F3 Knoxville

Category: JUCO

Things to think on

THE SCENE: Cold and spitting snow. Here to help me celebrate 36 years!
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
36 SSH, 9 Moroccan night club, 9 Peter Parkers, 9 Parker Peters, 9 J-Los
THA-THANG:
Indian run to the Sophomore. At the Sophomore, we did a couple of sets of 4 corners.

1st Set

  • 36 Merkins, Bernie Sanders up
  • 36 Squats
  • 36 Imperial walkers
  • 9 Burpees

2nd Set

  • 20 Peter Parkers with merkin, Bernie Sanders up the hill
  • 20 Lunges
  • 20 Heels to Heaven
  • 20, 2-ct Mountain climbers

Begin to indian run back towards the shovel flag but pass it up and go up the hill to the Maple Street parking lot.

  • 20 Diamond merkins, bear crawl to the next corner
  • 20 Squats, sprint to next corner
  • 20 J-Los (2-ct), lunge walk to next corner
  • 20 werkins
  • 10 burpees broad jumps towards the starting corner
    MARY:
    Ring of fire Merkins. Go around the circle while holding plank and each PAX does 1 merkin. Increase count until 4. 15 Freddie Mercury, protractor
    COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
    10 PAX helped me celebrate 36 years.
    CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
    “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. “
  • Philippians 4:4‭-‬9 NASB

YHC has heard this passage or a portion of it a few times in the past days. I thought it was worth sharing this morning given the state of the world. It is always encouraging to think of the good things in life and, more importantly, the life to come when times are tough.
MOLESKIN:
Welcome Mr. Slate to Knoxville from Lexington.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
CSAUP coming up at Asylum January 30.

Always be Sober-Minded

THE SCENE: A cool, crisp morning, temp in low 30s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
7 Cherry Pickers, 20 Side-Straddle-Hops, 10 Tempo Merkins, 10 Tempo Squats, 7 lunges each leg.
THA-THANG:
Mosey to the Coupon Pile and carry the coupons to Sophomore Hill. We started in the lower left hand corner, doing one workout at each corner before duck walking the coupon up and down the hill while Rifle Carrying the coupon between the corners at the top and bottom. We did three laps around Sophomore Hill. The first lap had

  • Curls (20)
  • Shoulder Raises (15)
  • Front Shoulder Raises (10)
  • Burpees (5)

The second lap had

  • Squats (20)
  • Calf Raises (15)
  • Monkey Humpers (10)
  • Lunges (5 each leg)

The third lap had

  • Hello Dolly’s (20)
  • Heals to Heaven (15)
  • Big Boys (10)
  • Heavy Mercury’s (5, 4 count)

The only workout done without holding the coupon was the burpees and monkey humpers.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
11 present, no FNGs.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
In the book the Hobbit, there is a scene in which Bilbo Baggins is having a conversation with Smaug the Dragon. At first, Bilbo is thinking clearly and he is confident in his conversation with Smaug. But the more that Smaug talks, he begins to lure Bilbo into believing certain lies about why he is there and about the troop that brought him there. Bilbo slowly starts to believe the dragon and he comes to a point where he almost reveals himself to the dragon, he almost gives into the dragon and his lies. But he comes to his senses and runs from the dragon.

In 2 Timothy, Paul is talking to Timothy and reminding him of the people they know that have fallen away from the faith. They have seen the truth, but then they are slowly deceived and believe lies that they devil tells them and they fall away from the faith. Then, in 2 Timothy 4:5, Paul tells Timothy to “Always be sober-minded.” Paul reminds Timothy of his ministry, of his focus. He reminds Timothy of the truth.

So many times, the devil tempts us and lies to us about what is important, lies about ourselves, lies about God. As we go about our days today, let’s focus on the truth that we are loved by God, we are saved through grace by faith and we are His. Let’s be sober minded in all that we do and not fall into the trap of the devil to believe the lies that he tries to tell us.
MOLESKIN:
Prayers for our country, peace and integrity. Prayers for Boosters friend JJ in the ICU. Prayers for Guardrails wife’s uncle who is having some issues in the hospital.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
CSAUP at the Asylum on Saturday, January 30 from 6:30 am to 9 am.

Press On Toward The Goal

THE SCENE: 31 degrees
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
cherry picker, rocking chair, ‘merkins
THA-THANG:
Mohammed Ali, when asked how many reps he could do of an exercise, he said he had no idea – he doesn’t really count. He just goes until he is exhausted and then does an additional set. We didn’t do that…but we did a mini version!

  • Mosey to small rock pile.
  • Shoulder as many as possible your own for 1 min (front raises, lateral, overhead clap) followed by 5 reps together each time.
  • Mosey to coupon pile (with drop 2x burpee / 2 lines)
  • Coupon pile exercises (Each is max out for 1 minute and then do 5x together)
      • (merkins, coupon press, overhead and/or skull crushers)
      • Rows, bicep
      • Squats, calf raises
  • Between each major muscle group: Mosey to hill and Bear crawl up hill w/1 burpee @ top
  • Mosey to flag with 2x burpee drop off lines again

MARY: no time…finished @ 6:15

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
17 present: Guardrail, Erector, 5K, Booster, Wheelchair, Butter Knife, Dart Gun, Footsie, Wanderer, Sty, Gump, Commission, Pool Boy, sos, Mailbox, Spotter, hound dog
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Philippians 3:13-14, “Brothers and sisters, I do not regard myself as having taken hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Janus, the Roman God for which January was named, had two faces: one looked forward to the new year and one looked backward to the past year. This morning I related that I am not big on resolutions because most people give up on them by “ditch day,” January 17th. Nevertheless, I do believe in the power of goals. After all, if you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time!

Personal confession: even though I lost about 45 pounds over the last couple years, I put back 10 -15 this year off of a sweet tooth and lazy habits. I hit F3 3x week, but as they say, “you can’t outrun your fork.” How does the weight come back on like that? Slowly…1 pound at a time!

So we have to be diligent. And like physical weight, we might be carrying a few extra spiritual pounds into 2021 too. Ghandi said that the chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too strong to be broken. Bad habits come on slowly, day by day. We might have a secret sin or a burden we aren’t willing to unload. How do we overcome? Do what we can, give ourselves over completely, and hand more of our lives over to God each day.

They say that elephants are trained by securing their leg against something strong enough when they are young so that when they are old they remember that they cannot break free. Then, a mere rope and tiny tent peg in the ground is enough to keep them in place. We must break free of the thought that we can do ONLY 20 or 30 or 50 reps. By maxing out in a minute and then “adding 5,” we learned we are capable of more than we thought…or at least I did!

Thanks for letting me lead again…and hope you’re sore tomorrow…’cause I already can’t lift my arms 🙂

21, 21!

THE SCENE: 40ish with a threat of rain
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
LBAC fwd/bck x21, SSH x21

THA-THANG:
Welcome to 21!

Mosey to the Pull-through and perform 21s with Merkins and BBS. This is such a simple, but hard workout. I do this at home and time myself periodically throughout the year as a gauge for my fitness. I’m giving you this great workout for FREE! *Cheers and applause from the PAX followed*

Mosey to the coupon pile for another set of 21s. This time we alternated with Curls/Tricep Ext and Plank Dips/Imperial Walkers.

Wow time flies in 21! Mosey back to the shovel flag.

MARY:
None, perfect timing.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
6 men drug themselves out of bed after some late nights (Wanderer took the cake with a 12:45 bed time). Glad to have some thick-skinned men out in the cold to kick off the new year.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
This world is not our home. Quit trying to make it more comfortable.

The devotional in the Bible app this week hit on this point. It’s a very poignant point that can be hard to swallow. The verse that typically comes to mind is:

Romans 12:2

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

This verse gets the point across very clearly, but there is another verse that hits a little harder and maybe a little closer to the heart:

James 4:4

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

We are called to deny ourselves a friendship with the world. Would the world call you a friend? Something to think about as we go into 2021.

MOLESKIN:
Kept waiting for a late Houndog showing and all we got was a lost Gump. We did have an enjoyable Switchgrass visit.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Insert information about upcoming events, 2nd or 3rd F opportunities, and any other announcements.

Don’t Skip

One comment

THE SCENE:  34 and clear
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER: 
WARM-O-RAMA: 

  • Reach for the sky
  • LBAC F&B OYO
  • Let it hang
  • Monkey humpers IC x 10
  • Mountain climbers IC x 10
  • Tempo merkins IC x 8
  • Down dog / Up dog
  • Projectivator from 10

Mosey to the long guardrail and line up.

  • 5 merkins, jump over the rail, 5 bobby hurleys, jump back over and repeat until time is called

THA THANG:

Mosey to King College parking lot – grab a CMU and line up.

Do 1 blockee.  Rifle carry 2 parking lines and do 1 blockee.  Repeat to the end of the lot. (~15 blockees).

Line up at the bottom of the Award Winning Hill.

Carry your block to the first tree.  Do 10 curl/presses and 10 CMU swings.  Set your block down.  Run to the bottom of the hill and back to your block.  Carry it to the next tree and repeat to the top (7 trees).

Recover to the top of the hill.  Heavy BBS x 10 OYO. Heavy freddys IC.

Same deal as before, only this time from the top down…15 squats each tree.

Recover to the bottom of the hill.

Rifle carry 5 parking lines and do 2 burpee jumpovers.  Repeat to the end of the lot.

MARY:

Around the circle, each PAX led a Mary exercise.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

Five Juconians and 2 Rushens.

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

I tagged on to Pool Boy’s Q from Monday.  He quoted the 18th century minister, John Newton.  The essence of the quote was…your life will have challenges and burdens, visualized as a huge bundle of sticks.  You don’t need to try to carry the whole bundle every day.  Rather, carry today’s stick today and tomorrow’s stick tomorrow.  Every day you carry one stick.

I turned that quote around backwards to make another point.  You carry one stick every day.  This morning’s challenge was about consistency.

Do you know what happened 9 years ago today on the tiny island nation of Samoa?  Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  Nothing significant or insignificant.  Nothing happened at all because nine years ago, December 30th did not occur in Samoa.  In 2011, the nation voted to change where the International Date Line falls relative to their island.  They actually curved the IDL around their island (doing so improved business relations with some of their biggest trading partners, Australia and New Zealand…).  So, at midnight on December 29th, the IDL changed and Samoa went from being the westernmost nation on earth – to being the easternmost nation on earth.  They moved the line that divides our days and in doing so, they went from December 29th to December 31st – and skipped an entire day.

What’s my point?

As you are accelerating your fitness, your fellowship, and your faith – don’t skip a day.  Keep your routine.  Complete one small challenge each day and, over time, you move yourself closer and closer to being a true HIM.

A famous Samoan scholar, Dwayne Johnson, has said, “Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.”

What do you wish you could be successful at?  The good news is that you don’t have to be great at it today.  You just have to be consistent in your pursuit of it. 

Fitness?  You’ve all proven that you have what it takes to get out of bed and be here at 5:30 – great!  Now, do it again Friday.  Then again Monday, Wednesday, and Friday next week.  Consistent hard work leads to success.

Fellowship?  You want to have great relationships and deep fellowship with other HIMs?  Stick around and chat for a minute after the picture.  DM these guys on Slack and catch up on their lives.  With consistent investment in your relationships, over time, greatness will come.

Faith?  Me too.  There is one particular element of my faith that I want to be successful in – leading my family.  For many years of my marriage and many years of my time as a father, I have struggled to be a successful spiritual leader for my family.  I could start leading with enthusiasm but would soon get discouraged and stop.  About two years ago, I finally started to hit my stride.  You know what had changed?  A realization that I didn’t have to be great – just consistent.  I couldn’t pray elegant prayers over my wife every night.  I couldn’t prepare a mind-blowing devotion every night.  I wasn’t – and am still not – great.  But can I pray a simple prayer over my wife today?  Sure.  Can I read a short passage to my kids after dinner?  Yeah.  Now – can I do it again tomorrow?  Absolutely.  Rinse and repeat.

Success in the areas of fitness, fellowship, and faith is achievable for you.  Do the do-able thing today.  Do it again tomorrow….and the day after….and they day after.  

MOLESKIN:

If he were here, I bet Snaggletooth would have known about Samoa…

ANNOUNCEMENTS: