The BackBlast:

YHC can hardly believe its been one whole year since we started this thing on July 1, 2020 in the middle of a global pandemic, but here I am writing about it. It was a beautiful morning for a beatdown, and the cars kept rolling in…a glorious sight indeed. I thought it would be good to commemorate our 1 year by digging the backblast from our launch out of the archives, rinsing it off and repeating it (with one small addition) so that the PAX who were FNGs at that beatdown could compare this time around to when they rang their first bell and hopefully realize that it seemed alot easier this time…but as we all know…it didn’t get any easier, they have just gotten stronger.

Disclaimer was given in earnest as we had three FNGs among the PAX, preceded by a review of F3’s 5 Core Principles, Mission and Creedo!

Warmup:

Side Straddle Hops x 15 IC

Merkins x 10 IC

Monkey Humpers x 15 IC

Imperial Walkers x 15 IC

Mountain Climbers x 15 IC

Weedpickers x 15 IC

Arm Circles x 15 IC

Circle Arms x 15 IC

Peter Parkers x 15 IC

Flutter Kicks x 15 IC

Abe Vigodas x 15 IC

I’ve decided to incorporate Pull-ups into all of my Qs whenever possible because I’ve decided that we all need to do (or attempt as one PAX pointed out) more pull-ups, so this is the part that I added. Over to the playground for our daily dose of pull-ups.

(2 pax at a time since we had a large group) 10 Pullups while rest of the PAX planked – Even with 2 pax at a time, this made for a very long plank!

Mosey over to the nearby field beyond the volleyball court for an Ark Loader: Bear Crawl Out / Crab Walk Back x 3

Mosey over to the Pavillion:

Step Ups x 20 IC

Decline Merkin x 10 IC

Dip x 10 IC

Step Ups x 20 IC

Incline Merkin x 10 IC

Dip x 10 IC

Mosey over to the Soccer Field for some additional field work:

Plank

Right Arm Up

Right Leg up (I guess this and the other legs up while planking was also an addition)

Plank

Left Arm Up

Left Leg Up

One Perfect Merkin

Flutter Kick x 10 IC

LBC x 10 IC

Plank

Right Arm Up

Right Leg Up

Plank

Left Arm Up

Left Leg Up

One Restaurant Quality Merkin (in Launch Co-Q and now Philly Nantan Trigger’s honor)

Flutter Kick x 10 IC

LBC x 10 IC

Mosey back over to the parking lot.

6MOM with PAX calling out their favorite (or least favorite) Core Exercise. Didn’t make it all the way around the circle.

Exercises included:

Box Cutters

V-Ups

Freddy Mercuries

Dolly

Crunchy Frogs

and probably a few others that have slipped my mind.

Count-a-rama

Name-a-rama

CoT

BoM

Coffeteria featuring Long Haul’s special brew coffee, Mr Stickey’s Sticky Buns and fresh fruit mingled with some great fellowship!

Below are some reflections and thoughts on the last year that YHC shared with the PAX during CoT:

F3 Indian Valley Year in Review (stats excluding today’s Manniversary workout)

1st F:

# of Workouts – 111

Started out with one day per week and now we have bootcamps on Mon/Wed/Sat and a group run on Fri.

# of PAX – 738

Highest number at a workout in 2020 (excluding launch) was 10 PAX. In 2021, excluding today, highest number is 17 PAX.

# of FNGs – 33 (24 of them in 2021)

# of VQ’s – 7 (so far with another one (Woody) coming up in a couple of weeks and I expect several more to follow before long)

22 Active Members on our Slack Workspace that are keeping the mumble chatter going and keeping the PAX engaged with each other between workouts and other events (if you are a regular IV PAX and haven’t joined our Slack workspace I would encourage you to do so!)

2nd F:

Started scheduling at least one 2^nd F Fellowship event per month (First Friday Fellowship) – July’s event is this Friday, 7/2 6pm at Pinto’s place. See slack or the weekly newsletter to RSVP today!!

3^rd F:

Late summer of 2020 several PAX spent several evenings over the course of a few weeks over at Cabin Craft Outdoor Adventures helping to clean up and get them ready to reopen after their business was flooded, PAX helped another local business (Dog Town) move from their old location to a new location, and the F3 Indian Valley/Valley Forge Piano Movers got together for a combined Piano moving and Fellowship gathering.

F3 Indian Valley has grown into what we are today because of each of you! I got to be the “dancing idiot”, the lucky one to light the match here, but it’s because of guys like Sparkie who I think was probably my “first follower” from the Indian Valley (see: Leadership from a Dancing Guy -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO8MwBZl-Vc) and Double D and Fonda and Dropcloth who were there from the beginning and stuck with it and started EH’ing their buddies and neighbors that we’ve seen the growth we’ve had in this first year.

I was going back and reading the backblast from the launch workout and was reminded that Uptown Girl said a few words (probably to let the FNG’s that day catch their breath) about the importance of guys stepping up and leading in order for F3 to keep growing and accomplishing the mission which is “To Plant, Grow and Serve small workout groups for men for the invigoration of male community leadership”. In case you haven’t realized it yet, F3 is way more than just a workout. We are a leadership organization. In other words we are an organization of leaders. Pinto stepped up to serve as the site Q for the Arrowhead and I’m really grateful for that, but in order for us to truly accomplish our mission here in the Indian Valley, its going to take a lot more guys stepping up into a leadership role. Each of you has something you can contribute, and I’m going to be tapping some guys on the shoulders over this next year in order to create a Shared Leadership Team. If you believe in the mission, if you can see without a doubt the positive impact F3 has had on your life over these last few months and you really want to start giving it away to others, I hope you will be up to the challenge.

SYIT(IV)G!

Lowes