Liberty Park

Fishers of Men

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I hate mornings, I love sleep, and I’m not too fond of groups of people. That’s what I use to tell myself. At least, until I was reluctantly introduced to F3.

I fought F3 every time it was mentioned to me, starting with this weird group of guys with painted faces in the parking lot of Oak Mountain after a mud run in 40 degree weather. I fought it from the same friend I ran with after he decided to give F3 a try. It’s the mornings. Those sweet, precious moments when you are dead asleep in a warm bed, hopefully next to a beautiful woman. I thought there was nothing better. But there is!

Now I find sleep to be the necessary ingredient needed to help me have the energy to get up in the Gloom of the morning to crawl, sweat, hurt and fellowship with my new found Brothers. That initial rise out of bed in the wee hours of the morning gets overshadowed by the excitement I find when I pull up to a parking lot filled with guys I love and respect.

So, now I find myself attempting what F3 lovingly refers to as a Headlock. But, unlike most workout groups, I don’t find myself looking for that guy that is already in shape and may want to save money with a free workout (which you do). I literally tell everyone. Because everyone needs to be part of something bigger than themselves. It is less of a workout group and more of a brotherhood. Matthew 4:19 states – Jesus said to them “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to be fishers of men” There are few places to put that message from God into practice better than F3. Don’t just invite people to F3. Tell them your story. What does F3 mean to you?

This isn’t Fight Club. The first 2 rules are NOT  “Don’t talk about F3”. Slumlord ends all of his emails with “ALWAYS BE HEADLOCKING”. So, lets do our part. We are 1,000 PAX strong. Imagine the impact we can have on our community if that number doubled or even tripled. Imagine the differences we can see in our 2.0s, our M’s that witness us attempting to better ourselves. You may not realize it, but it affects them too. Its like a spark igniting a flame. This world is in desperate need of Male leaders. I can’t imagine better leaders than men that have the discipline to do the hard thing in the gloom of the morning while also following God’s word.

Let’s go be Fishers of Men

 

The Torch 12-27-18

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11 Pax sufficiently recovered from their Xmas holiday to report; it was 50 degrees and somewhat moist.

After some warm-up stretches, we did 25 Merkins in cadence (using perfect form), then mosied (sp?) over to the wall and did 15 more perfect Merkins in cadence to prime our arms and shoulders for 20 donkey kicks followed by 20 people’s air air press on the wall for 3 sets.

After the wall exercises, we did an Indian run to Bernie Hill, turning around so as not to leave any men behind.

At Bernie Hill, we partnered up for the BLAME 500, where each team did 100 each of Burpees, Lunges, Air Squats, Merkins, and Elbow Planks (counting to 100 by saying “thousand” in between each number). One partner did the exercise while the other Bernied up the hill.

The Torch – 10/16/18

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24 PAX and 2 FNGs (welcome Skeeter and Gus Bus) got better and fought through a Bernie, Burpee, Merkin beat down.

Right out the gate in cadence we did 20 merkins, 20 Ray Lewis, 15 M.Phelps

We then Mosey’d with butt kicks 75 yards then did in cadence 15 mountain climbers.  We continued the mosey with high knees for another 75 yards up a hill and then 15 mountain climbers.  And this is where the fun begins.

We made a run to Bernie hill which consisted of dropping and doing 4 Burpees at every other light pole, 32 in total.  We partnered up when we reached the hill and did a Dora exercise of 100 merkins/200 squats, one partner does merkin/squat other partner runs backwards up the hill.

After Bernie hill we went back to where we started the Burpees but this time at every other light post we did two burpees.  The kicker was at every post we increased the merkin of each burpee from 1 – 8.  PAX appeared a little tired after this so we decided to rest the upper body.

We found a wall where we did a good wall sit, then performed donkey kick offs.  First set of 5 holding 5 on the wall, set of 10 and then 5 again.  PAX loved this one.  We then mosey’d back to the Flag.

We attempted to do Burpee broad jumps but cars were in the way so we finished with a 7 set of Jack Webbs and 30 LBCs.

Great job men!

 

The Torch – 7/3/18 – Pull ups? Yes we do Pull ups

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WARM UP – Willie Mays, Little Baby Arm Circles x 30, Kick backs for 25yds, 10 Side Straddle Hope, High knees for 25yds, 10 Side Straddle Hops, Karaoke both legs 25 yards

 

MAIN WORKOUT – Run 25yds 10x Burpees, Run 25yds 20x Mountain Climbers, Run 25yds 10x Squat Jumps, Run 25yds 20x Merkins, Plank wait for all to finish.

Mosey 600yds to Playground.

20x30x40 of Pull ups, Box Jumps, Merkins.  LBCs for 30x while waiting.

Mosey 600yds back to field.

Run 25yds 7x Burpees, Run 25yds 14x Mountain Climbers, Run 25yds 7x Squat Jumps, Run 25yds 14x Merkins, Plank wait for all to finish.

Mosey 600yds to Playground.

10x20x25 of Pull ups, Box Jumps, Merkins.  LBCs for 30x while waiting.

Mosey 600yds back to field.

COOL DOWN – Kick backs for 25yds, 5 Side Straddle Hope, High knees for 25yds, 5 Side Straddle Hops

STRETCH with Core Work at end

COT, 3 FNG naming, Devotion, Lead on 3.

Great job PAX, thank you for allowing me to throw in some Pull ups.  Happy 4th!

Memorial Day Murph

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Here’s a quick backblast for today’s Memorial Day Murph out of Railroad Park.

30 PAX including one walk-on FNG (welcome Smelt) answered the call to honor a fallen American hero.  Rabbit circled us up in the rain beside the Railroad Park pavilion at 0600, and led a healthy warm-up.  We made a last minute change to a straight line 1-mile run down the Rotary Trail, instead of running around the park’s path.  Keep in mind if you are ever to use this park for F3 workouts that it officially does not open until 0700, and it does have 24 security.

It’s a good little run down that urban trail.  Rabbit stopped us a mile out at a nice little overgrown fire ant field (I only have about 40 bites on my thigh, which are burning as I type this – thanks Rabbit).  In groups of 6, we got to work on 20 sets of…. 5 burpees/10 merkins/15 squats.  A walk-on steel worker we found in the park (now F3 Smelt), was in my squad, and he did quite well.  We took this photo before heading back.

Photo May 28, 7 52 25 AM.jpg

On the way back, one more photo of Rabbit’s design.

Photo May 28, 6 59 57 AM

Rabbit capped off the fitness activities with a group set of 5/10/15.  After that, name-o-rama, announcements, and Sparrow prayed us out.

YHC mentioned in the COT, the Kohima Epitaph.  I have found it to be very moving since seeing it on a plaque in Canterbury many years ago.  It occurred to me over the weekend that although Memorial Day was created to honor American service members who made the ultimate sacrifice, many of them – were they here with us today – would likely themselves also seek to honor those who served in allied forces, either side-by-side with our American heros, or separately, but for the same cause – freedom.

In April through June of 1944, British, Indian and Nepalese forces were fighting the same cause against the unyielding Japanese, but in a theater apart from most American forces.  The Battle of Kohima (India), part of the larger Burma Campaign, was called the “Stalingrad of the East”.  The Allies saw over 4,000 casualties in that battle.  The Kohima Epitaph, which can be found at the cemetery for those fallen allies, and has been reprinted on plaques throughout the world, is as follows.

“When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow, we gave our today.”

FREEDOM IS NOT FREE.

– Fife

Photos: Korean Memorial in Washington.  A war that claimed over 33,000 American lives.

korean-war-veterans-memorial

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