Author: F3 The Capital

AO: The Patriot

QIC: Maj Payne

The PAX: Dr. Dandelion, Subprime, Prenup, Lazlo, Bandit, Lucius, Poe, Hightower, Buffet, 90210, FNG Moonwalk, Jenner, Bone, and Noodle

15 PAX posted in the freezing gloom this Friday, which marked the longest government shutdown in history. It’s been a tough go for many in the F3Capital region, with many either furloughed or indirectly impacted otherwise. YHC decided that it was clearly time to build a wall, somehow, someway, since that’s what this whole thing seems to be about, so that’s what we did!  The following is a mostly a true story…

WU: SSH, Imperial Walker, Jumping Little Baby Arm Circles forward and rear.  Time to scoot.

The Thang: The wall obviously had to be big and strong, mostly because it was being built by F3 men, and well… as Noodle might say, nuff said! So first, the materials had to be gathered.

The PAX moseyed to the corner of Yorktown and 28th, where conveniently, someone had left a cinder block. While not steel, we all figured it would work just fine for our wall, and so after 5 x burpees to celebrate its discovery, we secured it and moved along to…

Base of the 30th street hill.  Miraculously, another cinder block was discovered, and we were next to a hill. What are hills good for?  Nothing but running up and down them, so half the PAX started running up while the other half did burpees! Flapjack and then we moved on for more building materials to…

The Rock Spring Park Pavilion. Lo and behold there was another cinder block waiting for the PAX!  All were elated and the PAX burst into spontaneous dips and derkins — 15 each. It was truly beautiful, especially watching Buffet and Jenner perform narrow grip dips on the cinder blocks themselves. If you haven’t ever done narrow grip dips… it’s actually probably a good thing for your shoulders. Hey, we said up front we aren’t professionals!! After the excitement subsided, we moseyed onward with three blocks for our wall to…

A quick rest break atop one of the many hills on Williamsburg Blvd and conveniently next to Poe’s van. I’m sure Poe (and a few others) considered jumping in to complete the journey, but alas, all chose to complete it on foot. While the PAX consolidated, all completed body weight squats, passing the (3 so far) blocks to the right, or left, or whatever works so that each PAX got 3 x squats with the block each.

Moving along, we stopped at Discovery Elementary School where yet another wall part awaited our arrival. Again, it was a cinder-friend, and again the PAX rejoiced. This time with a quick step up and derkin combo – 10 each.  Time to mosey to…

The indistinct corner of Little Falls and Harrison. Another cinder block and another opportunity to excel! 20 x flutter kicks for all! Continue the mosey to…

Chestnut Hills Park where the PAX accepted what would be the last block on our journey. More dips and derkins — 20 each and off we went again to a consolidation point and just a bit more fun. All blocks overhead and squat. Pass the block to the right after each squat.

Mosey to the end point, where we would build our wall! Only six cinder blocks, but the point was made! It takes more than a wall to stop the men of F3, and Jenner proved it by super jumping over it in a single bound.

After a quick Mary — 25 x LBC, 25 x flutter kick and 15 x WWIIs it was time to finish.

Announcements: Welcome FNG Moonwalk!!

Also, Grow Ruck 14 is coming up fast! Mar 22-24 in Richmond. It’s going to be a really amazing event. There will be a call Thursday at 8:30pm for those that aren’t sure about this whole Go Ruck thing.

COT: Thanks to all who came out to share in the frigid gloom. There are real people who are stressed about this shutdown and there are leaders across government and industry that are struggling. It is the job of the leader to keep his team together through thick and thin. Sometimes that means bringing some levity to the situation, sometimes it means bringing strength. Positive attitude is critical no matter what, and that’s what each of us need to do this day — bring some positive attitude! Go out and make the world a little bit better in your corner. Be a better employee, boss, father, son, friend or colleague. We are all leaders and we all make a difference.

Aye!!

 

AO:  The Patriot

QIC: Lucius

PAX: Bone, Flutie Flakes, Hightower, Lazlo, Poe, Lucius; FNG joined for part of workout, but had to drop out–we hope to see him again soon.

WARM UP: SSH; Arm Circles; Wind Mills; Downward Dog; Merkins

THA-THANG:

3 x Bearmuda Triangle:  PAX bear crawled between 3 cones spaced 35 yards apart, performing a rest exercise at each until relieved by another group of bear-crawling PAX.  Rest exercises included Merkins, Squats, and Cinderblocks (overhead press; curls; shoulder-to-shoulders).

After completing first triangle circuit, PAX performed:

Ring of Sandbag:  PAX circled up and passed a 50-lb sandbag from man to man.  After passing the bag, each PAX performed a burpee, then recovered to receive the bag again.

After completing second triangle circuit, PAX performed:

Point-to-Point Sprints:  Groups of PAX took turns sprinting from one corner of the triangle to another.  And back.

After completing third triangle circuit, PAX performed:

Railroad Tracks:  First PAX dropped to low plank. Second PAX jumped over first PAX, ran 5 yards beyond him, and dropped into a low plank. Third PAX jumped over first and second PAX, ran 5 yards beyond PAX 2, and dropped into low plank.  Etc. Continued all the way around the triangle.

Another Ring of Sandbag:  Same as the first.  A little bit louder.  And a little bit worse.

Only 300 meters of bear crawl today, but a nice little workout nonetheless.

MARY: Round-robin Abs, including protractor, 100 x LBCs, and Russian Twist.

COT:   There was an article in the Washington Post yesterday about fitness trends for 2019, which cited (1) wearable technology; (2) group fitness classes; (3) interval training; and (4) bodyweight exercises as trends to watch.  We don’t like to throw-around the word “trendsetters,” but F3 combines many of these “trends” (short of an Apple watch) into a fulfilling package.  We all find inspiration from this group.  Thanks for being here.  And for challenging each other to be better.

AO:  Olympus

Q:  Fish Fry, Fallout

Pax:  Misfire and his 2.0 FL Wright, DRPAX Chestnut, Jenner, Fallout, Fish Fry

The theme of today’s’ workout was to rediscover your muscles through new combinations of movements.  We’ll see how successful the workout was based upon the amount of mumble chatter once the 2nd day soreness sets in.

Warmup:  

SSH

Little arm circles

Air presses

Slow squat

Fellowship run around the track, butt kickers and high knees on straightaway

Exercise die up and down the field

Thang

Set 1

20 Jump Squats

10 Walking push ups

       25 Mountain climbers

20 Burpees

10 Dive Bombers

Ricky Bobby Run

 

Set 2

10 Pistol squats each leg

20 Dolphin pushups

20 Bear squats

5 Falling tower (with assist from partner)

10 Helicopters

1 fellowship run as we were too busted already to do anything harder

Set 3

10 Shrimp squats

10 X Pushups

10 Side lunges each side

        30 second L sit

10 Gracie drills

Mary

The highly-descriptively-named Pickle Pounders

Box cutters

Up-down planks

Sit ups with hold at top

Toy soldiers

COT

Building off a thought from Tim Ferris this week.  Who needs New Year’s resolutions?  Do a prior year review.

1.  Grab a notepad and create two columns: POSITIVE and NEGATIVE.
2. Go through your calendar from the last year, looking at every week.
3. For each week, jot down on the pad any people or activities or commitments that triggered peak positive or negative emotions for that month. Put them in their respective columns.
4. Once you’ve gone through the past year, look at your notepad list and ask, “What 20% of each column produced the most reliable or powerful peaks?”
5. Based on the answers, take your “positive” leaders and schedule more of them in the new year. Get them on the calendar now! Book things with friends and prepay for activities/events/commitments that you know work. It’s not real until it’s in the calendar. That’s step one. Step two is to take your “negative” leaders, put “NOT-TO-DO LIST” at the top.  These are the people and things you *know* make you miserable, so don’t put them on your calendar out of obligation, guilt, FOMO, or other nonsense.  And just remember: it’s not enough to remove the negative. That simply creates a void. Get the positive things on the calendar ASAP, lest they get crowded out by the noise that will otherwise fill your days.

On a deeper level, a more fundamental principle is to fill your heart with scriptures and truth other things that bring joy that crowd out the darkness in your life.

 

 

 

 

 

AO: The Patriot

Q: Maj Payne and Rogue

The PAX: Dr. D, FiA Milkweed, FiA Rooney, Liverpool, Lucius, Deflator, Squid, Prototype, FNG Papa Smurf, FiA FNG Red Card, FiA FNG Digits, Bone, Leprechaun, Hightower, FishFry, Bieber, Hefty, Lazlo, FiA FNG Snickers

Lucky 21 PAX posted in the Christmas Eve gloom (albeit a bit later than usual –0700 — yes, sleep is a crutch, but it’s not sooo bad to partake in some extra every once in a while) for a special F3 family convergence beatdown from the Paynes. While Fishfry gave us the 12 Days of Christmas on Friday last, Ms. Rogue “Payne” was eager to continue the theme with a 12 days of Christmas Eve, which thankfully was slightly different. Fishfry did express concern when YHC introduced the 400 yd track run as one of the first exercises, but alas, we altered the rules for this one, and the PAX were not required to repeat the exercises each time through…thankfully for all.

Warm up:

15 x Side Straddle Hop (in cadence)
10 x Little Bitty Arm Circles (Front, in cadence)
10 x Little Bitty Arm Circles (Rear, in cadence)
10 x Seal Claps (in cadence)
10 x Slow Body Weight Squats (in cadence)
10 x Dive Bombers

The Thang:

Count off by 2s to form two teams. Rogue enthusiastically explained each of 12 different exercises the teams had to complete, that were written onto tennis balls..er little yellow Christmas balls (LYCBs)! Team members must run down the field, ring the abnormally large jingle bell, run back to a LYCB, pick it up and bring it to the endzone where their team awaits in the rest position of choice (plank or squat…or frankly, simply standing around thinking about their favorite rest position). After each exercise is completed, a new team member must sprint down to the big jingle bell ring it, and repeat the procedure until all 12 LYBCs are back with the team. First team finished wins!!

The competition was stiff, even with Bone sprinting ahead during the 400yd run to grab a LYCB far ahead of the opposing team. But it all came down to an M and 2.0 sprint off, and well…the 2.0, FiA FNG RedCard, took the trophy against momma, FiA Rogue. The ol’passing of the baton kind of thing. It’s beautiful really.

The PAX then moved on to a series of escapades, performing some reindeer chasers (not the liquid kind), a version of Duck, Duck, Christmas Goose, then a Holiday Tug o’ War (which looks oddly similar to a regular tug of war).

The PAX finished off with a couple of new-to-us Mary exercises. DR PAX from F3 RVA Bieber gave us Toy Soldiers, which consists of holding a six-inch low-plank while tapping toes on the ground. Very painful, sir. Then Liverpool, distinguished DR PAX from F3 Carpex gave us the protractor, in which pax assume their six, then call out angles that their legs must conform to (e.g., 30, 60, 90, 15, we even had a 5 and a 3, which seemed about the same to YHC) around the circle, similar to a ring of fire.

Time caught up, and we were complete, except for the formalities.

COT: It’s Christmas Eve and we are thankful for all who posted today! Remember the reason for the season – for Christians, it’s the birth of our savior. Whatever your belief though, it’s a time to give back. Giving to others makes us all feel better inside, and when we feel better, we do better for those we serve. When we serve, we become better people, and that is what we all must do — become better in whatever role we play in life. Amen and Aye!