F3 Knoxville

Joining Body and Spirit

THE SCENE: Wet, drippy, but not too cold for February
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • High knees
  • Projectivators
  • Tempo squats
  • Little baby arm circles
  • Tempo merkins
  • Fence steppers
  • Cherry pickers

THA-THANG:

  • Tabata with a Disney Princess Soundtrack
  • Tabata round 1 (45/15)
    • Curls
    • Heavy flutters
    • Heavy squats
    • CMU Swings
    • Row right
    • Row left
  • Mosey to play ground for max pull ups
  • Tabata round 2 (45/15)
    • Heavy LBCs
    • Block Jump overs
    • Gore Curls
    • Heavy freddy’s
    • Heavy heel raises
    • Walking CMU Merkins
  • Mosey to playground for max pull-ups
  • Tabata round 3 (45/15)
    • Heavy Lunges
    • Heel taps
    • Good mornings
    • Heavy Big Boys
    • Heavy Hammers
    • Blockees
  • Heavy squat ring of fire up to 5

MARY:
Enough time for a full round of dealer’s choice.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Matthew 6:16-18

16 “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.17But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face,18so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

fasting, Schmemann argues, “rather than weakening us makes us light, concentrated, sober, joyful, pure.

true “Christian asceticism is a fight, not against but for the body.”

In Taft’s words, penance is “not a turning in on self, not a concentration on self-discipline as some sort of spiritual athletics, but an openness to new life, and through it openness to others, the end to which it is all supposed to lead.”

Schmemann counsels a fast to “control our speech”19 so that we can recover a measure of silence in our spiritual life without which we cannot hear the voice of the Lord.

fasting, like all forms of discipline, “is not a pitting of the spirit against the flesh, but rather body and soul united together against sin, body and soul converted together to the Lord.

The body is valuable and a precious gift of the Creator—who Himself of course took on human flesh—but its value is only recognizable paradoxically when it is not pampered but denied, as in fasting: “fasting in Christianity is only truly itself when it realizes the sacredness of the body.

fasting as a physical effort is totally meaningless, and potentially even dangerous, without its spiritual counterpart: ‘by fasting and prayer.

Prospective lent practices: Say the lord’s prayer twice a day, replace one meal a day with something nutritious but bland, Warm-up every morning

MOLESKIN:
This was a close approximation of a Q from last February, but the need for self discipline, both physical and spiritual, never stops.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Donations still ongoing to Wesley House – see Slack, CSAUP this Saturday, Family Q March 5 with Biohack and Chicken Lady co-Q.

I am trying to pull together a Shield Lock / Discipleship Band program for the AO. If you want to participate, let me know what times you could genuinely commit. I will try to line up groups of 3-4 based on common availability.

Schedule Your Priorities

THE SCENE:   56 and drizzly
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER:  Administered
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • Seal claps
  • Burger Squat Jumps *
  • Angel crunches
  • Gas pumps
  • Plank jacks
  • Catalina wine mixer

THA THANG:

Mosey to the library quad.  Four corners.  Complete exercises as written – EMOM run a lap around the fountain.  Move quadrants as a group – at the pace of the fastest man.

  • 20 Squat + Box Jump
  • 40 BBS
  • 60 Lunge pulses
  • 80 Merkins

Mosey to the playground – max pull-ups.

Mosey to the amphitheater.  Pyramid.  30 seconds each.  Round 1 do exercise 1, Round 2 do exercises 1 and 2, Round 3, do 1, 2, and 3…etc.

  1. Stretch OYO
  2. Boggart Circle **
  3. SSH
  4. Mountain climbers
  5. Burger Jump Squats *
  6. Gas pumps
  7. Catalina wine mixer
  8. Angel crunches
  9. Plank hip dips
  10. Body builders

MARY:

Only had time for this week’s plank challenge – 80 seconds

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

Me and 8 of the best men that I know

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

The Word this morning starts in Mathew 8… It’s soon after Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount.  He and his follows were in Capernaum, getting ready to leave.  A disciple comes and says, “first let me go and bury my father.” Jesus responded, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”  That seems kind of harsh, Jesus.

I was reading in a couple of commentaries – Ellicott’s and Barnes’ – that the word “dead” is used in this passage in two different senses.  The Greek term, nekrous, can mean “dead; corpse” – but it can also be used to express indifference toward a thing; or, rather, to show that a thing has no influence over us.  Roman 7, “dead to the world…”, “dead to the law…” – Romans 6 “dead to sin…” – those all use the term nekrous – to mean “not influenced by”.

So, perhaps, Jesus is using a play on words to say, “Let people who are uninterested in my work – people who are indifferent to spiritual things – let THEM perform routine duties.”  The statement implies… “so that you can spend your time living a higher calling.” Jesus and his band of misfits were healing the sick (!), raising the dead (!), casting out demons (!)…let someone who is not interested in those things do the lower conventional duties (or leave them undone).

Everyone has a finite amount of focus, time, and energy.  We need to prioritize the higher things over the lower things. 

I’m reminded of a Stephen Covey principle, “put first things first”.  He talks about the 4 quadrants that we can use our time – and implores us to convert our Q3 time (where most of us spend the majority of our time) into Q2 time.  In a nutshell…don’t spend all of your time doing unimportant urgent things.  Sacrifice those things so that you can focus on important non-urgent things. 

Here are a couple of Covey quotes;

“Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.”

“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”

What are the Q2 things?  Not urgent – but important?  Things like;

  • Spending time reading and praying, because that brings me life and then I can offer my best to others…
  • Spending time playing with my kids, because I know that I’ll blink and they’ll be grown…
  • Making time to make love with my wife (hard with a baby in the house), because otherwise we feel a lack of connection to each other…
  • Going to bed early so you can make the F3 workouts and spend time with your F3 brothers

Challenge:  Sometime this week, sacrifice (or delegate) a routine responsibility so that you can do something that is not urgent – but is important.  I’d love to see you respond to the BB thread and let us know what it is you did.  Something like,

  • “I left the clothes in the dryer for a few hours so that I could play with my kids before they went to bed.”
  • “I wanted to spend more time with my pillow, but I rolled out of bed to make the F3 workout”
  • “I paid a guy to come replace my water heater so that I could spend my Saturday catching up with friends who I haven’t seen in a year.”

Colossians 3:2, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”

MOLESKIN:

* Burger Squat Jump:  T-Claps to Guardrail for naming this exercise!  A “Burger Squat Jump” is a wide squat, jump and bring your feet narrow, narrow squat, jump and put your feet back wide.  That’s one.  In-N-Out…

** Boggart Circle:  T-Claps to Cross-check for naming this!  It started out as us doing 30 seconds of SSH in a circle…  Impromptu and out of boredom, we started a thing…  One man would call the name of a man across from him, then they would do traveling SSH to switch sides with each other.  Since we did this 8 times total, later versions got crazy with rotating SSH, dosey-doe movements…it was totally riddikulus – which is how it got the name. (Sidebar: Pool Boy likes Harry Potter but hates SSH…I wonder what he’ll think of the Boggart Circle?).

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

CSAUP this Saturday!

BoBBit’s Baseball Beatdown

THE SCENE:
8 HIMs (including 1 FNG) relishing in the refreshing spring-like 59 degrees that tantalized the imagination with anticipation for the exhilarating scent of blooming flowers, baseball, and cut grass. I can FEEL it!

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
Rendered dutifully.

WARM-O-RAMA:

QIC served an assortment of the following:

  • SSH (x15)
  • Willy Mays Hays (OYO)
  • Tempo Squats (x10)
  • Tempo Merkins (x10)
  • Grady Corn
  • Chattanooga Cherry Pickers ®
  • LBAC Forward
  • LBAC Back
  • Cherry Pickers of the Knoxville variety (x5)
  • SSH (x10)

Let’s mosey!

THA-THANG:
Spring is in the air and just around the corner which means so is MLB Spring Training (first games begin Feb 24!!! Go Cubbies!). Time to get in shape for baseball season (…or maybe just hotdog and beverage curls)! PAX partnered up and grabbed CMUs to head to the semi-(meaning not so much)-symmetrical diamond in the mall parking lot. Each pair took a base. Completed 30 reps of the of the first exercises below and traveled to the next base. When HIMs complete 4 bases and 4 travels, they score one run and are to take a victory lap around the parking lot. Rinse and repeat completing 30 reps of the second exercise. Exercises were as follows…

  • First Base – Single Arm Rows and Heavy Squats | Travel = Heavy Lunges
  • Second Base – Heavy BBS and CMU Swings | Travel = Riffle Carry
  • Third Base – Merkins and Derkins | Travel = Farmer Carry
  • Home – Curls and OH Press | Travel = Block Bear
  • Victory lap.
  • Repeat.

Mosey to the flag.

Bonus: Bobbitt’s Baseball Beatdown Playlist…

  • “The Boys Are Back In Town” – Thin Lizzy
  • “Centerfield” – John Fogerty
  • “Saturday in the Park” – Chicago
  • “My Oh My” – Maclemore & Ryan Lewis
  • “Green Onions” – Booker T. & the M.G.’s (Sandlot anyone?)
  • “Fortunate Son” – Credence Clearwater Revival
  • “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” – The Rolling Stones (not played for time)
  • “Start Me Up” – The Rolling Stones (not played for time)

MARY:
No time for Mary …to the dismay of Mary, Tuba, and YHC (YHC owes doubly in promised Prone Rows).

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
YHC has been reading a book called The Second Mountain by David Brooks (NYT columnist). In it, he talks about many people who had reached the peak of what we would call success and were surprisingly not satisfied. When we look at the most successful in our culture, there is rampant drug and alcohol use as well as broken relationships that reveal people’s dissatisfaction. He goes on to describe people who had descended what he called the first mountain and began ascending a second mountain with different values. This mountain is about losing one’s self in serving others. He notes that people on this mountain of life were achieving real happiness in their lives.

It is not hard to see the Christ-like example in this concept.

In Philippians 2:3-4 (ESV), Paul says, “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

In the TV series Band of Brothers, Major Dick Winters comments that it wasn’t hatred that caused most men to fight, but love; love for their brothers, love for their families back home, love for their country. While YHC was unable to find the direct quote, Stephen Ambrose picks up this theme. He says, “They found in combat the closest brotherhood they ever knew. They found selflessness. They found they could love the other guy in their foxhole more than themselves. They found that in war, men who loved life would give their lives for them” (Ambrose, Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest). In war, when these men found themselves in an incredibly difficult and demanding situation, they found the peak of human achievement: self-sacrificial love.

Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which progresses from physiological needs, safety, Wi-Fi, love and belonging, Starbucks, and esteem, culminates with “self-actualization” and ultimately does not reach far enough. YHC would like to suggest that self-transcendence, getting beyond oneself, is the true pinnacle of human achievement.

What does this mean?

Examine your “why”. Why do you get up in the morning to post at F3? YHC admittedly started to feel good about what he saw in the mirror for once. Then to impress his M. Only recently has it occurred to YHC to get better in order to better serve the people around us. This comes down to even naming the people we care for as we take another step, do another rep. To whom will you dedicate your next burpee? It’s not about you anymore.

MOLESKIN:
We’re excited to welcome our newest FNG, Cross-Check! YHC is overcome with jealousy for such a cool name. We were also excited that Booster came over to join us! Coffeteria was enjoyed afterward. Mathlete passed out helpful cards to track the KickFlip challenge. See him to get yours. Fun was had by all!

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

  • CSAUP @ Asylum Feb 26 (See Slack for details and to register)
  • Family Workout March 5 @ The Project (9am? …I think. See Slack for details.)
  • OTB Runs M/W/F (See Slack for details)
  • Sign Up to Q! (See Slack for…you get it.)

Spiraling Up

THE SCENE: Balmy 34, clear and still
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • Squats
  • Gradey Corns (OH+Seal claps)
  • Merkins
  • Mountain climbers
  • Hairy Rockettes

THA-THANG:

  • Mosey to the pool wall – 10 wall ups
  • Mosey to the playground – max pull ups
  • Mosey to amphitheater – 10 box jumps
  • Mosey to recruiting center
    • Stations – 1 minute, then rotate, 2 full cycles
      • Black Betty – Dead lift and Rows
      • Dumb Bells – curl and overhead press
      • Dumb bells – chest and lunges
      • Tire flip
      • Sledge tire
      • Tire throw
      • Slam ball – Slam and High throw
      • Plank makers (man makers without merkin)
      • Heavy Big Boys
      • Heavy Flutter Kicks

MARY:
Made it back to the flag at 6:15 sharp
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
As part of Kickflip’s challenge, we are reading through the Q source week by week. This week we read about Getting Right. As I reflected on the reading, it seemed to me that the process it describes seems too linear. Rather than getting yourself totally right, then solving the fitness problem, then the fellowship problem, and finally the faith problem, my experience has been that this is the right order, but they repeat. By seeking God, I see that I am not right, so I work on getting right. As I progress in this, it bears fruit in my fitness, fellowship and faith. But then, as my relationship with God improves, further un-rightness is revealed, and I have no choice but to begin the cycle again. So, rather than thinking of a linear process of incrementally getting myself all worked out and perfect, it seems more like a spiral upward, with circuits of getting right, and working on my fitness, fellowship, and faith. Each cycle translates me further onward, but while some aspect of my life might appear to be in good shape at this moment, further growth will be demanded.

Matthew 12:43-45 – 43 “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. 45 Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”

I heard an interpretation of this parable that seemed to fit with this idea. If you go through the effort of getting yourself right (getting an impure spirit out, you might say), you have to be careful not to leave that space empty, but you need to fill it with a family. Otherwise, that unclean spirit will move back in with a few extra friends, and you’ll find yourself worse off than you were. That’s why we need the full cycle, we begin by putting out the unclean spirit, but then we need to immediately begin refilling that space through fitness, fellowship, and faith.
MOLESKIN:
Next time I will pull together a princess playlist!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Family workout is GO for Saturday, 9 am at the normal AO. Check out the opportunity for giving that Judge posted on the main page in Slack (also linked on the project page).

Early Life of Moses (again)

THE SCENE: Cold 25F
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • Projectivator – 11
  • Overhead clap
  • Tempo squat
  • Cherry picker

THA-THANG:

  1. Draw him from the water:  1min of Walpies
  2. Raised as an Egyptian:  1min of inverse rows
  3. Murder the Egyptian:  1min of murder bunnies w/out blocks
  4. Flee to Midian:  hustle to K25 hill
  5. Burning bush: 1min of Al Gore
  6. 10 Plagues on the hill (1min of exercises then run up/down the hill)
    1. Merkins
    2. Big boys
    3. Mountain Climbers
    4. LBCs
    5. Basilisk
    6. Hello Dolly
    7. Squats
    8. Lunges
    9. Side Straddle Hop
    10. Burpies
  7. 17 When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, “Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.” 18 But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle.
    1. Run around ORAU campus back to the flag

MARY:
Skip the length of the parking lot.

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Moses was flawed but was used by God for good. Unlike most stories (Biblical, heroic, fairy tale, etc), we see most of Moses’s life and it doesn’t end with “happily ever after.”  It ends with his death in failure after a life of great achievement.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Family Q on February 12th