Backblasts

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Failure is a good thing!

AO: the-knoll
Q: Timber
PAX: Pebbles, The Banker, El Capitan, Sooie, AAA, G-string (Eli Kresta), Malibu, morning star, Timber, Smoltz (2.0), Bumblebee (2.0), Iowa (2.0)
FNGs: 1 Iowa (2.0)
COUNT: 12
CONDITIONS: 58 degrees, and raining!

WARMUP: Mosey to stop sign, 10 pull-ups (OYO), 10 merkins (IC 4 ct), 10 jump squats (OYO), hip flexor stretch and hamstring stretch (10 ct)

THE THANG:
1. Hill sprints (8 min): Sprint uphill, recovery jog down (50 yards)
2. Leg burnout (3 sets): Bulgarian squats (10 each leg), jump squats (10), “shadow wrestling” movements (~30 seconds)
3. Upper body burnout (2 sets – 1 min, 40 sec): towel curls, towel tricep extensions, shoulder raises
4. The finisher: towel hang for as long as you can hold

MARY: None

ANNOUNCEMENTS: polar lunge this Thursday, hosted by @morning_star. Reminder/encouragement about No Noise November.

COT: Growth is experienced in challenges. Don’t fear failure! As the Governator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) once said, go to failure and then do a few more reps!

Thanks for coming out in the gloom. There was something oddly satisfying about working out in the cold rain with you men (and the brave 2.0s)!
– Timber

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Time

AO: iiipillars
Q: Focker
PAX: Tackle Box, moneyshot, Black Lung, Michelin Man, princessaurora, Go Fish, Formica
FNGs: None
COUNT: 8
CONDITIONS: dark and wet outside, dry and well lit in parking garage

WARMUP: run to garage, various stretching to time limit, no reps counted

THE THANG: concentration on form and muscle activation, no reps counted (it’s like the opposite of a CrossFit pull up)
TABATA 50 sec on, 10 sec rest (8 rounds total)

Round 1: drop squats and merkins
Sprint
Round 2: IYTs and monkey humpers
Sprint
Round 3: dive bombers merkins and donkey kick/fire hydrant hip circuit

MARY: PAX chose various exercises to varying time limits

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Hobbling Gobbler on Thursday at #greemachine

COT: Reminder of 2 things
-Holidays are number one time for addiction relapse, but also when lots of us go back into unhealthy living whether that be physically, emotionally, mentally. So be gracious with your family, remain disciplined, and be responsible for yourself and how you respond.
-The first holiday after a loss is incredibly weird and full of so many emotions. Don’t forget about those who lost loved ones this year, especially those at Covenant. Reach out to someone and just let them know their loss and pain isn’t forgotten.

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Pneumonia

AO: thebuffalo
Q: greyalbum
PAX: The Bobs, Giving Tree, Ultratecht, Hipster, Hot Route, @Clothesline, @MattFoley
FNGs: 1 @MattFoley
COUNT: 7
CONDITIONS: Honeycrisp

WARMUP:

Mosey
SSH
Burpees
Cherry Pickers
LBAC
World’s Greatest Stretch

THE THANG:

Grab a coupon

40 Jump squat
30 Diamond Merkin
20 LBC
10 WW1

40 Overhead press
30 Lunge
20 Crunchy Frog
10 Burpee

40 Wide Merkin
30 Skull Crushers
20 Freddie Mercury (2 is 1)
10 8 Count Body Builder

MARY:

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

COT: @greyalbum grateful for brand new baby at home, Nava Lucille!

PLAYLIST: Whiskeytown – Pneumonia

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Dealer’s Choice

AO: handsomizer
Q: Chunks
PAX: Grape, Red Skull, Salpal, Natural Ice, Freakonomics, Young and Restless, Cuban Missile, Cash Cab, Mr Emcee (Tallahassee), Plunger, Blueliner
FNGs: 1 Blueliner
COUNT: 12
CONDITIONS:
Last nice morning before it gets cold

WARMUP:
Advised the PAX to stretch before because there would be no warm up today.
MARY:
Started with 5 mins of Mary, thanks for the idea @hairband
THE THANG:
In honor of Native American Heritage Month, Indigeneous Peoples Run the long way around the stadium and down the ramps to the bottom of the stairs, but when we heard the word Run in the song “Dog Days are Over” by Florence and the Machine the PAX had to sprint.
Met at the bottom of the stairs and Bear way to Heaven up the stairs. Grape remarked that it was harder today than usual, probably because we didn’t do arm circles to warm up. Moseyed down the ramps to the bottom of the stairs.
PAX took turns picking an exercise to do while they ran up the stairs touching each step and running down the ramps.
Ran back up the stairs together and did a 5 Burpee buyout.
Indigenous Peoples run back to Startex with a Sprint to the finish.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Check slack for all the things
COT:
Blueliner was added to the PAX today.
Prayers for all those traveling for Thanksgiving

The goal of F3 is to grow leaders. Part of being a leader is asking for feedback. I asked the PAX for 2 things I could have done better as a Q today. 1. While the 1 PAX is running have the rest do the exercises in cadence instead of everyone for themself. 2. The run/timer was a little long to be doing just one exercise for that long. Also, received feedback my playlist was “meh” (Salpal), but he will understand the joys of being a dad to a teenage girl soon enough.

Thanks as always for the honor to lead.

SYITG,
Chunks

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MM under the sea

AO: atlantis
Q: Michelin Man
PAX: Toothless, Salpal, Chunks, Hair Band, Oatmeal
FNGs: None
COUNT: 6
CONDITIONS: acceptable

WARMUP: most of us ran. Oatmeal walked.

THE THANG: 1 burpee followed by 10 reps of an exercise called out by each successive PAX. 5 rounds: upper, lower, ab, total body, and traveling. Run the water tower loop in between.

MARY: nah

ANNOUNCEMENTS: you know.

COT: Thankful.

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If you can do 1, you can do 10…

AO: the-knoll
Q: Wolfpack
PAX: Sooie, morning star, Wolfpack, Pebbles, El Capitan, AAA, G-string (Eli Kresta), Timber, Link, Bumblebee, Big Red, Tonks, Fishbiscuit
FNGs: 1 Fishbiscuit
COUNT: 13
CONDITIONS: Could it get any nicer!?

WARMUP:
Mosey to stop sign
BACs
BAC BACs
Imperial Walkers
Don Quixote’s
Willie May Hayes

THE THANG:
Partnered up… leave no man behind, but leave no man where you found him!

All exercises were performed in alternating reps with the partner. You do 1, partner does 1.  You do 2, partner does 2.  You do 3, partner does 3. All the way up to 10. That’s 55 reps per exercise. Holding a plank for the 6 until everyone gets to each location.

Overhead Claps
Run to Backstop
Iron Mikes
Run to River Table
Dips
Run to Backstop

Pause to play a quick game of freeze tag. If tagged must stand with legs wide to allow PAX to bear crawl beneath you to unfreeze. Switch up partners and back at it…

Carolina Dry Docks
Run to big tree
Jump Squats  
Run to other big tree
Merkins
Run to Backstop

Played a game of Bear Tag. All PAX in Bear crawl position. Everyone tries to slap the hand of another while not getting slapped yourself. If you get slapped, you must step out and do 5 burpees.

Mosey to the playground

MARY:
Mary go round for the final 5 minutes
– Scissor kicks
– High plank to low plank Merkins
– Write the ABCs with your legs outstretched
– Bicycles

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Hobble Gobble run on Thanksgiving morning
Cold Plunge at Morningstars after Knoll Thanksgiving workout (Congratulations Banker on the Q!)
January convergence… details coming soon!

COT:
Read an excerpt from the book Into The Clouds. There’s a term called “crumping” in mountaineering that is used when the desire to climb is all but lost. We may not be climbing K2, but we all have our own daily mountains to summit. When the hard times come up remember… if I can do 1, I can do 2. If I can do 2, I can do 3 and keep pushing forward my brothers!  

Sending good vibes to everyone who is sick or injured on a quick recovery.

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Hoover Ball

AO: titan
Q: DintyMoore
PAX: Chunks, Freakonomics, Red Skull, Recharge, Supernova, Crawlspace, Tim the Toolman, Focker, Solo Cup, Spinal Tap, hambone, Black Lung, preacherman, Good Morning America, Hitchhiker, Mr. Emcee
FNGs: None
COUNT: 17
CONDITIONS: Cool and clear

WARMUP:
Mosey to top of Dog Park
Shoulderama
– Arm Circles (forward and back)
– Seal claps
– Overhead Press
– Michael Phelps
Slow and Low Squats – five count

THE THANG:
Mosey to Volleyball courts
Split into 2-4 teams.

Hoover Ball
Medicine ball volleyball
Ball caught in front court must travel to back court on other side
Ball caught in back court must land in front court
Play the ball off the net within these rules
Scoring is like tennis – 15 – 30 – 45 – Match
Game is scored to first team to 5 points

All of this modified to both courts doing 5 merkins each time the heavy ball hit the sand.

Grunge Greatest Hits were played via Spotify

MARY:
Mosey to StartX
Indigenous People Run with medicine ball

Ring of Fire with Med. Ball in middle while PAX held high plank. Goal was to be last PAX planking while keeping the med ball in the middle. Various activities kept those who left the circle occupied while @vector @timthetoolman and @goodmorningamerica battled to the end of our time.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
A brief history of Hoover Ball origins were shared by Mr. Emcee. President Hoover typically did this activity on a regular basis and even held cabinet meetings following this regiment. Analysis of equipment was too firm and too prickly so perhaps the next Q will heed those suggestions.

Hobblin Gobbler on 11.23 at Green Machine

No Noise November continues

COT:
Praise/prayer for a good report on @Nancy on latest scans. Praise for @rightsaid and @crawlspace dad who was able to come home after open heart surgery last Friday. Continued healing for both.

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321

AO: devilsden
Q: Flash
PAX: Linus, Skeet, McAfee
FNGs: None
COUNT: 4
CONDITIONS:
Cold at the start, then 30 seconds in – just right.

WARMUP:
None

THE THANG:

Encouraged PAX to bring weight vests & everyone answered the call. 321 is:

– 3 minutes of traveling movements
– 2 minutes of stationary movements
– 1 minute of rest

Got in 7 rounds before a mosey back to the parking lot. Rounds were:

Forward Lunges
Merkins

Bear Crawl
Bird Dogs into Ab Walk Out

Side Squats
WW1’s

Crab Walk
Bicep Pushups

Tippy Toes
Tricep Bridge Dips

Toy Soldiers
Narrow Merkins with a Mountain Climber

Uncle Joe’s
Burpees

MARY:

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

COT:

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Passing the Torch

AO: iiipillars
Q: Grape , princessaurora
PAX: Harbaugh, Vector, Natural Ice, It’sJUSTLunch, Baguette, Black Lung, YumYum, Go Fish, Focker, Tackle Box, Swiffer, Bard, Govt’ Mule, Howitzer
FNGs: None
COUNT: 16
CONDITIONS: crisp and bright

WARMUP: Mosey, SSH, WMH, Good mornings, LBAC F, Moroccan night clubs, OH claps, and then a bunch of LBAC R

THE THANG: Partner up to do pull ups or swing set inverted prom date leg rows (or something like that) then flapjack

Jack Webb

2 laps around the track passing the speaker

Burpee relay (one PAX does 2 burpees and calls out an exercise for the rest of the circle to do, second time around the circle increased burpee count to 4)

2 laps around the track passing the speaker

Bear crawl relay with a partner

Most back to startex

ANNOUNCEMENTS: No noise November, hobbling gobbler

COT: prayers for F3 Nancy, for Luka, and for the St Paul Community

Special shout-out to @princessaurora for trusting YHC to take over as AOQ. Excited to continue his strong legacy!

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Joy Sustains Power

AO: the-knoll
Q: morning star
PAX: Sooie, Wolfpack, Timber, AAA, G-string (Eli Kresta), Pebbles, Ex-Pat, Malibu, Bumble Bee (2.0), Smoltz (2.0). Big Red (2.0)
FNGs: None
COUNT: 12
CONDITIONS:
Pleasantly chilly.

WARMUP:
Split into two teams to mosey around field, playing catch with football. Once everyone touched the ball once do a 10 count ground movement.

Circle up for little baby arm circles (balancing on one leg), soviet sprinter shakes, imperial walkers, plank jacks, shoulder taps.

THE THANG: Power + Joy
Round 1:
Two power exercises in 5, 3, 1 descending ladder: squat jumps and elevating merkins. One partner does reps, the other does soviet sprinter shakes. Mosey to the backstop after each ladder and do 3 star jumps together in celebration of something.

Plank / bridge to finish round 1 while sharing what we celebrated.

Round 2: game of infection.

Round 3: human knot.

MARY: follow the leader back through the playground.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
– Thanksgiving run next Thursday
– Cold plunge at the knoll next week
– New year convergence, more details to come
– Keep up with #no-noise-november

COT: YHC shared about healthy power and the practice of joy. Many times in my life I’ve burned out and wasn’t able to sustain pursuits. I’m now learning about submitted power and how joy brings endurance. Encouraged everyone to consider a need and a desire they have and how they might apply their power to it + how they might connect with joy around it.

Appreciate this space and you PAX … it’s been a great place for me to practice submitted power and joy.