F3 New Orleans

Author: Maverick

  • 5 Years of F3?

    I should be in better shape by now. I haven’t been as intense as many of you, and I’ve definitely taken some chunks of time off, but I keep coming back. I come back because of you. Thanks for pushing me harder than I ever would have gone on my own.

    We did a workout that followed the evolution of what types of exercises were popular in each of the last five years (at least through the eyes of Maverick – maybe your experience was different).

    We kicked things off with a 2015 style warmup:

    Side straddle hops, imperial walkers, peter parkers, parker peters, and some arm circles.

    And then off to what I remember doing lots of in 2015: Animal Planet. Spider Crawl, Bear Crawl, Crab Walk, Backwords Bear Crawl.

    Then in 2016 running workouts with stations became popular:

    To re-live that we had four stations around Noah’s Arc. 1st: 5 burpees, 2nd: 20 merkins, 3rd: 30 squats, 4th: 40 LBCs. oh – and from this point forward anytime we heard “Sudden Change” shouted we all had to stop where we were and do 5 burpees. This happened several times during the workout. A pax popularized this in 2016 but it hasn’t been much since.

    In 2017 I remember partner exercises being in vogue:

    So we did a partner carry, leg throws, swap, repeat. Then a wheelbarrow with our partner, leg throws, etc..

    In 2018, I moved to the Northshore and remember several rounds of Tabata. I might have brought a few of those. Quick modified Tabata with high knees, butt kicks, flutter kicks, and mountain climbers.

    In 2019 games became popular. These have been some of my favorite workouts. We brought back a game played on the southshore one crazy morning in 2016 which was ultimate frisbee but the catch was we could only move by bear crawl. Ugh. We used a football and only got to do a couple of drives because of time.

    That brings us to 2020. Who knows what new exercises we’ll be doing this year, but we’re off to a good start. We did partner merkins. Maybe its new, I don’t know. Saw it in a NYC subway station a few weeks ago. Strange. Face your partner – merkin together, come up and give your partner five with your left hand, repeat with right hand, we did this x20.

    And finally we brought back something I did on my VQ. I was scanning the F3 wesbite looking for something unique to bring and not disappoint. I found Roxanne which has been a staple ever since. It doesn’t disappoint – still feeling it.

    That’s it. Thanks for a good 5 years. Hopefully many more to come.

    Welcome Diplomat!

    We closed with these words which are possibly attributed to Mother Theresa:

      People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered.  Forgive them anyway.

            If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.  Be kind anyway.

            If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies.  Succeed anyway.

           If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you.  Be honest and sincere anyway.

          What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.  Create anyway.

         If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.  Be happy anyway.

      The good you do today, will often be forgotten.  Do good anyway.

    Give the best you have, and it will never be enough.  Give your best anyway.

       In the final analysis, it is between you and God.  It was never between you and them anyway.

  • Evening Karaoke Q Workout and F2

    Nine pax posted last night for our evening workout and F2.

    We passed the Q from pax to pax throughout the workout in what turned out to be a memorable beat down as the sun set.

    Throughout four circles of pain the pax went through several warm up exercises, merkins, dips, burpees, unique games, and some Mary to wrap things up.

    Shout outs to three pax who took the Q  for some unique activities:

    • Bushwhacker a series of animals that he had been planning all day
    • Coconuts for introducing a new paper rock scissors burpee penalty game
    • Turbo Tax for a balance game that started out with skeptical pax holding hands, but turned into an intense challenge

     

    Three more pax joined us for F2 after the workout: EiEi, Ocho, and Captain Sparkles.  And special shout outs to Coconuts for buying the first round of beer and to Shooter for the second. We owe you one (or two).

    Wishing Ocho the best as the final decisions of the 610 Stompers are announced.

  • A national challenge and Proper Sister Mary Catherines/ Bonnie Blairs

    5 Pax arose to the Iron Pax Challenge on Wednesday morning.

    We stuck to the form specified here:  https://f3greenwood.com/2018/08/05/ironpaxchallenge-week-1-workout/

    And I learned that I had been doing Sister Mary Catherine’s more like a dancing nun than a praying nun.  Apparently knees should touch the ground and you’ll be way more sore the next morning.

    Here’s what we did:

     

    4 Rounds for Time:

    50 AirSquats – take note of straight back and upper legs that become PARALLEL to the ground at the lowest point, hips also clear at the top of the movement – this is a SQUAT, not a knee crinkle or a back bend

    40 BigBoiSitups – feet need to stay in contact with ground at all times (may or may not be held down by weight), chin needs to break the plane of the knees on the upward portion of the movement, shoulders need to come in contact with ground on the downward portion

    30 Merkins – flat back, chest to the ground, arms lock in the upward postion – knees and/or thighs dont come in contact with the ground

    20 BonnieBlairs – these are JUMP LUNGES, not lunge steps – both feet will be off of the ground during the transition, the knee will briefly come in contact with the ground – ONE REP consists of BOTH (right and left) knees coming into contact with the ground

    10 Burpees – these are NOT FlyingSquirrel burpees – a pushup should be done at the bottom, not a belly flop, a plyometric jump with hands above head must be at the end of the rep

    Run 400 meters

     

    Congrats to Turbo and Einstein who finished all four rounds before the the bell rang.  They’ll be reporting scores at F3Greenwood.com.  The rest of us are looking forward to the next weekly challenge.

     

  • Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?

    11 Pax posted for our Saturday beat-down.

    I hate burpees, so we knocked out the big rocks first:

    10 burpees, 9 burpees, 8 burpee,…. etc and on with the pattern continuing down until there was nothing left and then we finished off with another.. 10 burpees.

    Then we did short a short mosey to go warm up.

    • Side straddle hop (20x)
    • arm circles
    • imperial walkers
    • hillbillies
    • peter parkers
    • plank (1 minute)

    Then a short mosey over to an animal planet:

    • bear crawl (approx 15 yards out and then back)
    • crab walk
    • spider-man crawl
    • bear again

    Another short mosey:

    We reflected on a conversation from Alice in Wonderland:

    Alice: `Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’
    `That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat.
    `I don’t much care where–‘ said Alice.
    `Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said the Cat.

    We tied this in to our purpose for where we are going with family, community, career, and more relevantly – how we can reflect on our direction in and purpose on this workout to strengthen our bodies to do more of God wants us to do.

    We put this practice with a round of Merkin Tabata

    Then to help us push through limits… we reflected on this recent article from the WSJ: The Mental Tricks of Athletic Endurance

    Another round of Tabata but this time all 4 minutes were mountain climber.

    Short mosey over to do a partner wheelbarrow out and back about 20 yards – 2x

    Mosey back toward the flag. We slowed it down along the way with about 30 yards of Zombie walkers.

    Final COP of abs:

    8 more minutes of tabata with flutter kicks, american hammers and hello dollies mixed in.

     

    And.. we closed out with Roxanne.

     

  • Santa Claus is Coming to Town – so give it your best

    14 pax posted for our lightly-themed, give-it-your-best beatdown on this cold morning.

    We kicked off with 10 burpees… and then 9 burpees… and then we changed gears for a traditional warmup.

    20 side straddle hops IC

    20 (or so) imperial walkers IC

    15 forward arm circles then reverse and repeat IC

    back to burpees for  a set of 8 and then 7,  From this point forward any time we heard “sudden change” we stopped where we were and did 10 burpees.

    Mosey eastward along the lake front to a section of trees in a row.  I heard recently about a new challenge going around. Not sure that it will get as big as the ice bucket challenge did, but figured we should practice just in case.  It is the bear crawl challenge.   I’m not even sure how the challenge goes, but I’m sure it involves a lot of bear crawling, so we did a long bear crawl from tree to tree as a group.  Maybe 80-100 yards.

    Mosey eastward.

    Sudden change.

    Mosey eastward for a COP of Mucho Chesto.

    Mosey to a pavilion near the marina for a round of freak-nasties (how do you spell that?), step-ups, and box jumps.

    Mosey to a hidden playground and split into groups in 4 stations.  1) pull ups (10x), 2) LBCs (30x), 3) American Hammers (30x), 4) Flutter kicks (30x).  Rotate until all pax have done everything.

    Mosey back to the flag area with a couple of sudden changes on the way.

    Regroup near the flag for a holiday variant of what is usually Roxanne.  I passed the Q over to the Boss for a 4 minutes and 18 second Santa Claus is Coming to Town (his version if the best I’ve heard).  Every time we heard “he” we did 2 shoulder taps, on “Santa” we did a merkin, and on “Town” we did a plank jack.  It starts off slow, but really picks up at the end.

    Finish up with a round of LBCs, flutter kicks… and then a final 10 burpees.  This brought us to 90 total.  Next time we’ll get 100.

    In addition to various motivational quotes throughout the beatdown (maybe they were cheesy, but they helped me keep pushing on) we finished with some words said to be attributed to Mother Teresa : http://prayerfoundation.org/mother_teresa_do_it_anyway.htm

    Here’s the beautiful sunrise we finished up to:

    Proud to be able to workout with these Pax who have pushed me to do more pushups, burpees (sp?), crunches, and many other crazy exercises that I never would have done without you over the last few years.  Thanks for the motivation and inspiration to never quit and to keep getting better.

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Rocks of Different Sizes

    New Orleans offered another free outdoor steam room today. No need to pay a spa here.

    We kicked off the usual mosey to the usual warm-up area.

    Side straddle hops

    Imperial walkers

    Peter parkers

    arm circles forward and backwards

    Then we started with a small rock – one you can lift with one arm.

    Next a series of single are shoulder presses forward lifts, tricep extensions, and forearm rolls.

     

    form there we picked up a rock of “regular size”

    Then – curls, rows, squats, and lunges. For each exercise we started with a set of 2 and increased the reps of each set by 2 and increased to 12 and then back reduced each set by 2 until we were back down to 2.

    from there we picked up heavy rock and finished up with bench press.

    we finished up with some Mary before heading back to our COT

     

     

  • Voluntold

    Quick back blast:

    Great workout this morning with 12 pax.  I learned that someone had put me down for the Q at 5:31 AM today.  No worries. I need to learn to think quickly on the fly.

    Standard warmup:  Side straddle hop, imperial walker, arm circles, plank, Peter Parker, plank jacks

    Grab a rock and Indian run to a field.

    We ran through a series of weight exercises: curls, shoulder presses, rows, bench presses : 15 times, then 10 times, then 5 times each

    Elevens with bench presses on one side of the hill and curls on the other side.

    Headed to the pavilion for some leg work and dips.

    Indian run back to the rock pile for somethin new.

    We exchanged our current rock for the largest one we had ever picked up at F3 and finished the rock workout with a series of bench presses with max weight.

    Then on to Mary.

  • Splish Splash

    Workout started dry and rain started to fall during our warm up.

    Rain ranged from moderate to heavy throughout but the lightning stayed away.

    15 pax weren’t deterred by the weather and pushed through.

    Started with a warmup in the great lawn:

    side straddle hop x 31 ( because that’s what everyone seems to start with and I didn’t want to rock the boat)

    Imperial Walkers, arm circles, hold plank for a minute and after 20 Peter Parkers we weee warmed up

    Mosey to the museum steps.

    Here we did my modified version of an 11. Some have called it Stairway to Heaven. Some have called it Stairway to Hell:

    Bunny hop up the stairs, 10 Burpees at the top, then on the way down the stairs on merkin and then one dip in the fountain ( if you count the merkin and dip as the same exercise it adds up to 11). Then proceed in typical 11 fashion.

    Mosey to the pier over the lake for some Mucho Chesto.

    Mosey to the picnic benches under the pavilion for

    A series of dips with a break to do some step ups.

    By this point the rain was so hard we all looked like we had just climbed out of a swimming pool (but at least it wasn’t hot and there were finally no mosquitoes)

    Zombie walk on the way back to the museum.

    Break into groups of 3. Backwards crawl ( at Kim Chi’s request) up the side museum steps while the other two pax in the group do Rocky Balboas and LBC.

    We finished with a couple of the only women we met in on F3. One is Mary and the other is Roxanne.

    One FNG today who I’m pretty sure I’ve seen wearing a black and gold helmet on TV before.

  • Conquer the Burpees!

    13 Pax posted for the first cold morning workout in New Orleans.  Perfect temperature.

    I hate burpees and need to conquer them so I worked them into workout in small doses in order to accomplish a large goal.

    First -we started at the flag with .. 10 burpees

    We headed to the Peristyle for some jumps up a small wall, 5 burpees on the patform, 10 plank jacks, 5 extreme decline (balls to the wall?) merkins.  Repeat 4 times.

    Over the bridge and through some woods to warm up in a field: Arm circles, calf raises, 5 burpees, imperial walkers, some other warm-ups, 5 more burpees

    Next – over to Crawfish Island – fortunately it was cold and there were no rotten crawfish.  We grabbed a bench a did a series of box jumps, leg ups, and single-leg squats. No burpees here.

    Indian run through the front of the park with a break for some zombie walkers and… burpees.

    Next over to Delgado community college for some backwards bear crawl up the front steps while the other half of the group did LBCs.  We got kicked out.  Isn’t Delgado a public place?  The campus cop didn’t seem to want to negotiate.

    Back into the park with a couple of burpee breaks.

    Over to the the performance pavillion for some very high leg-ups and box jumps along the water with some breaks for… burpees.

    And finally we finished up on the Great Lawn with a series of animals and Mary with numerous breaks for… burpees.

    110 Burpees in all.  Apparently this is a record for the New Orleans group.  Seems to low. Will push for more next time.

    It was a big goal that I might have wanted quit on all at once…. but by conquering it one bite at a time we easily got there.

     

  • Bongo’ VQ.

    Good beat down.

    Bongo:

    Mosey to Green Lawn:
    25 — SSH
    20 — Peter Parkers
    30 — Arm Circles
    25 — Dying Cock roach
    Museam Pond
    3 sets of 10 calf raises on brick ledges
    3 sets of 10 squats??
    Mosey to Practice Track
    2 sets of 800M (2 laps) run the straights jog curve with break in middle
    Core exercise on field
    15 X-Cross Sit up
    Plank position hold and 1 set of 5 leg lifts (each leg) in middle
    Maverick:
    Started with a sudden change of 10 burpees
    Mosey through the park
    Did a bear crawl / ring of fire / mucho chesto compilation
    Mosey to the foundry
    Standard circuit
    then Partner 1 dead hangs while Partner 2 does 100 crunches. If the the hanging partner falls of the bar, the crunching partner stops until his partner is back on the bar.  Got this from the men in Nashville last week.
    Mosey back to flag..