THE SCENE: A little drizzle and mid 40s F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER WARM-O-RAMA:
15 SSH, 10 Morrocan night club, 15 mountain climbers, 10 tempo squats, 10 slow windmill THA-THANG:
Mosey the the playground for 11s- start with 1 burpee and 10 pull-ups
Mosey to amphitheatre for:
Pyramid- perform first exercise and make a lap around the creek. Each round add an exercise. The plan was to get to all 8 exercises and then start dropping the first exercise each round.
20 Merkins
20 squats
20 mountain climbers (4-ct)
20 flutter kicks (4-ct)
20 diamond merkins
20 lunges
20 burpees
20 Freddie Mercury (4-ct)
MARY:
10 burpees OYO, 20 Freddie Mercury IC COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Lucky 7 at the Project CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
“Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” – Philippians 2:3-8 NASB
I challenge you to always regard others as more important than yourselves and see what happens with your life. Even the simplest act of humility can have a major impact. Take a simple example of heavy traffic. When merging, if you provide a little more space between yourself and the car in front of you, someone can merge in without interruption. If everyone is bumper to bumper, someone eventually stops (a good Samaritan, if you will) to let another car in. Everyone else had to stop too…and so on. Find ways to be humble in all that you do. MOLESKIN:
11s with pull-ups and burpees…not my best plan. The pyramid was highly ambitious too. We got through the diamond Merkins…not even half done! All still got a good workout. ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Snacks for Wesley House.
THE SCENE: A brisk 22 degrees. F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER:Administered WARM-O-RAMA: Finkle Swings OYO
Moroccan Nightclubs x 10 IC
Seal squats x 10 IC
Merkins x 10 IC
Projectivator x 12 IC
Slow mosey to the retaining wall. Half of PAX go down the fence line, half stay up on the retaining wall. Both groups do exercises in cadence. On the fence – dips. On the wall – squats. Switchero.
Move to the guardrail. Half do tempo derkins. Half do mountain climbers. Switchero.
THA THANG:
Mosey to Jucomanjaro. We’re going on a rescue mission, men! Imagine that Jucomanjaro is an icy mountain and at the top is a frozen lake. We just received word that a husband and wife have fallen through the ice and need rescue!
Team DORA… Divide into two teams. One team attempts to scale the icy mountain (runs a set duration, then turns back to meet the other team), while the other team prepares for the rescue mission (performs exercises). Upon meeting, they switch roles.
…about half way through the workout, one team will make it to the top of Jucomanjaro, where they will find two posts (the couple needing rescue from the ice). They use the remainder of their time to move these posts down the hill. At the alarm, they run down and switch roles with the other team…
Each round is 5 exercises and the reps build on each other (e.g. Round 1 = 1 burpee, Round 2 = 1 burpee + 2 iron mikes, Round 3 = 1 burpee + 2 iron mikes + 3 imperial squawkers…)
Round 1: Team 1 runs 1.5 minutes then turns back. Team 2 does exercises.
1 Burpee
2 Iron Mikes
3 Imperial Squawkers (4 CT)
4 Clap Merkins
5 Mountain Climbers (4 CT)
BEAR CRAWL until you meet the other team – then SWITCH roles.
Round 2:
Team 1 runs 2.5 minutes then turns back. Team 2 does exercises.
6 Heals to Heaven (4 CT)
7 BBS
8 Parker Merkins
9 Bobby Hurleys
10 Carolina Dry Docks
BEAR CRAWL until you meet the other team – then SWITCH roles.
Round 3: Team 1 runs 3.5 minutes then turns back. Team 2 does exercises.
11 Twinkle Toes (single count)
12 Flutter kicks (4 CT)
13 Wide Merkins
14 LBCs (4 CT)
15 Pickle pounders (4 CT)
BEAR CRAWL until you meet the other team – then SWITCH roles.
Round 4:
Team 1 runs 4.5 minutes then turns back. Team 2 does exercises.
16 Merkins
17 Squats
18 Hello Dolly (4 CT)
19 Rosalitas (4 CT)
20 SSH (4 CT)
BEAR CRAWL until you meet the other team – then SWITCH roles.
Back to the shovel flag!
MARY:
No time!
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
22 HIMs
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
We had two representations of two very real people, Larry and Chrissy Watters. Larry and Chrissy live in Nova Scotia, in a cabin on a lake. One winter when the lake had frozen over, they drove their ATV out onto the ice. The ice cracked under the weight, the front end of the ATV went through, and they rolled into the water. Fighting for their lives, they tried over and over to climb out but they couldn’t quite get themselves out of the freezing water. For 10 minutes they tried but made no progress. The ice water was sucking the life from their bodies. Freezing to death, they said their last goodbyes to each other and embraced. Then Chrissy remembered and said to her husband, “Larry, your Leatherman!!”. Larry had a Leatherman in his pocket! He took it out, stabbed the ice the ice with it, drug himself out, then got his wife out – they survived!
Can you relate to Larry and Chrissy Watters while they were in the ice water? Is there something that is sucking away your vitality – and, like Larry and Chrissy, you have tried over and over and over to get out – and nothing seems to work?
…a job that sucks, but you endure it out of obligation or because of momentum. But you get no joy from it and it is sucking away the best of you.
…an important relationship that has soured – or is just complacent? It feels like it is sucking your life away.
…a dependence on alcohol? If it is numbing you as a father, husband, or friend – then it is sucking your life away.
…pornography? You can’t stop yourself from looking at fake images of fake women – and it is impacting how you relate to your wife – and IT. IS. SUCKING. YOUR. LIFE. AWAY.
…or maybe it’s a dream that has gone unfulfilled. It would be a great thing for you – if only it would happen. And it is all the waiting and heartbreak that seems to be sucking your vitality from you…
Maybe you need different perspective on your challenge and a change to your strategy ([Chrissy] “…your Leatherman!”) By that I mean, maybe you need to explain your situation to a trusted friend and ask him, “what is something that I can do to make progress on this?” If he’s a good and wise friend, his answer might be hard for you to swallow – but you need to listen closely. His solution to your problem might be, “to get out of debt, you need to sell your house that you never should of bought because you can’t afford it”, or “to overcome your addiction to pornography, you need to get rid of every screen in your home and get a flip phone”, or “if you dream of a big family and haven’t been successful in getting pregnant, maybe it’s time to consider adoption”.
If you haven’t gained any ground on something that is challenging you and limiting the life that you are living, maybe its time for you to enlist a friend for their perspective and insights.
“The godly give good advice to their friends” (Proverbs 12:26)
“Let a righteous man strike me — it is a kindness; let him rebuke me — it is oil for my head; let my head not refuse it.” (Psalm 141:5)
“Faithful are the wounds of a friend…” Proverbs 27:6
MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Dart Gun’s father, Dave, and his ongoing battle with cancer (specifically medications). Continued prayers for Spotter’s mother and her battle with cancer. Prayers for Curveball’s family – they lost his nephew 8 years ago and the anniversary of that tragedy is hard. Praise and prayers for Slappy – his oldest daughter is a teenager!
T Claps for Spotter, the Co-Q today! This could not have happened without you, brother!
Hat tips to those who inspired the Q and Word today – Drifter for his crazy and hilarious-sounding Q at the Bombshelter a few weeks back and Pool Boy for his JUCO Word a couple of weeks ago, “Press on!”
Here’s a short story of Larry and Chrissy Watters;
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
OTB Bootcamp at All Saints next Thursday! This is a try-out for a potential new Cedar Bluff-based AO. Contact Mermaid for details.
Save the date! March 28th, 7:00am. CONVERGENCE AT JUCO, BABY!
THE SCENE: Perfect…might have been a little cold (29F) but it wasn’t raining and it was dry.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER: Almost nailed it but Judge had to remind me this is my VQ and I am not a professional.
WARM-O-RAMA:
Burpees, Cherry Pickers, LBAC, WWII sit-ups, Tempo Diamond Merkins. Paused to appreciate that we were still dry after Warm-O-Rama
THA-THANG:
Headed over to the guardrail for 41 tricep dips and a musical serenade to Guardrail to recognize his 41st trip around the sun. Mosey over to the coupon pile. Everyone grabbed a coupon, circled up and held an air chair while I explained “Capture the Coupon” Counted off into teams of 4 and headed over to the parking lot and each team took their corner. Each coupon had been labeled with an exercise and number of reps before the beat down. Each HIM did the exercise on their individual coupon and then left it behind at their base while going to attack another team’s coupon supply and bring one back to their base to perform the next exercise found on the coupon. It was mayhem for a little while but eventually the PAX got the hang of it and their was a full melting pot of the Lexicon going on simultaneously. It was quite a beautiful scene. Trolley tried to only capture the burpee coupon but KickFlip perfected the cup and ball magic trick and left him with bear crawls, which was still fine with him. It was chaos but everyone seemed to enjoy it. Mosey back to the shovel flag and had time for one more push before we timed out. Eye of the Tiger came over the sound waves and the PAX performed Rocky Balboas until the chorus finally came. We dropped and did merkins during the chorus and then back to Rocky Balboas during the second verse. Did one more round of Merkins during the second chorus and then stopped for a quick Mary.
MARY:
Did pickle pounders in cadence. Once you reached the number of years you were married you stopped and held plank. Curveball was our most experienced pickle pounder – still in perfect form after 25 years (I believe). RESPECT
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
29 HIMs in attendance.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
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.” Guardrail prayed this verse over my wife while helping stay with our children for another late night trip to the ER. It has been on my mind ever since. There is something about counting it ALL joy that is so beautiful but also so difficult in reality. We all have those people in our lives that have perfected it and always have a smile on their face and you know there is nothing FAKE about it. It is a contagious JOY that always brightens my day when I get to be in their presence. We should all strive to live every moment of our lives with a posture towards JOY. We can’t let the trials of the day overcome the blessings as they are always abundant when we choose to look for them. Trials are the way God brings us closer to full dependence on Him. It exposes the weakness in our Faith and the more we need his Grace. We all face choices when trials come our way….turn to sin (doubting God, angry with God, turn to substance, bad relationships, etc) or submit to our inability to do it alone and the necessity of being fully dependent on Him. In time the patience, endurance, steadfastness learned through trials sharpens our FAITH and makes us perfect and complete. Last night my wife unbeknownst to her that I had chosen this verse to talk about said “I am so filled with JOY. I haven’t felt this good in so many months.” Hearing that was by far the best Valentines gift I have received in all my years and just one more confirmation of how good He is ALWAYS. I want to thank everyone that has prayed for her and our family over the past several months, it has been such a blessing for us all. Let’s strive to always count it ALL joy, today, tomorrow and ALWAYS.
MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Trolley’s wife ankle and ability to see a doctor quickly. Prayers for Commision’s friend who is recovering from an appendectomy.
THE SCENE: Wet and warm F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER:Administered WARM-O-RAMA: Projectivator x 10 IC
Moroccan Nightclub x 10 IC
Overhead Claps x 10 IC
Squats x 10 IC
Merkins x 10 IC
Mountain Climbers x 10 IC
CMU Curls x 26 OYO
THA THANG:
Mosey to the amphitheater
“Seven X”: Imagine a large X dissecting the amphitheater stage. Starting at one corner of the X, perform the exercise then bear crawl to the center of the X, turn left and bear crawl to the next corner (clockwise).
Round 1, 7×1 = 7 reps of each
Round 2, 7×2 = 14 reps
Round 3, 21 reps…
Round 4, 28 reps… I’d planned to do additional sets….but we’ve got more work to do. Move along, you lucky guy!
NEXT….
Battle buddy up… Round 1
P1 – heavy bear to the line and back
P2 – LBC
Cycle through 2x Round 2
P1 – heavy lunge to the line and back
P2 – Clean and press CMU
Cycle through 2x
Round 3:
P1 – sprint to the rail and back
P2 – Plyometric merkins on CMUs
Cycle through 2x
This Word of encouragement may be meaningless to you today… If so, I ask you to tuck these words into your heart, so that you will be reminded of them if you ever do need them – or that you will share them with someone in your life who needs them now. These are words of encouragement for someone who is suffering after a profound loss. These are words that you will need to know in one of life’s darkest moments – but that might seem insensitive, or certainly uncomfortable, for someone to tell you. Listen for a minute and remind your future self of these words…
If you asked any historian, “Who are the Top 5 most remarkable U.S. presidents in history?”, odds are good that their list would include our 26th – Teddy Roosevelt. He was a fascinating character and accomplished a tremendous amount in his life. Assistant Secretary of the Navy… Hero of the Spanish-American war… Governor of New York… Vice-president, then youngest person ever to become President… While in office, he was the first president to have a telephone installed in the white house… first president to ride in a submarine… first to leave the country while in office (to check on his little side-hustle, the Panama Canal…), first president to be awarded the Medal of Honor, first to be awarded the Noble Peace Prize, and on and on…. A remarkable life!
BUT – before he did any of those things – when he was just 25 years old – he endured a pain that is unimaginable to me. On Valentine’s Day 1884, in the same house – both his mother and his wife died of unrelated diseases. In his journal that day, young Roosevelt drew a large X and wrote only a single sentence, “the light has gone out of my life”.
Roosevelt was so deeply grieved that he left his newborn daughter with his sister and escaped by himself to the Dakota Territory. It was there that he learned to ride and rope, he lived among hardened men, he developed into the man who would later be nicknamed “The Lion”, and he completely reoriented the trajectory of his life. After three years, he returned home and assumed custody of his daughter. It would be another decade more before those notable achievements in public life would start.
Here’s what I want you to remember from Teddy Roosevelt’s early life;
If you ever have the misfortune of suffering a profound loss, you may feel like life cannot go on (“the light has gone out of my life”) – in those moments, take your refuge in the Lord our Comfort, and know this – life WILL go on for you. Grieve in a healthy way but remember in those terrible moments that your grief will come to an end. From the Psalms, “The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18) “The righteous person may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all” (Psalm 34:19). “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” (Psalm 147:3).
Difficult as it may be to consider in that moment, your grief may be transformative for you. Like Roosevelt, your grief may be the catalyst for you to reorient your life. Sometimes you’re in a dark place and you feel like you’ve been buried – but actually you’ve been planted and are getting ready to grow (hat tip, Christine Caine). Grief can deepen your faith in God and your reliance on His strength over your own. It can prepare you to have empathy for others who will suffer after you. It can give you laser focus on what matters most in life.
“And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.” (1 Peter 5:10).
MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Curveball’s daughter, who is traveling to The Great White North
THE SCENE: 50s and raining… It was great. Coulda been much worse, right? F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER: Welcome to F3, Free Workout, Not a professional, You’re here of your own volition, Scale/modify as needed, I have a cell phone in the event of an emergency. Done and Done. WARM-O-RAMA:
Due to rain, we warmed up under the covered drive of the Senior Center.
1. 15 SSH – 4ct, IC
2. 15 Squat – 4ct, IC
3. 15 Arm circles – 4ct, IC (both directions)
4. 15 Moroccan nightclub – 4ct, IC
5. 15 Overhead clap – 4ct, IC
6. 15 Merkins – 4ct, IC
7. 5 Burpees – OYO
8. 10 Cherry Pickers – 4 ct, IC
9. 8 Project Motivators (AKA The Project-ivators – IT’S A THING)
THA-THANG:
Mucho Chesto @ Amphitheater: My kids think it’s funny that I don’t have any hair on my chest. They call me “baby chest” because they think all men should have hairy chests. (What are we back in the 80’s when Tom Selleck was the measure of a man?) So, as punishment, I mean, for exercise, PAX did 10 of each type of merkin: Regular, Wide, Diamond, Stagger Right, Stagger Left for a total of 50 merkins. Rinse-Repeat for a total of 100. Lots of groaning and ugly form in the 2nd set. Mosey over to Library Parking Lot.
Barak Obama @ Library Parking Lot: Named after the 44TH POTUS, PAX begin at one parking lot island, bear crawl 4 parking lines then do 4 merkins. Rinse/repeat to the other parking lot island. It was only light rain at this point so there was little to no complaining. That started when we bear crawled back 4 parking lines + 4 merkins back to the starting point. Mosey over to the Senior Center Parking Lot.
Apple Turnover @ Senior Center Parking Lot – We needed to grab gloves because my tender hands were revolting against me for all that bear crawling – on the asphalt – in the rain. Just in time for MORE BEAR CRAWLING. Apple turnover included PAX bear crawling 3 parking lines, and then flipping over to crabwalk (forward) 3 parking lines. We began from one parking lot island to the far parking lot island. When we made it there – we crawl-beared (that’s right, backward bearcrawling…) 3 parking lines, flipped over to crabwalk (backward) returning to starting point.
BONUS: Since we burned through our workout so quickly, with the extra time, we did 5 burpees at one end of the parking lot and sprinted to the other side. Then, 5 burpees and sprint back to the start. Rinse and repeat until I was completely gassed – I mean, until time ran out.
MARY: Mary @ Covered Drive of Senior Center: PAX Choice – LBCs, Rosalita, Freddy Mercury, Left Side Crunches, Right Side Crunches, Flutter kicks, and Big Boys with funky cadence, courtesy of Mailbox.
ALL WHO TRUST, LOVE, AND FOLLOW CHRIST ARE MINISTERS OF RECONCILIATION.
2 Corinthians 5:14-21 – “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
MOLESKIN: I have the privilege of visiting fellow followers of Jesus who are incarcerated at the Morgan County Correctional Complex (MCCX). I am writing a letter to the governor of Tennessee on behalf of a friend for clemency. I believe that his life in prison testifies that he has paid enough of his sentence, that he is a true follower of Jesus, and that his life is better spent outside of prison walls with his family and as a contributing member of society, not as a threat or a parasite. He now can live and serve as an ambassador for Jesus, calling and imploring others to be reconciled to God, as he himself has been through Jesus Christ our Lord. What’s striking is how we can view someone in one way, when God sees him another way completely. While his prison sentence is justified, he now has a greater calling (a minister of reconciliation) to live beyond his past into a new eternal purpose as a new man.
WE ARE MINISTERS OF RECONCILIATION.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
The Project adding Thursdays so we’re all going to be Q’ing a couple times each month. Tuesdays will remain traditional bootcamp workouts, Thursdays will be heavy work: rucking, CMU, etc. Kickflip on Q – bring CMUs. Hardship Hill in May – JUCO has at least one team with another possibly in the works. Sign-up.
