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 🙂

TClap |
4

Footloose 8/20/20

When BossHogg calls your number you either show or he sends the law after ya. With drivebys by 3 of Fort MIlls Finest i do believe he put them on notice to take YHC away if i didnt bring the pain to this fine PAX. Well we got started right at 0515 with a quick disclaimer that was to Drop Thrills satisfaction. We took off for a quick warmup that consisted of the good ole regulars. After warmup we moseyed to the four way intersection. we were going to be moving from this point to three differant directions when you get back to the intersection you do the exercises. Do first set of 100 combined reps merkins/ squats.run. second 100 combined shoulder taps/ american hammers. run. 100 reps third set CDDs/ lunges. run. Try and get in three sets of each. Move. We got 2 full sets and 1 set of 50 combined of the exercises. The PAX worked and agreed we work hard if we getting up at 0430. Thanks BossHogg for the call out. Backdraft out.

TClap |
5

Death by Nur and a visit by Dora, Jack Webb & Dan Taylor

Thank you to the 16 other PAX who showed up to Alcatraz on this beautiful gloom to share in some great fellowship and a little fitness. It was an awesome time and if you miss it, well, you missed out. Thank you to Trucker for allowing Longshanks and YHC to lead this morning.

WARMUP

We began the morning led by Longshanks with the 10-Bombjacks because Dark Helmet said something that was on the verge of crossing the line, although it was before the workout. Then we took a short mosey down to Anchorage Lane.

THE THANG

Once we arrived at the bottom of the hill of Anchorage Lane Longshanks told us the plan. We were going to Partner up. Partner 1 was to Nur up the hill and run back down while Partner 2 performed exercises in a modified Dora. Then flapjack. The exercises at the bottom of the hill were: 100-Dbl. Count Lunges, 200-Squats, 250=-Calf Raises, 200-Monkey Humpers, and 100-Burpees.

This took us to a little after 0700 and Longshanks handed it off to YHC.

Since Longshanks had mentioned to YHC he was going heavy on legs and burpees, I figured I would add in a little upper body and . . . legs & Burpees. We took a short mosey to the baseball field. YHC asked the PAX to line up in 4 columns and we commenced to begin a combination of Jack Webbs and Dan Taylors (alternating between the two) from a ratio of 1:4 to 10:40.

Then we lined up at the edge of the field. We then did 7’s with Burpees and Bombjacks to finish off the 30 minutes.

Once we arrived at the COT Gears led in a quick session of Dying Cockroaches to complete the hour. This morning was full of mumblechatter and fun. What you want to have at any F3 Workout.

NMM

Our Nation and world have been rocked recently with multiple crises. Coronavirus took over in late March and we are still dealing with the effects. We have seen cities, towns and communities torn apart as racial tensions have risen. Our public figures are constantly attacking each other for their ‘inabilities’ just to either gain or keep power. It seems as if we are coming apart at the seams. All of these and many more can cause stress in everyone’s lives and we are all affected.

The question and challenge I have for you today is who or where do you turn to for peace. Not a peace like the end of war peace or happiness. This term is thrown around way too much to where people just don’t understand the true meaning of it. This peace can be easily lost.

I am talking about the inner belief that you are truly at peace with yourself, the world around you, and SkyQ. For me this is a peace that you can only achieve through the blood of Jesus Christ. With this peace you are able to face the world that seems to be crumbling around us and not be shaken. Because this peace is given to us by God through his son and strengthened each day through the Holy Spirit. Seek this peace and if you don’t have it, feel free to discuss it with YHC and I will share with you.

I challenge all PAX to seek that peace, whatever it may mean to you so when tribulation comes, as it has, you will not be shaken. Seek a peach that can overcome the evil of this world and keep your keel straight.

John 16:33 ‘I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.’

Aye!

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Reach out to a Site Q to Q a Workout.

Sign up to serve at Bethel Men’s Shelter. https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0444adaa23a2fa7-bethel

The Sweati – Sat., Aug. 15 at 0600 – Start at Colosseum

Meals on Wheels – Contact Change Order

FM Care Center Lawn Care

Read your Newsletter.

PRAYERS/PRAISES

The PAX shared their prayers and praises and Longshanks lifted them up.

TClap |
2

Six Pack of Q’s

Six posted to Alcatraz for a Q-less workout.
Due to YHC’s failure to schedule in advance, all PAX we’re voluntold and cooperated FULLY.

Gears led off with a mosey lap, broken up with a variety of burpees, merkins, and other such miserable-ness.

YHC took the second 10 minute block to hit the pull up bars, and the hill. One trip down, a few burpees, and a bear crawl and mosey up.

Decibel stepped up to lead a second round of loops on the hill with stops at the bottom and top for squats and ab work.

Maximus led a core burner with a lot of flip flopping between  ab and core work. And yes there were burpees.

Trucker then took is on at least a half mile of squat shuffles, and then… PULL- UPS with dips and step ups.

Fish Sticks closed out the last 10 minutes with a series of mixed motion exercises across the basketball courts with bear crawls, merkins, crab walks, LBC’s, crawl bears, and Carolina dry docks.  And yes, there were burpees in the form of burpee broad jumps.

Announcements: Children’s Attention Home this afternoon, Cupid Run and Yeti coming up.

Prayers for marriages and remembering our role of service in our concentrica.

TClap |
6

Late Night Q Takeover

A quick Friday night Slack-scrolling showed me who was Qing at Milkshake & The Fort but I didn’t see any name or listing for Alcatraz. So, this led me to ask the region the question of, “Yo, who’s at Alcatraz?” After some cricket banter and off-channel comz with last week’s co-Q, Bonsai, we decided it’ll be us to Q at the sometimes forgotten AO.

With Bonsai on the front half of the 60mins, we were welcomed and disclaimed. Next, we moseyed around the path at the park and did a little warming up with 50xSSH (angry fella), Stretching, Cherry Pickers (even a little left to right action) and Hillbilly Walkers.

As plagiarism is the most sincere form of flattery, Bonsai took a page out of Pusher’s playbook for a series of 1min AMRAP with a mosey to each station. Remember, 1min of each:

Merkins then run to the Fire Station boat for LBC’s then run to Fire Station parking lot for Carolina Dry Docks then run back just past the Fire Station boat for Monkey Humpers then to the basketball court for Flutters. We then repeated it for a second round but added at least 1 rep to each of your previous numbers at each station.

Then the hand off to Maximus.

Mosey off campus to the bottom of the hill at the front end of the neighborhood. Run up the hill, wait for the 6, jog down and get ~5-10sec to catch your breath. Repeat 4 more times for a total of 5 trips up the hill. Once the heart rates were peaked, we went back on campus to the parking lot which we wouldn’t leave again.

Round 1: Captain Thor (evidently this was popular yesterday) with 1 Big Boy situp & 4 American Hammers. Continue in that sequence to 10:40.

Round 2: Jack Webb (also popular) with 1 Push Up & 4 Overhead Claps. Continue in that sequence to 10:40.

Round 3: Lt. Dans (definitely not a crowd pleaser) with 1 Squat (which was the breather) and 4 Jumping Lunges. Continue in that sequence to 10:40.

That was it. For the 8 of us that posted at Alcatraz yesterday, we’re better for it. Sore yes…but better.

Make it count.

Bonsai & Maximus

TClap |
1

Hills and More Hills

Nine men showed up this chilly morning to get better.  It was nice to see Walker venture up from Rock Hill to show us how things are done.  After the disclaimer, Senator Tressell kicked us off.

Mosey out of the parking lot, take the path to the back of the park, down the big hill, hang a left and go up to the cul-de-sac on Mariner’s Court for COP. All in cadence:

SSH x 30, Merkin x 10, Squat x 20, IW x 20, Freddie Mercury x 20, Carolina Dry Dock x 20, Mountain Climber x 25, Jumping lunge x 15, Moroccan Night Club x 40 and begin walking toward the bottom of the hill.

Mosey back up the hill to the pull-up bars along the path park. Split into 4 groups:

Group 1: 5 burpee pull-ups
Group 2: Big Boy Sit-ups
Group 3: Merkins
Group 4: Step-ups

Rinse/repeat until time runs out

Hand off to Fish Sticks

Mosey to the bottom of short hill, backwards run up the hill to the top.  Back down to the bottom, lunge walk up to the top and back down to the bottom.

Ran down the side street and up the hill to the corner.  One set of dips (15) on the landscape timbers.

Mosey back to the park for some boulder exercises:  Overhead press (15) and curls (15).

Ran to the baseball field, split up into two groups.  The first group ran to the outfield fence, jumped over the fence, and did 5 bomb jacks (no jump over the fence, 15 bomb jacks). The second group planked until the first group returned.

Round two:  5 burpees at the top of the hill (no jump over the fence, 20 burpees).  Olaf chose to take the 20 burpees option (great example of choosing to do difficult things to make you better).

Round three:  bomb jack option.

Mosey back to the basketball court for six minutes of Mary.

COT

Prays for all who are battling cancer along with their families supporting them.

TClap |
2

NYE at the “Ant”- BB 2wks late

Link to the Pre-Blast: https://f3thefort.com/2019/12/18/the-force-to-bring-us-back-in/

The script changed but we discussed burnout and the challenges associated with getting burned out. Nevertheless, we did some work with heavy sand bags and rucks. The legs were put to the test and teamwork was present.

A lot remains on the written weinke which should see the light of day or the darkness of the gloom…some day.

Until next time.

Maximus

TClap |
0

Be A Helper

Had a total of 7 men show up to end the year. I originally thought I wanted to do a partner workout till I reflected on the sermon of this past Sunday. It was set around looking for “The Helpers.” With that in mind I decided to do a workout that made everyone better together and focused on a no OYO.

So we all set out to four stations around Golden Corral and conducted a warm up at these 4 locations for a visual. We did one round of warm ups at each location with Side Straddle hops, Wind mills, Mericans, Cherry Pickers, Imperial/Hillbilly Walkers, and stuff.

So once the guys knew of the locations there was an exercise written at each Station. Between each station the mode of transportation was a brisk mosey. Station 1 exercise was a 50 double count of Flutter Kicks. Station 2 was a double count of Dying Cockroaches. Station 3 was a 50 count of LBC’s. Station 4 was a 25 count of The Claw (BRUTAL!!!).

We hit each station twice and then I gave the men a message/challenge for the new year. With all the challenges that we face we a lot of times only look at the bad things in life and push aside the positives. I opened up a little about my past of abuse, running away, and other struggles I faced growing up and informed them of “The Helpers” I had on my side to assist me in becoming a better person. To guide me away from the hardships of life to lift me up rather than leaving me in the gutter. I explained to them I don’t look at my past as something bad but something good, because of “The Helpers”. There was a lot more verbiage but the challenge I left the guys with was look out there and rather than bypassing it be That Helper. Be someone that gets into that Shield Lock. Or lifts someone up from the gutter.

After that we hit the Stations one more time. We were able to put in about 2.2 miles and about 500 reps of nothing but ab workout. These guys killed it and we did it together.

TClap |
4

A cool, Shady, 38 degree Special morning

11 PAX woke up on a cool Saturday morning in November of 2019. Little did any of them know that immediately after the disclaimer they would be headed for the much maligned Tega Cay Drive hill of pain.

The mosey immediately headed that way as YHC (38 Special) led the PAX down the hill. Everyone circled up for 25 SSH, 15 Low Slow Squats, and 15 mountain climbers.  Some good Saturday morning mumblechatter including some compliments about the length of certain PAX’s shorts and the decade in which they might have been procured.  That was plenty “warm up”.

The Thang: Part 1

PAX counted off by 2’s. 2’s were instructed to run the 150M hill backwards. Team 1 to lag behind so eyes were going forward and backward. YHC was pleased to hear Team 1 offer quality mumblechatter on the way up in the way of encouragement.

At the top of the hill, everyone ran back down and Team 1 took their turn to run backwards while Team 2 pulled mumblechatter duty.  Now that every quad was suitably inflamed it was time for phase two of part one.

Until YHC’s time was out, we would run 11’s.  Starting behind the western baseball diamond, double count stepups. Run the roughly 100m to to the benches just before the pullup bars and do burpees.  If, somehow, anyone were to finish, it would have added 2k to their bragging rights. Some got to 4 step ups left, others 6.

YHC used the last minute of his time to speak briefly about pushing oneself in order for the group. The above was selected not because I could kill it, but because I knew I could do it with commitment, and without killing myself, and sorta, maybe tried to encourage others to do the same.

The Thang: Part 2

Shady took over and wasted no time running the PAX over the baseball field and into the parking lot, stopping near the playground.  Everyone paired up for what Shady said would be your ‘basic’ Dora. There was a brief lament about the lack of bricks when one of the PAX brought to everyone’s attention that there were some large rocks at the bottom of the trail.

If YHC were a geologist, he’d have called these rocks “boulders” (any rock with a diameter of > 25.6cm)…

Run back up the trail and into the playground.  Round one of the Dora was
100 – Hand Release Merkins
200 – Shoulder (boulder) Press
300 – Flutter

YHC wants to point out that the first two parts of that set were brutal.

When the set was over, Shady spoke to the PAX about his word of the year and encouraged everyone to think about theirs again. Some of the PAX talked briefly about their words as well. After this 10 count was concluded it was time to move onto round two.
100 – Incline rows
200 – Boulder curls
300 – LBC

YHC would also like to point out that the incline rows, while being sufficiently difficult, made some of the PAX look utterly ridiculous, and as most of us know, PAX would allow any of their brothers to look that ridiculous without drawing a great deal of attention to the fact.  It’s just good manners.

Time ran out during the LBCs and there was one more run down into the woods to return their boulders to their homes.  Joined up at COT.

Announcements: Thanksgiving convergence on 11/28 @The Ranch, HTL convergence on 11/23 @WEP and the Christmas Party 12/6 ~Baxter area. Everyone who knows Kenyan is invited to join the celebration of Life for his departed wife that morning.

There were also some prayers and praises lifted up to Sky Q’s consideration.

The PAX dispersed…

TClap |
5

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