F3 Knoxville

Tag: Guardrail

Layers of the Pearl

THE SCENE: Pleasant 65 degrees
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

Side straddle hop -20

Cherry pickers – 5

Tempo merkins – 10

Tempo squats – 10

Flutter Kicks – 20

THA-THANG:

  • Indian Run to Parking Lot
    • Run 2 lines forward and do 1 Burpee, Bernie 1 line back and do 1 Get Down (both cheeks and both shulder blades touch the ground), Repeat increasing reps by 1 until the end of the parking lot (Max 8). 
  • Mosey to CMU pile
    • Beginning at 1 rep, cycle through Squats, Curls, Raises, and then hold a coupon at eye level for the number of seconds equal to the reps, repeat cycle with 2 reps all the way up to 20 reps.
  • Mosey to the stairs
    • At the curb, beginning at 1 rep, cycle through CMU bench press and skull crusher. Repeat cycle with 2 reps all the way up to 5 reps. 
    • At the first level of stairs, beginning at 6 reps, cycle through coupon push up, skull crusher. Repeat cycle with 7 reps all the way up to 10 reps.
    • At the second level of stairs, beginning at 11 reps, cycle through coupon push up, skull crusher. Repeat cycle with 12 reps all the way up to 15 reps.
    • At the top of the stairs, beginning at 16 reps, cycle through coupon push up, skull crusher. Repeat cycle with 17 reps all the way up to 20 reps.
  • Mosey to the AO

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Matt 13: 45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

So valuable that he went away and sold everything…

There are two types of oyster produced pearls: natural and cultured. Natural Pearls form when an irritant – usually a parasite and not the proverbial grain of sand – works its way into an oyster, mussel, or clam. As a defense mechanism, a fluid is used to coat the irritant. Layer upon layer of this coating, called ‘nacre’, is deposited until a lustrous pearl is formed. A cultured pearl undergoes the same process except that the irritant is a surgically implanted bead. The cultured pearl is a pearl on the outside with a thin, exterior layer of nacre while the natural pearl is pearl throughout. 

Takes years to form a natural pearl. If we look within ourselves, we too find parasites that try to steal the best of our strength, thought, joy and holiness. The temptation is smother the parasite with a bunch of nacre all at once but then you will have an uneven pearl, which has no beauty. It takes thin layers, little by little, layer by layer, day by day, prayer by prayer, scripture by scripture. The natural pearl within is started and then grown into a thing to be desired. 

This is the fine pearl that the man in the parable went and sold all he had to go purchase. As HIMs, we embrace this grind in the spirit of James 1 – 2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 

The kingdom of Heaven, the fine pearl, the natural pearl is worth selling all you have for. So if we are going to go all in,  we mist ensure that we have strength and faith throughout and not just a pretty exterior with a false center.

40 is the new 20

THE SCENE: Warm and humid
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Cherry pickers, Windmills, Overhead claps, Merkins, BBS, Calf raises, a few sprints in the parking lot
THA-THANG:
Mosey to the courtyard:

  • 21s with decline merkins and bonnie blairs
  • 20/20 vision with dips and step ups on the wall

Mosey to the lake for a burpee your buddy lap.  (2 teams everytime you pass a member of other team they do a burpee)

Work back to main AO stopping for 40 LBC and flutter kicks along the way.

MARY:
Circle up and hold feet off ground while others run around and push feet down.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Don’t worry about anything, instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.
MOLESKIN:
With everything in the world that we seek, remember to ask God and be thankful for what we have.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Memorial day work out

Undignified

THE SCENE: Dry; no longer cool
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Harry Rockets | Overhead Claps | Seal Claps | Maracan Night Club | Channuks| Twinkle Toes| Let It Hang | Reach for the stars

THA-THANG:
Warm up across the parking lot at 50% and 75%, then Duck Walk to the Duck Pond.

20 Guardrail hops, hold a plank for the 6 and then line up in 2 lines for double black snake.

We arrived the newest parking lot did Skipping Bernie Karaoke in one direction and frog jumping, boo boo bear, crab walks in the other direction.

Mosey to a pit we’ve always skipped where we found 6 balls with numbers and 6 exercises.  Putting the two togehter we did star jacks, peter parker merkins, crabby pickles, and other things that made us look silly.

Mosey to a brick bench for some step ups and monkey humpers.

MARY:
Monkey Humpers | Flutter Kicks | Super Man | Hello Dolly | Pickle Pointers | Calf Raises
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
22 HIMS (2 2.0’s, one got his age right, well done Blow Dart)

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Today’s exercises were selected with the criteria of looking ridiculous.  It worked, well done.  We don’t hesitate to look undignified out here.  We do monkey humpers and skip and karaoke and overall look nuts.

It makes me think of King David’s second act as king.  He kicks some sweaty Philistine butt and then brings the Ark back to Jerusalem.  And he is so filled with the joy of the Lord he finds himself dancing in a linen ephod.  After his first wife gives him a hard time about how ridiculous he looked, he made it clear some things are worth cashing in our chips.

If you get a chance to stand for the name of Jesus Christ, do not give in to fear or worry about what you look like.

“I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes.”
2 Samuel 6:21‭b-‬22a NIV

And I will be undignified
And I will praise the Lord my God with all my might
And I will leave my pride behind
And I will praise the Lord my God with all my life
Everything on the altar now
I won’t hold back, I won’t hold out
I don’t care what the world may say
I’m abandoned to reckless praise
Oh my soul, will not bow to the fear
Oh I will not bow
MOLESKIN:
Take some time today to worship along with my Irish friends in an undignified way.

 

Searching for Home – Waiting for Heaven!

THE SCENE: I thought it was going to be rainy but no just cool great weather for a beatdown
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER – Administered (oops I forgot to mention COVID. Does that mean it’s over?? I sure hope so!)
WARM-O-RAMA:
IC Moroccan Night Club x 10
IC Crabby Pickle Pointer (in Crab position do a Pickle Pointer) x 10
IC (SLOOOOW) Cherry Picker x 5
OYO Standing T-spine rotation x 5 each
IC Tennessee Rocking Chair x 10
IC Calf Raises x 20 led by Booster
OYO Hand Release Merkins x 5
OYO Superman x 10
IC Tempo Squat x 10
OYO Reach for the sky // Let it hang / additional warmup as necessary

THA-THANG:
Falling Indian Run to the Pond – Alternating Lunges
“Burpee Mile” (modified from 4x to 3x)
12 burpees 1 lap x 3
Finish waiting for the 6 with alternating:
10 x Pickle Pounders
10 x Pickle Pointers

Falling Indian Run to CMU Pile
CMU DORA
Partner does exercises at the bottom, other runs to the top and touches the brick wall. Flapjack. Go to next exercise and repeat after both partners do both exercises and run twice (I even got a partner right after I asked for one when Archie showed up!)
Kettle Bell Swing
Clock Pendulum

Put up blocks after ~3 rounds (“when you see Dart Gun” come back down is the cue we used to finish)
20 count (probably more like 40 seconds) wall sit for all PAX counted by Archie.

Walk to stop sign and we were just going to fix the cone I’d moved since we didn’t really have time for the last part but the PAX gave some mumblechatter so I went ahead and had us do 1 round of it:

At Sophomore Hill (Quick up and down)
10 x Crabby Pickle Pointer
Bernie Up
10 x Squats at the top
Lunges to the cone back down (Dart Gun beat me to cone after I called recover)

Falling Indian Run with Pickle Pounders back to the #ShovelFlag (“I see a pattern” was overheard by the Q from the PAX)
We arrived about 30 seconds later but we still finished the COT/BOM easily before 6:30.

MARY:
Ain’t nobody got time for that (such a classic meme and S/O to the EPS line workers at DMTN who let me put that as our “NG Condition” all the way back in 2013…)

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
13 PAX and a beautiful sunrise! (no, not 5k’s 2.0 he wasn’t there today – we miss you if you read this!)

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Waiting! Who likes it! But we’re told over and over and over in the Bible to wait. Waiting takes various aspects – waiting on ‘normalcy’ to return, waiting on God to answer our prayers, waiting on a future day of hope and joy that want to experience. And yet, God is the one in all of these that we must look to in order that our waiting would be to draw us to Him and not have us satisfied with our ‘current living conditions‘.

This is especially true for me. I’m waiting to find a house (hoepfully to buy). I’m not dissatisfied per say with where I’m living, but there is a sense that ‘a space of my own’ is what I long for and what is good and right. And yet I have to be patient. There are so many verses in the Bible about waiting for a home – God tells us to “seek first His kingdom” and “all these things will be added unto you.” God knows what we long for & in very good and healthy ways- but He commends those who looked to Heaven, Where Christ Is in order to show us where our ultimate and best home is:

Hebrews 11:13-16 talks about this – 13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them & greeted them from afar, & having acknowledged that they were strangers & exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

Reflection questions for you today:
1. How much stock are you putting in where you live? (both on earth and the physical house you have)
2. Is your earthly home where you’re storing up treasures (see my BB from Shamrock)?
3. Are you pointing others to your heavenly dwelling?

CS Lewis “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”

Amen. Come Lord Jesus.

MOLESKIN:
Lots of prayer requests & praises. Butter Knife got to see some extended family for the first time in a long time. Mailbox’s mom doesn’t have a torn achilles so that’s another praise. Spotter’s M is recovering but still be in prayer for her and Spotter. . Prayed for Booster’s M’s mother who cannot care for herself but may need a house on her own (see my above mention about searching for a home). Guardrail mentioned some situations to pray for regarding the PAX who weren’t present today.

I thoroughly enjoy leading this group of men. The mumble chatter is just right, the fitness and fellowship challenge me to be a better leader when I Q and better follower when I’m not. JUCO is base AO and if I had a home in F3 it would be just that.

Also had to update this a couple of times due to my rushed job to get it posted (mostly proofreading errors).

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Upcoming Convergence on June 12th is now canceled. See updates in Slack for options to reschedule / serve in other ways.

If You See Something Good, Learn From It…

THE SCENE: 55 degrees and dry
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Side straddle hop in cadence 20
Cherry Pickers
10 tempo merkins
Arm rotations thumbs up in cadence
Reverse thumbs down in cadence
Moroccan nightclub 20
10 Windmills in cadence
5 burpees on your own
Side straddle hop in cadence

THA-THANG:

  • Mosey to the coupons lot w/ the person up front falling off for 2 burpees after a 5 count
  • Partner up
  • 50 thrusters
  • Run stairs 5 pull ups
  • AMRAP / 20 blockees
  • Run stairs 5 pull ups
  • 100 curls
  • Flutter kicks in cadence
  • Repeat
  • Mosey with the person in the back sprinting to the front to wall in the courtyard for step up knee ups 30 total
  • Spider-Man Derkins x 10
  • Flutter kicks in cadence
  • Line up on the curb
  • Walking lunges to the next line 10 merkins
    Bernie back
  • Sprint two lines 2 burpees
    Bernie back
  • Karaoke back to the 2nd line switching directions at the first line
  • Repeat from new starting point
  • Continue
  • Flutter kicks in cadence x20
  • Freddy Mercuries x 20
  • Mosey w/ a Jail Break to the flag.

MARY:

  • Rocky Balboas on the curb (soccer drills)
  • Kick Flip’s Mucho Chesto

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:
If you see something good, learn from it. If you see something bad, learn what not to do.

I believe this is a great mindset… If I would take that advice.

If we put God first, we can do anything we put our minds to. If we put God first, then the challenges we face: public speaking, changing careers, starting over, going for a promotion, being the best husband or father we can be, whatever it is… Our Almighty God, Creator of the Universe, The Hills and the Valleys (nod to Kickflip’s message), the sun and the moon, makes these things seem small, we can accomplish anything. Knowing He’s in your corner and He will help us if we ask Him to, that’s amazing to me.

God gives us victory!

Thank you gentlemen for challenging me! I have nothing but respect for you guys.
MOLESKIN:
“They are confident and fearless and can face their foes triumphantly. “
— Psalms 112:8

“being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
— Philippians 1:6 NIV
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Insert information about upcoming events, 2nd or 3rd F opportunities, and any other announcements.