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  • Northshore H8!

    Beautiful morning on the Mandeville Lakefront. Bean joined YHC to lead a warmup of Arm Circles, Overhead Handclaps, Merkins, Seal Jacks, Butt Kicks, Imperial Walkers, and Windmills, all IC 10-20x. The PAX then moseyed westward for The Thang…Northshore H8!

    AMRAP in 40 minutes:

    35 yard bear crawl, .4 mile run, 35 yard bear crawl, then 7 burpees and 1 Merkin to complete Round 1

    Rinse and repeat working towards 1 burpee and 7 Merkins

    Goal of 8 Rounds.

    The Northshore H8!, last attempted six months ago, once again proved to be a tough challenge for the PAX. Only superheros Waterpik and Bushwacker completed all 8 rounds in 40 minutes. This benchmark workout definitely gave the rest of us good reason to keep working hard to get better. Deceptively difficult, this beat down will check the ego every time.

    Slow mosey back to the shovel flag for shoulder taps, IC 20x.

    Countorama, nameorama and Bean prayed us out.

    Welcome FNG Clean Hit!

  • Spartan Redux Adieu

    After finishing the Spartan Super in Alabama last Saturday, I had a great deal to be thankful for. Although I didn’t train enough for the mileage and obstacles, the base of fitness that I gained through F3 was exceptional. Given that most of the beatdowns are 45 – 60 minutes, I was surprised at how well Hokie Pokey, Fracsac and I did for this grueling race. 8.5 miles and 25 obstacles. We all missed at least 6 obstacles and which comes with a pleasant 30 burpee penalty. That’s right, 180 burpees for me and I believe 240 burpees for Fracsac and Hokie Pokey. Although, on paper, it seems impossible, we were all thankful for the F3 NOLA Pax that kept us accountable in our training.

    THE THANG

    No warmup, just grab a rock and three (3) water buckets (35 lbs) and proceed around the park on the path. We walk briskly around the park and do a series of exercises at random intervals.

    30 SSH IC, 30 Mountain Climbers IC, Lunge Walk x 2 on the ramp by the baseball stadium, 30 Burpees, a flow exercise to stretch our hip flexors in a lunge position and the bottom, mid and top floor elevator. As we get back to the rock pile, you guesed it….30 burpees and 15 Red Sun / Yellow Sun Supermans IC.

    Countoff, Namerama and COT. Encouraged to see all the new Qs leading and I encouraged the four PAX members (Fast Tax, Scantron, Vanilla and Grimace) who haven’t Qed a workout to plan on it in the near future.

  • Two Minutes of Hate!

    On a beautiful, crisp Friday Morning, 20+ PAX gathered for a Wolfpack Mountain beatdown.  So with a quick disclaimer off we….wait Amnesia reminded that we do have two AO’s Uptown.  So with a loud rally cry, two strong PAX (Amnesia and Bad Moon) embarked on a moonlight ganter through the nether regions of Uptown also known as Angry Wave or maybe we should rename Angry Ripple???  I digress.  Let’s Mosey!

    To Touchdown Jesus for Warm-Up:

    • Hillbillies IC X20
    • Wide-Leg Mountain Climbers IC X15 (a new exercise for F3 that YHC pilfered from OTF, Kong watch those eyes…KONG EYES DOWN!)
    • Self-Love IC X20

    Let’s continue warmup – PAX Line Up in straight line for:

    • High Knees till Q yells halt
    • Butt Kicks till Q yells halt
    • Kim Jung Un’s aka Supreme Leaders till Q yells halt  (a little mis-coordination on this one by YHC)
    • Open Gates till Q yells halt

    Mosey to Res Quad for 4 Corners PIMPS:

    • Pickle Pounders X 5 (2 is 1) then bear crawl to   
    • Imperial Walkers X10 (2 is 1) then monkey humber walk to
    • Merkins X15 then crab crawl to
    • PlankJacks X20 then sugar bear crawl (those crawls weren’t sweet!) to
    • Starfish Crunch X25 (2 is 1)

    Mosey to Mountain for Static Climb Beatdown run forward up ramp and then backward up next ramp to each flat:

    • 1st Flat 2 minute Squat Hold
    • 2nd Flat 2 minute Plank Hold
    • 3rd Flat 2 minute People’s Chair
    • 4th Flat 2 minute V-Up Hold
    • 5th Flat 2 minute for PAX choice, Al Gore’s or Leg Raises?  PAX quickly chose leg raises.  Apparently those quads were smoked (I’m looking at you Mr. Awesome). Leg Raises it is!

    For all above static holds, if you break form at any point, do burpees until 2 minutes is up.

    Indian Run down to bottom and mosey back to flag…

    Count-Off, Name-o-rama, Announcements, Intentions and Prayer.

    Don’t forget PAX, Beatdown and F2 event this upcoming Thursday, March 28th.  Meet at intersection of Jeff Davis/Lafitte Greenway at 6:30 for half hour beatdown then we’ll walk over to Wrong Iron for some F2.

    As always thanks for letting me lead!

  • One is the loneliest number…..

    I know this is overdue but writing a backblast is better late than never. I took my first turn at the Muscleship with the stiff competition of the Mothership Endymion run. It’s 6:30 am and no one joins me. Now its 6:31, 6:32,…6:35 and I think to myself, do I try to find the PAX on Orleans Ave or lead myself. Well, I didn’t run to Orleans so I headed to the coupons by the baby foundry and proceeded to get to work.

    I grab a cinder block and do a route 66 on Roosevelt Mall (out and back). At each bench I proceed to do 5 Man makers as I head towards Marconi ave. As I finish a few benches on my way to Marconi, the thoughts of quitting start creeping in because its lonely working out by yourself. Nearing the end of the benches, I see the friendly face of Green Screen!

    My energy, demeanor, and spirits pick up and Green Screen and I are having a great conversation while doing the prescribed routine. As we finish Route 66, I proceed to something very ambitious. We both grab 2 coupons from the pile and head over to the baby foundry for some Flora 1-2-3. This is the first time I completed this exercise without having to modify for time. Whew! That was extremely difficult! To top it off, we had to farmers carry the coupons back to the pile. My hands and forearms were burning!

    Mosey back to flag for the countoff, namerama, and COT! Thanks, Green Screen for holding me accountable and allowing me to lead!

  • 34 year Old Virgin

    Last Thursday at Okwata Rudy being Rudy suggested I sign up to Q.  At first, I said to myself “not going to happen” then over the course of the day I decided to look up the Q sheet just to see when the next Q spot was open- thinking it would be about 5-8 weeks out. Not the case, there was an opening the next week (today). I decided to rip the band aide off and pop my Q cherry and sign-up for my VQ. 

    18 PAX met out on the banks of Okwata with 15 mph winds whipping a nice cool 50 degrees through our bodies. Considering this is the 2nd official day of spring I hope the cold weather is past us. The 20 degree weather swings from 5:30am to Noon is getting old.  

    We started off with a Mosey to the grass by Landry’s for warm-ups. Probably one of the only time’s you’ll ever hear the restaurant Landry’s come out of my mouth.  The warm ups consisted of:

    25 – SSH IC
    15 – Should Taps IC
    15 – Arm Circles Front IC
    15 – Arm Circle Reverse IC
    15 – Plank Jacks IC
    15 – Peter Parkers IC
    15 – Mountain Climbers IC

    In full disclosure the above workouts above were “the plan” not sure what the final counts were. Never realized how hard it was to count when the Q. Much respect for my past Q’s.  Also, a lot of mumble chatter about having to get back to your feet for arm circles and then back down again for plank jacks might have to incorporate more of this in future Q’s since everyone enjoyed it so much.

    My novice and out of breath warm-up Counting self, decided a 30 second count down was a good idea – After some grumbling – Kuch quickly counted to 10 (thanks for the help!) and we then proceeded to split into 2 groups for an Indian Run back to the Hill. At the Hill we partnered up for a little “bern”. One partner did a Bernie Sanders up the Hill and run back down (then switch) until the below exercises were complete.

    50 – Burpees
    100 – Merkins
    200 – Monkey Humpers
    300 – LBC

    Now that our legs were nice and “berning” we crossed the street to complete running to the street light and post up for 5 merkin’s X 3 lights. The goal was to hit 3 street lights that were a decent length from each other, however I didn’t realize there were two sets of street lights one’s on the left and one’s on the right. My intentions were the left (the distance one’s) however we improvised and completed the exercise. We circled up for Mary where we did:

    20 Flutter Kicks IC
    10 Turtle Crunchs IC
    10 Hello Dolly IC
    10 Big Boy Sit Ups OYO

    Again, this was “the plan” not sure what the final counts were as I was once again out of breath from counting. Definitely need to work on that for next time!

    With 3 mins to Spare we Moseyed back to the Flag where Mahatma suggested a little ring of Fire. 6:15am came and we circled up. 18 PAX were at the AO. We welcomed a new FNG “The Greek”.  Congrats to Two Yutes on making 10 years of marriage!

    It was an honor to lead this group.  

  • Lost Left Eye

    8 men arrived at the Foundry in the dark. Sadly, we lost one along the way, but were reunited in the end. The usual disclaimer and off we go.

    We moseyed down Roosevelt Mall, and stopped half way for the warm-up COP. SSH x 20 IC, IW x 20 IC, Peter Parkers x 20 IC, Windmills x 10 IC, Arm Circles 10 forward 10 backwards IC, Mountain Climbers x 20 IC

    We continued our mosey to the end of Roosevelt Mall for the 2nd COP: Legs. Low slow squats x 10 IC, Side lunges x 10 IC, Al Gore x 10 IC, Jump lunges x 10 IC

    Next off to the Foundry for some circuits. 4 stations with 2 men each. 2 circuits of Pull-ups, Squats, Dips, WWII sit-ups (15 count), followed by 2 circuits of Body Rows, Lunges, Hanging Knee-Ups, Crunchy Frogs (10 count).

    This is where things got dicey in the dark. We moseyed down the back drive, stopping at each light post for 10 Merkins. Then we lost Left Eye. We turned left, he turned right, things got fouled up, and YHC did a terrible job of keeping the Pax together. Tool circled back for our lost man, but alas, Left Eye could not be found.

    At the track, we paired up and completed 2 laps with one Pax sprinting 200 yards while the other Pax cut across the field. Then we circled at the end of the track for some Mary. Flutter kicks x 20 IC, LBC’s x 20 IC, Hello Dolly x 20 IC, Penguins x 20 IC.

    We moseyed back to the flag, ready to jump in the car to go find our Lost Left Eye. When out of the gloom, Left Eye appeared. He made an extra mosey to NOMA, then found his way back to the flag. Count-off, Name-o-rama, announcements, intentions, and a prayer. Luckily we were reunited in the end. A good reminder to always circle back for the 6, and leave no man behind. Thanks for letting me lead. I’ll do better next time!

  • Sorry this BB is almost 2 weeks late!

    One recent study by researcher Dr. Holt-Lunstad of BYU indicated that social isolation and loneliness kill more people than obesity.

    Thanks to all you guys in the pax that get out of the fart sack to be a part of some thing great like our F3 community. Let’s keep EH’ing those guys around us!

    The thang:

    Warm up at the Shovel flag:

    SSH x20; IW x 20; my climbers x 20 IC

    Mosey west to sea wall: 7’s

    6 irkins/1 Plyo —->1 irkin/6 plyo’s

    6 squats/1 jump squat —-> 1 squat/6 jump squats

    Mosey further west to oak grove:

    5 jumps squats, 5 merkins, 5 burpees

    Rinse and repeat x 10 rounds

    Jane Fonda’s and Nolan Ryan’s x 15 IC

    Mosey further west to playground: 20 Bulgarian split squats IC each leg

    Mosey back east : stop motion lunges

    All horses to the barn, sprint to shovel flag

    COM: flutter kicks, Russian hammer, Little manny crunches x 20 IC.

    Name O Rama, introduced FNG Phoenix with a powerful story of redemption!

    Circle of trust, prayer, and coffeteria.

    Thanks guys for letting me lead!

  • Shooter Blanks

    YHC cannot remember the last time Shooter fartsacked a Gipper beat down. In fact, it just may be that today was the first time. The PAX nevertheless had to press on in the not so gloomy Gloom, wondering what Shooter was up to early this Spring Equinox morning.

    With some trepidation, YHC rolled out on a mosey in an unaccustomed direction at the opening bell. Trepidation because we were sure to miss those PAX who typically roll in hot. Not to mention any names but let’s just say we didn’t want to miss those PAX whose names rhyme with Bundy and Baverick. They fartsacked by all appearances but, if not, they hopefully will post their own back blast(s) to fill the rest of us in on their activities.

    Enough about fartsacking. The beat down went like this:

    Mosey to the St Tammany Parish WWI memorial for our warmup of SSHs, woodchoppers, overhead hand claps and good mornings, all IC 10-15x.

    Mosey to Christ Episcopal Church for a set of 7s. Bobby Hurleys on one side, butt kicks on the other, separated by bear crawls one direction and crab walks on the return.

    Short mosey to the entrance to Bogue Falaya Park for some sprinting and change of direction drills that looked like this:

    Round 1: sprint 10 yards, backpedal 10 yards, then sprint 20 yards

    Round 2: backpedal 10 yards, sprint 10 yards, then backpedal 20 yards

    Round 3: shuffle 10 yards, shuffle back to the start line 10 yards, then turn and sprint 20 yards

    Round 4: rinse and repeat Round 3 facing the opposite direction

    Round 5: rinse and repeat Round 1; last round best round

    Then the PAX moseyed to the Columbia Street Landing for a plank-a-thon: merkins, Peter Parkers, Parker Peters, plank jacks, right arm high, left arm high, shoulder taps, right arm high, left arm high, then one arm pulses each arm before heading back towards the Trailhead on a mosey

    Sudden change on the way

    Then the PAX closed out the beat down with Mary consisting of dynamic side planks, straight legged jackknives, dynamic back plank, and flutter kicks.

    Countorama, nameorama and Barely Legal prayed us out to start the day.

    Thanks for letting me lead guys. YHC always appreciates you playing along with the monkey business.

  • One Last Winter Morn

    8 Pax. Upper 40s. Dry. Still winter at the time of the workout.

    Mahatma was kind enough to allow YHC to take the Q this morning, since I missed my recent Q at Popeye’s. After a disclaimer warning the pax (especially those from Uptown) about the diverse wildlife roaming the park, we headed toward the jogging track on the north end. We gave hurried instructions to Mahatma as he rolled in hot and eventually circled up in the NE corner

    Warm-up
    • SSH x 20 – Rev Sox noticed a tempo change at the end
    • Peter Parker x 33
    • Imperial Walkers x 25
    • Merkins x 10 – tried to keep it nice and slow.
    The Thang

    1st Soccer Field (burpees for the six) – Bear Crawl length (120 yards) Sprint back (100 yards)

    SE corner (planks for the six) – 10! (10 merkins, 10 Squats, 10 WWII Sit-ups, 9 merkins, 9 squats…)

    Southside – lunges for the six

    Outdoor Gym (planks for the six) – 8 Stations. 45 seconds with 15 second rest

    • Burpees
    • Dips
    • Squats (T-claps to War Eagle for pointing out the deficiencies in my form) #TShiftEffect
    • Flexed Arm to Dead Hang
    • Box Jumps
    • Flexed Arm to Dead Hang
    • Dying Cockroaches
    • Flexed Arm to Dead Hang

    Mosey back toward the flag and circle up for Mary (LBCs for the six)

    • Flutter Kicks x 20
    • Keep the feet off the ground
    • Hello Dolly x 15
    • Keep the feet off the ground
    • Flutter Kicks x 10
    • Keep the feet off the ground
    NMM
    • T-claps to Darkwing Duck on his second post.
    • T-claps to JV for finding Lafreniere Park. We were shocked to learn that this was not only his first trip to this AO, but his first trip to the park. #ClassicUptowner
    • T-claps to Triple for completing the Spartan this weekend and continuing to post
    • I didn’t notice nearly as many feral cats this time, but did see a nutria, one roster, and 3 geese. Minimal amount of wildlife today.
    • There seemed to be some mumblechatter concerning the length of the bear crawl, but the pax pushed through and performed admirably.
    • When I visited San Antonio they kept they did not let their feet touch the ground during Mary. I thought implementing this idea was good, but it seemed to meet some resistance, as in most everyone’s feet hit the ground. Maybe I didn’t explain the idea well enough. We were on concrete so maybe concrete was considered ok? Not sure. There were also a few pax complaining about the weight of their shoes. That has a simple solution.
    • Much prayer for those facing cancer.
  • 2 is 1

    It was a cold 40 so a PSA from Brown Bag Below 57 longs sleeves, below 50 pants and hat.

    Quick mosey to the Zoos mud field and warm up of SSH, Mountain Climbers, Parker Peters.

    We then formed into a line and did BLIMPS 5,10,15,… to the parking lot and back. As a group finished our squats we headed closer to the Zoo from some DORA.

    The DORA 2 is 1;

    100 Decline Mericans w/ Shoulder Taps (2 is 1 for taps) Thank you Tinkles!

    200 Power Ups Left and Right (2 legs are 1)

    300 Russian Twist (2 is 1)

    Quick 20 dips then back to the flag or final minute of LBCs, Box Cutters, and Pickle Pounders.