F3 Knoxville

Bringing Habits HOME

THE SCENE: 39 and clear. Perfect weather for a VQ

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER: Completed

WARM-O-RAMA:

  • SSH x20 (IC)
  • Cherry Pickers x5 (IC)
  • Dive Bombers x5 (IC)
  • Squats x15 (IC)
  • 30 seconds on your own

THA-THANG:

Mosey to the quad.

Ghostman Baseball shamelessly stolen from Blindside and Choir Boy…sounded like fun and thought we should give it a try! Split into two teams. First team runs to first, completes the exercise, returns home while the other team does the Home exercise. Switch when running team returns. Second round: Run to 1st, do the exercise, run to second, do the exercise, return home. Continue the pattern until you reach home. You do not need to run back from home.

  • First Base
    • 15 Merkins
    • Big Boys at Home
  • Second Base
    • 30 Smurf Jacks
    • American Hammers at Home
  • Third Base
    • 5 Burpees
    • Flutter Kicks at Home
  • Home Plate
    • 30 Squats
    • Plank

Mosey towards the duck pond and stop for 50 Boosters (Toe Merkins) on the curb

  • Welsh Dragons up the hill near the duck pond parking lot (bear crawl forward x4, 1 merkin, tap each shoulder, plank jack – repeat and increment merkin, shoulder tap, plank jack each time until you get to 10 or your arms fall off!)

Mosey to parking lot west of the flag.

  • Seven of Diamonds (7, 14, 21, 28 of each exercise) at the four light poles
    • Split back into same two teams from baseball.
    • One team will do exercises clockwise and other will be counter-clockwise. First team to complete all exercises wins.
    • Round 1 – Squats
    • Round 2 – LBCs
    • Round 3 – SSHs

MARY:
PAX took turns calling out exercises until time

  • Spotter – imperial walkers
  • Doubtfire – gas pumpers
  • Erector – heels to heaven
  • Kickflip – squeaky dollies
  • Room Service – pickle pointers
  • Data – supermans

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
12 HIMs and 1 2.0
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
From “Habits of the Household” by Justin Earley

Habits are kinds of liturgies. They are little routines of worship, and worship changes what we love. Habits of the household are not just actions that form our families’ routines, they are liturgies that form our families’ hearts. This is why we should choose then so carefully.

Think of it like this: when it comes to spiritual formation, our households are not simply products of what we teach and say. They are much more products of what we practice and do. And usually there is a significant gap between the two.

My challenge to you this morning is to think through some existing habits in your household that you could change or new ones you could implement.

For me, one habit I’ve started to do at night is give my son a bedtime blessing. Another one we’ve changed is that we put away all screens in our house on Sundays.

MOLESKIN:
N/A

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Check out the new F3 Knoxville Podcast that Blindside is putting out.

Starving for Rain: Habitually Feed Yourself & then Others

THE SCENE: ~48F, wet but somehow not very rainy.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER – Not a pro.
WARM-O-RAMA:

10 x Overhead Clap
9 x Squats
8 x BBS
7 x LBACF & LBACR
6 x Lunges Fwd/Back
5 x Flutter kicks
4 x Merkins
3 x Squat Jumps
2 x V-ups
1 x Burpee

THA-THANG:
Mosey to the overhang. Do a core exercise (YHC forgot what was called – maybe flutter kicks?)

Mosey to the courtyard.

Decision time- PAX got to choose 11’s or 21’s. They chose 21’s back and forth across  the courtyard:
Squats – Bicycles (2-count)
Pax did well, we stopped at YHC’s 7-count for Squats (so ~210 squats for me)

Decision time– again. PAX got to choose Freshman Hill or Sophomore Hill. They chose Sophomore Hill.

Simplicity at Sophomore Hill – Bernie up the pavement, lunge all the way down, bear crawl up the grassy area. come back to the stop sign. YHC decided once was enough.

Mosey to CMU Pile for 7’s: Pull-ups (at the top) and Thrusters at the bottom. We got about 1/2-way through and ran out of time.

Mosey back to the Shovel Flag. Stop at the Stop sign to do 10 Monkey Humpers OYO. Jog back to the overhang, wagon wheel, jailbreak at the stop sign to the shovel flag.

Back 15 seconds early… nice.

MARY:
Mary didn’t know… because she wasn’t pre-sent.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
4 RUSHers and 10 PAX!

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
This week Butterknife, myself, and then Lil’ Spice (VQ on Friday) are covering habits! Today was my JUCO Farewell Q, if you will. Since July 31, 2019, JUCO has been my home AO. But I’ve purchased a house that is closer to Shamrock, so I wanted to Q on my last time out and share something that’s been meaningful over the long haul for me in relation to habits.

Habits are important – one day at a time we meet the demands that come along. But whether good or bad, we’re becoming something. Below is the story of “the Starving Baker”, something I learned about years ago in a series of books called “Habitudes” when I lived in Japan. Take it in and hear the message it communicates:

Imagine if you will. You visit a bakery not far from your home. It’s new. You know you’re going to love this place because they’ve hired a new baker who has recipes for breads, pastries, donuts, cakes and cinnamon rolls that are to die for.

Word has gotten out about this bakery. Crowds start forming lines each day, waiting for the new confections to come from this baker’s marvelous kitchen. After you purchase your cinnamon roll, you sit down to watch this baker in action—and you notice something right away. The baker doesn’t seem to have enough help. Everyday, he ends up trying to serve all the customers himself. He is scurrying back and forth, busy with all the requests of the people—but oblivious to what’s happening to him. His exhaustion is quickly becoming burn out. What’s worse, as you watch him for a few weeks, you see a change. This man is getting thin. Very thin. It almost seems like he is shriveling up. What’s the deal?

Suddenly, the problem becomes obvious to you. This man never stops to eat. The irony is, he is so busy serving bread to everyone else, he never stops to eat anything he serves. With food all around him, he is starving. Hmmm. Sound familiar?

So, are you the Starving Baker? Are you neglecting yourself so that you can feed others, only to become more and more emaciated and at your wits end that it seems no one is helping you? Maybe it’s time to step back and ask “am I doing what God has called me to do or what I want to do?” He will bless what He calls you to, but remember that daily habits can feed your soul or they can starve your spirit. Choose wisely this day whom you will serve.

MOLESKIN:
Prayed for Survivor, Cosmo’s mom, Data’s marriage, and Booster’s recovery. Also both decisions were made to avoid 11’s with Burpees and Merkins, so I guess the PAX had good intuition if they wanted to avoid those exercises (mainly the Burpees)
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
See the recent posts about the Blade/Whetstone. Convergence July 2 at JUCO too!

Identidem Essentitas

THE SCENE:   39 and clear
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER:  Administered
WARM-O-RAMA:

SSH
Seal squats
Phelps
Cherry pickers

THA THANG:

  • Mosey to the tennis courts.  Partner up.  P1 does split squats while P2 does a lap around the three courts, sprint, side shuffle, bernie, side shuffle.  Switchero.  Repeat, with P1 doing a decline plank.
  • Sprints across the parking lot.  First pole, second pole, all the way.
  • Mosey to the chamber of commerce.  Partner up.  100 hanging leg lifts between the pair. P2 runs to the sidewalk, 2 burpees, back.
  • North side of the COC – 3 jump squat 180s, crawl bear 2 parking spaces, 6 imperial walkers, repeat to the end of the parking lot.
  • Tricep extensions on the bridge, bob and weave, wall sit for time.
  • High school entrance.  25 LBCs, broad jump up the steps, 15 dips.  Repeat x 3
  • 10 No Chance, Bobbitts (NCBs)*
  • Mosey to the wall – 15 wall-ups
  • Race around 4 light poles – 15 squats at each.
  • 100 merkins scattered throughout

MARY:

100 seconds of plank
Dolly until time

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

Me and 6 of the best men that I know

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Last Thursday, Mathlete talked about decision making and the concept of bricklaying.  “Find one thing at a time, make a decision, and then start living that decision out. This will train you to make that decision regularly.”  This morning, I tagged on to that and talked about habits.

The more you repeat a behavior, the more you reinforce the identify associated with that behavior.  In fact, the word “identity” is derived from the Latin identidem, which means repeatedly, and essentitas, which means “being”.  Your identity is quite literally your “repeated beingness”.  William James said, “All our life…is but a mass of habits”.  You are what you repeatedly do.

It is, therefore, so important to establish and cultivate healthy habits, and to starve unhealthy habits.

How?  Author James Clear agrees with Mathlete – you do it by one little piece at a time.  He wrote in his book Atomic Habits, “it is so easy to overestimate the importance of one defining moment and underestimate the value of making small improvements on a daily basis.”  We convince ourselves that success requires some massive dramatic action – but Clear says that small increments is the way to go.  If you established a tiny habit that improves you just 1% improvement per week – you would be 166% better in a year.  You’d be 276% better in 2 years.  There was a study performed in 2009 that determined on average it takes 66 days for a habit to form.  Tiny changes consistently applied over the course of 2 months – bam! – you’ve got a new habit.

One of the most effective things you can do to build better habits is to join a culture where your desired behavior is the normal behavior (welcome to F3!).  If you are working to remove an unhealthy habit – you need accountability (Shield Locks).  Join a culture where your desired behavior is the normal behavior.

Why do we quit?

  • Boredom? “The greatest threat to success is not failure, but boredom” (Clear).
  • Short-term perspective?  “It is only when looking back two, five, or ten years later that the value of good habits and the cost of bad ones becomes strikingly apparent” (Clear).  When we don’t see progress fast enough, we draw wrong conclusions.  We wrongly conclude that small wise decisions do not matter that much.  They DO.  We’re trying to stop something that is unhealthy – we don’t see results quickly – we wrongly conclude that small unwise decisions do not matter that much.  They DO.  (Hat tip, Craig Groeschel)

Identidem essentitas, your “repeated beingness”.  Every action you take is a vote for the type of man you want to become.  With that in mind…

  • What good habit do you need to start?
  • What unhealthy habit do you need to stop?

Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

MOLESKIN:

Man…I LOVE running around in the dark with this band of crazies!

Prayers for Guardrail and his family

Prayers for Bambi’s daughter

* No Chance, Bobbitt (NCB) – An ab tuck while balancing your six on the edge of a bench.  Hold the bench right by your butt and it’ll be no problemo.  Apparently balancing on his rear is Bobbitt’s Achilles heel.  Who knew?

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Join a Shield Lock!  Two groups have formed at The Proj. – see Mathlete to jump into one or to start a third!

FORMing Habits

THE SCENE: 66 and breezy
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

Today we focused on form and practiced calling out exercises.
I’ll give you an excercise, you announce it to the group, get us ready, and count it out for us.

Side straddle hop in cadence 20
Cherry Pickers
10 tempo merkins
Arm rotations thumbs up in cadence
Reverse thumbs down in cadence
Motivators 8x
Tempo squats
THA-THANG:
Mosey to the new building.

  • Tricep Dips

Mosey to the library. Booster’s Habit: 100 merkins, 100 squats, 3 minutes of planks

  • 1 min plank
  • Mosey to parking lot beside the duck pond do 20 Merkins
    Mosey to the courtyard do 20 squats
    Rinse and repeat 3 times
  • 1 min plank
  • Mosey to parking lot beside the duck pond do 20 Merkins
    Mosey to the courtyard do 20 squats
    Rinse and repeat 2 times
  • Mosey to the cones in the new parking lot for some football drills
  • Scissor Kicks x20
  • Mosey to the flag

MARY:
No time.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Use the TAGS on right-side to record PAX (BE SURE TO INCLUDE YOURSELF) in attendance. Be sure to select the AO in CATEGORY above TAGS and then delete these notes!
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
This week we are going to discuss habits. Day 1:
A Habit, standing alone, can be positive, negative or neutral.
• A negative Habit is one that is damaging to the individual who engages in it, the people who might be affected by it or both. Texting while driving is an example of a negative Habit.
• A neutral Habit is one that is neither damaging nor Advantageous to the individual or anyone else. Chewing gum while driving is a neutral Habit.
• A positive Habit, a Brick, is a regular tendency that is Advantageous to the individual or others. Wearing a seat belt is a positive Habit.

The HIM helps other men discontinue their negative Habits, minimize time spent on neutral Habits while initiating and ingraining positive Habits.

Start small. Say a prayer first thing in the morning, do a Bible study/get into the word, come to an F3 workout, sign up to Q.

Your heart ❤️ follows your habits.
MOLESKIN:
Insert any personal comments, notes, devotion content, etc.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Insert information about upcoming events, 2nd or 3rd F opportunities, and any other announcements.

Blimps and Politics

THE SCENE: rain, wind, and mid-40s at JUCO.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

10 SSH, plank jacks, tempo merkins, tempo squats
THA-THANG:

Mosey to the court yard area. We will use the four corners including the road and the far side walk of the court yard area. The workout:  Hindenburg BLIMPS. Perform exercise at corner #1, sprint to corner #2, perform exercise. Sprint to corner #3 perform exercise. Then to corner #4, exercise and then back to corner #1. Plank it up until all have finished. That’s one round. Round 1 – 10 Burpees; Round 2 – 20 Lunges; Round 3 – 30 Imperial Walkers; Round 4- 40 Merkins; Round 5 – 50 Plank Jacks; Round 6 – 60 Squats.

We chose an audible this morning after 120 merkins and did three corners of plank jacks. Then , we headed to the pull-up bars and did two rounds of 25 squats and 5 pullups.

Mosey back to the flag.

MARY:
No time.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
6 had fun in the rain and wind.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
I want to share some thoughts on a topic that is much debated: our political leaders. We all have our ideas of the right way to run this country. In the last couple of years, there seems to have been even more divisive opnions than ever, if that is possible. Opinions about shut downs, masks, and vaccinations have caused so many arguments and ill feelings. Yet, it seems to be almost all that some talk about. Here is a question to consider. Is it right to bash political leaders for their decisions? Part of the answer to that question lies within another. Does doing so reflect Christ in our lives?

Romans 13:1‭-‬2 NASB1995

“Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.”

What does this passage say about how we should speak of our political leaders? Speaking of our political leaders in a resistive manner is like speaking of resisting an ordinance of God. Jesus says that if we have sinful thoughts, it is practically the same thing as committing the sin itself (Matt. 5:27-28). We need to challenge ourselves to not fall into the temptation to let our opinions cause us to violate an ordinance of God.

MOLESKIN:

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
CSAUP tomorrow.