F3 Knoxville

Category: The Project

Rewards

THE SCENE: Crisp, cool, clear and crunchy. Mid twenties freezing the last week of rain. Satellites orbit overhead.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • Side Straddle Hops (concentration to 25!)
  • LBACs (Out and Above)
  • Pretzels
  • Tempo Squats (get deep)
  • Fence Steppers OYO
  • Tempo Merkins (10)
  • Newton’s Cradle
  • 10 second plank

THA-THANG:

  • Mosey to the Bell
    • 3 sets of 20 dips and 20 big boys
  • Mosey to parallel bars
    • 3 sets of 20 Inverse Rows and 20 flutter kicks
  • Mosey to pool wall
    • 3 sets of 5 wall ups and 5 pull ups
  • Mosey to behind the amphitheater for Mucho Mucho!
    • 20 squats, 20 merkins
    • 20 wide squats, 20 wide merkins
    • 20 bobby hurleys, 20 diamond merkins
    • 20 split squats, 20 stagger squats (both sides)
  • Short form Tree biscuit
    • Run to a tree, do a burpee. See how many we can get in the remaining time.

MARY:
Dealer’s choice, got a full circuit. LBCs, Heels to Heaven, Side crunches both sides, flutter kicks, American Hammers, and Hello Dollys.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Sitting in church on Sunday, my eldest daughter gets up and goes to the bathroom. On the way back, she passes a basket in the narthex that has peppermints and takes one. When she gets back to her seat and sits beside me, this is all good. I see no problem with picking up a peppermint on the way back. Until, that is, she decides that the next thing to do is to draw her older brother’s attention to it. To flaunt her prize. This results in a prompt confiscation.

It is right for good action to carry a reward. In this case, getting up to using the bathroom in an appropriate time brings with it an opportunity for a piece of candy. This isn’t so different from the way our own bodies are arranged. Eating is necessary, and so carries with it pleasure. The same is true of sleep. Sex functions similarly in a marriage. These rewards, when maintained in their proper position and alignment with their associated good, are also good. They were, in fact, purposed as a good.

In taking from the tree, Adam and Eve first participated in a troubling alternative to this purposed good. When we see the possibility that we can game the system, that the reward is available for the taking, when the reward becomes the purpose, good fragments. Obviously, my daughter’s physical need to go to the bathroom is more limited than her potential to obtain reward. This can express as deception, only to go get a candy and return without any actual visit to the bathroom. My son, with a newfound desire for candy, might decide that he needs to go to the bathroom even though he doesn’t, only to obtain a reward. Certainly, the risk is that both of my children become fixated on the candy, and thus ignore the reason we are even there at all, to worship the Creator God who brought forth into this world both the candy and our capability to enjoy it. To me, this serves as a microcosm example of my own struggles with physical desire.

I eat beyond physical need, now enduring physical consequences while slowly deadening my own enjoyment. So I seek to fragment the system, using deceptive chemicals to experience the pleasure (I’m looking at you Coke Zero) while avoiding the consequences, or at least the consequences I am paying attention to. This is a positive feedback loop, with my desire ever growing, demanding greater and greater sacrifices to sate my appetite. Soon, the only purpose of eating is pleasure. The real good, my physical nourishment, isn’t even playing second fiddle.

As we leave behind us a time of feasting and turn back to the routines that define us, I think it merits our attention to look at the places where we are gaming the system for pleasure. How do we return to balance? How do we restore an appetite to its proper position and alignment? It often includes dealing with some consequences we have been storing up. But that blister can be drained and healed. It doesn’t last forever.

MOLESKIN:
Great to be back at The Project! Pretzels were courtesy of Wilderness Road in Kingsport. Snaggletooth got distracted thinking about consequences when he should have been concentrating on counting, but then there weren’t any…
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
We gotta pick a date for our next family Q.

Marvelicious Thor’sDay

THE SCENE: 57 degrees, overcast, moderate gloominess
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER – Done
WARM-O-RAMA:
10 Arm circles front, 10 back
10 Seal Claps
10 Winston Churchill’s
3 Standing Glute stretch
10 Monster Walks
20 SSH
20 Speed Skaters
Mosey to the coupon dispenser

THA-THANG:

Thor’s Mini-Mayhem
(Based on IPC 2021 Maryanne’s Mayhem with reduced time and reps)
Exercises are to be done in sets of 25 reps for 36 minutes
After completing 25 reps, run to the cone that is 25 yards away and do 3 burpees.
After the 3 burpees, run back and continue with exercise.

Exercises
150 Curls
125 Squats
100 Overhead Press
100 Kettlebell Swings
50 Merkins
50 Thrusters
50 Bonnie Blairs (right leg-left leg = 1 rep)
25 Blockees

If you finish all of the exercises, go back to the top and start over.

The burpees DO NOT count in your rep count.
650 reps is the total if you get through all of the exercises.

MARY:
No time
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
5 HIMs crushing it
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
We thought about the Ultimate Avenge (not Thor).  Vengeance is mine says the Lord.  Which takes a bigger man – to get vengeance or to not seek vengeance?
MOLESKIN:
Always an honor to Q.  Always inspiring to workout with HIMs.  All will be excited to know that I’ve started time studies to make sure we get through the entire cycle (in the short time we have) at least once the next time I Q a Thor’s Day Heavy.  Because, wearing out every muscle group is half the FUN!!!

Buildup

THE SCENE: 60°F, Partly cloudy and dark
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA: (all IC 4-count)

  • SSH x20  
  • Merkins x10  
  • Imperial Walker x15
  • Merkins x10
  • Imperial Squawkers x10

Mosey to the court yard by the fountains

THA-THANG:
Build-up:
Start at the top of the list and work down, adding a new exercise and then going back the to the start each time. 1, 12, 123, 1234… .

  1. Supermans x10
  2. Single Leg Squats x10 (5 each leg)
  3. American Hammers x10 (single ct)
  4. Merkins x10
  5. Smurf Jacks x10
  6. Mountain Climber x10 (single ct)
  7. Flutter Kicks x10 (single ct)
  8. Donkey Kicks x10

Mosey back to SP

MARY:

  • Stretching Flow: downward dog–> upward dog–> runner stretch–> pigeon stretch

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Kick-Flip, Erector, Snaggletooth, Biohack, Borg, Archie (QIC)

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Goals
2 Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart. 3 To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.  4 Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, are sin.  5 The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.
From <https://my.bible.com/bible/59/PRO.21.ESV> 

Take some time to think about what you should accomplish in 2022 and write down some goals. Think about different areas of your life: Family, Work, Church, etc.

Maintain perspective of the big picture with Jesus as Lord. This should have an impact on your goals.

The Beginning of the End

THE SCENE:  25 and calm.  Perfect!
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER:  Sorta kinda
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • Grady corns
  • LIH / RFTS
  • Temp squats
  • Mountain climbers

At the fountain;

  • Dips
  • Derkins
  • Step-ups

THA THANG: 

Mosey to the Recruiting Center

10 stations set out – each has an exercise.

Tabata – 22 seconds on, 8 seconds rest.  3 tabatas per round, then switch stations. 

  • CMU Curls
  • CMU Split Squat
  • Ball Slams
  • Heavy lunges
  • Battle rope Alternating waves
  • Stack squat
  • Jump rope
  • Tire hit
  • Pull-ups  

Circle o’ Mary

Now…repeat it all again!  This time, exercises are;

  • CMU Triceps
  • CMU Swing
  • Throw from chest
  • Goblet squat
  • Battle Rope slams
  • Good mornings
  • Jump rope
  • Tire flip
  • Chin-ups

MARY:

Play the song “Turn it Up” by Oh the Larceny.  Each time they say “Turn it Up” – do a burpee.  Otherwise, do SSH in tempo with the song.  

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

Me and 5 of the best men I know

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

I riffed on Bobbitt’s Word from Tuesday – he talked about the wonder of Christmas.  The wonder of the virgin birth and the miracle of God come down.  He encouraged us to live this season in wonder. 

We talked about Christmas as celebrating the beginning of the end…  We zoomed out from the nativity and a little baby in a manger, and started the Christmas story 2,000 years before Jesus was born…

An ancient man named Abraham made a covenant with his God, Jehovah.  Abraham’s God told him, “I will bless you, I will expand your family, I will offer you protection.  You and your descendants must do right by me”.   Later Moses described rightness-by-God in detail – 613 commandments to be kept to the letter.  And if you can’t do all of these things right – and you CAN’T… then the cost of your failure is BLOOD.  It should be YOUR blood, but you can ritually kill an animal in your place as a substitute.  That was the system – the Abrahamic covenant and the Mosiac Law.  Try your hardest to do all of these things – when you fail, sacrifice animals and hope that God is appeased by their blood instead of yours.  That’s the relationship that man had with God for 2,000 years. 

…and into that system, a baby was born.  A few people knew that this was the prophesized messiah – but I doubt that anyone truly comprehended the plan that had been set in motion with that baby’s birth.  The day that Jesus was born, a countdown began – and from that moment on, the old covenant and law was on borrowed time.  Christmas celebrates the beginning of the end of the Mosaic law, with its impossible set of rules and requirement for atonement blood – all of that was superseded.  

The sleeping baby in a manager will grow up to live a perfect life, and ~33 years later would offer Himself as the ultimate sacrifice – FOREVER fulfilling that blood atonement requirement of the Mosaic law – and ushering in a new deal with Jehovah – a new covenant.  Here are the terms of the new covenant… 1) Jesus did the hard work, and 2) you just need to believe and accept His gift.  

But wait – there’s more!  None of the men in the BOM – nor most of the men in F3 – were privy to Abraham’s blessing of the old covenant.  With few exceptions, that deal was for Abraham’s descendants only – and that does not include most of us Gentiles.  The new covenant not only does away with the impossible crushing burden of the law, but it also opens the blessing to ALL people, including you and me.  How’s that for a good trade?!?! 

One wonder of Christmas is that it was the beginning of the end of the old impossible law.  We celebrate the birth of a baby who would later offer a new and wonderful way to live right by Jehovah – by faith alone.  

Here’s a Christmas verse for you;

Titus 2:11-12, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people.”

 

MOLESKIN:

Prayers for the family and widow of Coates

Prayers to lead well through a difficult situation at the office

Prayers for our boys who are traveling over the holidays

Romans 8:2-4, “For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened through the flesh. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

Romans 7:6, “But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.”

Galatians 3:24, “So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.”

Hebrews 8:7, “For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.”

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Family Workout tomorrow at 10:00am.  Start at our normal shovel flag location.  Be there!

Building Santa B.O.M.B.S. at The Project

THE SCENE: Mostly cloudy with a brisk temperature of 34. Wind NNE at 1.243 mph. 94% percent humidity with the barometer reading at 30.12. …or just kinda chilly.

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER:

Done with enthusiasm as always…

WARM-O-RAMA:

  • SSH (x10)
  • Willy Mays Hayes (x10)
  • Tempo Squat (x10)
  • FLBAC (x10)
  • RLBAC (x10)
  • Grady Corn (x10)
  • Chattanooga Cherry Pickers (x10…stressed finger form)
  • Knoxville Cherry Pickers (x…??? gotta pick up what was left on the ground)

THA-THANG:
Mosey to dip bars. Group 1 pull-ups (x20). Group 2 plank. Flapjack. Then mosey to Amphitheater.

Commence building Santa B.O.M.B.S.

Partner up. Pax 1 does exercise while Pax 2 runs up the hill to the North Pole. Swap out and continue the exercise until each amount of reps are complete. The exercises and reps were:

  • 50- Burpees
  • 100- Overhead Claps (I mean…where else do you get an “O” for “bombs”, am I right?)
  • 150- Merkins
  • 200- Big Boy Sit-ups 
  • 250- Squats

PAX completed B.O.M.B.S. then moseyed for another round of pull-ups and planks.

MARY:

  • Tuba – Prone …wait! He faked us out! Basilisks in honor of Biohack (x10)
  • Rocket – starfish (x10)
  • Three-Peat – 4 count Merkins (x10 because 150 was not enough!)
  • Snaggletooth – LBCs (x10)
  • Slappy – Freddie Mercury (x10)
  • Bobbitt – Flutter Kicks (x10)
  • Kick – Plankettes (x10)

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Something happened a few weeks ago.Tons of people in Chattanooga and some up here were posting pictures of a sunset. It was phenomenal! It wasn’t as good as being there, though. Yet it’s clear something amazing happened.

Something amazing happened 2,000 years ago at Christmas. We may not have been there but the evidence that something that changed the course of history exists.

We tend to lose the wonder somewhere  along the line, however. Busyness is one reason. Distance in time is another. Our analytical thinking is one thing that gets in the way that we don’t often notice. We like to dissect things until we’ve destroyed them. We enjoy music until we break it apart to study it. We enjoy art until we analyze it to death.

YHC’s and his M were driving along 40 and noticed two random Christmas trees on the side of the road. They are fully decorated and look nice. While YHC wanted to figure out who put them there and why, the M commented, “Why do we have to understand it. Just enjoy it.”

YHC heard about a church that was again going over the Virgin Birth. A young teenager came out of the kitchen in the middle of the argument and said, “It’s just so beautiful, it has to be true.” The argument stopped and the adults in the room wondered why they were even arguing.

What does it mean to recapture the wonder of the simple truth of Christmas. God became man. Deity became humanity. The almighty stepped down from his throne and was willing to become a defenseless baby for this daring rescue!

This Christmas, what does it mean to recapture the wonder of the Nativity; to stop analyzing and dissecting, how to hear the surprising message only revealed, not to kings but ti simple shepherds. “It’s just so beautiful, it has to be true.”

MOLESKIN:

  • YHC considered Wallpees as a tribute to Mathlete but then remembered “if you can’t do it, don’t Q it.” Not today.
  • Tuba promised a Christmas gift of many Prone Rows in his appreciation for the generosity of reps. YHC was giddy.
  • Coffeteria at Dunkin followed.
  • Fun was had by all.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Hike at LeConte tomorrow. Leaving from Hardin Valley Dunkin at 5:30. See Slappy for details!

KickFlip to bring the Yule-Tide pain on Christmas Eve Eve.