F3 New Orleans

Author: RevSox

  • RevSox’s Birthday Party

    The news spread slowly at first but soon gained speed and momentum. The beatdown on January 28th was sure to be epic, inspiring, and convoluted with poor instructions. YHC’s birthday Q was coming and the Pax was coming out in numbers to celebrate. F3 Nation arrived in record numbers with men from Kenner, River Ridge, Metairie, Uptown, and Tallahassee to celebrate the birthday of own of their own.

    YHC began the workout with a welcome to his birthday party, the standard disclaimer, and a mosey over to the open grass next to rock pile.

    Warm-Up

    Since YHC was born 36 years ago, YHC gave us a brief trip back to 1983, a year of Pop Culture glory.

    SSH – 36

    Imperial Walkers – 20 in honor of the release of the Return of the Jedi

    Peter Parkers – 20 in honor of the comic debut of Spider-Ham

    Parker Peters – 20 because Spider-Ham hasn’t receive enough love over the last 36 years

    Playing at the Park

    The Pax was invited to go pick up one party favor (a rock) for each guest and head over to the playground for some play. Each Pax member paired up with their best friend as we tackled an exercise rotation that took far too long to explain because YHC did not anticipate numbers swelling above 20. The Pax was stationed by pairs around the playground to workout at their spot while one pair knocked out 10 pull-ups as the timer. The Pax would rotate to the next spot after each set of 10 pull-ups were completed.

    The exercise stations: Pull-ups, Partner Shrugs #1, Partner Shrugs #2, Partner Curls #1, Partner Curls #2, Underdogs, Triceps Ext, Thrusters, Bicycles, Flutterkicks, Burpees, and 8 count body builders.

    Once every pair had hit every station, the Pax grabbed their rocks and headed over to the football field.

    The Suicide

    YHC wanted to relive his old soccer practices from high school, so this required suicides, Rock City style.

    The pax lined up at the end line with their rocks and ran it to 1/4 length of the field, stopped for 15 shoulder presses, and dropped the rock. Then the pax ran back to the end line and returned to grab the rock and take it mid-field for 15 curls and dropped the rock. Then the pax ran back to the end line and returned to grab the rock and take it to 3/4 length of the field, stopped for 15 low slow squats, and dropped the rock. Finally the pax ran back to the end line and returned to grab the rock and take it to the end of the field for 15 bench presses, and ran the rock back to the starting point.

    Ultimate Frisbee

    Since this was YHC’s birthday, he wanted to celebrate with some fun. There is no better F3 fun than Ultimate Frisbee with some merkins thrown in. The Pax split into two teams (shirts vs. skins). The game was standard Ultimate Frisbee rules with the addition of 5 merkins every time there was a turnover and 10 merkins for every score.

    YHC’s team (the shirts) won a close, hard-fought battle with Scantron coming in big with two scores in a 3-2 victory!

    The Close

    The Pax took their rocks back to the pile and moseyed to the flag. TClaps to Left Eye for pushing it to the end so he could get a little extra plank in before the six arrived. This is what F3 is all about, pushing each other each morning in the gloom, so we can be stronger and faster this week than the week before.

    Counted off for a Pax of 24 to set a new Rock City attendance record.

    Name-o-rama, announcements, intentions (keep praying for the Ranger in need, Cheese Fries’ family with the passing of his friend, and the growth of our men), and we came in close for the sweaty ball of man.

    Thank you for the opportunity to lead and the birthday wishes, thanks to you all 36 will be better than 35,

    RevSox

  • Krazy Fight Club

    YHC has never been called a runner. He hates running. He has spent his life avoiding running and even walking of any significant distance. F3 came into his life and now he runs. YHC loves and hates F3.

    YHC is also competitive, so when he saw the beatdown that the North Shore gave to South in last year’s Krazy Ivan, he was determined to help his brothers overcome the conquerors from the North. He may not run fast. He may not even be able to finish the Krazy Ivan, but YHC is going for it on January 19th.

    So this week and next week’s Fight Club will run in preparation for the Krazy Ivan. A pax of four arrived ready for a good training run in the mist and fog with outside temps in the low 60s.

    YHC gave the welcome, disclaimer, and led a short warm-up of 30 SSH, 10 Windmills, and 20 Peter Parkers.

    The Pax went to the top of levee, and we ran 20 minutes to the west. War Eagle and Rev Sox traveled 1.9 miles out west and then back to the boxing statues while Hawg and Hokie Powkey traveled 1.75 out west and back. The highlight of the run occurred about 1/2 down the path when War Eagle barely missed stepping on a dead possum on the path. Since War Eagle is from Alabama, YHC expected him to collect the Possum and take it home for his little lady to cook up for dinner, but to YHC’s suprise, War Eagle left that good country meat on the path.

    The Pax came in right at 6:15 for the count-off, name-o-rama, announcements, and prayer.

    Thanks for the run brothers,

    Rev Sox

  • mano a mano

    YHC bounced alone on this cold fall morning at the Fight Club waiting for the next challenger to step forward and face the best A/O in F3 New Orleans, maybe the best A/O in the F3 Nation. No other site can best the history of the Fight Club as the site of the first heavyweight boxing championship, no other site has such a daunting combination of hills, stairs, and ramps, no other site has as many flags, no other site has such a handsome Q…

    Finally at 5:29am Hawgcycle pulled in for a one on one challenge against YHC for this morning’s Fight Club, and YHC kindly moseyed over to Hawg’s car, gave the disclaimer as he laced his shoes, and we were off.

     

    Warm-Up

    YHC discovered a nice long ramp up the levee just past the police training center, so we moseyed down to the ramp, up the hill, and back to the original start for a warm-up

    SSH – 20

    Hillbillies – 20

    Imperial Walkers – 20

    Windmills – 10

    Annies – 20

    Shoulder taps – 20

    Plank Jacks – 20

     

    H8

    It was time to throw down in the cold. Hawg vs. Rev on the Fight Club version of the H8. Up the stairs, bear crawl across at the American flag, finish the climb up the stairs to the top, back down the other side, bear crawl across at the American Flag, down the steps to the start for 8 count descending burpee merkins. 20 minutes of H8.

    YHC kept pace with Hawg for a few laps, but Hawg’s superior endurance won the day. 20 minutes of H8 with 9 laps for YHC and 10 laps for Hawg.

     

    The Fight Club Standard

    YHC loves to sit at the wall outside the Kenner OMV at the Fight Club, so the Pax of two moseyed down to OMV for two good wall sits. Each wall sit ended with a 15 count in cadence of air shoulder presses. The Pax walked across the street for a suicide in the parking lost and moseyed back to the flags for the finish.

     

    Mary

    Hello Dolly – 18

    American Hammer – 10

    Wife Pleasers – 20

    Big Boy Situps – 10

     

    The Conclusion

    Great workout in the cold. Thanks Hawg for pushing YHC this morning.

    Please be in prayer for Charlie Sabrio, a man in our church who had his leg amputated just above the knee to stop the spread of cancer. There is a chance that the cancer may still be in his leg.

    Pray for Hawg’s parents as his mom continues to battle with cancer.

     

    -RevSox

  • Three is the Magic Number

    Well Fight Club is destined to be a workout for three. It doesn’t matter who drives out or stops by for a random morning beatdown, we will always have three. YHC will thrilled to see War Eagle arrive, knowing that JV and Hawg were on the way, YHC was excited to bust out some Dora for the first Wednesday since the Fight Club launch. Alas, Hawg fartsacked for something called R3 (rest, relaxation, and recovery). Since War Eagle and Jingle Vader are part of F3 we got in a glorious three man beatdown this morning.

     

    WarmUp

    SSH – 27 (to remind War Eagle in his ugly sweatshirt that the Yankees still have more WS Championships)

    Hillbillies -20

    Arm Circles – 10 forward and 10 reverse

    Inchworms – 20

    Windmills – 10

     

    Hold a Plank

    YHC is terrible at holding a plank position*, so the Pax moseyed back to the start and held a plank for a while. During the plank we did some exercises.

    Shoulder taps – 20

    Annies – 20

    Peter Parker – 20

    *YHC is still horrible at holding a plank.

     

    Big Laps

    The Fight Club has a long sweet ramp up the levee that is great for a calf burning run. The Pax did 5 big laps up the ramp, down the stairs and around the parking lap back to the ramp. At the end of each lap the Pax did descending burpees to celebrate the completion of each lap.

     

    Bear crabs

    Bear crawl from one bench to the other and do 15 incline merkins

    Crab walk back and do 15 dips

    Repeat twice with 10 and then exercises. There was a great deal of complaining at this point in the beatdown. JV’s hands hurt and War Eagle complains like an Alabama fan would if they needed to play an LSU schedule. War Eagle’s complaints continued throughout the beatdown. Nothing makes a Q smile like some good complaints from the Pax.

     

    The OMV

    Mosey down to the Kenner OMV and take a seat on the wall while the Pax waits for our numbers to be called. Since the OMV is currently closed, the wait was longer than normal. Ended the first sit with some air shoulder presses and ended the second sit by holding our arms in the Al Gore position.

     

    Suicide Merkins

    The Pax crossed the road to the parking lot for some suicides between the light poles. At each light pole, stop and do 5 merkins at the first pole, 10 at the second, and 15 at the third.

     

    Lunge Walk back

    The Pax alternated between lunge walks and mosey at each telephone pole on the way back to the start.

     

    Mary

    Wife Pleasers – 20

    Hello Dolly – 20

     

    Circle up, Count Off, Name-O-Rama, Announcements, and Prayer

    Thank you men for coming out to the Kenner for a beatdown and thank the Lord for the joys of salvation in Christ and community in the Church and our families,

    Rev Sox

  • Red Badger Friday

    Red Badger Friday

    Seven Pax gathered in the gloom of Friday, November 2nd for a beatdown in honor of Chief Petty Office Mark “Badger” Carter. On December 11, 2007, the Badger (the 5’5″ Carter received his nickname after besting a fellow Seal who was 6’5″ in a wrestling match) was killed while fighting in Iraq along with his fellow Navy Seals. We honor him by pushing ourselves in this morning’s beatdown.

    Warm-Up

    SSH – 20

    Peter Parkers – 20

    Shoulder Taps – 20

    Hillbillies – 20

    The Badger

    Grab your rock for the Badger which consisted of six rounds of fun. Each round was one lap around the track followed by 15 squats with a large rock and then 15 pull-ups. Most of the Pax knocked out the six rounds with a few throwing in some extra credit work. Tclaps to Triple Shift for doing his squats with a boulder.

    Renamed

    Count-off, Name-O-Rama and then…

    Tool requested a name change for Stone Age who received his name last Friday. Tool asked that his suggestion of Stonehenge be considered since he couldn’t pull it out of his memory last week. YHC was feeling generous as Stone Age gave him the best compliment he has received since joining F3 about half way through the Badger, so Stone Age has been renamed to Stonehenge.

    We ended in prayer with much prayer being sought for the parents of our Pax. May God empower us to be faithful sons to the men and women who raised us as they age.

    -RevSox

  • The Other October 31st Holiday

    On this day, 501 years ago, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the Church Doors of Wittenberg and launched the Protestant Reformation and 501 years later a fool named Rev Sox incorporated 95 and 1517 into the F3 NOLA Fight Club. It was a workout of two, but Gremlin stuck it out to the end now that he is back with us. Looking for more men in River Ridge, Harahan, and Kenner to show up for the Fight Club.

    Warm-Up

    Following the standard disclaimed, YHC led the Pax on a short mosey to our warm-up spot down the road.

    SSH – 20

    Annies – 20

    Imperial Walkers – 20

    Real Freddie Mercury – 20

    Arm Circles – 20 (10 forward and 10 backwards)

    Windmills – 10

    The Mini H8

    The Pax moseyed back to the boxing statues and stairs for a miniaturized version of the H8. The Pax would run up the steps to the level with the American Flag, bear crawl across to the other set of stairs, run to the top of the steps and back over to the other side and back down. The Pax stopped at the American Flag again and bear crawled over to the other side. The Pax ran down to the bottom for an 8 count descending burpee-merkins.  The Pax completed 4 laps of the mini-H8. The burpee-merkins dropped from 8 to 6 to 4 to 2 at each lap.

    Purgatory

    The church teaching that started the Reformation was the selling of indulgences to pay one’s way out of purgatory. YHC believes waiting at the DMV is an earthly purgatory, so the Pax moseyed down to the local DMV to do a little Reformation Day Purgatory.

    Sit on the wall for 95 seconds

    15 merkins

    Sit on the wall for 95 seconds

    17 merkins

    Sevens

    The Pax moseyed back to the stairs for sevens to finish out the time. LBC’s on the bottom and jump squats on the top. Run up one set of stairs and down the next.

    The End

    Count off, Name-O-Rama, Announcements, and Intentions – pray for Gremlin as he is getting some spots on his lungs looked at next week and Hawg’s mom with cancer

    Thanks for pushing yourself Gremlin,

    Rev Sox

  • Trail Life Meet F3

    Trail Life Meet F3

    YHC’s church (Grace Community Bible Church) is home to the local Trail Life Troop LA 1504. Trail Life is a church based scouting group. This week the scouts were learning about nutrition and sports. The normal leader backed out due to an unexpected commitment at the last minute. YHC needed to teach the scouts about exercise and the only exercise he knows is F3, so he took six kids through their first beatdown at dusk yesterday evening.

    Started with the typical disclaimer and spent a lot of time teaching the boys about cadence. 4-8 year old boys do not do well with cadence.

    Then spent a long time getting the boys to stand in a circle. 4-8 year old boys do not do well with basic instructions.

    The warm-up was a five count in cadence for SSH, Peter Parkers, Imperial Walkers, and Windmills.

    Then the boys did a run of sevens. Sevens went much better than the warm-up in cadence. The Pax started with six LBC’s on one side of the yard and did 1 SSH on the other. They completed the full run of sevens with ease.

    YHC had limited time, so the PAX ended with a little Mary. Ten counts in cadence of both penguins and dying cockroaches.

    The boys did the standard circle of trust and we named them. YHC did not receive any help with the names from the PAX, so he picked something from each of the boy’s favorite shows. We had Splinter, Garmadon, Marshal, Mustang, Black Hamster, and Doctor Strange.

    If any of you are interested in getting your 2.0 involved with Trail Life, let YHC know. He would love to have a couple of F3 dads involved with our local troop. Trail Life USA

    Rev Sox

  • The Early Bird

    They say, “The Early Bird Gets the Worm.” F3 Men must get lots of worms, because we get at it early for the morning beatdown. This morning YHC was looking to get it started extra earlier as he started the disclaimer at 5:28am. Several of the Pax quickly pointed out that he was jumping the gun, and he discovered that his watch was two minutes fast, so he backed off.

    Two minutes later…disclaimer, 13 Pax in attendance as we took off on a mosey to the rock pile for the Warm-Up

    Special Guest Q

    YHC noticed several weeks ago that his brother War Eagle was starting to look fairly comfortable at F3 workouts(as comfortable as one can be at a pre-sunrise beatdown). He was running with the Pax and never finishing as the 6, so YHC took it upon himself to sign up War Eagle to Q the Uptowner in November. Today was the morning for War Eagle to practice his cadence in anticipation of the big day. War Eagle was more than up to the task as for the first time in my year of F3, a rookie led the warm-up with no snide remarks or “helpful” comments from the Pax.

    SSH – 25

    Mountain Climbers – 20

    Imperial Walkers – 20

    Peter Parkers – 20

    Hillbillies – 20

    Parker Peters – 20

    Route 66

    Time for everyone’s favorite moment of the work week – let’s grab a rock. We picked up our rocks and moseyed to the far tree line near the picnic benches for some Route 66. YHC enjoyed this workout so much on his last Q that he had to go for another round. Ascending tricep extensions starting with 1 at the first tree and ending with 11 extensions on the 11th tree. Let’s get those triceps burning.

    Suicide By Merkins

    YHC set out 4 cones on the field this morning, so the Pax could begin and end the workout with some suicides. The Pax was grateful for YHC’s planning. The opening suicide was Suicide By Merkins. Run a standard suicide but at every cone, hit the ground, and knock out 10 merkins for a total of 80. Tricpes were burning more after the merkins.

    The Conveyor Belt

    Mahatma-Ice made a call for the Pax to select rocks for Rock City as opposed to pebbles or skipping stones. YHC decided that Mahatma was right, so he led in a workout that would require the Pax to use everyone else’s rocks to challenge the whole Pax to up our rock size (unless you are Mahatma or Triple, for them this workout just led to a break from their normal boulder workouts). Two men were stationed at each of the trees that were used for Route 66. YHC would lead an exercise in cadence, following the exercise, the Pax will drop their rocks, and bear crawl to the next tree or rock pair. The Pax did exercises until everyone did one exercise at each tree.

    The exercises for the conveyor belt:

    Shoulder Press

    Curls

    Rockettes

    Rows

    Curls

    Low Slow Squats

    Bench Press

    The Picnic Benches

    From the tree line, we took our rocks to the picnic benches for a few exercises.

    Channing Tatums – 20

    Sit down, Stand Up with Rock (Don’t ask it was dumb)

    Tatum Channgings – 20

    Sitting on the Wall

    YHC always loves a good wall sitting on rock days. The Pax sat until YHC’s legs began to burn then started a 20 count of rows in cadence. Shook out our legs and then sat again. This round of sitting ended with 20 count curls in cadence.

    Standard Suicide

    Back to the field for a good old fashioned suicide. YHC was slightly disappointed by the Pax’s speed on the suicide. Next time he Q’s there will be more suicides at Rock City.

    Mary

    The Pax was instructed to deposit their rocks on the pile and return to the flag. YHC got a little confused during the workout due to the time being off on his watch. Instead of arriving at the flag 2 minutes late (6:15am to the world), he arrived 2 minutes early (6:11am). This meant 4 minutes of the Mary that he was hoping to avoid.

    LBC – 25

    Penguins – 20

    Hello Dolly – 15

    Wife Pleasers – 20

    The Conclusion

    Count-Off, Name-0-rama, Announcements (2.0 workout on Saturday at 7:30am at Audubon Park and the Fight Club at 5:30am on Wednesday), Intentions, Prayer

    Thanks for the opportunity to lead and a special thanks to War Eagle for his F3 growth. If anyone wants to guest Q at the Fight Club in Kenner let me know.

    Rev Sox (I’ve never hated my name more than right now – Go Dodgers!)

     

  • Grab Your Long Underwear!

    YHC walked out of his house this morning at 5:12am to a wonderful feeling of 64 degree temps with low humidity. It was amazing and felt like the F3 mornings he remembered from the days when he was an F3 novice. No theme or story for this morning’s workout, just a lot of reps with rocks.

    Warm-Up

    SSH -27 (for the Yankees who will suffer through another off-season with only 27 championships)

    Arm Circles – 10 forward and 10 backwards

    Hillbillies – 20

    Parker Peters – 20

    Annies – 20

    Windmills – 10

    Route 66

    We grabbed our rocks and strolled over to the tree line across the field and next to the parking lot. Since there is a perfect line of 11 trees, it made the ideal spots for Route 66. We did one rep at the first tree and added one rep at each tree, so we would finish with 11 reps at the final tree for a total of 66 reps.

    Round One – 66 triceps extensions

    Round Two – 66 shoulder presses

    Triple Nickel

    The key to this workout is the number 5, hence the name.

    5 curls

    lunge walk 5 steps with each leg

    5 rows

    lunge walk 5 steps with each leg

    5 Low slow squats

    Rinse and Repeat

    Fence Sitting

    YHC wasn’t sure what to do next, so he led the pax over to the fence for the tennis courts. We did some fence sitting together. We sat until YHC’s legs began to burn and then did 20 curls together. Stand up and shake the legs out. Repeat and end with 20 rows.

    Head to Toe

    Circle up for a series of rock exercises. The rock will start high and slowly get closer to the ground with each set. The key is to never put the rock down until we get on our backs for the push-ups.

    18 – shoulder press

    18 – curls

    18 – low slow squats

    18 – rows

    18 – push-ups

    Repeat the same with rep counts of 9 and then once more with rep counts of 5.

    Mary

    20 – American Hammer

    20 – Wife Pleasers

    Get out of the cold and inside for some Hot Coffee to warm-up

    Count off, name-o-rama, announcements, and intentions with a closing prayer in our not-so-sweaty ball of man

    thanks for the privilege to lead,

    Rev Sox

  • The Journey to 28

    The Journey to 28

    This morning is the beginning of a momentous journey for all baseball fans as the New York Yankees begin their quest for their 28th World Series Championship. To cheer on the Yankees, YHC tried to bring out the Yankee spirit among this morning’s PAX at the Fight Club. Following the disclaimer and a short mosey, we began with a standard warm-up

    The Warm-Up

    Imperial Walker – 27 (We started as the evil empire.)

    Annies – 20

    Windmills – 20

    Low Slow Squats – 20

    Noah’s Ark

    The PAX ran a big lap up the levee ramp and down the steps back to the starting point. YHC then introduced a new exercise inspired by the Rev in his name. The PAX will now imagine that we are each fulfilling the role of Noah and trying to get the animals and our children away from the flood waters and up to higher ground on the levee (New Orlean’s ineffective ark). The PAX will climb the levee by going up the fight set of steps and then across the grass while doing the bear crawl to the steps on the other side. After going up the next few steps, the PAX will cross the grass back to the other side while doing the crab walk. Up a few more steps and back over doing the monkey hop. Up the last few steps and back over while doing the boo boo baby. (See the picture if you have never been to La Salle Landing to get some idea of what YHC is talking about)

    Now that the PAX is at the top of the levee, YHC informed them that there is a rare reading in the Hebrew text of the story of Noah’s Ark. Jack and his three sons Jack, Jack, and Jack all fartsacked onto the ark and Noah threw them out to splash in the waves and drown. The PAX will now play the role of the Jacks as we descend the levee. This time the PAX will go down a level, stop in the middle as they cross to the other side for 20 smurf jacks. They will continue to go down the levee and stop at each level for 20 plank jacks, 20 chilly jacks, and 20 jumping jacks.

    The Intermission

    YHC killed some time with a 20 count of Rocky Balboas and 20 dips.

    Deconstructed Burpees

    The PAX started at the bottom of the levee (away from the steps) for a few deconstructed burpees. The PAX did 28 merkins on the bottom of the levee and ran up and over levee for 28 jump squats on the bottom of the other side. Two more rounds of 18 merkins and jump squats, followed by 8 merkins and jump squats. The 8 is in honor of Yogi Berra. Yogi is the greatest Yankee ever with a record of 10 World Series championships and the king of quotes. 8 is also the only Yankee number retired twice as it was also worn by the legendary Bill Dickey.

    Mary

    The PAX triangled up to end with a little Mary.

    Wife Pleasers – 20

    Penguins – 20

    American Hammer – 20

    Dying Cockroach – 20

    Flutterkicks – 10

    O Dolly – 10

    The Conclusion

    Count off, Name-o-rama, announcement, and intentions. Thanks River Ridge Bros for coming out this morning for a beatdown and for putting up with my Yankee fandom (it’s not as bad as Rudy’s Notre Dame obsession).