F3 Knoxville

Category: Big Ball

Proctasti-Nation

THE SCENE: A balmy 40 degrees with light rain. No snow in sight.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Some SSH to get the blood going. Imperial walkers. Calf stretch. Cherry pickers. SSH.
THA-THANG:

Burpee squat ladder: start with 1 burpee and 1 squat. Increase to 2 burpees and 2 squats, keep going until Q calls time. See how high you can climb.

11’s:    Merkin and Bonnie Blair

11’s:    Carolina Dry Dock and V up Rollup

4 Corners: Complete each of these exercises at every corner. Wait for all pax to finish the exercises before moving to the next corner:

  • 2 ct. Mountain climber (15)
  • Merkin (15)
  • BBSU (15)
  • Squat (15)

MARY:
Keep the legs up for the following:

  • Freddy Mercury (15)
  • Heels to heaven (10)
  • Flutter Kicks (10)
  • Hello Dolly (10)

Then some easy WW2 situps and American Hammer to finish it off.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Frizzles QIC, G-6 (respect x3), Magic Mic, Huffy (respect), Air Gretzky, Bunyons
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
I am a professional procrastinator- so I issued a challenge to name anything in your life you have been avoiding, write out why you have been avoiding it and then create some actionable steps towards tackling it.

Jelly Legs at the Big Ball

THE SCENE: Mid 20’s, cold and dark
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
SSH, Imperial Walkers, Rockettes, Cherry Pickers, Tempo Squats, Tempo Merkins, Baby Arm Circles
THA-THANG:

  • Amphitheater: 3 sets of: 10x Box Jumps, 10x Alternating Split Squats, 10x Big Boys, run the stairs, 10x Rows
  • Hill By Church: 10x Knee Tucks, 10x Squats, 10x LBCs, run the hill, 1 burpee at the top. Then 10x Mucho Legos with run and Burpee. Then 10x Knee Tucks, 10x Squats, 10x LBCs, run the hill, 1 burpee at the top again. Then 10x Flutterkicks, 10x American Hammers, 10x Hello Dollys, run the hill, 1 burpee.
  • Parking Lot at Edge of Park: 2 sets of: Walking lunges to each median, 1 rep of Mucho Armos at each median, then reverse the direction of the walking lunge after each median, followed by a sprint back to the starting point
  • Stopped at bridge over Cumberland for 33 Big Boys in honor of the Bulldogs taking down the Tide
  • Mosey home

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Last week got into a conversation with one of my students on discipline in regards to our walks with the Lord. This reminded me of a message from a conference in the past where the speaker talked about the same topic and recalled growing up on the west coast and observing what she called “surfer boy” culture. High school students that would get up around 4am to travel to the beach, throw on a wetsuit, get into cold and dark waters, all in hopes of catching a few waves before school started. Something that always stuck with me is that she said she doubts that the thought of discipline ever crossed the surfer boys minds, because they loved what they were doing. A combination of passion and discipline is what leads to lifestyles. I pointed out that though we likely feel like we require discipline, we aren’t much different. The guys this morning woke up somewhere between 4:30-5am, the night after a big game, the morning before a full day of work, to come outside, in 25 degree weather, to have some punk kid with no level of authority tell them to run up a hill a bunch of times. That requires discipline as well as an appreciation for more than just a workout. Chances are the other 2 F’s help fuel our desire to be a part of this. I also challenged us to consider where else in our lives can we match that same level of discipline with passion. Whether our marriages, jobs, kids, friends, neighborhoods, etc, lets not let this meeting of passion and discipline be exclusive to 5:30am workouts

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