Not Too Much Running

So 8 Pax showed up at the Deep for a muggy 78 degree early morning beatdown.  Cha Ching asked if there was going to be a lot of running, to which YHC responded, “Not too much” (We will come back to that).

No FNG’s were present but a short disclaimer was given anyway to ensure the PAX knew they weren’t being led by a professional.  With that, we were off for a mosey around the back of the school with butt kickers, high knees and toy soldiers.

Warm Up

15 – SSH
15 – IW
15 – Mountain Climbers
15 – Peter Parkers
15 – Parker Peters
20 Moroccan Night Clubs (Cadence called by my 2.0, Omaha, which was really cool)

The Thang

Mosey to the parking lot on the side of the school for some 4 corners

We spent a minute talking about discipline and using our time exercising to think of areas of our lives where we lack discipline and need to make improvements.

5 Kraken Burpees in the center, head to a corner, perform the exercise and back to the center for 5 Kraken Burpees, etc…

Corner 1 – 30 Carolina Dry Docks
Corner 2 – 30 LBC’s
Corner 3 – 30 Jumping Lunges (each leg with lot of mumble chatter)
Corner 4 – 30 Diamond Merkins

Rinse and Repeat X 2 (Audible for 15 jumping lunges each leg and 20 diamonds for subsequent repeats)

Mosey to the side of the school and grab some wall for People’s Chair

Pax 1 bear crawl to the track (15 yds.) for 5 squats, next Pax, etc…
Rinse and Repeat X 3 and alternating on one legs holds for the repeats
Final Wall Exercise, hold BTTW until failure. Nice job Brickhouse for leading the way!

Mosey to the elementary track for some running (not too much)

Pax were instructed to run a mile at their own pace. Each lap was to be preceded by 5 Kraken Burpees. Sort of a Kraken Burpee mile. After all of the Pax finished, and great job to all, we moseyed back across the street for stretching and COT.

The Moleskin

Thanks to all the PAX for enduring more running than I thought I had planned. When we finished up, my watch read 3.1 miles. My “not too much” running ended up being more than usual. Sorry Cha Ching for the unintentional false advertising.

As we circled up we finished with a few words on discipline. As we think about our lives and all of the good things that we have to be thankful for, including those areas where we are very well disciplined (like coming to a workout on a Saturday morning), we are forced to think about the area(s) of our lives where we lack that same discipline. Hint: The area(s) we have much work to do are those that we repeatedly ask for forgiveness from God and/or others. The writer of Hebrews refers to it as “the sin that so easily besets us”. If we ask God for help in these areas, he will surely offer help. We just have to ask.

Prayers

Brickhouse – upcoming adoption
Cobra Kai and wife Jennifer’s recent test results
Injured Pax
Tater and ongoing trials with his eye. Prayers that the latest treatment will help.
Cornerstone’s daughter Emma and ongoing treatment

Great job guys! Thanks Royale for the opportunity to lead!

Hauschka

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#Quagmire

19 PAX showed discipline by putting in work and getting after it on this humid morning.

Disclaimer was disclaimed.

The Thang.

WARM-UP:

  • Slow Windmill – 10
  • Low Squat – 10
  • Mosey – Knees to chest / Ankles to Hips
  • Mosey – Walking Lunges / Toy Soldiers
  • COP in Old Navy Parking Lot
  • I.W. – 10
  • SSH – 25
  • Merkins 20 / Peter Parkers 8  / Parker Peters 10 / honeymooner, downward dog, honeymooner
  • Morrocan Night Club 20

Mosey To WALL behind Target:

  • Peoples Chair – Run to Cone; 3 Burpees – two Pax at a time
  • BTTW
  • 25 Donkey Kicks

Mosey to Pier 1 Imports Parking Lot where cones were spaced out ~25 yards apart for a total of ~100 yards. We side shuffled L/R (alternated at each cone), until we reached the far end of the parking lot. There, a BOP awaited. At each cone we were disciplined and decided to Get After It:

  • 20 Close Grip Merkins
  • 20 Flying Squirrels
  • 20 Wide Grip Merkins
  • 20 Jump Squats
  • 20 Merkins

Bear Crawl 25 yards, Walk 25 yards back to the BOP. I flipped the BOP and we knocked out the following at each cone:

  • 20 Bomb Jacks
  • 20 High Knees
  • 20 Jumping Lunges
  • 40 SSH
  • 20 Merkins

Mosey to Water Fountain:

  • 30 Dips
  • 16 leg step ups

Mosey to Best Buy:

  • Two 50 yard sprints.

I estimate we ran a total of 2.5 – 3 miles during the workout.

COT / Name O Rama / Announcements / Prayers / Praises

Moleskin –

There were 4 PAX who got the respect, of the other PAX saying “RESPECT!” during the COT. As I push myself, and get pushed by my fellow PAX through these beat-downs, I’m very appreciative to see these HIMs (the RESPECT PAX), push themselves and those around them.

The 50+ years young PAX are inspirational to me. It proves to me, that age is a number, the right attitude is a mindset, and through a disciplined approach to how I live my life, I too, can endure a beat-down for years (and hopefully, decades) to come. Thanks men, for leading by example.

DaVinci – Thank you for the opportunity to Q.

#CoopStrong

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DaVinci Cones Redux

Full disclosure: 6 of the Pax listed above were ruckers and their workout was led by NASA.

Today was the first time I’ve Q’d in a long time. I was a bit nervous, but have worked out all over this AO and sort of know the lay of the land. My Q Lane is more of the Set-It-And-Forget-It variety, and today was no different. With no further ado, here is:

The Thang

Long Mosey to parking lot in front of Old Navy. Circle up for some COP:

SSH, windmills —SLOW (you’re welcome, CSPAN), low slow squats, merkins, downward dog stretches, honeymooner, mountain climbers, peter parkers, freddys, LBCs

Mosey to the Valvoline for some hill work. Sevens or Jacob’s Ladder: merkins at bottom, bombjacks at the top

Mosey to the raised patio the the old Riverbleu only to find the ruckers using the spot, so it was off to Plan B. I had cones set up on the drive, one on either side of the fountain. Each cone listed 5 exercises and the required reps. Do the exercise, run a half lap to the next cone, do the exercise. And so forth until everyone had finished the circuit. Exercise were as follows:

Cone One:

  1. Slow Squats (20)
  2. Curb Dips (20)
  3. Mtn. Climbers (20 d.c.)
  4. Curb Derkins (20)
  5. CDD’s (20)

Cone Two:

  1. Imperial Wlkrs (20 d.c.)
  2. Jump Lunges (10/leg)
  3. Freddy Mercurys (20 d.c.)
  4. Flying Squirrels (10)
  5. Peter Parkers (10 d.c.)

Then we made our way to the Rivebleu raised patio for the following:

Divide up into groups of 3. First man runs the stairs, does 5 burpees, runs down the back stairs and back to the group while 2nd and 3rd man do squats. Then repeat with 2nd and 3rd man.

By this point, it was time to mosey back to COT for a couple minutes of ab lab. Freddys, Crunchy Frogs (demo and cadence from WitchHunt), LBCs.

Announcements:

Children’s Attention Home: Q or post to support these great kids who are victims of circumstance and are in need of positive male role models.

Delta signups have begun! Reach out to Wild Thing if you’re interested in joining a LKW team.

Prayers for pregnant Ms, for family struggling with addiction and recovery.

Moleskin

At COT,  I shared that today, 7/28/17 would have been my late father’s 75th birthday. In 2001, he died  of a massive heart attack at the age of 59. My father was a good man. A loving man and unfailing provider for our family. But he had personal struggles. He was an alcoholic. A workaholic. Never exercised. Attended church sporadically, especially during my years at home.

My dad didn’t have what I would consider close friends or a strong social network. He had a family, a career, a mortgage, two kids who stayed out of trouble. But he always struck me as lonely. Isolated. I daresay alcohol use was his way of self medicating: his way of trying to fill a hole and mask his feelings of isolation.

I am grateful to write here that I am not an alcoholic, although there was a time in my late 20s that I was definitely auditioning for the part. No one will ever accuse me of being a workaholic (though I do work hard). Though I may not eat the healthiest diet, I do post at workout consistently between 4 and 6 days a week.

But, perhaps most importantly to me, I have gained a strong network of men who support and encourage each other to become better.

My life is on a completely different trajectory.

I am not alone. I am not isolated. I am a grateful part of this community, and I thank each of you for being a part of my life.

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Fun filled morning at The Deep

I have to admit I was excited to get the invitation from Royal to come out to the Deep and Q.  This gave me the opportunity to visit another AO and share the Bonsai Tree which deep down all Pax have a love hate relationship when they hear me call that exercise.

So I started out the workout with the typical F3 disclaimer, but really reinforced the part about pay attention to your body because it was already extremely warm and very humid.  Last thing I want is for someone to have a heat stroke.

After that bit of a warning we moseyed over to the track and football field for a little warmup and quickly I realized I left my wienkie at home so I had to try and remember everything I had planned.

Warmup:
SSH
Hilly Billy Walker
Merkins
…honestly I can’t remember if there was anything else

The Thang:
We started out with the first half of the Merkin mile and for the merkin count we did (9 merkins and 6 merkins) for laps 1 and 2.  The way this works is you do 9 merkins at the begging of the lap and then at the opposite corner you do 9 again.  Then on lap 2 you do 6.

After everyone completed 2 laps we moved over to the middle of the field and luckily there were flags placed out on the field 3 in a row going across the field and a series of about 8 rows (NOT BY THE Q) so we used them to do the following:

Start on one side an do a cross country skier action and you work side ways toward the first flag and then bear crawl to the next flag.  One you reach the end of that row jog up to the next row.

Row 2: Hop down the line moving feet apart and back together working down the line to the flag.  Repeat bear crawl until the end

Row 3:  Ski hop down to flag, repeat bear crawl

Row 4:  Face toward goal post with feet together and hop to the right toward flag, repeat bear crawl

Row 5: Face left and repeat same as #4.

Rinse and repeat back up the field

After completing this series of exercises we moved over to the track and did LBCs and flutters so I could catch my breath before the completing the merkin mile.

Complete merkin mile with merkin counts of 3 and 1

Move back over to the field where we partnered up and did the following:

Partner 1 put exercise band around waist and Partner 2 held band with resistance as #1 broad jumped to next row of flags.  Then partners performed 5 rounds of the Bonsai Tree each.  Rinse and repeat for Partner 2

Next Partner 1 has band around waist and with resistance from P2 runs to the second row of flags (approx 30 yds).  Then P1 and P2 take turns doing hamstring curls.  Rinse and repeat going back.

At this time the sun was starting to peak over the trees and it was time to head back to the truck for some coupons (aka cinder blocks) and grab some water.

After grabbing the blocks we started with over head carry as we worked our way around the school stopping to do various exercises such as chest press, LBC, upright rows, wall sits.  However Olaf decided to bring his poppers with him and thew one toward the Q while on my six so we had to stop and do burpees for his shenanigans.  After several exercises we would continue make the loop around the school with overhead carry while moving.  We also stopped for balls to the wall and burpee box jumps (do a burpee and then jump on top of cinder block then jump to other side of block and do another burpee (repeat 5 times).

After completing the loop we ended back up at COT just in time and maybe a minute or two more of extra credit.

Lots of prayer request where thrown out for Pax and families including Lutekfisk mother, Cornerstone’s 2.0, jobs and 2.0s and Ms.

Gentlemen it was an honor to be invited to Q and lead a bunch of #Hims.  Thanks to the fellow Fort Mill (Lake Ridge) pax for coming out and thanks to Lake Wylie pax for showing as well.  This is a great AO and I encourage others to go out and check this place out.

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Two years and counting

Two years ago, Jekyll invited me to WEP for my first workout.  I thought I was in pretty good shape, but little did I know what was in store for me.   I remember halfway through the workout thinking, this was a bad idea and would anyone notice if I lost my breakfast.  Luckily, I kept my stomach in check, but spent the afternoon on the couch recovering.  Since this first day, F3 has greatly impacted my life both  physically and mentally.

Quagmire  workout – 7/17

After the disclaimer, we moseyed to the front of Best Buy for some dynamic stretches:

Butt Kickers

Knees to Chest

Lunges

Soccer stretches

Next, we took a short jog to COP for warm-ups:

SSH, Space Invaders, Imperial Walker, Mountain Climbers, Plank with 6″ hold

Next, we partnered up for a game of catch me if you can.  Partner 1 ran around the parking lot while partner 2 jogged around the same  route.  Once Partner 1 caught up with Partner 2, they each did 5 burpees.  Rinse and repeat.

Once complete, we moseyed to the front of Marshalls for wall sits and calf raises.

We finished up the final 15 minutes with some cadence strength training.

First round:  Bearcrawl/Merkin  10/5

Second round:  Lunge/Squat  10/5

Third round:  Backward Bearcrawl/Carolina Dry Docks 10/5

Forth round:  Crabwalk/LBC: 10/10

Jailbreak to COT

Announcements:

Children’s Attention Home – Friday 7pm

F3 Dads – 10am at WEP

Read Newsletter

 

Prayers/ Praises:

Tater – Healing (eye)

Jekyll – Quality time with his 2.0s

Royale – Daughter’s B-day

Witch Hunt – Son starts baseball camp

 

 

 

 

 

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Post Birthday Beatdown at The Deep – 7/15/2017

Was very excited when I found out that Longshanks and I were Qing the Deep.  A fellow burpee fan myself I figured this would be a heck of beatdown. When discussing the plans with Longshanks, we thought that 60 minutes of AMRAP burpees would get us removed from the Q schedule for good so we decided against it. Instead YHC would take the first half and Longshanks would take the 2nd half.

When 5:15 hit we had 9 Pax receive the disclaimer and we were ready to go.  We took a long mosey to the front of the elemterary school across the street for the warmup which included:

  • Weed Pullers x10
  • SSH x10
  • Wind Mills x10
  • SSH x10
  • Morracaan Nightclubs x20
  • SSH x10
  • Merkins x10
  • Down Dog/Honeymooner
  • SSH x10

Now that the Pax were good and warm we moseyed to the side of the school for The Thang.  But first we hear someone coming running up and it is none other that OLAF, your huggable friendly snowman. Unbeknownst to the Pax, this snowman was carrying poppers in this pocket that he would torture the Qs with for the duration of the workout.

The Thang

We would perform one exercise for 45 seconds then run down the hill to a bucket filled with pieces of paper. We would return to the top of the hill with one piece of paper and perform the excercise (*WINK* it was all burpees). Then we would repeat with different excercies until time was called.

The 45 second exercises were:

  • Squat back lunges
  • Crunchy Frogs (Longshanks maybe did one)
  • CCDs
  • Shuffle, Shuffle Lunge
  • Flutter Kicks
  • Jumping Lunges

The Burpees selected were:

  • Kraken Burpees x5
  • Switch Jump Burpees x10
  • Squat Hold Burpees x10
  • Burpees with Peter Parker x10
  • Burpees with SSH (x4) x10
  • Hand Release Burpees x10

Time was up so I handed it over to Longshanks.

We moseyed back to the middle school and paired up for some good ole Dora Blimps.

While your partner runs you perform the following:

  • Burpees x50
  • Lunges x100
  • Imperial Walkers x100
  • Merkins x100
  • Plank Jacks x100
  • Squats x100

With a little time remaining, Longshanks introduced us to 2 rounds of People’s Donkey Balls. This was People Chair followed by 10 Donkey Kicks followed by Balls to the Wall. I will be using this in my next Q.  Then we completed LBC (x15) and Rosalitas (x15).

With only minutes left, we slow moseyed to the end of the school and turned around and gave it all we had back to COT.

This was a great workout and a pleasure to Q with Longshanks. Cant wait to do it again, however the Pax may disagree.

Announcements
Mastadon
3rd F Convergence

Prayers
Tater’s Eye surgery
Royale’s daughter turning 7
Travel mercies for families

Until next time, back to the hunt…

 

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