F3 Knoxville

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!! (Music Included)

THE SCENE: Balmy, Humid, 26 degrees for “The Best Sunrise in America”.

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER: Don’t cheat yourself, treat yourself. 

WARM-O-RAMA: 

100 SSHs in cadence. Is there another way to warmup??

THA-THANG:

Chest Station To the Pavilion (pronounced “pav-i-lahn”)  

  • Regular Merkins x 12
  • Wide Merkins x 12
  • Ranger Merkins x 12
  • Bench Dips x 12
  • Bird Dogs x 12 (with each leg)
  • Run to the ticket house and back.

Do this complete cycle three times…Mosey time.

All My Benches

  • Three sets of box jumps x 45 seconds per sesh

Abs Station under the Church/Gazebo Looking Thing 

  • Two sets of 25 box cutters
  • One set of flutter kicks 4-count (20)
  • One set of hello dollies x 25
  • Planks (60 seconds)
  • Elbow planks (30 seconds)
  • Elbow planks with left leg out (30 seconds)
  • Elbow plants with right leg out (30 seconds)
  • Planks (60 seconds)

***Pickett’s Charge*** followed by star gazers at the Coliseum 

Grinch’s Hill – 7s 

  • Lunges at the top, Carolina Dry Docks at the Bottom. Mosey up Area 51, with Box Cutters in transition.
  • Squat Station by the Asylum Building. 10 Tempo and 10 OYO (4-count)
  • Mosey back to PM AO Parking Lot..

Fat Burner Station

  • Happy feet (45 seconds)
  • Mountain Climbers (45 seconds)
  • Jump Squats (45 seconds)
  • High Knees (45 seconds)

Everything you got up Baby Everest to the AO!!

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Yep. 19 including one FNG (Spinal Tap).

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
After the Pandemic “normalizes”, we will never be the same. That may be a good thing in some areas. What things do we have in our lives that never need to be the same? That we need to peal away and keep that way. Spend time alone in the coming days identifying what has changed (or needs to change) during this year that is a good thing (or will be).

MOLESKIN:
The Saturday before Christmas is by far the funnest Q of the year. The Christmas music (wireless speaker) throughout the workout was clutch.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Triple Birthday Q next weekend at the Asylum!! AYOOOOOOOOO….

Rainy Days & Mondays at the Equalizer

THE SCENE: Rainy. Windy. Fantastic.

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

WARM-O-RAMA:

  • Cherry Pickers IC | Baby Arm Circles IC
  • SSH IC | Rockettes IC

THA-THANG:

10,20,30,40 of these exercises:

  • Pull-up, Single leg Bridge, BBS, SSH
  • Burpees, VUps, Squats
  • Step ups, Mtn Climbers, Dips, LBCs
  • American Hammer, Incline Merks, SSH, Lunges
  • Table row, Signle leg dead, BBS, SSH

Rinse & repeat

MARY:

  • Flutter Kicks IC

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Prayers for our brother, his wife, and the medical staff taking care of them.

MOLESKIN & ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Hardship

THE SCENE: Insert info about the weather, etc.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

20 Side-Straddle-Hops.  5 Burpees.  10 Windmills.  4 Burpees.  10 Rockettes.  3 Burpees.  10 Little Baby Arm Circles Forward.  2 Burpees.  10 Little Baby Arm Circles Backwards.  1 Burpee.  Little of This and That.
THA-THANG:
Mosey to Caribbean.  We will run around Caribbean stopping at cones to do the exercises listed.  We will then Bernie around and do the same exercises.  Next we will Butt Kick around with the exercises.  Next, we will High Knees around with the exercises.  Finally we will run around again with the exercises.  Here are the exercises:

  • 20 Merkins
  • 20 Jump Squats
  • 20 Big Boy Sit-ups
  • 20 Star Jumps
  • 20 Hello Dollies (4 ct).

Pickets Charge to Coliseum.

We will stop to do 20 American Hammers and 20 Flutter Kicks.  Next, we will do two loops around sidewalk that goes by admin bldg.  At Coliseum area we do 20 Bench Dips.  At steps of Admin Bldg we do 20 Calve Raises.

Gander from the Coliseum at Beautiful Water and Mountains in the distance.

Mosey to parking lot with CMUs.  Each man grabs a CMU.  We will do the following exercises:

  • 30 Overhead Presses
  • 30 Curls
  • 30 Rows

Next we will split into two teams.  There will be two CMUs set up at western end of parking lot.  Team members line up.  The first member of Team One and Team Two throw frisbees at their particular CMU on the other side of the parking lot.  Whoever has the frisbee farthest from their CMU must run with their team to end of parking lot and back, grabbing both frisbees.  Then the next team members do the same thing.  If Team One always wins they will always be watching while Team 2 is running and vice versa.  Hopefully, it will be a fairly even split.

Replace CMUs.  Sprint back to AO.

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

Seeing the Opportunity in Hardship

James 1:2-4

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

We read in Self-Help Books, learn from experts, and hear from the wise among us that hardships help us to grow.  And, if we look back on difficulties we have faced in our own lives when we were younger, we can see how life challenges have helped us to grow stronger.  If we can remember this principle, “that hardship helps us grow”, we may be able to face our current challenges in a more optimistic way and forego much of the anxiety and angst that can sometimes bewilder us.

So often in the midst of challenges, anxiety can get the best of us.  We face fear and may think things like:  Why is this happening to me?  I don’t have what it takes to do this.  I am not strong enough.  I wish this would just go away.

I have a patient who is a female in her senior year of high school.  She copes with social anxiety, a condition where she gets very anxious in public situations.  Yet, she got a job as a hostess at an Aubrey Restaurant.  She has liked the job and has found that she has been able to interact well with the customers who come in to eat at the restaurant.  I have been so proud of her.  Here is a young person who has social anxiety, yet is working in a very public setting where she is seeing new people constantly.

Although she likes the job, she is facing hardships there.  The job can be very stressful when the restaurant gets crowded and busy.  The waiters and waitresses, who are friendly to my client, can still get harried when too many customers are seated in their area.  Also, my patient must face the ire and wrath of customers who have been waiting for a table and get impatient.  Who is the frontline person that these impatient customers see?  The hostess.  So it is my patient who receives their angry comments and complaints.  That is difficult for a young teenager to take, especially when she has an anxiety disorder.

But think about what my patient is learning in the face of these challenges.  If she can handle these hardships now, think about how much better she will be prepared for challenges she will face in college and as an adult in a profession.  Life isn’t always going to be cozy.  If she can handle these early challenges then she will be better able to handle the disappointment of customers she serves at future jobs whatever jobs those might be. She will be able to tolerate negative comments of bosses or supervisors and handle the mistakes she will inevitably make as an employee or young professional in the future.  The hardship she is facing now, with the corresponding discomfort in the pit of her stomach, is actually building strength in her, making her a higher impact woman.  It certainly helped my patient to be able to see this – to think that what is leading to anxiety within her is also helping her to grow.

In the face of hardship, the lesson that the hardship is helping us to grow can be difficult to remember.  But, if we can remember that principal, it will help us to face the challenge better.  The next time you experience anxiety, think about that.  Maybe anxiety isn’t a totally bad thing.  Maybe it is a natural response to a challenge that we can learn from.  And maybe that anxiety in hardship that we are feeling now will be replaced by the growth we experience from it.  As our brother, Tank, would say:  Hardship Hill is a mighty fine thing!!

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for those coping with coronavirus; for those dealing with solitude or illness where they don’t have the opportunity to gather with friends like we do in F3; for our country do end racism; praise for Curveball’s wife doing well with her surgery; prayers for Ribbed and his wife as she has surgery this Monday to remove a tumor by her spine – we pray the surgery goes well and that the tumor is benign.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Birthday Triple Q on Saturday, December 26 where the three Q leaders will provide Hot Toddy drinks after the workout!

Infamy and Unity

THE SCENE: 40s and damp but no rain
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

79 years ago (12/7/41), Pearl Harbor was bombed.  The attack began at 7:55 a.m. and lasted for almost 2 hours.

12 SSH (4 ct)

7 Burpees

41 Squats

THA-THANG:

Mosey to the flag pole

19 American ships were destroyed or damaged.

19 boat/canoes

188 American aircraft were destroyed or damaged.

188 tie fighters (single count)

2,403 American lives were lost – 2,008 from the Navy, 218 from the Army, 109 Marines, and 68 civilians.

2,403 merkins as a group in honor of everyone who died at Pearl Harbor (regular, inclined, declined, hand-release, WWII, etc., or a combination – PAX choice – but try to mix it up).  There were 12 PAX, so each PAX did 200 merkins.  After the first 100, we all ran a lap around the track.  After the next 50, we ran another lap.  After the final 50, we ran another lap.  We did the last 3 merkins together, in cadence, in the form of WWII merkins.  After completing the 2,403 merkins as a group, we ran a fourth lap to complete the mile.

Back at the flag pole, we honored the 15 members of the Navy who received the Medal of Honor for their actions at Pearl Harbor by doing 15 American Hammers (4 ct).

Minute of silence under the flag for everyone who has fought and died for our country followed by the Pledge of Allegiance, which broke out spontaneously from one of the PAX.

We had some extra time and hadn’t done enough merkins, so we cashed out with some ATMs (15 shoulder taps (4 ct), 10 tempo merkins, and 10 merkins (OYO)).

Mosey back to the AO

MARY:

Hello Dollys x 20 (4 ct)

Flutter Kicks x 20 (4 ct)

Hold plank for about a minute until time

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
12 HIMs, including FNG Floater and last week’s FNG Jetlag whose tag is not in the system.

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Our workout lasted 45 minutes.  79 years ago, Pearl Harbor had another hour or so of hell to fight through by the time that we were done.  What we did was nothing compared to what the people at Pearl Harbor did and went through.

The USS Arizona still rests under the water at Pearl Harbor.  Its fallen crew members still rest there, too.  Among them, 23 sets of brothers died on that ship on that day.  Former crew members who survived the attack on Pearl Harbor can have their ashes placed under one of the sunken gun turrets.  44 have done so with the last one occurring in 2019.  Former crew members from other ships who survived can have their ashes scattered where their ship was located during the attack.

There are lots of interesting stats and facts about Pearl Harbor.  Here is one that jumped out to me – after Pearl Harbor, 97% of Americans approved of entering WWII.  Sadly, it is hard to think of the last time 97% of Americans agreed on anything.

FDR said that 12/7/41 was a day that would live in infamy, which means being well known for some bad quality or deed.  He was right.  It was, and it has.

It also led to unity.

Let’s pray for the same bravery and unity that defined the Greatest Generation.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for unity (hopefully without the infamy).  Prayers for everyone struggling with addiction (spoiler alert: we all do over something to some degree) and praises for those who overcome addiction and find better ways and better days.  Prayers for Ribbed’s wife.  Prayers for Curveball’s wife.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Polar plunge coming soon

No Measure

THE SCENE: Clear sky with temp at about 33 degrees.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

Run around parking lot, 25 Side-Straddle Hops, 20 Plank Jacks, 10 Cherry Pickers, 10 Rockettes, 7 Twists, 7 Wide Arm Circles Forward and Backward
THA-THANG:
Mosey to start of Serpentine Sidewalk.  We will do 14’s on the sidewalk until it hits the perimeter trail.  We will Bear Crawl for one light, then run for four and continue this pattern until the perimeter trail.

Next, we will do 20 American Hammers.

Then we will head south on the Perimeter Tail doing nickel, dime, quarters with the following exercises until we get to the southern ball field pavilion:

  • Jump Squats
  • Merkins
  • Smurf Jacks

Mosey to large parking lot by the southern ball fields.  We will Bernie from one end of the parking lot to the other stopping at each large lamppost to do 20 Big Boys Sit-ups.  We will Skip back stopping at each light to do 10 Hand Release Merkins

Mosey to roadway that heads back to A0.  Stop to do 20 Squats.

Mosey to Caribbean.  We will alternate between Karaoke Right and Karaoke Left stopping at every fourth island to do 10 Iron Mikes (both legs = 1)

Mosey to AO.

MARY:
25 Baby Crunches (4 ct)
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
21 Men with no FNGs
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

I was listening to a sermon by Shawn Slate, the pastor at my church, and he quoted a line from a book called When God Interrupts by M. Craig James.  The line, which really struck me, is: “There is no better way to lose your life than to constantly measure it.”

We get into trouble when we start measuring our life against the successes of others or against the “shoulds” that we create for ourselves.  I do not mean that goals are unimportant.  Goals give us something to strive for.  But, they can lead to the loss of a relationship with God.  They can keep us from truly seeing the virtue, the struggle, and the stories in other people.  If we are continually measuring our own lives we are probably ignoring the lives of others.  Our lives become one more item to mark off our checklist in our path to greatness.  And we end up playing the game the world wants us to play:  to have the nicest car, to get the best job, to move into the richest neighborhood.  We climb up the latter to success and ignore God’s world around us.

In God’s kingdom, our worldly measures of success don’t matter.  Jesus said, “The last shall be first and the first shall be last.”  And what did Jesus, the messiah, the king, do before his death?  What did he do to show the disciples what it is to be great in heaven?  He got on his knees and washed the feet of each one of them.  He served them.

In the same service that my pastor preached, our congregation sang a communion hymn called Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken.  One of the lines in the song is “With thy favor, loss is gain.”

Perhaps part of being a High Impact Man is giving up the ways I measure myself as successful and giving up the ways I compare myself to others.  Rather, I should focus more on serving others, on washing the feet of fellow sinners, be willing to sit at the end of the row versus the front of it.  It is there that I am apparently much more likely to find God’s favor.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Corona Weight’s brother, Jared, whose parole hearing was extended from November to March.  He remains in prison.  After having an amputated thumb replaced he must have it removed again and, hopefully, replaced later.  Prayers for Curve Ball’s wife who is having surgery in Florida; for Goober’s step-grandmother who was recently diagnosed with Covid-19; and for Ribbed’s wife who will have surgery to remove a tumor at her spine on December 14.  Prayers for the vaccines for the coronavirus, that they may be effective and that they reach the world’s population quickly.