F3 Knoxville

Tag: Swimmies

Giving Thanks… and no Beaver Moon!

THE SCENE: Cold, low 40s, fairly calm and clear, but the hallowed Beaver Moon didn’t make an appearance, to everyone’s disappointment.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

Check.


WARM-O-RAMA:

– Motivators 7 count decreasing

– 10 Cherry Pickers (4-ct), in cadence (aborted this exercise due to mumblechatter around 6 or so…)

– 10 Rockettes (4-ct), in cadence

– 10 Grady Corns  (4-ct), in cadence

– Calf stretches

THA-THANG:

Mosey to Caribbean Parking Lot

  • NO MERCY MILE (really more like a half mile)
    • Near end: Bear Crawl around turn
    • Run to ½ way point. 25 Merkins. Run to curve
    • Far End: Lunges around turn
    • Sprint to ½ way point. 25 Squats. Run to Curve.
    • Rinse and Repeat.

Mosey to open air Chapel

  • AMRAPS
    • 30 sec dips, rest 10 sec. R&R x4
    • 30 sec incline merkins, rest 10 sec R&R x4
    • 30 sec isometric squats (alternating), rest 10 sec R&R x4

Mosey to east down path towards the bottom of Cardiac.  At intersection, 20 American Hammers (4-ct)

Mosey to bottom of Cardiac.  20 Imperial Walkers (4-ct)

  • Cardiac Crusher
    • Run to first curve and back, 20 flutter kicks (2-ct)
    • Run to second curve and back, 20 flutter kicks (2-ct)
    • Run to top, stop at each turn to do 10 merkins, 10 squats, and 10 BBS

Mosey to AO

MARY:
Homer/Marge leg raises

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
16 strong
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Thanksgiving:

Back in 1620, 102 separatists Christians left Europe and came to America via a little boat called the Mayflower.  The first years in America were very hard, and about half the population died within the first several months.  They likely all would have died without the help of the Native Americans, who provided food and taught them how to grow crops.  They celebrated the harvest the following year, in 1621, with Thanksgiving. The celebration lasted 3 days. Thanksgiving was only sporadically celebrated until 1789 when George Washington called for it to be a recurring celebration.  Even then, it still didn’t totally catch on until 1941, when FDR and Congress declared it a national holiday.  Why is it so tough to celebrate Thanksgiving?  We seem to want to skip over it it and move right from Halloween to Christmas.  If you’re cynical, maybe it’s because there’s no money in Thanksgiving?  Not as many cards, gifts, and promotional events…Except for the Macy’s parade, and for that everyone is just waiting for Santa at the end.

But there is a human need to give Thanks.  One of the first things parents teach their children is to say Thank You (when handing a young child something…: “What do you say? What do you SAY??”).  Giving Thanks is important because it interrupts the Self, recognizes the Other in our life.  We value that other.  We have an imperative and a need to give Thanks to those we have relationships with.  And who or what is the primary relationship in our life?  It’s God, and we need to give Thanks to God.  Giving Thanks reminds us that we are recipients, not creators.  It allows us a moment to pause and count our blessings.  STEAM recently posted a message in Sticky Notes Channel: “GAS PRICES ARE HIGH, THIS SUCKS” VS “I WAS ABLE TO FILL UP MY CAR WITH GAS. THANK YOU JESUS.” What a great perspective for the week of Thanksgiving.

I love the line from the song Signs that was sung by Tesla and written by Five Man Electrical Band… “Thank you Lord, for thinking about me, I’m alive and doing fine.”

Here’s what I think.  I think we need to build a world that strips out the biases and fear of other religions, other cultures, other world views and focuses on the basics.  Love God, Love your Neighbor.  Easy Peasy.  Right?  Wrong.  It’s simple, but it’s not easy.  How do we do that? Giving Thanks can be a great place to start and get beyond the differences.  Seek first the Kingdom of God.  The Kingdom of God is love, generosity, thankfulness, and justice.  That is how we live in that Kingdom.  This is what was in the heart of the Pilgrim’s journey. To be a loving, generous, and thankful community.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Steam’s mom who has COVID, for other friends and family members going through illness or trials.  Prayers for the victims of the Waukesha driving calamity.  Prayers for our nation as tensions rise and the Enemy tries to divide and discourage us.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Christmas party Dec. 11!

You Are Already There

THE SCENE: You Are Already There
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Jog around the lot, 20 Side-Straddle Hops, 15 Shoulder Taps, 10 Rockettes, 5 Cherry Pickers, 5 Windmills, Michael Phelps, A Little of This and That
THA-THANG:
Men split up into teams of two.  We will go to parking lot across the street.  Each team gets two bricks.  Mosey with bricks to the Caribbean parking lot.

Team runs together around parking lot stopping at every two islands.  At each island each partner does five mini-man-makers with bricks.  While one partner does the five mini-man-makers the other partner does five shoulder taps (both shoulders = 1).

Next, we will do Doras with the bricks.  While one partner runs to the cone which is about 40 yards away, the other does the exercises with the bricks.  Then partners switch.  Each team does the following exercises:

  • 100 Overhead Presses
  • 100 Curls
  • 100 Rows
  • 100 Punches with each hand
  • 100 Wings Up
  • 100 Wings Out
  • 100 Winds Down

Mosey back to the shaded parking lot to drop off the bricks.

Mosey up Mini-Cardiac and then go on perimeter trail to the stop sign at road that lead to Admin Bldg. We will do 20 American Hammers in cadence.

Mosey to bottom of Mt. Everest.  We will do the following exercises before running to the top of the Space Needle, then back to the portion of the road in front of the Admin Bldg Parking Lot.

  • 20 Hello Dollies
  • 20 Flutter Kicks
  • 40 Little Baby Crunches

Mosey from Admin Parking Lot to Front Porch of Admin Bldg.  We will do 20 Calf Raises on steps then run counter-clockwise on loop that goes through Coliseum Area.  On the benches in that area we will do 20 Bench Lifts.  Then we will continue to run counter-clockwise around the loop and go back to porch.  Rinse and Repeat.

Mosey to AO

MARY:
Bernie and Skip Around the Parking Lot.  Ten Jump Squats.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
17 Men with one FNG whom we dubbed, “Britches.”
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
You Are Already There

“Though we are incomplete, God loves us completely. Though we are imperfect, He loves us perfectly. Though we may feel lost and without compass, God’s love encompasses us completely. … He loves every one of us, even those who are flawed, rejected, awkward, sorrowful, or broken.”
― Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

Life is a journey.  In that journey, men tend to live it like a quest.  The quest is the prize and we are always yearning for something more.  And, we tend to tie our self-concept into it.  That quest can be a good thing.  We tend to grow along the way.  But if that quest is not for God, we fall short.  We get that worldly thing but will always yearn for something more.  More money, a better job, a bigger home, a faster car.  Further, if we tie our self-concepts into that quest, we are deceived.  Are egos grow too big if we attain the worldly goal or we look at ourselves as failures if we don’t attain it.

Stop to think about life’s purpose.  What are we living for?  What is it that we are supposed to attain in this life.  Brothers, what if we are already there?  What if God loves us completely, just as we are.  What if we don’t have to win the prize, set the high mark, achieve some kind of standard to have God love us to the very depth of our being?  God loves us despite our flaws.  God keeps no record of being wronged by us.  God is patient, is kind, and never gives up in us, is always hopeful for us, enduring every one of our circumstances and human failures.

If we have that kind of love, we can be satisfied with what we have and who we are.  I don’t need the fast car, the mansion on the hill, to eat at the best restaurants.

Having that kind of love, knowing that whatever I do, that I am always favored by God and I am never seen as a failure in his eyes – that gives me the confidence to go out and take risks.  Knowing that should give us brothers the confidence to try, fail, and try again.  For we may fail, but we are not failures.  God is with us.  He loves us to the end.  We may never achieve our worldly quests.  We may fall short of getting that job we want, buying the house we hope for, earning the type of money to give our wives and children the things we long to give them.  But we have already attained our heavenly quest.  God is there with us already.  And if we trust in that, even if we die tomorrow, we have achieved our prize.

MOLESKIN:
Praise for Swimmies who has a daughter due to be born and house about to be closed on for the same day.  Prayers for those who are ill or shut in, including Steam’s mother who recently contracted Covid.  Fortunately, she is doing well.  Prayers for all those who are traveling at Thanksgiving.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Christmas Party at Judge Judy’s home on December 11.  Thanksgiving workout at Asylum will be at 7 am this Thursday.  Asylum and Asylum PM will combine for that workout.

Just be glad it’s not the Bearmuda Square…

THE SCENE: Beautiful, starry morning. 40s

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

WARM-O-RAMA:

  • Windmills | SSH IC | Rockettes
  • Tempo Squats

THA-THANG:

  • Bearmuda Triangle – four rounds, drop five reps on each round
    • 20 Merkins, bear crawl to next corner
    • 20 BBS, crawl bear to next corner
    • 20 Squats, mosey to next corner
  • Splash Pad – Playground – five rounds, drop reps each round
    • 25 Dips
    • 25 Step-ups
    • 25 V-ups
    • Run to playground, perform 5 pull-ups, return to splash pad
  • Tennis court
    • Lunge/Bernie suicides
    • Sprint suicides

MARY:

  • Box Cutters IC | Freddie mercury IC
  • Flutter kicks IC
  • Peter parker

 

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:  Follow the lead of our veterans, the spirit of F3, and the example of Jesus: Be about something bigger than yourself.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Christmas Party

PRAYER

Fake Gloom Ruckers Unite

THE SCENE: Getting dark around 5:45pm. We love this.

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

(1) Welcome to F3: Fitness, Fellowship, Faith

(2) My name is Steam and I’ll be your Q tonight

(3) Few things before we begin:

  • I’m not a professional
  • You’re here on your own volition
  • If you need to modify anything we do tonight feel free to do it

WARM-O-RAMA:

Q laid out the plan for the evening ruck before stepping off.

THA-THANG:

Ruck a mile.

  • 25 merkins
  • 25 squats
  • 25×4 flutter kicks
  • 25 ruck curls

Knocked out a round of 25s, then completed 3 miles, for a total of 4 rounds of PT. Ended back at the GoodStuff AO.

MARY:

Dark. Felt like 10pm.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

Total: 3

Q: Steam

PAX: Blindside, Swimmies

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

From the QSOURCE: “King” — The Daily Discipline of Physically Training the Body

I was going over this this week and jotted down some really great insights and TPQs, or Thought Provoking Questions.

Page 37 of the QSOURCE: “F3 added the Jester because we realized that the wrong temptation will topple even the strongest man’s fitness kingdom if not held at bay through disciplined application of the DRP (Daily Red Pill). After all, what will it matter if a man is in great physical condition if he is continually tripped up by festering distraction?”

TPQ #1 — What is continually tripping me up in my daily pursuit of HIManhood?

Page 37 of the QSOURCE: “He is building a kingdom of Preparedness within which he intends other people to safely dwell……How can a man be much of a Leader if he gets smoked pulling his family’s luggage off the baggage carousel and carrying it to the minivan? What will a son learn from a father who can’t play catch with him in the backyard for more than 5 minutes without having to sit down?……This is the power of the Shield Lock, which is the horizontal relationship between men. Together, we sharpen each other — as iron sharpens iron.”

TPQ #2 — What does your Kingdom of preparedness look like?

TPQ #3 — Are you prepared to offer yourself as a safe place for others (your 2.0s, your M, etc) to dwell?

TPQ #4 — Are you leading yourself well enough to lead others?

MOLESKIN:

The Q shared this: My S.O. (Significant Other/girlfriend) gave me some tough but loving feedback this past weekend. Granted, I asked. But I had asked her if she had any input on my goals for the rest of the year and going into 2022, anything that she thought I should work on to improve myself. Her response rocked me: “I think you could lose some weight.” I had never heard that from any S.O. I’ve been in relationship with. I had heard “No, I love you for exactly as you are” or “You’re just fine the way you are, I wouldn’t change a thing.” These are comfortable and affirming things to hear. Key word comfortable. I was being told what I wanted to hear maybe, but not what I needed to hear. Now my S.O. Is a God-fearing, High Impact Woman. So when she gave me this feedback, it was from a place of love, not just offering up positive sounds waves of affirmation instead of diving into a potentially hard truth. And guess what, she was right. And all the married men reading this said “AMEN, way to learn your lesson Steam.”

But seriously. She was right. She didn’t just tell me what I wanted to hear to make me feel good, she gave me truth, and also helped remind me why I do F3. She wanted me to not just stay comfortable and complacent, she wanted to encourage my growth and development. By giving me that feedback, she was loving me better than anyone ever had. And I needed to listen. Now to all you wondering, yes, she did say I was just fine the way I was, BUT it meant a lot to me that she gave me that honest feedback.

Why do I say all this? This experience with my S.O. Was very eye opening. She wasn’t being harsh or rude, she was caring for me well and helping promote my growth and goals as a HIM. So why do I do F3? So I can prepare myself to love others to the best of my ability outside of F3. That starts with that 1st F. I have to prepare myself physically, so I can be where I need to be and serve with the caliber and excellence I need to serve with.

Cap’n Crunch said this at one of his Qs years ago and it has always stuck with me: “It’s not about you.”

So what does this mean to me? It’s not JUST about me getting physically better when I come workout with F3. It’s not about me. It’s about me preparing myself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually to be  HIM outside of F3. The more we think F3 workouts are just for us to get healthier and in better shape physically, the farther we get from the core of why F3 exists in the first place. Getting healthier and in better shape are just byproducts of the mission of F3. It’s just an added bonus. That’s why the 1st F is the magnet, or what originally attracts men to F3 — it’s a good workout. But it’s so much more than just a good workout. Why? Because it’s not about you.

#ISI

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Get those coats in for the coat drive! Bring them to in numbers to your AO this week.

Farewell Q

THE SCENE: 54F, drizzling
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

Welcome to F3, Fitness, Fellowship and Faith. F3 is a free workout program designed to improve fitness, share some camaraderie, and foster male leadership in the community. I’m Jetlag and I will be your Q today.  I am not a professional, and I do not know your fitness level or injury history.  Please push yourself, but modify the workout as necessary to avoid making any existing injuries worse.  The goal is to get better together!

WARM-O-RAMA:

Motivators starting at 5

Box jumps + run around pavillon

High knees

Plank jacks

Mountain climbers


THA-THANG:

Pyramid: 20 reps

  1. Merkins
  2. Merkins – shoulder press
  3. Merkins – shoulder press – curls – table pulls/cmu rows
  4. Merkins – shoulder press – curls – tp – squat jumps
  5. Merkins – shoulder press – curls – tp – squat jumps – step overs
  6. Intermission break: run around pavilion twice or burpees (F3 names, F3 workouts, F3 AOs, F3 Hospital Names)
  7. Shoulder press – curls – TP – squat jumps – step overs
  8. Curls – TP – squat jumps – step overs
  9. TP – squat jumps
  10. Squat Jumps
  11. Burpees

Alleluias


MARY:
5min yoga stretching

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
16 HIMs in attendance.

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
There will be times in your life that you may question God and His plans for you. These times are usually when you struggle, lose someone, or uncertainties in life. But, I tell you this – God’s plan is perfect. He’s timing is always right. It may not seem like it but have faith that God is working His ways for the better of you.
MOLESKIN:
My brothers, as I host my last Q (at least for this year) I am truly grateful and honored to be part of such an amazing brotherhood that we have here in F3. I was supposed to stay for only 6 weeks here in the US and that 6 weeks turned into a year. And you guys made it truly memorable for me and my family. You have made a huge impact on my life and my family’s. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you and until next time! I love you, brothers!

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Coat Drive – Coats donation still on going. You can give out your old coats to Rainbow.