A Social Experiment

A Social Experiment

QIC: Zima

Date: 4/24/24

PAX: Frank and Beans, Schlitz, Greenspan, Five Dollar Footlong, Palin, Frostbite, Zima

Each and every member of the PAX starts in F3 for different reasons.  Along the way, we align some of our goals and often discover new ones.  The great thing about this brotherhood is that it has so much to offer, whereas in a single post, different PAX can walk away with wholly diverse benefits realizations.

TIME WASTERS.

Nobody cares.  Cadence was perfect.  Move on.

BEATDOWN.

Find a partner.  He may be your friend or may be your foe.  The PAX were instructed to partner up based similarly on athletic prowess.

The structure of the workout provided a simple competition.  On the track, the partners were supposed to start a round by fist bumping at the 0 meter mark.  One partner was supposed to run 300 meters in one direction (towards the moon, clockwise, or in the direction your spirit animal takes you – you choose).  The other partner was supposed to perform the called exercise for the called number of reps and then sprint 100 meters in the opposite direction.  Using the oval shape of the track, each pair should meet up at the same location.  The first partner to arrive was supposed to start doing WWIIs.  The second partner to arrive was supposed to perform 15 burpees.  When the burpees were finished, the partners were supposed to switch roles (the one who ran 300 meters was supposed to do the exercise and the one who supposedly performed the exercise will run 300 meters).  Once both partners have had a chance to supposedly perform the same exercise, they were supposed to move onto the next set.

Diamond Merkins x 30

KTG Iron Mikes      x 20

Heels to Heaven    x 30

Perfect Merkins     x 20

Bootheel Squats    x 45

Mountain Climbers x 65

If performed correctly, the 300 meter runner should “win” every time.  But how great is the enticement to avoid burpees and get in some extra WWIIs?  Will the PAX be honorable, stick to proper form, and accept a burpee consequence? Or will the allure of padding the WWII totals be too great?  Would a partner be OK knowing that his lack of attention to exercise form or ability to count caused an F3 brother to do burpees?  Herein lies the social experiment.

DONE.

NAKED MAN MOLESKIN.

• First of all, I am ALWAYS honored when even one person posts to a workout.  Most mornings I set the bar pretty low by having a Plan B with the expectation of sad clowning … you know, just in case.  Let me offer my extreme thanks to the gentlemen who showed up to make our gloom a little brighter.
• As always, each man came this morning for different reasons … clearly.  And as always, it is my sincere hope that I could play a small part in helping accomplish that reason.  Hopefully everyone walked away with betterment in some area of his day.
• I felt like a Middle Eastern dictator circa 2011.  The revolt of the masses!  The will of an oppressed people can topple a despot.  The meek are inheriting the earth!
• Palin was there, so yup, exercise hacking and mumble chatter were unfortunately in full effect.  We’ll cover counting and actual fitness at a later time in the semester.
• Not to be outdone in the mouth moving department, things came out of Schlitz’s mouth that my sensitive ears have never heard before and likely will never hear again (until the next time I workout with the beer man).
• Five Dollar Footlong is confused about astronomy, particularly by the position of this planet’s satellite, but Schlitz helpfully offered to show him his moon.  And something about knees.  I was too busy exercising to follow this useless conversation.
• Frank and Beans wisely (see what I did there) shied away from the more negative vitriol and only threw glancing blows at the Q.  He’ll learn soon.  As someone trained in the art of careful contemplation, he was not an obnoxious instigator, but more of a subtle proponent of the shenanigans.
• Is it too soon to make a brain joke about Greenspan?  The statute of limitations is a year, right?  Anyway, he didn’t need to do any basic comprehension to completely demolish and embarrass the Q in any form of running – rapid moseying or sprinting.
• Frostbite attempted to be diplomatic by admitting (when nobody was around) that he “liked” the format.  What does liking the format mean and how does that translate to following instructions?
• YHC was afraid to use the terms clockwise or counterclockwise because Schlitz’s ability to use a watch might exceed his mental capacity.
• Greenspan’s cognitive ability is on par with Schlitz’s.  He correctly answered the true/false question – Am I holding up fingers?
• Fist bumps (or fist pounds) DO NOT MEAN touch your tips.  Come on, why did we have to go there?
• After almost 9 years (I think) of doing this F3 thing, it is a testament to this group that I can still be amazed by its ingenuity and creativity.  Using that power to completely ignore what the Q says or the spirit of the workout is a different story.  But hey, the tools are still there, it just depends on how you use them.
• YHC spent an inordinate amount of time trying to devise a workout that would encourage the PAX to really push themselves physically and mentally, while following the rules of human physiology to obtain optimal results.  As usual, YHC was a complete and utter failure of epic proportions.  For all the Q’s carefully planning, the PAX were able to dismantle the beatdown and outthink him in a mere matter of minutes.  Sheesh.  Oh well, back to the drawing board.  Maybe by my 200th Q, I will finally learn how to do this thing.  Obviously, I’m a very slow learner.  Is there an upcoming Q school?
• Some people said they had fun.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

• Frank and Beans has the Q at Urban Assault on Friday and if you want to know what he has planned, you have to come and find out.
• Good turnout for Samaritan Ministry this week.  A few spots still open for the upcoming date.
• Happy hour (and a half) next week at Campus Gas.  (I’m not sure why I’m writing this, but … no wives allowed.)
• Lunch Bunch is this Friday.

PRAYERS:

• The Ziggy Stardust family

Five Dollar Footlong took us out in a special way.

Zima Out.