3rd

It was blessing to post with 13 #HIMs today.  We were sweating like crazy 15 minutes into the workout.  YHC has not seen WWL in months. Stang surprised us by posting at today’s boot camp instead of running the trails.  It was great to see all of the Pax in the gloom.  

The Thang:

Mosey to the curved parking lot on 160 

COP: SSH (30x), IW (20x), WM (15x), Sumo Squats (15x), MC (20x), MCs (15x), LBCs (15x) 

Mosey to the parking lot on top of the hill 

Pain Stations:

Circle up, count by 4, each group goes to a corner

Pyramid Drill: At each station/corner, do Flying Squirrels, Reverse Crunches and Donkey Kicks in increments of 5 until we hit 15 repetitions then countdown to 5 as a group. Jog to each station.

Mosey to the curved parking lot on 160

Partner up. Partner Big Boy Sit Ups (15x for 2 rounds), Partner Ski Jumps (15x), Partner Leg Lifts (15x for 2 rounds), Partner Squats (15x for 2 rounds), Pepper Grinders (15x), Scorpions(15x)

Mosey to COT

Moleskin: 

In order to have significant impact on others you must put others first. Put God first, others second and yourself third. 

We say “I am third” and even wear that saying on our clothing. How do we put ourselves third?

There are daily opportunities to be third, like opening the door for someone. Be there when someone is struggling. Serve the poor. Listen to others perspective and value it.

Peace,

Deacon 

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2019 Q4 PFT at The Coop

Here are the results of the 2019 Q4 PFT

1 Minute of pull ups, sit ups, push ups and a 1 mile run

Results from Today.  No order.  Bold are the top numbers for a sections.

 

Results from this year.  Order is how many PFT’s posted.  Bold are leaders.

 

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Band Camp-Slash CO-Q

Slash on Q:

9 pax showed up on an unseasonably warm, late October morning at Block Party looking for some solid acceleration. After a quick disclaimer it was time to mozy, so mozy we did! Our destination was a bit farther than many probably anticipated, but they survived! We headed to Church of God (COG) just past the police station and apparently I though it was smart to circle up in a four way stop? After some brief confusion my CO-Q quickly spoke up and said :maybe we can use the lovely flat parking lot that’s 13 feet away? So we did and we began to delve into my portion of the workout. After 2 impressive and in perfect form side-straddle-hops we started the routine. I wanted all PAX to have a say in what we did so each man took their turn running up a hill and upon his return he would then call a workout and lead in cadence while the next man took his turn running. We were able to go one full round and then it was BC time! We did a bear crawl over to the staircase where our next HIM took over!

The thang:
Mozy to COG
2 side-straddle-hop

Merkins
flutters
Windmill
Moroccan
Freddie
6 count plank jacks
Monkey humpers
Baby arm circles (forward and reverse)
LBC’s

Band Camp on Q

COP

Front Scales and Back Scales (warrior 3)
https://www.crossfit.com/essentials/front-scales-progression
https://www.yogajournal.com/poses/warrior-iii-pose

Went around the group holding each pose for 20-30 count.
Challenging everyone’s balance

Thang:
2 30lb kettlebells were strategically pre-placed by my co-Q and I prior to the workout

Each PAX performed a kettlebell complex
– burpee over the bells
– two arm bent over row
– kettlebell clean
– squat and press (thurster)
– rinse and repeat

(probably easier to see than read: https://www.instagram.com/p/B2zrBV6FWgu/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet)

While one PAX performed the complex the rest of the PAX went up & down the large staircase, did two merkins, and then returned via the large staircase.

This took a while, and then we moseyed back.

COT

NMM:

The workout today challenged our balance and everyone shared the load. It would have been a TALL order to do all those hill runs individually or all that kettlebell complex for 20min straight. Sometimes when we’re off balance, we need help carrying the load. Along with that, we should also notice when those around of us are off balance and help them carry their load.

An honor to lead and share the Q with a HIM I respect so much.

-Band Camp dismissed.

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Some of Us Got The Good Genes

Finally a break in heat and humidity on this fine morning at Runde Park.  Six men came to be challenged and I believe they left satisfied.

The Thang

Gears for first half.

Lap around the park calling out 3 stations on the route.

Circle up in the lot for a light warm up:

  • SSH
  • Windmills
  • Potato Pickers

Took off around the park loop, hitting three stations.  At each station 5 Burpees OYO, planked for the 6 at station 3.  Repeat with 5 Bomb Jacks OYO.

Hit the baseball field for Four Corners:

  • 5x Around The World Squats
  • 10x Squat Jacks
  • 15x Monkey Humpers

Plank for the 6 at station 4.  Repeat, but double the counts.

Another set of 2 laps around the park loop hitting the three stations with 10 Burpees OYO at each, then 10 Bomb Jacks OYO at each.

Hand off to Mr. Clean

PAX each grab a Cindy from the Suburban and head to everyone’s favorite hill.

PAX commenced with The Beast (6*6*6):

6 stations up the hill, 6 reps per exercise for 6 different exercises with Cindy.

  • Squat to upright row
  • Curls
  • Skull crushers
  • Chest press
  • Shoulder press
  • Lawnmower pulls

Moseyed back to the Lot for COT.

NMM

Confession: It has been forever since I Q’ed a boot camp.  With all the running and travel (and, if I am honest, excuses) it has been too long.

It was good to lead the men this morning through the first half and to push through the second half with them at my side.  It was the highest complement to have both Cable Guy and Fishsticks comment on how tough the workout was.  Also good to clown around with Wegmans while putting in work as his brother Sasquatch was sprinting up the hill with a Cinderblock.  And I couldn’t have asked for a better man than Mr. Clean to share the Q with this morning.

Missed seeing some of the regulars this morning… hopefully a temporal problem.

Announcements and Prayer Requests

  • Suffolk Punch has some sort of special with free (F3) beer.  Talk to Wegmans.
  • Prayers for Wegmans Father in Law and Prostate Cancer
  • Prayers for kids going through GI sickness that appears to be going around
  • Prayers for my leg to heal up after some sort of nerve issue

Honor to Serve

 

 

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QvQ 19.1 – Jiffy vs. Sasquatch

21 PAX showed up to the first round of QvQ 2019. This first round is the classic match up from last year, which was decided by ONE point! That’s right, the reigning champ versus his challenger.

Jiffy versus Sasquatch

Brief history: Sasquatch lost to Jiffy last year by one point. ONE point! It was necessary for the match up to be repeated given the level of intensity at which both of these #HIM operate.

The clock struck 0515 and I directed everyone’s attention to the championship prize. A custom F3 shovel flag curated by YHC.

The intent of this shovel flag is to be much like a championship belt. I hope that it passes hands over the years, and we write the name of each years’ reigning champ on the back of the handle. It shall be brought to CSAUPs as well at any time the champion posts and desires to gloat. See below for a glimpse of the trophy.

0515.

I had five minutes to lead a quick warm up to get the PAX ready for what was to come.
Once we got our Tappy Taps out of the way, it was time to get down to business.

The rule of order is the competitor who is earliest to arrive will get to decide who goes first. Jiffy arrived at about 0435, so he was the clear winner. He chose to receive and go on the offense first.

0520.

Coupon Roulette

We came upon a sinister circle with 20+ cinder blocks, 50/60lb dumbbells, and retaining wall blocks! He had us circle around the coupons and choose one.

With your selected coupon you will complete in cadence called by Jiffy:

Shoulder press x 10
Curls x 10
Squats x 10
4 Count Flutters x 10

Jiffy then rolls three dice. One determines the direction we rotate. Two determine how many coupons in that direction we shift.

Get to your next coupon, repeat. Roll again.

Next coupon, do equal amount of burpees to number of coupons we rotated. Repeat four movements.

Roll again. Next coupon, do equal amount of partner clap push ups to number of coupons rotated. Repeat movements.

We hit round four and I was praying for a miracle, because my arms were already smoked.

0530.

Sasquatch takes the reigns and moves us to the pull up bars for a very creative assembly line of face kicks.

Nine PAX line up at pull up bars. The rest at various nearby stations. Do one pull up, shift one bar to the left. Once you reach the end you then BTTW crawl back to the other side of the pull up bars. Then head out to the street.

The remaining PAX are either doing burpees at either curb on the street nearby or run/nur down and up the hill (AKA Quadzilla!). Once you finish your respective station, move to the next and tap somebody at that station to proceed.

That was super original, and also tclaps to Jedi for doing a full handstand walk with no wall support both times through.

0540.

Jiffy gets his second opportunity to remind us why he is the champ.

We remain at the pull up bars and count off by threes.

Group 1: four rounds of 5 burpees/10 squats and then end with 10 partner clap push ups.

Group 2: four rounds of 5 pull ups/10 Merkins and end with 10 partner clap push ups.

Group 3: run to bottom of hill a dm bearcrawl up. At each cone do 10 Carolina Dry Docks.

We made it through 2.5 stations before running out of time. A great use of the AO. I wondered how Sasquatch was going to answer this painful segment.

0550.

Sasquatch has us count off by fours. He then leads us on a brisk mosey to the turf field. As we approach, we see two sleds at the closest end zone, and two at the far end zone. He sets one group up at each sled and has us complete the following exercises as a group on repeat:

Seal Sit-Ups x 10
Jump Squats x 10

Meanwhile, one PAX from each group pushes the sled 100 yards across the field to the opposite end zone. Once they reach the end, swap with someone in that group and they then push the sled back to your original group. Continue that snake like move until time is called. Woof.

0600 couldn’t come soon enough. Those sled pushes were terrible.

We hit 0600 and head back to COT to vote. The votes were cast, the points were tallied, and a winner was decided upon.

The winner of week one of QvQ is:

Sasquatch

It was close, but this time it was decided by 7 points. Sasquatch was awarded a patch since he will be advancing to the championship on 10/30.

A great showing by both of our competing Q’s. I think I speak for everyone when I say that was one of the more difficult workouts as of late at The Coop. And we’ve had some tough ones!

I’m looking forward to week two. We’ve got the Airborne Bad Assery of Geronimo lined up to take on our very own 1st F Q – Shady!

Announcements

Broga at The Ranch tomorrow! A special recovery focused workout for those running Ragnar this weekend.
QvQ next week: Geronimo vs Shady!

Prayers/Praises

Wegmans’ father in law has prostate cancer. It’s slow moving, but it’s cancer. Pray that it can be eradicated without much detriment to his M’s father.
Pray for the multiple PAX with pregnant M’s. It’s a transitional time but it’s well worth it. Pray we can as husbands love our wives like Christ loves the church while they are going through so many changes.

Thanks for the great beatdown, men.

Punch List out.

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September 11 Memorial Stair Climb

Today I was honored to lead 39 men of the Fort in my version of a 9/11 Stair Climb…. I asked these gentlemen to bring rucks or sandbags and headlamps. This was to simulate the equipment worn by the first responder’s who entered the World Trade Center to do their jobs. We also had Charetta appear courtesy of Dirty Harry…she was our victim that needed to be  carried up and down the NaFo bleachers ….everyman carried their fare share of weight.

The workout was simple!!!!  There was no warmup….we didn’t need one….

The object was to climb the bleachers 27.5 times up and down carrying a ruck or sandbag….the goal 1980 steps or 110 stories….NaFo bleachers are 36 steps up and down…the men of the Fort  conquered this simple request but there was a catch…..when they came back down they had to do 9 inclined merkins and 11 squats… I think most did more than the required amount and for that I’m in awe…. I love being part of this great nation

Before the climb I shared a little about my experience that day 18 years ago as an NYPD officer and I asked each man to reflect between the hours of 8:46 am to 10:28 am these were the hours that changed my life and change the world as we knew it….I also wanted to remember my friends who gave their lives to save as many people as they could that morning :

NYPD PO MARK ELLIS TRANSIT DISTRICT 4

NYPD PO RAMON SUAREZ TRANSIT DISTRICT 4

PAPD PO ANTONIO RODRIGUES PORT AUTHORITY BUS DEPOT

I worked with these gentleman and they will never be forgotten…

Thank you Punchlist for letting me.lead these great men .

We had one FNG Lassie….welcome

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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.
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Q v Q 2019

 

It is with great pleasure that I am able to announce: the second annual installment of Q v Q is coming this October.

It will be modified slightly to increase the number of HIM in competition. Face kicks will abound as we have eight great Q’s lined up to make YOU better.

Scoring Criteria:

Creativity

Best Use of the AO

Level of Face Kick (AKA Difficulty of Beatdown)

Each PAX attending the workout will score each Q based out of maximum score of 5 points per category (15 points max). The winner will be determined based off of the higher total between the two Q’s.

On the last Wednesday of the month, the four Q’s to advance each week will face off in a ‘menage a quatre of pain’ with each taking on one 10 minute session

Schedule

October 2nd – Jiffy vs Sasquatch (this match up was too good not to repeat)

October 9th – Geronimo vs Shady

October 16th – Cha Ching vs Dirty Harry

October 23rd – Harry Caray vs. Youts

October 31st – The four advancing Q’s from each week will have one 10 minute session each to prove their worth as Best Q.

Format 

YHC will lead the PAX in a standard, warmup lasting 5 minutes. The rest of the time will be split into 10 minute blocks and one of the Qs takes the first 10, the second taking the next 10, the 1st Q has to opportunity to respond, and finally the 2nd Q has their opportunity to respond.

The Q that arrives earliest that morning will get to choose if they go first or second.

After the 40 minutes are up, the PAX will quickly vote, we will carry the 1, and determine a winner.

The winner of each week will also have the pleasure of providing a backblast for Funhouse’s appeasement.

Trophy

These Qs will be competing for a prize that will be on display each week during Q v Q at The Coop.

Q’s are subject to change. Any changes will be communicated by YHC.

May the odds be ever in your favor!

Punch List Out.

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Running, Hills, Sand Bags…Complete

No glitz, just guts. (Similar to the writing of this BB.) That’s all we needed today to get some mileage, some drill bits, some hills and a couple of sand bag exercises. Now for the evidence it actually happened this morning at Block Party:

Long mosey to the Massey St hill and back to the upper corner of WEP.

Warm Up exercises consisting of things like Wind Mills, Squats, Merkins and Mountain Climbers

Explanation of the Drill Bit Tour: The path around WEP has these white posts. In our world, we call them Drill Bits and at each of of these Drill Bits, you’ll perform the following exercises:

20 American Hammers (20 ea side)

10 Lunges (10 ea side)

20 Dips

We then made our way to the base of the big grass hill for an explanation of the first sand bag exercise:

With your partner, you will suitcase carry either the 80lb or 60lb sand bag up to the top of the hill and back down. While the partner teams are waiting for their turn on the bag, the PAX did:

10 Burpees, 20 Jump Squats, 30 4-ct Flutters

The next sand bag exercise was for you and your partner to bear crawl-drag the bag out to a tree about 20yds away. Meanwhile, the PAX did the following:

10 Flying Squirrels, 10 Peter Parkers, 10 Parker Peters

Then, as a group, we NUR’d up the hill and Jogged down the hill for 4mins.

COT.

Maximus

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A whole lot of stuff

11 pax joined in on this muggy morning. Dew point was almost the same as the temperature, which meant we were in for a sweat bath. I got there a bit early to scope out the AO. Harry Carry went off for a solo pre-run (he’s nuts). Then it was 0515, disclaimer was given, pax was reminded of mission/purpose of F3, and we were off towards the back of Nation Ford.

Warmup: SSH, LSS, Windmill, IW, Neck Rolls

Thang 1: Moseyed to front of NaFo and partnered up. We met up with Sasquatch. He was 90 seconds late, but was able to spot us in the dark. P1 grabbed a lifting rock and we walked to the front parking lot. P1 did an exercise with the rock (curls, SQTS, overhead press, tricep ext, bent row) while P2 ran/bear crawled/NUR, side shuffle/ran to the end to complete an exercise (CDD, jump SQT, flutter, merkin, LBC) and then came back to flap jack. A lot of grumbling with the bear crawl from pax, which I expected. But holy cow Sasquatch was like a freaking horse trotting up the parking lot doing his bear crawl.

Enough of this nonsense, rocks were put back where we found them. We got in a single file line for a fellowship paced Native American run to the pull up bars. One catch, the six had to complete a burpee before jogging to the front. Everyone loved that, NOT!

Thang 2: At the pull-up bars, with same partners, P1 did 5 pull-ups and amwrap knee ups while P2 completed 25 SQTS. 3 rounds. Not as easy as I thought it’d be.

Mosey back home for some Mary, which included the Pickle Pounder. Note to self, don’t do PP at this NaFo. Ended with Have a Nice Day, where we star gazed or meditated for 30 seconds on how we can impact someone’s life today.

I don’t get out to F3 on Weds, since the M posts at FIA. I encourage her to go as much as possible, and I feel as though she has benefited as much as I have from F3. Today’s workout was focused on a whole lot of stuff. I have ADHD, I get bored easily, and I don’t have very good memory. So I wanted to challenge myself, to try and lead a workout with multiple exercises to keep us stimulated. Also, a lot of the exercises were not cadence led or partner reliant. It was you versus you, modifying as needed to make it more or less challenging. Everyone did a great job!

Announcements: Invergence, Convergence, Q School in September. Check the weekly newsletter

Lots of prayer requests. Praying for you all.

Thank you for the opportunity to lead!

 

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