F3 Knoxville

Category: Big Ball

Crawl bear up the ladder

THE SCENE: Low 60s again, just having perfect gloom weather
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
3-point squats
BAC Forward
OH Claps
BAC Reverse
SSH
THA-THANG:
Grab keys and mosey out of the pavilion, out of the park and across the street to the parking lot of Fountain City United Methodist Church.  Routine is going down Jacob’s ladder.  Start in the lower parking lot, where you always do 5 BBSUs.  Run up the parking lot until you reach the split, and crawl bear up the storm drain to the upper parking lot.  Once you reach the upper lot, you have 10 eight count bodybuilders, then run out to the sidewalk and back down the hill to the lower lot.
The five BBSUs at the bottom remains the same for every iteration, but you decrease your reps of eight counts at the top.  Rounds 10-6 are eight counts, rounds 5-1 switch to diamond merkins at the top (this felt generous).

Everyone finished mostly at the same time, after which I thought we needed some lower body work.  Has been a while since I’d thrown in leg blasters, so we knocked out a round of that.  All exercises done together in cadence with no rest in between:

  • 20 squats
  • 20 lunges
  • 10 jump squats

I forgot how fun it is to run after doing those.  The plan was to reverse the ladder and do 10-6 with diamond merkins and 5-1 with eight counts, but time was a little short and I wanted to hit the escalator.  So we moseyed around to the parking lot adjacent to the duck pond.  I stole Swanson’s idea for the escalator without running from Tuesday.  Exercises as follows:

  • Imperial walkers (left right one)
  • Hello Dolly (4 count)
  • Alternating shoulder taps (left right one)
  • Crab cakes (left right one)
  • Dips on curb
  • Hand release merkins

Start at 1 rep of each, work down the list and return to the top.  Increase reps each time on the way to 10.  I think we finished 8 before time ran out.

MARY:
Crunches with feet elevated 6″
Flutter kicks
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
5 Strong: Filter, Duggar, Manilow, Toucan, Abort
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Cap’n had sent a text with the following passage from The Daily Stoic: “When the standards have been set, things are tested and weighed.  And the work of philosophy is just this, to examine and uphold the standards, but the work of a truly good person is in using the standards when they know them.” – Epictetus
To me, one of the standards I need to both set and make sure that I am upholding is making my actions and decisions come from a place of love.  That doesn’t mean to always be nice, because as we’ve learned from the Q source you have to be able to tell people the difficult truths in life.  However, sugarcoating a problem or ignoring it also is not upholding the standard.  I need to make sure my actions are always based in love and to leave no doubt that that is the case.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Can drive for Second Harvest and Brolympics on November 9.

create a new story

THE SCENE: Low 60s, great weather to get a sweat going
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Static stretches – left, right, middle
High Knees
Monkey Humpers
Merkin variations – diamond, ranger, wide
SSH
THA-THANG:
Barely any mosey, just to the side of the fountains.  Run the sidewalk down to the stage, 10 burpees, come back.  Climb down the ladder, decreasing burpees by 1 rep each iteration.  Burpees are done 10-6, then switch to merkins for 5-1.
Everyone does flutter kicks waiting for the six to finish up.  Recover and 10 count.  I played a dirty trick, picked the key ruck up and acted like we were moving on.  Then sat it back down and told everyone we were finishing the set, this time in reverse.  Same routine, but 10-6 is merkins and 5-1 is burpees running to the stage and back.  If you haven’t noticed, the number of the day was 10.  Today is 10/10 and my Braves gave up a soul crushing 10 runs in the first inning of the NLDS last night.

Recover and mosey over to the big ball.  Chalk on the ground for exercises:

  • Pull ups
  • Hanging leg lifts
  • Burps
  • Reverse crunches

Following the number of the day, 10 reps of each OYO and plank up out front.  Pull ups followed by hanging leg lifts is a fun 1-2 gut punch.  So I let the guys pick one exercise to cut in half.  They chose leg lifts, so I added those reps to reverse crunches as we went back through the routine.

Finishing with legs on the stairs at the Big Ball.  10 lunges, 10 squats, 10 calf raises followed by a sprint up to the top of the stairs and back down.  Repeato x2.

Mosey back to start point.

MARY:
Ran short on time, just had time for:
Crunches with feet elevated 6″ like starting position for flutters
Flutter kicks
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
6 Strong: G6, Passport, Reverb, Wings, Acapella, Abort
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
I have a buddy who has a tendency to tell the same stories over and over.  And while there is nothing wrong with high school stories (or college, or whenever), especially if those stories have lessons to be learned. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with reliving accomplishments, funny memories or anything like that.  However, don’t just tell those old stories.  Always be looking for new stories to create, and live with the mentality that what you do today is what you’ll remember in 10 years, make sure its a good memory that you want to tell.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Can drive for Second Harvest going on, Brolympics II on November 9th.

Tailgating downtown

THE SCENE: Upper 60s, felt great
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • Tempo squat
  • Imperial walker
  • 3 point merkin
  • OH claps
  • SSH

THA-THANG:

Mosey out to amphitheater, stop at the top for two rounds of each:
  • 15 rows in the rails
  • 15 sit ups with feet on chair backs
Continue mosey to rock church, 5 rounds of:
  • 10 curls
  • 10 rock squats
  • 10 alternating hand merkins
  • 10 front lifts
  • 10 OH lunges
At the conclusion of each round, dealers choice between 10 burpees or sprint to the church and back twice.
Mosey over to the stairs of Mordor for AMRAP of the following
  1. At bottom: 10 decline merkins, 5 pistol squats each leg
  2. Sprint to the top
  3. At top: 10 big boys, 10 mountain climbers
Mosey back to start point

MARY:
No time for Mary this morning
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
4 strong: Drive-Thru, Cornhole, Bag Man, Abort
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Short and simple this morning, live your life to leave no doubt. No doubt about what is important to you, how you treat people, and what your actions say about you. Leave no doubt!

Altered course

THE SCENE: 71 degrees and quite muggy.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

WARM-O-RAMA:
Baby arm circles (4 ct) x 12 forward/back.

Cherry Pickers x 10.

SSH x 20 (4 ct)

Tempo Merkins x 10.

5 Burpees on your own.

THA-THANG:

  • Mosey to Church Street United Methodist Church
  • Pax perform various an exercises while Q sets up Kraken.
  • Kraken on the rocks. 8 stations in circle: 1. Squats with rock x25. 2. Merkins on your rock x 25. 3. Rock Curls x 50. 4. Mr Spectacular x 25 with rock. 5. Rock lunge x 50.  6. Rock burpees x 25. 7. Rock overhead press x 40.  8. Lizard merkin crawl to center circle and back. Complete station. Run with your rock around circle and start next exercise until all exercises completed.
  • Mosey back to AO.

MARY:

Flutter kick x 20 (4ct)

BBS x 10

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
7 strong.  No FNGs.

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

“Those who follow the crowd usually get lost in it.” Anonymous

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Walter and Abraham

THE SCENE: 73* (I really can’t remember that is a guess, warm and humid and perfect)
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
I started the warm up by telling the story from this past weekend at the 9/11 Memorial in NYC.  I walked up to the north memorial and placed my hand on a name: Abraham Zelmanowitz.  I remembered the name just because of how unusual it is.  Later in the museum, as fate would have it I saw his name again, along with his story.  He refused to evacuate his building because his friend and coworker, Ed Beyea, was a quadriplegic and could not evacuate in the stairs.  He waited with his friend along with an FDNY firefighter for help and perished when the tower collapsed.  This man died before he’d leave a friend behind.

  • SSH
  • Three point squat
  • Shoulder taps from plank
  • Moroccan night clubs

THA-THANG:
Mosey to the Big Ball stairs for 9/11 WOD: Perform 9 reps at bottom, at first landing, and at top for 11 rounds: 9 merkins at bottom, 9 squats at first landing, 9 BBSUs at top.  Repeato x11.  Stop random person from walking away with the key bag and all our stuff.

On the ground, I had written the fallen first responders broken down into their jobs:

  • 8 EMTs
  • 23 NYPD
  • 37 Port Authority
  • 343 FDNY

These people charged into fire and unknown to provide aid to people they’d never met before.  So we are going to honor them with exercises.
EMTs – Eight, 8-count bodybuilders
NYPD – 23 plank jacks
Port Authority – pull ups
FDNY – 343 flutter kicks as a group

Return to SP

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
10 Strong: Operation, Casper, Wings, Swanson, Alter Boy (LexSC), Passport, Carrot, Quarantine, Ripper, Abort
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
My second person I wanted to honor did not perish on 9/11.  Though that was the day that ultimately determined his fate.  Walter Greene Jr, who was a Connecticut state trooper and Marine Corps veteran, passed away on May 31, 2018 from cancer caused from his involvement in the recovery efforts directly following the 9/11 attacks.  Trooper Greene was a canine handler, and was part of the search and rescue effort.  The search and recovery effort was a 24 hour a day operation that lasted 8 months.
We are losing first responders every day, STILL.  People who disregarded everything in an attempt to save just one person.  We cannot let the heroes of that day fade away.  We must tell their stories and learn of more, and repeat them to people who may not know.