F3 Knoxville

Category: The Project

Meeting God on the Mountain

THE SCENE: overcast
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

SSH – Tempo Squat – Tempo Merk – Mtn Climbers – LBAC fwd/bwd – Burpees – Cherry Pickers – Stretches

THA-THANG:

  1. Parking Lot (NW Corner along Rec Ctr)
  • 10 merkins – mosey to end of parking lot – 10 Bobby Hurleys
  • Rinse and Repeat – 5x
  • 1 minute plank
  • Mosey to Playground

2. Playground

  • Begin with 4 Pull-ups
  • 15 Merkins + 5 Pull-ups (5 rounds)
  • 1 minute plank
  • Mosey to Friendship Bell

3. Friendship Bell

  • 20 Merkins
  • 1 Minute Plank
  • Mosey to K-25

4. K-2(5) (OUR HIGHEST PEAK!)

  • 10 Merkins at Bottom
  • Sprint up hill
  • 10 BBS at Top
  • Rinse-Repeat x5
  • 2 Minute Plank
  • Mosey to Shovel Flag

MARY:
No Time

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
10STRONG

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

I shared with the guys a story from our family trip to Scotland. We spent almost all of our time in the Highlands with some hiking along the Great Glen Way, seeing the lochs and castles and the most beautiful, rugged green hills and grey skies. While anyone can see the sights and enjoy the beauty, many people have shared that there’s a feeling Scotland has. I felt it.

I experienced the thinness of the veil between heaven and earth. In the far north, Loch Broom opens up to the North Sea, and hides a small village called Ullapool. It is shielded from the North wind by the hills that surround it. On our only morning there, I woke up early to walk up the hills, to be alone. I wanted to ask God how we’ll make it through the season of change in our family’s life. As the hill climbed above the town, above the tree line, above any sign of humanity, I heard God.

More accurately, I sensed something so faint that I was surprised at how tiny and ephemeral it was. I imagined I would reach the top and cry out into the wild solitude . But it felt wrong to yell – I could only whisper. Through my ragged breath and the incessant North wind, I felt a message from God, like a memory. It was like a large library with hundreds of shelves, with thousands of books, and millions of pages – with one page lit up. It was the image of Jesus being baptized, with the Holy Spirit descending on Him, and the Father speaking over Him: “This is my Beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.”

On a lonely, achingly-beautiful and lonely mountain, I met God. I am exhorted once again to fix my eyes on Jesus in this difficult season, and because I am in Christ, I receive the Spirit upon me and the Father speaking those very words over me as well. “You are my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.”

Like my namesake, the prophet Elijah, I met God on the mountain. Not in the wind, not in the fire or the earthquake, but in a still, small voice in the hills above Ullapool.

MOLESKIN:
We praised God for an answered prayer and prayed for a continued concern for Tuba’s family.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Family Q with Pool Party; service opportunities – details in Slack.

Crit Fishin’ – Give thought to your steps

THE SCENE: Stormy, low 70’s, fantastic lightning show with a drizzle
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • Projectivators
  • Windmills
  • Hairy Rockettes
  • Tempo squats
  • Fence Steppers
  • Tempo merkins
  • Newton’s cradle

THA-THANG:
Went out back of the Senior Center for shelter from the lightning and got straight to work. Two teams, each with 12d20 and 5 cards of work.

Rules

  • Flip a card and complete it by performing the listed exercises. Each time a player completes a set, run a die to the cup. A card is complete when:
    • Every exercise has been performed
    • Every player has performed at least one set
    • All the dice are in the cup
  • Once the card is complete, grab the cup and roll all the dice into the box
    • For each 1, all players do five burpees
    • For each 20, bag the die – it is no longer required to complete a card.
    • Flip a new card and complete it as above.
  • A team wins when all their dice are bagged
  • When you finish all cards, go through them again, bottom to top with half the reps.

Every 4 minutes, when the horn sounds, stop what you are doing and hold a plank for 77 seconds.

Cards:

  • Heavy Squats (30)
  • OHP (25)
  • Good Mornings (25)
  • Lunges (10/side)
  • Curls (30)

 

  • Burpee Jumpovers (6)
  • One arm Rows (10/side)
  • Heavy Freddies (30 4-ct)
  • OHP (25)
  • Kettlebell Swings (25)

 

  • Crossover Merkins (8/side)
  • Blockees (6)
  • Kettlebell Swings (25)
  • Tricep Extensions (30)
  • Heavy LBCs (30)

 

  • Blockees (6)
  • OHP (25)
  • Curls (30)
  • Lunges (10/side)
  • Kettlebell swings (25)

 

  • Derkins (20)
  • Two arm rows (30)
  • OHP (25)
  • Kettle swings (25)
  • Good mornings (25)

MARY:
No time.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Proverbs 14:15 – The simple believe anything, but the prudent give thought to their steps.

This verse has been speaking to me all week, and I think it has a pointed message for our time and place. Is it safe to say that we all struggle to regulate our intake of information? Worse yet, how do we process that information and integrate it into the way we understand the world? The first part of this verse points to a problem we all face. Being simple, we simply believe things we hear or read or see. Now, it’s obviously impossible to challenge every single bit of information we take in, but we know that sources like media and hearsay demand our scrutiny. This faculty, however, is fatiguing, and when we fail to limit our intake, eventually we will fall into undiscerning consumption. I think the second part of this verse offers us a powerful tool to help in this predicament.

If you are prudent, where is your attention directed? To your steps. One of the toughest things to deal with is the expectation we feel placed upon us to have a rock solid position on seriously tough moral questions. For example, today, individuals are expected to take a side on the legal nuances of abortion and gun control, the scientific validity of potential anthropogenic effects on the earth’s temperature, and the morality and wisdom of foreign interventions by our nation. Any one of these topics could occupy a person’s attention for a lifetime without reaching a clear and decisive position, but we feel a social pressure to take a hard line based on the random assortment of personal opinions and online articles that we happen to have encountered. This is a trap, and our proverb gives us a better approach. Don’t give your attention to solving the divine mystery, instead focus on the places where your actual or figurative feet have to step. Take that wad of information and ask some simple questions. “How would this affect what I do? How does that action align with my integrated world view?”

In my experience, this simplifies many problems. I don’t need to understand climate science to see that it is better to be a careful steward of the resources under my control. I don’t need to be a doctor to know that I need to practice sexual integrity and care for the vulnerable around me. I don’t need to be a lawyer to know that handling firearms must be done with a serious mind for the risks. Now, from time to time, each of us may encounter a moment when a particular topic becomes more real, and a hard decision will need to be made. But solving a real problem with real people is a much different process than the esoteric hypothesizing that is required to try and solve the problem in advance. With prayer and discernment, you can do your best to make the decision and then lean on God’s grace to make up the difference. Unlike the hypothetical, it has a beginning and an end. By reducing the problem to the real, often people who may disagree about the hypothetical find themselves aligned on many points.
MOLESKIN:
I think we made it through 6 or 7 cards, to have a reasonable chance of getting all 12 dice, you probably need to complete 50…

Have to try this one again when we can run laps instead of planking.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Aug. 6 family workout @ 8am, also work day at cerebral palsy center in knoxville. Pool party at Borg’s to follow family workout. Equalizer is doing a family workout July 30th.

Heavy Metric Workout #2

THE SCENE:  64 and clear.  Perfect for a beatdown
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER:  Administered 
WARM-O-RAMA: 

  • SSH
  • Hairy Rockettes
  • Finkle Swings
  • Willy Mays Hays
  • Cherry Pickers
  • Cobra, Down dog
  • Merkins

THA THANG:

30 minutes to get as many cumulative reps as you can. The following list of exercises are performed in sets of 25 reps. After completing each set of 25 reps, run 25 yards (6 parking spaces), do 2 burpees, and return for the next set. Here are the exercises:

  • 150 curls
  • 125 heavy squats
  • 100 OHP
  • 75 CMU swings
  • 50 Thrusters
  • 25 Blockees

When you finish the blockees, start over and push until the timer is up.

Once through the circuit is 525 reps.  How many cumulative reps?

MARY:

Flutter kicks
Prone row
LBCs
Merkins
Rosalita

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

Me and 9 of the best men I know.  Welcome FNG “Ocho”!

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

The reflection this morning was simple.  We set aside a few minutes to review progress made toward our goals.  First, as a group…  In January, we talked as a group about some of the ways that we’d like to see The Project move forward in 2022.  Some ideas were;

  • Fitness. We now have a few metric workouts to measure performance (military fitness PT, and today’s heavy PT baseline).  Let’s re-do those occasionally to see how our performance is trending.  Weekly Push/Pull/Plank challenge on Slack.
  • Fellowship. Consistency in the gloom and chatter on Slack.  Outside of the gloom – Hiking daytrips…  ..  Bonfires…  Spring camping trip…
  • Faith. More deliberate discipleship.  Developing smaller shield lock groups within the larger Project group.  Meditating on and committing scripture to memory.  Leading our families in study, prayer, and faith.
  • More men in attendance. More Sad Clowns who need something like F3.  Specifically, more newly married men and new fathers – those are critical points in a man’s life and full of anxiety.  We have a wealth of experiences to share with those men – let’s find ‘em!
  • Family Workout! It’ll be great to get the families together monthly. It’s also a service to the community to we are uniquely gifted to provide.  I think this will largely define The Project’s evolution in 2022.

 

Then, we turned our thoughts inward to reflect on personal goals.  Six months ago (or 3 years ago), what did you want to change in your life?  What goal or goals did you have?  Did you make a plan?  Did you tell a trusted friend?  How are you progressing?  If you’re on track – awesome!  If you’ve tapered off, today is a great day to get back started.  If you haven’t already, write it down.  Break it down into simple steps.  Seek accountability.

Proverbs 4:25, “Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you.”

Hebrews 12:1-2, “…let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Philippians 3:14, “But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

 “The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” – Bruce Lee

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” – Socrates

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney

MOLESKIN:

We first did this workout in January.  Every man who repeated today increased his score!  Every. Single. One.  We ARE getting stronger, men!

Here are the scores;

  January July Delta
Rocket 515 550 35!
Snaggletooth 525    
Erector 550    
Mathlete 525 599! 74!
Tuba 510 516 6!
Bobbitt 516 565 49!
Kickflip 510 565 55!
Wingman   525  
3-Peat   500  
Ocho   325  
Boy George   535  
Skewer   450  

 

For more evidence of our fitness acceleration, see this BB from March

USAF Fitness Measurement – Round 2

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

HIM Equip 4 life

THE SCENE:  cloudy with a chance of a Orange moon
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
The PAX did the Albatross wings  in cadence  (See the F3 exercise Lexicon) excluded the front raises, overhead press and the 45 ° hold

THA-THANG:
Mosey to the pool wall for

  • 47 Mike Tyson
  • 1 bear  crawl
  • 47 Superman Merkins
  • Then recovered and walked to the front of the pool wall for
  • 47 Alligator merkins towards the playground
  • recovered with name one thing your grateful for
  • Then did Pull/Plank
  • 4 circuit of 7 pullups then 1 minute hold
  • MARY:
    Some Al-gore hold
  • Some flutter kick
  • Sprint jail break
  • Some American Hammers
  • Some Basselets
    COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—
Ephesians 6:10‭-‬18

MOLESKIN:
This PAX showed up equipped to get stronger and meet there challenges . The HIM equips for his occupation

Likewise we need to daily equip ourselves with the whole Armor of God so we can be equipped to stand against evil as well as help those in our lives to stand as well.

By teaching the next generation,  our spouse how to also stand against the evils and challenges to come

A work of your hands

THE SCENE: Cloudy with a chance of lightning.  No rain
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

  1. Projectivator
  2. Overhead clap
  3. Seal squat
  4. Basilisk
  5. Merkins

THA-THANG:

  1. Mosey to the playground
  2. Ring of fire (pushups) w/ one PAX taking turns doing 5 pull ups
  3. Mosey to blocks
  4. Carry blocks to steps
  5. Enjoy the steps (25 reps each):
    1. Curls
    2. Squats
    3. Overhead Press
    4. American Hammer (2 count)
    5. Tricep extensions
    6. Heavy LBCs
  6. Ring of fire (heavy squats) w/ one PAX taking his block to the top of the stairs and doing a blockee
  7. Enjoy the steps (11 reps each):
    1. Curls
    2. Squats
    3. Overhead Press
    4. American Hammer (2 count)
    5. Tricep extensions
    6. Heavy LBCs
  8. Return equipment
  9. Mosey to the playground
  10. Ring of fire (pushups) w/ two PAX taking turns doing 5 pull ups
  11. RTB
    MARY:
    Boy George, Borg, and Mathlete led some ab exercises

    CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
    Isaiah 2:6 (context: end times; judgement day)

    For you have rejected your people,

    the house of Jacob,

    because they are full of things from the east

    and of fortune-tellers like the Philistines,

    and they strike hands with the children of foreigners.

    7 Their land is filled with silver and gold,

    and there is no end to their treasures;

    their land is filled with horses,

    and there is no end to their chariots.

    8 Their land is filled with idols;

    they bow down to the work of their hands,

    to what their own fingers have made.

    9 So man is humbled,

    and each one is brought low—

    do not forgive them!

    10 Enter into the rock

    and hide in the dust

    from before the terror of the Lord,

    and from the splendor of his majesty.

    11 The haughty looks of man shall be brought low,

    and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled,

    and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.

    12 For the Lord of hosts has a day

    against all that is proud and lofty,

    against all that is lifted up—and it shall be brought low;

     

    Thesis:  What idols do we have? What works of our hands are we worshiping?

    ANNOUNCEMENTS:
    Family workout:  8am July 9th, Shield lock backpacking trip July 15-16, Shield lock pool party August 6th