Backblast: June 25th 2026
AO: The Armory – Waterville Library – Waterville, OH
PAX:
Photon – Q
Arcy
Lullaby
OSHA
Workout: Michael Bauer – Block With You
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”:
Part three in YHCs Michael Jackson dance series, this was the block entry with a more subdued feel thanks to the slower pace of Rock With You.
This was a 10-round ladder workout where a new rung was added to the ladder each round, each rung being an exercise utilizing a cinder block. After each round, all PAX ran a four-tier suicide. For the work portion, the PAX lined up side-by-side about 6 feet apart from one another in a single line, using large silicon dots as markers. This spacing was used to ensure every PAX had enough space to perform the entire 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 1:55 minute, in cadence routine performed by all PAX, with a cinder block, to the backing Rock With You track.
Dance exercise were as follows…and yes, they were included to try and mimic the dance moves MJ might use if he found himself on a dance floor with a cinder block.
Rd. Reps
1.) Forward Murder Bunny (wide grip): 8
2.) Bent Over Row: 8
3.) Overhead Press: 8
4.) Goblet Squat: 8
5.) Lateral Ape Hop Right/Left: 4/4
6.) Curl (held from top): 8
7.) Man-Maker: 4 (8 measures)
8.) Block Toe Tap (2 is 1): 8
9.) Deadlift: 4
10.) Reverse Murder Bunny (wide grip): 8
After the final round, there was a second run through in order to capture a more refined attempt on video.
Ended with:
Count-O-Rama: 4
Name-O-Rama
The Six – OSHA
LDP3
Ball of Man
Spreadsheets from the Gloom: 58F and misty. This one had been sitting in the beatdown log for well over a year due to the concern of it being too difficult. But after pushing PAX to do 451 burpees in 53 minutes, and 1000 straight IC SSHs on multiple occasions, YHC figured it was finally time to give this one a go. So after some pre-week tweaking and some prior-day testing, it happened. And it worked very well. The concerns were definitely real in terms of difficulty, but key adjustments were made to ensure it would function. First, and most importantly, the Rock With You track had to be slowed down. While the routines do look, sound, and feel better with a higher tempo, pushing it too fast with a block is a recipe for injury, so the track was slowed down to 80% speed. Still listenable and very recognizable, but also much safer. To be honest, it would probably be impossible at full speed, even for the strongest rabbits amongst us. If the movements alone wouldn’t get ya, the transitions would. Which brings us to the second adjustment. The routine was shortened in terms of rounds. With slower movements, the entire routine took longer. So in order to fit in properly into a shorter week-day beatdown, it was cut from 12 exercises to 11, but 1 of those 11 (Man-Makers) required two time-slots worth of work. So the duration of the routine was cut from 12 to 11 in terms of exercises, 12 to 10 in terms of suicides, all while remaining a tad bit longer in terms of actual time…right around 1:55.
Additional accommodations were made as well, most notably hand placement while performing the exercises. For the murder bunnies, a wide grip was used instead of the typical narrow one. It allowed for much easier transitions in and out of the surrounding exercises while still enabling the murder bunny motions. In a similar fashion, curls were performed holding the block from the top instead of the bottom. Way more challenging curls, but helped maintain consistent hand placement throughout the duration of the beatdown. The last adjustment that was made to ensure the routine was doable was to remove the block from the PAX hands for a short duration during the routine. 2 minutes is a long time to sling cindy around, so a mid-routine break was added. The final Man-Maker had PAX leaving the block on the ground after the groiner and finishing the rep sans block. That led into a nice 4 measure reprieve of block toe touches before picking the block up again during the first Deadlift. Probably a little less visually appealing than keeping the block in our hands the entire time, but the relief was welcomed…especially in the later rounds.
One goof during this run was taking the video using a backing track with vocals. Copyright issues can make sharing on social media challenging. Next time, the final run-through will be with the instrumental track.
All in all this was a fun one. Not as demanding as Thriller, but more challenging than the standing version at The Wall. If this ever evolved into an hour long endeavor, it has the potential to be an absolute monster. Just need to find a few more exercises that maintain the grip and fit within the routine. Or we could just increase the tempo to 90%. Maybe on the next run-through…
The formula is here to stay. Keep an eye out for the next installment.
Leave a Reply