F3 Knoxville

Tune That Name

THE SCENE: Spring
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER Are we allowed to call it F3 again?
WARM-O-RAMA:

SSH, Cherry Pickers, Rockets. I read somewhere that if you can do 40 Merkins, your chances of dying in the next 5 years are really low. So statistically, whoever didn’t skip reps is doing OK.

10 Burpees OYO in honor of Crawdad and Jumbo’s standard on-time arrival.

THA-THANG:
Moseytown USA.

Every 5th light pole we pyramided up to 5 burps, 10 merks, 15 squats, 20 LBCs. Then back down.

Up towards the Asylum, where various spectators had come with tickets to the gun show. We Bearcrawl 360d our way over to the center of the Colosseum, and it turns out all they really wanted was to see Mr Jinxy in action. Take a number, ladies.

We played Tune That Name, winner moseys while loser holds position. Gore, plank, arm circles, lunges for everyone, and we provided melodic entertainment for a couple at the cafe table. I think it’s safe to assume we saved their marriage.

Native American run down the dragon, and Q forgot how fast US State’s Attorneys run, so Choirboy got in some extra mileage after a late directional call from Q.

The Cloud is as closed as Amazon is to a Robertson Dickens thriller that mentions COVID, so we made use of the Pavilon for some Box Baby Box Rows, followed by a wall sit that severely tested our ability to endure Convoy’s deep concentration.

Over to the stairs in honor of Crablegs who is doing calf raises somewhere in the fine state of Florida today.

Then to the Meadow for some Jack Webb, just in case anybody had anything left.

PAX choice whether to sprint or Bernie up mini cardiac (finally paved! What the what?!?).

Q made the unwise decision to sprint and it almost cost him last night’s Dead End barbecue.
MARY:
Mary is a High Heels kind of a thing, and High Heels was fartsacking.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
This thing is dragging on and it’s time for me to recommit to loving my family well, not being a jerk, and being kind. But the way for me to do that is not to decide and just make it happen – that doesn’t really work, not for me anyway. I have to recognize my need for Christ (pretty easy to do if I take the time) and then out of gratitude for the life he’s given me, I more or less naturally find myself wanting to love people better.
MOLESKIN:
Great to have Beavis back in town! Praying for Choirgirl, Swimmies’ friend, and of course Mrs. Lilly.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Go download The Other Virus by Roberston Dickens! One of these days he’s going to sew up that legendary pectoral, and when he does, we’re all in for a really bad beatdown.

Perspective

THE SCENE: 83° Sunny and Breezy .
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
You are here on own volition. Please abide by the Covid 19 Phase One Guidelines

WARM-O-RAMA:
Rockets x 15, Imperial Walker x 20, High Knees 3 Burpees x 4, Tempo Merkins x 10, Tempo BBS x 10…Mosey to Coliseum

 

THA-THANG:
The Half Biscuit- 5 Burpees 10 Merkins 15 Squats run 1/2 lap REPEATexercises, 1 Lap REPEAT Ex, 2 Laps Repeat Ex, 1 Lap Repeat, 1/2 Lap Repeat

Mosey to field beside The Dragon- Ab Kraken with Flutters, Hello Dolly, Box Cutters, super Mans, BBS, LBCs, Dead Bug, V-UPS

Route 66 with Dive Bombers up The Dragon

Mosey Back to AO

MARY:
No Time for Mary
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Use the TAGS on right-side to record PAX (BE SURE TO INCLUDE YOURSELF) in attendance. Be sure to select the AO in CATEGORY above TAGS and then delete these notes!
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

For a small amount of perspective at this moment, imagine you were born in 1900. When you are 14, World War I starts, and ends on your 18th birthday with 22 million people killed. Later in the year, a Spanish Flu epidemic hits the planet and runs until you are 20. Fifty million people die from it in those two years. Yes, 50 million. When you’re 29, the Great Depression begins. Unemployment hits 25%, global GDP drops 27%. That runs until you are 33. The country nearly collapses along with the world economy. When you turn 39, World War II starts. You aren’t even over the hill yet. When you’re 41, the United States is fully pulled into WWII. Between your 39th and 45th birthday, 75 million people perish in the war and the Holocaust kills six million. At 52, the Korean War starts and five million perish. At 64 the Vietnam War begins, and it doesn’t end for many years. Four million people die in that conflict. Approaching your 62nd birthday you have the Cuban Missile Crisis, a tipping point in the Cold War. Life on our planet, as we know it, could well have ended. Great leaders prevented that from happening. As you turn 75, the Vietnam War finally ends. Think of everyone on the planet born in 1900. How do you survive all of that? A kid in 1985 didn’t think their 85 year old grandparent understood how hard school was. Yet those grandparents (and now great grandparents) survived through everything listed above.

Perspective is an amazing art. Let’s try and keep things in perspective. Let’s be smart, help each other out, and we will get through all of this. In the history of the world, there has never been a storm that lasted. This too, shall pass.

Dave Proberts

MOLESKIN:
We have F3 to get thru the trials

Pray for Lily Dipper and Jan
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Hike the Smokies this weekend

This One’s for Jinxy

THE SCENE: Sunny, slight breeze, mid 60s… not bad.  Not bad at all.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

My BACKBLAST disclaimer is that I’m writing this for Mr. Jinxy, who was crying about doing one.  “I don’t know how to do it… the line spacing is all messed up… do I need to do it?  Wah wah wah…” So I’m just doing it for him this time.  THIS time.

I think he got through the welcome and disclaimer without too many screw ups.  I was Q2 for the beatdown, due to having more than 10 people show up (#covidsucks), and was frantically scanning the workout he printed out and handed me, oh, five whole minutes before starting.  Gave me PLENTY of time to try to figure out what the <radio edit> he had in mind.


WARM-O-RAMA:

We did some warm up stuff.  I recall SSH, Cherry Pickers, Tempo Squats, BACs… again, I was trying to kind of stretch and decipher his workout at the same time.
THA-THANG:
Mosey down Roadshow Run.  Nickle/Dime/Quarters along the perimeter trail (run 1 light, do 5 reps of exercise, then 2 lights do 10 reps, then 5 lights, do 25 reps).  Exercises: American Hammers, Burpees, Merkins, CDDs, Bobby Hurley’s, BBSs.

Mosey to Field of Dreams.  Bernie up the hill at the side of the field 3 times, doing 20x jump squats, deep squats, star jumps.

Four corners around Field of Dreams.  Run one long side, Bernie the other.  Bear Crawl on the short sides.  At the corners to 10x BBS, Flutter Kicks, Hello Dolly’s, Elbow to Hand Planks.

Mosey to the bench on the hill near the Admin Building.  This was a long uphill mosey, and the suck factor was pretty high.  Brick almost lost it, but he held on like a champ. Abscess: “I would NEVER do this all by myself.” I heartily agree.

MARY:
Capain Thors, Leg Lifts, maybe one other thing?  I was kind of making stuff up at this point.  Jinxy’s group was late (sooo typical), so it was just us doing the Mary.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
15 Strong, including two FNGs (one of whom was Pluto’s 2.0), who we named Utah and Crank Bait.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Jinxy had a bad day and told us all about it. We were super sympathetic.  He said something really awesome about getting joy out of setbacks.  I’m getting a #&%^-ton of joy out of the setback of having to write his backblast.  That’s for DANG sure.
MOLESKIN:
Impressed with the strength of Brick’s stomach, but was a bit disappointed about not witnessing merlot spillage.  Nice to see a good crowd out in the Fake Gloom.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
None

Optimism and Faith

THE SCENE: Just about perfect.  60s and mostly sunny, light breeze
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.  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.  Please push yourself, but modify the workout as necessary to avoid making any existing injuries worse.  The goal is to get better together!


WARM-O-RAMA:

MOTIVATORS, 7-ct, decreasing / 10 CHERRY PICKERS (4-CT, IC) / 10 WINDMILLS (4-CT, IC) / 10 BACs forward and backward (4-CT, IC)

THA-THANG:
We split up into 2 groups, as we had more than 9 folks.  Mr. Jinxy was Q2 and took my workout and did something similar with his group.

A) MOSEY to Stop Sign at northeast corner of circle drive.

TOTEM POLE: We will do a Totem Pole, starting with all 10 exercises and eliminating one exercise each round, starting at the top.  So for the first round, do all ten, then run up to the big tree on the left.  Then the second round, start at 9 and do the rest, etc.  The exercise numbers (the numbers are also the reps) are:

10        Burpees

9          Mountain climbers (4-ct)

8          BBS

7          Hello Dollies (4-ct)

6          Carolina Dry Docks

5          Merkins

4          Bobby Hurleys

3          Iron Mikes (4-ct)

2          Pinto Twists (4-ct)

1          Imperial Squat Walkers (4-ct)

B) MOSEY to the hill off the path on the Tail of the Dragon.

PYRAMID: We will do the first set of exercises, then run up and down the hill. Then do the second set of exercises, run the hill, etc.:

  • 20 Tempo Squats
  • 20 Tempo Squats, 20 Star Jumps
  • 20 Tempo Squats, 20 Star Jumps, 20 Diamond Merkins
  • 20 Star Jumps, 20 Diamond Merkins
  • 20 Diamond Merkins

(This was modified in my group due to time and public presence at the park to doing 5x BBS, CDDs, and Tempo squats, running up a hill, then rinse and repeat with 10x reps, rinse and repeat with 15x reps)

C) MOSEY to the CMU Pile. 3 sets of 20 reps (3×20) of each exercise, one at a time, 10 second rest in between: 1. Overhead Press, 2. Triceps, 3. Curls, 4. Rows, 5, Chest Press, 6. BBS w/CMU

(This was modified in my group due to time and public presence at the park to moseying to the rock pile by the new Coliseum area and doing overhead press, curls, and rows with two rocks, and American Hammers with one rock)

MARY:
20 flutter kicks 4-ct, and plank stretches and holds until Jinxy’s group returned.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
11 Strong!
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Optimism and Faith and the Corona pandemic

One definition of FAITH is the assurance of the things you hope for, and the conviction of things that are not apparent.  Over the past few weeks, months (??) we have been asked to make sacrifices.  Sacrifices in our movements, how we interact, even how we worship as we deal with this pandemic.  But there is comfort in the knowledge of shared sacrifice and that you are not alone… we are in this all together, both collectively as a community, and individually with our Faith in our God.

In a letter to some protestors during the Civil Rights Era, Dr. Martin Luther King said (and I’m paraphrasing a bit): “You have again proven that there is nothing more majestic and sublime than the determined courage of individuals willing to suffer and sacrifice for improving the situation of others.  You have discovered the meaning of the Cross.” …Referring to going through pain and sacrifice for the benefit of others.

Through the sacrifices we have been asked to make, I think that we to some extent have discovered the meaning of the Cross during these challenging times as well.  We have FAITH that the reality of our current challenges are temporary, and that God is with is during our path to better days ahead. I know many people are frustrated and angry that some of their freedoms are being limited, but we have to have faith in our medical community, science advisors, our elected leaders (who are hopefully wise enough to listen to the scientists and make decisions that are best for our communities), and of course, our God.

OPTIMISM is born of the human spirit, and its strength is the strength of the spirits of individuals. Over time, Optimism can be broken down and chipped away.  Faith is the conviction that God is working in this imperfect world to bring about something marvelous.  Faith does not leave us, and provides a buttress against fear when optimism starts to fade.  We don’t need to be discouraged because God is with us, out of sight sometimes, often mysterious. But God will never leave us, and Faith is the conviction that He is there with us, and will bring us a brighter tomorrow.  I bid you all to be optimistic during these challenging times.  And when that optimism begins to crumble—and it will for all of us, if it hasn’t already—take comfort in your Faith.  We WILL get through this.  And after the storm, comes the rainbow.

MOLESKIN:
Great to have Manilow and Hands join us! Praise for Manilow’s new job and raise! Prayers for Lillydipper and his wife, and for those affected by the pandemic.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
We need more Qs to step up at the Asylum PM! Please let one of the senior members of the PAX know if you would like some help or to do a Co-Q.

Attached

THE SCENE: Cloudy, about 50 degrees
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

25 Side-Straddle-Hops, 15 Second Squat, 10 Burpees, 30 Second Squat, 10 Imperial Walkers, 45 Second Squat, 10 Cherry Pickers, 60 Second Squat
THA-THANG:

Mosey to Stop Sign at Northeastern Corner of Administration Bldg.  Men will dive into teams of two.  We will do Doras.  While one partner runs to end of sidewalk, does 10 merkins, and runs back, the other partner will be working on exercises with a set of bricks.  The partners then switch positions.  Here are the exercises to do with the bricks:

  • 100 overhead presses
  • 100 curls
  • 100 triceps
  • 100 punches where both hands = 1
  • 100 rows with hands at each side
  • 100 wings up
  • 100 wings down
  • 100 winds out

Mosey to perimeter trail.  We will do 20 American Hammers at grassy area by the trail.

Mosey to foot of Mt. Everest.  We will do 20 Big Boy Sit-ups, 20 Hello Dollies, and 40 Baby Crunches in cadence.  Then we run up Mt. Everest.  At the top, men alternate between Squats and Baby Crunches until all men finish.

Mosey back to pile of bricks at the Northeastern Corner of Admin. Bldg.  We will do 20 Box Cutters.  Then, men grab bricks to take to my car at the AO.

Mosey to the parking lot with islands that is located south of the northern ball fields.  We will alternate between Bernie Sanders and Sprints between each cone of the parking lot.  There will be four cones places around the parking lot.  At each cone we will stop to do 15 Merkins.  Rinse and repeat.

Mosey to start of mini-cardiac.  We will Bernie to the Green Park Sign then sprint to the AO.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Fourteen men, no FNGs but we did have Gus visiting from Memphis to honor the birthday of four years of him being in F3 at the place where he got started.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.

— Albert Schweitzer

Infants and toddlers form an attachment to loving parents.  Studies have been conducted showing that young toddlers will show confidence when near their parents but be wary and even cry when a stranger approaches if the toddler is alone.  With secure attachment, the feeling of comfort that the toddler has with a loving parent allows the toddler to feel safe enough to then move from the parent and explore the outside world.  Have you ever watched a young toddler explore?  The toddler will move away from the parent, viewing objects and people with curiosity – but the toddler will also look back to the parent to make sure they are there – and, finally, the toddler will hurry back to the parent, just to be acknowledged, to get the parent’s affection, to be touched.  After that, the toddler will move away again to explore the world.  This pattern will occur again and again over the course of minutes.  Studies have indicated that toddlers who have this type of attachment, which shows their need for the parent in order to continue to explore, are more likely to be confident adolescents and adults.

Certainly, as adults we have gained autonomy and independence.  But, I feel that adults also have that same need for some type of attachment – just at a different level.  We need some type of human base.  As Bruce Springsteen says in his song called “Human Touch”:

You might need somethin’ to hold on to
When all the answers, they don’t amount to much
Somebody that you could just to talk to
And a little of that Human Touch.

As men, most of us have found or are looking for some kind of mate.  The marriage of two people not only provides us with love but it gives us a sense of security – a stronghold.  As men it is also important to have a group of others to connect to.  The 2nd F of F3, fellowship, is a strong influence for us.  For me, I find that having the socialization with you brothers in F3 actually helps me to get out and explore my world.  And it gives me comfort to also know that I can come back a few days each week to reconnect.  Just as a toddler reconnects with the parent, adults need to reconnect with caring adults.  That connection not only gives us energy, it gives us courage.  In F3, we talk of locking shields together.  But because we lock shields in workouts and fellowship, each of us are better equipped to carry on with the challenges we must face in other settings.  As Albert Schweitzer indicates, the connection with our fellow men ignites the spark within us that keeps are own flame going.

The Faith aspect of F3 is also important here.  Because the Faith aspect connects us to an even higher power, a sustaining light, a light that will not fail us.  It gives us purpose, direction and strength.  And there is something about knowing that our brothers are also uniting in this connection that makes it the more powerful.  Indeed, “each of us have cause to think with great gratitude” of what has “lighted the flame within us.”

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for the health of Choir Boy’s mother-in-law and Lillydipper’s wife with their thyroid surgery.  Prayers for Choir Boy’s mother who also has a problem thyroid or hypothyroid.  Prayer’s for Hooker’s daughter, Emerson Grace Gentry, who was born five weeks premature and is still in the hospital at this time.  Prayers for our nation and world at this time of the Coronavirus Pandemic.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Convergence and 3rd F at JUCO on March 28.