25 September 2023 / AO Stormbreaker / Temp 59 deg, Wind 3 mph E
9 PAX: Double Dip, Fun Dip, Parsecs, Switchfoot, Skidz, Amadeus, Six Degrees, Chernobyl, Bobsled
QIC: Bobsled (Weeeeee)
0415-515 Pre-Run/Pre-Ruck: Various pre-run/pre-ruck activities.
0515 Welcome: Bobsled welcomed everyone to the Stormbreaker and F3 (Fitness, Fellowship, and Faith), recited the Mission Statement, Credo and 5 Core Principals. There were no FNGs unfortunately. Bobsled reminded everyone to modify as necessary as he is not a professional. Even though this was a very bruiser friendly beatdown, there is still a real risk of injury.
Warm-O-Rama: Sun Gods (10 IC Fwd); P-Pteradactyls (10 IC Bwd); Big Ones (10 IC); Hamstring stretch; Imperial Walkers from Flags across the street to green space in front of school. There we performed a set of 5 Astanga Sun Salutations.
Pre-Thang: Aint nobody got time for that!
The Thang:
10 exercises; 2 variations of each; 20 secs AMRAP, 20 sec ISO HOLD, 20 sec AMRAP, 20 sec REST
Squats
Lunges
Hinges
Squats (again)
Merkins
Planks
Back Extensions
Plank to Pike
Mary
Mary (again)
Announcements/Prayers:
Heartland Hope Toys for Tots drive. Busser company match. Totals > 5K
Parsecs coat drive for kids. See Slack. Raised over 13k!!
General prayers for those struggling with asking for help, dealing with mental battles.
COT: I re-told the David Lofchick story verbatim by Zig Ziglar in a motivations speech. The story goes as follows:
When our son David was born our joy knew no bounds because we already had our two daughters. Now we had our son. The family was complete, but he said it wasn’t long before we knew something was wrong because his head hung too limply on the right side of his body, but the family doctor said he would outgrow it. We knew better so we took him to a specialist. The specialist diagnosed his condition as a reverse of club’s feet and treated him for that, but he said we knew it was more serious.
We took him to one of Canada’s top specialists and after an exhaustive examination the specialist said this little boy is a spastic. He has cerebral palsy. He’s never going to be able to walk or talk or count to ten. I’m going to suggest that you put him in an institution for his own good and for the good of the quote “normal members of the family”.
Now you know, I’m not a buyer, I’m a seller. I could not buy the idea that my son was going to grow up being a vegetable, so we took him to another doctor who told us the same thing. And then another and another and yet another and another until 30 doctors said there is no hope. Then they heard of a Dr. Pearlstein down in Chicago. They got an alternate appointment so that when someone else cancelled they could have that appointment because Dr. Pearlstein was booked two years in advance and 11 days later a little boy from Australia canceled and they went to Chicago.
Dr. Pearlstein examined David, perhaps as no child has ever been examined before and when he finished, he said this little boy is a spastic. He has cerebral palsy. He’s never going to be able to walk or talk or count to ten…..if you listen to the prophets of doom. But he said I want you to know that I am NOT problem conscious. I am solution conscious. And yes, I believe there is something that can be done for this boy if you are willing to do your part.
Well obviously, Bern and Elaine Lofchick said, Doctor, tell us what to do. We will do anything.
The doctor and the therapist and the nurses spelled it out in minute detail. They said you’re going to have to push this little boy beyond all human endurance. Then you’re going to have to push him some more. You’re going to have to work him until he falls. Then you’re going to have to pick him up and work him some more. You got to understand that there is no stopping point, that if you ever stop, he goes back. You got to understand that there might be months and even years when you will be unable to detect any change, but you got to stay with it. And one last thing don’t ever give him therapy in the presence of another victim of cerebral palsy, because if he sees them taking therapy he will inadvertently pick up those awkward movements. You see, we become part of what we are around, whether it’s moral or immoral, whether it’s good or bad. Stay with it long enough and it’s going to rub off on you.
The Lofchicks went home and built a little gymnasium in the basement of their home. They hired a physical therapist and a bodybuilder. It took him a lot of months but one day David Lofchick could move the length of his own body. It took him several years but one day the therapist called Bernie and said I believe David is ready. Bernie rushed home.
David Lofchick was down in the basement and on a little mat getting ready to do a push-up. As that little body started to rise into the air the emotional and physical exertion was so great there was not a that a dry inch of skin on that little body. When he finished that one pushup, mother and dad, little David, and the sisters and the therapist and everybody broke down and shed those tears which so eloquently say that happiness is not pleasure; happiness is victory.
The story is even more remarkable, when we know that one of America’s leading universities had examined this little boy and said there’s no motor connection to the right side of his body, he has no sense of balance, he will have extreme difficulty even being able to walk and stand straight, he’ll never be able to swim or skate or ride a bicycle.
Fast forward, October 23, 1971, the bar mitzvah of little David Lofchick. Oh, how I wish you could have been there. How I wish the television cameras of the world had been clearly focused on what we saw as this little boy walked to the front of the synagogue tall and straight and strong. I wish you could have heard him as he uttered those words that moved him into the manhood of the faith of his forefathers. I wish you could have seen what we saw knowing what we knew because you see at that time he had done as many as 1100 push-ups in a single day. He had run as much as 6 miles non-stop. He was shooting golf in the high 80s, one of the best table tennis players in Winnipeg, Canada, he had entered as a seventh grader, St. John’s Ravens court school for boys where this little boy who was never going to be able to count to ten did quite well in 9th grade mathematics.
February 1974, he qualified for an unrated $100,000 ordinary life insurance policy. So far as we know the first and only time this has ever happened.
I tell the story of David Lofchick because it involves so many of the principles in which I believe it begins with the right foundation of honesty and character and faith and loyalty, and yes, love. Oh! What a love story this one is!
You see every night this little boy used to have to put his braces on and every night he would say, dad, do we have to put them on tonight or mom can’t we just leave him off tonight or do we have to put them on so tight. You fathers know what I speak of when you have a little boy with tears running down his cheeks, pleading don’t put them on tonight.
But because they did love him so much. They did not listen to the tears of the moment because they wanted to see the laughter of a lifetime. And that, really is what love is all about, because you see so many of us as parents are reluctant to do for the child what is best for the child, because we fear that child then might withhold his love from us, not knowing that over the long haul the best way to guarantee his love is to demonstrate ours by acting in his best interest.
I tell the story of David Lofchick because it involves so many of the principles in which I believe they had a beautiful relationship with others, the doctors, and the nurses. You see, they all had a part — the therapists all had a part; you don’t climb the high mountain by yourself; it is in conjunction with others that we really accomplish the major things in life. That’s why I like the story of David Lofchick because it’s a story of cooperation.
For one solid winner, David set the alarm clock one hour earlier than any other member of the family. The wind chill in Winnipeg, Canada hits as much as 80 degrees below zero. He put those skates on. He literally crawled out to the ice, and it took him one solid winter to learn how to stand up.
Later he skated on the neighborhood hockey team. I tell the story because you see it wasn’t easy, but I think if you were to talk to David Lofchick today, he would tell you that you do not pay the price for good health. You thoroughly enjoy that price.
I tell the story because it’s a story of goals — of big goals of lifetime goals, of monthly goals, weekly goals, hourly goals, even. I tell the story of David Lofchick because it involves so much in attitude. You talk about attitude, this boy since he was too small to carry it, used to have his own cassette player and every day that little mind was fed with the good, the clean, the pure, the powerful, the positive messages over and over and over: you can do it son; you can do it.
See, we live in such a negative world, that unless we deliberately read the good books daily, unless we deliberately regularly feed our minds with, those motivational recordings, that in essence remind us over and over in a negative world that we ourselves can be positive if we have the positive input.
Aye – Bobsled