Taming the Tongue (and the PAX)

YHC led off with a quick Bible verse.

James 3:3-5

When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.

He do we talk to those around us? Our peers? Colleagues? M’s? 2.0’s? Do we treat those closest to us differently than say a total stranger?

Warm Up

Mosey/High Knees/Butt Kickers/Karaoke/Toy Soldiers

Al Gore hold while performing:

Moroccan Night Clubs

Lil Baby Arm Circles both directions

Squat Pulses to finish with a burn

 

The Thang

7 minutes of Chelsea to start

EMOM 5-10-15 Pull Ups – Merkins – Squats

 

Mosey to the track

Our thoughts ultimately come out via our tongue. If we think bitterly and assume the worst out of everybody in our lives, our tongue will be a strong

Burpee Chase – 

Sprint the straights, jog the curves. At each corner perform five burpees

Bear Crawl 100 yards in between each lap

Completed two laps

Back to the pull up bars

6 minutes of Chelsea

Jail Break to COT

Mary in Cadence

20 LBCs

15 American Hammers

10 Gas Pumpers

NMM

The tongue is something we cannot control – no matter how hard we try. The only true way to tame the tongue is by living in the Spirit. I have trouble with this myself. It is something that I just need to realize isn’t within my power to control. Once I relinquish said control to the Spirit, my speech ultimately improves.

How do we relinquish our tongues to the Holy Spirit? Well… there is no formula. But finding yourself in proximity to God more often tends to help. The more we approach the Lord via the Word, prayer, fellowship, and witnessing, the higher the odds are that our speech will be Spirit led.

Prayers/Praises

Kaiser’s 10 year anniversary

Splinter/Point Break Home Schooling

YHC – the Holy Spirit helped me to let go of bitterness I was keeping toward my M – big praise!

 

Thanks for the tap, Kaiser. Always happy to serve.

 

Punch List out.

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1 – 17 – 18 and Foundations at The Fort

Today at WEP there was an event to honor York County Detective Mike Doty who died in the line of duty on January 17, 2018. 1 – 17 – 18.

When Grinder asked me to Q today, the same day as the event., I jumped at the chance. One – I needed to get out of my rut and Grinder knew that. Much appreciated G!! Second, I wanted to tie those numbers – 1 – 17 -18 – to my workout as well as deliver a good message to the PAX.

The deal was pretty simple. We ran a loop of about 1.2miles around the perimeter of WEP, with stops for fun. At each of these stops, 5 total including starting at the COT and finishing at the amphitheater, we did the following:

* 1 burpee
* 17 SSH
* 18 Merkin
* 2 min plank for discussion
* 1 burpee
* 17 Reverse LBC
* 18 CDD
* All were 4-count, in cadence (rather rapid). We changed the merkins and CDD to single count after my left shoulder popped after midway through the 3rd round. Getting old stinks!!

Everyone did great. The mublechatter was great, and the group did real well watching their form. I’m sure we are all going to get rashes from that wonderful WEP grass and all the goonie-goo-goos that are in it. GEE THANKS NASA!! HA HA!!!

That was right at 30min. I handed it over to Grinder who had a BoP set up for a quite effective and horrible ab lab of 7-8 exercises, 25-50 (4-count) reps each. Then he ended the fun with Thunderstruck Burpees – playing AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck”, every time you heard “Thunder” or “Thunderstruck” you did a burpee. That’s 33 burpees in 4:52. Nice ending Grinder!!! Going to have to remember that one.

COT, P&P:
* READ YOUR NEWSLETTER. Get involved. Invigorate the leader in you.
* A lot going on in everyone’s lives. We lifted up quite a lot to our Lord!
* Many of us, including myself, doubled-down and did the Doty Memorial Run about 30min later. Awesome!!!

NMM – Foundations:
– DISCLOSURE – This is a repeat of my message at Golden Corral earlier this week. I thought it was important enough to repeat in order to reach as many PAX as possible.

At each stop I pieced together the following. All around us in Fort Mill, Charlotte, etc. we see development, improvement, building, “progress” and such. You can’t go anywhere without seeing it.  The first thing builders do is prep the ground to handle the foundation, then build the foundation solid and strong. That takes some time to do, then they continue from there. They know that without a solid, strong foundation that is securely connected to the structure, whatever it is they’re building will NOT last long, nor will it be able to withstand stresses, etc, from storms or whatever it is exposed to.

When we are drawn to F3, as well as throughout our F3 journey, we are set out to improve ourselves in many ways – physically, mentally, socially, spiritually, etc. We strive to become better, stronger, faster. We start slow then progress as we become better and better. Each day we move ahead in our progress, we lay a brick in our structure of becoming a better person.

My challenge to the PAX was for them to gauge their foundation. What are we building on, and what is the basis on why we are trying to get better? Your foundation should be your relationship with the Lord, and it needs to be as strong, solid, and connected as you can possibly get it. Most people reach out to the Lord when they are in need. There is nothing wrong with that at all, better then than never. But that does not always yield a solid foundation that can endure even the most strongest of storms.  The best way to build a strong relationship with the Lord is to abide in Him every day. Become a son to Him, and let Him be your Father. Let His word marinate in your mind, heart, and soul to where it becomes a guiding force in your life, helping steer you to good decisions, words, and actions. Trust in him completely, with personal abandonment. When you do that with dedication, discipline, and consistency, your foundation will be one which can handle anything life throws at you, at any given time.

“Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” – Psalm 119:105

Stay connected and trust that the Lord will guide you.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead. SYITG
-NASA

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Mini-training day

(For the record since it’s been a while since I’ve posted a backblast, I actually wrote this the morning after the workout and sadly it took me another fully week and then a couple days to copy and paste it…at least I’m making some kind of backblast progress…)

Aren’t all days in a sense training days?

Today, 9 men gathered, 3 had miles on their minds so split off for laughs and miles but could have just been laughs and coffee as YHC wasn’t there to witness.  Regardless, 6 men set off for the unknown.  Before any setting off happened, we had ourselves a little warm-up.

Slick: 20 SSH, 10 man makers, 25 SSH, 5 man makers

With heart rates higher than 5 minutes ago, we rucked up, gathered our 3 sand bags, and headed towards the church parking lot.  Wait…we first had Mainframe and Maximus do a quick demo on how to transfer a sand bag the proper way since a majority of the crew is headed to GrowRuck Grandstrand next week.  Demo concluded and we trekked off.  At the arrival of the church, we did 2 group sand bag handoffs, somewhat successful, and started on the first pain station.

While 1 guy ran / shuffled, with ruck, around the church parking lot circle and acted as our timer, the remaining 5 did the following exercises:

  • Plank hold
  • Flutter
  • Merkins
  • Squats
  • Overhead ruck press
  • Upward row with ruck

Next, we got in a ball of man of sorts, but YHC asked the guys to close their eyes and “mix around” while all the time keeping our eyes closed.  The goal of this exercise was to play with our minds and remove our site so communication became key since vision was impaired.  During an event, it’s going to be dark and disorienting and a guy, or guys, will need to find their voice BUT, also be ready to listen.

  • Objective 1: organize ourselves by height from tallest to shortest in a single file line
  • Objective 2: organize ourselves by age (days matter) in a single file line

Objective 1 – fail by ¼-1/2 inch.  Tinsel is working out too much and has stunted his growth.  10 burpee penalty

Objective 2 – pass

In summary, communication is key, but details matter.  How much is too much communication?  Depends on the situation and if penalties are involved.

Loaded up and moved to the fire station with sand bag transfer happening and Ruck event war stories filling the early morning air!

Arrived at fire house and unloaded gear.  Next up was “jacob’s ladder” modified version.  1 end was burpees and other end was squat presses with ruck (so this was done slick).  Counting was starting at 7 for both exercises and working our way down to 1.  Finished this by 0555 with not a lot of time (underestimated distance to COT) to get back.  We did see the space shuttle walking back which filled more questions about alien invasions and why is that plane’s lights facing the wrong way, etc.

Made it back to COT where we did the normal….aside from ball of man which we may have done for those that were ok to participate.  I will tell you that it felt pretty awesome.

Thanks to Tinsel for the opportunity!

Shady

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3/4 mile tractor tire flip with rucks on

Ruck Q #2 on heavy training week for Dirty Myrtle.

The plan was simple, try to get one mile of tire flipping and sand bag toss rotating between PAX… there was 3 of us so it made things much more interesting.

While PAX #1 flips the tire 5 times, the other two will toss the sandbags, we had a 40# and a 60#; about 8 minutes (1/8 of a mile) into it, I realized that we will never move fast enough to complete the 1 mile tire flip if we kept tossing the sandbags so we abandoned them and started a new rotation, one tire flip per PAX and move to the side, we started moving much faster… did I mention we had our rucks on? yeah, that made it a bit more complicated.

The synergy between the 3 of us was great, we pushed ourselves completely out of our comfort zones and kept hustling to meet our goal,  we had to pick up our sandbags on the way back to COT and tossed them along the tire flipping (add 1/8 of a mile of sandbag tossing)  we are only human and couldn’t reach the mile but this morning the accomplishment was great,  we reached 3/4 of a mile with one minute to spare, we did some LBC’s and were done for the day… legs were shivering, forearms pulsating, but we walked (or barely walked) better than when we got there at 0515.  BIG PROPS to Divac and IT for not giving up!!!

Prayers for balance with our families and our jobs.

Tinsel out… until my third Q of the week

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One mile “Casualty” carrying

Last week of heavy training before Dirty Myrtle and I have 3 Q’s lined up back to back starting with this one.

7 Pax showed up for some Tinsel Utensils WOD; two multi-position ladders were used as stretchers with two sandbags each, main goal was to complete 1 mile “casualty” carrying around the school, ladders were loaded with sandbags and each PAX had a ruck on so off we went.

At minute 2 an alarm went off on my phone , drop the ladders and it was time for 5 merkins with rucks on, complete the task, pickup the casualties and keep moving towards our one mile goal, at minute 4 alarm went off again, drop the ladders and time for 5 more merkins, so we went tabata style and every 2 minutes we had to drop the load and do 5 merkins (about 145-150 merkins total) lots of mumble chatter.

Once we reached our one mile goal around minute 35 and we changed our transportation mode; we switched the ladders to the A frame position and two PAX will carry them while the rest will carry the sandbags.. and yes, Tabata was still present so every two minutes we dropped the loads, did 5 merkins and rotate weights.

Went around the field and the back of the school and reached COT with les than 5 minutes to spare, time for AB LAB, we did some flutters with ruck press and noneless we heard the alarm one more time so 5 more merkins (slick) it felt really good to not have the ruck on for these 5 last merkins, one more minute for more flutters and we hot 0600.

Thank you to all the PAX that showed up to do the harder thing, we had a visit from Royale and WIld Thing from Lake Wylie and I’m sure they “enjoyed” the beatdown.

Thanks to Divac for the opportunity to lead!!

Tinsel out… until the next day…

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Sandbags and a few tests at Currahee

Currahee (April 13, 2021)

The term Currahee, as suggested by Site Q, Divac, references a Cherokee word meaning “Stand alone together.” This is the motto of the 506th Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division made known to most of us civilians through the HBO series, Band of Brothers. Over the last few months, Currahee has become synonymous with more difficult and become an AO where you come to be tested. With that understanding, it was now my responsibility as the Q for this morning to bring it.

Earlier in the week, I put the call out for this rendition to be a “heavy” version meaning, if you had a sandbag, bring it. Whether it was a 40lb, 120lb or a log, bring it. The PAX didn’t disappoint. This picture is before Site Q Divac dropped his 2 onto the pile.

Disclaimer for the 13 PAX: Check

Move ourselves and the coupons over to the turn in the drop-off lane.

Slick: SSH, Mountain Climbers, Windmills, 8ct Burpees, ½ the PAX sprint one way and back while the other ½ sprint the other way and back.

Explanation that during events, the Cadre’s will be yelling at you, testing you and giving you difficult time hacks to test the team. Utilizing a common test, the PAX had 10 seconds to empty their ruck of its contents. Penalty, 5 burpees. PAX then had 20 seconds to fill it back up…pass.
Do it again. 10 seconds to empty = fail, penalty. 15 seconds to fill = fail, penalty.

Ruck up and move all sandbags to the back of the school, drop in the center of the group.

10 Merkins / 20 Peter Parkers / 30 Slow Squats

Sandbags to the front of the school

10 Merkins / 20 Curls / 30 Flutters w/ Press

10 seconds to empty the ruck / 15 seconds to fill the ruck…penalty

Sandbags to the back of the school

10 Merkins / 20 OH Press / 30 High Pulls

Sandbags to the front of the school

Heels to Heaven

Man Makers

American Hammers

Groups of 3 run 30yds, slick while rest of the PAX plank. Complete till everyone goes through.

COT

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Currahee 3.30.2021

Catch Up Backblast 2/5

 

Buy In 

5 Count Sandbag GTSS

5 Count Sandbag Clusters (Clean & Thrust)

5 Count BAD w/Sandbag

5 Count Sandbag Get Up

 

Coupon Ruck w/heavy sand bags and water jugs around the school.

 

2 TIMES

25-yard Duck Walk (5 Spaces), Walk Duck back

20 Ruck Squats

25-yard Duck Walk, Walk Duck back

20 push-ups

25-yard Duck Walk, Walk Duck back

20 Ruck High Pulls

25-yard Duck Walk, Walk Duck back

20 4-count flutter kicks, Walk Duck back

25-yard Duck Walk

20 4-count mountain climber, Walk Duck back

25-yard Duck Walk

 

Cash Out

5 Count Sandbag GTSS

5 Count Sandbag Clusters

5 Count BAD w/Sandbag

5 Count Sandbag Get Up

 

It sucked. We spent time under the 120, and everywhere else. Olaf said something profound (he usually always does), which I was planning to make the title of the backblast… but YHC slacked and didn’t write it down quick enough.

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Tinsel Utensils back for a combined Bushwood/Snake Pit

It all started with an invitation from LTrain a few months ago to Q Bushwood and a quick chat with 3D last week to take over Snake Pit since Shatner was IR and do a combo AO beatdown.

I decided to revive Tinsel Utensils and make everyone’s time worth of getting up early and showing up.

We started with a quick mossey around the parking lot followed by moroccan night clubs, low slow squats, low slow merquins and windmills. We split in 3 groups and head over to the next parking lot where I had 4 stations setup with the following, bear crawl to the next station after all exercises have been completed:

Station 1

-> 10 diamond merkins

-> 20 wide arm merkins

-> 30 regular merkins

-> 30 battle rope wave SC

-> 40 Shoulder taps

-> 40 plank jacks

Station 2

-> 5 burpees

-> 5 tractor tire flips

-> 10 sandbag toss (choice of 40# or 50#)

-> 20  Monkey Humpers

-> 30 low squat (touch the ground with hand)

-> 50 calf raises

Station 3

-> 20 slam ball to ground (choice of 10# or 20#)

-> 30 Freddy Mercury

-> 30 Rosalitas

-> 40 Heel Touches

-> 40 American Hammer

-> 40 LBC

Station 4 with cindy

-> 30 overhead press

-> 30 biceps curls

-> 30 high pulls

-> 30 triceps dips

-> 30 Carolina dry docks

Once all station have been completed by everyone about  (30 minute mark) we grabbed the tire and the two sandbags  for an indian walk type of thing, get in line, flip the tire/toss the sandbag once and go back to the end of the line,  alternate between toss and flip; we went up and down the length of the parking lot (about 100 yards)

With about 12 minutes to spare we circled up around the tire, and we took turns flipping the tire, two flips and go back to your spot, one round of plank, one round of squats, one round of LBCS, with one minute left we hauled all the gear back to the trailer for COT.

Some PAX loved it and some whined a  lot, it was a great opportunity to meet new guys.

Thanks LTrain and 3D for the opportunity to lead.

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Q vs Q Week 1 – The JOC

Backblast! Q vs Q Week 1
Date: 3/3/2021
AO: #3-w-the-joc
PAX: @River Rat @Fresh Prince @Bill Nye @Italian Job @JAG @Schrute Hardwood, Maximus, Esso, Ruby Slippers, Punch List, Tinsel, Harry Carry, Trucker, Fish Sticks
FNGs: 0
Q: @Bill Nye and Maximus
Count: 15
Name-O-Rama: https://youtu.be/KoBt9YnWNHc
Week 1 Update: https://youtu.be/jSu4BbrrMeMRound 1- Bill Nye:
The parking lot beside the AO is divided into 6 parts. The PAX ran to the bottom of the parking lot and did 10 burpees before bearcrawling up to the next level.
Each level repeated all previous excerices and then added a new exercise to the ladder.
10 burpees- 50 total
20 v ups- 60 total
30 merkins- 90 total
40 squats- 80 total
50 LBCs- 50 totalRound 1- Maximus:
Shoulder Smoker: Carolina Dry Docks, Bear Crawl, Wide Arm Merkins, Crawl Bear, Peter Parker, Bear Crawl, Diamond Merkins, Ski AbsRound 3- Bill Nye
I assumed that oxygen deprivation would be kicking in at this point so I made this part simple. 11s. Run up the hill for prison cell burpees, run back down the hill for Ripstick squats.
Prison cell burpee- Merikin, lift your left leg towards your chest, merkin, lift your right leg towards your chest, merkin, jump up, overhead clap. That’s one.
Ripstick squats- Assume the AL Gore position. Perform a calf raise, pausing at the top. That’s one.Round 2- Maximus:
Starting at point on the Criterium Track closest to the parking lot:
Sprint 1/4mi: Rabbits (first to finish the sprint) do Burpees until the six completes 5 Burpees
Sprint 1/4mi: Rabbits do Merkins until the six completes 10 Merkins
Sprint 1/4mi: Once we finished this sprint, we were running out of time so we made our way to C.O.T.NMM:
This morning I(Bill Nye) got to meet several new brothers and I also led half of a pretty good beat down. It was a pleasure to push and sweat with my brothers from both sides of the river. Also, Maximus is a beast and I am looking forward to working out with him again soon. Get After It men! (edited) 
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Hero Workout for PFC Jacob Hancher “Hightower”

Monday we sadly added a new Hero to our workout.  PFC Jacob Hancher was known to F3 Grand Strand as “Hightower”

Jacob William Hancher, 23, passed away October 03, 2020 in Myrtle Beach, SC while serving in the line of duty with the Myrtle Beach Police Department.  He was born July 24, 1997 in Silver Spring, MD.

Jacob graduated from Thomas Stone High School in Waldorf, MD in 2015 and attended Horry Georgetown Technical College in Conway, SC.  He began his career with the Myrtle Beach Police Department in 2015 as a Community Service Officer and became a Myrtle Beach Police Officer in January 2020.  Prior to moving to Myrtle Beach, he was a member of the Waldorf Volunteer Fire Department, Fire Station 3 from 2014 to 2015.  After moving to Myrtle Beach, he became a member of the Horry County Fire Rescue, Station 45.  He was also an Eagle Scout, Troop 417 in Waldorf, MD

Shield and I created this workout in honor of Hightower.  We wanted to incorporate his age, End of Watch date, and his badge number (374).

We did 9 rounds of 10/3/20 run 400 meters. 10 merkins, 3 burpees, 20 big boys.  Checkout with 77 squats and 100-meter sprint.  This gets you 2.3 miles, 10/3/20 EOW, and 374 reps.

Most of us got to the last round and then the heavens let go and we got POURED on.  After 1/2 of us had finished, we ran for shelter up to the front of NaFo to get out of the rain.  From here, those who didn’t finish completed it under the awning and the rest of us took turns calling out exercises for the rest of the hour.

My phone and speaker were out in the rain too long and malfunctioned during Name-O-Rama.  So no video evidence exists.  RIP Hightower.  Thank you for your service!

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