F3 Knoxville

Tag: Pusher

Get Rid of It

THE SCENE: Beautiful day, temp in 50s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
25 Side Straddle Hops, 30 Second Squat, 15 Iron Mikes, 30 Second Plank, 10 Rockettes, 7 Twistees, 5 Rocking Chairs, 10 Baby Arm Circles Forward and Backward.
THA-THANG:
Mosey to the parking lot on the other side of the playground.  We will Bear Crawl for 10 paces then lunge for 20 paces and alternate between that pattern to the end of the parking lot.

Mosey to the Lily Pad.  We will line up on the south curb.  We will then run to each large light post and do 10 Hello Dollies, the run to the next light post and do 10 more Hello Dollies, etc. until we reach the south curb of the parking lot.  We will Bernie Sanders back, stopping at each light to do 10 Big Boy Sit-ups.

Mosey to the perimeter trail just south of the Lily Pad Pavilion.  We will run south and then west for 10 lights. Whoever gets to the tenth light first will circle back to the six.  When reaching the six, then all men do 10 Merkins.  We will continue this pattern until we have reached the open area near the transformers.

Each man will pick a boulder from the boulder pile.  We will do the first exercise listed below with the boulders, then set them down to run to an area about fifty yards away, then run back to do the same exercise, then run to the picnic tables to do 15 bench dips.  Then run back to the boulders to do the next exercise and repeat the same running pattern.  Here are the exercises:

  • 15 Overhead Presses
  • 15 Curls
  • 15 Chest Thrusts
  • 15 Rows
  • 15 Squats with Boulder at Chest

We will mosey back to the Pavilion by running ten lights and circling back to six, then stopping to 10 Merkins.

We will return to the south curb of the Lily Pad.  There we will Sprint again to each light to do 10 Lunges then run to the next light until we get to the north curb.  On the way back we will Bernie to each light and do 10 Backwards Lunges until we reach the South Curb.

Mosey to the curb by the roadway that heads back to the AO.  We will do 20 Bench Dips.

Mosey to the Parking Lot that is south of the Playground. We will Hop for 10 paces and run for 20 paces to the end of the parking lot.

Mosey to the AO.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
13 men, no FNGs.

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM

Get Rid of It

Have any of you ever known any hoarders?  A hoarder is someone that keeps all kinds of things that they could easily give away or throw away.  They will have piles of things that they haven’t used laying all over their house, taking up space.  I formerly had a client I saw in my therapy practice whose mother was a hoarder.  Her parent’s house had piles of junk that took up space all over the house.  The house was difficult to walk through.  My client was upset about it but became more upset when her father’s problematic lungs worsened.  The clutter in the house was only worsening his breathing issues.  My client, her husband, and siblings purchased a used trailer home.  They cleaned the entire house of the clutter and since her mother did not want anything to be thrown away, they put everything they cleaned into the trailer home that was located on the property so that their mother could “find her precious things” if she needed them.  Within a year my client’s mother was already cluttering her home with new junk.

I bring this up because we, as human beings, often clutter our minds with useless junk.  That junk can come in the form of a multitude of things such as sinful thoughts (e.g. envy, improper lust), of past regrets that we cannot let go of (e.g., some sin we committed long ago), of old harmful messages that we heard when we were younger (e.g., you are a poor student, you will never make it in life), of mental “shoulds” that leave us feeling worthless or at least below par (e.g, I should make more money, I should spend more time making my yard perfect even though I hardly have time for it), and of harmful comparisons we make between ourselves and others (e.g, I never stack up).  This garbage clutters are minds and leads to poor health, just like the physical clutter led to poor health for my client’s father AND mother.  Some of the clutter comes in the form of false myths we have about God such as “I can’t pray to God because he wouldn’t like me” or “God looks down on me.”  We have got to get rid of that trash.  Give all that clutter to God.  He is willing to be your trash man.  Do you think a loving God wants you to be weighed down by all that trash?  Do you think He wants you to be hurt by that crap?  Do you think he wants you to live in a miserable lie?  Give it up.  Ask God to take it from you.

My challenge to you this week is to think of one thing impacting you mentally that you need to throw away.  Write it down and throw it in the trash or burn in if you want to.  Ask God for help in keeping it off your mind.  God is willing to take it from you.

MOLESKIN:

Prayers for Matlock’s nephew, John, who has been having seizures.  Doctors will possibly doing surgery on brain.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Knoxwork, a community of people of different worship communities involved together to help the City of Knoxville are having an annual meeting at the Knoxville Coliseum this Tuesday at 7 pm.  All are invited.

Accepted As We Are

THE SCENE: Sunny, temperature about 80 degrees.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 Plank Jacks, 10 Burpees, 10 Twisties, 7 Cherry Pickers, 7 Windmills, 6 Pterodactyls forward, 6 Pterodactyls backward, Michael Phelps.
THA-THANG:
Mosey to Stop Sign at Northeastern Corner of the Admin Bldg.  We will stop to do 20 Rocky Balboas.

Mosey on perimeter trail toward the entrance gate at Lyons Bend then on the trail heading east.  There will be a cone out in the field nearby. We will split into teams of two for Doras.  While one partner runs up to the tree stump at the top of the hill and back, the other partner does exercises.  Then partners switch off. Here is the exercises that each team of two partners will do:

  • 100 Squat Jumps
  • 100 Carolina Dry Docks
  • 100 Hello Dollies
  • 100 Iron Mikes (both legs = 1)
  • 100 Diamond Merkins
  • 200 Baby Crunches

Mosey back up the hill and past the stump to the roadway. Then mosey to the Stop Sign at the Northeastern Corner of the Admin Bldg.  We will run on the shaded trail to sidewalk that loops in front of the Admin Bldg.  Then head east to the parking lot area.  Then run on roadway back to the Stop Sign at the Northeastern Corner of the Admin Bldg.  There will be five cones set up along the way.  Each time we run the route we will do different exercises at the cones:

  • First run:  10 squats at each cone.
  • Second Run: 10 Flutter kicks (4 ct) at each cone.
  • Third run:  10 Lunges, 5 each leg, at each cone.
  • Fourth run:  10 Bobby Hurleys at each cone.

From the Stop Sign at the Northeastern Corner of the Admin Bldg. will will race back to AO.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
10 Men, no FNGs.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

I hope that F3 will always be an organization where brothers feel welcomed by all brothers . . . where a man is not judged by the job he has, by the car he drives, by how fast he runs, or how fancy the shoes on his feet look.  I think the message of F3 should be, “my man, we accept you as you are.  That doesn’t mean that we won’t mold you into a better man . . . but it means that you can be you.”

One of my F3 brothers was recently talking about coworkers at his job. These guys make good money.  But the narcissistic, self-centered attitude of some of these coworkers, the selfish boasting, and the failure to help one’s fellow man sometimes make my friend feel sick.  My friend strives on at his job but he certainly doesn’t appreciate the attitude of some of his coworkers.

I formerly worked as a jury and trial consultant for a consulting firm that was hired by law firms on pretty major cases.  I highly respected many of the attorneys I worked for.  But, there were some attorneys I definitely did not respect.  I remember a mock trial that my consulting firm conducted in Jackson, Mississippi.  Some of the attorneys on the case and I arrived at the same time at the airport in Jackson and hailed a taxi together to ride to the hotel we were staying at.  I recall the smirks, comments and laughter about the taxi driver after we were dropped off.  The attorneys made fun of his accent and his seemingly backward ways while they also made negative inferences regarding the common state of the city.  I remember thinking during that stay in Jackson that I would be much more likely to enjoy eating dinner with that taxi driver than with those conceited attorneys.  I wondered what dreams that taxi driver had, what friendships, what his family was like, how hard he might be working to make sure dinner was on the table.  He certainly seemed friendlier than the attorneys and was probably much more real.  My bet was that his “seemingly backward ways” had much more depth and poignancy than the shallow sightedness of the out-of-town observers.

God, let me be surrounded by people who can be real with one another, who will appreciate one another for who they are and bring out the best in their fellow humans.  God, help F3 Knoxville to continue to be that type of band of men.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for daughter of Glamper as she is currently ill.  Prayers for Abacus’ son who is struggling with some issues and for his daughter as she prepares to graduate from high school.  Prayer for the wonderful way our F3 brothers pull together to help each other across the finish line.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
On Tuesday of next week, Justice Knox has their annual Nehemiah Action event at the Civic Auditorium.  A coalition of faith communities will meet and work to make Knoxville a better place to live for everyone.  All are invited.  We will be preparing the Asylum PM made obstacles for Hardship Hill on May 20. This will be the weekend before Hardship Hill.  Sparkler will be in charge and we can use everyone’s help.

April Metric Q – Asylum PM

Asylum PM Q — April Metric Workout

5:45pm – 6:30pm

  • Pre-ruck at 5pm

[ The Scene ] 

  • 72
  • Sunny 

[ Welcome/Disclaimer ]

  • Welcome to F3: Fitness – Fellowship – Faith 
  • My name is Steam and I’ll be your Q this morning 
  • A few things before we begin: 
    • I’m not a professional 
    • You’re here on your own volition
    • You know your injuries if you have any so if you need to modify anything we do today feel free to do so, but push yourselves and the men around you. They deserve it and so do you. 
  • FNGs?

[ Warm o Rama ] 

  • OYO as the April Metric Workout is introduced 

[ The Thang ] 

Scene

  • 4 evenly spaced cones or lines ~10 yards/30 feet apart

The Workout

Part 1: RUN

  • 10 minute timer
  • Start the timer, then…
  • Run from Line 1 to Line 2 (~10 yards) and back to Line 1
  • Run from Line 1 to Line 3 (~20 yards) and back to Line 1
  • Run from Line 1 to Line 4 (~30 yards) and back to Line 1
  • That is 1 rep
  • Rinse and repeat as many times as you can in the 10 minutes.

— 1 minute rest —

Part 2: AMRAP

  • 3×2 minutes timer
  • Count the total number of reps (cumulative, not individual)
  • Start the timer, then…
  • 2 minutes AMRAP SSH
    • (no rest)
  • 2 minutes AMRAP High Knees (count 1 leg)
    • (no rest)
  • 2 minutes AMRAP mountain climbers (count 1 leg)

— 3 MINUTES REST AND RECORD 1st ROUND # OF REPS —

— Now…REPEAT the full routine – starting over with your rep count —

— Submit four scores —

  • Round 1 run reps
  • Round 1 AMRAP reps
  • Round 2 run reps
  • Round 2 AMRAP reps

— Enter your times and reps on the Google form (link in the 1st F channel) —
— Total time to complete: 45 minutes (the full time: 5:45pm – 6:30pm)

  • 5 minutes of instruction/intro
  • 40 minutes to complete the workout

[ Mary ] 

OYO stretching

[ COT ]

  • # off – 14
  • Name o Rama 
  • FNGs
  • Word

Spoiler in Slack: You drown not by falling into the river, but by staying submerged in it. — Paulo Coelho

  • Heard this in the movie Extraction on Netflix

An F3 mantra we use a lot: No man left behind, but no man left the same.

I’ve been submerged before — I’m willing to bet many of us have felt that same way before. 

The reality is this – at some point in time, we’re all going to “fall in the river.” It’s just part of life. We all have stuff that is in our lives. But God has more for you. 

It’s okay to fall into the river, but it’s not okay to stay submerged in it. 

And if we believe that God has more for us than our current circumstance in life, we should believe this about others as well, which brings me to “No man left behind, no man left the same.” That if we believe God has more for them – we must truly live out not leaving a man behind, and refusing to leave men in the condition in which we first found them. Or, the condition they are in when they show up to F3. 

This is what Jesus did – he didn’t want to leave anyone behind, and refused to leave someone in the same condition he found them in. Just look at all of his miracles in the gospels. And even in his final moments of life, when he finds one of the other criminals on a cross next to him, who rightfully should be there by the way, he refuses to leave him in the same condition. 

You Will Respect Each Other

THE SCENE: A break in the rain
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
SSH, rockettes, cherry pickers, this and that, tie fighters
THA-THANG:
Insert information about the workout.

  • Around the island with squats and merkins
  • Down the path with Imperial Walkers
  • Up Cardiac with squats and bench dips
  • Down the Dragon with increasing Bobby Hurleys
  • 7’s with step ups and incline merkins
  • Ring of Fire with pickle pounds and squats
  • Relay races

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
A recently watched Remember the Titans with my 10 y/o.  Note he’s a white male growing up in west Knoxville.  He kept asking me why the characters were behaving the way they were. So, we went down the road of how things “used to be”. But, then we talked about how this movie is about two groups who were different or had different opinions. Today we have more and more groups who are different than ourselves, and we must not let hatred and violence become our way of engaging these folks. They Gettysburg scene in the movie chokes me up every time.

“Anybody know what this place is? This is Gettysburg. This is where they fought the Battle of Gettysburg. Fifty thousand men died right here on this field, fightin’ the same fight that we’re still fightin’ amongst ourselves today. This green field right here was painted red, bubblin’ with the blood of young boys, smoke and hot lead pourin’ right through their bodies. Listen to their souls, men: ‘I killed my brother with malice in my heart. Hatred destroyed my family.’ You listen. And you take a lesson from the dead. If we don’t come together, right now, on this hallowed ground, we too will be destroyed — just like they were.I don’t care if you like each other or not. But you will respect each other.” https://youtu.be/bFObqUd5uzA

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Haw Ridge 4/14. Sign up ASAP if you want to either come hang out or do the event. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ePWxUiNMlLmFiZUFXctg5eAMXoYcAkHlRfo2U3GoiGY/edit#gid=0 or contact Slappy for details.

A Kiss

THE SCENE: Wet on ground, windy, but the rained stopped right as we were beginning the workout.  Temperature about 60 degrees.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Bernie Sanders around the parking lot, 20 Plank Jacks, 10 Mountain Climbers, 10 Rockettes, 10 Twisties, 10 Dive Bombers, 10 Cherry Pickers.
THA-THANG:
Mosey to the pavilion to do 20 Bench Dips.  Then divide up into teams of two.  Mosey to the trailer behind my car in the parking lot across the street from the AO parking lot.  Each team grabs two bricks out of my trailer.  Mosey back to the west end of the AO parking lot.  We will will be doing Doras. While one partner on a team of two runs to the other end of the parking lot and does 10 Rocky Balboas (both legs = 1) and runs back, the other partner works on the exercises listed below.  Then partners switch off.  Here are the exercises:

  • 100 Overhead Presses
  • 100 Triceps
  • 100 Curls
  • 100 Rows
  • 100 Punches (where both hands = 1)
  • 100 Wings Up
  • 100 Wings Down
  • 100 Wings Out

Mosey back to the trailer to put the bricks away. Bernie Sanders one time around the parking lot.

Mosey to the AO parking lot again.  We will be doing a Kraken.  We will be doing the exercises at each of the six cones set up in the parking lot.  When finished with the exercise at one cone, each man should do a full circle of all cones before going to the next cone.  Here are the exercises:

  • Cone 1:  20 Big Boy Sit Ups
  • Cone 2:  10 Burpees
  • Cone 3:  20 Box Cutters
  • Cone 4:  20 Diamond Merkins
  • Cone 5:  20 Iron Mikes (both legs = 1)
  • Cone 6:  15 Shoulder Taps (both shoulders = 1)
  • Those finishing first rinse and repeat until the six has finished all six sets of exercises.

Mosey back to the parking lot across the street with the trailer.  We will be running up the Dragon, stopping at every other light post to do 10 Merkins.  When men reach the parking lot at the end of the Dragon they will run to the street and then go down Mini-Cardiac to the parking lot with the trailer.  They will then Bernie Sanders around the parking lot. 

Mosey to the parking lot near the nice restroom.  We will go from one curb to the others in the following manner:  Hop 15 times, Bear Crawl for 30 paces, then Bernie Sanders to the curb.  We will then go back to the other curb in the following manner:  Do 25 El Capitan’s, Bear Crawl for 25 paces, then Bernie Sanders to the curb.

Mosey to the Playground.  We will do 20 American Hammers.

Mosey to the AO.

MARY:
25 Hello Dollies (4 count), 25 Flutter Kicks (4 Count).  Then we will do a minute of stretching.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
9 Men, no FNGs.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
I am not a University of Miami Hurricanes fan.  But, I do like their basketball team’s coach, 73-year-old Jim Larranaga.  It wasn’t until recently that I knew his name.  When I watched Miami win games in last year’s March Madness and this year’s March Madness, I just called him the “Old Man.”  I have since learned that he is an amazing coach who has won all kinds of awards coaching for different colleges.  He was the coach of that 11th seeded George Mason team who got to the Final Four in 2006.

Now he has the Miami Hurricanes in the Final Four and his team will be playing against Connecticut today.  I saw the Old Man interviewed on the basketball court amidst the hoopla after Miami beat number 1 seeded Houston to get to the Elite 8 this year.  One of his players, Nijel Pack, was asked to be interviewed after the coach.  What did the Old Man do before he went off to the locker room?  He leaned over and kissed Nijel on the side of his head.  I love seeing that kind of affection between coach and player.  Later, in the locker room, the Old Man was seen dancing with his team, all of the players laughing and hooting at their 73-year-old coach with obvious love as he was doing the old man shimmy. It was a funny and heart-warming thing to observe.

A major reason I love F3 so much is that we also have that heart-warming affection amongst us.  One of our new members, Voltage, joined our brotherhood less than two weeks ago.  I talked to him after the workout.  He has lived in Knoxville a number of years and, being from another country, has been a bit lonely.  He has been looking for a group of friends that he can be a part of.  I told him he has found it with F3.

Gents, I don’t want to embarrass you, but a reason why we come to F3 here in Knoxville is to get the kind of affection from other men that is similar to that kiss the the Old Man laid upon the head of Nijel Pack.  How does that affection reach us?  In all kinds of ways.  It’s as simple as bros yelling out “Hey Pusher” or “Hey Drum Major” when they show up for the morning workout.  It’s Crawdad teasing me about having dope in my veins and you guys persistently mentioning I must have my stimulator with me when I am somehow able to keep up with you on the mosey.  It’s the ribbing Swimmies gets every time he shows up late for a workout.  It’s us getting on High-Heels for getting through 25 rounds of whatever exercise in ten seconds.  It’s whoever is on Q making sure we do Dive Bombers when Choir Boy is around or doing Cherry Pickers because we know that Crawdad hates them.  It’s us groaning at Pluto’s puns.  It’s us knowing that Waffle House is going to wear those crazy yellow mittens in the winter or that Pele is going to leave his circular sweat of integrity around his feet at the end of a summer workout.  It’s giving Jinxy hell when the employees at Panera Bread screw up another one of his orders.  It laughing at Lebowski with his crazy robe and Matlock leaving those hilarious posts on Slack.  We are a team, a band of brothers, dropping those idiotic displays of affection on one another.  I thank God for it.  Now, where did I leave that stimulator.?

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for the people of Nashville and those impacted by the shooting at the school.  Prayers to those in Arkansas impacted by the tornadoes last night.  Prayers for safety Pusher’s youngest son who just got his drivers license.  Also, prayers for Pusher and his wife as it can be stressful to see one’s child go off driving alone for the first time.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Shovel Flag making at I-Beam’s house today.  Haw Ridge coming in two weeks.  We need to start working on making obstacles for Hardship Hill which will be on Memorial Day.