RPG-Broga-Varsity Combo

Last Friday of every month will have a travelling Broga-RPG.  Varsity (at Nation Ford HS) was the location for November.  Nine pax came out for the 0500 start time to burn off after-Thanksgiving calories.

Broga
YHC was the lead-off man started the group with a some simple yoga positions, then Sasquatch brought us home with warrior poses.

The group split off: three went running; six stayed for boot camp.

Boot camp details:
Warm up
Mosey Run
Toy soldiers, high knees
Circle up and do:
SSH (In Cadence 16x)
Windmill (IC 16x)
Imperial Walker (IC 12x)
Plank Jacks (IC 16x)

Thang 1: Elevens
Mosey to JrROTC building
Run to bottom of hill, do 1 burpee
Run up to pull up bars, do 10 pullups
Incremental changes for the 11’s routine.

Thang 2: Wall Sits

Thang 3: Global Warming
Circle up, low stance position, all pax side shuffle about the circle, stop and do exercise called out (each pax had opportunity to call out an exercise):
Smurf Jacks
Imperial Walkers
Big Boy sit ups
Merkins
Squats
Etc.

The runners returned after traversing around 4ish miles.

Fini, COT
Prayers for pax traveling this holiday weekend, and for those that have lost a loved one recently.

Look for the traveling RPG-Broga coming to an AO by you; take advantage of the opportunity to get better!

TClap |
0

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.

TClap |
1

Veterans Day beat down at the Badger

Started with a light run and warm up routine.

Partner pull ups X 40

Discussed the importance of thanking a Veteran today for their service to our country.

Facts about Veteran’s Day
– Veteran’s Day originated as “Armistice Day” signaling the end of World War I on Nov 11, 1919 paying tribute to all soldiers fallen or living.
– There are 18.2 million living veterans that have served in at least 1 war as of 2018
– 9% of veterans are women
– of the 16 million Americans who served during World War II, about 496,000 are still alive as of 2018
– Random fact, the top 3 states with the highest percentage of Veterans were Alaska, Maine, and Montana.

The Thang

Rd 1 = 30 merkins, 30 squats, 20 BB situps, 1 lap
Rd 2 = 15 burpees, 20 lunges, 30 LBCs, 1 lap
Rd 3 = 25 Mac-tar-jies, 25 monkey humpers, 20 bomb jacks, 1 backwards lap

Rinse and Repeat

Finished with Mary

TClap |
2

Some of Us Got The Good Genes

Finally a break in heat and humidity on this fine morning at Runde Park.  Six men came to be challenged and I believe they left satisfied.

The Thang

Gears for first half.

Lap around the park calling out 3 stations on the route.

Circle up in the lot for a light warm up:

  • SSH
  • Windmills
  • Potato Pickers

Took off around the park loop, hitting three stations.  At each station 5 Burpees OYO, planked for the 6 at station 3.  Repeat with 5 Bomb Jacks OYO.

Hit the baseball field for Four Corners:

  • 5x Around The World Squats
  • 10x Squat Jacks
  • 15x Monkey Humpers

Plank for the 6 at station 4.  Repeat, but double the counts.

Another set of 2 laps around the park loop hitting the three stations with 10 Burpees OYO at each, then 10 Bomb Jacks OYO at each.

Hand off to Mr. Clean

PAX each grab a Cindy from the Suburban and head to everyone’s favorite hill.

PAX commenced with The Beast (6*6*6):

6 stations up the hill, 6 reps per exercise for 6 different exercises with Cindy.

  • Squat to upright row
  • Curls
  • Skull crushers
  • Chest press
  • Shoulder press
  • Lawnmower pulls

Moseyed back to the Lot for COT.

NMM

Confession: It has been forever since I Q’ed a boot camp.  With all the running and travel (and, if I am honest, excuses) it has been too long.

It was good to lead the men this morning through the first half and to push through the second half with them at my side.  It was the highest complement to have both Cable Guy and Fishsticks comment on how tough the workout was.  Also good to clown around with Wegmans while putting in work as his brother Sasquatch was sprinting up the hill with a Cinderblock.  And I couldn’t have asked for a better man than Mr. Clean to share the Q with this morning.

Missed seeing some of the regulars this morning… hopefully a temporal problem.

Announcements and Prayer Requests

  • Suffolk Punch has some sort of special with free (F3) beer.  Talk to Wegmans.
  • Prayers for Wegmans Father in Law and Prostate Cancer
  • Prayers for kids going through GI sickness that appears to be going around
  • Prayers for my leg to heal up after some sort of nerve issue

Honor to Serve

 

 

TClap |
2

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.

TClap |
8

Sometimes You Are The Six/IronPax wk2

This is simply one PAX’s IronPax story.

Of course you can see who is posting this backblast, but that is really not relevant.

You can review the PAX in attendance and know which region and which AO this was held, but that is irrelevant, too.

IronPax was created by F3Greenwood for the Nation to step out of their comfort zone, to be tested and stressed physically. to organize a little competition, to see where you stand with your peers.  Throwing in a little competition to the Nation is a good thing; competition (much like running times in races) is definitely a driving force to maintain, build upon and evaluate individual’s fitness levels.

But ultimately it is about 2 things:

1) You vs. You.  How far, hard and/or fast can YOU push yourself? Where does YOUR fitness level stand? Do YOU need to post more to maintain YOUR desired fitness level? Are YOU taking advantage of the F1 opportunities in your region?

2) PAX supporting PAX.  When you are out there doing a weekly IronPax challenge, you are out there WITH OTHER PAX DOING IT.  You will not be left behind, and you will not leave others behind. Use your fellow PAX for inspiration. They are with you doing it.

After having done IronPax in the past, my goal this year was to simply finish each week’s workout. Week 2’s “Meatloaf Massacre” challenge was a super hard arm workout challenge. For this runner’s skinny arms,  adding in I have not been posting as much as I should recently, I knew I was going to have a tough time.

Cinder blocks were brought by a PAX. 12 men had taken the challenge on this day.

By round 2, I knew I was in trouble. This was going to be a struggle. I was ready to quit then knowing I was not going to finish. I kept going simply by the fact that other PAX kept going. Through round 3, into round 4, I had fallen way behind as my arms were nearly dead. I was watching the clock as we got closer and closer to 0600.

After 30 of 50 merkins in the last round (with one running lap to finish), I announced I was done. I didn’t want to hold anyone up.  But my quitting was not an option for 2 of my fellow PAX (who these PAX were is also irrelevant, but WE know who they were). “How many more Bolt?” was asked. It did not matter to them. I was getting  20 more done. “Ok, 5 at a time. We’re doing it with you. Let’s get it done.” Back on my knees in front of my cinder block with 2 PAX to my right. 5 merkins, rest. “5 more Bolt.” So 5 more, rest. Then 5 more, rest. And the last 5. “Go get your last lap done, Bolt.”  Before I knew it I was done.

I certainly was not expecting to be the six, but now I had an IronPax time to submit.

And that’s all that really mattered on this day.

I’m expecting I will need PAX support in the final 2 weeks of IronPax. And I know I will get it.

TClap |
17

7th Year Convergence for The Fort

The 7th Year Convergence for The Fort followed an exhilarating Invergence from the night before.  Hoping to continue that acceleration, the 4 Q’s had a plan to talk about the 4 Skills needed for Virtuous Leadership: Vision, Articulation, Persuasion, Exhortation.

CakeBoss to start us out with Vision: Recognizing advantage and the movement required to achieve it.

Disclaimer and welcome
“Go Hard or Go Home!”

Take off for 100 yard mosey up path, Get in 3 lines – Indian Run across WEP

Break into 4 lines, 2 groups of seal teams -20 seal team sit ups in cadence

Back into 2 lines , Everyone plank – Tunnel of Love (25 guys per line) – Plank series while guys army crawling under

Crowd pleaser for sure!

7 Burpees for 7 Years!

Vision is what I spoke about and the men that saw the advantage of F3 and planted it (moved towards it) in Charlotte, the The Fort and we continued to give it away in Rock Hill & Lake Wylie.

Hand off to Maximus

Articulation: Describing vision to others in a clear manner. Being able to tell others where we’re going and being able to describe that vision to others.

So, with that said, we’re going over to the top of the big hill to start with drill bits:

½ the group goes one direction while the other goes the opposite way

At each white post (drill bit), 10 Jumping Lunges (10 each leg)

10 Jump Squats

Mosey to the base of the other hill, the one with the statue on it:

NUR (backwards run) up the hill

3 Burpees at the top

Bear Crawl down

5 Burpees at the bottom

Hand off to Fun House for the “P”.

Persuasion – The initiation of first Movement.  Convincing people to move in the direction of advantage, abandoning their Status Quo,

YHC gave an awesome yet forgettable speech about Persuasion.  Then the Thang:

Circle Up – Duck, Duck, Goose – One guy runs around the circle the rest of us plank, the next guy goes when the running guy finishes.  Planking excercises were called out: High Plank, Low plank, Mountain Climbers….. Audible called to get the next guy running after 1/2 a lap around the circle of Pax….. Peter Parker, Parker Peters….. Audible called to get the next guy running after 1/3 lap around….. Mak-Tar-Jai, Left Hand High, Right hand high…..Done.  That took 10 minutes!  60 guys is a lot of guys to be running around in circles.

Stay in circle, 5 minutes left, Jack Webb: 1 Merkin to 4 Overhead hand claps.  We got to 8!

Hand off to Pusher for Exhortation!

Exhortation – Incentivizing The Breach Of Obstacles.

Burpees x 10 OYO
Flutters IC x 10
Mosey to a corner of WEP
Burpees x 9 OYO
Flutters IC x 10
LBCs IC x 10
Mosey to another corner
Burpees x 8 OYO
Flutters IC x 10
LBCs IC x 10
Rosalita IC x 10
Mosey to another corner
Burpees x 7 OYO
Flutters IC x 10
LBCs IC x 10
Rosalitas IC x 10
Hello Dollies IC x 10
Mosey to another corner
Burpees x 6 OYO
LBCs IC x 10
Flutters IC x 10
COT
Naked Moleskin – The name-o-rama took forever.  That is a good thing. When 60+ PAX post to celebrate something that has obviously changed their lives, then change is happening!  Thanks to Maximus who put this awesome weekend celebration together!  His leadership is not only Effective (Using VAPE) but he is a Virtuous Leader! (Check out the Q Source for the 5 C’s Virtues of Virtuous Leadership) Can’t wait to see what year 8 brings to The Fort!  More importantly, who it brings!  Time to go EH someone.  See you in the gloom.
TClap |
1

Power 10 Catch Me If You Can

20 HIM Caught each other in a Power 10 Catch Me If You Can workout with partners

Power 10 – 10 reps of exercise, 9 reps, 8 reps…1 rep

Partner 1 starts with 10 reps of exercise while Partner 2 nurs or runs slow. Partner 1 sprints to catch up, then Partner 2 does 10 reps while P1 continues on.  P2 catches P1 and P1 starts 9 reps, keep going thru 1 rep.  Then start next exercise.

PAX modified some by adding bear crawls or lunges instead of the NUR or slow run.  Some did 10 of each exercise before moving on the 9.  All finished roughly the same time just in time for COT.

DarkHelmet called it “Spicy”

TClap |
6

Monotony is a Choice

16 energetic pax posted to the 4th installment of Minnow Pond.  All veterans, all had been warned in advance of need to warm up. So Disclaimed was super short and then it was game on.

The Thang

Run to playground at WEP.  First to arrive start doing Burpees until Six shows up.

Extended plank sequence while YHC delivers instructions.

Pax run one .6 mile lap around WEP on path at crisp pace. When pax arrive back to playground:
Pull ups x10
Derkins x20
Gorilla squats x30

Rinse & repeat lap/exercise sequence AMRAP for remainer of workout.

Short stint of Mary at playground while Six finishes final lap.

Run back home

COT

NMM

Great effort by the pax, pushing themselves and pushing each other.  Total laps ranged from 3 to 5, depending on pace.  Total of 3.5-ish miles plus 50 pull-ups, 100 Derkins & 150 Squats for those who maxed out at 5 laps.  No one left without needing to wring out his shirt.

Shady’s mission at MP is to push the pax, both in terms of pain and pace.  Objective with today’s Weinke was to make sure pax of any running pace could participate without the Six falling behind or leaders catching too much of a break.  Seems like it worked.

Running laps and doing the same three exercises can become stale…kinda like many parts of daily life.  Sometimes it might be the work routine, other times it might be family life or exercise or church or anything.  I don’t deal well in maintenance situations or situations that become routine.  When I’m stuck in those places without much ability to change, I can be tempted to make poor choices to escape the mundane or to “spice” things up.  Jester can draw a bead on me quite easily at these times.  BUT, there’s ALWAYS a #choice.  And the first choice is how you see the situation.  Seeing it as “monotony” is a choice.  Someone else might see the work routine with envy, because they want a job.  Someone may see the family routine as a dream, because they live alone or can’t have children.  Someone may see exercise doldrums as a joy, because they’re injured or disabled.  So, when routine starts to weigh on your spirits, remember that you have a choice to see the routine in ways other than drudgery. And maybe a different choice will help keep the Jester at bay.

Thanks to Shady for opportunity to lead.  Looking forward to many more mornings at MP!

TClap |
3

Q v Q 2019

 

It is with great pleasure that I am able to announce: the second annual installment of Q v Q is coming this October.

It will be modified slightly to increase the number of HIM in competition. Face kicks will abound as we have eight great Q’s lined up to make YOU better.

Scoring Criteria:

Creativity

Best Use of the AO

Level of Face Kick (AKA Difficulty of Beatdown)

Each PAX attending the workout will score each Q based out of maximum score of 5 points per category (15 points max). The winner will be determined based off of the higher total between the two Q’s.

On the last Wednesday of the month, the four Q’s to advance each week will face off in a ‘menage a quatre of pain’ with each taking on one 10 minute session

Schedule

October 2nd – Jiffy vs Sasquatch (this match up was too good not to repeat)

October 9th – Geronimo vs Shady

October 16th – Cha Ching vs Dirty Harry

October 23rd – Harry Caray vs. Youts

October 31st – The four advancing Q’s from each week will have one 10 minute session each to prove their worth as Best Q.

Format 

YHC will lead the PAX in a standard, warmup lasting 5 minutes. The rest of the time will be split into 10 minute blocks and one of the Qs takes the first 10, the second taking the next 10, the 1st Q has to opportunity to respond, and finally the 2nd Q has their opportunity to respond.

The Q that arrives earliest that morning will get to choose if they go first or second.

After the 40 minutes are up, the PAX will quickly vote, we will carry the 1, and determine a winner.

The winner of each week will also have the pleasure of providing a backblast for Funhouse’s appeasement.

Trophy

These Qs will be competing for a prize that will be on display each week during Q v Q at The Coop.

Q’s are subject to change. Any changes will be communicated by YHC.

May the odds be ever in your favor!

Punch List Out.

TClap |
15