F3 Knoxville

Must Be Fall Break

THE SCENE: Finally feels sort of fall-like… About 60 and cloudy.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

SSH x30 IC
Travoltas x15 IC each side
Imperial Squat Walkers x15 IC
LBAC x20 each way IC
Hindurkins x10 IC

THA-THANG:
Cuper Cimple CMUesday recipe:

10 Burpee w/hop over block
1 lap

10 Burpee w/hop over block
20 One-Hand OHP (10 each side)
1 lap
1 more lap

10 Burpee w/hop over block
20 One-Hand OHP (10 each side)
30 Lunge w/ Twist
1 lap
1 more lap
Plus an additional bonus lap

10 Burpee w/hop over block
20 One-Hand OHP (10 each side)
30 Lunge w/ Twist
40 CMU Swings
1 lap
1 more lap
Plus an additional bonus lap
Recovery lap

20 One-Hand OHP (10 each side)
30 Lunge w/ Twist
40 CMU Swings
1 more lap
Plus an additional bonus lap
Recovery lap

Time’s running short…
20 CMU BBS
Bonus lap
Recovery lap

MARY:
Flutter kicks x50 IC

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
2 PAX this morning, plus some creepy guy who sat in his truck the whole time, his beady eyes and puffy face eerily illuminated by the dim yellow-green glow of Flappy Bird flitting across the screen of his iPhone X.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Brief… Goes along with the EH cards I brought. As Abscess mentioned this week, don’t stop the EH when an FNG shows up. Reach out and continue to encourage! (also, Q.)
MOLESKIN:
Well, OK the dude in the truck wasn’t necessarily creepy. And made up all the detail. Couldn’t see that much… But he was on his phone just about the whole time, except when I went over to put on the ol’ EH. He was asleep. Left a card on his windshield…
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
BroLympics!!!!! November 9! More info to come…

Hidden Figures and a Farewell to 90!

THE SCENE: Hot as heck… again… temps in the mid-90s and a blazing sun overhead.  This is OCTOBER??!
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

Check.

WARM-O-RAMA:

  • 10 SSH (4-ct, IC)
  • 10 Baby Arm Circles Forward/ Backward (4-ct, IC)
  • 10 Moroccan Nightclub (4-ct, IC)
  • 10 Tempo Squats (4-ct, IC)
  • 10 Cherry Pickers (4-ct, IC)
  • 10 sec high knees/ 10 sec butt kickers
  • 10 merkins (OYO)

THA-THANG:

  • Mosey to shady grass field by closest parking lot to Lyons View entrance.   Partner 1 Hops to first cone, Bear Crawl to second Cone, then Duck Walks to third cone and sprints back, and trades off with partner 2, who is working on the following exercises (cumulative reps):
    • 90 BBS
    • 90 LBCs
    • 90 American Hammers (2-ct)
  • Mosey to CMU pile
    • 30 Curls/30 Overhead Presses/30 Rows.  Try to complete in 90 seconds.  Rinse and Repeat x3.
  • Mosey to Cardiac:
    • MODIFIED DORAS:
      • Partner 1 run to first corner do 30 reps, Partner 2 do 30 reps, then run to catch up with Partner. Then do the last 30 together (15 each) “Patty-cake” style. Exercises:
        • 90 Merkins
        • 90 Shoulder Taps (each shoulder = 1)
        • 90 Bottle openers (?) (each arm = 1)

MOSEY TO grassy area at the road intersection: 30 BBS

MOSEY TO shady northeast corner of perimeter drive around admin building: 30 LBCs

MOSEY TO AO: 30 American Hammers (2-ct)

MARY:
90 squats

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
9 strong! 0 FNGs!

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM

I recently watched the movie Hidden Figures, which is about three young women who worked “behind the scenes” at NASA in the early 1960s and did the calculations that enabled John Glenn to launch into space.  It’s pretty obvious that we did a lot of exercises totaling 90 reps. This was to celebrate the last afternoon workout in the 90s. But did you realize:

    • We did 9 exercises and 10 reps per exercise in the Warmup?
    • We did 9 different exercises during Tha Thang?
    • I’ve spoken 90 words so far?

So we had some Hidden Figures in our Workout, and we also have Hidden Figures in our lives. These might be co-workers who do tasks that “keep everything moving”, which for me would be the data analysts that crunch the numbers so I can perform my modeling and write my reports. Maybe it’s a secretary, or dispatcher, or just someone who brings a positive and enthusiastic attitude to work every day. Maybe it’s someone at church who does a lot of unnoticed things that make events special… At my church up in Chicago there’s a woman, Fern, who washes and irons the tablecloths for special events and organizes cabinets, and there’s Anne, who stitches hats out of leftover yarn to pass out to homeless shelters.  Maybe it’s a Friend that you don’t see very often, but is always there when you need them, to offer words of encouragement, a shoulder to cry on, or a hand to help you up. And then there’s our relationship with God, who is Hidden from our earthly eyes, but is always with us in our time of need.

Seek out those Hidden Figures in your lives and thank them.

MOLESKIN:
Thankful that Jinxy’s heart procedure and diagnosis were favorable! Thanks to Sparkler for taking the lead on the Asylum PM obstacle construction for HH.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

8 minute abs, and solving baseball problems

THE SCENE: Maybe it’s starting to cool down?  At least a little?
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

SSH x 20, CP x 5, Imperial Squat Walkers x 10.  Short, to the point.
THA-THANG:
There’s a pattern here: Run up the hill to the top of the Dragon, and down the dragon and then back to the AO, talking out our issues as we go.  Upon hitting the AO, we have 8 min of work, 1 min for each exercise, doing as many as you can.  Then run again.

  • First 8 minutes is Abs:  gas pumpers; Freddy Mercurys, side crunches left, then right, V-ups, LBCs (with a 2 sec hold at the top), flutters, American Hammers
  • Next 8 minutes after run down the dragon is arms and shoulders:  (Grab a CMU for some of these) Merkins, Overhead press, In-outs (or back and forths – not sure what to call these.  Move the CMU into your chest and then straigten the arm out and then back against the chest, so on and so forth), Curls, Carolina Dry Docks, Lat pulls while on your six, and more Merkins.
  • Next 8 minutes- Head to the Cloud this time for leg work.  Really, after the run, we only have a few minutes, so call audible, do about 45 seconds each of box jumps on the benches, squats and lunges.  If we’d had time, we would have included step ups, mountain climbers, more box jumps, Iron Mikes and a couple of other leg exercise I can’t remember.
  • Recover to the AO.

MARY:
None, no time.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Life is so much better, easier, nicer when we show grace to others.  God has shown us the ultimate grace.  How we treat others is not about who they are.  It’s about who we are.  Gibbler’s addendum:  the brother of murder victim in Dallas, who demonstrated tremendous grace in forgiving the person who shot his brother, is the ultimate example.
MOLESKIN:
So, we want home run and strike out celebrations in baseball and maybe a shorter season.  Also, we are tired of the hypocrisy of rich celebrities taking up the mantle of climate change while flying around in private jets and living in gigantic mansions.   Those were some of the discussions on the mosey.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Healing The Wounded

THE SCENE: Humid, temp in low 70’s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

20 Plank Jacks, Plank arm and leg raises, 10 Cherry Pickers, Michael Phelps, Little of This and That.

THA-THANG:
Mosey to Southern Ball Fields Parking Lot.  Do 20 Hello Dollies, four count.

Mosey to perimeter trail near the Pavilion of the south ball fields.  We will do Nickel, Dime, Quarters (run one light do five of exercise, run two lights do ten, run five lights and do 25 of exercise) all the way to the beginning of Cardiac Hill.  These will be the exercises we will go through:

  • Star Jumps
  • Merkins
  • Big Boy Sit-ups
  • Squat Jumps
  • Dive Bombers
  • Imperial Walkers (four count)

At Cardiac Hill we will run up the hill, stopping at each of the turns and finally at the benches to do the following exercises:

  • Turn 1:  20 American Hammers
  • Turn 2:  20 Flutter Kicks
  • Turn 3:  20 Decline Merkins
  • Benches:  Bench Dips
  • Rinse and Repeat

Mosey to parking lot where we keep CMUs.

We will go around the parking lot, stopping at each corner to do exercises.  We go around the parking lot four times, doing the following exercises at each corner:

  • Corner 1:  20 Carolina Dry Docks, 20 Shoulder Taps (both shoulders = 1), 20 Squats, 20 Diamond Merkins  (sprint to Corner 2)
  • Corner 2:  20 Mountain Climbers (four count), 20 Smurf Jacks, 20 Iron Mikes (four count) 10 Burpees (bear crawl to Corner 3)
  • Corner 3: (with CMUs) 20 Overhead Presses, 20 Curls, 20 Rows, 20 Coupon Swings (Bernie Sanders to Corner 4)
  • Corner 4:  20 Bicycle Kicks (four count), 20 Box Cutters, 30 Baby Crunches, 40 “Mississippi second count” Boat Canoe  (Lunge to Corner 1)

Mosey back to AO.

MARY:
30 Baby Crunches
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Ten Men, No FNGs.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
As HIMs, we desire to help others.  But how to we handle people that are difficult to help?  Who resist or slap down our offers of assistance with “yes buts”, turning their backs to you, snide remarks, or an attitude that says either that “people aren’t no damn good” or “to hell with you and your advice.”  In my last message I talked about the need to resist the urge to strike back with caustic words; the need to be patient with such people; and, the need to stay Strong with them hanging in there with them.

One thing that can help you is to try to understand where the person is coming from.  These are often folks who have been hurt in their pasts.  Because of that, they lack trust in others and also lack trust in themselves to overcome difficulties.  There is a song by Nick Cave that, I believe, captures well how past painful experience can lead to a tragic attitude of “people ain’t no damn good.”  Ironically, the name of the song is “People Ain’t No Good.”  I don’t think this is Nick Cave’s stance on life although I am sure that, like all of us, he has certainly felt this way.  Rather, it is the stance of the narrator of the song.

Throughout the song, the refrain is “people they ain’t no good.”  Then we find out more about the narrator.  We find out how he married his love under cherry trees and under blossoms they made their vows.  We hear how the sun would stream on the sheets of their bed, how they were awoken by the morning bird, how they would buy Sunday newspapers but never read a single word due to their love for one another.

But, then we hear about how the winter stripped the blossoms of their love.  How like a fist, the difficulties hit them.  How his wife drew the curtains, made of wedding veils, on the narrator.  And, so the narrator cries, “to our love send a coffin of wood. . . to our love a valentine of blood. . . to our love let all the jilted lovers cry “that people just ain’t no good.”

Then, we hear how others may have tried to help this narrator but how he (and, this is the gut-wrenching tragedy of the story) bitterly turned down their help.  Here are the tragic lines about the people who tried to help him:

It ain’t that in their hearts they’re bad
They can comfort you, some even try
They nurse you when you’re ill of health
They bury you when you go and die
It ain’t that in their hearts they’re bad
They’d stick by you if they could
But that’s just bullshit baby
People just ain’t no good
Through the song, we come to understand the stance of the narrator.  It is a tragic stance but we have empathy for him because we can understand the reason for his pain.  Let us, as HIMs, be patient, be loving, be kind, be strong.  Work to understand those who turn away our attempts at love.  Help those who are bitter to learn that, although all of us screw up, some people are pretty damned good.

MOLESKIN:
Prayer of thanks that Mr. Jinxy received good news from the cardiologist.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
The REWARD at Panera!

Helping those who resist help

THE SCENE: Almost 90, rain and then humid

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

THA-THANG:
F3 Iron Pax Challenge, Week 4

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
8 men, no FNGs
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Romans 14:13  Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.

Colassians 4:6  Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.

 

As HIMs we desire to greet the day with energy, do good for our community, and help or brothers and sisters.  What happens, however, when the people we try to help are not receptive to the assistance we are trying to provide.  What do we do when we put in a great deal of effort to help another and we find them taking no real steps to help themselves.  When they turn down our advice with “yes buts”?  When they answer your attempts at optimism with pessimism”  When their basis stance toward your attempt at community with them is “People ain’t no damn good”?

We as HIMs must learn to have patience with individuals who are so difficult to help – and, frankly, sometimes difficult to like.  Jesus said this:  “Do not resist the one who is evil.  But if anyone slaps you on the right side of the cheek, turn to him the other also”  (Matthew 5:  39).  I don’t think that what Jesus was talking about here was to allow those who assault us to merely do so.  I believe that in this statement Jesus was talking about the approach we must take to people who resist our attempts to love them.  Sometimes we feel we are being slapped when we try to assist others.  Their resistance, their poor attitudes, their chide remarks can make us angry.  Our automatic response, which is certainly understandable, may be “To hell with you!”

But we must stand strong in the storm that hurting people throw at us.  It is the work of the devil in them that leads them to such behavior.  We must learn to keep loving.  That takes the fruits of the spirit:  Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control.  We must allow the onslaught and try to understand what, in the individual’s past, leads to their negative stance.  And, we can certainly go to our kinder brothers and sisters for advice and encouragement on how to hang in there with such people.

MOLESKIN:
Prayer for Mr. Jinxy who goes tomorrow for heart catheter.