MOON-SHOT

Eight men posted at the Ranch for a moon landing anniversary themed work out. Weather was humid at 79 degrees.  A nearly full moon was visible, but mostly obscured by clouds.

Warm up
Mosey Run
SSH (IC 12x) <<Twelve reps: Twelve men have walked on the moon.
Windmill (IC 12x)
Imperial Walker (IC 12x)
Moroccan Nightclub (IC 12x)
Low Slow Squats (IC12x)
Peter Parker (IC 12x)
Plank stretches
Downward dog / Honeymooner

Apollo Elevens
250’ length of hill
Start at the bottom with one Bobby Hurley
Go up to flag pole and do ten Merkins

Saturn V Bear Crawl
Bear crawl, Indian run style for 360’ <<the height of the Saturn V rocket
Rocket has four stages; thus each PAX got through 4 iterations of the indian-run bear crawl.

Lunar Orbit
AKA Global Warming
Circle up, Side shuffle around in tree-hugger pose
Exercises called: burpees, diamond merkins, Monkey humpers, smurf jacks, CDD, standing lunges,

EAGLE
Five light poles, about 100’ apart, run and do exercises at each light pole:
E = E2K: elbow to knees [2nd loop: Imperial walkers]
A = American Hammer [alternating shoulder taps]
G = Gas Pumpers [Gorilla Humpers]
L = LBCs [Lunge, Leg Lifts]
E= Elbow Plank [Flutters]
Repeat loop

Fini, COT

Remember the 50th anniversary of the moon landing on 7/20/19.   Truly an achievement for all mankind and significant blessing by God onto the United States.

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1

Conveyor Belt of Pain 2

YHC had just spent a stressful weekend in which we threw a birthday party for our eldest at Adventure Air (and the rest deep cleaning our house). They let me jump, and jump I did. So much so that my back was incredibly sore the day before my Q.  That just meant that everyone would need to do some more back stuff with me to help keep me in shape.  Thanks, everyone!

9 PAX gathered in the parking lot of the Armory.  Started out by dragging out the disclaimer while Tesh and River Rat pulled in.  Yet another PAX showed up at the last minute, but I don’t recall who it was..  Went for a quick mosey up the side lot and half way back to wait for… other guy… sigh… and got in a quick 20 SSH and some windmills to get us stretched out.

We then moseyed over to the bells and ran to the far end of the parking lot where some of the toys were arrayed, and chalk was drawn all over.  Stations were set up every 3rd parking space down the line, then at the end, over two rows, and back down the line forming almost three sides of a square.

The stations were as follows.

  1. KB Swings
  2. Upright Row
  3. 3/4″x72″ Black Iron Staff – Tip ups
    1. Holding the staff at least at half way, the more above your hand the harder it is
    2. Let the tip drop to parallel with the ground and use only fingertips and wrist strength to bring it to vertical.
  4. 3/4″x72″ Black Iron Staff – Rotations
    1. Holding the staff straight forward, rotate to the left and right
    2. Speed of rotation controls the work required to slow and reverse direction
  5. Box jumps (20, 24, and 30 inch sides)
  6. 10lb Training  Mace – barbarian swings
    1. Swing the mace to align it with the chest at shoulder height to the left and right, when the arm close to the ball crosses the body, it’s on the bottom.  When it’s on its own side, the top
  7. Kettlebell Pendulum Swings – R
  8. Pendulum Swings -L
  9. Deadlift
  10. Seated chest press
    1. Six on the ground, legs straight out, torso leaned slightly back
    2. Chest press while leaning back with legs not leaving the ground
  11. Standard Kettlebell Row

Timing:
There is always a traveling PAX. Two PAX started at station 11 (Chicken Hawk and Shin Guard).  Chicken Hawk spent about 10 seconds doing rows and ran with his bell down the parking lot, turned 90 degrees and ran to station one.  Each PAX was to bear crawl with the bell to the next station, however after one round it was apparent that the timer was going to kill our ability to hit all the stations multiple times.  Changed it to a quick walk.

After the first complete round, we met in the middle and did about a minute of broga to stretch out the back and went back to the conveyor.  We made it half way through the second round before time was up and it was a quick mosey back to COT for announcements and prayer.

Everyone worked hard.  Everyone got better.

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A Return To The Corral Which Is Golden

Man, it’s been a long time. It’s been a long time since coming to the Golden Corral, or as it was often referred, the Buffet of Pain but it’s also been too long since my last post. No better way to knock the rust off than by saying yes to Lutefisk’s (just rolls off the tongue) invite and Qing Golden Corral yesterday. Trying not to lower the bar that has been established, I had to ensure the Weinke was full of all your favorite buffet options. After all, we’re not mailing this one in.

24 (23 really since Fish Sticks joined us at the end after getting his brisk miles) other hard-chargers, including feisty “Shin-Guard” joined me at 0515 to review the disclaimer and conduct a little warm up jog around the parking lot, ending up at the top, furthest from HT.

Warm-up:

Wind Mills, Jump Squats, Merkins, Diamond Merkins, Side-Straddle Hops, Carolina Dry Docks

Line up facing the Teeter. Run down to the store and Nur back to our starting point. REPEAT.

2 PAX at a time, run 1/2 way to Teeter then run back. We’d get through all 24 of us but the catch is that while you’re not running, you’re doing your best Flying Squirrels. See CSPAN, we still love you.

Reminder of 2 points (which is hard to stay accountable to when you don’t post for a while):

  1. C.O.T. Integrity – Don’t be a hypocrite. Be the same man outside the C.O.T. as you are inside it.
  2. Kotters – Bring ’em back. They’ll fight you but they want to be back AND we want them back.

More details were shared but you had to be there.

The Entree: 10 reps of 10 exercises and we’re cycling through 10 times (lofty desire). After each round, we’d run 1 set of 2-tiered suicides.

10 exercises were:

Burpees, Wide-Arm Merkins, Jump Squats, Mak Tar Jai’s, Knee Tar Jai’s (modified at the sight of bloodied knees to just doubling the yet to-be mentioned Jumping Lunges), Dips, Peter Parkers, Parker Peters, Jumping Lunges, Carolina Dry Docks.

We made it through 4 rounds.

HEY, welcome to Fish Sticks.

Until Next Time,

Maximus

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4

June Birthday Q at Laces In – Act 2

Shady and Deacon kicked off June at Laces In with a dual Q that left little time (if any) for mumble chatter (thanks Kraken Burpees).  YHC called his own number today to keep the birthday Q theme going and the number 45 was the goal with each exercise…..well mostly.

After it was declared there were no FNGs and disclaimers were voiced and assumption of risk delegated to all gathered, we moseyed off….sort of.

Many PAX were expecting a longer run to COP (which was later delivered) but before doing so, PAX stopped at the flag, recited the pledge of allegiance and gave tribute to all who serve that we may have the privileges our freedoms grant us.  After those few moments of thanks and gratitude….we were off past the Hive lot, the band lot all the way to the 21 hill for a little COP.

Morrocan Night clubs X 23 (I/C) – Mumble chatter volume 5/10

Windmills (Trucker approved) X 12 (I/C) – Mumble chatter volume 7/10

Imperial Walkers X 12 (I/C) – Mumble chatter volume 8/10

5 burpees OYO – mumble chatter volume 1/10

Mosey briskly to the main event: 45’s – mumble chatter volume: inaudible

YHC led PAX back to the band lot where cones suddenly appeared.  The prior mosey intentionally (YHC’s 2019 word) went away from the cones in the hopes PAX did not see them – mostly successful (I think).  Upon finding the cones in 4 corner format with one cone in the middle, YHC called out 10’s at each of the four cones (adding up to 45 for each exercise) – consisting of the following:

Cone #1 – 9 BB Sit ups, Lunge Walk to center cone, 1 merkin, run back to cone #1; 8 big boy sit ups, Lunge Walk to center cone, 2 merkins, run back to Cone #1, continue sequence until reaching 1 big boy sit up, lunge walk to center, 9 merkins and run back to cone #1

Cone #2 – 9 burpees, run to middle cone, 1 squat, Lieutenant Dans back to Cone #2, 8 burpees, run to middle cone, 2 squats, Lieutenant Dans back to Cone #2, continue sequence until 1 burpee and 9 squats were done.  Move to:

Cone #3:  9 Carolina Dry Docks, run to middle cone, 1 merkin, run back to cone #3, 8 CDD’s, run to middle cone, 2 merkins, run back to cone #3, continue sequence until 1 CDD and 9 merkins were done.  Lastly: Cone #4:

Cone #4: 9 flutter kicks each leg, lunge walk to middle cone, 1 heels to heaven, run back to cone #4, 8 flutter kicks each leg, lunge walk to middle cone, 2 heels to heaven, run back to cone #4 , continue until…..well you get the idea.

YHC had to call time at 5:57 – Straight Up was the king well into the sequence at cone #4, if not completed.  Many PAX had things to say about the number of lunge walks.  I don’t know why.

A run from the band lot back to the flag reconnected us with 3 Laces Out runners for COT

Announcements – Hog and Coyote this Saturday in Rock Hill. Straight Up leading a trail run at Crowders on 6-22, Read your newsletter, Spend father’s day with your M’s and 2.0’s – the golf course will always be there.

Prayers were lifted up for Gilligan’s recovery from surgery, High Stick’s daughter’s recovery, Trucker’s M and her upcoming interview and for all unspoken prayers held in the silence of the hearts of PAX.

NMM – The HIMs YHC has had an opportunity to be around over the past 6 months have truly helped personal acceleration and intentionality in my life.  Our greatest gift to one another is the ability to sharpen others and help transfer the habits that impact all of us leading lives of intentionally and virtue in all that we do. Here’s to another great year ahead for YHC and my sincere thanks to all the PAX who have helped shape and sharpen YHC.  Your work is appreciated beyond words.  Thank you brothers! I am 45, thankful and better because of all of you.

Cyclops

 

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CSPAN Send off Convergence

141 Men came to show the Respectable**CSPAN** some Respect!!

He leaves The Fort and heads north or as Dredd refers to Yankee land. Not gone forever but just up the road 600 miles to start a new chapter in life and in F3 as he will launch F3Philly.

I am not the most eloquent with my back-blasts and I am usually to the point with posting the workout, add some words and being done, however since I can’t get Italian Job to write this up and Double D challenged the PAX to think of one word to represent CSAPN, I think that is the best way to document this convergence.

Thank you CSPAN for being all of these things and more to you r brothers in the PAX. As posted on Twitter and many of these were repeated multiple times:

brother
camaraderie
commitment
confidence
connected
consistent
courageous
dedicated
empathetic
example
genuine
handsome
HIM
honorable
humble
humility
impact
influence
influencer
insightful
inspiration
integrity
investor
legend
magnanimous
model
respect
selfless
servant
shepherd
solid
squaredaway
steadfast
steady
wise

The Workout looked like this:

WWL at the Q:

  • Mosey around the lot
  • Line up; karaoke, side shuffle, high knees, butt kickers, toy solders, lungewalk, power skips
  • COP
    • SSH, squat, merkin, moroccan night club, 10 Flying squirrels
Double D at the Q:
  • Run to practice field
  • Plank sequence
  • Split into 2 groups on each sideline
  • Sprint to center and back to sideline
  • Monkey humpers x25
  • Rinse + repeat with Merkins x 25
  • CDDs x25
  • Burpees x25
Longshanks at the Q:
  • Burpees
  • Lunges
  • Inch worm Merkins
  • Maktar Ndiayes
  • Plank Jacks
  • Squats.

Dredd at the Q:

  • Prayer for CSPAN
  • Merkin/Ab Lab series
  • Truth Nuggets and Leadership development with Major Payne, Wegmans, & Drop Thrill
  • Mosey to hill behind Bob Jones Stadium
  • Prayer for CSPAN heading to F3Philly…..”CSPAN Coming”
  • More Merkin/Ab lab series

COT:

141 Count, Name O’rama, 2 FNGs (Bikini & Manzel), Skinny Jeans pray out over CSPAN and his IMPACT on men and for Sky Q’s kingdom.

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104

Light Pole Work

For what looked to be a rainy morning the night before, I was pleased to see we would have a dry morning, except for the sweat from the less than moderate work I had planned.  Ballroom is a great AO and is also moderate.  The workout allowed everyone the opportunity to push themselves.  As cars rolled in a great group of 25 PAX assembled and the mumble-chatter started immediately.  After a short disclaimer we moseyed around the parking lot and stopped at the far side for warm-up

  • SSH
  • Windmill
  • Imperial Walker
  • Low Slow Squat
  • Merkin
  • Mountain Climber
  • MNC – correct arm movement

Mosey to the entrance road for the light pole work to begin.  Begin at 1st light pole with exercise, run to the 2nd and complete exercise.  Come back to 1st and complete exercise and go to 2nd then 3rd and then back to 1st.  Continue this until complete all 5 light poles. (Mumble-chatter had dropped to a low level), catching your breath was more important.  Light poles were spaced out along front entrance and every other pole had designated exercise.  Exercises:

  1. 10 Merkins
  2. 15 CDD
  3. 20 Dips
  4. 25 Monkey Humpers
  5. 30 Squats

Once completed and six was in we moseyed to the grass/mud hill on the side of the school.  Set out for a series of 12’s.  Bottom of hill dips and the top of the hill squats. 1 at bottom & 11 at top of hill – 2/10, 3/9…..

Moseyed back to front parking lot for a little Mary.  Opportunity for some of the Pax that had not Q’d before to lead an exercise of Mary.  Good job Arrowhead, Dungaree and Wide Right.

Moleskin:

We have almost completed 60 days of focus on impact.  I shared with the group that as I have thought about impact in my life, I have thought about the people in my life that have impacted me.  Most of the time they probably didn’t know the impact they made but more importantly their impact was made by how they lived their life.  As I shared that in our family, work, social and community, it may not be the words we speak but the daily actions we live that can impact someone.  I also shared Dabo’s response he had at the ACC media day, when asked about his faith.  “If there is hope in the future, there is power in the present”.  Take 3 minutes and watch the video of his response.  We are all blessed and have different opportunities in the present.  Let your actions speak loudly!!

Thanks Short Sale for the opportunity to Q.

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Party on the Block

Ain’t no party like a Block Party and I didn’t want to disappoint. Shady has lined up some strong Q’s here and the last thing I was going to do was break the positive cycle. On a Tuesday in The Fort you have a wide variety of options. I appreciate the 12 other men that rolled in for a slight variation of the norm.

After spending a few hours in the car recently, I’ve done my F3 duty of getting caught up on the 43′ Podcast by Dredd & Dark Helmet. Sure, it’s a Podcast on “leadership” but let’s be honest, I tune in to listen to the gut punches and banter as much as I do for the leadership discussion. Several learnings were incorporated into this workout which you’ll read shortly. Some may be obvious to you but they weren’t something I gave much thought to previously.

In addition to the 10 Ft Mill locals, we had Drone from F3 metro and he brought an FNG, welcome Radio Flyer!!

Disclaimer: A little more lengthy than normal. And…we’re off

Run around the left side of WEP back down 160 to the parking lot with the chain attempting to obstruct our entrance. Knowledge nugget from 43’…the joys and effectiveness of the 8ct Burpee. Another knowledge nugget was that we too often get caught in the trap of assuming things will be the same this time because it’s the way we’ve always done it. Like Side Straddle Hops to start a warm up or doing exercises in counts of 10. Both of those…out the window.

All of the following in cadence:

20 x 8ct Burpees

18 x Calf Raises

16 x Diamond Merkins

14 x Mountain Climbers

12 x Dying Cockroaches

10 x Grave Diggers (10 each side)

8 x 8ct Burpees

6 x Diamond Merkins

4 x Mountain Climbers

2 x Dying Cockroaches

Mosey to the playground & partner up:

Partner 1: 15 Pull-Ups

Partner 2: Hold the squat while doing overhead claps until your partner is done w/ the pull ups

Flapjack

Partner 1: 15 Pull-Ups

Partner 2: Wide-Arm Merkins until…

Flapjack

Partner 1: 15 Pull-Ups

Partner 2: 180deg Jump Twists until…

Flapjack

Partner 1: 15 Pull-Ups

Partner 2: Monkey Humpers until…

Flapjack

Mosey to the white tenth-of-a-mile post by the parking lot:

Sprint to the next post then do 5 Jumping Lunges. Sprint to the next post and do the same thing. We did this 2 more times for 4 total posts which included some nice up/down hill sprinting.

Closed it out with 10 more 8ct Burpees and some Chopsticks & American Hammers.

 

Shady, thanks for the nod to Q.

Until next time…

Maximus

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2

Beyond with Tinsel’s Utensils at the Ranch

Today I had the opportunity to lead a Beyond Workout, I’ve been to many of them and decided to share some of my personal stories. I was welcomed by all the PAX that decided to get better and a new name for my toys/props, Tinsel’s Utensils, great name Mainframe!!

We started the warm up with a short run around the parking lot with high knees and butt kickers and then circled up for a few warm up exercises:  Windmills, Moroccan night clubs, low slow squats followed by story sharing while on different variations of planks (regular, elbows, right/left leg up while on elbows, right/left arm up while on regular, back to regular), downward dog-honeymooner; with 9 minutes into the WO we split in 4 groups and each group went to a different station.

Station 1:

-> 10 diamond merkins

-> 15 wide arm merkins

-> 20 regular merkins

-> 30 battle rope wave SC

-> 40 plank jacks

-> 50 Shoulder taps

Station 2:

-> 15 boat and canoe

-> 20 Rosalitas

-> 30 Sledgehammer swings (15 each side)

-> 40 Heel Touches SC

-> 40 Dying Roach

Station 3:

-> 15 overhead press

-> 15 biceps curls

-> 25 dumbbell swing

-> 30 SSH

-> 50 Carolina drydocks

Station 4:

-> 10  Tire flips

-> 20  Monkey Humpers

-> 30 reverse lunges

-> 30 squat pops

-> 50 calf raises

After each group completed a station we met at the center for a brake and to continue my story sharing, on first brake we had a visit from Captain Thor (1 big boy sit up and 4 american hammers, 2 BBSU and 8 AH, 3 BBSU and 12 AH and so on) the plan calls for 10 BBSU and 40 AH but it’s looks easier on paper so we stopped at 8 BBSU and 32 AH. Back to the next station.

Time for brake number 2 and more story sharing, we did one of my favorite exercises the famous Worst Merkin ever, start with wide arm, down to regular and finish with a diamond merkin, that counts as one, we did 10 total. Back to the next station.

Brake number 3 came up and more of the story of my life was shared and since we were running out of time we went back to finish our 4th station.

I guess I didn’t take all the talking that I was going to do into consideration and we stopped at about 49 minutes, circled back into COT for a final chatter about my personal story.

We finished up with prayers, praises and announcements.

Thank you Straight up for lifting us up for the final prayer.

I think the best part of the WO was at the end when some of the PAX decided to skip the fist bump and switched it for a hug!!

Big props to Maximus for this great idea to go Beyond!

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Block Party/Colosseum Colombia Team Send off!

28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Matt 20:28

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8

61 PAX and YHC came to Block Party this day to show support to those that have felt a call to serve. As we are commanded to serve locally, nationally and globally this group of men are going global to get uncomfortable and grow closer to SkyQ. The support, prayers and encouragement from our brothers in the PAX is overwhelming and powerful. Anyone that has not realized it yet, F3 is more than a workout!

The Thang:

  • Ruckers when their separate way with Cobra Kai at the helm
  • Runners went looking for golf balls at FMGC with Pusher at the point
  • The rest of us followed YHC for a boot-camp with 40 or so of our brothers
    • Mosey down path, across the field out towards 160 for COP
      • All exercises were to 11 count for the 11 heading to Colombia
      • Plank
      • SSHs
      • Squat
      • Merkins
      • MOracan Night Clubs
      • Sumo Squat
      • Wide Arm Merkins
      • LBCs
      • Peter Parkers
      • Rosalitas
      • Imperial Walkers
    • Mosey to playground
      • Ladder work
      • Do exercise with designated reps, take a lap, add next exercise, take a lap…..
      • # of REPS Exercise COLOMBIA PAX MEMBER TOTAL REPS
        1 Merkin Bonsai 11
        2 LBC Bubba 20
        3 Squat Cake Boss 27
        Here from PAX on their WHY
        4 Burpee Crawdaddy 32
        5 Inch Worm Merkins Elvis 35
        6 Sumo Squat Fire Marshal Bill 36
        Here from PAX on their WHY
        7 Bombjacks Flat Tire 35
        8 Overhead Clap Italian Job 32
        9 Leg Raises Mr Bill 27
        Here from PAX on their WHY
        10 Lunge Hops Sir Topham Hat 20
        11 Donkey Kicks Trucker 11
    • Right up against time we finished
  • COT
    • We had 3 FNGs, Love Handles, Arrowhead and Homer
    • CSPAN prayed us out  an prayed over the whole team

YHC can thank you all for being a stable rock in my life. I can’t say enough about what F3 and each of my Brothers means to me and how it has changed my life. More importantly it has allowed me to reach men for SkyQ’s kingdom and that is the best achievement ever.

Peace Men

Cake Boss out!

 

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8

Impact on the Yard

It was a blessing today to Co-Q with my 2.0 and experience him stepping up to help lead the Pax through all his self-doubt and anxiety as we have all experienced when we were asked to step out of our comfort zone.

After many challenges of getting him to think through a plan, a sleepless night and pure unadulterated anxiety… he ultimately stretched the Pax out and completed 5 rounds of COP exercises with perfect voice commands to command the pax.  With  no Weinke in hand no less.  #Impact

The message:

We spoke about impact.  We spoke about impact from the perspective of the impact we have on others and thinking about what do we want others to say about us at our own funerals.  What Impact do we want them speaking about? But we also spoke about those things that have an impact on us.  As unpleasant, vulnerable or difficult as they are we need to recognize those things that have a positive impact on us (i.e. F3) and keep doing them.  Keep going and letting them have their impression on us.

The Thang:

Mosey to side parking lot for some stretching and COP lead by Shin Guard

COP included

  • Merkins
  • Squats
  • Moroccan Night Clubs
  • LBC
  • Mountain Climbers

Mosey to Basketball lot

Rugby Sprints including CDD, Merkins, Flying Squirrels, High Low Flutters

To the wooden tree boxes split into 2 groups group 1 doing or toe touches x2 rounds Dips x 2 rounds and Irkins x1 rounds and group 2 running while group 1 does exercise.

Mosey to wall for some wall sit, bear crawl indian run x2 then some other fun wall activities.

COT

It was a pleasure to lead today and I’m very proud of my 2.0.  Aye!

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