F3 Knoxville

Racing Snails

THE SCENE:  32 and clear.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER:  Muttered somewhat incoherently…but you all know the drill!
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • Projectivator
  • KCP
  • Moroccan nightclub
  • Seal squats
  • Down/up dog
  • Merkins
  • Stretch OYO

THA THANG:

Mosey to the Rock Pile.  Toys are set out in a circuit.  Divide into two teams to play Snail Races.

There are two ways to win.  The first way is to move your team’s baby snail to the finish line (baby snail is two touching cones – you move it by placing one cone in front of the other, always touching).  Perform a set, move your baby snail, move to another station of your choice and begin your next set.  The second way to win is to move the big snail into your team’s slime and do 25 SSH before the other team moves him out (big snail is a large tire on a pallet, pulled by a rope).  Any number of team members can move the big snail (1 by himself, or 2 men or 3…)

Stations were;

  1. 10 Pull ups
  2. 30 goblet squats
  3. 15 ball slams
  4. 40 jump rope
  5. 30 derkins
  6. 20 thrusters
  7. 25 stack squat
  8. 20 cmu swings
  9. 10 blockees
  10. 40 curls

 

Mary Recovery

 

Round 2:  Flip the cards.  Repeat the game.  New exercises were;

  1. 10 cmu lunges
  2. 10 hanging leg raises
  3. 40 jump rope
  4. 15 slam ball launches
  5. 30 OHP
  6. 10 plyo merkins
  7. 20 good mornings
  8. 15 farmer step-ups
  9. 40 triceps
  10. 10 burpee jumpovers

MARY:

Omaha’s version of American Hammers

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

Me and 11 of the best men I know – plus Honkytonk visiting from downrange and two 2.0s!

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Haggai 2:3-9, “Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing? But now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ declares the Lord. ‘Be strong, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the Lord, ‘and work. For I am with you,’ declares the Lord Almighty. ‘This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.’  “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the Lord Almighty. ‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the Lord Almighty.”

How does it look to you now?”  The reflection this morning was about…reflection.  It was an encouragement to do some reflective thinking in the next few days as we close out the year and make plans to accelerate in 2023.

John Maxwell said, “Reflective thinking turns experience into insight.”.

Peter Drucker said something similar, “Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.”

So, reflecting back on your year as a father, husband, friend…  Use those insights to help ponder your acceleration in the New Year and be even more effective in those roles.

Some questions to ponder

  • What was the most enjoyable part of my work (both professionally and at home)?
  • In what area do I feel I’ve made my biggest improvements?
  • What was the most challenging part of this year for me?
  • Who is someone I got to know better this year?
  • Who do I wish I had gotten to know better in the past year?
  • What was the best way I used your time this past year?
  • What was my single biggest time waster in life this past year?
  • What’s the biggest mistake of the year, and the lesson learned as a result?
  • What was the most fun I had this year?
  • What was my best memory of the year?
  • If I could travel back to the beginning of the year, what advice would I give myself?

 

 

As an AO, at the beginning of 2022, we set these goals.  We did pretty well!!!  Soon into 2023, let’s set some new goals for the group…

  • 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.
  • Consistency in the gloom and chatter on Slack.  Outside of the gloom – Hiking daytrips…  Dinners…  Bonfires…  Spring camping trip…
  • 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.

 

MOLESKIN:

The workout teetered on the verge of being too complicated – but was still kind of fun!

Intentional Descending Ladder

THE SCENE:
15 degrees but no wind this time.

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
Properly administered.


WARM-O-RAMA:

  • Run in place
  • High knees
  • Heel Kicks
  • Tempo Squats
  • Tempo Merkins
  • Cherry Pickers

THA-THANG:
After warmups, grabbed a coupon and moved to the parking lot by Hardin Valley Shops.
Descending Ladder – Complete the exercises by doing the reps for each exercise. When done, do a short run around the building. Take the largest exercise off the top and do the list again. Rinse and repeat removing an exercise each time.

  • 19 Mountain Climbers
  • 18 Diamond Merkins
  • 17 Tricep Extensions
  • 16 Dry Docks
  • 15 Crab Toe Touches
  • 14 Bench Presses
  • 13 BBS
  • 12 Squats
  • 11 Baby Arm Circles (both ways)
  • 10 Step-Ups
  • 9 Toe-Merkins (Step-ups)
  • 8 Freddie Mercurys
  • 7 SSH
  • 6 Curls
  • 5 Merkins
  • 4 Lunges (each leg)
  • 3 Overhead Press
  • 2 Jump Squats
  • 1 Burpee

MARY:

No show today

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

This week is a weird week. Sitting between Christmas and the New Year. The challenge is for us to take advantage of this week and be intentional. Your schedule might be different, family is in town, vacation days from work, etc.

When Jesus was a young man, there was a story about him getting lost from his family. His parents went looking for him for 3 days. They eventually found him in the temple and after questioning him, his response was “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my father’s house?”

Even from the beginning he was very intentional and knew what his purpose here on earth was. May we take advantage of our opportunities and the time we have also.

 

12 Heavy Pains of Christmas

THE SCENE: Cool and misty
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

  1. Projectivator
  2. Cherry Pickers
  3. Tempo Squat
  4. Tempo Merkins

THA-THANG:
Run to the hill on ORAU campus. Do the number of reps, run up and down the hill, do the next rep and all below it (just like the song).

  1. Blockee
  2. Elves on the shelf
  3. Thrusters
  4. Derkins
  5. Big Boys
  6. Lunges
  7. Curls
  8. Rows
  9. Diamond derkins
  10. Tricep extensions
  11. Squats
  12. Blockees

Optional light version was also available:

  1. Burpee
  2. Imperial Squalkers
  3. Basilisks
  4. Merkins
  5. Big Boys
  6. Lunges
  7. Side straddle hops
  8. Prone rows
  9. Diamond merkins
  10. Heels to heaven
  11. Squats
  12. Burpees

MARY:
Extra bur-ur-ur-ur-ur-pees!

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
The Jews of the Gospels read and studied the Old Testament Scriptures, but missed the coming of the Messiah because they were too focused on the problems in the world around them.  What are we missing about God’s Word because we are too focused on the world around us?
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Project Christmas party tonight at Pappalock’s.  No shieldlock tomorrow.  Likely no Family Workout on Saturday.

31 Degrees of Exercise

THE SCENE:

Clear, 31 Degrees, Nice crescent moon

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

WARM-O-RAMA:
1. Cherry Pickers (x5) 2. SSH (x20), 3. BACF (x10) 4. BACB (x10), 5. Merkins (10 OYO), 6. Tempo Squats – (x10),

THA-THANG:

Mosey to the guardrail. Do 31 Dips. Football Mosey (Run and Pass duos with drops to do 2 Burpees) around Career Path Way to CMU pile. Grab CMU and do 31 Curls.

Circle back around to the far east lot (next to the big duck pond). Regroup at the curb. Bear crawl to the first line and back to start as 1st exercise, mosey to 2nd line for 2nd exercise, back to start, etc. (see below)

  1. Bear Crawl to 1st line and back

2. SSH (x31)

3. Squats (x31)

4. Merkins (x31)

5. Heels to Heaven (x31)

6. Iron Mikes (x31)

7. Carolina Dry Docks (x31)

8. Freddie Mercury’s (x31)

9. Monkey Humpers (x31)

Mosey back to COT. Sty called out American Hammers.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

7 HIMS including 3 RUSH

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Contending for the Faith

A few years ago I attended a worldview conference at my church. During that weekend, I listened to a Christian apologist and radio show host named Greg Koukl. An apologist is defined as a person who offers an argument in defense of something controversial. In this case the controversy would be Christianity.

The weekend was centered around gaining an understanding of the Gospel and helping Christians think more clearly about why they believe what they believe. There were sessions about the types of challenges Christians face, how we can respond gracefully, and how we can challenge others to think more critically about their own worldviews. I loved it! I am a truth seeker. Always a believer, but at that time I was still really struggling with my own faith and what it meant for my life. I needed purpose and understanding.

Recently, I found an article by Mr. Koukl that reminded me of this Timothy theme, which is central to a men’s group I’m in (The Good Fight), but also sounded a warning and a challenge (which we also do here). Jude v3 says “Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.”

First of all, Jude points to a specific message and content, the “faith once for all handed down”— which is the foundation of “our common salvation.” Second is the recommendation to “contend earnestly” for that faith—to proclaim it, guard it, and defend it. And then, Jude reminds us that it has been “handed down” to the saints—passed on from the disciples to the next generation in the church.

Here is why those three elements of Jude’s council are critical for you and me right now. We are engaged in a cultural and theological fight. The attack is coming from many directions. Atheists are tearing down God’s Truth and the integrity of our authority base, The Bible. Our children our under attack. The moral rulebook is being rewritten; Right has become wrong, and wrong is right. It’s clearly seen! These challenges are coming from not only our culture but even in some Christian denominations, the Gospel is seen as a message of hate.

2 Timothy was Paul’s spiritual last will and testament. It was the last thing he ever wrote. He was very clear and to the point in addressing the challenges for that day and practically to the ones we face today. Second Timothy gives the answer to our question about guarding the gospel, because that is the book’s theme, found explicitly in chapter 1, verse 14: “Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.” That message is absolutely vital to each one of us today because he tells us exactly what it looks like in any century to “contend earnestly for the faith”.

The early church was under a great attack in that culture. Christians were falsely accused and tortured (and still today in some places). Paul’s response and message was simple…

“You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim. 3:14–17)

Simply put, Paul tells Timothy to guard the gospel by continuing in the truth already revealed. When all else fails, read—and follow—the directions. But, there’s more…

In the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, American runners suffered a humiliating defeat in the 4 X 100 relay. In the anchor leg, Darvis Patton handed the baton to Tyson Gay, but Gay never got it. In the middle of the handoff, they dropped the baton.

Tyson Gay was our best sprinter. We had the fastest team. It didn’t matter. They dropped the baton, so we lost the race. In fact, we never even finished that race.

Paul told Timothy, “If anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules” (2:5). In other words, Paul said, “Timothy, you cannot drop the baton.” And we cannot drop the baton, either. If we do, we lose.

As Husbands, Fathers, Sons, Brothers, Co-workers…we do 2 things; We continue in the things handed down and second, we pass the baton.

If we disregard Paul’s solution, we should not be surprised when we remain children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming (Eph. 4:14).

If we don’t pass the baton, we should not be surprised when we will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have our ears tickled, we accumulate for ourselves teachers in accordance with our own desires, and turn away our ears from the truth, and turn aside to myths (2 Tim. 4:3–4).

If we are to survive the current spiritual onslaught, we 1) Guard the gospel by continuing in the truth already revealed then 2) we pass the baton. Proclaim the truth faithfully, guard it diligently, and pass it on carefully.

MOLESKIN:
Praying for Cosmo’s mother as she enters hospice care.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Low low temps for Friday! Be smart and safe out there and Happy Christmas to All!!

Stand together to face adversity

THE SCENE: clear chilly morning
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER given
WARM-O-RAMA:

TN rocking chair.  Tempo merkins, SSH, baskalist
THA-THANG:

  • TABATA STYLE 40 seconds step-ups 20 Bruce lee abs . 8 sets 2 rounds 1minute plank hold between round
  • 1,000 rep step-ups
  • Bruce Lee Ab( American hammer,  leg lifts,  little baby crunches, awkward turtles, heels to Heaven, Flutter kicks
  • Run 1 mile

MARY:
Thunderstruck
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Ecclesiastes 4:9‭-‬10‭, ‬12 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/ecc.4.9-12.ESV
MOLESKIN:
The workout was a reminder of Navy Seal Chad Wilkinson who committed suicide.  Many men today have Adversity they are facing and without a true sense of community of men to help them overcome so they can be the best version of themselves that God has planned for them.

F3 is just this to be there for other HIM so we don’t lose anymore.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: