F3 Knoxville

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!! (Music Included)

THE SCENE: Balmy, Humid, 26 degrees for “The Best Sunrise in America”.

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER: Don’t cheat yourself, treat yourself. 

WARM-O-RAMA: 

100 SSHs in cadence. Is there another way to warmup??

THA-THANG:

Chest Station To the Pavilion (pronounced “pav-i-lahn”)  

  • Regular Merkins x 12
  • Wide Merkins x 12
  • Ranger Merkins x 12
  • Bench Dips x 12
  • Bird Dogs x 12 (with each leg)
  • Run to the ticket house and back.

Do this complete cycle three times…Mosey time.

All My Benches

  • Three sets of box jumps x 45 seconds per sesh

Abs Station under the Church/Gazebo Looking Thing 

  • Two sets of 25 box cutters
  • One set of flutter kicks 4-count (20)
  • One set of hello dollies x 25
  • Planks (60 seconds)
  • Elbow planks (30 seconds)
  • Elbow planks with left leg out (30 seconds)
  • Elbow plants with right leg out (30 seconds)
  • Planks (60 seconds)

***Pickett’s Charge*** followed by star gazers at the Coliseum 

Grinch’s Hill – 7s 

  • Lunges at the top, Carolina Dry Docks at the Bottom. Mosey up Area 51, with Box Cutters in transition.
  • Squat Station by the Asylum Building. 10 Tempo and 10 OYO (4-count)
  • Mosey back to PM AO Parking Lot..

Fat Burner Station

  • Happy feet (45 seconds)
  • Mountain Climbers (45 seconds)
  • Jump Squats (45 seconds)
  • High Knees (45 seconds)

Everything you got up Baby Everest to the AO!!

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Yep. 19 including one FNG (Spinal Tap).

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
After the Pandemic “normalizes”, we will never be the same. That may be a good thing in some areas. What things do we have in our lives that never need to be the same? That we need to peal away and keep that way. Spend time alone in the coming days identifying what has changed (or needs to change) during this year that is a good thing (or will be).

MOLESKIN:
The Saturday before Christmas is by far the funnest Q of the year. The Christmas music (wireless speaker) throughout the workout was clutch.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Triple Birthday Q next weekend at the Asylum!! AYOOOOOOOOO….

Priorities and Split Squats

The Scene

29 and cold (Perfect for some CMU work according to Mermaid)

F3 Welcome and Disclaimer

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

Warm-O-Rama

BAC F/B/OH (Thia Fighter Style)

SSH 

Tempo Squat

Curtsey Lunges

Tennessee Rocking Chairs

Tha-Thang

Mosey to the CMU pile

Split into groups of 3

16 minutes for each group to get max rounds of the following exercises starting with 1 rep and adding a rep each cycle. (Goal is to climb as high on the ladder as you can with your group) Each group will work together and pretend to skip rope until everyone in the group has finished the reps. 

Hand Release Merkins

Split Squat Press (These got really spicy really quick)

Underhanded row

Overhand curls

BBS (Focusing on full range of motion. Hands touch ground behind the head, all the way to a toe touch at the top of the BBS)

When we get to the 16-minute mark groups will tally their total

YHC broke a CMU so we had to break form some penalty burpees

Then groups will proceed to work back down from their max rounds accomplished down the ladder all the way to 1 of each. If the group does not get back down the ladder to 1 there is a 10 burpee penalty. We took our total and subtracted 3 and went back down the ladder with a 10-minute time cap. 

Everyone finished before the 10 minutes so we did 5 burpees just because.

Mosey back to AO

Mary

Knee Tucks (2 sets of 30 seconds)

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

13 High Impact Men 

COT/BOM

James 4:14 “Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”

I have been really convicted in my own life about focusing on things that are not high on the eternal priority list. I have been getting so caught up in eternally low priorities that I am letting the truly important things fall to the waste side. Take the time today and every day going forward to look at your wife in the eyes and ask her how she is doing, when your kids ask you to play with them, even if it’s for 20 minutes, DO IT. Everything else (Work, cleaning, tv, your phone) can wait, the people around you will stop trying to fight for your attention if you keep sending them down the priority list. 

I am thankful for all of the men of F3 around me and the man that I have become since I joined you guys in the gloom back in March, Thank you! 

MOLESKIN:

Many needs presented this morning and some guys going through some tough stuff. Remember to reach out to one another and check in on each other. No man left behind, no man left the same.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

 

BARBIE AND BARNEY BACKLASH DAY

THE SCENE:

Rainy Temperature Humidity Feels like Wind Speed Wind Direction
38 ℉ 833% 38 ℉ 2.8 mi/h NNE

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER.
I am not a professional.

WARM-O-RAMA:

Nose Circles 5 each direction.
25 SSHs .
5 Cherry Pickers.
20 Rockettes.

THA-THANG:
Mosey towards the CMUs.  On the way, everyone line up along curb/sidewalk at one end. Karaoke two steps onto sidewalk two feet down.  All the way down sidewalk.  Then reverse and head back.  So, both directions.

Everyone grab a CMU.  Head to the first of 12 cones.  Each cone represents is a station.  Taking cue from 12 days of Christmas, the PAX works through the cones as through the 12 days.  So, day 1 first.  Then day 2 and then back to day one.  Then day 3, then 2, then 1, and so on all the way to day 12.  The number of reps indicated by the day.  Exercises are:

1 – Blockee
2 – Man Makers (Merkin then pull block another Merkin pull
block back = 1)
3 – Overhead Press
4 – Squats
5 – Flutter Kicks Four Count
6 – Bodyweight Merkins
7 – Lion Kings (Vertical CMU squat and press like Simba)
8 – Front Hold Lunges (Both legs = 1)
9 – Big Boy Situps
10 – Curls
11 – Mountain Climbers
12 – Monkey Humpers

Then Mosey back to AO.

MARY:
No time for Mary
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
15 Brothers.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
As many of you know, my wife recently had surgery.  An elective surgery to help with a condition called Interstitial Cystitis.  This is a bladder condition that is considerably annoying but not life threatening.  So, she’s struggled for 10 or more years dealing with this.  After getting the help recently, I wondered why we waited.  Ironically, today is BARBIE AND BARNEY BACKLASH DAY.  On December 16th, Barbie and Barney Backlash Day allows parents to take a vacation from all the repetitive sing-a-longs and storytelling.  The day permits parents to turn off the annoying cartoons and songs. Parents may insist on a different book to read at bedtime. Or put away the noisy toys.  I’ve never heard of this ‘day’ but it describes a bit about what my wife did.  Basically, giving up everything in support of her family.  Mostly our kids.

And as an exercise take these 9 major categories of life and sort them in an order of importance that represents what would be the most ideal for you:  kids, spouse, work, exercise, friendships, hobbies, house-upkeep, travel and experiences, and appearance.  So, 1 through 9 most ideally. 1 being what you’d ideally like to have as the most important thing to you.  Then take the same list and look at what it is realistically.  Compare them.

So, basically an offering of advice to be careful of how you devote your time.  Obviously, we have to work and take care of things around the house.  We also love our kids and want to spend time with them.  But don’t forget about yourself.  As quoted below:  ‘When you take time for yourself, you’re being a GREAT parent: you are teaching your children to grow up and find balance between caring for others and caring for themselves!’

Some professional thoughts:

Dr. Lara Honos-Webb, PhD Psychology Specialist

Parents need their own downtime and personal lives. If you are spending all of your free time running your children to their commitments, you’re not taking good care of yourself. Your marriage needs time for you and your spouse to have adult conversation. If you are single, your romantic life needs you to have energy to spend in connecting with other people. Don’t feel guilty for taking time away from your children to focus on your love life. Parents who are happily in love will find it easier to be better parents. Taking care of children, takes an enormous amount of energy, and the energy generated by a fulfilling connection to a romantic partner can be an important resource for you as a parent. If you spend all of your time taking care of your child, you will soon find yourself depleted, and you, your child, and your partner will suffer.

 

Dr. Deborah R. Gilboa, MD Family Practitioner

There are three great reasons why parents need to take some time for their own interests and pleasure!

  1. Lower your stress—be a better parent!
    When adults take time for ourselves we relax. Blood pressure is lowered (unless “time for yourself” means smoking or eating a whole lot of junk food!), we smile more, sleep better and have a more positive outlook. All of these factors combine to help us be more positive in the rest of our lives – at work, at home, and with those we love.
  2. Strengthen your family.
    Many parents avoid their own hobbies or taking time for themselves because they believe that there is no time, or their family needs them too much. Help your family value you more by valuing yourself. Your children will learn to show you respect when you show yourself that same respect, by pursuing an interest, hobby or activity that brings you pleasure.
  3. Raise your kids to be adults who take care of themselves.
    Our children will repeat our patterns. So create a healthy pattern in your home, where adults value their own passions and make a little time for those interests.  Do you want your kids to grow up and value themselves and their abilities? They will learn from you, by example!

When you take time for yourself, you’re being a GREAT parent: you are teaching your children to grow up and find balance between caring for others and caring for themselves!

 

 

MOLESKIN:

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Hardship

THE SCENE: Insert info about the weather, etc.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

20 Side-Straddle-Hops.  5 Burpees.  10 Windmills.  4 Burpees.  10 Rockettes.  3 Burpees.  10 Little Baby Arm Circles Forward.  2 Burpees.  10 Little Baby Arm Circles Backwards.  1 Burpee.  Little of This and That.
THA-THANG:
Mosey to Caribbean.  We will run around Caribbean stopping at cones to do the exercises listed.  We will then Bernie around and do the same exercises.  Next we will Butt Kick around with the exercises.  Next, we will High Knees around with the exercises.  Finally we will run around again with the exercises.  Here are the exercises:

  • 20 Merkins
  • 20 Jump Squats
  • 20 Big Boy Sit-ups
  • 20 Star Jumps
  • 20 Hello Dollies (4 ct).

Pickets Charge to Coliseum.

We will stop to do 20 American Hammers and 20 Flutter Kicks.  Next, we will do two loops around sidewalk that goes by admin bldg.  At Coliseum area we do 20 Bench Dips.  At steps of Admin Bldg we do 20 Calve Raises.

Gander from the Coliseum at Beautiful Water and Mountains in the distance.

Mosey to parking lot with CMUs.  Each man grabs a CMU.  We will do the following exercises:

  • 30 Overhead Presses
  • 30 Curls
  • 30 Rows

Next we will split into two teams.  There will be two CMUs set up at western end of parking lot.  Team members line up.  The first member of Team One and Team Two throw frisbees at their particular CMU on the other side of the parking lot.  Whoever has the frisbee farthest from their CMU must run with their team to end of parking lot and back, grabbing both frisbees.  Then the next team members do the same thing.  If Team One always wins they will always be watching while Team 2 is running and vice versa.  Hopefully, it will be a fairly even split.

Replace CMUs.  Sprint back to AO.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
19 men, no FNGs.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Seeing the Opportunity in Hardship

James 1:2-4

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

We read in Self-Help Books, learn from experts, and hear from the wise among us that hardships help us to grow.  And, if we look back on difficulties we have faced in our own lives when we were younger, we can see how life challenges have helped us to grow stronger.  If we can remember this principle, “that hardship helps us grow”, we may be able to face our current challenges in a more optimistic way and forego much of the anxiety and angst that can sometimes bewilder us.

So often in the midst of challenges, anxiety can get the best of us.  We face fear and may think things like:  Why is this happening to me?  I don’t have what it takes to do this.  I am not strong enough.  I wish this would just go away.

I have a patient who is a female in her senior year of high school.  She copes with social anxiety, a condition where she gets very anxious in public situations.  Yet, she got a job as a hostess at an Aubrey Restaurant.  She has liked the job and has found that she has been able to interact well with the customers who come in to eat at the restaurant.  I have been so proud of her.  Here is a young person who has social anxiety, yet is working in a very public setting where she is seeing new people constantly.

Although she likes the job, she is facing hardships there.  The job can be very stressful when the restaurant gets crowded and busy.  The waiters and waitresses, who are friendly to my client, can still get harried when too many customers are seated in their area.  Also, my patient must face the ire and wrath of customers who have been waiting for a table and get impatient.  Who is the frontline person that these impatient customers see?  The hostess.  So it is my patient who receives their angry comments and complaints.  That is difficult for a young teenager to take, especially when she has an anxiety disorder.

But think about what my patient is learning in the face of these challenges.  If she can handle these hardships now, think about how much better she will be prepared for challenges she will face in college and as an adult in a profession.  Life isn’t always going to be cozy.  If she can handle these early challenges then she will be better able to handle the disappointment of customers she serves at future jobs whatever jobs those might be. She will be able to tolerate negative comments of bosses or supervisors and handle the mistakes she will inevitably make as an employee or young professional in the future.  The hardship she is facing now, with the corresponding discomfort in the pit of her stomach, is actually building strength in her, making her a higher impact woman.  It certainly helped my patient to be able to see this – to think that what is leading to anxiety within her is also helping her to grow.

In the face of hardship, the lesson that the hardship is helping us to grow can be difficult to remember.  But, if we can remember that principal, it will help us to face the challenge better.  The next time you experience anxiety, think about that.  Maybe anxiety isn’t a totally bad thing.  Maybe it is a natural response to a challenge that we can learn from.  And maybe that anxiety in hardship that we are feeling now will be replaced by the growth we experience from it.  As our brother, Tank, would say:  Hardship Hill is a mighty fine thing!!

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for those coping with coronavirus; for those dealing with solitude or illness where they don’t have the opportunity to gather with friends like we do in F3; for our country do end racism; praise for Curveball’s wife doing well with her surgery; prayers for Ribbed and his wife as she has surgery this Monday to remove a tumor by her spine – we pray the surgery goes well and that the tumor is benign.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Birthday Triple Q on Saturday, December 26 where the three Q leaders will provide Hot Toddy drinks after the workout!

Tour De Catholic

 

 

THE SCENE: A Balmy, clear and cool 29 degrees.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

Motivators from 9
Ole Miss Piss 10 each leg
Tempo Squats 10
Cherry Pickers 5
Tempo Merkins 10
THA-THANG:

There were 35 stations and we made it through 24 of them.  The idea was to move around campus, and see some new and old areas, to encourage all of us to be more creative.  Each area was labeled with number, and here are the corresponding exercises.  There were some new exercises that were crowd pleasers.  The El Capitan’s up the frost covered hills were a bit of a challenge.  The elevated plank jacks, merkins, and balls to the wall were a difficult trio.  We introduced some new exercises, the dirty hookup and the flying nun were a fun twist!

1 Twinkle Toes 18 Run the bases repeat x 3
2 El Capitan 19 El Capitan
3 Merkins 20 Calf Raises
4 El Capitan 21 LBC’s
5 Merkins 22 Batwings
6 Jump Squats 23 Run one lap
7 BBS 24 Stadiums
8 Monkey Humpers 25 El Capitan 5X
9 Bear Crawl 26 Step Ups
10 Elevated Plank Jack 27 Batwings
11 Elevated Merkins 28 El Capitan
12 Balls to the Wall 29 Calf Raises
13 Wall Squat 30 Pickle Pounders
14 Dirty Hookup 31 Flutter Kicks
15 Flying Nun 32 Hello Dollies
16 Dips 33 El Capitan
17 Pull ups repeat x3 34 Hello Dollies
35 Flutter Kicks

MARY:
There was no additional time for Mary today
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
One FNG today, Crawl Space.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
How to confront a brother/member.


MOLESKIN:
Pray for racism, covid, Anchorman’s nephew Ian who suspects that he has yet another spinal fluid leak, praise for Curveball’s wife and her successful surgery.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
No Christmas Day workout.