Remembering Badger

Thirty-five of Fort Mill’s finest gathered at Springfield Elementary to honor a brother who left us too early:  Matt Giesler, aka Badger.   Matt was originally from Wisconsin but made his home in SC with his wife Becky and his three children Brayden, Ashlyn, and Carsten.   Badger was a neighbor and friend to me, Decibel, Trucker, and Jiffy, and this morning, his fellow brothers of The Fort joined us for a brisk morning workout.  Here is what we did:

The Thang:

Senator Tressel led the pax on a short lap around the drop-off lane of Springfield Elementary before ending up in the adjacent field for COP.

All in double count cadence:

SSH x 25, IW x 25, merkin x 10, windmill x 15, mountain climber x 25, Freddie Merc x 25, hello dolly x 25, squat x 25

Line up next to the set of cones:

Round 1:  Lungewalk to 1st cone, 5 squats, continue to 2nd cone, 10 squats, continue to 3rd cone, 15 squats, run backwards to the start.

Round 2:  Bear crawl to 1st cone, 5 squats, ….., run backward to the start

Round 3:  Run to the last cone, 10 burpees, and run backward to the start

Handoff to Decibel:

Do the following exercises with a lap around the field between each:

MERKINS X25
ALTERNATING LUNGES X25
TOE TAPS X25
TONY HAWK BURPEE X15
GORILLA HUMPER X20
IMPERIAL WALKER X20
EMPTY WHEELBARROW
SQUATS X20
LBCs  X39
E2K X20 EACH SIDE
ROSALITA X25

Heals to Heaven x25

COT

Naked Man Moleskin

ST’s comments:

I was truly touched by the number of men who showed up today to honor Badger.  I know that many of the men did not know him, but it meant a lot to us to have such a large group together as we remembered Badger.    It was another reminder to me of what a special thing we have at F3 here in Fort Mill and how much my F3 brothers mean to me.

Decibel’s thoughts:
It is hard to believe that it has been 4 years since Badger went to be in heaven.  I
was blessed to spend time with him prior to his passing.  We talked about him
being saved and how important that was to him.  He let me know that his M was a
big reason he was saved but also saw my family’s reaction to losing our
daughter and son and our dependence on God at that time.  I am saying this to let
you know as Christians people watch our actions and want to make sure our
actions match our words.  I encourage every Christian brother in F3 to live out
your faith and in times of need lean on God just like Badger did in his time.
My M and I received a letter from Badger.  In that letter he mentioned F3 and the
support he and his family received after the diagnosis.  I remember him just being
in awe of all the people that were praying for him.  He was so touched by this
community that he asked that I make sure that his boys get involved in F3.  They
would have been there today, but his youngest wasn’t feeling well. To have 35
men in our community support Badger is amazing.
Badger was a man I respected to the utmost.  He was not a guy that sought
attention or glory, but he was always there when you needed him.  He loved his
family and was a loyal friend.  I am still in awe of how he bravely prepared to walk
into heaven.  It was so comforting to know he was going to see Jesus.  He told
me many times that he would take care of our babies (Elizabeth Grace and
Garrett) until we met up with him.  Badger was a great Father and I know he is
having a blast with my kids in heaven.
Let us all take this time to pour into, support, love on and encourage our F3
brothers. Then take that momentum and turn it to our families.  Then take that
momentum and pour it out on the least and the lost in our community.  Badger
knew that God had a purpose for him and that purpose was to spread the word of
God’s Grace and Love.  Let’s make that happen for him.

Prayers and Praises – as spoken during COT

Announcements:  F3 The Fort 10 year anniversary starts this week.  Check Slack for the schedule of events.

 

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FORE!

Balmy 32 degrees, clear skies.

Great to start the year off with a proper #runningwithpushups beatdown.  Was a little nervous on the who would show as the emoji bucket for my preblast was near empty.  I need my dopamine hit of likes, hearts, and high fives.  14 (corrected to 13 via video) posted for a jaunt to Fort Mill Golf Club.

5:13: “one minute to pledge” and also “hurry up birdcage, lets go”

5:14: Pledge of Allegiance.  There was no Bandcamp to throw me off my 40  year vocal cadence.  We are all #proudtobeanamerican

5:15: concise layout of the plan and  half assed disclaimer.

The Thang:

AYG to parking lot of Fort Mill Golf Club,(1 mile) plank wait for #six and confirm plan.  Run Front 9 cart path.  At every Tee and every Green: 5 Merkins and 5 squats. Head back to COT 0550. Fishsticks and Badlands were super strong this morning, lead the way and got all 9 in.  Middle and back groups got 7-8 holes.  Full round gets 4 miles and 90 each of the #painmakers.

Naked Man Moleskin

Maximus and Shady tried to talk to me while I was running.  Hope they could hear my muttering over my heavy breathing.  Not sure what was going on in the other running packs but if anybody ran with Pusher- can you let me know what questions he asked today?   Always great to see men push themselves at this workout.

Want to give a praise to Olaf for including me a bible plan this week.  Havent done one of those in a while and realized how impactful they are to setting up my day and my heart for the day.  My challenge to you- If you are a “habitual first thing I do when I wake up is grab my phone and scroll Instagram, twitter, slack, Linked In, News Feed, texts, emails” guy- take a break from that for a day, 3 days, 5 days.  Grab your coffee or water and for 5 minutes: sit “in it”.  Silence.  be still.  Meditate, bible verse, Q source, thought for the day, reflection, journal.  Start the day without the noise that leads to anxiety, worry, comparison.  Would love for you to find me next week, let me know how it went.

Aye!

Jekyll

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Varsity: new format: part 2

6 PAX, 34 degrees, #winning

Sasquatch set a pretty high bar last week with this new format of Broga followed by a Bootcamp. YHC fired up the core with some yoga and moved into a brief Vinyasa routine

Headed over to the pullup bars; arrived at 5:32.
3 rounds of, 30 seconds on with 10 seconds of rest. (I added 20 seconds of mercy between each round)
Burpees
Pull-ups
High Knees
Pistol Squats
Burpee Pull-ups
Hanging Knee to Chest with twist

That was hard…

I had my kettlebell collection setup:
Sasquatch 45lb
Skate 40lb
YHC 35lb
Shield used a cinderblock, because he’s the man. #respect
Cohiba 30lb
Bodywash 20lb

30 seconds each
2 minutes each hand

One-handed Swing
High Pull
Snatch
One-handed Thruster

This was hard…

5:54
American Hammers with the bell for 1 min

Great work by PAX not expecting bells to be there.
5:55
Finish with some more yoga, specifically pigeon lunge

0600

Lots of prayers:
Skate’s 2.0 looking at colleges
Bodywash’s dad and father-in-law
Shield’s mom dealing with cancer
Band Camp’s friend dealing with cancer
Shop Vac’s family (his funeral is tomorrow)

Lots of praise:
Skate’s 2.0 looking at colleges
Bodywash’s dad is improving
Sheild’s mom’s cancer is treatable
Band Camp’s friend’s cancer is treatable
Shop Vac’s family can see the IMPACT he had on all of us

An honor to lead

Band Camp dismissed

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Bullpen Call in The Pond

Late the night before, I got a text from Shady, the scheduled Q, that he was having to make a call to the bullpen. He had other responsibilities to attend to and needed some help. Sure Nantan, I gotcha.
That said, quickly went through my pregame routine and produced a Weinke to go into rotation. Here’s what it included:

Disclaimer
Our plan was to grab a partner or a few so we didn’t have anyone running solo.
You’d run a 1mi loop with 2 stops for exercises along the way. Goal was for a 3 lap minimum to hit the distance requirement.

Route:
Run up Massey to the Valero gas station
Spiderman Merkins – 5ea side
Side Lunges – 5ea side
V-Ups – 10

R/T Harris
R/T Ardrey

R/T White St and make your way into the parking lot
Spiderman Merkins – 5ea side
Side Lunges – 5ea side
V-Ups – 10

Continue on White St  to then make a R/T onto Massey and do it all over again.

We all got 3mi and some got closer to 4.

SYITG

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Deck of Pain

After a quick disclaimer and generic warmup, we moseyed over to firepit area and circled up for the Deck of Pain.

Twelve strong men got stronger on Monday with a whole lot of fun kettlebell reps. We all took turns drawing from the deck so that YHC couldn’t be blamed for every card…

Spades were Squat Thrusts

Diamonds were Dead Lift/Upright Row combos

Clubs were Curls/Shrugs combos

Hearts were Tricep Extensions/Shoulder Press combos

Reps were figured by the face value of the card drawn, with all face cards being 10.

Aces meant a quick lap around the parking lot, and the Jokers made us do 10 burpees/manmakers.

Everyone worked super hard, and the mumble chatter was kept to a minimum.

Prayers for our families, our teenagers, and for us to have strength to get through our trials and keep to our goals.

Thanks to everyone for the fun morning in the gloom!

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Christmas Trivia and Choices

Eight men showed up at Alcatraz this morning.  Two carried their heavy backpacks around the Cay for the hour.  Geronimo was still putting together his painful Q at 0630 so I began the workout with some warm-up exercises (SSHs, Imperial Walkers, Windmills, Plank Stretches).

I decided to borrow this idea from a workout Double D and Old Bay Q’d back in 2017. Christmas Trivia with exercises sprinkled in between each question.  Penalty for missing a question was 5 burpees.  Oh, by the way, the burpee penalty was cumulative until the next correct answer.

Exercises:

10 Bomb Jacks

20 LBCs

15 Plank Jacks

10 Donkey Kicks

20 Monkey Humpers

15 Moroccan Night Clubs

20 Calf Raises

10 Plank Jacks

15 Mountain Climbers

15 Merkins

10 Lunges

15 Carolina Dry Docks

20 Squats

Luckily Skate or Die knows his Christmas Movie Trivia or we would have done alot more burpees.

Next, hand off to Geronimo.  He quickly told us to partner up and headed to the “Hill”.  As we ran down the hill, there were several signs with exercises lined up along the side of the street.  At the bottom of the hill, he instructed us to run up the hill and choose an exercise at each sign.  Sounds simple enough..what was the catch?

The exercises:

  1.  50 SSHs or 50 Merkins
  2. 50 Merkins or 50 Hello Dollies
  3. 20 Air Lunges or 50 Mountain Climbers
  4. 20 Squat Jumps or 20 Diamond Merkins
  5. Bear Crawl or Nur to Next sign
  6. 50 Squats or 100 LBCs
  7. 50 Flutters or 20 Flying Squirrels
  8. Crawl Bear or Broad Jump
  9. 20 Tuck Jumps or 50 Overhead Claps
  10. Run down the hill and back or run to the fire station
  11. 30 Big Boys or 60 Calf Raises
  12. 20 Burpees or 40 Burpees

When the teams got to the top of the hill, Geronimo instructed us to go down the hill and repeat the process, but do the exercise that you did not choose the first time.

Great work this morning..mind, body, and holiday trivia 🙂

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RPG/Varsity Convergence

It was a beautiful rainy morning. 17 dudes converged under the awning at NaFo. A dozen or so arrived by 05:00 for some Sasquatch Broga. Around 05:20 we started the Varsity Bootcamp. This is usually when the RPG guys would take off running but since it was raining cats and dogs, everybody decided to stay for my beatdown. I appreciated the crowd.

The Warm Up: Broga w/ Sasquatch and then 25 SSH
The Thang: HIIT as follows:
Burpees: 60s
Rest: 45s
Merkins: 45s
Rest: 20s
Squats: 45s
Rest: 20s
LBCs: 60s
Rest: 20s
Mountain Climbers: 45s
Rest: 20s
Bear Crawls: 1 lap around the circle
Rest: 45s
Imperial Walkers: 45s
Rest: 20s
Plank Jacks: 45s
Rest: 20s
Monkey Humpers: 45s
Rest: 20s
SSH: 60s
Rest: 20s
Flutter Kicks: 45s
Rest: 20s
Rosalitas: 45s
Rest: 20s
Alternating Shoulder Taps: 45s
Rest: 20s
Bomb Jacks: 45s
Rest: 20s
60s Intro to the new Site Q Splinter
Rinse and Repeat from the top

I enjoyed this workout more than I thought I would. I love the Seconds app and HIIT style. I encourage the Pax to give it a try for a workout. It’s worth the price to upgrade to the full version.

COT
Shovel Flag Handoff off from Harry Carry to Splinter

I am extremely proud of my good friend Splinter. It took 2.5 years of EH’ing to get him out in the gloom. Now he’s running with the Big Boys 4-5 days each week and responsible for an AO. ‘At a boy Splinter!

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The Hypest Hype Train Workout Ever

Welcome to the most advertised AO in all of The Fort region. Trucker has a good thing going here and i wanted a part of it as a Q sometime. So i thought long and hard about who i wanted as my co-Q for this beatdown. Well as an expert trash talking Pax there was but only one choice that I knew I wanted! Mr. site Q himself ,Trucker the one person who can almost talk as much trash as me! HaHa

Trucker had the first part of the morning and started us off with some dynamic stretching in parking lot. We then moseyed out the road to the path beside Tega Cay Drive to the first hole green where we did 10 Squats. More mosey to the tennis court steps where we did 15 Merkins. Still more mosey all the way up to Hole number 1 tee boxes. Do 5 burps OYO. we where then instructed to run down cart path to the green and do 10 merkins and 15 squats then run back to tee box  and do 5 Burpees. Along the way the sprinklers came on and soaked a few of us. The grounds crew didn’t like us on their course so they kicked us off. Plus Trucker was on the red tee and the rest of us where on the white tees.

So we moseyed down to Tega Cay Drive again and made a right to the retaining wall for 2 rounds of 10 Step-Ups per leg and 10 Derkins. Yet some more mosey back to tennis court steps for 5 Burpees and 10 CDD. Mosey from there to the Firehouse for 5 burpees. Mosey back to parking lot for you guessed it 5 more Burpees. Trucker managed somehow for not being a runner to get us at 1.75 miles.

Next I had the real part of the workout. I thought 30 minutes of Warmup was a bit excessive but thats how all of Truckers Q’s are!

Had Pax mosey to baseball field and had them get in 3 lines planked feet to feet.

While in plank position all Pax did Mak Tar Dyes while the six bear crawled up to the front of the line and yelled for next person to proceed to front. Total distance was 100 yards. This sucked!!!

Next up I had 4 cones lined up about 30 yards apart from each other. Pax did 10 reps of 4 exercises at each cone then after all exercises done they bear crawled to the next cone. Exercises where Hand Release Merkins, Scorpion Dry Docks, Big Boi Sit Ups, and Sumo Squats.

Next round was same as above except we did Lt. Dans in between cones and the exercises where  Flutter Kicks 20 total, Wide Arm merkins, Monkey Humpers,and V-ups.

Then all pax bear crawled back to gates of field about 100 yards and did 5 burpees.

I followed my Q like i do all of them with 5 minutes of stretching which i heard more moaning and groaning then both our Q’s together.

Trucker thanks for letting me Q with you! Love you like a brother!

To all my F3 brothers y’all are like family to me. Y’all make me a better man daily mentally spiritually and physically.

Cornerstone Happy 40th Birthday! Thank you for our friendship.

Hope to see y’all on the Trails soon love each of you men.

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ISI DORA at The Armory

It has been 1 year and 5 days since YHC last Q’ed at The Armory. Quite a few fond memories of the AO… including almost splashing merlot under the leadership of Assassin. Always a privilege to be asked to lead such a fine establishment. The cars just kept rolling in this morning… and luck would have it that an even number of PAX showed up. A few newer faces appeared and YHC was happy to be introduced. 

0515

Disclaimer

Proverbs 27:17 –

Mosey to Concrete Benches w/bells.

COP in Cadence

10 x Diamond Merkins on Bells

10 x KB Swings

5 x Burpees

10 x OH Press

20 x SSH

Overhead Hold KB while YHC explains weinke. 

ISI DORA

Tell PAX to partner up with someone of equal “shape” or “fitness.” PAX 1 does exercise, PAX 2 moseys out and back to a determined point. Both PAX keep number of reps secret from one another. Once the specific movement is completed, disclose number of reps. PAX with lower number of reps does a penalty exercise to make up the difference. Other partner planks in the meantime. The goal of this is to push your partner to do more reps than you. To run faster than you. To push them to push you. To sharpen each other. 

Round 1 – Lower

Movement/Penalty

Goblet Squat/Bomb Jacks

KB Swings/Bomb Jacks

Alternating Lunges/Bomb Jacks

Step Ups w/Bell/Bomb Jacks

Round 2 – Upper

Straightaway Sprints Three Islands Out + Back

Movement/Penalty

Strict OH Press/Halos

ALPOs/Halos

Curls/Halos

Skull Crushers/Halos

Round 3 – Full Body/Hybrid Movements

Movement/Penalty

Turkish Get UPS/Man makers

Burpee Snatch/Man makers

1 Arm Clean and Press/Man makers

Z Press/Man makers (American Hammer body position with OH Press)

 

Five minutes left – head back to COT to knock out some Mary.

American Hammers w/KB x 20

Flutters w/press x 20

Hello Dolly w/extended hold x 20

KB 3 Count Sit Ups x 5 (as Dirty Harry put it – it’s like the Big Boy Sit up and the American Hammer got together and had a baby). 

0600

Announcements

The Fort has a birthday coming up! Look out for info on Slack.

Alcatraz will have the most mumble chatter ever as Stang and Trucker co-Q this Saturday.

Prayers/Praises

Truckers 2.0 – injured and cannot play football at the moment – pray for his spirits to remain high as he navigates a tough situation. 

Pray for our children – especially those who are most impressionable right now by every message being thrown at them. Nature Boy said it well that he’s at a point in his life where he and his peers are most susceptible to influence from outside sources. 

Prayers for we as fathers to lead our children on the right path while they navigate their daily challenges. Prayers that we can push them on toward Christ. 

Today was fun. It involved much sharpening and the group in attendance was quite encouraging. Props to Band Camp for keeping up with Tesh, to Dirty Harry for not splashing merlot, and to Singlet & Nature Boy for literally sprinting every time I saw them running. Oh to be young…

Thanks UHAUL for the privilege to lead.

Punch List out. 

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It’s a Keeper Again

We did some warmup

Main Event

5 Rounds. Each Round has it’s mode of transportation.  There are 5 exercises that were repeated each round. Do the 1st exercise, then do the transportation, do 2nd exercise, etc.  When done with all 5 exercises.  Repeat with the 2nd transportation.  Added some * options to modify harder if needed.

Transportation

Sprint – 2 aisles

Side shuffle – 2 aisles  *add bell

Lunges – 1 aisle *pass thru with bell

Bear Crawls – 1 aisle *Crawl Bear back

NUR – 2 aisles

Exercises

Curls – 10 ea arm or 20 both

Squats – 10  *20

Overhead Press – 10 ea arm

Tricep Ext – 10  *20

Swings – 10  *20

Got thru it all with some time for hip flexor work and abs.

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