Jack of all Kinds and The ShovelFlag Switch

21 Pax showed up for the Slug-fest that was a Cha-Ching and YHC’s Co-Q.  All Pax arrived on time for the special 0500 kick off. I was taking the #ShovelFlag at the end of the Beatdown so we wanted to do something brutally special to mark the occasion.

Quick disclaimer and we where off and rolling. Cha-Ching had the 1st 30 minutes and didnt’t disappoint.

Mosey to the end of the BEst Buy /Pet Smart Parking lot.  30 SSH- Mosey on to the other side of Home Depot 15 bomb jacks, run back to spot by Petsmart 20 smurfjacks, run back to HD 30 seal jacks, run back to PS, 30 plank Jacks.

Mosey over to the wide parking lot in front of PS.  Break up into two groups for a new take on Bone the Fish.

Bear crawl up two parking spaces then side crawl down the line then up two more, rinse and repeat. Total parking lot length was about 15 spaces.  At the end do 30 squat jumps. Bear Crawl down and back again , do 20 donkey kicks. Then we bear crawled up two spaces and side shuffeled the width of the whole parking lot. Continue this down the length and did 10 burpees to complete the movement.

Mosey over to the fountain 3 types of burpees before time expired on the first 30 minutes.

5x Kracken Burpees, 5x knee slap burpees and 5x 1 leg burpees.

At this Point I took the Reins:

The Shovel Flag Switch

Split PAx into teams of 3.

MAX REPS TO FAILURE

P1s = Body weight in the lower level of stair alley

P2s= Run between groups: up/down the stairs

P3s= Cinder blocks

Basic rules: P1 Starts on the bottom level of the outdoor patio across from Just Fresh doing Max Rep Body weight exercises.  P3 moves to the dead end side of the parking load and does max reps of cinder block exercises. P2 starts with P3 and runs roughly 100 yrds up and down the stairs to P1. Upon arrival they switch. P2 does body weight and P1 runs up and down the stairs to P3 and they Switch as per the above.  Rinse and repeat through the various exercise combos.

Exercises:

Round 1- P1- MTN Climbers P3- Block Squats

Round 2-  P1- LBCs P3- Block Swings

Round 3- P1- Squats  P3- Block Curls

Round 4- P1- Bomb Jacks- P3- OH Presses

Round 5-P1- The Claw( Thnaks PotHole)   : P3- Block Hammers

Round 6 P1- Merkins  P3- Squat Thrusts

Round 7 P1-Peter Parkers P3- Alt Hand Block Merks

Round 8 P1- BBS  P3- Man Makers

We Made it Through 6 rounds finishing on Squat Thrusters and Merkins.

With 4-5 minutes left we picked up the cindys, beatdown boards and laundry pile( it was decidedly warmer than some of us expected)  shuffled back for COT.

I accepted the Shovel Flag and look forward to growing the reputation of the #Swamp as a smoker AO in The FORT.  Appreciate Cha-Ching thinking of me to take over for him. It’s an honor!

Duck Out!

 

 

 

 

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Snowman suicide visits abyss

This morning was all about the struggles of life and the constant need to keep pushing forward. Even when life causes you setbacks and you must retreat for the moment to regroup so that tomorrow you may push forward and gain new ground.

The PAX followed YHC for a short mosey where we placed cones and performed each exercise. The exercises alternate between upper body and lower body to balance out the body.
Exercises were as follows:
Burpees
pull ups on playground equipment
SSH
suicide squats
ChaCha merkins
monkey humpers
kryptonite night clubs
bear crawl then crawl bear back up the steps by 49

After the exercises were explained we started the suicide but instead of going all the way back to the beginning we would only go back to the previous cone before proceeding to the next cone. Think of it as two steps forward then one step back. It makes for a lot of running and keeps the PAX together bc if the leader passes you on his way back from the previous cone you turn and run with him to the next cone.

Lots of hard work was put in and I am grateful to @Copyright for the opportunity to lead.

Stay frosty my friends!
OLAF

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Olaf coupon buffet at Golden corral

My knee was still recovering so minimal running was on the buffet. Luckily I have more than enough coupons to entertain the PAX crammed into my garage so the couponmobile was loaded down and sitting low rolling into the coral.

Short mosey after disclaim was disclaimed over to a warmup a Rama. It’s been too long since the actual workout so I’m going to list some of the staples I usually go for along with a few I remember.
Lots of SSH to start. I remember a comment about my knee must not hurt to do SSH so I made sure to add a couple 20-30 once the mumble chatter started for good measure.
Then a magnificent Peter Parker followed by Parker Peter screw up by YHC.
Then it wouldn’t be a snowman Q without a full circle of hump.
A little longer mosey to the church parking lot across the street where the coupons were organized into a painful sequence starting with picking up something awful and awkward and ending with battle rope AKA hose tug.

Oh and don’t forget the timer to rotate obstacles being the pull-up dead hang as the center attraction.

Everyone got better except DoaH and Spiderman who chatted the whole time like two schoolgirls at summer camp. Anyways it’s always an “interesting” time and muscles you don’t normally use were sore for days following.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead Lutefisk.

Until next time stay frosty my friends.

OLAF

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8 Extra Pounds

Twelve of Fort Mill’s finest met at the Harris Teeter on a perfect late fall morning.  While two set off for a ruck workout, the other 10 joined YHC and here is what they did:

Take a big loop around the HT parking lot and meet up at the white VW near the back of the lot.  Everyone pick up two bricks and mosey to the Green Olive Grille for COP:

Circle up and drop your bricks for SSH x 25 and 10 windmills.  Pick up your bricks and everyone in cadence for:  merkin x 10, squat x 15, imperial walker x 20, jump squat x 10, LBC x 20, hello dolly x 20, American hammer x 20 , diamond merkin x 10, Morrocan nightclub x 20.

Mosey to the back of the main parking lot, put your bricks into a pile, and then mosey to the front of Harris Teeter (about 50 yds).   Form two groups of 5.   The first group runs to the pile, picks up a brick, and runs back to the start point.  The second group does the same.  Rinse and repeat and until all the bricks are moved.   Once all the bricks are moved, repeat with two bricks per person and move the bricks to the start point (full disclosure – this was not how this was supposed to go!)

Mosey back to Green Olive grille and circle up for Jack Webb  (1:4).   We got to 7 merkins and 28 overheads with bricks before YHC’s form started to fail.

ABLAB with bricks:

Flying flutter x 20, V-up x 10, Superman hold x 3, X’s and O’s x 10.  Close with the body destroyer.

COT

I’ve been away from this AO for a while and it was good to see many new faces this morning.  What perfect weather for a boot camp!  Dark Helmut and Olaf provided the usual chatter  – thank you, gentlemen.    It was a pleasure to lead the Pax today and I hope you enjoyed the workout.

Announcements, Prayers, Praises:

Read your newsletter:   Saturday convergence at The Fort, Thanksgiving convergence, Xmas party all coming up.

Prayers for:  Kenyan and his family, a family member with recurring cancer, Olaf on his Spartan race.

 

 

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McDonald’s for Breakfast

Warm-O-Rama:
-20 Peter Parker Peters
-10 Low Slow Toe Squats (don’t fall over Trucker)
-20 Flutter Kicks With Arm Flutters
-20 Hello Dolly With Flutter Kicks
-15 Calf Raises While Holding Al Gore
Mosey to wall for:
-20 People’s Chair With Arm Flutters
-10 Alternating Shoulder Taps While Holding BTTW

The Thang:

4 corners with station in the middle.
In the middle we all did 5 body bag builders for stations 1-4 each time while burpee broad jumping to the station and back, then 15 flutter kick & arm stations 5-8 and did duck walk from the middle to the station and back.
Station: exercise (all in cadence and together as a group)
1: Air chair and overhead claps x 15
2: Low slow jump squats x 15
3: Superman position + Moroccan NC’s x 15
4: CDD + donkey kick x 15
5: Derkin + shoulder tap x 15
6: Dying cockroach + flutter kick x 15
7: Aussie snow angels x 15
8: American hammer + lbc x 15

Trucker for a 10 count and mosey to open parking lot. Pick a partner and stand 8 parking spaces apart. Meet partner in the middle and knock out 10 clap merkins. Method of transport for round 1 is bear crawl to partner, crawl bear back. Round 2 crab walk forward, 10 clap merkins, crab walk backward.  Repeato.  Cot.

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Downpour with Roxanne at Laces In

This morning was supposed to be very wet, and again the Weather professionals got it wrong. Knowing the anticipated challenges, I prepared a weinke that would allow for a covered area. And….not a drop of rain. Had to make some audibles on the fly to make sure the PAX got a good sweat in. To my surprise, 9 HIM showed up for the morning’s beat down. Only vets were present so I delivered a quick disclaimer and off we went.

 

Mosey to the main parking lot taking a left turn immediately because it was too windy for Trucker…mumble chatter champion. Completed the mosey and circled up in front of the drop off area near the front of the gym.

 

IW x 20

SSH x 25

Windmill x10

Overhead claps- x20

Happy Jacks- 5 rounds

MNC x10

Seal Jacks- x15

 

PAX headed over to the curb, lined up across and turned and faced the parking lot.

I spent a little time here sharing with the PAX about a recent pledge brother that took his own life last week. With that came a challenge, to think about Men that you can be impacting that need your support. Whether you think it is annoying or not, there are men out there that are desperately seeking another man to pick them up. All it takes is an additional call or text, anything to let them know you are thinking of them.

 

Ok, with that in mind, the PAX were instructed to do suicides to the fourth line with a numbered space. When you reach the 4th number perform the exercise listed and then run back. Hold a plank for the 6.

 

Round 1- Merkins x10

Round 2- CDD x10

Round 3- Burpees x10

 

Continued with the message to the PAX to make sure it stayed in the front of their mind during the workout. Reminding them that if it’s them that is struggling to not go through it alone.

 

Next Mosey was to the breezeway area at the football stadium.

 

Circle up. I had prepared a little Roxanne workout in anticipation of the downpour that didn’t happen. After some brief fumbling with the technology, off we went.

 

Roxanne, you don’t have to…- flying squirrels

 

In between- The Pax were doing Seal Jacks.

 

This got the blood going! Of course I am a sweater, but there some extra puddles around me during this. It looked like the PAX were enjoying it as well.

 

Immediately after the song, we jumped into the Deck of Death.

 

Spades- CDD

Hearts- Monkey humpers

Clubs- Plank Jacks

Diamonds- wide arm Merkins

Joker- 5 burpees

 

We made it through about ¾ of the deck and the runners joined us for the last few.

 

Back to COT

 

Announcements– Newsletter

 

Praises– for the PAX who showed up. I was reminded this morning that being in the gloom makes a positive impact on our daily lives. This does mean you necessarily have to participate in the workout if you are on the IR. I encourage PAX on the IR to show up with a partner and walk and enjoy some fellowship.

 

Prayers-

 

Bonsai’s Wife’s grandmother

Cyclops Dad

The family of my brother whose life ended too soon

My wife’s student who passed away

Injured PAX

Marriages

Any I missed

 

Additional thoughts on challenging us as men and fathers to enjoy the moment and practice patience as best as you can.

 

Mental Health- I will repeat this over and over, you are not alone. Engage, ask, and reach out. If not, this is just a workout.

 

 

Thanks for the opportunity and for showing up on this rainy day.

 

 

Frat Boy

 

 

 

 

 

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Keep It Together

15 PAX checked the weather report this morning and found that the pending rain storm was fiction.

The Thang

Mosey around the HT lot to the back side of the auto supply store for COP.

  • IW
  • Windmills
  • Potato Pickers
  • Monkey Humpers
  • Hillbilly Walkers

Mosey up to lot beside Walgreens for “The Rollercoaster”.  Simple routine for the PAX:

  • 30 Second Exercise
  • Lap Around the Lot (Walgreens and Jersey Mike’s)
  • 60 Second Exercise
  • Lap Around the Lot
  • 90 Second Exercise
  • Lap Around the Lot
  • 60 Second Exercise
  • Lap Around the Lot

Then we repeat… basically so it looks something like this:

90   #   #   #   #
60  # # # # # # # #
30 #   #   #   #   #
Exercise Duration
BTTW 00:00:30
Flutter 00:01:00
LBC 00:01:30
Squats 00:01:00
Burpees 00:00:30
American Hammer 00:01:00
SSH 00:01:30
Merkins 00:01:00
Bombjacks 00:00:30
Peter Parker 00:01:00
MNC 00:01:30
Parker Peter 00:01:00
Mountain Climber 00:00:30

Mosey back to COT for around 2 minutes of Mary.

NMM

The goal of today’s workout was to have all the PAX pushing together.  Often when we get into “routines”, we have some pax finish and others who do not.  Today’s goal was to keep it all together, so instead of reps, we essentially did AMRAP for time.

 

Announcements:

  • Nessie next weekend
  • Sometime in November will be a convergence with a panel about life lessons from the recent HTL.
  • Read your Newsletter

Prayers up for Marriages, Kids, and Sickness and Suffering.

 

Honor To Serve.

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OLAF’S Inchworm Suicide at TheSwamp

Disclaimer was disclaimed and a short mosey was started…. Or so the unsuspecting PAX thought.
So plan is to mosey around the whole outer prerun loop of Rivergate stopping every tenth of a mile to perform an exercise all together in cadance. Once we make it back to Best buy it’s everyman for himself for the next loop. But where does the Inchworm Suicide come in? Glad you asked. Instead of going from one cone to the next you must first go back to the previous cone before proceeding. So start at Best buy and jog to stop sign going towards home depot. Free space ten count, lucky you. Go back to best buy then return past free space and to next cone at turn into homedepot garden section. 10 SSH cadance count style. Next back to cone for free space 10 count then to wall beside Target for 5 over the wall jumps. U get the idea so to save everyone some time bc reading is hard I’ll just list the remaining exercises and post a picture of the workout summary map.

10 burpees to start the party,
Free space 10 count,
10 SSH,
5 wall getovers
10 Merkins,
5 Suicide squats aka goldilocks squats,
10 Chacha merkins,
5 Regular squats,
10 CDD,
5 lunges,
One other uperbody exercise,
10 burpees to end the party.

Warm hugs as promised to all surviving PAX at COT.

Over 4 miles logged by most, suspect the front runners got closer to 4.5miles. Great work gents and thank you to @ChaChing for the opportunity to lead. Until next time
Stay frosty my friends!
Olaf

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Steadfast

Observations:  13 Pax posted for a hideous workout at Quagmire. Today’s workout looked better on paper but still successfully completed the Board Of Pain. FNG Zoolander fit right in with the mumble chatter. #EPIC

The Thang:

Mosey to Home Depot’s Parking Lot:

SSHs (20x), IWs (20x), Parker Peters (15x), Slow Sumo Squats (15x), WMs (15x), Box Cutters (20x), Windshield Wipers (15x)

Mosey to Kohl’s Parking Lot.

The Buffet Of Pain included the following  exercises. 

  • 100 Yard Dash
  • Jumping Lunges (Double) 
  • Big Boy Sit Ups
  • Wide Arm Merkins
  • Jumping Squats 
  • Burpees
  • American Hammers (Double) 
  • Carolina Dry Docks
  • Donkey Kicks 
  • Flutter Kicks (Double)
  • Dips
  • Diamond Merkins 

COT

Moleskin: We are constantly feeling good and bad pressures during our journey of life. Life has valleys and peaks with both bad and good experiences. Life is also like a train on parallel tracks, we continually find ourselves between the good track and the bad track. When things go well in life, we are soon challenged with a tragedy or a loss. Remain steadfast. Be aware of when you become unbalanced toward the bad track where evil one awaits. Choose God and move forward.

 

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A wee bit of everything at Pantheon

Unbelievable. Amazing. Has it REALLY been almost 4 years since YHC first posted to that fear-inducing AO known as Pantheon? What little I remember from that first WO was cursing the Q’s name (the evil Double D) and, more importantly, CSPAN coming alongside me and taking my mind off the merlot that was oh soo close to coming up. #The Full FNG Experience.  This is such an awesome AO that I wanted to include a little bit of everything.

The Pax seemed game for the plan. Mumblechatter was minimal but there was some grumbling and groaning. Mission accomplished.

WARM-UP: Mosey with Toy Soldiers, High Knees, Butt Kickers, Power Skips

COP around the flag (starting with The Pledge of Allegiance):

  • SSH * 25
  • HILLBILLY WALKER * 15
  • Merkins * 15
  • Squats * 15
  • Diamond Merkins * 15
  • Windmills * 15
  • Wide Arm Merkins * 15 (Initial grumbling & groaning ensued)
  • Mountain climbers * 20

MOSEY to AMPHITHEATER

JACOB’S LADDER- (7s) BEAR CRAWL UP, RUN DOWN-BURPEES  & SQUATS

Thoughts on FAITH: 3 f’S in F3 – 1st F is the Magnet, 2nd is the Glue, 3rd is the DYNAMITE. IT’S A BELIEF IN SOMETHING LARGER THAN YOURSELF. WHEN MEN OF FAITH COME TOGETHER FOR A COMMON CAUSE, THE RESULTS ARE AMAZING. DON’T GO IT ALONE

MOSEY to Basketball Court

Partner up:  opposite side of court, suicides on foul lines and meet in the middle for partner hand slap merkins.  15 reps, 3 rounds. Suicides, meet middle for partner Giddy Ups (crowd pleaser) . 5 reps per partner, 3 rounds, Suicides, meet middle for partner-assisted Sit-ups. 10 reps per partner

MOSEY to playground for a modified DORA – Partner Up- 50 Swing Lunges, 200 Bombjacks, 300 -LBCs Partner runs to end of the b-ball court & back

Mosey To wall- BTTW, then 5 Seal Jacks each Pax while the group does Peoples Chair.

COT: Olaf came running out of the gloom to join us at the very end. Must have been doing a brisk pace since he seemed to be on the verge of splashing last night’s dinner. But good of him to join.

NMM: Triple Claps are not sufficient to express my gratitude to Bing, Howitzer and Fish Sticks for staying on me to try out this thing we call F3. More like triple triple claps. I’ve tried to #give it away since that day and have told anyone who will listen what a game-changing moment that has been for me.

Thank the Good Lord that we ended up in this corner of the world known as The Fort. Home of many Highly Impactful Men. One awesome consequence – my 2.1 Pigeon is wanting to post more often. As a father, being exposed to this brotherhood is a great thing for my son. As we walked to the car to leave for the workout, he asked “Is this workout going to be hard”?   Well, yes, son, that’s part of what makes this F3 engine run. Sure seemed hard enough to me. What a great morning. Thanks to Bear Grylls for the opportunity to lead.

Short Sale out.

 

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