Tanknation at the ballroom

WARMUP: Broga, SSH, IW, Windmills, dips, derkins, mosey
THE THANG: 10 signs with exercises on them. Each increments by 1 exercise. Do a sign then a lap. 10 ea. Merkins, big boys, squats, plank jacks, LBCs, Mtn climbers, SSH, flutters, American hammers, burpees. See yard backblast for more derails
MARY: Rebel led
ANNOUNCEMENTS: read newsletter.
COT: prayers

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PGA Championship at Slowburn

WARMUP:
Moseyed over to the driving range where we performed a few exercises like SSH and the walker brothers. Then moved to the putter green where we did a few yoga moves to make sure we were limber so we could hit the long ball

THE THANG:
For those who are not golf fans, the PGA Championship is being played this weekend at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa OK. With that I decided to design a workout around golf. Using the scorecard for the tournament I used Par as the means of travel between tee to green and yds as reps. For instance, Par 4, 465 would mean we ran to the green, roughly 50 yds, then did 4 flying squirrels for the 100s and 65 American Hammers. The 100s was always Flying Squirrels. The other exercise changed each hole.

Par 3 and 5 you NUR between tee to green.

“Lightning”was seen so we had to stop after 17, but pax didn’t seem to mind to skip the last hole and head for COT
MARY: no time

ANNOUNCEMENTS: read newsletter

COT:prayers for Change Orders dad and family, prayers for Spark Plugs sister for successful surgery, prayers for Cable Guy’s family as they continue to mourn the loss of his son and grief they are working through.

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The Slo-burn climbed a ladder or two

14 Pax accelerated into the weekend with a workout plan that offered Jacob’s Ladder, 5 of Diamonds, and a Ladder that offered burpees, Donkey Kicks, BigBoys, BombJax, and Squats.

We began the beatdown with a slow mosey that would keep the group close together and offered up some mumble chatter on the lack of ground covered with this small lap.

The group circled up for some warm-up :

SSH, Squats, Merkins, Cherry Pickers, Moroccan Night Clubs, and some stretching.  The group quickly transitioned into two rounds of a 1-minute HIIT – 10X Merks, 10XSquats, and 10x LBCs.

After the warm-up  – we partnered up with Jacobs ladder using partner merkins and partner big boys. Each rep was completed simultaneously by each partner w a hand slap for accountability.  Partner Merkins with a mosey to another side of the parking lot for the Big Boys.

Once completed, we transitioned into a modified 7 of Diamonds, ( 5 reps was the factor)  -four corners were the destination.  ( 5, 10, 15, 20 ) Round 1 – 5 Bobby Hurleys at each corner. Round two offered 10 Merks at each corner, round three offered 15 squats at each corner.  We kept the group together by adding cadence w volunteer (voluntold) random pax leading the count.  The mode of transportation was greeted w some groans from the group.  Mosey, bear-crawl, NUR, and modified lunges took us between the 4 corners.  The Pax finished the round with Flounder taking control and offering a modified version to keep the Pax guessing…..

As time was quickly passing, the men moseyed down a slight incline to be greeted with the uphill ladder as the final round.  The ladder contained 9 squats at the bottom rung, followed by 5 burpees, 6 Donkey Kicks, 7 Big Boys, and 8 Bomb Jax.

We headed back to COT for a 5 min round of Mary to close out the day.  Shout out to Change Order for breaking out the Boat/Canoe which was greeted by a time check request and more mumble chatter (or groaning)

Prayers were offered for upcoming Graduation, travels, marriages, surgeries, and overall blessing for the group.

Nice work!!

 

 

 

 

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A Millllkshake for breakfast.

7 pax and 1 pet on board for a morning of Milllkshake.

The warmup: We followed the Fort Q, Straight Up, as he led us through some warmups and stretches.

We launched uphill toward Mccammon Street. We saw a pax coming in hot.so we circled back around the trail to the amphitheater for a pickup.

I wanted to get the pax some extra burn in this morning, so I picked several spots to do an advanced pace walk/run from point to point. The first was to run up the grassy hill to the upper level WEP parking lot.

Shoulder station: First exercise was Moroccan Night Clubs (15 in cadence).

Next, I mentioned the AMRAP for Autism at Alcatraz for a shoutout to Divac and the men doing that hard thing today.

All exercises moving forward were AMRAP for 1 minute. Thanks to Uhaul for the timing.

Overhead Claps/Monkey Humpers

Move along to next station. 2 times we picked up the pace and went from one fixed point to another fixed point to increase the heart rate a bit. Bowser showed off his youth and showed us all the bottom of his feet both times.

Next station; Springs Parking lot

Shoulder Taps/Merkins (1 min AMRAP each)

Moved along

Brief stop at Springs Insurance for 1-minute AMRAP of dips on the wall.

Next stop: Millstone Stairs:

3 rounds of leg exercises, calf raises. squats, lunges, as each pax went up and down the stairs one at a time. (Totally stole that from the Fishsticks workout at Footloose this past Thursday).

Advanced pace up the stairs and run to the upper-level parking lot at Millstone Park.

LBC’s/Flutters (1 min AMRAP each)

Headed back to COT. We were cutting it close on time, so we picked up the pace at the final stretch coming up Mccammon Street toward WEP. Bastion must have seen a squirrel because he pulled Tesh out way in front of us with Bowser a close 2nd.

Back to COT. As always, the mumblechatter at Millllkshake was top notch today as we all learned a little bit about each other.

Backblast complete.

Todd Dunmyer, 55, Dojo

 

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4 Corners of The Ballroom

Welcome to Bonus Ass Kicking April

We had 19 at the Ballroom for a glorious 4 corners of pain!

Every morning we post, we go to one of the ‘corners’ of our region but in the end we are all one of The Fort PAX.

It was great to see so many PAX on this chilly March  morning. Special shout out to Beaker for posting for the second time in 2 days! Great job and keep posting, also great work 3D supporting him

The Thang:

We started off with a warm up:

15 SSH

15 Wind Mills

15 Imperial Walkers

Break out to groups at each corner.

Round 1 – mode of transportation- karaoke

Corner 1: 10 wide arm merkins, 20 mtn     climbers single count,

Corner 2: 10 big boys, 20 dying cockroaches do

Corner 3: 10 burpees, 20 grave diggers, single Ct

Corner 4 : 10 plank jacks , 20 Peter Parker’s

After all 4 corners were done we gathered at top of hill leading to bridge until the 6 was is in. Morrocacan Night clubs were done while we waited. We then moseyed down to the bridge and back as a recovery from the  4 corners.

Then it was onto Round 2!

Round 2 –  mode of transportation- nerr

C1:  15 jump squats, 15 low slow squats

C2:  15 box cutters, 15 American Hammers

C3: 15 monkey humpers, 15 Cherry Pickers

C4: 10 hand release Merkins, 20 SSH

After all 4 corners were done we gathered at top of hill leading to bridge until the 6 was is in. Morrocacan Night clubs were done while we waited. We then moseyed down to the bridge and back as a recovery from the  4 corners.

We completed a second set of rounds 1 and 2 substituting Moroccan Night clubs for flutters.

After the second set was completed, we did a

Batman Death March around the school with the 6 doing SSH

That brought us back to COT

Great work by all today

-Yard Sale

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(Pre) Adopt a Highway Beatdown

16 PAX for The Fort and 6 PAX for Milllkshake on a lovely spring morning

Battlebot started off with disclaimer and straight into warmups in the amphitheater parking lot… first warmup exercise he called was Goofballs, and with that the milllkshake crowd had seen enough and split.

(IC) – Goofballs, Cherry Pickers, Overhead Claps, MNC,  Merkins

We then began a mosey on trail towards Harris Street Park with a pain stations along the way

Station 1: 10 reps – Monkey Humpers, Imperial Walkers, American Hammers

Station 2: 10 reps –  CDD, Peter Parkers, Lunges

 

At Harris Street Park:

use full length of basketball court – Bear crawl to one side, crab walk back

use full length of basketball court – high knees there, duck walk back

10 reps each exercise-

use benches – Bulgarian Split Squat, Incline Merkins, Step Ups, Derkins, Dips

use swingset – pullups

Burpees

Run halfway back up trail towards WEP until you get to the beer bottle, turn around and hit the full circuit again

 

BattleBot handed Q to YHC at about 0658 and we began our mosey back towards WEP – about 3/4 of the way back we stopped for 25 LBCs (IC)

Continued to WEP playground where we partnered up for a DORA – Partner 1 exercises while partner 2 runs from playground to the statue on the hill.

Exercises:

50 reverse pushups on swings (short on swings so a couple groups got to do 50 pullups)

100 hand release merkins

150 squats

 

We finished up the last 7-8 minutes with a HIIT 45Sec ON 15Sec OFF doing the following exercises:

Burpees, Freddy Mercuries, High Knee Taps,  SSH,  In&Outs, Side to Side Squats, Shoulder Taps

 

Congregated back at the parking lot with about 30 seconds to spare and Al Gored to finish at 0730.

 

Got through announcements and started Prayers/Praises before I realized I forgot Name-a-Rama.  Another reminder that I am surely not a professional.

Thanks for the opportunity Grinder

 

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Horse Collar

There was a time when the world whispered. When quiet blanketed the meadows, and branches parted. When we hiked in wordless wonder and the birds regaled us once more with song. It was this morning at The Hive.

Warmup:

  • Side Straddle Hops
  • Windmills
  • Tappy Taps
  • Merkins
  • Perter Parkers
  • Down Dog/Honeymooner
  • Hamstring Stretch
  • LBC’s
  • Futters
  • Ran a lap

The Thang:

Partnered up because accountability matters. Cones were lined up with a plethora of KB exercises. The timer was an experiment of mine that was a cross between a human horse and buggy with battle ropes. The idea was to run across the parking lot with resistance. It was teeeeerible!! All of the pax would rotate through the cones onto the resistance run.

After a few rounds the timer switched up to bear crawls and waiter carries (aka The Tesh).

Six o’clock arrive fast. Back to COT for prayers and praises.

Prayers for mental health, cancer, and marriages.

JWOW

 

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Convergence: Love & a passing of the flag

Station 1 (Santini): Traditional Pain Platoon

Just your basic beat the hell out of your legs exercises of lunges, squats, and burpees intermixed with meditation and box breathing exercises. Sprint to the top of the hill, recover, and do more exercises including Moroccan night clubs and Carolina dry docks.

NMM: Anxiety and gratitude are not able to occupy the same space.

Station 2 (Shady / Maximus)

Warmup (Shady) – 21 SSH, 5 burpees, 18 SSH, 5 burpees, 12 SSH, someone whined about burpees so we did 10 diamonds merkins…then did 5 burpees
Group 1
  • partnered up and Dora style started out with 100 pull-ups.  Partner 1 on the pull-up bar, partner 2 did a lap around the playgroud
  • Stayed on playground, stayed with partner, Partner 1 AMRAP merkins while partner 2 ran the length of the playground and back to AMRAP merkins
  • Stayed on the AMRAP theme with flutters, then back to merkins, then back to flutters…then (I think) time was called

Group 2

  • Partnered up and Dora style, but this time 50 pull-ups with the run around the playground (Q modification given time and we aren’t cyborgs)
  • AMRAPs were just 1 round of merkins and flutters (again, I think…may need a lifeline here from Max)
  • We made our way to the hill with the statue where Maximus laid down the NUR up the hill and at the top 10 bomb jacks and ran to the bottom where we did 20 American hammers..we did this twice
  • W/ time to spare we ran to the top for 10 diamond merkins and ran to the bottom for 10 V-ups
  • In buzzer beater fashion, we ran to the top again for 10 ranger merkins and ran to the bottom for a partner 1 lay on the ground and grab partner 2s ankles where partner 2 would throw partner 1s feet down 10 times as you straight leg lifted them to his face

Group 3

  • Dora style 50 pull-ups with the run around the playground
  • We made our way to the hill with the statue where Maximus laid down the NUR up the hill and at the top 10 bomb jacks and ran to the bottom where we did 20 american hammers..we did this twice
  • Running low on time ran to the top for 10 diamond merkins and ran to the bottom for the ankle grabbing / feet throwing core exercise 10 times
NMM: After each of the groups had done their pull-ups, Maximus and Shady shared their thoughts and experiences on LOVE.
  • Shady – areas of focus were loving your brother and being your brothers keeper.  Sending a text or reaching out to someone to just say “hey, thinking of you” could change their day.  Realizing that the ones you love are watching you, emulating you, picking up on good and bad habits.  Realizing we don’t know it all, especially to the ones we love, is a sign of humility and a factor of growth and development.  For those of us with children, we have never been parents before so we honestly have no idea what we’re doing.  Love starts with servant leadership and personally for YHC, this usually progresses when the mouth is shut and ears are open.
  • Maximus – For my discussion on love, it begins with being intentional as love is a decision. We must make the decision to be intentional with our actions. Whether it be in our faith, marriage, parenting of our kids, with friends and yes, even with work relationships, we must be intentional. Think about how easy it is to get distracted, whether at dinner with your wife or even on a Zoom call for work. We often allow our minds to wander or even start doing something else while the other person is talking, looking for our engagement. Stop. Be the person who is present in the moment. Put the shoe on the other foot. Love that person as your relationship to them allows.

Station 3 (Pusher & Cakeboss): Love Edition

COP
  • SSHs
  • Windmills
  • Squats
  • Mtn Climbers
  • Merkins
  • IWs
Cake Boss spells love “B-U-R-P-E-E”
The Thang
  • Jacobs Ladder with Derkins and Monkey Humpers
  • Plank/Dip sequence
  • Bear crawl to top with burpees
NMM:
  • Cord of 3 strands cannot be broken. Having God in your marriage is the 3rd string. Adding communication to the marriage strengthens it. – CB
  • Gifts vs Gaps. Focus on the gifts that your wife or significant other bring vs what she is missing. Seeing her this way builds love. – Pusher
  • Much love was on display with all of the mumblechatter and fellowship. The relationships formed through F3 has increased our love internally and is reflected outward to our Ms, 2.0s, PAX and community… #morethanaworkout

Shovel Flag hand off for two leadership positions in the Fort:

Shady handed off the Nantan role to Double D
Esso handed off the Weasel Shaker role to YHC

Awesome work by the PAX today. Hard to put into words how much improved my disposition on life is since moving back to Fort Mill because of F3. Grateful for an opportunity to serve the PAX of The Fort.

NMM: Double D was the site-Q at Block Party when I started posting. If it wasn’t for his steady presence with a commitment to the integrating 2nd F and 3rd F elements into each workout, I doubt I’d have kept posting. Double D is a genuine human, I’m a better dude for knowing him, and I’m excited for his leadership.


Band Camp dismissed

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Just keep movin and quit with the bad eating habits already…

Little did I know that when Drop Thrill asked me to Q at the Ballroom I’d be coming off of one of the more stressful weeks I’ve had in a while.

We drove down to Orlando (the middle of the scrotum of America…) about 10 days ago so the M could be with her dad through his hospital stay. This put me in charge of the 2.0’s. One of whom is doing virtual school, the other, who is 4, just needs someone to interact with. With the M gone most of the day, the all to familiar but also unfamiliar surroundings, and crappy bed, my energy sapped by the end of the day to the point where I couldn’t get out of bed early enough for even a light jog.

We returned on Saturday (after driving through some heavy storms and slowdowns) and it took a couple days to recover from the experience.

I was feeling absolutely dead this morning, but I got up and got my ass to the ballroom.

The gloom

Drop Thrill and a few other PAX were already waiting when I arrived with a couple other PAX on the winding road behind me.

YHC looked around and saw familiar faces (some of which I hadn’t met, but I knew them from name-o-rama’s posted to slack). I had to very loudly issue the disclaimer as the mumblechatter was quite strong with some of the PAX, *cough* Destiny *AHEM*.

The warmup

A quick mosey around the N side of the parking lot and up to the crosswalk in front of the school.

15x SSH
10x Low Slow Squat
Some deep leg stretches for 10 counts
10x Tappy taps
10x Imperial walker
10x Hillbilly walker

the thang

Two sets of 11’s starting with the 3 benches and running about halfway down the parking lot road (55m or so).

First set:
Dips x10 and BBSU

Second set:
Step ups x10 each leg and Squats

When the second set was complete everyone gathered at the crosswalk. We had about 10 minutes remaining. PAX would run a lap around the parking lot (not in the parking lot). At some point they would need to do one pushup per lightpost they passed, whether all at once or stopping at each was up to them. Most PAX chose to save them for the end.

With 6 minutes remaining we lined up in south side of the parking lot for the Doji. Start by standing straight up. Using your L hand reach behind the R shoulder and ‘scoop’ with your fingertips, as you come around the front of your body, step into a deep forward stance with your R knee at 90º, and your L leg straight out, both feet parallel and about 45º off the direction of travel. Shift your stance to L forward stance while scooping behind you with your R hand, when you come back around, step forward staying very low, into L forward stance and push ahead with your L hand open, fingertips just at the shoulder level. Scoop behind w/L going into R forward, then step forward with R and push with R.

PAX then made their way back to CoT but there was still a minute left so everyone got into the Al Gore position while YHC expounded upon how my father in law was a pretty active guy, but eating kielbasa for breakfast every day can still clog your arteries.

cot

A lot of announcements this morning.

For one, check out the “Rumor Mill” section of the newsletter. If you see something in there that piques your interest, reach out to the leadership and ask if you can get involved. There’s probably something you can do!

There’s a blood drive every 8 weeks (next one on 5/6) for… eternity.

Sign up for the FM Care Center!

And more!

Lots of prayers about jobs and health (physical and mental) this morning.

nmm

After last week I’ve naturally been reflecting on the Queen quite a bit lately. I didn’t say much about this during this morning’s Q, but everyone’s body is a bit different. Some people can eat Hostess snack cakes and never gain a pound, and other people can eat nothing and still look like YHC (I’m not in the latter group, trust me, I eat things).

We’ve all seen the stories of people who live into their 100’s. Some of them say drink a gallon of water every day. Others say have a bump or two of whiskey every day.

Really all we can do is be vigilant. As Destiny pointed out in CoT today, get your damned checkups. Go do the blood work. If the doctor tells you to lay off the bacon, lay off the bacon (you can still BE it, metaphorically). I think everyone’s body tends to handle the available food sources pretty well (God made us incredibly resilient creatures, “anti-fragile”), but even so, the wrong kind of stress for long enough is going to wear down the system and it’s going to break.

There’s going to be a higher vegetation to anything else ratio on a daily basis for everyone. I’ve said this in my household many a time before!  However, buy in from the M was difficult to achieve.  After a 4x bypass in the family history, the M is on board.

It’s always a pleasure to Q. Thanks, Drop Thrill, for inviting me back out.

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Ballroom abs

YHC had the honor of leading some #HIM’s through a WO that allowed the PAX the ability to dial up or down their intensity. It’s important to recognize PAX levels of intensity when Q’ing so that you can ensure each PAX pushes one self to their acceptable level.

COP: SSH’s, IW, Windmills, LSS, big arm circles, and CDD (all in different cadence)

Mossy to bottom of hill at the backside of the PKMS gym.

At the bench 2 rounds of 10 reps each: Step ups each leg, dips, derkins, erkins.

Mossy to fire hydrant to where PAX chooses their intensity. Either NUR, Run, or walk for 11’s. Top of hill 10 Left Leg Scorpion merkins, run back to bottom for 1 Right Leg Scorpion merkin..rinse repeat till 11’s. If PAX finished early they went and picked up the 6.

Mossy back to benches for another 2 rounds of the same.

On the 6 for some marry – a crowd pleaser.

13 Hello Dollies right into 13 Rosaletta’s, right into 10 Hello Dollies and 10 Rosaletta’s, right into 5 of each without dropping feet to ground. Then box cutters, then flutters, then LBCs and finish with flutters.

Sprint to top of hill and come back for the six, mossy to COT for 15 more merkins.

COT

Prayers and praises where plentiful from Cake Boss 2.0 doctor news, to my co-worker and daughter Morvan and Mila, to Spark Plug’s daughter, to my 2.0 Evan.

Thanks all!!

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