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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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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The Honey Badger with Schmalls and CSPAN

Disclaimer

Hot thick and extra humid (extremely poor conditions)

warmup-o-rama

mosey

shirts optional

hero review

workout review (slightly modified WOD)

  • Run 800 meters
  • 50 burpees
  • 40 pull-ups
  • 30 one-legged squat (each leg)
  • 20 squats
  • 10 handstand pushups
  • Run 800 meters
  • Repeato

COT / Prayer or Praise / BOM

NMM

U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sergeant Justin E. Schmalstieg, 28, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, assigned to the 1st Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company, 7th Engineer Support Battalion, 1st Marine Logistics Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force, based in Camp Pendleton, California, died on December 15, 2010 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He is survived by his wife Ann Schneider, parents John and Deborah Gilkey, and brother John.

The “Schmalls” Hero WOD was first posted on crossfit.com as the workout of the day for Tuesday, April 23, 2013 (130423).

 

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Core Work at The Coop

There was a 2 year celebration going on at one of the AO’s so when a bus pulled up next to our COP, I jokingly told the guys we’d be bussing over to that AO to workout with them.  We really had no clue why there was a District 4 bus there, though.

0515 hit and we jumped into The Warmup:
25 SSH IC
Mosey to another area of the lot
25 SSH IC
Mosey to another area of the lot
25 SSH IC
Mosey back to where we started
10 Weed Pullers
10 Tempo Squats
10 Tempo Merkins
Mosey down the hill towards SCES and back up the hill to the Pullup Bars

Partner Up

Partner 1 planks while Partner 2 Dead Hangs for 1 minute.
Swap positions and repeat.
Partner 1 does Wheezy Jeffersons while Partner 2 does Hanging Leg Raises for 1 minute.
Swap positions and repeat.

Mosey down to Sugar Creek’s Basketball Court
Bear Crawl to other side of court, plank for the 6
Reverse Bear Crawl to other side of court, plank for the 6

Impact Talk – Sugar Creek Elementary is where I feel I make the most impact. I’m on the PTO and serve at the school enough that a lot of parents think I actually work there.  Connecting with the kids, giving fist bumps, making them feel like they are where they belong.  The smiles, bumps, and hugs I get in return make me know I’m making an impact at the school.

Mosey to Bus Loop Overhang for a few rounds of core work:
1. 25 Dying Cockroaches
Run a lap
2. 30 Rosalita’s
Run a lap
3. 35 Flutters
Run a lap
4. 25 Makhtar N’Diayes
Walk a Victory lap and we got to hear CSPAN’s story on Impact.  It was great!

We had 5 minutes left before needing to head back to COT so I broke out my go-to 5 minute beatdown: Chumbawumba’s Tubthumping
Burpee on “I get knocked down but I get up again”
Moroccan Nightclub’s when the chick sings
SSH when the dude sings/talks
It’s fun.

A slower mosey back up to COT to close us out.  The bus driver was still there waiting on students.  He arrived right before we started at 0515 and was patiently waiting to begin his job. Wowzers.  He wouldn’t join us.

Prayers for Pinup, Foley, BTB, and all those Pax hurting and tired.

Thank you, Wegmans.  I love any opportunity I get to Q.

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Kicking Off ’18 Nantan Summer Tour at Block Party

On an unseasonably cool June morning, 41 #HIMs met to get an attitude adjustment and start the day out right.

Mosey to the big parking lot on 160.

WARMUP:

  • 20 4-count side straddle hops
  • Five Burpees OYO
  • 10 4-count Windmills
  • Five Burpees OYO
  • 20 Low slow squats
  • Five Burpees OYO
  • 15 4-count Merkens
  • Five Burpees OYO
  • 20 Mountain climbers
  • Five Burpees OYO
  • 20 Moroccan night clubs
  • Five Burpees OYO

The THANG

Four corners in the big parking lot. Count off into groups of 4s and rotate through the stations.

  • Corner 1: Mosey to the bottom of the hill (160) and sprint back to the top, rinse and repeat. LBCs when done.
  • Corner 2: 30 Hand release Merkens. LBCs when done.
  • Corner 3:  40 Monkey Humpers. LBCs when done.
  • Corner 4: 20 Burpees. LBCs when done.
  • Rinse & Repeat

Mosey to the wall for 20 4-count wall mountain climbers.

Mosey back to COT….NOT DONE YET!

Captain Thors in cadence to 8 x 32.

COT

1 Corinthians 9:24 reads “Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win!” Give everything you do your best effort. Sometimes, however, this requires an attitude adjustment. Be grateful for how God has blessed you and honor HIM by giving it your all. After all, the only difference between a chAmp and a chUmp is YOU!

Announcements: Hog & Coyote, Nantan Summer Tour, #218in18, Read your newsletter

Thanks for the opportunity, Shady!

– Ginsu

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Honeybadger 2018.21

So the Honeybadger does not even have a Category from WordPress yet.  The Comz department gets a demerit…

So this week’s WOD was brought to you by Army Staff Sergeant Joshua Whitaker.

Joshie

Complete three rounds for time of:
40 pound Dumbbell snatch, 21 reps, right arm
21 L Pull-ups
40 pound Dumbbell snatch, 21 reps, left arm
21 L Pull-ups

This is a LOT of pulling.  These are both total body moves emphasizing the back and some shoulders…  I tried to break it up with some core/legs/pushes between rounds.  My instructions were to do this with a partner  and get assistance for pull-ups.

End with a quarter mile run then 6MOM.

I seem to get random questions every now and again about what I do or eat.  I look for the hardest thing I can do, and do that.  I don’t try to make it through it, while distracting myself from the discomfort.  I concentrate on it.  The human body is meant to be uncomfortable, because that is when growth happens.  Muscles tear and get bigger, your lungs burn and your cardio gets better, you hold your breath and your oxygen efficiencies increase, you stretch muscles and increase range of motion, you freeze yourself and your circulation increases, you get hungry and your HGH goes up (burning fat and protecting lean muscle)… and all of these produce adrenaline and endorphins, which helps you enjoy all aspects of life.  So don’t look for comfort.  Don’t covet comfort.  It is a thief, stealing life from you.  Get out and move.  Commit to each rep of each exercise.  Respect the next rep.
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.
AKA, lip service gets you no where.  AKA, I can tell what kind of tree you are by the fruit you bear.  Do the hard stuff.

Welcome Schwinn!  Please come back to another workout.

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My Varsity VQ

I’m afraid of Varsity…not gonna sugar coat it.  Hardcore Boot Camps scare me, especially AO’s that have pull-up bars on site.  I stay as far away from them as possible.  So, to get me to one of these crazy AO’s, you’ll have to ask me to Q.  I tried my best to make this not moderate.  I probably only hurt myself though.

We started by running around the NAFO parking lot.  25 SSH here, 25 SSH there, 25 more here and then 25 more there.  SSH are my favorite warmup exercise because…science says it’s the best. Our last stop in the lot was for a few Merkins.

Next we moseyed towards Sugar Creek Elementary.  I head faked a pitstop at the pull-up bars but kept going.  At the bottom of the hill I decided it would be good to run back up the hill and then back down.  I hate running.

Next obstacle was the Basketball Court.  We ran Suicides, Bear Crawled, Crab Walked, and Lunged. This is why I #Slowburn on Fridays.

I had my speaker box setup in the bus loop to entertain us while we worked it.  We split into 2 teams.  1 team worked out while the other team ran a lap.  Exercises included: Balls to the Wall, Merkins, LBC’s, Big Boy Situps, Planks of sorts, Makhtar N’Diayes…I tried to get a good mix in.

When I decided I couldn’t take anymore running, I put Chumbawamba’s Tubthumping on the speaker and we did 28 burpees in 3m32s. I hear they’ve done more burpees in less time at Varsity.  Beasts!

It was time for COT.  I tried to walk a bit but Ginsu said he felt like running so we ran back.  A couple Ruckers met us there and we closed it out with a Big Ball of Man.  Happy Birthday to Dark Helmet! Thank you Kielbasa for the opportunity.  I’ll trade you Q’s again in a couple months!

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Truck full of concrete at Colosseum

If you’ve posted at the Colosseum, you know Jekyll guarantees it’ll be worth your time. So for all the future Q’s of this AO, the nation looks forward to you keeping the streak alive. Several weeks ago I had the opportunity to post with our brothers in Huntersville/Lake Norman and got absolutely smoked on a Wednesday morning as we spent much of the 45mins pushing cinder blocks around while bear-crawling the parking lot. It was way too painful to keep to myself. After all, we’re supposed to give it away, right?

With a little pre-hype on the machine yesterday, 21 brave souls joined me at The Colosseum and after a donation from Bonsai, I was able to ensure we had enough coupons. Little did I know that you can’t give some of these guys nice things because their way out of doing the workout is to break my blocks.

Once all were accounted for, we moseyed to the bus parking lot for an abbreviated wind mill and stretch session. This was purely at Santini’s request but wasn’t frowned upon by anyone. After all, when you get a request from the guy that EH’d you into F3, do you really have a choice? After that 2mins, we took off for the back entrance road which just so happened to be the launch point of Jekyll’s horribles last week. Some assurance was necessary as people got a little anxious while we stood there. I guess the memory was still fresh from the previous week.

At each light post, 10 SSH and 10 Freddy Mercury’s. Once you hit every light post, bring it back to the start where you get your form called out by none other than CSPAN…hmmm, seems ironic!! We love him anyways.

Now that we got that out of the way, mosey back to my truck where we begin the next chapter. Like a jewelry dealer opening their trench coat to show his watches, I opened the tail gate to reveal 25 cinder blocks. Oh, it’s on now. Grab a block and line up in a straight line with the basketball hoop. I also learned that for those speedy folks out there (that’s you, Tesh), I need to be very specific with my instructions.

Round 1:

10 Burpees

20 Carolina Dry Docks

30 Squats holding the block

Bear Crawl pushing the cinder block to the line at the other basketball hoop.

Round 2:

10 Bomb Jacks

20 Flutter Kicks with a Press

30 Bicep Curls

Bear Crawl pushing the block back to the start

Round 3:

10 Diamond Merkins

20: Deadlifts

30: LBC’s (with or without the block but seriously, is there really an option?)

Bear Crawl pushing the block to the other hoop.

Round 4:

10 Toe Touches (with or without the block)

20 Lunges (20 each leg)

30 Shoulder Press

Bear Crawl pushing it the block back to the start

Circle Up:

Staggered Merkins (6ea side)

Flutter Kicks w/ the press again

Ended with more bicep curls

As a Q, it is great to hear all the chatter but to then have that followed by the moaning and then…silence as the PAX are trying to stay focused, that’s affirmation. Great job to the guys and special T-claps to the next level’ers (Dark Helmet, Trucker and Bonsai) for throwing the ruck on during this. The original workout had a ruck or weight vest involved so I respect you for going that rout. I will join you with the ruck next time. The bear crawls pushing that block while wearing a ruck…that’s memorable.

Prayers:

Upcoming graduations, appreciation to the PAX for checking in on us and holding us accountable, Badger.

Jekyll…I thank you.

Until next time.

Maximus

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A Truckload of pain at Honeybadger

Great way to start a week, we had 14 PAX (2 ruckers, Cha Ching and Jedi) that decided to get better and honor “the seven” a group of 5 CIA officers and 2 Security contractors killed when al-Balawi detonated a bomb sewn into a vest he was wearing. Six other American CIA officers were wounded. The bombing was the most lethal attack against the CIA in more than 25 years.

Al-Balawi was a Jordanian doctor and jihadist website writer who was detained and interrogated over three days by the Jordanian intelligence service, the General Intelligence Directorate (GID), in January 2009. The GID and the CIA thought they had turned al-Balawi to penetrate al-Qaeda in the Pakistani tribal areas to provide intelligence for high-level targets. Instead, al-Balawi used this trust to gain access to the CIA base in Afghanistan unsearched and perpetrate the attack. The Pakistani Talibanand al-Qaeda claimed responsibility, saying they helped al-Balawi with the attack.

The names of our honored heroes are listed below:

CIA OFFICERS:

-Harold Brown Jr, 37, Bolton MA

-Elizabeth Hanson, 30, Rockford IL

-Darren Labonte, 35, Brookfield CT

-Jennifer Matthews, 45, Cedarville OH

-Scott Roberson, 39, Tolland CT

SECURITY CONTRACTORS:

-Dane Paresi, 46, Portland, OR

-Jeremy Wise, 35, Tigard, OR

After a quick disclaimer on the go we moseyed around the parking lot with some high knees and butt kickers, our warm up consisted of the following exercises with different reps each to total about 9 minutes into the WO :

Side straddle hops

Windmill

Moroccan night clubs

Squats

Arm circles

Merkins

Lunges

 

THE THANG:

I followed the book as much as I could but had to include a tire exercise (otherwise it wouldn’t be a Tinsel workout) and also replaced a couple of exercises from the book to focus on upper body strength. The main idea of “the seven workout” is to complete 7  rounds of 7 exercises with 7 reps each, each round took about 7 minutes to complete, after round # 3 we run down and up the hill to give our upper body a break and then continued with 4 more rounds, these are the 7 exercises:

THE SEVEN

7 handstand push-ups

7 thrusters with log

7 sledgehammer swing each side

7 worst merkin ever

7 burpees

7 log swings

7 pull-ups

Everything was planned to be completed under one hour and I’m glad everyone pushed hard to reach our time window. With a couple of minutes to spare at the end, straight up took over for some Broga and stretching exercises, much needed after the beatdown, thanks for your help!!

We ended up our WO with announcements, prayers and praises.

GRETA JOB EVERYONE!!

Tinsel out…

 

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Gambling in the Abyss

What happens when you’re granted the honor of Qing at an AO you’ve not been to much and therefore, not to familiar with? Why, you scout it on Sunday with your kids after Church of course. Completely normal, right? For this group, you’re expected to “bring it” so you’d better know the turf. For those Ft. Mill’ers who’ve not frequented The Abyss, put it on your short-term bucket list. I didn’t explore much of it due to our card playing but this place is a gem.

Once the 16 of us rolled in on this beautiful Wednesday morning, I quickly noticed the footwear NASA was sporting and got a little concerned…for him. He let me know that he and a few other PAX would be breaking off to do a busted-foot-friendly-workout so I felt a little better about what we were getting into. The people-pleasing side of me wanted to make sure I had a little something for everyone so after typical butchered disclaimer, we took off for the basketball courts for our warm up:

Windmills

Side Straddle Hops of course

Super mans

Hand-Release Merkins

Jump Squats

Mosey back to the main lot and I had to grab the deck of cards I slipped under the cone. As many but not all were familiar with, each suit is a different exercise and the number on the card represents how many reps. Jack = 11, Queen = 12, King = 13 and the Ace = 14 (not 1).

Hearts = Wide Arm Merkins

Clubs = Carolina Dry Docks

Diamonds = Jumping Lunges

Spades = BURPEES (Yup, we did that)

After we recognized the deck must have been front-loaded with Wide-Arm Merkins and Jumping Lunges, it wasn’t long until we started getting smoked and a few 10-counts were necessary. In the end, we completed it all which totaled 104 of each, that’s right, 104 Burpees.

There was still a little left in the tank and on the clock so we had to round it out with Dying Cockroaches, descending 10ct leg lifts and the finisher…Lt. Dan’s. The latter was a lesson I would remember the rest of the week.

Bones, I appreciate the opportunity and I look forward to the next time.

Leave no man behind but leave no man where you found him.

Maximus

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