Getting Recharged for Life

Variations of this workout have made it around the east coast, but there are always customizations for each AO. Today, it comes to Carterico. Jocko Willink says this is not a big philosophical statement, but it resonated with me “Burpees are like life”. In fact it resonated to the point that todays workout is based on the fact that, like a burpee, in life you “fall down and get back up”. Check out this video to listen to Jocko say it – https://mobile.twitter.com/jockowillink/status/890221220678868994/video/1 17 men realized what Jocko meant by the end of the morning.

Warmup – In Carterico, you have to do the disclaimer quickly because this guys are dangerous when let unattended too long. A warmup is even worse for the mumble chatter. That required a quick “Follow me” mosey. We started with a little warmup of Shock n’ Awe – a reverse Burpee ladder starting at 10 going down by two (with a surprise at the end). In the soon to be official “Ruckicon” the term “bitches” is a motivational term of endearment for brothers you respect”. That was followed by Wimpie Legs > Jump Squats; Jump Lunges; Donkey Kicks x3. YHC took a moment to explain Jacko’s little philosophical statement to the pax during the Ladder.

The Thang – We moseyed one time around the track with a partner – sharing a time in life when you “fell down” and spied a mysterious arrangement of orange traffic barrels in the practice field. Next we completed Remedial BLIMPS. Normally BLIMPS are done in a straight line and not repeated. Figured that we needed to do a lot of burpees and repeating the prior exercised made sense. Here’s how the BLIMPS went down. We started at the first barrel and completed Burpees x 5. At the 20 yrd line we complete burpees x 5, then the Lunges x 10. Keep repeating every barrel until all the BLIMPS exercises are complete at the last barrel. That was 6 sets of burpees.

Since we “fell down” during the first loop we had conversation with your partner about a time when you “got back up” as we moseyed around the field. We ended up lined up next to your partner for a practice Indian run tire flip. That set up a series of tire exercises that got us to deal with a burden in different ways. The first time down the field, we flipped it. We managed to move it back efficiently on the way back which meant rolling it. We had to put our 6 into it on the way back down because we sometimes have to simply carry the burdens of life with our brothers. You see none of us could have carried that tire by ourselves, but together, every burden was conquered. We finished this evolution with a Boy Scout principle of leave no trace, so the men quickly put everything is the proper place. We then moseyed to the football field.

This is Stupid is a set of suicides. We worked as a team AND we pushed ourselves as individuals.
• Jailbreak from one end zone to the 20 yard line. Once you hit the 20 get in order from Thoroughbred to Clydesdale on the opposite end zone.
• Suicides are stupid, so that’s what we did. 10 yard suicides with two goals.
• The Thoroughbreds aimed to go all the way to the 100 yard line (remember you can only progress forward 10 yards at a time)
• The Clydesdales aimed to get the last man to the 50 before the first Thoroughbred finishes.
• The idea is that each man pushes each other and we all win with one of us wins. Oh, and it’s completely stupid and utterly pointless. X-box was the fastest thoroughbred and made it to the 70 yard line.
Circle of Pain:
• Can Opener (Like a 1/2 Freddy Mercury, then switch legs)
• J-Lo (Plank position – hip drop)
• The Edge (on 6, rt leg extended x 10; left leg extended x10; both legs extended x 10)
• Flutter Kicks

We ended with about 68 burpees depending on the number completed/modified. That’s a lot of burpees. That’s a lot of life…

BOM/COT – Lassie’s brother John; Nipple Shots Mother in Law, Alice Ann; Bono’s Dad, Brewster; Shroom’s co-worker, Steve with a triple bypass; Nipple Shots best friend growing up, Ben, who just past away.

Moleskin – It’s lunch time and YHC is sitting on a bench at Ft Macon State Parking. The breeze is steady and firm. The clouds cover the sky. A small crowd is gathered in the sand below. A little over a month ago, Florence brought a different kind of scene to this tranquil piece of heaven on earth.

Today was about hitting the reset button. As Florence approached, a shadow seemed to consume me. Feelings from Matthew that were suppressed two years ago consumed me. The immediate aftermath brought relief in the form of action: collecting supplies for folks in shelters, cutting down trees, sharing lessons learned with our F3 brothers in Cape Fear and Carterico. When the work subsided, that shadow tightened down again.

A friend told me of a story that he read from a Buddhist. The concept was that in life you can give and give until you have nothing left. Then you have to find a peace to recharge yourself. That seemed to frame the last several weeks and made sense today.

In 2016, the men of F3 ENC gave so much. We toiled, we built, we mucked out, we comforted, we prayed with and for our community. We led hundreds of volunteers building a sandbag wall and 1,000 Greenville residents during the CommUnity Unity cleanup. We gave everything.

Maybe today was about saying it’s OK to recharge. It’s OK to sit by the ocean in a stiff breeze and be at peace. It’s OK to find a simple task, like deconstructing (not demolishing) Lassies porch with 14 other Carterico men. It’s OK to pause and listen to the final three men talk about the next steps to getting his house right again. Listening to Lassie talk about the weight lifted off his shoulders was a recharge. Today was an affirmation that it’s OK to recharge the human batteries, so we don’t end up like the sawzall used today with a constantly dead battery. Sometimes, we have to have the patience to recharge the human batteries so we are more productive when it’s time to do the work God has called us to do. Today was a recharging day for me.

Thank you to Crabby Englishman, a HIM and Heavy brother who invited me down. The intent of my text to him was to offer him personal help. He EH’d me to Q. He offered to help Lassie. He is living 3rd. Thank you to the HIM of Carterico for making me sweat. Making me laugh out loud and allowing me to be part of your band of Fishers of Men.

Bono
Seth N. Brown
252-558-6831
@F3GrowRuck – Twitter