F3 Knoxville

The Peace of Wild Things

THE SCENE: Pleasant temperatures in the upper 70s, but still dang humid
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

Boom. Nailed it.

WARM-O-RAMA:
20 SSH IC, 20 Imperial Squat Walkers IC, 20 Windmills IC (PAX really needs to work on getting the coordination and count down on these… 😉 ), 20 baby-to-big arm circles IC, front/reverse

THA-THANG:

Mosey to Area 51.

We will do Partner DORAs starting at the parking sign off of the perimeter road just south of the Admin building.. While one partner runs to Area 51 parking lot/loading Dock and does 5 squat jumps and runs back, the other starts the exercises.  Each pair shall complete the following, cumulatively:

  • 100 Big Boy sit-ups
  • 200 Lunges (doing both legs counts as 1)
  • 100 Merkins

Mosey around perimeter road to grassy field between Admin Building and main park road. Cones will be laid out in a large rectangle.  Move around the cones, doing Bernie Sanders on the long sides and bear crawls on the short sides.  Stop at midpoints and corners for exercises.

  • At midpoints (long side only), do 15 Carolina Dry Docks
  • At each corner, do 10 mountain climbers (4-ct)

Rinse and repeat, but replace the exercises with the following:

  • At midpoints (long side), do 15 Bobby Hurleys
  • At each corner, do 10 Plank Jacks

Mosey to path leading to Admin building.

Bernie Sanders up the sidewalk to the stairs, and do 50 calf raises on the stairs.

Mosey back to AO.

MARY:
Captain Thors, 20 Hello Dollies (IC), 15 tempo merkins (IC), 40 E2Ks (10 each leg, rinse and repeat), 20 modified table saws (IC), 20 froggie/heel touches (IC)
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
11 fine men, all tagged except for Foff (sp?) who is still not registered.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

The Peace of Wild Things

Outside of church, I have always felt closest to God while immersed in the beauty of nature, surrounded by a world so achingly beautiful that it makes me so grateful and humbled that we have been placed in such surroundings.  Whether it is standing on a ledge looking at a spectacular waterfall, gazing out across a valley tinted with fall colors from a peak, or simply looking at the contours and pigments of a simple, perfect flower, I feel the work of God in my heart.  I wanted to read this poem, which I stole-borrowed from a fellow F3er’s Facebook page (Thanks Lillydipper!)

“The Peace of Wild Things” by Wendell Barry

When Despair for the World grows in me

And I wake in the night at the least sound

In fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

Rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds

I come into the peace of wild things

Who do not tax their lives with forethought

Of grief.  I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

Waiting with their light.  For a time

I rest in the grace of the world. And am free.”

Prayers that we pause and truly appreciate the beauty of our world whenever possible, and that we are wise and responsible stewards of our wondrous planet so that it is preserved for generations to come.

MOLESKIN:
Congrats to Mr. Jinxy and best wishes on the marriage of his daughter this week-end!

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Lots of stuff coming up… Atlanta Mud Run, F3 Olympics, Cleveland, TN F3 kickoff all in the next month.  Stay tuned…

We all worship

THE SCENE: Beautiful morning

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • 20 SSH IC
  • 12 Tempo Squats IC
  • 10 Merkins IC
  • 10 Cherry Pickers IC
  • 12 Baby Arm Circles (Forward & Reverse) IC

THA-THANG:

Escalator style workout: Each light pole has an exercise with an assigned number of reps. Go to Light Pole 1, complete the exercise, and run back to the start line. Run back to Light Pole 1, do the exercise, run to Light Pole 2, do the exercise, and run back to the start line. Light Pole 1, then 2, then 3, and back to the start line. Rinse and repeat until you make it to the last light pole (total of 8 light poles). The exercises/reps were as follows:

  • Light Pole 1 = 5 Hand-release Merkins
  • Light Pole 2 = 10 Jump Squats
  • Light Pole 3 = 15 Carolina Dry Docks
  • Light Pole 4 = 20 Lungs (10 each leg)
  • Light Pole 5 = 25 LBC’s
  • Light Pole 6 = 30 Iron Mikes (15 each leg)
  • Light Pole 7 = 35 Hello Dollies (single count)
  • Light Pole 8 = 40 SSH (single count)

Followed that with a little Indian run action – traditional and then with lunges and then with bear crawls. Mosey over to the cloud for the following:

  • 10 Burpee Box Jumps
  • 10 Tricep Dips IC
  • 10 Derkins
  • 10 Tricep Dips IC

MARY:

  • 20 Flutter Kicks IC
  • Plank hold into Mountain Climbers
  • 20 American Hammers IC

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

24 HIM’s got better today. Sharky & Potter came out as well (no tag)

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

One of our pastors shared the following quote with us a couple Sundays back. The message is that we all worship something. If we’re not finding our identity in Christ, then we’re finding it somewhere else. Because of sin, we are all broken cisterns. If we find our worth in money, power, the approval of others, fame, glory, etc., we will never have enough. Those worldly idols were never meant to fill the void in our hearts caused by sin – no matter how much we have, we will always want more because our souls will never be satisfied with worldly possessions. A relationship, through faith, with our Father is the only sustainable source of life.

While David Foster Wallace (the man who coined this quote) wasn’t a Christian, his message regarding worldly idols is relevant to our daily struggles.

“In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for choosing some sort of god or spiritual being to worship – be it Jesus Christ or Allah, Yahweh or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or some inviolable set of ethical principles – is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. On one level, we all know this stuff already. It’s been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness. Worship power – you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need even more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart – you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. And so on.”

Big Ball Takes on the Murph – Y(mca) the Heck Not

THE SCENE: 0530: Wet/Rainy
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

    • Welcome to F3: Fitness – Fellowship – Faith
    • My name is Steam & I’ll be your Q this morning
    • A couple things before we begin
    • (1) I am not a professional
    • (2) You are here on your own volition
      • you made a choice to be here – so did the man on your left and right
      • don’t take that lightly – you’re here for them, because without you, they probably wouldn’t be here
    • (3) You know your body better than anyone – meaning I don’t know any injuries you may or may not have
      • if you need to modify any of the exercises we do this morning – do it. But don’t use that as a cop out.
      • see that guy on your left and right? He came here to work so don’t half ass it for him or you this morning.
      • We will be doing a modified version of the Murph this morning – it’s not just a beatdown – it’s a workout honoring Lt. Michael Murphy – who sacrificed his life in the Hindu-Kush mountains of Afghanistan for the rest of his SEAL team and country. When we’re all gonna be hurting at some point this morning, we all will I promise, think of that.
      • Lock in and Dig Deep – we’re gonna do this together.
    • That being said – it’s an honor to be here this morning with you men – I couldn’t think of a better way to kick off Thursday morning than with y’all.


WARM-O-RAMA:

    • SSH: 11×4 (in cadence)
    • Cherry Picker: 11×4 (in cadence)
    • Rockette: 11×4 (in cadence)
    • Merkin: 11×4 (in cadence)
    • SSH: 11×4 (in cadence)

THA-THANG:
Big Ball AO –> Downtown YMCA (around 1 mile roundtrip)

  • Mosey with 20lb vest and 20lb ruck from AO –> past convention center –> into the Downtown YMCA on Clinch Ave.
  • PAX heads up to the YMCA’s Attic, aka badass crossfit style room up top
  • QIC explains the history of The Murph, background on Mike Muprhy
  • PAX executes a Modified Murph along with hype music over the Attic loudspeakers by the QIC
    • Pull-Ups: 50
    • Push-Ups: 150
    • Squats: 250
  • When PAX members are done –> execute flutter kicks on a 4 count (led by Swanson & Steam)
  • PAX takes super awesome GP in front of the Y logo #GP
  • PAX American-Indian moseys to field across from AO
  • QIC goes down the line and affirms each PAX member by a chest-clearing cadence grunt that each PAX member repeats
  • TAKE. IT.
  • All PAX take the field like it’s their last.

MARY:
Rain still coming down – all PAX are soaked but happy to be here

QIC checks in with each PAX member in the COT: How you feeling? Met with a response of affirmation of being here.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

11 PAX including Q

No FNGs
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

  • I feel like God has been tapping on my shoulder pretty intentionally in ways that I can only explain as divine appointment.
  • When you feel that, when you are, uh, awakened to that tapping or divine call, will you take it?
  • I’ve wrestled with mine for a couple weeks because it regards my job and the list goes on and on.
  • With that I’ve isolated myself. We talk a lot in F3 about the isolated male.
  • When you feel that calling or divine appointment, bring others into the fold and share that with them.
  • I guarantee any one of us are more than willing to walk with you in that.

 

  • What I was vaguely referring to up above in my word is this: 2 weeks ago I met with the YMCA of East TN COO. She was asking how my new role with the Downtown YMCA was going, thanks to the Knoxville Fellows. I told her I was enjoying it, but there was not a lot of concrete structure – it was more a shadowing/figuring it out on your own. And with this new role at the Y, which seems pretty unclear at times, I feel like there are all these things that I want to do to benefit members and add more value to the Y than “just being a gym.” One thing that the Lord has put on my heart within the past month is the idea of going deeper at work than just surface-level membership questions and support. More specifically, leading a bible-study or small-group, or book-study. After all, this is the Young Men’s Christian Association, and I feel a charge to bring back some light that I feel we as an organization have lost (a little).
  • When my COO brought up the idea of bringing back a bible study, etc into the Downtown Y – i knew that’s what the Lord had put on my heart. I could clearly hear His voice through my COO.
  • Fast forward to the next Monday: my direct boss was away and I was in his office, 10 minutes into being clocked in, with my bible open, starting my day off thinking about what my COO said, and the idea of a bible study being brought back into the Y and honestly – feeling really insecure and negative and doubtful about it. The next thing I’m about to say can only be divine appointment: around the corner and into the office comes a man and the first words out of his mouth were “Hey man, do y’all do any bible studies here?”
  • My jaw literally dropped. To me, this was clearly the Lord putting this man in front of me as affirmation that his voice had been made clear. I got to talking to the man, and through our conversation it became more apparent this is something I feel called to do.
  • Later that week (Wednesday) I was walking home from work and saw the man outside after recently talking with a friend about the experience, and he asked again about the bible study. This was uncanny – it was Christ.
  • I’ve felt convicted about my doubts for this after clearly seeing the the call of God for this through this divine appointment – I knew what to do.
  • However, when I was feeling doubtful, I was isolating myself – what we talk about in F3 as the isolated male. My BOM today was about answering the taps on the shoulder from the Lord and inviting other men and HIM and people into the fold and grace of that – so you don’t isolate yourself.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
G-6 has 2 job opportunities that can be longterm – for more info, see G-6

Oct. 6 = Abscess & Steam are co-leading a hike with the Downtown YMCA (See F3 Knoxville GroupMe events for more info) – DM Abscess or Steam for more info

Nov = Anniversary month! 3 Years! Keep your eyes peeled for more info on the shindig celebration that will ensue.

3rd F will likely be around the first couple weeks of December

Joker’s Wild at the Big Ball

THE SCENE: Temperature around 68 with a slight drizzle.

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER


WARM-O-RAMA:

A few side straddle hops, couple of cherry pickers, BIG arm circles, overhead claps, and front side claps.

THA-THANG:
We took a little mosey to the amphitheater to get out of the wet.  We discovered a pack of playing cards and a dry erase board set out on the stage.  Dry Erase board had this written on it…

  • Hearts – Burpees
  • Clubs – Merkins
  • Diamond – Odd – Dips / Even – Derkins
  • Spades – Squats
  • Aces – Sprint the stairs 5 times
  • Jokers – WILD

We spread the cards out, face down…then flipped them over and followed the commands . Example – 5 of Hearts – 5 Burpees; Queen of Clubs – 10 Merkins.

This totals up to 84 of each rep.  Joker #1 – 25 “My People” by G6; Joker #2 – 8 Bodybuilders by Amazon

MARY:
Ran out of time….

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
18 Total HIMs

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Temptation…it gets to all of us.  Key is to try to not not focus on the temptation…that only makes your brain think about it more. Rather, you should replace the temptation with a positive thought.  Temptation can drive your emotion, which drives your thoughts, which drives your actions, which determine who you are.

MOLESKIN:

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Tuesday Card Game

THE SCENE:  Overcast. 70 degrees. Low humidity.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

BAC x10 IC
SSH x15 IC
Hillbilly x10 IC
Tempo Merkin x10 IC
Tempo Squat x10 IC
8-ct Bodybuilders x5 IC

THA-THANG:
After warmup, formed two lines on Petey & Amazon. PAX mosey to Amphitheater and circled up.

Deck o’ Cards
Hearts = 4 ct Flutter Kicks IC
Diamonds = Inverted Rows IC
Clubs = Merkins IC
Spades = 8 ct Bodybuilders IC

Ace = 20 reps
Face cards = 15 reps
Less than face = Value of Card

Joker pulled:

All PAX run to top of amphitheater steps for the shoulder shredder:

4ct Overhead Claps x25 IC…arms stay out
Pick cherries, drop em in the bucket
4 total sets to get to 100 reps

Bear crawl down amphitheater steps after.

Continued with Deck of Cards. Couldn’t finish so the last set of exercises I pulled 4 aces to hit 20 of each exercise before endex.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
24 PAX, no FNGs

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Discussed the importance of focusing on one thing and doing it well rather than multi-tasking as it pulls attention away and it’s difficult to get momentum generated. “Never half-ass two things. Whole-ass one thing.” Ron Swanson

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Big Ball to start Monday workouts