Tag: Expansion

  • The Clinic – OrthoVA Edition

    One semi-crippled pax member joined several Physical Therapists who were waiting around for their first patients at OrthoVA Shrader Road at 0645 this beautiful morning.

    Lay on table and perform several exercises for my crippled knee(s). Therapist added a new one this morning: Alabama Prom Dates while squeezing a medicine ball between my knees. Two sets x 15 reps. Female therapists present were not impressed.

    Head over to the machines and perform weighted exercises while therapist tries to make small talk with me about his weekend. I am really not interested.

    Cool down with some stretching and ice.

    45 minutes up!

    Change clothes and head to work.

    NMS:

    YHC remembers a time when someone wrote a backblast about going for a random solo bike ride. I believe it was TYA. Then, I believe it was Saab, who said because of that he was going to write a backblast every time he went to The JCC to workout.

    I haven’t posted in awhile, but since they had me do the modified APD’s, I thought a backblast was neccesary.

    SYITG!

    Kubota

  • The Bridge is Back – Be a High Impact Man

    The Bridge is Back – Be a High Impact Man

    The Bridge is back. Time to make an impact.

    F3 RVA joins forces with F3 Charlottesville to help support The Bridge Ministry. This is a facility in Buckingham where men in crisis (meaning: men transitioning from the prison system or trying to stay out of prison)learn the skills needed to integrate back into society. HVAC, plumbing, vehicle repairs, electrical, carpentry, construction, and so forth. These crafts all offer methods of building men who can make a strong, positive impact in their communities.

    F3 RVA (and Amelia) has 6 sets of guys ready to lead (and we are always open to more). At any time, reach out to Heist, Hardywood, TYA, Whitesnake, Corned Beef, TYA, or UpChuck for details on how to join and when. And, we are always interested in expanding – if you are looking to build your leadership skills and make a tangible impact, let us know. We’d be happy to have another dedicated man join this team of leaders.

    Here are the upcoming dates:

    April 26 Corned Beef has the Q.

    May 10 Hermes has the Q.

    In the course of one short morning, you’ll hit all 3 F’s, and you’ll make some friends in the process.

    Transportation is OYO, with a heavy emphasis on Clown Cars. The Bridge starts at 7:30 a.m. sharp in Buckingham, so figure about an hour car ride. Beat down is 7:30 to 8:15 a.m. Coffeeteria is on-site until about 8:45/9:00. The ride back often includes a stop for breakfast with arrival back around 10:30 / 11 a.m. Boom!

    So, pick a date, reach out to the Q, make a commitment to attend, and make an impact (on someone else).

    Let’s do this!

  • Hello Magnolia Green

    Hot Dang! We did it y’all. The F3RVA western frontier is open for business! 28 strong today, including three FNGs! Most importantly, thank you to all the guys that came out, provided words of encouragement, and especially for EH’ng the three FNGs.

    Hot and muggy, let’s go!

    F3 Speech/Disclaimers. Warmorama: 20x SSH, 10x Ukrainian soldiers, deadman hang (C/L/R), 10x Merkins, 20x LBCs, 20x Rosalitas, 15x Susan Summer (L/R), 10x scorpion kicks (not reverse), cobra stretch, and downward dog stretch.

    COP 1: Dora time! Right in the bus loop. Partner up. 100 merkins/200 LBCs/300 SSH. Big Herm 20 second count.

    COP 2: Quick breather. Stayed put for 3x rounds of partner dying cock roach punches (20 x).

    COP 3: Mosey towards the next location (picnic table courtyard – very hot and muggy – a few good nick names for the area thrown out) doing 1 burpee per light pole. Thang: Triple check using the picnic tables for dips and stepups. Tzatziki 20 second count.

    Mosey around towards dumpster area for COP4.

    COP 4: One more triple check. Exercises were bearcrawl up hill (jog back). Other exercises were pole smokers and jump squats.

    BTTF. A few stretches. Time over.

    Announcements:

    1. River float next Sunday (see Meatball)
    2. Labor Day Convergence at Nuckols Farm elementary (7 am). See slack.
    3. F3 10-year convergence at Dogpile 9/21. 7 am. Lots going on. See slack
    4. Faith Driven entrepreneur seminar (see Section 8).

    Prayer request: Dumar’s father getting skin cancer surgery. Pray for healing.

    Big Herm took us out in prayer.

    FNGs:

    1. Will Hamilton – Came out after seeing the F3 instagram add (thanks to Cookie and McGruff for paying). Will is new to RVA, a former NYPD cop. What better name than John McClane.
    2. Brad Diggs – EH’d by Handshake. Coworker at Richmond’s finest HvAC contractor Woodfin. Into golf, etc. Chipper pleased the Pax. Chipper it is.
    3. Morgan Porter – EH’d by Honeymoon. Attend the same church. He works in real estate, various derogatory names thrown out there (slum lord, etc). No joke: until like 30 minutes ago, I thought the Pax went with “Sexy Nate” and was a bit confused (what movie did that reference I wondered). I even reached out to him and said as much. Whoops. It was Section 8. Makes more sense.

     

  • Preblast – New Moseley Elementary AO kickoff (westward expansion)

    Preblast – New Moseley Elementary AO kickoff (westward expansion)

    Calling all Moseley (and beyond) men! Are you a “chubby hubby” looking to burn off some extra pounds? Spouses, you can be honest with him, he probably needs to hear it. Or maybe you think you are a beast and do CrossFit or “go to the gym”… ok let’s see what you got! Well – F3 RVA is coming to location near you on Wednesday starting Wednesday August 28, 2024 at 5:30 a.m. at Moseley Elementary school.

    Not sure what F3 is? F3 is an international nonprofit whose mission is to plant, grow, and serve small workout groups for men for the invigoration of male community leadership. It is facilitated through boot camp style workouts. Just think running mixed in with body weight exercises. From the workouts stem many channels of community leadership and networking that you can get involved with at your own discretion. All workouts are peer led, held outdoors, and is free of charge. All you spend is your time, with a bunch of other guys just trying to be better.

    Just meet us in the parking lot of Mosley Elementary at 5:30am and key point is that we always start on time, and finish on time. 5:30am – 6:15 am. I know it’s early, but win the morning, win the day. Hope to see some of you there! For more info on the organization, click the link below.

    https://backblasts.f3rva.org

    P.S. Our friends in Amelia have a great FAQ section. See: https://www.f3amelia.org/

  • Omar Joins the Pax

    Two Pax, one runner and one very, very LIFO, joined up for the latest edition of The Clinic. Temperatures were 70 and sunny. According to Nathan, a random guy in front of the hotel who clip boarded for the Pax, the following might have happened.

    YHC ran the normal route. 4.5 or so, including stopping for Fudd.

    Upon returning to the VSF, YHC chatted with Omar, YHC’s pal who is the handyman at the hotel. When YHC started doing Fudd’s wife, Omar said, “Oh, you are doing push-ups. Let’s do some.” Omar suggested a contest. YHC conceded that this was not necessary. YHC invites any PAX member who can win this contest to join – you drink free for the evening. We agreed to start with sets of 20, with YHC doing HRMs. But, form counts. You know it when you see it. YHC took about 30 seconds to do 20 HRMs. Same as any other set of 20. Omar took about 2 minutes. He did Swirly merkins, holding at the bottom on each one for 5 seconds or so. YHC is playing checkers; Omar plays chess.

    Numbers, names, and Omar took us out. He’ll get a name at some point. Renaissance and a few others are options.

  • Taking New Ground

    YES YES YES!!! This was long overdue, but RIPE for the season. RVA’s newest AO, The Crossing, kicked off tonight with a bang as 15 PAX converged on the grounds of West End Assembly of God (WEAG) that sits off Parham Road just north of the river. Yes, some SOJ studs invaded WestHo turf, but who knows, maybe the OG West Enders will come out sometime and like it! Either way, there are a LOT of brothers in our church community that are prime for headlockin’. Here’s how we introduced tonight’s new guys to F3:

    The THANG: 

    WARMERAMA: 

    • Mosey down to the lower parking lot for parking space tracers, then moseyrama back up to the shovel flag and circle up
    • Welcome & Disclaimer
    • Variable IC Reps to get the muscles warm top to bottom

    COP #1: 

    • Indigenous People Run all the way around to the South parking lot
    • TRIPLE CHECK
    • P1 – Dips
    • P2 – WWII’s
    • P3 – run to end of lot and back

    ELBOW PLANK INTERMISSION:

    • Review the F3 Credo, Principles, etc

    COP #2:

    • CHAPLAIN handed the Q
    • He called for ELEVENS with Mericans and Jump Squats
    • Await the Six with ABC’s
    • DTH receives the Q back

    COP #3:

    • Move around the back of the church and find a wide stretch of brick for a bit of WALL WORK
    • Hoedowns x10 IC
    • Donkey Kicks x20 IC
    • …maybe one other thing?

    COP #4:

    • Mosey back up to the Annex Lot and circle up for EYE OF THE TIGER
    • SSH’s for the duration of the 4 minute song, dropping for a Burpee every 15 seconds (=16 burpees) using the EMOM timer

    COT:

    • Counterama #15  (x5 FNG’s)
    • Namerama
    • Announcerama (see Below)
    • YHC took the PAX out in Prayer

    NMS:  Chaplain and YHC have experimented a couple different times in the past hosting an OTB workout at our church, but nothing stuck. Now this season in particular has primed The Crossing perfectly for a successful launch. We’ve had brother PAX at WEAG for years (Don Draper, Roger Roger, Seadoo, Fresh Prince, Floppy Disc, etc), but some new (and very active) additions in Broadway, House Party, and Meatball have really strengthened our WEAG presence. Also, without another PM bootcamp in all of RVA, the church location is fairly central for many PAX in F3RVA who’d like a solid midweek after work option. All that said, we had great numbers for our kickoff and expect to grow quickly as a number of HC’s were ultimately unable to come tonight but plan to make it out soon. Praising Jesus for the opportunity to bring the F3 brotherhood to our church community, and SO SO SO thankful for Chaplain and the others standing with YHC to get it going. We are taking NEW GROUND! Chaplain has the Q next week so come on out! Yours, DTH

    Announcements (SEE SLACK!)

    • Coffeeteria at Einstein Bro’s after the Forge tomorrow
    • DTH is gonna do a Pre-FrozenTriangle ruck with some others on Saturday – meet at Dogpile at 0600
    • Register for GrowRuck!

    Prayer Requests:

    • Birdman’s M Traci recently diagnosed with depression
    • Hangman’s sister and mom with health issues
    • Kimura’s dad with prostate cancer

  • The Triple Crown

    #1 – Tuesday 4/18/23 0600 – DTH, The Quadfather, C30, and Boardwalk – and the Thang is the one and only appearance of the F3 beatdown deck. The Quadfather was dry heaving within the first 5 minutes but rallied and the PAX completed nearly the entire deck in 45 minutes. Boom!

    #2 – Thursday 4/20/23 0600 – DTH & Boardwalk spend 45 minutes of quality sweatfest time hitting all the usual highlights and digging deep into some truth bombs to gird up Boardwalk for a lifetime of living third.

    #3 – Saturday 4/22/23 0600 & 10AM – Not everyone got the memo that our VQ Mojang had requested the bootcamp get pushed back to 10am, so a bomb squad of Mountain Oyster, C30, Messi, and Boardwalk posted at 0600 and whooped a prostitute 4-corners among other badassery. There’s hope this thing might actually continue beyond the departure of DTH! At 10am a 2.0-heavy PAX assembled on the soccer field for Mojang’s VQ. After a brief warmerama, he revealed the Death Dice – a large 12-sided foam dice with a huge variety of pain. A 20-strong PAX circled up and each had a turn tossing the Death Dice, with a run after every 3rd throw. The triceps dips, ball dippers, and wall-sit were rolled the most frequently, but x20 burpees made a painful appearance on two occasions. What a beatdown! With a ton of FNG’s the COT was entertaining, and we closed with a powerful word of prayer from NoGrass (Mojang’s dad, fellow Doc, and YHC’s BFF on Station). What a way to end our time in Papua New Guinea! SYITG next week SOJ! ~DTH

  • 2 for 1 Deals, and all the Feels

    Welp, YHC forgot to post a BB from Tuesday’s bootcamp, so here’s a 2 for 1 deal on backblasts.

    TUE 4.13.23 – PAX of 3 with Boardwalk, Messi, and DTH – 45 minutes riding the Tryhard pain train, featuring an introduction to a Prostitute 4-corners on the soccer field, though the word prostitute was never used amid juvenile company. The PAX completed a horrific number of reps in best bro-code style, so it took up most of the workout.

    THUR 4.15.23 – PAX of 3 with NoGrass, Mojang, and DTH – 45 minutes of “fun”, including variable reps on the wall, attempting dirty hookups on the swinging chain-link railing, introducing 11’s between light poles on the steep part of the hill, and a TON of core exercises once our legs were spent on the hill.

    Coming up on YHC’s last week at Kudjip there are a lot of feels brimming …gonna miss these people, gonna miss this extremely challenging, rewarding, and impactful medical work, gonna miss the jungle highlands bright sunshine, thin cool air, misty mountain vistas, and birdsong …how can we make the most of the time we have left here? …has God been calling us to return here for longer/more time than currently planned? (3mo every other year) …all clashing with the: man, I can’t wait to be home, to see my church/F3/work families, to sleep in my own bed, to plug back into so many ongoing projects and ministries…

    Good thing we can enjoy the peace that comes in trusting the Spirit each day to show us the way forward. Be back in the gloom with ya’ll before you know it. ~DTH

  • First time cruising the Boardwalk

    YHC awoke early to the sound of raindrops on the tin roof. Exhaustion after taking hospital call last night was screaming to go back to sleep, but was properly ignored in anticipation of a VQ by Boardwalk, who has been a loyal attendee this last month of Ground Zero. At the age of 10, and still carrying a bit of childhood weight, Boardwalk is on the cusp of leaving childhood behind, and it can be seen in the way he carries himself, all the more since joining F3 Ground Zero. He’s gone from being the six to being the servant leader going back for the six, and YHC was super proud on Thursday to hear him volunteer for the Q today. What a stud! YHC left the headlocking and Q-planning up to him, and he delivered an awesome beatdown! This kid LOVES merkins. He also learned a hard lesson today that what folks say is not always what they mean, and with just his brother and YHC in attendance, he’s already re-strategizing his headlocking for next time. From the rainy Easter-weekend gloom of PNG’s Western Highlands, Yours Always, DTH

  • Sunrise Sweatfest, Party of 12

    F3 PNG’s one and only and still unofficial AO “Ground Zero” is rapidly accumulating FNG’s of the 2.0 variety. Unlike other 3rd world sweatshops utilizing child manual labor, this one is voluntary and free and ends with a COT. A few adults corralled the gaggle of a 9 umpa lumpas into completing a variety of warm-up exercises, running down and up the gravel hill with various movements, plenty of mary, running around the nursing college, carousel plank walking, a mini-Dora on the field, a solid dose of wall-work, and variable chain reps. We welcomed an Australian friend nicknamed “Kanga”, a shirtless little brother of Mojang nicknamed “Sixpack”, and the Stewardson girls nicknamed “Narwhal” and “Athena”. A great time was had by all and we closed with a solid word of prayer for the mission work ahead of us for the day. Interesting to see how this thing is growing, and always happy for the company – no matter who it is. 🙂 Yours in the Field, DTH