Post party at WEP

It was the day after the Fort Christmas party so time to work off that extra trip down the buffet line. Mainframe leading off with Cha-Ching cleaning up.

  • Mosey around park stopping at each drill-bit. At each bit do 3-4 exercises with each bit ending in squats.
  • After lap around park head down trail toward big hill. Blimps were the call. Do one exercise at one end of trail then run to other end for next exercise. Each time we passed the middle it was 5 bomb-jacks. B=Burpees, L=Lunges, I=Imperial Squat Walkers, M=Merkins, P=Plank Jacks, S=Squats.
  • Mosey back to park and circle up for legs and abs: In squat calf raises, Mtn climbers, in squat heels out, freddie mercs, smurf jacks, flutters, jump squats, dying cockroaches, finish with some monkey humpers.
  • Tag out to Cha-ching. Over to light posts for some extended stairways to heaven.
    • 1st set – jog between lights, 3 burpees at each light
    • 2nd set – jog between lights, kraken burpee at each light
    • 3rd set – backward job between lights, 5 big boy situps at each light
    • 4th set – bear crawl between lights, 5 jump squats at each light
    • 5th set – partner push up the entire hill – terrible, most ended up switching so no second helping
  • Mosey down to park and keep partner. Set 1 runs 3 tree suicides while other groups do exercise running set call. I remember monkey humpers, smurf jacks, and junk-yard dogs. I think we did at least 2 others.

Thankfully time was up and everyone had worked off the night prior. Thanks for the opportunity Bonsai! Always an honor to help lead.

-Mainframe

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Remembering Pearl Harbor

As a son/grandson of military servicemen and a cousin in active duty as a graduate of the USNA, it is a privilege and honor to show respect to our  men who are and have served our country for the right to be living here. My grandfather served in WWII as an air force bomber mechanic and hearing stories of his time serving during the war made a early impression on my. If it wasn’t for my birth defect, I too would have been serving this country with my dream of attending the USNA. That didn’t happen, of course. So I always jump on an opportunity to Q on a historical day in military history. Seeing that it is the day Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, I dusted off my off my college history books and incorporate some statistics into the WO.

COP consisted of good mornings, windmills, mumble chatter as Twister drove off to lead a RGH/Cary PAX to the WO site – welcome Pet Sounds – squats, jumping jacks, and merkins.

Mossy to bottom of hill. Run the hill 3 times. top of hill do 20 merkins each round and 20 LBCs at bottom for first two rounds, then only 10 LBCs at bottom on third round. Reason is that this totals 110 – Japan attacked Pearl Harbor or 110 minutes on Dec 7.

45 V sit-ups, Japan attacked in 2 waves, 45 minutes apart from each other. Mossy to entrance of FMHS football stadium.

PAX did 2 burpees, 3 merkins, 3 burpees, 5 squats. This is 2,335, which represents the number of US soldiers killed on Pearl Harbor (I knew we couldn’t do 2,335 burpees, so modified).

Mossy into FMHS football stadium and line up on the sideline. Army crawl to first hash and tighten up for some Navy Seal sit ups!! Army crawl back to sideline. Mossy to bleachers and run the stairs (since the midshipmen had to run up stairs -ladder per twister – in the battleships to man the guns) three rounds with 10 squats at the top each round. Mossy to fence. Lay on the 6, hands outstretched grabbing the fence. Feet 6 inches off ground and raise feet to fence for 20 OYO.

Mossy to parking lot, partner up. Partner 1 runs to end of parking lot, Partner 2 does exercise.

Round one was 353 LBCs – Japan used 353 airplanes to attack Pearl Harbor.

Round two was 230 squats – Japanese Navy was 230 miles west of Hawaii staging the attack

Round three, which we didn’t finish was  188 arm claps. 188 US airplanes were destroyed that day

Finished with 8 burpees – 8 battleships were destroyed, 2 sunk after the fact, Arizona being the most notably.

COT

One more thing about Pearl Harbor day, Japan attacked on a Sunday morning assuming that we wouldn’t be on alert, we would be relaxed and at church. We shouldn’t have to honor or remember our fallin’ and active brothers on historic days, we should always honor and thank them everyday. If you ever get a chance to visit Honolulu, you MUST visit the Pearl Harbor memorial. Of all the places i have traveled, it will not only take your breath away, it will take your breath away for eternity.

Read your newletter

Prayers to marriages, injured, travels for holidays and those hurting during the holidays

Trucker

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Backblast for The Armory – 12-4-17

9 PAX joined YHC this AM at The Armory for some KB fun.

WARMUP:

  • Mosey around the parking lot
  • 20 Side Straddle Hops
  • 5 burpees OYO
  • 15 merkins
  • 15 mountain climbers
  • 15 low slow squats

Mosey to the bells

THE MAIN THANG

We’ll do a series of exercises, and then mosey to the other side of the parking lot, do 5 burpees and mosey back.

  • Goblet Squats
  • Mosey + Burpees (5)
  • Plank rows
  • KB merkins right, left
  • Mosey + Burpees (5)
  • Curls right, curls left
  • Deadlift
  • Mosey + Burpees (5)
  • Shoulder press right, Shoulder press left
  • Lunge right, lunge left
  • Mosey + Burpees (5)
  • LBCs
  • Flutter
  • Protractor
  • Mosey + Burpees (5)
  • Goblet squats
  • Good mornings
  • Mosey + Burpees (5)
  • Skull crushers
  • Right arm press, left are press
  • Mosey + Burpees (5)
  • Flutter
  • Protractor + Skull crushers
  • Mosey + Burpees (5)
  • LBCs

COT

Announcements

  • thanks for Christmas Party donations
  • upcoming Christmas Convergence

Prayer requests

  • family/travel
  • friends with custody concerns

Out

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Apologies for no video name-o-rama, my  phone battery died as soon as it started recording. Zapped by the cold.

11 PAX showed up on a chilly Monday morning to get better while slinging some iron together.  I did my best to keep everything in cadence or single count to keep everyone together and unified.

Warm-up
  • Mosey Lap around the parking lot to warm up
  • SSH – 30 I.C.
  • Windmill – 10 I.C.
  • Little Baby Arm Circles – 30 I.C.
  • Arm stretches
  • deep hip stretch squat
  • Merkins on the bells – one hand on the bell at a time plus a diamond merkin in between. 5x of these
  • Mountain Climbers – 15 I.C.
  • Around the world with bell – 10 each direction
  • Lunge with bell passing under leg – 10 each leg
The Thang
  • Mosey to wall for a sit
    • while sitting on wall
      • 10 count with bell held out in front
      • 10 chest presses I.C.
  • Mosey to low wall
  • Curls – 10 each arm
  • Big Boy situps – 10
  • Squats – 10 I.C.
  • Run lap around islands
  • Tricep extensions – 10 I.C.
  • American Hammers – 10 I.C.
  • Calf Raises – 30 I.C.
  • Run lap around islands
  • Lawnmower Pulls – 10 each arm I.C.
  • V-Ups with Bells – 10
  • Step Ups – 10 each leg
  • Run lap around islands
  • Curls – 15 each arm
  • Big Boy situps – 15
  • Squats – 15 I.C.
  • Asked a PAX to share what’s going on in his life and a recent victory
  • Tricep extensions – 15 I.C.
  • American Hammers – 15 I.C.
  • Calf Raises – 30 I.C.
  • Asked Peabody to share where he got his name and what’s going on in his life
  • Lawnmower Pulls – 15 each arm I.C.
  • V-Ups with Bells – 15
  • Step Ups – 15 each leg
  • Asked Trucker where he got his name and what’s going on in his life
  • Mosey back to the COT
  • Shelf lifts – 10 each side I.C.
  • Hip flexor exercise – 10 repetitions of 5 movements

Great work and great mumblechatter today. It’s an honor and a privilege to lead. Thanks for the opportunity Assassin. See you brothers in the gloom soon!

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BackBlast from The Hive Jam Session – 11-17-17

10 men joined YHC for a BYOB Jam Session to celebrate the end of a long week at The Hive.

Mosey around the parking lot to get everyone warmed up on this brisk AM.

Warmup:

  • 30 Side straddles
  • 5 burpees
  • 30 squats
  • 10 4 count windmills

VQ Squeaky gets voluntold to lead a couple warmup exercises.

  • 10 4 count merkins
  • 10 4 count mountain climbers
  • 5 burpees OYO

Grab your bell and head to The Thang…

The Thang:

YHC brought some classic rock to fire us up and smooth country to slow us down while did some interval Tabata training with a special focus on legs…and beating the tar out of the PAX.

30 seconds AMRAP, 10 seconds rest (several rounds, give or take in this order):

  • Goblet squats
  • Left leg lunge
  • Right leg lunge
  • Burpees
  • Jump squats
  • Bombjacks
  • LBCs
  • Burpees
  • Side lunge left leg
  • Side lunge right leg
  • Protractor
  • Flutter

We went round and round for a while, enjoyed Pandora’s best and the company of the sweaty PAX around us.

COT

Announcements

  • Christmas Party
  • Thanksgiving Convergence
  • Turkey Drop tomorrow!

Prayers & Praises

  • plenty of praises from all PAX
  • special prayers for young friend of Socrates with cancer & family member of Whitewater involved in car accident

Last word – focus less on the stress caused by being busy and more on the opportunity that God has given you that is making you busy.

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Kotter Q at the Ranch

OHHHHH, it felt good to back to a boot camp and thanks to Backdraft and his perfect timing, YHC got to attend as the Q!  After two and a half months of marathon training, YHC could not wait to put in some shoulder work.

As the PAX started to arrive we identified that one of those was an FNG.  He is native from Portugal, to which one insufficiently caffeinated PAX said “ah the Spaniard.”  Um, not the same and we all had a pretty good laugh.  More on that later.

Short disclaimer and we started the warm up.  We started with SSH X30 and then went off on a mosey with stops to do different exercised.  The mosey went past from the front of the middle school drop off and around to the back parking lot.  Exercises were:

  • SSH X30
  • Merkins X40
  • Peter Parker X15
  • Squats X10

YHC loves partner work because it puts someone with you to hold you accountable.  You are also more likely to push yourself when you have a buddy watching and working with you.  This is also true outside of the gloom with you wife, work, and friends.

A previous Twitter post promising no partner carries had to be honored, but that leaves a lot of options. The big parking lot is about .20 miles long.

Laps around the parking lot:

  • Lap 1 – Wheelbarrow with your partner around the entire parking lot taking turns.
  • Lap 2 – One partner runs, the other partner does an exercise that moves them around the circle.  Continue to alternate doing the exercises until the team has completed the lap around the parking lot.
    • Broad jump burpees
    • Lunge walk
    • Inch work merkins
    • Bear crawl
    • (One thing to note here is the team of Peabody and our FNG were first to finish.  The force is strong with this one.)
  • Lap 3 – Short lap this time because time is running short.
    • Side walking merkins
    • Duck walk
    • Crab walk
    • Reverse bear crawl – not sure if anyone got to this given the short loop

Mosey half way back to the parking lot and stop for Burpee Partner Plank with descending burpees from 8.  One partner in plank, while the other partner does a burpee, jumps over them, does another burpee for an 8 count.  Next partner takes a turn and this continues in descending order until all burpees are completed.  We had to stop after the sets of 5 due to time so look for this on Tuesday at the ruck workout…..

FNG naming – the entire PAX tried very hard to come up with a name for our new brother.  Some good ideas were presented, but in the end, nothing compared to the slight insult and hilarity of how it was born as his name from before the workout started.  Therefore, for the first time in my experience and FNG was named at the beginning of the workout rather than the end.  Please welcome El Spaniardo!!

Announcements:

  • Turkeys for Paradise due to AOs
  • Christmas Party 12/1
  • Thanksgiving convergence at the Ranch

Prayer Requests:

  • Cakeboss and family as they undergo some disruption in their house with some major repair work
  • Marriages

As always, a huge honor to lead a group of guys as strong as those the rise this early.  Thank you Backdraft for the opportunity!

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The Coop – Small Victories make the Difference

15 Men arrived at Nation Ford HIgh School (NAFO) aka The Coop for a Wednesday morning Daily Red Pill. The thing we do not realize is we win more than we lose. We focus on the big monsters in our life but never celebrate the small victories in our lives. Simply getting out of the Fartsack and posting is a huge Victory. Leading a group of brothers in getting better, is a HUGH victory. Getting better physically, socially, spiritually is winning at life!! Celebrate the Victories and learn from the losses.

The Thang:

  • 5 Burpees OYO

Mosey to The Coop Jr ( Elementary school) Playground

  • COP
    • Merkins
    • Imperial Walkers
    • Squats
    • Peter Parker
    • LBCs
    • Parker Peters
    • Flutters
    • Moracan Night Clubs
    • Sumo Squats
    • Side Stradle Hops – Lead by Squeaky (Victory VQ)
  • Line up on baseline and partner up
    • Wheel barrows base to base
    • Swap with partner and back
    • Partner 1 suicides
    • Partner 2 squats
    • Move to sidelines
    • Rinse and repeat above
  • Mosey to school
    • People’s Chair with shoulder press
    • BTW with 10 count
    • 3 rounds
  • Mosey to small hill on side of school
    • Ladder work, adding exercise and reps each round
    • 1 Merkin
    • 2 CDDs
    • 3Leg Lifts
    • 4 Flutters
    • 5 Donkey Kicks
    • 6 Squat Jumps
    • 7 Freddy Murcurys
    • 8 Mak tar Shi
  • Wrap up with Plank and 5 count Mak Tar Shis
  • Mosey to base of hill back to The Coop Sr
    • Partner 1 run backward up the hill, 5 pull ups and run back
    • Partner 2 dying cock roach
    • Whole Group backward run to top of hill
    • Partner 1 10 pull ups
    • Partner 2 calf Raises
    • flapjack
    • 2 rounds
  • Full out run to COT

Great work by the PAX. The encouragement and work was tremendous. We worked hard and found victory in working together. T claps to Squeaky for leading Side Straddle Hops.

I spoke to the PAX about we need to know our objective and what are we trying to win. (Marriage, kids, career, life) and do we have the pieces and parts needed to succeed. My objective is to Glorify my Sky Q and i need to be in the word, prayer, fellowship with fellow believers and be accountable to this objective by my brothers. Find Victory brothers by having the right ingredients for winning!

Cake Boss

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The Hive 2017.41

There were 6 this day that decided to embrace the suck this AM.

Warmup
SSH, Windmill, IWs, Merkins

The Thang

Mosey to the patio for some Push Pull exercises
20 Wall Pushes (fall into the wall, and push yourself back up)
20 Twist Pushes (Face back to wall with right arm out at 45deg of wall, fall into wall and push off with left arm) each arm
10 Snatches EA
20count Freddy Mercury with bell
Repeat for 3 rounds

Partner up
Partner 1 lung walks with both bells 20 yds and back while Partner 2 wall sits
(round 2 and 3 was changed to squats with bells in racked position)
10 bent row EA
20 Russian Twist
Repeat for 3 rounds

Front Raises x10 and hold out till 6 is finished
20 Twist Pushes (see above)
Repeat 2 rounds

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Mary Go Round at the Colosseum

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.

 

 

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5 Year Anniversary Convergence BB

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

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