F3 Knoxville

Author: Lillydipper

Beyond Words

THE SCENE: Cloudy and very humid
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 Side Straddle Hops.  10 Burpees.  10 Tempo Squats.  10 Windmills.  5 baby arm circles forward and backwards.  5 wide arm circles forward and backwards.
THA-THANG:

Mosey to stop sign at southeast corner of Admin Bldg.  20 American Hammers (four count).

Mosey toward Northshore gate of the park.  Stop at shade tree near Area 51.  20 Hello Dollies (four count).

Mosey to the perimeter trail that crosses road near the Northshore Gate.  We will do Nickel, Dime, Quarters (running one light and stopping for five of an exercise, running two lights and stopping for ten of the exercise, and running five lights to stop and do 25 of the exercise) heading south on the perimeter trail and staying on the perimeter trail until it reaches the Southeastern Ball Park.  We will do the following exercises during our stops:

  • Merkins
  • Squat Jumps
  • Big Boy Sit-ups
  • Star Jumps
  • Dive Bombers

Mosey to the Pavilion by Southern Ball Fields. We will do Elevens at the picnic tables starting with one decline merkin and ten bench dips.

Mosey to the Outdoor Chapel

We will pair up into teams of two men each.  While one man on time runs around the chapel on the sidewalk the other man does bench dips.  Partners switch off after one circles the chapel.

Mosey on roadway back toward the Admin Bldg.  We will stop 1/3 of way their to do 20 Flutter Kicks (four count) and 2/3 of the way there to do 20 Bicycle Kicks.

Mosey to AO.

MARY:

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Eight men, no FNGs.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
BEYOND WORDS

Last Friday, I was reading a book when my wife, Jan, happened across the movie Steel Magnolias on television.  I had seen the movie back in 1989 when it came out.  I kept reading my book but as the movie went on I gradually cast the book aside and focused on the screen.  OK, my wife and kids make fun of me for crying at movies and I cried at this one.  The movie centers around a group of women who are friends played by famous actresses and a famous songwriter, Sally Fields, Dolly Parton, Shirley MacLaine, and Olympia Dukakis.  It also focuses on two younger women played by young actresses who would later become famous:  Daryl Hannah and Julia Roberts.  All of these women are bonded to one another and their bond becomes stronger over time.  They keep that bond, despite the quirkiness of each individual.  They also keep the bond despite the fact that they sometimes say idiotic, off-base or even hurtful things to each other.  But what they say counts, is relevant, and helps each of them to grow – they are not therapists, they are friends and the power of their love for one another GOES BEYOND WORDS.

In the movie, Sally Fields plays the mother of Shelby who is played by Julia Roberts.  Shelby dies of medical issues.  The friends are together at the cemetery after the funeral.  Daryl Hannah’s character is a simple young woman and a quirky religious fanatic.  She at first sounds trite when she says to Sally Fields, “we should all be rejoicing because Shelby is with our king.”  Fields gets pissed off at this saying “excuse me if I am selfish and don’t feel like rejoicing.”  But it is the simplicity and earnestness of Daryl Hannah’s character who, thereafter, touches Field’s heart.  Hannah talks about how Shelby had to fight to stay alive and about how her “body just couldn’t keep fighting any more.”  She apologizes for her simplicity but talks about how she views heaven as a better place with Shelby there.

In another scene in the cemetery, Fields is breaking apart with her friends, hurting, angry, questioning the unfairness of her daughter’s death, and screaming that she just wants to hit somebody.  The Olympia Dukakis character pushes her friend, a sort of curmudgeon character played by Shirley MacLaine, in front of her and says, “Here, hit this.  It will make you feel better.  Go ahead and sock her one in the face.”  MacLaine stomps off pissed while the remaining women, including Fields, break down laughing.

You then see the apology scene between Dukakis and MacClaine, a touching scene where Dukakis explains she was just trying to break the tension of the moment.  She playfully nudges MacClaine and MacClaine nudges back.  The two end up bumping each other off the park bench.  It is the simple, joking act of pushing each other back and forth that shows the love between them.

I bring all this up to say that as F3 brothers, as friends to one another, we do not have to always say the right thing.  If you care for your brother that care is gonna show through, no matter what kind of stupid thing you say to him.  It may be a silly joke, it may be a bopping of hands, it may be you placing your hand on your brother’s back during prayer time in the Circle of Trust.  Our connection between one another GOES BEYOND WORDS.  It is the being there that counts.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Tank and for two people who were killed by drivers under the influence of substances this past weekend.

Peanut’s Here

THE SCENE: Slightly cloudy, temps in sixties.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 Plank Jacks, 10 Pinto Twists, 10 Windmills, 10 Rockettes, 10 Tempo Squats, Michael Phelps
THA-THANG:
Mosey to large parking lot that is south of northern ball fields and north of serpentine sidewalk.  Each man picks up a two bricks.  We will run, with bricks, counter-clockwise around the parking lot, stopping at each cone to do the listed exercise.

  • Cone 1:  10 Mini-man-makers
  • Cone 2:  20 Overhead Presses
  • Cone 3:  20 Wings Up
  • Cone 4:  20 Curls
  • Cone 5:  20 Wings Down
  • Cone 6:  20 Tricepts
  • Cone 7:  20 Wings Out
  • Cone 8:  20 Rows

Run one more time around parking lot with bricks, doing Bernie Sanders during first half and sprinting for the second half (not stopping at cones).  Lunge at semi circles ends of the parking lot.  Then dump bricks back in pile.

Mosey to start of serpentine sidewalk.  We will do 14’s on the sidewalk all the way to the perimeter trail.  We will bear crawl to first light, run for four lights, lunge to next light, run four more, then repeat sequence to perimeter trail.  We will do 20 Imperial Walkers as a group at the perimeter trail.

Mosey on perimeter trail until we reach cardiac hill.  We will run up cardiac hill, performing the following exercises at each of the following areas:

  • Start of cardiac hill:  20 Hello Dollies (four count).
  • Turn 1:  20 American Hammers (four count)
  • Turn 2:  20 Flutter Kicks (four count)
  • Turn 3:  20 Decline Merkins
  • Benches:  20 Bench Dips

Mosey to parking lot by entrance to the northern ball fields.  Go to CMU Pile.  We will do 20 Overhead Presses, 20 Curls, 20 Rows, and 20 Squats with CMUs.

Mosey to northern-most ball field.  We will do the great football throw.  In this, one man runs to first base and then rounds towards second.  The next man must lead him with a pass of the football as he heads to second.  If the ball hits the ground then all men must do five burpees. The ball is passed back and the man who passed the ball is now the receiver going to first and second base with the next man in line being the passer.  The group must do five burpees for any ball that hits the ground on a pass.

Mosey to playground.  We will do elevens at the benches with decline merkins as one exercise and bench hops as the other.

Mosey back to CMU pile.  We will repeat the 20 Overhead Presses, 20 Curls, 20 Rows, and 20 Squats with CMUs.

Mosey to bottom of Mini-Cardiac.  We will Bernie Sanders to No Parking Sign then sprint to the gate at the top of the hill.

Mosey to AO.

MARY:
20 Box Cutters.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Eight men, including P-nut visiting us from UT Martin and Abscess’ dog, Tank.

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
How Do We Color Our World?

I recently viewed a quick video by Christian rapper Andy Mineo.  He talked about how he reads scripture to help relieve him from doubt about Christ.  He also talked about how scripture helps to color his world with what is good, with what is right.  And by coloring his world in that way, he then can do more in regards to what is good and right for others, because he is viewing those around him in a way that God wants him to view them.

How do we color our worlds?  Sometimes when I wake up on a work day I do not color my world with much beauty.  I may start off with a stroke that goes like this:  “Crap, another day of work.”

I can chose to color it in a different way.  I can chose to paint my morning this way:  “God, help me to greet others with strength and love today.  Help me to know you are there with me in each and every activity I perform.  Let me hear your voice whispering to me and help me to feel your hand upon me.”

Further, I can read from the bible at the start and/or end of my day.  I can get together with people who will get me in the correct frame of mind and help me to color my world in the right kind of way.  For example, I can go to F3, bust my butt with my brothers, and hear the message within the Circle of Trust that will thrust me forward with a strong spirit to meet the day.

Some of you may remember a song by the group Chicago called “Color My World.”  The last line of the song, directed toward a lover, says “Color my world with hope of loving you.”  What if we were to change the line, thinking of our Father in Heaven, and say, each day, to God “Color my world with the love you have for me.”  Saying that to ourselves may color our day with hope, with strength, with conviction, and with joy.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for the pregnancy of Small’s wife who is due in mid to late July.  Prayers for Crawdad’s wife, Kaitlin, who is having surgery.

Ten Star Territory

THE SCENE: Upper 80’s, sunny but with a breeze
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA

20 Side Straddle Hops, 10 Burpees, Plank Stretches, Cherry Pickers, 30 Second Squat, Little of This and That
THA-THANG:
Mosey toward stop sign at southeast corner of Admin Bldg.  20 Merkins, 20 Big Boys, 20 Hello Dollies.

Mosey to entrance gate at Northshore.  Go down hill to south of the road where there is a large tree.  20 Merkins, 20 Big Boys, 20 Hello Dollies.

Mosey to cones just southwest of the large tree.

  • Cone 1:  10 Shoulder Taps where both arms = 1.  Bernie Sanders to Cone 2
  • Cone 2:  20 Jump Squats.  Bear crawl to Cone 3.
  • Cone 3:  20 American Hammers.  Sprint to Cone 4
  • Cone 4:  30 Baby Crunches.  Bear crawl to Cone 1

Mosey to Area 51.  We will run uphill stopping to 3 Burpees at cement patch, big tree, water pump, and beginning of final hill that goes up to roadway just south of the admin bldg.  We will stop at large tree.  We will then do 20 Merkins, 20 Big Boys and 20 Hello Dollies.

Mosey on roadway to the admin bldg parking lot.  Then mosey to front steps of admin bldg.  We will do 25 regular shin lifts, 25 bow legged shin lifts and 25 pigeon-toed shin lifts.  We will then do 20 Merkins, 20 Big Boys and 20 Hello Dollies.

Mosey to small wall across from Admin Bldg parking lot.  We will split into teams of two men each.  Partner one will do exercises while partner two goes to wall to do exercise and then comes back.  Partners then switch to do the other exercise.  There will be three runs to the wall by each partner.  Here are the exercises:

At start of the run:  1. baby crunches 2. flutter kicks, 3. buzz saws.

At small wall:  1. bench lifts 2. incline merkins 3. bench lifts again

To get from the start of the run to the wall and then back, we will go by the following methods:  1.  Bear crawl  2.  Duck walk  3.  Backwards Lunge

Mosey to AO.

MARY:
Insert information about any additional post-THANG work (if applicable).
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Use the TAGS on right-side to record PAX (BE SURE TO INCLUDE YOURSELF) in attendance. Be sure to select the AO in CATEGORY above TAGS and then delete these notes!
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
In the summers before each of my first two years of college I worked for a company out of Nashville, Tennessee called the Southwestern Book Company.  College age kids were recruited from all parts of the United States for the job of selling books door to door.  Pay was pure commission.  We received one week of training at a hotel in Nashville and then were sent in teams to somewhere in the United States.  I spent my first summer near Jackson, Alabama and the second summer near Madisonville, Kentucky.  I made a fairly good profit for a college kid but the work was long and difficult.  I usually knocked on my first door at 8 am and left my last house after 9:30 pm.  There were both positive and negative aspects of the job.  One positive was learning some good life lessons.  One of the positive phrases we learned was that “when the going gets tough the tough get going.”  Hand-in-hand with that phrase, we also learned to appreciate what our sales trainers dubbed “TEN STAR TERRITORY.”

If you were working in an area or neighborhood that was just plain awful, you were working in Ten Star Territory. These were the areas where people slammed doors in your faces, where they called their neighbors to warn them you were coming, where jealous husbands drove by you asking what the hell you had done earlier that day with their wives in their house, where savage dogs were tackling you and biting your clothes off, where police officers were questioning what kind of scheme you were trying to perpetrate in their friendly town.  I remember calling my sales manager, Chuck Blackburn back at corporate headquarters in Nashville, to let him know that people were warning me not to go into a specific area in Jackson County, Alabama because “Cajuns” lived there, were untrustworthy, might rob me, and didn’t have enough money to buy books anyway.  I heard Chuck laughing on the phone and then telling me, “Heck John Neece, my mother is Cajun! (I knew he was jibbing at me but what could I do).  He then said, “Why John, you should consider it an honor to work in Cajun Country – it’s Ten Star Territory!”  We were also taught by our sales managers to disarm the negative comments coming from potential customers.  For example, if a person were to ask at the door, “Are you one of those SALESMEN?” we might answer, Why I most certainly am, you don’t shoot them do you Mr. Jones, tee hee hee.”  That made people laugh and got me into many a door.  One time, however, the beer-gutted man whom I replied to grunted, “I sure do shoot salesmen and I’m gonna get my gun right now.”  I high-tailed it to the nearest pay phone (no cell phones in those days) and called Chuck Blackburn.  His reply to my anxious words of consternation:  “Congratulations John, you are in ten star territory!”  He also told me to call the police if the fellow came after me.

I bring this up because as High Impact Men, we will often find ourselves in Ten Star Territory.  At your marketing job, you may face weeks, months, where no one is interested in your product.  As a doctor, you may face hard times where every patient you see is presenting to you multiple sets of who knows what kinds of health issues when you have six patients per hour to see on your caseload and you stayed up until midnight the previous night completing all kinds of charts.  As a manager you may be facing pressure to fill multiple positions for your company when you have multiple employees wanting to leave because upper level management is not paying any of you enough.  As a parent you may be at a loss for why your child is behaving a certain way when everything you have taught her would lead her away from that type of behavior.  We can complain and bemoan our state.  In fact, it may be helpful to do this with a friend or F3 brother because life IS hard and sometimes we need to talk about it.  But we can also work on our attitudes.  We can tell ourselves that we are in TEN STAR TERRITORY.  We can remind ourselves that difficult tasks, like difficult exercises in F3, help us to grow into stronger men.  When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

I also bring this up in a faith-related BOM because we sometimes feel like our belief in God should protect us from difficulties, that God should keep the true believer out of harm’s way.  The Godly life, however, is not one of avoiding danger and pain.  Let’s look at the apostle Paul.  He is the primary Christian responsible for spreading the gospel of the early Christian church.  Look what happened to him in the very towns and provinces where he spread the gospel.  He was often chased out of town and sometimes beaten badly by those who chased him. Yet, he would revisit those towns.  People became believers and Christianity rapidly spread.  Paul persisted.  We as HIMs must also persist.  We may not always be greeted in friendly manners.  We may meet up with overwhelming challenges.  But we must keep the faith and push on.  And, it may help us to know that Christ Himself lived, taught, loved, and died FOR US in TEN STAR TERRITORY.

MOLESKIN:
Insert any personal comments, notes, devotion content, etc.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Insert information about upcoming events, 2nd or 3rd F opportunities, and any other announcements.

Encouragement

THE SCENE: Beautiful day, temp hovering under 70 degrees, blue sky with a few white clouds
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 Side Straddle Hops, 10 Pinto Twists, 10 Windmills, 10 Cherry Pickers, 7 Baby Arm Circles Forward and 7 Backward, 5 Wide Arm Circles Forward and 5 Backward.
THA-THANG:
Mosey to stop sign at northeastern corner of Admin Bldg.  We will do Twenty American Hammers.  Then we will do the following cone exercises around the roadway that semi-circles the Admin Bldg.  We will sprint to Cone 1 and follow instructions from there.

  • Cone 1:  Ten Burpees.  Then Bernie Sanders to Cone 2
  • Cone 2:  20 Hello Dollies (four count).  Then Hop to Cone 3.
  • Cone 3:  20 Imperial Walkers (both legs = 1).  Then Bear Crawl to Cone 4.
  • Cone 4:  20 Smurf Jacks.  Then Lunge to Cone 5.
  • Cone 5:  20 Squats.  Then Bernie Sanders to Cone 6.
  • Cone 6:  20 Squat Jumps.  Then Grapevine Right to Cone 7.
  • Cone 7:  20 Carolina Dry Docks.  Then Grapevine Left to Cone 8.
  • Cone 8:  40 Baby Crunches, 20 Merkins, 20 Box Cutters, 20 Diamond Merkins, 10 Shoulder Taps (both shoulders = 1).

Mosey down hill by roadway that heads to main roadway coming from entrance gate at Lyons Bend.  We will do elevens starting with 1 Big Boy Sit Up at bottom of hill and 10 Iron Mikes (each leg = 1) at top of hill.

Mosey to Area 51.  We will do 20 Hands Wide Merkins.  Then we will run up the hill to roadway that semicircles the Admin Bldg.  We will go back to Cone 8 and repeat the exercises there.

Mosey back to AO.

MARY:
20 Flutter Kicks, 20 Bicycle Kicks, 30 Side Heel Touches while on Six, 25 Buzz Saws
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Seven men, no FNG’s.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

1 Thessalonians 5:11 ESV /

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

One thing I appreciate about our F3 brotherhood is how we encourage one another.  I always hear brothers exhorting one another to keep up the good work, to keep pushing.  I never hear brothers criticize other brothers for being too slow, for not keeping up.  We work hard but we do so with a great deal of support.  It works the same way with the time we share from our hearts.  We praise one another when the news is good and are ready to console and wrap our arms around anyone who shares something painful or difficult.  Keep up the good work.  Keep striving to be excellent but keep encouraging one another to reach for excellence.  Men need encouragement and it is the iron sharpening iron aspect of F3 which is one of the truly magical things about our group.  We take that creed seriously and in so doing, we reach out to our fellow man.
MOLESKIN:
Prayers for J-Lo’s recovery from torn meniscus and prayers for co-worker of Sparkler and her husband who was recently diagnosed with colon cancer.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Board meeting to prepare for Hardship Hill.  Hardship Hill will be this Saturday.

God Exists

THE SCENE: Drizzling, temps in high 60’s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 Side-straddle hops, Plank Stretches, 10 Rockettes, 10 Cherry Pickers, Michael Phelps
THA-THANG:
Mosey to parking lot by entrance way to Northern Ball Fields.  Go to CMU pile.  Split into teams of two men each.  Each team grabs a CMU.  We will be doing Doras.  Partner One does Bernie Sanders to end of parking lot then sprints back while Partner Two does exercise with CMU.  Then partners switch.  These are the exercises:

  • 100 Overhead Presses
  • 100 Curls
  • 100 Rows
  • 100 Squats with CMU at chest.

Mosey to Pavilion at Northern Ball Fields.  We will do Totem Pole.  There will be five exercises.  We will do first exercise for 30 seconds.  We will continue to add an exercise each time until we have done all five exercises.  We will then drop the first exercise and go through the exercises repetitively, dropping one each time until we have done last exercise alone for 30 seconds.  Thus, we will do each exercise five times.  These are the exercises:

  • Burpees
  • Hello Dollies
  • Picnic Table Pull-ups.
  • Decline Merkins with feet on bench of picnic table.
  • Squat Jumps

Nest, each man does squat with back against wall of pavilion.  We will hold the squat for 60 seconds.

Mosey to Dragon Fly just past the parking lot directly across the street from the parking lot by the entrance way to the Northern Ball Fields.  We will do Route 66 up the Dragon Fly with the following exercises:

  • Mountain Climbers (4 count)
  • Dive Bombers

Mosey back to CMU pile in the parking lot by the Northern Ball Field Entrance Way.  Each man grabs a CMU.  We will do the following exercises in cadence:

  • 20 Overhead Presses
  • 20 Curls
  • 20 Rows

Mosey back to AO.

MARY:

We will do stretches of right leg and left, then stretches of each arm.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
10 men, no FNG’s.

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
In his novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez chronicles the history of a fictional small town in Mexico called Macondo.  At one point in the novel of plague of insomnia infects the little town and the residents go without sleep.  In the process, they lose they begin to lose their memories.  A main character in the novel begins to write on all types of tiems in the town so that people will not forget what they are.  The people join in to help.  Finally, the people in the town place a sign to it’s entrance way that says Macando.  And, they place an even larger sign in the center of the town that says God exists.  

In his book, The Journey of Desire, John Eldredge said that he laughed at the  above story when he first read it.  On his second reading, he began to understand the significance.  He then thought to himself that he should hang a sign above his own bad that says “God exists.”

The significance is that we humans, even us believers, often forget that God exists.  Oh, we may remember He exists at a shallow level but we forget the existence of God at the deeper, most meaningful level.  We forget that He is our Creator, He is the Great Physician, He is the Loving Father, He is the Alpha and the Omega.  The Israelites were constantly forgetting God.  He delivered them through the Red Sea to escape the Egyptians and days later they were complained about water supply.  When he provided water they complained about food.  He sends down bread from the sky and they bemoan the lack of water again.  They later worship false idols.  They must be reminded again and again about the existence of God.

I find myself doing the same thing.  I may go to church and hear a sermon or sing a hymn that stirs my heart, that reminds me of God’s love for me, that motivates me to climb mountains, to forget my fears, to live for my fellow man.  On Monday morning I awake before going to work and find that I have forgotten everything I learned the day before.

In his book The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, the main character falls from an airplane at the beginning of the book.  No parachute, he just plummets from the sky – and lives!  It is a miracle and he claims that he will always remember the miracle, always be thankful for it.  Yet, as time goes on, he forgets the miracle.

What is it about humankind that leads us to forget the existence of God?  We have these moments where we feel loved by God, saved by Him, grateful and thankful.  Then we forget.  Things happen to us that are miracles and we are amazed by them.  But we forget!  That is why it is so important to make the great HC toward God.  We must keep reading our bibles.  We must keep going to worship.  We must keep meeting with others who are forgetful believers like us and talk about the wonder of God, share in his Glory, so that we remember, so we don’t forget that – GOD EXISTS.
MOLESKIN:
Prayers for guys at Neyland Stadium today and for Crawdad’s father.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:  Hardship Hill on May 18