F3 Knoxville

Accepted As We Are

THE SCENE: Sunny, temperature about 80 degrees.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

20 Plank Jacks, 10 Burpees, 10 Twisties, 7 Cherry Pickers, 7 Windmills, 6 Pterodactyls forward, 6 Pterodactyls backward, Michael Phelps.
THA-THANG:
Mosey to Stop Sign at Northeastern Corner of the Admin Bldg.  We will stop to do 20 Rocky Balboas.

Mosey on perimeter trail toward the entrance gate at Lyons Bend then on the trail heading east.  There will be a cone out in the field nearby. We will split into teams of two for Doras.  While one partner runs up to the tree stump at the top of the hill and back, the other partner does exercises.  Then partners switch off. Here is the exercises that each team of two partners will do:

  • 100 Squat Jumps
  • 100 Carolina Dry Docks
  • 100 Hello Dollies
  • 100 Iron Mikes (both legs = 1)
  • 100 Diamond Merkins
  • 200 Baby Crunches

Mosey back up the hill and past the stump to the roadway. Then mosey to the Stop Sign at the Northeastern Corner of the Admin Bldg.  We will run on the shaded trail to sidewalk that loops in front of the Admin Bldg.  Then head east to the parking lot area.  Then run on roadway back to the Stop Sign at the Northeastern Corner of the Admin Bldg.  There will be five cones set up along the way.  Each time we run the route we will do different exercises at the cones:

  • First run:  10 squats at each cone.
  • Second Run: 10 Flutter kicks (4 ct) at each cone.
  • Third run:  10 Lunges, 5 each leg, at each cone.
  • Fourth run:  10 Bobby Hurleys at each cone.

From the Stop Sign at the Northeastern Corner of the Admin Bldg. will will race back to AO.

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

I hope that F3 will always be an organization where brothers feel welcomed by all brothers . . . where a man is not judged by the job he has, by the car he drives, by how fast he runs, or how fancy the shoes on his feet look.  I think the message of F3 should be, “my man, we accept you as you are.  That doesn’t mean that we won’t mold you into a better man . . . but it means that you can be you.”

One of my F3 brothers was recently talking about coworkers at his job. These guys make good money.  But the narcissistic, self-centered attitude of some of these coworkers, the selfish boasting, and the failure to help one’s fellow man sometimes make my friend feel sick.  My friend strives on at his job but he certainly doesn’t appreciate the attitude of some of his coworkers.

I formerly worked as a jury and trial consultant for a consulting firm that was hired by law firms on pretty major cases.  I highly respected many of the attorneys I worked for.  But, there were some attorneys I definitely did not respect.  I remember a mock trial that my consulting firm conducted in Jackson, Mississippi.  Some of the attorneys on the case and I arrived at the same time at the airport in Jackson and hailed a taxi together to ride to the hotel we were staying at.  I recall the smirks, comments and laughter about the taxi driver after we were dropped off.  The attorneys made fun of his accent and his seemingly backward ways while they also made negative inferences regarding the common state of the city.  I remember thinking during that stay in Jackson that I would be much more likely to enjoy eating dinner with that taxi driver than with those conceited attorneys.  I wondered what dreams that taxi driver had, what friendships, what his family was like, how hard he might be working to make sure dinner was on the table.  He certainly seemed friendlier than the attorneys and was probably much more real.  My bet was that his “seemingly backward ways” had much more depth and poignancy than the shallow sightedness of the out-of-town observers.

God, let me be surrounded by people who can be real with one another, who will appreciate one another for who they are and bring out the best in their fellow humans.  God, help F3 Knoxville to continue to be that type of band of men.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for daughter of Glamper as she is currently ill.  Prayers for Abacus’ son who is struggling with some issues and for his daughter as she prepares to graduate from high school.  Prayer for the wonderful way our F3 brothers pull together to help each other across the finish line.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
On Tuesday of next week, Justice Knox has their annual Nehemiah Action event at the Civic Auditorium.  A coalition of faith communities will meet and work to make Knoxville a better place to live for everyone.  All are invited.  We will be preparing the Asylum PM made obstacles for Hardship Hill on May 20. This will be the weekend before Hardship Hill.  Sparkler will be in charge and we can use everyone’s help.

April Metric Q – Asylum PM

Asylum PM Q — April Metric Workout

5:45pm – 6:30pm

  • Pre-ruck at 5pm

[ The Scene ] 

  • 72
  • Sunny 

[ Welcome/Disclaimer ]

  • Welcome to F3: Fitness – Fellowship – Faith 
  • My name is Steam and I’ll be your Q this morning 
  • A few things before we begin: 
    • I’m not a professional 
    • You’re here on your own volition
    • You know your injuries if you have any so if you need to modify anything we do today feel free to do so, but push yourselves and the men around you. They deserve it and so do you. 
  • FNGs?

[ Warm o Rama ] 

  • OYO as the April Metric Workout is introduced 

[ The Thang ] 

Scene

  • 4 evenly spaced cones or lines ~10 yards/30 feet apart

The Workout

Part 1: RUN

  • 10 minute timer
  • Start the timer, then…
  • Run from Line 1 to Line 2 (~10 yards) and back to Line 1
  • Run from Line 1 to Line 3 (~20 yards) and back to Line 1
  • Run from Line 1 to Line 4 (~30 yards) and back to Line 1
  • That is 1 rep
  • Rinse and repeat as many times as you can in the 10 minutes.

— 1 minute rest —

Part 2: AMRAP

  • 3×2 minutes timer
  • Count the total number of reps (cumulative, not individual)
  • Start the timer, then…
  • 2 minutes AMRAP SSH
    • (no rest)
  • 2 minutes AMRAP High Knees (count 1 leg)
    • (no rest)
  • 2 minutes AMRAP mountain climbers (count 1 leg)

— 3 MINUTES REST AND RECORD 1st ROUND # OF REPS —

— Now…REPEAT the full routine – starting over with your rep count —

— Submit four scores —

  • Round 1 run reps
  • Round 1 AMRAP reps
  • Round 2 run reps
  • Round 2 AMRAP reps

— Enter your times and reps on the Google form (link in the 1st F channel) —
— Total time to complete: 45 minutes (the full time: 5:45pm – 6:30pm)

  • 5 minutes of instruction/intro
  • 40 minutes to complete the workout

[ Mary ] 

OYO stretching

[ COT ]

  • # off – 14
  • Name o Rama 
  • FNGs
  • Word

Spoiler in Slack: You drown not by falling into the river, but by staying submerged in it. — Paulo Coelho

  • Heard this in the movie Extraction on Netflix

An F3 mantra we use a lot: No man left behind, but no man left the same.

I’ve been submerged before — I’m willing to bet many of us have felt that same way before. 

The reality is this – at some point in time, we’re all going to “fall in the river.” It’s just part of life. We all have stuff that is in our lives. But God has more for you. 

It’s okay to fall into the river, but it’s not okay to stay submerged in it. 

And if we believe that God has more for us than our current circumstance in life, we should believe this about others as well, which brings me to “No man left behind, no man left the same.” That if we believe God has more for them – we must truly live out not leaving a man behind, and refusing to leave men in the condition in which we first found them. Or, the condition they are in when they show up to F3. 

This is what Jesus did – he didn’t want to leave anyone behind, and refused to leave someone in the same condition he found them in. Just look at all of his miracles in the gospels. And even in his final moments of life, when he finds one of the other criminals on a cross next to him, who rightfully should be there by the way, he refuses to leave him in the same condition. 

Jesus Wept

THE SCENE: Beautiful spring day, sunny, little breeze, low 70s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER Done adequately
WARM-O-RAMA:

Bolt 45s, Tempo Squats, Motivators, El Capitans, LBAC forward and backward, Grady Corns
THA-THANG:

MOSEY to bottom of Pickett’s…

Run PICKETT’S CHARGE, Bernie-ing the slopes and running on the flat parts.

Mosey to center of colosseum.  Do Mucho Chesto, then Run to 12 o’clock position, do Aiken Legs. R&R.

Aiken Legs: 20 Squats, 20 Squat Jumps, 20 Lunges (10 each leg), 20 Split Jacks (10 each leg forward)

MUCHO CHESTO: 10 x Merkin / 10 x Wide Merkin / 10 x Diamonds / 10 Stagger Merkin Left / 10 Stagger Merkin Right

Mosey to field below Overlook.  Cones laid out in a rectangle pattern.

FIELD OF PAIN:

  • Long side 1: Suicides
  • Short Side 1: 10 merkins, Bear Crawl, 10 Merkins at opposite corner.
  • Long side 2: Bernie to ½ way cone, 20 Iron Mikes (2-ct), 20 Bobby Hurleys. Run to next corner
  • Short Side 2: El Capitan lunge , with 5 Prisoner Cell Merkin Burpees at each cover.

Mosey about 1/2 way to road, then do 7s on small hill.  Flutter Kicks and Bobby Hurleys.

MARY:
Flutter kicks and Homer/Marge
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
11 strong.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Today’s Word is taken from John Chapter 11, which is a story that’s probably familiar to many of you, as it describes Jesus’ raising of Lazarus from the dead.  It builds on Steam’s WORD about Expectations that he gave last week, which also referred to a passage that included the sisters Mary and Martha.  In John Chapter 11, Jesus travels to Bethany to visit Mary and Martha after their brother Lazarus died.  THREE TIMES the sisters ask “Why? Why did my brother have to die? If you had been there, he would still be alive.”  Expectations.  That question of “If I had mattered to you, this wouldn’t have happened” is a question I think we’ve all asked ourselves, and certainly for those friends and family of those killed in yet the latest mass shooting event just down the road in Nashville, that has affected some of our F3 brothers.

But I want to focus on one specific part of the passage in John 11.  It contains the answer to a great Trivia Question  When confronted with the reality of the situation, what did Jesus do?  Jesus wept.  Our God is deeply moved and troubled when his Children suffer, and when we grieve.  We have a feeling and empathizing God.

Dr. William Sloane Coffin was a famous Presbyterian minister from Boston and Chaplain for Yale for a number of years, who lost his son in a car accident a few decades ago.  He gave a sermon just 10 days later.  (How does someone DO that??)  Dr. Coffin had the same questions about his son’s death that we all would have, that Mary and Martha had.  Where were you God?  But he said in that sermon,.

He said, “For some reason, nothing so infuriates me as the incapacity of seemingly intelligent heads that God doesn’t go around this world with His finger on triggers, His fist around knives, His hands on steering wheels.  the one thing no one should say to someone dealing with tragedy is “I know it was the will of God”.  Never do we know enough to say it is the will of God.  When my son died, my own consolation is that it is NOT the will of God that he died, it is that God’s Heart was the first of all of our hearts to break.”  As he closed his sermon, he said “As the grief that once seemed unbearable now turns to bearable sorrow, The truths in Biblical passages are beginning to once again take hold.  ‘In this world you shall have tribulations, but be of good cheer.  I have overcome the world; My light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  Weeping may endure in the night, but joy cometh in the morning’.  When my son beat me to the grave, it was not because God WILLED it.  It was because for him, the Dawn had come.”

This is the key lesson of John.  What God wills is Life out of Death.  What did Jesus do in the presence of Mary and Martha when told the news about Lazarus?  Jesus wept.  This is the compassionate nature of God.  God doesn’t just see from far away our pains and sorrows.  He is WITH us in our sorrow.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for those who were affected by the Nashville school shooting earlier in the week. Prayers for Title 9 as he looks for other career opportunities.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
FORGE! growth week-end, end of September.  Haw Ridge and Hardship Hill coming up!

March Metric Workout – Asylum PM’d

F3 Q – 3.28.23

  • Asylum PM AO
  • 5:45pm – 6:30pm
  • Steam on Q
  • Accelerate You vs. You – March Metric Workout 

[ Warm o Rama ]

  • 3-5 minutes

[ The Thang ] 

March Metric Workout

  • Start the timer
  • All PAX perform each exercise for 1 full minute (no rest interval between sets)
  • Immediately following the 10th exercise (CMU deadlifts) (no rest), perform 5 minutes of CMU Thrusters (keep counting toward your total # of reps)
  • You will keep track of the TOTAL number of reps (cumulative) for each exercise below
  • Duration: 15 minutes
  •  Exercises
    • 1-minute of CMU OHP
    • 1-minute of CMU Goblet Squats
    • 1-minute of CMU Bent Over Rows
    • 1-minute of CMU BBS
    • 1-minute of CMU Biceps curls
    • 1-minute of CMU Lunges
    • 1-minute of Derkins (feet elevated on CMU)
    • 1-minute of CMU LBCs
    • 1-minute of CMU Triceps extension
    • 1-minute of CMU Deadlifts
    • 5-minutes of CMU Thrusters

Crispr recorded 1st Round # of reps

Rest 3 minutes.

Repeat the full routine – starting over with your rep count. Total duration: 30 minutes.

Submit BOTH scores – Round 1 reps and Round 2 reps (scored individually, not cumulatively).

Enter your times and reps on THIS FORM. 

[ Mary ]

Stretched for the last 60 seconds

[ COT ]

  • # off – 16
  • FNGs? – 0
  • Name o Rama
    • Pusher, Pluto, Rooney, Sparkler, Z-Bone, Lillydipper, Onstar, Crispr, Cheetah Boy, Steam, Flashback, Red Card, Abacus, Switchgrass, Down Under, Swimmies
  • Word

Pray for Nashville’s shooting victims. This morning at a small group I’m a part of one of the older guys said that you were going to see a lot of blame start to happen because of this weather it is gun control or stuff about the shooter, being transgender or the lack of security, and all this stuff. But really what it is, is that we live in a fallen world and its sin.

Do we need better precautions and things in place to protect our kids and be more responsible as citizens of this earth? Absolutely but we need Jesus even more. 

Check out these powerful lyrics, from the song “Never Let Go” by Seventh Day Slumber. I was listening to this on the way to the workout tonight and these lyrics hit really hard:

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of deathYour perfect love is casting out fearAnd even when I’m caught in the middle of the storms of this lifeI won’t turn backI know You are near
And I will fear no evilFor my God is with meAnd if my God is with meWhom then shall I fear?Whom then shall I fear?
Oh no, You never let goThrough the calm and through the stormOh no, You never let goIn every high and every lowOh no, You never let goLord, You never let go of me
And I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds onA glorious light beyond all compareAnd there will be an end to these troublesBut until that day comesWe’ll live to know You here on the earth

Listen to “Never Let Go” on Spotify

Practices Makes Progress

Asylum PM Q

  • 3.9.3
  • 5:45pm – 6:30pm
  • Meeting up top 
  • Steam on Q

[ The Scene ] 

  • March/September Metric Workout Prep workout (11 Xs)

[ Welcome/Disclaimer ]

  • Welcome to F3: Fitness – Fellowship – Faith 
  • My name is Steam and I’ll be your Q this morning 
  • A few things before we begin: 
    • I’m not a professional 
    • You’re here on your own volition
    • You know your injuries if you have any so if you need to modify anything we do today feel free to do so, but push yourselves and the men around you. They deserve it and so do you. 
  • FNGs?

[ Warm o Rama ] 

  • SSH: 25×4
  • Imperial Walker: 10×4
  • Apollo Slowno (Apollo Ono, but slow): 10×4
  • Zombies: 10×4
  • Moroccan Night Clubs (hands out and switch palms up and down): 10×4

[ The Thang ] 

Only doing the 11 Xs in the metric workout (all with your CMU, ruck plate, etc)

  • Overhead press 
  • Goblet squats 
  • Bent over rows 
  • BBS
  • Curls 
  • Lunges 
  • Derkins
  • LBCs
  • Tricep extensions 
  • Deadlifts 
  • Thrusters 

Locations (Bring CMUs, etc)

(1) Rock Pile at the top of Pickett’s Charge 

1st 5 Xs

  • Overhead press 
  • Goblet squat 
  • Bent over rows 
  • BBS
  • Curls 
  • 25s (1 count)
  • Execute 25 reps of the X
  • Run to the neighboring rock pile with your CMU/rock, etc
  • Do the same X – 25 reps 
  • Rinse and repeat this process for all 5 Xs

Mosey to location #2 

(2) Wall below the Coliseum 

2nd 5 Xs 

  • Lunges 
  • Derkins 
  • LBCs
  • Tricep extensions 
  • Deadlifts 
  • 25s (1 count)
  • Execute 25 reps of the X
  • Take a lap (no CMU/rock/etc)
  • Rinse and repeat for all 5 Xs

Mosey back to the AO for thrusters + Mary

[ Mary – FP ] 

  • 10 CMU thrusters
  • Core 4 
    • LBC: 10×4
    • American Hammer: 10×4
    • In + Outs: 10×4
    • Alabama Hello Dollys: 10×4

[ COT ]

  • # off – 15
  • Name o Rama 
  • FNGs – 0
  • Word

“Practice makes progress, not perfection.”

“The comeback is always stronger and more redemptive than the setback.”

I think these two things tie in very well to this metric workouts that we are completing together this year. If you come out here wanting to crush it and have a perfect workout every single time you’ll be disappointed. If you come out here and want to get 1% better and engage in progressive, incremental growth, your ROI will increase tenfold.