Tag: Ginsu

The real gloom at WEP

Leave a comment

What a great Saturday morning. I got out to the AO a little early cause I hadn’t been out to WEP in a very long time. The air was thick with fog, it was dark, it was downright scary  – the perfect type type of gloom that we love to work with.

Men  start showing up about eight minutes before launch, by the time we were ready to go we had a total of 19 PAX ready to get after it . Nomad  brought 3 FNG’s from his youth group and they were excited to figure out what was in store for them this morning.  I bet they felt differently after words.

Maximus were starting us off today so he gave the long disclaimer for new friends and off we went .

It was a nice quick jog and then circle up to do several exercises that I can’t recall individually – but Maximus pushed us to get nice and warmed up.

the Thang

Partner up

partner 1 pull ups AMRAP while partner 2 runs around the playground  perimeter.

Repeat three times

After that we will circle up in the playground dirt and did several of the exercises which included toe touches, LBCs, flutter kicks and chopsticks. Maybe an elbow plank in there as well.

Maximus then turned it over to Royale

Mosey into the grass circled up and picked new partners

Lazy Dora

No running, consists  of the following exercises that are rotated between the two partners until you get to the combined number .

100 merkins

10 each while other partner planks

200 Squats

25 each while other partner holds low squat

300  American hammers single count

30 each  while partner holds 6 inches

This evolution was terrible so I gave the guys a break after it was done and read from Discipline Equals Freedom, a section called “application of discipline ”  from Jocko Willink’s most recent book. I shared his video about the book above.  It’s one of my favorite short motivational videos on YouTube!

The next evolution involved a nice little hill for 11’s

Run up the top the hill- do 10 bomb jacks – run back down – one plank jack until you reverse the cycle down to one Bomb Jack and 10 plank jacks.

Next we moseyed halfway around the park on the running track until we came close to the front road and entrance to the park.

We formed two lines and partnered up with the person right across from you in line- sat down and did two minutes each of big boy sit ups many as you can.

finally spent the last two minutes doing as many as you can burpees – real crowd pleaser

COT with FNG naming, Gomer, Ghost Rider and Chop Block.

Announcements prayers and praises

It was an honor to lead,

Royale & Maximus

TClap |
2

Taking things for granted and getting your $hit together

Leave a comment

Conditions cold, clear, and 46 degrees

Every star in the sky was shining bright

Disclaimer

Warmup-O-Rama

Run to playground at Elementary School – partner up

Partner 1 run a lap around fence

Partner 2 = lap 1 AMRAP flying squirrel, lap 2 AMRAP LBC, lap 3 AMRAP squats

I then found a basketball…which turned out to be a perfect display of how bad we shoot…lots more flying squirrels

Mosey to pull-up bars 1-2-3-4-5

ABLAB = with all my favorites with partners running

Pullups 1-2-3

Mosey

Finished with a minute of flying squirrels, minute of LBC, and a minute of plank

COT/Prayer or Praise/BOM

NMM

Sermon was about taking life for granted. I talked about travels, family, work, and how my stuff has gotten complicated over the last few weeks. On Sunday night I did the Capital Ruck Tour in Atlanta with a blind Marine who did the entire ruck with us. A few times on our route our path got dark and I wanted to complain about my path getting dark and hard to see (+I forgot my headlamp), and I quickly realized how “silly” that sounds after hearing John’s testimony on Sunday night. Each day we should realize how good we have it rather than waiting for things to be taken away to make us understand…

Cheddar shared a great message in COT about getting your $hit together as men because tomorow is not guaranteed…

AYE!

CSPAN

TClap |
2

Coliseum- Mumble Chatter- Not on my watch

Leave a comment

After seeing twitter post about possible mumble chatter at my Q from some legendary yackers YHC decided to bring one of his old school simple but effective workouts to these guys. a nice 46 degrees to start the day had a few arriving in there sweatshirts, a few were mumbling about not knowing where their cold weather gear was. Little did they know the ones that showed up with it on would be wishing they hadn’t in a few.

Quick disclaimer and were off.

Mosey to basketball court, dynamic stretching toy soldiers, knees to chest.

Circle up SSHs, mtn. climbers, flutter kicks, Windmills, peter parkers, chopsticks.

Mosey to light poles. at each light pole perform 15 Carolina dry docks, 10 alternating jumping lunges, 5 burpees. 10 light poles. Flutter kicks until 6 arrives.

Return down the line except 15Air Squats, 10 merkins, 5 burpees. LBCs until 6 arrives.

Mosey to parking lot and pair up for DORA. 50 merkins, 100 squats, 150 LBCs while partner runs to wall and does 1 muscle up.

Back to COT with 25 yard bear crawl on the way.

COT.

Announcements- Fast 5, Family Ruck, Community Café 5k, The Fort Christmas Party.

Prayers- Passing of Cake Boss sister. PAX looking for work.

Praises.

 

TClap |
1

Q School at Abyss – 10-11-17

1 Comment

Welcome to Q school from Senator Tressel and Ginsu! 19 PAX posted to sharpen their leadership skills.

Senator Tressel started off with guidelines on safety:

  • Always start with a disclaimer as a reminder, especially to new guys, that this is a voluntary workout led by non-professional fitness leaders. F3, nor the Q for the day assume any reliability if you get sick or hurt.   Be aware of your physical limitations and modify the workout if you need to.
  • Workouts are rain or shine, but should be cancelled if the conditions are unsafe. Usually this will be due to lightning or ice, but can be for other reasons.  The Q should use good judgement and make the call to cancel if he feels the conditions are not safe.  It’s OK to cancel a workout.  There will be another one tomorrow, the next day, and the day after that.  BE SMART.    Spring’s Maltz Challenge at NAFO was sighted as an example of what not to do.  The Q should also determine what exercises are safe to do (i.e. – no partner carries up a wet hill)
  • Always start with a warm up. ‘Surprising’ the Pax with 30 burpees to get things start might be fun, but is ill-advised.    Today, we did the Tressel  standard warm up which includes lunge walks, knee and ankle pulls, toy soldiers, arm circles and pulls.  Jogging and stretching are always good to start off a workout.

After the warm up, we moseyed to the back of the school for COP. ST led off with 25 side straddle hops and 10 merkins and then invited some of the newer Pax to lead exercises and practice counting. Things we stressed today:

  • The proper way, official, F3 way to start exercises in cadence is:  THE NEXT EXERCISE IS……, STARTING POSITION…MOVE….IN CADENCE… . EXERCISE!  (this is commonly done incorrectly)
  • COUNT MORE SLOWLY. ST is of the opinion that guys, in general, count too fast.  Slower counting is more effective for conditioning and leads to better form.  Your count should match your body movement when counting.
  • PROJECT YOUR VOICE so everyone can hear.
  • If your AO has pull up bars use them as much as possible.  The Abyss does have pull up bars so we split into three groups and did pull ups, step ups, and one lap around the track (3 reps were planned, but we only had time for one).

After each group got through a round of pull ups, we all assumed the plank position in a a tight circle for today’s message. Working the monthly theme or other message into the workout is not required, but can be an effective addition to the workout.    This is something unique to the Fort region.

Senator Tressel normally does not do a message, but felt compelled after reading an article about the reasons that people commit acts like the recent mass shooting in Las Vegas.  The writer opined that loneliness, frustration, unhappiness, and lack of purpose can lead people to commit heinous crimes.  The mission of F3 addresses these issues.  ST shared that the greatest thing that F3 has done for him is make him a much happier,  ‘at peace’ man.

ST handed off to Ginsu for the 2nd half.

Mosey to the front parking lot.

For the second half of the workout, we focused on the following:

  • Simplicity – Keep the workouts simple! Creativity is encouraged, but not at the expense of a solid, well organized workout. Keeping your workout simple makes organization easy and is less confusing for the PAX. Repetition (e.g. DORA, Jacob’s Ladder, etc.) is a good way to keep workouts simple.
  • Simple does not mean EASY! Burpees, pull-ups, merkins, bear crawls, etc. are all SIMPLE exercise options. But they are not EASY. Challenge the PAX with good workouts, keep it simple, but not EASY.
  • If you can’t do it, don’t Q it! – Challenge your PAX, but don’t turn a 45 minute workout into a CSAUP event. Use good judgment and don’t ask your PAX to do something that you can’t do yourself.
  • Pick up the SIX! – F3 is not like other workout groups. Here, it is you vs you and we pick each other up. We also EH new PAX weekly that are often as out of shape as the rest of us were when we began. Pick them up, encourage them. Appoint one of the PAX to hang back with them, if necessary.
  • Write your BackBlasts! This is part of the responsibility of being a Q. The simpler your workout, the easier the BBs are to write. It takes 5-10 minutes to do this. Just get it done.

With all this talk, you would think we didn’t actually do any work…we did. We kept it simple.

  • 4 cones in the shape of a square 50 yds apart. Do the following exercises at each cone, run to the next:
    • 5 burpees
    • 10 merkins
    • 10 big boy sit ups
    • Vinnie’s choice – 10 Freddie Mercury’s (4 count)

COT 

  • Announcements
    • Fast 5 – November 4th
    • CAH – Saturday, October 14th
    • BBQ Competition in Waxhaw
    • October 21st – run in Tega Cay to benefit Community Cafe
  • Prayer Requests
    • Marriages
    • Vegas
    • ST’s sister
    • CakeBoss’s sister

Thanks for the invitation Lake Dub!

 

TClap |
3

Mary Go Round at the Colosseum

Leave a comment

Warm up:

20 x -SSH

20 x MNC

15 x Windmill

10 x Merkins

Plank

Honeymooner

Downward Dog

15 x Mountain Climber

15 x Squats

The Thang:

So after some short sprints and side shuffles through the parking lot, we partnered off.  Then a word on leadership.

Leadership doesnt have to happen alone!  Just like your partner during the workout a partner in life can help you be the leader you are meant to be.

And the Mary-go-round begins…..

Each round consists of doing one exercise followed by a lap around the parking lot.  Since one round of each set of exercises wasnt enough, we decided to rinse and repeat each round.  Between rounds as we waited for the six (usually me) we did wall sits for round 1 followed by planks for round 2.

Round 1:

10 x Freddy Mercury

10 x Rosalita

10 x Protractors

Round 2:

10 x Crab Humpers

10 x Carolina Dry Docks

10 x Flutters

Meet back at COT for announcements, prayers and praises.

Thanks for all the support PAX for my VQ!

A great time was had by all!

Announcements:

-Invergence Friday

-Convergence Saturday

Prayers of PAX:

-Family who lost father due to fire ants

-Missionary family resolving paperwork stateside to return to Asia.

 

 

TClap |
1

JEEVE’S GROWN MAN GAME OF THREE SQUARE

Leave a comment

Warm Up Mosey to the Warm-up circle, exercises in cadence

  • Side Straddle Hop (20, four count)
  • Imperial Walker (20, four count)
  • Low Slow Squat (20, four count)
  • Wind Mill (20, four count)
  • Hillbillie (20, four count)
  • Merkin (10, four count)
  • Peter Parker (20, four count)

Mosey around the parking lot

We counted off into three groups and split up to each off the three squares.

Square 1

  • Merkin – OYO 15
  • Hello Dolly – OYO 30
  • Carolina Dry Dock – OYO 25
  • Star Jack – OYO 20

Once each square was completed we went into 15 yards of frog jumps, then 15 yards of bear crawl and lunges back to the starting line.

After the first station, we did Moroccan Nightclub until the six was in.

After a 10 count, each group rotated to the next square

Square 2

  • Big Boy Sit-Ups – OYO 25
  • Shoulder Taps – OYO 40
  • Diamond Merkins – OYO 15
  • Squats – OYO 25

More frog jumps, bear crawls and lunges.

After the second station, we did overhead claps until the six was in

Discussed the October 3rd F theme of Control and its definition

Square 3

  • Flutter Kicks – OYO 50
  • American Hammer – OYO 50
  • Mountain Climber – OYO 50
  • Side Straddle Hop – OYO 50

More frog jumps, bear crawls and lunges.

After the third station, we did curb step-ups until the six was in

Discussed control and Jeremiah 29:11

Mosey over the a nice little hill and got into partners. We did 200 LBCs with rotating partners running the hill.

Mosey back to the squares. Due to one Pax being late he picked his favorite square and we all completed Square 2 together. More frog jumps, bear crawl and lunges.

Mosey back for COT

Discussed Control and Matthew 6:34

Jeeves’s full VQ is in the books! Glad to have that over!!!

TClap |
1

5 Year Anniversary Convergence BB

2 Comments

Saturday, September 30th 2017 was a special Convergence for the PAX of The Fort. On that day we celebrated 5 years of using these small workout groups to invigorate male leadership in Fort Mill. To honor the occasion, 88 PAX gathered at one of our favorite AOs (Nations Ford HS) to celebrate the day and the leaders that made it all happen.

We also celebrated 6 Friendly New Guys that joined us that morning. Welcome Tubs, Band Camp, Jughead, Atari, Hat Trick, and Saul.

It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, however. Here’s how we got better:

Warmup (led by Ginsu)

  • Mosey to the football field
  • 30 Side Straddle Hops
  • 10, 4-count windmills
  • 30 Moroccan night clubs
  • 10, 4-count merkins
  • 10, 4-count Peter Parkers
  • 10, 4-count Parker Peters
  • 10, 4-count LBCs
  • 20 low slow squats

Split into groups (Run, Regular Bootcamp, Black Diamond, Ruck, Moderate Bootcamp)

Run (led by Birdcage)

  • 800 meter indian run
  • 1000 meter 10k pace with 1 minute rest x2
  • 200 meter 1 mile race pace 200 meter cool down x4
  • 400 meter sprint corners recover straights
  • 1600 meter cool down
  • 5 miles total

Bootcamp (led by Royale)

  • Mosey over to the concrete football field
  • 10 merkins
  • Lunge walk 10 yards then do 3 burpees
  • Next ten yards bear crawl then 3 more burpees
  • Rise and repeat until we hit the other goal line
  • 10 count – going over the Five Core Principals of an F3 workout
  • Next phase we broke into 4 groups
  • At each corner of the end zones there were 5 exercises written on a board.  We would complete in your group and then run to the next corner. Everyone would hit al 4 corners.
    • Corner 1
      • 20 Merkins
      • 30 Lunges
      • 30 Dying Cockroaches
      • 30 Ski Abs
      • 3 Kraken Burpees
    • Corner 2
      • 20 Ranger Merkins
      • 30 Squats
      • 40 Freddy Mercurys
      • 40 Shoulder Taps
      • 10 burpees
    • Corner 3
      • 20 Durkins
      • 20 Jump Squats
      • 50 American Hammers
      • 30 Monkey Humpers
      • 10 Mountain Climber Burpees
    • Corner 4
      • 20 Wide Arm Merkins
      • 20 Sumo Squats
      • 20 V-Up Twists
      • 20 Bombjacks
      • 10 Squat Burpees
We talked about the word of the month – Leadership.  I shared we all have an opportunity to lead through F3, just like we all have the responsibility to lead in our homes.  I know I struggle with the balance of work and family time.  As the leader of our households we need to support our Ms and be the examples to our children.
  • Mosey over to the round about
  • Each man would take a lap around 1st doing Lt Dans
  • Finally we would bear crawl.
  • Mosey to the football field for the last 30 seconds and some LBCs

Black Diamond (led by Backdraft)

  • Mosey from warm up top pull up bars
  • Pull ups/ Burpee challenge – 9 pull ups 1 burpee., 8-2 , 7-3 until finished.
  • Mosey to stadium run the bleachers
  • 10 derkins
  • 10 dips
  • Mosey to track run 1/4 mile as fast as you can. U vs. U
  • Mosey to end zone. Count off by 2s. split into groups first person flips tire 10 times than run end zone to end zone while next person flips tire everyone else continuously do 10 merkins, 10 squats, 10 big boy sit ups. Keep going until all of group is finished.
  • 10 min 100 burpees. Do 10 burpees every minute on the minute. U vs. U
  • Mosey to 50 yard line 5 minute of Mary
  • Sideline sprints x 2 first set after you run 10 tuck jumps. 2nd set 5 hand release merkins

Ruck (led by Trucker)

2 20lb, 3 40lb, and 3 60lb sandbags were snagged from back of car as 8 PAX tucked down to the elementary school and dropped the sandbags next to the telephone poles. The 8 PAX carried the telephone pole around the parking lot. Left telephone pole where we found it and rucked backwards up the hill to the pull up bars. What’s a WO by Trucker without pull ups? YHC challenged the 8 PAX to do 2 sets of 5 pull ups with ruck on.

Rucked into stadium and lined up in 2 columns for sandbag throws from one end of football field to other and back. Then rucked up and down the football stand stairs from one end back. Rinse and repeat with sandbag throws and stadium stairs. Threw sandbags again down to other side of endzone and then formed 2 lines abs flipped tires from one end to other. Sandbag threw back to other endzone and climbed stadium stairs one more time. Finished with a 20 count flutters. Great work by seasoned and rookie ruckers.

Moderate (led by Short Sale)

  • MOSEY to Elementary School
  • Grab some Wall. Wall Sits while Pax at each end jumps out of line for 5 squats
  • Repeat with 5 Bombjacks.
  • Count off by 5’s and mosey to back of the parking lot
    • Number 1’s go to station #1
    • 2’s start at Station3, etc.
  • Stations: 3 minutes/station. Q calls stop & go
    • 1: 10 Merkins, 20 Calf raises
    • 2: 20 LBCs, 20 Monkey Humpers
    • 3: 10 SSHs, 20 Moroccan Night Clubs
    • 4: 10 Scorpion Dry Docks, 20 Squats
    • 5: 20 Imperial Walkers, 10 Apollo Ohnos
    • 6: 10 Broad Jumps, 20 Flutters
    • 7: 10 Bombjacks, 20 squat jabs
    • 8: 10 handclap merkins w/partner, 10 partner Derkins- Beloved by veteran Pax and FNGs alike
    • 9: 10 Jump Squats, 10 CDD’s
    • 10: 10 Dips, 5 jack Webbs
  • Mosey to Stop sign at bottom of hill for some Mary- Hello Dollies, Flutters, Protractor

MESSAGE ON LEADERSHIP- F3 gives us a great platform to grow our leadership skills and build confidence as a leader. The Pax will let you know if/when something has gone wrong but will also be there to lift you up. Also, the best leaders don’t focus on their ROLE, they focus on the GOAL. So, be the leader you were called to be.

Great group of men came to work. Veterans guided the FNGs and encouraged them at every step of the way. YHC kept reminding the group that it is UvsU out here. Some quality mumble chatter about what moderate means. Smiles all around when moved on from the stations.

Wrap Up

What we have at The Fort is special. It is a strong group of PAX led by men who live with intentionality. I am sure that each of us would agree that it has impacted our lives in ways that we will never be able to describe. At some point for each of us, we were gifted F3. We were headlocked by someone who recognized the impact that F3 had on them and how it could help us. With that in mind, let’s pay this gift forward. Be the leader you were called to be and use your influence to headlock the sad clowns around you, FNGs and Kotters, that are where you once were. Be a leader.

Ginsu

TClap |
16

Trucker Strong

1 Comment

Its been awhile since I had an opportunity to Q the Ranch, so dug into my bucket of go-byes to find something that I haven’t done or other Q’s haven’t done in a while. Sometimes it is just as fun to bypass pull-ups and just focus on merkins. So as the PAX arrived, mumble chatter revolved around the assumption of doing 1,000 pull-ups….ha!

COP consisted of 15 to 20 reps of: good mornings, windmills, Russian twists, Moroccan nightclubs, squats, LBCs, and Hip-leg thrusters. Mossy to Middle School drop off circle for 4 corners.

A cone was placed at each end of the circle and in the middle. Start at first cone and do 15 right leg scorpion merkins, run to second cone for 15 regular merkins, run to third cone for 15 left leg scorpion merkins, run to fourth cone for 15 wide arm merkins, run back to first cone. Rinse and repeat two more times.

Plank and LBCs until 6 is in.

Bear crawl up hill and do 10 squats, run down: rinse and repeat by dropping 2 squats each time

Mossy to benchs for:

15 dips/15 step ups per leg; 15/dips/15 squat sits; 15 merkins/15 LBCs; 15 derkins/15 Russian twists; 15 merkins/ 15 step ups; 15 irkins

Mossy to COT

Great work by all, 240 merkins during an AO is Trucker Strong!!

TClap |
1

Maiden Voyage on the Poopdeck

Leave a comment

We had 15 PAX gathered in the gloom for my VQ posting at Poopdeck, including 1 FNG EH’d by YHC.

Disclaimer was fully disclaimed, then we were off.

Warm-a-Rama

  • Short jog then circle up
  • Windmills
  • MNCs
  • Imperial Walkers
  • Low Slow Squats
  • Plank, Honeymooner, Downward Dog

The Thang

Moseyed over to the parking lot by the boat ramp for Ponzi Cones. So called because the reps form a pyramid, and they hopefully leave you spent. 4 cones set up around boat ramp parking lot (1/4 mile loop), 1 in each corner. PAX do the exercise for the round at each corner (4 sets), running/jogging between corners and plank till 6.

10 Burpees

20 LBCs

30 SSH

30 Plank Jacks

20 Freddy Mercuries

10 Merkins

For example, Round 1: run to 1st cone and do 10 burpees, run to 2nd cone and do 10 burpees, run to 3rd cone do 10 burpees, run to 4th cone do 10 burpees. Plank until 6 comes in. So you actually get 4X each exercise.

I shared some quick thoughts on a difficult period of leadership I had gone through recently. Looking back, it was a lot of prayer and my awesome family that got me through it. Sometimes I just need to be reminded that being a leader does not mean going it alone. Then we moseyed up to the wall for triple check.

Triple Check

PAX split into teams of 3. We had 15 so the math was perfect. Each round there are 3 exercises (1 for each PAX on the team). P1 and P2 hold their exercise until P3 returns from a lap. Everyone switches when P3 returns, cycling through until everyone does all three.

P1. Wall Sits

P2. Plank

P3. Run a lap around the parking lot

Meant to do 2 more rounds with variations on this, but we ran out of time. Circle up for COT.

COT

FNG was named Cherrio – originally from England.

Prayers for families, hurricane recovery, and work.

 

I had a great time planning out the workout and leading for the morning. Thanks to the 14 who came out for my maiden voyage as skipper of the Poopdeck. And a big thank you to Wild Thing for the opportunity to lead.

 

-Homebrew

TClap |
2

Colombia Mission Trip Sendoff @ The Ranch 9-7-17

1 Comment

On a cool morning in early September, the men of The Fort gathered together to support the group of 12 men that answered the call to serve those in need in Colombia.

Mosey to the soccer field

The Warm-up (VQ led by Skinny Jeans)

  • 20 4-count side straddle hops 
  • 15 4-count windmills
  • 10 4-count Merkens
  • 15 4-count mountain climbers
  • 20 low slow squats
  • 8 burpees OYO

Mosey to the football field

The Thang

Markers set up every 25 yards on the football field from endzone to endzone. PAX will start from one endzone and run from marker to marker and do the following exercises (below) at each. They will then run on the track back to the starting point.

  • 10 merkins, 2 burpees
  • back to start – LBCs for six
  • 10 Carolina DD, 2 burpees
  • back to start – flutter for six
  • 10 squats, 2 burpees
  • back to start – American Hammer for six
  • 10 bomb jacks, 2 burpees
  • back to start – freddy mercury for six
  • 10 dips, 2 burpees
  • back to start – heels to heaven for six
  • 10 lunges (5 per leg), 2 burpees
  • back to start -diamond LBCs for six
  • 2 burpees per marker

Mosey to COT

Today we focused on the 12 men that are leaving tomorrow to serve in Colombia. We had the privilege of hearing the reasons why each of them have been called to serve during todays workout and then pray over them at the close. We are all lucky to have these men as our brothers and will continue to pray for them as they make their way abroad.

As mentioned in COT, each of us were blessed with passion for certain causes and influence to impact them. Find your passion and your calling and answer that call, whatever it may be.

Ginsu

TClap |
10