F3 Knoxville

Category: Big Ball

Big Ball 2021 Year In Review

THE SCENE: 55 and damp, thankfully the rain stopped just in time for us to run around outside
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
SSH, Amazon’s Shoulder Shredders, Tempo Squats, Cherry Pickers
THA-THANG:
Like last year, this work out served as a recap of memorable beat downs from this year at the Big Ball. Everything we did was something someone else introduced us to or was based off another work out

  • Control Freak Burpos (Night Shift from NC): Burpos (Burpees minus the jump, staying in a squat when standing) on a “control freak” cadence, meaning each position in the exercise was determined by how I called it out during the count. Example, one rep we went 1-2-3-4-3-4-3-4-5-6, meaning we did 3 push ups in the burpo. 10 reps total
  • Plank Frog (Fixer Upper): Like leap frog but in a plank. Two lines formed, everyone held a plank, whoever was in the back of the line jumped over everyone else and took place in the front of the line in a plank again. We did this until everyone crossed the field.
  • Billy Madison/12 Days of Christmas (Frizzles/Drive Thru, Wedding Singer, and Huffy): Billy Madison is 12 rounds of escalator, building upon each other from 1 to 12, 12 days of Christmas is the inverse. So in honor of these 4 Q’s we did the 12th round. Each man gave us an exercise, once we had 12 listed we did 10 reps of each followed by a lap around the amphitheater. Exercises were: Flutterkicks, Burpees, Hello Dollys, Long Duck Dongs, Rows, Squat Jumps, Smurf Jacks, Bus Drivers, Big Boy Sit Ups, American Hammers, Calf Raises, and Merkins
  • Doras (Pfieffer): Pfieffer led us through similar Doras on a game day in the pouring rain. One partner did Burpee Broad Jumps while the other worked on chipping away at 100x Merkins and 100x Squats. We played with Judge Judy rules, so the first pair to finish got to call recover for everyone
  • Building Blocks (Tank): 4 cones were placed on the sidewalk next to the lawn. We started at one end of the lawn and ended at the other. Each cone had an exercise, and reps increased by 5 each cone. Round 1 was running to each cone with Merkins (5, 10, 15, 20), then a jog back once finished. Round 2 was bear crawl to each cone with squats. Round 3 was bunny hops with Big Boy Sit Ups

MARY:
I was hoping to finish with some ATMs (Abort) but we ran out of time
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Had Poison from VA and FNG Icebreaker join us
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Talked about how New Years serves as a great opportunity to not only look forward and set goals and hopes for the future but to also reflect on the past as well. I encouraged us to think through what are things from this past year that we want to hold onto as we move forward and what are things we want to reach for next year. For me something that hits both those categories, which has been my closing word after every Q this semester, has been continuing to develop the habit and discipline of “preaching the Gospel to yourself daily”, as Jerry Bridges puts it

Flathead’s Pulpit

THE SCENE: A clear and balmy post-Christmas 56 degrees.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
SSH, Imperial walkers, Bear hug, Daisy pickers, leg stretches, Hillbillies, Merkins, Tempo squat
THA-THANG:
Began with a quick mosey to the Big Ball itself. Stop for a circle of pain merkin style. Mosey on over to the Performance Lawn for a quick circle of pain howling monkeys.

YHC located a conveniently placed whiteboard with what looked to be a decent enough workout titled Flathead’s Pulpit:

  • 40 squats
  • 30 lunges (single)
  • 20 BBSU
  • 10 2-pump burpees
  • Lap around the lawn
  • 10 burpees
  • 10 4-ct flutter kicks
  • 10 8-ct bodybuilder
  • 10 6-ct SSH
  • Lap around the lawn
  • REPEAT

This was not as much as it sounds.

MARY:
Back at the flag we knocked out some Freddy Mercury’s, LBCs and V-up rollups to finish off strong.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Frizzles, G-6 (respectx3), Buttercup, Stacks
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
About a year ago my good friend Flathead (John Lex Kenerly) finally broke me down with his EHing and I agreed to attend an F3 beatdown in Macon, GA. I had turned him down many many times and never imagined I would ever be the guy working out at 5am. But that first day in the gloom was incredible experience and my life has truly been profoundly changed because of F3. When I moved to Knoxville back in July, one of the first things I did was make sure to post at Big Ball and immediately found community.

What Flathead did for me, we should try to do for others. Whether that means dragging someone to F3, or something completely different- we should assess the people in our lives and look for ways to meet them where they are and then do what we can to help them out. The F3 credo is “Leave no man behind but leave no man where you found him.” As we show up in the gloom to continuing sharpening one another, let’s find ways to take that sharpness and help those around us.
MOLESKIN:
If you ever get the chance to meet Stacks- ask him where his name comes from.

Reindeer Games

THE SCENE: A very warm December morning, right before the storm. Thankfully the rain held off

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
SSH, Baby Arm Circles, This and That, Michael Phelps, Tempo Squats, Tempo Merkins, Hill Billies
THA-THANG:
Today we played reindeer games. Each workout was either a solo or team competition. Losers of each workout owed the winner 10 Burpees. The games were:

  • Bring Sally Up Pushup Challenge: Up and down in cadence with the song, last man “standing” wins
  • Murder Bunny Relay Race: Divided into 2 teams. Each team lined up at the edge of the lawn. From end to end were 5 cones. First person in line Murder Bunnied to the first cone, sprinted back, and led their team in 5 merkins. Next man up ran to the block, murder bunnied to the next cone, ran back, led push ups, and so on until the first team got their block across the field and back (total of 12 segments). Everyone held a plank while waiting to run
  • Hammer Relay: We worked together on this one. In a big circle everyone held an American Hammer position while a 8lb medicine ball was tossed from person to person, making its way around the circle. When you had the ball you owed 5 American Hammers then tossed it to your neighbor. If any feet or the ball hit the ground everyone owed 10 Big Boy Situps
  • Bear Crawl Relay: Divided into 2 teams again. Lined up again on one end of the fountain pavilion, with a cone on the other. Everyone held a plank while one person from each team bear crawled to the cone. Once there, that man called out the next person from their team by name to crawl to the cone. Once an entire team had crossed, together as a team they crawled back to the start point. First team out and back won
  • Beep Test: Just like middle school gym class, run to the cone before the beep, run back before the beep. 2 failures in a row = elimination. Last man standing wins
  • Ultimate Frisbee: Ran a quick game of Box Ultimate to run out the clock. Any dropped disc meant 5 squats for everyone

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Continued to share from my routine of developing the habit championed by Jerry Bridges of preaching the Gospel to yourself daily. I’ve also been doing a Biblical Worldview training program called the Colson Fellows that has a ton of assigned readings and daily devotionals. A devotional from a few days ago said “God loved us enough to die for us. But since God can’t die He became a man in order to do so”. I felt like this quote did a good job of stating the Gospel as well as the reason for Advent and Christmas. Part of the Gospel is that we know celebrate the incarnation of God through Christ, and in this season of Advent we wait in hopeful expectation of this, knowing that it also means Christ’s death on our behalf

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Welcome to Man in the Mirror

Circles (and squares) of Pain

THE SCENE: A balmy 50 degrees. The ground was wet but no rain was spotted.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Cherry pickers, calf stretches, baby arm circles, hillbillies, SSH
THA-THANG:
Mosey past the amphitheater down to the Cumberland ave. pedestrian bridge. Huddle up for a round of circle of pain merkins (10 each). Recover. Lung walk across the bridge. Huddle up again for a circle of pain squats. Groucho walk back across the bridge. Mosey to the amphitheater.

4 Corners (of pain):

Round 1 (complete 2x):

  • Corner 1: merkins x 20
  • Corner 2: BBSU x 20
  • Corner 3: Squats x 20
  • Corner 4: Flutter kicks x 20 (4 count)

Round 2 (complete 2x):

  • Corner 1: Burpees x 10
  • Corner 2: Single leg squat x 10 each leg
  • Corner 3: LBC x 20
  • Corner 4: Diamond merkins x 20

Round 3: complete round 1 again but stick together and exercises in cadence.

MARY:
Made it back to the flag in time for a quick Mary:

Freddie mercury, American Hammer, stargazer
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Frizzles (QIC), G-6 (respect, respect, respect), Postman (respect), Huffy (respect), FNG- Costanza
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Just a reminder to take some time to be moved by the truth of the gospel. If you are feeling heavy/shameful, open your hands and stop trying to do better. All your mistakes have already been forgiven and you are counted as a son of God!
MOLESKIN:
Lots of respect going around this morning. Outside of the QIC and FNG we had 5 respects across 3 Pax!

BACK TO SCHOOL, BACK TO SCHOOL

THE SCENE: A very brisk, 46 degree morning with the fog rolling in heavy.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
A quick stretch to loosen up in the cold followed by an Indian Run past the amphitheater, across the bridge and back down to the big ball.

Circle of pain: Monkey Humpers

Circle of pain: BBSU

Circle of pain: Merkins
THA-THANG:
We grabbed some of the classic Big Ball specialty coupons and made our way across the parking lot to a waiting whiteboard that laid out what was ahead of us: The Billy Madison. Pax were told that we were going back to school to try to prove once and for all that we are not so foolish. Each exercise represented the final exam to pass a specific grade- and each exam (much to our disappointment) was completely cumulative for all of the prior years. The final exams were as follows:

  • 1st grade: Merkins x 10
  • 2nd grade: Squats x 10
  • 3rd grade: LBC x 10
  • 4th grade: Coupon curls x 20
  • 5th grade: Plank jacks x 10 (4 ct)
  • 6th grade: Coupon squat press x 10
  • 7th grade: Iron Mike x 10 (2 ct)
  • 8th grade: Mountain climber x 10 (4 ct)
  • 9th grade: Coupon rows x 10
  • 10th grade: American hammer x 10 (4 ct)
  • 11th grade: Side straddle hop x 10
  • 12th grade: Burpee x 10

Though there were many valiant efforts made- least of which from YHC – none of the Big Ball participants had what it took to graduate and move on. Unfortunately in this reenactment of the story, O’Doyle continued to rule.

MARY:
Working as hard as we could to graduate on time left us no room for Mary today. She wil
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
G-6 (respect, respect, respect), Wedding Singer, Magic Mic, Frizzles

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Today was some encouragement towards EHing those around us. F3 is too good of a thing to keep to ourselves and we should continue to keep eachother accountable in inviting others in. A quick example of the way that F3 can be used in a man’s life was seen at the F3 10 year convergence a couple of weeks ago when F3 Nation leadership was naming FNGs on the beach:

“Our newest FNG was named ‘Rojas’ at the 10 year convergence. Olaf from F3 The Fort gave him an EH as we ran to the workout. He joined us for the full beatdown. After a couple of minutes of throwing out ideas in the Name-a-Rama, we settled on ‘Rojas’ after a character on the show ‘Ted Lasso’. We didn’t know until afterward, but he was honored to get the nickname. Unbeknownst to any of the 355 men there, Rojas was his mother’s maiden name. She passed away three months ago and on the morning we ran by him, he was thinking about her. If you do not believe in a higher power, perhaps this story will remind you that there are no coincidences. Leave space for the miraculous.”
MOLESKIN:
It is unfortunate that the exams were timed as I believe all Pax would have successfully graduated if they had been allowed all the time they needed. Perhaps next time we will move quicker in to the exam time and see what kind of performance is achieved. Maybe we can even see what some of these guy get up to after graduation! It was also a disappointment when everyone realized there would be no recess included in the studies. Perhaps including a quick recess in future attempts would improve morale and allow for some graduates to shine.