TRex

Oops! We Did It Again.

DATE: 7/3/21

QIC: Chappie

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!

Until oops! We do it again…

Chappie, out!

Block Party

Cool morning on May 1, we warmed up quickly!

Name-O-Rama

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.

Number-Rama, Name-O-Rama, Named FNG, “Sinko” COT.

Chosen Suffering

QIC – Toy Soldier

Warmup

  • SSH – 25 IC
  • Derricks – 20 IC
  • Moroccan Night Club – 40 IC
  • Windmill – 20 IC
  • Seal Jack – 20 IC
  • Mountain Man Pooper – 20 IC

The Thang

Mosey to middle school

  • 20 Burpees bear crawl to next sidewalk
  • 40 Iron Mike inch worm to next sidewalk
  • 60 Merkins nur to next sidewalk
  • 80 American Hammers crab walk to last sidewalk
  • 100 LBCs
  • wosey to school 3rd F part 1
  • pole to pole side shuffle, switch side shuffle, mosey, jail break, mosey, jail break, mosey to Possum Point Player parking lot.
  • Arm circles 15 small forward/backward, 15 large arm circles forward/backward.
  • Merkin Routine 10 diamond, 10 regular, 10 wide fingertips forward, 10 Ranger, 10 wide fingertips out, 10Carolina Dry Docks.
  • Mosey to hotel 50 dips.
  • Mosey to eye center 3rd F part 2.
  • Mosey to Circle

COT

  • Number Rama: 18 PAX
  • Name-O-Rama
  • Announcements
  • Prayers

3rd F:

Chosen Suffering

Our desire to get uncomfortable is at an all-time low. Chosen suffering is a mindset. Never willing to settle for the easy way, an Elite person constantly moves toward pain to push themselves beyond their current abilities.

Growth means stretching away from our comfort zone. Nothing stays the same you either progress or regress. Growth requires pain, which is why it’s difficult to stay on top.

People matter; choosing the right ones to be with matters. Pain unifies us and love sustains us.

Elite people understand that short bursts of choosing the right way doesn’t make enough of a difference. Building habits take time. Deep rooted good habits must be formed. It’s the long term, sustained commitment that turns normal into special. Show up and give over and over. Discomfort shows its face during intense training, intense studying, rehabbing an injury, building one’s business, raising a family, managing people and so on.

The elite surround themselves with others who help them master their craft. If you’re not willing to pay a high price but are looking for a quick solution instead, you’re headed down a road to nowhere. The elite are curious, they are thinkers and problem solvers with a growth mind set. Deep suffering is far more fun to talk about than to live. Greatness is developed. Humans will get nowhere unless they compile information, make a plan, and act on it. Good to great isn’t an overnight thing. The only way to transform is to earn it.

Commitment means your life reflects your beliefs and I was committed. Spent mornings, afternoons, and most evenings in the wrestling room. The rate at which a person works is a window into the soul of what he values as priceless. There is a clear connection between effort and workload that occur when few are watching. There’s a massive chasm between believing something and committing to it.

Becoming elite is a choice, people aren’t born elite. Winning is never something we can completely control. Those who suffer the greatest do so because of their deep love of what they’re doing. Deep suffering moves us from good to great. Sense of value in our lives must be built from the inside out. Anything worth having requires suffering. Living on impulse without discipline gets us nowhere. Your goal should be to wake up better than you were today. Every great performance relies on solid training. Gratitude comes from the underlying belief that one’s life is no accident. The elite figure out what needs to get done, and they do it. Many people establish their wants, but they don’t consistently practice the habits to bring their desires to complete fruition. An elite individual understands that sustained success is the result of repeated good decisions over time. The elite don’t speak or think of excuses, they problem solve.

Falling short is painful, but pain is a gift. We waste our pain when we don’t learn from our losses and discomfort. Every person fails, but what’s more important is how we each manage the hurt. The elite assess, plan, and repeat until they’re refined. A strong plan and solid execution will increase our odds for the desired outcome.

Failure is a gift. Change happens with action. Harden oneself, but never get down on oneself. Excellence is the ability to do work every single time no matter who’s watching. Most people are unwilling to give at the required level to get what they want.

Struggle is at the center of all growth. We need people who care about us and challenge us to move from where we are to where we want to be.

The Elite work ethic is having the ability to repeatedly take yourself into chosen suffering. Eliteness comes from the absolute love for their desired outcome. Competency relies on training. You have to know that you’ve paid the price. Day in and day out you work on areas that need improvement.

Elite athletes are problem solvers. Humans say what we want, but we aren’t willing to back up with action. Instead, we offer excuses instead of taking responsibility. Successful people own their decisions and stand by the results. Hone in on the things you can control like your thoughts. Winning isn’t something we can control. However good you think you are there is always someone better. Choose each day to work alongside others who push you to greater levels of suffering. Wrestling teaches transformational lessons in humility because it’s raw and real, there’s no hiding. It’s the simple things done well and repeatedly that separate good from great. Winning is less controllable than your effort. Control what you can. Our effort should deplete us and bring us intense discomfort. We are capable of so much more that we think we are. It’s human nature to fall back into complacency to find the easy way out. As a wrestler you have to define your priceless, that objective or goal you’ll do anything to achieve. Actions speak louder than words. Too often we say we want success, but when struggling becomes more than what we imagined we give up.

Becoming elite is about letting go of the things that hold us back and pressing on. In every stage of life, complacency longs to sneak in. We must fight this natural desire to be easy on ourselves. We should be hard on ourselves, but never down on ourselves. We are built for glorious things and made to stretch ourselves. We will always need to choose suffering because it’s healing. We have a soul that long to be challenged and lifted.

ABS olutely

DATE: 3/10/21

QIC: Chappie

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.

Chappie, out!

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