F3 Knoxville

Author: Kick-Flip

USAF Fitness Measurement – Round 2

THE SCENE:   38 and clear
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER:  Nah
WARM-O-RAMA: 

  • Grady corns
  • Moroccan nightclub
  • Michael Phelps
  • Willy Mays Hays
  • Cherry picker
  • Projectivator
  • Merkins
  • Mountain climbers

THA THANG:

  • Mosey to the playground;
    4 pullups + 20 bobby hurleys
    4 pullups + 20 iron mikes
    Partner-up:  Max sit-ups in 1 minute
  • Mosey to the bell
    Max merkins in 1 minute
  •  1.5 miles for time
  • Galway hookers
  • Bear crawl – 30 merkins – crawl bear
  • Mosey to the playground;
    4 pullups + 10 heals to heaven + 4 pullups

MARY:

No time!

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

Me and 8 of the best men I know

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

The workout and Word were inspired by something that Erector said when he led two weeks ago.  He repeated a workout from a year or so ago and had to modify toward then end and stack more on us because we were finishing too fast.  He said, “I’m not sure if the group has gotten stronger…or if I was just more efficient with explaining the workout.”  We repeated the Air Force PT test that we did 6 months ago – to measure whether the group is, in fact, getting stronger/faster.

Unless you currently are recovering from an injury, I hope you are getting steadily stronger and faster.  More than that, I hope you are applying the wisdom that you hear in the BOM and seeing positive impacts in your life.  Fitness and wisdom will not happen overnight.  I’m reminded of something Mathlete said a few weeks ago about our progress being like an ascending spiral.  All these different facets of me are getting better as I make steady improvement.

  • …a little stronger…
  • …a little more graceful toward those I disagree with…
  • …a little less selfish…
  • …a little faster…
  • …a little more engaged with my loved ones…
  • …a little more intentional in my fathering…
  • …faith that is not just in the head and heart, but in actions…

None of these happen by accident.  They happen only when you do the hard work of applying yourself toward them.  If even a tenth of what you hear in the BOM is taking root in your life, what a man you will be!

A pair of quotes for you;

  • “Well done is better than well said.” – Benjamin Franklin
  • “Pay less attention to what men say. Just watch what they do.” – Dale Carnegie

From Scripture;

“But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.  …if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.”  James 1:22-25

“What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? …faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.”  James 2:14, 17

“All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.” Proverbs 14:23

“Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me.” Philippians 4:9

MOLESKIN:

  • 4 men set their baseline score today because they did not do the PT test last Sept.
  • 5 men repeated the test – EVERY MAN improved his score from last time.  BOOM, BABY!

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

  • Skewer VQ on Thursday!
  • Rampart OTB on Saturday – 7:00 AM
  • CSAUP May 6th
  • Family Workout May 7th

Feeling Lucky at Shamrock

THE SCENE:   30 and clear
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER: Nah, nobody new. 
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • SSH
  • Moroccan nightclub
  • phelps
  • RFTS / LIH
  • Cobra / Up dog
  • Tempo merkin
  • Mountain climbers
  • Mosey

THA THANG:

  • Starting at one side of the parking lot, bear crawl to the first light, 30 merkins, mosey to the end
  • Plank.  3…2…1… sprint back to where we started!
  • bear crawl to the second light, 20 merkins, mosey to the end
  • Plank.  3…2…1… sprint back to where we started!
  • bear crawl to the end, 10 merkins

Galway hookers

Mosey to the CMU pile and grab your favorite;

Break into two teams and spread out ~100 ft.  In between the teams are 14 cones – half are standing up and half are laying down.  Two teams race each other.  One team is trying to knock all the cones down, the other team is trying to stand all the cones up.  Individuals pull a card, do the exercise, then sprint to the cone and knock one down or stand one up.  Continue until all cards are used.  Exercises included;

  • 30 CMU Curls
  • 15 Heavy Freddy (4-ct)
  • Single arm row, 10 each
  • 15 Heel taps
  • 16 Lunges
  • 20 heavy LBCs
  • Uneven Merkins 10 each side
  • 10 BBS + Press
  • 30 Calf Raises
  • 15 Heavy American Hammer (4-ct)
  • 20 Alpos
  • 20 Overhead Squats
  • 20 Good mornings
  • 25 Shoulder press
  • 20 CMU Swings
  • 25 Squats
  • 25 Tri extension
  • 10 Burpee Jumpovers
  • Single arm Shoulder press 10 each side
  • 5 Blockees
  • 20 Wide Derkins

 

Feeling lucky?  Circle up.  Perform exercise one, then roll a die.  If we roll a “1” – move on to exercise 2.  If we don’t roll a “1” – do exercise 1 again and roll – repeat until we roll a 1.  Go through the full list – rolling for 1, then 2, then 3…etc.  Exercises were;

  1. 10 Derkins
  2. 10 Squats
  3. 10 Heavy Freddy
  4. 10 Curls
  5. 10 Triceps
  6. 10 Thrusters

 

MARY:

Circle up.  Pax choice.

  • Angel crunches
  • BBS
  • SSH
  • Hello dolly

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

Me and 12 fine men of the Shamrock 

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM: 

F3 is more than a workout.  If you are really investing yourself and opening yourself up to your PAX, then you are building deep and meaningful friendships that will sustain you through good times and bad.  It is such a unique and special thing, and I don’t know of a better group of men out there.

How do you invest yourself in deeper, intentional friendships?

  • Consistency – it’s not just about showing up when you need to be shored up.
  • Contributing – You don’t take and take and take.  In fact, you expect and strive to give more than you take from this group.  You expect to invest more than you’ll have returned.
  • Candidness (outward) – Have the courage to speak candidly to a friend who is falling short of a high standard.  Talk straight to the man who is acting foolishly, who is harming himself and others around him, and who is temporarily blind, ignorant, or uncaring of their foolishness.
  • Candidness (inward) – Transparency / vulnerability. In order for you to have any credibility whatsoever to speak candidly to a hurting friend, you must first consistently be opening your own heart to him.  You must be candid about your own struggles, fears, insecurities, shortcomings, dreams.  Only then have you earned to right to speak truth to him about his struggles.

Romans 12:10
“Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Outdo yourselves in honoring one another.”

 

MOLESKIN:

Man, it was good to be in the gloom with you men – thanks for having me!

Prayers for Eddie, Phil, and Curveball’s BIL

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Camping trip – April 1-3

Hiking Devil’s Racetrack – April 2, 1:00 PM

CSAUP – May 6th (evening)

Setback. Move Forward

THE SCENE:  Extra gloomy – just how we like it.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER:  Nah.
WARM-O-RAMA: 

  • OHC
  • Phelps
  • Moroccan Nightclubs
  • Andrew, The Matador
  • Squats
  • Mountain Climbers
  • Cobra / Down Dog
  • Walking lunges

THA THANG:

Mosey to the recruiting center and grab a CMU

  • Roll the die. Complete that number of exercises in the sequence. (e.g., roll a 3 – complete exercises, 1, 2, and 3)
  • Roll the die again and complete that many exercises, starting where we left off. (e.g., roll a 2, complete exercises 4, and 5).
  • Roll the die a third time – this time we go back that many exercises (e.g., roll a 4, complete exercises 5, 4, 3, and 2).
  • Repeat until the set is finished. Two rolls move us forward, every third roll sends us backwards.

Exercises were;

  • 5          Blockees
  • 20        Toe Merkin Triceps
  • 20        Goblet squats
  • 16        Side pulls (8 each side)
  • 10        1-arm thrusters (5 each side)
  • 5          Irky Derkies
  • 12        Good mornings
  • 10        High pulls (5 each side)
  • 10        Heavy Lunges (5 each side)
  • 15        Curls
  • 4          Burpee jump overs
  • 15        Heavy LBCs
  • 10        Alpos
  • 15        CMU Swings
  • 20        Squats
  • 5          Walkover merkins
  • 15        2-arm rows
  • 10        Lunge thrusters (5 each leg)
  • 10        Heavy freddies (4 count)
  • 5          Blockees

MARY:

No time!

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

Me and 3 of the best men I know

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

We’ve been talking the last couple of weeks about bricklaying – and about forming habits.  Part of that discussion was centered around “what causes us to stop our pursuit of a new habit?”  Last week, we ended the discussion talking about boredom and short-term perspective as two habit-killers.  Here’s another – maybe it’s because we have an “all-or-nothing” mindset.  If we fail one time, we think we are a failure.  When you are implementing a new habit – remember to give yourself some grace, big fella.  Being consistent is not the same thing as being perfect. 

With these new habits that we are forming – and old habits that we are leaving behind – if you miss a day (WHEN you miss a day) – what do we do?  If you take two steps forward, only to take one step back, what do we do?  We lean forward again and keep progressing toward the objective.   

Maybe you’re trying to start a healthy habit

  • …exercising everyday…
  • …praying with the wife everyday…
  • …reading something that uplifts your soul everyday…
  • …leading your family spiritually everyday…

“I had a goal to start ____ but I’ve lost track of that goal and it’s been 2 months”.  START AGAIN – keep pursuing it.  One day off does not spoil your journey.  Keep pressing on!

Maybe you’re trying to stop an unhealthy habit

  • …raging at the kids…
  • …spending money frivolously…
  • …looking at fake pictures of fake naked women…
  • …drinking not to relax, but to withdraw…

“I really want to stop doing ____ but I did it again”.  Time to restart your streak!  Keep resisting!  One slipup does not change the objective to rid your life of this vice. 

“A setback only paves the way for a comeback.” – Evander Holyfield

In Romans, Paul says, “I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.”  Romans 7:15 (NLT).  I can relate!

BB Reader: I hope you being challenged to accelerate your fitness, your fellowship, and your faith.  I hope you are striving each day to be a better father, husband, and friend.  I hope you’ve been setting up new habits and systems in your life to achieve those goals – but today’s takeaway is this…  WHEN you have a setback in chasing that new objective…don’t give up on it – one failure does not make you a failure – KEEP AFTER IT.  Momentary failure is just part of the process.  Missed one day?  Did that thing again?  Okay…identify your vulnerability and shore it up… Now, START AGAIN toward your goal. 

MOLESKIN:

  • Hat tip to Blindside for his BOM last week that inspired this BOM.
  • Throwing dice with 3 of my favorite men in the world – no better way to start a day!
  • Who is that lady at Dunkin… Doesn’t she know that is our table? 🙂
  • At this moment, I hope to never do another Irky Derky for the rest of my life.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

  • March 26:  OTB Workout at Fort Southwest Point in Kingston – 7:00 AM.  Our own Bobbitt will be planting Knoxville F3’s newest AO, Rampart.  Come help us spread the word and demo a workout for Kingston men who want to see what this F3 thing is all about.
  • April 1-3:  Family Camping Trip.  Cove Lake State Park.  Come one night or both.  (I have an extra site – site 27, right on the water – let me know if you want it!)
  • April 2:  Family Hike.  Devil’s Racetrack near Caryville.  If you are not camping, meet us at the swimming pool parking lot at 1:00 PM.  We’ll carpool to the trailhead.

Identidem Essentitas

THE SCENE:   39 and clear
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER:  Administered
WARM-O-RAMA:

SSH
Seal squats
Phelps
Cherry pickers

THA THANG:

  • Mosey to the tennis courts.  Partner up.  P1 does split squats while P2 does a lap around the three courts, sprint, side shuffle, bernie, side shuffle.  Switchero.  Repeat, with P1 doing a decline plank.
  • Sprints across the parking lot.  First pole, second pole, all the way.
  • Mosey to the chamber of commerce.  Partner up.  100 hanging leg lifts between the pair. P2 runs to the sidewalk, 2 burpees, back.
  • North side of the COC – 3 jump squat 180s, crawl bear 2 parking spaces, 6 imperial walkers, repeat to the end of the parking lot.
  • Tricep extensions on the bridge, bob and weave, wall sit for time.
  • High school entrance.  25 LBCs, broad jump up the steps, 15 dips.  Repeat x 3
  • 10 No Chance, Bobbitts (NCBs)*
  • Mosey to the wall – 15 wall-ups
  • Race around 4 light poles – 15 squats at each.
  • 100 merkins scattered throughout

MARY:

100 seconds of plank
Dolly until time

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

Me and 6 of the best men that I know

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Last Thursday, Mathlete talked about decision making and the concept of bricklaying.  “Find one thing at a time, make a decision, and then start living that decision out. This will train you to make that decision regularly.”  This morning, I tagged on to that and talked about habits.

The more you repeat a behavior, the more you reinforce the identify associated with that behavior.  In fact, the word “identity” is derived from the Latin identidem, which means repeatedly, and essentitas, which means “being”.  Your identity is quite literally your “repeated beingness”.  William James said, “All our life…is but a mass of habits”.  You are what you repeatedly do.

It is, therefore, so important to establish and cultivate healthy habits, and to starve unhealthy habits.

How?  Author James Clear agrees with Mathlete – you do it by one little piece at a time.  He wrote in his book Atomic Habits, “it is so easy to overestimate the importance of one defining moment and underestimate the value of making small improvements on a daily basis.”  We convince ourselves that success requires some massive dramatic action – but Clear says that small increments is the way to go.  If you established a tiny habit that improves you just 1% improvement per week – you would be 166% better in a year.  You’d be 276% better in 2 years.  There was a study performed in 2009 that determined on average it takes 66 days for a habit to form.  Tiny changes consistently applied over the course of 2 months – bam! – you’ve got a new habit.

One of the most effective things you can do to build better habits is to join a culture where your desired behavior is the normal behavior (welcome to F3!).  If you are working to remove an unhealthy habit – you need accountability (Shield Locks).  Join a culture where your desired behavior is the normal behavior.

Why do we quit?

  • Boredom? “The greatest threat to success is not failure, but boredom” (Clear).
  • Short-term perspective?  “It is only when looking back two, five, or ten years later that the value of good habits and the cost of bad ones becomes strikingly apparent” (Clear).  When we don’t see progress fast enough, we draw wrong conclusions.  We wrongly conclude that small wise decisions do not matter that much.  They DO.  We’re trying to stop something that is unhealthy – we don’t see results quickly – we wrongly conclude that small unwise decisions do not matter that much.  They DO.  (Hat tip, Craig Groeschel)

Identidem essentitas, your “repeated beingness”.  Every action you take is a vote for the type of man you want to become.  With that in mind…

  • What good habit do you need to start?
  • What unhealthy habit do you need to stop?

Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

MOLESKIN:

Man…I LOVE running around in the dark with this band of crazies!

Prayers for Guardrail and his family

Prayers for Bambi’s daughter

* No Chance, Bobbitt (NCB) – An ab tuck while balancing your six on the edge of a bench.  Hold the bench right by your butt and it’ll be no problemo.  Apparently balancing on his rear is Bobbitt’s Achilles heel.  Who knew?

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Join a Shield Lock!  Two groups have formed at The Proj. – see Mathlete to jump into one or to start a third!

Schedule Your Priorities

THE SCENE:   56 and drizzly
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER:  Administered
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • Seal claps
  • Burger Squat Jumps *
  • Angel crunches
  • Gas pumps
  • Plank jacks
  • Catalina wine mixer

THA THANG:

Mosey to the library quad.  Four corners.  Complete exercises as written – EMOM run a lap around the fountain.  Move quadrants as a group – at the pace of the fastest man.

  • 20 Squat + Box Jump
  • 40 BBS
  • 60 Lunge pulses
  • 80 Merkins

Mosey to the playground – max pull-ups.

Mosey to the amphitheater.  Pyramid.  30 seconds each.  Round 1 do exercise 1, Round 2 do exercises 1 and 2, Round 3, do 1, 2, and 3…etc.

  1. Stretch OYO
  2. Boggart Circle **
  3. SSH
  4. Mountain climbers
  5. Burger Jump Squats *
  6. Gas pumps
  7. Catalina wine mixer
  8. Angel crunches
  9. Plank hip dips
  10. Body builders

MARY:

Only had time for this week’s plank challenge – 80 seconds

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

Me and 8 of the best men that I know

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

The Word this morning starts in Mathew 8… It’s soon after Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount.  He and his follows were in Capernaum, getting ready to leave.  A disciple comes and says, “first let me go and bury my father.” Jesus responded, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”  That seems kind of harsh, Jesus.

I was reading in a couple of commentaries – Ellicott’s and Barnes’ – that the word “dead” is used in this passage in two different senses.  The Greek term, nekrous, can mean “dead; corpse” – but it can also be used to express indifference toward a thing; or, rather, to show that a thing has no influence over us.  Roman 7, “dead to the world…”, “dead to the law…” – Romans 6 “dead to sin…” – those all use the term nekrous – to mean “not influenced by”.

So, perhaps, Jesus is using a play on words to say, “Let people who are uninterested in my work – people who are indifferent to spiritual things – let THEM perform routine duties.”  The statement implies… “so that you can spend your time living a higher calling.” Jesus and his band of misfits were healing the sick (!), raising the dead (!), casting out demons (!)…let someone who is not interested in those things do the lower conventional duties (or leave them undone).

Everyone has a finite amount of focus, time, and energy.  We need to prioritize the higher things over the lower things. 

I’m reminded of a Stephen Covey principle, “put first things first”.  He talks about the 4 quadrants that we can use our time – and implores us to convert our Q3 time (where most of us spend the majority of our time) into Q2 time.  In a nutshell…don’t spend all of your time doing unimportant urgent things.  Sacrifice those things so that you can focus on important non-urgent things. 

Here are a couple of Covey quotes;

“Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.”

“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”

What are the Q2 things?  Not urgent – but important?  Things like;

  • Spending time reading and praying, because that brings me life and then I can offer my best to others…
  • Spending time playing with my kids, because I know that I’ll blink and they’ll be grown…
  • Making time to make love with my wife (hard with a baby in the house), because otherwise we feel a lack of connection to each other…
  • Going to bed early so you can make the F3 workouts and spend time with your F3 brothers

Challenge:  Sometime this week, sacrifice (or delegate) a routine responsibility so that you can do something that is not urgent – but is important.  I’d love to see you respond to the BB thread and let us know what it is you did.  Something like,

  • “I left the clothes in the dryer for a few hours so that I could play with my kids before they went to bed.”
  • “I wanted to spend more time with my pillow, but I rolled out of bed to make the F3 workout”
  • “I paid a guy to come replace my water heater so that I could spend my Saturday catching up with friends who I haven’t seen in a year.”

Colossians 3:2, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”

MOLESKIN:

* Burger Squat Jump:  T-Claps to Guardrail for naming this exercise!  A “Burger Squat Jump” is a wide squat, jump and bring your feet narrow, narrow squat, jump and put your feet back wide.  That’s one.  In-N-Out…

** Boggart Circle:  T-Claps to Cross-check for naming this!  It started out as us doing 30 seconds of SSH in a circle…  Impromptu and out of boredom, we started a thing…  One man would call the name of a man across from him, then they would do traveling SSH to switch sides with each other.  Since we did this 8 times total, later versions got crazy with rotating SSH, dosey-doe movements…it was totally riddikulus – which is how it got the name. (Sidebar: Pool Boy likes Harry Potter but hates SSH…I wonder what he’ll think of the Boggart Circle?).

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

CSAUP this Saturday!