The Millennial

25 men showed up for the awesome Fire Ant ruck Q lead by NASA. If your wanted to hear about that, well you’re in the wrong place… YHC had the bootcamp Q.

So I gave the full group the official disclaimer to all Then we split off. 8 of the men came with me.

The Thang

dynamic warmup with high knees butt kickers and toy soldiers.

Circle up for some number of reps of Imperial Walkers, Abe  Vagota, Merkins,  moroccan night clubs, and mountains climbers.

Mosey over to the board I brought,  affectionately called the “millennial”

heres how it goes… 100 reps each exercise, then 100 yard lap around the Parking lot.

1. Side straddle Hops (SC)

2. Merkins

3.LBCs

4.Squats

5. Mountain Climbers (SC)

6. Lunges (SC)

7. Plank Punches (SC)

8. Carolina Dry Docks

9. Flutter Kicks (SC)

10. “Mystery Exercise”  Everyone guessed burpees but I let Manifold pick for us.  He chose poorly….Monkey Humpers…God I hate those things!

Why the “Millennial” you ask?  So you take 10 exercises at 100 reps plus 1000 yards of running

you get 2000 – about the time millennials came into this world.

Finished up with Ab Labs for about 3-4 exercises called out by the PAX.

COT Namorama prayers and announcements.

An Honor to lead

-Royale

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Burpees, Bearcrawls, and Barf!

A great crowd this morning at The Abyss.  We had a bunch of runners and a bunch of bootcampers and 1 FNG.  Those that stayed for the bootcamp probably wish the would have joined the runners, I know I did.  This workout was hard and we didn’t complete it, but there is always next time…

We started with the typical mosey to get the blood flowing a bit, we circled around the parking lot and did some shuffle steps, NUR, and back to mosey before circling up for warm-a-rama around the basketball hoops.  I decided prior that the warm-up was going to set the precedence for the workout (hard) and warm-up the muscles we’d be using a lot (shoulders, core, arms).

Warm-a-Rama

  • 10 Windmills
  • Elbow plank (called on random PAX for 10 counts, at least 2 rounds)
  • Back to regular plank – 10 Merkins
  • 9 Diamond Merkins (Q-Shame, I didn’t have one more in me)
  • Recover with 25 SSH IC
  • Back to Plank – 10 Peter Parkers
  • 10 Parker Peters
  • 6″ hold – Called on Random Pax for 10 counts (at least 2 rounds)
  • 25 Moroccan Nightclubs IC

We then moseyed to the grass hill for the next exercise.

For the first routine we paired up and started at the bottom of the hill on the sidewalk.  PAX A was to do Burpees while PAX B went backwards up the hill (NUR) and forwards down the hill x4.  After 4, we switched and PAX B continued the Burpees while PAX A ran backwards up/forwards down x4.  We did this until we reached 120 Burpees… a few of the PAX finished, most were over a 100 when I called it for time (I had another routine I wanted to get to).  Our Friendly New Guy thought this was a great time to splash merlot, so he did, but he kept on trucking right after.  He definitely brought the GRIT!

Congratulations and welcome Doubtfire! No better way to start F3, it’s all uphill from here!

We then took the short mosey to the paved hill the leads up to the rear gate to the school.  For the 2nd routine I brought back Paula Abduls, I’ve never done them on a hill so I thought that would be a nice (painful) new twist.  Paula’s aren’t really an exercise, its just a movement, 2 forward, 1 back, which is a nice metaphor on life.  Life isn’t a consistent line straight up, we all have setbacks, we all get knocked down, but it is how we respond to those set backs that contribute to our success.  We all know that through failure we become better, this is a nice way to build an exercise around that idea.  I didn’t have the energy to hammer that point home during the workout so I thought I would take the opportunity to point that out here.  In any case, back to the routine…

6 Cones were placed up the hill about 25 paces (50ft. or so) apart. We would always move in this order, 2 (cones) forward, 1 back until we reached the 6th cone and then we would work our way back. If you ever plan do this keep in mind cones will be hit multiple times depending on where they are placed, so plan accordingly.  Each cone had an exercise on it:

  1. True Americans x10 (hand release merkin & a plank jack =1)
  2. Donkey Kicks x10
  3. Squats x25 (this was meant to be a break)
  4. Crab Jacks (think plank jack, but in crab position) x10
  5. Diamond Merkins x10
  6. Absolution x10 – I haven’t done these before, but they will be back.  They were awesome and it was also a bit humorous watching the PAX get the coordination down for these.  It’s an 8-count exercise that goes a little something like this:
    • Start in plank position and perform a single Groiner (cadence “1” jump feet forward, “2” jump feet back), then Mahktar N’ Diayes to Chillcut position (cadence “3” & “4” with drop to each elbow), then Chilly Jack (cadence “5” feet out, “6” feet together), and finally Mahktar N’ Diayes to plank starting position (cadence “7” and “ONE, TWO, etc.” with rise on each hand).

Oh and I almost forgot to mention… we always went forward 2 by way of the Bear Crawl and backwards 1 by way of the Crawl Bear.  Brutal.

None of us made it back down, but we did all make it to the top, so I called it with about 5 minutes to spare to head back to CoT.

With only about 2 minutes left we did a couple of Ab exercises, I called LBC’s x 25 IC and called on Bones who did another 20-25 Flutters IC until we hit 6:00AM.

Announcements, praises, prayers

Read your newsletter!

Prayers for school teachers and our children as they head back to school.  Prayers for injured PAX and those with nagging injuries.

See ya’ll Monday at the Quagmire 🙂

-Flux

 

 

 

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Fire Ants Conquer the Iron Ruck Challenge

I love the Fire Ant concept! Always a challenge for sure, pushes you to do more. When Spiderman put me on Q I knew what I wanted to do. It was not an original – I took a page from the Iron Pax challenge that has been going around lately. Week 2’s challenge was a beast. I had to work it into a ruck Q.

Great morning! 15 ruckers ready to roll……

We did not roll far. Super tough long ruck about 100 yards to one side of the Teeter parking lot where I wanted us to leave our sweat marks. Circled up for COP:

  • SSH x 20
  • WM x 20
  • IW x 10
  • HW x 10
  • MNC x 20

Then on to the main event. The Iron Ruck Challenge!

  • 5 sets of exercises, each done for 7 minutes AMRAP
  • Each exercise was using your ruck – note they were ALL weighted at least 35lbs, some had more
  • After 20 reps of an exercise, run about 25 yards and back
  • Continue, rinse and repeat exercise/run until 7 minutes are up
  • That completes one set
  • Rest for 1 minute
  • Move on to next set

Exercise sets were:
1. Thrusters
2. Curls
3. Flutters w Press (count on the press up)
4. Swings
5. Man Makers

Everything single count. Used a Tabata timer ap and speaker to keep things moving, audible time changes.

Folks complained about lack of music or a playlist of songs on my phone. I did not bring my boom box either. Hey, I am old – 2 years from 50. Got no time for tinker toys. It’s Pandora, Sirius XM, the radio, or nothing right now. Besides, when you have such epic mumblechatter like we had this morning, who needs music! Also – Cadre ain’t gonna play music while he is whuppin up on us. I’m trying to get my mind ready for that.

Not much talking from the Q. Too busy grunting, groaning, and being winded to talk between sets. Help make your kid’s minds as sharp as they can be is the only words I gave advice on. The kick-arse group of mean mother ruckers there this morning really ground through this. No mods. Good form. A lot of team encouragement and support. Grinded it out to the very end. Everyone ended up doing at least 80-100 of each exercise. Good livin!

Thanks Spiderman for the opportunity to lead. Excellent job by all the PAX there.

-NASA

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CSPAN Send off Convergence

141 Men came to show the Respectable**CSPAN** some Respect!!

He leaves The Fort and heads north or as Dredd refers to Yankee land. Not gone forever but just up the road 600 miles to start a new chapter in life and in F3 as he will launch F3Philly.

I am not the most eloquent with my back-blasts and I am usually to the point with posting the workout, add some words and being done, however since I can’t get Italian Job to write this up and Double D challenged the PAX to think of one word to represent CSAPN, I think that is the best way to document this convergence.

Thank you CSPAN for being all of these things and more to you r brothers in the PAX. As posted on Twitter and many of these were repeated multiple times:

brother
camaraderie
commitment
confidence
connected
consistent
courageous
dedicated
empathetic
example
genuine
handsome
HIM
honorable
humble
humility
impact
influence
influencer
insightful
inspiration
integrity
investor
legend
magnanimous
model
respect
selfless
servant
shepherd
solid
squaredaway
steadfast
steady
wise

The Workout looked like this:

WWL at the Q:

  • Mosey around the lot
  • Line up; karaoke, side shuffle, high knees, butt kickers, toy solders, lungewalk, power skips
  • COP
    • SSH, squat, merkin, moroccan night club, 10 Flying squirrels
Double D at the Q:
  • Run to practice field
  • Plank sequence
  • Split into 2 groups on each sideline
  • Sprint to center and back to sideline
  • Monkey humpers x25
  • Rinse + repeat with Merkins x 25
  • CDDs x25
  • Burpees x25
Longshanks at the Q:
  • Burpees
  • Lunges
  • Inch worm Merkins
  • Maktar Ndiayes
  • Plank Jacks
  • Squats.

Dredd at the Q:

  • Prayer for CSPAN
  • Merkin/Ab Lab series
  • Truth Nuggets and Leadership development with Major Payne, Wegmans, & Drop Thrill
  • Mosey to hill behind Bob Jones Stadium
  • Prayer for CSPAN heading to F3Philly…..”CSPAN Coming”
  • More Merkin/Ab lab series

COT:

141 Count, Name O’rama, 2 FNGs (Bikini & Manzel), Skinny Jeans pray out over CSPAN and his IMPACT on men and for Sky Q’s kingdom.

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Pain Stations and Partner Beatdown on tap at Bermuda Triangle

YHC is a big fan of getting up at 4:20 for the Q at the 5:00AM launch of Bermuda Triangle.  Fresh off 3 miles of Suicides courtesy of Which Hunt at Poopdeck, I was excited to get after it, hoping for a strong turnout.  Disclaimer was delivered and the we got to business.  Here is how it went down:

Warm-o-rama:

Started with a 400 meter (more or less) modified indian run where the lead runner passes back overhead a 10lb medicine ball.  Last man sprints to the front of the line and so on until we arrived back near the flag:

  • 20 SSH IC
  • 15 Imperial Walkers IC
  • 15 Weed pullers IC
  • 10 Merkins IC
  • 15 Mountain Climbers IC

Next on to Part 1 of the workout: a 3 station beat down with pain stations spread around the 400 meter track.

Station 1:

  • 10 Jump squats
  • 10 single count curls/arm (25lb dumbells)
  • 20 Nolan Ryan’s (10/side)
  • 25 LBCs (single count) => run to station 2

Station 2:

  • 10 Lunges per leg
  • 10 WWII Sit ups
  • 10 Tricep hammers/ arm (20lb dumbells)
  • 10 Diamond merkins => run to station 3

Station 3:

  • 25 SSH
  • 20 Flutters (per leg)
  • 15 Derkins
  • 15 CDDs

Rinse and repeat once

Unfortunately for the Pax, we still had 15 minutes left, so on the Part 2: 

Partners would split reps, with one running about 100 yards while the other got cracking:

  • 100 Lunges
  • 75 Ranger Merkins
  • 75 Bobby Hurley Squats
  • 75 Carolina Dry docks
  • 75 Crab Cakes
  • 75 Werkins
  • 75 Monkey Humpers
  • 100 LBCs
  • 40 Flying Squirrels

The leaders only got as far as the Monkey humpers.  Pax were told completion at home was optional.

In Closing

We circled up to name 31 year old FNG Matt Hickey , now forever to be known as “Love Bite”.  Praises and prayers for health and healing, comfort and celebration were brought forth.  YHC closed the COT with prayer.

As always, I’m grateful to be a part of F3 Nation and fort the opportunity to Q.

-Wolverine

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The Modified Murph

Michael Murphy was a Navy Seal from my neck of the woods on Long Island, New York who died in service to this great nation.  The Murph challenge has been gaining steam for the last couple of years as many people have taken to the challenge of doing a 1 mile run, 100 pull ups, 200 pushups, 300 squats and then running another mile with a 20-30 lb ruck sack on.  I did my first modified Murph this past memorial day(no ruck sack) and could not wait to do another, so I figured I would do a modified one and torture my F3 buddies along the way.

We did a quick mosey on over the back basketball courts with side shuffle’s and toy soldiers worked in.  

COP

10-SSH w/2 Donkey Kicks

10-Sungods fwd and reverse w/4 DK’s

10-Windmills w/6 DK’s

10-Cherry Pickers w/8 DK’s

10-Down Dog into Thigh Masters each leg w/10DK’s

The Thang

Since I figured everyone can run forward, I decided on having everyone nur for 2 laps around the track that surrounds the basketball courts then do 100 pull-ups, 200 archer ‘mericans and 300 one legged squats then nur for another 2 laps.  I instructed the Pax to do the modified Murph in 10 sets of 10 pull-ups, 20 archer ‘mericans and 30 one legged squats.  There wasn’t much mumble chatter for this workout and Austin Powers even threatened to get even with me the next time he was on Q.  Little does the late showing Mr. Powers understand, I enjoy a good challenge, the harder the better.  Dr. Evil is in the house!

Around set 6 I figured in the interest of time that we do regular push ups and squats to finish the Murph.  Unfortunately, there is no modification for pull ups.  My timer rang at 5:55 and everyone was in the middle nuring the last 2 laps so I had us mosey back to COT where we finished up the workout with 4 minutes of Mary.

Big Boy Sit Up’s until a runner ran to the far island and back.

Freddie Mercury’s until a runner ran to the far island and back.

Hello Dollie’s until a runner ran to the far island and back.

LBC’s until a runner ran to the far island and back.

Observations:  Better late than never AP.  Respectable Olaf and Haushka ran during the boot camp and were not part of the name-o-rama but respect to them for coming out in the gloom and training.

Prayers to the family of String Bean(Will Frederick) from the York Pax who has gone to be with Sky Q.  A tough loss at only 23.  Prayers for Stang’s mother in law who is having bypass surgery today.  Prayers always for Pax looking for work or dealing with the loss of a loved one.

Peace brothers.

 

 

 

 

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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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Cats, Kicks, and Crawls at Poopdeck

10 PAX posted in the gloom at Poopdeck with early comments that “at least it feels cooler today.” We obviously hadn’t started moving yet. After a quick – and disjointed due to late arrivals – disclaimer, off we moseyed in a counter-clockwise fashion around the parking lot. Cutting around to the backside of the building, leaping over the Dark-Helmet-eating curb, we threw in some side shuffles and toy soldiers before circling up behind Sherwin Williams for a quick-ish COP.

10 windmills

10 merkins

10 hillbilly imperial hillbilly squat walkers (these need a better name)

15 mountain climbers

10 thigh masters per leg, interspersed with downward dog

Quick scatter like cockroaches when the Crazy Cat Lady rounded the bend at 84mph and almost crashed into us. Crazy Cat Lady sighting = 5 burpees. Thanks for nothing.

With that done and adrenaline high after yet another near-death experience with our feline-loving “friend,” we moseyed to the upper shopping center lot for the main event.

The Thang

I don’t know distances between them, but there are two rows of parking spots that have light posts. We used these as our side lines. There are two rows of parking spots in between these rows. In both of the rows with the light posts, four cones were spread roughly ten yards apart (plus a light post), making for five “spots” on each line. It makes sense if you were there.

General rules: move as prescribed, do assigned exercise at each cone and last light post in row, do five plank circles (think dizzy bat without the bat and in a plank), then run like a drunk person to the other side of the parking lot where the other line of cones was. Pretty straightforward but not.

Round 1: broad jump to the cone, 5 Tony Hawk burpees, broad jump to the next cone, 5 Tony Hawk burpees, etc. (Total of 50 Tony Hawk burpees). Lots of spinning this round. Requests were made for motion sickness meds. Also, “there’s the humidity.”

Round 2: monkey scoots DaVinci cartwheels (description below), 20 monkey humpers at the cones (did we modify that down to 10? I can’t remember…)

Round 3: 2 double count crab cakes, flip over to 2 CDDs, flip over to crab cakes, CDDs, etc. Don’t worry about the cones. Just keep going. Ended with one million CDDs and two million crab cakes.

Ran out of time for rounds 4-7. Oh well.

Mosey back to COT with a slight mosey extension to kill an additional 30 seconds.

Announcements

  • F3 Dads camp is this weekend
  • CSPAN sendoff convergence the 18th
  • Read your newsletter

Praises and Prayers

  • Pray for F3 Dads camp, that everybody stays safe and we all still like each other at the end
  • PAX still looking for jobs
  • PAX out due to injury

Truth be told, I ran out of time to plan this. But, after running three days already this week, I wanted to place more emphasis on arms and less on running. I think the PAX appreciated it. Watching the drunk running was my highlight.

Thanks to Peg for the opportunity.

Jedi

 

“DaVinci Cartwheels” = Begin in a low squat. Reach across with both hands, placing your left hand next to your right foot and your right hand a bit further off. Push off with your feet, lift your hips over your shoulders into a mini tucked handstand, then (as gracefully as possible) put your feet back down past your right hand (left foot next to right hand), facing the same direction as you started. Rinse and repeat. Sometimes called a “monkey crawl” or “monkey scoot.” Can be done in both directions.

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Running in McDowell Park, watch out for Pumas!

Tuesday morning.  9 guys showed up.  We went for a run in McDowell park across the street from Palisades Elementary.  I told the guys to keep turning right.  So we hit the 4 roads that travel down into the park.

Ran back, a few went around the school, three of us went on the back paved trail loop behind the pond. Strava tells me we did 4.5 miles.

~ Fin

Royale

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Dice Dice Baby

After being on IR for a month, YHC was finally back in the game and got to (at last) Q at Bermuda Triangle. We had a couple of late comers, but the final count was 7 PAX.

Disclaimer made.

Jog around the track to the basketball court then circle up for COP.

SSH, MNC, Merkins, Windmills, Crab Cakes… probably forgetting some other stuff.

The Thang

Moseyed to the large traffic circle where PAX

·         Bear crawled around circle, then 7 worst-merkins-ever

·         Crab walked around the circle, then 20 crab cakes

·         Bear crawled around circle, then 7 worst-merkins-ever

Easy to write, hard to do. This traffic circle is no joke.

Die of Doom

I really need a better name for this one. But the night before the Q, Die of Doom was all I could come up with. PAX moseyed to the far side of the school where a whiteboard and novelty foam die had been set up. Reps for each of the 12 rounds were predetermined: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 then 60, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10. The die roll determined the exercise. Each round a PAX would roll the die for the group (resulting in cheers or groans), everyone would do the corresponding exercise for the assigned reps OYO, then run to the end of the parking lot and back. Rinse and repeat until all 12 rounds are complete.

Die values:

1 = LBCs

2 = SSH

3 = Dips

4 = Merkins

5 = Monkey Humpers

6 = Burpees

 

Lady Luck was definitely in a burpee mood that Friday as we rolled burpees on the ascending 50… then rolled burpees on the descending 50 again. At least she stayed away from burpees on the 60 rep rounds. The distribution of the exercises was surprisingly even – not the reps, but the variety in rolled numbers. We ended up having to cut things short in the 8th round as we were quickly approaching 5:45. YHC will have to budget more time for this in the future. Mosey back to COT.

 

Great to be back in the gloom getting sharpened by you men. Being on IR sucks, so don’t forget to reach out to PAX who are injured. The 2nd and 3rd F stuff shouldn’t stop just because you can’t post to a workout.

Stay classy,

Homebrew

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