Lunges 7 to 1 with sprint back

Set 2: Jump Squats 1 to 7 with long jumps down; Mtn Climbers 7 to 1 with sprint back

Set 3: LBCs 1 to 7 with sprints down; Bomb Jacks 7 to 1 with sprint back

Mosey other parking lot.  Here the “we’re going the wrong way” chatter begins.  Partner 1: Merkins while Partner 2: scales half wall, touches building and back x5

Finish with wall sits, last man to front through all PAX, then BTW for 2 ten-counts

COT… We prayed for families, marriages, and comfort in sickness.

Always honored to Q.

Rocks Out

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Hey lets Play on the Hill

Warm up AROUND Car lane High Knees, Butt Kickers, Side Shuffles, Toy Soldiers
COP – Windmills, MNC’s, Mountain Climbers, SSH’s (51), maybe some others.

Mosey to the Hill
Stopped for 10 Derkins and 20 Dips on Guard rails

    • Btm – 10 burpees
    • Backward run 1/3 way – 20 Derkins
    • Backward Lunges 1/3 way -20 Decline Carolina Dry Docks
    • Run to top – 20 Dips
    • Jog down – Repeat

Round 2

      • Backward run 1/3 way – 20 Squats
      • Backward Lunges 1/3 way – 20 Monkey Humpers
      • Run to top – 20 bomb jacks
      • Jog down – Repeat

    Jog to bottom, backwards run to topMosey back to School
    Stopped for 10 Derkins and 20 Dips on Guard rails
    Stopped for Squats, Merkins
    Mosey to Pillars – Wall sits with 10 counts
    Abs – LBC’s, Freddy’s, Hello Dollies, Rosalita’s, Protractor

All in all it was a quite morning.  But I’m always humbled by the ability of these men.

Honored for the opportunity.

Cornhole
Out

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Twin Towers

 

 

Flat Tire

Longshanks

Geronimo

Frat Boy

Quack Attack

Uncle Same

Bonsai

Sugar Daddy

 

8 Pax decided to get out of bed this morning instead of fart sacking.  Flat Tire kicked us off with the disclaimer and the introduction of the Twin Tower beat down.  Longshanks also pointed out that he was the only Pax there shorter than 6ft.

 

With that said here is the Thang:

 

Mosey over to the parking lot beside the park for the warmup which someone forgot to tell Flat Tire you don’t start a warmup with merkins!

 

Merkins

Wind Mill

SSH

Wide merkins

Hill Billy Walkers

I believe there were even merkins mixed in

 

Then we moseyed back over to the park and moved to the first drill bit.  At each drill bit we would add an exercise until we completed all 5 drill bits

10 merkins

20 Big Boy Sit-ups

30 Jump Squats

40 Squats

50 SSH

 

 

Next we moved over to the middle of the field and divided up into two teams.  There we ran a relay race where each person would sprint to the track and perform 10 hand release merkins and run back.

YHC was accused of cheating however I can verify my chest touched the ground each time and my hands left ground during the merkin.  Therefore I believe I met all specifications of a hand release merkin.

 

After this Flat Tire handed the reins to YHC (Bonsai) for the remainder of the workout.

 

We moseyed up to the Ann Springs building where there was a covered cat walk.  YHC was trying to plan for the rain however it wasn’t doing so during the workout, but the wienkie was set and I didn’t detour.

 

Last year I came up with this workout and it seemed like the Pax enjoyed it so I thought I would bring the Christmas grab bag back out.

 

How it works – grab 12 – 15 Christmas bows and write an exercise and number on each.  Throw them in a gift bag and have Pax take turns pulling a bow from the bag.

As a group perform the exercise and another Pax pull another bow.  Once 2 exercises are complete run a lap and then repeat until all bows are gone or time is up.

 

Depending on how much time you have and the number of bows you can throw them back into the bag or keep them out.  We were able to go through all 12 exercises before COT.

 

Merkins

squats

burpees

lunges

calf raises

bear crawls

crab walks

BTW – 30 seconds

LBCs

6 inches – 30 seconds

CDC

Flutter

 

COT:

Sign up for Joe Davis

Christmas convergence

Prayers for families, wives and stress of the holidays

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