Run, Kraken, Broga

13 men resisted the ever menacing fart sack and met in the gloom at the Bermuda Triangle for another great Friday.  With the shovel flag passed on from HomeBrew to Wolverine last week, I wanted to make this Q a bit different from my previous ones to help usher in a new era at the Triangle. At a recent site Q meeting the Fort’s Maximus was discussing a bootcamp consisting of a minimum of 3 miles running with a bare bones bootcamp mixed in and with Ragnar coming I thought to myself, what a great idea.

Disclaimer was given and we ran over to the basketball court for a quick COP. SSHx20/Cotton Pickerx10/Tha Windmillx10 all IC. 

Main Event

5 Kraken Burpees/5 Jump Knee Tucks/5 Donkey Kicks/ 5 Pull-ups/Run 2 Laps around track

Rinse and repeat 3 more times then we ran 4 laps straight for a total of 3 1/2 miles run.

Finished up with some Broga- Sun Salutation/Standing Half Lotus Left-Right Legs/Crow Pose

TAPS

Violence in America/ Travel Prayers.  Two Ferns is leading a prayer service at the local schools to pray over the kids, Tweet him for more info. Thanks for the opportunity to lead Wolverine! Peace!

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ShipWrecked

There are not many more exciting things to do in F3 than to launch a new AO so I was very honored to be able to lead the High Intensity portion of our new AO…..ShipWrecked! One group of Pax goes and does a 30 minute Moderate Bootcamp and another group of Pax does a 30 minute High Intensity Bootcamp. We then go to Starbucks for cafeteria afterwards. I have no idea what the moderate boot camper’s did but here is my rundown.

Right off the bat…10 Burpees. Ran across the street to the High School where we did a High Intensity COP.  2 rounds of Circle Burps(16 more Burpees ) and 10xSSH IC.

Main Event

Super Crazy 8’s

8 Kraken Burpees/8 Ski Abs/8 Donkey Kicks/8 Big Boy Sit Ups/8 Jump Knee Tucks/8 Scorpion CDD’s Left Leg/8 Scorpion CDD’s Right Leg/ 8 Jump Lunges (count both legs as one rep)-run in a figure 8 pattern around the parking lot-rinse and repeat.  We completed 5 rounds before I had to get us back over to the elementary school for COT.

Finished with another round of Circle Burps(got 9 more Burpees in).

COT

We voted on the name ShipWrecked for the new AO.  Prayer Walk this Sunday at the local schools-see Two-Ferns for details! Thanks to the leadership of Lake Wylie for the opportunity to lead!!! Peace!

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Highly Intense with a Dose of Moderate

Today was the “soft launch” for a new workout coming to Lake Wylie.  We meet at the usual time of 5:15, but have a couple of options.  The PAX can choose between a 30 minute moderate workout that is great for some of our respectables or guys who are needing a little rest or healing from an injury.  The site-to-be-named-later is held at Oakridge Elementary school, the school opposite from The Deep where we have our Saturday workouts.  At the end of the workout we would finish up in typical F3 fashion and then meet up at Starbucks for some 2nd F coffeeteria.

In any case, this morning I took the “high intensity” workout and decided to throw some traditions (no Warm-a-rama) out the door since we only at 30 minutes to get our WORK done.  I notified the PAX arriving a few minutes early to get their stretching in while they can.

At exactly 5:15 we took off for a fast mosey to the right side of the school.  I had a speaker with 8 rounds of a HIIT routine laid out to some music.  30 seconds of AYG burpees followed by 20 seconds of flutters.  All in all, I think most of us were between 75-100 burpees to start the morning.  A great way to warm up.

Upon completion we took off for another fast mosey to the back of the school where the playground was.  The workout was simple, run a lap around the playground and then do 15 dips and 3 “good” pull ups. I wanted the PAX to focus on form and getting them done right so I kept the reps low on purpose.

After that I gave the option to do some hill work across the street or whatever nastiness I can come up with on the fly due to only having about 10 minutes left.  Most were on board with the hill work and I was all for it until I heard Wolverine mutter that he picked that because most of the remaining minutes would be spent running to and from the hill.  He was right, so I scratched that immediately and we did the harder thing.

Back to the parking lot where we did the HIIT “warm-up”, we would start at one side of the lot, at the curb, and do 1 squat, bear crawl across the lot and do 1 merkin and then repeat going back and forth incrementing +1 each time #zimacount.  Some of us completed 7 rounds of this so do the math.

We quickly ran back and circled up for CoT.  I burned about 450 calories and we covered 1.5 miles, not too bad for 30 minutes!

CoT

20 in all showed up today including 4 FNG’s!  A great turnout!

The Deep is closed this Saturday for the Invergence.  Also, August 11th we are praying for Clover Schools (Contact Two Ferns for info).

We closed out in typical fashion and prayed for those in need.  One of our FNG’s M’s is having wrist surgery and another’s friend reached out with suicidal thoughts and needs help.

Until next time,

-FLUX-

 

 

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High Intensity Poop

The Gloom was dark and full of terror.  12 bad a@# High Impact Males rolled up to PoopDeck to get some, and some they got.  A disclaimer was given and off we mosey’d on over to the Papa Dock parking lot where they have a fishing pier.  Early morning fishermen looked on with furrowed brows at a motley crew of 12 guys dressed in dark clothing running at them, wondering what in the world was going on.  We did not care, we know we are crazy.

As practice for my first High Intensity Q next Wednesday at the yet to be determined AO name, I did a high intensity COP consisting of 3 rounds of Circle Burps(High Knees with each Pax calling out “down” and doing a burpee for a total of 36 Burpees).

We then did a Dora consisting of 100 Donkey Kicks/150 Curb Dips/200 Single count Lunges.

The sweat was dripping and heart rates were pounding as we mosey’d on over to one of the big parking lot walls where we did Balls To The Wall Walks(Pax hand walked a certain distance while the other Pax did Burpees till all Pax did the Wall Walk). Then we mosey’d on over to one of the parking lots and did Cha Ching parking lot agility drills(you have to be there).

Our grand finally with 10 minutes left on the clock was a Fia inspired exercise called the pancake.  You do 1 merkin, flip over and then do a big boy.  We finished in a 1/1,2/2,3/3+ rep range till we hit time.  A real crowd pleaser. 

Prayers for kids growing up in broken homes and using athletics to get out of a bad situation. Prayers for violent deaths, upcoming surgeries and the overall state of the world. Tune in next time for more pain and suffering! Peace!

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Something to Crow About

14 PAX held down the fort while site Q iced T was DR doing a Spartan race.

Q-drenaline was strong with YHC, as the M is DR the next couple days, followed by a family vacation, so limited posting the next couple weeks.

Started off with a mosey (aka sprint) to the upper courtyard for COP
MNC x 20
2 burpees
LSS x 10
4 burpees
Windmills x 10
8 burpees
Peter Parkers x 10
16 burpees

Mosey back to front rock pile
Grab heavy Rock for three rounds of:
15 OHP, 15 Bent over rows, 15 goblet squats
After each round/crab walk to road closed sign, bear crawl/overhead carry w/ overhead hold while waiting for the six

Mosey down to jungle gym
2 pull ups, monkey bar around the loop, 2 pull ups, down

Mosey to lower courtyard for Dora 123
100 Derkins
200 Dips
300 Step ups (didnt quite get to 200)
Partner 1 did exercise while 2 ran down the hill and nured back up.

Two lines of Indian run back to COT
Got back early, so decided to get in as much Merkin around the world (1 merkin rotate, 2 merkins, rotate, etc) as we could, made it to about 10 before calling time.

COT
New Wednesday AO for Lake Wylie
Read your newsletter

Thanks iced T for the opportunity to lead and great push from the PAX.

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Q School Week 3

We’ve had some pleasant mornings this week and I was thankful that today was no different. I was grateful for temperatures in the upper 60’s and lower humidity.  It felt great out there.

Anyways, enough about the weather.  More importantly it was the final week of Q school and I was honored to take the lead for the “Advanced Q’ing” 201 class.

Royale and Wildthing took the previous 2 weeks and did an excellent job of explaining all the fundamentals and the “How”.  Royale took that a step further last week and really focused on preparing and having a back-up plan in case things went wrong.  I tried to answer the “Why” a bit more today along with some review of the important aspects of the previous weeks and tie it all up nice and tidy while delivering a message with the workout.  This is an “advanced”  way that we can push our boundaries even further, beyond the fitness aspect, and try to give the PAX some insight and motivation along with the workout.  Not unlike our “Beyond” workouts that we have occasionally.

Today started the same as any other workout, with a better than normal disclaimer and “Why” it is important.  F3 is an organization that isn’t liable and week after week we tend to gloss over this when we see the usual crowd.  In any case, it is part of what makes up the core of an F3 workout and needs to be addressed.

After the disclaimer we took a mosey around the track and did some toy soldiers and karaoke’s before circling up.

I reviewed with the PAX what “F3” stands for and went over the mission statement and 5 core principals,

Just so we’re clear, for anyone reading this, here is that info in print:

  • F3 – Fitness, Fellowship, and Faith.  The first 2 are pretty self explanatory, the 3rd isn’t tied to any specific religion, but a belief in something outside oneself.
  • F3 Mission statement – “Our mission is to plant, grow and serve small workout groups for men for the invigoration of male community leadership.”
  • 5 Core Principals
      • Are free of charge
      • Are open to all men
      • Are held outdoors, rain or shine, heat or cold
      • Are led by men who participate in the workout in a rotating fashion, with no training or certification necessary
      • End with a Circle of Trust

I don’t normally do lengthy CoP style warm-ups, but since the emphasis was on teaching today  we circled up.  I went over some more of the “Why” behind why cadence is important.

  • It creates rhythm
  • Promotes teamwork
  • Discourages budgeting your energy since the count is unknown

I called out some Merkins and Windmills and then called on a few of our newer PAX to call cadence for an exercise of their choice that I can no longer remember.  Ooops.

While I still had their attention I talked a little bit more about some Q responsibilities.

  • Q’ing should be taken seriously.  PAX want to complete the workout and feel invigorated and ready to take on their day, which leads my to my next point…
  • …Workouts are not built for the benefit of the Q, but for the PAX!
  • “If you can’t do it, don’t Q it!”.  Stick to your strengths. Your workout plan or “Weinke” should be an outline and not set in stone.  Adapt as needed and always have a backup plan.

Now back to that message and 1st routine.  The message was “How do we grow?”  F3 is really all about growth and finding those things that make us uncomfortable and sad and addressing them with the help and support of all the brothers of the morning gloom.  Everything we do is a continued attempt to push ourselves into the unknown, into discomfort.  We’re going to fail, that’s a part of life, but fortunately it’s also a requirement for growth.  This isn’t new news, we workout our muscles until failure, they heal and become strong. This is true for pretty much all aspects of life.  I shared a quote with the PAX from Calvin Coolidge that I liked;

“All growth depends upon activity.  There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means WORK”.

Now on to the 1st routine to get some WORK done.

Paula Abdul’s

10 cones were setup about 10 yards apart.  We would crawl 2 cones forward, do 5 merkins, and crawl bear backwards 1 cone and perform 10 squats.  We would continue in this fashion until hitting the 10th cone.  2 forward, 1 back, and always doing merkins when going forward and squats when going backwards.

Everyone made it to the end with a little extra push from the PAX that finished first.  “Picking up the Six” and/or assigning someone to do so is another great idea that was shared with the PAX today.

I shared some more insight and quotes with the PAX.  How being comfortable leads to boredom, self-absorption, and discontent.  F3 has a name for this of course, the “Sad Clown”.  We can combat this by not only be seeking out discomfort, but embracing it.  The secret to success lies in all the things we’re trying to avoid.  I then called on some experienced PAX to share some personal growth on things that used to make them uncomfortable, but they now can do without difficulty.

Back to WORK

Gasser’s (formally known as suicides)

The same 10 cones we just crawled through taking the scenic route we would now use for some gasser’s.  Pretty self-explanatory here, but for a little icing we would increment Burpees each time we got back to the start.  1 cone/1 Burpee, 2 cones/2 Burpees… and we ended at the 10th cone/10 Burpees. The 10th cone was about 100 yards down field.

While we all caught our breath, I took the opportunity to drive home the point of delivering the message with a workout.  We’re all unique and have specific strengths and weaknesses.  We can simply tap into our strengths and deliver them during the workout.  One man’s strength is another man’s weakness and we can utilize this group of people to deliver that message.  This is how we hold each other accountable.  This is how we grow.  This is F3.

I then told the PAX we would make our way back down the field where we started this journey the same way we came, Paula/Bearcrawls.  We made it to about the 8th cone or so before I called and it we mosey’d back to the flag and circled up for CoT and a few reminders for the future Q’s of our region.

  • Workouts should start and begin on-time
  • Backblasts are not only a responsibility of the Q, but a requirement!
  • Don’t be afraid to ask for help, we’re all in this together

We then finished up as we always do by counting off, name-a-rama, and announcements, praises, and prayers.

Homebrew, thanks again for the privilege to teach today.  It was an honor.

Until next time,

-FLUX-

 

 

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Q School 201 – The Weinke at Bermuda Triangle

I was the privileged Q that was able to lead week #2 of Q school following behind Wild Thing.  I got to the AO 10 minutes early to set up, guys were already pre-running… nobody ever seems to sleep in Lake Wylie!  By the 5am start we had 18 PAX with us.  Uber all the way from Tega Cay, one PAX, Crabby Cabbie – only on his second post to F3! I opened by sharing some of this message below.  Being the Q starts with being prepared.

Preparedness

There are four quadrants of preparedness: get right, live right, lead right and leave right “G3L” 

F3 is an Organization of leaders rather than an Organization with leaders. As such, every Member of F3 is asked and expected to be a leader both within F3 and in the other Groups in which he is a Member. This ethic arises from our Mission , which is to plant, serve and grow men’s small workout groups in order to invigorate male community leadership.

Within F3 a leader is called the Q, which we define as a leader who takes responsibility for the Outcome in the Groups of which he is a Member.

Some Outcomes are envisioned beforehand by the Q while others are thrust upon him by unexpected and sudden circumstance. For envisioned Outcomes, the Q can anticipate and get prepared for what will be expected of him to be Effective. But the Q cannot do that for unexpected Outcomes because they come upon him suddenly—for those Outcomes he must already be prepared to be Effective.

How do you prepare?

“The Weinke” – named after Panther QB, Chris Weinke (Carolina QB from 2001-2006) where he would have every play in a giant playbook on his arm.

Scout the AO – Check the Weather report – Check previous Backblasts for regular PAX in attendance

PREPARE! Doras, Ladders, partner work, stations, coupons

My 1st few Qs I wrote the COP exercises in permanent marker on my arm…

Write it down, keep it handy but try not to use it.

Create Evolutions!  Have more than you will use. 3-5 depending on complexity

Make it Tough, but a balance is needed for all level PAX.  Have an adaption plan in place.  Guys failing to work hard, get them back in line or adjust.

Adapt = tell a PAX what is OK to modify to.  Can’t sprint?  Jog ½ way and turn around.

Give the PAX a choice! Option #1 or #2

BE CONFIDENT – SPEAK LOUD – DON’T GIVE UP YOUR CONTROL – YOUR TIME TO LEAD!

 

WEINKE FOR BERMUDA TRIANGLE 7/19/2019 Q SCHOOL 201 (Full example)

Welcome each PAX

Disclaimer

Dynamic Warmup High Knees – Butt Kickers – Toy Soldiers – Soccer Legs out & In

COP

SSHs – IWs – CDDs – Merkins – LS Squats – Seal Jacks – Peter Parkers – MNCs – Broga

 

Evolution #1  BB Court

Partners modified LAZY DORA size does not matter

100 Swing Crunches – Partner Elbow Planks (in grass)

To BB Court

150 Merkins by 10s  – Partner Planks

200 Squats 25x – partner hold Al Gore

Alternative under picnic area

Dips and Derkins with Step Ups

 

Evolution #2

Speed Work

Field Sprints 4 cones plank when complete repeat 3x

Alternative

Bear Crawl to #2 or Jog to #3

 

Evolution #3 (Ran out of Time – Did not do, but had at the ready)

Bear Crawls and burpees between cones 5 burpees each cone

Alternative Lunges and Wide Arm Merkins or CDDs

 

Evolution #4 Ab Lab

Give all Pax another opportunity to count cadence

COT with Count, Namorama, Announcements, Prayers

I think the guys enjoyed the time together, maybe learned a little something to take to their next Q, and definitely worked hard!

A honor to lead,

Royale

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Productive little day at the office

It’s not often that I get asked to Q all the way out in Clover, so knowing those guys and always trying to make the most of everyone’s time, I made it my personal goal to have the most productive little Monday they’ve ever had out at the Crows Nest.

Was pleasantly surprised to see two faces I wasn’t expecting – Maximus making the trek all the way out from Tega Cay (much thanks for the long commute!) and then Witch Hunt who we’ve been missing in the gloom for a couple months now (welcome back brother!).  I’m not one for warm-ups as many of you know, so at 5:12a I warned the pax to start stretching on their own.  At 5:15a ,the disclaimer was said and we then went on a burpee mile warm-up to see the AO since it had been a while since I was last there and wasn’t sure of where we’d be doing the exercises I had lined up.

  • Burpee Mile – starting w/ 5 burpees OYO at COT, we then ran 1 mile stopping every 1/4 mile to do 5 burpees.  25 burpees in total, 1 mile under our belt.

Second half of the warm-up was on the parking lot lines near the playground.  Starting at the first parking space, do the following:

  • Sprint up one side, side shuffle to the right, back pedal down the next line, side shuffle to the right, sprint up, shuffle, back pedal and so on and so on.  Once you get to the end of the spots (about 8 spots), side shuffle around the bend and do the same thing on the other side.
  • We then moseyed over to the next parking lot that was equivalent to the one we just left and did a similar drill, only do a quasi skip (one leg in front, one leg in back) back and forth down the full parking lot lines, back pedal to the line behind you and bunny hop over and back going left back down the line.  Do for all spots and then mosey back to the start.

With the warm-up and heart rate spike complete, we hit the playground for some 11’s.  Not your standard 11’s, but a play on the 21’s that Zima and Anchorman had us suffer through at the Sweati 2 days prior.

11’s = I give two exercises, you do 1 rep of the first, and 1 rep of the second.  Then do 2 reps of each, then 3 of each, then 4, then 5….then 11 reps each.  Ends w/ you doing 66 reps of each exercise in a short period of time.  We did the following:

  • Dips / Burpees…brought the cumulative burpee count to 91 (25 from warm up mile + 66 here)
  • Jump lunges / diamond merkins
  • Sprints / big boy sit-ups…yes, the runs, ughhh.  So we started on one cross walk and then had to sprint to the next one about 30 yards up (that’s 1 sprint) and do 1 big boy sit up.  You then sprint back to the original cross walk and then back to the one you started at (that’s 2 sprints) and do 2 big boys…you work that up to 11.  This one took the remainder of the time with having to sprint 30 yards back and forth 5 times in a row, then 6 times, then 7….ugh.  A few got to 10 sprints in a row before we had to call it.

Survey Says mumbled something about making the burpee count an even 100 at some point during the workout so I thought it was a very valid suggestion.  We got back to COT and everyone knocked out 9 more.

Final totals = 2.7 miles, 100 burpees, 66 dips, 66 jump lunges (1 = both legs so really 132 jumps), 66 diamonds, 66 (or close to) big boys and 66 (almost there) sprints.  Not a bad day at the office right there.  We didn’t really break, we didn’t really warm-up, and the pax didn’t really complain one bit.  Just came to work as they knew we would.

Prayers were shared for those suffering from cancer (Alex in particular, who is 22 yo), our kids safety / independence away at camp, job interviews and for those who find themselves living homeless – White Snake shared a really cool story about a guy he ran into Uptown who was rocking a F3 tshirt and offered to give it to him.

Thanks Iced T for the call to lead – looking forward to the next time.

Cha Ching

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Me Hearties Take on the Poopdeck, argh!

Sixteen of the roughest, toughest Pax, along with an experienced FNG (Coach Steve, now and forever known as “Trench”) joined YHC on a steamy morning at the Poopdeck.  Here is how it went down:

Warm – o- rama

  • Short mosey around the Bowl-n-Bounce, peppered with Toy Soldiers, Butt Kickers & High Knees
  • 10 Wind Mills IC
  • 20 SSH, IC
  • 10 LSS IC
  • 10 Sungods forward, IC, 10 backwards

The Thang, Part 1

We divided in to 3 groups for a three stage beat down; each group completes all of the exercises in the stage together, then takes a short lap to the next stage.  Each group completes all three stages twice:

Stage 1

  • 10 Jump squats
  • 10 single count curls/arm (25 lb dumbell)
  • 20 Nolan Ryan’s (10/side)
  • 25 LBCs (single count)

Stage 2

  • 10 Lunges per leg
  • 10 WWII Sit ups
  • 10 Tricep hammers/ arm (20 lb dumbell)
  • 10 Diamond merkins

Stage 3

  • 25 SSH
  • 20 Flutters (per leg)
  • 15 Derkins
  • 25 CDDs

The Thang, Part deaux

Partner up to knock out this list, one exercising, one taking a parking lot mosey:

  • 100 Lunges
  • 75 Ranger Merkins
  • 75 Bobby Hurley Squats
  • 75 Carolina Dry docks
  • 75 Crab Cakes
  • 75 Werkins
  • 75 Monkey Humpers
  • 100 LBCs
  • 40 Flying Squirrels

I don’t think anyone made it past the dry docks before we called Omaha for some Mary (flutters, Freddy Mercuries, American Hammers, all IC)

COT:

Reminder of the Sweati set to take place this Saturday; 3rd F prayers at the local schools in the planning stage; Q-School at Bermuda Triangle continues on Friday.

Wolverine took us out.  As ever, I’m grateful for this group of men, and the chance to lead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Life Skills with kettle bell babies at the Cannonball

Disclaimer disclaimed while in plank.
Start the party with an Indian run complete failure on my part.
Circle up with kettlebells for some suicide squats, Merkins, and circle of kettlebell rows.
Bring your kettlebells and make a lap around half parking lot. a crowd pleaser for sure.

Then time for life skills. Again a failure on my part of explaining the difference between two rows or columns and two lines.
For the record, a line is what you learned how to stand in back in Kindergarten. You find the back of someone’s head and stare at it. That’s a line.

A row is where you are standing shoulder to shoulder with a fellow PAX facing in the same direction. If anyone wants to correct me I welcome the discussion.

Sadly in today’s broken world, there are some terrible, evil individuals out there they want to cause harm to innocent people. This mornings life training was an attempt to prepare fellow men for such a situation.
The first row of PAX dropped down to a plank with head up facing the church with the kettlebells in front of them. These PAX are going to be jumping up from plank, grabbing two kettlebells, their own along with kettlebell belonging to pax opposite them in row 2, and sprinting away from the starting point as if an active shooter attach was taking place and the kettlebells were their shorties. Use your imagination people! This could save someone’s life.
The row 2 PAX were instructed to also start in the plank position but facing the woods. When YHC says “go” the row 1 PAX jump up, grab kettlebells, and take off towards the woods. PAX in row 2 perform 3 hand release merkins before jumping up and giving chase to PAX in row 1 that just kidnapped PAX 2 shorties. Think of it as a modified “catch me if you can” exercise set.

Finish it up with a more successful attempt at the fuel tank farmer carry Indian run.
I had plenty more planned, let this be a lesson to newer Q’s: always plan at least double the amount of exercises than you think you have time to complete, but given the rapid growth of the @F3_LakeWylie region I wanted to get some future Q’s in the spotlight. Let us not forget that we are challenged to invogorate male community leadership. Great job to those men for going along with being voluntold.

Finish up with Count-A-Rama, then Name-A-Rama, praises and prayers before BOM.
Thanks for the opportunity TwoFerns to lead such a strong group of HIMs.
Until next time “Stay Frosty My Friends”
OLAF.

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