Pusher – Page 2 – F3 Knoxville

Choose your adventure #2

February 5, 2026 BackBlasts

AO: asylum-pm
Q: Lizzy
PAX: Brick, Bacon (Ben), Pusher, Kung Blue, Franzia, FixerUpper, Pele (Jon Lindberg), Lilydipper, Drum Major, Serpentine (Jason Pierce), MD Hammer
FNGs: None
COUNT: 12
WARMUP:
While warming up gave the guys options of two workouts. 1- is approximately 3 miles of running called the sea biscuit, 2 – right at 2 miles but would be harder. I warned the guys option 2 would be challenging ahead

THE THANG:
Mosey to hill on the backside of the park to the hill. Round 1 up hill was 6 suicides to the each light and bottom of the hill. Round 2 – suicides again with increasing burpees up to 6. Round 3 suicides with merkins increasing to 6.

Bear crawl to next benches.

Did some ab work here.

Then burpee broad jump to the end of the path.

MARY:
We don’t know her
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Escape from Haw Ridge

COT:
At the beginning I gave you a choice and as a group we chose what we thought was the easiest workout. As a group we declined to do a sea biscuit workout because it’s a daunting task. A lot of times we do this in our daily lives. We choose the shorter or easier path when we have the option. But many times we end up with more work or a harder experience. Don’t always choose what the easiest path is. Lots of prayers but the important one was Pele and Lily are now in a civil union and will be traveling to West Virginia to celebrate. We’ll celebrate them as a couple when they come back.

Get Out of Your Own Way

February 3, 2026 BackBlasts

AO: asylum-pm
Q: Lilydipper
PAX: Drum Major, Tenderfoot, Switchhitter (Tony), Rooney(Carl Whipple), High Heels, Brick, Lizzy, Pele (Jon Lindberg), Pusher, Joshua Foster
FNGs: None
COUNT: 11
WARMUP: 20 Side-Straddle Hops, 10 Iron Mikes, 10 Ice Skaters, 10 Tennessee Rocking Chairs, 10 Rockettes, 30 Grady Corns, 7 Pterodactyls Forwards and 7 Backwards

THE THANG: We will do the following sets of exercises, doing the first, then running (counter-clockwise) around pavilion twice, doing the second, then running around pavilion twice, then the third and then running around pavilion twice:
– 20 Big Boy Sit-ups
– 20 Merkins
– 20 Picnic Table Pull-ups

Next, we will do totem pole, building on exercises then chopping them off, with 30 seconds for each exercise. Here are the exercises:
– Plank Jacks
– American Hammers
– Bobby Hurleys

Next, we will do the following sets of exercises, doing the first, then running (clockwise) around pavilion twice, doing the second, then running around pavilion twice, then the third and then running around pavilion twice:

– 20 Star Jumps
– 20 Carolina Dry Docks
– 20 Smurf Jacks

Next, we will do the following sets of exercises, doing the first, then running (counter-clockwise) around pavilion twice, doing the second, then running around pavilion twice, then the third and then running around pavilion twice:

– 20 Flutter Kicks
– 20 Bench Dips
– 20 Step-ups on Benches

Finally, we will do the following sets of exercises, doing the first, then running (clockwise) around pavilion twice, doing the second, then running around pavilion twice, then the third and then running around pavilion twice:

– 20 Freddie Mercuries
– 20 Decline Merkins
– 20 Incline Merkins

MARY: No time for sweet Mary.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: The Knoxville Region has starfished again into an eastern and western region. Thanks to Mermaid for being a fantastic Nant’an for the Knoxville Region. Our western region will have Stripped as the Nant’an. Our eastern region will have Swanson as the Nant’an. Asylum PM will be in the eastern region.

COT:
Message:
Get Out of Your Own Way
I recently read an interesting article about interview with Ben Stiller. In the interview he said that the worst decision he ever made in his life was to cut his then 9-year-old daughter, Ella Stiller, from a scene she had been filmed in for a movie Ben was making, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Ella, who is now 23, laughs the occurrence off, saying the scene didn’t really make sense in the movie. But for Ben, cutting the scene goes to a deeper issue, which he states is his obsession with his work and his perfectionism. While a goal of Ben Stiller has been to be a good, loving, and available father, he has found that his perfectionism with work sometimes stood in the way of that.
I think it a good thing that Stiller sees that difficulty in himself and is vulnerable enough to admit it. By seeing that fault, he has been able to work on it although he has found himself struggling with it again and again.
Where do you get perfectionist or obsessed? What stands in the way of you being available to others? What stands in the way of you fulfilling dreams? What stands in the way of you being the HIM that God wants you to be? Those questions make me think of that song by U2, Get Out of Your Own Way.
An area where I frequently find I must get out of my own way is having my life in order and getting things done before I take the time to relax and just be. You guys may not see that side of me. When I get home from work or F3, I have these tasks that I feel I need to check off: get bills paid, get email messages answered, straighten out the house, make sure everything is clean and put away, get the laundry done, etc. etc. etc. That obsessive need to work before play can be a good think . . . things do get done. But it also has stood in the way of my getting time to relax and spending time with my family. And, what is truly more important – time with family or getting those clothes cleaned and put away? I am not a workaholic who avoids family but I can certainly learn to let things go more, particularly if time with family is involved.
How about you? Where do you need to get out of your own way? Is there something you need to let go of a bit so that you pay attention to another aspect of your life? If so, assess it and pray about it. Ask God to help you to finds ways to change.

Prayers: Prayers for our bother, Mr Jinxy and his wife, Susan. Susan had to be hospitalized Saturday morning with intense nausea. She was found to have a duodenal perforation. She is being treated with antibiotics at the hospital but may have to have surgery to repair the perforation if the antibiotics do not take care of the issue. Prayers for our brother, Steam and his wife Megan as she is due to have child any day now. Prayers for Will, the five-year-old student of the wife of our brother, Drum Major. Will is undergoing extensive treatment for a significant health issue. Prayers for our brother, Joshua Foster (Shogun). We congratulate him for getting a major new client for his company. We pray for him as he travels to Washington, DC to be the major person working to help that company.

Nothing but the Truth!…

January 29, 2026 BackBlasts

AO: asylum-pm
Q: Pele (Jon Lindberg)
PAX: Lilydipper, Drum Major, Pusher, Sparkler, Lizzy, Tenderfoot, Pele (Jon Lindberg), Franzia, MD Hammer, Curveball, Bacon (Ben)
FNGs: None
COUNT: 11
WARMUP: 10 SSH IC
line up on curb, slow mosey to far end. FIVE BURPEES!! Windmills, 4-ct in cadence.
– slow mosey back. 10 Windmills, 4-ct, IC
-light shuffle down, switching ½ way 10 Imperial Squat Walkers, 4-ct, IC.
– shuffle/run back 10 Grady Corns, 4-ct IC

THE THANG:
Mosey to Sidewalk just northeast of the nice bathrooms.
“2-4-6-8 WHO DO WE APPRECIATE” : Run south and then east on sidewalk stopping at second, fourth, sixth, and eighth lights to do the following exercises:
– 2 lights: 4 CDDS/ 4 lights: 8 CDDs/ 6 lights 12 CDDs/ SWEEP FORWARD 8 lights, 16 CDDs. Stop at 8th light. PUTS
– Rinse and repeat with SQUATS
–
Rinse and repeat with PETER PARKERS (2-ct)

Mosey to base of Cardiac

5s (like 7s…) from base to first curve, starting with 1 OFFSET RIGHT MERKIN, run up and do 4 OFFSET LEFT MERKINS

Fellowship Mosey to second curve

5s from Second curve to Benches, Starting with 1 FROGGY JUMP, run up and do 4 Bobby Hurleys

Alternate Dips and incline merkins until the 6 gets there.

Enough time to fellowship mosey to top of the dragon’s tail and do last set of 2-4-6-8s with Supermans (SuperMEN?)

Alternate Lunging and Bunny Hopping across parking lot by bathrooms, then AYG to flag.
Mosey to AO

MARY: Dead Bugs and Pain Planks (Plank position, move left knee to right elbow, switch, R&R).

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Convergence Saturday!

COT: I had a math teacher in middle school (Mr. Alexander) who, as punishment for students who talked in class, would make them write lines on the chalkboard of some of his favorite sayings. The only one I still remember to this day is, “Oh the tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!”
Like most of us, I would imagine, I’ve told a lot of white lies in my past, and probably even a few lies that are not all that white. But I certainly try to be an honest person, especially as I’ve grown older, because I have learned how valuable the TRUTH IS. Trust is a haaaard thing to win back. And I’m not talking about your version of the truth, I’m talking about black-and-white truth. If something that’s not black-and-white truth comes out of my mouth, I always try to say “that’s my opinion, anyway”, or “that’s how I interpret it.”

When I was in grad school I was a teaching assistant. Taught classes, created and graded exams, etc. One time these two girls who were best friends were taking a test sitting next to each other and just obviously looking at each other’s papers. I cleared my throat, rustled some papers, and tried to get them to realize I was watching. They kept doing it. When I was grading their tests, they had the exact same answers, word for word, for about ½ the test. And they were wrong answers. If they had been accurate answers, you could almost believe they just came up with it on their own. I confronted them about it, individually, and they already had their stories aligned. They never made eye contact when we were talking, just said the same thing to me… they had studied together, practiced the answers to likely questions together, etc. And they said they never looked at each other’s test during the exam. Bullshit. If they had just admitted it I would have been very lenient, probably just said knock it off, don’t do it again, and I’m going to ask you not to sit to each other. But they flat out lied to me. Thought I was stupid. Thought that what I saw with my very own eyes wasn’t the truth. That is flat-out insulting.

And it got me mad. I gave them both zeros for the test, and brought the matter up to the honor council. One girl ended up dropping out of school. The other actually handled it well, worked hard the rest of the semester and brought her grade up to a C+ or so, as I recall.

In retrospect, I do sort of regret that I was so hard on them, and that my response caused one of the girls to drop out (according to her). I wish I had handled it a bit differently. But I have to say, for them to sit there and completely deny something that I personally witnessed really pissed me off. I didn’t like to be gaslit then. And I hate it even more now.

Proverbs 12:22: “The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy.” That just doesn’t apply to the Lord. I would say it applies to just about everyone.

If we are to be HIMs, Truth matters. Facts matter. Accountability matters.

It’s Cold

January 27, 2026 BackBlasts

AO: asylum-pm
Q: High Heels
PAX: Pele (Jon Lindberg), Lizzy, Lilydipper, Rooney(Carl Whipple), Pusher, Tenderfoot, Doubtfire (Nick Bond), Drum Major, Bacon (Ben), Serpentine (Jason Pierce)
FNGs: None
COUNT: 12
WARMUP:20 SSH – 2 Burpees, 15 IW – 4 Burpees, 10 squats – 6 Burpees, 10 BACs -6 Burpees, 10 Merkins – 4 burpees, 5 Motivators – 2 Burpees

THE THANG:
0900 – 4 times
Dora at Church 100 dips 200 merkins, mosey to bathroom parking lot, 20 lunges, 6 burpees and 10 BBS

MARY: no time

ANNOUNCEMENTS: convergence this Saturday

COT: discipline is the bridge that connects goals to accomplishments

The Little Things

January 13, 2026 BackBlasts

AO: asylum-pm
Q: Lilydipper
PAX: Steam, Joshua Foster, Pusher, Crash Dummy, Rooney(Carl Whipple), Drum Major, Curveball, Pele (Jon Lindberg), Tenderfoot, Lizzy
FNGs: None
COUNT: 11
WARMUP: 20 Side-Straddle-Hops, Run around the parking lot, 10 Mountain Climbers, Run around the parking lot, 7 Twistees, 7 Knoxville Cherry Pickers, 10 Tennessee Rocking Chairs, 30 Brady Corns, Little of This and That.

THE THANG: Mosey up Mini-Cardiac. We will stop at the top to do 20 Squats.
Mosey to the bottom of Cardiac.
Next we will run back up Cardiac, stopping at the following points to do the following exercises:
First Curve: 20 American Hammers 2 ct
–
Second Curve: 20 Hello Dollies
–
Third Curve: 20 Decline Merkins
–
Benches: 20 Bench Dips
–
Next, we will Mosey to the crosswalk of the roadway to do 20 more Squats.
Then we will run to the bottom of the Dragon Fly. We will then do a Route 66 up the Dragon Fly, doing Bobbie Hurleys at each light and adding one each time until we do 11 Bobbie Hurleys at the 11th light.
Next, we will run back down the Dragon Fly to the parking lot by the nice restrooms. We will Bear Crawl 20 paces, lunge 20 paces and continue that past the restrooms, then run to the end of the curb.
Next, we will Mosey to the Caribbean. We will do candy canes around the parking lot, stopping at every other island to do an exercise and ending with the second island we stop at on the other side. Those finishing first sweep all men back to the beginning. Here are the exercises we will do with each cane:

Cane 1: 10 Shoulder Taps (each shoulder = 1)
–
Cane 2: 10 Carolina Dry Docks
–
Mosey to the middle of the parking lot south of the playground. We will Bernie Sanders to the end of the parking lot, then mosey to the AO.

MARY: No time.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Convergence at Asylum on Saturday, January 31 at 7 am. At the AO we will split F3 Knoxville into an East and West region with new Na’ntans being appointed for each new region.

COT:

Message:

The Little Things
I see a 72-year-old woman in my psychotherapy practice that I think quite fondly of. Her name is Rhonda. She is a strong Christian woman and her faith in God had helped her greatly because last January, 2025, she lost her daughter to cancer. Rhonda is a good mother (she also has a son) who was quite close to her daughter who was survived by a husband and two of Rhonda’s grandchildren

There have been weeks of pain, weeks of wondering about God, weeks of anger at God, but also a strong reliance on God that has helped Rhonda to come to an acceptance of her daughter’s death.

Something that really hit me recently when Rhonda was talking about her daughter was Rhonda saying, “You know what I really miss, John? I miss those simple calls from Laura and just hearing, “hey mom”. Yes, Rhonda has so many memories of her daughter but she longs to hear that simple “hey mom” again.

It makes me think of how valuable the simple things are to us. In F3 it is often the simple things that I love about our brotherhood. The “hey, Pusher or hey, Tenderfoot” when guys come into the circle before the workout. The mumble chatter and High-Heels yelling out Walker! when we are running along the trails. The laughter at our board meetings. The honk to the guys and wave from the guys as someone takes off after the workout.

That simple ”hey Mom” was an automatic acknowledgement that you are comfortable and are loved. We should be thankful for those “heys”. And so guys, hey, I’m thankful for you.

Prayers: Prayers for Pele’s former high school friend who recently committed suicide, leaving behind a wife and two children. Prayers for his family and friends who grieve. Prayers of the 5-year-old student of Drum Major’s wife. The student was recently diagnosed with cancer. Prayers for organizations who raise money to fight cancer including a group who will be putting on a Fight Against Cancer Night. Anyone interested in going to the event can talk to Tenderfoot.