F3 Knoxville

BLIMPS and the crucible

THE SCENE: 28* but low humidity so it wasn’t too sweltering
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

Bend and squat x10 IC
Squat jumps x5 OYO
Mountain climbers x15 IC
Squat jumps x5 OYO
Three point merkins x10 IC
OH Claps/Forward claps x20 IC
SSH x20 IC

THA-THANG:

Mosey a lap around the WFP lawn and return to start point for a round of BLIMPS
Burpees x5 -> Lunges x10 each leg -> Imperial Walkers x15  -> Merkins x20
Plank jacks x25 -> SSH x30

Mosey again to keep moving as soon as we finish, out past the Big Ball and to the pedestrian bridge across the pond. Stop and repeat same BLIMPS routine. Mosey back the way we came, looping around toward the amphitheater. We stopped at the underpass for wall sits. 30 seconds on, 10 seconds off. 45 seconds on, 10 seconds off. 60 seconds on with arm flutters, then recover. Mosey on to amphitheater.

 

Four sets of stairs with four exercises and four stupid ways to climb the stairs. Before you start any round, you run to the middle of the stage and knock out five 8-count bodybuilders. When you reach the top of each set of stairs, you do 10 inverted rows/pullups on the rails and return to the stage for bodybuilders and advance to the next set of stairs.
Round 1: 15 squat jumps, crawl bear the stairs
Round 2: 10 Catalina wine mixers, left lunge the stairs
Round 3: 15 V-Ups, right lunge the stairs
Round 4: 20 burps, bunnyhop the stairs (touch each step)

MARY:
Flutter kicks x15
Flutter kicks x20
Flutter kicks x25 (yes very creative)
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
5 Strong: Swanson, Singlet (WELCOME BACK!), G6, Ariel (LOVES CRAWL BEARS), Abort (dancing idiot)
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Failure is a crucible. It is the forge by which a Leader is purified through the burning away of his me-first self-regarding nature.

 

Borrowed Q from Mouthwash

THE SCENE: 35* – good incentive to keep moving
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

Windmills
Tempo squats
Patty cake merkins
OH Claps
BAC forward and reverse
Standing shoulder taps
THA-THANG:
Short mosey over to the base of the Big Ball, which is where my first theft of Mouthwash’s recent Q comes into play.  First routine is 5 body blasters (Burpee -> Pull up -> Knees to elbows) and try to keep good form (keep from swinging about).
Then we stepped over to the stairs and go 1:10 with jump squats at the bottom, run to the middle landing and do WWII sit ups.  Start with one rep of each exercise, then two, all the way up to 10 reps of each.
Finish off with another round of body blasters.

Recover and mosey back to the lawn at World’s Fair Park.  This is the other part of his Q I stole.  Set up cones down the sidewalk for various suicide drills with exercises thrown in.  Every time you were at the start point, you did two burpees.  This remained constant regardless of the round or which cone you were on.  Variations as follows:

  • Sprint suicide; 15 merkins at each cone
  • Lunge suicide; 15 squats at each cone
  • Bear crawl suicide; 15 LBCs at each cone

Quick mosey back over to the base of the Big Ball.  Told everyone to do 5 body blasters and meet back out front to head back to the start point.  As soon as everyone was in front, I sent them back for 5 more body blasters, then we jogged it back home.

MARY:
V-Ups
Flutter kicks

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Fantastic Four: Amazon, Passport, Swanson, Abort
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
I’ve lived in Knoxville about 3 years now, but being from Maryville I grew up only 30-40 minutes away.  If you’d told me five years ago I’d be walking around downtown Knoxville at 4:30AM multiple times a week, I’d probably think I made a huge mistake and wound up without a place to live.  When I first started F3 about 2.5 years ago, I only posted Saturdays because I “didn’t have time” to post during the weekday mornings.  If I’m not lazy, now I’m trying to post four weekdays plus Saturdays.It’s funny how things that once seemed either highly unlikely or maybe even unfathomable slowly become not just possible but completely routine.  While the two instances I just mentioned are positive, the unfortunate thing is that it happens for negative things as well.  Neglecting a relationship with a parent/child/spouse or friend usually isn’t an acute issue.  Neither is half-assing things at your job.  You allow yourself wiggle room to become complacent in these things, and five years fly by and you are doing things you’d never have imagined yourself doing.  Only this time when you realize the routine you are not proud, but ashamed.  Look at your day, both what you’re doing and how you treat people, and ask yourself how that compares to five years ago.  And take the steps today to make sure five years from now you hold your head high.  Leave no doubt.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:Can drive finishing up and the Brolympics this weekend.

Three man birthday bash

THE SCENE: Low 50s, a little cool start but absolutely perfect once moving
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

Mountain climbers
WWII situps
Burps
Tempo squats
Patty-cake merkins
OH Claps
THA-THANG:
Very short mosey just across the street to the sidewalk outlining the war veteran’s memorial for four corners.  Start at corner one, perform the exercise, run the square outside the veterans memorial and back to the start.  Do first exercise then second corner exercise, finish the square.  Continue adding each corner on the lap until doing all four exercises.  Exercises were:

  • Merkins x20 (four total rounds)
  • Eight count bodybuilders x10 (three total rounds)
  • Lunges x20 (10 each leg, two total rounds)
  • Freddy Mercury x20 (4 count ex, one total round)

Again, very short mosey to the rock pile behind L&N STEM academy.  Grab a rock and knock out the list below, doing 23 reps of each exercise for Ariel’s 23rd birthday.  After each exercise, you either run to the flag pole at the memorial and back or stay in place and knock out 15 merkins.  Can change as often as you want.  Exercise list, with rocks:

  • Curls
  • OH Press
  • Squats
  • Front raises
  • Curls
  • Lunges
  • Sit ups
  • Curls

Third very short mosey back to the fountains where we started.  Again 23 reps of each exercise utilizing the four benches on the outside perimeter of the fountains.  Bear crawl around the circle between each bench. Exercises:

  • Dips
  • Step ups
  • Incline merkins
  • Pistol squats

Rinse and repeat doing an easier/harder modification.  Cut the reps from 23 of each exercise down to 12 of each, but crab walk (feet forward is the correct form) between the benches instead of bear crawl.

MARY:
Leg lifts
American hammers
Ariel’s choice, which he got to lead: V-Ups
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
3 man birthday bash: Ariel, G6, Abort
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
I’ve lived in Knoxville about 3 years now, but being from Maryville I grew up only 30-40 minutes away.  If you’d told me five years ago I’d be walking around downtown Knoxville at 4:30AM multiple times a week, I’d probably think I made a huge mistake and wound up without a place to live.  When I first started F3 about 2.5 years ago, I only posted Saturdays because I “didn’t have time” to post during the weekday mornings.  If I’m not lazy, now I’m trying to post four weekdays plus Saturdays.

It’s funny how things that once seemed either highly unlikely or maybe even unfathomable slowly become not just possible but completely routine.  While the two instances I just mentioned are positive, the unfortunate thing is that it happens for negative things as well.  Neglecting a relationship with a parent/child/spouse or friend usually isn’t an acute issue.  Neither is half-assing things at your job.  You allow yourself wiggle room to become complacent in these things, and five years fly by and you are doing things you’d never have imagined yourself doing.  Only this time when you realize the routine you are not proud, but ashamed.  Look at your day, both what you’re doing and how you treat people, and ask yourself how that compares to five years ago.  And take the steps today to make sure five years from now you hold your head high.  Leave no doubt.

Crawl bear up the ladder

THE SCENE: Low 60s again, just having perfect gloom weather
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

3-point squats
BAC Forward
OH Claps
BAC Reverse
SSH
THA-THANG:
Grab keys and mosey out of the pavilion, out of the park and across the street to the parking lot of Fountain City United Methodist Church.  Routine is going down Jacob’s ladder.  Start in the lower parking lot, where you always do 5 BBSUs.  Run up the parking lot until you reach the split, and crawl bear up the storm drain to the upper parking lot.  Once you reach the upper lot, you have 10 eight count bodybuilders, then run out to the sidewalk and back down the hill to the lower lot.
The five BBSUs at the bottom remains the same for every iteration, but you decrease your reps of eight counts at the top.  Rounds 10-6 are eight counts, rounds 5-1 switch to diamond merkins at the top (this felt generous).

Everyone finished mostly at the same time, after which I thought we needed some lower body work.  Has been a while since I’d thrown in leg blasters, so we knocked out a round of that.  All exercises done together in cadence with no rest in between:

  • 20 squats
  • 20 lunges
  • 10 jump squats

I forgot how fun it is to run after doing those.  The plan was to reverse the ladder and do 10-6 with diamond merkins and 5-1 with eight counts, but time was a little short and I wanted to hit the escalator.  So we moseyed around to the parking lot adjacent to the duck pond.  I stole Swanson’s idea for the escalator without running from Tuesday.  Exercises as follows:

  • Imperial walkers (left right one)
  • Hello Dolly (4 count)
  • Alternating shoulder taps (left right one)
  • Crab cakes (left right one)
  • Dips on curb
  • Hand release merkins

Start at 1 rep of each, work down the list and return to the top.  Increase reps each time on the way to 10.  I think we finished 8 before time ran out.

MARY:
Crunches with feet elevated 6″
Flutter kicks
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
5 Strong: Filter, Duggar, Manilow, Toucan, Abort
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Cap’n had sent a text with the following passage from The Daily Stoic: “When the standards have been set, things are tested and weighed.  And the work of philosophy is just this, to examine and uphold the standards, but the work of a truly good person is in using the standards when they know them.” – Epictetus
To me, one of the standards I need to both set and make sure that I am upholding is making my actions and decisions come from a place of love.  That doesn’t mean to always be nice, because as we’ve learned from the Q source you have to be able to tell people the difficult truths in life.  However, sugarcoating a problem or ignoring it also is not upholding the standard.  I need to make sure my actions are always based in love and to leave no doubt that that is the case.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Can drive for Second Harvest and Brolympics on November 9.

create a new story

THE SCENE: Low 60s, great weather to get a sweat going
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

Static stretches – left, right, middle
High Knees
Monkey Humpers
Merkin variations – diamond, ranger, wide
SSH
THA-THANG:
Barely any mosey, just to the side of the fountains.  Run the sidewalk down to the stage, 10 burpees, come back.  Climb down the ladder, decreasing burpees by 1 rep each iteration.  Burpees are done 10-6, then switch to merkins for 5-1.
Everyone does flutter kicks waiting for the six to finish up.  Recover and 10 count.  I played a dirty trick, picked the key ruck up and acted like we were moving on.  Then sat it back down and told everyone we were finishing the set, this time in reverse.  Same routine, but 10-6 is merkins and 5-1 is burpees running to the stage and back.  If you haven’t noticed, the number of the day was 10.  Today is 10/10 and my Braves gave up a soul crushing 10 runs in the first inning of the NLDS last night.

Recover and mosey over to the big ball.  Chalk on the ground for exercises:

  • Pull ups
  • Hanging leg lifts
  • Burps
  • Reverse crunches

Following the number of the day, 10 reps of each OYO and plank up out front.  Pull ups followed by hanging leg lifts is a fun 1-2 gut punch.  So I let the guys pick one exercise to cut in half.  They chose leg lifts, so I added those reps to reverse crunches as we went back through the routine.

Finishing with legs on the stairs at the Big Ball.  10 lunges, 10 squats, 10 calf raises followed by a sprint up to the top of the stairs and back down.  Repeato x2.

Mosey back to start point.

MARY:
Ran short on time, just had time for:
Crunches with feet elevated 6″ like starting position for flutters
Flutter kicks
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
6 Strong: G6, Passport, Reverb, Wings, Acapella, Abort
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
I have a buddy who has a tendency to tell the same stories over and over.  And while there is nothing wrong with high school stories (or college, or whenever), especially if those stories have lessons to be learned. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with reliving accomplishments, funny memories or anything like that.  However, don’t just tell those old stories.  Always be looking for new stories to create, and live with the mentality that what you do today is what you’ll remember in 10 years, make sure its a good memory that you want to tell.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Can drive for Second Harvest going on, Brolympics II on November 9th.