A strong showing of 20 men posted this morning. Here’s what we did:
No FNGs but disclaimer given in Wells Fargo lot.
Warmup: 15 merkins, 15 squats, 15 plank jacks all IC. (Frehley’s was very indignant that we went with old school squats and not the modern, low, slow variety. Suck it up buttercup.)
Mosey down to Lochness and grab some wall. Staying together for exercises: 10 derkins IC, 10 jump ups, 10 dips (IC). Hard lap. Plank to wait for the six and 10 hip slappers IC. Then 10 burpee jump ups, 10 incline merkins IC, 10 dips IC. Hard lap. Six inches to wait for the six.
Mosey out of there and out to the parking lot behind Bagpipe Hill. Get in groups of 3. P1 and P2 stand ~25 yards apart. P1 does jump squats, P2 merkins. P3 bear crawls in between to start the relay. Each guy goes down and back twice.
Circle for Mary. Go around the circle for PAX choice. 7 sets total.
Mosey back to Lochness to finish the workout with a 12 minute AMRAP. Run the loop and do: 15 diamond merkins on one patio, 15 wide arm merkins next patio, 10 pull-ups on exercise trail, repeat.
Announcements: Q101 school this Saturday. 6 a.m. at Panera – one hour workout + hour of discussion. Timekeeper finishes book this week and moves to a conversational format for the summer. F3 Dads Saturdays at 9 a.m. Look for the white tent at Brixham Green. Check out Slack for upcoming announcements on Fix it For Christ and The Sandbox.
6 men decided to shake off the weekend with a workout at the Big House. As always, felt better when it was over!
The Thang: informal disclaimer and mosey down to the parking lot.
Warmup – 15 IW, 15 seal merkins, 15 squats, 15 aquamans, 15 MCs (all IC).
Mosey to the back of the AO and grab some mini-wall. After each set, run ~50 yards and back. Sets 1 & 2 = 5 burpee jump ups. Set 3 = derkins. Do sets of 10 with a ten count in between until time is called. 6-7 sets done.
Run halfway around the track and stop for a ladder set of seal merkins/aquamans: 10,9,8,7… 1. Finish out the lap and stop at the picnic tables for split squats. 5 each leg, 5 count, repeat for ~4 minutes.
Grab a rock and line up. Each exercise = 5, 10, 15, 20 with n increasingly longer sprint after each set. Exercises were overhead presses, curls, and tricep extensions. Mary in between each. Finish out with lunges across the lot, break at each planter for Mary.
Mosey back to launch and do 20 merkins and hold six inches to close out.
Announcements: Journeyman.
Moleskin: Pretty straightforward workout to start the week. Great group and I really enjoyed leading. Thanks men.
I was originally supposed to Q The Brave like 2 months ago. After the meanest calf injury of my life and asking Tuck and Thin Mint to push me back multiple times when it didn’t heal, I finally got it together and got it done. Really appreciate everyone’s patience and it was great to be back. Of course, after falling badly out of shape, I was scared to death to Q this workout. So disclaimer nervously given and here we go:
Mosey across the street to parking deck. Warm up with: 10 windmills, 10 low slow squats, 10 seal merkins, 10 Aquamans, 20 “2nd bases.” (if these last three are new to you, check out my instructional video YouTube. yeah right.)
Run the deck twice. At the top of ramp 1, do 20 seal merkins, ramp 2 20 Aquamans, ramp 3 50 2nd Bases. These exercises done together are good for core strength and shoulder mobility.
Long mosey all the way to the exercise trail. Couple of stops for LBCs, peoples’ chair on the bridge, and we slalomed the trees on one of the hills. Nice job by the PAX of staying together on a pretty long hike.
Pullup challenge: On the exercise trail, use both sets of bars and run from one to the other in between sets. Total of 3 laps/6 sets see how many you can get. If memory serves me, Rachel took it home with 43. Several PAX in the high 30s.
Mary until everyone is done. Then finish the workout with 20 CDDs, run Bagpipe Hill, 15 CDDs, run down, 10 CDDs, run up, 5 CDDs. Then run back to the launch. It was a tight squeeze to fet back by 6:15!
Moleskin: Total of 5.2 miles. Very little complaining. Pop Tart was a beast. He told me to write that though. Peace.
Announcements: Pool Party next Friday!!!!!!!! Cost is $40, bring the whole family and get pizza and beer. Great way to support The Sandbox and have some 2nd F. Here’s the link to paypal the $: http://paypal.me/f3sob.
4 PAX today for the kettlebell madness that is Foxhole. Really?!?!?… 4?!?!? I announce no running the night before and that’s it! Alright, fine. Here it is:
The Thang: take bells up to the school and warm up. 10 windmills, 15 IW, 15 plank jacks 10 merkins all IC.
Mosey to the playground. Superset pull-ups by doing one set of max pull-ups, then same # of reps “jump pull-ups.” 3 sets. In between each set: 15 one-arm swings each arm.
Mosey back to the school. Super set merkins by doing your one set max of KB merkins (two hands on bell) then trying to get same number of rep regular merkins. 3 sets. In between each set: 10 high pulls each arm.
Pair up. 2 PAX super set one-arm rows with 10 reps at heavy bell, 10 reps of 10 lbs lighter bell. Other 2 PAX do heels to heaven and LBCs in Jack Webb cadence. Flapjack. 3 sets each. In between each set: 10 snatches each arm.
Finish up with combos of curls/burpee-swings (these are hard), curls 2 hand swings (little better), and tricep extensions/dips (these are easy). Various Mary in between.
Announcements: No time. YHC had to bolt.
Thanks Wild Turkey for the takeout. Thanks to each man for great effort and 2nd F.
This past Saturday 8 F3 men and 9 of their 2.0s did a project at the Commodore family house in Indian Land. The family was introduced to us through the Sandbox, who helps families in need of practical, social, and emotional support when their children are suffering from long-term serious illnesses.
For more on the Commodores and their daughter Elsie, click here: https://www.facebook.com/pray4elsie/
Because Elsie’s condition can only be treated at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the Commodores split their time between Philadelphia and here, usually with one parent in each location. They have been keeping this up for 11 months now. Elsie continues to improve and the family is hopeful and grateful… but also emotionally and often physically exhausted from their experience. They could use some support and that is where we come in.
The Thang:
Meet at the house at 9 a.m. Mulch was delivered and PAX brought other supplies to: spread the mulch, kill weeds, help re-seed the grass in the front yard, and trim up some of the landscaping. It was awesome to see everybody dive in and with the manpower we had, we knocked the whole thing out in 2 hours. This included mulching the next door neighbor’s yard because YHC ridiculously over-ordered on mulch!
Moleskin:
Toward the end of our project, we were blessed to meet Adana Commodore, Elsie’s Mom. She talked with us and thanked us a lot. Then she began to share some pictures of Elsie and a lot of detail on her condition. We circled up and Moneyball led us in prayer, which was awesome. I’m not the best person to capture the whole experience with words… let’s just say it was an emotional and powerful experience that we as men were blessed to have that day.
Another way in which I personally was inspired Saturday was as a father. Watching the PAX lead their 2.0s in this effort was special and from the attitudes of the kids and their approach to the whole thing, it’s clear to me that my fellow PAX are some good dads.
The feedback I have received since Saturday morning has been exceptional. Apparently Adana had texted with the Sandbox a lot on Saturday from inside while we were working. From The Sandbox: “… such gratitude and excitement for their new F3 friends… Grateful beyond words.” I also got a text from Travis, Elsie’s dad, not only with gratitude but his prayers for us as a group and as men and families.
We have all been blessed tremendously by this family who has let us into their lives. We are also blessed as men to be part of this F3 Nation. The things we can achieve together with the system we have in place are remarkable. My sincere thanks to the men who came out!
My sincere apologies for the delayed BackBlast. Without further ado…
Disclaimer given to the 8 familiar faces and mosey across the way to warm up:
20 SSH, 10 IW, 20 mountain climbers, 15 low slow squats, 15 merkins (all IC).
Mosey to the long hill behind the shopping center and go halfway up, stopping at a rockpile. Triple Nickel with squat thrusters at the top (w/ rock), hand release burpees at the bottom. ~75 yard run up the hill. Mary until the 6 get in.
Mosey up to the playground and partner up. 3 sets of P1 max pull-ups while P2 does jump ups, flapjack when P1 done.
Mosey back down and stop at each rockpile for: bicep curls (“21” style), 15 overhead presses, 20 merkins.
Regroup in parking lot for a ladder of exercises. Everything done together with 10 counts as needed:
5 broad jumps, 5 merkins.
5 broad jumps, 5 merkins, 10 lunges, 10 merkins.
5 broad jumps, 5 merkins, 10 lunges, 10 merkins, 15 jump squats, 15 merkins.
15 merkins, 15 jump squats, 10 merkins, 10 lunges, 5 merkins, 5 broad jumps.
10 merkins, 10 lunges, 5 merkins, 5 broad jumps.
5 merkins, 5 broad jumps.
Mosey back and time called.
Announcements: Contact Strawberry if interested in Church on the Street. This group continues to be very successful serving those in need and providing F3 men a great opportunity to serve. M and 2.0 friendly for ages ~8 and up.
14 PAX bundled up and made it happen at Dromedary this morning. 1 decided to go all in and provide the inspiration: congrats to Recalculating for completing the workout in shorts and short sleeves. Seriously , respect.
The Thang:
The warmup took the form of a group run with stops for exercises. We went around both schools before stopping at the middle school picnic tables. Exercises were: 15 low slow squats, 15 IWs, 25 SSHs, 10 merkins + 10 8 count burpees, bear crawl across basketball court, 10 peter parkers, 20 LBCs. All IC.
3 sets of 15 dips, 10 squats, and 20 no hands flutters, all IC.
Mosey around the middle school and across the fields to the large retaining hill. (Rarely used at DD because of its hidden in the dark nature) Line up across the bottom, perform the called exercise, then sprint the hill. Set one = 1 time up, set 2 = 2 times up, set 3 = 3 times up. Exercises for all three sets were 10 Haggis-style merkins (knuckles) and 15 real deal sit-ups.
Mosey back to parking lot and partner up. Wheelbarrows for ~25 yards each. Then P1 runs the 25 yards while partner 2 does CDDs until you hit 100 combined. Mosey around high school and stop for peoples chair + 10 donkey kicks X2. Then back to launch, few planks, doneski.
Key Info for Holiday Party:
Other Announcements:
With a little slack requested for lateness by YHC, here is the tale of Bagpipe Tuesday morning. 17 PAX in all.
Bit of a long mosey to warm-up in the far parking lot of the office buildings around Lochness. COP = 20 SSH, 10 merkins, 20 hydraulic lunges, and 15 mountain climbers, all IC. Thank you to Hops for his first of several witty comments this morning – the Deacs climbed the Mountain on Sat – YHC enjoyed this reference to the Wake win over App St in Boone.
Mosey on to the grass hill located at the bottom of Bagpipe Hill. Triple nickel with squats at the top and merkins at the bottom. Run Bagpipe Hill and stop on the bridge for: 10 derkins IC, people’s chair w/ 50 air presses, 10 derkins IC, people’s chair again.
Mosey all the way to the helicopter pad. Take note of the fertilizer and other debris that had blown all over it, proceed with the plan anyway. 30 dollies and 20 LBCs IC. Then 24 merkins civilian count with a burpee on every third. 20 American Hammers and 15 Heels to heaven IC. Take the stairs and run to the top of the parking deck. Plank and wait for the six.
At this point, YHC panicked a little and we started heading back even though I probably underestimested the speed of the PAX and we could have stayed a while. Anyway, mosey back with multiple stops for merkins, merkin/burpee combos, and Mary.
After a foolish stop in the Pei Wei parking lot, which of course is also the Starbucks parking lot where many cars drive through, we finalized the workout in the BofA parking lot next to launch. ~25 yard sprints x 4 in groups of three. Time called.
Announcements:
B3 = Ballantine Brown Bag. Tuesdays at Carolina Premier Bank at 12:15. YHC took part in this and it is another great way to get to know your fellow PAX and get some 2nd and 3rd F. Thanks to Hops for the leadership as well as Van Pelt for hosting in the Carolina Premier Conference Room.
Church on The Street: Need guys for this Sunday especially. Contact Strawberry or sign up here: https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/20F0D4AABA82CA7FE3-church
Don’t worry, this is not a position paper for a Marketing Seminar. It is just worth noting that since the “Fat Hole” brand was introduced post BRR and post swimsuit season, numbers are up… including the 11 PAX who posted on Monday. Here is what we did:
Warm-up: Series of exercises while a few folks recovered from the 5 K they ran, found bells, etc. 10 IW, 10 merkins, 10 mountain climbers all IC. The partner up when all are ready and alternate in a “Catch me if you can” cadence: P1 farmers carry both bells while P2 does 10 squats and runs to catch up. Finish the warm-up with 20 two hand swings and some limited kettlebell instruction. (Note: Schnitzel had his first KB workout but needed almost no coaching to get some good form going. Nice job.)
The Thang: Everybody start in one corner of the soccer field. For Round one, the stations are: 20 snatches, 20 merkins, 20 high pulls, 20 merkins, 20 one hand swings, 20 merkins. The format is, do your KB exercise, then run across the field for merkins, run back, then carry KB half the length of the field, do next KB exercise, and so on. If you can visualize that, congratulations on being very sharp and this backblast is of some use to you.
Round 2 the stations are: 20 squats, 15 CDDs, 20 cleans, 15 CDDs, 20 2 hand swings, and 15 CDDs.
Mary after both rounds to recover. Then mosey with bell back to the playground. P1 does 1 set of max pull-ups while P2 does swings. Flapjack then repeat 1x. Then weighted dips (KB on legs) 10 IC. Repeat the whole thing once and we’re done.
Moleskin: Great to have double digits at the hole. Welcome back FMB and thanks for the talk at the end on appreciation of being back at F3. #donttakeitforgranted.