F3 Asheville

What is F3?

F3 is a men's fitness group. It's free: no catches. It's open to all men. The workouts aren't not led by professionals but instead by its members. Rain or shine. Hot or cold. Bright and early in the pre-dawn gloom.

F3 is more than a boot camp workout. It's a chance for friendship. It's an opportunity for men to improve themselves -- through fitness, leadership, community service, and the strengthening of faith.

We welcome men of all fitness levels and all physical abilities to our workouts. We have no requirement for membership other than you show up on time to the location and follow what the workout leader has planned. We will not leave any man behind!

5 Core Principles

All Workouts...

1.

Are free of charge

2.

Are open to all men

3.

Are held outdoors, rain or shine, hot or cold

4.

Are led by men who participate in the workout in a rotating fashion, with no training or certification necessary

5.

End with a Circle of Trust

The 3 F's

Fitness

The backbone of F3 is fitness. Each workout is led in rotation by a volunteer member of the group. The workouts' leaders (“Qs,” in F3 lingo) offer any activities they wish as long as they can perform them themselves. As a result, F3 members are challenged and pushed in new ways every workout.

The workouts can take any form, but most adhere to a 'boot camp' or 'string of pearls' style workout. You do an exercise or set of exercises, run somewhere, rinse, repeat. Weekday workouts are 45 minutes including a warmup at the beginning and a huddle-up 'Circle of Trust' at the end. Weekend workouts start later and last an hour.

Fellowship

Let's face it, for many men, it's hard to form the kind of friendships that they remember from high school or college. Do you have someone who would visit you if you're laid out with an injury? Do you know someone that could help you move? Do you have friends that would listen to a problem you're having and really want to help? Do you have friends you could do any of these things for?

F3 is far from touchy-feely, but fellowship is important to us. Around the challenge and structure of F3, men form friendships. They are given the opportunity to help one another in the spirit of fellowship. We suffer together in the workouts. We serve together in group community service. Every workout ends with a chance for us to share something we need help with, something we're grieving over, or something we're celebrating.

Faith

Every workout ends with a Circle of Trust (CoT), and every CoT ends with a brief “shout-out” by that day's leader. They are free to pray to their god or to speak from a secular perspective — F3 is open to men of all faiths and no faith. The closing shout-out is generally the only faith-specific component of a workout. We do it because we are thankful for the opportunity to come together and build ourselves into better men. We do it because that gratitude's vocal and corporate expression builds a stronger F3 community.

Try not to be weirded out by the expression of faith! We make a real effort to be inclusive to all men. No one is going to bug you to come to their church. We're not a cult. Faith is an important part of a lot of our lives. Maybe it is or could be a part of yours too. Or maybe not. We just ask that each of our members stand respectfully while the workout leader speaks their truth.