Backblast: December 22nd, 2025
AO: The Nest – Fassett Junior High School – Oregon, OH
PAX:
Photon – Q
Armstrong
Deliverance
Fall Out Boy
Raven
Workout: Photon Surprise
FNG’s: N/A
Mission and Principles:
F3: Fitness, Fellowship, Faith
Mission: To plant, grow and serve small workout groups for men for the invigoration of male community leadership.
The core principles of F3 are that it is always:
1. Free of charge
2. Open to all men
3. Held outdoors, rain or shine, heat or cold
4. Led by men who participate in the workout in a rotating fashion, with no training or certification necessary. You versus you. Modify or stop an exercise if you need to. The most important thing is that nobody gets hurt.
5. Ends with a Circle of Trust
Credo: Leave no man behind but leave no man where you find him
Warm-up: N/A
The “Thang”:
Surprise! It’s Thriller!
This was a 12-round ladder workout where a new rung was added to the ladder each round, each rung being an exercise out of the plank position. After each round, all PAX ran a four-tier suicide and held Al Gore while waiting for the 6 to finish. For the work portion, the PAX lined up side-by-side about 6 feet apart from one another in three lines drawn off by three sets of cones. This spacing was used to ensure every PAX had enough space to perform the Thriller routine without any collisions. On the Qs count the routine started, with YHC calling out cadence throughout its entirety. During the last 4-count of each “rung” in the routine, the Q also called out what the next movement/exercise would be in the progression. This continued until the routine was complete for any given round. Run the suicides and repeat until entire routine was built and run in succession. The culmination of this was a 1:30 minute, in cadence routine performed by all PAX, from the plank position, to the backing Thriller track.
Dance exercise were as follows…and yes, they were included to try and mimic the dance moves MJ actually used in the video.
Rd. Reps
1.) Forward Bear Crawl Slow/fast: 4/8
2.) T-Cross Hand Release Merkin: 4
3.) Zebra Butt Kick (2 is 1): 4
4.) Kick Through (2 is 1): 4
5.) Plank Skier (2 is 1) 4
6.) Plank Jack Shoulder Tap (2 is 1): 4 (waterfall from 3rd row)
7.) Lateral Bear Crawl Right/left: 8/8
8.) Reverse Flying Squirrel 4
9.) Travolta (2 is 1): 4
10.) Peter Parker (2 is 1) 4
11.) Pickle Pounder (2 is 1): 4
12.) Plank Compass: 16
No encore this time around as we only had 45 minutes total to work with. Finished up round 12 just in time.
Ended with:
Count-O-Rama: 5
Name-O-Rama
The Six – Photon
LDP3
Ball of Man
Spreadsheets from the Gloom: Only my second time at The Nest, and first time in over two years. Figured my first Q should probably be what I’m known for, so Thriller is what the Oregon boys got. I suppose it could have been burpees, but that’s not as fun. So Thriller it was; and it was awesome. Had to audible location to the grass due to the parking lot being so close in proximity to houses (and YHC apparently being known for projecting), but the final location worked beautifully. School blocked the wind, which allowed us to be a little quieter with the music. Small numbers kept us tight and in one row for the whole routine.
Oregon PAX were up for the challenge and it was nice to debut this to a group of guys for the first time again. Hoping it can inspire some of them to get out to The Fortress on Saturdays again! Afterall, it was The Nest that originally inspired my love for burpees. My first (and only) visit saw a modified version of burpee mountain that was both devastating to my body and humbling to my mind. Crazy to see how far I’ve come since that day back in fall of 2023. What a difference a few years can make.
All in all it was a great morning. Was nice to get out and see the group in Oregon. Hoping to be able to make it out there a bit more often going forward. Aye!
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