Long Duck at The Coop

It was a brisk morning at The Coop. As Site Q I feel led to write a quick Backblast for LD.

COP
30 SSH
20 Wind Mills
20 Tappy Taps
Mosey to Pull Up Bars

Partner up. Partner 1 runs down and up hill once while other partner chips away at the board of pain.

100 Pull Ups
100 toes/knees to bar
200 Merkins
200 Big Boy Sit Ups

Mosey to parking lot – 2×50 yard sprints

Back for COT.

Great lead by Long Duck!

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Snake Bite At Snake Pit

Five years ago my mom passed away after six months of hell, dealing with kidney failure and all that entails.  She had mental health issues, that meant she had to take some strong medicines that basically eventually killed her kidneys.  Ironically my mom retired as a kidney dialysis nurse.

So with today’s anniversary coming up, I thought it was a good opportunity to remember mom, and talk about mental health.  I shared some facts, and the facts decided our numbers for each exercises after COP.

Mom was a huge fan of Elvis and Ricky Nelson. Facts about the two artists:

Elvis – Born 1935
Elvis – Death at age 42
Elvis – 33 #1 singles
Ricky Nelson – Born 1940
Ricky Nelson – Death at age 45
Ricky Nelson – 14 top 10 singles

35 – KB swings
42 – goblet squats
33 – curls
40 – skull (Helmet) crushers (face for radio)
45 – flutters
14 – Turkish getups (pax favorite)

A few facts about my Mom’s life:

Mom – Born 1945  Death – 2014
Mom – Married 49 years to my father
Mom – 69 years old at death

49 – American hammers
14 – cleans

49 – merkins
69 – flutters  

Then we went on to some facts about suicide and mental health among men:

20 US veterans commit suicide daily.
77% of deaths in the US by suicide are male.
10% of men experience depression and anxiety.
Only 36% of psychological referrals are for men.

20 – Lawnmowers
77 – Rosa Litas
10 – Burpees
36 – LBCs

Finally some lighter facts, about Christmas and New Year’s Eve:

14 days till Christmas
The Twelve Days of Christmas starts on Christmas, not before.
The Twelve Days of Christmas ends 1/5/2020.
12/31 – In the Catholic faith, NYE is the Feast of Pope Sylvester.

I had the pax pick an exercise for the above numbers.  There was much rejoicing.

And we were done!

Thanks 3D for rearranging some schedules to allow me to Q today. Thanks to Bird Cage for all the whining.  Love you brother! Just payback for the Coors Light board of pain!

Brothers your presence today is testimony of what F3 can do.  Five years ago I found out about Mom’s passing about 2:00 am and didn’t make it back to bed that night.  So I posted at Peak 51 in Area 51 (South Charlotte) and was glad I did.  I needed the pax to be around me and pray for me and our family.

Your continued prayers for my father who is 78 and plugging right along are appreciated.  He definitely misses Mom.

Remember: Leave no man behind, but leave no man where you find him.

DT out!

 

 

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12 Days of Christmas

Today at the Ranch I had the pleasure of leading nine men in a 12 days of Christmas Beatdown. I know its a week before Thanksgiving but like everyone else we will skip to Christmas.

We started with a warm up of Windmills, Tappy Taps, SSH and Moroccan NC and then we moseyed to the back playground for some real fun.

Our 12 Days of Christmas :

1 BURPEE

2 MERKINS

3 SQUATS

4 MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS

5 BIG BOY’S

6 FLUTTERS

7 DIAMOND MERKINS

8 LBC’S

9 BOX CUTTERS

10 CDD

11 AMERICAN HAMMERS

12 WIDE ARM MERKINS

OH!!  I forgot there was a lap around the loop after every day. There was some singing and some complaining as well.

We ended with some Mary and Two Ruckers joined us for  COT!!

Thanks Jiffy for letting me lead these fine men.

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1990s HIITs

Nine in total arrived. The rain held off, but conditions were still slick.

Warm Up
Mosey run
SSH (IC 10x)
Windmill (IC 10x)
Imperial Walker (IC 10x)
Low Slow Squats (IC10x)
Headed towards the benches area under the awning in front of the school.

Thang 1: HIIT Routine
The winner of Twitter poll, for which decade of rock to play during the workout, was the 1990’s!  Playlist is at end of BB.
Set A: Do the below 32 seconds on, 10 sec standing rest in between
Merkins
Cherry Pickers
Squats
Dips
Bobby hurleys
Set B: Do the below 40 seconds on, 20 sec rest in between (rest is a Low Plank)
Mountain Climbers
LBC
Derkins
Amer Hammers
plank jacks
Set C: Do the below 45 seconds on, 15 sec standing rest in between
Flying Squirrels
Imp Walkers
Squat Jumps
step ups
SSH
Rinse/Repeat sets

Thang 2: Thunderstruck burpee routine
Played AC/DC’s Thunderstruck (Just squeaked in being released in 1990); do a burpee every time you hear thunder/thunderstruck.

Fini, COT

Prayers for those under doctor’s care. It’s been a heavy week, make sure to hug your kids/family.

Most of those in attendance were in our forties, so the 1990’s music was during our ‘coming of age’ years. Set B was a real core burner due to the low plank rest.

Playlist, year of release noted.
1. Everlong, Foo Fighters, 1997
2. Only happy when it rains, Garbage, 1995 (Shirley Manson representing Scotland)
3. The Beautiful People, Marilyn Manson, 1996 (Slash noted this song was written in Charlotte)
4. Lump, Presidents of the United States, 1995
5. Sabotage, Beastie Boys, 1994
6. Pepper, Butthole Surfers, 1996 (…pourin’ like an avalanche comin’ down the mountain…)
7. Enter sandman, Metallica, 1991
8. Flag pole sitta, Harvey Danger, 1997
9. Song 2, Blur, 1997 (Woo hoo!)
10. Thunderstruck, ACDC, 1990 (burpee challenge, always a crowd pleaser)

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Halloween Rain- The Ranch

It was a warm dark morning, rain heavy as I drove to The Ranch. One of my personal favorite AOs in The Fort. Maybe becouse it is where I was the site Q for awhile or maybe just becouse there are lots of areas to torture people when I am on the Q.
I was first to arrive and wondered how many would join me in the rainy gloom. Couple cars roll in just before zero dark start time.
Disclaimer. Mosey around parking lot and get a quick warmup. SSHs, LBACs, windmills, IWs.
Mosey to front of middle school- partner up by benches- 20 derkins, 20 alternating stepups, 20 dips.
Partner wheel barrow to end of side walk and back. repeat x’s 3.
Mosey to back of school- chair sits in cadence- Balls to wall incadence- bearcrawl out to edge of parking lot and back- 3 sets.
Mosey to play ground- 3 sets 5 pullups, 10 merkins, 15 squats.
Mosey to bus loop- duck walks 10 diamond merkins, bunny hops 10 wide arm merkins, 1 leg jumps 5 pistol squats, switch to other leg repeat.
Mosey to COT.
announcements, prayers and praises.
Backdraft out.

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Celebrating Shield’s 49th @ Footloose

Warmup: 49 SSH
Party: 7×7’s = 7 rounds of 7 counts of: Monkey Humpers, Incline Merkins, Peter Pointers, Merkins, LBC’s, Squats, SSH
Happy 49th Shield! pRespect!

Next we mosey’d up and down Confederate St, Indian style. We finished on the far side of Southern Sugar. There we did a wall sit while the 2 ends broke off to do 2 burpees. Another mosey later we were at Fort Mill Church of God running up and down their stairs. I like to call that the Smithers Stair-climb because the first time I did it was when Smithers was on Q. It hurt me back then so I knew it made me better. I try to incorporate it into every Footloose Q now.
Around the corner we found another set of stairs that a few of us ran up and down twice. At the top we circled up for a round or 3 of Mary. Another slow mosey got us back to C.O.T. We prayed.

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QvQ 19.1 – Jiffy vs. Sasquatch

21 PAX showed up to the first round of QvQ 2019. This first round is the classic match up from last year, which was decided by ONE point! That’s right, the reigning champ versus his challenger.

Jiffy versus Sasquatch

Brief history: Sasquatch lost to Jiffy last year by one point. ONE point! It was necessary for the match up to be repeated given the level of intensity at which both of these #HIM operate.

The clock struck 0515 and I directed everyone’s attention to the championship prize. A custom F3 shovel flag curated by YHC.

The intent of this shovel flag is to be much like a championship belt. I hope that it passes hands over the years, and we write the name of each years’ reigning champ on the back of the handle. It shall be brought to CSAUPs as well at any time the champion posts and desires to gloat. See below for a glimpse of the trophy.

0515.

I had five minutes to lead a quick warm up to get the PAX ready for what was to come.
Once we got our Tappy Taps out of the way, it was time to get down to business.

The rule of order is the competitor who is earliest to arrive will get to decide who goes first. Jiffy arrived at about 0435, so he was the clear winner. He chose to receive and go on the offense first.

0520.

Coupon Roulette

We came upon a sinister circle with 20+ cinder blocks, 50/60lb dumbbells, and retaining wall blocks! He had us circle around the coupons and choose one.

With your selected coupon you will complete in cadence called by Jiffy:

Shoulder press x 10
Curls x 10
Squats x 10
4 Count Flutters x 10

Jiffy then rolls three dice. One determines the direction we rotate. Two determine how many coupons in that direction we shift.

Get to your next coupon, repeat. Roll again.

Next coupon, do equal amount of burpees to number of coupons we rotated. Repeat four movements.

Roll again. Next coupon, do equal amount of partner clap push ups to number of coupons rotated. Repeat movements.

We hit round four and I was praying for a miracle, because my arms were already smoked.

0530.

Sasquatch takes the reigns and moves us to the pull up bars for a very creative assembly line of face kicks.

Nine PAX line up at pull up bars. The rest at various nearby stations. Do one pull up, shift one bar to the left. Once you reach the end you then BTTW crawl back to the other side of the pull up bars. Then head out to the street.

The remaining PAX are either doing burpees at either curb on the street nearby or run/nur down and up the hill (AKA Quadzilla!). Once you finish your respective station, move to the next and tap somebody at that station to proceed.

That was super original, and also tclaps to Jedi for doing a full handstand walk with no wall support both times through.

0540.

Jiffy gets his second opportunity to remind us why he is the champ.

We remain at the pull up bars and count off by threes.

Group 1: four rounds of 5 burpees/10 squats and then end with 10 partner clap push ups.

Group 2: four rounds of 5 pull ups/10 Merkins and end with 10 partner clap push ups.

Group 3: run to bottom of hill a dm bearcrawl up. At each cone do 10 Carolina Dry Docks.

We made it through 2.5 stations before running out of time. A great use of the AO. I wondered how Sasquatch was going to answer this painful segment.

0550.

Sasquatch has us count off by fours. He then leads us on a brisk mosey to the turf field. As we approach, we see two sleds at the closest end zone, and two at the far end zone. He sets one group up at each sled and has us complete the following exercises as a group on repeat:

Seal Sit-Ups x 10
Jump Squats x 10

Meanwhile, one PAX from each group pushes the sled 100 yards across the field to the opposite end zone. Once they reach the end, swap with someone in that group and they then push the sled back to your original group. Continue that snake like move until time is called. Woof.

0600 couldn’t come soon enough. Those sled pushes were terrible.

We hit 0600 and head back to COT to vote. The votes were cast, the points were tallied, and a winner was decided upon.

The winner of week one of QvQ is:

Sasquatch

It was close, but this time it was decided by 7 points. Sasquatch was awarded a patch since he will be advancing to the championship on 10/30.

A great showing by both of our competing Q’s. I think I speak for everyone when I say that was one of the more difficult workouts as of late at The Coop. And we’ve had some tough ones!

I’m looking forward to week two. We’ve got the Airborne Bad Assery of Geronimo lined up to take on our very own 1st F Q – Shady!

Announcements

Broga at The Ranch tomorrow! A special recovery focused workout for those running Ragnar this weekend.
QvQ next week: Geronimo vs Shady!

Prayers/Praises

Wegmans’ father in law has prostate cancer. It’s slow moving, but it’s cancer. Pray that it can be eradicated without much detriment to his M’s father.
Pray for the multiple PAX with pregnant M’s. It’s a transitional time but it’s well worth it. Pray we can as husbands love our wives like Christ loves the church while they are going through so many changes.

Thanks for the great beatdown, men.

Punch List out.

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Ranch Style

As our boys are on the same soccer team, Jiffy took the opportunity to request my Q the week before. Been a little while since I’ve been to the ranch and more than likely, it was a Q, too.

Two Run and Gun Musketeers pledged support the evening before, so I was guaranteed a couple familiar PAX. Ultimately, there was at least 5 PAX that were new to me. 10 total.

Early arrival, set out some cones and got the worm out to the football field side. Last minute writing of weinke and taping to arm in the van, and off to the PAX minutes before.

Little mosey around all the fields with a few stops to warmup, WM, SSH, LSS, Tappity Taps….the new name?, 1 leg flutters, MTN C, LeanBacks and the always fun, do it as you’d like…Goofballs.

Around the front school loop, jog with stops at speed bumps: 5 bombjacks, 4 squats, 3 burpees, then 432, 321….or something similar as my count plan veered off course.

Jog to football field next to soccer field. Met up with the “worm” 140# sandbag. Partners carried the worm full length of field and back while the rest did 10 Monkey Humpers, brief 10 yard jog to other side for 10 CDD’s, then 9 and 9, 8 and 8 and so on. Took turns with worm carry. Then switched to calf raises/jump lunges combo….or so I think…Did not make it to Donkey Kicks/wide arm merkin combo.

To soccer field. Partnered up again. One partner led out a couple secs early to sprint back of opposite goal, then partner left to reach soccer ball and kick to goal. P1 brought ball back and both sprinted back to together. Meanwhile…rest of PAX alternated 5 merkins/big boi situps, wide squats then bear crawled about 5 yards and repeated. Kept going to all PAX done.

Finished up with some good Mary, if I recall properly. I heard one PAX say “Well, we did some diffferent things today” which I hope is a good thing….  Good job out there, PAX.

Talked of the IronPax challenge as a you vs. you individual test as IronPax has 4 very hard workouts weekly in September. But even more importantly, for the PAX to support each other and make sure everyone gets through the challenge.  See backblast “Sometimes you are the six”: https://f3thefort.com/2019/09/13/sometimes-you-are-the-six-ironpax-wk2/

Get out to our G-Fit workout with the kids on Saturdays at 3:00 pm to serve our community efforts in the Paradise community. Q’s always needed!

The Paradise Reading Center is held every Mon and Wed at the Greater Bethlehem Baptist Church at 601 Joe Louis Street in Fort Mill during school. We need volunteers to assist in tutoring and helping the kids with school work!

Get out to the Q-Source discussions held on various days during the week.

Thank you to Shield for his Q on 9/11.

Aye! Bolt

 

 

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ImpromptQ at The Coop

The Coop has had quite a month, and with a VQ on the schedule I was excited to see that momentum continue to grow. Sadly, our Q was a no show. As the Site Q, I led the PAX this morning in an impromptu Q.

Mosey to Bus Loop for COP
SSH x 30
Tappy Taps x 10
Low Slow Squat x 20
Hold Al Gore 45 Seconds
Pulsing Al Gore x 16
Merkins x 10
Yoga Flow w/Runner’s Stretch

While trying to figure out the weinke during the COP, we were holding Al Gores. At that time, I asked the PAX to enlighten me if their least favorite workouts. Cleverly, Cheddah answered “This one!” So we pulsed. A nice little burn to start us off. While moseying around prior to COP I decided upon our first endeavor.

Weinke

Partner Up
DORA 1-2-3 at Traffic Circle/Staff Parking Lot
100 Big Boy Sit Ups
200 Squats
300 SSH

Mosey around back of school to Lunch Tables

Derkins in Cadence x 10
Step Ups in Cadence x 20

Note to self: NEVER do derkins next to Haggis unless you have perfect form. That man is an animal.

Mosey to Pull Up Bars (Much to Trucker’s delight)

Wall sits while outer two PAX do 5 pull ups and work their way toward the center.
Rinse and Repeat but change up grip on your pull ups.

Mosey back to Shovel Flag

Hip work Courtesy of Airborne, one minute each side.

In all, we had a solid morning of varied movements. There’s some freedom in being able to make up the weinke on the fly, though I can say I was a more distracted than usual. The PAX who showed are true HIM, though. Lastly, we ran 2.5 miles.

A Burpee penalty was discussed for Mighty Mouse. If we can get him to show, we may have to proctor said penalty… though we all know we’ll help him out. That’s how we roll. Let’s just hope everything is ok for him.

Announcements

Hardwood on Q at Varsity this week!
QvQ coming at you on October.
Christmas Party coming up… get your ugly sweater on.
Read your newsletter.

Prayers/Praises

Kaiser – praise for God’s promises. There are over 700 promises in the Bible.
Chicken Hawk – pray for marriages. Pray that we as apathetic men can step up love our wives the way they need it.

Hope everybody enjoys their day, and holds their loved ones tight.

Punch List out.

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A Slow and Steady Howler on Friday the 13th.

Can you believe after all of my time at NaFo, I’ve never been on Q at Varsity? What?! Thankfully, Harry Carry noticed a gap in my portfolio and decided that needed to be filled.

This week has been rough… and when I mean rough I mean my taint has been kicked multiple times. Between Iron Pax week 2 and Shield’s 9/11 Stair Climb, my body was aching heavily. I took the opportunity to Q at Varsity as a chance to do some active recovery. The goal was to stretch and burn as much as possible. Some of the PAX were pretty excited when I brought it up at the front end of the workout, as was I. The focus was to hit one some Yoga/Recovery and a ton of Abs.

0515 hit and the disclaimer was disclaimed.

Run around parking lot to get the blood flowing. This brought some mumblechatter because I had previously said we would not be running today. It was only about 250M… and that was it!

Circle up near the Shovel Flag – which is where we spent the rest of the morning.

I led the guys in a full on Broga flow. Every position was held for 4-5 breaths to get a nice burn. #worthit

Broga

Sun (or in this case Full Moon!) Salutations with breathing – forward folds – halfway lifts x 5.
Chaturanga training – Moving properly from plank to upward dog to downward dog.
Jump to front – repeat salutations w/breathing.

This is where I looked up and Kielbasa was looking like a jigsaw puzzle. It was awesome, and he told me afterward he felt super limber and wanted to do more of this.

Chair Pose (AKA “Tipper Gore”) & hold – prayer twist both sides – catch outside of right knee with opposite elbow and flapjack.
Downward dog – knee to both elbows – knee to forehead
Warrior 1 – 2 – reverse – right angle – down, flapjack.

Chaturanga (AKA 6 inches) hold for 30 seconds.

Active Recovery – Leg Focus

Low Slow Squats x 20
Hold 60 Seconds at end of last squat
Pulse 16 times
I dare you to try this. Seriously. Do it. It sucks. 

Forward Lunges
Hold 60 Seconds (both sides)
Pulse 16 times after 60 second hold
Ditto.
Flap Jack

Plank –
Merkins in Cadence x 10
High Plank Hold – 30 Seconds
Lift one leg at a time, pulse 16 times up and down

I looked at my watch and was happy to see we had just enough time to work the abs.

Ab Ripper X – #fifteenminutesofmary

25 of Each Exercise
In & Out (Boats & Canoes)
Bicycles (Forward)
Bicycles (Backward)
Crunchy Frog
Cross Leg/Wide Leg Sit-Ups
Fifer Scissors
Hip Rock n’ Raise
Heels to the Heavens
V-Up Roll Ups
Oblique V-Ups (Left)
Oblique V-Ups (Right)
Leg Climbs to touch Heels – 12 each side
American Hammers (25 total, 50 taps)

I about collapsed at the V Up Roll Up portion and struggled through the rest of the work. My core is smoked! Oblique V-Ups = terrible invention.

Thoughts

This weinke was different than our typical face kick – but it was a face kick nonetheless. All of the PAX seemed to enjoy it. Especially Shield – who told me “I used to like you, Punch List” during the workout. That gave us all a chuckle.

Trust me, I love me some burpees, but I’m finding that I can’t do them day in and day out, so days like this are a MUST! Do yourself a favor and check out RPG on Fridays to get some good stretching in and take care of your body. It’ll be worth it in the long run.

 

Announcements

Read your newsletter

Q v Q is coming in October to The Coop!

 

Prayers

Kaiser and his business. It’s at a crossroads and he needs to know what to do within a few days or else it may close down.

Ruby Slippers – close family friend has recently passed at the age of 35. Pray for the family and friends to come together and find solace with one another.

 

Thanks, Harry Carry for the opportunity to lead on this fine Friday. YHC always enjoys working out with you and the other HIM that showed today.

 

Punch List out.

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