F3 Knoxville

Author: Magic Mic

Big Ball Summer Olympics 2021

THE SCENE: partly cloudy, warm, mid 70’s
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Everyone was numbered off into 2 teams, each representing fictional nations competing for gold. Teams were Narnia and Rivendell.
THA-THANG:
5 events were held at this year’s Summer Olympics. With Olympic theme blasting in the background, Narnia and Rivendell gave their blood, sweat and tears to bring home gold and represent their fictional homelands. Here are the events:

  • Spikeball: Teams lined up in order, sending 2 representatives at a time to square off in a round of Spikeball against their opponents. After each point, whoever was in longest went to the back of the line and the next man subbed in. While 4 battled it out on the court, everyone else was doing typical warm up exercises (SSH, Hillbillies, Arm Circles, Tempo Squats, etc.) while waiting for their shot at glory. Narnia took gold in this event after a display of absolute dominance
  • Box Ultimate: Ultimate frisbee with an Olympic sized twist, instead of two end zones there is one box in the middle that serves as a universal end zone. Teams had to complete 3 passes before being able to toss to someone in the box for a point. Every time the frisbee hit the ground everyone had to do 5 merkins. First to 3 points took gold. Rivendell won a close game of 3-2
  • 100ish Meter Sandbag Relay: Sandbags were placed at one end of the field near the fountains, one for each nation. Teams got into order again. Whoever was in the front of the line ran to the bag, tossed it as far as possible, ran back and did 5x Jumping Knee Tucks, Carolina Dry Docks, and Big Boy Sit Ups each, and then returned to line. The next person ran as soon as the first person completed their toss. First team down and back again won. Narnia took gold in a hard fought battle
  • CMU Capture the Flag: Exactly what it sounds like, CTF with CMUs. The field was divided in half. You could be tagged on the other half but were safe on your own half. Anyone with the flag could be tagged at any time. Once tagged you had to run back to your own field’s far side and do 5x American Hammers on a 4ct. No one won, but Rivendell took gold due to being the only team to move the flag, a whopping 5 ft
  • Bear Crawl Ball: Soccer in a bear crawl where you can hit with your hands. Everyone had to stay in bear crawl in order to move of touch the ball. First to 3 would have won, but with a buzzer beating clutch shot from PDA we ended right at 8am with a tie at 2-2

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Shared the story of Robert McCherye, who was a 19th century minister who was just as well known for his faith as he was for being a workaholic. He died of cardiac arrest at 29 and on his death bed wrote “God gave me a message to deliver and a horse to ride on. Alas, I have killed the horse and now I cannot deliver the message.” I think we tend to acknowledge that rest is worthwhile but are still reluctant to take the time needed for it. Sometimes it makes us feel weak or like we’re wasting our time. When Jesus was confronted about working on the Sabbath He said that man was not made for the Sabbath but the Sabbath for man. It’s easy to walk away from that saying “OK, Jesus said its fine for me not to rest”, but rather we should hear that and acknowledge that if the Sabbath was made specifically for us then it must be worthwhile. So let’s seek out rest wherever we need it, whether that be physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually

Keeping It Simple

THE SCENE: A somewhat cooler morning, upper 60’s and not too humid
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
SSH, Arm Circles, Shoulder Taps, Moroccan Night Clubs, Overhead Claps, This and That, Tempo Squats
THA-THANG:
Moseyed over to the drive in front of Gresham. We did 3 rounds of Doras, changing partners each time. We started at the end of the side walk and would run to the stop sign at the other end of the drive.

  • Round 1: 200 Merkins plus running
  • Round 2: 300 BBS plus running; if you finished first when running with a group you could add 5 reps to your total
  • Round 3: 400 Squats and running; if you finished before the person who started running before you you could add 10 reps to your total

MARY:
Moseyed back and did a very fast round of the Protractor

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
The Office is easily my favorite show of all time. One of my favorite quotes is where Dwight gives Ryan sales advice saying “Michael always says ‘K-I-S-S: Keep It Simple Stupid’. Great advice, hurts my feelings every time”. This is really helpful advice for me as well because I have a tendency to over complicate things, even when making workouts, which is why today we did only 4 things that everyone knows how to do: running, push ups, sit ups and squats. This quote also got me thinking of how simple our call as believers can often be. Paul instructed the Thessalonians to lead a quiet life and work with their hands, Jesus’ answer to the question of what command is greatest was simple: love God and love your neighbor. Looking back on my life the men who had the most impact on me were not engaging in any sort of crazy complicated approach to anything, they just simply loved God and loved me. So my advice to us all is to keep it simple stupid.

The Un”bear”able Lap

THE SCENE: 70 degrees, humid and clear
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
SSH, Imperial Walkers, Hillbillies, This and That, Arm Circles
THA-THANG:
We did two laps around the lawn, with a set of exercises at each corner and another set at each cone which was in between each corner, so 4 corners and 4 cones. Lap 1 we bearcrawled the entire lap, lap 2 we walking lunged

  • Corners: SSH x 10, Flutterkicks x 10, Merkins x 10, Flutterkicks x 10, SSH x 10
  • Cones during Bearcrawl lap: Imperial Walkers x 10, Box Cutters x 10, Carolina Dry Docks x 10, Box Cutters x 10, Imperial Walkers x 10
  • Cones during Walking Lunges: Shoulder Taps x 10, LBC x 10, Cobra Merkins x 10, LBC x 10, Shoulder Taps x 10

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Yesterday Drive Thru spent his Word talking encouraging us to sign up to lead a work out soon, especially if we haven’t led before. So I decided to give my Word to talking about why it’s worth meeting the need of leading workouts. When I think of why leading is worthwhile I think in terms of 3 “ships”. The first one being obvious: leadership. Raising up male community leaders is one of the foci of F3 and leading a workout is an opportunity to grow in that. The second is ownership. I went from feeling like someone who occasionally attended F3 to someone who is a part of F3 after leading workouts. The third ship is fellowship. I feel like I know those who lead often more than those that don’t, and that others know me better through me leading. So I added this onto Drive Thru’s encouragement to sign up to lead

Mucho Mucho’s

THE SCENE: Low 70’s, humid
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
SSH, Little of this and that, Arm Circles, Cherry Pickers, Tempo Squats, Michael Phelps

THA-THANG:
Moseyed over to the parking lot between the park and the river. 4 cones were laid out in the parking lot at distances that increased as they went. We did 3 rounds of work with a mode of transportation between cones, exercises at each cone, followed by Blockees (CMU burpees) and a run up the hill leading back to the park, then a cool down walk down the stairs.

  • Round 1: Bear Crawl to each cone, 5x Mucho Leg-o’s, 5x Blockees, hill run
  • Round 2: Broad Jumps to each cone, 5x Mucho Arm-o’s’s, 3x Blockees, hill run
  • Round 3: Duck Walk to each cone, 20x BBS at cones 1 and 3, 20x American Hammers on 4ct at cones 2 and 4, 3x Blockees, hill run

Moseyed back to AO

MARY:
Did a round of the protractor to finish out

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

We began the BOM by throwing out adjectives that we thought described men or that we would want to be true of us, whatever came to the top of our heads. True, hardworking, stoic, good, patient, and meek were among words thrown out.

I then shared about some time I spent in Matthew recently reading the parable of the talents with some other guys. In the parable 3 men are giving bags of gold by their master; 5, 2, and 1 each respectively. The men with 5 and 2 each “put their money to work” and return to the master with double what was given to them, to which the Master responds “well done good and faithful servant! Because you were faithful with little I will trust you with much”. The man given 1 however buries his in the ground out of fear of the Master and returns it back to him when he returns, which the Master responds to with a bit more choice words. It’s easy to read this passage and think of performance; we should double the investment that God has given us. But in reality, Jesus is teaching His disciples about the importance of faithfulness. God is pleased by our faithfulness to Him and what He has entrusted us with. Faithful is typically not an adjective we think of to describe a man or what we want to be described as, but as I thought more about it I believe faithful might be the highest praise I could receive. So I encouraged us to remain faithful to what God has called us to do or entrusted to us.

Leg Day at the Big Ball

THE SCENE: Dry, cooler, mid 60’s
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
SSH, Hillbillies, Imperial Walkers, Tempo Squats, Calf Stretches, Cherry Pickers
THA-THANG:
moseyed over to the Big Ball for the beep test. After the beep test we had 3 rounds of 20 reps of exercises at the bottom of the steps and 10 reps of Sit Up Ups at the top. We also worked a lap around the pond in between round 1 and 2

  • Round 1: Sumo Squats, Lunges, regular Squats
  • Round 2: SSH, Iron Mikes, 180 Jump Squats
  • Round 3: Flutterkicks, Hello Dollys, Box Cutters

After this we did another round of the beep test

MARY:
The Protractor: everyone held legs off the ground and we went around the circle calling out an angle which every had to hold their legs at during a ten count. Went all the way around the circle
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Shared a bit about suffering. Last week at the Quacken we talked about how suffering is to be expected. This past Sunday our pastor was talking about how to live faithfully as Christians in the context of suffering and one of his main points was to have the right mindset. Scripture in multiple places tells us to adopt the same thoughts and mindset as that of Jesus, who on the cross said of those who had put Him there “forgive them Father for they know not what they do”. So when we are wronged or hurting what is our mindset? Is it one of self preservation or aggression, or is it similar to Jesus’?