No Saggy Middles @ The Ranch

PAX: Wegmans, Cable Guy, Senator Tressel, Decibel, Jiffy, Geronimo, Funhouse, Cake Boss

16 PAX showed up to The Ranch on a relatively chilly morning. 7 joined Dark Helmet for a BEYOND workout… the remaining fools joined me (Sasquatch) for a lesson on core… and it was hard. -Hardcore- It is in my nature to look around and see how people move, and oftentimes, it’s sloppy- too many SAGGY MIDDLES or rears to the sky. Focus was to perform several of the exercises we do day-to-day at bootcamps (i.e. peter parker, plank jacks, etc *see below) and to do them with GOOD FORM. Maintain a flat lower back that is aligned with your upper spine and buttocks. Think about pulling your navel up in towards your spine. Any plank-type exercises (including Merkins) should be performed with your hands aligned directly below your shoulders for optimal stability… any other position will compromise the shoulder joints and take away from CORE strengthening. No SAGGY MIDDLES!

The Thang

Front Plank during long disclaimer

Dynamic Warm-up on the Field
Knees to chest / High knees
Heel to butt / Butt kickers
side shuffle / side shuffle other way
Inch worm / bear crawl

Mosey to Playground Parking Lot

Circle-up
Imperial Squats
Static Lunge with Moroccan Night Club
upward dog/downward dog
Mountain climbers
Peter Parker
Parker Peter
Elbow Plank Jacks

Mosey to Playground and Partner-up
Sit-ups holding feet x20 and switch
Toes to bar x10 (Partner 1) and supermans x10 (Partner 2) then switch
REPEAT x3

Mosey to front of school
Bench Jumps x10 (Partner 1) and Curb Burpees x5 (Partner 2) switch
Wheelbarrow ~30 yards and then switch
REPEAT x3

Mosey to COT and MARY

Announcement/Prayers
Honey Badger officially opens Monday at 5AM NAFO.
RPG on Fridays at 5AM Food Lion Parking Lot for some Broga and Run is a thing.
Prayers for family and friends suffering with cancer.
Attend CAH workouts, especially since new kids are showing up.
Still need volunteers for Strawberry festival booth.
Witbeck Golf Classic begins tomorrow but you have until April 22nd to sign up to join the league and play round 1. Message Wegmans on the Twitter machine for more information.

Thank you, Jiffy, for the opportunity to Q at the Ranch. Thank you, Dark Helmet, for not stealing my thunder and having everyone go BEYOND. Good lesson from him. Check out his Backblast when you get a chance.

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Final Prespect Q at the Ranch

 Name-O-Rama.  11127355-7E37-4F2A-9B9E-F19861396FC7

YHC thanks Jiffy for the opportunity of one last Q as a Prespect and for the PAX who attended.

Not many posts to the Ranch from my end, but I had been eyeing up the facilities for weeks during 2.0’s soccer practice. Made good use of the the soccer fields and all the trees and light poles.

Arrived early,  fortunately enough lighting in the gloom for the planned weinke, set up 3 cones in front of one soccer goal approx. 10, 15 and 20 yards away and placed the 43 lb sandbag near the opposite goal.

Arrivals, no FNG’s, and a really ‘succint’ disclaimer. I believe we may have had one late arrival.

Moseyed around the parking for 2 laps with high knees, butt kickers, toys soldiers and shuffling. Jogged to far end of the further soccer field for SSH, merkins, flutters, GoofBalls, MNC’s. The real fun began with stage 1:

Stage One. Making use of 27 crepe myrtles lined up, we did bear crawls for one tree with 5 merkins, lunge walk one tree with 5 squats and continuing with adding 1 more tree until the end. Wow, this was tougher on the thighs than expected.  The RETURN lap was jog 3 trees, bear crawl 1, sumo walk 1 until the end. The first lap started near the trees, but by the second lap we were spread out across the soccer field.

Stage Two, Act One. Soccer field. Partner up, one PAX ran the length of the field and kicked a soccer ball into the goal from the closer 1st cone, the other PAX carried the sand bag overhead until handing off to the kicker for the return run. A missed shot meant running a lot further to track it down and replace it at the first cone for the next kicker/group.  MEANWHILE, the other PAX cycled through 5 LBC’s, 5 Flutters, 5 American Hammers. This continued until all 5 partner duo’s had gone.

Act Two and Three had the kickers move back 5 yards, while PAX cycled through…Act Two: 5 bombjacks, 5 Jump Squats, 5 Calf Raises. Act Three, 5 yards further back cycling through 5 Donkey Kicks, 5 left side crunches, 5 right side crunches.

YHC along with about 5 other PAX missed shots on goal.

We finished with 2 laps around the fields using the light poles. 3 burpees at every pole which ended up amounting to 45 burpees. For good measure, we finished 4 more burpees in COT to reach the magical “49” for the workout.

The brief message of the workout was to “Be Inspired, Become Inspiring.” Observe our PAX and follow their lead. We have PAX with different personalities and different involvements to inspire us to become better from the fitness side, to the community/philanthropy efforts, to the betterment of ourselves from the faith and spirituality side.

Prayers to sick or injured family members and friends. ChickenHawk noted to make use of the Easter holiday season to seek out, learn and improve yourself in your faith. Use the extra time to connect with family members.  G-Fit and CAH every Saturday needs PAX involvement, ESPECIALLY during Easter when regular PAX may not be able to post. HELP IF YOU CAN!

3 days to 50 for me, but my first RESPECT post will probably be with the Lehigh Valley PAX back in PA. Looking forward to first Respect post back in the Fort.

Aye! Bolt

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iFLIJfBSEK8BLAEPZWWh-VTD8sYuv0-H/view?usp=sharing

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BAM!

Conditions were near perfect this morning in The Fort. 65 degrees, clear skies, nice breeze meant that we have optimal weather for bettering ourselves. We started off with a quick disclaimer, set up the BAM in the workout (Burpees, American Hammers(IC), and Merkins (SC). We started with a 5-10-15 and each time BAM was called incremented by 1…6-12-18 and so on.

We started off and immediately Chicken Hawk calls ‘BAM’. I think he must have been testing the system out, it worked 10 steps into the mosey, we did the 5-10-15 and proceeded with the mosey to the bus loop.

Did some dynamic stretching, toy soldiers, butt kickers, high knees and then took another mosey past the playground to the back parking lot.

Circled up for PAX led warmup, SSH, LBCs, Windmills, CDDs, Peter Parkers, and Parker Peters. Now that we were all warmed up and a few more BAMs called out, we did some leg work.

Single leg hops – R for 75 yards
Single leg hops – L for 75 yards
Ski jumps at an angle for 75 yards
BAM!! 7-14-21
Lunge
Backward lunge

Mosied to back wall.

BAM! 8-16-24
Aussie Mountain Climbers – 15 degree, 10 count, 45 degree, 10 count, BTTW 10 count, 45 degree 10 count, 15 degree 10 count.
BAM! – 9-18-27
WALL Sits – 10 count each PAX
Wall Tar Jai – 10 count each PAX

That was a winner!

Mosied to SMS loop.

Last BAM! was spread out over the loop performing one of the exercises at each corner.

Proceeded to COT with some SSH in the middle for a rest.

At COT had time for 1 minute of Freddies and we were done!!

Thanks to all for pushing each other and to Jiffy for having YHC as Q.

Great work today.

COT.

Prayers to those families affected by tragedy in Florida, but also those who are dealing with the lead up to those flash points across the country.

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Jacked-up Egyptian-Indian alligator walks?

Q, Nomad 1st 30 (Lower body) and Ginsu 2nd 30 (Upper Body)
Beautiful morning at The Fort. Conversations went from Dark Helmet’s Ruck to Dora’s backpack, to Diego’s survival pack, to WonderPets. At this point, YHC realized it was time to get started.
String of pearls Warmup around WEP
  • SSH 19
  • Windmill 11
  • LBC 15
  • Morracsan nightclub 25
  • Mountain climber 20
Stretch
  • leg/calf R/L, L/R, lean L/R, R/L, (Jiffy called hamstring stretches)

 

Airborne and Rebel mosey’d by on the path wearing lights and reflective gear
Jacked up 11’s
    (on the statue hill)
  • Bombjacks at the bottom
  • Plankjacks at the top
  • (LBCs til 6)
This was awful. Dark Helmet even had to take his Ruck off. But PAX were encouraging to each other.
Mosey to center of field
Walk-Like-An-Egyptian
  • (Single file line)  Lunge and hold 1 leg while PAX at back jailbrakes to front, then Switch legs (rotate core for extra credit). Walk distance from outer path to playground.
HappyJacks
  • (Circle up)  – 4x (5 SSH + 2 jump lunge)
— Switch to Ginsu —
(Ginsu claimed to have tweaked his back. Glad he didn’t have a healthy back – he brought the pain)
– 5 burpees OYO
– Egyption-Indian Alligator Walk (by with Alligator Crawl, switching L/R which each PAX jailbreak)
– 5 burpees OYO
– Egyption-Indian Alligator Walk
– 20 4-count Freddy Mercurys
– 5 burpees OYO
Mosey to playground
– 20 4-count dips on the wall
– Take a lap around playground
– 20 4-count dips on the wall
– Take a lap around playground
– 10 4-count derkins on the wall
– Take a lap around playground
– 10 4-count derkins on the wall
– Take a lap around playground
Partner up
– Partner 1 – 10 pull ups
– Partner 2 – 20 LBCs
– flip flop
– rinse and repeat x3
Mosey to COT for Mary
– 20 4-count heals to heaven
– 10 4-count hand release merkins
– 20 4-count LBCs
– 10 4-count hand release merkins
– Captain Thor 5×20
Ginsu choose for Mary to be on asphalt vs. grass, which reminded YHC not to get comfortable in my comfortable grassy life.
COT
Announcements
– Reading help at Bethlehem Church
– Yeti
– Pancake breakfast
– Convergence on Tuesday
Prayers & Praise
– FM High Band Leader, John Pruitt (recovering stroke)
– Dark Helmet’s 2.0 Baptism
– Corruption family member recovering from foot surgery
– Jiffy, wife recovering from surgery
– Our children and youth, and those that INFLUENCE them
Thanks Bonzai for the chance
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Running the Lights with Classic Rock

I haven’t Q’d at the Ranch in quite a while so I thought it would be fun to use the field and light poles in a circuit training of sorts.  It is always a decent change in pace when I can carry around a phone and speaker to add a little life to the party.

Started with a mosey to the back of the school and began with a warm-up of SSH, Moroccan Night Clubs, Imperial Walkers, Hillbilly Walkers and Windmills. We then mosey back to the front light poles along the field.  There are 8 poles so I planned on 2 exercises per pole 50 seconds on and 10 second rest with 10 seconds after them to travel to the next pole.  I hoped to make 2 circuits of the field.  It all hit the fan right off the bat when I actually started on a light pole from the parking lot not the field.  Thankfully in my incredibly observant nature I realized this 9 light poles later and since I’m easily adaptable I was able to handle this wrinkle of an extra pole like the champion I am… The action went like this

-Merkins

-Squats

MOVE

LBS’c

Donkey Kicks

MOVE

-Dips

-Mountain Climbers

MOVE

-Side Straddle Hops

-Nolan Ryan

MOVE

-Box Cutter

-Plank Jack

MOVE

-Lunges

-Peter Parker Merkins

MOVE

-Dry Docks

-Bobby Hurley

MOVE

-American Hammers

-High Knees

Confusion about how an extra pole appeared, Then just MOVE anyway

 

After 2 cycles we mosey to the lot for COT, announcements and prayer.  Always and excellent AO and appreciate the opportunity.

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The Q, a Weinke, and an Audible

Dang, it was cold.  The PAX assembled, 2 were off running and the rest began the mosey.  We mosey’d to the access road to Springfield Middle School and completed some warm-ups consisting dynamic stretching, karaoke, accelerating sprints, COP.  We then assembled at the bottom of the drop off for an ab lab.  The plan was for 30 reps LBCs then run the loop, 25 reps each LBCs & American Hammers then run the loop (opted for flagpole as the loop was bigger than remembered – audible 1), 20 reps each LBCs, AH, Flutter Kicks then run the loop (opted this time for the tree line at the top of the adjacent grass hill).  As the ab exercises were all 4 count, we did enough.  There’s still enough time before beach season, but time was flying on this morning’s Q.  Audible 2 – found a wall for wall sits, balls to the wall, and sprints back to the top of the hill.  Off-weinke, the rest of the morning was impromptQ.  Mosey’d to the back of the school and split into two groups of 4 PAX.  Group 1 did partner wheel barrels up and down a flight of stairs, while group 2 did step ups and box jumps.  Mosey’d to back parking lot and completed burpee suicide.  A little stretching to regain composure and then mosey’d to a bus loop behind the elementary school for Dora 1-2-3 with 50 Merkins, 100 Carolina Dry Docks, and 150 Front/Back Alternating Lunges.  As time was dwindling, the decision was made (Audible 3) to abort Dora and begin the mosey back, culminating in dips and a jail break run back to COT to meet the runners.

Count-o-Rama, Name-o-Rama, Name the FNG (Glowstick), announcements, prayers/praises.  Pray for safe travels and patience with the kids still at home from school for the holiday break.

Moleskin: Today was a great workout.  Sometimes life (or a workout) doesn’t go as expected.  Being too rigid and inflexible may cause you to miss out on something great (albeit, unexpected).

Thanks for the opportunity to lead!

 

Continue reading

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2017 Clave Boss 5k/10k & Christmas Convergence

Here we are as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more——Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas!!

The largest turn out by far for the Clave Boss 5k/10k was a success. We started on time and as far as I know nobody died. Thank you to all the PAX that ran and had a fun time and fellowship.

For the 5k, here were are winners of Bundt Cakes

  1. MacGyver
  2. Harry Carry

For the 10k, here were are winners of Bundt Cakes

  1. Sir Topham Hat
  2. mix of PAX coming from all directions—no idea

For the Ruck, here were are winners of Bundt Cakes

  1. Dark Helmet for 11min pace 5k ruck…..nice work!

Honorable Mention for Anchorman completing the 5k and Barry Manilow being his wingman!

The Convergence kicked off on time and we had Gecko open us up in prayer. We split the groups up and away we went with COT at 0750. Click on links to see the pain that was delivered…..Merry Christmas!

Black Diamond – Longshanks Q – https://t.co/odVJHWCBPS

Bootcamp – Cha Ching Q – https://f3thefort.com/2017/12/23/christmas-convergence-boot-camp-mixed-w-some-bd/

Noderate – Barry Manilow Q – https://f3thefort.com/2017/12/23/your-moderate-option-at-the-convergence/

COT came together and we had 83 men attend this year.

Welcome FNG – Lake Effect, who is 41 not the 50 that he just shouted out. Classic!

Many announcements:

  • Thank you Site Qs for all your work, dedication and leadership!
  • Serve Saturdays ….reach out to Deacon, Bolt, NASA for info…..HIMs!!
  • Joe Davis Run Jan 6
  • Friday Convergence with 3rdF post beat down Jan 12
  • Rooster CSAUP Jan 20
  • Yeti – February
  • P200 – March

More than a workout!!

Prayers/Praises

  • Dark Helmet shared his sister is in need of prayer. Please remember DH and his family each day in prayer
  • Family visiting is fun and sometimes no so fun. BE HIMs!!
  • Prayers for all the PAX traveling and for peace this week!

Challenge:

I spoke to the PAX about how 2000 years ago Sky Q sent his son into the world in the form of a baby. When looking for a place to come in from the cold there WAS NO ROOM AT THE INN. I believe we all fall into this trap and put so much busy into our lives that we don’t have ROOM AT THE INN for Sky Q in our lives. We fill our hearts and minds with so much and when it come to his word and being in relationship, we DON”T HAVE ROOM AT THE INN (in our hearts).

I challenge myself and the PAX to make room for SKY Q and see how it changes your life in 2018 and beyond.

Honored to lead this PAX. I am blessed and grateful for each of you!

Cake Boss

 

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Changing of The Guard- Ranch Style

When checking in with the scheduled Q that was suppose to bring todays beat down, and he said he needed to call in a relief. YHC took it as an early Christmas present. Not only was I able to Q today I also got to hand off the shovel flag to a true HIM. It has an an honor to get to spend the last year leading on of my favorite AOs in all of The Fort, but also to be as excited to give it to Jiffy. He will only make this site even better.

We started off the morning with cars pulling in all the way up to the disclaimer. It was brief but to the point. All PAX knew to give what they could. Dig deep it will only hurt for 45 minutes. So they thought.

Start with easy mosey throwing in some high knees, butt kickers, karaoke.

Circle up SSHx20, IW x 15, windmills x 15, monkey humpers X15, Peter parkers x 10, 6 inches and hold x 2.

mosey to picnic benches dips in cadence x10 followed by derkins x10 for 3 sets.

change to legs 10 squat box jumps, 10 calf raises X3 sets

mosey to wall keep legs burning by doing 20 second wall sit.

Mosey to back of school. Partner up for DORA 1-2-3.

Partner 1 runs loop, Partner 2 merkins, squats, flutters.

Mosey to playground- 5 pulls ups 10 big boy sit-ups, 4 pull ups 8 big boy sit-ups down to 1.

Max set of pull ups.

Mosey to entrance 5 trees lunge walk to first, broad jump to second, bear crawl to third, squat walk to forth, and reverse lunge to fifth.

go back with lunge walk sprint, lunge walk sprint.

Mosey to COT. 1 min ab work.

Hand off Shovel Flag to Jiffy.

Announcements- Joe Davis Jan 6, Convergence this Saturday tega cay elementary 0600 5k/10k.

Prayers and praises for family’s coming and going out of town.

It has been a pleasure to serve the Ranch, the PAX and look forward to another leadership roll in F3.

Backdraft out…

 

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F3 The Fort Thanksgiving Convergence 2017

70 Men came today to burn calories so they can eat whatever they want the rest of the day. Ok, maybe that was my reasoning, but most came because the know in order to get better, even in being Gratful, it is best when being challenged by your brothers. We all came to get better and realize this great thing we have called F3 and give thanks!
Santini Opening with warm up both physically and mentally with some leadership principles
Split off into the various groups!
4 went for for a Run
  • Drile (F3-Wapner)
    Mozy to the front of SFES, high knees, toy soldiers, Butt kickers, and Knees to chest.
    Mozy to front of SFMS, circled up…Side straddle hop, Merkins, Cherry Pickers, and Moroccan Nightclub
    Mozy to SFMS bus loop …high knees, toy soldiers, Butt kickers, and Knees to chest.
    Circled up.. Flutter Kicks and Low Slow Squats, America Hammer and Low Slow Squats, Merkins and Windmills, mountain climbers and windmills
    Mozy to back of SFES, circled up…Peter Parker’s and Side Straddle Hop, Plank and windmill, shoulder taps and Low Slow Squats, LBCs and Moroccan Nightclub
    Then rinse and repeated the above sequence…before joining the other groups at COT
    Lil E—Bootcamp Q
    Mosey to the parking lot in the rear of school and circle up. SSHs, Imperial Walkers, Windmills, Squats
  • The thang
    • 10 cones set up in a line spaced about 10 paces apart. Each cone had an exercise and rep count on them. Do exercises on the first cone and run a lap of the parking lot. Once you complete the lap do the first cone and the second cone and then run a lap. Repeat this adding the next cone until all 10 are complete. Here were the exercises in order from first to last:
    • Burpees x 10
    • Bombjacks x 10
    • LBCs x 25
    • Merkins x 20
    • Jump Squats x 10
    • Flutter kicks x 40
    • CDDs x 20
    • Lunges x 20
    • Mtn Climbers x 20
    • Monkey Humpers x 20

Majority of the pax finished in the Lunges lap with a few speedsters out in front on the mtn climbers. Mosey back to the front of the school for some Freddy Mercury’s and Rosalitas.

After that met up with the Moderate and Black diamond groups for COT.

Everyone put out great effort today and really pushed themselves.

 

Witch Hunt—Black Diamond Q

Not even a trip to the hospital the night before with a pregnant wife could keep me away from this Thanksgiving workout. Shout out to Royale and Cha Ching for stepping up to help me out. Luckily I made it and we put in work.
We stared by counting off by 4 creating 4 teams.
Each team will compete to complete as many burpees as possible in 2-minutes with a catch. You can only do 10 at a time before you most complete 20 reps of ab exercise. 2 rounds:
1.) Burpees with LBCs (Somehow Bounce House was able to do 50 burpees. That dude is not human.)
2.) Burpees with Knee Tuck with crunchy frogs
Winners plank while losers perform 10 Kraken Burpees.
Blood was flowing so we moseyed to the hill by the middle school for some broken down burpees. Catch was that we had 20 minutes for everyone to complete. If everyone doesnt finish within the time then group does 25 Burpees.
Here was the setup:
Run Hill 10 times. (1 Hill Run = Up & Down)

5 Squat Jumps
5  Plank w\ Shoulder Taps
5 Merkins
5 Froggers
5 Squat Jumps

Run Hill 8 times.

10 Squat Jumps
10 Plank w\ Shoulder Taps
10 Merkins
10 Froggers
10 Squat jumps

Run Hill 6 times.

15 Squat Jumps
15 Plank w\ Shoulder Taps
15 Merkins
15 Froggers
15 Squat jumps

Run Hill 4 time.

20 Squat Jumps
20 Plank w\ Shoulder Taps
20 Merkins
20 Froggers
20 Squat jumps

Run Hill 2 time

25 Squat Jumps
25 Plank w\ Shoulder Taps
25 Merkins
25 Froggers
25 Squat jumps

With some great teamwork by the Pax everyone completed within the 20 minutes so no penalty was given.

I attempted to have Backdraft give us a 10-count however  he responded “There are no 10 counts during the Black Diamond.” So no 10 count and a quick mosey back to the parking lot for the 10 Minute 100 Burpee Challenge:

Complete 10 1-minute rounds of burpees in the following set scheme. Any time left over in the round is yours for rest. (typically PAX finish the set between 25 and 40 seconds)

Rd1- 8

Rd2- 9

Rd3- 10

Rd4- 11

Rd5-12

Rd6-12

Rd7-11

Rd8-10

Rd9- 9

Rd10- 8

Total – 100

Amazing work by all the Pax. I didn’t pull any punches with this setup for the Black Diamond and the Pax took it on without hesitation. We all survived and are better for it.

Thanks to Ginsu and Cake Boss for the opportunity to lead.

Pusher with closing remarks and finding #Victory 

Prayers & Praises

Thank you F3 The Fort

Cake Boss

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G Fit

Great evening at G-Fit.  Got there early and got a game of Bball going with the kids.  Was thanked by a Paradise adult for all we do.

About 30 gathered for some fitness- we mosied around the park before circling up for SSH, Squats, Merkins and burpees.

Over at the basketball court  we lined up on the short side for bear crawls, crab walks, lunge walks.  Lined up again.  P1 ran around the playground.  P2 did merkins, squats, LBCs

after we played Red light/Green Light- we split off into group of Football and basketball or the rest of the evening.

Great Stuff!

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