Sounds like a virtual workout but it wasn’t. I assure you it was quite physical. “What could be more humid? How about if we workout inside a cloud?” Gerber was right. We had a foggy morning and it was nasty. The great part about these muggy mornings is you really feel like your money’s worth.
7 guys for Homecoming. DiCCS provided and were off. A nice warm up Mosey up the entrance road hill with some stretches and such at the top. Down to the bottom for a couple of hill repeats. 10 Merkins at the top and 10 Dry Docks at the bottom. Repeato.
Partner time. We don’t get enough ab work on the regular. I was aiming to fix that. 150 Big Bois, 150 Flutters (2=1), 150 and In and Outs. Partners alternate running the loop.
Mosey to the elementary school side. At each of the numbered columns, starting with 8, do burpees then run a loop, working your way down to 1. Instant whining from the pax. Apparently Chatterbox just did this on Tuesday. Yeah, but I’m nicer and we started at 8 and work our way DOWN so it gets easier as you go. More whining. Fine. Audible to only the even numbers.
Apparently not all the pax heard the audible so a few got some extra burpees. You’re welcome.
Mosey to the lot near the playground and grab a lifting rock. Take it to the curb.
It was here that I decided to rename Fuse Box to reFuse Box. It’s one thing to modify as needed or even Q Jack. You get a name change (unofficial) when you blatantly reFuse to follow instructions.
My first thought was to shame him into compliance but quickly realized he has no shame. Instead I decided we’d run more. I know he enjoys that. For unknown reasons the playground is now entirely fenced off. So instead we headed through the trails in a big loop that lead us right back out to the parking lot we started in. Oh well…
We still need to get to the other side of the playground so we made a big detour around the fences to the road. 5 Merkins at each light pole (4 total poles) until we’re at the basketball goals.
Mosey to the sidewalk for the last round of exercises.
Mosey back to COT for a couple Box Cutters and then 30 seconds of Have a Nice Day.
Moleskin:
“I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member” – Groucho Marx reFuse Box
So reFuse Box knows what he’s doing with his reFusenik behavior. He knows that he can mess with me and I’ll put up with it. What he ALSO knows, and for the life of me I’m not sure why he’d choose MY Q to play this game, is that I have a compromising photo of him…
Announcements
F3 Dads – Every Saturday from 9:00-9:45 – Bring your kids, boys and girls, and have some good quality time with them
Blood Drive – Saturday June 19th at 5 Stones from 9:00-1:30. Sign up NOW
Homecoming is looking for Qs. Get off your butt and Q something
YHC took us out
Discc
Before starting, each PAX grabs a resistance band (thickness doesn’t matter #twssNever). I notice the number of bands is exactly equal to the number of PAX (obviously I planned this incredibly well).
Mosey half the parking lot stopping in the middle for 15x: SSH, IW, LSS, LSS with band overhead, MC, merkin, can opener stretch
Take a few steps to the row of handicap parking spaces in front of the theater, each with a parking sign. Each PAX attach their band to a pole, half at shoulder height, half at ground level. Two of the thinner bands are paired up so there are at total of 8 poles with bands. The routine is a circuit where each PAX pulls on the band while facing either toward the pole, away from the pole, or with the pole to his left or right (rotate 90 degrees each time you change poles). With the bands placed at high or low positions, and with the different band sizes, we are sure to hit every angle of pulling upward/downward for a complete shoulder workout with a few other muscle groups along the way.
The timer is the 9th man, who runs the half-lap around the parking lot while the 10th man just does burpees until relived by the timer. When the timer replaces the 10th man, he moves to the first pole and everyone moves to the next pole and moves their body position 90 degrees, except the 8th man who is the new timer. When the timer reaches half-way, those doing a one arm pulling switch arms (body stays in same position relative to the pole).
We got in two rounds of the circuit + one more lap just for Wingman because I forgot where I started I knew he wanted to push himself with an extra lap (you’re welcome).
Next two quick rounds of B.L.I.M.P.S. (5 burpees, 10 lunges 2-is-1, 15 IW, 20 merkins, 25 plank jacks, 30 squats), and leaving 3 minutes of Mary (flutter, LBC, heals to heaven).
Like Isaac Newton’s 3rd law of motion (every action has an equal and opposite reaction), there must be a corresponding law in fitness (every exercise motion, has an equal and opposite exercise motion). Ideally when we work one direction we will also work the opposite and develop strength equally in both directions.
While F3 is great in many ways (understatement of the year), with our limited resources (whatever the AO has to offer) too many bootcamp exercises challenge us in one direction (pushing) and do not have equal challenges to work the opposite direction (pulling). Expensive gyms have complex machines that get at these hard to expose muscle groups. But in F3, with our $0 cost of membership, we miss some areas and risk developing imbalances.
Consider the merkin and its opposite the row. How many reps of merkins are in a typical workout versus rows? Merkins are all but mandatory and come in the dozens. Rows, if any, are usually with a rock or coupon and nothing close to the weight you move doing merkins. Overhead presses and pull-ups are another pair of opposing exercises. I’ve been in many bootcamps pressing rocks or coupons overhead but far less with pull-ups. Not to mention pull-ups are too heavy for most PAX so we often skip these pulling muscles. Curls and tricep extensions are the only exercises we regularly perform together, with the same weight and reps, but this is the exception far more than the rule.
Resistance bands are often marketed to help assist with pull-ups (a weak area for the majority of PAX human beings) but they have much more potential. Bands are insanely versatile in where they can be attached and used. They are not as cheap as coupons (but what is) but they are affordable ($30 for a set of 4), and they don’t take up much space, weigh almost nothing, last for years and don’t break when dropped.
Across F3 we should add these to our toolbox and make them more common than coupons. They’ll add variations to our exercises and will help attack our lack of pulling and other exercises that will benefit us all. I won’t always run a complex circuit as I did in this workout, but I will bring resistance bands and I will challenge the PAX with some exercises I know they we all need.
I challenge all PAX to make the small investment in resistance bands (the cheap ones work as well for me as the high-end) and find some new exercises to share with the PAX the next time you Q.
(And as Midriff pointed out, if we include rocks, we’ll have a rock band workout.)
June 12th – Saturday – 6:30AM Da Vinci Bucky Convergence & 3:30PM 2nd F at Bradshaws
June 19th – Waxhaw Blood Drive – 9am – 1:30pm @ Five Stones Church – there are 12 10 spots left to fill up for the blood drive. Sign up here if you haven’t and share on Facebook or wherever with friends, family, and neighbors : https://www.redcrossblood.org/give.html/drive-results?zipSponsor=f3
August 13th – Crane Relay (starts at 9PM?!) details/sign up here – https://forms.gle/PYo3XvwAhorvSEdN7
Ahh, the age old question…. what you would do for a segment?
Some have run red lights, cut corners, ridden on a bike or in a car, had someone else wear their watch, even paid off Strava developers (you know who you are)
Today we would find out.
When BC asked me 24 hours ago to Q the infamously sweltering Afternoon Delight it was a no brainer….

There are two Strava segments at Dogwood Park. One is only 1/3 of a mile around the lake so I decided to basically build the entire 30 min workout around that segment….

So we started out with a nice mosey along the trail to the lake to warm up, then some warm up stretches, SSH, Imperial Walkers, you know my playbook

After Warmup:
Bear Crawl across the splintery hot wooden bridge in front of kids

Then mosey with stops for Merkins and Big boys until the other bridge. There was a landscape guy that was getting annoyed at this point because he was trying to blow the path and wanted us to pass but we kept stopping for exercises.

Time for the MAIN event. We were primed, we were warm, and we were ready to run the segment
Basically it’s a lap around the lake. Starts with an uphill, then down hill by the dock area where every little kid and their mom hangs out in the path. Could we dodge the bogies and not flatten any children in the process?

Everyone did great, Easy Button rigged the segment thanks to his developer friends killed the segment and took the crown

A few pax’s times didn’t seem to register correctly

Baio doesn’t have Strava. When it was brought up:

The rest of the pax being made to run a segment in blazing hot conditions dodging children:

Next we moved on to some rock work with short runs between sets of Curls, Shoulder press, chest press, triceps while Easy Buttons neighbor hung around to watch

Off to the benches for some dips on our way to the stairs
5 burpees at the bottom, run up the hill or stairs, 5 big boys, run to wall for 5 mike tysons, back to top of hill/stairs for 5 big boys. Rinse and repeat for 3 laps

Finish with a mosey up the path to the shade for some Hammers and H2H the last 2 minutes
Done!

Moleskine:
Great job today everyone
Easy killed the segment
Raven was not far behind even though Strava didn’t pick him up
Cobbler was moving around the lake faster than I’ve seen him move in a while, great job.
Welcome Thanos – Came back to the gloom after a 4 year hiatus and with a last name Marvel was rewarded with… Thanos. Strong work today
The warm up:
Mosey to front of church entrance. Return to parking lot.
The Thang:
From COT with coupon move across parking lot. At each island, lunges, shoulder press or squats. At end of parking lot another round of shoulder presses.
Next- move to Mt. Chiseled
Shoulder press, weighted squats, chest press. Run around Mt. Chiseled at each excercise.
Return to COT
Chainsaw took us out
Chainsaw was 6th man and told important story about spending time with family because time doesn’t slow down.
Announcements:
It was a breath through a straw kind of humid morning, but with a 6:02am start time at least we had a little sunrise sky to enjoy as we started off on our mosey. My daughter turns 14 tomorrow so in honor of her, and hoping she doesn’t turn into a bratty teen soon, we did 14 of everything today.
Our warm up exercises were 14 of each, SSH, Mountain climbers, Goof Balls & Merkins.
We continued our mosey to a nice flat parking lot area and started a bear crawl indian run. We each got into a parking space and the pax on the end called out an exercise for the group to do while he bear crawled to the front of the line of pax. We continued this for 2 rounds. I think 5 pax called out burpees which generated some good mumble chatter.
Did some more mosey to the front of the middle school and did a round of the Motivator from 8 down to 1, doing SSH, Seal Jacks, No Hand Jacks, and Skier Jacks.
Mosey to back of middle school where we found our first surprise. Some middle school kid left a white board with some exercises written on it, and darned if he didn’t write 14 next to each one. So we decided to give them a try. This was a stacking routine 1st round was 14 step ups, then a lap around the field with 2 burpees halfway. Round 2 was 14 step ups, 14 derkins, then burpee lap. Round 3 was 14 step ups, 14 derkins, 14 snow angels, burpee lap. Round 4 was 14 step ups, 14 derkins, 14 snow angels, 14 smurph jacks, burpee lap. We did Mary in between each round to let the 6 catch up.
We finished that up, finally, and what did we discover? There was more! The bottom of the white board was covered with some paper, and under the paper there were even more exercises written, with 14’s next to them, wow!
14 each American Hammers, dips, Bobby Hurleys, Donkey kicks- we did them all together.
Mosey back towards COT, stopped half way for some Mary, each pax called one out and we did 14 reps, some in cadence some single count.
Mosey to COT with 5 min to go. I think everyone thought I was getting my phone out of my truck for name-a-rama, but wait, there was more! I pulled my tractor tire out of the truck bed, much to everyone’s delight!
Each pax took a turn calling out an exercise for the group to do while they flipped the tire 10X. Most guys called out something kind of easier for this one, no more burpees thankfully. And that was time.
I’ve been fighting a pretty hard fight this week. Its known as the Man Cold. While its symptoms often mimic the common cold, even when our wives get it first, they often multiply in us guys to a level never seen before (at least not in our wives). It also increases the urge to complain and look for sympathy from your M’s. Unfortunately for me, and probably many of you, I get no sympathy from the M for the common Man Cold. Well I found a new symptom yesterday. I sat down to write the winkie and stared at a blank screen for thirty seconds. Apparently the Man Cold zaps all creativity from you as well. I knew what I didn’t want to do – use a coupon. We have been relegated to non sharing coupons for a year now. Mash does coupon work daily. I wanted something different…but what?
I arrived at what I thought was an early time only to find Drive By and Chastain already there (20 minutes before launch). They both graciously helped me set out the gear and grab some more from the bin. (No snakes in the bin again so its a win already – but there are tree frogs). Pax begin filtering in and by habit start unloading their coupons…NOPE, you don’t need them. The look of confusion shows hard on their faces.
An FNG approaches and asks if we are with F3. Nope, we are just a bunch of guys that come here in the morning to talk trash about each other. We get the FNG settled in. He comes prepared with gloves (good job Bottle Cap). Turnbuckle arrives on two wheels blaring music….oh but he brings a friend – snowball. We quickly get snowball gloved up and I announce the DiCCS. New guy seems half amused and half shell shocked.
WARM UP
Circle up for the following:
Drug the warm up out longer than intended, but with the such a short winkie (but hey, its girthy), I felt the need to add a couple inches minutes. (God I love a good wienkie joke/double entendre).
THE THANG
Partner up for station work. There are two exercises per station. The intent was for one of them to be gear focuses while the other to be a mix of cardio/body weight work. The stations were:
We did three rounds of this with Atomic Merkins in between rounds.
2 minutes left and AC/DC Thunderstruck on the speaker. Audible. Recover and circle up to do Thunderstruck workout to the end. Merkins when you hear Thunder. Mountain climbers in between. I believe we got 17 merkins in before time hit, though I still think Chastain was a little early on the time call.
MOLESKIN
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
11 guys got their money’s worth at Swarm. We learned who knows the PAX first names, who doesn’t know how to count, and who thinks they are slow.
NO WARMUP
THANG:
CLIFF’S NOTES
HELP
Today at Impromptu we looked forward to a fellow F3 brother to lead Q…and it’s 5:28, 5:29…. I hadn’t planned on Qing, but I am Site Q, I just Qed on Monday, we can copy and paste some. So let’s do it! Now I’m going back to my previous backblast to copy and paste some!
The Thang






Moleskin





Announcements
Respectfully submitted, Ackbar 
17 dads and 2.0’s pushed hard as we searched for shade and burned some calories!
Welcome and DCCS –
.25 mi mosey to warm up
20 SSH ic
10 IW ic
potato pickers b/c stretching feels great, then walk it out to a plank for runner stretch, 10 murkins “while your down there” and finish warm up with 20 LBCs in cadence for those abdominals.
let’s mosey .25 mi find shaded bear crawls under awning
mosie to front of middle school
10 Derkins
20 step ups (10 ea)
30 dips
.10 mi mosie
repeat 3 x
lets mosey .50 mi stopping 1/2 way to do monkey humpers waiting for the six – let’s go to the parking lot for a star pattern consisting of: wait, it’s too hot let’s find some shade. Keep mosie ing
10 burpees then to center for 5 murkins
20 big boys then to center for 5 murkins
30 flutters then to center for 5 murkins
40 plan jacks then to center for 5 murkins
Repeat.
Web of 4 american hammers and 1 murkin 8 & 2, 12 & 3, 16 & 4, 20 & 5 and so on to 40 & 10
Mosey back to COT
Numberrama
namarama
announcements – blood drive volunteers needed
f3 dads this Saturday – 9:00 @ dogwood park.
then I took us out with thankfulness and prayer for all.
DISCS
WARM-UP
* Mosey lap around Waxhaw United Methodist Church Block.
* 20 Rocking night clubs * 20 Side Straddle Hops *20 Imperial Walkers
*Plank Position – Calf Stretches, Jack Knifes, Downward dog, Upward Dog.
THE THANG
* Mosey to Central Grove Freewill Baptist Church for sevens between Amazing Grace Lutheran Church: 1 LBC / 6 Mike Tysons, 2/5, 3/4, 4/3, 5/2, 6/1.
* In Amazing Grace Lutheran back parking lot: Start with 3 Burpees in the center
(25) Bobby Hurleys / 3 Burpees center
(25) Jump Squats / 3 Burpees center
(25) Freddie Mercuries / 3 Burpees center
(25) Big Boys / 3 Burpees center
* Then, continuing in Amazing Grace Lutheran back parking lot for Jack Webb’s. 1 Merkin/4 Air Press..2/8, 3/12..up to 10/40.
*Jail Break back for COT
MOLESKIN
20 Pax showed up for 5 for mash & 15 for boot camp. Great job fellas, and special shout out to Turn Buckle for showing up to Floater for the first time and continuing to stretch out of your comfort zone toward your goal of attending every Waxhaw & surrounding AO this summer!!
ANNOUNCEMENTS
*Blood Drive – June 19th 9am – 1:30pm @ Five Stones Church – 13 slots left – lets fill by end of this week!