Meet the banjo-playing, coupon-curling fighter pilot who coined the term MABA
You can meet him in person at the St. Louis GrowRuck (take that as an invitation)
In this newsletter: The HIM/fighter pilot who coined MABA, an invitation to join us for GrowRuck in St. Louis and a request for help.
Make America Burpee Again (MABA) is a nationwide CSAUP in which each of us is doing 3,100 burpees in 31 days. Fall down. Get back up. Together.
Log your burpees here.
Forward this to friends. SYITG.
Send your why, the PAX who inspires you to keep going or photos of you doing burpees in a strange place to Matt Crossman (F3 Ralph) at mcrossman98@gmail.com.
CFIT is more than fit for MABA duty
The man who inspired MABA has repeatedly refused to accept any credit for it. But I’m the Q of this newsletter, and I was standing right there when the words “Make America Burpee Again,” came out of his mouth so I say he gets credit.
CFIT is a father of four, a lieutenant colonel in the Missouri Air National Guard and a highly respected PAX at The Last Stop. A thickly muscled beast of a HIM, he particularly thrives in coupon beatdowns, especially since that one last summer after which none of us could move our arms. He can do curls for hours.
Three of his kids have F3 names; the fourth is too young but did invent “the Boston Burpee,” which is touching the ground, shrieking “burpee!” and giggling like a 2-year-old.
CFIT is well rounded in a way that only happens on purpose. He laughs easily, plays a mean banjo (he builds them, too) and can explain the theology of TULIP* one minute and tell a harrowing and hilarious story about almost crashing an F16 the next.
He was my EH, and I Qed his first beatdown. I admire and respect the hell out of him, and so I was massively intimidated when we named him. CFIT has been deployed/stationed/worked all over the world. He said during his naming COT that as far as he knew, he had never been shot at during a combat flight. (I mean, me neither, but it’s not every COT that you hear something like that.) Though I know him to be a kind, humble and self-deprecating man, giving him a silly nickname seemed juvenile.
He deserved better than whatever childish nonsense I would have come up with. Seriously: We do a lot of opposite nicknames in the STL. What’s the opposite of “totally awesome bad ass”? Somehow CFIT used the term CFIT – an acronym for controlled flight into terrain – and I was relieved because that was obviously perfect.
He’ll co-Q the MABA finale on January 31 at 2 p.m. CT, which will be broadcast on the St. Louis F3 Facebook page. He is responsible for making us all do 50 burpees. I know what he has planned, and it’s brutal. I hope he’ll take credit for that, at least.
*It’s a reformed theology term. Look it up. F3 is not affiliated with any particular faith practice, etc.
Hey MABA-boy, how many burpees have I done?
Your totals are here. Through Wednesday night, 313 men had submitted 549,525 burpees. From the outset, MABA’s goal was to hit 1 million burpees. With 10 days left, it’s not looking good. But MABA is not ultimately about numbers. It’s about community. It’s about resilience. Fall down. Get back up. Together.
A MABA rerun
If you missed the last newsletter, you need to check it out. Click here. I’m exhausted just from reading about Disco Ball’s quest to do 10,000 burpees this month. Yes, 10,000 burpees in one month.
Related: Push yourself but don’t hurt yourself.
Preblast: 2 p.m. Central time, January 31:
A MABA convergence, live from STL
There will be burpees. Lots and lots of burpees. So many burpees. All of them broadcast live on our Facebook page.
A non-MABA note: Come GrowRuck with us!
You should come to St. Louis and GrowRuck with us. July 16-18, sign up details coming soon. I’ll be there with bells on. But hopefully not a blindfold.
I bet we'll do middle-of-the-night burpees. Bartles and Jaymes, a MABA maniac from Naperville, told me GrowRuck’s burpee fitness test is 100 burpees, run a mile, 50 burpees, run a mile, and the standard is 31 minutes. I tried, and failed, to meet that standard on Monday. I clocked 31.52. Try it yourself and send me your time.
Send me tips on daily discipline
As I’ve mentioned a time or 987 in the MABA newsletter, I’m a freelance writer. I’m writing a three-part series on MABA for Success.com. Part one, on the importance of community is here, and I hope you’ll read it because writing it gutted me. For part two, I’m going to explore the importance of daily discipline. That’s a huge area of growth need for me, and I’m trying to accelerate in it by doing at least 100 burpees every day. I haven’t missed a day. If you have thoughts/advice/tips/whatever on daily discipline, especially as it pertains to MABA and/or F3, shoot me a note.
In the next issue: A burpee play list that will have your heart pounding, your feet tapping and your lungs gasping.