Warmup SSH, mtn climber, arm circles, etc
Partner of 2 OYO as many as you can do while partner runs around NOMA with weight (music playing) – any exercise can be swapped for burpees
1: low slow squats
2: shoulder taps
3: incline wife pleaser
4: bob and weave
5: alternating toe taps
6: LBCs
7: imperial squat walkers
5 burpees
5 min of Sunday Mornings
4 mins of Mary to Zydeco
COT
Q vs Q on 1/7/2022
Our Department had been receiving calls for months about a group of “guys” working out at 5:30 a.m in Kenner. The complaints were never about the noise or other nuisances, but they were about the form. He complained about the push ups…. (they call it “Merks or Merkins”), squats, lunges, burpees, and the list goes on. I recognized his voice every time he called. I couldn’t ignore his complaints anymore since he was so persistent and passionate about the form. As Lieutenant King Kong from the Form Police Department, I showed up on 1/7/2022 ready to hand out citations.
Upon arrival, I noticed 13 other “guys” (they call themselves “Pax”) showed up promptly on a cold, chilly, windy morning. While I was introducing myself to the Pax and why I was there…. One of the Pax called himself “Rudy” aka Lucky Bear was challenging and questioning me like he was defending his turf.
A Kenner Native named “Mambi” led a warm up with jumping jacks (they call it “side straddle hops”), windmills (aka “Abe Vigoda”), and a stretch named “grass grabbers.”
I saw an opportunity to take the lead after Mambi was done with the warmups. I called out another Kenner Native – Mahatma to demonstrate the proper form of a Merkin…. then Gabrielle with squats. After the demonstrations, I led the Pax with 10 merkins, ran to the stop sign, did 10 squats, ran back. When I noticed bad forms, I blew my whistle and everyone had to do 5 burpees. We did that for about 2 rounds… then Lucky Bear interrupted me by telling the Pax to grab a “coupon”, which is a cinder block, and headed towards the levee.
At the levee, we did something called Gorilla. With a coupon, PAX performed the following OYO without stop: 8 Curls For Girls, 8 Rows, 8 Overhead Presses, 8 Chest Presses, then drop coupon followed this up by a quick mosey over the levee and back. Rinse and repeat until Lucky Bear yelled “halt.” Afterwards, we did few rounds of king kong with the coupon up and down the levee until Lucky Bear yelled halt again.
At this point, I’m getting tired of Lucky Bear’s nonsense… so I gathered the Pax away from the levee and redirected their focus back on form, but this time with the coupon. We did 7’s (one side with a manmaker, ran to the stop sign and did squats). About half way through, I was interrupted again by Lucky Bear. He must have loved my idea of 7’s. He instructed the Pax to do “Lucky 7’s” – 7 burpees follow with an exercise of his choice in one minute for seven minutes nonstop. I blew my whistle couple times when I noticed his bad form.
By the end of this, Mambi had enough and halted the entire workout because the environment felt like Form Police versus Lucky Bear. The group voted that I was the winner…. didn’t even know I was in a competition. Now I was asked by the Pax to come back out to Kenner in a month and challenge someone else. They called this “Q vs Q.” I called this a sucker bet to get me out to Kenner at 5:30 a.m. Since I don’t mind getting back out here, only fitting for me to challenge the caller who filed all these complaints. He is Triple Shift.
Side notes worth mentioning – Fracsac showed up in a Godzilla costume looking for King Kong. Willie is the one who gave me the idea to be Form Police. But the Oscar award winning acting and calling out Triple Shift…. That’s all me.
Blessed and honored to lead a Q vs Q workout. SYITG.
King Kong
I checked my phone one last time before going to bed Friday night, only to find Gabrielle looking for someone to take his Q at Misty Mountain in the morning. I decided to help a brutha out! I was not feeling particularly creative, so I designed the workout based on what I thought Gabby would do. We started with a warm up beneath the Oak trees in front of Tulane University… All in cadence.
SSHx20, Arm Circles F/B x10, Imperial Walkers x20, Grass Grabbers x10
I cant believe I forgot the Open Gates and Toy Soldiers. That was a miss on my part!
After a mosey to the base of the Mountain. We knocked a a Route 66 of Burpees starting with one rep on the bottom, and ending with 11 at the very top, adding one rep per side per floor. Gabby loves him some Route 66!
We then made our way down to the benches for the R/L leg power ups, incline and decline merks and dips. Chiquita very astutely pointed out that Gabby would demonstrate each exercise and give a long-winded description of each to the PAX. So i did my best Gabby impression. Judging by the laughter that ensued, the PAX thought it was a very uncanny impression of Gabby!
We ended the Gabby experience at Rosy Palm Court with low slow squats (butts hitting the bench) in cadence x15, and Mary with each PAX leading an Ab exercise. On our mosey back to the flag, Subprime pointed out that Gabby’s shirt is waaaay tighter than mine, and we were actually headed back to the flag on time…
We ended with COT and cawfee under the oaks in Audubon Park.
All Day Baby…..(it may take that long to read this thing)
There is so much diversity in our Pax that if you stick around long enough you’ll learn something not only about various beatdowns but yourself as well!
This leads us to the gloom of today…..
YHC had an idea for incorporating a recent Rudy based beatdown and lore from recent grow rucks (and past military experiences) all designed to make a physically and mentally uncomfortable environment while pushing beyond a comfort zone.
Short disclaimer then mosey to the great lawn circle up for a quick warm up of SSH, windmills, grass grabers, side lunges and self love.
Then line up for craw-daddy’s where you start in a plank position bar crawl approx 10 yds perform 2 merkins and 2 double unders bear crawl another 10 yds then 4 and 4, bc then 6 and 6, bc then 8 and 8 now hold plank for the 6.
We are getting warm now! Oh look hear 5 blocks set up in a line – all pax line up in plank position shoulder to shoulder on the left of the blocks now side step plank across and over until the last pax completes the line HOLD plank once complete we went back the other direction!
Now warmed up the morning mission is given out pax divided into 4 groups 3 of 3 and 1 of 4 (Diddy Kong was the muscle of this group). Each group was to carry a block overhead at all time – if for any reason the block was lowered below eye level then the that team of pax had to do 3 burpees with instructions given we headed out for our objective – YHC left some additional blocks by the Stomp’s starting point to be retrieved – along the way YHC would have the groups stop for some varied exercises (blocks must be maintained in the overhead position). See a need for some change at some point YHC had PAX circle up and instructed that the blocks over head could be lowered yet there was some hesitancy by a few pax that thoughts this might be some evil trick to have them do burpees – not the case yet Rudy even requested YHC to make some ridiculous statement “Simon Says”. It was left up to his judgement to follow or not. From here we were close to a 1/2 point – so we pushed on – Once at the Stomp teams now retrieved 2 additional blocks that had to be farmer carried back with 1 Pax still keeping the other block over head. YHC realized he under estimated the strength of Vagabond and his gang as they seemingly toyed with their overhead block holding it with one hand while the rest of us grunted and mentally pushed through YET karma had her way when during an exchange their block dropped and so did they giving 3 punish burpees.
As we were 1/2 way back Snooze all of as sudden remembered he had leave 15 minutes early putting his team of YHC and Frac to ponder the thought of carrying the blocks solo! Well YHC being selfish attempted to push the pace apparently giving the impression he was looking past his teammate Frac but with all the chirping from the normal suspects of Bogy and Rudy (maybe War Eagle too but he often got sidetracked as many millennials do looking at text on his phone while he was supposed to be working). Anyway YHC knew Fracs strength to carry on!
Back at the great lawn we finished the adventure with some individual block exercises (and complaining) closing with some more block over block plank trains and 10 man makers.
As we returned to the flag YHC requested the blocks be returned to his truck where Rudy was defiant until he he heard “Simon Says”.
COT – prayers of gratitude and humility for serving others. Also recognizing the strength of joy in others as Tool is prepping for an 18 year birthday celebration for Speed-Racer.
God Bless
The weather this morning may have been the closest to perfect F3 weather that exists. The PAX were grateful for a cool breeze and dry grass, especially as the burpee count continued to rise.
PAX: Goose, Percolator, Enron, Pope, Coyote
Warmup: SSH, WM, AC (fore, back), Cherry pickers, IW, Self love
Thang 1:
Moseyed to the Thunderdome in a roundabout fashion to wake the legs and lungs up. Once there, PAX partnered up for BOMBS. As one PAX ran to the bathroom building and completed three donkey kicks against the brick wall, the other worked on:
50 Burpees
100 Overhead presses in people’s chair position (sitting against a column)
150 Merkins
175 Big Boi Situps
200 Squats
YHC was quick to choose Coyote as partner to the chagrin of Enron–we all know how Coyote rolls–though the pace was about even for most of it. The overhead presses went pretty quick (especially for Coyote), but the rest was nice and grueling.
Thang 2:
Moseyed to the Chimney for a Rock, Paper, Scissors, Burpees competition. Each round, the winner does merkins while loser does burpees–1 for first round, 2 for second, etc., up to 10. YHC still has some lingering PTSD from the first time I did this on the Northshore at Granny’s. Steve was my partner throughout, and I lost the last 9 out of 10 rounds, which meant a total of 54 relatively non-stop burpees broken intermittently only by a couple seconds of hope that I might win the next round and catch my breath only to have my metaphorical head dunked back under the metaphorical water. Steve, if you’re reading this, your mind-reading witchcraft is going to send you straight to hell.
This time, we switched partners each round to stem some of the mind reading, though Enron bragged after round 7 that he’d only done one burpee thus far. His prided ended up being his undoing as rounds 8-10 resulted in straight burpees for the expert strategist.
With about ten minutes remaining, we gathered around a bench on the trail for alternating incline merkins/diamond merkins/werkins on the back of it and step ups on the front. Indian run back to the flag with the last man running backward to the front of the line.
Mary at the flag was 30 Scuba Steves, 25 Australian Sweat Angels, 15 static wife pleasers, 15 normal wife pleasers, and 10 count Lazy Boys (straight, right, and left) all IC 4-count. Coyote wistfully stated that the Lazy Boy’s reminded him of Wet Tap, then looked into the distance and sighed. The PAX responded with slow, understanding nods and a moment of silent reflection, remembering the good times.
COT and Coyote prayed us out. Thanks for pushing today, fellas! It was an honor to be with you!
SYITG,
Goose
Upper thirties and breezy made the second level of the parking garage the better choice.
Warmed up with 20x IC SSH/Slow Squats/Windmills/Torso Twist/Self Love High Low and Hug maybe something else. Then a lap around the garage and back to the start for the thang.
Really simple. Split the PAX on either end of the garage and first man took off dragging “The Chain” (120’ of 3/8” cargo chain) the full length of the parking garage. Wire to wire. On rough concrete that makes for some serious effort.
While waiting a turn the rest cycled through 5 Reps each of Squats/Merkins/SSH til everyone had two drags.
Straight into shuffle left/right the length of the second deckand back. Then up the stairs double pumping each step calf raises.
At the top another shuffle left/right to the ramp and back peddle down to second deck for some core.
On our sticks for 20x IC Crunches/Leg Lifts/Jane Fondas
With 5 minutes to go another round of chain for everyone. COT
Four PAX made their way to the stage this morning for a much warmer than prior day’s beatdown. It was YHC’s first Q of the year and first overall foray into the world of backblasting. Soreness in the shoulders from Goose’s Q on Tuesday helped direct the course of today’s beatdown.
PAX: Enron, Cardinal, Goose, Paradox
Warmup: the usual plus a couple – SSH, WM, AC, Cherry Pickers, Grass Grabbers, IW, Butt Kicks
Thang 1:
2 rounds – 60 second plank followed by 50 LBCs
Thang 2: Decreasing Ladder – SSH and Burpees
SSH x 25 – attempted to do in cadence but quickly moved to individual count after this round
Burpee x 5
SSH x 20
Burpee x 4
SSH x 15
Burpee x 3
SSH x 10
Burpee x 2
SSH x 5
Burpee x 1
Thang 3: Leg, Cardio and Core: Q War
Eager to use a newly received F3 Deck of Death, YHC brought out the cards. Although, due to shoulder soreness from Goose’s upper body heavy session on Tuesday, all the Upper body (diamonds) and half the cardio cards (hearts) were pulled out of the deck.
Cards were split in half, giving one half to PAX and Q keeping the other. The game of war began with the group completing the winning card’s labeled exercise at the end of each match. The Cardio Cards (hearts, and the only red cards left in the deck) were an automatic trump and were completed no matter what the other card was.
# Cards – # on card plus 10 of exercise labeled on card
Face Cards – 25 of exercise labeled on card
Ace – 100 of Exercise labeled on card
Played until Q was out of cards
Thang 4 – Tabata
4 rounds – 40 on 20 rest
Freak Nastys
Step Ups
Incline Merkins
Box Jumps
Two minutes of Mary with 20 Leg raises and ended with 25 LBCs
COT and Goose prayed us out
Only four arrived for the start of the Wally Run with YHC, Tenderloin, Vagabond, and Frac present. YHC gave a quick disclaimer announcing that this was F3 and it was time to run/ruck for the next 45 minutes. Frac, as the profound leader of F3 NOLA, announced that this Wally Run would be different from all others.
Frac took control and led the Pax of 4 in the start of a long mosey to the Capitol Hill to storm the legislator in honor of Insurrection Day. His speech was so stirring. His words so poetic. His appearance so rugged. Tenderloin, Vagabond, and YHC were transfixed and began the mosey with urgency. The Wally Run Pax would forever be known as the Four Horsemen of the Insurrection. The Four Horsemen began the long 1,124 mile trek to Capitol Hill which would only take 370 hours based on Google predictions.
Fortunately, Hawg arrived late to the Wally Run and missed Frac’s legendary speech. Armed with nothing but flip-flops and the legend of a WDSU news story, he called on the Four Horsemen to cease their foolish pursuit. Awakened from the fog of Frac’s momentous call to upheaval, the Four Horsemen retreated from their goal to arrive at the flag by 6:15am for the count-off and prayer.
– Rev Sox
The first Scramble in 2022 produced familiar faces on a beautiful non humid gloom. YHC arrived to the sites of Hammer completing some pre stretches. After some brief chatter Zoolander came rolling in followed by Waterpik with his usual prethang miler or so before and after the Scramble..
Brief warmup of 20, 15 and 10 SSH, Imperial walkers, Merkins, Butt kicks, Squats, Lunges, Self love and Grass grabbers.
Moseyed in pairs for about 4 miles through the Hermitage and down West Beach to Lakeshore and back up to Monroe with another loop through Hermitage..
Arrived back right on time to close with count, announce and COT..
Appreciate Waterpik closing us out in 🙏🏼!!
Until the next Gloom 👍🏼👊🏼✌🏼!!!
Happy New Year’s Pax! It’s humbling for YHC to be Q’ing the first Birdcage of 2022. Here’s to 2022 being better than 2021 (it’s gotta be right?). So, with a disclaimer and a quick run-down of our 5 core principles and motto for our FNG we are off!
Moseyed to the Soccer Field for Warm-Up
• Imperial Walkers IC X15
• Toe Taps IC X15
• Self Love IC X15
• Peter Parker’s IC X10
• Parker Peter’s IC X10
Mosey to Audubon statue and partner up for B.O.M.B.S all below counts are cumulative. PAX one runs around median while PAX two completes exercises. Flapjack till reps are complete.
• 50 Burpees
• 100 OH Press in People’s Chair
• 150 Merkins
• 175 Big Boy Sit-Ups
• 200 Squats
Next, mosey to track for a little Route 66:
• Inch Worm to Body Bag Builders starting at 1 Plank Jack/Mountain Climber/Merkin upping 1 rep at each succeeding running man up to 11 running man for a total of 66 reps.
Ran out of time, so called it with most PAX somewhere between 10 and 11th running man.
Moseyed to flag for Count off, Name-o-rama (one FNG, DEB as his last name is Walmsley and Domincan is on Walmsley and he went to a lot of Debutante balls in the past), announcements, intentions and prayer.
Thank you for letting me lead!
