Backblasts

I was fired up this morning to start the first ever IPC for the majority of the F3 Wheaton group. The mumble chatter from Banks, Captain Crunch, and Gummi Bear (IPC veterans) throughout the week just added to the anticipation.

Warm-O-Rama: Motivators x 6 (5 accidentally), Picking Daiseys down the middle, to the right, to the left. Standing quad stretch, Arm Circles forward starting small and progressing to big, Arm Circles backwards starting small and progressing to big.

Thang 1: IPC Week 0

• 50 Squats
• 40 BBSU
• 30 Merkins
• 20 Bonnie Blairs – 2 reps count as 1, or counting only one leg
• 10 Burpees
• Run 400 Meter

Rinse and Repeat 4 Times

PAX Attended & Times: BigMac was a machine – I’m pretty sure he wasn’t even tired at the end!

@Big Mac 22:08
@Shiplap 24:15
@Katniss 24:16
@wet burrito @Captain Crunch (AJ) 25:53
@Crash 27:54
@Banks 28:58
@tortuga 29:10
FNG Jim 30:04 (welcome @T-bone!)
@TBTF 30:15
@Crack 31:26
@Noodles 38:00 (edited) 

NOR/COT: We give praise for the beautiful day, the group, and the ability to complete such a grueling workout. We pray for a great start to the year for the colleges starting today and especially Wheaton College where many of our F3 brothers work. We pray for the health and safety of our society and the leadership of the country.

Moleskin: We welcome T-Bone to the F3-Wheaton family. He picked a heck of a day to join. @banks always says that FNGs that start on a hard workout or in the winter usually stick around. If this hold true T-Bones will be a regular before we know it! IPC Week 0 really pushed the group and it is safe to say each of us leaned on each other at some point throughout it. Regardless of times (we all did pretty good) just completing this workout is a huge accomplishment. Have a great day!

Excellent showing of 18 PAX ready to enjoy the sunrise and cool morning weather. PAX in attendance:  HotBox, Gummi Bear, Captain Crunch, Panhandle, Da Vinci, Shiplap, Wet Burrito, Smokey, Yoyorabbit, Tortuga, Taco Bell, Bloomer, Crack, TBTF, Sparrow, Katniss, SAGA, and Big Mac.

Disclaimer – I’m not a professional, don’t be like Michael Scott, make good decisions. F3 has no monetary cost, but all choices come with costs.

Economics – Study of the allocation of scarce resources (study of choice)

Warm-O-Rama

7 count motivators

Forward arm circles – Think about why you are here

Backward arm circles –

Tappy taps

Air squats – in cadence 10 count (Weight on heel, cross 90 degrees, fully extend hips when standing, don’t let knees pass toes.)

Burpees – 5 on your own (Chest touches ground, hands above head with feet off the ground)

Merkins –  in cadence 8 count (Elbow passes 90 degrees, further out works shoulders, further back works triceps, middle gets the chest)

Lunges – in cadence 8 count (Back knee gets below back heel, front knee doesn’t pass front toe)

Black Widows – in cadence 10 count (Plank, bring one knee in, back foot pushes up to toe and return)

Thang: Mosey to area just south of basketball courts.

Economists assume decisions are made in order to achieve a set of objectives. For the next 5 minutes, objective, as many safely completed reps within time constraints.

1 minute each exercise option to increase challenge at 30 seconds.

Air squats (with jump)

Burpees

Merkins (with hand release)

Lunges (Bonnie Blairs)

Black widow knee slides

Recover for 10

Get to Hoffa as fast as possible.

Decisions are made within a context. Laws of nature, norms of humans all affect how we make our decisions. In fact the decisions and anticipated reactions of others create part of the context within which we make our own decisions.

Next set to be completed with a partner, one completing static exercises and observing the one completing active exercises.

Active are the same 5 as the prior round. Static are

Al Gore, Boat (30 seconds each side), Superman, Plank, Static lunge (30 seconds each side)

Return to area south of basketball courts. Objective: get to know your partner a little better.

Final set, instead of external monitoring, the suggested objective is to focus on form over quantity of reps.

Return to the parking lot.

Reflection – OT: work towards righteousness through the outside monitoring of the law, NT: transform your objectives so that external monitoring is not necessary. What are your objectives?

CoT

Praying for pure motivation, wisdom and grace in a challenging conversation, and for friends who recently called off a wedding days before it was planned.

Thanks for a great morning, for showing up, working hard, and for all the encouragement you give to me! I appreciate this group of men.

There was a solid showing of 11 PAX eager to get their week started out the right way. PAX in attendance were: HotBox, Gummi Bear, BigMac, Captain Crunch, Banks, Panhandle (FNG), Da Vinci, Archive, Shiplap, Wet Burrito, and TBTF

WoR consisted of a set of 5 motivators, 10 Mountain Man Poopers, and 10 tappy taps all done in cadence

We then set out to do a one mile ruck around the perimeter of the AO where we rucked the east/wide legs of the path and shuffled the north/south legs of the path

We added a stop at the base of Hoffa for some moderate PT. We did:3 minutes of EMOM – Ruck shoulder press, Ruck front squats, Ruck BBS, and Ruck Merkins x10 reps each exercise3 minutes EMOM – 10 manmakers

We then did a slightly shorter ruck through the AO where we again rucked the east/wide legs of the path and shuffled the north/south legs of the path

CoTPrayers for the kids, teachers, and staff as the school year commences as well as any parents/families that are managing elearning for their children.

Welcome Panhandle!

It was a great morning to be awake and get some work in while letting our bodies recover. The energy of the group was great from the start and YHC was excited to Q a different kind of workout.

Warm-O-Rama: We stretched every muscle under the sun in every possible way (forgot quads and calves….Thanks Banks).

Thang 1, on the parking lot: Exercise to the light pole then jog to the grass. Repeat exersize coming back

High Knees- This is when Banks was quick to mention YHC forgot to stretch the quads and calves, but kicks, karaoke, skip for height, skip for length, supermans (quad stretch), calf stretch on the curb

Mosey to the C.O.O.T.I.E.S, Hang from the pull up bar for a 10 count x 2.

Thang 2: Mosey around the AO. We would stride it out getting the heart rate elevated but didn’t push for too long, then would walk. Rinse and repeat around the Archive mile.

Mary x 25: Double LBCs, Gas Pumps, Leg Lifts, Oblique LBCs, Big flutter kicks.

COT: Praise for a beautiful world, the ability to workout, the PAX of the group. Praying for health of society and a great end to the week.

When posting the pre-blast for this workout I starting to think “ I may be losing it”. When Captain HC’ed and said “my love language is crazy, HC” I was relieved I’m not alone. In all, 4 PAX decided to partake (Banks, TBTF, Captain Crunch, and myself), even if it was before an almighty Captain Crunch Q!

We used two sand bag and two coupons for the circuit and gathered by the COOTIES.

Circuit 1 – 10 reps- full body: 2 rounds

Blockees, pull-ups, squat and press w sandbag, clean and squat w sandbag.

Circuit 2 – 20 reps – upper body: 2 rounds

Bench press w sandbag, bent over rows with sandbag, durkins, 1 arm rows with coupon

Circuit 3 – 30 Reps – arms: 1.5 rounds

Skull crushers w sandbag, curls w sandbag, upright rows, dips

It was a short EC (about 25 minutes) but all PAX involved felt the upper body burn!

17 PAX showed up for Da Vinci’s VQ. Beautiful morning.

Warmorama: Goofballs x 20, Motivators x 7, Windmills (large & small); leg stretches during speech about Joseph Campbell, George Lucas and the neglected Christian Yodas, a.k.a. the Desert Fathers, whose sayings were interspersed (nice free edition of the sayings in PDF form available here. Though I drew from this book which is alphabetical – today was from Antony).

11s (Burpees and Merkens) around the short loop (stopping at 11 lights). Mary for early finishers.

4 Corners (Coupon Merkens, Curls, Coupon Squats, Shoulder Press). 40/30/20/10. We quit early (starting at 40 was too ambitious). Next time 30/20/10 will work better.

Merken Mountain (Merken then bear crawl to where your hands were for another Merken, make it to the fence). No time for a planned Jacob’s Ladder, but will do it next time.

Ring of Fire (but without Bear Crawls, so wasn’t really a Ring of Fire). 6 guys named Mary exercises.

Circle of Trust: Welcome to FNG, Abraham, a.k.a. DBC (Double Beef n’ Cheddar). Da Vinci dropped the flag with 15 Merken penalty. Prayers for the start of school, and for pushing through with other daily exercises (diligence in work, love of family, neighbor, etc.).

Thanks for showing for my VQ, crew.

Abba Antony said, “I have seen all the snares of the devil spread out on earth and I said with a sigh, ‘Who can pass these by?’ and I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Humble-mindedness.'”

“I’ll have a little bit of everything, with extra bear crawls, please…”

…said (likely) no one as they first showed up to AO Mastodon on this moderate temp, blue-skied, ever-so-slightly-muggy August morning in Wheaton, IL. We tied our record with 19 PAX posting this morning, which was a huge blast and an honor to serve as QIC for today! YHC had plenty planned, but only barely got about half of his beatdowns off the weinke and onto the turf. Some old friends like The Death Die and Welsh Dragons came back roaring and laying it on heavy.

PAX who posted:

1. Archive
2. Captain Crunch
3. Banks
4. Jäzz Händz
5. Shiplap
6. Noodles
7. Too Big to Fail
8. Big Mac
9. Da Vinci
10. Katniss
11. Sparrow
12. Chaser
13. Crack
14. Crash (hate!)
15. K-Pop (hate!)
16. Tortuga (respect!)
17. Saga
18. Sweet Treats (hate!)
19. Bloomer

(Should be noted, this was F3 Wheaton’s first gathering with both “Hate” (under 20 years old) and “Respect” (over 50 years old) in a single post!)

WoR in the tennis courts, starting at about 7:02am:

• Motivators 7x
• Daisy pickers, 15 seconds per position
  (Leg spread, touch center, left, right—yes this has a name!)
• Tappy-taps 10x IC
• Arm circles
  * sml fwd 10x IC
  * lg fwd 10x IC
  * sml bkwd 10x IC
  * lg bkwd 10x IC
• Mountain Man Poopers 15x

Mosey to Hoffa, where Death Die and some stations up the hill were prepared.

Thang 1:
Ascending B.L.I.M.P.S. + Death Die
Four “stops” marked with cones somewhat-evenly spaced up the hill. PAX will do each “letter” of BLIMPS once at the bottom of Hoffa (hill), and once again ascending the hill, in order, reps altered by the Death Die. This was confusing at first but we call caught on after a few reps. Each exercise group/set was OYO, (2x B’s first, recover. 2x L’s next, recover). The first PAX to descend the hill after each letter got to call an ab workout of their choice in order to hold for all the 6. Any trailing PAX join in until all were present. Recover between “letters” (exercises). NOT A RACE, but as we say in the Jazz Handz house: “don’t dilly dally.” Good form is key.

Burpees / Bear Crawls
5 at bottom of hill.
Bear crawl up to each station, then 5+6 (death die) = 11 burpees at each of the 4 station up the hill.
(that’s 49 total)
Mosey to descend.
Abs to hold for 6.

Lunges (1 leg is 1)
10 at bottom of hill.
10+6 (death die) = 16 lunges up the hill (disregard stops).
Mosey to descend.
Abs to hold for 6.

Imperial Walkers (2 legs are 1)
15 at bottom of hill.
15+2 (death die) = 17 imperial walkers up the hill (disregard stops).
Mosey to descend.
Abs to hold for 6.

Merkins / Mosey
20 merkins at bottom of hill.
Mosey up to each station, 5+6 (death die—can’t remember if this is what we rolled) = 11 merkins at each of the four stations up the hill.
Mosey to descend.
Abs to hold for 6.

Plank Jacks / Paula Abdul (routine)
25 plank jacks at bottom of hill.
Begin Paula Abdul routine (2 fwd, 1 bkwd). Mosey fwd 2 spaces up the hill, do 5+1 (death die) = 6 plank jacks at that station. Reverse bear crawl back down hill by one station. Stand up. Mosey fwd 2 spaces up the hill, 6 plank jacks at that station. Reverse bear crawl back down hill by one station. Stand up. Rinse and repeat until PAX reach the fence (5 stops total).
Mosey to descend.
Abs to hold for 6.

Squats / Sprint
31 at bottom of hill (1 extra from death die roll).
AYG sprint to top of hill to fence.
Mosey to descend.

Recover.

Thang 2:
Pull-Up Check-Up + the “Jazz Handz Dirty Mile” (0.72 miles)
Time got the better of yours truly, so we unfortunately didn’t have time to run the “whole” dirty mile (hardly, in fact). But we did manage to do our Pull-Up Check-Up. Moseyed around east/south of Hoffa to C.O.O.T.I.E.S. where 19 PAX broke up into four stations: 1) Pull Ups,  2) Rows,  3) Al Gore’s,  4) Superman Planks. Pace-setters were PAX on pull-ups, 10x each. Once they were done, everyone rotate stations clockwise until we all had a shot at pull-ups. Moseyed back the way we came for sake of time, to what I like to call…

Thang 3:
“Welsh Dragon Alley”
PAX found a shaded stretch behind the baseball diamond with about 13 minutes left for the workout. Just enough time for WELSH DRAGONS and some fun Mary to follow. F3 Exicon definition of a Welsh Dragon:

“Remain in plank position the whole time. Bear crawl forward 4 steps, do 1 merkin, 1 plank jack, and tap the BACK of each shoulder 1 time. Repeat adding 1 rep to each exercise each time – bear crawl forward 4 steps, do 2 merkins, 2 plank jacks, 2 sets of back of shoulder taps… etc. Go until you get to 10 reps each, you’ve covered 30-50 feet, or until your arms fall off – whichever comes first.”

Wheaton PAX managed to all finish and help out the 6 with remaining reps, then moseyed back to the bottom of Hoffa for an extended

10MoM (ten minutes of Mary):
Guantanamos
19 PAX circled up in a fairly large circumference on their backs with feet high in the air. First PAX jumps up and pushes the feet down around the circle, each man fighting to keep their legs off the ground. Followed by next PAX in line, then hit the ground legs up when back to your start position until last man finishes the circle. After about half the circle was covered, we started blitz mode to make up time and did a lightning round to finish off the whole set of PAX, to ensure each man got a chance to dish out some pain in turn. Captain Crunch had the agreeable idea to begin flutter kicks while we waited for our turn to jump up or be pushed down.

Finished right about 8:02am.

CoT / NoR:

• Continued prayers for the health of our group and our families and community
• Sparrow’s glassy-shardy foot to heal up! Respect (and slight concern!) for showing up, brother.
• Glad to hear most men should have power back after storm.

Moleskine:

After covid, along with some anxiety and annoying sleeplessness for YHC, I’ve changed my perspective on posting from “obligation and not quitting” to “I actually need and want this very badly” and “I’m so very thankful for this group of honorable, dedicated men who I can count on to show up in my life.” I’m truly so thankful for each of you HIMs, pushing me, and allowing me to serve and push you this morning.

Sidebar: a personal goal of mine is upping my PULL UPS GAME. I was glad to get a checkup in my Q this morning, I can actually get a couple without touching the ground now. Looking forward to getting better at these and hoping the rest of you PAX will join me in this!

Per suggestion of Archive, I listened to the Art of Manliness podcast featuring Dread and OBT (founders of F3), and along with Urkel’s words of encouragement last week, it inspired me to really change my perspective and motivation on inviting men. I’m starting to see my neighbors and coworkers in a new light, and notice things I never have. Loneliness, glumness, lack of motivation and purpose. Not that everyone is in such a bad way or desperately pleading for help…but now that I’ve been there myself, and have seen the hope just posting to F3 has been for me, I want other men to see and have that too. And by extension, hoping to share the Gospel of Christ in that workout and consistency (1st) dynamic, and more-so through 2nd and 3rd F events, building friendships, “guy time”, and community…along with eventual community impact.

F3 Wheaton men—let’s each strive to be a mensch: “a person of integrity and honor”. That goes for our community, our work, our schools, and most importantly in our family units. Show up. Love. Lead. Sacrifice. I am the least of these, but I am striving afresh with new vigor in this weak season of my life. I’m eager to see how I can grow in my leadership and ownership of situations through the power and camaraderie of F3 and the men who surround me.

How can you sacrifice for your loved ones this week?

How can you lead this week?

Onward! Have a restful weekend, brothers. Thankful for you all!

It is Friday already and the group felt the need for some light jogging and a little PT to bridge the gap between Thursday and Saturday beat downs. A new record for EC Run Club of 6 PAX came out: Shiplap, DaVinci, Noodles, Katniss, Big Mac, TBTF demolishing the prior record of 3! To be fair I believe this is only the 4th EC Run Club 🙂

WoR – 30 second jog in place, 25 SSH, 30 seconds mummy kicks (Shaun T mumble chatter ensued), followed by various stretched to prep us for our journey

Thang:

• We jogged around the AO and eventually made it to the north field of the high school off Geneva Road where they keep the tractor tire @Banks so kindly introduced some of us to
• Each PAX took a turn flipping the tire 10 times while the remaining PAX moseyed to a fence about a 100 yards out and back. In some cases 2 PAX teamed up to flip the tire
• We then moseyed back to the AO and visited our buddy Hoffa for 5 hill sprints foll0wed by a mosey around the baseball diamond and back to the flag
• The intention was to end with Mary but I didn’t leave enough time for that (We will get it next time boys)

Total distance was about 3.5 miles with some PT sprinkled in.

CoT – Prayers for the community (including Archive) who are still trying ot get electricity back. Prayers for Noodles as he continues to pursue the next step in his career