F3 Knoxville

Killer Abs

THE SCENE:

40’s and clear

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

Given and received.
WARM-O-RAMA:

Cherry Pickers
Tempo Squats
Harry Rockets
Tempo Merkins
Baby arm circles forward
Baby arm circles back

THA-THANG:
Mosy to the big parking lot by the new math/science building.
Start with 5 hand-release-merkins and run to the first exercise. Complete the first and return to start. Do 5 HRM at the start every time and then continue to the next exercise. Continue down the ladder doing an exercise and then return to the start for 5 HRMs.

Exercises are:

  • 20 BBS
  • 40 Pickle Pounders
  • 60 Box cutters
  • 80 Hello Dolly’s
  • 100 LBC
  • 80 Freddy Mercury
  • 60 Pickle Pointer
  • 40 Flutter Kicks
  • 20 Rainbow Drops

Finish it out with some exercises at the math/science building wall:

  • 20 Derkins
  • 20 Step ups
  • 20 Irkins
  • 20 Box Jumps

MARY:
Imperial walkers
Hill Billy Walkers

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Little Known Facts About Laziness #5

Let’s review the facts…

Fact #5 – Laziness begets laziness

Consider this verse:

Slothfulness casts into deep sleep and an idle person will suffer hunger.

– Psalm 19:15

The first part of this verse indicates laziness makes you tired or sleepy. Notice it’s not the other way around. It’s not that tiredness makes you lazy. It’s not that you’re tired so you are lazy, it’s the other way. Laziness makes you tired. We can’t even trust our feelings and body in this case.

Also, remember fact #2: The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly.

The lazy are self-deceived. They can’t trust their thoughts and now they can’t trust their feelings. This is getting tricky and a cycle that be a trap. You think you’re tired and need to rest but maybe you’re just lazy?

Of course, tiredness is a thing and real but we can’t always trust our self-evaluation.

I challenge all of you to watch out for this laziness trap.

Reinvigorate and Replant

THE SCENE: Some of the most beautiful gloom I’ve ever seen.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER:  Done
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • RFTS / LIH
  • Shoulder burn
  • WMH
  • Finkle swings

Partner up – grab one block per pair.  Partner 1 moseys with the block.  Partner 2 completes 20 merkins then runs to catch up and takes the block from his partner.  Keeping switching roles until we arrive at the King’s parking lot.

THA THANG:

Dora-style work

Partner 1 performs exercises

Partner 2 takes a lap around the island.

After each set is complete – both partners run up the hill and back

  • 50 SQUAT AND CURLS
  • 75 LUNGE PRESS
  • 100 CMU SWINGS
  • 125 CURLS
  • 150 HEAVY LBC
  • 125 TRI EXTENSIONS
  • 100 DERKINS
  • 75 HEAVY FREDDY
  • 50 BLOCKEES

MARY:

PAX choice for 3 minutes

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

16 men and 1 2.0

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Cardinal made his living as the pastor of a church in Harriman.  Years ago, he received two job offers on the same day.  One was a larger established church.  The other was a tiny country church that was actively disappearing.  He took his family to the smaller church.  He had a passion for “revitalizing” and “replanting” churches – that’s how he said it.

During the last week, I’ve heard this from many of you and from scores of men around the world who have reached out…I’ve also thought it myself – “That could have been me.”  It makes me reflect on how precious life is and on what my priorities are.  Sometimes my highest priorities do not always get the best of me and the most of me.

Psalm 39:4-5, “Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be.  Remind me that my days are numbered how fleeting my life is.”

Psalm 90:12, “Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts.”

Several PAX shared how they can reset on their highest priorities to make sure they are giving their best to what is most important.  Make sure you are taking your role and responsibilities seriously (e.g., make sure your M will be taken care of if you were to die suddenly).

I think our friend Cardinal would be thrilled to know that even his death caused so many men to be revitalized and replanted in their responsibilities and priorities.

MOLESKIN:

This workout was inspired by the beatdown I suffered at the hands of Feeny on Monday.  I was still sore when we started it all again!

PRAYERS / ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Prayers for Cardinal’s family, for the Rampart men, and for Cosmo’s family

Keep it Simple

THE SCENE: the Project, a few puddles, and cool
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

15 SSH, 15 Mountain climbers, 10 tempo merkins, 10 harry Rockettes, 15 Moroccan night club, 10 tempo squats, 5 cherry pickers

THA-THANG:
Mosey to toward the friendship bell stopping short at the corner of the gravel path. Do a burpee mile. 12 burpees followed by one lap. Repeat 4 times total.

Mosey to the amphitheater:

  • 25 merkins
  • 25 heels to heaven
  • Run to the pool wall
  • 10 wall ups
  • 25, 2-ct Imperial walkers
  • Run to the playground
  • 5 pull-ups
  • 25 squats

AMRAP

MARY:

Freddie Mercury, LBCs, 6″ LBCs, protractor, planks

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

10 kicked the morning in the teeth today!

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

Matthew 22:36‭-‬40 NASB1995

Imagine what your life could be like if you just kept things as simple as those commands. No complicated relationships. No justification for rude behavior. Simply everything that we do, if we act out of love and kindness for others, we could make the world a different place.

MOLESKIN:

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The Simplicity of HIM

THE SCENE: A chilly 28 degrees but clear
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

Side straddle hop (4 count) x 25

Cherry pickers x 5

Tempo merkins x 10

Tempo squats x 10

THA-THANG:
Mosey to Sophomore Hill

  • 4 Corners x 2
    • 25 squats
    • 25 merkins
    • 25 flutter kicks (4 count)
    • 25 shoulder taps (2 count)

Mosey to the big parking lot (between Sophomore Hill and the Flag)

  • Stationary Exercise with a travel exercise (2 car parking spots) hitting the same muscle group
    • 10 squats and lunge travel (10 sets)
    • 3 burpees and bear crawl travel (10 sets)
    • 10 monkey humpers with tip toe travel (10 sets)
    • 10 American hammers (2 count) with imperial walker travel (10 sets)
    • 10 twinkle toes with Bernie travel (10 sets)

MARY:
Flutter Kicks (4 count) x 25

Pickle Pounders (4 count) x 10

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
James 4:17 – So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

The HIM – High Impact Male is a man of initiative. He is not one who needs to be told what to do. He is vigilant, he is pro-active, he scans his surroundings for ways to serve. He sees the thing that needs to be done and he does it, without first being told, without being asked, he does the task that always needed to be done, the task that others walked by. In only a playful sense, he does it before others can do – not in arrogance, not to deprive someone else, but in the spirit of Romans 12:10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

I was first inspired with this thought at the Bomb shelter convergence when we were walking into the gym. There were three or four cases of water sitting on a tailgate and I saw Woodshack and three others just walk over there, grab the waters and carry them inside where we all knew that they were needed. I said to myself, that in it’s simplicity is a HIM. Since then, I have been trying to move on things quickly if I see a need. When Butter Knife said he needed someone to grab the shovel flag last Wednesday, I volunteered. When Booster said he needed to give up today’s Q, I volunteered. I didn’t want either of you to have to worry or wonder if someone was going to step up, there was no need for me to hesitate or let someone else do something that I was capable of taking responsibility for. If we can all do this just a little bit more, we will truly impact those around us.

MOLESKIN:
T-Claps for all the HIMs who made Cardinal’s Convergence happen in addition to the support F3 Nation is showing to his family.

The courage to lead

THE SCENE: Warm for January, low 50s and damp. Something like Ideal gloom with a waning gibbous overhead
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • Projectivators
  • Tempo Squats
  • LBACs
  • Tempo Merkins
  • Fence Steppers
  • Grady corn

THA-THANG:

  • Mosey to the parallel bars and have each man  handwalk the parallel bars
  • Mosey to the pool wall
    • Wall sit-ups – All PAX wall sit then do a wall-up upon command.
    • Repeat 5 times
  • Mosey to recruiting center
    • Relocate the entire block stack to the corner of the lot. TO move each block:
      • 20 plyo-merkins or thrusters to farmer carry each block
      • 20 4-ct heavy freddies or flutters to lunge the block
      • 20 swings or good mornings to rifle carry the block
    • Relocate the poles likewise in pairs
      • 20 golden arches then shoulder carry
    • Then move everything to the other corner of the parking lot
    • Then put it all back where we found it
  • RTF

MARY:
11 Heels to heaven, 11 American Hammers
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

On Saturday, I was fortunate to attend the convergence down at Bombshelter and, among several benefits, hear a message from Cap’n Crunch, one of the OG founders of F3 Knoxville. His message was framed with four points on how to improve personal leadership:

  • Resist Passivity
  • Expect Long-term Gains
  • Accept Responsibility
  • Lead Courageously

While any one of these points could serve as the jump-off point, today I am focusing on Lead Courageously. Unlike some other virtues, like temperance or fortitude, Courage is a word that still gets a fair bit of use in the modern cultural lexicon. Pretty much no matter who you are or how you view the world, everyone agrees that courage is virtuous, because everyone agrees that there are things which ought to be done that fear prevents us from doing. Now, Cap’n Crunch noted, and it bears repeating here, that courage is not the absence of fear. If you are not afraid, then you have no need of courage. Rather, courage is fortitude to endure fear which makes possible justice despite opposition, temperance in the face of temptation, and prudence which sees future peril but is not diverted. C.S. Lewis, in the voice of Screwtape, put it this way:

“Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of all virtues at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality. A chastity, or honesty, or mercy, which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful till it became risky.” – Screwtape

Obviously, having courage is great, but how do I get it?

There is more than one way to answer this question, but today I want to focus on one that we moderns somehow often neglect: From the men at your side. Ever notice what lies at the center of this word: en-COURAGE-ment From time immemorial, men have been facing challenges in groups, even when it provides no pragmatic advantage. In fact, this reality lies at the very heart of F3. By facing our challenges together, with shields locked, we muster courage which we do not individually merit. Do not neglect to engage this resource, for:

36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.37As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.38For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark;39and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. (Matthew 24:36-39)

No one knows the future. If you desire to lead, you must either be naïve to this or courageous to face it.
MOLESKIN:
I am deeply grateful to have had the opportunity to lead you fine men this morning. Coming out of a bewildering day, you helped bring me back to center. Truly grateful for your fellowship today and always.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Convergence at Rampart Saturday to finish his VQ and honor his memory. Receiving of friends is 3-5 at South Harriman Baptist Church, Funeral at 6. Burial will be Sunday at 2 pm at Bookwalter Cemetery in Knoxville.