F3 Knoxville

The Men in The Arena


THE SCENE:
 Just cool enough. No wind. FNG (now known as “Title 9” was the first to show this morning, followed by Abscess & Hercules aka Tank the dog

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

  • Welcome to F3: FitnessFellowshipFaith
  • Name is Steam & I’ll be your QIC this morning!
  • A couple things before we begin:
    • Not a professional
    • You’re here on your own volition
    • Modify as you need but push yourself  and the men around you. They deserve to be pushed and motivated and so do you.

[ Name of the game for this morning is 1 foot in front of the other ]

WARM-O-RAMA:

☐ Motivators: 10 IC  

☐ Rockette: 10 x 4 IC 

☐ Iron Mike: 10 x 4 IC 

☐ Michel Phelps: 10 x 4 IC 

☐ Windmill: 10 x 4 IC 

☐ Merkins: 10 x 4 IC

THA-THANG:

(Mosey to Cardiac Hill) 

☐ Battle-Buddy Up

☐ You and your BB have 3 points of contact 

☐ Top – Curve 1 – Bottom

☐ Top: 15 BB sit-ups (hold feet) 

☐ Curve 1: 15 1-count buddy merkins (Hugh five)

☐ Bottom: 15 squats

(Sprint back up to the top and hold the plank)

☐ 10 down/up merkins All-Together 

( 10 count)

☐ Rinse & Repeat – same exercises – 10 reps of everything instead of 15 

(Curves led PAX in 10 up/down squats)

(10 count) 

(Mosey to path that goes towards dock) 

☐ 2 lines —> bear crawl to the dock

(COP – Change of Plans: Path/boards to dock were slippery —> Q modified for PAX —> Hold the Al Gore after 1st light post and 10 sea claps)

(Mosey on to the dock)

[ Quarter Pounder ]

☐ 25×4 flitter kicks 

☐ 25×4 LBCs

☐ 25×4 hello dolly’s

☐ 25×4 straight legged curls 

(Mosey to hill before Everest by way of:

—> Dock —> through grass to small pavilion by soccer fields —> up the hill on path towards Everest

@ Small Pavilion

  • New Battle Buddy
  • BB1: Wall-sit + overhead seal claps
  • BB2: Sprint to lightpost in the middle of exterior parking lot + 2 merkins (just 2 ain’t bad right?) + recover BB1
  • Rinse & Repeat 1

(10 count)

(mosey from small pavilion in 2 lined American Indian style)

.25 later —> merge into 1 big American Indian run mosey

☐ Bear crawl up the hill and over the top 

(Mosey to base of Everest) 

“I’m Up – He Sees Me – I’m Down”

☐ “I’m Down” command – 5 merkins and hold until the next command is given 

—> “I’m Up!” Command = sprint up Everest

☐ All the way to the top

(Sandy is planted at the top of Everest behind tree at the top middle)

(Battle buddy Sandy Run to AO)

—> Sandy being carried in front by 2 PAX for 10 seconds (modified to 25 seconds later) and then recovering to the back

PAX rush past Haslam rock and stop at the small (sort of) hill right below Saturday AO parking lot

  • Sandy Toss + 5 up/down merkins up the hill to the parking lot
    • 2 PAX chuck Sandy as far as possible up the hill, all PAX sprint to it and execute 5 up/down merkins until everyone is at the top

MARY:
– 2 rounds of Boat/Canoe

– Cashed out the day with ATMs

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
16 PAX + 1 FNG = 17 total HIM

Cheatsheet, Mr Jinxy, Curves, FNG —> Title 9, Lulu, Waffle House, Otis, Crawdad, Abscess, Jumbo, Choir Boy, Hawk, LillyDipper, Brick, Snag, Swimmies

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

The Man in the Arena does not quit, although he may be knocked down and falter from the original path at times, he’s in the arena and must learn to get back up again and again and again. This is the way.

MOLESKIN:

 

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

               – Teddy Roosevelt

☐ In the ring of life sometimes it can feel like we’re on our knees crying out for freedom and all we can do is look up right? 

☐ Song by Anthony Hamilton “Freedom” — some of the lyrics go like this: “Felt like the weight of the world is on my shoulders. Pressure to break or retreat at every turn. Facing the feat that the truth I discovered. No telling how all this will work out, but I’ve come too far to turn back now. I’m looking for freedom, looking for freedom. And to find it cost everything I have.”

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
1. 1st F3 Knoxville Truebadours Q101/GrowSchool Convergence: Saturday, February 29th, 2020 – Asylum AO. More info to be pushed out in weekly emails + GroupMe soon

2. F3 Morristown Launch: Saturday, April 4th, 2020. Clown car(s) will be assembling to go support the launch on 4/4. Be on the lookout for opportunities between now and then to go post at some “test-Qs” at their new AO in the coming weeks/months.

Keep the Faith & Fight the Good Fight!

Every Vocation

THE SCENE: Partly cloudy, temp in low 50’s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

20 Plank Jacks, 10 Iron Mikes, 10 Cherry Pickers, 10 Rockettes, Michael Phelps
THA-THANG:
Mosey uphill to perimeter trail and continue moseying until we get to stop sign that is west of the upper parking lot.  We will do nickel dime quarters on the perimeter trail, going past the bottom of Mt. Everest and continuing on the perimeter trail until we hit the roadway at the Lyons Bend entrance to the park.  This is the exercises we will do with each nickel, dime, quarter (nickel, dime, quarter means run 1 light and do five of exercise, run 2 lights and do ten, run 5 lights and do 25):

  • Merkins
  • Squat Jumps
  • Big Boy Sit-ups
  • Smurf Jacks
  • Dive Bombers

Mosey east on roadway until we get to stop sign at intersection of roadway that goes to admin bldg.  We will stop here to do 20 American Hammers.

Mosey to parking lot that at Southern Ball Fields.  We will start at southern end of parking lot.  We will run to light, do 20 Merkins, run to next light, do 20 Merkins, and continue sequence until end of parking lot.  We will then Bernie Sanders back to the other end of the parking lot, stopping at each light to do 20 Big Boy Sit-ups.

Mosey back to Roadway.  Stop to do 20 Hello Dollies.

Mosey to parking lot that is by roadway and south of the playground.  We will sprint from one end of the parking lot to the other, stopping at each inlet to do 20 Carolina Dry Docks.

Mosey to AO.

MARY:
Sprint to each corner of parking lot and do 10 Smurf Jacks at each.  Then, lunge to each corner of parking lot and do 10 Star Jumps at each.  Finally, get on sixes and do 20 Flutter Kicks (four count).
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Ten men, no FNGs.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
As men in F3, we each have different vocations.  If we were to go through the types of jobs each of us have, I am sure we would see quite a variety.  No matter what our job, each of us, in that job, have an opportunity to impact our world.

The words of the following song, which we sometimes sing in my church, are simple but compelling to me.  The song shows how each of us give to God’s kingdom through our vocations. The song is called Day by Day and is written by Lowana Wallace and Isaac Wardell.  Here are the words:

[Verse 1]
Server, you remind us of our Savior’s bowl and towel
Teacher, you are raising up a child to be kind
Lawyer, give us hope that justice one day will surround us[Chorus 1]
May God’s kingdom come
On earth, His will be done[Verse 2]
Farmer, you are working for a table full of bounty
Painter, with each color you are teaching us to see
Nurse, yours are the healing hands that touch the poor and broken[Chorus 2]
May God’s kingdom come
On earth, His will be done
Lord, be close to us
Lord, have mercy on us
Lord, please put Your hand on us
Day by day[Verse 3]
Carpenter, you frame a house for those who need protection
Laborer, you lift a heavy burden for the weak
Leaders, build a city that all children may rejoice in

[Chorus 3]
May God’s kingdom come
On earth, His will be done
Lord, be close to us
Lord, have mercy on us
Lord, please put Your hand on us
Day by day
Lord, be close to us
Lord, have mercy on us
Lord, please put Your hand on us
Day by day

My wife, Jan, visited a monastery years ago.  The monastery was a beautiful place and visitors like Jan could sleep overnight if they desired.  Jan watched in fascination as she saw the monks there performing various tasks and worshiping at all hours of the day.  She had a conversation with one of those monks in a little gift store in the monastery.  He was a very wise and loving man who had been at the monastery for many years.  One of his primary jobs at the monastery was washing dishes and cleaning meals.  The job seemed like one which would be messy, laborious and dull to Jan.  The monk told her that he found the job a means to be closer to God.  He told her how, with each dish, knife and fork he cleaned, he thought how that simple service contributed to the entire monastery.  He thought also about how people all over the world perform the same task.  By washing those dishes, he was a part of humanity, part of an activity that makes the world spin.  In performing this task he was contributing to God’s kingdom.

Whatever our vocation, our current job, if we can think, like the monk did, about us contributing to God’s kingdom . . . or think about, like the song says, of God placing His hand on us, each of us, as we perform our tasks . . . then I think we we will find much more meaning, value and happiness in the work we perform.  May God’s kingdom come.  On earth His will be done.  Day by day.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Pinto, for Abscess’s youngest son who broke his collar bone, for Ice Man’s sister-in-law whose baby is due next week but is currently in breech, for Squirtle’s friend, and for Brick when he gives his testimony at church this Tuesday.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Board Meeting!

PM Asylum — Surprise Birthday Q

THE SCENE: Perfect for a beatdown.  50 Degrees

WARM-O-RAMA:

47 4cnt SSH,  Cherry Pickers, Arm Circles, Seal Claps

Baseline:  Apolo OhNo’s, Snowboarders, Rocky Balboa’s, Karaoke, Skips, Bear Crawls

THA-THANG:
Battle Buddy Up, Slingshot up Cardiac.  1 partner does 100 yard dash, while other does Blockees.  Then, slingshot back.

Mosey to the do Pyramid Scheme

Battle Buddy, run opposite laps, and do exercises when you meet :  Merkins, Squats, Burpees, LBC’s

MARY:
Freddie Mercury’s, Superman’s, Planks

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Surprise 47 Birthday Q.  Read a study last week that figured out statistically 47 was the most unhappy year of someone’s life in the developed world.  You are most happy at 18.  The good news is that it is a Bell Curve and when you hit 67 you are once again as happy as you were at 18 years old.  I for one am going to give a middle finger to this idea and encourage all to make right now the best year of your life.  Love your kids more, Love your spouse more, Find Someone without friends and Love on them.  I have never heard of someone on their deathbed saying I should have loved less or volunteered less.  We all know that makes our heart full so encourage you to start now.
MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Pinto and his continued Fight.  Prayers for Tony Williams and his family who passed away last week.

Where Is Your Sting?

THE SCENE: Cloudy, mid thirties.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

25 Side Straddle Hops.  10 Burpees. 10 Iron Mikes.  10 Windmills.  10 Cherry Pickers.  7 Baby Arm Circles Forward and Backward.  7 Wide Arm Circles Forward and Backward.
THA-THANG:
Mosey to Stop Sign at Northeastern Corner of Admin Bldg.  We will have cones posted along the road that semicircles around the Admin Bldg.  Each cone will give directions regarding exercises and how to get to the next cone.

  • Cone 1:  20 Big Boy Sit-ups.  Bernie Sanders to Cone 2.
  • Cone 2:  20 Diamond Merkins.  Hop to Cone 3.
  • Cone 3.  20 Shoulder Taps (both shoulders = 1).  Gravevine with left foot in lead to Cone 4.
  • Cone 4:  20 Star Jumps.  Grapevine with right foot in lead to Cone 5.
  • Cone 5:  20 Squat Jumps.  Sprint to Cone 6.
  • Cone 6:  20 Flutter Kicks (four count).  Bear Crawl to Cone 7.
  • Cone 7.  20 Smurf Jacks.  Bernie Sanders to Cone 8
  • Cone 8.  20 Merkins, 40 Baby Crunches, 20 Hello Dollies (four count), 20 American Hammers (four count), 20 Bicycle Kicks (four count), 20 Bottle Openers (both hands = 1).

Mosey back to stop sign at Northeastern Corner of Admin Bldg., picking up cones and signs along the way.  We will squat for one minute to quietly contemplate the beauty of the scenery toward the lake.

Mosey to CMU pile.  Men will split into pairs.  One partner from each pair will grab a CMU.  We will do Doras with partner one sprinting to other end of parking lot, doing 10 shin lifts, and sprinting back while partner two starts working on the exercises.  Partners will then switch positions.  These are the exercises that each pair will accomplish:

  • 100 Overhead Presses
  • 100 Curls
  • 100 Rows
  • 100 Bell Ringers
  • 100 Merkins with feet on CMU

Mosey through entrance way gate to northern ball fields.  We will go the ball field that is closest to the entryway and congregate at one end of the marked soccer field in the outfield.  We will throw frisbee three times and race to the frisbee.  We will then race to end of the soccer field and back.  Those men who got the frisbee on the three prior throws will be competing to see who gets a free breakfast from the Q leader. Next, we will split into two teams.  Men will split up to play frisbee football.  Every time the frisbee hits the ground, not only does the possession of the frisbee change to the other team but all team members must do five burpees.  I must give my brother, Waffle House, credit for being the originator of this frisbee/burpee rule.

Mosey to AO.

MARY:
20 Flutter Kicks, Boat Canoe.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Seventeen men with one FNG, a friend of Toto’s named Marty Mason.  His F3 name is now Tinder.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
“When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’ ‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’” (1 Corinthians 15:54-55)

Edward Abbey was a park ranger and writer.  As a park ranger for the National Park Service he worked in scarcely populated desert areas of Utah, including the Arches National Park and Canyonlands of Southeastern Utah.  In his book Desert Solitaire, he speaks in one chapter about being alone in a very rocky canyon area in Utah.  Although an experienced ranger, he got lost and was stuck on a rock precipice.  He could make a jump across the precipice to a cliff similar in height but which was in the direction he knew would get him home.  He didn’t know how to get back the way he came even though he had tried to track it.  He was running out of water.  His choice was to either die of thirst where he was or make a huge leap from the precipice to the cliff.  The fall if he failed to reach the cliff would be hundreds of feet and would certainly bring him to his death.  He made the choice to jump and, for some good minutes, started thinking about his life before he made the jump.

What would you think about if you were faced with such a situation?  You are about to make the jump that will either continue or end your life?  What thoughts run through your mind.  Would you think about family?  About things that brought you joy?  Actions or lack of action that you regretted?  Would you wish you could say or do some things you had not yet done in life?  Would you have faith that God would follow you through death if death were to occur?  And, on the chance that you might make the jump, would you see life in a different way afterwards?  Would there be things that you would want to accomplish or do that you had yet to attempt?

Abbey gave a very poignant description of his fear and grief before making the jump.  As a man who loved nature, he thought with appreciation yet longing about the beauty of the world all around him before making the death jump.  Obviously, he made it to the other side as he later wrote the book.

As a man I would have been very scared, just as Abbey was.  As a Christian, I hope I would take comfort in verses like the one in Corinthians above.  I hope I would appreciate my mortality and the gift that God has given us in our short lives here on Earth.  But, I also hope I would realize that my perishable body has been clothed with the imperishable armor of God, that my mortality has become immortality through Him.  Then, even knowing I might fall to my death, I could say, “Death, where is your victory, where is your sting?”

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Pele’s shoulder as he took a mean fall and hurt it during the frisbee football game.  Pusher, a physical therapist, said he didn’t dislocate.  Prayers for our brother, Pinto, who is suffering through treatment of multiple myeloma cancer.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
New pull up bars that we raised money for will be going up.  We will have an AO launch in Morristown on April 4.

Motivators Doing Motivators is Motivating

THE SCENE: 50s, sun was setting, Lakeshore Park = empty

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

– Welcome to F3: Fitness – Fellowship – Faith

– Name is Steam and I’ll be your QIC this evening

– Couple of things before we begin

– I’m not a professional

– You’re here on your own volition

– Modify as you need to but push yourself and those around you

WARM-O-RAMA:

THA-THANG:
[ Q has ruck with phone, med kit, and CPR kit. Too prepared? Who knows – better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it ]

(PAX mosey right outside Asylum PM parking lot)

[ Light It Up ]

  • PAX mosey towards Haslam rock overlooking Lakeshore park/river
    • Every light post (that was on) – 5 single leg merkins
      • One leg on top of the other
      • 5 reps/light together
      • switch legs each light
  • Sprint up the mini hill to Haslam rock
  • PAX executes 10 x 4 IC V-Ups
  • PAX Rinses & Repeats back down the way they came
    • Every light = 5 reps of a squat + merkin (basically a burpee but with no jump so……..basically a burpee.)
    • Last 2 lights = eeprub = 5 reps of a merkin + squat

(PAX moseys towards chapel(s))

[ Chapel 1 – Level 1 ]

  • 5 pillars in the outdoor pavilion (small chapel)
  • Each set of pillars = 5 Motivators together
  • After 5 motivators are executed:
    • Sprint to a tree 25m to the right = 1 fast burpee
  • Sprint back to outdoor pavilion (small chapel)
  • After 5 motivators are executed at 2nd set of pillars:
    • Sprint to small knoll to the left about 25m away = 1 slow burpee (form is key here)
  • Rinse & Repeat until PAX cleared the other side of the outdoor pavilion (small chapel)

(PAX mosey towards the big outdoor chapel —> occupied —> head to the parking lot to the left of it facing the soccer fields)

[Level 2 – Team on your back suicides]

  • PAX executing various exercises led by Q while 1 by 1, PAX sprint a zig-zagged course between lights the distance of the parking lot and back.
    • Exercises included but where not limited to:
      • SSHs
      • Merkins
      • Cherry-Pickers
      • Shoulder Taps
      • Flutter Kicks
      • Hello Dollys
      • Rockettes
      • LBCs
      • Line jumps
      • Motivators
      • + more but I forgot

(PAX moseys back towards AO parking lot)

Once PAX hits the street —> backwards American Indian Run until the playground next to morning AO —> sprint it out to the PM AO parking lot

[Finish How We Started]

  • 5 Motivators

MARY:
Heavy breathing, peeing behind dumpsters in the dark, normal F3 stuff.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
9 PAX – no FNGs
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
“You Have to Improve”
MOLESKIN:
From “Free to Lead: F3 and the Unshackling of the Modern Day Warrior” by Dredd and OBT (Founders of F3) —> If you haven’t read this, DO IT. Seriously. Worth the couple bucks on Amazon – lotta good stuff packed in here. Check it out here —> https://www.amazon.com/Freed-Lead-Unshackling-Modern-day-Warrior/dp/0991238109/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=Free+to+LEad&qid=1579834505&sr=8-3

”The Practical Exercise (even if done well) will leave each student with only a working knowledge of the skill being taught. In other words, he will not be an expert but he will be able to get it done. That is how the Army transfers skills from the more experienced soldier to the inexperienced soldier. It provides formal training to get the basic skills across. After that, it’s up to each soldier to improve toward mastery as he performs the skill on the job, and as he seeks to meet the increasingly high standards set for him by his leaders. Thus, an Infantryman with some experience who is performing a task at minimal skill level might hear from his sergeant that he “isn’t in basic training anymore.” In other words, more is expected of you now. You have to improve. It’s an individual soldier’s responsibility to seek constant improvement. It’s the leader’s responsibility to demand that he do so.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

  • April 4th, 2020 – Morristown.
    • F3 Morristown is LAUNCHING and it’s going to be epic. We need all the HIM we can muster to go help support this new region because remember, that was once us. More info to come with this, but go ahead and put it on your cal for April. If you know any potential sad clowns and/or HIM that would benefit from F3 (just like you), E.H. MAN, E.H.

 

  • Saturday, February 29th: 1st ever Truebadours Q101/GrowSchool Convergence.
    • AO: Asylum
    • More info to come.
    • Hit up Abscess or Steam for more info

 

Keep the Faith & Fight the Good Fight!