F3 Knoxville

Cover your family’s six.

Guys I have debated whether or not to send this out. I don’t want to seem crass or opportunistic but it is truly weighing heavy on my heart.

“We weren’t prepared to lose him…” Cardinal’s Wife.

Men this sentence has sat heavier and heavier with me since I first read it. Being a part of F3 means being a High Impact Man. One part of being a High Impact Man is making sure your family’s six is covered. Your M’s and 2.0’s will never be prepared to lose you but you can make sure that they are prepared to lose you.

Men, if you don’t have life insurance/income protection now is the time to get it. We have seen firsthand how immediate and unplanned our lives can end. Please, please, please don’t disregard this message. It is easy to get, monthly costs as much as a dinner for a family of 5 to eat out, some is ALWAYS better than none, and it never hurts to look it over again to make sure you have enough.

A few tips for buying life insurance:

Stay away from products that have savings tied to them. Products named, Whole Life, Universal Life, Cash Value etc. Stick with Term Life Insurance.

You’ll want your term to carry you ideally to retirement age. At which point you will hopefully be self insured with your retirement savings.

Don’t sacrifice term (length of coverage) for amount of coverage. Can’t afford $500,000 for 20 years now, then get $500,000 for 10 years and renew later.

You typically want 10 times your bring home pay. I.e. Your salary is $60,000 per year but $50,000 hits your bank account, then you’ll want $500,000 in coverage. That amount can be put in an investment account that will allow your wife and kids to withdraw 10% or $50,000 per year for 10+/-. This will allow your family time to grieve, give them margin,keep your family in their home, keep cars, etc.

If your M works you’ll want the same scenario listed above for her. If not, she still brings value into your home and you will need to hire someone to help out for a while. So consider coverage either way.

If this is confusing or you want to know more please reach out to someone you know. If you don’t know anyone or would like help navigating this please reach out to me. This is my passion in life. Making sure that families’ financial houses are strong and shored up.
I will gladly look over anything you have free of charge to make sure you and your family are properly protected. Don’t read this and not act on it. Reach out to me or someone you know. Just cover your family’s six.


JUCO Metric #1 January 2022

THE SCENE: Misting, dark, and cold. Perfect.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Side straddle hops in cadence 25
5 burpees OYO
Windmills in cadence 10
Arm rotations forwards in cadence 12
Arm rotations backwards in cadence 12
Cherry Pickers in cadence 6
Tempo Squats 10

THA-THANG:
Mosey to the coupon pile. Grab a coupon, set a 30 min timer, and get after it…

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…etc.
Once through the entire circuit is 525 reps (burpees do not count toward total).
How many cumulative reps can you complete?
Enter your Total Rep Count on the form.
This workout will be used to set your baseline score.  We’ll repeat it in July and you can see how your King is accelerating!

Mosey back to the flag with a Jail Break

MARY:
No Time…
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:
The warrior ethos (AKA Jedi Training) consist of 13 pillars: commitment, honor, respect, prepared, faithful, fighter, hungry, humble, lover, teachable, firestarter, truthful, and generous.
Each one is tied to a Bible verse.

Faithful : the 5th pillar
The verse for this pillar is Matthew 25:23

“The master said, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’”
Matthew 25:23 NLT

Be Full of Faith! Keep giving and you will never be without!!

MOLESKIN:
Insert any personal comments, notes, devotion content, etc.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Convergence at Rampart 7a tomorrow. Clown Cars leaving JUCO at 6:15a

The Equalizer

THE SCENE:

It was a cool damp morning as I remember it.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Did some light calisthenics to get the heart pumping and blood moving.
THA-THANG:
Had 13 exercises at 13 spots areound the AO. Reps were 13 four count movements, or was it 26 reps per movement?

MARY:
Time was perfected ended at 0615.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
9 PAX in attendance.

CIRCLE OF TRUST:

Went over Hebrew 10:24-25, and why it’s important to gather together in order to spur and encourage one another.

MOLESKIN:
It is always great too be in the gloom with the men of F3.  Always an encouragement and great start to the day!!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Memorial Q tomorrow 0700 at The Rampart in memory of Cardinal.

The courage to lead

THE SCENE: Warm for January, low 50s and damp. Something like Ideal gloom with a waning gibbous overhead
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • Projectivators
  • Tempo Squats
  • LBACs
  • Tempo Merkins
  • Fence Steppers
  • Grady corn

THA-THANG:

  • Mosey to the parallel bars and have each man  handwalk the parallel bars
  • Mosey to the pool wall
    • Wall sit-ups – All PAX wall sit then do a wall-up upon command.
    • Repeat 5 times
  • Mosey to recruiting center
    • Relocate the entire block stack to the corner of the lot. TO move each block:
      • 20 plyo-merkins or thrusters to farmer carry each block
      • 20 4-ct heavy freddies or flutters to lunge the block
      • 20 swings or good mornings to rifle carry the block
    • Relocate the poles likewise in pairs
      • 20 golden arches then shoulder carry
    • Then move everything to the other corner of the parking lot
    • Then put it all back where we found it
  • RTF

MARY:
11 Heels to heaven, 11 American Hammers
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

On Saturday, I was fortunate to attend the convergence down at Bombshelter and, among several benefits, hear a message from Cap’n Crunch, one of the OG founders of F3 Knoxville. His message was framed with four points on how to improve personal leadership:

  • Resist Passivity
  • Expect Long-term Gains
  • Accept Responsibility
  • Lead Courageously

While any one of these points could serve as the jump-off point, today I am focusing on Lead Courageously. Unlike some other virtues, like temperance or fortitude, Courage is a word that still gets a fair bit of use in the modern cultural lexicon. Pretty much no matter who you are or how you view the world, everyone agrees that courage is virtuous, because everyone agrees that there are things which ought to be done that fear prevents us from doing. Now, Cap’n Crunch noted, and it bears repeating here, that courage is not the absence of fear. If you are not afraid, then you have no need of courage. Rather, courage is fortitude to endure fear which makes possible justice despite opposition, temperance in the face of temptation, and prudence which sees future peril but is not diverted. C.S. Lewis, in the voice of Screwtape, put it this way:

“Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of all virtues at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality. A chastity, or honesty, or mercy, which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful till it became risky.” – Screwtape

Obviously, having courage is great, but how do I get it?

There is more than one way to answer this question, but today I want to focus on one that we moderns somehow often neglect: From the men at your side. Ever notice what lies at the center of this word: en-COURAGE-ment From time immemorial, men have been facing challenges in groups, even when it provides no pragmatic advantage. In fact, this reality lies at the very heart of F3. By facing our challenges together, with shields locked, we muster courage which we do not individually merit. Do not neglect to engage this resource, for:

36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.37As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.38For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark;39and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. (Matthew 24:36-39)

No one knows the future. If you desire to lead, you must either be naïve to this or courageous to face it.
MOLESKIN:
I am deeply grateful to have had the opportunity to lead you fine men this morning. Coming out of a bewildering day, you helped bring me back to center. Truly grateful for your fellowship today and always.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Convergence at Rampart Saturday to finish his VQ and honor his memory. Receiving of friends is 3-5 at South Harriman Baptist Church, Funeral at 6. Burial will be Sunday at 2 pm at Bookwalter Cemetery in Knoxville.

Share Your Burden

THE SCENE: 51 with a surprise shower during warm-o-rama.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
SSH IC x20
LBAC IC x10 forward, x10 backward
Tempo Squat IC x10

Cherry Pickers x5, K-town cadence

THA-THANG:

To the coupon pile
Everyone pick a handheld pair you can do a lot of reps with.
Q grabs the biggest rock in the stack and “shares” it with the nearest guy.
The PAX sets out around the grounds
  1.  small rocks = perfect Curl-Press-Tri
  2.  BIG rock = overhead hold
When the big rock carrier needs to trade, everyone does:
10 Squat Jumps
20 Lunges
30 SSH
40 Rocky Balboas
Next PAX takes “The Burden” and off around the grounds again.
Continue until time for Mary

MARY:
Ran out of time.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

We just did an exercise called “Share the Burden.” How easy was the exercise overall? How easy did it feel to carry the big burden when everyone else was throwing up small rocks? What happened when you got tired? Some folks have a tendency to quit as soon as things get hard to avoid public failure. Did you give it up right away like those people? Those people don’t get up at 5am to work out in the cold!
No, your pride kicked in and you pushed as hard as you could. You tried to do more, some of us more than we should. You knew there was more work to do after, but you still pushed harder. If you knew you had more in the tank, and you were carrying the burden so the next man didn’t suffer, good for you.
But what about the rest of us? How much of your push was not wanting to be embarrassed? Not wanting to look weak? How many of us risked injury just to save face, or to not stand out?
Yesterday we lost a PAX. He was 36, a husband, father of two, a pastor in our community for 8+ years. He spent his ministry life actively reaching out to others to relieve them of some of their burden. We should all do the same.
But, I don’t need to tell most of you to help others, most of us are good at it. We often consider ourselves ready to share someone else’s burden. We volunteer to jump in and help when someone else needs it. We feel good about helping out a brother, or a neighbor, or a family…especially when the need is dire.
But what do we do when WE are the ones struggling, the one failing? Do we jump out and announce it? Do we volunteer for help? Do we look to share our own burden? Or do we hide, struggle on, and fake it?
When I last checked, the F3 GoFundMe for Cardinal’s family was over $33K…in 12 hours, basically just from F3. That shows tangibly what the PAX around us are ready and able to do. So do NOT rob them of the opportunity to serve. When you allow others to share your burden, you invite them into sharing blessing as well!
Don’t struggle in silence, don’t just try not to look like a screw up. Do not push harder when you are flailing and dragging yourself, your family or your business down. Ask for help. Ask the SkyQ, ask your pastor, and ask an F3 Brother, or two or three or four. You can’t lock shields with yourself, so look around, share your burden with the dude walking next to you, and work harder TOGETHER! Share the burden AND the blessing.

MOLESKIN:
It was a pleasure to consider just how blessed we are to have each other. #ISI

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Impromptu convergence, this Saturday, 1/14/23 in honor of Cardinal and support of Rampart.