F3 Knoxville

Introducing the Iron Cheatsheet

THE SCENE: Upper 60s and muggy
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

SSH x 25; This n That; Cherry Pickers x10; Imperial Squat Walkers x 25

Go to the baseline: karaoke to the other side; karaoke back; high skip, jog back; butt kickers.
THA-THANG:
1.  Grab a CMU from the pile and carry to bottom of the hill;

2.  25s:  20 Iron Cheatsheets (Iron Mikes and moving CMU in time back and forth off chest), run hill, 5 squat jumps.  Back down hill for 15 ICs, up hill for 10 SJs, etc. until done

3.  Mosey to back parking lot.  10 merkins transitioning immediately into a sprint for the distance of the parking lot, transitioning immediately to 10 burpees.  Recovery mosey back to the start.  Repeat 2 more times.

4.  Mosey to Pavalon for 25s:  Table rows and calf raises (4ct)

Mosey back to AO for:

MARY:
Grab your CMU and on your 6.  Modified Ring of Fire.  PAX takes turn doing 5 Am. Hammers with CMU (4ct) around the circle.  When not doing AHs, PAX to assume “boat” position, holding CMU so it doesn’t touch body.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Jesus teaches us that we are to love even our enemies. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven” Matthew 5:43-45.  This is as much for us as it is for those who do us harm.  Hate is a poison.  But it’s not easy.  God knows that.  We just have to keep trying to be better so we can bring glory to Him.
MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Rusty and his wife, Cheatsheet’s family, especially his Mom, and Pusher’s family and Mom.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Forgot to mention this, but in case you read it before Memorial Day, don’t forget about the convergence at 5:30 for an hour, with a focus on remembering our fallen soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice so we could have F3.

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:

30 Seconds, Rinse and Repeat

THE SCENE: Sunny and warm, high 80s, thankfully not too humid
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER 

Yep.
WARM-O-RAMA:

– 5 decreasing Motivators (in cadence), 10 Rockettes, 10 Cherry Pickers, 10 Imperial Squat Walkers, Little of this/that

THA-THANG:

  • Mosey to Stop Sign south of Admin building. Do 30 seconds of the following 4 exercises.  Rinse and Repeat.
  1. Plank Jacks
  2. Pickle Pounders
  3. Mountain Climbers
  4. Shoulder Taps
  • INDIAN RUN to new bathrooms. Do 30 seconds of the following 4 exercises.  Rinse and Repeat.
  1. Big Boy Situps
  2. American Hammers
  3. Little Baby Crunches
  4. Flutter kicks
  • Mosey to CMU pile. Get in a circle, every other man has CMU.  Do 30 seconds of the following exercises, then pass the CMU.  If not doing the exercise, then do what’s in parentheses.
  1. Overhead Press (LBCs) (2 minutes)
  2. Curls (Imperial Walksers) (2 minutes)
  3. Rows (merkins) (2 minutes)
  4. Squats (Side Straddle hops) (2 minutes)
  • Mosey to top of Baby Cardiac. Do 3 Burpees and sprint to the top.  Then do 30 seconds of the following 4 exercises.
  1. Froggie Jumps
  2. Lunges
  3. Bobby Hurleys
  4. Smurf Jacks
  • Mosey to road intersection up to Admin building at Stop Sign northwest of building. Do 30 seconds of the following 4 exercises.
  1. Diamond Merkins
  2. Burpees
  3. Carolina Dry Docks
  4. Ranger Merkins (ran out of time for these)
  • Mosey To AO (Bernie Sanders to tree)

MARY:
No time!

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

See Tags, plus J-Lo who isn’t in the system??

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

ARTICLE: Why Highly Efficient Leaders Fail (Harvard Business Review)

  • One of the key attributes of leaders is the ability to execute and get things done. Whether it’s at work, at church, at home, or in your community.
  • Sometimes leaders who have super high productivity have sacrificed their people-based focus.
  • So the irony is that sometimes High Efficiency makes people less effective leaders overall.
    • They tend to push others around them to the point of burnout.
    • They place unrealistic demands on others, leading to stress and frustration among the team.
    • Their lack of personal relationships can be an obstacle to promotions, as well as costing them in their personal lives.
  • Great leaders balance Task Focus (getting r done!) with People Focus (inspiring, empowering others, etc.) skills.
  • Not just about being efficient, it’s about being effective. Sometimes you have to go slow to go fast.  Take the time to make those personal connections
    • 6 out of 10 of the top differentiators of effective leaders relate to people skills (e.g., listening, developing others, and empowering team members).
    • Highly task-focused leaders can display controlling or perfectionistic behaviors that can alienate others. They also fear letting go of control to others because it might reflect poorly on them if results suffer.

MOLESKIN:
Best wishes to J-Lo during his deployment to Florida.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
None

11’S Are Heaven

THE SCENE: Clear and nice, 55 degrees at circle up
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

Warm up with SSH x30 on 4ct, 4ct Windmill x10, Baby Arm Circles (thumbs up and down) x10, Cherry pickers x8, Tempo Merkin x10

 

THA-THANG:
Stayed in AO parking lot to start. 8 CMU’s on each end. Did 11’s starting with Curls and CMU Swings, running back and forth

Second set of 11’s in AO lot of Overhead press and squat

Mosey to playground

11’s there consist of Box jumps and 4ct LBC’s

Mosey to Little Hill

11’s there consist of DD’s Bernie every other trip up and Start jumps at top

MARY:
Back to AO finish with CMU extended flutters and Recover
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
8 HIMs IN Attendance at Asylum
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
God made us for work. Our vocation is a way to serve others and show others who Christ is.