F3 Knoxville

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.

11 Babies in 24 Hours

THE SCENE: Humid. Sweaty.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER Charmin is a lawyer, so I’m sure we’re covered
WARM-O-RAMA:

SSH, Old Man Windmills, Peter Parker Merkins, BACs, OHCs, reverse until arms fall off
THA-THANG:

First of all, it was Charmin, Hands, and YHC, and between the three of us, we had delivered a combined 11 babies in the preceding 24 hours. So we probably deserve some kind of F3 award for that.

But even heroes need to work out.  Thursday morning and a small crew means it’s time to mosey, so we did. Down to the pier, where we did some abs (although with Charmin, you can’t shred what’s already shredded) and ran some laps. 

Took the fragrant route down to the sewage plant, and up to the lower parking lot where Knoxville’s Finest apparently decided to reposition some CMUs underneath the neglect-o-matic. We thought we might as well use them, so Curls, Presses, Squats, Hands’ Signature Shrug (™), Rows, and more curls while we watched a beautiful sunrise. Plus some more running.

Last mosey up to the AO and just enough time for a fast trip up mini cardiac with 2 burpees to top it off.

MARY:
Pro tip, if you time things right, you can avoid Mary.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
An ace obstetrician and two regular guys
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Insert the WORD here.
MOLESKIN:
From Brother Lawrence, a cook who knew a thing or two about work, worship, and a life well lived:

We can do little things for God; I turn the cake that is frying on the pan for love of Him, and that done, if there is nothing else to call me, I prostrate myself in worship before Him, who has given me grace to work; afterwards I rise happier than a king. It is enough for me to pick up but a straw from the ground for the love of God.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Fantastic Figure 8’s

THE SCENE: Shew, it’s sticky out there.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • 5 burpees OYO
  • 10 Lunges (each leg, OYO, much to Mayberry’s dismay)
  • 15 Imperial Walkers (IC, for Mayberry)
  • 20 Squats IC (super slow, for the old people)
  • Little baby arm circles x 10 each direction

THA-THANG:
Mosey to the parking lot where a ~1,000 ft figure 8 course was laid out. The following exercises were performed throughout each lap:

  • 25 LBC’s (4 ct.)
  • 10 pistol squats (each leg)
  • 25 Hello Dolly (4 ct.)
  • 10 Oblique Crunches (each side)
  • Burpee broad jumps
  • Lunges
  • Bear Crawl
  • Stair climbs x 2
  • Gorilla Shuffle
  • Inchworm merkins
  • Crabwalks

MARY:
La-Z-Boy lead through some more hello dollys, since we hadn’t had enough yet.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Be aware of who & what you spend your time on. I recently observed a man take a phone call during his daughter’s dance practice and act annoyed that the dance practice was interrupting his phone call. While there is a time and place to focus on work and to be diligent, there is also a time and place to be wholly present for our friends, family, etc.
MOLESKIN:
Mayberry wore a weight vest (again) and still kicked our asses. That guy is a beast.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Don’t forget about F3 Convergence on Memorial Day. Also, a Murph workout at 9:00 a.m. organized by Abscess. Last, please sign up to Q! We are going to start trying to fill up the month’s schedule on the last week of the previous month. If you’re skeered, please reach out to a “veteran” Q or research the Q101 info on F3’s website. It’s not hard, it’s very rewarding, and everyone appreciates your efforts!

Big Ball Slurpee

THE SCENE: warm and muggy
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER – Nope, not a professional
WARM-O-RAMA:

20 SSH

10 each of baby arm circles (both ways), Moroccan night clubs, and over head claps

15 tempo squats
THA-THANG:
7/11’s – 7 pairs of exercises done by 10 reps of exercise A/1 rep of exercise B (9/2, 8/3, etc)

pairings:

8 count body builders & Rockettes

BBS & Sprint (30yards)

60lb Sand Bag Toss & Burpee

Flutter Kicks & Monkey Humpers (Both on 4 Count)

Incline Merkins & Box Jumps (or Step-ups)

Lunge & CMU Curl

Inch Worm Merkins & Squats
MARY:
no time for Mary
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
the grass is greener where watered, not necessarily on the other side…

MOLESKIN

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Memorial day convergence

CMU Field Day

THE SCENE: Clear 70 degrees
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

Pre-Ruck: 400m ruck toss (clean-out toss) with partner at track.

Baby Arm Circles x 10 ED EA

Imperial Squat Walker x 15 IC

8 Count BB x 10 IC

THA-THANG:
Flora 1-2-3: Partner up

  • 100 merkin- partner 1 does 10 merkin on CMU while partner 2 holds plank with feet on CMU. Flap jack
  • 200 CMU curls- P1 does 20 CMU curls while P2 holds CMU overhead (elbows locked). Flap jack
  • 300 BBS w/CMU on chest- P1 does 25 BBS while P2 holds feet 6-inches off ground and CMU over head

Hurricane Hoedown: Reps 7-6-5-4-3-2-1

  • Seated w/CMU at chest level IC
  • Slightly inclined (no CMU) IC
  • Normal with CMU overhead IC
  • Normal with BBS (CMU on chest) on 4 ct

Block Burners: Push CMU approx 40 yards. 11s with BBS at first cone and Merkin on CMU at second cone

MARY:

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
2 Corinthians 11:25 We will face persecution. Some more than others. Get up. Keep going. Find strength in those around you and from the Lord who loves you. Take as many with you into Glory as possible.
MOLESKIN:

ANNOUNCEMENTS: