Tag: Shady

If you build it, they will come..

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The weather forecasts leading up to Slow Burn showed what could have been a soggy outing. In preparation, I made sure I had not one, but two Weinke’s prepared for the PAX. One bringing back a popular game from College past to keep us dry, “Roxanne,” with a slightly different spin, and the other a friendly mosey around the parking lots with a few exercises mixed in. Surprisingly, it ended up being a perfect day and with it, an impressive 30 PAX showed for the party.

Warm-up

Mosey to the parking lot in front of Empire Pizza

Along the way, did some butt kicks, high knees and side shuffles, left and right and circled up for some warm-up

SSH- x25

LSS- x10

Windmill-x10

Moroccan- x25

Overhead Claps- x20

Happy Jacks- 4 rounds- 5 SSH/ 2 jump squats- a nice new surprise for the PAX

Mountain Climbers- x 10

Annie- 1-2 (1) Total of 10-

The Thang

Mumble Chatter was in full force and hard to avoid with such a great number.

First Round-Same parking lot, PAX lined up close to the center back parking line and faced towards the curb heading at a slight decline. Kicked off the fun with a round of 7’s. PAX started with 1- CDD and sprint to the other side- 6 squats. Continue this pattern until the the flip-flop happens, and you are ending with 6-CDD and 1-squat. Great work out of everyone. Plank until the Six was in.

Second round-Mosey over to the parking lot next to the new restaurant Persia (not sure if that’s the name). PAX lined up along the parking space middle line facing the curb. Seemed to be a theme for the day. Next up- Modified ascending bear crawl until 13. 1-CDD then Bear Crawl to other side- 2 Derkins. Bear Crawl back to starting position, complete 3-CDD. Continue this pattern until you end on 13- CDD. Once complete, a couple of ten counts and off to the next destination. Amazingly, the mumble chatter had decreased significantly!

Third round– Mosey over to the right side of Lowes and all the PAX grabbed some space on the wall. I had originally planned for some chicken peckers, look it up. Instead we started a 10 count at one of the PAX line and continued with all PAX in a chair position. PAX joined in with instructions to push everyone to that great feeling of displeasure. Thanks for chipping in! As it got to the halfway point, I could hear the mumble chatter wondering what happened to the moderate workout, so I gave a quick leg shake break. Quick it was, and then back on the wall. We didn’t quite complete the entire line but I commend the PAX on the effort.

Next up Individual suicides- showed the PAX the lines to hit and off they went. 5 Merkins after first set and 5 flying squirrels after the second.  Took a break in between to highlight for the group the mission and 5 principles of F3. Hopefully the FNG’s heard it!

Headed back to the warm-up spot for some Mary work

Dolly-20

Reverse Crunch- 20

American Hammer- 15

Flutter kicks- 15

Mountain Climbers/Peter Parkers/Parker Peters

Back to COT

It wasn’t quite Six O’ Clock so we needed one more exercise to get us there, and Trucker happily offered up toe touches to get us home. Thanks!

Announcements– read your newsletter

Prayers/Praises– Badger, Glenn, Children, Teachers, Parents, Smithers, CSPAN, if I missed one I apologize

Thanks for the support PAX and for Shady and FMB for bringing FNG’s- Wide Right and Wilson

And Smithers for the opportunity to lead!

Frat BoySlowburn

 

 

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4

6 or So Pain Stations Around Fort Mill

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Oh, it’s starting to get steamy.  So long cool mornings.  See you in 6 months.  The thick, non-cool air didn’t keep 8 pax from showing up to the party.  Here’s how we had fun:

Mosey to unused parking lot next between WEP and Springs building for warmup:

  • SSH x30
  • Mountain Climbers x20
  • Flip over for Peter Pointers x10
  • Flip over for merkins x10
  • Imperial Squat Walkers x10
  • Windmills x10
The Thang
Mosey to Oasis Park wall exercises OYO
  • Box Jumps (x15)
  • Dips (x15)
  • Derkins (x15)
  • Al Gore’s until the 6.

Repeat three exercises, but x10
Repeat three exercises, but x5

Mosey to wall near visitor’s parking lot
  • grab a seat on the wall
  • starting at one end, single coupon (log) curled 5 times, then overhead pressed 5x
  • pass to next guy and repeat

Once all 8 pax have a turn, quick recovery, then back on the wall to repeat.

Mosey to steps across from Main Street (behind grist mill stone).  Partner up, size matters.
  • Everyone bear crawl up steps, run down grass and back to bottom of steps.
  • Partner Wheelbarrow up steps (then run down grass) – flap jack
  • Everyone grab a stair for 10 calf raises in cadence
  • Take a step and repeat, toes in.
  • Take a step and repeat, toes out.
Run to lot behind Hobos
  • Broad Jumps across parking lot, everyone keeping count.  Flash made it in 12 jumps, so we all did 12 burpees.
  • Repeat going back.  This time Flash made it in 11 jumps.  11 burpees
Mosey to Veteran’s Park for LBCs until the 6.
Continue mosey to COT.  American Hammers and (something else I can’t remember) until the 6.
Great work by all pax!
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11

Cindy Throws a Block Party

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Block Party lost out in attendance to a “more difficult”  Colosseum.  Next time we’ll use two blocks per man.

Here then is what transpired after a brief warm up:

The PAX gathered up their date for the morning, aka Cindy

Circuit of WEP on the mile marks with

  1. 20 Curls and 20 Hello Dolly
  2. 20 Rows and 20 Flutters + Bonus 5 Burpees
  3. 20 OH Presses and 20 Rosalita
  4. 20 Tris and 20 Leg Lifts
  5. 20 Swings and 20 Hello Dolly
  6. 20 Curls and 20 Flutters

(all ground moves had optional OH press)

Mosey to  hill with Cindy and move to first light pole and 10 merkins and back with 20 LBCs.  Repeat for next two poles and back for 20 LBCs etc. until time was called.

Moleskin – YHC commented on Honor (from Jekyl) and interwove the law as Christ described it:  Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself.  (TT – 2018)

YHC will note that Maximus may have a kindred spirit in Husky and Husky needs to visit Beyond and the Badger

 

 

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Old School WEP.

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As cars rolled in one after another I was greeted by faces of men I knew and a few of some I didn’t. It is always great to be back Qing at the home where The Fort took shape. It was even better sharing this Q with my friend Mainframe. We got started with Mainframe giving the tasteful disclaimer. We then took off and the rest went something like this.

normal warm up stuff, mosey over to short wall for 15 derkins, 15 dips, 20 step-ups, mosey down to small lot in front of springs, 15 donkey kicks then bear crawl to other side, 1 merkin, crawl bear back, 10 DKs then bear crawl to other side, 1 merkin, crawl bear back, and then 5 DKs then bear crawl to other side, 1 merkin, crawl bear back

Mosey up the hill to upper lot and divide up into 3 groups. 2 groups working, 1 group resting for 2 rounds (1&2, 2&3, 1&3, 1&2, 2&3, 1&3). First was 10 burpees per set so total of 40 burpees per PAX. Run down hill and back to top. Second was 16 jump lunges (64 total per PAX). Run down hill, then run backwards up hill. Third was 15 monkey humpers (60 total per PAX). Run down hill, then run backwards up hill. Times up and over to you.

Was glad that was over. Wasn’t sure my portion would hold up to what we just did.

Start with Merkins 10 normal, 10 diamond, 10 wide arm.

Move over to light pole.  20 shoulder presses, 20 flutter kicks, bear crawl to other light pole 15 CDDs 10 big boy sit ups. crab walk back to light pole 15 Moroccan night clubs 15 hello dolly’s in cadence, bear crawl back to light pole 15 shoulder pressed 10 grave diggers each side.

Circle up for Jack webs 1-5, 4-20

stay in circle for plank hold while we run around the clock hurdling the other PAX.

Mosey down hill to veteran memorial Pledge and moment of silence for Fallen Local Firefighter Richard Sheltra.

Mosey over to wall. take a seat while pax do broad jumps and both leg single jumps.

Mosey to short walls do 10 derkins, 10 box jumps and 10 dips on wall X2.

Mosey to yet another wall. BTW but while up in cadence 5 presses and 10 Peter Parkers.

Mosey back to COT.

announcements- Cannoli run, reading in Paradise, and Strawberry Festival.

Prayers- Sheltra family, Badger and Family

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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WHETSTONE…Relaunches at THE FORT

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Several weeks ago, it was announced that our region, THE FORT, would be closing all Saturday AO’s and holding a convergence at FMHS to get the PAX together as we thank Rebel for his leadership of Whetstone and relaunch it under Repeat and World Wide Leader (WWL). I was excited to hear we’d be getting many of the region together but I wasn’t expecting what came next. It was a text asking if I’d Q the workout.

Q, like part of it, half of it or …? The response was, THE WHOLE THING. I love to Q every chance I get but to do so on a day like this, well, I better make sure it includes a little something for everyone. Or, almost everyone.

————————————————————————————————————–

And this is where I let life get the better of me. I try to follow the 48hr rule on posting a BACKBLAST, especially when they’re significant but I let life and travel get in the way. It is now Saturday, one week later, and I’m just finishing this BB. Life can get challenging, it can get stressful, it can get you riding the highs or down in the lows. And this past week, our family has experienced some of each. Maybe this was the week where I really came to realize how valuable having a Whetstone partner can be. Someone that I can share the highs with and someone to help get me out of the lows; or to keep me honest when it’s my own doing that has me on the outside looking in on the joys of life.

That said, I’ll take you back to last Saturday, April 21 where we had a a few pre-ruckers and a total of 58 PAX converge to re-kick off this critical program.

We got ourselves into an odd-shaped kidney-like shape for the disclaimer, the announcement of why we were there this beautiful morning and to acknowledge our 2 FNG’s in the PAX. We counted off in 4’s then took off toward the big parking lot for a warm up jog in 4 lines. This jog included some karaoke’s and 4 lines doing an indian run which was way harder than it appeared on paper.

In these last 2 years, Whetstone has brought together some extremely HIM. One of those men has gone through a tough 18mos and he was gracious enough to share some of his story to include the impact Whetstone had on his life as we circled up to hear his words. I know he wouldn’t endorse this comment but anytime Mr. Clean wants to share experience or wisdom, the PAX listens. And listen we did.

After backing the group back out to a circle-like shape, I was giddy to honor Santini in the only way I knew how…with a deck of cards. However, on this day we utilized 1/2 the deck and considered it our warm up:

Hearts = Side Straddle Hops

Diamonds = Carolina Dry Docks

Spades = Squats

Clubs = Merkins

Then a little action from the Burp-Merk: Standing, we then dropped to a plank, did 5 merkins then jumped up. That equals 1 and we did 5 total.

This was when we got to listen to our very own Nantaan, Cake Boss, as he shared the impact Whetstone has had on him. Yet again, another powerful testimony.

Then off to do 4 corners in the lot with:

Corner 1 = Dancing Crabs x 15ea and Dips x 20

Corner 2 = Dying Cockroach x 15ea and Flutters x 20ea

Corner 3 = Burpees x 10 and Jump Squats x 10

Corner 4 = American Hammers x 25 and Freddie Mercury x 20ea

Mosey over to the wall for B2W while doing 5 “push ups” followed by 15 calf raises. We did this 3 times.

To close out our testimonies, my man Chicken Hawk laid it down for us. He shared the impact Whetstone has had on him, his marriage, his family…his life. Life isn’t meant to be traveled alone. Well said brother.

6ct Burpee which I needed a little help from the Helmet of Darkness to remind me the steps. Remember the line, “If you can’t Q it, don’t do it?” Yeah, me too but I obviously didn’t follow that too closely here.

This is where the cat-herding became evident. The PAX exhibited patience with me as we attempted a modified DORA series consisting of:

50 Flying Squirrels, 50 Diamond Merkins and 50+ Flutters

We then took off for the main entrance to the football stadium and lined up in 4 lines facing down the hill. Once everyone readjusted, it was 15 American Hammers, 15 Flutters and 15 Hello Dollies. This was done several more times.

Well, that put a bow on the workout portion of this convergence and after the COT, FNG naming of RBG and Whiskers, we then handed it off to World Wide Leader and Repeat to lead the Whetstone discussion.

Announcements: The relaunch of Whetstone. Thanks to Rebel for getting this off the ground 2 years ago and to Repeat / World Wide Leader for taking the reigns.

Prayer Requests: Badger. Camp Care 5K. Jennings Palmer’s transplant. Olive’s 8K in memory of Sweet Tooth. Elmer.

Honored and appreciative of your patience.

Maximus

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6

Cone heads

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First I want to thank Jiffy for the opportunity to lead the PAX today. 15 guys showed up and this was the biggest group that I had Q’ed for . I spent an hour or so the night before reading up on the exercise database found in the F3 website. The first exercise I introduced was the kimono dragon. It’s best described as a Peter Parker but you actually move forward. Note: very hard to execute backwards. This new move was implemented in the warmup.

Then we moseyed to soccer field for the main event. We started on the goal line and I had placed cones 10 yards out .First we did DMC. It’s a duck walk, merkins, and a bear crawl. Duck walk to the first cone, 5 merkins, and bear crawl back. Duck walk to the next cone(20 yards) and do 10 merkins and bear crawl back with increasing by 5 merkins every cone until we reached 50 yards.

The next thing we did was lunge walked to the first cone and did 10 squats and lunge walked back and progressed through each cone adding 10 squats each time. This was painful. A total of 150 squats and 300 yards of squats .

Next we paired up and partner 1 ran to the first cone, did 5 merkins and ran back. Meanwhile partner 2 is doing flutters . Each partner ran to each cone and did 5 pushups and ran back .

6 minutes of Mary and then the end .I looked up a new ab exercise called Dr . W .I still don’t fully understand what that is so you should go look it up .

Thanks agaun!

Wegmans

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Worthy Crew @ Block Party

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18 PAX showed up strong on a beautiful spring morning. After the disclaimer, we shuffled out for a brief mosey replete with a Longshanks-style warmup: Butt kickers to Carioca around the Springs corporate center parking lot.

COP in front of the Springs corporate center (more on location later)

SSH x30
Imperial Walkers x10
Hillbilly Walkers x10
Windmill x10

Plank up ATM Variation:

Shoulder Taps x15
Tempo Merkins x10
Single-count Merkins x10

Head over to 8ft(ish) wall for some Muscle Ups x10 (oyo)

Plank up ATM Variation:

Shoulder Taps x15
Hand release Merkins x5

Mosey to UC Synergetic upper parking lot

Brief Thang:

Line Drill w/ Partner (Dora-sides): After both partners complete the line drill running, switch to bear crawl until exercises are completed. Partners strive for 20 Burpees, 100 LBCs, 200 Squats collectively. Mercifully, few had to bear crawl more than two line segments.

No Block Party is truly complete if the police don’t make an appearance. One of Fort Mill’s finest made a round through our parking lot. It appears, in YHC’s zeal to move from Springs Global to UC Synergetic, a stealth mosey of 18 PAX ignited a fire in the hounds of the mill hills. Despite our best efforts a local resident was not pleased with their dogs barking and asked for an officer to investigate. Once we’d been deemed nonthreatening, we completed the modified Dora/Line Drill.

To honor the dogs:

Plank up
Honeymooner to Down Dog
Hold Down Dog
Raise right leg high – bend the knee (open the hip)
Swing right leg forward between hands (knee to nose) into one-legged plank
Tap right knee to right elbow x5
Tap right knee to left elbow x5
Return to Down Dog
Repeat with Left Leg

Mosey down Massey hill to lower UC parking lot

Wall sit (till PAX began grumbling)
Monkey Humpers x20
10-count
Monkey Humpers x20
10-count
Derkins w/ feet on wall x10
Monkey Humpers x20
Derkins w/ feet on wall x10
Rest facing wall – 10-count
Calf raises facing the wall x20

Jump the wall and mosey up the hill

Word of the month is “Worthy.” This word has been on my mind for quite some time. Matthew 22 and Luke 14 give a parable about a great banquet or wedding feast where the invited guest (those “worthy”) don’t show up or actively refuse to attend. As a Christian, Jesus’s death has made my unworthiness worthy. But do I respond when he calls? How can I live in a way that is worthy of the blessings I’ve received and the gifts God has bestowed upon me?

Mosey back to COT (not past the dogs)

Mary: Flutters x20, Seating forward bends (right leg, left leg, both)

One last thought on worthiness. In Jedi’s BackBlast from his Beyond Q (https://f3thefort.com/2018/03/12/identity-and-purpose-digging-deeper-and-going-beyond/), he mentions the idea of our motivation. Is my motivation for being worthy for my own benefit/vanity, or is it to glorify God. It may be that my current struggle with the concept stems from a selfish or myopic motivation. Can I be more worthy of God in order to glorify God rather than myself? This is my goal.

As an aside (if anyone has made it this far in the BackBlast reading), the actual act of writing his BackBlasts served to solidify the message I tried to deliver during our workout. I’ve been working out at F3 AOs for 6 months now, and I’m beginning to see what Old Bay, who EHed me to my first workout, mention about how much more than a workout F3 is.

Grateful for the opportunity to lead and appreciate of all the PAX that showed up to work and grow this morning!

 

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The Fort/The Rock Mini Convergence at Block Party

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Nice warm morning at Block Party with 4 of our RH brothers coming up stream to get a Taste of the Fort. 10 total PAX for a morning beatdown from YHC.

The Thang Mosey up to the hill to the parking lot. Lap around the lot with High knees, toy soldiers, but kicks and Karoake. Back down the hill to the starting lot for some COP of:

15 x SSH
10 X windmills
10 x Imperial Walkers
10 x Moraccan Night Clubs

Drill Bit workout. Lap around the Park with the following at each Drillbit:
10 Merkins
20 Dry Docks
30 Squats
40 LBC’s
50 SSH

At the last drillbit we did Diamond Merkins and Sumo Squats

Mosey over to the Stairway to Heaven.
Partner carries from lightpole to lightpole. Switching partners at each light (6 lights total) while switching each person does 3 burpees.

At the top we stop. Partner 1 runs down the stairway while partner 2 does exercise and then switch.
exercise 1 – Flutter kicks
exercise 2 – Monkey Humpers
exercise 3 – Bombjacks

Mosey to the bottom – 5 Burpees then COT

Thanks to our brothers Italian Job, Reborn, SlowPitch and Ponytail for making their up from the Rock. Now Don’t be Strangers

Shanks out

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Laces: Super 21 on Maundy Thursday

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Laces In:

Slight Mosey to student parking lot

Warm Up – COP
SSH x20
Imperial Walker x10
Hillbilly Walker x10
Windmill x10
Cherry Picker x10

Mosey to Band Practice lot

Super 21s (variation) – Inspired by JWOWW’s VQ at the Hive which used a deck of cards and got me thinking about 21. Then I found Super 21s listed in the F3 Exercises………I wondered why I hadn’t done these before in a workout. Turns out doing Super 21s makes it difficult to raise your arms later…..like days later.

1 merkin to 1 low slow squat
repeat to 10 reps of each
Flutters x21
11-13 reps of merkin/LSS
Hello Dollys x21
14-15 reps of merkin/LSS
Freddie Mercuries x21
16-17 reps of merkin/LSS
Lap around the Painted Lot
18-19 reps of merkin/LSS
Box Cutters x21
20-21 reps of merkin/LSS
Rosalitas x21
(Total of 231 merkins and squats)

Slight mosey to side of Ceramics Studio

Found some curb – stretch calves
Calf raises x21
Wall Sits (slight discussion of the brass technique of multiple tonguing: generated a good deal of mumble chatter)

PAX mentioned (sarcastically?) that if we just did 19 more merkins, we would reach 250. With the challenge laid down, PAX completed 19 merkins and 19 low slow squats. (Total of 250 merkins and squats: except for Trucker who complete 280 and added that to the Name-o-rama so YHC wouldn’t forget.)

Plank up – Because Abiding (see note below) requires flexibility:
Honeymooner to Down dog variations
Stretch out the legs
Leg raises in down dog
One leg plank
Knee taps to elbow x5
Knee taps to opposite elbow x5
Repeat with opposite leg
Pigeon Lunges
Butterfly stretches
Seated forward bends (i.e., touch your toes sitting down)

Mosey back to COT
American Hammers x21

The word for the month is abide. Abiding in God is active alignment of our will to the Lord’s. This is opposed to “the dude” passively abiding in the Big Lebowski. I gave a brief message about how we can abide in what is happening around us or we can strive to abide in God. The word is not a passive acceptance our circumstances, at least not in a scriptural sense.

We also discussed, while sitting against a wall, how I approach my (music) studio teaching at Winthrop. There’s practice dedicated to maintenance/growth at technical elements and the physical skills required to play the instrument (this is how triple tonguing came up), and then there’s practice learning assigned repertoire. Practicing only repertoire means the physical skills needed for new piece/work must be learned from scratch…..every time. Having a set routine for maintenance and growth means the fundamentals on the instrument are already in place, i.e., you’re in shape. At this point, learning repertoire is simply a matter of applying skills you already possess.

My short (5 months) time with F3 reminds me of this model. A routine to develop ourselves (physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually) so that when we encounter challenges (repertoire) it is only a matter of applying skills we either already posses or are honing. One of the hardest parts of each workout for YHC is leaving the comfort of the bed for the gloom. Yet we are all on this planet (its own form of gloom) called to seek God’s purpose for us and abide in that. I’m grateful to have shared this morning with PAX doing just that . . . . even if that means YHC can barley raise his arms to type a backblast.

Not sure what happened at Laces Out. . . . I’m assuming they ran and can currently lift their arms.

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