Jumbo(Carter Dickens) – F3 Knoxville

Welcoming BSIA…A Day on Pickett’s

March 14, 2026 BackBlasts

AO: asylum-daybreak
Q: Crawdad (Robbi Dickens)
PAX: Waffle House (Brady Greene), Crash Dummy, Lilydipper, Pusher, Lizzy, Brick, Dung Beetle, Jumbo(Carter Dickens), Pac-man, Snitch (Cory Beilharz ), Swimmies (Nathan Chesney), @breaststroke, @kungblue
FNGs: None
COUNT: 14
2+ miles of hills and sprints, a full morning on Pickett’s, two oil changes and some serious core for our first grind of daylight savings! Self-rating (8/10) :muscle::runner:

WARMUP:
100 SSH
Imperial Walkers
Hillbillies
Michael Phelps
Little of this and that
Tempo Merkins
Lap around the pond

THE THANG:
We moseyed to the yoga studio and hammered out core to start it off.
100 hello Dollie’s
2 x 50 =100 Flutter kicks
60 second plank
30-60 second elbow plank

>From there we headed to the bottom of Pickett’s Charge.
We did Dora’s up the first hill / ledge:
100 Merkins
200 Squats on the 4 count
300 LBCs

Then we did 7s up the next ledge if Pickett’s (touch the wall of the Celleseum) with merkins at the bottom and Smurf Jacks at the top. As we ran, we forced ourselves to put smiles on our faces. 😀

We gathered at the bottom of that ledge and did another oil change (100 SSH) as a transition workout.

Everyone moseyed to the bottom of Pickett’s and did a full Pickett’s (got grounded by touching the Asylum) and then gathered at the Colleseum for the pre-BSIA 60 seconds of silence and reflection.

Mosey to the parking lot (squats on the sidewalk) and did a full sprint back to the AO together. Gathered on the curb for some more sprints and then we circled up.

Each person picked a number of Merkins in their head that they wanted to complete. The point is not to compare yourself to someone else but to pick the number and grind it out. Comparison the thief of joy.

Recover!

MARY:
Yoga Studio for the dub

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Hall Ridge

COT:
A couple themes:
1. Comparison is the thief of joy.
2. It’s been scientifically observed – not junk science – that you can force your body to feel emotions with your facial expressions. That’s why we forced ourselves to smile as we ran to get ourselves in the right headspace.
3. As we did Pickett’s today we heard the Bassmaster boats flying by. Those guys are the best at their sport and they did not become the best just by purchasing boats and showing up for the Classic. They had to show up each day and practice and grind and work hard.

The quote for today is, “You are not your grand plans, but your daily patterns.“ James clear

Let’s go!!!!

Tour de Parking Lots

November 29, 2025 BackBlasts

AO: asylum-daybreak
Q: Pele (Jon Lindberg)
PAX: Lilydipper, Crawdad (Robbi Dickens), High Heels, Pusher, Lizzy, Cat Gut (Mike Davis), Jumbo(Carter Dickens), CRISPR, Dain Bramage, Waffle House (Brady Greene), Serpentine (Jason Pierce), Pele (Jon Lindberg), Inconceivable, MegaWatt
FNGs: None
COUNT: 14
WARMUP:
-5-ct Motivators
– 10 Windmills (4-ct IC)
-10 Grady Corns (4-ct IC)
– 10 Bolt 45s (15 top ½ squats, 15 bottom ½ squats, 15 full squats)
– 10 Mountain Climbers (4-ct IC)
– Orphan Annies
THE THANG:
MOSEY up Baby Cardiac to parking lot on the left. WELSH DRAGON (4-ct Bear crawl + 1 Merkin, rinse and repeat w/ same # of bear crawls but adding 1 merkin until you get to 10.)

MOSEY to parking lot across street.
– EVOLUTION OF MAN: 10-ct BEAR CRAWL, 20-CT LUNGE, then run to end.
MOSEY TO PARKING LOT across street. AIKEN LEGS: 20 Split Jacks (10 right/left), 20 squats, 20 Jump Squats, 20 lunges R&R
MOSEY through the small parking lot where we park. Just a fly by to check it off the list. 10 SSH.
MOSEY to nice parking lot by bathrooms.
– TOTEM POLE. Do all the exercises, run to cone, do 10 SSH, and run back. Do all the exercises minus the first one, R&R until done.
10x Prisoner Get Ups
9x Dive Bombers
8x American Hammers (4-ct)
7x Carolina Dry Docks
6x Imperial SQUAT Walkers (4-ct)
5x Mountain Climbers (4-ct)
4x Froggy Jumps
3x Overhead Claps
2x Bobby Hurleys
1x NAMASTE
MOSEY back to AO parking lot
FOUR CORNERS ESCALATOR (UP AND DOWN), all single ct
1st corner (RUN): 10 SMURF JACKS
2nd corner (KARAOLE LEFT): 10 SMURF JACKS, 20 PLANK JACKS (single count)
3rd Corner (BERNIE): 10 SMURF JACKS, 20 PLANK JACKS, 30 Seal Claps
4th corner (KARAOKE RIGHT): 10 SMURF JACKS, 20 PLANK JACKS, 30 Seal Claps, 40 ROCKY BALBOAS
1st corner (RUN): 40 ROCKY BALBOAS, 30 Seal Claps, 20 PLANK JACKS, 10 SMURF JACKS
2nd corner (KARAOKE LEFT): 30 Seal Claps, 20 PLANK JACKS, 10 SMURF JACKS
3rd corner (BERNIE): 20 PLANK JACKS, 10 SMURF JACKS
4th corner (KARAOKE RIGHT): 10 SMURF JACKS
MARY:
A quick set of American hammers and Boat/Canoe to honor Catgut
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Polar Bear Plunge coming up Jan 1!

COT: The Minister at my church was recently discussing how he often spends time this time of year answering questions from people asking him how they would deal with family members over the holidays, given the deep social and political divides in this county, and he would ask them two questions:

1. Do you want to still have a relationship with these people while whatever is causing the disagreement is going on, and when it is over?
2. Do you feel obligated, or is it a necessity in your life, to attend every fight to which you are invited?

If the answer to #1 is NO, then feel free to attend the fight, but understand that your relationship may be permanently damaged. If the answer is YES, then you might want to DECLINE to attend every fight to which you are invited and preserve that relationship rather than engage in a confrontation that you likely cannot win.

Shortly after I heard this advice, I found myself listening to a wonderful song by Joni Mitchell called BOTH SIDES NOW that gave me a new outlook that could help me avoid attending all the fights I’m invited to. Here is how the first part of it goes:

So the clouds when she looked at them at one time in her life were fanciful images and innocent dreams, but then later in life she looked at them differently. They were a nuisance, a distraction, things to dread and avoid, if possible. At the end of the verse, after looking at clouds all her life, she admits she doesn’t know clouds at all.

The song goes on for two more verses that talk about LOVE and LIFE with a similar pattern; an innocent, optimistic impression of them followed by a more cynical opinion, and ending with an admission that she doesn’t really know what LOVE and LIFE are all about, just like the CLOUDS.

So I’m trying to take this to heart and be more like Joni Mitchell and admit that I don’t know as much about stuff as I think, and that there are many perspectives and points of view of everyday objects like clouds, and most of the time there is no wrong or right answer. It depends on our perspective, life experiences, and simple opinion. And if I recognize those uncertainties, AND the fact that the opinions of others are coming from their own frame of reference that also might evolve and change, as mine have, I feel less obligated to ATTEND THOSE FIGHTS that the pastor spoke of, and choose Harmony over Division. Because, as the Great Joni Mitchell wrote, even after 53 years, maybe I really don’t know everything about these things after all.

22 Years Worth

August 9, 2025 BackBlasts

AO: asylum-daybreak
Q: Crawdad (Robbi Dickens)
PAX: Brick, Lizzy, Snitch (Cory Beilharz ), Waffle House (Brady Greene), Crash Dummy, Lilydipper, Jumbo(Carter Dickens), Drum Major, Mr Jinxy, Pele (Jon Lindberg), Veggie (Rylen Huddy)
FNGs: None
COUNT: 13
WARMUP:
100 SSH (“the oil change for your mind”), 30 seconds of high knees, 30 seconds of butt kickers, shuffle abouts, 10 tempo merkins, 10 tempo squats. Do we need anymore? Let’s get after it!

THE THANG: (Self-rating of 7/10)
Mosey (pickle balls in hand) to Yoga Studio. Mary all over that place.
100 Hello Dollies, 25 Box Cutters, 2 x 30 second elbow planks, 60 second full plank, and the yoga suite: Baby Cobra, Power T, and Bow Pose. Lilydipper sprouted wings and soared! I mean he soared!

Mosey en route to whiffle ball fields. Stop at the curb (where you turn left to the church) for 50 (in multiple sets aka “every man’s workout”) incline curb merkins and 50 full squats. Always hitting that upper aperture of that peck deck.

Continue Mosey to whiffle ball field for shuttle runs. Three levels and lots of them to include Veggie (Rylen Huddy) leading us in 50 BBS….a monster was born!

Mosey to Colosseum for 2 whole minutes of soaking in the highly rated BSIA! :sunny: That’s a lot of silence and everyone crushed it. During this, we asked ourselves the question – how committed am I? The sunrise did NOT disappoint.

After the silence, Drum Major anchored us in some Merkin “Ring of Fire” up to 3 merks.

We then scooted around to do 100 calve raises (you read that correctly) at the stairs of the Asylum because there is now a third chapter of junk science. Your length of life is connected to…that’s right, the size of your calves. Article will be attached.

Mosey back to the AO for some sprints (we must keep that testosterone high so this will always be part of the syllabus) and wrapped up by Brick leading us in ATMs.

Gents – I get fired up just thinking about this workout we had yesterday. I would love to do it all over again with you guys.

MARY: cough, ahum – Yoga Studio.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Drum Major celebrating 26 years of marriage! Ayooo!

Prayer requests:
– Dung Beetle fam heading to NOLA for the move back into college.
– My 2.0 moving into TN (today :cry:)
– Drum Major 2.0 Brady had a close friend (Blake I believe) pass away of cancer. Pray for the family and Brady as he travels and processes it.
– Pele (Jon Lindberg) calf for healing.
– Any I’ve forgotten.

COT:
On the final run back to the AO I shared the humorous full day of my wedding day 22 years ago. But in all seriousness, the story was the birth of the question that we asked to ourselves during the two minutes of silence. How committed am I?

One of our pastors preached a few months ago that we as believers have fleeting hearts. When something is hard, we naturally want to run. When I got married, I could not of imagined how hard marriage would be and the work required. I have been fortunate that my wife has tolerated me and put up with me for 22 years and I’m so grateful for that. Whether it’s your job, a friendship, witnessing to someone, don’t give up and stay committed to the task.

There are two types of people. The first type that sees the world’s difficult circumstances through the lens of God‘s goodness and sovereignty. The second sees God through the lens of the difficult circumstances. Be the first type in your commitments.

Gents – we have a high level of commitment at this Saturday morning crew. Thank you, and keep it up! :muscle:

Punch in the face

August 2, 2025 BackBlasts

AO: asylum-daybreak
Q: F3 Pluto ( Hugh Nystrom)
PAX: Crawdad (Robbi Dickens), Swimmies (Nathan Chesney), Dung Beetle, Veggie (Rylen Huddy), Jumbo(Carter Dickens), CRISPR, Pac-man, Doubtfire (Nick Bond), Pusher, High Heels
FNGs: None
COUNT: 11
WARMUP: Coach Dunn stretch and life advice, SSH x 20, cherry pickers, arms , slow mosey round the parking lot .
THE THANG:
when you go to jail, your best bet to get credibility is to punch the biggest guy in the prison work yard right in the face on your first day…. The Q did this to the pax right from the start…
– Base of baby cardiac hill 5 burpees – run to top of hill and do 20 merkins – R&R 4 times
– Run from baby cardiac to base of big cardiac hill and grab rock. 20 Curls – 20 thrusters- 20 goblet squats – then run back up hill to 2nd switchback and return to bottom-R&R 3 times
– Run via the long way to cloud / playground 10 box jumps – then run to picnic tables for 10 picnic table pull ups – R&R 4 times
– Run to base of Route 66 and do ab work at every other light pole on the way up the hill. 10 big boys – 10 flutter kicks – 10 reverse pickle pounders – stop at top of hill for 10 count
– Run back to base of baby cardiac hill- the metaphor was the alpha and the omega the beginning and the end so finished with five Burpee’s run the hill with 20 merkins on top.

MARY:

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

COT: the Q gave a personal story about never taking for granted the ones you love. although you kinda had to be there to get the story… the q shared that for years, he thought that the toothbrush top on his sonicare toothbrush never got dirty because of the vibration and technology, and that unbeknownst to him his wife had been going behind his back and every three months of switching out the toothbrush attachment to keep it clean. he thought it was like magic and it just stayed clean automatically and he was grateful when he found out that she had been doing this for all those years. never take them for granted always share your love.

Sharpen That Saw

June 21, 2025 BackBlasts

AO: asylum-daybreak
Q: Lilydipper
PAX: Crawdad (Robbi Dickens), Doubtfire (Nick Bond), Jumbo(Carter Dickens), Mr Jinxy, Pele (Jon Lindberg), High Heels, Dain Bramage (Will Olson), Waffle House (Brady Greene), Crash Dummy, CRISPR, Brick
FNGs: None
COUNT: 12
WARMUP: 2 laps round parking lot with running on longest sides and Bernie Sanders on shorter sides of the lot. 25 Side-Straddle-Hops. Curly Stomps, 10 Windmills, 5 Inch Worms, 7 Pterodactyls Forward and Backward, 7 Twistees, 7 Tennessee Rocking Chairs, Little of This and That.

THE THANG: Mosey to Caribbean parking lot. We will stop to do 10 Imperial Walkers.
Mosey East on Serpentine Trail to where it intersects with Park Perimeter Trail. We will stop to do 20 American Hammers.
Mosey South on Trail to Dock by river. We will stop to do 20 Merkins and 20 Squats.
Mosey south on trail and then mosey to trail where it heads to Bros Bowl. We will stop to do 15 Hello Dollies twice on the way.
Mosey to Muscle Beach. We will stop to do one 20 rep set of any exercise unit at the beach.
Mosey to soccer field and then sprint across soccer field, stopping twice to do 10 Merkins each stop on the way.
Go to trail that is south of soccer field. We will run 4 lights and walk 2 lights, repeating the pattern until we reach the area that branches out and has the peer nearby.
We will go to rock pile where each man will grab CMU weight rock. We will do the following exercises with rocks
20 Overhead Presses
–
20 Curls
–
20 Rows
–
20 Chest Thrusts
–
Mosey to Big Baseball Pavilion. We will stop to do 20 Picnic Table Pull-ups and 20 Bench Dips.
Mosey to artificial turf field for a game of kickball.
Mosey uphill to circle in park roadway. We will stop to do 20 Rocky Balboas.
Mosey to parking lot below Caribbean. We will to stop to do 20 Flutter Kicks.
Mosey to the Caribbean and stand at the grassy area up top. One man shall kick the kickball down Pickett’s Charge and then all of us will run after the ball to see who gets to it first. Next, another brother shall kick the ball further down Pickett’s charge and we will race to the ball. We will do this one more time.
Mosey to the parking lot with the nice restrooms. Bear crawl four parking spaces and then lunge four parking spaces, repeating the pattern to then end of the parking lot.
Mosey to AO. We will sprint from one end of the parking lot to the other and then sprint back.

MARY: Stretches.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Passing of the shovel lag at the Asylum PM AO from Brick to Crash Dummy will occur this Thursday, June 26 at the 5:45 pm workout. Our brother, Lizzy, gets married today! Our brother, Steam is gonna have a Little Steam! The baby is due in February.

COT: Message
Sharpening the Saw

Psalms 127:2 – It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.
We tend to be busy men. There are some lazy people in this world but when I look among you guys it is the opposite. In fact, I would think an issue for each one of us is that we frequently get into trouble for having too many activities and obligations on our plate.

Sometimes when I get worried and stressed out from taking on too much, my wife, Jan, reminds me of one of the good ol country sayings of her father, Dorlan Grimes. He says, “You gotta sharpen the saw.” If any of you use a chain saw or any other type of saw you know that if you don’t stop now and then to sharpen it, the saw doesn’t cut well. It is ineffective. That country saying has great wisdom in it. We become ineffective ourselves if we do not take time to rest, to relax and just sit in God’s glory. God has given us Sabbath because he knows what is good for us. Gents, take time to rest. We work hard, but as Crawdad says, after our workouts, “Boys, let’s get The Reward!”

Prayer Requests:
Pray for Lizzy as his stepfather may not be here on this earth much longer, yet Lizzy has his wedding this very day. Prayers for MD Hammer whose mother passed away recently. Prayers for Unibráu (Nick Robinson) and his health. Prayer’s for my wife, Jan, who is suffering from shingles on her face and near her eye. Pray that the shingles do not get in her eye.