F3 Knoxville

Nine Line

THE SCENE:  50 and clear.  Perfect for a beatdown.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER:  Administered 
WARM-O-RAMA:
 

Reach for the sky
Chinook OYO
Michael Phelps OYO
Finkle swings OYO
Imperial walker IC x 9
Tempo squat IC x 9
Tempo werkins IC x 9
Carolina dry dock IC x 9
Heals to heaven IC x 9
Parker Burpee x 2 OYO
Projectivator from 9

THA THANG:

Mosey to Jucomanjaro.  Stop at the coupons and do 20 curls, 20 shoulder presses, 20 triceps, 20 curls, and hold over your head while I explain what comes next.

Nine Line:  Divide into groups of 3.  As you run up Jucomanjaro, there are nine lines spaced 100’ apart.  At each line is a cone with an exercise.  Run to the cone, perform the exercise, and run back to the base of Jucomanjaro.  Perform 2 parker burpees at the base, then go back up and move to the next cone in sequence.  Each team starts at a different cone, to keep us spaced out.

Exercises were:

  • Base: 2 parker burpees
  • Line 1: 30 merkins
  • Line 2: 30 flutter kicks 4-ct
  • Line 3: 30 carolina dry dock
  • Line 4: 30 heals to heaven
  • Line 5: 30 diamond merkins
  • Line 6: 30 hello dolly (4-ct)
  • Line 7: werkins
  • Line 8: 30 side crunch (15 each side)
  • Line 9: 30 mountain climbers (4 ct)

MARY:

Run down Jucomanjaro, performing 15 air squats at each cone.  Mosey back to the shovel flag.  10 rosalitas + 10 hello dolly + 20 LBC.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

Me and 8 of the best men I know

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Bottom line up front – Today’s Word was about thinking about the broken men (Sad Clowns) in your life and inspiring them to better themselves.  I opened by echoing part of Butterknife’s Word from a couple of weeks ago.  This group means so much to me.  You guys challenge me to be better as a father, husband, and friend.  I am grateful for you all.  BUT…

 

I want you to imagine yourself as an American soldier, on a humanitarian mission in little mountain village in Afghanistan.  It is a peaceful and beautiful early fall morning, but you sense a tension in the villagers.  All the sudden, the peace is shattered, and your unit is under attack from a hidden enemy.  You and another soldier take cover behind the heavy wheel of a Humvee and are returning fire when, to your left, you hear a thud and a groan.  You look over and see that he’s been hit in the leg and is bleeding.  What do you do?  In that moment, what is your obligation to that solider?

Get him into a safe position!  Apply first aid – help him put pressure on the wound to stanch the bleeding – elevate his feet!  Once he’s stable, you secure the scene – continue to return fire until advantage is won!  Next, call in the casualty and get a medevac on the way!

The battlefield version of dialing 911 is “calling in a nine line”.  It is a standardized, efficient, way to send casualty information by radio traffic.  Here is the format:

  • Line 1. Location of the pick-up site.
  • Line 2. Radio frequency, call sign, and suffix.
  • Line 3. Patient precedence: (A – Urgent, B – Urgent Surgical, etc.)
  • Line 4. Special equipment required: (Extraction equipment, ventilator, etc.)
  • Line 5. Number of patients:
  • Line 6. Security at pick-up site: (e.g. enemy troops in area, approach with caution)
  • Line 7. Method of marking pick-up site: (e.g. smoke signal)
  • Line 8. Patient nationality and status: (e.g. US military, US civilian)
  • Line 9. NBC Contamination: (e.g. nuclear, biological, chemical)

The expectation is that you will relay this information in less than 25 seconds.  Therefore, you have to know exactly what you’re going to say before you make the call.  Before you call in the nine line, you must first pause to deliberately and accurately evaluate the wounded man’s condition.  Where is he?  What is the situation?  How bad off his he?  Ultimately, how are we going to get him out of this mess that he’s in?  Now…call in that nine line!

I want to use that as a metaphor.  In the battlefield of life, there are wounded men around you.  Think about the men in your life – your coworkers, your neighbors, your brothers, your friends.  Which of those men is a casualty?  The coworker whose health is so poor that he can’t play with his own kids? (I’ve been that man).  The friend who has checked out from his marriage? (I’ve been that man).  The brother who drinks every night – not to relax, but to retreat? (I’ve been that man).  The neighbor who is pretending to have it all together, but you know it’s just a façade?  (I’ve been that man).  Who is a hot mess right now?  Now, prep a quick nine line for him.  What I mean is…pause to deliberately and accurately evaluate that wounded man’s condition.  Where is he (physically, relationally, spiritually)?  What is the situation (health, relationships, habits)?  How bad off his he?  Ultimately, what can we do to get him out of this mess that he’s in? 

I love this group…BUT…we are missing something – THAT MAN.  The mission of F3 is to “to plant, grow and serve small workout groups for men for the invigoration of male community leadership”.  If JUCO is going to make a real impact on the Hardin Valley community, then we must bring out the men who need to be invigorated.  Those who are hurting need to come and be encouraged.  Those who are self-absorbed or arrogant need to come and be humbled.  Those who are listless need to come and be spurred into action.

Q-Source 1.1 says this about those men, “A man needs help to get right.  The boats of some men have been so long capsized that they have gradually surrendered to a life of being swept downstream by circumstances.”  You are called to be that man’s disruptorYou are called to bring a disturbance to his life which is led only by inertia.  Bring him out.  F3 is not going to save his marriage, it isn’t going to give his life purpose, it certainly isn’t going to redeem his soul.  But…waking up early, working hard with hardworking men, being challenged by challenging words, praying together – those habits just might spur MOVEMENT, then ACCELERATION, then MOMENTUM in the right direction. Over time, the impact of that routine can be huge.

Bring that man out here.

MOLESKIN:

Repeating part of Stye’s Word from last week; Proverbs 27:17, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”

Romans 15:1-2, “We who are strong must help those who are not strong. We must not do what pleases us. But each of us must please his neighbor. He must do what is good for him and what will help him do better.”

Q Source 1.1 https://f3nation.com/drp-2

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Prayers for Darryl in the hospital.  Rejoicing for Bailey!

To Pav or not to PAV, that is the question

THE SCENE: It wasn’t raining, it rained, it wasn’t raining
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

SSH, Merkins, cherry-picking and shoulder burners
THA-THANG:
Mosey to the steps. At the steps there is a deck of cards, each suit is a different exercise. They are

  • Clubs = Merkins
  • Diamonds= squats
  • Hearts= dry docks
  • Spades= lunges

if you get a face card you have to do the following before you do 10 of the exercise.

King, run up and around the rock and back. Queen, run around the island. Jack run down to the intersection and back. Ace, Do 10 of every exercise.
Draw a card and do the exercise and quantity. Everyone works together at the beginning and then as we start separating, draw your own personal card. Come together and start doing exercises as a group again.

mosey back to the Ayo in an Indian run. Stop for 30 incline Merkins on the rail

MARY:
40 flutter kicks, 20 V ups, yes 20 fire hydrants
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
18 pax
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
The word for today was about leaning on each other. Trusting each other and helping each other through difficult times. Not being timid about reaching out to someone when you are struggling. F3 is made for that. The work out this morning was based on a group and then separating out to yourself and coming back together as a group. Everyone worked a little bit harder when they were with the group than on their own. #isi
MOLESKIN:
It was great being back out at the dog pound. Great mumble chatter and we were able to avoid the rain for most of the work out.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
HHOCR

Eh, what’s up doc? I’m hunting wabbits!

THE SCENE: 60 ish and raining
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

Short warmup of SSH, tempo squats, and cherry pickers
THA-THANG:
Murder Bunnies IRON PAX week 4

  • 10 Burpee block jumps followed by “murder bunnies” to the yard lines with exercises below and then carry CMU back for more Burpee block jumps
  • 25 yard 25 thrusters
  • 50 yard 50 Hand change block Merkins
  • 75 Yard 75 curl/press with CMU
  • 100 yard 100 windshield wipers over the CMU

MARY:
No mary, running late
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

FNG pink panther

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
“If you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together.”  As an F3 pax, community, or country we need to work together, if we want to go far in this life.  We all have talents, gifts, and ideas that may be different.  That is what God intends.  He expects for us to use these as the Body of Christ to move together and help one another.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Hardship Hill coming up next weekend.

Searching for Bilbo

THE SCENE: Beautiful, around 70, low humidity.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

Welcome to F3, Fitness, Fellowship and Faith. F3 is a free workout program designed to improve fitness, share some camaraderie, and foster male leadership in the community.  I’m Pele and I will be your Q today.  I am not a professional, and I do not know your fitness level or injury history.  Please push yourself, but modify the workout as necessary to avoid making any existing injuries worse.  The goal is to get better together!  Some additional COVID-19 considerations: keep your distance between you and other members of the PAX and any other folks that we pass during moseys, etc. to 6-10 feet.  We will be splitting up into groups smaller than 10 if necessary.  We need to set good examples and be good neighbors out here at this public park, especially with so many folks out and about.


WARM-O-RAMA:

-20 Side Straddle Hops (4-ct), in cadence

– 10 Cherry Pickers (4-ct), in cadence

– 10 BAC forward and backward

– Little of this and that

– get in a line, high knees 20 yards, butt kickers 20 yards, Karaoke left 20 yards, Karaoke right 20 yards

THA-THANG:

Today is September 22, which is Bilbo Baggins’ birthday, also known as HOBBIT’S DAY! But (as you may know from reading or watching the Fellowship of the Ring) at his 111th birthday party, he vanished into thin air! One second he was standing there giving an overblown birthday speech, and then poof! He was gone!  We need to go find him.  Hobbits like being around hills, so we need to search the hills around here to see where he’s gone off to.  Ready??  .

Mosey to shallow amphitheater area. CONES at top and bottom

  • At Top cones do an AROUND THE WORLD (plank position, rotate around 360 degrees to look around) both directions.  Run down and circle bottom cones and go back to top cones.

Mosey to Area 51 Hills. Follow the cones down and read the instructions. COUNT OFF by 2’s.

  • FIRST CONE: No Bilbo. Start the search. 1’s do Jump Squats, 2’s lunge to the right for 20 sec, then back 20 sec, then Reverse.
  • SECOND CONE: No Bilbo. Start the search. 1’s do Iron Mikes, 2’s Bear Crawl 5/ do 5 Reps of CDDs for 20 sec, then back 20 sec, then reverse.
  • THIRD CONE: GOBLINS! We’ve been captured. BATAAN DEATH MARCH back to road and down to Area 51 parking lot. 1’s and 2’s in two lines, last 2 PAX in each line do 5 Prisoner Squats then race to catch up to the front of the line.

PRISONER CAMP (Parking Lot).  After that we are put into Hard Labor, forced to build one of their forts for the upcoming war. 10 Prisoner Get ups, BEAR CRAWL to wall (because we’re being whipped), 10 Prisoner Cell Merkin Burpees (PCMBs), BEAR CRAWL back.  Rinse and repeat, but only 5 reps of the exercise, and El Capitan back and forth instead of bear crawl.  Q’s note: This was harder than it sounded on paper!!

Mosey to TREES to the west.  ELVES appear! A BATTLE ensues!

  • 1s are Elves, 2s are Goblins. Pair off and face each other.  BURPEE BATTLE! Elves are better trained, quicker. They only need to do 8 burpees, the Goblins need to do 10.  Whoever wins each pair wins the battle. If more elves win than goblins, we are free.  Otherwise we continue the death march.  Elves do two more burpees at the end to make it fair.

Mosey to bottom of Everest.  One last big Hill to search…

  • Run up Everest to Base of Summit, using the secondary path by the big cedar tree.
  • Mosey to Roadshow Run stairway. Run up to top.
    • THERE’S BILBO, RIGHT BACK AT HOME WHERE WE STARTED!
    • A celebration is in order! 111 SIDE STRADDLE HOPS WITH OVERHEAD CLAPS!

MARY:
20 Hello Dollies (4-ct, IC)

20 BBS

ATMs

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
21 strong, including one FNG, FiliBilly!

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Today’s workout had a Lord of the Rings theme, obviously.  LotR is one of my favorite set of books and movies, yes, because of all the magic and dragons, and elves with pointy ears, but also because of some of the wonderful lessons that it contains.

  • Perseverance
  • Hope
  • Fighting for what’s good in the world
  • Resourcefulness

But I want to focus on two lessons in particular.  One is the concept of the FELLOWSHIP itself.  The FELLOWSHIP consisted of Nine individuals who were given an incredibly difficult task.  They were:

  1. A wizard (Gandalf)
  2. A King who was sort of a refugee and had not ascended to his throne. (Aragorn)
  3. An elf prince (Legolas)
  4. A Dwarf (Gimli)
  5. A Human prince (Baromir)
  6. And four hobbits (Frodo, Samwise, Pippen, Merry).

All of the members of this party were battle hardened and powerful representatives of their races.  They also had strong prejudices they had to overcome.  Elves and dwarves were sworn enemies.  The humans were subject to the temptations of the One ring.  No one trusted wizardsHobbits were just small and simple folk that can’t find their butt with two hands and aspire to nothing more than to grow a good pumpkin in their gardens.  And yet these 9 individuals bonded together, died for each other, and even the elf and dwarf became inseparable friends.  It kind of reminds me of our F3 Fellowship.  Heck, fellowship is the second “F” in our name!

The other lesson I wanted to bring up involved who stepped up and carried the Ring, which was an evil artifact that took a physical and mental toll on the bearer.  The Ring bearer was also the instant target of all the Evil minions in the land.  And yet it was not the wizard, the noble elf, the strong dwarf, the human royals that carried the ring.  It was the smallest among them, a simple hobbit who had never left his home that volunteered to carry the burden.  As the Elf Queen Galadriel tells Frodo, “Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.”  Sometimes today’s problems seem insurmountable.  No matter how helpless or insignificant you feel in such a troubled world, take comfort in the fact that God has a plan and purpose for your life, and all people, large or small, can be used for His Glory.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers of thanks for the successful surgery on Jinxy’s wife, and that our brother Pinto is gaining strength in his battle with multiple myeloma. Welcome to FNG Filibilly!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
2nd F opportunity at Abridged Wed 9/23 7 pm!

35th Birthday Tour of Mount Rushmore

THE SCENE: 50’s. Perfect weather. Even got a Happy Birthday wish and surprise visit from Ribbed before the Q started and knew it was going to be a fun, successful workout for all PAX.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER – Administered + Cell Phone + COVID distancing
WARM-O-RAMA:

Today I turn 35 and that means I can now be POTUS (that’s President Of The United States for those of you who don’t speak acronym. We’re going to do some themed routines and bring it all together in the BOM. So without further ado…
IC 10 x Tennessee Rocking Chair
IC 10 x Moroccan Night Club
IC 10 x El Capitan
OYO 10 x Tempo Merkin
IC 10 x Seal Clap Squat
IC 10 x Dancing Bear
IC 5 x Pickle Pounder
IC 5 x Glute Bridge (aka Pickle Pointer)
4 rounds of 10 Calf raises followed by the following sprints:
50%, 70%, 90%, 100%
THA-THANG:
Mosey to F3 parking near portable classrooms. Double check for skunk that was seen during making Weinke‘s (named for Tennessee’s current QB’s coach Chris Weinke due to his inability to remember plays) and pointed out by Dart Gun.

The first POTUS was George Washington, so we’ll do a partner routine that spells out his name:
W.A.S.H.
Find a partner. All exercises are single count. Each exercise is done only 10 at a time while your partner is doing their reps you do the iso(metric) hold for a total of the number at the end.
Werkins / Plank – 50
American Hammers / Boat or Canoe – 100
Step-ups / Al Gore – 150
Hip Thrusts (aka Pickle Pounders) / Glute Bridge Hold – 200

Call recover, get a 15 count. Mosey to Iron Pax Week 3 location (aka big parking lot – nice write-up Wanderer!).

Thomas Jefferson was the 2nd POTUS. We’ll be doing 2 minutes of the following for 3 rounds
10 Squats – 1 Burpee – 10 Merkins – 1 Burpee (okay so this is basically IPC Week 3 but only for 2 minutes) – Repeat
15-30 seconds rest, Q explain next round
10 Lunges (single count) – 1 Burpee – 10 Seal Clap Squats – 1 Burpee – Repeat
15-30 seconds rest, Q explain next round
10 Pickle Pounders – 1 Burpee – 10 Pickle Pointers – 1 Burpee – Repeat
15-30 seconds rest, mosey to next POTUS location

Call recover, get a 15 count. Q next asked: Who was the 26th President of the United States
A from Sty: Theodore Roosevelt (I was not expecting a correct answer so major points to Sty and also for making the HC to come today by taking the flag home with him and bringing it back!)

So next we’ll be doing T.E.D.D.Y. for a set time (until 6:07am so we can get back to the AO in time for our last POTUS of the day) – do 5 reps of each exercise and then do 1 extra rep on one exercise you choose for a total of 26 reps each round!
Tempo Merkin
El Capitan
Derkin
Dancing Bear
Yurpee

Call recover, get a 10 count. Last but not least mosey back to the AO and the Q asked – “who was the 5th President of the United States?” No quick answers came but that was okay because the Q messed up the question thinking about the $5 bill. The Q asked again “who was the 16th POTUS?” Several “Abraham Lincoln”‘s were stated. While moseying back to the Shovel Flag the Q then stated the following: “Abraham Lincoln once said ‘the trouble with quotes on the internet is that it’s hard to verify their authenticity'”. And since Honest Abe was the 16th POTUS, this was meant to be a funny segue on to our final routine of the day: a 5-minute song: Thunderstruck! The F3 Exicon has it slightly different but below is what we did (just like in February!)

BOLD & JUICY “Thunderstruck” modification:
Start the song with pickle pounders.
When they start saying “thunder” go into plank and do 1 merkin every time it’s said.
Hold plank until at the end of the first verse when he says “thunderstruck.”
For the rest of the song when he says “thunderstruck” do 1 burpee.
After the first thunderstruck, the Q led the following changes to exercises at certain points in the song:
BBS until the first “shaking at the knees”, doing burpees as they say “thunderstruck”
Flutter kicks until the second “shaking at the knees”, doing burpees as they say “thunderstruck”
BBS until the last round of “thunderstruck” starts and do burpees until the end of the song.

MARY:
“Does Thunderstruck Count?”
-Abraham Lincoln
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
20 PAX strong (Judge Judy not pictured – he had to bow out for work before Honest Abe’s rendition of AC/DC)
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
What do the presidents we covered this morning have in common? They’re all on Mount Rushmore which is located in the Black Hills in Keystone , SD. Fun fact about Mount Rushmore: Each president was originally to be depicted from head to waist, but lack of funding forced construction to end on October 31, 1941.
So back to the Q and how this is relevant: Today I turn 35 – something I actually got wrong in the name-o-rama because I’ve said 34 for the past 100+ posts at F3 it’s second-nature. 35 means I’m “old enough” to be President of the United States. But there’s a deeper question at hand here: at its root, what is the POTUS to do? He’s a ruler and as Romans 13:3-4 tells us:
3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.

Rules, including the POTUS, under God’s authority. We are under God’s authority. We are under the authority of our local church. We’re all under authority and have to submit to authority. More on that later.

Next let’s read about what Jesus says about how the world views when it has authority and how we as followers of Christ should view authority when we’re the ones “in charge”.

Matthew 20:20-28
Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something. 21 And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” 22 Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.” 23 He said to them, “You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.” 24 And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers. 25 But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 26 It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,[c] 27 and whoever would be first among you must be your slave,[d] 28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

As usual, 3 questions for us remain to ask
1. Everyone is under authority – do you recognize it? Or do you rage against it?
2. When you ask Jesus for things, are you cognizant of the cost he’s going to ask you to pay?
James paid with his life as a martyr.
John was exiled and died alone on the isle of Patmos.
And the question to ask most of all…
3. When you are in leadership, instead of like this world “lording it over others”, are you
the slave, the bondservant, of those around you?
MOLESKIN:
Q’ing on my birthday was pretty great fun. Felt great to start the week with the JUCOnian HIMs. I encourage every man to Q on or the day before/after his birthday. It’s a way to seek to serve when the day can feel all about you but Christ really does shine through when we put others first on the “day that’s supposed to be all about me”.

PS – Teddy Roosevelt was the youngest president to date at 42 due to William McKinley’s assassination.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Kenjo Q Wednesday. IPC Week 3 Friday (Open Q at the moment – SIGN UP!)