I recently read a book on willpower that as a whole I thoroughly did not enjoy. The other dudes I was reading it with exhausted the joke that the brilliance of the book was that it forced us to utilize every ounce of our willpower to finish it. Not a lot of takeaways or surprises, but there was one that stuck with me.

In a study of army BUD/S training crews – the number one corrleative predictive statistic for success of a group was not the leader of the group or the average ability of the group – it was the ability of the least fit person on the team. Now – it’s easy to see this and blame the six for the failure. But the argument made was that human nature is to do as little work as possible unless absolutely necessary. We look for someone to beat and place ourselves just one step ahead of them. Those batallions failed because the most physically fit men allowed human nature to get the best of them and instead of pulling up the six they sunk to that level.

So when you think about it – the six consistently gets the BEST workout every morning. They’re pushing themselves to their limits because they want to keep up with the pax. They want to beat somebody, to not be in last. It’s the rest of us – those like me who have been doing this for years who get lazy and place ourselves firmly in the middle of the pack and coast our way through the morning.

This exercise was in 3 sets meant to give the pax an opportunity to push themselves no matter where they were – you couldn’t leave anyone behind – your only competition was yourself. Don’t let the guy struggling on pull ups to give you permission to slack. Don’t let the guy who’s not a runner send you the message that a slow jog is fine. And when you’re wondering- why is 135 lb SDR so friggin bad at box jumps? – don’t let that mean you get to take your time as well.

I guess what this is really saying is – punch up. Aim for the guy in first instead of letting our nature take over and aim not to be last. Let’s get after it.

Warmup:

• SSH
• ARM CIRCLES F/B
• 5 BURPEES OYO
• IMPERIAL WALKERS
• HILLBILLIES
• 5 BURPEES OYO

The Thang:

8 minute timers – AMRAP – work through as many rounds as you can in the 8 minutes. rRepeat at the top once you finish. Push yourself to YOUR threshold. Not somebody else’s

Round 1 – jog to back for murph at playground

• 10 pull ups
• 20 merkins
• 30 squats
• Run down to the basketball court, touch the center, run back

Round 2 – picnic tables

• 40 dips
• 30 step ups (single count)
• 20 derkins
• 10 box jumps

Round 3 – around the side to the wall

• 5 Handstand pushups or 10 second B2TWall
• Bear crawl to the parking lot
• 5 burpees
• Crawlbear back to the wall

Mary:

• Jog back to startex – Knope led us in a 1/2 Steinel on each leg – these are the worst. If you don’t know what they are – pray  you never figure out.
• 10 V Up Roll Ups

Prayer Requests for a PAX member who just lost his father in law

Romper Room coming in August – M and 2.0 friendly workout – 8:15 after TBL

If you’re a frequenter –  PICK UP A Q – There are few feelings of dissapointment more prominent than checking your site Q sheet the night before and realizing nobody signed up… again. Should be more than 4-5 men who Q at a site. If you’ve been doing this for a few months – you’re ready. Talk to someone experienced and we’ll be more than happy to help. Don’t let some other scrub who isn’t Q’ing inspire you not to. Find your threshold.

Much love men,

SDR