F3 Knoxville

Tag: Mailbox

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

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 🙂

21, 21!

THE SCENE: 40ish with a threat of rain
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
LBAC fwd/bck x21, SSH x21

THA-THANG:
Welcome to 21!

Mosey to the Pull-through and perform 21s with Merkins and BBS. This is such a simple, but hard workout. I do this at home and time myself periodically throughout the year as a gauge for my fitness. I’m giving you this great workout for FREE! *Cheers and applause from the PAX followed*

Mosey to the coupon pile for another set of 21s. This time we alternated with Curls/Tricep Ext and Plank Dips/Imperial Walkers.

Wow time flies in 21! Mosey back to the shovel flag.

MARY:
None, perfect timing.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
6 men drug themselves out of bed after some late nights (Wanderer took the cake with a 12:45 bed time). Glad to have some thick-skinned men out in the cold to kick off the new year.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
This world is not our home. Quit trying to make it more comfortable.

The devotional in the Bible app this week hit on this point. It’s a very poignant point that can be hard to swallow. The verse that typically comes to mind is:

Romans 12:2

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

This verse gets the point across very clearly, but there is another verse that hits a little harder and maybe a little closer to the heart:

James 4:4

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

We are called to deny ourselves a friendship with the world. Would the world call you a friend? Something to think about as we go into 2021.

MOLESKIN:
Kept waiting for a late Houndog showing and all we got was a lost Gump. We did have an enjoyable Switchgrass visit.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Insert information about upcoming events, 2nd or 3rd F opportunities, and any other announcements.

Don’t Skip

One comment

THE SCENE:  34 and clear
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER: 
WARM-O-RAMA: 

  • Reach for the sky
  • LBAC F&B OYO
  • Let it hang
  • Monkey humpers IC x 10
  • Mountain climbers IC x 10
  • Tempo merkins IC x 8
  • Down dog / Up dog
  • Projectivator from 10

Mosey to the long guardrail and line up.

  • 5 merkins, jump over the rail, 5 bobby hurleys, jump back over and repeat until time is called

THA THANG:

Mosey to King College parking lot – grab a CMU and line up.

Do 1 blockee.  Rifle carry 2 parking lines and do 1 blockee.  Repeat to the end of the lot. (~15 blockees).

Line up at the bottom of the Award Winning Hill.

Carry your block to the first tree.  Do 10 curl/presses and 10 CMU swings.  Set your block down.  Run to the bottom of the hill and back to your block.  Carry it to the next tree and repeat to the top (7 trees).

Recover to the top of the hill.  Heavy BBS x 10 OYO. Heavy freddys IC.

Same deal as before, only this time from the top down…15 squats each tree.

Recover to the bottom of the hill.

Rifle carry 5 parking lines and do 2 burpee jumpovers.  Repeat to the end of the lot.

MARY:

Around the circle, each PAX led a Mary exercise.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

Five Juconians and 2 Rushens.

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

I tagged on to Pool Boy’s Q from Monday.  He quoted the 18th century minister, John Newton.  The essence of the quote was…your life will have challenges and burdens, visualized as a huge bundle of sticks.  You don’t need to try to carry the whole bundle every day.  Rather, carry today’s stick today and tomorrow’s stick tomorrow.  Every day you carry one stick.

I turned that quote around backwards to make another point.  You carry one stick every day.  This morning’s challenge was about consistency.

Do you know what happened 9 years ago today on the tiny island nation of Samoa?  Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  Nothing significant or insignificant.  Nothing happened at all because nine years ago, December 30th did not occur in Samoa.  In 2011, the nation voted to change where the International Date Line falls relative to their island.  They actually curved the IDL around their island (doing so improved business relations with some of their biggest trading partners, Australia and New Zealand…).  So, at midnight on December 29th, the IDL changed and Samoa went from being the westernmost nation on earth – to being the easternmost nation on earth.  They moved the line that divides our days and in doing so, they went from December 29th to December 31st – and skipped an entire day.

What’s my point?

As you are accelerating your fitness, your fellowship, and your faith – don’t skip a day.  Keep your routine.  Complete one small challenge each day and, over time, you move yourself closer and closer to being a true HIM.

A famous Samoan scholar, Dwayne Johnson, has said, “Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.”

What do you wish you could be successful at?  The good news is that you don’t have to be great at it today.  You just have to be consistent in your pursuit of it. 

Fitness?  You’ve all proven that you have what it takes to get out of bed and be here at 5:30 – great!  Now, do it again Friday.  Then again Monday, Wednesday, and Friday next week.  Consistent hard work leads to success.

Fellowship?  You want to have great relationships and deep fellowship with other HIMs?  Stick around and chat for a minute after the picture.  DM these guys on Slack and catch up on their lives.  With consistent investment in your relationships, over time, greatness will come.

Faith?  Me too.  There is one particular element of my faith that I want to be successful in – leading my family.  For many years of my marriage and many years of my time as a father, I have struggled to be a successful spiritual leader for my family.  I could start leading with enthusiasm but would soon get discouraged and stop.  About two years ago, I finally started to hit my stride.  You know what had changed?  A realization that I didn’t have to be great – just consistent.  I couldn’t pray elegant prayers over my wife every night.  I couldn’t prepare a mind-blowing devotion every night.  I wasn’t – and am still not – great.  But can I pray a simple prayer over my wife today?  Sure.  Can I read a short passage to my kids after dinner?  Yeah.  Now – can I do it again tomorrow?  Absolutely.  Rinse and repeat.

Success in the areas of fitness, fellowship, and faith is achievable for you.  Do the do-able thing today.  Do it again tomorrow….and the day after….and they day after.  

MOLESKIN:

If he were here, I bet Snaggletooth would have known about Samoa…

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

A Hidden Present

THE SCENE: 30° calm and clear
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER:✓
WARM-O-RAMA:
Cherry Pickers, Miracan Night club,  Mountain climbers, Newton’s Cradle, X Man crunch
THA-THANG:

10 HIM’s (2 2.0’s) +3 early runners, 2 Rushers, 1 Rucker
Drew some Strava/GPS art today: See the map https://photos.app.goo.gl/Z5iz5mzafyMn2om16

 

My Gift to you: 4 corners plus 2: 10 of each Merkin, Wide Merkin, Guardrail hand walk, Ranger Merkins, More Merkins, then Calf raises, then Squats, Ranger Merkin, Sprints.  Bear crawl over a burm, Ski jump around a tree

Indian Run to big lot where we drew “F3” and worked on abs: Flutter kick, Freddy Mercury, BBS, LBC, Hello Dolly and x Man crunch.  Impressive job sticking together.

Run back to Calf raises, long way to the long lot: Shuttle run with bear crawls, crawl bears and crab walks (the stump) Bernie to light pole where we drew a Plank Star with Plank dips, Plank Jacks, Shoulder Taps, Plank ups, Newtons Cradle.  Then close out the tree.

MARY:
Dealers choice of: heels to heaven, Snow Angels, pickle pounders, BBS, Lunges, diamond merkins, SSH
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Today we drew a big picture (see above) but many of us didn’t know how it would turn out or even that we were drawing.  Just like in life we don’t always know what our picture looks like till we zoom out a little.  But we are all painting a picture with how we live our lives.  And people are watching. This time of year as you think about gifts under the tree we probably all know of the disappointment of just getting gifts and have learned the joy of giving them, but even in that we can make it about our selves.  Instead we should look to Christ’s example of living for others.

A Christmas Verse from Philippians 2:3‭-‬7 (NLT, color and emphasis added) is our challenge for today:

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

Be like Christ in your servant leadership of the home.  Think of others.

One more challenge:  This Christmas speak of Jesus Christ.  The picture we paint with how we live is important but sometimes we need to spell it out so people see the reason for how we live the way we live.  This season is about Him and we can find ways to speak of Him and bring Him Glory!

MOLESKIN:
Merry Christmas!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Visit Big Ball on Thursday Morning; No Q planned for Christmas Day