F3 Knoxville

Tag: Abacus

Why Worry

THE SCENE: Clear skies, temp in 50s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
20 Side-Straddle Hops, 10 Plank Jacks, 10 Windmills, 10 Tempo Merkins, 10 Cherry Pickers, 10 Little Baby Arm Circles Forward and Backward.
THA-THANG:
Mosey to the Southern Parking Lot close to the soccer fields.  We will go counterclockwise around the parking lot, stopping at each corner.  The following shows the exercises we do at each corner and how we get to the next corner:

  • Corner 1:  20 Merkins.  Bernie Sanders to Corner 2.
  • Corner 2:  20 Hello Dollies, 4 count.  Run to Corner 3
  • Corner 3:  20 Big Boy Sit-ups.  Bernie Sanders to Corner 4
  • Corner 4:  20 Flutter Kicks, 4 count.  Run to Corner 1.
  • Rinse and Repeat but Skip instead of Bernie.

We will Mosey to the perimeter trail where it goes by the pavilion close to the Southern Parking Lot.  We will run for 10 lights.  Those rabbits getting there first will come back and meet the six.  Then we will do the first of the exercises listed below.  Next we will run another 10 lights.  Those rabbits getting there first will come back and meet the six again.  Then we will do the second of the listed exercises.  We will do this until we hit the serpentine sidewalk.  The exercises are:

  • 20 Dive Bombers
  • 20 Squat Jumps
  • 20 Bicycle Kicks (4 ct)
  • 20 Iron Mikes (2 ct)

At the Serpentine Sidewalk we will hop forward for one light, then run for four lights.  We will repeat the pattern until we hit the end of the Serpentine Sidewalk.  Then we will return back on the Serpentine Sidewalk by lunging forward for one light and running for four lights until we hit the perimeter trail.

Mosey to the base of Cardiac.  We will Bernie for two lights and run for two lights, repeating this pattern until we reach the roadway.

Mosey to the AO.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
14 men, no FNGs
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

What If?

What if the stock market crashes before I turn 70 and all the savings I have been relying on to retire plummets?

What if I get sued for malpractice and my reputation as a therapist takes a nose dive?

What if there is so much fighting within our country that it reaches a point where it is no longer the pillar of strength and beacon of hope for so many people?

What if my legs start to give out so much that I can no longer work out with my brothers in F3?

What if that lady in charge of the Lakeshore Park Conservancy, who has told us to stop writing on sidewalks and keep out of the ballpark area when teams are playing, somehow forces F3 out of the Asylum?

What if my house falls apart due to some kind of reason that my home insurance policy doesn’t cover?

Here’s two sentences from Philippians 4: 6-7:


Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Let me give you a few more “what if” questions.  Think about these questions, dwell on them a bit.

What if there truly is a God who watches over us and loves us?

What if God takes delight in us, not for the riches we make but for the good we do for others?

What if God will take care of us through the greatest of losses, even our possessions?

What if Jesus really did die for our sins and arose three days later?

What if God truly does hear us when we pray?

What if there is a heaven and God will be with us, even when we die?

I’ll end this message with some verses from the song, We Will Feast in the House of Zion by Sandra McCracken

We will not be burned by the fire
He is the Lord, our God
We are not consumed by the flood
Upheld, protected, gathered up

We will feast in the house of Zion
We will sing with our hearts restored
He has done great things, we will say together
We will feast and weep no more

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Thunderstruck’s mother, who has cancer and for Operation and his wife as they try for pregnancy.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
CSAUP at the Asylum on February 26, 6:30 am to 9 am.  Chance for F3 men to serve for RAMUSA.org.  This is a clinic that provides medical and dental services for free to people in the community.  The clinic will be in Knoxville on June 24 to 26.  Our brother, Cat Gut, needs to know by March 1 if you can help.  Let him know if you can.

Keep Moving, Stay Warm

THE SCENE: Cold, cloudy, and windy.

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

WARM-O-RAMA:
SSH, Slow windmills (get that stretch in!), baby arm circles, burpees, & Imperial squats.

THA-THANG:

At the coliseum, 4 stations around the outside. Each station has 3 exercise options. Choose one to complete and then run to the 3rd station and pick an exercise. Rinse & repeat. Exercises were as follows:

  • Station 1 (Core)
    • HELLO DOLLYS (20, 4 CT)
    • PICKLE POUNDERS (20)
    • BIG BOYS (20)
  • Station 2 (Legs)
    • SQUATS (20, 4 CT)
    • MONKEY HUMPERS (20)
    • BOBBY HURLEYS (20)
  • Station 3 (Core)
    • BOX CUTTERS (20)
    • LBCS (20, 4 CT)
    • SCISSOR KICKS (20, 4 CT)
  • Station 4 (Arms)
    • MERKINS (20)
    • DIPS (20)
    • CAROLINA DRY DOCKS (20)

MARY:
Big Boys & American hammers.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Excerpt read from a Fresh Air interview of Laura Coates.

On what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. means to her

When I think of Dr. King, the first thing that comes to mind is going to his museum down in Atlanta and looking at the number of times he was arrested. Now that might seem an oddity to people. Mostly, we think about his speeches and the impactful words, and he was an eloquent orator, and he was obviously deserving of all the accolades as it relates to his speechwriting and his sermons. But for me, I think about the number of times he was a civil rights first responder, … the number of times he went into the battlefield, the number of times he pulled an entire race out of the wreckage, the number of times that he subjected himself to physical violence. It’s the notion that myself, as a mother, looking at my young children, when all I want to do is grow old and watch them grow even older, that he had to accept the inevitability that he would not do the very things every parent wants to do. And why? Because he was thinking not only of his own children, but my children and my children’s children. …

Every time I think about his death, I think to myself, God, was that how young he was? And every year that I live beyond that, I thank him, because the life I have is because of the choices he made, because of the discomfort he experienced. And I just love this man for making those choices and for aligning his moral compass with what he was willing to do.

And It Was Good

THE SCENE: Insert info about the weather, etc.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Lap around the parking lot, 20 Side Straddle Hops, 10 Burpees, 10 Twistees, 10 Windmills, 10 Baby Arm Circles Forward and 10 Backward, 5 Wide Arm Circles Forward and Backward.
THA-THANG:
Mosey to the Caribbean.  We will run Candy Cane with the following exercises at every other island, then sweep back.

  • 20 Merkins
  • 15 Iron Mikes (both legs = 1)
  • 20 Big Boy Sit-ups.

Mosey to street side end of the Serpentine Sidewalk.  We will Bear Crawl one light and sprint four lights all the way down the Serpentine Sidewalk until it hits the perimeter trail.  There, we will do 20 Bicycle Kicks, 4 ct.

Mosey to Cardiac.  We will go up Cardiac, stopping to do the following exercises along the way:

  • At start:  20 American Hammers (4 ct)
  • First turn:  20 Flutter Kicks (4 ct)
  • Second turn:  20 Hello Dollies (4 ct)
  • Third turn:  20 Decline Merkins
  • Benches:  20 Bench Dips

Mosey to bottom of mini-cardiac.  We will Bernie up to the park sign, then run to the top.  Run back down to AO.

MARY:
Stretching
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
15 men, no FNGs.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

And It Was Good

Some verses from Genesis, Chapter 1:

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. 

9 And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth,[d] and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13

And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 

20 And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds[g] fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” 21 So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 

25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

26 Then God said, “Let us make man[h] in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

27 So God created man in his own image,
    in the image of God he created him;
    male and female he created them.

31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.

One sentence that echoes through the creation story of the Bible is, “God saw that it was good.”  And, indeed, His creation is good.  That is easy to see here in East Tennessee where, as Crawdad would say, we are blessed to view “best sunrise in America.”

Amidst the strife and toil of our world, amidst Covid 19, the conflict among our people, the wars between nations, we may fail to recognize the blessings of God’s creation.  We, as human, may sometimes mess things up.  But God is good and his creation is good.

Let us recognize the blessings of the earth and firmament.  Let us rejoice in it, be stewards of it, and protect it.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Steam’s girlfriend who has Covid, and for his girlfriend’s mother who has cancer.  His girlfriend lives with her mother and, although quarantining, is worried about giving her mother, whose immune system is compromised, cancer.  Prayer’s for Steam’s good friend, Nathan, whose mother recently died.  Prayers for a coworker of Pusher.  The coworker had to leave work early today to go the the hospital where his stepfather is in critical condition.  Prayers for Operation as he and his wife have been working at getting pregnant for three years now in hope of having a baby.

Thank You for the Accountability

THE SCENE: a beautiful fake gloom 45
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER did it
WARM-O-RAMA:
SSH, runners stretch, this and that, some twisties, rockettes, & cherry pickers.
THA-THANG:
Insert information about the workout.

  • Break Dance and Spider Burpees up and down The Dragon
  • Inch Worms & Freddy Mercury’s, the alternating leg lifts & T pose leg lifts
  • Alternating Wall Sits & Skater Burpees
  • Sprint, Bring Backs, Bernie, Superman Plank, rinse & repeat
  • Karaoke right, single right leg squat + offset Merkins, karaoke left, single left leg squat + offset Merkins, rinse & repeat
  • Catalina Wine Mixers

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
11 HIMs in the Fake Gloom
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

When I heard about F3, I heard about a cool workout group. A workout that’s cheaper than a gym that gets me outside. The more I posted, the more interested I became in F3 the Organization. Why isn’t F3 just called “Lakeshore Boot Camp Workout Club”? So, I Googled it. On their website, I found “Q Source: The F3 Manual of Virtuous Leadership”. Why does this workout group have a  “leadership mastery purpose”?. So, I read the book.

Chapter 1.2 hit home. “The King” is the discipline of daily training of the body. I’ve been on a weight loss journey for 7 years. I’m 5-8 and in 2014 I was pushing 250 pounds. I was at a park one day, my 2 year old took off for the road, and I couldn’t catch him. That scared me to death.

Since then I’ve yo-yo’d up and down the scale. Q Source talks about the POGO 40 – that 40 pounds you keep taking off and putting on. A huge part of my yo-yo’ing was lack of Accountability, but I’ve found that in F3. Now I have a group of guys who will txt, Slack message, etc. if I stopped Accelerating.

Except from the Q Source, 1.2:

“What is true for all men seeking to Accelerate is that it works better as a Group than as a Singleton. Together, we pool our collective knowledge for the benefit of each individual and spur one another on to places we would never reach alone. This is the power of the Shield Lock. Together, we sharpen each other – as iron sharpens iron. It’s simple really. If you want to learn to run faster, just find a faster man. And chase him until you catch him.”

With that, I want to say thanks to everyone in F3 who provides me Accountability. And, for being faster to give me someone to chase.

Snow-No

THE SCENE: Cloudy, right at freezing, was supposed to be snowing, but just a light drizzle/sleet/winter mix that did change to snow during the last 15 minutes of the workout.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER  Check.

WARM-O-RAMA:

-15 Side Straddle Hops (4-ct), in cadence – Run across parking lot and back

– 8 Abe Vigodas (4-ct), in cadence – Bernie across and back

– 15 Grady Corns (4-ct), in cadence – Super Mario across and back

– 15 Tempo Squats (4-ct), in cadence

THA-THANG:

MOSEY up the Dragon’s tail to stop sign past the Rock.

  • 20 Imperial Squat walkers, 4-ct, IC

Partner UP!

  • Partner 1 Bernie’s to guard rail, runs to tree, 5 Jump Squats, run back
  • Partner 2 Alternates between 10 Deconstructed Burpees (doing all components of the Burpee separately) and 10 Froggy Jumps
  • R&R

Snowgazers: Catch 5 SNOWFLAKES ON YOUR TONGUE!  (this didn’t work out, seeing as there was no snow…)

MOSEY to Overlook/Coliseum:

  • SMEAR THE Q!
    • Get in a line, take a shot at hitting the Q with a Snowball. Everyone gets three tries.  Hit = 10 ct stargazer.  Miss = 5 Deconstructed burpees.  A hit to the face or groin = 10 Real burpees for all of us.  Do SSH while you wait your turn.  (again, had to modify this since there was no snow.  PAX picked 3 numbers between 1 and 10, another PAX secretly selected the number, if the number was picked, it was a HIT, otherwise a miss.)

Mosey to Roundabout. (RIGHT when we got here it started to snow… Arrrgh)

5/10/15s.  Partner 1 runs to curb and does 5x of 2 exercises, trades off with partner.  R&R with 10 x.  R&R with 15 x.  Partner not doing exercises is doing a slow mosey in the bullpen.

ROUND 1 Exercises: PLANK JACKS AND PETER PARKERS

ROUND 2 Exercises:  SMURF JACKS AND BOBBY HURLEYS

Mosey to AO.
MARY:
No time
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
9 strong
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Aristotle had a theory that men take on a particular quality by engaging in a particular behavior.  You’ve probably all heard the expression “You are what you eat.”  This might be altered to “You are what you do… over and over and over again.”

Aristotle: Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way… you become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions

I’ve mentioned before that I’m not big on New Year’s Resolutions.  First of all, they set you up for failure, and then comes the wave of guilt if you don’t reach that goal.  Second, they’re temporary.  You may achieve whatever goal you set out to do, whether it’s to lose 10 pounds, abstain from alcohol for a month, save enough money to purchase a new couch, or whatever, but then what happens?  You go right back to your old ways.

A better approach might be to take a page out of Aristotle’s book and focus on Behavior rather than Goals.  By changing Behavior, you establish patterns that pay off with results and are more long term.  You become what you do.  Instead of setting a goal of losing 10 pounds, try to reduce your sugar and carb intake.  Instead of stopping alcohol cold turkey, use the “I’ll have one later” approach to delay the number of drinks you have.  Instead of saving for a new TV or couch, which, once paid off, may result in you going back to spending more than you need to, set up small automatic transfers of your pay check into a savings account.  And as HIMs, don’t think to yourself, “Gee, I’ll try to be more of a HIM this month”.  Instead, integrate acts of character, leadership, and positive encouragement to those around you on a regular basis.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Jetlag’s family and Jinxy’s family as they go through some health issues, prayers for Curveball’s parents who were not answering the phone recently, prayers for Abacus’ mom
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Triple birthday Hot Toddy Q this Saturday!