The Fort 6 year Anniversary – Making Getting Better a Priority!

September 29, 2012 the landscape of Fort Mill changed dramatically. Some men from north of the border grabbed the attention of a few men south of the boarder and said we may have something for you. Double D, Santini, Senator Tressel, World Wide Leader, Red Banjo, Assassin, Peach and maybe others made the commitment to come to a “workout” on that Saturday morning. It was very skeptical, but I am sure each of them will say it changed their lives.

Here we are 6 years later, meeting in the same park with more than 200 regular participants (800+ over the years) at 37 workouts across The Fort/Lake Wylie area. Thank you to those that gave it away and thank you to those that said yes!! I think it is safe to say, IT’S MORE THAN A WORKOUT!!!

Today we recognize the 6 years with 6 Qs leading a beat down in 1st F style. On September 21st, Jekyll led us in our Invergence, which reminds us of the 3rdF and that there is something bigger than ourselves. Serving, Praying and Worshiping together happened then. On this day, we are getting better physically and having some fellowship with 70 of our PAX,

Format was a rapid fire approach where each Q has 10mins to lay it on the PAX. Old Bay would keep time and blow the air horn (maybe tweet the horn??), and then the next Q jumps in.

YHC asked for FNGS, (none) and explained the plan of attack, and then the Horn Sounded

The Thang:

  • Wegmans for COP
    • Mosey down path out to grass
    • Circle up and some traditional and not so traditional exercise moves.
    • We did notice another “Boot camp” group in the gloom. T-clapps to them, however also saw 2 holding clip boards…..not F3!!
    • Horm Blows
  • Funhouse on Q
    • Mosey to the hill for Jacobs ladder
      • Burpees
      • Squats
      • Some mary to fill time
      • Horn Blows
  • Jwow on Q
    • Mosey to top of hill for partner work
    • step ups/lunge walk up and down hill
    • squat jumps/lunge walk up and down hill
    • Plank hand slap with partner
    • Horn Blow
  • Twister on Q
    • Mosey to tree line
    • Army Crawl to tree /SSHs
    • Sprint to tree/Merkins
    • Army Crawl to Tree/SSHs
    • Sprint to tree/merkins
    • 2 rounds
    • Run Path until Horm
    • Horn Blows
  • FLUX on Q
    • Mosey back to hill
    • 6s – do following 6 times
      • bear crawl up hill
      • diamond merkins
      • bear crawl back down hill
      • Some filler in there of something aweful
      • Horn Blows
  • Assassin On Q
    • Mosey to play grownd
      • Dips
      • Derkins
      • Burpees
      • multiple rounds with running around the playground until…..
      • Horn Blows

The PAX was dripping wet from rolling in grass but also from the humid beat down that just occurred. Thanks to all the Qs for bringing it and having fun out there.

I brought up to the PAX “WHY”? Why F3 versus the many other options we have even outside of fitness and self help books. Why do we get up early and why do we do CSAUPS and why do we attend 3rdF and give away our time at various community organizations???

Pockets, Spud and Assassin all shared their Why. Thank you! I’m sure there were many more that would undoubtedly impactful.

I mentioned my why was straightforward for me. I want to continue to challenge myself physically, surround myself with like minded guys heading in the same direction and reach more guys for Sky Q and HIS purpose. I feel F3 has positively impacted my life in all 3 Fs and why would I not give it away??

See you in the GLOOM!

Cake Boss

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Palisades=Hills

The hills were alive. Rolling in from Tega Cay I was like “How hard can a stroll through Palisades be?” Turns out hard! A couple of notes from YHC before leading a running workout.

  1. Try to post a few times when you are not the Q. It helps with getting a lay of the land. And getting to know the regulars.
  2. Review some of the recent routes so as not to be repetitive and reflect an air of not caring or just “winging it”
  3. When laying out the route on mapmyrun, take a peek at the elevation changes and adjust as necessary (or not)
  4. Know where your going (this is key)

Item 2 above gave the necessary ground for some light twitter cyber-bullying of YHC (deserved). Item 3 resulted in some grumbles, mostly from YHC. And item 4 resulted in some wayward Pax (again myself included). Tclaps to Hauschka for getting me back on track.

So the 13 of us rolled out and took on Palisades. The route is posted somewhere in the Twitter-verse and should stay there. We had a good time, got the heart rate up, got lost (some of us at least), found about 4-5 different ways to get back to Palisades Park Elementary. All told the distances ranged from 4.5 – 5.5 miles. A special thank you to Jedi and Witch Hunt for the conversation rolling back into the school. If you’ve ever wondered the many uses of a credit card and/or penny, just hit Jedi up. He brings new light to the term “penny pincher”.

COT and BOM on me.

Haushcka, thanks for the opportunity as always.

Zima out!

 

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6 pack at Sea Legs

I don’t usually document the runs, but I figured it could still be helpful for those Q’ing a workout at Sea Legs that may be unfamiliar with the lay of the land.  Every backblast counts.

Nothing special this morning, there were 6 of us on a, what’s now typical, muggy morning.  We met at the parking lot at the Palisades Elementary and went up the back road/hill by the basketball hoops and down Langston road where we hit Grand Palisades pkwy and took that all the way down to the roundabout and back.  About 4.5 miles of safe running off the main roads.  This is a good route that fits nicely within the time slot and has a deceiving amount of hills.

We finished up a few minutes early and circled up for CoT

  • 6th annual Invergance
  • Prayers for travel and the PAX attending the GRT
  • Prayers for Routers Grandmother-in-law who is having surgery

Thanks for the Q Hauschka!

-Flux

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Cone Relay and The Cooper

I don’t know what the temperature was this morning, but it was nice. Somewhere in the low 60s if I had to guess – perfect for getting a good running based workout in. 9 PAX for the boot camp, and 1 Tater went for a run.

Disclaimer disclaimed. Then we moseyed across the street to the elementary school.

COP

SSH, Windmills, low slow squat, weed pickers, 5 worst merkins ever OYO, superman

The Thang

Cone Relays

We went down to the football field where YHC had set up the first event for the day. PAX formed 2 teams and were told they would be competing against each other, with the losing team getting a penalty exercise. 17 cones had been setup at the goal line on the far end of the field. On each team 1 PAX would sprint to retrieve a cone and bring it back (200 yard round trip). While P1 was running, the others on the team did an exercise which was determined by the previous cone (we started with SSH for the first round). On the bottom of the cone (so you don’t know what you are choosing) was an exercise and rep count which had to be completed by the entire team before the next PAX could run for the next cone. The “waiting” exercise was written on the top of each cone (clearly visible when the cone was selected) that the non-runners had to do. For example, P1 brings back a cone and everyone on the team does 30 merkins. Then, while P2 is running, P1, P3, and P4 do high knees in place until P2 returns. Repeat until there are no more cones. The team with the most cones at the end wins. Here were the cone pairings:

 

PAX seemed to enjoy this one and there was some good competition. The final score was  a close 9 to 8, with the losing team having selected both the burpee cone, and the lap cone. The winners (YHC, Twitch, Nemo, Royale, and Blocks) had the option of giving 10 burpees to the losers (Wolverine, Lorax, Two Ferns, and Shakespeare) or taking 5 burpees for everyone. We magnanimously chose the 5 burpees for all.

 

The Cooper

The Deep has a great full-sized track, which I was eager to include in my Q. As a track routine, the Cooper is as simple as it is exhausting: PAX do 10 burpees, 10 squats, 10 merkins, and 10 big boy sit-ups then run a lap on the track. Then they do 9 burpees, 9 squats, 9 merkins, and 9 big boy sit-ups and run a lap on the track. Rinse and repeat until you get to 0 reps. When done to completion the Cooper affords 2.5 miles of running and 55 reps of each exercise… unless you are Nemo and accidently do 10 reps for every round. Technically this was a Sheldon Cooper, but whatever. It was good to see the PAX pushing each other through the running – you definitely run faster when you think you have someone trying to pass you. Most PAX made it into round 3 or 4 before we had to start the mosey back to COT.

 

COT then coffeeteria at DD.

It was lots of fun to plan this Q. Thank you Shakespeare for the opportunity to lead.

Stay Classy,

Homebrew

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CSPAN Send off Convergence

141 Men came to show the Respectable**CSPAN** some Respect!!

He leaves The Fort and heads north or as Dredd refers to Yankee land. Not gone forever but just up the road 600 miles to start a new chapter in life and in F3 as he will launch F3Philly.

I am not the most eloquent with my back-blasts and I am usually to the point with posting the workout, add some words and being done, however since I can’t get Italian Job to write this up and Double D challenged the PAX to think of one word to represent CSAPN, I think that is the best way to document this convergence.

Thank you CSPAN for being all of these things and more to you r brothers in the PAX. As posted on Twitter and many of these were repeated multiple times:

brother
camaraderie
commitment
confidence
connected
consistent
courageous
dedicated
empathetic
example
genuine
handsome
HIM
honorable
humble
humility
impact
influence
influencer
insightful
inspiration
integrity
investor
legend
magnanimous
model
respect
selfless
servant
shepherd
solid
squaredaway
steadfast
steady
wise

The Workout looked like this:

WWL at the Q:

  • Mosey around the lot
  • Line up; karaoke, side shuffle, high knees, butt kickers, toy solders, lungewalk, power skips
  • COP
    • SSH, squat, merkin, moroccan night club, 10 Flying squirrels
Double D at the Q:
  • Run to practice field
  • Plank sequence
  • Split into 2 groups on each sideline
  • Sprint to center and back to sideline
  • Monkey humpers x25
  • Rinse + repeat with Merkins x 25
  • CDDs x25
  • Burpees x25
Longshanks at the Q:
  • Burpees
  • Lunges
  • Inch worm Merkins
  • Maktar Ndiayes
  • Plank Jacks
  • Squats.

Dredd at the Q:

  • Prayer for CSPAN
  • Merkin/Ab Lab series
  • Truth Nuggets and Leadership development with Major Payne, Wegmans, & Drop Thrill
  • Mosey to hill behind Bob Jones Stadium
  • Prayer for CSPAN heading to F3Philly…..”CSPAN Coming”
  • More Merkin/Ab lab series

COT:

141 Count, Name O’rama, 2 FNGs (Bikini & Manzel), Skinny Jeans pray out over CSPAN and his IMPACT on men and for Sky Q’s kingdom.

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Wonder Twin Powers

13 Pax gathered at the Deep for an unheard of beatdown by YHC and Ginsu. So heres the backstory….YHC was given the honor of Qing the Deep by Shakespeare (Keep up the great leadership!) One of the Pax that YHC wanted to get to know better was Ginsu, our 1st F Q. So, in an unheard of move that was borderline ridiculous, we went for it. Ginsu added a bit of variety by  bringing his speaker to play some tunes throughout the workout. Lots of mumble chatter came from this.

The Pax of Lake Wylie are known for giving it their all and they did not disappoint. Gansu was prepared and YHC brought an old school Dirty McDeuce (courtesy of OBT) to the group.

The discussion was impact which was a carryover from the 3rd F Convergence from the day before. YHC admires the impact that Pax of F3 the Fort are making in the community. However, the best opportunity/need for impact is those who fall into your first 2 circles of Concentrica. The M and 2.0s. Fittingly, Bones posted with Link, his 2.0 who brought it for the workout and clearly Bones is making an impact with this one.

The Thang

Mosey across the street to Oakridge Middle – Pusher in the lead

COP

Windmills

Morrocan Night Clubs

SSH – no less than 30

Mtn Climbers

Merkins

Mosey to track for the Dirty McDeuce – First song is Ice, Ice, Baby by Vanilla Ice – let the mumble chatter begin!

4 sets of exercises, 3 exercises x 12 – IC, followed by a lap

Exercises focused on chest, core, legs

Round 1 – Merkins, LBCs, Low slow squats

Round 2 – Wide arm merkins, Dollies, Lunges

Round 3 – CDD, Rosalitas, Monkey Humpers

Round 4 – Diamond, Flutters, Mtn Climbers

Handoff to Ginsu

A few words on the intentionality of impact

Intention leads to Actions and that leads to Impact

Sprint work

50 yard sprint, 3 hand release burpees, 50 yard mosey x 3

LBC, Big Boy, Flutter x 20 in between

50 yard sprint, 10 merkins, 50 yard mosey x 3

V Ups, Captain Thor, Boats and Canoe x 20

50 yard sprint, 10 jump Squats, 50 yard mosey x 3

Freddy, hello dolly, protractor

Thunderstruck was played…uh oh!

Started with a V Up for every “thunder” based on request by Bones (what was he thinking) we switched to a burpee.

Mosey home

 

Moleskin

  • Thanks to Ginsu for the music. Definitely made the pain feel a little better
  • Thanks to Shakespeare for the opportunity
  • Thanks to Shady for coming over from Tega Cay
  • Ruck options upcoming –  See Royale
  • Training opportunities for Ragnar – See Royale
  • Read your newsletter

Pusher out!

 

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Taters beat down

23 Pax, 19 for Bootcamp and 4 Ruckers

Welcome FNG Mill-Billy

It’s been a while since Tater had the Q and he did not disappoint!

He gave the disclaimer and we were off to mosey, Toy Soldiers, Butt Kickers, Knee to chest, Karaoke

COP Did a few exercises here to get nice and warm before we mosied over to the fountain and partnered up

Dora 1-2-3-4 100 Derkins, 200 Step-ups, 300 Dips, 400 LBC one partner ran the loop while the other partner did the exercise

We got through one full round and started our way back down before we stopped and returned to the COT area to do a little Ab-Lab

Excellent work! It was not an easy workout and we were all challenged!!

Great work Tater and the PAX!!!!!!

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Fast! Baby Laps!

What does that mean? First, shout out to Hauschka for the invite to Sea Legs. After attempting a route through Palisades for 20 minutes the day before, I decided on an oldie. Lets run in circles around the school real “fast” and then do baby laps for recovery. So we did that for 45 minutes. Great to see Tater, Royale, DaVinci and Haushka. It’s been awhile but it’s been my fault. Need to resist the fartsack more. Should be easier with the weather picking up. Take a peek at our Laps Strava Art below.

COT was great with some open an honest requests for prayers and praise. Nice to know this brotherhood exists to lift each other up.

BOM on Royale!

Thanks again Hauschka!

Zima Out!

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Lots of wallsitting at the Deep

I fluctuate between wanting to do something super original and brutal and just going with repetition. Saturday I did both. I had COP fairly close to COT, saving the moseys for later. I had us go to the hill but instead of elevens, I entertained the idea of low crawling up the hill. We did it twice, running back down both times. Has potential but lots of anthills. Decided to mosey us to the nearest corner of the school to do indian wall sit. All of us lined up on the wall and sat it, with caboose bearcrawling to the front. we did this till the end of the western wall of the school.

I underestimated the length of the far end of that middle school.

took about 30 minutes to make it to the end. Moseyed to the football field for the main event.

BLIMPS x2, the second set of blimps in reverse order of reps, to get the burpees in hardcore. 120 yards each way, 1440 yards total. Took long enough leave us with time for  5 minutes of ab lab, started with my favorite, Freddy had a fat girlfriend.

Felt really sore sunday in my shoulders, given that we didn’t go super hard on shoulder stuff, not sure why haha.

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Our 2 Year Celebration for F3 in Lake Wylie @ the Deep!

I was privileged to get the opportunity to lead (with Dark Helmet) the 1st workout at the Deep, and on this Celebration Day to get the opportunity to lead once again! We’ve seen a lot of new and consistent faces over that 2 years and I truly feel there is something special about the guys that come from the west side of Lake Wylie.  It was really great to show up 10 minutes before the 7am launch and see so many of the tenured Fort Mill PAX already there to support us at this celebration!

I used that opportunity to open with a little message.  3 of the PAX were FNGs, so I gave the long disclaimer, but then I asked for a show of hands for how many years each PAX had been posting at F3.  It was awesome to see guys like Cornhole, Sen Tressel, Maximus and Spitz who have been posting 4-5 YEARS now.  All of those guys have had a direct impact on my life so I was really honored that they came out to support our Lake Wylie PAX.

The Thang

Quick mosey around the parking lot for a dynamic warmup

Made it over to the soccer field for our COP

SSHs – Imperial Squat Walkers – Windmills – MNCs – Merkins – Mountain Climbers – Yoga – Plank Jacks

Before we got into the next evolution, I shared several messages about the foundation of F3.  Started with the Mission, T-Claps to NASA for knowing it by heart! Then I shared one of my favorite Q Source Posts, the Daily Red Pill.  (Link Below)

The Daily Red Pill Feb 2017

1st Exercise Evolution

4 corners – PAX counted off by 4s

There were 4 cones set up at the corners of the field.  1 in the center. What would a Lake Wylie celebration be without the original exercise FOUNDED AT THE 1ST WORKOUT? That’s right, 5 Kraken Burpees (check the lexicon if you do not know this favorite).  That was our center cone.  The groups would split up and run to their assigned number, complete the exercise, run back and do 5 Kraken Burpees

1st corner = 20  Worst Merkin Ever (Wide Arm Merkin, Regular Merkin then Diamond Merkin = 1 rep)

2nd corner = 40 Flutter Kicks double count

3rd corner = 30 Jump Squats

4th Corner = 30 Imperial Squat Walkers

Took a break and shared some more about Sad Clowns, and how F3 is the antidote to Sad Clown Syndrome from the DRP post.

2nd Evolution = Mosey over to the big hill

Partner Up

1 partner down and up the hill, 2nd partner says and does the exercise I call until I’m tired of it.

They were: CCDs – Burpees – SSHs : This lasted a lot longer than 2 sentences gives credit.

More discussion around DRP

3rd Evolution = Mosey to the back of the school

Lt Dangers to the 1st basketball goal That’s a lunge – lunge – squat – merkin (crowd pleaser)

Bear Crawl to the 2nd BB goal

Lt Dangers back to the end of the school

That’s like 200 yards, little Link (Bones 9 year old 2.0) crushed us all – including his Dad!

4th Evolution = Mosey to the front of the school

Time was running short, I had two boards with 5 exercises set up, audibled to just 1 board.  We did the five exercises in cadence.

5th Evolution = Saved 6 minutes for my last favorite – Captain Thors!

1 big boy sit up to 4 America Hammers, go to 10…we ran out of time at the 9 rotation.  It hurt anyways!

COT was great with 3 new FNGS, two were 2.0 of regular PAX and they held their own!

Cross Check (Peg’s 2.0 Logan) for his lacrosse skills

FIFA (Flux’s 2.0 Evan) for his soccer skills

Wesley our 29 year old previous college pole vaulter so his F3 name forever shall be Bubka!

It was really a great time with great friends and great mubblechatter.  I hope everyone else enjoyed it as much as I did.

(and we got 16 out to Coffeeteria, our best part of Saturdays)

An Honor to Lead

-Royale

 

 

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