Backblasts

AO: Lightning Rod

VQ: @StrayCat

PAX: @RedCurry, @Rip, @FreeLunch

Conditions: 35deg, misty/raining

MISSION | PRINCIPLES | DISCLAIMER

Warm-O-Rama

SSH – IC – 20

Windmills– IC – 10

Toy Soldiers – IC – 10

Slow High Knees – IC – 10

Third Grade Exercise- IC -10

Halos – IC – 10

Scissor Arms – IC -10

Big Arm Circles – IC – 10

• MOSEY to field w/ Coupon

Rows – IC x 20

The Thang: Line up on sideline of field

Exercises:

1. Manmakers x 10
2. Coupon Swings x 10
3. Merkins walk on Coupon x 10
4. Lunge walk w/ Coupon to other side
5. Curls x 10
6. Overhead Press x 10
7. Big boys x 30
8. Rifle Carry back

Repeat until out of time

Rows – IC x 20

Decline Merkin – IC x 15

Mosey back to Lightning Rod

COT: (From “The Art of Manliness”)

I’ve started working out with my son (mostly running) and getting in shape for Mt. Hood backpacking. He has gone on four runs with me now. I’ve been thinking about the importance of making physical fitness a habit and ran across this quote from Socrates:

Editor’s Note: In his Memorabilia, Xenophon, a student of Socrates, shares a dialogue between Socrates and one of Socrates’ disciples named Epigenes. On noticing his companion was in poor condition for a young man, the philosopher admonished him by saying, “You look as if you need exercise, Epigenes.” To which the young man replied, “Well, I’m not an athlete, Socrates.” Socrates then offered the following response.

Just as much as the competitors entered for Olympia. Or do you count the life and death struggle with their enemies, upon which, it may be, the Athenians will enter, but a small thing? Why, many, thanks to their bad condition, lose their life in the perils of war or save it disgracefully: many, just for this same cause, are taken prisoners, and then either pass the rest of their days, perhaps, in slavery of the hardest kind, or, after meeting with cruel sufferings and paying, sometimes, more than they have, live on, destitute and in misery. Many, again, by their bodily weakness earn infamy, being thought cowards. Or do you despise these, the rewards of bad condition, and think that you can easily endure such things? And yet I suppose that what has to be borne by anyone who takes care to keep his body in good condition is far lighter and far pleasanter than these things. Or is it that you think bad condition healthier and generally more serviceable than good, or do you despise the effects of good condition? And yet the results of physical fitness are the direct opposite of those that follow from unfitness. The fit are healthy and strong; and many, as a consequence, save themselves decorously on the battle-field and escape all the dangers of war; many help friends and do good to their country and for this cause earn gratitude; get great glory and gain very high honors, and for this cause live henceforth a pleasanter and better life, and leave to their children better means of winning a livelihood.

I tell you, because military training is not publicly recognized by the state, you must not make that an excuse for being a whit less careful in attending to it yourself. For you may rest assured that there is no kind of struggle, apart from war, and no undertaking in which you will be worse off by keeping your body in better fettle. For in everything that men do the body is useful; and in all uses of the body it is of great importance to be in as high a state of physical efficiency as possible. Why, even in the process of thinking, in which the use of the body seems to be reduced to a minimum, it is matter of common knowledge that grave mistakes may often be traced to bad health. And because the body is in a bad condition, loss of memory, depression, discontent, insanity often assail the mind so violently as to drive whatever knowledge it contains clean out of it. But a sound and healthy body is a strong protection to a man, and at least there is no danger then of such a calamity happening to him through physical weakness: on the contrary, it is likely that his sound condition will serve to produce effects the opposite of those that arise from bad condition. And surely a man of sense would submit to anything to obtain the effects that are the opposite of those mentioned in my list.

Besides, it is a disgrace to grow old through sheer carelessness before seeing what manner of man you may become by developing your bodily strength and beauty to their highest limit. But you cannot see that, if you are careless; for it will not come of its own accord.

Straycat out

AO: Oakery

QIC: Ghost

PAX: Fishman, Coinage

Conditions

36 degrees, dry

Warm up

• 20xIC SS
• 4 lap mosey (1/2 mile)
• 10xIC halos
• 10xIC Imperial Walkers
• 10xIC Daisy pickers
• leg swings front back and sideways each leg8x OYO
• Calf raises OYO 20x each leg

The Thang

• Grab coupons and head to back
• Each exercise to be followed by sprint to corner of school, job back and plank, boat, or squat until 6 is ikn
  • month of your birthday x 2 – bonnie blairs HC
  • day of the month of birthday – big boys
  • pick a number between 1 and 20 – manmakers
  • 50 – (number between 1 and 30) – rows
  • Pick number between 1 and 60 – distance from 30 merkins
  • Pick number between 200 and 400 – *10% – shrugs
• repeat

6MoM

Return coupons

COT

The oldest song with musical notation is more than 2000 years old. Here are the lyrics.

“While you live, shine

have no grief at all

life exists only for a short while

and Time demands his due.”

As men roughly in the “middle” of life we are generally building things in a long term way. We spend most of our time, energy, and thought toward that end. Building our business, career, family, toward retirement, etc.

But does our “building” become obsessive and cause us to forget the brevity of life and lose sight of even more important things 

Your life is a vapor…

Do not worry about tomorrow…

How would you live your life differently if you knew exactly how much time you had left?

Life is short. Death is coming. While you live, shine!

Ghost out

AO: Lightning Rod

VQ: @StrayCat

PAX: @RedCurry, @Output

Conditions: 35deg, Clear

MISSION | PRINCIPLES | DISCLAIMER

Warm-O-Rama

SSH – IC – 20

Jane Fonda (both sides) – IC – 10

Glute Bridge – IC – 10

Slow High Knees – IC – 10

Butt Kickers – IC -10

Halos – IC – 10

Scissor Arms – IC -10

• MOSEY to field

Rows – IC x 20

Balls to the Wall IC x 2

Rows – IC x 20

The Thang: Bleachers split into two groups

Exercises:

One group does 3 runs up and down the bleachers. The other does the following

1. Dips
2. Glute Bridge
3. Merkins
4. LBCs
5. Plank

Run back around track

Balls to the wall – IC

Rows – IC x 20

Decline Merkin – IC x 15

Mosey back to Lightning Rod

Leg Lifts – IC x 20

Superman – IC x 30

LBC – IC x 30

Flutter Kicks – IC x 30

COT:

I read a book a few years ago called, “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*CK”. It’s primary premise is to not worry (or care) about things that are not in your control. I was thinking of trying to get a quote from it, but I realized last night that it is pretty much the same idea as the Serenity Prayer from AA meetings. Serenity is basically the opposite of anxiety, and all kinds of addictions are coping mechanisms for dealing with worry and anxiety. The serenity prayer helps us to let go of things we have no control over, but to attack with courage those things we can influence for good. This is the entire prayer:

God, grant me the Serenity
To accept the things I cannot change…
Courage to change the things I can,
And Wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace.
Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it.
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His will.
That I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with Him forever in the next.
Amen.        

AO: Lightning Rod

VQ: @StrayCat

PAX: @RedCurry

Conditions: 35deg, Raining

MISSION | PRINCIPLES | DISCLAIMER

Warm-O-Rama

SSH – IC – 20

Imperial Walkers – IC – 10

Forward Arm Circles – IC – 10

Reverse Arm Circles – IC – 10

Toy Soldiers – IC -10

Halos – IC – 10

• MOSEY to field

The Thang: Mini-Murph

Exercises:

1. 1/2 Mile
2. Rows x 50
3. Merkins x 100
4. Squats x 150
5. 1/2 Mile

Each round:

COT:

I have a really annoying salesman that periodically calls me. He tried to get me to hire an engineer last year. He told me this engineer was really great and “had what a lot of engineers seem to lack – self confidence”. I thought to myself, “this engineer sounded terrible.” I like engineers with a lot of self doubt and uncertainty. I like engineers who are always worried they might be making a mistake.

Some confidence is important, and it is important not to be intimidated by people you meet and work with. However, our culture has blown things out of proportion with self-promotion and “fake it till you make it”. Confidence without competence is not valuable. The following quote is from a Harvard Business Journal article called “The Perils of Self Promotion.”

“Reams of psychological studies show that being perceived as modest is associated with a wide range of positive outcomes. The message is clear: People do not value confidence unless it is accompanied by competence—and even when it is, they prefer to see as little confidence surplus as possible.”

That’s certainly the stance that Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, a psychologist, university lecturer, and (full disclosure) HBR author, takes in his new book, Confidence: Overcoming Low Self-Esteem, Insecurity, and Self-Doubt, which persuasively argues that we’ve taken our culture of self-assurance and self-promotion too far. He cites a longitudinal survey of U.S. college students in which the proportion describing themselves as “an important person” spiked from 12% in the 1950s to 80% in the 1980s; further along the self-involvement spectrum, rates of narcissism jumped from 15% in 1982 to 25% in 2006.

Chamorro-Premuzic frets about the impact on our skill-building abilities, because his review of the research on confidence (and competence) shows that it’s actually low self-esteem—not a healthy ego—that propels us to success. After all, he writes, “wanting to be good at something is incompatible with thinking you are good at something.” He advises the ambitious “not to have high confidence, but to have high competence.” Don’t “fake it till you make it” or strive to promote yourself. Instead, work hard. Work well. Be likable.

AO: Lavafield

VQ: Blue Steel

PAX: @Output,@Waterfight, @Kikiwaka, @Lumbergh, @1cent with his 2.0 fng now named @prodigy  

Conditions: 45deg, overcast

MISSION | PRINCIPLES | DISCLAIMER

Warm-O-Rama

SSH – IC – 25

Imperial Walkers – IC – 10

Forward Arm Circles – IC – 10

Reverse Arm Circles – IC – 10

Daisey Pickers – IC – 10 – Left then right leg

Monkey Humpers – IC – 10

• MOSEY one lap of the track to the steps of the bleachers
• Marty St. Louis’ – Stadium stairs.  Up one side run along the top to the opposite end, then down, up the next set of stairs then down the next one ending up at the first steps.  Did this for 3 laps.

The Thang: The Good Old Hockey Game

Exercises: With coupons

1. Bicep Curls
2. Overhead Triceps
3. Goblet Squat
4. Bent over rows
5. On the ground for lat pull overs

Each round:

Starting at the goal line, sprint to the 10 yard line and back (no coupons for the runs).  Do the first coupon exercise.  Sprint to 20 and back.  Do the second exercise.  Sprint to the 30 and back.  Do the second exercise.  So on and so forth.  Once you have done all of the exercised you go back to #1.  Once you have run to the other end zone, you then start counting back from the opposite 10 yard line.  Once everything is complete you should have done 4 full rounds of the coupon exercises.

Overtime: That didn’t fill out our time so next we did Dutch Skaters across the width of the field and back.  Ending with Jacobs Ladders.

After that 5 minutes of ab exercises finished things off.

COT:

Spoke about today being Holy Saturday, and putting ourselves in the shoes (or sandals) of the disciples.  Not yet experiencing the Resurrection of Christ, the darkness and despair they may have gone through losing their teacher of 3 years and now in hiding for their lives.

In our own lives we may experience times of depression and dark thoughts, but that we have a group of Men in F3 to reach out to when things become overwhelming and dark.   Like the F3 motto says – “Leave no man behind, and leave no man where you found them”