Disco inferno with DJ Twister

Twister was up to getting the group awake this am with some 70s TV trivia which is good for the respect crowd but very challenging for those of us born in the late 70s…and even an 80s in there.  Since YHC controlled the weinke but not the jams, all was good.  Disclaimer was given as the sweet melodies of 80s rock played in the background, and a brisk mosey ensued to the track.

Warmup of SSH, windmills, imperial and hillbilly walkers, merkins, low slow squats for counts ranging from 10-25 got the blood flowing.

Boss Hogg took off for loops on the track given the nursing on the shoulder while the rest of us counted off in 2 splitting into groups.  Here’s the game: name the 70s TV show tune played by DJ Twister and avoid the 5 burpee penalty.  While you’re thinking of the song, do the name of the exercise called off by Shady below with a minimum and maximum number associated (this was adjusted very quickly b/c some people watched a lot of TV growing up!)

  • 10 hand release merkins
  • 20 squats (10 min)
  • 25 CDD (10 min)
  • 30 lunges (10 min)
  • 50 plank shoulder taps (20 min)
  • 40 ski jumps (20 min)
  • 60 calve raises (30 min) – out/reg/in
  • 20 diamonds (10 min)
  • 50 SSH (25 min)
  • 25 merkins (10 min)
  • 40 mountain climbers (20 min)
  • 30 American hammers (20 min)
  • 30 plank jacks (15 min)
  • 50 LBC (25 min)

We rinse and repeated through most of the list but the minimums were removed a second time through.  With about 15 min left, we ran around the track stopping at each 100 yard corner where we did some core (for the most part).  1st corner was 50 LBC, 2nd corner was 20 big boy (and some monkey humpers for our our track walkers passing by), 3rd corner was 30 American hammers, and 4th and final was 30 flutters.

With about 5-10 min remaining, we took our last bit of time to the football field.  Lining up on the goal line, we ran back and forth from the goal line to the 10 yard, back to goal then to 20…all the way to 40 yard line.  At each 10-40 yard line, we did 1 burpee for 10 yard up to 4 burpee at 40 (so a total of 10 burpees + the running for those of you who struggle with quick math!).  Once back on the line, there was time for a 10 count along with a message about being intentional.  Be intentional with the exercise, be intentional with your kids at home and at their activities, be intentional with your wife – pay attention to them!

Once everyone caught their breath, we rinse and repeated the lines and burpees – crowd favorite!  Once said and done, we did a mosey back to COT for closing ceremonies.  All in all, great morning and great push from the PAX.  Enjoyed it as usual and thanks to Manziel for the opportunity!!

Shady

TClap |
1

OLAF’S Inchworm Suicide at TheSwamp

Disclaimer was disclaimed and a short mosey was started…. Or so the unsuspecting PAX thought.
So plan is to mosey around the whole outer prerun loop of Rivergate stopping every tenth of a mile to perform an exercise all together in cadance. Once we make it back to Best buy it’s everyman for himself for the next loop. But where does the Inchworm Suicide come in? Glad you asked. Instead of going from one cone to the next you must first go back to the previous cone before proceeding. So start at Best buy and jog to stop sign going towards home depot. Free space ten count, lucky you. Go back to best buy then return past free space and to next cone at turn into homedepot garden section. 10 SSH cadance count style. Next back to cone for free space 10 count then to wall beside Target for 5 over the wall jumps. U get the idea so to save everyone some time bc reading is hard I’ll just list the remaining exercises and post a picture of the workout summary map.

10 burpees to start the party,
Free space 10 count,
10 SSH,
5 wall getovers
10 Merkins,
5 Suicide squats aka goldilocks squats,
10 Chacha merkins,
5 Regular squats,
10 CDD,
5 lunges,
One other uperbody exercise,
10 burpees to end the party.

Warm hugs as promised to all surviving PAX at COT.

Over 4 miles logged by most, suspect the front runners got closer to 4.5miles. Great work gents and thank you to @ChaChing for the opportunity to lead. Until next time
Stay frosty my friends!
Olaf

TClap |
0

EE 201-Tesla’s Way

Back in the fall of 1980 YHC walked into Daniels Hall on the campus of NC State University and engaged in the study of Electrical Engineering as taught by the great Donald Rhodes in EE 201, Electric Circuits I. It was a bear. About half the class failed. A bloody mess it was! but we came out of it stronger than we went into it. Which was what it was all about. So YHC decided to expand on this theme and shake things up a bit at the Crow’s Nest as it acquires it’s maturity as an AO. YHC took some time Saturday to tour the AO and just see what it was we could get into on Monday. Then at the Panther’s game on Sunday with a couple of old time Metro F3 brothers YHC came up with the idea of a bit of a circuit to take the pax on. Kind of like the ones we studied at State decades ago! Went like this:

COP:

Stretching for about a minute.

SSH X 20

IW X 20

Copperhead Squats X 10

Merkins X 20

Mtn. Climbers X 20

Mosey back to the fields and playgrounds and mosey- carefully – down the Green Monster. Tesla REALLY liked this hill Saturday! But it looked a little daunting in the dark. So the word was caution going down. The bottom of the hill was station 1. Went like this:

Station 1 – Bottom of the Green Monster – 10 Hand release merkins.

Station 2 – Run up the Green Monster, 10 jump squats.

Station 3 – 10 pull ups on the Monkey bars.

Station 4  – 10 step ups each leg, 10 dirkins

Station 5 – 1st soccer goal, broad jump the length of the field

Station 5 – Fence at top of The Green Monster, 10 big boy sit ups.

Back to the bottom, Rinse and repeat!

2 times was plenty for the pax. All performed well. So time for some real fun.

Task 1 – Bear Crawl Slalom, everybody gets two rolls.

Task 3 – SSH X 20, Regular squats X 20

Mosey to the basketball court for suicides

1 st set, Free throw line, center court, free throw line, end line – back each time.

free throw line – 5 jump squats

Center line – 5 merkins

Free throw line – 5 jump squats

End line – 5 merkins.

Rinse and repeat – 10X each set.

Back to the tables:

10 Bulgarian Split squats each leg.

10 dips

10 elevated sit ups

Rugby sprints – 2X across the basketball court.

Set 1 – 10 CDDs

set 2 – 10 copperhead squats.

Mosey back to the parking lot.

NMM:

We got a lot done and unlike at State 39 years ago everybody passed! And got better. Have to admit I did not know this group very well. Iced Tea asked me to do it and I was glad he did. Loved the AO and look forward to returning soon.

Honor and pleasure to lead as always!

Tesla

 

 

TClap |
0

It’s the 1st F for a reason

11 pax posted to WEP to celebrate north winds, fall temps, a Santini sighting, an Anchorman celebrity drop-in and 7 yrs + 1 week since the 9.29.12 launch of The Fort.  This, the 365th edition of Saturday at The Fort, was more than just another Saturday of brotherhood and pain.  It was also a reminder of why these gatherings matter.  After a thorough Disclaimer, Crab Cakes led the pax off into the gloom.

The Thang

Mosey up the hill out the parking lot with a right turn toward the Church of the Nazarene.  A few stops along the way for some warm-up moves.

Partner up for a series of exercises paired with running to the church steps, 3x up and down, and return to partner at the far end of the parking lot.  Exercises included, Merkins, Squats and Flutters.

Rugby sprints (it wouldn’t be a Crab Cakes Q without this signature session) with LBCs, Freddys, Flutters, Heel Touches.

Hand off to DD

Mosey back toward WEP

Stop at pecan tree grove near Springs building for some work — Planks, Merkins, CDDs, Peter Parkers, Parker Peters, & Makhtar N’Dyaes (Santini request for the last one)

Mosey to Springs parking lot entrance (in the grass)

Knee-tar-jais

Mosey to brick wall at Springs

People’s chair & Balls to the wall (rinse and repeat)

Mosey to WEP playground (rotating partners) — Pull ups, burpees, monkee, humpers, dips, derkins, lap around playground

Bear crawl to path, crawl bear back

Series of sprints and backward sprints to path and back to playground

Jailbreak home

COT

Naked man moleskin

Crab Cakes and I had a great time at the helm today.  It’s always an honor to lead the pax, and especially at the launching grounds for The Fort.  Sorry to miss Slash.  Thanks for the opportunity to Q and thanks for keeping the mission going at WEP on Saturdays!

Anchorman with 2.0 in tow made a brief showing as we approached 0720. Apologies for the PG-13 language during the final prod to the pax to finish strong.  You can throw me in the creek with your M if you hear that one at the dinner table.

Santini, Rebel and Dark Helmet were rockin’ the perfect sweaty head coifs by the finish.  Checkout the video for proof.  If Funhouse had posted we might’ve been able to establish the pose for The Fort’s Mount Rushmore.

Good to have Sippy Cup among the pax and donning The Fort jersey no less.  Don’t be stranger!  Hope to see you again soon!

The theme for the morning was a focus on 1st F #Fitness.  Thanks to many pax, including my co-Q Crab Cakes, 2nd F is making huge strides.  Thanks to Gekko, Cake Boss, Chicken Hawk, Pusher and others, 3rd F also continues to blossom.  No debate on my part that these two elements are critical to our pax and speak to the core of who we are as men and leaders.  Yet, now that The Fort has entered it’s 8th year, I feel the need to highlight the importance of 1st F.  While it’s not the core of WHO we are as men, it is the core of WHAT we undertake each week as a group.   It’s the magnet that draws us out into the gloom.  And after 4, 5, 6, 7 years, it might begin to taste a little bland from familiarity. The temptation may be there to coast during workouts or even to scale back your weekly posts.  I’m imploring you — DO NOT GIVE UP!  Yes, F3 is about way more than the workout.  And at the same time, it is also rooted in the workout.

Several conversations over the past week highlighted for me the importance of regular, passionate 1st F engagement.  I heard examples of veteran pax who are pushing hard and veteran pax who are dialing back.  Those posting regularly and pushing in 1st F are seeing growth in all 3 Fs.  Those who’ve scaled back are experiencing some regression in other areas.  It’s all connected, gentlemen.  “You get out of it what you put into it” a veteran pax shared with me this week.

F3 isn’t the only way to stay fit.  I’m the first to acknowledge this fact.  I’ve been fit in the past without F3 and I see many men who are fit today without F3.  But, 1st F isn’t just about Fitness.  It’s about relationships.  Friendships are built in the midst of struggle in the Gloom.  Removing that element will impact a relationship.  1st F is also about preparation.  When you post in the Gloom, you surrender to the elements and the Q.  You give up control — willingly.  You don’t know what you’re going to be put through, but you show up anyway.  And you push to the finish because you believe it will make you “better.” It’s preparation for life. Each day we wake up and we surrender to what the world and Sky Q have in store for us. We don’t have nearly the control we’d like. But we carry on to the finish of each day, seeking to get better (or at least get through it to the next day we won’t control).

So, if you’re feeling the tug of the Fartsack or the gym or the coffee pot, speak up.  We’re all susceptible to those temptations. And we all need a dose of #Accountability now and then to keep us on the #Right track.  The same is true for those out front.  If you’re in an acceleration mode, look around to see who’s missing.  Accelerating pax don’t let pax fall back. They pick up the Six. They don’t leave a man where they found him.

Thanks for listening.  Thanks for pushing.  SYITG!

TClap |
3

Shipwreck – 10/2/2019

Shipwreck (10/2/2019)

We had 7 HIM post this morning for the 30 minute high intensity workout at Shipwreck. Since some of us are coming off the Iron Pax Challenge, I thought what better way than to incorporate some of their ideas into my very own Week 5 Iron Pax Challenge.

Warm Up
SSH X 25 (IC)
Hillbilly Walkers X 15 (IC)

The Thang
25 Burpees
400 meter run
50 Merkins
800 meter run
75 Squat Jumps
1200 meter run
100  Plank Jacks
1600 meter run

Circle of Trust
Beginning the week of October 14 for approximately six months the following AO’s will be at 5:00 a.m. (Crow’s Nest, Cannonball, and Poopdeck).

F3 Lake Wylie CSAUP is Saturday, October 26. Check out the backblast here.

Don’t forget to order your F3 Lake Wylie shirt. Deadline to order is October 3. Order your shirt here.

Praises for “Survey Says” who found out that he and his wife are having a Baby Boy.

Aye,
Sean Corcoran (RADAR)

TClap |
0

7th Year Convergence for The Fort

The 7th Year Convergence for The Fort followed an exhilarating Invergence from the night before.  Hoping to continue that acceleration, the 4 Q’s had a plan to talk about the 4 Skills needed for Virtuous Leadership: Vision, Articulation, Persuasion, Exhortation.

CakeBoss to start us out with Vision: Recognizing advantage and the movement required to achieve it.

Disclaimer and welcome
“Go Hard or Go Home!”

Take off for 100 yard mosey up path, Get in 3 lines – Indian Run across WEP

Break into 4 lines, 2 groups of seal teams -20 seal team sit ups in cadence

Back into 2 lines , Everyone plank – Tunnel of Love (25 guys per line) – Plank series while guys army crawling under

Crowd pleaser for sure!

7 Burpees for 7 Years!

Vision is what I spoke about and the men that saw the advantage of F3 and planted it (moved towards it) in Charlotte, the The Fort and we continued to give it away in Rock Hill & Lake Wylie.

Hand off to Maximus

Articulation: Describing vision to others in a clear manner. Being able to tell others where we’re going and being able to describe that vision to others.

So, with that said, we’re going over to the top of the big hill to start with drill bits:

½ the group goes one direction while the other goes the opposite way

At each white post (drill bit), 10 Jumping Lunges (10 each leg)

10 Jump Squats

Mosey to the base of the other hill, the one with the statue on it:

NUR (backwards run) up the hill

3 Burpees at the top

Bear Crawl down

5 Burpees at the bottom

Hand off to Fun House for the “P”.

Persuasion – The initiation of first Movement.  Convincing people to move in the direction of advantage, abandoning their Status Quo,

YHC gave an awesome yet forgettable speech about Persuasion.  Then the Thang:

Circle Up – Duck, Duck, Goose – One guy runs around the circle the rest of us plank, the next guy goes when the running guy finishes.  Planking excercises were called out: High Plank, Low plank, Mountain Climbers….. Audible called to get the next guy running after 1/2 a lap around the circle of Pax….. Peter Parker, Parker Peters….. Audible called to get the next guy running after 1/3 lap around….. Mak-Tar-Jai, Left Hand High, Right hand high…..Done.  That took 10 minutes!  60 guys is a lot of guys to be running around in circles.

Stay in circle, 5 minutes left, Jack Webb: 1 Merkin to 4 Overhead hand claps.  We got to 8!

Hand off to Pusher for Exhortation!

Exhortation – Incentivizing The Breach Of Obstacles.

Burpees x 10 OYO
Flutters IC x 10
Mosey to a corner of WEP
Burpees x 9 OYO
Flutters IC x 10
LBCs IC x 10
Mosey to another corner
Burpees x 8 OYO
Flutters IC x 10
LBCs IC x 10
Rosalita IC x 10
Mosey to another corner
Burpees x 7 OYO
Flutters IC x 10
LBCs IC x 10
Rosalitas IC x 10
Hello Dollies IC x 10
Mosey to another corner
Burpees x 6 OYO
LBCs IC x 10
Flutters IC x 10
COT
Naked Moleskin – The name-o-rama took forever.  That is a good thing. When 60+ PAX post to celebrate something that has obviously changed their lives, then change is happening!  Thanks to Maximus who put this awesome weekend celebration together!  His leadership is not only Effective (Using VAPE) but he is a Virtuous Leader! (Check out the Q Source for the 5 C’s Virtues of Virtuous Leadership) Can’t wait to see what year 8 brings to The Fort!  More importantly, who it brings!  Time to go EH someone.  See you in the gloom.
TClap |
1

Shot at a Free NITRO at HIT

It was a great day since it was Wednesday and I Love the new Mod/HIT Shipwreck Site and Coffeteria (NITRO). Ricky Bobby was on Q for the Mod and it was his VQ! So he did the disclaimer and we spilt into the Mod and HIT groups. The Mod group took off towards the track and I kept the HIT guys back for a minute and challenged them (because I feel that if we have a challenge in front of us we seem to push a little harder). So the challenge was simple, u beat me and I buy u a NITRO. Point system will be explained shortly. So we ran (not moseyed since this is HIT) over to the track where the Mod group was power walking/slow moseying. We got a little ahead of them where I stopped my group and we did some Seal Jax until the Mod group caught up to us then we ran to the other side of the track where we stopped again and did some Smurf Jax until they caught us again. We then ran to the back of the school where the hill is and began the Thang:

The lighting is decent on the hill so we walked down it and I told the Pax to get familiar with the terrain. The ground was a little damp and slick (thankfully I knew my Weinke and was prepared by wearing my new trail shoes). Eleanor not happy because he said he felt like a cartoon character slipping because his shoes are stating to wear on the fronts from all the burpees. That is a good thing because that means he is getting after it. So here is the challenge details. Run up the hill on the count of 3 and the first to the top has to do 3 merkins the rest do 4. Walk back down and repeat the race up the hill and each time the winner does only 3 and the losers add one so the second time the losers did 5 then 6 then 7 and so on. Some Pax thought they would sand back and win the later ones but after 3 trips up they were gassed and were falling too far behind in points. Long story short I OWE NOBODY A NITRO! Hats off to Speedhandle and Austin Powers for the push. My take on it, I owe it all to the Pre-Stuff! That truly makes me stronger.

Dessert was the Flag punishment I had to do for leaving my flag once at cannonball. 50 Burpees and 13 Kraken Burpees. Now the Bastards try to distract me every Tuesday just to try to make me forget it. Bastards!!

Ricky Bobby Took care of the Announcements and Prayers!

Always a pleasure to lead.

TWO FERNS
Twofernshotmail@F3lakewylie.com

TClap |
4

Do more pull-ups

6 Pax came out to the Abyss to answer the age old question, how do I get better at pull-ups?

We started off with a mosey around to the track for COP (MNC, produce pickers, squats, windmills, merkins, burpee x 10 each)

As site Q, I see it as my duty to jump on the new trends, so COP was followed by a mosey around the AO, down Tryon, and back to where we started.

The Thang
A Two Ferns inspired “Nicole” WOD. AKA AMRAP pull ups and lap around the track for 20 minutes.

The big hill was pretty slick, and a teacher was on the paved hill unlocking the gate, so YHC audibled back to the shovel flag for a quick DORA
Pax 1: 200 merkins
Pax 2: run to island, 10 squats and back to relieve Pax 1

Finished with some Mary and COT.

TClap |
2

High Intensity Beatdown at Shipwrecked

Shipwrecked is the newest Lake Wylie AO that offers two workouts: moderate for the respectable or dinged up pax and high intensity for heart pumping challenge.  YHC was privileged to Q the 30 minute high intensity boot camp.  Here is how it went down:

Warm-o-Rama

  • 100 yard mosey to the rear of the elementary school parking lot
  • 20 SSH IC
  • Arm circles

The Thang, Part 1 – The Challenge

A combination of merkins and pullups; pax individually chose to 25/8 or 15/5 for a series of no rest reps:

  • Two rounds of standard merkins/wide arm pullups
  • Two rounds of diamond merkins/chinups
  • Two rounds of werkins/standard pullups

After about 12 minutes, pax would have completed between 90 & 150 merkins and between 30 & 48 pullups

The Thang, Part 2

  • 11s in the parking lot: squats and CDDs
  • Lunge & Nur in between
    • Omaha lunge to plyo-skip

The Thang, Part 3 – on the track

  • Fast jog the straight-aways, slow jog the curves – one lap
  • Repeat with 5 burpees between straights and curves – 20 burpees total
  • Finished with quick round of Mary
    • 15 crunch frogs, IC
    • 12 Box Cutters, IC
    • 20 American Hammers, IC

We ran back to COT for announcements (Invergence/Convergence Sept 6/7) and to welcome FNG “Chimichunga”.

Final tally:  30.min 53 sec; 1.44 miles, peak heart rate 170, average 120;

As always, an honor to lead.

Wolverine

 

 

 

 

 

TClap |
1

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!

TClap |
1