Buddy (Outpost)

Fifteen Pax, took the Daily Red Pill (DRP) this morning and got better.  You see?  It’s not so hard to get out of bed!

The Pax: McFly, Felix, FroYo, Josey, Schlitz, Sparky, T-Bone, Mad Bum, Meat sweats, Rafiki, CPT D, Rifleman, Chitwood, and Aruba (Q Squirrel)

The Scene: Cool and clear

WarmUp:  SSH, Abe Vigoda’s, arm circles and Imperial Walkers  

The Thang: Grab a coupon and let’s go

1st round; 1 minute of each exercise: 

• Weighted squats
• Weighted Lunges
• Weighted Al Gore
• Move to shovel flag via: Murder Bunny

           * Repeato and return to Start Point (SP)

2nd round; 1 min of:

• Blockees
• Coupon Swing
• Over Head Press
• Move to shovel flag via: Rifle Carry

            * Repeato and return to SP 

3rd round; 1 min of: 

• Curls
• Plyo Merkins (walking merkins)
• Alpo’s
• Move to shovel flag via: Side-step lunge

            * Repeato and return to SP

Cirque du soleil abs – 10 reps of each, 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
• Heel taps faster
• 6″ Hold 
• Flutter kicks
• Heels to heaven 
• Lower legs to 10 count

Announcements/Prayer requests:

1. McFly led the announcements off by handing $1,000 gift certificates to FroYo and Felix for Honest diapers.  Basically, the Pax have paid for the first years worth of diapers for these new 2.0’s.  Big props to McFly for leading the effort!!
2. Prayers for MadBum as he tweaked his back doing Blockees or Murder Bunny’s.  To his credit, he listened to his body and modified/stretched it out.  We’d all be wise to listen to our bodies rather than push through the pain.
3. 1 January, the Hunt for the Chupacabra begins at the Piranha AO
4. 2 January @ 1745 (5:45pm) Ruckers Island will have a soft launch at Aberdeen Lake
5. 7 January @1400 Schlitz is leading a rucking team (or two) on the Star Course starting.  Cranmer Dr, Raleigh, NC 27603
6. 7 January, 5-9:30ish pm, F3/FiA Christmas Party – Mark your calendars and tell your M and bring your favorite holiday hors d’oeuvres!  

 

The Pax circled around Felix and FroYo and CPT D led us out in prayer.

 

MOLESKINE:  Buddy

As we creep closer to Christmas some of you may have gathered ‘round the television to catch “It’s A Wonderful Life” (and maybe a shed a few tears).  Here are a few messages and quotes that convey well to F3.

 

“Dear Father in heaven, I’m not a praying man, but if you’re up there and you can hear me, show me the way…show me the way.”

  3rd F – The power of prayer

 

“Each man’s life touches so many other lives, and when he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?”

Basically the F3 Mission statement – the positive impact our good deeds can have on others

 

“Remember, George: no man is a failure who has friends.”2nd F – The importance of our friendships

 

In 2008, a small and cute study asked people to stand at the bottom of a hill, look up and guess how steep it was. Some people were alone, others joined by friends. The hill, on the campus of the University of Virginia, had an incline of 26°.   People who were with friends, the incline looked a lot less, people who were there by themselves thought the hill was way steeper. The feel-good lesson? Everything looks easier when there’s a buddy by your side.

 

The benefits of friendship are profound; longer life, fewer illnesses, lower blood pressure, less stressed, more resilient and more optimistic – e.g. not depressed,  If you’ve got friends, real friends you’re more likely to hold a healthy weight and less likely to suffer cognitive decline.  (Jury’s still out on the last statement given some of the Pax). 

 

There’s a group – a big one – that is missing out on these benefits.  The Sad Clown Group.  It’s a bigger group than F3.   Take a good look around at men you know, at work, church, conventions, etc.  There’s a lot of fellas standing at the bottom of that hill, alone and overwhelmed..

 

As we come together in the gloom and build personal relationships we move past what you do and focus more on who you are.

 

Our friendships are side-by-side, standing shoulder-to-shoulder.  It’s almost uncanny how, through history, we men have had this relationship.  In Nehemiah rebuilding a city, the 300 Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae, Napoleon’s troops, The World Wars, Firefighters going into the Twin Towers on 9/11…shoulder-to-shoulder. 

 

For those of us who choose to come out into the Gloom we often speak of a world that is “connected” but not proximate.  Men working from home, declining engagement in religious activities or social clubs, smartphone/game addiction and social media, perhaps the statistics on men’s shrinking friendship circles shouldn’t be that surprising.  It’s all too often the Sad Clown team gets to add another member to their roles.  Isolated, the Sad Clown does not make plans or stay in contact with friends, they often become physically and socially lazy.  I say “they” and I know this has been ME in the past.  The Sad Clown, being led and not leading, ends up becoming “friends” with the husbands of their wives’ friends.  

Families going through crisis?  Best time to move that energy and frustration. 

Working on squashing old, bad habits?  Super time to have other men providing Guardrails and Accountability!

Hurting physically? Motion is Lotion!  Our joints were made to move.  Modify as necessary so you don’t injure yourself further, but fartsacking or taking meds just masks the underlying problem.

Your Humble Correspondent (YHC) sometimes gets lazy and doesn’t get out…and yet there are very few good reasons not to get out.  I got to thinking on that and had two fellas, whom I hadn’t seen in the Gloom for a while, were on my heart last week so I called them up.  BOTH of them had gone through some significant crap in the past months.  These two men decided to do it on their own.  These are HIM!  We may sit in our F3 bubble and point outward saying, “they [the Sad Clowns] need friends.  Heck, we all need them.  Sometimes we need our friends to remind us that it’s work to maintain relationships…it’s a two way street my friend.  Want friends?  Gotta be a friend.  

I’m putting this out there, but you all already know it….multiple studies including the Harvard Longitudinal Study found that people with strong social connections were more resilient when life’s pressures mounted than people without them.  And yet, our nature being what it is, when we go through rough times, we can put on the mask of mascotry and withdraw from the very people who could help us get through it better.  It’s so important not to let your fear of appearing weak or needy keep you from reaching out and sharing the truth of your life.  Reaching out to others during my moments of struggle, vulnerability, troubled waters lifted me up and helped me move through those days and week with far more courage than I would have otherwise.

 

If you haven’t seen your Buddy in the Gloom lately – reach out, call, drive by, text.  They might be in a bad place and YOU may be just the medicine they need.

 

Aye!