F3 Knoxville

Author: Steam

React + Adapt

THE SCENE: Sun getting ready to set, parking lots are PACKED down by the playground. However, adapt and overcome.

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

  • Welcome to F3: Fitness – Fellowship – Faith 
  • My name is Steam and I’ll be your Q this morning 
  • A few things before we begin: 
    • I’m not a professional 
    • You’re here on your own belief 
    • You know your injuries if you have any so if you need to modify anything we do today feel free to do so, but push yourselves and the men around you. They deserve it and so do you. 

WARM-O-RAMA:

  • SSH: 20×4
  • Squat: 10×4
  • Imperial Walker: 10×4
  • Cherry-Picker: 10×4 
  • Rockette: 10×4 
  • Cash-In: ATMs

THA-THANG:

Because people decided to park their cars in the parking lot we were going to work out in, the Q reacted and adapted, taking into account the darkness and limited lighting in the park at 6pm.

(1) Another One (25s)

  • 1 cone with an exercise every 3 lights – total of 5
  • All exercises are 25 reps on a 1 count
  • After completing the exercise on the cone, carry it to the next light and complete all exercises up to that point
  • The exercises
    • Side Straddle Hops (SSH)
    • Imperial Walkers
    • Flutter Kicks
    • Merkins
    • LBCs

(2) 2 For Tuesday

  • An Asylum PM tradition – 2 For Tuesday aka back to back rinse and repeats
  • Repeat the previous route and exercises done above, but reverse it
    • Take one exercise off every 3 lights, until we finish with the first exercise at the shovel flag – SSH

(Mosey to the top of Cardiac Hill)

(3) 8s

  • 2 points of contact: top of cardiac + 1st curve of cardiac
  • Exercises: incline merkins + squats

MARY:

Cash-in with ATMs before moseying back to the shovel flag

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

  • 14 total
  • No FNGs

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

This is an excerpt from an article I wrote last week.

Confidence In The Cartographer

Perhaps the Lord will be with me and I will drive them out as the Lord promised. (From Joshua 14:10-12) I think that as Caleb was saying this to Joshua and the surrounding people, he had a slight grin on his face, with a chuckle at the end. Think about your race. Have you been able to see every turn, twist, bend, reroute, detour, traffic stop, warning sign, or stoplight? I haven’t. A cartographer is someone who draws or produces maps. And if we look at our lives like a race we’ve been called to run, there is only one ultimate cartographer that has mapped out every single thing that we are going to encounter during our race. I think Caleb knew this as he said this to Joshua. As if to say, “God has only fulfilled his promises 10/10 times, so perhaps He will still be with me during this next part of my race.” Caleb knew the Lord’s promises were good! So as I was reading this I thought: Do I have more confidence in the runner or the cartographer in my race? More times than not unfortunately, I can be more confident in the runner (me) than the one who designed the entire race in the first place! We’re called to run a race and run it in such a way that the surrounding witnesses can look on and only attribute the harmonic and unique journey to God. So wherever you find yourself in your race this weekend + new week, put more confidence in the cartographer vs. the runner. You’ve got this, because He’s got you.

3 Seconds of Courage

F3 Q: 10.29.22 

AO: Asylum 

7am – 8am 

[ The Scene ] 

[ Welcome/Disclaimer ]

  • Welcome to F3: Fitness – Fellowship – Faith 
  • My name is Steam and I’ll be your Q this morning 
  • A few things before we begin: 
    • I’m not a professional 
    • You’re here on your own belief 
    • You know your injuries if you have any so if you need to modify anything we do today feel free to do so, but push yourselves and the men around you. They deserve it and so do you. 
  • FNGs?

[ Warm o Rama ] 

— X + take a lap — 

1 — SSH: 20×4

(Take a lap)

2 — Merkin: 10 (1ct)

(Take a lap) 

3 — Windmill: 10×4

(Take a lap) 

4 — Mountain Climber: 10×4 

(Take a lap) 

5 — Baby Arm Circle: 10×4 F 

(Take a lap)

[ The Thang ] 

(Mosey to the top of Cardiac)

(1) The Elevator of Strength 

  • Nickel, Dime, Quarter
  • 5, 10, 25
  • 3 Points of Contact
  • Top: 5 Man Makers (8 count)
    • Run to Point 2
  • Middle Curve: 10 Squats (1 count)
    • Do Point 2
    • Run back to Point 1
    • Do Point 1 + Point 2
    • Run back to Point 1
    • Do Point 1, 2, and 3
  • Bottom: 25 Flutter Kicks (4 count)
    • Run back to Point 1
    • Hold the plank

(Mosey to the Dock)

(2) There And Back Again

  • 2 points of contact 
  • Dock + entry pathway to the right 
  • 5 rounds – together 
  • Each round after the first one increases the # of reps by 10 (1ct)
  • 1: Merkins (10)
  • 2: Squats (20)
  • 3: Dry Docks (30)
  • 4: SSH (40)
  • 5: Calf-Raises (50)

(Mosey to the Island)

(3) Battle Buddy Core 4 Laps 

  • Get a BB
  • 4 core Xs we’ll do
    • LBCs
    • Flutter Kicks 
    • American Hammers 
    • Cockroaches 
  • 1 BB will stay here and just crank out reps of 1 X while the other BB takes a lap. 
  • Rinse and repeat until both of you have completed all 4 Xs here
  • Done? Plank it up. 

(Mosey to the playground or AO depending on time)

[ Mary ] 

  • SWS (Stretching With Steam): The Married Edition

[ COT ]

  • # off – 11
  • Name o Rama 
    • Choir Boy, Crawdad, High-Heels, Matlock, Mr. Jinxy, Crispr, Drum Major, Convoy, Lebowski, Q-Bert, Steam
  • FNGs – 0
  • BOM

“3 Seconds of Courage”

A funny story from my honeymoon about 3 seconds of courage, and no, it’s not what you think. 

After dinner one night, my wife and I were walking around the property and there was this band playing in this outdoor amphitheater area. So we sat down and got a drink and listened to them for a bit. They were playing some pretty popular music that people could dance to, and some of the staff was dancing with guests towards the stage, and then some of the guests started getting up to dance. And as Megan and I were watching this, something really strange happened – I got super nervous. I could tell my wife wanted to dance, and I did too, but for some reason I was really nervous to ask her to dance. My new wife! I kind of danced around it a little bit, asking her “Hey do you want to dance?” And her replying “Yeah kind of but I’m nervous!” And guys it was the funniest thing looking back. I’m sitting there with my wife, and she wants to be asked to dance and I want to ask her to dance and whisk her away with boldness to do so, and I’m sitting there thinking “What the hell man, just ask her to dance, she’s your wife and she wants to dance with you, what are you doing!?” 

And I almost missed out on an opportunity to dance with my wife. Almost. I shared this with her when we were cliff jumping this summer, and she was nervous to jump off a 10 foot cliff into the lake: “All it takes is 3 seconds of courage.” And after about 10 minutes she eventually jumped and it ended up being fine. The same thing applied to me last week, when I almost missed an opportunity to ask my wife to dance, I had to take my own advice – 3 seconds of courage is all it takes. Looking back tt really was kind of funny, both of us sitting there, just having been married, and nervous to get up and dance together. 

So sometimes a deep breath and 3 seconds of courage is all it takes: 

  • To be intentional 
  • To be bold 
  • To be thoughtful 
  • To make an impact

And the scariest part of that is not the end goal, but the initial workup mentally. And so I want to pose this to us as we head into the weekend and a new week, where can you implement 3 seconds of courage? Someone in your life needs this from you! Maybe it is your wife or your family or your friends or your coworkers or a conversation you’ve been meaning to have for a while. All it takes is 3 seconds of courage. 

Swimming Is Back

F3 Q: 10.1.22

Asylum AO: 7am – 8am 

[ The Scene ] 

  • Chilly
  • Precipitation: 5%

[ Welcome/Disclaimer ]

  • Welcome to F3: Fitness – Fellowship – Faith 
  • My name is Steam and I’ll be your Q this morning 
  • A few things before we begin: 
    • I’m not a professional 
    • You’re here on your own belief 
    • You know your injuries if you have any so if you need to modify anything we do today feel free to do so, but push yourselves and the men around you. They deserve it and so do you. 
  • FNGs? — No

[ Warm o Rama ] 

  • SSH: 10×4 IC 
    • Run to the Pav + execute 1 pull-up + come back 
  • Hand Release Army Merkin: 10×4
    • Run to the Pav + execute 2 pull-up + come back 
  • Mountain Climber: 10×4
    • Run to the Pav + execute 3 pull-up + come back 
  • Squat: 10×4
    • Run to the Pav + execute 4 pull-up + come back 
  • Imperial Walker: 10×4 
    • Run to the Pav + execute 4 pull-up + come back 

[ The Thang ] 

(Mosey to The Island)

1 — Ping Pong Pyramid (Up)

  • The ends of the island are going to be our points of contact 
  • Start here with 5 reps of the X on the #1 cone
  • Run to the other end of the island and execute 10 reps of the X on the cone with #2 on it 
  • Same thing for the #3 cone here, #4 cone down there, and finishing up with the #5 cone down here. 
  • When you’re done, flutter kicks down here.

2 — Ping Pong Pyramid (Down)

  • Same thing, but we’ll start with 25 reps here and work our way back down to 5 reps, ending here. 
  • Look at the bottom of the cones for the next 5 Xs 
  • Done? Flutter kicks. 

(Mosey around to the roundabout on the left side of the Coliseum) 

3 — Stop at the 3-way stop sign 

  • 25 merkins (down/up)
  • 25 Carolina Dry Docks (down/up)
  • 25 mountain climbers

4 — American Indian Dips Movement 

  • Men lined up around the roundabout, holding the dip position
  • The 6 man executed 5 dips and then ran to the front
  • Go all the way around the roundabout

5 — Bear Crawl Karaoke

  • On both sides of the curb, men side bear-crawled all the way back up and around 

6 — In the middle of the Coliseum

  • Core 4
    • 25 Squats (1ct)
      • Run straight up to the top
    • 25 LBCs (1ct)
      • Run straight down to the lookout
    • 25 Imperial Walkers (1ct)
      • Run straight up to the top 
    • 25 Plank Jacks (1ct)
      • Run back to the center 

(Mosey back to the flag)

[ Mary ] 

  • SWS – Stretching With Steam (On the curb)
    • Karaoke down/back
    • Rockettes halfway down -> mosey // rinse and repeat back
    • High knees halfway down -> mosey // rinse and repeat back
    • Toe touches halfway down – mosey // rinse and repeat back
    • Circle up and fight stretching

[ COT ]

  • # off — 13
  • Name o Rama 
    • Pele
    • Mr. Jinxy
    • Convoy
    • Swimmies
    • Snitch
    • High Heels
    • Lebowski
    • Rainbow
    • Lillydipper
    • Choir Boy
    • Matlock
    • Qbert
  • FNGs
  • BOM

“The Ministry of Presence”

I saw a video on Instagram this week, of someone in Hollywood talking about the ministry of presence. I thought this was strange, because for this certain actor, Shia Lebouf (the movie Holes, Transformers), this seemed kind of out of character for him, to talk about the ministry of presence. He went on to share that during a particular difficult time in his life, as he was recovering from addiction and brokenness, there was an event where family members and friends could come on-site to this rehab facility to celebrate the progress Shia had been making. No one showed up. No one from his family showed up, none of his friends showed up, his manager didn’t show up, no one. I mean this is Shia Lebouf, a famous Hollywood actor! And yet no one showed up. Think of how alone he must have felt, on a day that is reserved for family, friends, and loved ones to show up and show support and encouragement, to have absolutely no one show up. Talk about a let down.

Except.

Except one of his actor colleagues, who was working on a movie of her own. Shia went on to say that this colleague of his was crazy busy with production for her own movie, and out of all the people in the world that could have showed up, she would be the last one to expect because of how slammed her schedule was. But she showed up anyway. Not family, sort of a friend, but more of an acting colleague. As Shia began to break down into tears sharing this story, he mentioned that he had nothing to offer her as a colleague, because he was going through his own stuff with recovery. “Just her presence. The ministry of presence. Sometimes that’s all you need to offer a person. Just to be present.” As Shia shared this in the video (which I won’t share here because of some of the strong language in the video, but it can be found online), you see tears just rolling down his face. To have one person just show up for a small increment of time, and just sit with him, in the middle of his stuff, made the world of difference.

Sometimes all that someone needs is your presence. Not a motivational/inspirational catch phrase or quote, not money, not judgement, but simply, your presence. In an article I read entitled “The Ministry of Presence: Meaning and Importance,” the author shares some of the story of Job, and his three friends who sought him out after hearing about the troubles that had come upon him. Job 2:11-13 really paints a great picture of what this looks like:

“Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him. And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their own heads toward heaven. And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights , and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.”

I wonder if I am or would be the kind of friend that Bil, Shu, and Zo were. Surely these were their nicknames as well. 7 days and 7 nights with no talking?! These are some friends who know how to sit and offer their presence fully. Here’s what I do far too often when Megan or someone close to me is going through something really tough or challenging: I am quick to reframe it into a positive somehow, or to see the positive side, offer up an encouraging/inspirational word or phrase, or even better, rack my brain for 3-4 Bible verses that would directly apply to this situation. Are these bad things? No, not necessarily. But just like Shia explained in the video, and like we read in Job, sometimes the best thing you can offer someone is your presence. The ministry of presence can far surpass any words you might be able to share, or comforting wisdom you might be able to rattle off.

Wanna take this further? Good, me too. Look at Matthew 18:20.

“For when two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” Or in the Message version: “And when two or three of you are gathered together because of me, you can be sure that I’ll be there.”

When you offer someone your presence, as a Christ follower you’re not sitting with them alone! God is right there with you, as you sit with them in their stuff. It’s not you alone who comforts them with the ministry of presence, but Christ that lives in you that does this. Through you offering your presence to them, freely, and without attachment or terms and conditions (sound familiar?), it is Christ inside of you that’s right there in that moment. That’s what God did and does for us, and that’s an opportunity we have for others as well. You all have done this so well for and with me over the years. Your presence is powerful. For that, I will forever be grateful.

A little TPQ for you going into a new week: How can you offer someone the ministry of presence this week? Loved one, friend, co-worker? Pray and ask where God might lead you to offer your presence, because He’s right there with you.

Pre-Blast: Winning the War In Your Mind

Men,

Many people, men especially, have an internal battle that rages within their minds, hearts, bodies, and souls. Wins and losses, start in your mind. Whether you think you can, or you can’t, you’re probably right. As guys who have struggled with internal dialogue, and what can sometimes feel like an all-out assault/war on our minds, we figured there might be other men out there that have gone or are going through the same stuff. And we have a good feeling we’re right.

One particular night after an Asylum PM beatdown, we kind of just had this moment of “Man this week has really sucked. I’m getting beaten up mentally bro.” Brick could tell I was not in a great headspace, and vice versa. So we talked after the COT and this idea was given to us, of walking through Craig Groeschel’s “Winning the War In Your Mind” book together. That’s when the wheels really began to turn, because like I said before, we figured there are other men out there that would probably benefit by going through something like this with other men. So here we are. After some praying and thinking and meditating and planning together, we are pumped to announce that we will be leading ourselves and others through this book  over the next 12(ish) weeks or so. You can find all the details below! Here’s a quick PSA: we totally get this might not be for everyone. Hey, that’s cool.

But.

But in the off chance that you or someone you know even has an inkling that going through this with some other men might be helpful, insightful, or dare I say even powerful and transformational, hit us up on the F3 Knoxville Slack workspace. Or if you have any questions on anything in this pre-blast, how to get plugged in, etc, shoot me an email at [email protected].

We hope you’ll consider taking few minutes out of your day or week to just think if this is something you would benefit from. Here are a few questions we are going to be asking as we work our way up to the kickoff date of Wednesday, August 31st, 2022.

  • What might God want to do in and through your life by you intentionally going through this with other men?
  • Are your thoughts leading you to step further into the man you’re called to be, or further away?
  • What would it look like to just show up for an hour every week, and take back some high ground mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically?

We’re pumped to offer this as a resource for the men of F3 Knoxville, and we hope you’ll prayerfully consider joining us on this journey.

Iron Sharpens Iron!

-Brick + Steam

The Why

  • Always start with “the why.”
  • Because in order to be the High Impact Men God has called us to be, we must come to terms with there being a very real war in our minds, against a very real enemy, that seeks to kill, steal, and destroy all truth about who we are and whose we are.

The What 

  • We’ll be walking through Craig Groeschel’s book “Winning the War In Your Mind” together.
  • This is a book that is comprised of 4 major sections, with 3 chapters each. Every week, we’ll gather together and dive into what is being revealed to and through us as men.

The Who

  • Your Co-Qs: Brick + Steam
  • Who else? F3 Knoxville men, and really any man that you know could benefit from walking through something like this.
  • Let’s be honest – for some guys, the 5:30am or 5:45pm or 6/7am F3 sell could be intimidating. Maybe you or a guy you know haven’t posted in a while. Or maybe you do your own workouts outside of F3 now (whatever dude.). Okay, kidding, nothing wrong with that. But just like the F3 workouts we know and love, this is free and open to any man. Getting a buddy to come to an F3 workout might be a tough sell/on-ramp, but maybe, just maybe, getting a buddy or male co-worker to come get breakfast and coffee and just talk about what’s going on in his life amongst the company of other HIM would be a more comfortable and easy on-ramp into community. Give it some thought.

The When

  • Wednesdays | 6:15 AM – 7:15 AM
  • We’ll officially “launch” on Wednesday, August 31st. This first Wednesday will be more of an intro/indoc type of deal. From then on out, we’ll cover a chapter a week, for 3 weeks, with the 4th week serving as a conversational takeaways session on the past section of the book we’ve just covered.

The Where

  • Physical Location: Chick-fil-A, Homberg Drive. The kind folks at the Homberg Drive Chick-fil-A have generously agreed to partner with us and let us use their community meeting room/space for the entirety of this group.
  • Virtual location: Slack. We are going to be streamlining comms through a private Slack channel (intentionally for confidentiality purposes) in the F3 Knoxville workspace. If you would like to be added to this channel, or if you have any questions, please shoot Steam a DM on Slack or an email at dhenson1160@gmail. There are more details about this journey through Winning the War In Your Mind together in our Slack channel. This is where our virtual HQ will be for the duration of this study/group.

FTWS

F3 Q: 7.5.22

Asylum PM

5:45-6:30

“FTWS” = Five Things With Steam

[ The Scene ]

  • 90s
  • Hot
  • Steamy

[ Welcome/Disclaimer ]

  • Welcome to F3: Fitness – Fellowship – Faith
  • My name is Steam and I’ll be your Q this morning
  • A few things before we begin:
    • I’m not a professional
    • You’re here on your own belief
    • You know your injuries if you have any so if you need to modify anything we do today feel free to do so, but push yourselves and the men around you. They deserve it and so do you.
  • FNGs?

[ Warm o Rama ]

  • SSH (10×4)
    • Run down to the tree and back
  • Merkins (10×4)
    • Run down to the tree and back
  • Lunges (10×4)
    • Run down to the tree and back
  • Gas Pedals (10×4)
    • Run down to the tree and back
  • Imperial Walkers (10×4)
    • Run down to the tree and back

[ The Thang ]

— 5 Things, 5 Places —

(Mosey to the top of theColiseum)

[1] 5 Things, Part 1

  • Do one of the 5 things (one at a time) and then run up the space needle and back
  • Rinse and repeat until you complete all 5
  • 5 reps, everything on a 4 count
  • Recover at the rope when done

(Mosey to the tree to the left (towards Haslam Rock)

[2] 5 Things, Part 2

  • Do one of the 5 things, (one at a time) then run to the wall and do another of the 5 things
  • Ping pong style
  • 10 reps, everything on a 4 count
  • Recover at the tree when done

(Mosey to the corner of the road across from Haslam Rock)

[3] 5 Things, Part 3

  • Do one of the 5 things (one at a time), then run down to the large tree down there and do the same thing #2ForTuesday
  • Run back up to this tree and rinse and repeat with the next exercise of the 5 things
  • 15 reps, everything on a 1 count
  • Recover at this tree

(Mosey back up to the top of the coliseum)

[4] 5 Things, Part 4

  • Do 10 reps of one the 5 things (one at a time), then run down to the stairs and do the other 10 reps
  • Run back up here and pick back up with the next exercise
  • 20 reps total, all on a 1 count
  • Recover up here when you’re done

(Mosey to the AO)

[5] 5 Things, Part 5

  • Execute one of the 5 things at each cone
  • 25 reps, all on a 1 count
  • When you finish the last cone, mosey back to the AO

[ Mary ]

SWS — Stretching With Steam

[ COT ]

  • # off — 15
  • Name o Rama
  • FNGs — 0
  • BOM — 5 Things, 15 Minutes, 5 Months
  • 3 points
  • Last Tuesday I shared some of the things I’ve struggled with so far this year.
  • Today during the workout we did the same 5 things over and over, and just increased the intensity a little.

Here’s point #1 — pick 5 things you’ve done over and over so far this year, and re-evaluate.

Here’s Point #2 — These are 5 things that I am going to be focusing in on for the rest of the year and would like to invite you into as well. Maybe some of these will apply to you and maybe some won’t and that’s okay, you can modify as needed.

(1) Pray

  • Go there, faster

(2) Read a chapter a day

  • Doesn’t matter what it is

(3) Write down something you learned

  • Write it down, jot it down in your notes app or on your phone

(4) Intentional silence

  • This year’s been loud so far. Not in a negative way necessarily, but in a lot going on kind of way

(5) HABITs

  • Honesty (It requires honesty)
  • Availability (Are you available?)
  • Becoming (The Becoming process)
  • Intentional (Purposeful)
  • Time (Non-renewable resource)

Here’s Point #3 — 15 minutes is about 1% of your day

  • Out of the 5, what are your core 3 for the rest of the year, that you can dedicate 1% of your day to
  • Or choose your own (5 total —> 3 daily, 2 weekly)