F3 Knoxville

St. Francis and the Birds

THE SCENE: Partly Cloudy Skies, about 92 degrees.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

20 Plank Jacks, 10 Squat Jumps, 5 Burpees, 10 Twisties, 10 Windmill, 10 Tempo Merkins, Michael Phelps
THA-THANG:
Mosey to the stop sign by the Northeastern Corner of the Admin. Bldg.  We will stop under the shade of the large tree to do 20 Hello Dollies.

Mosey to the perimeter trail and take it as if going to the bottom of Mt. Everest.  We will stop, however, in the shade by Lyon’s Bend to do 20 American Hammers.

Next, we will run up Roadshow Run, stopping to do Ten Calf Raises at each set of the three sets of stairs and 3 Burpees above each set of stairs on up to the top.  At the top, we will do 20 Flutter Kicks and 25 Baby Crunches.

Mosey past the Space Needle to the steps at the Admin Bldg.  There will be a water cooler and cups to stop for one minute to have cold water.

Mosey to the sidewalk that goes underneath the shade to the stop sign at the Northeastern Corner of the Admin Bldg.  There will be 6 cones set up along the sidewalk and along the roadway that comes back to the Coliseum.  We will run in a clockwise motion down the sidewalk and back up the road, stopping at each cone to do 10 Merkins.

Rinse and Repeat with 10 Big-Boy Sit-ups at each cone.  Rinse and repeat with 5 Hand Release Merkins.  Rinse and repeat with 10 Star Jumps.

Mosey back to steps of the Admin Bldg for another one minute drink of water.

Next, we will run in a counterclockwise circle around the loop stopping at each of the following locations to do the following exercises:

  • 12 o’clock:  20 Bench Dips at the steps of the Admin Bldg.
  • 9 o’clock:  20 Carolina Dry Docks
  • 3 o’clock:  20 Box Cutters

Mosey to AO.

MARY:
Boat Canoe.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
17 men, no FNGs.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

God, Nature, St. Francis and the Birds

St Francis of Assisi was an Italian Catholic Friar, deacon and mystic.  He founded the Order of Friars Minor, the women’s Order of St. Clare, the Third Order of St. Francis and the Custody of the Holy Land. He was canonized patron saint of Italy by Pope Gregory IX.  He is one of the most venerated religious figures in Christianity.  He was known to be a man of grace and a great lover of God’s creation.  He loved animals.  Legend has it that birds would fly up to him and alight on his shoulder.  On one journey he took with fellow monks, it was told that he stopped to preach to his sisters the birds.  Legend has it the birds became still and silent while he preached.

An Irish Poet, Michael Longley, wrote the following poem about St. Francis which is a beautiful depiction of the patron saint marveling on God’s creation and speaking to birds.  By the way, Michael Longley is not a Christian although he is obviously an admirer of St. Francis.

St. Francis to the Birds by Michael Longley

And, summing up, I think of when
With cloud and cloudburst you confer,
By God’s sheer genius lifted there,
Lighthearted starling, nervous wren.
It is perfection you rehearse –
God placed the limpet on a rock,
He dressed the primrose in its frock upside down with its leg showing
And closed the chestnut in its purse:
Creating one more precedent,
With no less forethought, no less care
He gave you feathers and the air
To migrate to his best intent.
To useful angles well aligned,
At proper heights compelled to tilt,
Across kind landscapes yearly spilt –
Birds, you are always on his mind.
Quick emblems of his long estate,
It’s good to have you overhead
Who understand when all is said,
When all is done, and it is late.
May my sermon, like your customs,
Reach suddenly beyond dispute –
Oh, birds entire and absolute,
Last birds above our broken homes.

Thank you God, for your creation.  Thank you for the birds in the sky that sing to us each day.  Help us to protect the blessings you have bestowed upon us.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Doubtfire who has an ailing back – prayers that he heals quickly; prayers for Dawg Paddle whose wife has told him that he wants to divorce him – prayers for her as well.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
We will have a F3 Knoxville 2nd F gathering after our Asylum PM workout this Thursday.  We will meet at Union Jacks.

HubandSpokeandBurpees

The Scene

Sticky and Hot

F3 Welcome and Disclaimer

Fitness, Fellowship, Faith, Free, Modify, Not Professional, Own Volition, Social Distance, Phone

Warm-O-Rama

5 4-count Cherry Pickers

10 4-count BAC Forward

10 4-count BAC Backwards

10 4-count SSH

10  lunges

10 tempo merkins

 

Tha-Thang

Mosey to the start of Shamrock Row and lunged until it was time to do a burpee, then we lunged again and did another burpee, then we bear crawled and did a burpee, then we crab-walked and did a burpee…..PAX was trying to figure out the pattern with no luck. 

We recovered from that when we got to the Merkin Mile and then got into the meat of the workout. We partnered up and proceeded with the following: 

Hub and Spoke Workout 

Hub is 7 burpees

Spoke 1- 50 SSH

Hub 

Spoke 2-50 Shoulder taps

Hub 

Spoke 3-100 Freddy Mercury’s

Hub 

Spoke 4- 25 Imperial Walkers

Hub 

Spoke 5- 20 Lunges (10 each leg)

Hub .

Spoke 6- 25 Merkins

Everyone got 1 round

 

Mosey to the CMU pile and performed double CMU carries to the mouth of the parking lot and back (x2)

Moseyed back to the parking lot with enough time for 4 more burpees (Exactly what everyone wanted to do)

Mary

No time

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

12 men of high impact

COT/BOM

“Hold fast, then, to this sound and wholesome rule of life – that you indulge the body only so far as is needful for good health. The body should be treated more rigorously, that it may not be disobedient to the mind.” – Seneca

MOLESKIN:

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Zone Improvement Plan

THE SCENE:

Partly Cloudy Temperature Humidity Feels like Wind Speed Wind Direction
90 ℉ 50% 95 ℉ 4.7 mi/h SSW

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER.
Delivered as desired. I am not a professional.

WARM-O-RAMA:

As PAX arrive give them each a golf ball and have them write an exercise on it (using Sharpie and be careful to let dry a bit).
25 SSHs,  10 Tie Fighters, 15 Grady Corns, 10 Rockettes.

THA-THANG:

Head down the stairs to flat area at bottom. Have each PAX put their golf ball into a cooler. Cooler is already half full with ice water, bottled water, and some golf balls that I have marked up before arriving.

Next to cooler: Clock Merkins – 5 Merkins at Noon, 3, 6, and 9 o’clock.

Mosey to hillside north of park entrance road.
On the hill and in the shade,
10 Incline Merkins (Head up the the hill)
Mosey 30 yds to next shady area.
10 Merkins facing 3 o’clock. Right arm down hillside.
Mosey 30 yds to next shady area.
10 Decline Merkins facing 6 o’clock.
Mosey 30 yds to next shady area.
10 Merkins facing 9 o’clock. Left arm down hillside.

Reverse path and do same 4 stations as you make your way back to the cooler.

At the cooler, a PAX reaches into cooler (cooling his wrists) and picks a golf ball. Another PAX rolls dice to see home many of the drawn exercises will be done. Between 15 and 30 count. Repeat with different PAX until time is called. Some rules I implemented. After 4 exercises, we ran a lap around wooded area (.2 miles up steep grade back to and down staircase to cooler). I also included some golf balls with the ‘Lap’ as the exercise. So, you could end up running sooner than expected. Only 10 burpees and man-makers.

Mosey back up stairs to Flag.
MARY:
American Hammers/Big Boy Situps. 20/5.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
18 Brothers.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

 

MOLESKIN:
For the safety of all those traveling and staying home this coming week. For all the sick and suffering.  For the unsaid prayers in our hearts.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Convergence July 2nd at JUCO

2 For Tuesday w/Steam

F3 Q: 6.28.22

5:45pm – 6:30pm

Asylum PM

[ The Scene ]

  • High 80s
  • Sunny
  • Character-building weather

[ Welcome/Disclaimer ]

  • Welcome to F3: Fitness – Fellowship – Faith
  • My name is Steam and I’ll be your Q this morning
  • A few things before we begin:
    • I’m not a professional
    • You’re here on your own belief
    • You know your injuries if you have any so if you need to modify anything we do today feel free to do so, but push yourselves and the men around you. They deserve it and so do you.
  • FNGs?
  • Happy 2 For Tuesday!

[ Warm o Rama ]

  • Merkin: 10×4
    • Run to the sandbox and back
  • Merkin: 10×4
    • Run to the sandbox and back
  • Imperial Walker: 10×4
    • Run down the stairs and back
  • Imperial Walker: 10×4
    • Run down the stairs and back
  • Rockette: 10×4
    • Run to the sandbox and back
  • Rockette: 10×4
    • Run to the sandbox and back
  • SSH: 10×4
    • Run down the stairs and back
  • SSH: 10×4
    • Run down the stairs and back

[ The Thang ]

[1] Tower of Power

  • 4 levels
  • L1 (Top) — 20 reps on a 1 count
    • Merkins
  • L2 — 20 reps on a 1 count
    • Squats
  • L3 — 20 reps on a 4 count
    • Flutter Kicks
  • L4 (Bottom) — 20 reps on a 4 count
    • Imperial Walkers
  • After you get done with a level, run to the top, and then to your next level
    • Done with L1, run to the top and then back down to L2 instead of to the bottom
  • Once you finish L5: Hold up top and knock out LLBCs

[2] 2 For Tuesday — run it back, but this time, all together, and top down, rather than down to the top

(Mosey to the top of the Coliseum with the flag)

Plant Flag. 60 seconds of plank and starting out at the sunset, releasing stress and anger.

Run to the bottom of the coliseum and execute the core 4

  • LBCs
  • LLBCs
  • Cockroaches
  • American Hammers

Run to the top of the coliseum and execute the core 4 again.

Run back to the AO

[ Mary ]

SWS

[ COT ]

  • # off
  • Name o Rama
  • FNGs
  • BOM

Week 26 of the 2022 — The Halfway Point

We’ve been through 26 weeks of 2022 now. And it’s to be expected that before a new year, there’s vision-casting, goal-planning, organizing timelines and objectives and KPIs and such. Some people might call these resolutions. But why wait for another 5 months or so to do that? You have 6 months left in this year. How are you going to steward them?

And so I was thinking about some of the big things in my life that have already happened this year, and what to look forward to for the rest of the year. Some of them you all have seen and some of them you have not.

Big things:

  • Updated, re-vamped and handed off Beyond the COT, the F3 Knoxville podcast to Blindside in January
  • Proposed and got engaged in February
  • Re-launched a men’s ministry called The Good FIght
  • Changed jobs in March to a far better role
  • Planned a wedding from March to May
  • Left our home church and re-located to Fellowship

These are very visible things, and if you’ve been coming to F3 or follow me on social media you’ve probably had a front row seat. But here are some things you probably haven’t had a front row seat to in my life for the past 26 weeks.

  • Crippling anxiety
  • Depression
  • Addiction (overeating, pornography)
  • We left a church back in March and it was the hardest thing I’ve done so far this year
  • Financial distress

Whatever you have done and experienced the first part of this year, don’t let it control your outlook on the last half of the year.

Stay strong, keep the faith, fight the good fight, and reach out if you need help.

Wrong Turn

THE SCENE:  65 and clear.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER:  Administered
WARM-O-RAMA:
 

Motivators
Seal squats
Cherry Pickers
LIH
Cobra
Merkins
Squat 180
Double-tap squat

THA THANG:

Mosey to the TOMO parking lot – split into 2 teams.  One die with numbers 1,2,3.

Team 1 rolls the die, then runs that number of laps up the stairs and back around.

While Team 1 runs, Team 2 works through the exercises until laps are completed.

When last man from Team 1 returns from laps, other team rolls.

When list is complete, knock down a cone and start again.

* Timer set for 2 minutes.  Every 2 minutes stop and do 15 merkins *

Repeato for 25 minutes.

See how many times each team can work through the list.

Exercises:

  • 10 Monkey Humpers (4-count)
  • 15 Mountain climbers (4-count)
  • 10 Iron Mikes (10 each leg)
  • 15 Side crunches (15 each side)
  • 15 Squat jump 180s
  • 15 BBS
  • 15 Double-tap squats
  • 20 Dollys (4-count)
  • 10 Pendulum lunges (10 each side)
  • 20 LBCs

 

Mosey to Maple Street parking.

  • Bear crawl one parking line, 15 merkins, mosey to the end.
  • Plank…Sprint!
  • Bear crawl two parking lines, 10 merkins, mosey to the end.
  • Plank…Sprint!

MARY:

Mosey back home for some quick Mary.

  • Guantanamo
  • H2H

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

Me and 18 of the best men I know

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

June 29th, 1914 – 108 years ago – the world was just starting to come apart at the seams.

It started the day before…Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was visiting Sarajevo.  Six terrorists, who were furious about the annexation of Bosnia and hellbent on doing something about it, had spread themselves out along his motorcade route.  As the archduke’s vehicle approached, a terrorist threw a hand grenade at the open car, but the grenade only wounded members of the entourage.  Nobody was killed, the archduke wasn’t even injured, and the terrorists all got away.  After settling down and complaining to the Austrian administration about the poor security, later in the day Ferdinand decided to go back out into the city to visit his staff who were wounded and in the hospital.

En route to the hospital, the archduke’s driver took a wrong turn, backed down the street, and momentarily came to a stop in front of a café.  It was at that very café that the frustrated would-be assassins who had escaped earlier in the day, were getting drunk.  When they saw the car sitting there, I imagine they were astonished at a second chance to commit their planned murder. 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip stepped out of the crowd and fired two shots, killing the Archduke and his wife, Sophia.

And thus began a sequence of events that is a tragedy without parallel in all human history.  That driver’s one wrong turn, a simple stupid mistake – inadvertently aided an assassination that was the spark that lit off World War I.  That event led to the deaths of 10 million soldiers and civilians…destroyed most of the empires and dynasties of Europe…created the conditions for the rise of communism… One wrong turn can be ruinous… 

One wrong turn in your life can be ruinous…  One extra stupid decision (to drive after too many drinks…to see that ex-girlfriend who is in town for the weekend…) can RUIN you.  Even small bad decisions can damage your reputation…impact your health…cost you respect from loved ones…cost you a lot of money…or a job…or a friend.  There are very real consequences to poor decisions. 

HOW do we prepare against and protect ourselves from making a wrong turn – from acting in foolishness?  According to the F3 Q-Source, we do 2 things; BUILD GUARDRAILS and SEEK ACCOUNTABILITY. 

Build Guardrails
Proverbs 5:23, He will die for lack of self-control.
Proverbs 1:7, Only fools despise wisdom and discipline.
The HIM builds Guardrails in his life.  Guardrails are routines, habits, disciplines that you establish in your life to keep you focused on being a HIM and keep you resisting those things which would drag you down.  Guardrails. Habits. Routines that keep you out of the ditch and on the road.
Here’s a question for you, BB reader:  You know your tendencies, you know your urges, your vices – now think about this – what Guardrails do you need to build and strengthen to keep you away from those ditches?  What habits, what routines do you need in your life?

Seek Accountability
Proverbs 12:15, Fools think they need no advice, but the wise listen to others.
Proverbs 13:20, Whoever walks with the wise will become wise; whoever walks with fools will suffer harm.
If you aren’t already doing so, you need to be locking shields with other men who are striving to live virtuously.  You need trusted men in your life whom you can be vulnerable with, who’s counsel you value.  You need men who are watching your six as you watch theirs – and who’s duty it is to speak candidly to you if they see you acting foolishly or walking toward danger.
Last question for you, BB reader: Do you have those men in your life?  If not, who?

Here’s the takeaway:  To prepare against making poor decisions in life – big and small – you need guardrails and you need accountability.  The HIM works to develop both. 

MOLESKIN:

Nice to see Limo back out with us!  Nice to see Boy George come out for Rush!

Hat tip to Wax Job – he led a workout very similar to this about 3 years ago…  It’s a classic!

Prayers for our brothers who are injured, ill, awaiting surgery, and/or going through hard times.  Prayers for those traveling.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Convergence at JUCO, Saturday

Family Workout at the Project, July 9th, 9:00 AM