F3 Knoxville

Tag: Brick

Taking Risks

THE SCENE: Cloudy, temp in 70’s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 Side-Straddle-Hops, 10 Plank Jacks, Plank Stretches, 10 Imperial Walkers, Little of This and That
THA-THANG:
Mosey to stop sign at northeastern corner of Admin Bldg.  20 American Hammers (for count).  Mosey to perimeter trail and take trail east until we hit roadway that goes toward the parking lot with CMU’s.  Each man grabs CMU.  We will run around the parking lot with CMU’s preferably overhead and stop at each corner to do the following exercises:

  • Corner 1:  20 Overhead Presses
  • Corner 2:  20 Curls
  • Corner 3:  20 Rows
  • Corner 4:  20 Squats with CMU at chest.  20 Incline Merkins with hands on CMU.  20 Big Boys with CMU.

Mosey past pitching cage area to perimeter trail east of the ball fields and stop at Cardiac Hill.  We will run up Cardiac Hill doing the following exercises at each corner:

  • Corner 1:  20 Bicycle Kicks (four count)
  • Corner 2:  20 Flutter Kicks (four count)
  • Corner 3:  20 Decline Merkins
  • Corner 4:  20 Bench Dips

Mosey to the Bro Olympics Field.  We will do sprints from sideline to flags in ground. Then sprint back to sideline.  After that we do 25 Baby Crunches.  Rinse and repeat three more times.

Mosey to stop sign at southeastern corner of Admin Bldg.  We will do 20 American Hammer (four count).

Mosey to Mt. Everest Summit.  We will do 15 Big Boy Sit Ups, then run down the summit to pine tree grove.  Do 10 Burpees.  Then run back up the summit and continue to do Big Boy Sit Ups until all men make it back.

Mosey to AO.

MARY:
Sky lifts with legs, then slow drops Hello Dollie position.  Hold for ten count, then spread legs and hold again.  Rinse and repeat four more times.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Eight men, no FNG’s.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Taking Risks With God

Deuteronomy 31:8 “It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”

At age 62, I am thankful for the blessings the Lord has given me.  I have sometimes been asked if I would change anything in my life – I am lucky in that nothing hits me drastically concerning what I would change.  Certainly I would want to change some of my sinful actions.  But I think I would also want to have taken more risks at those times I was too cautious or insecure to act.

It is through the courage to act that great things occur for us.  Think of Abraham in the Bible.  God told him to go to a completely new land.  He did it.  Moses did the same.  That took courage and faithfulness.  They trusted that the Lord would be there with them.  Think of when you first came to workout with F3.  You had to get up at some awful hour of the morning to join some weird group of guys doing strange military exercises.  Think of the benefits reaped from taking that risk.  One risk I took in my life was to move my family from a comfortable home in Texas, close to family and friends I had grown up with, to come to Knoxville, Tennessee where we didn’t know anyone.  Because of the move, my kids have grown up in a wonderful setting.  My wife, who had no job when we arrived, now is director of the psychology dept at Children’s Hospital.  And me:  I have this wonderful group of friends in F3 who have become an inspiration for me in my life.  When we take risks, we learn, we grow.  And, God is our shepherd along the way.  He will not abandon us.

But what about those times when we take a risk, make a change, and meet up with misfortune instead of success?  Is God there for us even when we stumble, even when the risk we take does not reap what we hope for?Barbara and Jim were a married couple, each about age 50, who bought a seafood restaurant that I was already working at as a teenager in Dallas, Texas.  I knew their two sons, who were a few years older than me, from our younger school days.  Barbara had already worked as a manager of the restaurant before she and Jim purchased it. They invested a great bit of money to get it.  But to have their own business was a dream for them. They made some nice changes to the restaurant and, at first, the crowds coming to eat and drink there seemed to grow.  But, problems came.  The restaurant was located on Forest Lane in Dallas, a four lane street located between two large high schools.  Forest Lane came to be The American Graffiti street of the area.  Kids drove up and down the strip, revving the engines in their cars, drinking beers and basically having a great time.  Fast food restaurants began to spring up on Forest Lane, all around the seafood restaurant.  Kids would park in the parking lots, drinking their beers in the cars and eating fast food.  The business was great for the fast food chains but not for the more expensive seafood restaurant.  Adult customers began to avoid the seafood restaurant, not wanting to deal with the traffic, the screaming teenagers, and the beer cans.  Barbara and Jim started losing money.  They contacted the city police on numerous occasions, hoping to have them correct the problem.  However, either due to lack of legal means or just because the police didn’t care that much, nothing really happened.  Barbara and Jim’s dream was slipping into the abyss.  On one Saturday evening, Jim reached the breaking point.  He came into the back part of the restaurant (the kitchen area) with a shotgun in his hands.  If the police weren’t going to run the scoundrels off, he was going to go out to the front parking lot and do it himself.  That kind of action, of course, may have been realistic in the Clint Eastwood movie wild west but not in a modern city.  Barbara hysterically pleaded with Jim to get rid of the gun.  He finally came to himself and handed the gun to her.  He was embarrassed and humiliated to have had us employees see him in this state.  He slowly walked out the back door and went on home.

The restaurant continued to lose money as the crowds continued to dwindle.  I remember the night Barbara and Jim decided to give up on the restaurant.  The store had closed and many of us employees were still there to clean up.  Barbara and Jim made their announcement to us.  The side of the restaurant that had a bar also had music speakers placed at various points along the ceiling.  Barbara and Jim put on a song and slow-danced together, right their in the middle of the restaurant.  The song they chose to play was Frank Sinatra’s version of “I Did It My Way.”  The couple had invested in a dream and lost the battle.  But they had the guts to take the risk and had given it all they got – and did it their way.

I went on to college after that senior year of school.  I don’t know what happened to Barbara and Jim as my life took me on to other things.  I hope they sold the store – most likely to some fast food restaurant.  In any case, I chose to believe that God worked with the couple.  And I have some evidence that supports my belief.  The primary evidence is the nature of our God, one who loves and is filled with grace.  But Barbara and Jim also exhibited evidence that supports my belief:  First, they hung together in their marriage through the hard times, despite the anguish and gnashing of teeth.  Second, despite the losses they suffered, they were always good to us employees and paid every cent of our paychecks, never delaying the payments.  And finally, on the night they conceded the restaurant, they danced a dance that stays in my mind more than 40 years later.  I will close with some lines from the song they chose to dance to:

Yes, there were times, I’m sure you knew
When I bit off more than I could chew
But through it all, when there was doubt
I ate it up and spit it out
I faced it all and I stood tall
And did it my way.

MOLESKIN:

Praise:  for Mr. Jinxy’s return post heart catheter.  Prayer:  that God be with Pinto, Hooker, and Mr. Jinxy after the death of Pinto’s mother.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Bring non-perishable canned goods to next workout for 2nd Harvest Food Drive.

Shedding the False Self

THE SCENE: Blue skies and temp about 70 degrees.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 Side-Straddle-Hops, 10 Bottle Taps, 10 Cherry Pickers, 10 Rockettes, 10 Tempo Squats
THA-THANG:
Mosey to Light Post by Lower Parking Lot near trail that goes towards Lyons Bend Gate Entrance.  We will do Route 66 with the following exercises:

  • Star Jumps
  • Big Boy Sit-ups
  • Iron Mikes with both legs forward = 1

We next will do 14’s with Bear Crawls (Bear Crawl 1 light and Run 4 lights in sequence) until we reach the road that goes to Lyon’s Bend Entrance Gate.  Next, we will do 14’s with Lunges (Lunge 1 light and Run 4 lights in sequence) until we get to the bottom of Mt. Everest.

At Mt Everest we will do 20 Merkins, 30 Squats and 40 Baby Crunches.  Then we will run to the road above the Summit.

Next, we will Mosey south on the roadway until it we are by the big tree as the road heads east toward the stop sign.  We will run down incline by the roadway.  We will then do sevens starting with one Hello Dolly on bottom of incline and six Burpees on top.

Mosey back to AO.

MARY:
20 Box Cutters
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
9 men, no FNGs
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
I am a psychologist.  I recently looked back on some literature discussing Eric Erickson’s research and theory regarding identity formation in human beings.  Eric Erickson was a German Developmental psychologist who moved to the United States and taught at Harvard, UC Berkeley and Yale.  In his theory regarding identity formation he stated that we humans go through various stages in life that help form our identity.  One stage, which generally occurs in adolescence, but which extends into adulthood, is what he called the stage of Fidelity.  You may have heard of the term “Identity Crisis.”  Erickson was the first to coin it. The conflict the human deals with in this stage is Identity vs. Role Confusion.  The individual grasps with who they are and what they want to become in their life.  That question of “Who Am I” encompasses vocation, sexual, and religious factors, among others.

Some psychologists and psychiatrists, Donald Winnicott being one of the most prominent, also talk about struggle between the False Self and True Self in terms of identity formation.  Winnicott theorized that we humans often take on the role of a false self in forming our identities – that identity relates more to what parents, teachers, or society wants from us than who we are authentically.  Winnicott felt that we are less spontaneous and real when living up to our false self ideals.  We are also more neurotic and psychological unfit when doing so.

If you look back on your adolescence you may remember your own struggles with identity development.  You may, further, remember trying to fit in with the popular crowd, trying to be the cool guy in high school, not wanting to be considered silly or atypical by others.  I can remember my son, Bennett (aka Puddle in F3) talking about changes that occurred for him during this stage.  He was trying to “fit in” with the way he dressed, with sports he played, even with the music he listened to.  He got to a point where he said “to hell with it”, I am going to be me.  He started wearing socks with his sandals because, well, he liked to when it was colder outside.  He later saw other people doing the same thing as him.  He decided he disliked some of the music that high school kids were listening to.  He found he liked Neil Young, Pink Floyd, stuff his Old Man liked.  But in exploring further, he found Indie music with groups that were influenced by artists like Neil Young and Bob Dylan, and groups like Pink Floyd, but who were creating their own music of a different sort.  He has led his Old Man (yours truly) to find and love some of these artists such as Jason Isbell, The Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses, Jack White, Raconteurs, and Shins.  Bennett found in exploring what he truly liked that other friends truly loved this kind of music as well.  And these seemed to be the kinds of people who were more passionate about music.  I remember taking a group of his high school friends to see 70+ old Neil Young play in an outdoor concert near downtown Nashville.  The kids were very into Neil Young as was this Old Man.

We continue to form our identities as we go further into adulthood.  We face identity crises at work, in our love lives, and in our search for what makes life truly meaningful.  Hopefully, we shed some of our false self skin in the process and get closer to our true natures that God gifted us with.  We, after all, were created in God’s image.  And, the Bible actually speaks of us shedding our false self skin, which it calls the “old self” , shedding what the world wants of us, and living out a “new self” which is what God created us for in the first place:

Collossians 2: 9-10:  Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

1 John 2:15-17: Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Pinto’s mother who is very ill and may be entering the final phase of her life.  Prayer for Pinto as well after injuring his ribs when moving some things for his mother.  Prayers for Messi whose wife has had seizures and may have to be operated on in the hospital.  Prayers for Squirtle’s ex-girlfriend whose 21-year-old daughter recently died of medical issues.

Durn Curmudgeons

THE SCENE: Sunny, temps in low 70s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Plank raises, 20 Plank Jacks, 10 Rockettes, 10 Cherry Pickers, 8 Wide Arm Circles Forward and Backward
THA-THANG:
Mosey to stop sign on northeast corner of Admin Bldg.  We will go back on the road that semi-circles around the Admin Bldg stopping at various cones to do exercises.  The exercises at each cone are as follows:

  • Cone 1:  10 Burpees.  Then, Barry Sanders to Cone 2.
  • Cone 2:  20 Big Boys.  Then Bear Crawl to Cone 3.
  • Cone 3.  20 Squat Jumps.  Then Mosey past parking lot to Cone 4.
  • Cone 4:  20 Imperial Walkers (both legs = 1).  Then Sprint to Cone 5.
  • Cone 5.  20 Squats.  Then Hop to Cone 6.
  • Cone 6.  20 Merkins.  Then Mosey to Cone 7
  • Cone 7:  20 Hello Dollies (4 count), 20 Iron Mikes, 20 American Hammers, 20 Dying Bugs, 20 Flutter Kicks

Mosey to Shaded Area near Park Entryway off of Northshore.

40 Baby Crunches

Mosey to Bottom of Mt. Everest.  40 Baby Crunches.  Then run up to top of Mt. Everest.

Rinse and Repeat on the 7 cone run on the road that semicircles around the Admin Bldg.

Mosey to AO.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Ten men, no FNGs.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Helping the Curmudgeons of the World

As HIMs we try to help others in our community.  Some folks take our help graciously.  Others do not.  Some people are mighty difficult to help.  I have been giving a number of messages about helping such “hard to help” people.  Helping difficult people, the curmudgeons of the world, is hard.  If we can trust that God is also working with them, it might make it easier for us.  Our efforts may not reap rewards quickly.  Rather, we might be planting a seed that will lead to blossoming that is very slow to come.

Furthermore, we must remember that we are sinners ourselves.  The curmudgeon’s pride, disrespect, and lack of kindness may be sinful but that does not make us somehow superior to the curmudgeon.  In fact, the curmudgeon might be able to offer us something that helps us to grow as humans.

A wonderful illustration of how Curmudgeons can involuntarily be helped by others and help others as well is the book A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman.  Ove is a true curmudgeon.  He can be downright rude and cruel to others.  He is 59 years old, has been forced to take retirement, and is pissed about it.  He hates life and wants out of it.  We find out, in the book, that the one person whom he did allow to get close to him was Sonja, his wonderful wife.  She saw beneath his outward stiffness.  But we also learn that Sonja has died of medical causes.

Ove contemplates and tries various ways to kill himself in the book.  But they are foiled by heaven, fate, or crazy people in his life that he just can’t get away from.  Two of those people are Patrick and Parvaneh, new neighbors who back up their U-Hual right over Ove’s mailbox.  Others are an overweight neighbor named Jimmy, a diffident mailman named Adrian, a flamboyantly gay young man named Mirsad, and a crazy cat that keeps on coming around Ove’s house when Ove would like it to go the hell away.  Ove begrudgingly helps each one of these characters (or animals in the book).  He feeds the cat and finally allows it to come into his home.  He helps Jimmy get a job.  He teaches Parvaneh to drive and takes her to the hospital to deliver her baby.  And, these people, also help Ove.  Although he wants out of life, they give him a reason to live.

It isn’t that any of these characters made the choice to help this curmudgeon called Ove or that he sought them out.  Rather, it is through their sloppy, confounding, odd, and downright hilarious interactions and relationships that each character grows – and takes Ove away from the incredible depression that was leading him to try suicide.

So, our interactions with others need not be smooth and on target to derive benefit.  Your attempt to help curmudgeons will be downright difficult and sometimes seem impossible.  But if you can be patient, who knows how God will work in your relationship with the curmudgeon.  You may plant a seed that brings about change.  And, God may work with your relationship in such a way that the doggone curmudgeon actually helps you!

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Iceman gets married Saturday and Hooker’s wife, Carly, is due with baby in April!  Prayers for the aforementioned.

This loop is looking familiar

THE SCENE: Low 40’s and clear
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • 2 laps around the parking lot
  • SSH IC x 20
  • Tempo Squats IC x 10
  • Baby Arm Circles (Forward/Reverse) IC x 12
  • Cherry Pickers IC x 10
  • Merkins IC x 10

THA-THANG:

Moseyed to the oval parking lot for some laps. 4 stops along each loop, each with an assigned exercise. Complete 20 reps of each exercise, then run to the next stop.

Lap 1:

  1. Merkins
  2. Wide Merkins
  3. Narrow Merkins
  4. Carolina Dry Docks

Lap 2:

  1. Squats
  2. Lunges
  3. Jump Squats
  4. Iron Mikes

Lap 3:

  1. Flutter Kicks (4 ct)
  2. American Hammers (4 ct)
  3. Hello Dollies (4 ct)
  4. LBC’s

Rinse and repeat. We managed 9 total laps, so completed each of the exercises 3 times.

MARY:
No time for Mary

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
25 HIMs including 3 FNG’s; welcome to Burgundy, Scrum, and Flo

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

It seems like the last few weeks have been filled with story after story of tragic accidents and loss of life. It’s easy to get caught up in our own lives and worry about the “stresses of tomorrow” – discounting the blessings of today by worrying about what we may face tomorrow. However, we aren’t guaranteed tomorrow. Worrying about tomorrow doesn’t take away those troubles; it simply steals the joy from today.

I’m terrible about taking today for granted and worrying about what tomorrow may bring. It’s usually when I’m confronted with a story about tragic loss of life that makes me momentarily realize how precious today really is. I use the word “momentarily” because it typically lasts for a day or so and then I’m right back to worrying about tomorrow.

Let’s celebrate the blessings of today.

Deck the Asphalt

 

THE SCENE
34 and clear

Welcome & Disclaimer

 

THE THANG
COP
SSH 4ct x30 IC
Chinooks Squats 4ct x15 IC
Tempo Merkins 4ct x15 IC
Line up on curb
Rocky Balbos x20 IC
Merkins  x 4ct 10 IC
Rocky Balbos x20 IC
BAC Fwd x10 IC
BAC Bkwd x10 IC
Rocky Balbos x20 IC
One lap around the parking lot

Line up on the curb.

 

Deck the Asphalt
The deck of cards determines our destiny!
For all suits with a card value of 1-6 = Suicides based on the value of the card

  • Example: draw a number 4 card (4wo Cone touches): Run to Cone 1, back to Start, run to Cone 2 and back to start. run to Cone 3, back to Start, run to Cone 4, back to start. Done.

For the rest of the deck, perform the number of reps based on the value of the card according to the list below:

  • Hearts: Burpees
  • Spades: Squats
  • Clubs: 4ct Flutter Kicks
  • Diamonds: Merkins
  • Face Cards = 15 reps
  • Jokers = run to the top of the hill, perform 1 burpee and back to the curb.

Finishing deck results in: 85 Merkins, 85 Squats, 85 4ct Flutter Kicks, 85 Burpees, 20 suicides and 1 Hull Run in under 45 minutes.

 

COT
Number off and Name-O-Rama – 24 PAX

 

BOM
Golden Rule: Do to others as you would have them to do to you. (Matthew 7:12)
Golden Result: In general, people will treat you in the same manner that you treat them.

The importance of knowing the Golden Result is it reminds us that in many ways we are creating the world around us.  When it seems like everyone around us is “out to get us” that’s a cue to look inward and reflect on how you are relating to others.  As a HIM we seek to be men of impact, not men of excuses.

Today, be the type of person that changes the relational temperature of the room. Bring grace, humility and love where every you go and see if it is not returned back to you 10 fold.

Submitted by
Cap’n Crunch