The power of shirtless burpees in the snow
Plus burpees with the dentist and three 1,000 burpees in one day loons
In F3 St. Charles: The Last Stop, every time it snows, our slack is flooded with videos of men and their kids doing shirtless burpees in the snow … and their wives either cackling in delight, shaking their heads in disgust or, ideally, both.
Shirtless burpees in the snow are, admittedly, to some degree garden variety jackassery.
But there’s more to them than that.
Much more, as Jason “Cherry Limeade” Meinershagen (seen above in his daily ice bath) explains here.
Men, I’m gonna get down and dirty and be vulnerable for a tick, not because I glean anything from it, but because I’ve come into a place in my life where I understand that being open and vulnerable with other men is how we:
Grow ourselves.
Connect with others in deep and meaningful ways.
Encourage others to find within themselves whatever attribute or character trait they’ve hidden deep down within themselves that needs to be brought to the surface so they can become the best version of themself.
That’s my goal in life — to become the best version of me possible. The best husband, the best dad, the best friend, the best brother, the best son, the best leader, the best employee, the best Disciple of Christ, the best man. Not better than anyone else in any of those roles, just a better version of who I was yesterday.
F3 has been a GAME CHANGER for me, internally. My headspace before May of 2022 was shit. It wasn’t fit for public consumption, plain and simple. There are days still where it’s crap inside my head, but those days are fewer and farther between now than they were then.
Have I lost weight and improved my physical fitness level, endurance and appearance in the last 20 months? Hell, yeah!
Do I still struggle with a childhood past of being bullied followed by 35 years of being body shamed? Yes!
My confidence level and my mindset of endurance and positivity have grown by leaps and bounds because of the discipline I’ve found through consistency in F3. YOU ALL are a part of that victory in my life, and I love you for it. Without you meeting me in the gloom consistently every week, I would not be where I am today.
All that to share with you this video of me doing shirtless burpees in the snow.
Challenged by Ralph last year to do a few, I think I kept the shirt on and just did burpees in the snow. This year, as I’m a year older and more confident, I am learning to love me for who I am.
Do I look the way I want to look? Hell, no!
Am I embarrassed and genuinely in tears, scared about putting this out there? Hell, yes!
Do I care what others think about the way I look? Yeah, maybe still quite a bit, actually, but I’m learning to let that go. And part of the process of letting that go (for me anyway) is sharing my ugly, overweight, shirtless burpees for all to see.
This post is for the man who (like me) is not confident in his own skin, who looks in the mirror and doesn’t like what he sees, who feels like he’s slowing others down by being the six more times than not, whose internal self talk is filled with trash talk, negativity, guilt and shame, whose self confidence is low, who needs a reminder that YOU’RE NOT ALONE in any of that!
My encouragement to you in sharing this morning is this: Go do some shirtless burpees in the snow.
Modify and/or deconstruct them, if you need to.
Don’t record them, if you don’t want to.
Don’t share that you did them with anyone else, if you don’t want to.
Do 1 … or do 100 (or if you’re trying to keep up with Kramer, knock out your 1,000 for the day). Doesn’t matter how many, how long, how hard. Just take your shirt off and get out in the snow. It’s a rare opportunity to do something that you can’t do but a few times a year here. It’s a great opportunity to do something hard … and vulnerable. It’s more freeing than I could ever imagine.
Most importantly, and don’t tune out for this last part!!! Do them for YOU. Don’t do them for me, your M, your 2.0s, the neighbors who might witness it, or to prove something to the jackass who was your middle school bully. Do them for YOU…because you’re worth it, my brother!
Have a blessed day. Go BE the blessing.
Follow Cherry Limeade on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube at @aNoteFromDad. Twitter is @a_NoteFromDad. Website: www.aNoteFromDad.com
Meet the 1,000 burpees in one day lunatics.
A handful of men have completed at least one day of 1,000 burpees. I’m going to introduce you to them over the next few weeks.
Today we meet three men from F3 Blue Ridge in West Virginia. This is from Chris “Shute” Reiter, the nantan of that region.
From Left to Right you have Katniss, Peppermint Pattie, and Planer.
Katniss is just a beast. He’s our District Q for The Hub and literally does not miss a beatdown, ever. The dude is a machine. What I love about Katniss is that before, during and after every beatdown he fist bumps everyone. He’s constantly encouraging the rest of us, while he’s just knocking it out. On January 17th, Katniss already had 17,675 burpees, and I was not surprised.
Peppermint Pattie, I should have seen this coming. His M saw us pulling a truck during the 4th of July parade, and said, “Hey you should do that.” Not the first guy that was recruited by his wife, and not the last. He’s been solid for the last 6 months. Comes out to every 2ndF event, hits dang near every beatdown. A steady progression of showing up and getting stronger every day—it’s so awesome to see him grow and connect with the other men.
F3 has certainly filled that void he didn’t know he had. So yeah, a CSAUP comes around and Peppermint Pattie is busting out burpees in the thousands—I should have seen that coming.
Planer is one of our Clydesdales. I personally recruited him, so I’ll take a little longer to brag about this guy. He’s a beast of a man—played D1 lineman in college. A month or two into his F3 journey we started promoting The Capital GTE event. He pulled me aside and said, “Man, I’ve never done anything like that, but I want to challenge myself.”
You have to understand, this guy was huffing after a 45-minute beatdown, and he’s telling me he wants to do an overnight CSAUP GTE Event? I replied like any good HIM, “Meet me here tomorrow at 0500.” Planer trained his tail off for the next 3 months.
But was it enough? No way he’s completing the fitness test for GTE, right?
Did it.
No way he’s doing multiple beatdowns all night long, right?
Finished them.
No way he’s carrying coupons and fighting mental battles for hours on end, right?
Crushed it!
GTE changed him. He’s still a big dude who runs like a freight train, and his determination is inspiring. The impact GTE and F3 have had on him over just one year is incredible. He’s a true inspiration.
These guys are committed. They are doing burpees to see how many they can get done in the month. They are outdoing themselves and pushing themselves beyond what they thought they could accomplish. They are not alone, and I love every one of them.
Send me video/photos of yourself doing burpees in strange places
MABA has blessed me in many ways. Not least is that I get slack messages like this one from Glenn “Tatanka” Carr of him doing burpees at the dentist … with a thumbs up from the dentist himself.
SIGN UP NOW FOR Year 4 of MABA. There’s plenty of time to log burpees. MABA—Make America Burpee Again—is an annual challenge in which participants do 100 burpees a day (on average) every day in January.
More than 1,100 men, women and children on six continents have completed more than 1.5 million burpees. Why? Loneliness is killing us, middle-aged men especially, and MABA is a cure. You can’t be lonely when you’re doing 100 burpees a day with your friends.
MABA’s theme is Fall down. Get back up. Together.
We all fall down. We all have to get back up. We must not do it alone.
Sign up today and challenge your friends, enemies and frenemies to join you. Quick note: If your kids are doing burpees with you, please log them as a separate entry. They will love that, and so will you! Every burpee counts!
Log your burpees here. And you’re not going to do 3,100 burpees and not buy a shirt, are you?