F3 Knoxville

Tag: Mathlete

Slicing bread

THE SCENE: Cool and Clear. Grinning moon and a shooting star.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
Yes
WARM-O-RAMA:
High Knees, SSH, tempo squats, LBAC, tempo merkins, fence steppers, hip bridges, fire hydrants
Reach for the sky, let it hang, Michael Felps
THA-THANG:
Two circuits on a timer – 45 seconds to work, 15 seconds to move – at The Wall and The Bell. A couple sets at The Bar inbetween.

  • The Wall
    • Wall Walks
    • Muscle Ups
    • Squats
    • Planks
  • The Bar
    • Inverse Rows
    • Big boys
  • The Bell
    • Box jumps / Step ups
    • Decline Merkins
    • Flutter Kicks
    • Dips

MARY:
No Time.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
5 HIMs and 1 FNG (biohack)
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Fresh, hot bread is a blessing. Slicing hot bread is a pain if you like straight, even slices. The best way I have found to cut straight is to stop trying to cut straight, but instead to focus on holding the knife straight. I have to surrender the outcome and focus on just doing the task well. I find that this extends to my life as well. When I think too much about the outcomes, I tend to fall either toward despair (if they’re bad) or pride (if they’re good). We considered the story of Moses in Numbers 20. He lost focus on doing his task well and giving credit to the Lord, so pride led him to take credit for bringing water from the rock. If it can happen to Moses, it can happen to me.
MOLESKIN:
Deeply appreciative to everyone who came out for my VQ and glad to welcome Biohack.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Might have missed this…

Men of Action

THE SCENE: Mid 50s and clear
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
15 SSH, 15 Moroccan night club, 10 tempo Merkins, 10 tempo squats, 5 cherry pickers
THA-THANG:
Mosey to the Recruitment Center and grab a CMU. This morning we climbed a ladder of exercises. Perform 1st exercise and then CMU bear crawl to the opposite end of the parking lot. Now perform the 1st and 2nd exercises. CMU bear crawl back to start. Now do exercises 1 through 3…you get the point. Repeat until all exercises are performed.

Each exercise is 25 reps.

  • Merkins
  • Squats
  • Heavy LBCs
  • Curls
  • Tri-extensions
  • Heavy flutters kicks (2-ct)
  • Thrusters

MARY:
No time. We actually ran a little long.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
5 at The Project this morning.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
“But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.”
James 1:22‭-‬25 NASB
This passage teaches to be a doer and not just a hearer. You may study the Bible on Sundays and understand what is to be done in your life. However, one may walk away from the service and forget what he has heard (most likely by choice) and live an entirely different way. The same can be said really about any aspect of our lives: family, friends, work, etc. Don’t just say “I need to spend more time with my family” and then not make them a priority. We are called to be men of action. Hearing and doing are both necessary.

MOLESKIN:
It was good to be pack with the PAX in Oak Ridge today.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Hardship Hill is Saturday!

Getting Intentional Rest

THE SCENE: 58F post overnight rain. Much better than 58F and raining
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER – Administered + Cell phone + obvious COVID distancing
WARM-O-RAMA:

Today we’re going to be focusing on resting so we’ll be doing some intentional resting. All exe

Exercise Rest Note
Windmill x 5 IC Abe Vigoda
Moroccan Night Club x 10 IC Michael Phelps
Water Wheel x 5 IC Shakey Legs
Spider Man w/reach x 6 IC Shoulder Shrugs (skipped Shoulder Shrugs)
Seal Clap Squat x 5 IC Walrus (skipped Walrus)
Tempo Hand-release Merkin x 5 IC Sphinx Count = down-2-3-#-up-2-3-#
Pickle Pounder Glute Bridge Hold (Pickle Pointer)
Burpee Stargazer (skipped the stargazer)

THA-THANG:
Don’t mosey anywhere. We stayed right in the parking lot and I finally got to introduce the Pool Boy version of the Individual Medley: 4 exercises starting with 5 reps each and exercise for 1 minute 30 s with 30 s rest between each round to catch your breath and calculate. The first round we finished really early so we added 2 reps and only took 30 seconds rest.

Exercise Finish by +/- reps
Burpees 1 min 2
Merkins 1 min 10 s 1
4-ct Flutter Kicks 1 min 20 s 0
5 Seal Clap Squats 1 min 30 s / don’t finish -1

After completing 5 rounds I asked Rocket to give us a 20-count. The we went to what I’ve dubbed “The Berlin Wall”. We repeated the IM but with different exercises this time and a “rest” of “The People’s Chair” (yes, squatting on a wall with legs at 90° has a name):

Exercise Finish by +/- reps After rd exercise
Muscle-up x 5 1 min 2 1 – People’s chair
Dwight Howard x 10 1 min 10 s 1 2 – BTTW
Rotational Merkin x 5 ea 1 min 20 s 0 3 – Wall Conveyor x 2
Shoulder taps x 10 1 min 30 s / don’t finish -1

Only 3 3 rounds here including at the end a wall conveyor x2 (people’s chair + COVID distancing PAX run to next spot on the wall) with a 10-count corner hold each time. Mathlete gave us a 15-count before we moseyed to the Amphitheater. We started at the front but moved to the back as it was a more suitable height for step-ups. Same game – intentional rest of 30 seconds, first time you get to go as fast as you can and are rewarded with more rest (and more reps the next time!):

Exercise Finish by +/- reps After rd ex:
Step ups x 5 ea 1 min 10 s 1
Loop Amphitheater
Dips x 10 1 min 20 s 0
Loop Amphitheater
1 min 30 s -1
Loop Amphitheater

We got 3 rounds in just in time to take the scenic route through the Oak Ridge Civic Center courtyard after Kick-flip gave us a 10-count (maybe it was 15?).

MARY:
We got back to the AO just in time for some Dealer’s Choice Mary. Limited to 10 of an exercise, I believe the PAX chose as follows:
Rocket – Spider Man’s aka Merkin Parkers (I think that’s what Trolley calls these)
Mathlete – Heels to Heaven
Kick-flip – Mountain Climbers (creative getting around the “10” rule btw with the 4-count exercise!)
Pool Boy – LBC’s (interrupted by a car pulling into the parking lot but all good it just changed the order)
I forgot the exercises for the last 3 but we did get all the way back to Rocket as time expired (and will update once I get some input from these men!)
Kick-flip – x 10
Mathlete – x 10
Rocket – x 10

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
4 PAX. 1 workout at a time we’re growing F3 in Knoxville, Oak Ridge, and beyond!
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
So today we focused on rest. Question: What is involved in rest?
Biblical rest is at least 3 things (and probably more)
1. Trusting the Lord
“and on the seventh day the Lord rested” (Genesis 2:2)
2. Asking for faith when we don’t believe
“I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)
3. Persevering even when we can’t see (continuing to trust and rest in God’s provision no matter the circumstances)
We walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7)

So it’s time for some self eval: How are you resting? What does it look like for you to rest? To take a sabbath?
1. Trusting the Lord. Are you:
Working less, sleeping more, praying more, spending less money (at least on yourself), doing less, and/or resting more?
2. Asking for faith. Are you:
Fasting (both rest & ask)
Petitioning God
Reading the Word
ISI (Getting together with other believers for the purpose of pressing into and having Christian fellowship to become more like Christ, encourage one another in Christ, and to display Christ to them?)
3. Persevering even when we can’t see (this is hard to see but clear when you’re doing it). Are you:
Not DIY (Doing It Yourself) but relying on God to change things you (cannot really) control
Keep turning from sin (repentance is continually turning from sin and even from temptation)
Keep on keeping on
Submitting to God and what He ordains

Take time this week to intentionally rest and reflect. Trust that as Jared Raby told me 10+ years ago
“God can do more in 5 minutes than we can do in 5 years.”

MOLESKIN:
Snaggletooth was sick. Prayed for him and for all of us who need to wisely REST! Missed you today though my dude! We also had the choice of “Yoga by Chaco” instead of Dealer’s Choice for Mary if he’d showed up but that was a surprise. I like having these little things in Q’s if certain guys show up (another example is if I’m Q’ing and Waxjob shows up I will always do “row, row, row your boat” with boat/canoe because he’s so enthusiastic and I’m still working on getting my core to where I can do the whole thing (4 or 6 times through the song I forget and ending with “life is but a dream, Life Is But A Dream, LIFE IS BUT A DREAM!!)

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Hardship Hill this weekend!

Devils Tower

THE SCENE:  60 and raining.  Perfect for a heavy beatdown.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER:  Administered. 
WARM-O-RAMA: 

  • Overhead claps
  • Moroccan nightclub
  • Cherry pickers
  • Mountain climbers
  • Tempo merkins

THA THANG:

Mosey under the roof at the senior center.  Ready to take on The Devils Tower.

There is a tower of 12 CMUs.  Each man grabs a CMU and performs exercises per the Q.  Exercises included;

  • CMU Curls
  • Thrusters
  • Goblet Squats
  • Alpos
  • Shoulder press
  • Flutter kick chest press
  • Tri
  • Upright rows
  • Heavy Freddy
  • Uneven Merkins L
  • Uneven Merkins R
  • Walking Lunge
  • Heavy LBC
  • CMU Curls
  • Single arm row L
  • Single arm row R
  • Blockees
  • CMU Swings
  • Burpee Jump Overs

Bear crawl with the CMUs to my truck and put it away.  Back to the Devils Tower – and repeat it all again!

MARY:

None

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

Me and 5 of the best men I know

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Let’s talk about remembering well…

The Native American tribes of the Kiowa and Lakota have a legend…  A group of girls went out to play and were spotted by several giant bears, who began to chase them. Trying to escape the bears, the girls climbed atop a rock, fell to their knees, and prayed to the Great Spirit to save them. Hearing their prayers, the Great Spirit made the rock rise from the ground towards the heavens so that the bears could not reach the girls. As they tried to climb the rock, the bears left deep claw marks in the sides.

This story is the fanciful origin of a massive butte that protrudes from the prairie in the Black Hills of Northeastern Wyoming.  Some call it Bear Lodge Butte – but it is better known as the Devils Tower.  This massive rock stands 867 feet from summit to base.  Chaco and Whipper might tell you that it is one of the finest crack climbing areas in North America.  It was on this day 114 years ago – Sept 24, 1906 – that President Teddy Roosevelt named the Devils Tower our nation’s first national monument.

The Word that I want to share this morning is about the importance of personal monuments – relics – souvenirs – mementos.

Seven times in the book of Joshua, the people of Israel erect stone monuments.  They have different occasions each time, but the purpose is always the same.  They build to commemorate God’s faithfulness… or as a witness to the unity that is established with another tribe….or as a reminder to serve the Lord and live in obedience with the Torah…or as a reminder of their potential for unfaithfulness…  The purpose of the monuments is to prompt them to revisit those ideas from time-to-time.  During the building of one of those monuments, Joshua tells the tribesmen that they are doing this; 1) so that you will always have a reminder of what happened here, and 2) so that your children will one day ask about the monument and you’ll have an opportunity to tell them the story and lessons learned here.    

Monuments serve as aides to our memory.  They are tangible connections to something once experienced.  As life happens and memories fade, a monument prompts us to remember what was once so vivid. 

Almost two years ago, I took a weekend away with two good friends.  We stayed in a cabin in the Cherokee National Forest and spent three days engaging each other in very intentional conversations about life, and in prayer.  We took stock of our lives and each felt a strong sense of recommitment to be better fathers, husbands, friends, and followers of Christ.  I will forever look back on that weekend as a pivotal moment in my life.

One afternoon during that weekend, the three of us each decided to have some quiet time.  We sat around the cabin reading and praying, and at one point we each ended up walking alone through the woods.  As I walked and reflected on the changes that I was feeling in myself, I noticed a lone white rock on the ground – it stood out in a surrounding of dried leaves.  I picked up the rock and put it in my pocket to be a reminder of that weekend away and what it meant in my life.  (Interesting sidebar: As I sat down for dinner that evening, I pulled the rock from my pocket and set it on the table.  My two friends stared at me, then at each other – then they both took a white rock from their own pocket and set it on the table.  Unprompted and unbeknownst to the others, we each had picked up the same memento from our walk in the woods).  To this day, this white rock and a photo of my wife are the two things that sit on my bedside table.  The rock serves as a reminder of that time which was so significant in my personal journey.  I can’t tell you how many times it has brought me back to that weekend and reminded me of the change that started there.  Occasionally, my kids have asked me about it, and I have shared the story with them.

Here’s the punchline.  When you have a significant moment in life… a MILESTONE, an AWAKENING, a RECOMMITMENT – I encourage you to commemorate that memory that with a monument.  It could be a rock – or a photo – or a tattoo.  Whatever it is, place it somewhere that you’ll see it often and be reminded of what was once so vivid to you.  Remember and revisit that time, because, “remembering well is as important as doing well” (hat tip, Jonita Mullins).

MOLESKIN:

Good to have new daddy, Mathlete, back out in the gloom.

If your wife snorts at the idea of a tattoo to commemorate your significant moment…tell her that KickFlip put you up to it.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

IPC Week 4 available at JUCO tomorrow

Hardship Hill next Sat!

Heavy PT – He’s a good Dad.

  • THE SCENE: Dark and Muggy – not the Q – the weather
    F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER: Regular Disclaimer + COVID + Cell phone for emergencies
    WARM-O-RAMA:
  • THE PROJECT-IVATOR!
  • Tempo Squats
  • LBAC (fwd/bwd) + Overhead Clap
  • “Reach for the stars” + “Let ’em hang”
  • Cherry Pickers
  • Tempo Merkins
  • Mosey to RC

THA-THANG:
TABATAS W/ CMUS (4 SETS OF EACH)
Arms
• Tricep extensions
• Curls
• Overhead press
• Rows
Legs
• Squats
• Lunges
• Calf raises
• Thrusters
Abs
• LBC
• Flutter
• American Hammer
• Heavy Freddy

MARY:
DONE

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
6STRONG: Erector, Kickflip, Chaco, Mathlete, Dart Gun, Snaggletooth

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
The Kind of Dad God is:

17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

MOLESKIN:
This is my favorite way to start a Thursday…

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Hardship Hill – Oct 3. Mathlete’s got a team signed up…