Tag: Tinsel

Deck of Death and the Deconstructed Burpee at the Deep

Leave a comment

It was early, it was cold.  I had told the guys throughout the week to bring their kids and we could enjoy an easier workout.  But even I bailed with my two boys when I heard it was going to be 20 degrees.  Seems like that’s pushing the child abuse line… Luckily  the other 8 guys that showed up felt the same and decided the kids needed to stay at home.  Good for the children, bad for the PAX…now we got to do the harder things I had planned!

We had an FNG show up a little early and asked if this was F3?  I said yes, and asked him if he had gloves? He seemed confused and then asked, “is this outside?”  I knew he was going to have some fun today…lucky for him the PAX that EH’d him told him about the gloves.  By the end, Chris, an art teacher at a local school, was christened with “Picasso”.

I gave the long disclaimer, and we were off.

Dynamic warmup lap around the parking lot with:

High Knees – Butt Kickers – Toy Soldiers – Karaoke – Knee to Chest – Ankle pull

We circled up on the soccer field for COP:

SSHs – Imperial Walkers – Windmills – Squats with Calf Raises – CDDs – Plank Jacks – Merkins – Peter Parkers

No one really likes when I keep them in plank for 4 exercises…kinda my thang!

Now that we were warmed up, we moseyed over to the GA-GA ball pit.   Each of the 8 men find a post, and jump over the wall 30 times. If they didn’t want to do that…burpees were the alternative. No one took the alternative.

We headed over to our favorite hill for an evolution I stole from Bing down in Lakewood Ranch  who had posted it the day before on his BB.  Seemed like a tough thing to do so I added it to the Weinke.

Partner Up for the “Deconstructed Burpee”

Partner 1 run down and up the hill while partner 2 does the exercise.  Add reps together to these numbers:

100 Hip Thrusters

100 Merkins

100 Jump Squats

Several 10 counts after this one. Picasso didn’t seem to like the deconstructed burpee.  Later Bing told me he got this from our boy Longshanks…no wonder it sucked!

Mosey on to the next evolution behind the school.

5 cones were set up along the back street

Bear crawl to cone then 10 merkins

Lunge walk to next cone then 10 squats

keep repeating until the end 5 cones – about 200 yards.

I shared some thoughts around temptation, personal struggles and accountability. These men of F3 help make me a better man!

Next we stayed by the benches for:

20 Dips

20 Durkins

20 Step-Ups (each leg)

Mosey around to the front of the school

Last evolution today was the Deck of DEATH for 15 minutes.

Hearts = Jump Lunges

Spades = Merkins

Diamonds = Bombjacks

Clubs = Carolina Dry Docks

Aces high were 14 reps

We seemed to pull 13 clubs out of 15 tries… this always gets fun and rowdy by the end.  I pulled two of the Aces myself!

Mosey back to the cars for the normal COT items and naming of our FNG to Picasso.

prayers for Tater’s grandbaby still in NICU but doing OK. Qbert’s wife starting her new job soon, Shakespear’s friends’s parents heath, safe travels for all traveling.

Always and honor to lead,

Royale

 

TClap |
3

Spiderman Crawls and tires

1 Comment

Thankful for the opportunity to lead my second Q, 11 PAX joined for a great beat down.

Quick disclaimer  and discussed about the word of the month victory and the power we have to overcome a struggle.

We started the warm up with a 2 minute run around the parking lot, circled up and started with the following in cadence:

15 Windmills

15 Low slow Merkins

20 Moroccan Night Clubs

Then we moseyed to station #1 of our  4 station/corner setup. Quick explanation of the workout followed by demonstration of the spiderman crawl,  we split into groups 1 to 4 and one group went to each corner:

  • First  Corner:

15 big boy sit ups

20 Sledgehammer swings

30 American hammer

  • Second Corner:

5 tire flips

10 deep squats

20 lunges

30 dips on tire or curb

  • Third Corner:

15 two arm triceps extension

20 two arm biceps curl

30 Carolina drydocks

  • Fourth Corner:

5 tire flips

10 diamond merkins

15 regular merkins

30 shoulder taps

After completing each  station we moved to the next one as follows: from station 1 we run to station 2; from 2 to 3 we spiderman crawled; from 3 to 4 we run and from 4 to 1 we spiderman crawled. Each station was planned to be done around the 2 minute mark plus 30 seconds to run/crawl from station to station so a full circuit took around 10 minutes. We completed 3 full circuits.

With about 38 minutes into the workout we moseyed to the hill but some PAX suggested we use the wall instead, so we people chaired for about 30 seconds, did a quick recover and then 30 second of  balls to the wall, with so much excitement coming from all the PAX about BTTW we rinsed and repeated for another 30 seconds and a new name for the exercise was brought out: brains to the floor… we moseyed back to COT and circled up for a head count and namearama.

Announcements:

Christmas Party

CAH dinner in december

Fast 5 Race

Joe Davis Memorial Run

Prayers and Requests:

Family, kids, health, happiness, our jobs and the opportunity to celebrate victory over our daily struggles.

 

 

TClap |
5

The real gloom at WEP

Leave a comment

What a great Saturday morning. I got out to the AO a little early cause I hadn’t been out to WEP in a very long time. The air was thick with fog, it was dark, it was downright scary  – the perfect type type of gloom that we love to work with.

Men  start showing up about eight minutes before launch, by the time we were ready to go we had a total of 19 PAX ready to get after it . Nomad  brought 3 FNG’s from his youth group and they were excited to figure out what was in store for them this morning.  I bet they felt differently after words.

Maximus were starting us off today so he gave the long disclaimer for new friends and off we went .

It was a nice quick jog and then circle up to do several exercises that I can’t recall individually – but Maximus pushed us to get nice and warmed up.

the Thang

Partner up

partner 1 pull ups AMRAP while partner 2 runs around the playground  perimeter.

Repeat three times

After that we will circle up in the playground dirt and did several of the exercises which included toe touches, LBCs, flutter kicks and chopsticks. Maybe an elbow plank in there as well.

Maximus then turned it over to Royale

Mosey into the grass circled up and picked new partners

Lazy Dora

No running, consists  of the following exercises that are rotated between the two partners until you get to the combined number .

100 merkins

10 each while other partner planks

200 Squats

25 each while other partner holds low squat

300  American hammers single count

30 each  while partner holds 6 inches

This evolution was terrible so I gave the guys a break after it was done and read from Discipline Equals Freedom, a section called “application of discipline ”  from Jocko Willink’s most recent book. I shared his video about the book above.  It’s one of my favorite short motivational videos on YouTube!

The next evolution involved a nice little hill for 11’s

Run up the top the hill- do 10 bomb jacks – run back down – one plank jack until you reverse the cycle down to one Bomb Jack and 10 plank jacks.

Next we moseyed halfway around the park on the running track until we came close to the front road and entrance to the park.

We formed two lines and partnered up with the person right across from you in line- sat down and did two minutes each of big boy sit ups many as you can.

finally spent the last two minutes doing as many as you can burpees – real crowd pleaser

COT with FNG naming, Gomer, Ghost Rider and Chop Block.

Announcements prayers and praises

It was an honor to lead,

Royale & Maximus

TClap |
2

You don’t have Control

Leave a comment

Friday mornings are my favorite.  Back at the place this whole F3 thang all began for me.  The men started gathering, and by 5:14 it was a large group…but no one that wanted to ruck…so NASA got to join the bootcampers.  I’m sure he was ready for his Q, but lots of guys were probably holding back for the Capital Ruck Tour on Saturday night.  20 PAX with me, so a quick disclaimer and we’re off.

A little dynamic warmup on our run with high knees, butt kickers, side shuffle.  Made our way to the back parking of  the old River Bleu.

COP: 15 IWs – 25 MNCs – 25 SSHs – 10 LS Squats – 10 Merkins – some yoga stuff – 15 planks jacks – 10 Parker Peters

Mosey over to the Fountain to put in some work

3 rounds of following:

10 Step Ups each leg

20 Durkins

30 Dips

quick 10 count time to mosey.

Move to the red balls for Burpicides

Shared a quick word around Control. See Moleskin.

run to each ball – 3 burpees – run back all the way down to the other side

Read to write, hard to do. After a FEW 10 counts time to mosey again.

Made our way closer to the COT, stopped at a nice patch of grass.

I saw someone had pulled out the Jack Webbs this week, it had been too long…

Jack Webbs to 10

Back to COT:

Ab Lab with American Hammers – Freddie Mercuries – LBCs

Announcements – Praises – Prayers

Moleskin:

I had something to share planed for the PAX.  But on the way to the workout I was listening to the radio.  Not something I normally do. A song came on by Logic.  It’s posted here.  Popular song about depression and suicide.  My nephew had previously shown me the video. That morning it almost brought me to tears.  I modified my message about control.  The trials of life and heartache of loss or depression show us many ways that we are not in control.  That even when things are good we can feel like there are bad.  Give that control to God and ask him for guidance.

Too many kids I’ve been hearing about locally that have lost that control and found no other way out than suicide.  We should be those men making a difference in kids lives so they know there is another way.  Start with your own kids.  Talk to them about life, and pain and failure.  Let them know that everything’s not perfect like social media makes it out to be.  Tell them about your failures and how you overcame them.  Just talk…

An honor to lead,

Royale

 

TClap |
2

Stairs, Stairs and more Stairs – The Swamp 10/13/17

Leave a comment

A cool and drizzling day didnt keep the Pax away.  19 was the number with 5 ruckers and 13 bootcampers. Rad took the ruckers and I had the bootcamp.

We started with a short mosey to the parking lot behind Just Fresh where we circled up to stretch and loosen up. COP involved:

  • SSH x25
  • IW x10
  • Windmills x10
  • Weed Pullers x10
  • Merkins x10
  • Honeymooners/Downward Dogs

Pax were ready so we started The Thang:

I had the Pax split into groups of 3 with one group having 4.  Each Pax would be performing a different excercise using the Pax running the stairs as the timer. Each Pax would rotate the excercises until each Pax had run the stairs twice.  The cycles were:

  • Cycle 1
    • Pax 1 – Up and Down Stairs x5
    • Pax 2 – Broad Jump across parking lot (didn’t anticipate the rain which made this a little tricky)
    • Pax 3 – Flutter Kicks
  • a couple 10 counts
  • Cycle 2
    • Pax 1 – Up and Down Stairs x5
    • Pax 2 – Bear Crawl across parking lot (Tip: Parking lines are slick when wet)
    • Pax 3 – Peoples Chair
  • a couple 10 counts
  • Cycle 3
    • Pax 1 – Up and Down Stairs x5
    • Pax 2 – Recovery run across parking lot
    • Pax 3 – Burpees (CROWD PLEASER)

With that completed we were out of time so we lined up for an Indian Run back to COT where the Ruckers were waiting.

Thanks to Cable Guy for the opportunity to lead.

Until next time, back to the hunt…

 

TClap |
1

Q school 101 & 201

1 Comment

16 Pax for Q School

YHC arrived early and Dark Helmet Q101) rolled in let’s just say a little later than that

The first rule of Q school is arrive early!!!

Dark Helmet took the 101 beginner class and YHC took the advanced class (or at least we think we are advanced) split off and began to teach some good stuff

201 started out with 10 perfect Burpees and we mosied to the back of the school to the COP

Everyone lead 10 SSH each making sure we could all count

We then did merkins 2 ea all the way around the circle

We continued our warm up and talked through some things we all felt were important

Another rule to follow is don’t do stupid things….In other words don’t do partner carries on a wet hill in the dark, don’t cross a major highway with 30 PAX in the dark….Be smart about what you’re doing and try not to get anyone hurt, we are out here to get in better shape after all!

Although they say not to make the workout too hard I don’t believe that. Everyone will work at their own pace and make sure they know that’s ok! Modify as needed is not just something we say it’s also true

The 201 school did some bear crawls, then partner hand slap merkins.

Ran around the circle and did hand clap sit ups

Ran around the circle and did hand slap burpees

Ran around the circle and did hand slap squats

Finished with 15 Burpees then mosied to COP where Dark Helmet had us do an additional 10 Burpees

Not too hard of a workout but we did stay warm and learned at least a couple of things!

Not sure what Dark Helmet talked about during his schooling but I am certain the PAX learned at least one thing from him today……

TClap |
5

Children’s Attention Home / Guidance New F3 Exercise Station – Thank You

1 Comment

All Area PAX:

On Saturday Sept 30 a small group of F3 PAX set out that morning, a short time after the Convergence celebrating The Fort’s 5th Anniversary, to permanently change the landscape at the Children’s Attention Home / Guidance. The fruition of all the burpees and subsequent pledges from the 2017 CAH Burpee Challenge spearheaded by Chicken Wing would culminate in the installation of some permanent outdoor exercise equipment that day. This small group of men would be representing many from F3 Nation’s local regions – The Fort, Rock Hill, York, and Indian Land, among others – who participated in the challenge. Those who participated believed that there was a meaning, a purpose, a goal that is greater than themselves. The exercise equipment will be a permanent physical example to those at CAH Guidance, and others as well, of what F3 is all about. Not only of the importance of the 1st F, but power behind the 2nd and 3rd F’s as well – when you invigorate the leader within, and you have Faith, the possibilities are limitless.

After several hours of hard work, with help from the young leader residents at CAH Guidance, as well as a lot of GREAT 2nd F, the work was finally complete! It was not easy work at all, but by now we all know to choose to do the harder thing and get after it, which the team did with no complaints. We all pushed, pulled, and motivated each other to completion, a true Shield Lock effort. By no means was it a ‘professional’ installation, but the heart put into the work cannot be denied. It was obviously a labor of Love.

The equipment is quite rugged, well designed, well built, and installed in a manner to where it will last quite some time. T-Claps to Chicken Wing on the design, Iron Horse for his incredibly well done job fabricating the bars, and to all of those who participated in the installation efforts led by Chicken Wing and Iron Horse. It was a GREAT team effort.

Before we even left, it was making an impact:
* Richard, who is the Supervisor of Grounds / Equipment Maintenance there at CAH, was nearly in tears and overwhelming in thanks at the effort put forth and how the equipment will help the kids there
* Many of the staff where quite speechless and thankful when they came out to see the finished work
* The youth were already hanging all over the equipment (who needs the concrete to set??), laughing and having a good time

And the impact will be a lasting one. Attached is a letter sent by the Volunteer Programs Coordinator at CAH, Sharada Abraham:

“”Good Morning Gentlemen,

I hope you all are well! I wanted to thank you all for the phenomenal job that was done on last weekend with the installation of the Pull Up & Dip Station. It looks great (pics are attached) and everyone is asking about it from the children, staff, and even our volunteers. I had the pleasure of giving a tour yesterday to one of our community partners and they were in awe.
Thank you all so much for your continued support of the Home. The pull up and dip station is a great addition to our Campus and I do believe our teens will spend more time getting FIT!
Thanks for all you do and I hope you all have a great weekend!

Sharada Abraham
Volunteer Programs Coordinator

 

On behalf of F3 Nation and CAH, I am incredibly thankful for the efforts put forth by the area PAX to get this done. From the inception of the Burpeee Challenge fundraiser by Chicken Wing, to the PAX participating in the challenge (I still do not like burpees, but I’m better at them now), to the PAX designing, fabricating the equipment, procuring the materials, facilitating the approvals, leading the installation efforts, and finally participating in the installation. It was quite a project, and a good example of what happens when you step outside your comfort zone to lead and make things happen.

Keep up the great efforts F3 Nation! Remember that within each one of you there is a true leader waiting to be unleashed if it has not been already. Believe in yourself,  be the change you want to see in the world, and get out there and make a positive difference in the world. Be the vessel through which He works.

You are all HIMs, and I am honored and privileged to be part of this wonderful thing we all call F3.

Thank you and God Bless
– NASA

TClap |
6

Week 1 of Q School at the Abyss

Leave a comment

This Wednesday started a month long opportunity for the PAX of Lake Wylie the hear more about the important responsibilities of a Q from veteran leaders around the Fort Region.  We’ll have Wednesdays in the month of October dedicated to teaching these valuable lessons.

This Wednesday started with the 1st Nantan of the Fort region, Double D!  It was a real pleasure having him share the history and some knowledge about F3 and important aspects of the Q.

Here’s what we did.

Mosey around the parking lot with some High knees, butt kickers, side shuffles and toy soldiers until we circled up.

I started the warmup  with the reason we count in cadence.  Cadence helps validate your authority to lead.  If you do an exercise that would normally be done in cadence WITHOUT counting  you are giving that authority to lead the group.  We broke down the three parts of counting in cadence.

ANNOUNCE the next exercise

MOVE the men into position

START the movement in cadence

After this instruction we went around the circle and had the men pick and exercise and count it out for the PAX

I handed it over to Double D and he shared more great tidbits about counting in cadence.  He asked the men who has not yet been a Q or only one time.  We had just a few guys that have not done so.  Double D had them come out and lead for an exercise.

Next we moseyed to the hill.

We discussed preparing for your Q.  Idea #1: Keep it simple.  If it takes you too long to explain, you can lose the men. If it’s too complicated to remember, the PAX will do their own thing.

With that in mind, we did 11s

Top of Hill 10 Merkins

Run down do 1 Big Boy Sit-up

Up the hill, reduce merkins by 1

Down the Hill add 1 to sit-ups

Easy to write, hard to do.  After this we moseyed to the circle by the front of the school.

Last words of wisdom for the group.  If you are not going to be with the PAX (you split the group up) make sure you pick exercises everyone knows.  I shared my experience leading just the weekend before at the Convergence.  Of the 20 exercieses I had that day, I picked a few exercises that the men didn’t know. Some of my favorites, the V-Up Twist and Squat Burpees (Thanks Witch Hunt).  Be careful not to make my same mistake.

We then bear crawled around the large circle…painful!

ran back to COT

Announcements

Praises and Prayers

Double D led us out in prayer.  Great to be with all the men and to have him there!

An Honor to Lead,

Royale

 

 

TClap |
5

Poopdeck got TireD

Leave a comment

Great attendance for my VQ, 14 PAX decided to show up and play with some toys.

Quick disclaimer and welcomed one FNG. Discussed about control and the power to influence or direct certain behaviors, especially our kids behaviors while they are growing up.

We started the warm up with a run around the parking lot, circled up and started with the following in cadence:

20 Moroccan Night Clubs

20 Low Slow squats

10 Windmills

10 Merkins

Then we moseyed down to the boat parking lot for a 4 station/corner setup with two big tires in the middle forming an X in between stations. Quick explanation of “benefits” and we split into four groups and one group went to each corner:

  • First  Corner:

10 Sledgehammer swings (choose between 8, 10 or 12 lbs sledgehammer)

15 big boy sit ups

20 American hammers

  • Second Corner:

10 lunges

15 squat jumps

20 monkey humpers

  • Third Corner:

10 Sand Bag Toss (choose between 40 or 60 lbs sandbag)

15 shoulder press

20 side straddle hops

  • Fourth Corner:

10 diamond merkins

15 regular merkins

20 count battle rope wave

After finishing exercises on each corner we bear crawled to the big tires, flip them 3-4 times (choose between 280 or 350 lbs tires) and then duck walked to the next corner; every time we finished a corner we repeated the bear crawl, tire flip and duck walk to move on to the following one.

Rinsed and repeated 3 times each corner for a speedy workout.

With 40 minutes into the workout we moseyed back to COT and finished strong with slow merkins: 5 diamond merkins, 10 regular merkins and 15 wide arm merkins.

Namearama and welcomed FNG “buckshot”

Announcements:

Ragnar Race

Community Cafe Race in Tega Cay

Fast 5 Race

Joe Davis Memorial Run

Prayers and Requests:

Family, kids, ragnar racers

We wrapped it up with a prayer we do with my kids were we thank God for our family, life, health, love, happiness, work and the necessary resources and provisions we receive every day to keep going on with our lives; we also ask that every kid in the world has access to a decent meal every day.

It was a great way to start a super busy day!!

TClap |
5

Poopdeck Block Party

1 Comment

6 pax showed up for my VQ, no FNGs so a brief disclaimer was given, followed by a mosey around the parking lot.

COP:

Moroccan Night Clubs x 20

Imperial Walkers x 15

Windmills x 15

Merkins x 15

Mountain Climbers x 15

Downward dog/honeymooners

Inverted Mountain Climbers x 15 (fan favorite, thanks Jedi)

The Thang:

Before the main event we moseyed to the store front for some side shuffles and squats.  Pax side shuffled to next column squat, 180 turn, squat, rinse repeat to end.

Pax paired up for block BOMBS and blockless BLIMP (Hindenbergs?).  First pax performed exercise while second ran length of parking lot and back, setting the pace, until team reached 50 for each.

B – Blockies/run

O – Overhead press/run

M – Merkins/Cusack with CB instead of run

B – Big boy situps/run

S – Squats/run

B – Burpees (audibled and skipped this one)

L – Lunges/run

I – Imperial walkers/run

M – Monkey humpers/run

P – Plank jacks/run

Got x 20 curls in before we moseyed back for a quick balls to the wall.

COT:

Announcements – Invergence/convergence (YHC conveniently had wedding in Indiana to attend)

Prayers – Careers, wives, 2.0s, soon to be 2.0s, leadership

Thanks Wild Thing for the opportunity and Royale for the tips.

TClap |
1