F3 Knoxville

Tag: Guardrail

Deck of Pain

THE SCENE: Cold and rainy
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Reach for the sky alternating with some let-it-hang.

Cherry Pickers, Side Straddle Hops, Moroccan Night Clubs, Overhead Clap and Harry Rockets IC.

20 Calf Raises and Merkins followed by a parking lot length mosey and shuffle to warm-up.

THA-THANG:
The infamous DECK OF PAIN.  Pick your poison type workout with a jailbreak to each location around JUCO, but led by the Q due to COVID precautions.  If you haven’t tried it, request a repeat.

MARY:
15 American Hammers IC, 10 Supermans, and polished off with some jumping squats with a hold at the bottom.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
16 HIMs with a 17th lingering in the shadows (running around campus)
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

I’m not sure of how many of you are car guys but you may have heard of the 80/20 rule. 80% of the speed you get out of the car is achieved by approximately 20% of the work from the engine. On the flip-side the last 20% of the vehicles max speed is only accomplished due to the other 80% of the work from the engine.

Obviously these are not exact numbers as cars vary in performance and the cross between the efficiency curves are not exact, but it’s an analogy to understand the work needed to achieve a maximum potential.

Now think of how you go through your daily activities and how you may live in a comfort zone. Are you living off of that 20% or maybe 50% in a comfort zone like cruise control.  There are probably several things that you do that could be considered a part of your comfort zone. The things you do well you naturally focus on because again they are familiar.

What about the difficult aspects? How often do you focus or work in those?

I don’t expect you to immediately take on some drastic amount of extra workh, but what’s one thing that you know in the back of your mind you can undertake to better yourself, your family or your discipleship. I encourage you all to step out of that comfort zone and do the hard work.  Push yourself to be better or take on a role that you know you should.

This doesn’t only apply to doing more…Maybe this also means you need to stop doing something that comforts you. Something that you need to abstain from. Do it!

Philippians 4:13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

Joshua 1:9 Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

MOLESKIN:
We all have room for improvement.  Push yourself to make the difficult change.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
CSAUP on Jan 30th.

Two Copper Coins

THE SCENE: Cold til we got started, little bit of snow starting to come down at the end
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Reach for the sky, let it hang, hillbilly walkers, cherry pickers, tempo squats, tempo merkins, high knees with a few burpees sprinkled in
THA-THANG:
Mosey over to the big parking lot for a little tabata action inspired by my M.   40s on / 15s rest for 5 exercises and then run to end of parking lot and bernie back.

Round 1 – Merkins / SSH / Heels to Heaven / Mountain Climbers / Squats

Round 2 – Burpees / High Knees / BBS / Toe Taps / Lunges

Round 3 – Merkins / Iron Mikes / Hello Dolly / Shoulder Taps / Monkey Humpers

Mosey over to the coupon pile for a little more tabata

Round 4 – Curls / Squat Thrusters / Heavy American Hammers / Tri Ext / Rocky Balboa

Round 5 – Bent Over Rows / Goblet Squats / Heavy Freddy / Shoulder Press / Calf Raises

Round 6 – Didn’t happen (to be continued)

MARY:
No time for Mary despite the jail break called out by Butterknife

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
12 Strong on a Monday

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
As many of you know last year I started mentoring a 12 yo boy who has a pretty rough situation.   It has been a challenging yet extremely rewarding journey.   Wanted to share a brief story that happened over the holidays that really humbled me.   I received a call from my friend on the day after Christmas saying he needed to goto the bank, but also to not eat anything before I came.   Not knowing what to expect I picked him up a day or two after Christmas and he was as excited as any child I have ever seen because he had a surprise for me.    After running to the bank and cashing his check he finally let me in on his plans.   He wanted to spend his Christmas money by taking us to dinner at Olive Garden.   It was a truly memorable evening and humbling too.   He was proud to tell everyone that he was paying for dinner as he ordered dinner and dessert for us and carry out for his mom.  He was worried he might have spent more than he had but turned out he actually still had a little left over so he asked if we could goto Walmart.   Not because he wanted anything for himself but because he and his friend were having fun making things out of pallet wood and he wanted to get a pair of safety glasses for them and a pair of gloves for his friend.   Couldn’t help but be reminded of the story of the Widow’s two cooper coins offering in Luke 21: 1-4 and how it correlated with this situation.   It was convicting knowing how often I am guilty of giving out of abundance only and miss opportunities to give freely knowing God will always provide.   May we all be freely willing to give not only our money but of our time and energy as well.

The Widow’s Offering

LUKE 21 Jesus[a] looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, 2 and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins.[b] 3 And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. 4 For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Still need someone to sign up to Q on Wednesday, Dart Gun has Friday

Things to think on

THE SCENE: Cold and spitting snow. Here to help me celebrate 36 years!
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
36 SSH, 9 Moroccan night club, 9 Peter Parkers, 9 Parker Peters, 9 J-Los
THA-THANG:
Indian run to the Sophomore. At the Sophomore, we did a couple of sets of 4 corners.

1st Set

  • 36 Merkins, Bernie Sanders up
  • 36 Squats
  • 36 Imperial walkers
  • 9 Burpees

2nd Set

  • 20 Peter Parkers with merkin, Bernie Sanders up the hill
  • 20 Lunges
  • 20 Heels to Heaven
  • 20, 2-ct Mountain climbers

Begin to indian run back towards the shovel flag but pass it up and go up the hill to the Maple Street parking lot.

  • 20 Diamond merkins, bear crawl to the next corner
  • 20 Squats, sprint to next corner
  • 20 J-Los (2-ct), lunge walk to next corner
  • 20 werkins
  • 10 burpees broad jumps towards the starting corner
    MARY:
    Ring of fire Merkins. Go around the circle while holding plank and each PAX does 1 merkin. Increase count until 4. 15 Freddie Mercury, protractor
    COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
    10 PAX helped me celebrate 36 years.
    CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
    “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. “
  • Philippians 4:4‭-‬9 NASB

YHC has heard this passage or a portion of it a few times in the past days. I thought it was worth sharing this morning given the state of the world. It is always encouraging to think of the good things in life and, more importantly, the life to come when times are tough.
MOLESKIN:
Welcome Mr. Slate to Knoxville from Lexington.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
CSAUP coming up at Asylum January 30.

Always be Sober-Minded

THE SCENE: A cool, crisp morning, temp in low 30s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
7 Cherry Pickers, 20 Side-Straddle-Hops, 10 Tempo Merkins, 10 Tempo Squats, 7 lunges each leg.
THA-THANG:
Mosey to the Coupon Pile and carry the coupons to Sophomore Hill. We started in the lower left hand corner, doing one workout at each corner before duck walking the coupon up and down the hill while Rifle Carrying the coupon between the corners at the top and bottom. We did three laps around Sophomore Hill. The first lap had

  • Curls (20)
  • Shoulder Raises (15)
  • Front Shoulder Raises (10)
  • Burpees (5)

The second lap had

  • Squats (20)
  • Calf Raises (15)
  • Monkey Humpers (10)
  • Lunges (5 each leg)

The third lap had

  • Hello Dolly’s (20)
  • Heals to Heaven (15)
  • Big Boys (10)
  • Heavy Mercury’s (5, 4 count)

The only workout done without holding the coupon was the burpees and monkey humpers.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
11 present, no FNGs.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
In the book the Hobbit, there is a scene in which Bilbo Baggins is having a conversation with Smaug the Dragon. At first, Bilbo is thinking clearly and he is confident in his conversation with Smaug. But the more that Smaug talks, he begins to lure Bilbo into believing certain lies about why he is there and about the troop that brought him there. Bilbo slowly starts to believe the dragon and he comes to a point where he almost reveals himself to the dragon, he almost gives into the dragon and his lies. But he comes to his senses and runs from the dragon.

In 2 Timothy, Paul is talking to Timothy and reminding him of the people they know that have fallen away from the faith. They have seen the truth, but then they are slowly deceived and believe lies that they devil tells them and they fall away from the faith. Then, in 2 Timothy 4:5, Paul tells Timothy to “Always be sober-minded.” Paul reminds Timothy of his ministry, of his focus. He reminds Timothy of the truth.

So many times, the devil tempts us and lies to us about what is important, lies about ourselves, lies about God. As we go about our days today, let’s focus on the truth that we are loved by God, we are saved through grace by faith and we are His. Let’s be sober minded in all that we do and not fall into the trap of the devil to believe the lies that he tries to tell us.
MOLESKIN:
Prayers for our country, peace and integrity. Prayers for Boosters friend JJ in the ICU. Prayers for Guardrails wife’s uncle who is having some issues in the hospital.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
CSAUP at the Asylum on Saturday, January 30 from 6:30 am to 9 am.

Press On Toward The Goal

THE SCENE: 31 degrees
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
cherry picker, rocking chair, ‘merkins
THA-THANG:
Mohammed Ali, when asked how many reps he could do of an exercise, he said he had no idea – he doesn’t really count. He just goes until he is exhausted and then does an additional set. We didn’t do that…but we did a mini version!

  • Mosey to small rock pile.
  • Shoulder as many as possible your own for 1 min (front raises, lateral, overhead clap) followed by 5 reps together each time.
  • Mosey to coupon pile (with drop 2x burpee / 2 lines)
  • Coupon pile exercises (Each is max out for 1 minute and then do 5x together)
      • (merkins, coupon press, overhead and/or skull crushers)
      • Rows, bicep
      • Squats, calf raises
  • Between each major muscle group: Mosey to hill and Bear crawl up hill w/1 burpee @ top
  • Mosey to flag with 2x burpee drop off lines again

MARY: no time…finished @ 6:15

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
17 present: Guardrail, Erector, 5K, Booster, Wheelchair, Butter Knife, Dart Gun, Footsie, Wanderer, Sty, Gump, Commission, Pool Boy, sos, Mailbox, Spotter, hound dog
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Philippians 3:13-14, “Brothers and sisters, I do not regard myself as having taken hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Janus, the Roman God for which January was named, had two faces: one looked forward to the new year and one looked backward to the past year. This morning I related that I am not big on resolutions because most people give up on them by “ditch day,” January 17th. Nevertheless, I do believe in the power of goals. After all, if you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time!

Personal confession: even though I lost about 45 pounds over the last couple years, I put back 10 -15 this year off of a sweet tooth and lazy habits. I hit F3 3x week, but as they say, “you can’t outrun your fork.” How does the weight come back on like that? Slowly…1 pound at a time!

So we have to be diligent. And like physical weight, we might be carrying a few extra spiritual pounds into 2021 too. Ghandi said that the chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too strong to be broken. Bad habits come on slowly, day by day. We might have a secret sin or a burden we aren’t willing to unload. How do we overcome? Do what we can, give ourselves over completely, and hand more of our lives over to God each day.

They say that elephants are trained by securing their leg against something strong enough when they are young so that when they are old they remember that they cannot break free. Then, a mere rope and tiny tent peg in the ground is enough to keep them in place. We must break free of the thought that we can do ONLY 20 or 30 or 50 reps. By maxing out in a minute and then “adding 5,” we learned we are capable of more than we thought…or at least I did!

Thanks for letting me lead again…and hope you’re sore tomorrow…’cause I already can’t lift my arms 🙂