F3 Knoxville

leg day lollygag

THE SCENE: 43 or 44 but felt cooler with the wind
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • Grady Corns
  • Squat and reach
  • Angle grinders
  • Imperial walkers
  • SSH

THA-THANG:

Mosey over to Big Ball, 12 minute AMRAP
  • 30 squats
  • 15 Carolina dry docks
  • 10 pull ups
  • 15 side lunges (each leg)
  • 20 Jane Fonda’s (10 each leg, 4 count)
  • 20 American hammers

I gave everyone the option of moving on to the next planned thing, or to repeat the AMRAP listed above for another 6 minutes, cutting the reps in half each exercise. They opted to repeat the AMRAP (I think they made the right call).

Mosey back to light poles for Route 66. Lunge between light poles, merkins at poles. 1:11 merkins. Had we stopped our AMRAP at just the 12 minutes, we would have repeated Route 66 with crawl bears and squat jumps. Yuck.

MARY:

Flutter kicks and pickle pounders

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
5 Strong: Magic Mic, Reverb, G6, Swanson, Abort
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
I just thanked everyone for showing up, not just today and not just in the gloom but every day and throughout the community. Pray for a safe holiday for our community and for everyone to be back out tomorrow or Thursday.

A Big Ballin’ Christmas Eve

THE SCENE: Felt Christmas-y. Merry & Bright (not literally).

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

“Welcome to F3: Fitness – Fellowship – Faith. My name is Steam and I’ll be your Q this Christmas Eve morning. A couple things before we begin:

  • I’m not a professional, despite popular belief
  • You’re here on your own volition – you made a choice to be here/no one’s forcing you to be here, if they are, come see me after and we’ll talk.
  • Modify as you need this morning. You know your body better than anyone, so feel free to modify, but push yourself and the men around you.”

Happy Christmas Eve men!


WARM-O-RAMA:

  • SSH (Side Straddle Hop): 11 x 4 in cadence
  • Windmill: 11 x 4 in cadence
  • Imperial Walker; 11 x 4 in cadence
    • Humble plug for the new Star Wars movie
  • Revised Merkin (Army Standard): 11 x 4 in cadence
  • Half- Burpee: 11 x 4 in cadence

THA-THANG:
Inforrmation about the workout.

[ Mosey to Market Square from Big Ball AO ]

    • AO –> Stairs by Big Ball –> Bridge across Henley –> Market Square
  • Plateau on stairs by Big Ball: 24 x 4 man-makers in cadence
  • American Santa Run to Market Square (basically an American Indian run but more jolly)

(Arrive at the stage at Market Square)

  • 24s
    • Battle Buddy Up
    • As a BB Team:
      • Stage: 24 battle-buddy sit-ups (1 BB holds feet for the other)
      • Sprint around the perimeter of the ice-skating rink and back to the stage
      • Stage: 24 1-count merkins
      • Rinse & Repeat 2x

(24 count from PAX)

(Mosey to Gay Street Christmas Tree)

  • Rocking Around the Christmas Tree
    • 4 points of contact around tree
      • Gay Street Side: 24 squats in cadence
      • Sidewalk(s): 24 1-count Merkins in cadence
      • Grass opposite of Gay Street: 24 squats in cadence

(24 count in cadence)

(Mosey to World’s Fair Park bridge/tunnel with lights)

  • PAX line up in incline merkin position on the ledge facing the water
  • Starting with the 6 – each HIM counts 7 up-down incline merkins then sprints to the front of the line – All PAX complete 7 merkins with the counter
    • This s*** ain’t no joke
    • Q Tip: It’s okay to give PAX a break if the exercise is elongated ^^^ and high-intensity
  • PAX executes exercise
    • Q gives PAX standing rest for 15-20 seconds
    • Q quickly realizes a rinse and repeat would destroy everyone for the upcoming holiday
  • PAX runs through everyone once

(24 count)

(PAX moseys towards AO – F3 Cadence Call ensues)

@ AO = ATMs (cash it out)

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

11 Total: 9 PAX // 2 FNGs

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

“F3 is not a Christian organization by nature. As long as you believe in a higher power, and that you’re living for more than yourself. However, I’m a Jesus follower, so that’s what I speak about when I Q usually.” – Steam

    • Q Thoughts: I forget to throw this out there before the BOM/in the COT a lot. Which is fine…..however, all men are welcome at F3 and giving whatever men that are in the COT after your Q the reminder that they are welcome regardless of they’re a “varsity Christian” (no such thing), or are struggling in whatever your faith or lack there of may be, you’re welcome.
  • The darkness has not overcome it.
  • Comes from John 1:5 = “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
    • What’s your “it” ?
    • As Jesus followers, we know how the story ends. And our Savior was born as a human to die from the get-go. The darkness (whatever that is for you) cannot overcome the light, the light of the world that we celebrate tomorrow.

Announcements

  • Jan 1st: Polar Bear Plunge in Townsend: Some of our PAX will be clown-car’ing up to Townsend on New Years Day to do an annual Polar Bear Plunge, followed by a 2nd F lunch at Soccer Taco on Northshore Drive. More info to come from Abscess closer to the 1st on where we’ll meetup, etc.

 

  • F3 Knoxville New Year’s Party: 1/3/2020
    • Friday, January 3rd: 5pm – 10:00pm
    • 2223 Mystic Ridge Road
    • “F3 Knoxville is having a New Years party…kind of. It’s on The Friday after New Years. Bring the wife, girlfriend/significant other or even a FNG. It’s going to be a fun night of fellowship to celebrate the new year! What to bring: a few bucks for the game tournaments, a small dessert or appetizer and BYOB. Tea and coffee will be provided. Make the HC now and let your wife/sig other meet the other idiots that you workout with at 5:30am!”

The Rockettes vs. The Five Wise Guys

THE SCENE: 35 degrees, dry and cloudy
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

SSH x 15, Baby Arm Circles x 15 forwards and 15 backwards, Shoulder Taps x 15, Rockettes x 10, Cherry Pickers x 5, some Michael Phelps and A Little of This and A Little of That

Then we broke off into 2 teams, which each chose a team captain and team name. Swanson led the Rockettes while Duggar led the Five Wise Guys.

THA-THANG:
Each exercise below was done as a team competition, whichever team won got to choose what exercise we did at the end.

  • Sunsphere: Everyone did an exercise at the bottom of the stairs while one person from each team raced to the top, did 5 reps of an exercise, and raced back down. 1st team done won, best 2 out of 3. Round 1) SSHs at the bottom and merkins at the top. Round 2) Al Gore at the bottom and Big Boy Situps at the top. The Rockettes won and decided on 25 Carolina Dry Docks.
  • Bridges over Cumberland: Everyone from both teams lined up and held a plank while one person from each team bearcrawled across. Once on the other side, the first man went back to a plank and called the next man from their team to cross. Once everyone from your team had crossed, your whole team bearcrawled back across together. 1st team back across won. The Five Wise Guys won and decided on 25 Hello Dollys in cadence.
  • Big Sloped Sidewalk: Everyone held a plank at the bottom while one man from each team raced to the top of the hill, did 5 burpees and raced back down. 1st team done won. The Five Guys won and decided on 25 Jump Squats.
  • Parking Lot with Rock Pile: Each team had there own rock and had 2 minutes to do as many reps of an exercise as a team. Best 2 out of 3. Round 1) Curls. Round 2) Overhead Presses. The Rockettes won and decided for some odd reason on 10 burpees in cadence
  • Parking Lot with Rocks again: Everyone held an Al Gore while one person from each team Bernied across the lot to their team’s rock, did 5 overhead presses and 5 curls, and ran back. 1st team to all finish the exercises won. The Five Wise Guys barely pulled off the win in a photo finish and decided on 15 4-point merkins.

MARY:
Moseyed back to the AO and did some Ring of Fire with American Hammers to kill the last few minutes
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Talked very briefly about our tendency to find a lot of misplaced pride and honor in the things we align ourselves with and how that can lead us to be blindly “all in” for something and/or to view others’ as our opposition or enemies. Be it in sports teams, politics, people we work with, or even our families and churches, we tend to want to see ourselves and our camps thrive and conquer and see our enemies fall and suffer. In this Advent season it’s interesting to reflect on the fact that God could have done that with the Messiah, but instead decided for Him to be born a baby, live a human life and die a humiliating death. God chose to demonstrate grace and humility in a way that most of us would have expected to see victory and glory. So I encouraged us all to reflect on the humility of God and to view others’ as more than just opposition or people who are different than us.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
A big welcome back to both Knoxville(for the holidays) and the States for Soot

MARSOC Monday

THE SCENE: 47* – in that window where you don’t know what to wear.  But no rain so good to go
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

Windmills x10 IC
Tempo lunge x10 IC
4 count merkins x10 IC
Tempo merkins x10 IC
SSH x20 IC
THA-THANG:
Pretty simple routine today, I know it’s probably done at every AO including Big Ball, but I hadn’t seen it come up in a bit so I decided it was time for the Marine Corps Short Card.  We moseyed out of the fountain area and over to the Big Ball.  Perform an exercise for the indicated number of reps, then sprint the stairs at BB to the top and back down before moving on to the next exercise.  I did not deviate from the prescribed exercises:

  • 30 merkins
  • 30 squats
  • 30 crunches (4 count)
  • 10 burpees
  • 10 windmills
  • 30 merkins
  • 30 mountain climbers (4 count)
  • 30 flutter kicks (4 count)
  • 10 burpees
  • 10 cherry pickers
  • 30 merkins
  • 30 star jumps
  • 30 supermans
  • 10 burpees
  • 10 chain breakers
  • 30 merkins
  • 30 lunges
  • 30 hello Dolly’s (4 count)
  • 10 burpees
  • 10 trunk twists
  • 3 sets of max dead hang pull ups, 10 second break in between each set

About halfway through the list, I called an audible and eliminated the stair runs in between exercises to allow everyone the chance to complete.  Those that finished earlier moved to the side and knocked out ab exercises, people joined in as they completed the short card:

Oblique crunches led by Butterfly
Flutter kicks
V Ups led by Ariel
American hammers
Heels to heaven
Boat/canoe

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Nine strong including one FNG: Half Caff, Orkin, Ariel, Huffy (FNG), Driftwood, G6, Butterfly, Swanson, Abort
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
“It is not work that kills men, it is worry.  Work is healthy; you can hardly put more on a man than he can bear.  But worry is rust on the blade.  It is not movement that destroys machinery, but friction.”  –

Like usual, what I share is something that I need to hear and listen to more than I’m providing for anyone else.  I just hope that I can listen and that it can help anyone else needing to hear it.  I make things worse nearly always by worrying, worrying before I can even do anything about it.  Worry does nothing to improve a situation.  The best thing I can do is turn worry into action, find something to work on.  If I can actually work on the problem at hand, it rarely is as bad as I worried about it being.  If I can’t yet work towards that, I need to find something else to occupy and improve until the time comes.
MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Lady Junk, Magic Mic’s grandfather Ed, Passport and his M, Ariel’s grandmother, and Orkin as he travels oversees

Working(out) Through Genesis

THE SCENE: In the beginning, it was 45 degrees and slightly raining. And it was good.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

SSH x 25, Baby Arm Circles x 20 forwards and 20 backwards, Shoulder Taps x 20, Cherry Pickers x 10, Mosey to Amphitheater
THA-THANG:
This whole workout revolved around the story of the book of Genesis

  • In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and everything in them. Then He made man in is own image. So we did 25 man makers
  • Then after Creation, the serpent deceived Adam and Eve, leading to the fall of man. So we did Cobra merkins in a Ring of Fire (each person did 5 reps while everyone else held a plank. we did 3 rounds around the circle)
  • After the Fall, mankind continued on its downward spiral of sin, eventually leading to God seeing that the intentions of their hearts were always evil and leading to the flood. God preserves life through Noah and his family and by gathering 2 of every animal to stay on the ark. We didn’t have an ark so we settled for Boat Canoes. Similar to the Cobras, we did this by going around the circle and each of us took a turn calling out Boat and Canoe
  • After the flood, several generations later, God calls Abraham and tells him that he will be father to a great nation that will bless all other nations. God also tells Abraham to go and leave his father’s homeland and go to the land He has promised for his descendants. So we moseyed to Ayres Hall aka the Promised Land
  • After much travel and even more waiting, Abraham finally has a son named Isaac. Years later, God calls Abraham to climb a mountain and sacrifice his only son Isaac at the top, but then provides a ram to take Isaac’s place. So at the bottom of The Hill we did 25 4-count Mountain Climbers and then sprinted up the stairs to the top of The Hill
  • After this Isaac has two sons, Esau and Jacob. Jacob tricks Isaac into giving him Esau’s blessing, leading to Esau threatening to kill Jacob and to Jacob fleeing into exile. While in exile, Jacob marries Leah and Rachel, and has a literal metric ton of children. So we did Pickle Pounders, also in a Ring of Fire. Each person did 10 reps while everyone else held a plank, we did 3 rounds total
  • After years in exile and building up his own family, God tells Jacob to return to his family and his father’s land, so we began to Mosey back to World’s Fair Park
  • Along the way back to Esau, Jacob has an encounter with God where the wrestle through the night and he is renamed to Israel, meaning “wrestles with God”. So we did Sumo Wrestler Squats in a Ring of Fire at the bottom of The Hill. Each person did 5 reps while everyone else held an Al Gore. We did 3 rounds
  • Esau and Jacob reconcile with one another, rebuilding the bridges Jacob burnt. Then years later his sons sell their brother Joseph into slavery in Egypt. Joseph ends up through circumstances as Pharoah’s right hand man after years in slavery and prison. Years later famine brings Jacob’s sons to Egypt to ask for aid from none other than Joseph. Joseph and his brothers are also reconciled, rebuilding the bridges they burnt years ago. So we did American Hammers and Bear Crawls on the bridge in front of the Hill. We partnered up, one partner Bear Crawled across the bridge and ran back while the other partner did American Hammers, then switched. We did 3 rounds of this
  • After reconciliation with his brothers, Joseph invites his family to live together in Egypt to endure the famine. Genesis then ends on a happy high note of encouragement with the eventual death of Jacob, Joseph and his brothers. So at the parking lot across from campus we did suicides. Each run had an exercise at the far end of the lot and at the beginning when we ran back, and each set was a shorter run and different exercises. Set 1: 10 merkins out and 10 Big Boy Sit ups back, Set 2: 10 Carolina Dry Docks out and 10 American Hammers back, Set 3: 15 Cobras out and 15 squats back, Set 4: 15 Wide Out merkins out and 15 Smurf Jacks back, Set 5: 15 Man Makers out and 15 BBS back
  • Then we moseyed back to the fountains

MARY:
Did some Ring of Fire with merkins and squats to kill some left over time
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
The reason I thought to revolve our workout around Genesis was for 2 things: 1. We just finished studying it in the ministry I work for and 2. Someone at my church while preaching about Advent said the Church Calendar was originally designed to help us orient our lives around the story of Scripture. I think we have a tendency to do just the opposite, we’d rather try to take Scripture and God and try to orient them around our story. So just as we oriented our workout around the story of Genesis, during this Advent season let’s think of ways in which we can place ourselves into the story of God rather than try to put Him into our own stories
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
None