Asylum PM – Page 2 – F3 Knoxville

4 Corners

February 13, 2026 BackBlasts

AO: asylum-pm
Q: Drum Major
PAX: Lizzy, Kung Blue, Franzia, Mr Jinxy, Pele (Jon Lindberg), Lilydipper, Crash Dummy, Pusher, Rooney(Carl Whipple), Switchhitter (Tony), MD Hammer
FNGs: None
COUNT: 12
WARMUP:

5 Motivators
5 Cherry Pickers
10 Rockettes
Baby arm circles each way, throw in Morrocan Night Clubs
This and that and one jog around parking lot then go grab rocks

THE THANG:

Grab a coupon and start in corner of parking lot.
Start with 4 corner, karaoke or shuffle to corner, Bernie to 2nd, shuffle other way to 3rd and run to 4th. Face the same way all the way around. Run 2 laps between each circuit.
Circuit 1- 25 each
1.    Merkins
2.    Rows
3.    Overhead press
4.    Curls
5.    Carolina Dry Docks
Circuit 2 – 25 each
1.    Goblet squats
2.    Lunges
3.    Calf Raises
4.    Backwards lunges
5.    Bobby Hurleys
Circuit 3 – 25 each
1.    LBCs
2.    Flutter Kicks
3.    Mountain Climbers
4.    American Hammers
5.    Box Cutters
If you complete all 3, start from beginning until Recover is called.

MARY:

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Haw Ridge coming soon.

COT:

Empathy: Understanding and Connection
• Definition: The capacity to feel what another person is feeling and understand their perspective.
• Purpose: Fosters prosocial behavior, compassion, and kindness.
• Nuance: It does not always lead to compassion; one can understand another’s pain without wishing to alleviate it.
Cruelty: Deliberate Infliction of Pain
• Definition: The deliberate causing of physical or emotional suffering to others.
• Origins: Often stems from a lack of empathy or a “warped response” where a perpetrator feels the victim’s pain but derives pleasure from it.
• Types: Ranges from overt violence to covert acts like mockery, “macho minimizing,” or “tough love”.

While low empathy is linked to cruelty, some research suggests cruelty can require high, albeit misused, empathy to know exactly how to cause maximum distress.

Key insights on empathy:
• A Strength, Not a Weakness: Empathy is often confused with being “nice” or “soft,” but it is actually a skill that requires profound mental strength to understand perspectives different from one’s own.
• Enhances Leadership: In leadership, empathy is a “superpower” that helps in understanding others’ emotions to create better work environments, rather than just absorbing their pain
.
• Distinction from Sympathy: Empathy is about understanding another’s perspective, whereas sympathy is feeling pity from your own perspective.
• The Risk of “Too Much” Empathy: Unmanaged empathy, or emotional entanglement, can lead to burnout or “unhealthy helping”.
• A Sign of Health: The absence of empathy is associated with serious mental health conditions, such as narcissistic or antisocial personality disorders.
• A Social Lubricant: Empathy is crucial for building and maintaining relationships, acting as a foundation for trust within communities.

Choose your adventure #2

February 5, 2026 BackBlasts

AO: asylum-pm
Q: Lizzy
PAX: Brick, Bacon (Ben), Pusher, Kung Blue, Franzia, FixerUpper, Pele (Jon Lindberg), Lilydipper, Drum Major, Serpentine (Jason Pierce), MD Hammer
FNGs: None
COUNT: 12
WARMUP:
While warming up gave the guys options of two workouts. 1- is approximately 3 miles of running called the sea biscuit, 2 – right at 2 miles but would be harder. I warned the guys option 2 would be challenging ahead

THE THANG:
Mosey to hill on the backside of the park to the hill. Round 1 up hill was 6 suicides to the each light and bottom of the hill. Round 2 – suicides again with increasing burpees up to 6. Round 3 suicides with merkins increasing to 6.

Bear crawl to next benches.

Did some ab work here.

Then burpee broad jump to the end of the path.

MARY:
We don’t know her
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Escape from Haw Ridge

COT:
At the beginning I gave you a choice and as a group we chose what we thought was the easiest workout. As a group we declined to do a sea biscuit workout because it’s a daunting task. A lot of times we do this in our daily lives. We choose the shorter or easier path when we have the option. But many times we end up with more work or a harder experience. Don’t always choose what the easiest path is. Lots of prayers but the important one was Pele and Lily are now in a civil union and will be traveling to West Virginia to celebrate. We’ll celebrate them as a couple when they come back.

Get Out of Your Own Way

February 3, 2026 BackBlasts

AO: asylum-pm
Q: Lilydipper
PAX: Drum Major, Tenderfoot, Switchhitter (Tony), Rooney(Carl Whipple), High Heels, Brick, Lizzy, Pele (Jon Lindberg), Pusher, Joshua Foster
FNGs: None
COUNT: 11
WARMUP: 20 Side-Straddle Hops, 10 Iron Mikes, 10 Ice Skaters, 10 Tennessee Rocking Chairs, 10 Rockettes, 30 Grady Corns, 7 Pterodactyls Forwards and 7 Backwards

THE THANG: We will do the following sets of exercises, doing the first, then running (counter-clockwise) around pavilion twice, doing the second, then running around pavilion twice, then the third and then running around pavilion twice:
– 20 Big Boy Sit-ups
– 20 Merkins
– 20 Picnic Table Pull-ups

Next, we will do totem pole, building on exercises then chopping them off, with 30 seconds for each exercise. Here are the exercises:
– Plank Jacks
– American Hammers
– Bobby Hurleys

Next, we will do the following sets of exercises, doing the first, then running (clockwise) around pavilion twice, doing the second, then running around pavilion twice, then the third and then running around pavilion twice:

– 20 Star Jumps
– 20 Carolina Dry Docks
– 20 Smurf Jacks

Next, we will do the following sets of exercises, doing the first, then running (counter-clockwise) around pavilion twice, doing the second, then running around pavilion twice, then the third and then running around pavilion twice:

– 20 Flutter Kicks
– 20 Bench Dips
– 20 Step-ups on Benches

Finally, we will do the following sets of exercises, doing the first, then running (clockwise) around pavilion twice, doing the second, then running around pavilion twice, then the third and then running around pavilion twice:

– 20 Freddie Mercuries
– 20 Decline Merkins
– 20 Incline Merkins

MARY: No time for sweet Mary.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: The Knoxville Region has starfished again into an eastern and western region. Thanks to Mermaid for being a fantastic Nant’an for the Knoxville Region. Our western region will have Stripped as the Nant’an. Our eastern region will have Swanson as the Nant’an. Asylum PM will be in the eastern region.

COT:
Message:
Get Out of Your Own Way
I recently read an interesting article about interview with Ben Stiller. In the interview he said that the worst decision he ever made in his life was to cut his then 9-year-old daughter, Ella Stiller, from a scene she had been filmed in for a movie Ben was making, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Ella, who is now 23, laughs the occurrence off, saying the scene didn’t really make sense in the movie. But for Ben, cutting the scene goes to a deeper issue, which he states is his obsession with his work and his perfectionism. While a goal of Ben Stiller has been to be a good, loving, and available father, he has found that his perfectionism with work sometimes stood in the way of that.
I think it a good thing that Stiller sees that difficulty in himself and is vulnerable enough to admit it. By seeing that fault, he has been able to work on it although he has found himself struggling with it again and again.
Where do you get perfectionist or obsessed? What stands in the way of you being available to others? What stands in the way of you fulfilling dreams? What stands in the way of you being the HIM that God wants you to be? Those questions make me think of that song by U2, Get Out of Your Own Way.
An area where I frequently find I must get out of my own way is having my life in order and getting things done before I take the time to relax and just be. You guys may not see that side of me. When I get home from work or F3, I have these tasks that I feel I need to check off: get bills paid, get email messages answered, straighten out the house, make sure everything is clean and put away, get the laundry done, etc. etc. etc. That obsessive need to work before play can be a good think . . . things do get done. But it also has stood in the way of my getting time to relax and spending time with my family. And, what is truly more important – time with family or getting those clothes cleaned and put away? I am not a workaholic who avoids family but I can certainly learn to let things go more, particularly if time with family is involved.
How about you? Where do you need to get out of your own way? Is there something you need to let go of a bit so that you pay attention to another aspect of your life? If so, assess it and pray about it. Ask God to help you to finds ways to change.

Prayers: Prayers for our bother, Mr Jinxy and his wife, Susan. Susan had to be hospitalized Saturday morning with intense nausea. She was found to have a duodenal perforation. She is being treated with antibiotics at the hospital but may have to have surgery to repair the perforation if the antibiotics do not take care of the issue. Prayers for our brother, Steam and his wife Megan as she is due to have child any day now. Prayers for Will, the five-year-old student of the wife of our brother, Drum Major. Will is undergoing extensive treatment for a significant health issue. Prayers for our brother, Joshua Foster (Shogun). We congratulate him for getting a major new client for his company. We pray for him as he travels to Washington, DC to be the major person working to help that company.

Nothing but the Truth!…

January 29, 2026 BackBlasts

AO: asylum-pm
Q: Pele (Jon Lindberg)
PAX: Lilydipper, Drum Major, Pusher, Sparkler, Lizzy, Tenderfoot, Pele (Jon Lindberg), Franzia, MD Hammer, Curveball, Bacon (Ben)
FNGs: None
COUNT: 11
WARMUP: 10 SSH IC
line up on curb, slow mosey to far end. FIVE BURPEES!! Windmills, 4-ct in cadence.
– slow mosey back. 10 Windmills, 4-ct, IC
-light shuffle down, switching ½ way 10 Imperial Squat Walkers, 4-ct, IC.
– shuffle/run back 10 Grady Corns, 4-ct IC

THE THANG:
Mosey to Sidewalk just northeast of the nice bathrooms.
“2-4-6-8 WHO DO WE APPRECIATE” : Run south and then east on sidewalk stopping at second, fourth, sixth, and eighth lights to do the following exercises:
– 2 lights: 4 CDDS/ 4 lights: 8 CDDs/ 6 lights 12 CDDs/ SWEEP FORWARD 8 lights, 16 CDDs. Stop at 8th light. PUTS
– Rinse and repeat with SQUATS
–
Rinse and repeat with PETER PARKERS (2-ct)

Mosey to base of Cardiac

5s (like 7s…) from base to first curve, starting with 1 OFFSET RIGHT MERKIN, run up and do 4 OFFSET LEFT MERKINS

Fellowship Mosey to second curve

5s from Second curve to Benches, Starting with 1 FROGGY JUMP, run up and do 4 Bobby Hurleys

Alternate Dips and incline merkins until the 6 gets there.

Enough time to fellowship mosey to top of the dragon’s tail and do last set of 2-4-6-8s with Supermans (SuperMEN?)

Alternate Lunging and Bunny Hopping across parking lot by bathrooms, then AYG to flag.
Mosey to AO

MARY: Dead Bugs and Pain Planks (Plank position, move left knee to right elbow, switch, R&R).

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Convergence Saturday!

COT: I had a math teacher in middle school (Mr. Alexander) who, as punishment for students who talked in class, would make them write lines on the chalkboard of some of his favorite sayings. The only one I still remember to this day is, “Oh the tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!”
Like most of us, I would imagine, I’ve told a lot of white lies in my past, and probably even a few lies that are not all that white. But I certainly try to be an honest person, especially as I’ve grown older, because I have learned how valuable the TRUTH IS. Trust is a haaaard thing to win back. And I’m not talking about your version of the truth, I’m talking about black-and-white truth. If something that’s not black-and-white truth comes out of my mouth, I always try to say “that’s my opinion, anyway”, or “that’s how I interpret it.”

When I was in grad school I was a teaching assistant. Taught classes, created and graded exams, etc. One time these two girls who were best friends were taking a test sitting next to each other and just obviously looking at each other’s papers. I cleared my throat, rustled some papers, and tried to get them to realize I was watching. They kept doing it. When I was grading their tests, they had the exact same answers, word for word, for about ½ the test. And they were wrong answers. If they had been accurate answers, you could almost believe they just came up with it on their own. I confronted them about it, individually, and they already had their stories aligned. They never made eye contact when we were talking, just said the same thing to me… they had studied together, practiced the answers to likely questions together, etc. And they said they never looked at each other’s test during the exam. Bullshit. If they had just admitted it I would have been very lenient, probably just said knock it off, don’t do it again, and I’m going to ask you not to sit to each other. But they flat out lied to me. Thought I was stupid. Thought that what I saw with my very own eyes wasn’t the truth. That is flat-out insulting.

And it got me mad. I gave them both zeros for the test, and brought the matter up to the honor council. One girl ended up dropping out of school. The other actually handled it well, worked hard the rest of the semester and brought her grade up to a C+ or so, as I recall.

In retrospect, I do sort of regret that I was so hard on them, and that my response caused one of the girls to drop out (according to her). I wish I had handled it a bit differently. But I have to say, for them to sit there and completely deny something that I personally witnessed really pissed me off. I didn’t like to be gaslit then. And I hate it even more now.

Proverbs 12:22: “The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy.” That just doesn’t apply to the Lord. I would say it applies to just about everyone.

If we are to be HIMs, Truth matters. Facts matter. Accountability matters.

It’s Cold

January 27, 2026 BackBlasts

AO: asylum-pm
Q: High Heels
PAX: Pele (Jon Lindberg), Lizzy, Lilydipper, Rooney(Carl Whipple), Pusher, Tenderfoot, Doubtfire (Nick Bond), Drum Major, Bacon (Ben), Serpentine (Jason Pierce)
FNGs: None
COUNT: 12
WARMUP:20 SSH – 2 Burpees, 15 IW – 4 Burpees, 10 squats – 6 Burpees, 10 BACs -6 Burpees, 10 Merkins – 4 burpees, 5 Motivators – 2 Burpees

THE THANG:
0900 – 4 times
Dora at Church 100 dips 200 merkins, mosey to bathroom parking lot, 20 lunges, 6 burpees and 10 BBS

MARY: no time

ANNOUNCEMENTS: convergence this Saturday

COT: discipline is the bridge that connects goals to accomplishments