Accelerating via pyramids

7 #HIM braved the rain (which subsided nicely around 0515) and joined YHC at Laces In for a little of this and a little of that – partner work was done and many burpees were a part of the weinke.  Here’s what we did:

COT – Mosey to the top of the Hill at the 21 entrance to the High School.  From there, we circled up to do Low slow squats, holding to a people’s chair and doing Moroccan Night Clubs and Air Presses in cadence while in the people’s chair.  A few burpees were done in between some of the exercises which included Imperial walkers, hillbilly walkers and merkins – all in cadence and double count.  After getting warmed up, we moseyed back to the band lot for the main event – partner pyramid work.  During our trip, we passed Stang, Da Vinci and Cornerstone in the midst of their ruck.

None of the PAX present posted at golden corral for YHC’s Tuesday Q – therefore, the pyramid was new to all present.  We combined DORA, pearls on a string and pyramid work.  Partner 1 started at the 10 yard line doing 10 burpees while partner 2 ran to the opposite goal line and back.   When Partner 2 returned, partners switched off and partner 2 picked up where partner 1 left off.  Here was that pyramid:

10 yard line – 10 burpees

20 yard line – 10 burpees, 20 squats

30 yard line – 10 burpees, 20 squats, 30 merkins

40 yard line – 10 burpees, 20 squats, 30 merkins, 40 flutters

50 yard line – 10 burpees, 20 squats, 30 merkins, 40 flutters, 50 jump squats

40 yard line – 40 flutters, 30 merkins, 20 squats, 10 burpees

30 yard line – 30 merkins, 20 squats, 10 burpees

20 yard line – 20 squats, 10 burpees

10 yard line – all PAX did 10 burpees OYO but together to finish out the set

a 10 count was called and we moseyed to the benches near the gym entrance for:

10 dips double count in cadence

10 flutters double count in candence

Mosey to the base of the hill near the stadium for interval work.

PAX did 2 rounds for 90 seconds per round – A round consisted of 45 seconds of burpees and 45 seconds of lunge walks up the slope.

Mosey back to COT – for geometry class – ab work via the protractor – PAX held at varying degrees for 15-20 seconds.  2.3 miles  and 45 minutes later, 0600 was upon us.

Announcements:

Classroom Ready fundraiser – try to get to 750 notebooks by 6-30.  Message Bonsai for details.

Alcatraz and The Fort are converging at WEP on July 4 and The Fort Convergence will be at WEP on July 11 as well.  Alcatraz will be closed that day.

Read your newsletter.

Prayers were offered up for all suffering from sickness and for families.

NMM:  Remain steadfast in your beliefs and be the example your concentrica needs.  Leadership matters – and we are all called to fulfill that mission.

Thanks to Slap Shot for the opportunity to Q.

Honored to lead,

Cyclops

 

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Naturally Modifying Weinke at Slow Burn

11 PAX endured the experimentation of a naturally modifying workout.  My name.  Nothing official.  Goal was to allow those PAX that wanted to push themselves without holding them back or making the 6 feel like they had to overdo it to keep up.  More to come.

Warmup

Short Mosey

SSH, Moroccan Nightclubs, Cherry Pickers, Arm stretches, Windmills, Leg stretches, Plank, Downdog and stretch calves, Honeymooner

The work – Q picked a target.  All PAX would run for it.  First on there turns around and pickups all other PAX as he runs back to the 6. Once the groups reaches the 6, Q calls out an exercise.  Rinse and Repeat until COT.

Merkin

LBC

Derkin

Flutter

Inerkin

Freddie Mercury

Low Slow Squat

Rosalitas

Maq Tarsa

Hello Dolly

Dips

Burpees

3 min of Mary at the flag

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Snake Pit – Back and Open for Business

A few weeks ago, YHC was asked to Q at the Snake Pit.  The timing of dates was ironic given that  YHC was lucky enough to have the Q spot at the launch last October.   So the re-opening was set and PAX showed to support an accelerating site.

YHC chalked out the weinke the day before but mother nature washed it out overnight.  Thankfully an early arrival allowed time to re-chalk the “fun” PAX would have early that morning.

16 #HIM arrived ready to go with copious amounts of mumble chatter – something YHC sorely missed.  It was great to be back out in the gloom and at familiar sites.   After disclaimers were given, confirmation took place that no FNG’s were present (there were not) and the 5 core principles of F3 workouts were announced, off we moseyed without the bells.  Here’s what followed:

Mosey down the hill to the bus loop.  Upon arrival PAX began to circle until a JWOW sighting took place.  Fashionably late, he picked up the pace to join us and was met half way back up the hill.  We circled (or ovaled) up for the following IC:

Imperial Walkers x 15, 6 burpees OYO, Hillbilly Walkers X 15, 5 burpees OYO, Low slow squats x 12 with a hold to the people’s chair on the 12th rep.  While in the people’s chair, PAX completed the following IC:  10 Moroccan Night clubs, 10  shoulder taps, 10 air presses.  Legs were good and warm for what was to follow.  We moseyed back up the hill to our kettle bells and saunterd off to the base of the parking lot hill for a Partner Pyramid.  The pyramid was launched on the football field at the launch of the Snake Pit.  It seemed appropriate to bring it back out for the re-launch.  So we did.

Main Event:  Everyone was able to partner up evenly and began working up the pyramid then back down.  Exercises were 10, 10-20, 10-20-30, 10-20-30-40, 10-20-30-40-50, 50-40-30-20-10, 40-30-20-10, 30-20-10, 20-10, 10.  10 – goblet squats, 20 – hammer curls, 30 – tricep extensions, 40 – American hammers with the bell, 50 – kettle bell swings.  Partners alternated between working the pyramid and doing a 100 (ish) yard shuttle run to the top of the hill into the fire lane where work awaited arriving PAX before returning down the hill.  Partner 1 ran to the fire lane at the top of hill and did 10 burpees on trip one before coming back down to pick up where partner 2 left off on the pyramid, trip 2 was run, 10 hand release merkins, return. Trip 3 was run, 10 squats, return. Trip 4 was run, 10 diamond merkins, return.  Back to run, 10 burpees, return for trip 5 and so on.

PAX finished up the pyramid by moving to Al Gore as the 6 came in.  From there, we moseyed with the bells at 0557 to COT.  Time for an ab exercise or two until 0600 was upon us.

Flutters with the press x 15 plus a 30 second body destroyer to soak in the humidity was all time would allow.

Announcements were made for the 7-11 convergence as well as the discussion on race relations being held this Saturday, 6-13 at the Amphitheatre in Kingsley.  Prayers and praises were offered up for Polaroid’s daughter, for Cash, for YHC’s Dad and for 3D’s M.

NMM – Proximity matters.  If there’s one thing YHC has missed (and I suspect others have as well) during this pandemic, it’s the ability to look another PAX in the eye and to push one another to improvements we would likely never attain on our own.  Get proximate.  Engage with a shield lock and the accountability drives you to a much better place than without it.  Thank you, brothers.  And to 3D for the opportunity to Q again and re-launch the Snake Pit.

It was a honor to post with all of you.

Until next time:

Cyclops

 

 

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Negative Splits

23 was the number to launch The Fort’s newest AO: Sweep The Leg.  The goal of any AO should be acceleration of overall fitness of the Pax, and I believe we delivered this morning.

The workout was simple.  3 miles, half mile segments with pain stations.  The goal was negative splits with 3 minute pain stations between segments.  Something like the following:

  • .5 miles at 8:15 pace, 3 min pain station
  • .5 miles at 8:00 pace, 3 min pain station
  • .5 miles at 7:45 pace, 3 min pain station
  • .5 miles at 7:30 pace, 3 min pain station
  • .5 miles at 7:15 pace, 3 min pain station
  • .5 miles at 7:00 pace, 3 min pain station

Pain stations included crowd favorites such as:

  • Burpees
  • Bombjacks
  • Squats
  • Hillybilly Squats
  • Flutter
  • Freddy Mercury’s
  • Merkins
  • Mountain Climbers
  • Peter Parker
  • Parker Peter
  • Monkey Humpers

The leaders of the pack did the full pain station, those bringing up the six may or may not get to do the exercises at the pain station, but it kept the pax mostly together and pushed guys to keep up since the overall pace continued to speed up.

Hit this link for the route and some deets.

The #Kings this week were Pointer, Maximus, and Shady, who will be added to the Q list for an upcoming workout.

Ready your newsletter and pray for our country and the unrest going on right now due to racial injustice.

Honor to Serve.

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Dropkicked at The Rock

BAOPS. It’s an acronym  that Trucker has been pushing, almost devoting himself to, with regard to the AO, Alcatraz, he now oversees. If you’ve been living under a rock for the last several weeks, let me enlighten you on Tega Cay’s own “Rock.”

Rather than being on its own island, our version of Alcatraz is almost at the end of a peninsula. Rather than water with treacherous currents, our version has streets with treacherous hills.
Just as you have to plan some extra time to get to THAT Alcatraz, you also have to plan some extra drive time to get to our version of Alcatraz…it’s way down TC Drive.

When Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary was in operation, it housed the hardest, most notorious criminals of its day. In Trucker’s verbiage, BAOPS stands for the “Baddest Area of Operations (AO) for Pain on Saturday.” Consistent with the last several weeks, some of the most hard-charging PAX from The Fort & Rock Hill (The Rock-how fitting) posted at Alcatraz this morning. Some even thought they rolled up on a convergence when they drove in with all the cars.

21 PAX (welcome Suplex) joined Router & YHC for a total of 23 to embark on a twist of a workout this morning. It’s been a minute since we’ve had Router post with us but consistent with our memory, he was prepared to bring it. After we were disclaimed and he shared with us his plan to put us through some conditioning (as part of the strength & conditioning workout), we took off for a warm-up mosey, ultimately leading us to the top of “the hill” on the back side of the park. This time however, we’d be going the other direction.
So here’s the deal, we’re running segments, of which there are 3. Segment 1, you’re running to your “pukey” limit. You know what that is; the place you get to where you’re about to splash. Yeah, get in that zone. Run it to the stop sign just past the Firehouse and do a recovery run back to the start. Then pukey-limit run to the stop sign and run to what amounts to the trail entrance just past the COT parking lot and recovery run the remaining trek back to the start. Now, pukey run that whole thing. Oh no, then….do a few more of those segments again but honestly, this is where the wheels started to come off as the PAX spread out and nobody was exactly sure what to do next . So, some ran more, some did some mary and some picked up the six. Yup, just as planned.
Then…oh dear Lord, this is where we take it to the next phase and you think your heart is going to pop out of your eye socket. Router takes us to the bottom of the hill, yes that hill. He explains his plan for 30/60/90. Fortunately, we never made it to 90 but nevertheless, when he says GO, we’re to take off up the hill, running for 30 seconds until he says stop. Yeah, that was tough but he made us go back down the hill to do the 60. Run up the hill and keep running for 60 seconds. Now that was B-RUTAL. Fortunately it was now 0701 and it was time to hand off to Maximus for the strength portion of the strength & conditioning.

With Max on Q, we would slow mosey (oh, thank you) back to the parking lot, pull a Switzer at one end and drop to a plank (ala Honey Badger). Next up, a nod to a USMC Serviceman named Cpl Albert (Bert) Gettings, 27, of New Castle, PA. Yup, we’re doing a modified BERT. If you’ve never done the real Bert, go give it a run and recap it to me afterward. Cpl. Albert Gettings was killed in action Jan 5, 2009 while conducting counter-sniper operations in Fallujah, Iraq. He was serving as a team leader with the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force out of Camp Lejeune, NC.

HERE WE GO!!!
25 Burpees
50m Bear Crawl to the other end of the parking lot
50 Hand-Release Merkins
50m Bear Crawl
80 Walking lunges
Bear Crawl back
50 Squats
50m Bear Crawl
80 Carolina Dry Docks
50m Bear Crawl
Mary til the six is in

In closing, please do yourself a favor, push yourself to do something more challenging than what you thought you were capable of. Not just in the 1st F although that is a great start, but in the 2nd & 3rd, too. This world needs it now and frankly, you’ve been built and called for this. Do not be a wallflower.

Announcements: Gears starting a new hard-hitting AO this Monday, 6/1. Classroom Ready partnership oppty coming soon from Bonsai, Q-Source is for everyone, AO’s opening back up week of 6/8, big ‘ol convergence 7/11 and several other announcements.

Prayer Request: PAX going through job/life transitions. Our country always but especially now with community tensions. Health of family/friends.

SYITG
Router & Maximus

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A Whole Lot of Burpees

With Laces In being temporarily relocated to Empire Pizza lot (the home of the slowest of all burns), I decided to take advantage of the nice, evenly spaced parking lot lines today for this week’s edition of the work out by pulling some deep cuts from The Exicon.  11 stallions answered the call.  Some were sorry during, but none were sorry after.

The Thang

Immediate mosey to lot in front of Lowe’s.

Warm up by “Bone the Fish”:

  • Side Shuffle up one parking lot line, run forward to next, Side Shuffle the other direction x 4
  • Karaoke back and forth x4
  • Repeat till the end of the lot and turn around to do it all the way back

Transition to Bearpees – Jack Webb style Burpee (1) x Bear Crawl (4).   Made it to 8 for 36 Burpees per Pax, Mosey back to start line

Transition to Escalator.  One exercise with prescribed count (IC), run the full lot and back

  • 10 Box Jumps
  • 20 Burpees
  • 30 Merkins
  • 40 Low Slow Squats
  • 50 Lunges

Switch to Apple Turnover – Bear Crawl from one line of parking spots to another, flip to Crab Walk from that line to the next.  Flip and repeat till the end of the lot.

Run back to the start with 3 Bomb Jacks at each line

Finish Lot work with Paula Abdul for the length of the lot (40 more Burpees):

  • Run forward 2 Parking Lines
  • Nur back 1 Parking Lot Line
  • 5 Burpees

Mosey to parking area beside Persis to close with 7’s

  • Mike Tyson
  • Bear Crawl forward
  • Squat
  • Crab Walk back

Mosey to Shovel Flag for some COP, but first… 5 Burpees OYO

Prayers for Anxiety in different fronts (Cancer screenings, Kids, Job status, etc).  Prayers for Badger’s family, 2 years since his death.

Announcements:

  • Read your newsletter
  • New AO opening by YHC at Earthfare June 1, read the pre-blast.

Honor to Serve.

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Kettle Bells & Stuff at the Snake Pit (sort of)

I know it has been  said by many but man, it feels good to be in the gloom with the guys again. Once I got my logistics figured out and blew the dust off the ol’ rusty kettle bell, Fire Marshal Bill & I made our way to the relocated Snake Pit AO. Hopefully, all these temporary relocations will be behind us soon.
17 others joined us for a total of 19 socially-distant PAX in the gloom this morning. We had one of the original Redwoods (Santini), one of the youngest guys in the PAX (Lil’ John), our resident story teller (Spitz) and a whole bunch of other faces I like seeing in the gloom.
Once 3D finished his struggle-fest with planting the Shovel-Flag into the ground and I did an oh-so-brief disclaimer, we took off for our warm-up mosey. A few minutes later, we returned to our Kettle Bell and began the instructional portion of the workout, more of the modified high-intensity variety.

2min of Burpees
5min Kettle Bell with 20ea: Curls, Low Rows, Upright Rows (repeat until 5mins is over)
5min Run at a “go get-it” pace: 1/2mi route is out to light at Banks St and back. So interesting why my first 200 yards of this run was brisk yet the rest wasn’t so.
5min Kettle Bell with 20ea: Overhead Press, Chest Press, Tricep Extensions (repeat until 5mins is over)
2min of Burpees
5min Run at a “go get it” pace to Banks St and back.
5min Kettle Bell with 10ea: 4ct Flutters with the press or the KB in the air, V-Ups, Big Boy Sit Ups (repeat until 5mins is over)
2min of Burpees
4min Kettle Bell with 2 forward lunges, 2 reverse lunges, 1 left lunge, 1 right lunge, 1 deep squat (repeat until 4mins is over)

And just like that, we were already standing at COT, how convenient.
Announcements: Guys are clearly looking to slowly start posting again so please pay attention to Slack (and possibly Twitter) or text/call another PAX to find out where the AO’s are now if they used to be at a school or park. Those grounds are still off limits but hopefully not for much longer.

Prayers/Praises: Mental health right now (and always), health for a spouse. PAX on the road to recovery and joining us back in the gloom, for a friend battling illness and getting the care he needs, MARRIAGES, physical health of other PAX, , upcoming moves, kids taking big tests, small businesses during this time and many more.

Until next time,
Maximus

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World Domination Complete – The Hive comes to Saturdays at a socially distant location near you…

Well it was bound to happen and eventually it did, The Hive crossed over the last day of the week not yet occupied by The Hive…  Spitz led the first half and Tesh closed strong on an absolutely beautiful day in The Fort.  We are blessed to be in this great town and I am blessed to have the brothers of F3 here in Fort Mill coming out and supporting this AO.  We will soon be back to the new form of normal and I will definitely be ready to stop using Worship Planner…

IMG_0839

 

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Rebel Base Armory – May the Fourth Be With You – Final Monday Hive…

It was a pretty amazing month of April, but I was so ready to have JWOW back running The Armory.  Most favored spot at the corner was reserved for the proper shovel flag, but I was proud to fly The Hive’s flag on Mondays.

The Hive – May the Fourth

The Weinke is attached.  It was brutal.  Much harder than I thought it would be…

Thank you JWOW for allowing The Hive to occupy your spot for the month of April our year of COVID 2020…

 

IMG_0822

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Armory 5.11.2020

YHC was excited to lead on a cool, crisp morning. Was given the pass by the M to post after an 0200 feeding, so needless to say sleep was not an abundant resource leading up to this. 

Many familiar faces were seen prior to start – notables being Wegmans, Repeat, and Sugar Daddy (who brought an FNG!). Though chilly, the gloom was warm and fuzzy at the start of this beat down.

0515 struck. Disclaimer. Go time. 

Mosey out to far end of lot, drop bells on one end of the lot
Grab every other parking spot

COP
5 Burpees OYO
11xSSH
Mosey to next row of spots
11xLow Slow Squat
Mosey to next row
11xTappy Taps
Mosey to next row 
11xMerkins
Mosey to next row 
11xMoroccan Night Clubs
Mosey back to Bells
5 Burpees OYO

WEINKE
Five Rows of Spots
11 Reps Each Stop

Method of Travel
Lunge walk to each row

Row 1
Halos
Kid Launch

Row 2
One Legged RDL both sides

Row 3
Tricep Extensions
Curls

Row 4
Goblet Squats
Cossack Squats

Row 5
Burpee Snatch

OH carry back to start, Rinse & Repeat

We completed two rounds and headed back to COT for some Mary

Mary
Kettlebell Core Work
American Hammers x 20
In & Outs x 10
Flutters w/press x 20
Hello Dolly w/extended hold x 10
Six Inch Hold w/Bell x 1 min
Low Plank Hold x 1 min
WWI Sit Ups x 10

Rounded out with 8 burpees per PAX to reach 40/ea. 

NMM

While holding our low plank YHC talked about anxiety and hurry and how we as men aren’t made to have larger to do lists than we can handle. We aren’t made to be busier than life itself – even though it is touted as a sign of success in today’s hustle world. YHC mentioned Gods peace and how we should each take a moment today to let ourselves feel Gods presence and shut everything else off. A few verses were discussed. The second was spoken to the group but the first is also tantamount to the message.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
‭‭John‬ ‭14:27‬ ‭

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 4:6-7

Prayers/Praises

Baby Wegmans is 2 months! Pray Wegs & M can keep him alive further.

YHC’s 2.3 is putting on weight and feeding better this week due to lactation strategy and bottle feedings.

UHAUL is going to satisfy all of his M’s desires via Honey Do List (#HIM) this week. 

Announcements

Alcatraz is BACK! Follow up on Slack for more details.

 

Thanks JWOWW for the tap to lead. Excited to get back into the swing of things and see more of my brothers in the gloom. Welcome FNG Scalp!

Punch List out. 

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