No Shenanigans Means a Little Shenanigans

AO: bomber
Q: Freakonomics
PAX: CubCadet, Vector, Papa Bear, Crawlspace, Sherlock, Pep, Hedwig
FNGs: None
COUNT: 8
CONDITIONS: damp but not cold

WARMUP: the usual

THE THANG: Rounds of 5 exercises – Merkins, Squats, Carolina Dry Docks, Lunges, Rows (at the playground). Do 12 sets of each, run around the rec center and repeat with 11. Run around, do 10… I got down to reps of 5.

3 minute wall sit.

Superman Y.

6 minutes of mary

MOLESKINE: Can you show up at the end and still be counted. Just ask Crawlspace.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: none

COT: Pep’s Work, praise for Vector’s daughter honoring at graduation, those in Ukraine, and Natural Ice’s finding a new job.

Only the few

AO: westeros
Q: Pep
PAX: CubCadet, Young and Restless
FNGs: None
COUNT: 3
CONDITIONS:
– Wet
– Rainy
– Water

THE THANG:
Dora
100: pull up
200: firehydrant (each side is one)
300: windshield wiper (each side is one)

7’s at the hill
Prisoner squat
Star merican

Pope
Pep project: tasks and deliverables defined

COT:
Prayer:
– pope passed away
– Pep: project tasks and deliverables defined

Shakedown

AO: titan
Q: Spinal Tap
PAX: Firefox, Tim the Toolman, Old Maid, Pep, Papa Bear, CubCadet, Cocktail
FNGs: None
COUNT: 8
CONDITIONS: perfect

WARMUP: the usual side straddle hops baby arm circles Willie mays hats and good mornings

THE THANG:
Mosey to the bottom of the hill and did 11’s with deconstructed burpees of merkins and squats thanks to CubCadet suggestion alternating with fire hydrants (a Pep special) but suggested by Papa Bear.

Then DORA with 50 pull ups, 100 shoulder tap plank jacks (thx Firefox) and 150 American hammers.

Finished with 20 incline merkins, 20 dips, 20 each leg (j)Bulgarian split squats.

Heard some :boom: :boom: :boom: during the Dora and found out later it was this…
www.wsmv.com/2025/04/16/suspect-shot-killed-by-dea-agent-midtown-nashville/#

ANNOUNCEMENTS: None

COT: Pep with his consulting

Next on deck: Natural Ice – CBO. He has been self admittedly been slacking due to lack of accountability. Expect lots of HC to make sure he shows up next week!

Gametron

AO: bomber
Q: Wolfpack , Firefox
PAX: Crawlspace, Chunks, Right Said, CubCadet, Papa Bear, Pep, Hedwig, Puzzlah, Vector, Sherlock, DintyMoore
FNGs: None
COUNT: 13
CONDITIONS: Good enough

WARMUP: Wolfpack led with
– SSH
– Imperial walkers
– Low and slow Squats
– Low and slow Merkins

THE THANG: With YHC and Wolfpack on Q, the only sensible outcome was some sort of gamified beatdown.

Part 1: Castle (led by Wolfpack)
PAX split into two teams. Field split in half with each team having a castle (aka, a base) at opposite ends, with a line of short cones, tall cones, and a 25lb sandbag at midfield, plus 3 or 4 short cones on each side of the field along the midline.

PAX had to travel to a cone, do an exercise based on the object, and then return it to their castle (or deliver it to the opposing team’s castle, if they chose to do so). Objects could be stolen from the opposing team’s castle using the same exercise.

Teams had 60s (sometimes 90s) rounds to score as much as they could. Short cones were worth +1 pt, tall cones were worth +2pts, the sandbag (always requiring 5 burpees) was worth -2pts (later amended to -4pts).

1st set of three rounds:
Travel = running
Short cone = 5 squats
Tall cone = 5 merkins

2nd set of three rounds:
Travel = side shuffle
Short cone = 5 wide merkins
Tall cone = 5 diamond merkins

3rd set of three rounds:
Travel = broad jumps
Short cone = 2 iron Lt. Dan’s
Tall cone = 2 burpees

Team 1 (Vector Sherlock Puzzlah DintyMoore YHC) took an early lead against Team 2 (Wolfpack Papa Bear CubCadet Pep Hedwig), but gameplay evolved with PAX realizing that there was enough time for the sandbag to travel to both castles. That led to some interesting waiting games over sandbag delivery plus some blocking maneuvers. Ultimately, it came down to a final round to break a 4-4 tie, which Team 1 came away with. That was not without some impressive sandbagged broad-jump heroics from Wolfpack. Also, Vector and CubCadet may never speak to each other again.

Also? So. Freakin’. Exhausting.

Part 2: Flip the Cone
Keeping the same team and same general field structure, a couple dozen short cones were scattered on both sides of the field, with cones on Team 1’s side right side up and cones on Team 2’s side upside down. Team 1’s goal was to end a 90s round with as many cones as possible right side up, with Team 2 aiming to end the round with more cones upside down. Except only mode of travel was a bear crawl in rounds 1 and 2 and murder bunnies in round 3. Teams instinctively split up into offensive and defensive squads with YHC, Sherlock and DintyMoore facing off against the defensive line of Papa Bear and Pep while CubCadet Wolfpack and Hedwig crossed the field to battle with Vector and Puzzlah. By the end, Team 1 came away with a 3-0 sweep but all PAX’s shoulders and legs simultaneously won and lost.

Finally, a 50s Hollow Body Hold.

MOLESKINE:
– Big thanks to Wolfpack for venturing to our neck of the woods and delivering the fun and the “fun”.
– Yes, this is what we do at all Game Nights
– Loved watching strategies evolve
– If you want to do a Q-collaboration in June or July, let me know! Sneak preview for next month: the most sought-after immune-system-themed combination we didn’t know we wanted – Vector + t-cell!

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
– Spring Fling

COT:
– Everyone shared a word/phrase of gratitude

Month of the FNG Prep!

AO: bomber
Q: Toothless
PAX: Grape, Pep, Firefox, Vector, Tim the Toolman, Right Said, Sherlock, CubCadet, Papa Bear, Crawlspace, Supernova, DintyMoore, Toothless, Chunks
FNGs: None
COUNT: 14
CONDITIONS: Quite fair, a bit muggy but no complaints for being solidly back in T shirt weather!

PLAYLIST: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/459qwYOyQ4j1hCmtMHFZsC?si=a23bad9eb37c4a0b

WARMUP:

Mosey to high ground, circle up

WAR
– SSH x 30
– Air presses x 10
– Windmills x 10
– Michael Phelps x 10
– Willy Mays Hays x 10
– Carrot pullers x 10
– Scorpions x 10 oyo

THE THANG: Month of the FNG Prep! :fng:

PAX count off forming three groups, 1, 2, 3…

– Group 1 does a patrol run down to end of lot and back up
– Group 2 does a ground exercise
– Group 3 does a standing exercise

All shuffle when G1 returns. Runners to the ground, ground stands up, and standing group runs.

Do four rounds (~2 mins AMRAP in each station based on runners):
1. G: Peter Parkers, S: Prisoner squats
2. G: American Hammers, S: Burpees
3. G: Carolina Dry Docks, S: Lt. Dans
4. G: Big Boy Sit Ups, S: SSHs (cut for time)

All answer a question within their group each round:
1. How did you get your F3 name?
2. What do you remember about your first workout?
3. Who invited you and why did you come to that first workout?
4. Why did you keep coming back? (cut for time)

Circle up for…

Rings of Fire :fire:

Thunderstruck
– High and low plank, up or down on “Thunder”
Roxanne
– SSH / Burpees on “Roxanne”
Flower (Bring Sally Up)
– Squat holds on “up” or “down”

MOLESKINE: Welp, the Respects may have HC’d, but the Un-Respectables recovered and showed out in force. Double Pickney action and the return of not 1 but 2 previous AOQ’s in Dinty Moore and Supernova walking into the warmup out of the Gloom made the comeback a statement victory. Will it start a streak??

Many people are saying the Rings of Fire section was their favorite part. That section was closely followed in the rankings by YHC calling out a penalty of 10 eight count body builders for the stalling of movement upon returning from a running segment, as Pep owned up to above, but there were others….

Hottest personal take of the day….Star Bagel has earned it’s place. After long dissent, taking over the porch with 10 dudes cracking wise ones and sharing about life has won me over (but just for bomber! don’t read this men of westeros)

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
– Spring Fling! This Sunday from 12-3p! Edwin Warner Park Shelter #5 off of Vaughn Rd!
– It’s MONTH OF THE FNG! Let’s get new men out with us in the Gloom and give this thing away!
– The Merchant has a hot wing eating 2ndf opportunity the weekend after Easter, 4/26
– End of April will feature the Impossible Mile CSAUP @ greenmachine, Focker for details

COT:
– Toothless shared
– Grape shared

COT featured a message from YHC about Month of the FNG – F3 has been tremendously impactful to me over the last 6 years. This group has been there with me through job changes, kids, and all sorts of ups and downs. I want other men to have that same kind of connection and community, and I know you do too. Let’s give this thing away and invite the men in our lives who need F3!

As always, it was an honor to lead. Thanks to Firefox for the invite! It was a pleasure.

SYITG,
— Toothless :tooth:

I Can Drive 55 with a Few Friends

AO: bomber
Q: Vector
PAX: Pep, Firefox, Papa Bear, Strutter, DintyMoore, Chunks, CubCadet, SalPal, Cream Cheese, Wet Wipes, Tim the Toolman, Sherlock
FNGs: None
COUNT: 13
Today’s Q was to acknowledge YHC’s 55th birthday a few weeks back. The theme? What’s the best part about birthday parties? No, not the gift bags. The friends. So today (after a Strutter request for a Hagar classic), we celebrated friends.

CONDITIONS: Balmy

WARMUP:
Standard Vector Birthday SSH set — 55 (set to I Can’t Drive 55 – Sammy Hagar. You’re welcome, Strutter)
LBAC x 20
RLBAC x 20
Overhead Press x 20

THE THANG:
Count off and get a partner. Your homework – find out an unknown fact about your friend t reveal at COT.

Mosey to Rec Center.
Pair of friends run around the Rec Center (fun fact finding time) while the rest of PAX work on 55 reps of the following:
Freddy Mercs
Regular Pull-Ups
Iron Mikes
Excellent Form Squats
Normal Merkins
Dips
SSH

Rinse and repeat x 3.

Mosey back to flag for Mary with Hello Dollys, Flutter Kicks, and Box Cutters.

PLAYLIST:
Why Can’t We be Friends? – War
Friends in Low Places – Garth Brooks
Friends – Jody Watley with Eric B. & Rakim
With a Little Help from My Friends – Beatles
You’re My Best Friend – Queen
Thank You for Being a Friend – Andrew Gold
Just a Friend – Biz Markie
You’ve Got a Friend in Me – Randy Newman
All My Rowdy Friends are Coming Over Tonight – Hank Jr.
Best Friends – English Beat
My Best Friend’s Girl – The Cars
All the Right Friends – R.E.M.

COT:
Prayers for those affected by cuts in public health and research.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Spring Fling this Saturday April 6th — check Slack for deets (right Cream Cheese?)

A Few Select Random Facts:
Wet Wipes posing nude in print
CubCadet doing black ops security for Yo-Yo Ma’s son
DintyMoore’s old bottle collection (which he puts highlighters inside off with black light backlighting?)

Thanks HIM for pushing me into year 55!
SYITG,
Vector :microbe:

11 is a really big number when you’re holding a cinderblock

AO: titan
Q: SalPal
PAX: Pep, Goose, Black Lung, Half Lyfe, Wolfpack, Young and Restless, Tim the Toolman, CubCadet, Papa Bear, Sherlock, Crawlspace, Slim Jim, Wonderpickle
FNGs: None
COUNT: 14
CONDITIONS: Acceptable

WARMUP: Mosey around the Parthenon + coupon pickup.

THE THANG: 11’s at the hill. Start with 10 squat thrusters at the bottom, 1 offset block merkin (each side 1/2) at the top. Mosey back and forth until you were at 10 on the top. Those without blocks did screamin’ eagles + bodybuilders + backwards mosey.

Returned the coupons, SSH and burpees to finish.

MOLESKINE: Hey PepGPT, come up with a meaningful insight into the nature of masculinity summarized from the conversations we had this morning during our workout.

Sure! I’d be happy to summarize some of the conversations that you had while working out this morning!

Everyone seemed to find the work challenging, and people decided to partner up to carry the load while making authentic human connections. The takeaway is that men can meaningfully accomplish more working together than alone.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
– Night Moves tomorrow
– Spring Fling April 6th

COT:
– Prayers for healing and perseverence in sickness.

Always an honor to lead. Stay Salty Nashville.

Respects win headcount

AO: westeros
Q: Pep
PAX: Vector, CubCadet, Tim the Toolman, Sherlock, Young and Restless
FNGs: None
COUNT: 6
CONDITIONS: early spring chill

WARMUP: none

THE THANG:
– mosey to bridge
– Bear crawl across bridge and lunge walk back
– Dora at playground :
– 100 pull ups, 200 fire hydrants, 300 windshield
wipers
– Run: the drop office circle at the school

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
– night moves Thursday

Prayers:
– chunks first day of new job
– Vector travel to Brazil and back

Guest appearance: SalPal , Chunks , Salami

Animal Movements

AO: bomber
Q: DintyMoore
PAX: hambone, CubCadet, Vector, Chunks, Crawlspace, Puzzlah, Pep, Michelin Man, Papa Bear, Poppa Lock, Salami
FNGs: None
COUNT: 12
CONDITIONS: Near perfection

WARMUP: mosey to south green tee box
10 Merkins
Arm and Leg warmup routine
10 Merkins

THE THANG:
The HIMs of greenmachine completed this Q last week- it was only slightly modified for Bomber lot incorporate the #merkinmadness since no one posted at GM. The goal was to test the animal prowess of the two PAX.

Animal Movements
Animal 1 and 2
Inchworm :worm:
Crab walk :crab:
10 merkins

Animal 3 and 4
Frog Jumps :frog:
Leaping Lizard :lizard:
10 merkins

Animal 5 and 6
Duck walk :duck:
Donkey Jumps 🫏
10 merkins

Animal 7 and 8
Kangaroos :kangaroo:
Coyote :wolf:
10 merkins

Bear Crawl :bear:
T. rex :t-rex:
10 Merkins

Mosey back to start X for Mary – pit stop for extra merkins and dips.

MOLESKINE:
Be a positive light to someone in your world today. Lots of pain and hurt (outside our workouts) in the world and people need that one caring friend.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
NightMoves next Thursday
New 4:13 cohort starts next week

COT: Always a pleasure to lead, SYITG

If F3 existed 80 years ago…..

AO: atlantis
Q: CubCadet
PAX: SalPal, Chunks, Firefox, Right Said, Pole Dancer, Toothless, Young and Restless, Subway, CubCadet
FNGs: None
COUNT: 9
CONDITIONS: Colder than we expected

WARMUP: Workout was inspired by Q’s recent visit to the National WW2 Museum in NOLA. We mosey’d in formation around the ball field. PAX has to stay two columns abreast and within arm’s length of person in front. Allowed to ample mumble chatter and heal-stepping, but good team cohesion. Q threw out a few random bits of WW2 / fitness related information….like “in 1941, the recommended time for unit fitness was 1 hour after breakfast”

Once to parking lot, we did the standard 21st century warm-ups b/c the 1940’s once looked too much like bad dance moves and Q didn’t care to demonstrate.

THE THANG: The WW2 standard physical fitness test (I am sure there are many, but this is the one we did).

– Pull-ups to exhaustion. Had to modify based on equipment. In 1941: 20 was an Excellent Score / 9 was a Fair Score.
– Squat Jumps to exhaustion: These are not your standard F3 Squat Jumps. Starting position is squatting on right heel with fingers laced on top of head, palms down. The feet are 4 – 6″ apart with he feel of the left foot on a line with the right foot. Spring upward until both knees are straight and both feet clear the ground. Keep upper body erect. While off the ground, reverse your feet before you land. Each leg is 1. In 1941: 75 was an Excellent Score / 38 was a Fair Score.
– Push-ups to exhaustion: If it looks like a merkin and smells like a merkin. In 1941: 54 was an Excellent Score / 30 was a Fair Score.
– Sit-ups for 2 min: Legs straight at start, hand behind head, scorer holds feet / ankles. Left elbow to right knee on the up (one rep), then alternate to right elbow to left knee for rep two….. In 1941: 79 was an Excellent Score / 51 was a Fair Score.
– 300 yard shuttle run: Spring 5 segments of 60 yards each in parking lot. Distance was only approximate. In 1941: 44 seconds was an Excellent Score / 50 seconds was a Fair Score.

Then we moved to the “Mass Athletics and Group Games” portion of the session. Field Manual 21-20 (c 1941) lists many, but we chose a couple reps of “Follow the Leader” through the playground / obstacle course and then “In and Out” which was sort of a last-man-up run with a rolling basketball, pax in a stationary line, and some zigging and some zagging.

Fit in 30 reps of flutter kicks before time.

MOLESKINE: We all know some history of WW2 whether from school, books, movies, friends or family. It’s nearly impossible to comprehend the entire world being solely focused on one thing for 5+ years. There are some elements of its origins and residue that impact the daily news 80 years later. I’d like to think that if F3 existed back then, its members would have made us very proud (and probably given us a real beat-down).

ANNOUNCEMENTS: 4:13 strong kicks off new class next week. Please consider supporting. For details and other events, see slack.

COT: Pole Dancer friend’s baby getting out of N-ICU. Toothless mother-in-law health. Chunks new job / travels. Firefox challenges as a leader / mentor at work. And the intentions in our heart.

Thank you for the opportunity to lead.