When Edmonds resident Scott “Ferrari” Ingebretson first found F3 Nation on Nextdoor as a “free workout for men,” his first thought was “What’s the catch?” He still remembers his first day of workout when he was running – “huffing and puffing” – and lagging behind others. However, as the other men ran back to him, Ingebretson told them to go ahead of him, and he would catch up.

“That’s not what we do. We’re here for you,” the guys told him.

“That was something different,” Ingebretson recalled. “The support we give each other is beyond friendship. I can call any of these guys any time I need to. I’ve done pressure washing for the guys’ houses.”

F3 Nation is a nationwide nonprofit that started in 2011 in Charlotte, North Carolina, which has grown to encompass thousands of men on six continents who meet regularly for outdoor workouts that are free of charge. It’s open to all men of any fitness level and age, held outdoors and peer-led. 

F3 (Fitness, Fellowship and Faith) was founded by David Redding and Tim Whitmire, who saw a need for men to connect in a meaningful way beyond the gym and workplace. One of the objectives is to help develop community leadership by creating small workout groups that not only focus on physical fitness but also foster a deep sense of camaraderie and mutual support among participants.

Mountlake Terrace resident Ryan Fear has been with F3 Nation’s Puget Sound chapter for more than five years and started two groups: Hawks Nest (Mountlake Terrace) in October 2022 and Edmonds this year. 

“The fitness part of the name implies that we meet up in public spaces and workout,” Fear said. “Fellowship implies that we are there to build relationships and be there to support one another. Faith implies that you aren’t the center of the world. We aren’t specific to one faith, [and] some of us aren’t religious at all. However we seek to serve our community better through acts of service.”

When Fear moved to Seattle from Des Moines, Iowa, in 2014, the Seahawks had won the Super Bowl. He didn’t really know anybody at the time other than a close friend. If his friend moved away, Fear thought, he wouldn’t know anyone.

“Personally, I joined [F3 Nation] because I was lonely,” Fear said. “Luckily, I took action and decided to go to a workout one day. Now a few years later I’ve had F3 guys and families help me move houses, have picnics in the park and even support me when I was going through surgery for cancer. Ultimately my friend did move away, but I was better equipped to handle the situation.”

Fear started the Mountlake Terrace group that meets at Mountlake Terrace High School’s football field because there weren’t any groups on Saturdays after he moved from Kirkland. Once he had a consistent group of three to five men every Saturday, he put the group “Hawks Nest” on the F3 Puget Sound map in the summer of 2022.

“Baseline [in Lynnwood] was started in September 2020 before I was in this area,” Fear said. “The Edmonds one is still working on support before it becomes ‘official’ and put on the map.”

Fear added that before he started the groups, members would drive about 15 to 20 minutes to Seattle to work out. “Now it’s more convenient that they don’t have to commute that far,” Fear said.

Most exercises are calisthenics and require little to no equipment. If a location has outdoor equipment, such as a pull-up bar or park bench, participants may use it to create different kinds of workouts. Last Sunday, one of the members who led the group had everyone play a modified version of dodgeball at the last 10 minutes of the workout – with “Shirts” vs. “No Shirts.” If someone got hit with the ball or failed to catch the ball, they had to do six push-ups on the spot.

“The times when we do [use equipment], we might say bring a cinder block and do shoulder presses or carry them around,” Fear said. “It depends on who is leading [the group] that day.

Fear said that the workouts are done year round, rain, snow or shine. “It snowed here one time, and we had someone bring wheelbarrows, and we filled them up with snow and had races around the track,” he said. 

Fear also said that a single-gender group rather than a co-ed group encourages some men to talk about things that they typically would not share if there were women around.

“Things like vices someone could be struggling with [and] relationship issues with kids or significant others,” Fear said. “Sometimes emotional swings and self-worth. The point being sometimes a men’s group provides a unique setting for these issues to be discussed. Not necessarily at the workout, but at coffee afterwards. Sometimes not seeing someone at the workout leads to us reaching out to them to see if everything is all right as well.”

Most members in the South Snohomish County group are in their 30s and 40s, and everyone does their workout to the best of their abilities. Fear said that the oldest member, 80-year-old Patrick “Whiplash” Hughes, shows up for the weekday workouts and keeps his own pace.

Brier resident John “Clickbait” Schuster, who works in downtown Edmonds, said that he loves the connections that he had made since he joined F3 Nation in 2022. He thinks a lot of men currently lack a positive connection with other men as well as with people in general. 

“They don’t have a good way to connect, you know – like they don’t say, ‘Hey, you want to go out for coffee?’” Schuster said. “This gives a purposeful way for guys to get together. One of my favorite things is after we work out, we get to have coffee for an hour.”

Ingebretson said that he is now 25 pounds lighter since joining the group in 2019. “I’ve been in better shape than I’ve been in a long, long time,” he said. “Because of F3, I did a mission trip to Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro [last year] with some F3 guys from around the world. Anywhere you go, you know you got a good workout [with] good-quality guys.”

Show up for the workouts on weekdays at 5:30 a.m. on:

• Mondays at Edmonds Civic Center Park.
• Tuesdays at Lyndale Park.
• Thursdays at Meadowdale Playfields.
• Saturdays at 7 a.m. at Mountlake Terrace High School.

— Story and photos by Nick Ng