Tag: The FORGE

4 Sharp Dressed Men and 1 furry companion emerged from the warmth to battle the frozen conditions of The Forge to make themselves better men. The cold was bitter but the comradery and conversation was hot. This is how things went down

Party of 3 (and Cooper) took the slow Mosey around the bus loop looking for any late arrivals and to warm the bones ending at the flag poles for Warmarama.

COP 1 included SSH’s, Helicopters, Deadman Hang, 1 legged merkins, Arm Circles. Limbs toasty, lets mosey

Mosey to the middle parking lot for Lindsay of Hand Release Merkins and WWII’s. Audible was called after 2nd round to Merkins after mumble chatter from PAX. YHC was happy to oblige. Fresh Prince joined in making a quartet. Al Gore for the 6.

Mosey down the stairs for AMRAP circle with blocks. 7 stations set up including chest press with block, squats with block, rows with block, shoulder press with block, peoples chair & dips. Timer was the lap around lower parking lot. 3 sets of each exercise with additional running as required.

PAX carried blocks back to the pile followed by a sprint BTTF.

Numbers, Names & Announcements. YHC took us out.

NMS: Cold morning the culprit in reduced numbers but the faithful arrived. HR Merkins are brutal after 10. DTH commented Merkin Challenge was over and YHC happily audibled to avoid a mutiny. Great block work and conversation during the AMRAP. Fresh Prince reminisced on IronPax Wheel of Despair Challenge. Snuff and YHC still recovering form Murder Bunnies. Appreciate the help in bringing the blocks back to the pile.

Not in the Holiday Spirit? Rosie’s 12 Days of Christmas at No Toll on Tuesday will put you in the Jingle Mood.

HDHH – Wednesday at Hardywood West Creek – Check Slack for details.

“A society that puts equality—in the sense of equality of outcome—ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom. The use of force to achieve equality will destroy freedom, and the force, introduced for good purposes, will end up in the hands of people who use it to promote their own interests.”

“The most harm of all is done when power is in the hands of people who are absolutely persuaded of the purity of their intentions.“

–Milton Friedman

11 warriors answered the call of duty without force or coercion, driven by their own self interest to improve the quality of their lives and support those who voluntarily answered the same call. According to legend, it went a little something like this.

Mosey to parking lot for a little COP

SSH, DQ, Lunges, WWII, Merkins X 20 IC

BASICS

Mosey to the bottom of the hill to gently gaze upon 4 light posts between the bottom and top. Perform exercises at each light post, wait for pax at the top after the completion of each round.

Round 1 – 25 Merkins at each post

Round 2 – 10 Burpees at each post

Round 3 – 5 decline merkins, bear crawl, 5 incline merkins, crawl bear, 5 more decline merkins at each post.

Mosey to school for some Triple Check

TRIPLE CHECK

Find your two besties to complete the trifecta and complete the following exercises for a triple check: American Arm Circles, Donkey Kicks, run down the stairs to the ticket booth and hoof it back up the stairs.

Mosey back to the flag for 5 Minutes of Mary

Start it off with a little Burpee Shuffle (each pax pics 1, 2 or 3 burpees) and wrap it up with American Hammers and LBC in cadence.

Namerama, numberama and Doozy took us out.

News: YHC may have tuned out a bit from oxygen deprivation and seeing Bone Thug twerk, but pretty sure that the them at Dogpile this weekend is Gidget or Hawaii 5-0 or something like that. Think you are supposed to wear a hula skirt and a mullet. Perhaps there is a dolphin involved, no one really knows.

Prayer requests for Fresh Princes’ family as he has a few family members dealing with some health challenges. Here’s to good health and a speedy recovery.

Mole-freaking-skin

Ohhhhh baby. YHC wanted to get in a workout very bad and did not realize that what was needed was a good Q. Kudos to DTH for the kind suggestion last night.

YHC is wildly disillusioned with the crap on TV and social media. Even If we are all honest with ourselves, it’s mostly mental Doritios. Some times you crave it and you promise you’ll have just a little, then the next thing you know you’ve consumed way more that you had intended and you feel like crap.

To do a little continuing education, I revisited the timeless works of Milton Friedman. He was a Nobel prize winning economist in the 1970s who spoke so simply about the power of personal freedom and individual liberty to improve the quality of peoples lives. It’s a refreshing counter narrative to the constant patronizing by well intentioned people dead set on improving the world by forcing others do think, believe and act as they do. Even the most noble of intentions are bound to end in brutality if they require coercion to be fulfilled.

I was able to find a few of his old lectures on the interwebs and his talks reminded me so very much of this wonderful group. There’s no force or coercion to get you to show up at 0 Dark Thirty. We’ve created an environment in which you can voluntarily choose to improve the quality of your life at your own pace. The common thread isn’t that we are all equal in our abilities or backgrounds. It’s that we’ve decided that in order to improve the world, we first had to improve ourselves. We decided that is was nobodys job but our own.

It’s a beautiful thing.

Dig a little deeper, get it all out and be super.

Your pal,

Hardywood

6 high flying hoop aficionados ignored the 28 degree temperatures and embraced a basketball themed beatdown. According to the PAX, the NBA draft was last night, so it all tied together nicely.

Cold, quiet mosey to the lower circle as our bodies adjusted to the weather.
Warm up:
Don Quixotes, Cherry Pickers, Dead Man Hang, Russian Soldiers, LBC’s, Alabama Prom Dates .

Exercise One: PAX count off. One man dribbles out 5 light poles, right handed out, left handed back. All others do exercises together for the duration. Rotate dribblers each time. The following exercises were completed:
Jump Squats, Hand Release Merkins, Hold Plank, Lunges, Bear Crawl, Side LBC’s, Calf Raises, Copperhead Squats, Plank Jacks, Flutter Kicks, Ball Dippers.

Exercise Two: Indigenous Peoples Run to the front of the school. Man in the back dribbles while weaving through the PAX, then passes to the back of the line.

Exercise Three: Form a circle and complete WWII sit-ups while passing the ball back and forth. We stopped when the first person got to 50. Luckily Fresh Prince burned through them.

Exercise Four: Elevens. Up and down the grass hill completing Merkins and Hello Dolly’s.

Mosey back to the flag. Circle up and complete one minute of jump squats while passing the ball around.

Numbers/Names

Announcements: See Slack for details on Thanksgiving and Black Friday events.

Prayers for those impacted by COVID.

YHC took us out.

3 puddle jumpers ignored the hysterical weather forecast to find a perfect morning. 66 degrees, periodic drizzle, and a slight crosswind of tsk tsk for those who were not able to join us. To be fair, water from the sky can be terrifying.

Warmups: side straddle hops, Don Quixotes, cherry pickers, imperial copperhead squats, copperhead merkins, etc etc.

Triple check: tooth fairies up the stairs, jerkins on the bar and some wet concrete flutter kicks.

Fire on the mountain: climbing Mt. Chaplain with lunges across the flat parts.

Triple check: run the loop, flagpole smokers, elbow plank hold.

11s on the lightposts: Merkins and jungle boi squats.

Circle up for some special stretching to find muscles not currently known to the scientific community.

Prayers for the the strength, the patience and the wisdom to navigate the decisions we make each day – and gratitude for all the brothers, both wet and dry, who hold us accountable.

An even eight honorable HIM’s escaped the fartsack to give the Forge something to remember. Wearing nothing but a Guy Fawkes mask and his M’s black neglige, Dr Tryhard led the rebellious colonials into treasonous history – as follows:

The THANG:

COP #1:

• Mosey to Culdesac
• Welcome & F3 Disclaimer
• SSH, DQ, CSquats, RSoldiers, Merkins, DRW, The Kim Special

COP #2:

• Mosey from Culdesac back up around school front via TRAVELING ELEVENS: 
• Stop at every light pole alternating Groiners (1-10) and Heels-2-Heaven (10-1)

COP #3:

• Mosey to the Amphitheater 
• TRIPLE NICKEL: 
• x5 Decline Merkins
• Box Jump up
• x5 Dips
• Jump back down
• Complete x3 Rounds

COP #4:

• Mosey to school front loop
• BEARMUDA TRIANGLE:
• Bearcrawl between three corners
• 1st Round – x11 WWII ea corner
• Plank for the SIX then Hold Plank x1 minute
• 2nd Round – x5 Burpees ea corner
• Flutter Kicks for the SIX then Variable Protractor
• 3rd Round – x20 Squats ea corner
• Lunges to close

COP #5:

• MOUNT CHAPLAIN: Run top to bottom, completing x5 Merkins ea hardtop traversed, then reverso return to knoll top, completing dealers choice Mary for the SIX

Mosey BTTF for Final COP:

• PUSHERAMA DRILL: High knees, drop on command to complete x5 specialty merkins:
• x5 Drivebombers
• x5 Chuck Norris
• x5 Werkins
• x5 Ranger
• x5 Staggered Left
• x5 Staggered Right
• HOLD DEEP HELIX x1 MIN

COT:

• Counterama # 8
• Namerama
• Announcerama (see Comments)
• YHC took us out in Prayer

NMS:

• In celebration of the Guy Fawkes Nov 5th holiday, the PAX performed a lot of 5’s and 11’s. For those counting, it also appears we completed 135 merkins. Missing the animated wit of both Bone Thugs and Hardywood, it was a quieter PAX focused on achieving F3 greatness. BUT, YHC was personally uplifted by the presence of SPIT, traveling DAYS to reach our beloved domain to check off the Forge as he nears completion of ALL AO’s within a month! (Or something like that) YHC mused about the meaning of the Guy Fawkes history and where Americans have stood as rebels in the history books while now faced with our own terrorists and rebellions in many forms. We closed in prayer for our country – may we grow stronger together through this tough season instead of being torn apart by divisions. May we as F3 HIM’s be a light of reconciliation, setting the example in selfless acts of love. Thx for permitting me to lead brothers. SYITG, YHC, DTH

10 men, 1 canine posted for a VCQ (Virgin Covid Q), ahead of the soaking rains that were sure to come today and may have kept some in the fart sack. This is how it went down:
Circle up for Copper Heads Squats, DQ’s, Helicopters, Hillbillies, Russian’s, LBC’s, Freddie Mercury’s, HR Merkins.

Stay in circle to complete a deconstructed Burpee-10 squats, 10 Leg Thrusts, 10 Merkins, 10 more Leg Thrusts, back up and repeat counting down by 2, so 10,8,6,4,2.

Mosey in front of Middle School with sidewalk splitting two traffic circles for a 1/4 pounder. Complete 25 Merkins, 50 Squats, 75-2count MC’s, 100 SSH’s, with a figure 8 run (using the traffic circles) in between each exercise.

Mosey to Amphitheater. Complete 5 Incline Merkins on first row, box jump to the top and complete 5 Dips using the tables/knee wall. Back down and increase by 5, up to 25.

Mosey to large parking lot and utilize light poles as distance markers. Bear Crawl to first light pole, complete 20-2count MC’s, Karaoke to the 2nd light pole, complete 10 Lt. Dan’s, Bear Crawl to 3rd light pole to complete 20 additional MC’s, mosey around the rest of the traffic circle to the start and repeat. Total of 3 rounds.

Back to flag, Nuberama, Namerma, Announcements, Prayers:
Shoe collection is almost done. If you still have some to dig out of the closets, etc., see Gypsy (I believe, but someone correct me if wrong).
Prayers for a safe hunt for DTH…bring some tenderloin back!
Prayers for Alibi’s Bar exam results, coming on 11/20!

There was much discussion on the Karaoke’s, as YHC called out carry-overs and was quickly questioned on that. However, you tube does provide many videos of Karaoke running/techniques. Personally, YHC associates that word (spelled the same) more with the lip sync techniques that a lot of us would not be proud to admit we’ve done, but like many things in life, YHC needs to suck it up and accept it.

Enjoyed it, men!

The Forge welcomed 11 snooze-averse matriculants back to gloom school for the latest round of DTH macho mania. Here’s how the bluetooth speaker chimed in:

The THANG:

COP #1:

• Mosey down to the culdesac
• Welcome & F3 Disclaimer
• Turn on the “Workout Mix”… 
• x70 SSH IC
• Change sucky tunes
• DQ’s, CSquats, RSoldiers, FreddieMs, Merkins, and other stuff

COP #2:

• Mosey to side of school, changing music station again en route…ugh
• Triple Check: Jerkins, Dips, Run

COP #3:

• Mosey around to Soccer Field
• OLD 100 – with interval run up to Box Jump Amphitheater steps
• x100 MHumpers, x90 Plank Jacks, x80 Single Lunges, x70 SSH’s, x60 Dolly’s, x50 MtnClimbers, x40 Flutters, x30 Merkins, x20 WWII, x10 Burpees
• *AUDIBLE to exclude run & box jumps half way through

Mosey BTTF for COT:

• Counterama # 11
• Namerama
• Announcerama (see Comments)
• YHC took us out in Prayer

NMS:

• YHC didn’t have time to plan anything fancy for today, but a quick Google search had revealed today marks 70 days left in 2020. The countdown made YHC think of how often we take the future for granted, putting off things for some other time – hard conversations, seeking/giving forgiveness, the M’s honey do list that would really help her feel loved, a special adventure with the kids, inviting that neighbor or coworker to F3 or church, etc. We are quick to be “busy” with what we’ve deemed most important for the moment, but how would our perspective change if we accepted the challenge over the next 70 days to make things right in 2020. Pray on it fellas! SYITG, YHC, DTH

10 members of the Huguenot High School JV boy’s fitness team arrived on a campus for another 5:30 am practice. 70 degree temperatures ensured that everyone would be putting forth MAXIMUM EFFORT. With each drop of sweat hitting the pavement, our popularity and social status was sure to grow.

Warmarama:
Mosey to the lower circle for an abbreviated warm up consisting of:
Don Quixote’s
Helicopters
Cherry Pickers
Alabama Prom Dates
Jog back to the bottom of the hill.

Incline Curb Crawl: Pax lined up on the curb in plank position and begin working their way up hill. Man in the back breaks off and does 2 burpees, then runs to the front of the line. We stopped at a light pole and reversed down the hill. Sorry for those who got double burpee’d at the switch point!

Mount Chaplain Descent
First rep: run down the grass portions, Bernie Sanders across parking lots. At the bottom, complete 50 squats then push yourself (fast mosey?) back to the top.
Second rep: repeat with Carioca right on parking areas, 50 calf raises at the bottom.
Third rep: repeat with Carioca left on parking areas, 50 1 count lunges at the bottom.

Props to Fresh Prince for extending the bottom of the mountain all the way to the rail. Seemed to work better. DTH and Hardywood led WWII sit ups, hand release merkins and flutter kicks while the PAX made their way up the hills.

Circuit: 15 reps of Jerkins, 15 dips, tooth fairy up the staircase, then jog back around. Pax rotated between the exercises until time was called.

Lot of wide ranging mumble chatter this morning. Topics included stilettos, vegan barbeques ( aka “Woke Smoke”) and one PAX member’s early modeling career (a dream deferred??). We were educated on the birthday of the Navy and Virginia’s own Thomas Jefferson’s role. DTH has begun composing old time country tunes (I left my heart on Mount Chaplain……..) A swoled up Bone Thugs reminded Cooper who the true Alpha of the group is.

Announcements:
Shoe drive continues with SOJ appearing to dominate.
Beer mile at the Carillion on Saturday – seek Slack for details
Congrats to Doozy on his work related success.

YHC took us out in prayer.

I figured since it was my last F3 workout I would do my best to leave a lasting impression with all those in attendance at the Forge. The workout was tough, but it was a good reminder that even when your body feels like it may fail it is truly all in your head.

THE THANG:

• Stretch it out, get a good warmup in, and mentally prepare yourself
• Burpee broad jumps — 75 yards, run back to start, run to where you left off, another 75 yards, 5 rounds
• Suicides — 75-yard increments
• Partner bear crawls/abs  — one partner bear crawls while the other completes flutter kicks, WW2s, and LBCs
• One final hill sprint

NAKED MOLESKIN:

With all pax completing the workout, I felt a sense of pride in the F3 family. The fact that I, a 22-year-old, was able to create a workout that challenged me and men who are 20 or 30 years older than I am to complete the same workout is insane. The men I have met during my time with F3 RVA are some of the craziest, hard-working, and genuine men out there. If I could leave one thing that may impact each workout from here on out, it would be to compete with yourself. Find someone at each workout who is faster or stronger, and make it your goal to keep up with them. Whether it was DTH, Fresh Prince, Hardywood, and many others, there was always someone I was pushing myself to compete with. Push yourself, don’t hurt yourself, have fun and stay healthy. ~Long Pole

10 buff beauties arose from a warm slumber to converge on Huguenot High School in anticipation for a beat down for the ages. After recovering from the pain of IPC over the past month, YHC provided what would be a glorious routine. Here is what went down as told by the 40’s styles scooter (without a muffler) that cruised around the AO at a blazing 5 mph.

COP 1: Mosey to the bus loop for warmorama that included SSH’s, DQ’s, Helicopters, Freddie Mecuries

COP 2: Mosey to the soccer field for a bit of 4 corners, lady of the night style: 10 WWII’s, 20 Heels to Heaven, 30 Dancing Bears (2 count), 40 Bone Rubs. Front Runners circled back to the 6.

COP 3: Mosey to the amphitheater for Elevens alternating Elevated Merkins at the top and Dips at the bottom.

COP 4: Catch Me if you Can: Partner up. Partner 1 performs 1 burpee than sprints to catch Partner 2 who Bernie Sanders. Once caught, switch and continue up to Forest Hill.

COP 5: Light Pole Run BTTF – Mosey BTTF stopping at every light pole alternating between 2 Lt. Dans and 2 burpees.

Still time on the clock, quick Bernie Sanders up the hill with 2 Bone Rubs at the top. Slow mosey back down.

Numbers, Names, Announcements (Below). YHC took us out

NMM: Retreat is this weekend. Some confusion on the arrival time. Monitor Slack to get final details. Cornhole Tourney commences at 14.30 Saturday. Paint ball Duels are rumored to be present.

YHC arrived this morning not really sure of the routine. Appreciate the PAX offering some ideas on the 4 corners but 40 Bone Rubs after 30 2 count Dancing Bears were brutal and not recommended for future. Core is burning in a good way. DTH noted the moon that rested over the school, which was really cool. Great partnering up with Chaplin on the CMIYC.