Open Your Heart, Cover Your Plums

THE THANG: Maybe our most beloved PAX led the conversation this morning on the subjects of identity (sometimes multiple identities) and the purpose in trials we travel through.

Key takeaway: Open your heart and cover the plums.

TClap |
0

3rd Manion WOD with the AKA crew

WARMUP: mumblechatter

THE THANG:
Manion WOD
29 squats with ruck (with sandbags when available)
1/4 mile ruck (shared sandbags)
7 rounds

We did an extra rounds as time allowed for extra credit

MARY: mumblechatter
ANNOUNCEMENTS: sign up for blood donations🩸
COT: prayers for families, kids and teachers during the last stretch of the school year

TClap |
0

AKA jack-Web-inar

WARMUP: mosey, Moroccan night clubs, windmills, cherry pickers, low slow squats, los slow merkins

THE THANG: 4 jack webs with a short mosey in between.

MUCHO SHOULDER:
1 merkin – 4 shoulder taps progressive to 10 merkins – 40 shoulder taps (total 55 merkins, 220 shoulder taps)

Take a lap

CALF BURNER:
1 monkey humper – 4 calf raises progressive to 10 monkey humpers – 40 calf raise (total 55 MH, 220 CR)

Take half a lap to the soccer field

CAPTAIN THOR:
1 big boy sit-up – 4 American hammers progressive to 10 BBSU – 40 AH (total 55 BBSU, 220 AH) we had to throw some body destroyers in between and did Superman’s at the end to stretch our abs and lower back.

Half a lap

HOPS AND DIPS:
1 side straddle hop – 4 triceps dips progressive to 10 SSH – 40 TD (you guessed it 55 SSH, 220 TD)

Super slow slow mosey to COT, next time I Q I have to make sure to bring lots of cheese for all the whine we had.

MARY: Moroccan night clubs, windmills, walking dogs and honeymooners
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Read your newsletter
COT: prayers for kids, families and people recovering from injuries and surgeries.

TINSEL OUT!!

TClap |
2

Manion WOD so I can wear my shirt.

WARMUP: Short Ruck with sandbags to starting location. Hillbilly Walkers, Imperial Walkers, SSH, and Low Slow Squats in no particular order or count.
THE THANG:
7 rounds
400m ruck
29 back squats with our without sandbags
MARY: Cobra Kai led broga
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Men’s Shelter Dinner, Manion WOD on 4/29/2022
COT: Stays in COT

TClap |
0

The Peacemaker

WARMUP:

Very quick demo of what was coming. 12 exercises pulled from the intro dance to Peacemaker.
The board:

Oh, and everyone grab a 4.5lb paver for each hand. They’re brand new so the gloves are to keep your skin from being sliced open.

THE THANG:

HIIT workouts with all 12 exercises. Everyone, just use the beat!
1. Squat lat pull w/alt leg raise
2. Dumbell scarecrow
3. Lat pulls w/alt high knees
4. Al Gore tricep extensions. Arms out, elbows turned UP
5. Apollo Ono with shrug/lat pull/whatever felt right
6. Overhead press (with optional pelvic thrust)
7. Lunges with full arm motion
8. Side arm lat raises
9. Hillbilly walker
10. Scarecrow again
11. Slow, full arm circles with one arm, holding the other out. Guitar hero style
12. overhead press to tricep extesion and back

We did the above for:
1. 90 seconds on, 20 seconds rest
2. Take a break with a long lap around the parking lot
3. 30 seconds on, 12 seconds rest
4. Two of each, straight down the line, try not to mess up or burpees
5. Everyone did fine, so 10 burpees as a reward
6. Two each one more time, because the ruckers needed to know what they were missing

Spotify playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6k0Pd1cAC3pmdvO7NstFkq?si=75f40460c85245c

Video of our last two minutes is here (as caught by the TeslaCam):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-Im8n1SVEW-_TXBNIcm-EoHATl797135/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-CcQb4RhCVMlU7UEx7gyL1tt1dlIvrO6/view?usp=sharing

ANNOUNCEMENTS

https://photos.app.goo.gl/SByJGmeayUfkfNab7
Funhouse talking about what AKA is all about
Tinsel talks about the Manion WOD at Chupacabra on 4/29
YHC letting everyone know that we can soon start posting BBs in Slack, and to update your names or you won’t get tagged

COT:

Talked about F3 being open to all men. While YHC is reasonably certain that most of the men there was some flavor of christian, I asked men to bow their heads for a moment of murmuring silence. When complete I also said I don’t want to ignore things that are difficult in each others lives. grab the man next to you if you need to talk about something. This is CoT, and we trust.

NMM:

I’d been thinking about this workout for weeks, basically the first time I saw the intro credits for Peacemaker, I knew I had to bring this to an AO near me. And it just so happened that I had the Swamp on AKA, so I watched that credit sequence over and over until I had a solid, awful, dumb, stupid workout ready to share with whatever AKA groupies were brave enough to drive out to Rivergate.
I knew it was going to make guys feel dumb, stupid, perhaps even embarrassed, but the smiles went on for miles, and the shoulders have been successfully melted. Mublechatter was epic, everyone had a great time, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to have brought a fun, shoulder smoking Friday morning to The Fort. Thanks for putting me on the calendar, Slapshot!
Peacemaker intro:

TClap |
1

Light pole Tour of Pain

WARMUP: maybe one SSH
THE THANG:
Ran around the outside of CRHS campus. Every light pole directly on your path stop and do exercises with KB. First 10 poles do 5 reps of first set. Next 10, 10 reps of 2nd. Next 10, 15 of 3rd set.

5
Uhauls
Haybailers
Dips

10
Swings
Curls
OH

15
Squats
Tricep extensions
Calf raises

By the time we go to the front of the school and started the 3rd set BC ran back and pushed the 6 up to all finish for COT.

MARY:
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
COT:

TClap |
1

Smoking sandbags at Chupacabra

We did a modified Manion type of workout:

15 squats with ruck and sandbag on

15 ruck curls

run one lap (1/4 mile)

partner up and toss sandbag for 100 yards

15 ruck curls

ruck one lap

partner up and toss sandbag for 100 yards

15 ruck curls

run one lap

partner up and toss sandbag for 100 yards

15 ruck curls

ruck one lap

partner up and toss sandbag for 100 yards

15 ruck curls

one of the sandbags couldn’t take it any longer and started smoking after the first 100 yards, filler bag was destroyed!

Crab cakes was voluntold upon arrival to lead us on a great 10 minute broga session and as the HIM he is he accepted with a big smile!!

It was a great combination of  ruck, run, broga plus all the mumblechatter.

Cicada and Badlands are morphing into ruckers.

Great to see Dinghy back in the gloom, we also had a visit from Snooze who drove 45 minutes to join us that morning.

Tinsel OUT

TClap |
0

(Pre) Adopt a Highway Beatdown

16 PAX for The Fort and 6 PAX for Milllkshake on a lovely spring morning

Battlebot started off with disclaimer and straight into warmups in the amphitheater parking lot… first warmup exercise he called was Goofballs, and with that the milllkshake crowd had seen enough and split.

(IC) – Goofballs, Cherry Pickers, Overhead Claps, MNC,  Merkins

We then began a mosey on trail towards Harris Street Park with a pain stations along the way

Station 1: 10 reps – Monkey Humpers, Imperial Walkers, American Hammers

Station 2: 10 reps –  CDD, Peter Parkers, Lunges

 

At Harris Street Park:

use full length of basketball court – Bear crawl to one side, crab walk back

use full length of basketball court – high knees there, duck walk back

10 reps each exercise-

use benches – Bulgarian Split Squat, Incline Merkins, Step Ups, Derkins, Dips

use swingset – pullups

Burpees

Run halfway back up trail towards WEP until you get to the beer bottle, turn around and hit the full circuit again

 

BattleBot handed Q to YHC at about 0658 and we began our mosey back towards WEP – about 3/4 of the way back we stopped for 25 LBCs (IC)

Continued to WEP playground where we partnered up for a DORA – Partner 1 exercises while partner 2 runs from playground to the statue on the hill.

Exercises:

50 reverse pushups on swings (short on swings so a couple groups got to do 50 pullups)

100 hand release merkins

150 squats

 

We finished up the last 7-8 minutes with a HIIT 45Sec ON 15Sec OFF doing the following exercises:

Burpees, Freddy Mercuries, High Knee Taps,  SSH,  In&Outs, Side to Side Squats, Shoulder Taps

 

Congregated back at the parking lot with about 30 seconds to spare and Al Gored to finish at 0730.

 

Got through announcements and started Prayers/Praises before I realized I forgot Name-a-Rama.  Another reminder that I am surely not a professional.

Thanks for the opportunity Grinder

 

TClap |
0

Convergence: Love & a passing of the flag

Station 1 (Santini): Traditional Pain Platoon

Just your basic beat the hell out of your legs exercises of lunges, squats, and burpees intermixed with meditation and box breathing exercises. Sprint to the top of the hill, recover, and do more exercises including Moroccan night clubs and Carolina dry docks.

NMM: Anxiety and gratitude are not able to occupy the same space.

Station 2 (Shady / Maximus)

Warmup (Shady) – 21 SSH, 5 burpees, 18 SSH, 5 burpees, 12 SSH, someone whined about burpees so we did 10 diamonds merkins…then did 5 burpees
Group 1
  • partnered up and Dora style started out with 100 pull-ups.  Partner 1 on the pull-up bar, partner 2 did a lap around the playgroud
  • Stayed on playground, stayed with partner, Partner 1 AMRAP merkins while partner 2 ran the length of the playground and back to AMRAP merkins
  • Stayed on the AMRAP theme with flutters, then back to merkins, then back to flutters…then (I think) time was called

Group 2

  • Partnered up and Dora style, but this time 50 pull-ups with the run around the playground (Q modification given time and we aren’t cyborgs)
  • AMRAPs were just 1 round of merkins and flutters (again, I think…may need a lifeline here from Max)
  • We made our way to the hill with the statue where Maximus laid down the NUR up the hill and at the top 10 bomb jacks and ran to the bottom where we did 20 American hammers..we did this twice
  • W/ time to spare we ran to the top for 10 diamond merkins and ran to the bottom for 10 V-ups
  • In buzzer beater fashion, we ran to the top again for 10 ranger merkins and ran to the bottom for a partner 1 lay on the ground and grab partner 2s ankles where partner 2 would throw partner 1s feet down 10 times as you straight leg lifted them to his face

Group 3

  • Dora style 50 pull-ups with the run around the playground
  • We made our way to the hill with the statue where Maximus laid down the NUR up the hill and at the top 10 bomb jacks and ran to the bottom where we did 20 american hammers..we did this twice
  • Running low on time ran to the top for 10 diamond merkins and ran to the bottom for the ankle grabbing / feet throwing core exercise 10 times
NMM: After each of the groups had done their pull-ups, Maximus and Shady shared their thoughts and experiences on LOVE.
  • Shady – areas of focus were loving your brother and being your brothers keeper.  Sending a text or reaching out to someone to just say “hey, thinking of you” could change their day.  Realizing that the ones you love are watching you, emulating you, picking up on good and bad habits.  Realizing we don’t know it all, especially to the ones we love, is a sign of humility and a factor of growth and development.  For those of us with children, we have never been parents before so we honestly have no idea what we’re doing.  Love starts with servant leadership and personally for YHC, this usually progresses when the mouth is shut and ears are open.
  • Maximus – For my discussion on love, it begins with being intentional as love is a decision. We must make the decision to be intentional with our actions. Whether it be in our faith, marriage, parenting of our kids, with friends and yes, even with work relationships, we must be intentional. Think about how easy it is to get distracted, whether at dinner with your wife or even on a Zoom call for work. We often allow our minds to wander or even start doing something else while the other person is talking, looking for our engagement. Stop. Be the person who is present in the moment. Put the shoe on the other foot. Love that person as your relationship to them allows.

Station 3 (Pusher & Cakeboss): Love Edition

COP
  • SSHs
  • Windmills
  • Squats
  • Mtn Climbers
  • Merkins
  • IWs
Cake Boss spells love “B-U-R-P-E-E”
The Thang
  • Jacobs Ladder with Derkins and Monkey Humpers
  • Plank/Dip sequence
  • Bear crawl to top with burpees
NMM:
  • Cord of 3 strands cannot be broken. Having God in your marriage is the 3rd string. Adding communication to the marriage strengthens it. – CB
  • Gifts vs Gaps. Focus on the gifts that your wife or significant other bring vs what she is missing. Seeing her this way builds love. – Pusher
  • Much love was on display with all of the mumblechatter and fellowship. The relationships formed through F3 has increased our love internally and is reflected outward to our Ms, 2.0s, PAX and community… #morethanaworkout

Shovel Flag hand off for two leadership positions in the Fort:

Shady handed off the Nantan role to Double D
Esso handed off the Weasel Shaker role to YHC

Awesome work by the PAX today. Hard to put into words how much improved my disposition on life is since moving back to Fort Mill because of F3. Grateful for an opportunity to serve the PAX of The Fort.

NMM: Double D was the site-Q at Block Party when I started posting. If it wasn’t for his steady presence with a commitment to the integrating 2nd F and 3rd F elements into each workout, I doubt I’d have kept posting. Double D is a genuine human, I’m a better dude for knowing him, and I’m excited for his leadership.


Band Camp dismissed

TClap |
8

3 Stations on Repeat

Ring of Fire welcomed 10 PAX with one having to modify due to injury.
It’s Groundhog Day for anyone attending to those matters so rather than just going through the motions, be focused and intentional with your actions, starting with today’s workout.

Head over to the band parking lot for a few warmup exercises.
Run to the 50, 2 burpees, run to the other end, 2 burpees
Nur to the 50, 2 burpees, nur back to the start, 2 burpees

Explanation of our 3 stations to be executed with a partner

Station 1 at the band lot
10 Jump Squats and 20 Calf Raises

Run to station 2 at the pull up bars
10 Pull Ups and 20 Diamond Merkins

Run to station 3 at the elementary school parking lot at the bottom of the hill
10 X’s & O’s and 20 American Hammers

When you finish with station 3, nur up the hill back to station 2, to complete station 2 then run back to station 1. Repeat until time expires.

Hey Kaiser, we missed you.
SYITG
Maximus

TClap |
2