18 PAX won that first battle and posted for “Sandbag Saturday” led by YHC. Shout out to TRex and Gump for adding to the collection of 9 GORUCK bags (varied weights) plus 10 good ol’ fashioned 40lb sandbags. The collection made everyone’s day. Here’s how it went down…
WARM-O-RAMA:
SSH – 18 IC
Swartzjacks – 18 IC
Sealjacks – 54 IC (Since YHC is 54 years respect) *Too many quit! (See 3rdF shared: Slaughter in F3 Nation Newsletter)
Windmill – 10 IC
Mosey to the field beside the Presb. Church (where PAX found the beautiful stack of sandbags. PAX circled up for 3rdF. YHC played the audio from Slaughter’s message in the most recent F3 Nation Newsletter (Had planned a 3rdF “Habits Eat Willpower for Breakfast” but Slaughter’s message was too good NOT to share.) Then it was time for sandbag business…
THE THANG:
PAX were directed to split up with sandbags: 1/2 at cone #1 and 1/2 40 yards away at cone #2. THE PURPOSE: Keep moving! Run to next cone with sandbag, drop it, run back without. Carry bags at intervals but never pass a bag. Just keep carrying bags and KEEP MOVING. YHC also called out the following exercises throughout the durations:
OH Press – 25 OYO
Sandbag Squats – 25 (Get low! A2G!)
Sand Bears – Cone to cone
OH Shoulder Press – 25 OYO
Grand Finale:
PAX counted off by 2’s and separated into 2 teams for Sandbag Tic-Tac-Toe
Good ol’ fashioned sandbags painted with X’s & O’s (Tic-Tac-Toe painted on center of the field)
Teams 70′ apart. Each PAX (in-turn) must do 10 Chest-Bump Merkins on their sandbag before jumping up and carrying it to strategically place it in the Tic-Tac-Toe board. Must return to line before next PAX takes turn.
X’s went up 2-0 before the O’s made a come from behind run for the victory. Losers had to do 10 Sandbag Burpees as punishment.
Good fun and healthy competition won the day before we made our way back to the AO.
NUMBER-RAMA
NAME-O-RAMA
COT/BOM:
Announcements: Coffeeteria at Dunkin; Memorial Day Mini (CSAUP) coming up, invite everyone; Q Rotation coming out NLT than Sunday afternoon
Prayers: Fireplex’s dad – Battling cancer; Quattro’s feet?. YHC encouraged PAX to begin more regularly sharing requests in the COT (i.e. we tend to pray for those outside the circle–neighbors, friends, co-workers–those requests are important, but the idea is for us get real and personal by praying for each other as well).
As always YHC counts it a privilege and is thrilled by the opportunity to Q. Appreciate all the men who posted, to include the 2.0’s (they carried man-sized sandbags and never complained once – that’s fire!)
No, that title is not a shout out to Britney Spears; rather, it’s actually a shout out to Roger Sparks. His book, Warrior’s Creed is where YHC got the idea of running with water in your mouth. The PAX who won THAT FIRST BATTLE and posted at the Aegis in Georgetown, DE for a Chappie-led workout were treated once again to this practice–a total mental exercise! We did it before. Last time 4 of 12 PAX (33.3%) made the 0.5 distance. The other 8 were peeved with themselves and YHC could sense they wanted another shot at it, so, Oops! We did it again. This time we raised the percentage of finishers (71.4%). That is 15 of 21 PAX were able to Mosey 0.5 miles without spitting out or swallowing the water they swigged at the starting point. This is a difficult challenge. It forces runners to breath through their nose, and it actually has some incredible physiological benefits to the heart-rate (a worthwhile study to do on your own, but a good place to start is Warrior’s Creed); the Apaches used the practice to identify whether young men were ready to be trained as warriors—however, they would run an entire day, up to 50 or 60 miles. A half-mile has been quite the test, we’re going to have to up our game. Oops! We’re going to have to do it again. In the meantime, here’s how it fit into today’s workout:
WARM-O-RAMA
SSH – 17 IC
High Knees – 76 (single count IC)
Swartzjack – 17 IC
Calf Raises – 76 (single count OYO)
Smurfjack – 17 IC
Windmill – 17 IC
Wosey to the darkside of he shrubbery planter. Lo and behold…bottles of water! Instructions to the PAX: Take a swig of water and keep it in your mouth without swallowing or spitting it out for the duration of 0.5 mile run. Nice easy mosey down W. Market Street, right onto Robinson Street, then to the end at the corner of Robinson St. and Edward St. Job well-done to the 15 PAX who completed this [mental] challenge and were rewarded with 17 Burpees. Shout out to Sink-O and Fireplex: Word on the street is that Sink-O repeated the challenge on the return to the AO and Fireplex is said to have made his first successful attempt.
After the water challenge PAX were treated to a public reading of The Declaration of Independence. (Read it, or if your familiar with it, scroll down to the Thang below) :
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should DECLARE the causes which impel them to separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the CONSENT of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinced a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.—Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their Former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be attained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent upon his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out of their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders, which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these states:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For Imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging war against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and Tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and DECLARE, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this DECLARATION, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. (ALL CAPS: Emphasis added. Names of signers listed as well.)
Oh, look! A rather conspicuously placed stack of sandbags! WITH a Workout Deck secretly lurking within. Here’s how it went from there…
THE THANG
17’s – Merkins & Gas Pumpers (Plus, draw 3 cards from the workout deck in middle of the field along the way.) AND never pass a sandbag (unless you just placed it in the middle or at the end). Started with 16 Merkins at one end and 1 Gas Pumper at the other…all the way down to 1 Merkin and 16 Gas Pumpers. lots of 17’s and 76’s on this fine July 3rd, but we ran out of time before being able to pair up for cumulative 76 Burpees.
Mosey back to the AO:
COT:
Name-O-Rama – special shout out welcome to Breakfast Club from downrange Lexington, SC!
Announcements: Cabana will post Spartan workout on Groupme for a Sunday morning up-for-grabs workout in Milton.
Prayers: Semi’s M, traveling; prayers for the Winske family who lost 59-yr-old father to pancreatic cancer; prayers for Streudel; prayers for Bean family and YHC’s son, Zeke; etc. (Whatever YHC has forgotten, God hasn’t. He’s got it!
Coffeeteria followed at Dunkin. Good crowd of PAX! YHC was on vacation over the last week and so it was not only good to be back in the Q saddle, but it was good to be back around the coffeeteria table. Ribbing and all, the fellowship is always glue!
16 HIM posted in the gloom to attend a Block Party! Warm-O-Rama: 20 SSH I/C, 20 Windmills I/C, 20 Smurfjacks I/C, 20 Cherry Picmers I/C, Toy Soldier Set (50/25/15)OYO. Mosey to the Firehouse. The Thang “Block Party”
All HIM grab a block. 10 Blockees OYO. Lt. Dan with an Overhead Press across the parking lot. 26 American Blockhammers I/C. Bear Crawl Block Drag across parking lot. 25 Big Boys with Block OYO. Mosey around the block carrying your block. 10 BTTW Merkins OYO. Lt. Dan length of building. 15 Offset Merkins each arm alternating between Merkins. Crab Crawl with block on stomach across parking lot. 20 Gas Pumpers I/C. Shared Third F. NUR across parking lot with block. 30 Jump Ups onto Block. Duck Walk carrying block. 15 Merkins OYO. Wosey to truck with block overhead. Replace blocks into truck.
Mosey back to circle. 5 Pretzel Merkins each arm OYO.
Warm-a-Rama 20 ssh i/c 15 seal wave i/c 15 mountain man pooper i/c 20 plank jack i/c
The Thang Mosey to park behind library While waiting on 6 we did one leg hip thrust Pax pairs off, while one HIM completes lap around gazebo other HIM completes exercises. Laps are: mosey, side shuffle, and nur Exercises are: merkins, swerkins, fire hose
3rd F
and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. John 20:7 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/jhn.20.7.ESV The culture back then when you were done eating you tossed your napkin on the table. If your were leaving the table but planned on coming back you folded your napkin. Jesus folded HIS head wrap symbolizing HE plans on coming back!
Mosey back to CHOP
While waiting for 6 another round of single leg hip thrust and 15 hello dollies i/c
With Turkey Season coming in and training events causing some PAX to absent themselves from today’s beatdown, YHC wasn’t sure anyone was going to show. Not to worry, 10 PAX won THAT FIRST BATTLE and posted for an ABSolute Saturday morning. I.e. we focused on the abs…a little bit. It went a lil’ something like this:
WARM-O-RAMA:
SSH – 18 IC
Swartzjacks – 18 IC
Imperial Squat Walker – 18 IC (Squat didn’t work in public as well as it worked at home. Next time)
Cherry Picker – 17 IC
Windmill – 10 IC
Wheel of Merkin – 10 OYO Merkins each PAX, around the ring
Sealjacks – 40 IC (In honor of Hideous)
THE THANG:
Mosey around the circle, between the courthouse and the admin building, and around to the double steps on the S. Bedford St. side of admin building:
Abs Station #1: Admin Building steps
Gas Pumpers – All PAX do Gas Pumpers continuously until each PAX has run steps
Merkins – 2 mins., AMRAP
Mosey to armory…
Abs Station #2: National Guard Armory steps
LBC’s – 5 sets of 100, run to top step & back (500 total)
Big Boys – 2 mins., AMRAP …because Biddie requested them 😉
Mosey to School (side lot)…
Brief breather for the 3rdF:
Back on March 20th Spencer Lee won his 3rd individual National Championship as an NCAA wrestler for Iowa. Then in his after-match interview he dropped some crazy news on the college wrestling world. He’d been wrestling with a torn ACL! This was not the first time. He finished his high school career with the same injury sat out a portion of his first season at Iowa, before taking off his red-shirt and winning his first National title.
When questioned further after his March 20 win about why he would continue with such an injury, he said “Excuses are for F’n wussies!“
Fact is, there are times in sports and there are times in life when we might actually have a legitimate excuse to step away from competition, off the battlefield, or from something else. Spencer Lee had a legit excuse to withdraw from competition. Everybody would’ve understood if he had. And many would’ve said he should step aside. But he didn’t. Why? Well, yes, he wanted to win his 3rd NCAA individual title, but he also had an even greater goal in mind, a goal beyond himself: He wanted stay in the battle for his team to win the National Championship title. And they did!
A disclaimer: I’m not suggesting you and I continue with an injury that we may further aggravate or only cause worse injury if we keep going (like my foot). You know your own body, so be your own advocate. Just don’t make excuses. Not in competition. Not in family. Not in work. Not in battle. And to add the double negative… “Not nowhere!”
Of course, this mindset goes way beyond our workouts (a “mindset microcosm” of real life and facing hard things). So what I am suggesting is that you NOT take the easy road; that you not take the “out” even when everyone else expects it or okays it or even offers it. What I am suggesting is that you be stronger than your excuses. What I am suggesting, as Navy Seal, Marcus Luttrell put it, is that you, “Find an excuse to win.”
When we find an excuse to win, it will almost always be in direct proportion to the prize pursued (whatever that may be). But with that, we’ve got to stop thinking of ourselves alone. We’ve got to stop making excuses, and stop doing so for the betterment of our family, of those in our workplaces (on our teams), and for those in the communities in which we serve. Excuses serve YOU well (not really), but they almost never serve well those around you who may be part of some of the bigger picture stuff. We make excuses in daily life because we can. We make excuses because we’re able to get away with it with no accountability…we make excuses because we lose sight of our goals or THE [bigger picture] goal(s).
A few statements to be adopted by those who want to develop the mindset of being a HIM:
EXCUSES ARE FOR WUSSIES!
BE STRONGER THAN YOUR EXCUSES!
FIND AN EXCUSE TO WIN!
Whatever you commit to, make sure you carry that commitment to completion, to the end goal. Don’t make excuses and DFQ! Be it a workout, or a war; be it a wakeup or walk, a wrestling match on a mat or with a foe unseen–be a no-excuse warrior for your family, your friends, your team, your co-workers, yourself! Whatever it is, “Let your yes be yes, and your no be no.” (Jesus in Matthew 5:37) Excuses are for wussies!
Abs Station #3: Parking lot, the looooong lot…
Freddie Mercury – 5 sets of 50, run length of lot and back between sets (250 total)
LAST TRANSITION: Bearcrawl/Crawlbear back to start from far end of lot (canceled due to time)
Mosey back to AO to call it a day.
COT:
Number-Rama – 10 PAX
Name-O-Rama – a Happy Birthday to Woodstock, hit the big “4-2”
Announcements – Today is the day: Commit to the F3 Paintball outing (Sat. April 24 @ 3 pm). Commit today by getting your deposit of $25 to Jay Baxter (Quattro). Did YHC mention to do it today? Today it is then!
Prayers – Prayers lifted for PAX and families traveling home following Spring Break. Prayers for the Brown family and Cape students grieving the tragic loss of Maggie Brown and for other girls involved in the gator accident this past week.
ABSolutely honored to Q at the Aegis, it’s been awhile.
The first workout for March arrived and so did 14 PAX for YHC’s March Merkin Tour de Force. It’s March so there’s got to be Merkins; lots of Merkins! Plenty today but no doubt there’s more to come.
Disclaimer:
Welcome to F3!
F3 is a non-profit men’s workout group. We don’t own anything and, therefore, make no claims on rights or permissions from the church. The church therefore assumes no liability, nor does F3 (i.e. you can’t sue us).
You are here of your own accord
I’m not a professional, so anything I instruct you to do is only a suggestion, but give your maximum effort. It’s you against you!
If there is an exercise you shouldn’t do, modify. 6. We will not leave you behind, but we won’t leave you where we found you either!
F3 has 5 Core Principles we adhere to:
We are: Open to all men
We are: Always free
We are: Always outdoors…rain or shine, hot or cold
We are: Always peer-led in rotating fashion
We: Always end with a COT
WARM-O-RAMA:
SSH – 10 IC
Swartzjacks – 10 IC
Stop & Go Merkins (Down, hold 2, 3 up, rep) – 10 IC
American Hammers – 18 IC
Single Arm Flying Squirrels (5 each arm) – 10 OYO
Imperial Squat Walker – 10 IC
Cherry Picker – 10 IC
*Walk-thru explanation of Starfish Stations (group up – groups of 3 to 4 PAX)
THE THANG:
STARFISH/MARCH MERKIN TOUR DE FORCE: Groups picked a station and began working toward completing each one. Not all stations were completed by all PAX, but March definitely came in like a lion (i.e. Plenty-O-Merkins = Plenty-O-Roarin’…and man, those Swerkins!). Here’s each station:
100 Merkins
100 Plankjacks (5 Brick Merkins @ quarters, brick under PAX and down all the way to touch with chest)
100 Drydirks (Drydocks w/feet on boardwalk benches)
100 Swerkins (10 reps/10 sets, lap to platform and back after each set, resume)
100 Tilted Kilts (Gas Pumpers tilted on side, feet over top of parking block, 50 reps each side)
AFTER first station PAX returned to center platform to complete 10 Burpee Step-ups. Subsequent rounds: 5 Burpee Step-ups
Overtime Grand Finale Crowd Pleaser:JACK WEBB! (Ratio: 1 Merkin, 4 OHC… to 10 Merkins, 40 OHC’s)
Arms. What arms? You didn’t need them today, did you?
YHC shared the following 3rdF somewhere around mid-workout:
IF – By RUDYARD KIPLING
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
—————————
YHC heard this poem a few weeks ago and immediately looked it up, then sent it to my oldest son in California. The poem is embedded throughout with biblical wisdom. While not all of it is found in 1 Cor. 16:13-14, much of it is captured in the phrase “act like men.” That phrase ought to echo in our hearts in minds throughout each day. When we’re making decisions or responding to situations and opportunities we ought to be asking ourselves how would a man act in this moment. Responding is such a manner will inevitably lead to being HIM; it will lead us to becoming better husbands, fathers, neighbors, co-workers, etc.
Here (1 Cor. 16:13-14) the Bible says, “Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.” (emphasis added)
Here are 5 quick commands for you today which, if you do them, will help you to be a HIM…a better husband, father, man:
Be on the alert
Stand firm in the faith
Act like men
Be strong
Let all that you do be done in love
As mentioned, everyone got in their fair share of Merkins–it’s March!
COT:
Number-Rama
Name-O-Rama
Announcements: ShamRuck Family Ruck coming up on Mar. 13 +@ 3:17 p.m. Meeting at Georgetown Circle (Aegis AO) and rucking to McDonalds for a Shamrock Shake. Also, we’re planning to strengthen our 2nd & 3rdF’s by starting a study of the book Chosen Suffering by Tom Ryan, Head Coach of the Ohio State wrestling team. Up for discussion: Do study at Saturday Coffeeteria or on Mondays from 0500-0600hrs? Starting end of March or early April. Watch for the poll on our F3 First State Groupme. GREAT BOOK! Recommended reading by Toy Soldier.
Prayer: We lifted up baby Beau, his body is rejecting the new heart and he’s back on the transplant list; continue prayers for Gavin – praying for a miracle for this young man to walk again after being paralyzed from a snowboarding accident in January
Honored to Q up the first March Merkin Madness beatdown with a Tour de Force. Welcome to March gentlemen!