Tag: Royale

5 Year Anniversary Convergence BB

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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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16

What a Quagmire!

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Love the great start to the week at an F3 workout at the Quagmire.  Here’s what we did around Rivergate.

Running warmup was a long one, we travelled about a mile. Hit these exercises on the way.

– High knees – Butt Kickers – Toy Soldiers – Karaoke

When we finally stopped running (and the PAX was vocal about telling me this is NOT a running AO) we did this for COP.

20 Seal Jacks

15 Imperial Walkers

30 Moroccan Night Clubs

15 Squats

10 Merkins

20 Mountain Climbers

15 Plank Jacks

15 Parker Peters

Mosey off to the fountain for a Dora 1-2-3

Partner Up

100 Wide Arm Merkins combined

200 Squats combined

300 American Hammers (2 count, no cheating yourself) combined

While 1st partner completes the exercise the other partner runs around the big circle and half the loop back to the fountain.

Once we finished I shared a small conversation on Leadership and taking Ownership. I’ve been reading Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink. I wanted to share a great way to show leadership in your family, at work and in every aspect of your life a great trait to have is taking Ownership, of all of it! By taking ownership I mean taking ownership of your response, your emotions, the blame,  projects, decisions.  There are countless ways every day that you should take ownership of an issue.  But when it comes time to receive praise, do not take the credit…share with the team.  highly recommend Jocko’s book and his podcast.  Thanks Witch Hunt for my new addiction to his podcasts.

Next cycle, ran over to the red balls by Target, my favorite!

Bear crawl between balls – at each ball do 3 burpees

Easy on paper, hard on your body!

Mosey back to the Fountain for the last few minutes

20 Steps Ups

25 Dips

Time to head back to COT!

Annoucements – read the newsletter

Praises and prayers by PAX

An honor to lead,

Royale

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PreBlast – Lake Dub (aka Lake Wylie) Q School

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Men,

The Mission of F3 is to plant, grow and serve small workout groups for the invigoration of male community leadership. In order to invigorate male leadership, we must strive to invigorate and encourage new males to step up and become leaders. One of the best ways we have to accomplish this is to help new PAX learn what it takes to Q.

To support this mission and the continued growth of the Lake Wylie area, we’ll be launching Q School at the Abyss during the first 3 weeks of October (4th, 11th, 18th). Q School will be led by a few of our veterans (who are also trying to get better at these opportunities to lead). Q School will feature both Q101 (perfect for new guys or those that want to get a handle on the basics) and Q201 (a more advanced session focused on some of the more detailed aspects of Q’ing).

Here is the schedule:

  • October 4th – Q101 – Double D + Royale
  • October 11th – Q101 – Senator Tressel + Ginsu
  • October 18th – Q101 & Q201 – Cake Boss + Dark Helmut

This is a great opportunity to work together to continue to develop leaders in the Lake Wylie area. Contact Royale, Bones, or Ginsu with any questions.

Ginsu

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Maiden Voyage on the Poopdeck

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We had 15 PAX gathered in the gloom for my VQ posting at Poopdeck, including 1 FNG EH’d by YHC.

Disclaimer was fully disclaimed, then we were off.

Warm-a-Rama

  • Short jog then circle up
  • Windmills
  • MNCs
  • Imperial Walkers
  • Low Slow Squats
  • Plank, Honeymooner, Downward Dog

The Thang

Moseyed over to the parking lot by the boat ramp for Ponzi Cones. So called because the reps form a pyramid, and they hopefully leave you spent. 4 cones set up around boat ramp parking lot (1/4 mile loop), 1 in each corner. PAX do the exercise for the round at each corner (4 sets), running/jogging between corners and plank till 6.

10 Burpees

20 LBCs

30 SSH

30 Plank Jacks

20 Freddy Mercuries

10 Merkins

For example, Round 1: run to 1st cone and do 10 burpees, run to 2nd cone and do 10 burpees, run to 3rd cone do 10 burpees, run to 4th cone do 10 burpees. Plank until 6 comes in. So you actually get 4X each exercise.

I shared some quick thoughts on a difficult period of leadership I had gone through recently. Looking back, it was a lot of prayer and my awesome family that got me through it. Sometimes I just need to be reminded that being a leader does not mean going it alone. Then we moseyed up to the wall for triple check.

Triple Check

PAX split into teams of 3. We had 15 so the math was perfect. Each round there are 3 exercises (1 for each PAX on the team). P1 and P2 hold their exercise until P3 returns from a lap. Everyone switches when P3 returns, cycling through until everyone does all three.

P1. Wall Sits

P2. Plank

P3. Run a lap around the parking lot

Meant to do 2 more rounds with variations on this, but we ran out of time. Circle up for COT.

COT

FNG was named Cherrio – originally from England.

Prayers for families, hurricane recovery, and work.

 

I had a great time planning out the workout and leading for the morning. Thanks to the 14 who came out for my maiden voyage as skipper of the Poopdeck. And a big thank you to Wild Thing for the opportunity to lead.

 

-Homebrew

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Brickhouse VQ @Poopdeck

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Less rainy than what they called for.

Disclaimer

Off for a mosey

warmups

4 corners:

Corner 1: Brick webbs

Corner 2: Crab humpers

Corner 3: Cinder block burpee

Corner 4: Monkey humpers

Mosey to the wall

Balls to the wall w/2 burpees each

COT: Marriage maint, prayer etc

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Training Camp at the Deep!

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Considering how excited I am about the upcoming NFL season and the fact that Saturday was opening day for College Football, it was only fitting we had a Football themed hour long boot camp.

Moseyed right over to the football field and got started:

Warm-up (using the width of the football field)

  • Butt kickers across field
  • High knees coming back
  • Karoeke across and back
  • Power skips across and back
  • Low back pedal 1/2 way, turn and sprint to end (do the same coming back)
  • Mirror me on the side shuffle – Pax watch me and do as I do.  Included many changes in directions on the shuffle, random merkins, back to shuffle, a few falls on the wet field, you get the point
  • Lastly some stretching prior to the real fun

Extra credit fun throughout – the Pax split between two teams (1 & 2).  In between each major section of the workout, we did 1 on 1 receiver routes.  Each team would get a shot on O and a shot on D.  I was all-time Q – if the offense caught the ball, their team only had to do 5 burpees.  If the defense defended the pass or picked it, they did 5 burpees.  The “losing” team in each battle had to do 5 KRACKEN burpees (gross).  This was done throughout the hour long workout.  By far the best play all day was the first of the day, hooking up w/ Royale on a hard sell fade route, turned into a post.  From there it got pretty ugly, the majority of the time being my fault as the QB w/ a wet ball and terrible touch.

1st bit of fun

  • Sprint Ladders – 20 sprints.  10 yard sprint, 10 sec rest, 10 yard sprint back, 10 sec rest, 20 yard sprint, 20 sec rest, 20 yard sprint back, 20 sec rest, 30 yard sprint, 30 sec rest, 30 yard sprint back, 30 sec rest, 40 yard sprint, 30 sec rest, 40 yards back, 30 sec rest, 50 yard sprint, 30 sec rest….AND back down again finishing on 2 10 yard sprints.  The Pax owned it, I was dying.

More 1 on 1 battles and burpees

2nd section

  • Partner up  – partner pushes 50 yards, switch w/ the partner who pushed jumping on the back of the other who then carries them back to the goal-line (50 yard back).  Switch up w/ the opposite partner pushing and then the original “pusher” carrying their partner back.
  • Merkin Rolls – again, Pax all in a plank, and have to mirror me looking at them.  Nothing but merkin, followed by quick rolls into more merkins, sometimes multiple rolls one after the other.  This is where I noticed the impact of those rolls and the dizziness in the eyes of the Pax who refused to do some merkins in fear they might vomit.  Good stuff.
  • All Pax get into a plank on the goal-line side by side, and starting on the end, the first Pax sprints 40 yards and then back.  Then the next, then the next.  We all hold the plank until all Pax have sprinted their 40 yards and back.  (in my defense, I gave them the option to do 5 burpees instead of the 2 40 yard dashes, they selected sprints).

1 on 1 battles and burpees

3rd station

  • All Pax get in a line, follow one after the other – 10 yard bear crawl, side shuffle between hash marks, bear crawl the next 10 yards, shuffle opposite direction between hash marks, bear crawl 10 more yards, etc.  You do this until you bear crawl 50 yards.  We did one 10 count rest, then rinse and repeat back another 50 yards (100 yards of bear crawl in total).

1 on 1 battles and burpees

4th station

  • Ab station – all Pax on the goal-line.  Gave them the option to call out ab exercise, and then we do OYO as many as you can while the first two pax sprint 50 yards and back (they are our timer).  Go all the way down the line of planking pax 2 times through (so all Pax had 4 more 50 yard sprints and tons of non stop ab work w/ the only rest being your sprinting time).  Did LBC’s, heels to heaven, freddie mercuries, boat/canoe, big boy sit-ups, and others.

Ran back to COT w/ 1 minute to spare for some hamstring stretches which were much needed after all the sprinting today.  Prayers included – jobs (Whopper interview w/ Husqavarna, Kenyan search), cancer (Java’s co-worker who was just diagnosed, Lutafisk’s mom, Cobra Kai’s wife), those impacted by Harvey and a great message on perspective from Java.  Followed it all up w/ coffeeteria at Dunkin w/ a guest appearance by Witch Hunt after he left his Co-Q w/ Jedi at Alcatraz.  Appreciate the chance to lead fellas.  Had a ball.

ChaChing

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5 Year Convergence + FNG Challenge PreBlast

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On September 26th, The Fort celebrates 5 years of invigorating male leadership in the Fort Mill community. To commemorate this occasion, we are pulling together the PAX of Fort Mill to a 1st F Convergence on Saturday, September 30th at 0700 at Nations Ford HS.

Join us on September 30th as we come together to celebrate this HUGE milestone. There will be 5 different workout options to accommodate PAX and every level. You have no excuses.

Also, with the time of year (weather + vacations are over), weekend date, late start time, workout options, and away Clemson & USC games, this is the PERFECT STORM for EH’ing FNGs. Add in the general excitement that a convergence generates and the conditions could not be more perfect. That said, we’re setting a goal of 20 FNGs. That’s roughly 1 FNG for every 20 PAX…we can do this…easily.

Here’s the Plan:

WHAT: Ruck

  • Q: Trucker
  • Time: 0700

WHAT: Bootcamp

  • Q: Royale
  • Time: 0700

WHAT: Run

  • Q: Birdcage
  • Time: 0700

WHAT: Black Diamond Bootcamp

  • Q: Backdraft
  • Time: 0700

WHAT: Moderate Bootcamp

  • Q: Short Sale
  • Time: 0700

Let’s celebrate the last 5 years of impacting this community and many more years to come!

Ginsu

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28

Crawlin’ at the Deep

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It was a beautiful Saturday morning at the Deep, cool with no humidity in sight (finally).  Since this was my first opportunity to Q I showed up early to scope the lay of the land and prep for the beatdown that was to follow, I wanted to make an impression after all.  The minutes leading up to the workout were suspenseful for me with most of the 9 PAX that posted rolling in at about 6:28.

@ 6:30 sharp we were all ready to begin.  No FNG’s in sight so I gave a quick disclaimer and we immediately circled up in the parking lot for some warm up exercises:

15 Windmills IC
15 Cherry Pickers IC
15 Moroccan Nightclubs IC
15 SSH IC
15 PJ’s IC
15 Alternating Shoulder Taps (Plank position) IC
15 Low Slow Squats IC

We then moseyed the long way around the parking lot with a few toy soldiers along the way until stopping at the top of a grassy hill for the first routine.  This consisted of running down to the bottom of the hill and backwards back up to the top where 5 CDD’s  awaited us before repeating 5x and adding 5 CDD’s each time.

Back to mosey across the street to the elementary school playground where the next routine awaited which consisted of 5 dips & 2 pull-ups and a lap around the perimeter of the playground.  Repeat 5x adding 5 dips & 2 pull-ups each time.  Grand total about a half mile of running, 30 pull-ups, and 75 dips.

Short mosey from the playground to the track & field where we spent the rest of our time.

First up was a little baseball, F3 style, as we attempted to hit for “The Cycle”.  I found this little gem on the Exicon, which I must admit, seemed a lot easier on paper.  After a little grumbling and a lot of crawling we all finished the exercise.  The Cycle consisted of bear crawling to 1st base (about 75ft to each base in our version), performing 3 burpees, and crawl-bear back to home (backwards bear crawl).  Then another bear crawl from home to 2nd base (rounding 1st), 6 burpees, and crawl bear back to home.  From home to 3rd base with another bear crawl, 9 burpees, and crawl bear back to home.  Finally, the last bear crawl all the way around the bases where 12 more burpees awaited…

…We called and audible and nixed the crawl bear back around the bases to the relief of all.

The last routine was another goodie I found on the Exicon named after Del Brown.  This consisted of performing 10 merkins, 25 yd. crab crawl, 10 diamond merkins, 25 yd. crab crawl back, and 10 more merkins.

Mosey back to the parking lot with a couple of minutes to spare.  I called on some PAX for ab exercises and we filled the last couple of minutes with Boxcutters and Hello Dolly’s before recovering to CoT.

Thanks Royale for the opportunity to lead, it was an honor and I’m already thinking about the next one.  All the PAX worked hard today and a few of us met up for Coffeteria after at the local Dunkin’ Donuts for a little 2nd F.

-Flux

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12

Never left BAM

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It was a beautiful, slightly less humid morning as the PAX gathered at the Swamp. It’s nice to see some new faces around the circle this morning before we split into the boot-campers and ruckers. Some form of a disclaimer was given and off we went toward the Depot.

Normal mix of high knees, butt-kickers, and karaoke’s on the way. Circle up at HD for warm-ups. 25 SSHs, 15 IWs, 10 Windmills, 10 Peter Parkers, 10 Parker Peters, 25 MNCs, 10-Sumo squats.

Mosey to Books-A-Million lot.
Suicides starting from far cub and using each parking divider (4 trips).
Leg pyramid: 10 Burpees, 20 1-leg lunges (10 each), 30 Mtn Climbers, 40 Squats, 50 SSHs, 40 Squats, 30 Mtn Climbers, 20 1-leg lunges, 10 Burpees
Suicides – audible to only 3 trips.
Merkin clock: 1,4,7,10-Diamonds / 2,5,8,11-Wide Arm / 3,6,9,12-Regular. Go around the clock and do the merkin type. (I hadn’t done this in a while and now I remember why).
Suicides – 3 trips
Ab time: 15 Flutters, 20 tiny circles (10 each way), 15 Freddie Mercury’s, 15 LBCs
Suicides – 2 trips
Small jack pyramid: 10 Bomb-jacks, 20 Plank-jacks, 30 Seal-jacks, 20 Plank-jacks, 10 Bomb-jacks
Bear crawl suicide – Bear crawl from end of one parking lane to beginning of other lane, 1 merkin, backwards bear-crawl to start, 1 merkin. Did this 5 times.

Mosey back to COT for some dying cockroaches before the ruckers came in.

We never left the BAM lot but I tried to throw a little bit of everything in today. Great job by everyone. I’m always honored to lead this group of impressive PAX. Thanks CableGuy for the opportunity.

Logging out,
Mainframe

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4 Corners at the Poopdeck

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We had 13 guys roll up and get ready to go at the Poopdeck. Had a new FNG who heard a few of the PAX at the new Dunkin Donuts on Gold Hill road talking and decided to look up F3! So he joined us this morning! I knew Davinci and Witch Hunt were pre-running on the bridge so they were going to be late.  Long disclaimer for the new guy.  And then we took off.

Dynamic warmup jog around the parking lot

COP

25 SSHs – 10 Windmills – 15 IWs – 10 Merkins – 15 Mountain Climbers – 10 WA Merkins

Moseyed over to the marina parking for four corners

Count of into 4 groups

Each round will start at a corner.  Complete the 2 exercises then run to next corner. (This parking lot is BIG) There are three rounds of this…

Group 1 with Paver stones

Lap 1 30 curls 20 Overhead presses

Lap 2 30 curls 20 tricep extensions

Lap 3 30 curls 30 bent rows

Group 2

Lap 1 20 Ranger Merkins 10 Lunges

Lap 2 20 Ranger Merkins 20 calf raises

Lap 3  20 Ranger Merkins 10 Jump Lunges

Group 3

Lap 1 5 burpees 10 squats

Lap 2 5 burpees 20 mountain climbers

Lap 3 5 burpees 10 Parker Peters

Group 4

Lap 1 40 SSHs 20 LBCs

Lap 2 40 SSHs 20 Flutter Kicks

Lap 3 40 SSHs 20 Freddie Mercuries

Quick little piece I shared on Discipline.  Don’t give in to the voice in your head saying the little things are OK.

Mosey back to Bowl-n-Bounce for some wall sits.

People’s Chair while we go down the lines.  2 burpees each PAX

BTTW 3 10 counts

People’s Chair  5 merkins each PAX

BTTW again

Last mosey around the parking lot to COT

COT – count – went through the 5 principles of an F3 workout for the FNG

Eric our FNG works for the patent office and cringed when the name Copyright came up…so there you have it!

Announcements -praises and prayers.

The PAX worked hard today!

An honor to Lead.

Royale

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