Category: Richmond, VA

  • Serving up requested Core Work

    A terrific ten, including 2 tardy PAX, took off behind QMS to start their day at HBR. Bottle Cap from Waxhall(?) joined us from NC so YHC gave him a tour of the premier West End Tuesday AO.

    COP: SSH, Don Qs, Ukrainian Soldiers, Merkins, LBCs, Correct Scorpion Kicks

    THE THANG: 10 HRMs at all 6 basketball hoops, alternate bear crawl & lunge between. Partner up for Dora 123: 100 Donkey Kicks, 200 Carolina Dry Docks, 300 LBCs. Down to show our visitor the Jerkin Gym: 4 rounds of 8 Jerkins & try to stay out of the mud.

    Mosey over to benches for Benchkicks & Derkins: 3 rounds increasing each time. Back over to Jerkin gym for 3 more rounds of 6 Jerkins. Stop by the namesake Heartbreak hill: Up for 20 Squats at top them 50 Monkey humpers at bottom. One more time up and down, stop for some pickle pounders, then back to the flag. YHC took us out. Keep Homer and his family in your prayers.

    NMS: Good morning with 50+ degree temps to make it feel like spring in the Gloom. Adding Gypsy in to the mix with Atilla and Handshake leads to ample mumblechatter throughout. YHC took off to the blacktop behind QMS for a non-conventional COP location. Handshake let out a loud groan on the initial Don Qs, welcome to your 40s brother.

  • Brothers born for Adversity

    9 HIMs low on vigor gathered round for a motivational chat led by Machismo.  According to the disturbed car sleeper, this is what happened.

     
    The THANG:

    WARMERAMA:  25 fast straddle hops,  10s of Ukrainian soldiers, ESWs, DQs, Plank jacks, Groiners, rosalita dips, 10 No Cheat Merkins.   

    COP #1: Toll step up 11s crossing the bridge of no toll 10 step ups followed by 1 dip a the opposite log.

    Mosey to the dumpsters for Racoon Rattle triple check.


    COP #2:  Triple check with donkey gongs on the dumpster with Machism adding a little too much cow bell (hence the woken car sleeper)  Runner traverses parking lot and returns to the dumpster to find a Cindy-Swinger and no it wasn’t NTB pretending to be a woman in his Subaru Forester.

    • Mosey to the pavilion


    COP #3: Eye of Absolution.

    • Missing DTH and wanting to add an eight count exercise the pax started with a 10 count in cadence precursor and then divided into 4 corners to do 25 of various exercises before returning to perform 5 Absolutions.  (Groiner, to elbow plank, to chillcut plank jack, back to plank and 1)  Corners were No Cheat Merkin, SSH, Copperhead Squats, and WWII
    • Mosey BTTF and pay a 25 count dip toll on the way.


    COP #4: Circle up for Mary preceded by some arm circles.    In a rotating fashion guys led various plank position exercises that were supposed to hit abs but apparently the abbs were sufficiently smoked to throw a few merkins in there. 

    –


    COT:
    Counterama # Nueve
    Announcerama:  Ruck leaving from forge tomorrow at 5:30.  Oyster might be paying for something soon??? 
    Prayers for O.C.s family friend Sophia who at 18 her life was cut short in Georgia in a high speed car accident.  Hug your kids.  Prayers for DKs friend suffering through loss. 


    Naked Moleskin:

    9 Invigorated HIMs left the absolved pavement of No Toll ready to lead their communities. YHC was freed to lead nearly 2 years ago and is grateful for this Band of Brothers whose silhouettes he recognizes in the darkness.   Provers 17:17 says “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” 17 A friend is always loyal, and a brother is born to help in time of need.

    Through all our mumble chatter and off count exercises YHC is grateful for the pax and the opportunity to lead.  If you’re struggling let a brother know.

  • A few good men: Dangers of the gloom

    Great to be back in the gloom with the Pax after taking nearly a week off laid up with Covid. Only one way to catch Swoop (and many others now) in the big data…get out and post. Anyway, according to the unidentified creature that puked on the street in Rountrey, here is how it went down:

    1. Long freaking mosey from Alamo to the Rountrey construction area (about a mile). Stretching. Demonstrated our new merkin style (Topeka two step). Mosey on for…..
    2. Construction site triple check: LBCs, lunges, with timer running to run pile. This is where we lost Hermey (twisted knee). Recover.
    3. Mailbox burpees back towards Alamo (this way). This is where we lost our dear friend Purple Rain (hopefully does not need a backetomy)
    4. Next part of the workout requires some explanation…hang with me. I try to come up with new routines for the guys, think of ways to avoid injury (that was the point of the long, but slow mosey), etc.  Hence,  I spend a bit of time here and there on YouTube looking up calisthenic routines.  Turns out that some dudes get JACKED doing hard time on.  Mosey to Alamo bunker (looks like a prison cell) for OYO 3 round burst sets of  three rounds of donkey kids(10)/squats(20)/Topeka two-step merkins (10)….most felt the burn by the end of the second round. 

    BTTF for a brief ring of fire with another incarceration inspired merkin variant: If you have been posting a little bit, you may notice many variations of merkins…Today we tried this variation

    If the title didn’t clue you in, we had a few injuries today (Hermey – knee and Purple Rain – back). Nothing serious (hopefully), but just a reminder to take care of yourself. Fortunately, DR Wildcat provided a quick assessment and Cookie was able to grab a car for Hermey (injury happened a little ways from the flag).

    Prayers for injured PAX. WC took us out.

    Rumor has it that sone much loved and long absent New Market guys are coming back out in the Gloom soon (stay tuned). 

    Enjoy the day. Be the positive light in someone’s life. 

  • Tool Time

    Twelve body sculpting craftsmen shook off the chill of a late February morning in time to answer the work bell for the latest edition of the Hoedown. Temperatures were 70 and sunny. According to the guy breaking into the Third Church construction site, the following might have happened:

    Mosey across the school parking lot, stairs, and grass, then over Forest to the Third Church parking lot (but just left of the normal spot) for the COP.

    SSHs x50
    IW’s x20
    Dead Man Hang (with elbow grab)
    Fudd’s Wife
    Wilson’s Wife
    Pigeon right, pigeon left
    Fudd’s Wife
    LBC’s
    Reverse Crunches
    Flutter kicks
    HRMs x15

    Mosey across the front of Third Church, then right to the back parking lot / construction site. Climb fence. road.

    Dora. 50 merkins per man, 150 LBCs, and 200 SSHs.

    Circle up for some stretching. Fudd’s wife, then various leg stretching.

    Mosey to the Block Parking Lot. Three groups of four.

    1. Walk with block overhead.
    2. Air presses
    3. slow squats
    4. monkey humpers

    Rounds 2-3, modify to walk while doing overhead presses.

    Mosey to the Walgreen’s Parking Lot. Triple check. Run the building (“It’s a big building”), WWIIs, and Carolina Dry Docks. Time narrowed this to one round.

    Mosey back to the front of the school, then line up for an elephant walk (aka, bear crawl in a line).

    Mosey back to the horseshoe. 2 minutes left for a set of merkins at each traffic cone. Call it 10–20 slow merkins.

    COT – Numbers, names, and YHC took us out with a message about .

    NMS:

    Hitch makes some interesting noises.

    Bodo’s has a lot going on, but still has enough free time after running a parish, a family, and a construction company to start a vehicle salvage business. He’s looking for investors in the start up. Kudos to his daughters for making their donations. Let’s go!

    Last Call believes that Walgreens is a “big building.” YHC notes that LC finds no problem with running YHC’s cold butt 1.5 miles down River Road in the pitch dark from First Watch to Panorama.

    Billy Surf may not quite have Hutton’s speed on the bear crawl, but he definitely has the stamina. Nice work!

    Several guys are on the mend…or just still recovering from their Saturday night hangover, or both.

    Announcements:

    None mentioned, but YHC notes that some dudes are adding fake weights to their bodies and learning to “live like a Clydesdale.” YHC guesses this is what is meant by walking a few miles in another man’s shoes.

  • Sunday 2/25 Edition

    YHC slow cooked some pulled pork and delivered it along with buns, BBQ sauce, coleslaw, and cookies to the residents of Southside Health Center. Was planning on sitting down with them for dinner but YHC’s entire family got sick in Florida this past week so I had Antoinette come pick up the food from my car downstairs while I masked up. Here’s Florence’s not-so-secret ingredients for pulled pork in the slow cooker :

    1 tablespoon Onion Powder

    ¾ cup Ketchup

    3 tablespoons tomato paste

    ¼ cup apple cider vinegar

    1 teaspoon paprika

    1 teaspoon garlic powder

    1 teaspoon mustard powder

    1 teaspoon cumin

    4 pound pork shoulder trimmed of excess fat

    Season with Salt and Pepper

    Slow cook for 9 hours

  • Getting Up Close with the Trails

    One of the best things about F3 is that someone will always show up to workout. Today was no exception.

    One trail runner and two trail ruckers launched on time. After conversing with someone who had just finished a trail run and was inquiring about rucking, off we went.

    Word of advice: Watch the slick and icy parts of the trail. With a ruck on, the center of gravity is higher and can result in a nose dive into the trail.

    Coffee afterwards was awesome and the discussion was excellent!

  • Breaking Bread: Family Edition

    My four year daughter and I spent Saturday night providing dinner for individuals in need. Bringing Ellie along allowed for the opportunity to demonstrate that acts of service and compassion need to be a central component of how we show up in our day to day.

    Listening to her observations about this experience and addressing her questions around generosity were both an excellent reminder that despite her being four years old, she’s keenly aware and observant of the little things in life. 

    It reminded me of the importance of striving to be a HIM and instilling in her the values of kindness, humility, and service. On the way home, she asked to stop at Dairy Queen for ice cream… so clearly I have a ways to go.

    Always grateful for the opportunity to contribute to what we’ve got going on in F3 RVA.

    Have an excellent weekend, gentlemen. 

  • My Alabama prom date and her one legged twin sisters

    Three men joined forces on a quiet cool morning for a self-inflicted beatdown at the ‘ol Creek. A short mosey from the side parking lot to the school’s admin office entrance and the party commenced. 

    The beatdown began with a COP involving full body stretches and limbering. We continued with merkins, arm circles, helicopters, imperial walkers, Ukrainian soldiers, cherry pickers and another set of merkins. 

    We then tore through a gut buster with exercises as follows: LBCs, flutter kicks, LBCs, vertical scissors, LBCs, horizontal scissors, LBCs, full extension crunches, LBCs, Alabama prom dates, LBCs, one legged Alabama prom dates left, LBCs, one legged Alabama prom dates right, LBCs. 

    We then moseyed to the basketball court on the opposite side of the school building for a four corners as follows: 20 merkins OYO, 20 squats OYO, 20 merkins OYO, 20 squats OYO with Bernie Sanders in between each set. Rinse and repeat three times. 

    We moseyed to the back playground for a Dora that went as follows: the timer was a sprint to the opposite site of the school building. The other two exercises were static hangs from the modified monkey bars and calf raises. We performed three rotations. 

    We then moseyed to the point of entry at the side parking lot. Another set of merkins for a total of 180  (with BooBoo earning some extra credit making his total 200) and some stretches ended the beatdown. 

    Namarama, numberama, COT, and BooBoo took us out. 

  • Creating alpha males of our species

    Time to time…I bring out things that helps with the training. Things the group don’t get to see our work on that much but this morning, it was time. A hungry group of 14(that is what the hawk that checked yes out the entire time thought) came out and heard that something was going to happen, did not know what.

    For starters… There’s another group that I saw for the first time there so we moved to the lower basketball court for WARMARAMMA (SSHs, Imperial Walkers, Ukrainian Soldiers, Helicopters, Cherry, Merkins, LBCs). We also did an easy full suicide round to help get warmed up. After that, we headed to the baseball field for the beginning

    First part consisted of sandbag bear crawl drags (50 pound sandbag pulling it up using every part of the body). Everyone else was spaced at every other pole doing pole smokers then at the end heels to heaven. After you hit the person, bear crawled to the next empty spot, at the end those who were tired switched to lunges. We went foul pole to foul pole ounce everyone finished, took off to a spot not used before

    the trail near the nature center parking lot(a little area that was set up for a triple check: step ups, tricep dips a little run down and back. After that venture to the parking area near the back part.

    i believe I may be the first to create a triple station triple check (3 spots with triple checks at each one). Part 1: battle ropes, swings, Mario skips down and back. Part 2: sandbag lifts to shoulder(80 and 100 pound bags to choose from), KB pull thrus with a Merkin after each one, run down 10 toe taps bernie back. Part 3: Rainbow ball slams, partner tire tosses, jump rope(choice of 50 with a regular rope, 25 with a 5 pound rope, 15 with a 10 pound jump rope(yes I own one). Once everyone was able to get in some work, a little time left

    A four corner escalator/deceleration 10 Merkins, 20 plank jacks, 30 2-count flutters, 40 squats. After that a short break, then do the whole thing, at each corner drop one part. Once we finished, a final push a quick 15 rep burpees from one side baseline to another(start at 5, run across then do 4 etc). With a minute left, run to the flag where we finished

    Numbers, call outs, announcements and prayer(for Big Rig’s friend Rico and Rodeo Clown’s mom) to close things out.

    Still have time to sign up for GROWRUCK, I have a goal since Rugged Maniac is no more, get a lot of people out there to do a Spartan or another like race that I can find. If Spartan is the choice, I have codes for 20% off a Spartan which helps. Have a good one see you next time

  • tRuckin

    7 HIM’s satisfied the Morning Wood with a speedy 5K (3.1mi) ruck completed in 49 minutes. Enjoyed the conversations and the push. YHC is leaving for Aruba 😎☀️…see ya! ~DTH

    Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don’t turn up at all. ~Sam Ewing