F3 New Orleans

Author: Rudy

  • All Day Baby! – from Rudy

    5 PAX in the gloom for an early start to Friday am. Weather is delightful – just on the edge of crisp, dry air. Gonna be a good Friday, and a great weekend. Lets get started!

    Off to the railroad tracks first. YHC was introduced to the tracks recently, and promised to make it a regular part of workouts – because it emphasizes just how poor YHC’s balance is. Lets walk down the rails a bit. Again, YHC struggled mightily. After a few minutes, stop and catch up to Scantron and Mahatma, who appeared not to have much trouble with this. YHC says “10 Squats OYO” on the rails. After a few minutes, YHC calls it off after finally managing his first good form squat on the rail. Much much much work to do. Walk back to where we started on the rails again.

    Circle up for quick warmup, then grab a rock. We aren’t going anywhere, so go as big as you want. Mahatma showed us all up by going BIG. I mean – BIG. YHC grabbed one more rock in the middle.

    The THANG:

    1 PAX holds the extra rock up. All the way up. The rule: if the rock comes below eye level, its burpee time. What are we doing? 10 exercises, repeated 3 times. Each exercise is 45 seconds, 15 second rest. So we’ll be going for 30 mins. Shoulder press, Curls, Rows, Merkins for the arms. Squats and Lunges for the legs. Cockroaches, Flutters and BB Situps for our 6 packs. And some Mountain Climbers just for fun.

    Mahatma has the rock first while we Shoulder Press. And he screams out in glee: “All Day Baby!” That becomes the buzzword for the next 30 minutes. Whenever YHC is running out of steam with holding up the rock – someone yells “ALL DAY BABY!”. That’s the motivation that F3 provides. That extra encouragement to go a bit further than you thought you could.

    ALL DAY BABY!

    And yes, I think Scantron, Bogey and Mahatma COULD go all day with that rock. Boo Boo and Rudy were much more thankful and appreciative of the breaks.

    The gang made it through the 30 minutes. YHC grabs the rock for one last time and engages in a stare down: the other 4 hold Al Gore while YHC holds the rock. Surprisingly, Scantron taps out first. That earns those PAX 5 burpees. Return the rocks and lets head back.

    COT: Thanksgiving for all the blessings all of us have received. Lord, give us your grace to help me use your gifts, and forgive me as I fail each and every day. Groups like F3 give me the strength and encouragement to always start again after failures, and try to push further than I thought I could – physically, morally, intellectually, spiritually. Thank you all!

  • Day of remembrance – from Shooter

    6 PAX converge on this Veterans Day to get some before the daylight breaks the horizon..
    Brief warmup all to 11 SSH, Toe Touches, Butt kicks, Windmills, Squats and Merkins..

    Different route through Mandeville stopping along the way for reps of 11 Merkins, Squats, Crunchy frogs, Burpees..

    Returned back to use the barricades at the Scramble for curls, presses and shrugs…

    Appreciate you men posting and allowing me to lead!!

    Till the next Gloom 👊🏼👍🏼✌🏼!!!

  • Yankee Doodle Dandy – from TurboTax

    Tomorrow is Veterans Day so YHC thought it’d be fitting to visit the American flag displays proximate to The Gipper. Amnesia reinforced this line of thought when he rolled up wearing Stars and Strips socks and bike shorts, our very own Yankee Doodle Dandy. At any rate, after a warmup of imperial walkers, shoulder taps, seal jacks, mountain climbers, hillbillies, merkins, and SSHs, the 9 PAX split up into three teams of three and the games began.

    Armed with tennis balls, each team was tasked with moving from flag to flag. The rules were simple: (1) the PAX holding the ball could take no more than one step while holding the ball and (2) every time a team dropped the ball, each team member had to execute two burpees before resuming the game. Then we were off to the races, visiting the flag displays at the School Board building, the Fire Station, the Justice Center, the Police Station and finally our own Shovel Flag.

    But we didn’t just travel. At each flag we paused to execute a sequence of isometric holds (Al Gores, front planks and shoulder taps, isometric Bulgarian Squat holds-where were you this morning Steve?-and hollow holds), dynamic exercises (squats, merkins, Bulgarian Squats, and leg raises), and explosive exercises (jump squats, clap merkins, Sister Mary Katherines, and heels to Heaven). And to top it off we executed a couple of agonizingly long isometric holds upon returning to the Shovel Flag.

    Countorama, nameorama and Einstein succinctly prayed us out. Good teamwork this morning, guys. Thanks for letting me lead.

  • Look Mom! I’m 4! – from Rev Sox

    Everyone is born once. Many have been born twice. A select few have been born thrice. Today YHC celebrates the 4th anniversary of my third birth.
    On January 27, 1983 on a cold, wintry morning in Binghamton, NY, Shawn Willson was born to David and Becky Willson at Wilson General Hospital.
    At some point in the late 80s, YHC has no clue to the precise date, he had his second and most important birth. YHC believed and trusted in Jesus to save him and give him His life. At that moment, YHC was born again through the power and saving work of Jesus to now live with eternal life.
    On Veterans Day weekend in 2017, Hawgcycle and Channel Mullet heaped unending piles of guilt on YHC’s two scrawny shoulders and convinced YHC to join them for his first F3 workout. The following morning through sweat, tears, and much complaint, YHC was born a third time as Rev Sox. Hater of Red Sox and hater of step ups. The Pax celebrates that day, today.
    Circle Up for the Warm Up
    No mosey to the Rock Pile or some dark corner of Pontiff Park, the Pax starts this one hot with the warm-up right at the flag.
    SSH – 20
    Hillbillies (in honor of the hillbilly standing next to YHC who introduced him to this stupid group) – 20
    Smurfjacks – 20
    Low Slow Squat – 12
    Bat wings (don’t put your arms down until we’re done) – 10 forward arm circles, 10 reverse, 10 seal claps, 10 overhead claps, 10 Moroccan night clubs
    The Thang
    Mosey to the first pavilion, it’s occupied, mosey to the second pavilion to commence the memory of YHC’s first F3 – this means step ups
    Dips – 15
    Right leg step ups – 15
    Dips – 15
    Left leg step ups – 15
    Mosey to the bleachers
    Tooth fairy
    Seven merkins on the first bench of the bleachers, six on the second bench, and so on until you hit one at the top
    Alternating step ups – 20
    Mosey to the playground
    Alternating step ups – 20
    Mosey to the Rock Pile and Grab a Rock
    In Cadence, 6 curls and 1 shoulder press, 5 curls and 1 shoulder press, 4 and 1, 3 and 1, 2 and 1, 1 and 1
    Now with 6 shoulder press and 1 triceps extension
    Now with 6 chest press and 1 big boy sit up
    Now with 6 squats and 1 curl
    Return your rock and Mosey to the football field. At this point, Mop began to trash talk that he was feeling perfect and maybe the Q needed to step things up and make it more difficult. That kid is such a punk. Who lets a 9-year-old come to F3 anyway?
    Circle Up for Some Climate Change
    In honor of COP26, F3 NOLA did our part this morning by hugging our imaginary trees and putting our faces in the grass in remorse over all the noxious gases that have been released into the atmosphere during F3 workouts. The Pax held Al Gore while the first Pax went down and did 6 merkins, the second began his after 3 were completed. Two rounds around the circle.
    The Celebrating Fun
    It’s not a Rev birthday without Ultimate Frisbee and some guys running around without a shirt on in the cold so Boo Boo and War Eagle can complain about it on end for the next couple of years.
    The Pax split up in two teams – shirts and skins. The shirts won because they are a bunch of jerks who don’t let the Q win on his birthday celebration. Thankfully, since there were no Lakeview players present, cheating was at a minimum with everyone hitting the ground for their merkins after every turnover. Final score: shirts 5, skins 4.
    The End
    Short mosey back to the flag as the Pax counts off, name-o-rama, announcements, and prayer. Thank you all from the depths of my heart for what you have each meant to me over the past 4 years. Your presence is everything. Working out alone is the worst. May F3 endure from now until the end of Christ’s rule on earth. I hope to do F3 into eternity.

  • These go to 11…or 9…or 11 – from Russo

    A brisk temperature of 48 degrees (still not cold enough for sleeves) and a clear sky greeted a pax of 5 this morning for an organized, balanced, and repetitive beatdown that of course incorporated number patterns because that is how YHC maintains a small measure of control in an otherwise chaotic world.

    Warmup (believed to be all IC, 10x, but that’s difficult to confirm when Bushwhacker gets to talking about rookie hazing and toilet scrubbing at the firehouse)

    – Grass grabbers
    – Torso twists
    – Cherry pickers
    – Toe touches
    – Arm circles
    – Good mornings

    Thang before the Thang

    A two block mosey down Girod to the Rusty P and their outside benches to get us started, where YHC wondered how long it would take before someone figured out the secret repetition code. Answer: not long, even in the early morning hours, not with a sharp as a tack Chewy on the case.

    11 step ups were followed by 9 freak nastys, then 9 step ups followed by 11 freak nastys.

    The gig was up, but the question remained: Why 9 and 11? Despite thoughts of September 11, January 19th, calling 9-1-1 hoping Bushwhacker makes house calls, and something or other about 91, the clue of today’s date finally allowed YHC to see the bright light bulbs going off among the Pax: November 9, which is either brilliant or incredibly lazy in its simplicity. It was probably the latter.

    As we moseyed closer to Granny’s (with either 9 or 11 diamond merkins, jump squats, big boy sit-ups interspersed) the pax was briefly stopped by some “traffic”. Prayers up to that mailbox.

    Pax made it to the bus stop, where the sequence was 11 Bulgarian split squats, 9 durkins, 9 BSSs, and 11 durkins before a short mosey to begin the Thang:

    With only 2 minutes or 25 minutes left (depending on whether you were using Bushwacker’s timekeeping or YHC’s), we worked 6 rounds of alternating reps of 11 and 9 at each column, followed by a trip up and back down the pilot house:

    – 11 SSH and 9 squats
    – 11 seal jacks 9 merkins
    – 11 high knees 9 LBCs
    – 11 Apollo Ohnos 9 plank jacks
    – 11 mummy kicks 9 lunges
    – Butt kicks, hello dollys, and merkins in a 9-11-9 sequence

    Just enough time remained for a 90 second plank, and then we closed with a COT, name-o-rama, announcements, and prayer.

    As always, I’m appreciative of the opportunity to lead such a fine group of men.

    SYITG

  • Old faces, new faces – from Waterpik

    Brisk 45 degree temps greeted the Pax at the milestone marsh. Speaking of pax there was a mix of old faces (Bushwacker) and new faces (fletch) who showed up for the beatdown. It was good to see fletch out there making his first post to the marsh. And Bushwacker’s return visit reminded us how much we miss his constant chatter throughout the entirety of the
    Workout. His stories and commentary were out in full force as were his wardrobe (beanie hat, his trusty sweatshirt and I think he even dragged his bed comforter out there to keep warm. All joking aside , please grace us with your presence more, mr fire fighter.

    Thang was 4 corners, then mary.

    Men, have a great week! Let’s all try to be the best version of ourselves this week.

    Pik

  • F3 Oktoberfest 2021 – from Da Parish

    YHC would be attending Deutchas Haus Oktoberfest this weekend. Why not go visit a little early.

    W/U
    – SSH
    – IW
    – HB
    – AC
    – MC
    – JL

    The Deutchas Haus was founded in 1928. Let’s 2-8 stomp over the that Haus. 2 minutes of running and 8 burpees.

    Two rounds Haus Tabatas
    – Rows
    – Derkins
    – Rocky Balboas
    – Irkins
    – Squats

    Mosey over the Mountain to the coupons. No holiday is complete without the Feat of Strength. Oktoberfest honors those who can hold their stein out the longest amount of time. A full stein weighs about 5 lbs. We would be using our coupons with 2 hands. Congrats to Scooter who is our stein holding champion.

    Mosey back to the flag for prayers of thanks and request of health.
    Thank you for the opportunity to lead.
    Da Parish

  • B.L.I.M.P.S. on the Upper Deck – from Einstein

    After a long warmup, the PAX did a set of Burpees, Lunges, Imperial walkers, Merkins, Plank jacks, & Squats at each of the four corners on the upper deck of the Justice Center Parking garage. The totals reps were astronomical.

  • Fall Back – from Steve

    Talk about a dark warmorama. About the only definable figure I could make out was, well nobody, really, since Shooter wasn’t there. Of course I knew Jose was present from the early morning grumbling, but the rest of the crew were shrouded in mystery. Given such circumstances, YHC delivered a clear disclaimer in case there were any FNGs (turned out there were two), and we got things rolling.

    Started off with the usual – good mornings, windmills, torso twists, arm circles, IW’s, Hillbillies, SSHs, High Knees – mostly at 10x IC, but a 15 and a 30 crept in there. I like to say those instances are “to keep the pax on their toes,” but of course the pax is smarter than that – they know it’s just early morning brain fog.

    We hadn’t moseyed to the playground in a while, so that was on the menu today, stopping at each intersection for a set of 10x deconstructed burpees. Zoolander’s No-Booze-November had hit a snag the night before (a snag by the name of Woodford Reserve), and so my originally planned set of x20 burpees seemed cruel as he had, not but 5 minutes before this point, requested “no burpees, please.” So we deconstructed instead, which would mean 10x squats, 10x groiners, 10x merkins, and 10x jump squats. Knocked those out at the three intersections and then hit a fourth one when we reached the playground.

    Then it was time for one of my lakefront standards, a partner routine where P1 wall sits and performs overhead air presses while P2 hits three stations: 10 t-merkins, 10 jump squats, 10 big boys. Three rounds of that and it was on to neighboring grass patch for a few games.

    That’s right, games. Let it not be said (Toto) that I do not include any fun in my beatdowns! First up was a game called When Animals Attack, which features one pax (it) bear crawling to tag any of the other guys, who are all crab walking. Any one who is tagged then performs 5 burpees and immediately joins in as a bear, to help tag the rest of the crew. I had initially envisioned a rabid, growling Tanked Up tearing through that patch of grass, but alas, when the sun finally rose this morning and it was clear who was standing before me, there was no Tank to be found. Grundy was the next best choice, so he became the first bear. Now, whoever invented this game clearly did not know the Northshore region’s distaste for crab walking because when the game finally began, the crabs all just sat in place waiting to be tagged. Some even moved closer to the bear! It seemed unanimous – the guys would rather do their 5 burpees and half-heartedly attempt to tag others than crab walk five steps. The next round was hardly better than the first, with Zoolander and his stomach of steel as the bear, and so we moved on to another game: Duck Jousting.

    To say duck jousting was more successful might be a stretch, but it was certainly more entertaining. In this game, it’s every man for himself. You get in a low duck walk position with your arms across your chest, and hobble over to the nearest pax to try and topple him without the use of your hands. Once you’ve been knocked over, you start high kneeing until the game ends.

    Though this was totally a Mathlete type of game, a surprise attack by Zoolander knocked him out early on. It came down to Jose, Swole, and Zoo. Swole attempted a Switzerland type of strategy, where he simply sat (or squatted) off to the side and awaited the victor between Jose and Zoo. But this proved faulty when Zoo took him down by surprise. By this point, our two gladiators had entirely abandoned the rule of duck walking (well, let’s be fair, Zoolander was never actually duck walking from the start). Even with an assist from Bird, Zoo was unable to take down Jose, but one final assault sent both men to the ground in a tie.

    Time to head back, so we formed two lines and Bataan Death Marched back to the flag. Once back, we did some single leg squats to the sea wall while Turbo graciously picked up the six. Quick Mary and time for COT. Welcome FNG’s Slater and Woody, and t-claps for hanging in there. Hope to see you guys back out soon. (And a personal thanks to our FNG’s for forcing me to write a backblast after months of negligence.) Hammer prayed us out and off to Book and the Bean for coffeteria. Appreciate the opportunity to lead you men, SYITG.