F3 Knoxville

Killer Abs

THE SCENE:

40’s and clear

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

Given and received.
WARM-O-RAMA:

Cherry Pickers
Tempo Squats
Harry Rockets
Tempo Merkins
Baby arm circles forward
Baby arm circles back

THA-THANG:
Mosy to the big parking lot by the new math/science building.
Start with 5 hand-release-merkins and run to the first exercise. Complete the first and return to start. Do 5 HRM at the start every time and then continue to the next exercise. Continue down the ladder doing an exercise and then return to the start for 5 HRMs.

Exercises are:

  • 20 BBS
  • 40 Pickle Pounders
  • 60 Box cutters
  • 80 Hello Dolly’s
  • 100 LBC
  • 80 Freddy Mercury
  • 60 Pickle Pointer
  • 40 Flutter Kicks
  • 20 Rainbow Drops

Finish it out with some exercises at the math/science building wall:

  • 20 Derkins
  • 20 Step ups
  • 20 Irkins
  • 20 Box Jumps

MARY:
Imperial walkers
Hill Billy Walkers

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Little Known Facts About Laziness #5

Let’s review the facts…

Fact #5 – Laziness begets laziness

Consider this verse:

Slothfulness casts into deep sleep and an idle person will suffer hunger.

– Psalm 19:15

The first part of this verse indicates laziness makes you tired or sleepy. Notice it’s not the other way around. It’s not that tiredness makes you lazy. It’s not that you’re tired so you are lazy, it’s the other way. Laziness makes you tired. We can’t even trust our feelings and body in this case.

Also, remember fact #2: The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly.

The lazy are self-deceived. They can’t trust their thoughts and now they can’t trust their feelings. This is getting tricky and a cycle that be a trap. You think you’re tired and need to rest but maybe you’re just lazy?

Of course, tiredness is a thing and real but we can’t always trust our self-evaluation.

I challenge all of you to watch out for this laziness trap.

The PM Crew Tackles Accelerate Metric Workout #1

F3 Q: 1/17/2023

Asylum PM

5:45pm – 6:30pm

[ The Scene ] 

  • 50s
  • Cloudy with a chance of IRON SHARPENING YEAHHHHHHHHHH

[ 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 volition
    • 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 ] 

(5:45pm – 5:50pm)

These warm up Xs will be catered towards the Xs we’re going to do in Accelerate Metric Workout #1 

  • SSH: 15×4 
    • Run 25 yards and back 
  • Cherry Picker: 10×4
    • Run 25 yards and back 
  • Twisty: 10×4
    • Run 25 yards and back 
  • Rockette: 10×4
    • Run 25 yards and back 
  • High Knees: 10×4 
    • 25 yards and back 

Dynamic SWS (5:50 – 5:55)

4 corners – The Movements 

  • 1st Corner: Cobra stretch (30 seconds)
    • Run 
  • 2nd: 20 BAC (Front and Back)
    • Karaoke
  • 3rd: 10 Lunge Twists 
    • Deep Lunge
  • 4th: 10 wind mills
    • Side shuffle back to the light pole 

[ The Thang ] 

(Give instructions at 5:55pm)

(Start the workout at 6pm on the dot)

Accelerate Metric Workout #1

Introducing Accelerate 2023 — In an effort to ensure that the PAX of F3 Knoxville are continuing to accelerate their King (Q-source speak for always getting better in their workouts), we are going to be promoting 6 workouts this year done 6 months apart and to Track PAX progress. So the January and July workouts will be the same, Feb/August, etc. Instead of making it a competition, a la Iron Pax, this is an individual competition. Overall results will not be posted or tracked, just participants. AOQs will be the ones to share with PAX members their overall scores. 

This a YOU vs. YOU acceleration and not an Iron Pax-like competition. It will be about competing with yourself, not other PAX members. Please DM me any feedback you have for this year-long Accelerate challenge!

Here is January + July’s Accelerate workout:

Metric Workout #1 (Every man will need 1 CMU)

Set a timer for 30 minutes.

Complete as many cumulative reps as you can in that time.

The following list of exercises are performed in sets of 25 reps. 

After completing a set of 25 reps, put down your CMU, run 25 yards, do 2 burpees, return to your CMU, and continue. 

Here are the exercises:

  • 150 curls
  • 125 heavy squats
  • 100 OHP
  • 75 CMU swings
  • 50 Thrusters
  • 25 Blockees

When you finish the Blockees, start back at the top with curls.

It will look like this:

25 curls → 25 yard run → 2 burpees → 25 yard run → 25 curls…repeat until 150 curls are finished, then switch to squats (the next exercise)…etc.  

Once through the entire circuit is 525 reps (burpees do not count toward total).

[ COT ]

  • # off —> 13
  • Name o Rama 
    • Pele, Swimmies, Pusher, Sparkler, Rooney, Drum Major, F6, Abacus, Lillydipper, Brick, High-Heels, OnStar,  Steam
  • FNGs — 0
  • BOM

Reflections from the past week: 

  • Cardinal died on Wednesday 
  • My grandfather died yesterday
  • Megan (my wife) is going through a really tough time with her job and searching for a new one

It would be really easy to look at the past week and think “What in the world is going on.” But in light of everything that has happened over the past week, here are three things I need to remember, and maybe we all do heading into a new week. 

(1) We can rejoice too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. – Hebrews 5:3

    • Something about the really hard things we go through in life develop endurance for us to press on, to keep going, and to stay in the fight. 

(2) Memento Mori = Remember that you must die

    • This is just a fact of life. 
    • It’s not an “if” it’s a “when”
    • That being said – how are you you stewarding the days you’ve been given? We each have a certain number of days we’re going to be on this earth, no more, no less. 
    • I’m 28 years old, which is roughly in the neighborhood of 10,000 days —> Have I taken advantage of these days or have they taken advantage of me (Ephesians 5:16 — making the best use of the time, because the days are evil)

(3) Keep showing up

    • High Heels has said “How do you get better at burpees? Do more burpees.” And in the past when I’ve heard that I probably laughed or thought “But why?”
    • But the point is not the success or failure, but to keep showing up. You wanna get better at burpees? Keep showing up and do the work. 
    • To quote Samwise Gamgee —> Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. Because they were holding on to something. That there’s some good in this world and it’s worth fighting for. 
    • Last week we all saw how powerful and impactful it is when men decide to show up. 

You Are More Than Your Job

THE SCENE: Windy, temps in low 60s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 Plank Jacks, 10 Cherry Pickers, 20 Side-Straddle Hops, 10 Windmills, Sitting knee stretches 10 count right, forward and left.
THA-THANG:
Mosey up Dragon Tail to Haslam Rock.  Stop on roadway to do 20 Box Cutters.

Mosey to Coliseum Courtyard Area.  We will run counterclockwise around the sidewalk loop.  We will do the following exercises around the circle:

  • First loop:  20 Bench Dips at Coliseum and Admin Bldg steps and 20 Merkins at the two sides of loop.
  • Second loop:  20 Box Jumps on Steps and 20 Carolina Dry Cocks at sides of loop.
  • Third loop:  20 Calf Raises on Steps and 20 Diamond Merkins at side of loop.
  • Rinse and Repeat.

Mosey to roadway area close to Haslam Rock.  We will do 20 Hello Dollies.

Mosey on Perimeter Trail to area at bottom of Mt. Everest.  We will split into teams of two and do Doras.  One partner runs to the construction fence going south on the perimeter trail, touches the fence and runs back.  The other partner works on the listed exercises and then partners switch.  As a team, the partners will do the following exercises:

  • 150 Freddie Mercuries (4 ct)
  • 150 Jump Squats
  • 150 Baby Crunches
  • 150 Iron Mikes (both legs = 1)

Mosey to AO.

MARY:
Abdominals
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
21 men with one FNG:  Robert Kelly whom we dubbed Kung Blue.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
I know that some men in our brotherhood and some M’s of our brothers have struggled with the jobs they are in and the vocational decisions they are attempting to make. It is difficult to have a job that just doesn’t seem right for you.  It can be bewildering to wonder what direction your professional life should take. It can feel oppressive to go to a job you just don’t like and wonder when the right job will come along.  I look back to my own vocational struggles when I was in my 20’s and early 30’s. I can say that during some of those struggles I was clinically depressed.

As a 66-year-old who has been in the job market for quite some time, let me offer some words to you that may help be of benefit to those of you who have struggled vocationally or who have loved ones who have struggled:

  1. You are more than your job.  I know of people who feel they have never found the “right job.”  But some of them are amongst the finest people I know.  Yes, at parties we may introduce ourselves to others and answer the questions about what we do for a living.  But that isn’t our identity.  There is so much more:  our worship, our families, our friends, our activities outside of work, how we listen to others, how we treat others, how we lead others.
  2. If you are dissatisfied with your job, keep looking.  That doesn’t mean quit your current job.  But network with others, talk to your brothers, let them know you are looking for something new.  Also, when you interview for jobs, that in itself can be a learning process.  I am proud of my son, Bennett, for his growth through networking and interviewing in the past year.  He had a good job but wanted something different.  He thought he wanted to get into the banking industry but he wasn’t sure in what area or what direction to take.  He gradually found out a job that is fitting his desires by networking and interviewing for jobs that weren’t quite the fit.
  3. As our brother High-Heels said in a recent Q, even if you aren’t thrilled with your job, it’s a blessing to have it.  You are getting paid.  Your job is putting food on the table.  There are many people who are jobless and hungry.  Don’t forget that.
  4. You have an opportunity to serve others, no matter what your job.  You can smile at your customers, try to make their lives better, and enhance the lives of your fellow employees with a kind and eager spirit.  And, no matter what your job, whether physician or trash collector, that work is probably contributing to what makes our world spin.

I will sum up the last point with some of the words from a song we sometimes sing at my church called “Day by Day.”

Server, you remind us of our Savior's bowl and towel.
Teacher, you are raising up a child to be kind.
Lawyer, give us hope that justice one day will surround us.
May God's kingdom come, on earth His will be done.

Farmer, you are working for a table full of bounty.
Painter, with each color you are teaching us to see.
Nurse, yours are the healing hands that touch the poor and broken.
May God's kingdom come, on earth His will be done.

Lord, be close to us.  Lord, have mercy on us.
Lord, please put Your hand on us day by day.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Jinxy and his family after the death of Jinxy’s father.  The funeral was today.  Prayers of praise for Operation as his wife is over six weeks pregnant after she and Operation went through such a lengthy time with issues of infertility.  Operation is going to be a great father!!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Hot Toddy Triple Q at the Asylum on Saturday morning, January 28 at the Asylum!  Pusher will have his Birthday Q with Lumpia likely in February!

Shamrock – Living House

THE SCENE: Foggy 49F
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

Run in circles

Side shuffle then reverse 

High knees

Butt kicks

Tie Fighters X10 

Cherry Pickers  x3 

Side Straddle hop (IC) 4 CT x 10

Quad Stretch

THA-THANG:

Mosey to rock pile 

Grab 2 rocks

Butterflies – 60 seconds

Twinkletoes with rocks held out – 60 seconds 

Butterflies – 30 seconds

Curb squats – rocks out in front – 60 seconds 

Drop the rocks and mosey to the middle school across the street

—-

Stop halfway for 50 curb dips 

—-

Battle Buddy

#1 does line hopping while #2 runs up and down the stairs

Switch, then hold plank for the 6 before we move to the next round

#1 does flutter kicks while #2 runs up and down the stairs

 Switch, then then hold plank for the 6 before we move to the next round

#1 does Big Boys while #2 runs up and down the stairs

Switch, then then hold plank for the 6 before we move to the next round

#1 does LBCs while #2 runs up and down the stairs

Switch, then then hold plank for the 6 before we move to the next round

#1 does American Hammers while #2 runs up and down the stairs

Switch, then then hold plank for the 6 before we move to the next round

#1 does a 6” leg lift while #2 runs up and down the stairs

Switch, then then hold plank for the 6 

Head back to Catholic  – Stop halfway for 50 more curb dips

CMU work on the way back

* AMRAP: CMU bench press, curls, then rows. 

Walk back halfway then run at 75% to the flag. 

MARY:

Buns of Steel each leg x10-4-count 

Word: 
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
14 – Baby Boomer, Tailhook, Tuba, Voo Doo, Skid Mark, Caveman, Curry, Betty, Mandolin, Honeydew, Slappy, Mermaid, Anchorman, Shuttlecock
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Quote from CS Lewis about God’s work in you. God’s work in you can be painful and not easy. The work shows that he cares. He is 100% holy so he builds a palace worthy of his holiness. 

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”

― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

“Friendship … is born at the moment when one man says to another “What! You too? I thought that no one but myself . . .”

― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

 

Reinvigorate and Replant

THE SCENE: Some of the most beautiful gloom I’ve ever seen.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER:  Done
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • RFTS / LIH
  • Shoulder burn
  • WMH
  • Finkle swings

Partner up – grab one block per pair.  Partner 1 moseys with the block.  Partner 2 completes 20 merkins then runs to catch up and takes the block from his partner.  Keeping switching roles until we arrive at the King’s parking lot.

THA THANG:

Dora-style work

Partner 1 performs exercises

Partner 2 takes a lap around the island.

After each set is complete – both partners run up the hill and back

  • 50 SQUAT AND CURLS
  • 75 LUNGE PRESS
  • 100 CMU SWINGS
  • 125 CURLS
  • 150 HEAVY LBC
  • 125 TRI EXTENSIONS
  • 100 DERKINS
  • 75 HEAVY FREDDY
  • 50 BLOCKEES

MARY:

PAX choice for 3 minutes

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

16 men and 1 2.0

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Cardinal made his living as the pastor of a church in Harriman.  Years ago, he received two job offers on the same day.  One was a larger established church.  The other was a tiny country church that was actively disappearing.  He took his family to the smaller church.  He had a passion for “revitalizing” and “replanting” churches – that’s how he said it.

During the last week, I’ve heard this from many of you and from scores of men around the world who have reached out…I’ve also thought it myself – “That could have been me.”  It makes me reflect on how precious life is and on what my priorities are.  Sometimes my highest priorities do not always get the best of me and the most of me.

Psalm 39:4-5, “Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be.  Remind me that my days are numbered how fleeting my life is.”

Psalm 90:12, “Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts.”

Several PAX shared how they can reset on their highest priorities to make sure they are giving their best to what is most important.  Make sure you are taking your role and responsibilities seriously (e.g., make sure your M will be taken care of if you were to die suddenly).

I think our friend Cardinal would be thrilled to know that even his death caused so many men to be revitalized and replanted in their responsibilities and priorities.

MOLESKIN:

This workout was inspired by the beatdown I suffered at the hands of Feeny on Monday.  I was still sore when we started it all again!

PRAYERS / ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Prayers for Cardinal’s family, for the Rampart men, and for Cosmo’s family