F3 Knoxville

Tag: Spotter

Always be Sober-Minded

THE SCENE: A cool, crisp morning, temp in low 30s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
7 Cherry Pickers, 20 Side-Straddle-Hops, 10 Tempo Merkins, 10 Tempo Squats, 7 lunges each leg.
THA-THANG:
Mosey to the Coupon Pile and carry the coupons to Sophomore Hill. We started in the lower left hand corner, doing one workout at each corner before duck walking the coupon up and down the hill while Rifle Carrying the coupon between the corners at the top and bottom. We did three laps around Sophomore Hill. The first lap had

  • Curls (20)
  • Shoulder Raises (15)
  • Front Shoulder Raises (10)
  • Burpees (5)

The second lap had

  • Squats (20)
  • Calf Raises (15)
  • Monkey Humpers (10)
  • Lunges (5 each leg)

The third lap had

  • Hello Dolly’s (20)
  • Heals to Heaven (15)
  • Big Boys (10)
  • Heavy Mercury’s (5, 4 count)

The only workout done without holding the coupon was the burpees and monkey humpers.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
11 present, no FNGs.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
In the book the Hobbit, there is a scene in which Bilbo Baggins is having a conversation with Smaug the Dragon. At first, Bilbo is thinking clearly and he is confident in his conversation with Smaug. But the more that Smaug talks, he begins to lure Bilbo into believing certain lies about why he is there and about the troop that brought him there. Bilbo slowly starts to believe the dragon and he comes to a point where he almost reveals himself to the dragon, he almost gives into the dragon and his lies. But he comes to his senses and runs from the dragon.

In 2 Timothy, Paul is talking to Timothy and reminding him of the people they know that have fallen away from the faith. They have seen the truth, but then they are slowly deceived and believe lies that they devil tells them and they fall away from the faith. Then, in 2 Timothy 4:5, Paul tells Timothy to “Always be sober-minded.” Paul reminds Timothy of his ministry, of his focus. He reminds Timothy of the truth.

So many times, the devil tempts us and lies to us about what is important, lies about ourselves, lies about God. As we go about our days today, let’s focus on the truth that we are loved by God, we are saved through grace by faith and we are His. Let’s be sober minded in all that we do and not fall into the trap of the devil to believe the lies that he tries to tell us.
MOLESKIN:
Prayers for our country, peace and integrity. Prayers for Boosters friend JJ in the ICU. Prayers for Guardrails wife’s uncle who is having some issues in the hospital.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
CSAUP at the Asylum on Saturday, January 30 from 6:30 am to 9 am.

Press On Toward The Goal

THE SCENE: 31 degrees
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
cherry picker, rocking chair, ‘merkins
THA-THANG:
Mohammed Ali, when asked how many reps he could do of an exercise, he said he had no idea – he doesn’t really count. He just goes until he is exhausted and then does an additional set. We didn’t do that…but we did a mini version!

  • Mosey to small rock pile.
  • Shoulder as many as possible your own for 1 min (front raises, lateral, overhead clap) followed by 5 reps together each time.
  • Mosey to coupon pile (with drop 2x burpee / 2 lines)
  • Coupon pile exercises (Each is max out for 1 minute and then do 5x together)
      • (merkins, coupon press, overhead and/or skull crushers)
      • Rows, bicep
      • Squats, calf raises
  • Between each major muscle group: Mosey to hill and Bear crawl up hill w/1 burpee @ top
  • Mosey to flag with 2x burpee drop off lines again

MARY: no time…finished @ 6:15

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
17 present: Guardrail, Erector, 5K, Booster, Wheelchair, Butter Knife, Dart Gun, Footsie, Wanderer, Sty, Gump, Commission, Pool Boy, sos, Mailbox, Spotter, hound dog
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Philippians 3:13-14, “Brothers and sisters, I do not regard myself as having taken hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Janus, the Roman God for which January was named, had two faces: one looked forward to the new year and one looked backward to the past year. This morning I related that I am not big on resolutions because most people give up on them by “ditch day,” January 17th. Nevertheless, I do believe in the power of goals. After all, if you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time!

Personal confession: even though I lost about 45 pounds over the last couple years, I put back 10 -15 this year off of a sweet tooth and lazy habits. I hit F3 3x week, but as they say, “you can’t outrun your fork.” How does the weight come back on like that? Slowly…1 pound at a time!

So we have to be diligent. And like physical weight, we might be carrying a few extra spiritual pounds into 2021 too. Ghandi said that the chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too strong to be broken. Bad habits come on slowly, day by day. We might have a secret sin or a burden we aren’t willing to unload. How do we overcome? Do what we can, give ourselves over completely, and hand more of our lives over to God each day.

They say that elephants are trained by securing their leg against something strong enough when they are young so that when they are old they remember that they cannot break free. Then, a mere rope and tiny tent peg in the ground is enough to keep them in place. We must break free of the thought that we can do ONLY 20 or 30 or 50 reps. By maxing out in a minute and then “adding 5,” we learned we are capable of more than we thought…or at least I did!

Thanks for letting me lead again…and hope you’re sore tomorrow…’cause I already can’t lift my arms 🙂

21, 21!

THE SCENE: 40ish with a threat of rain
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
LBAC fwd/bck x21, SSH x21

THA-THANG:
Welcome to 21!

Mosey to the Pull-through and perform 21s with Merkins and BBS. This is such a simple, but hard workout. I do this at home and time myself periodically throughout the year as a gauge for my fitness. I’m giving you this great workout for FREE! *Cheers and applause from the PAX followed*

Mosey to the coupon pile for another set of 21s. This time we alternated with Curls/Tricep Ext and Plank Dips/Imperial Walkers.

Wow time flies in 21! Mosey back to the shovel flag.

MARY:
None, perfect timing.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
6 men drug themselves out of bed after some late nights (Wanderer took the cake with a 12:45 bed time). Glad to have some thick-skinned men out in the cold to kick off the new year.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
This world is not our home. Quit trying to make it more comfortable.

The devotional in the Bible app this week hit on this point. It’s a very poignant point that can be hard to swallow. The verse that typically comes to mind is:

Romans 12:2

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

This verse gets the point across very clearly, but there is another verse that hits a little harder and maybe a little closer to the heart:

James 4:4

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

We are called to deny ourselves a friendship with the world. Would the world call you a friend? Something to think about as we go into 2021.

MOLESKIN:
Kept waiting for a late Houndog showing and all we got was a lost Gump. We did have an enjoyable Switchgrass visit.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Insert information about upcoming events, 2nd or 3rd F opportunities, and any other announcements.

Don’t Skip

One comment

THE SCENE:  34 and clear
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER: 
WARM-O-RAMA: 

  • Reach for the sky
  • LBAC F&B OYO
  • Let it hang
  • Monkey humpers IC x 10
  • Mountain climbers IC x 10
  • Tempo merkins IC x 8
  • Down dog / Up dog
  • Projectivator from 10

Mosey to the long guardrail and line up.

  • 5 merkins, jump over the rail, 5 bobby hurleys, jump back over and repeat until time is called

THA THANG:

Mosey to King College parking lot – grab a CMU and line up.

Do 1 blockee.  Rifle carry 2 parking lines and do 1 blockee.  Repeat to the end of the lot. (~15 blockees).

Line up at the bottom of the Award Winning Hill.

Carry your block to the first tree.  Do 10 curl/presses and 10 CMU swings.  Set your block down.  Run to the bottom of the hill and back to your block.  Carry it to the next tree and repeat to the top (7 trees).

Recover to the top of the hill.  Heavy BBS x 10 OYO. Heavy freddys IC.

Same deal as before, only this time from the top down…15 squats each tree.

Recover to the bottom of the hill.

Rifle carry 5 parking lines and do 2 burpee jumpovers.  Repeat to the end of the lot.

MARY:

Around the circle, each PAX led a Mary exercise.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

Five Juconians and 2 Rushens.

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

I tagged on to Pool Boy’s Q from Monday.  He quoted the 18th century minister, John Newton.  The essence of the quote was…your life will have challenges and burdens, visualized as a huge bundle of sticks.  You don’t need to try to carry the whole bundle every day.  Rather, carry today’s stick today and tomorrow’s stick tomorrow.  Every day you carry one stick.

I turned that quote around backwards to make another point.  You carry one stick every day.  This morning’s challenge was about consistency.

Do you know what happened 9 years ago today on the tiny island nation of Samoa?  Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  Nothing significant or insignificant.  Nothing happened at all because nine years ago, December 30th did not occur in Samoa.  In 2011, the nation voted to change where the International Date Line falls relative to their island.  They actually curved the IDL around their island (doing so improved business relations with some of their biggest trading partners, Australia and New Zealand…).  So, at midnight on December 29th, the IDL changed and Samoa went from being the westernmost nation on earth – to being the easternmost nation on earth.  They moved the line that divides our days and in doing so, they went from December 29th to December 31st – and skipped an entire day.

What’s my point?

As you are accelerating your fitness, your fellowship, and your faith – don’t skip a day.  Keep your routine.  Complete one small challenge each day and, over time, you move yourself closer and closer to being a true HIM.

A famous Samoan scholar, Dwayne Johnson, has said, “Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.”

What do you wish you could be successful at?  The good news is that you don’t have to be great at it today.  You just have to be consistent in your pursuit of it. 

Fitness?  You’ve all proven that you have what it takes to get out of bed and be here at 5:30 – great!  Now, do it again Friday.  Then again Monday, Wednesday, and Friday next week.  Consistent hard work leads to success.

Fellowship?  You want to have great relationships and deep fellowship with other HIMs?  Stick around and chat for a minute after the picture.  DM these guys on Slack and catch up on their lives.  With consistent investment in your relationships, over time, greatness will come.

Faith?  Me too.  There is one particular element of my faith that I want to be successful in – leading my family.  For many years of my marriage and many years of my time as a father, I have struggled to be a successful spiritual leader for my family.  I could start leading with enthusiasm but would soon get discouraged and stop.  About two years ago, I finally started to hit my stride.  You know what had changed?  A realization that I didn’t have to be great – just consistent.  I couldn’t pray elegant prayers over my wife every night.  I couldn’t prepare a mind-blowing devotion every night.  I wasn’t – and am still not – great.  But can I pray a simple prayer over my wife today?  Sure.  Can I read a short passage to my kids after dinner?  Yeah.  Now – can I do it again tomorrow?  Absolutely.  Rinse and repeat.

Success in the areas of fitness, fellowship, and faith is achievable for you.  Do the do-able thing today.  Do it again tomorrow….and the day after….and they day after.  

MOLESKIN:

If he were here, I bet Snaggletooth would have known about Samoa…

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

2020 Year in Review – A Blackbast from the Past!

THE SCENE: mid-30’s and sprinkling. Back-up Q in case of rain ready in hand (preparedness is key to leading!)
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER – Administered + COVID reminder

The following Q is a compilation of a part of the backblast of the first workout of each month we had this year (no Q’s at JUCO in April). Links included!
WARM-O-RAMA:
-New Year’s Day at JUCO by Mermaid
Karaoke (down to 2nd light pole & back)
Walking Lunges (2x down and back in parking space)

-What Does Frozen 2 & 100 Burpees Have in Common? by Booster
Baby Arm Circles Forward X 10 followed by Michael Phelps
Baby Arm Circles Backward X 10 followed by Michael Phelps
Hand Release Merkins – OYO X 10

-Do over with miles and burpees by Ribbed.
5 cherry pickers

Today after all of our exercises we will add a buffer of each PAX’s choice: (this is a buffer added to mesh all of the exercise pieces from various workouts together)
5 burpees / 10 squats / 25 LBC’s
When completed, plank for 30 seconds at the end of exercises.
If you finish the plank before the Q calls recover to move on to the next exercise location, repeat but don’t do the same exercise the twice in a row.

THA-THANG:
-Mosey toward CMU Pile. Along the way we’ll make some stops:
-4-way stop #1: JUCO RECON MISSION (the post says IC but we did these OYO to allow for more work for those who wanted it)
15 Merkins
15 Squats
15 Plank Jacks
15 Cherry Pickers

-4-way stop #2: JUCOnapolis 500 by Mailbox
20 merkins

-4-way stop #3: Better late than Bernie by Stye
10 Burpees
20 BBS
30 Lunges

-Mosey the rest of the way to the CMU pile: A New Beginning by Booster. 10 x each of the following:
Curls
Kettle Bell (CMU) Swings
Goblet (CMU) Squats
OHP
Tricep Extensions

-Median’s VQ – by Median (aka Guardrail’s 2.0). Another 10 x each of the following:
(Hello) Dolly
Jungle Boi Squats
Calf Raises

-JUCO circuit by Erector:
5 pull-ups
20 OHP

Mosey to the big parking lot between the Shovel Flag and the CMU pile. IMPACT by Judge Judy:
Pole to Pole: 10-20-30

  • 10 Merkins, Mosey
  • 20 Merkins, Mosey
  • 30 Merkins, Mosey to curb
  • Repeat w/Squats
  • PAX were given the choice to do a mystery exercise or to repeat with Lunges. They chose the lunges so I’ll save this for next

MARY:
Cold and Difficult Things by Guardrail
Dealers choice – LBC’s, Flutter Kicks, Hello Dolly, & Hillbilly Walkers were done x 10 ea IC and then time ran out!

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
7 PAX in sprinkling weather

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
I have a friend who likes to say the following response when someone says “that was unexpected” – like the Spanish Inquisition! (sketch is from Monty Python – it’s clean so you can watch if you like – Spanish Inquisition Part 1 – Spanish Inquisition Part 2).

PAX were asked to name something unexpected: many difficult things were named. Obviously, 2020 and COVID-19 were unexpected. At least to us. But God has His sovereign hand in it all. He is sovereign over salvation. He is sovereign over sanctification. He is sovereign over everything – including the workout we just did.

The workout we did today was a compilation of pieces from the first backblast of each of 11 months (no F3 in April) of this year. These Q’s are from Mermaid, Booster, Ribbed, Judge Judy, Mailbox, Stye, Booster (again), Median (Guardrail’s 2.0), Erector, Judge Judy (again), & Guardrail. These are posted in the Backblast above. And let me also say that backblasts are very important, and here are the reasons (with full explanation in this link) – So why do we write BB’s in the first place? (and here’s a link for how to post a backblast on the F3 Knoxville website)

1. It documents the actual workout itself.
2. Along these lines, it gives FNG encouragement.
3. It builds community amongst the PAX who posted there that day, and also amongst PAX who posted.
elsewhere so they can see what they missed. Maybe most importantly, it builds community amongst PAX who didn’t post for whatever reason.
4. It gives Q’s (especially new ones) great ideas for their weinke by reading about what other Qs have done.
5. Accountability, which is one of the major factors that makes F3 work, is found in the BB’s in 2 ways (see link for explanation): First – it makes you do what you said you’d do. Second, it shows who posted and keeps a record of it, making others more likely to post.
6. Gives our data people information and stats about workouts and helps us guide decisions on if/how/where/when to add new AO’s.

BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, God has the future in His hands. I will be thinking about and setting yearly personal goals this week. Last year, I set a few & completed some as well Many of you know my story how God exposed my sin to save me. I am so thankful that He disciplined me as a son (Hebrews 12:1-17). But He also gve me exactly what I needed in 2019 and He has done the same in 2020. Our trust in His sovereignty means that 2020 has gone exactly has God has intended, no matter the “regrets”, “wants”, or “hopes” we had, have, or will have. I read the following quote 2x yesterday. 1x from a pastor at my church and another time from Ribbed’s M’s CaringBridge and I want to leave you with this so that you can get perspective and trust on God’s call for you today

“I compare the troubles which we have to undergo in the course of the year to a great bundle of sticks, far too large for us to lift. But God does not require us to carry the whole at once. He mercifully unties the bundle and gives us first one stick, which we are to carry today, and then another, which we are to carry tomorrow, and so on. This we might easily manage, if we would only take the burden appointed for us each day; but we choose to increase our troubles by carrying yesterday’s stick over again today, and adding tomorrow’s burden to our load, before we are required to bear it.” -John Newton.

MOLESKIN:
I sincerely appreciate every PAX who posts a BB. It doesn’t have to be complex or take a lot of time, but I encourage you to be diligent and carry the stick today when you Q- post a BB, add a little more flavor if you’re already posting, and encourage other to do so going into 2021.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
The 2021 F3 Q Calendar is now open! #ThanksRatchet #StepUpPAX