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“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

10 PAX were in attendance for today’s beatdown! The gloom is back and the fog hovered over AO Mastodon’s grounds. Noodles prepared a beatdown that allowed all HIMs to harness their inner Mowgli. Crack was fairly accurate in describing this as a Bears and Miles approach. AO Mastodon certainly has a lot to play with. Plenty of ground was covered as we explored bridges, rock formations and baseball diamonds. Time did not allow for use of coupons but I think PAX certainly got better in the end. Great to see the HCs remaining steady at double digits. Also good to see old faces back.

WoR: Motivators x7, Goof Balls x20, Tappy Taps x15

Noodles set the pace as PAX moseyed and performed the following:

Thang #1 – Bearpee Alley – Distant cousin to Dan Taylors. PAX performed 1 burpee followed by a 4 count Bear Crawl. Increasing by 1 burpee: 4 Bear Crawl steps for a final count of 7 burpees: 24 Bear Crawl steps.

Thang #2 – Centipede – Continued mosey to one of AO Mastodon’s rock formations to perform a few Centipede rounds. PAX were to weave in and out between rock formation for a total of 3 rounds.

Thang #3 – Bear Crawl Ring of Fire – Moseyed over to the baseball field where PAX were spread out around the infield to perform continued Bear Crawls and a variety of Merkins. Q sets the pace, ready position, move, halt and recover.

Round 1 – 4 count Bear Crawl in counterclockwise direction behind each PAX. Halt, 10 Merkins starting with Q while everyone else holds Bear Crawl position. Continue 4 count Bear Crawl, next PAX performs 10 Merkins. Rinse and Repeat until all PAX get a turn.

Round 2 – Same as above except increasing to 8 count Bear Crawl and 10 Werkins. Rinse and Repeat until all PAX get a turn.

Round 3 – Same as above except increasing to 12 count Bear Crawl and 10 Diamond Merkins. Rinse and Repeat until all PAX get a turn.

Hold Plank for 6. HIMS also took on some extra Merkins sets while waiting for 6.

Let me not forget that we Bear Crawled across many bridges.

NoR: Crack, Big Mac, Tortuga, TBTF, Shiplap, Da Vinci, Katniss, Archive, Captain Crunch, Noodles (Q).

CoT: Prayers for Archive and his family so that power may be restored. Prayers for all those without power during this period of restoration. Prayers for Big Mac’s friend as she takes on full time job of being a mother to her children and coping with the passing of her husband. Prayers for overall health for all the PAX present and not present so that we may continue to sharpen each other.

Moleskin: I have had recent periods general fatigue and lack of motivation. These stressors are more difficult during this pandemic as I find myself continuing to adjust to a new way of living. F3 has never felt so important in my life than now. It has allowed an escape from the current day to day routine while working from home and physical (social) distancing. As I continue to remind myself to keep God in the center of my life, I am also thankful to have surrounded myself with such an amazing group of men. F3 has definitely become a big support system in my life. It is so true that there are many men out there that don’t realize just how much they need F3 in their lives.

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It was a brisk morning and most PAX had their electric restored throughout the night so we all slept better. With the IPC just a few weeks away I wanted to get out and do a dry run of a workout they have posted in the past. There weren’t any warnings for the HIMs in the pre-blast so they were pleasantly surprised. I can tell you it was a burner!

WOR: Hamstring Stretch, quad stretch, seal claps, and arm circles – All for a random time determined by YHC.

The Thang:

50 Burpees – I think this took the PAX by surprise

Mosey to the Hilltopper (AO Lake Ellyns Hill)

20 Merkins, run the stairs 20 Merkins, run down the ramp, 15 Merkins, run the stairs, 15 Merkins, run down the ramp, rinse and repeat until the group hit 5 merkins at the top ad bottom. (100 total reps)

Mosey around the Lake and Stop about 1/4 of the way.

150 Lunges

Mosey another 1/4 around the lake

200 Squats

Mosey

150 Lunges

Mosey

100 Merkins – In a circle – reps to try and get all 100 with good solid form

Mosey to where we warmed up

50 FINAL burpees

We ended with some Mary – Butterfly LBCs x 25

COT: Prayers for all that are still without power, prayers for TBTF and his family as they go through some health issues with his uncle, prayers for good sleep and focus for all the PAX, praying anyone not able to post will do so soon. We praised the Lord for our minds and the mental toughness he is giving us, for the beautiful day, and the wonderful he surrounded us with.

The storms last night were bad almost all of the HIMs didn’t have power and I’m sure slept terribly in a HOT house. I know I did. YHC was hoping to make this beatdown one that would distract the PAX from the events around them and make us all a little more mentally tough. As August moves forward, I can feel the Iron PAX challenge drawing closer. The goal of today’s Q was to push each PAX to their limit and then a little more chasing someone who believes they have an advantage over everyone else. Your QIC wanted to do his part to start the training process to make sure our F3Wheaton group has a strong showing.

Location: AO Mastodon

Temperature: A Brisk 65 degrees

PAX Attended: DaVinci, Crack, Katniss, BigMac, Noodles, Jazz Hands, Gummy Bear, TBTF, Shiplap

WOR: Goof Balls IC x 25, Merkins IC x 5, Legs Spread Hamstring stretch, walk to the right leg, walk to the left leg, Seal claps IC x 10, Arm circles forward and reverse

Thang 1: To get the heart rate up – Bataan Death March around the archive mile – Intended to do the short mile but an electric fire and the fire department wouldn’t allow. We finished our march at the coupons

Thang 2: Know your strength. On the pre-blast I asked each PAX to HC and list what they feel their best exercise is. I used each exercise as part of the thang and the corresponding PAX competed against the group. The goal was to either complete the reps first for exercises with a predetermined rep count, or get the most reps on exercises to failure. Anyone who beat the PAX who’s strength was being done would complete an ab exercise of their choice while the losers would run a hill and do penalty reps. The PAX who’s strength was being used had to do the penalty reps unless he finished first, if they finished in the lower half they had twice the amount of penalty reps

Strengths:

Burpess x 50 – BigMac:

Shoulder Press IC until failure – Shiplap

Merkins OYO until failure – DaVinci

HoDors x 50 – Gummy Bear

Star Jumps x 50 – Katniss

Winners:

Burpees – BigMac – still in disbelief how he did it so fast. I felt like I did 50 as fast as humanly possible and he beat me by two reps.

Shoulder Press: Gummy Bear – wishing I did to failure on this, the IC made it tough to keep everyone’s tempo the same

Merkins: Shiplap

HoDors: Katniss, we may have tied, but ‘ll give it to Katniss – he plowed through them

Star Jumps – Tie – Shiplap/Katniss

COT: We prayed for safety for all of the technitians working to turn the power on, for saftey of all the homes affected, for Jazz hands as he battles through sleeping issues and anxiety, and for all the M’s out there, they are the true MVPs. Finally, we praised the lord for a great day, with great men.

Moleskin: Due to the hot restless night at home, the AO was exactly what I needed. The good Lord blessed us with a cool morning and made sure we had a good enough showing to push ourselves. In my 7+ months of F3 I am proud to say, I finally saw Gummy Bear struggle though a workout. I am proud to see it was with one of my Qs and am happy to know he is human. Hats off to you Gummy Bear! Have a great day fellas!

-Shiplap

Another beautiful crisp morning at AO Mastodan with a good showing of 14 Pax.

Warm Up:

50 Side Straddle Hops I/C & 50 Mountain Climbers IC. Mosey

The Thang:

Mosey around AO stopping a few times to perform the following:

Station 1: 75 overhead Arm Claps IC and then the following:

10 push ups and rotations, 25 jump squats, 10 spiderman push ups, 20 bouncing betties, 10 reverse push ups.

Station 2: 75 flutter kicks I/C & then the following:

10 push ups and rotations, 25 jump squats, 10 spiderman push ups 20 bouncing betties, 10 reverse push ups.

Short sprint to back hardball path. Followed by Dan Taylors up to 10/40 split.

Finish at the base of hill for one sprint up the hill & back.

NOR/COT: Several paxs traveling next week Prayers for safety.

Moleskin: God is good all the time.

It was a cool and beautiful morning at Lake Ellyn. 8 1/4 (Gummi Bear made a brief showing) PAX showed up for an EC beatdown! Your QIC was perplexed planning todays Q – Do we see the new location, or have a beatdown to remember. With some of the mumble chatter I was hearing I decided to do a combination and altered my Q slightly.

PAX : Banks, Captain Crunch, Archive, DaVinci, TBTF, Noodles, Sparrow, Shiplap, 1/4 Gummi Bear

Warm-o-Rama: Moseyed over to see a nice view of the lake and away from civilians, 25 SSH IC, 15 Goof Balls IC, 10 Big Arm circles forward IC, 10 Little Arm circles backward IC, Leg spread – hamstring stretch straighdown and then walked over to each leg. Another brief mosey around the pool house and to the Hilltopper! (Lake Ellyns Hill – Thanks Noodles)

Thang 1: PAX broke up into 3 groups to accommodate for the width of the hill. OYO sprint up the hill, do 10 merkins, job down the steps too the base. Rinse and Repeat counting down the merkins to 5. It was a solid 15 minutes of continues movement.

Thang 2: A brief job around Lake Ellyn which is slightly under a mile – Thanks for the milage Captain.

Thang 3: PAX broke up into 3 groups. 2 groups of 3 and 1 group of 2. Partner 1 would clean and throw the sandbag while Partner 2 complete B.O.M.B.S x 10 reps each exercise. When partner 2 was finished he would run to his partner and they would switch. Most groups were able to complete 2 sets of B.O.M.B.S. for each parnter.

Mary: 61 Flutter Kicks IC, 61 Butterfly LBCs

NOR/COT: A brief description of social loafing and the power a great leader has in minimizing social loafing to get the most out of the team. We prayed for Noodles, his M, and 2.0. We also prayed for all the HIMs in the group that are having sleep issues. We are praying for Banks company and that the changes coming bring a brighter new beginning. Finally, we gave God praise for our health and ability to workout and be apart of F3.

It was another beautiful morning at AO Mastodon and surprisingly there was a little bit of a chill in the air! 14 PAX (That’s right, 14! – Archive, Captain Crunch, Hotbox, Poutine, Sparrow, Shiplap, DaVinci, Saga, Chaser, Crack, Gummibear, Banks, and 2 FNG’s, welcome YoyoRabbit and Sweet Treats!) showed up for today’s beatdown. YHC wanted to get a little creative and create a competition that still gave the PAX a great burn, and from some of the Mumblechatter, it sounds like I succeeded!

Warm-O-Rama:

• 7x Motivators
• 15x Mountain Man Poopers IC
• 15x Merkins IC

The Thang: Races!

Race #1 – the PAX all went and grabbed coupons and moseyed to the start of the trail. From there we broke up into 4 teams, 2 teams of 3 and 2 of 4. The first PAX would start by completing 5 Blockees, and then sprint to the next light pole. The other PAX would space out on the trail ahead at the next open light pole. When the first PAX gets to the next light pole, the PAX there begins their set of 5 blockees. The first PAX continue on to the first open light pole and waits for their teammate to get to them to repeat the exercise. We went around the inner loop finishing at the hill.

Race #2 – Keeping the same teams, the PAX moseyed to the C.O.O.T.I.E.S. area for another race consisting of the following:

• 5x Pullups
• 10x Derkins
• 10x Table press
• 10x (yes 10 Sparrow) jump ups

The PAX would complete the exercise and then sprint to the next PAX on their team. We completed 4 round.

Race #3 – Bearcrawl Inch Worm – The PAX would hold plank and the next PAX would bear crawl to the front of the line Indian run style until we got back to the coupons.

Mary – 60 Flutter Kicks IC

COR/NOR/COT:

Prayers for flattening the curve, for all of those going back to school and preparing for students to return, and for Archive’s M as they enter the 3rd trimester. I was really proud of the group this morning, and the energy each PAX brought to the table. Continue to do hard things and accelerate forward, great job men!

PAX rolled up with sandbags (@SAGA@Captain Crunch (AJ)@Gummi Bear@Sparrow@Shiplap@Crack@Banks@Noodles@Da Vinci and @Archive QIC) for a no miles Ruck Day. Inspired by some sweet sandbag drags on YouTube the Q set out to work heavy.WOR
15x

• SSH
• Merkins
• Squats
• Hammers
• Getups

THANG 1
Split into groups of 3-4 (depending on if you count 9 like the Q or 10 like everyone else)
DRAG RACE- 1 PAX does sandbag drag to tree and back while rest of Pax does AMRAP of:

• 1 arm rows
• Hammers
• Clean and Press
• OH Squats

Titan Pull
All three sandbags (~180 pounds) attached to a tow rope. 1 Pax pulls load around shrubs while other Pax AMRAPs the following:

• OH Flutters
• Merkins
• Ruck Swings
• OH Dolly
• Shoulder to Shoulder Thrusters
• HODORs
• Plank
• Getups
• Curls
• Burpees

10 exercises for 10 HIMs. Almost like I planned it that way.COR/NOR/COT — Prayers for @Crack s daughter settling into college, @Noodles finishing strong at work, and sleep/rest for all Pax (looking at you @Jäzz Händz)