25 Seal jacks. I/c 20 Cherry picker. I/c Capri lap – side shuffle length of court, nur width of court, side shuffle length of court, and nur width of court 25 Seal wave. I/c 20 Windmill I/c Capri lap – side shuffle length of court, nur width of court, side shuffle length of court, and nur width of court 25 Ssh. I/c 20 mountain climbers i/c
THE THANG
Mosey to far side of ball field. 1 HIM does 10 Abyss merkins between picnic tables while rest of pax does derkins rotating through pax till all have completed abyss merkins.
Mosey to backside of lifesaving station 15 hanging knee raises from leanto header Crawl dragon up ramp, dragon crawl down ramp 15 hanging knee raises Dan lt. Up and lt. Dan down ramp 15 hanging knee raises 25 6″ squats 25 sumo squats 25 squats on the ramp facing the water
3rd F Go After God’s Heart https://bible.com/reading-plans/2272/day/1?segment=0
Mosey to playground beside basketball court 25 calf raises off ledge 20 urkins 15 split squats per leg 10 burpees 5 super bananas 10 burpees 15 split squats per leg 20 urkins 25 calf raises off ledge
Mosey back to center court
6 HIM showed – semi, Chappie, Chairman, Wildwing, Ruxpin, kings point
Grady Corn-Four-count exercise that begins in a standing position with your arms together, straight out in front of you. Swing your arms back to a “T” formation, then over your head to form a triangle, then back down to a “T”, and then back to the starting position.
The Thang
Hurricane Hoedown Flutter kick circuit performed in cadence: 7 IC Seated Flutter Kicks with hands raised in Hallelujahs. Move immediately to hands behind you. 7 IC slightly reclined flutterkicks. Move immediately to 7 IC normal flutter kicks. Move immediately to 7 IC LBC Flutter kicks. Rinse and repeat as needed. The real crowd pleaser is to work your way down the cadence ladder 7,6,5..
Bear Crawl 1-2-3 Partner up, perform 100 flutterkicks (50 each) 200 American hammers (100 each) 300 lbc (150 each) as a team. While Partner 1 is doing the 1-2-3, Partner 2 Bear Crawls across tennis courts and crawl bears back then they switch as an added bonus QIC Gump added a #40 GORUCK sandbag to the mix and one person who stayed back to do the ab exercises had to perform the exercise with the sandbag. Once the partner returned the partner used the sandbag, then we gave the sandbag to the other group and continued swapping the sandbag until we were all completed with the exercise
F3 Message:
Valentine’s Day, also called St. Valentine’s Day, when lovers express their affection with greetings and gifts. The holiday has origins in the Roman festival of Lupercalia, held in mid-February. The festival, which celebrated the coming of spring, included fertility rites and the pairing off of women with men by lottery. At the end of the 5th century, Pope Gelasius I replaced Lupercalia with St. Valentine’s Day. It came to be celebrated as a day of romance from about the 14th century. Although there were several Christian martyrs named Valentine, the day may have taken its name from a priest who was martyred about 270 CE by the emperor Claudius II Gothicus. According to legend, the priest signed a letter “from your Valentine” to his jailer’s daughter, whom he had befriended and, by some accounts, healed from blindness. Other accounts hold that it was St. Valentine of Terni, a bishop, for whom the holiday was named, though it is possible the two saints were actually one person. Another common legend states that St. Valentine defied the emperor’s orders and secretly married couples to spare the husbands from war. It is for this reason that his feast day is associated with love. Formal messages, or valentines, appeared in the 1500s, and by the late 1700s commercially printed cards were being used. The first commercial valentines in the United Stateswere printed in the mid-1800s. Valentines commonly depict Cupid, the Roman god of love, along with hearts, traditionally the seat of emotion. Because it was thought that the avian mating season begins in mid-February, birds also became a symbol of the day.
The Bible tells us all that we need to know about love, I pulled just a few scriptures that tell us about Christian Love.
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
I Corinthians 13:1-8
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, Ephesians 5:25 NKJV
Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Matthew 22:37-40 NKJV
Finished off the Gloom with some Mary exercises (because you know we didn’t get enough
Warm O Rama: In Cadence – SSH x 25, Cherry Picker x 25, Alabama Ass Kickers x 25, Daniel Son (Karate Kid Crane Kicks) x 5 each leg, Windmill x 25,
The Thang:
Pax performed four HIIT training exercises for a period of 60 seconds with a 30 second recovery period between each exercise at the following locations:
….Bath Overhang: (Squatting Joe Lewis, Big Boys, Broad Jumps); ….Park Gazebo: (American Hammers, Mountain Climbers, LBCs); ….St. Peter’s Wall: (Dirkins, Apollo Ohnos, High Knee Taps); ….Bank Tunnel: (Overhead Squat Claps, Bobby Hurleys, Fireman Ladders).
In addition, there were two impromptu sessions – LBCs in the bank driveway and circle merkins near Rose and Crown.
F3 Message: According to some, the President gave a rollicking State of the Union speech last night and, in honor of this, the F3 message began by recalling memorable SOU’s from years past:
James Polk (1848): “The accounts of the abundance of gold in [California} are of such a character as can scarcely command respect….”
Franklin Roosevelt (1942): Berlin and Tokyo know “that victory for us means victory for freedom….It means victory for the institution of democracy – the ideal of the family, the simple principles of common decency and humanity. They know that victory for us means victory for religion. And they could not tolerate that. The world is too small … for Hitler and God.
Abraham Lincoln (1862): Proposed constitutional amendments by which the federal government would free slaves and compensate owners by 1900. Lincoln argued that this formed the basis of a compromise to end the civil war. He ended by stating: “Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We will be remembered in spite of ourselves….We say we are for the Union. We know how to save the Union. [By freeing the slaves] we shall nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope of hearth. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just – a way which if followed the world will forever applaud and God must forever bless.
F3 messages are generally uplifting and relevant. This SOU briefing was neither. It did, however, make me think where does one find a moral compass these days. For some, it is natural to pull inspiration from the Bible. (As Chappie says, it is now permissible for anyone to read it.). But, according to Pew Foundation polling, Catholics have different sources of moral guidance – 10% from the Pope, about the same from the Bible, and, surprisingly, the vast majority of Catholics have their moral compass set by watching what others do and say.
So, to tie this together, I wanted to thank the HIM’s for the guidance they give – Chappie mentioning guardrails for posting and many others who support their families and Ms in small and large ways. Uplifting, relevant, and useful. Well done, F3.
Six PAX is never a good start to your day, unless, of course, you’re talking about 6 F3 PAX who won THAT FIRST BATTLE by unpartaking of the Fartsack and were lucky enough to post at the Primis AO in Lewes, DE.
No. One. Ever. Regrets. Posting. Post!
WARM-O-RAMA:
SSH – 18 IC
Moroccan NC’s – 10 IC
Italian NC’s – 10 IC
The Motivator (Shout out to the men of F3 Lanco, YHC borrowed this excellent warm-up exercise)
Calf Raises – 30 IC
Crab Flipper – 18 IC (Now Local & Legit: a variation of the Cherry Picker, PAX pick cherries…er, um…flip crabs on the 3-count near the left foot, then down the middle between feet, then on the 3-count near the right foot, continuing to alternate L, M, R, R, M, L throughout the exercise — it’s now local gentlemen…and good for warming up and stretching)
At this point PAX took the Shovel Flag for a short tour (.96 miles) Patriot Run.
PAX returned from Patriot Run to the Tennis courts where, low and behold, awaiting was a giant pair of dice and YHC’s Board of Pain…
Look at that pair!
PAX each took turns rolling the dice, accomplishing each exercise on the Board of Pain except SSH, Squats, Merkins, Sandbag Circle, and Dying Cockroaches. First lucky roll came from Ruxpin who kicked it off by rolling a 9: Flying Squirrels (25 of those suckers darn near whooped us!) But we continued.
The Q inserted 2 laps around the tennis court [for a breather]. First time around PAX did the Nur. Second time around PAX Side-shuffled.
YHC also gave the PAX a breather by sharing the following 3rdF:
Just a reminder of what this F3 thing–this Fitness, Fellowship, & Faith thing–is about…it’s all about LEADERSHIP! We’re here because we inherently desire to sharpen our ability to lead.
The F3 mission itself is to “PLANT, GROW, & SERVE SMALL WORKOUT GROUPS OF MEN FOR THE INVIGORATION OF MALE COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP.”
You’re all here because you’re a part of that mission, because you recognize on a personal level you’ve not arrived and you have room to grow in the area of leadership…be it in your home, your workplace, or the communities in which you serve.
We tend to think leadership is…
▪ A solo adventure, that we have to go it alone. We see ourselves standing atop the proverbial mountain directing our “troops” into battle.
▪ We tend to think it’s about our position and how to get to the next rung on the ladder.
▪ We tend to think leadership is about us (me, myself, and I)
▪ And…its none of these things at all! In fact, some of the greatest detriments to our ability to lead are actually our own egos, our push to rise to the top of the pecking order, or our desire for recognition.
Not having it all together (and worse yet, the trap that follows of ACTING like we do) we hide behind power and position. Afraid we will be found out… afraid that others (men especially) will see that we actually don’t have it all together, we end up taking stances in leadership that hinder, rather than help, our ability to lead. Then too often we end up forfeiting opportunities to master leadership by learning from our failures (we think we’re not allowed to fail).
We tend to assume “the bigger my ego, the more respect I’ll be able to demand, and the better my leadership.” But reality is that the biggest thing that needs to be put in check is, in fact, our egos.
I base these statements on the example we see in Christ: In Jesus is found the example of a servant leader who, though fully divine, took on humanity and the human experience. He did this to redeem us…
Think about that: God became a man, and at that, A SERVANT [LEADER], because there was something enormous at stake: Your life… eternally! So His plan of redeeming you included SERVANT LEADERSHIP.
That fact teaches several important factors which can transform our thinking about leadership:
#1: “Leadership is an action, not a position.” (Chris Brady) i.e. it’s what you do!
#2: “Leaders must ALWAYS operate with the understanding that they’re part of something bigger than themselves and their own personal interests.” (Jocko, EO p.76)
#3: “Leaders move people from where they are to where God wants them to be.”
In reference to what I’m sharing these next two are critical:
#4: “Leadership IS NOT about being the best; leadership is about making everyone else better.” (@bjj_world)
#5: “The bottom line in leadership ISN’T how far we advance ourselves; it’s how far we advance OTHERS.” (LTC Rick Frank)
Philippians 2:6ff talks about how Christ humbled Himself by coming down from heaven and becoming human–a bond-servant. God did that! So leadership is best expressed in humility and in the interest of others. These verses are stated as the example to follow and the attitude we’re supposed to have (Christ’s) after we read earlier in Phil. 2:3-4 “DO NOTHING FROM SELFISHNESS OR EMPTY CONCEIT, BUT WITH HUMILITY OF MIND LET EACH OF YOU REGARD ONE ANOTHER AS MORE IMPORTANT THAN HIMSELF; DO NOT MERELY LOOK OUT FOR YOUR OWN PERSONAL INTERESTS, BUT ALSO FOR THE INTERESTS OF OTHERS.” Have this attitude in yourselves.…” (Emphasis added) The attitude of Christ is what was then described.
Today, if you want to be a HIM, humble yourself and serve to make someone else better. Humble yourself and lead by advancing those around you!
PAX returned to taking a few lucky rolls of the dice and experiencing the Board of Pain before time was up.
COUNT-O-RAMA
NAME-O-RAMA
COT/BOM:
Announcements: Praise YHC’s nephew, Aaron, is home from deployment! PAX shared other AO’s, workout locations, with Chauffeur so he’d know where to post in the Gloom
Prayers: Chauffeur & Doubtfire (prayers for things going on on the home front); Prayers for all those still deployed, especially Aaron’s battle buddy, Cottle; Prayers for our F3 brother, Styx, experienced some recent serious heart issues.
Always thankful for the opportunity to borrow, create and execute a new Weinke. While we repeated several of the exercises, we didn’t make it through the whole Board of Pain. Perhaps another time…its just the luck of the roll. Until then…
3rd F- (Thank you Vanilla For sharing this yesterday)
“BE CAREFUL WHERE YOU
GET YOUR COUNSEL
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the
ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in
the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of
the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night.
He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,
that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also
shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.
PSALM 1 : 1 – 3
The brilliant first psalm contrasts the righteous and the wicked. Leaders, take note because the difference between the two seems to be where they get their counsel! Observe how a foolish leader can be led astray by a corrupt inner circle:
1. The leader begins to browse for the wrong counsel.
2. The leader begins to listen to the wrong voices.
3. The leader joins the wrong inner circle.
A wise leader meditates on God’s Word day and night.
Note the results of receiving counsel from the right inner circle:
20 Crab flippers IC (see what I did there?? 2020 AYE!!)
Bolt 45 (uggg)
20 windmills
20 smurf Jacks (double uggg)
The Thang
We stayed at the basketball courts for the first part of our beatdown and did the Webiside routine. A standard suicide but instead of touching each line the pax does an increasing number of merkins at each line. Run to the first line, do one merkin, run back to start, run to next line, do two merkins, and so on until you get to 10. A running form of the Jack Webb
Moseyed over to the baseball diamond where we started the field of dreams routine Start out by counting off by fours. 1s start at First Base AMRAP Squats until relieved. 2s at Second Base do AMRAP Mercans until relieved. 3s at Third Base do AMRAP LBC’s until relieved. 4s at Home Plate will perform 15 Burpees then run to First, relieving the Pax there. Continue until all Pax have done the Burpees.
Insert first part of F3 Message here: Q Gump read the final speech from the movie courageous details will be at the end of the Backblast.
Continued the field of dreams routine this time we swapped the exercises to all mary exercises. Home plate still did 15 Burpees, 1st base did sets of 2 BBSU and 10 overhead presses AMRAP, 2nd base did American hammers, and 3rd base did flutterkicks
Started the Bear Crawl Ring of fire: PAX lined up and bear crawled around the baseball diamond upon Q’s “halt” the first person in line did 10 merkins, while everyone else planked, than “crawl” everyone crawled until again the Q “halted” then the next HIM would do 10 merkins while everyone planked and than “crawl” rinse and repeatuntil everyone in line did 10 merkins.
2nd 3rd F message inserted here where QIC Gump read “The Resolution” (Image at end of BB)
Everyone gave quatro a Big High five after this one during the last Bear Crawl ring of fire quatro accidentally said the words “Crawl bear” so the next exercize was inspired by quatro. During this exercise we started the “Crawl Bear ring of fire” it was just as fun as bear crawl ring of fire except it super sucked. as you can imagine we craw bear’d around the baseball diamond and on the “halt” command everyone planked while 1 HIM did merkins than “crawl” and everyone crawled until “halt” than the next HIM took his turn doing 10 merkins while everyone else planked rinse and repeat until everyone did 10 merkins. and we had to crawl bear home.
Wosied back to the basketball diamond where we ran 3 sets of suicides , ran to foul shot line touched line, back to basketball hoop, half court and back, opposite foul shot line and back, and opposite out of bounds line and back, opposite foul shot line and back, half court and back, foul shot line and back was 1 round with 10 count in between each set.
20 Seal jacks. I/c 25 Cherry picker. I/c 15 smurf Jack’s. I/c Capri lap – nur length of court, side shuffle across, mosey, and side shuffle 20 Seal wave. I/c 25 Windmill I/c 20 Ssh. I/c
THE THANG
Mosey to pavilion across bridge
20 derkins BB 45 15 Upper big boy 15 Lower big boy 15 Full big boy 20 erkins 40 lbcs
Mosey to bathrooms near AO
3rd F Squats Toes out. 15 i/c Sumo style Feet 6″ apart 15 i/c Should width 15 I/c hold in squat on 15 count
35 reverse crunch Side plank for 15 count 35 flutter kick – double count Side plank for 15 count
Mosey back to AO
6 HIM showed – semi, Ruxpin, Chairman, Wildwing, leatherman, Gump
Why: Why not? You’ll regret not being there if you miss it.
Q&A:
Q: How much does it cost?
A: Not a dime. But each PAX/M is asked to bring a pasta dish of your choice, salad, & dessert (just bring something to share)
Q: BYOB?
A: Drinks will be provided. But booze…I think is BYOB. Check with Ruxpin
Q: When should I RSVP?
A: Yesterday. Since you can’t do that hit up Ruxpin on the GroupMe or DM him so that he and Shawna can start to get a headcount.
Q: What if I have any additional questions not covered here?
A: Reach out to Ruxpin or Chappie in the Gloom or on F# First State FB or IG.
Thanks ahead of time to Ruxpin and his M, Shawna, for hosting this always-a-fun-time event. Let’s get together, celebrate Christmas and another year of F3, and enjoy some 2ndF beyond a morning workout (i.e. lets introduce our families to each other…)
Seven PAX broke the Fartsack chains and won THAT FIRST BATTLE to brave the polar vortex, which brought a 30 degree temp drop since yesterday’s workout. Those who took on today’s Gloom repeatedly jumped “into the void” for an ab beatdown at the hands of YHC.
The plan was to stay put on the AO’s home court, however, the stiff winds not only moved us during the warmup, but also the workout. During the warmup PAX were moved to behind the screens on the tennis courts…
WARM-O-RAMA:
SSH – 18 IC
SwartzJacks – 18 IC
Crab-flippers – 10 IC
Imperial Walkers – 18 IC
Prison Squats – 18 IC
The stiff wind, along with 24 degree temps, forced us to take a short mosey downtown to a beatdown sheltered by surrounding buildings, so off we went…
THE THANG:
PAX were circled up where the following beatdown instructions were received: The middle of the circle will be called “The Void,” 1 PAX would be in the void, executing 10 Burpees, while PAX on the outside of the circle would execute, IC, AMRAP Ab exercise pulled on the card. PAX would rotate strictly voluntarily to jump into the void. PAX executed the following random ab exercises as written on the cards:
Crab Cakes
Box Cutters
Gas Pumpers
American Hammers
E2K’s
Freddie Mercury
Protractor (10-Counts)
Big Boys (Feet interlocked)
Half Pumpers
Side Planks (10-Counts)
Not-So-Lazy-Boys (10 Counts)
Dying Cockroaches
Heel Touches
X’s & O’s
Flutter Kicks – lots of extras here, read below
After first round thru with each PAX rotating into the void for Burpees, the following 3rdF was shared:
Quote I read recently from a GORUCK selection IG post: “HE WHO JUMPS INTO THE VOID OWES NO EXPLANATION TO THOSE WHO STAND AND WATCH.”
We’ve all come across those in life who stand and watch. But we are not those; we know we cannot afford to be. No man can. Instead we’re leaders, we’re those who have jumped into the void (or are prepared to do so at a moments notice, at first call) we’re those who are HIM! And HIM, by definition, jump into the void.
Teddy Roosevelt referred to the same idea when he said, “THE CREDIT BELONGS TO THE MAN WHO IS ACTUALLY IN THE ARENA; WHOSE FACE IS MARRED BY THE DUST AND SWEAT AND BLOOD; WHO STRIVES VALIANTLY…WHO, AT WORST, IF HE FAILS, AT LEAST FAILS WHILE DARING GREATLY; SO THAT HIS PLACE SHALL NEVER BE WITH THOSE COLD AND TIMID SOULS WHO KNOW NEITHER VICTORY NOR DEFEAT.”
In the Bible, when the Lord said to Joshua, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go,” he was calling Joshua to the enormous, overwhelming, fear-inducing task of leading Israel into the Promised Land. He called Joshua to jump into the void, into the arena! In that very moment Joshua had to make the decision, as Kyle Carpenter writes, “On behalf of Future You (actually in his case future Israel, my emphasis). You know that Present You is probably going to have to deal with a little more discomfort or inconvenience right now, but long-term, you will be grateful for the choices you made today. You don’t want merely to hope for better days ahead, you want to take the steps necessary to ensure them.” (You Are Worth It, 229)
Our workouts are preparation, a small microcosm of this, an incubator, if you will, but it applies to all of life. You may be “nudging, creeping, or stumbling forward because it’s the only option you have: forward or backward,” but you’ve jumped into the void, you’re in the arena getting sweaty, marred, and bloodied—but YOU’RE STRIVING, not standing and watching!
“Even when there’s no reason in the world to continue, you’re making decisions that take away your own excuses to quit (every one of them) because you know how it would affect the way you carried yourself afterward. And once you make those kinds of choices to continue, you find it easier to make them again and again.” (Adapted: Ibid. 231, 261, 262)
So, what’s God calling you to do? How might this bare out personally? In the very least, refuse to align with being a cold and timid soul: Be a HIM in your home, in your workplace, and in the communities in which you serve! Maybe God’s even calling you to something additional, seemingly enormous, like Joshua? Whatever it is, dare greatly and jump into the void, because “HE WHO JUMPS INTO THE VOID OWES NO EXPLANATION TO THOSE WHO STAND AND WATCH”!
PAX returned to the COP for Round 2: Instead of Burpees, this time the PAX who jumped into the void would either Plank or Chilcutt for 1 minute (timed). PAX outside the void cycled through the same Ab cards. Only detour taken was an extra long set of Flutter Kicks at the hands of Leatherman (and the finicky timer on YHC’s phone).
Mosey return to the home court
NUMBER-RAMA:
NAME-O-RAMA:
COT/BOM:
Announcements: F3 First State Christmas Gathering location up for grabs, somebody act quickly so we can plan. Wanna host? Contact Chappie
Prayers: Aaron (Chappie’s nephew deployed), Danielle Briggs (facing cancer), Denny (Chairman’s dad, praise for good test results), Doubtfire, etc.
What a brisk morning it was, lots of work but no sweat–to cold to sweat. Honored to have the privilege to bring the beatdown at the Primis AO and to be able to share a 3rd Word with the PAX. A principle tested is a principle proven (F3 workouts are always outdoors, rain or shine, hot or cold). YHC appreciates all the PAX who braved the elements prove the principle on this very cold and very windy gloom! Aye!
