Burpee Temple Of Doom

Preamble:  On a cool summer morning with a breeze coming off of Lake Wylie, 8 brave Pax rolled on in to the PoopDeck for my second ever Q.  After watching the new Paramount Network on my cable TV and seeing them replay all 4 Indiana Jones movies over and over again add-nauseam, I got the idea for a Temple of Doom style workout, but with cones shaped into a pyramid, not an actual temple.

Right off the bat I had the Pax do 5 burpees OYO.  After that I had the Pax mosey on over to the COP for a nice relaxing warmup.

Arm Circles-1 Burpee

10 Cherry Pickers-2 Burpees

10 Windmill-3 Burpees

10 SSH-4 Burpees

10 LSS-5 Burpees

10 Break Dance ‘mericans-6 Burpees

20 Dips-7 Burpees

10 Mountain Climbers-8 Burpees

10 Imperial Walkers-9 Burpees

10 3 count punches-10 Burpees 

The Thang

I welcomed everyone to the Temple and told the Pax my reasons for the theme of the workout which I wrote about in my preamble above.  There were four tiers to the Temple with the first tier consisting of four cones with four different style of Burpee’s per cone.

1St Tier:

1st Cone: 5 Spider Burpees

2nd Cone: 5 Break Dance Burpees

3rd Cone: 5 Jack-Ass Burpees

4th Cone: 5 Plank Jack Burpees

We crab Walked to the second tier where more fun awaited us.

2nd Tier:

5th Cone: 10 Hand Release Burpees

6th Cone: 10 Punching Burpees

7th Cone: 10 Switch Burpees

We Bear Crawled to the third tier.

3rd Tier:

8th Cone: 15 SSH Burpees

9th Cone: 15 Mountain Climber Burpees

We partner carried to the pinnacle.

Pinnacle:

10th Cone: 25 Burpees

After surviving the Temple we mosey’d back to COT, where I realized we had 9 minutes left, time for an Ab-Lab!

Ab-Lab:

10 count American Hammer

15 count Freddie Mercury’s

20 count side planks

10 Big Boy Sit Ups

10 Box Cutters

Rip Cord to Boat

10 LBC’s 

15 Dying Cock-a-roach’s

Observations:  I was so wiped I forgot to do the video name-o-Rama, I will get better and stronger!  

Cancer and heart disease sucks, we are losing loved ones seemingly daily to these horrible diseases.

Prayers to those Pax looking for work.

Grateful to Peg for the opportunity to lead!

 

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2 Year Anniversary of The Abyss

Today we celebrated 2 years of the Abyss.  When the shovel flag was planted 6/29/20016 by Dark Helmet the Abyss was merely an idea that “if we build it….they will post.”  And post the PAX did!  Over the past year and half it has been an honor to be the Site Q of this versatile AO and I appreciate all the PAX who have come out and led a workout.

Q got to the AO with seconds to spare due to an emergency bathroom visit at a 24 hr Harris Teeter in route.

Once disclaimers were given and the 5 F3 Principles given (due to FNG) we were off.

Quick mosey around the front half of the AO to allow all stragallers to exit their vehichles (ehem…Wildthing) and then to a warm-up circle.

Warm-up

  • Windmill
  • Weed Pickers
  • Moroccan Night Club
  • Slow Low Squat
  • Plank (a few Broga moves)
  • Merkins
  • Stretch with knees to chest

The Thang

I told the PAX that I wanted to highlight a few of the “features” of the AO during the workout so we started with the Flag pole.

  • Bear Crawl around circle in front of school

Mosey to very back hill of the AO for a series of hill exercises

  • Lunge walk–Sprint to top
  • Broad Jump–Sprint to top
  • Basketball shuffle Flip half way

Mosey to the Basketball court for some Suicides

First Suicide–

all four goals and back

Second–

  • Start with 10 Squats
  • 2nd Goal–10 Merkins
  • 4th Goal–5 Burpees

Mosey into “wet and muddy” field

  • Elbow Plank position with Peter Parker’s
  • Jack Webs (everyone’s favorites)

Mosey to “the hill”

  • Finished strong with 5 sprints up the hill

Mosey to COT.

Everyone pushed themselves and got better for it…includding FNG who was off to the side threatening to Merlot.

Once Namorama was finished we welcomed FNG Oompa Loompa!

Announcements and Prayers

Thanks again for all the PAX who came out today to celebrate this AO.  We had 24 there and we have set the goal for 30 next year!

-Bones

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BEYOND – CONFIDENCE & SELF-WORTH

Being the BEYOND Q has been something that I’ve found to be quite intimidating after the first few that I attended. I’ll admit, I’m not the most experienced in the 3rd F. How will I find a message that will resonate with the PAX? Will it impact them? Will it move them? These are all of the questions that have been on my mind since getting on Q schedule for BEYOND.

5 brave PAX split from the group and went off into The Gloom with YHC.

Pre-Amble:
Throughout the majority of my life I’ve had the luxury of being able to take the easy way out when things got tough. High School Sports Injury? Rehab is too hard I’ll just find something else. Finding out the career you want involves hard classes and real work? Find something easier that takes less effort. Tough time finding a job? Take the first and easiest option instead of facing rejection. I can’t even count the number of goals I’ve set for myself and just sat back watched as goal date just floated on passed.

What do all of these easy way out decisions lead to? Regret. They lead to happy hours and late night talks about how I could’ve done X, but (insert lame excuse here). They lead to late nights saying I should’ve been Y, but (insert lame excuse here).

Where does all of that come from? What makes it so easy to compromise? I think it comes from not knowing who you are as a man, or what is important to you. I’ve spent most of my life trying to assimilate into whatever peer group would have me. Tupac summed up my teen years the best, “I hung around with thugs and even though they sold drugs, they showed a young brother love”. The quickest way to make friends in college? Find the party or hang out in front of dorms and meet the smokers. So far, probably not the most High Impact Men to surround myself with.

Enter F3 about 2.5 years ago. This group of men has given me confidence. It has built enough self-worth in me that I can now look people in the eyes when I talk to them. It has given me the desire to want to finish what I’ve started, to complete the task, to not accept not meeting the standard. The saying we’ve adopted is “Do the Harder Thing”. That is how I want to live my life.

Today the feeling of regret stops. Today we come back to one task, one goal that has eaten away at me slowly for 18 mos…

THE THANG
About halfway through our F3 Custom GoRuck Challenge, after carrying heavy logs and each other, Cadre Danny and Cadre Flash challenged us to a PT Test.

100 Burpees
Run 1.1 Mi
50 Burpees
Run 1.1 Mi
Time: 32 minutes (for the vent they added an extra few minutes)

My time the first time was over 40 minutes.

All participants finished in 31 minutes or less!

Thank you Maximus for the opportunity to lead.

Until next time in the gloom,

Wild Thing out!

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Gym Jones and a little DORA

It’s been a while since I’ve been back to my old stomping grounds at The Deep and thought this would be a great way to warm up for BEYOND coming on Monday. 9 PAX answered the call in The Gloom. Here’s what went down:

Quick Disclaimer and Mosey over to the parking lot in front of The Office (slight location adjustment was needed due some leftover splashed merlot).

A brief warm up followed.

THE THANG
A while back Facebook into me to Bobby Maximus and some of his Gym Jones challenges. It goes like this: Set a timer for one minute. Starting at one increase by one Burpee every minute until you can no longer complete the number of Burpees in that minute. This group pushed themselves to the limit and made it 15! For those who don’t want to do the math that’s 120 total Burpees

With all the PAX sucking wind we slowly moseyed over to the building and partnered up for a little DORA. With a partner complete 100 Dips, 200 Squats, and 300 double count Flutters while their partner ran to the parking island and back.

With the PAX sufficiently smoked, we moseyed back to COT.

MOLESKIN
F3 has impacted my life in more ways than I can count. I shared today that for most of my life due to various factors including being bullied, I have never had the confidence to look people in the eyes while speaking with them. I didn’t feel worthy. It felt intimidating. While I’ve held leadership positions, I’ve never known what it took to be a leader. F3 has given me the confidence to finally do that. The mental shift that happens when all of a sudden you lead and others follow is life changing. It’s downright empowering. These 45 minutes or hour leadership sessions have not only impacted my relationships, but my professional life as well.

There’s your preview for BEYOND. Check out the next BB for PART II.

Wild Thing Out.

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Uptown Funk You Up

It was one of those crazy humid Carolina mornings where YHC actually had to turn on the AC on the way to the workout. You know it’s muggy when you’re already sweating with no sun, and no exercise. Bring 15 dudes into the mix and it got real sweaty real fast.

Disclaimer made, then circuitous mosey around the parking lot.
Circled up for: SSH, weed pickers, merkins, superman, low slow squats

The THANG
Uptown 50
I got this one straight out of the exicon. I read about it probably two months ago and had been looking forward to trying it since then. Two markers were set up (about) 50 yards apart on the basketball courts. PAX partnered up. The idea is to do 10 burpees then travel 50 yards via the prescribed means to the other marker, where you then do 10 more burpees and travel back to the start by the next mode of transport. There were 10 total lengths of 50 yards so 10 x 10 =100 burpees… plus whatever it took PAX to do 50 yards of burpee broad jumps. Lots of burpees.

Here were the modes of transport in order: Burpee Broad Jump, Crab Walk, Partner Carry (P1), Partner Carry (P2), Alligator Crawl, Wheelbarrow (P1), Wheelbarrow (P2), Nur, AYG (Sprint!), and Bear Crawl

Due to mumblechatter from PAX not wanting to scuff their fancy pants new running shoes up, Omaha was called on the Alligator Crawl, which was substituted for bear crawls. Great effort by everyone on pushing through this till the end.

Ab Doras

100 Boxcutters, 200 Big Boy Situps, 300 Freddies (double count)

P1 ran down and up the hill, while P2 did boxcutters. Flapjack and keep adding till you get to your number as a team. After boxcutters, runners went to end of the school and back for the big boy and Freddy rounds. Each pair made it pretty far into the 200 Big Boy Situps by the time 6:00 rolled around, and a couple of teams managed to break into the Freddies. Mosey back to COT.

COT
Announcements are all in the newsletter. Read it.
Prayers for Whopper’s job situation, Cha Ching with son #3 due to arrive any day, and safe travels for Tinsel’s sister who is flying to Ecuador. Very sweaty BOM.

Big thanks to Bones for the opportunity to lead.

Stay Classy,
Homebrew

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BEYOND at Sea Legs with Royale

I was honored that Maximus would reach out to me to Q the roaming BEYOND workout.  On a Tuesday choices were Golden Corral or Sea Legs for me, and with my new change in work schedule I needed the closest option, so our traditional running AO transformed into an ultra tough bootcamp for the day.  When I arrived the site Q Hauschka was there and let me know everyone was going to be doing the bootcamp…no runners today!

I’ve Q’d plenty, but this one left me with a pretty sleepless night.  Was my message going to be good enough?  I can make the workout as hard as I want?  I’ve been to several of the BEYOND workouts and the PAX before me have really done it justice.  Those men shared real stories and showed their vulnerability to others.  I needed to live up to that standard.  After the disclaimer I asked this question.

“What is the ONE thing you could alter in your life today that would make it better?”

The Thang

Started with a quick warmup lap around the parking lot with a short COP

-25 SSHs -15 Squats – 10 Merkins – 15 Mountain Climbers – 10 Diamond Merkins

Partner Up

1st partner was going to run over to the jungle gym for 10 pull-ups

2nd partner stays back and does jump lunges until you flip flop with partner 1

Get to 100 pulls ups each. (10 rotations)  This was a real crowd pleaser after the Memorial Day Murph yesterday…

We finished and from plank, I shared my “One Thing” – and that was my love of alcohol. It’s in my genes to want it…my father and most of his genealogy have been alcoholics, and I watched it destroy his productive life for decades.  It has a pull on me that I do not feel normal people get.  I have to make a conscious effort to maintain control when I drink or bad things happen.  It’s pervasive in my life – social events, my wife and I enjoy together, work events, Saturday nights when I don’t have to post Sunday – and I like all of those things!

We talked about the Jester, my favorite Q source read.  We talked about who he is, what he tries to do, and how he pulls you away from the proper path in your life.  I hope more will read of him here.  https://f3nation.com/2018/02/11/jester-q1-4/

Next phase mosey to the hill

7s on the hill

I learned a new exercise at the Memorial Day convergence in SouthPark from our Area 51 brothers.  The “True American” – 6 count exercise which is a hand release push up followed by a plank jack.

6 Trues Americans at top of hill

Run down

1 burpee – you know the rest!

As I crawled up the hill for the last round I was gassed.  I had one phase to go.

Wall sits

The PAX on the ends will bear crawl out to the road – complete 5 merkins – bear crawl back.  Continue down the middle until all PAX have bear crawled.

Mosey back to COT for 3 minutes of Mary

-Freddies – Flutters – LBCs

Closed my discussion with Hope: I know where I would be today, 3 more years down that path to failure…if it wasn’t for F3, my brothers in arms, and my PAX relationships that help me, guide me, point me on the right path in accountability and by who these men are.  I look up to all of you and have learned something from EACH of you! Continue to be my role models for success!

An honor to Lead…

-Royale

 

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47

A Primal Beatdown

On a warm sticky morning at the Crow’s Nest 7 Pax rolled into the parking lot while I was preparing for my first ever Q and I was pumped!  After about 10 weeks of following all the great Q’s of my past workout’s I was eager to prove my mettle and present a challenging workout with a theme of how animals move in nature.

Warmup

I had an instant COP to warm up the morning stiffness

20 SSH

10 Cherry Pickers

Arm Circles

10 LSS

Then I had the Pax do an Indian Run to the main event area with the rear Pax doing 1 Burpee to continue the warming up period.

The Thang

I pulled out a deck of playing cards for the beatdown

Spades were Bear Crawls

Clubs were Crab Walks

Hearts were Donkey Kicks

Diamonds were Pull Ups (Monkey)

Jokers were 14 Grasshopper ‘Mericans

Rep ranges were 2-14 depending on the card with BC’s and CW’s  going a certain distance corresponding to the card.  Thanks to Flux for the helpful modification on the BC’s and CW’s.

During the beatdown I pulled out 2 scripture readings, the first being on how our bodies’ are our temple’s to SkyQ from 1 Corinthians and with the word of the month being Accountability I knew a great passage from Ezekiel on being watchers on the wall.

After getting through most of the deck we moseyed back right on time for COT.

Thoughts and prayers for this country on yet another school shooting.

 

 

 

 

 

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Sea Legs

We ran…we ran fast and farther than any other Sea Legs!  5.4 miles in 47 minutes.  Great conversation with 4 of the 6 just completing the RuckOver event with Cadre Rad the Friday previous.  My legs really started to tighten up at the end of this run.  Good to have Bono out, but he still hasn’t posted to a bootcamp?  How does that happen?

-Fin Royale

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Russian Roulette

To start:

Simple stretching while I explained the idea of what I call Russian Roulette.  During the workout, rock songs from a 90s and 00s playlist were blasted on shuffle.  One song on the playlist would function as a punishment song and, if played, the entire group would have a punishment to complete during the length of the song.  Naturally, that song was by Nickelback because they might be the worst band of all time (as if having to listen to Nickelback wasn’t bad enough, the group would have something terrible to do during that time as well).

 

The Thang:

PAX split into pairs to work through 6 different stations of various exercises.  Each set of exercises were completed twice before moving on to another station.  Each station were as followed:

  1. 2x40lb Sandbag Farmers Carry, Medicine Ball Balance Merkin, LBC’s w/ 10lb weight
  2. Agility Ladder SSH’s, Dumbbell Tricep Extensions, Flutter Kicks
  3. Burpee Medicine Ball Slam, 40lb Sandbag Bicep Curl, Big Boy Situp w/ 10lb weight
  4. Jump Rope, 40lb Sandbag Squat w/ Overhead Press at the top, and Freddie Mercury’s
  5. Ski Jump Over Jump Rope, Carolina Dry Docks, Medicine Ball American Hammers
  6. Plyo Box Jumps or Step Ups, Band Chest Press, Dying Cockroach

Based on my observation, most PAX completed one full round plus a few extra stations in the time that we had.  Luckily for us, Nickelback never played.  Next time, when I shorten the playlist, we may not be so lucky.

 

P.S. – Just in case you weren’t aware… Nickelback sucks.

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