Lead up to Memorial Day (Gumby)
Four Pax answered the call this morning and got better because of it.
The Pax: Flying Tomato, Meat Sweats, Mandela (Q: Squirrel)
MOBILITY ROUTINE
Swing roll-outs
Cobra to active back bend hold –thumbs up, pinch shoulder blades & pause. Two breaths here. Repeato x5.
Low Lunge – Right foot forward, left back. Left knee to ground. Shoulders stacked above hips & left hip pushing forward. Arms to goalposts or press on thigh. Move to runners lunge – Straighten front leg, w/ proud chest hinge forward to feel the hamstring stretch), 5 breaths. <Flapjack>
Hip rotations – On your butt, right knee forward @ 90, left knee back @ 90. Bend forward with a proud chest. Should feel in right hip. 5 breaths. <Flapjack>
HAMSTRINGS
Standing Forward Bend – Hands on hips, exhaling, bend at the hips to fold forward. Pro Tip – lengthen the front of your torso
Hamstring Stretch on Pole – find a pole on the swing set. On your 6, left leg extended. Put your right leg up the pole & hold the stretch for 30 sec. <Flapjack>
Hamstring Stretch – Right foot over left. Bend at the hips to fold forward. Pro Tip – lengthen the front of your torso. <Flapjack>
Swing hammies – foot in the seat and bend forward
TWIST
Standing Spinal Twist – Hinge at waist, don’t round over. Hands out to sides, rotate to the left…left hand high, rotate to the right…right had high. Repeato
LATS / BACK
Childs Pose Cross body – Walk hands to the left, Four breaths here. << Flapjack
CALVES – Down dog
STRENGTH / CORE – 30 seconds on, 15 off = 12 minutes of abs
- Mountain Tops – On your 6, knees bent, no slouching, squeeze shoulder blades. Twist and tap the ground behind you.
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10 reps of each exercise, followed by a 10-second isometric hold
- Crunches > Crunch and hold for ten count
- Table crunch > Crunch and hold for ten count
- Legs straight up – toe touches > Iso Hold
- V-legs up & crunch between > Iso Hold
- Right knee in, left leg 6″ hold & crunch > Iso Hold
- Right knee in, left leg 6″ hold & cross-body crunch
- Left knee in, right leg 6″ hold & crunch
- Left knee in, right leg 6″ hold & cross-body crunch
- Start in table top, heel taps (10 ea foot)
- Heel taps faster…10 ea foot
- Both heels, same time tap
- 6″ Hold
- Flutter kicks > Iso 6” Hold
- Lower legs to 10 count
Mosey over to meet the Stronghold Pax.
MOLESKINE: Lead up to Memorial Day
The lead up to Memorial Day is sometimes painful, and sometimes just another day. This is the time we remember those whom we served with and who gave their last full measure on a field somewhere “over there.”
A fellow soldier and friend I worked with wrote about this and it resonated with me. I thought I’d pass it along. I also weave in here what we as men of F3, or men in general go through. There’s a thread that touches all men, not just soldiers.
“The job turned men into a nocturnal predator, hunting by night, resting by day.
Most fella’s never really felt refreshed when you get up, just physically able enough to go & do it all over again. Hour after hour. Mission after mission. Day after Day.
90 days. One. After. The. Other. Unrelenting. So many missions that they all roll into one giant shitty memory so blended together in your head that you can’t tell where they stop & start, or what day they occurred, or what year for that matter. Not even which happened first. It’s living your life on a fast, violent, roller coaster that won’t stop to let you off, not unless you catch a bullet.
We all signed up for it. Volunteered. In fact, many volunteered multiple times- for the Army, for jump school, for the Unit. We pushed ourselves and each other to physical and emotional limits to make it through when 95% of those who started didn’t make it.
We did it because we loved our country. There was a wanting to protect our families, our friends, American citizens, & other innocent people in the world from bullies & tyrants. We firmly believed that we fought so that others wouldn’t have to & could sleep easy in their beds at night. We believed that we were in Afghanistan or Iraq to bring freedom & protect people. If we didn’t stop it “there” we’d be fighting at home.”
Moving out of the war story into “the real world” I’ll try to stitch this together.
- Listen to your body. If you are tired that’s ok, it means you’ve worked hard and that’s a good thing. If you’re exhausted…rest. It will do your body, mind and soul good.
- If you’re married you “signed up for it”, you volunteered. You take these steps every day, or I hope so, to be a better husband, father, friend. You push yourself to physical and emotional limits to make it through when 44.2% of couples don’t make it.
- As men we love feeling useful & what we do matters to the world. We aren’t made to just be check-strokers or sperm donors. When we leave this great big ball we call Earth we should go being all used up. When I look at our group of F3 misfits I see men who live this out every day. Men who: provide for their families, who play with their kids even when they’re exhausted, take care of their bodies through acceleration so when the unexpected happens they are prepared to do more than just get their fat-asses off the couch. For soldiers it really isn’t about killing as much as it is about protecting. For civilians it’s almost the same thing…it’s not about killing it at the job, it’s about protecting our families.
Look around you. Outside of your family are there men you love at work? Men who you can turn to and pour your heart out to, be vulnerable with and know there is no judgment? For me, when I look around I see my life filled with F3 friends and I love ‘em…most of them anyway. You all are brothers, stronger than blood. A tribe.
I’ve written Backblasts about tribes in the past. How important they are to each of us, how we need them as men. Whether it’s F3 or a run group or rucking or knitting….I don’t care. I need it. You need it. We all do. If you believe that being that Lone Wolf is a symbol of admiration you’re dead wrong. Hollywood has made alone wolf as a rugged individualist, uncompromising and independent, driven to forge his own path. In the real world, few people would ever want to live this way—and, as it turns out, few wolves would either. Wolves, males and females alike, may go through periods alone, but they’re not interested in lives of solitude. A lone wolf is a wolf that is searching, and what it seeks is another wolf. Everything in a wolf’s nature tells it to belong to something greater than itself. Same goes for men.
See ya in the Gloom!
Aye!