F3 Knoxville

Things to think on

THE SCENE: Cold and spitting snow. Here to help me celebrate 36 years!
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

36 SSH, 9 Moroccan night club, 9 Peter Parkers, 9 Parker Peters, 9 J-Los
THA-THANG:
Indian run to the Sophomore. At the Sophomore, we did a couple of sets of 4 corners.

1st Set

  • 36 Merkins, Bernie Sanders up
  • 36 Squats
  • 36 Imperial walkers
  • 9 Burpees

2nd Set

  • 20 Peter Parkers with merkin, Bernie Sanders up the hill
  • 20 Lunges
  • 20 Heels to Heaven
  • 20, 2-ct Mountain climbers

Begin to indian run back towards the shovel flag but pass it up and go up the hill to the Maple Street parking lot.

  • 20 Diamond merkins, bear crawl to the next corner
  • 20 Squats, sprint to next corner
  • 20 J-Los (2-ct), lunge walk to next corner
  • 20 werkins
  • 10 burpees broad jumps towards the starting corner
    MARY:
    Ring of fire Merkins. Go around the circle while holding plank and each PAX does 1 merkin. Increase count until 4. 15 Freddie Mercury, protractor
    COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
    10 PAX helped me celebrate 36 years.
    CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
    “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. “
  • Philippians 4:4‭-‬9 NASB

YHC has heard this passage or a portion of it a few times in the past days. I thought it was worth sharing this morning given the state of the world. It is always encouraging to think of the good things in life and, more importantly, the life to come when times are tough.
MOLESKIN:
Welcome Mr. Slate to Knoxville from Lexington.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
CSAUP coming up at Asylum January 30.

Always be Sober-Minded

THE SCENE: A cool, crisp morning, temp in low 30s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

7 Cherry Pickers, 20 Side-Straddle-Hops, 10 Tempo Merkins, 10 Tempo Squats, 7 lunges each leg.
THA-THANG:
Mosey to the Coupon Pile and carry the coupons to Sophomore Hill. We started in the lower left hand corner, doing one workout at each corner before duck walking the coupon up and down the hill while Rifle Carrying the coupon between the corners at the top and bottom. We did three laps around Sophomore Hill. The first lap had

  • Curls (20)
  • Shoulder Raises (15)
  • Front Shoulder Raises (10)
  • Burpees (5)

The second lap had

  • Squats (20)
  • Calf Raises (15)
  • Monkey Humpers (10)
  • Lunges (5 each leg)

The third lap had

  • Hello Dolly’s (20)
  • Heals to Heaven (15)
  • Big Boys (10)
  • Heavy Mercury’s (5, 4 count)

The only workout done without holding the coupon was the burpees and monkey humpers.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
11 present, no FNGs.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
In the book the Hobbit, there is a scene in which Bilbo Baggins is having a conversation with Smaug the Dragon. At first, Bilbo is thinking clearly and he is confident in his conversation with Smaug. But the more that Smaug talks, he begins to lure Bilbo into believing certain lies about why he is there and about the troop that brought him there. Bilbo slowly starts to believe the dragon and he comes to a point where he almost reveals himself to the dragon, he almost gives into the dragon and his lies. But he comes to his senses and runs from the dragon.

In 2 Timothy, Paul is talking to Timothy and reminding him of the people they know that have fallen away from the faith. They have seen the truth, but then they are slowly deceived and believe lies that they devil tells them and they fall away from the faith. Then, in 2 Timothy 4:5, Paul tells Timothy to “Always be sober-minded.” Paul reminds Timothy of his ministry, of his focus. He reminds Timothy of the truth.

So many times, the devil tempts us and lies to us about what is important, lies about ourselves, lies about God. As we go about our days today, let’s focus on the truth that we are loved by God, we are saved through grace by faith and we are His. Let’s be sober minded in all that we do and not fall into the trap of the devil to believe the lies that he tries to tell us.
MOLESKIN:
Prayers for our country, peace and integrity. Prayers for Boosters friend JJ in the ICU. Prayers for Guardrails wife’s uncle who is having some issues in the hospital.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
CSAUP at the Asylum on Saturday, January 30 from 6:30 am to 9 am.

Press On Toward The Goal

THE SCENE: 31 degrees
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

cherry picker, rocking chair, ‘merkins
THA-THANG:
Mohammed Ali, when asked how many reps he could do of an exercise, he said he had no idea – he doesn’t really count. He just goes until he is exhausted and then does an additional set. We didn’t do that…but we did a mini version!

  • Mosey to small rock pile.
  • Shoulder as many as possible your own for 1 min (front raises, lateral, overhead clap) followed by 5 reps together each time.
  • Mosey to coupon pile (with drop 2x burpee / 2 lines)
  • Coupon pile exercises (Each is max out for 1 minute and then do 5x together)
      • (merkins, coupon press, overhead and/or skull crushers)
      • Rows, bicep
      • Squats, calf raises
  • Between each major muscle group: Mosey to hill and Bear crawl up hill w/1 burpee @ top
  • Mosey to flag with 2x burpee drop off lines again

MARY: no time…finished @ 6:15

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
17 present: Guardrail, Erector, 5K, Booster, Wheelchair, Butter Knife, Dart Gun, Footsie, Wanderer, Sty, Gump, Commission, Pool Boy, sos, Mailbox, Spotter, hound dog
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Philippians 3:13-14, “Brothers and sisters, I do not regard myself as having taken hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Janus, the Roman God for which January was named, had two faces: one looked forward to the new year and one looked backward to the past year. This morning I related that I am not big on resolutions because most people give up on them by “ditch day,” January 17th. Nevertheless, I do believe in the power of goals. After all, if you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time!

Personal confession: even though I lost about 45 pounds over the last couple years, I put back 10 -15 this year off of a sweet tooth and lazy habits. I hit F3 3x week, but as they say, “you can’t outrun your fork.” How does the weight come back on like that? Slowly…1 pound at a time!

So we have to be diligent. And like physical weight, we might be carrying a few extra spiritual pounds into 2021 too. Ghandi said that the chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too strong to be broken. Bad habits come on slowly, day by day. We might have a secret sin or a burden we aren’t willing to unload. How do we overcome? Do what we can, give ourselves over completely, and hand more of our lives over to God each day.

They say that elephants are trained by securing their leg against something strong enough when they are young so that when they are old they remember that they cannot break free. Then, a mere rope and tiny tent peg in the ground is enough to keep them in place. We must break free of the thought that we can do ONLY 20 or 30 or 50 reps. By maxing out in a minute and then “adding 5,” we learned we are capable of more than we thought…or at least I did!

Thanks for letting me lead again…and hope you’re sore tomorrow…’cause I already can’t lift my arms 🙂

Uncle Booster’s 12 Days of Christmas

THE SCENE: 35 and beautiful in the gloom!
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

Insert information about the warmup.

  • Baby Arm Circles Forward X 10 followed by Michael Phelps
  • Baby Arm Circles Backward X 10 followed by Michael Phelps
  • Cherry Pickers (IC) 4 CT X 10
  • Tempo Squats (IC) 4 CT X 10
  • Hand Release Merkins X 10
  • Side Straddle Hops (IC) X 20
  • Tennessee Rocking Horse X 10
  • Mosey to the Large Parking Lot

THA-THANG:

12 days of Christmas

We do ascending exercises, with 60 yard runs down & 60 yards back each day.

  • 1st day of Christmas     Burpee
  • 2nd day of Christmas:    Shoulder Taps (4ct)
  • 3rd day of Christmas:    Box Cutters (4ct)
  • 4th day of Christmas:    Jump Squats
  • 5th day of Christmas:    Hand Release Merkins
  • 6th day of Christmas:    Hello Dollys (4ct)
  • 7th day of Christmas:    Smurf Jacks (4ct)
  • 8th day of Christmas:    Carolina Dry Docks
  • 9th day of Christmas:    Flutter Kicks (4ct)
  • 10th day of Christmas:  Squats (4ct)
  • 11th day of Christmas:   Diamond Merkins
  • 12th day of Christmas:  Burpees

Ascending Squats

Lunge, Lunge – 1 Squat

Lunge, Lunch – 2 Squats

Etc…up to 15 squats

100 Calf Raises

MARY: Part of the Q
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

16 enjoyed the fun…Betty, Butter Knife, Commission, Erector, Hound Dog, Judge Judy, Kenjo, Kick-Flip, Mailbox, Pool Boy, Ralph, Spotter, Survivor, Wanderer, Wheelchair & Booster

MoleSkin

This Q was borrowed (and tweaked a bit) from Charmin’s Q at the Quacken on Wednesday

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

“Joy to the world, the Lord is come, let earth receive her King.” – “Joy to the World”

“Peace on earth will come to stay, when we live Christmas every day.” — Helen Steiner Rice

“Remembrance, like a candle, burns brightest at Christmastime.” — Charles Dickens

“It’s not how much we give, but how much love we put into giving.” — Mother Theresa

“Your children need your presence more than your presents.” — Jesse Jackson

“The way you spend Christmas is far more important than how much.” — Henry David Thoreau

“Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality.” – Washington Irving

“What is Christmas? It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future.” – Agnes M. Pahro

“May your hearth be warm, your holidays grand, and your heart held gently in the good Lord’s hand.” — Unknown

“Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable Gift.” – 2 Corinthians 9:15

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Sign up to Q/VQ/Co-Q

No Christmas Workout

Here comes another 12 days of Christmas!

THE SCENE: Mid 40s and clear. Perfect Sweatin’ Weather
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

SSH (4ct) IC x 12; Tie Fighters (BAC in lunge position), both directions x12
THA-THANG:
Mosey to Gresham Elementary for a little 12 days of Christmas. We do ascending exercises, with runs in alternating directions between the verses.  Christmas lights were up (though the little lights weren’t twinkling)

  • 1st day of Christmas: Burpee
  • 2nd day of Christmas: Shoulder Taps (4ct)
  • 3rd day of Christmas: Box Cutters (4ct)
  • 4th day of Christmas: Jump Squats
  • 5th day of Christmas: Tempo Merkins
  • 6th day of Christmas: Hello Dollys (4ct)
  • 7th day of Christmas: Smurf Jacks (4ct)
  • 8th day of Christmas: Carolina Dry Docks
  • 9th day of Christmas: Flutters (4ct)
  • 10th day of Christmas: Squats (4ct)
  • 11th day of Christmas: Overhand claps (4ct)
  • 12th day of Christmas: 8 count Bodybuilders a/k/a Man Makers

MARY:
No Mary.  That is one long Christmas Carol.  So we slowsied back to the AO and circled up.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
We are in the 2nd week of Advent.  It is the week of Faith.  The first week was the week of Hope.  The perfect bible verse encompassing each of these concepts is Hebrews 10:23: “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.”

I also re-watched the movie “Wall Street” and enjoyed this quote from Hal Holbrook: Man looks into the abyss.  There’s nothing staring back at him.  At that moment, Man finds his character.  And that is what keeps him out of the abyss.”  How does Man find his character?  Through Hope and Faith.
MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Dr. Feelgood’s mother in law and family as they determine the path forward after another diagnosis of a recurrent cancer.  Also, prayers to uplift our kids and school staff (teachers, aides, etc) as the ongoing COVID crisis has pushed everybody to the limit.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
I didn’t announce it, but please sign up in the coming weeks for the Asylum CSUAP on Jan. 30.