F3 New Orleans

Category: Northshore

  • The Fittest Presidents – from Akbar

    3 HIM at the Marsh today for a celebration of the fittest Presidents.

    Conditions: 67, slightly muggy but comfortable

    PAX: Akbar, Russo, Waterpik

    Warm up: SSH, Self-Love, Grass Grabbers, Toe Touches, Arm Circles

    Thang:

    Celebrate our fittest presidents with Tabata. 46s on, 14s rest, to represent 46 Presidents to date. Almost all Presidents played golf, whether good or not, so some dynamic golf stretches were sprinkled in: Side step ups on bench, Inchworm merkins, lunges with upper body rotation, wife pleasers, single leg wife pleasers, Cat/Cow

    Start at center court, with mosey’s to the bench, playground, and intersections down Noah’s Ark. Return back the same way and finish at center court.

    George W Bush Running Run/Sprint between each block

    Woodrow Wilson Cycling Freddy Mercury

    All Presidents Golf Mixed in throughout

    George Washington Wrestling Bear Crawl
    Abraham Lincoln

    Barack Obama Basketball Bobby Hurley’s
    Jimmy Carter

    Ronald Reagan, JFK Swimming Scuba Steve’s

    George H Bush Baseball Nolan Ryan’s
    Jimmy Carter

    Teddy Roosevelt Wrestling/Boxing Boxers Squat (Al gore punches)

    Gerald Ford Football Up Down Merkins
    Dwight Eisenhower

    Richard Nixon Bowling Bowler’s Lunge

    FDR Rowing Supine pull ups/rows

    And the President credited with the most sports is…… Jimmy Carter.
    Tennis, basketball, track/field, baseball, cross country, golf, hunting, fishing

    Mary: Gas pumps, heels to heaven, Dolly, Rosalita, leg raises, LBC’s

    Count/Name, and Pik prayed us out

    Announcements: Run Cajun Run ends in 7 days – get your mileage in and record your numbers.

    Thanks for letting me lead, and appreciate the follow. Till next gloom,

    Akbar

  • On Your Mark. Get Set. Go! – from Bird

    Cool morning at the Lakefront with 14 PAX posting. Looked to be a slim crowd at first as QIC was greeted by Moby Dick and Sonny (aka Turbo Dog) after returning from coupon delivery to Milestone Marsh. Welcome to everyone, glad to see Cathy returning following the previous week’s Merkin Madness, now let’s get to it.
    Warmarama consisted of SSH (20 IC), Good Mornings (10 IC), High Knees (20 IC), what’s that exercise called where you touch your elbow to your knees? Oh year, Imperial Walkers, thanks Russo (10 IC). Hillbillies, the alter ego of Imperial Walkers (10IC), Windwills (10IC). QIC directed to plank position to complete Mountain Climbers (10IC), Peter Parkers (10IC), Parker Peters (10IC), Groiners (10IC), and Merkins (10OYO). As PAX would come to find out, we would end the day in similar fashion… Upon completing the warm up, PAX mosied to Noah’s Ark.

    QIC divided PAX into two teams by counting off and groups separated on each side of the neutral ground (do we call it that on the Northshore?). QIC attempted to explain the workout, although some clarification and tweaking was required as we moved through. The theory was for each team to sprint one block (app. 0.1 mile – 200 meters-ish) for the five blocks from Lakeshore to Livingston (five round). As each person arrived, they would immediately commence prescribed exercise doing AMRAP until final member of team arrived. Cumulative reps of the team were counted when all members arrived and the team with the most reps was declared the winner. Losing team was then assigned double the number of reps to complete for a core exercise to be prescribed by winning team. Losing team, in turn, prescribed core exercise to winning team. I know, confusing right, thus the required tweaking.

    On Your Mark. Get Set. Go.

    Round 1. After impressive sprints by all PAX, round 1 exercise was jump squats. Team 1 proved victorious with 48ish cumulative total compared with Team 2 40ish. Team 2 was assigned 96 hello dollies and Team 1 was assigned 40ish American Hammers. “How does this work again, cause that’s a lot of reps!”

    Round 2. One Legged Burpees. Team 1 victorious again. Team 2 assigned double reps of leg raises (don’t remember, but it was a lot of reps – 40-50). Team 1 assigned Crunchy Frogs (Q didn’t feel number of reps was beneath the victorious Team 1 sprinters, so he assigned Crunch Frogs (IC).

    Round 3. Merkins. At this point, the number of reps was getting ridiculous (in the 100s and double that would have crippled the rest of the workout), so QIC audibled and assigned the same exercise to each team (LBCs) with no doubling. Team cumulative reps assigned to opposing teams were retained.

    Round 4. Sister Mary Katherines. Core exercise that now alludes me.

    Round 5. Burpees. 100s
    After first phase of workout complete, PAX recovery walked to Milestone Marsh and removed coupons from back of QIC’s truck. Three rounds of four exercise (10 reps each OYO) consisting of thrusters, kettle bell swings, pullups, and hanging knee raises. QIC directed to hold plank until the six completed each round before beginning the next.
    With three rounds complete, PAX loaded back coupons, short recovery walk, and then mosy (app. 0.5 mile) back to the flag. A few of the PAX held a brief interlude at the seawall to complete 25 freak nasties (IC).

    Back at the flag, QIC demonstrated Absolution as the final exercise of the day, an eight count routine consisting of (from plank), groiner (1, 2), low plank (3, 4), plank jack (5, 6), high plank (7, 8). PAX did five IC and then directed to complete OYO until 0730. With PAX waning, QIC called for five more and then time.

    COT. Announcements (don’t forget the Nehemiah Project – Hammer, Grundy – on starting on March 18th). QIC prayed us out.

  • Can Do! And we miss Einstein. – from BBQ

    Can Do! The PAX was a mighty 4 on the upper deck of the A1C. A deck of cards from a transportation trade show was used for the exercises. This swag was from a rail service in Canada named Cando. “Can Do “ became the theme and battle cry. After the warm up cards were drawn one at a time. Each suit represented an exercise. The four were hand release merkins, jump squats, LBC’s and leg lifts. Each card represented the # of reps and 1-13. 91 total reps for each exercise were done except LBC’s were doubled. The jokers were a mosey with star jacks mixed in. SJ’s are an Einstein fav. We missed him and hope his shoulder therapy will work. And he is back soon. In his honor the warm ups and cool downs included swimmers, thumb drives and shoulder rolls. Russo prayed us out. He challenged the PAX to be the light and help others.

  • All The World’s A Stage – from Steve

    Decent crowd at Granny’s yesterday for a kinda-sorta cinderblock beatdown. Kinda-sorta because YHC only brought 3 coupons and there were 7 players in company. But, as always, we made it work (I will say, it was helpful to not have Bushwacker there undermining the Q’s efforts with constant griping about said cinderblocks!).

    Warmorama: SSH, IW’s, arm circles, cherry pickers, hillbillies, grass grabbers, seal jacks, and 20x merkins.

    Cowbell finally rolled in, which meant it was officially the end of warmorama and time to get after it.

    Thang:
    Mosey over to the stage for a rotating circuit. Each pax has an exercise, with one guy knocking out 20x burpees as the timer. Exercises were:

    Burpees x20 (timer)
    Curls
    Squat thrusters
    Tricep extensions
    Lunges
    Sit-ups
    Plank jacks

    YHC initially experimented with a cinderblock exercise called “forearm thingies,” (Bushwacker would’ve had an aneurism) which poor JV dutifully knocked out before Waterpik took over and wisely transitioned to tricep extensions.

    Once everyone had hit each station, we did a quick mosey around the trailhead in an attempt to at least get some mileage for RCR, and then rinse and repeat. After a second mosey around the trailhead, we hit the bus depot for YHC’s usual leg business:

    Bulgarians right and left, x12 IC each
    Freak Nasties, x12 IC
    Step ups, right and left, x12 IC each
    Freak Nasties, x12 IC

    And back to the stage to finish up with a different set of exercises, this time the rotation was:

    Burpees x20
    Goblet Squats
    Alpos
    Chest Presses
    Jump Squats
    Freddies
    Peter Parkers

    We only completed one round of this before it was time. COT, nameorama, and Pik prayed us out. Good to see Grundy out there now that he’s officially local. And t-claps to Hog’s Breath, since he’s decidedly not local and yet often makes it to at least one weekday beatdown. Appreciate the push you guys provide, and the opportunity to lead.

  • Paul Bunyan ain’t my name but chopping wood is the game. – from Fletch

    Warmup: SSH’s, windmills, merkins, seal jacks, grass grabbers, shoulder taps and imperial walkers.
    Grabbing some coupons we moseyed to the parking lot on side the woodwrights shop. We continued with 10 IC curls for the girls and shoulder presses.
    Thang:15 Wood chops on a tractor tire with a sledgehammer. Upon completion that pax would shout out an exercise for the rest to perform while he moseyed around the block with his coupon. Following the first pax the next in line would start chopping wood while we performed the exercises etc., till we completed 4 rounds. Returning to the Gipper, with a good sweat worked up, Barely Legal prayed us out. Thanks for letting me lead. Much respect for these men.

  • The Merkin Trap, Episode 4: The Search for Plutonium – from Akbar

    Admiral Gail Akbar of the Mon Calamari returns to the Northshore Mothership once again, to fight another battle against Darth Fartsack and the Sad Clown Empire. His secret mission this trip is to investigate the galactical mystery of Plutonium, reportedly found in the NOLA area by some beast named Hawgcycle. The commander of the Rebel forces knew this human was clever and dangerous – using words like isotopes, casualties, retrospect, and defecate in past correspondence about this discovery. He was at this beatdown before, maybe he would return. Key reinforcements – Baby Yoda, Bushwacker, Pickaxe, Chainsaw, and Shooter were missing. But we had new blood to make up the difference – a burly man named Cathe, with medical-surgical powers specializing in catheters, and a visiting pirate from Cape Fear named Teach. We were pleased with our chances.

    The Admiral received this note before his journey:

    Before night falls on this long winter day,
    A shining sword must find its way
    Into your hands and out of the gloom—
    Or Admiral Akbar shall meet his doom.
    To begin your quest for the Sword of Light,
    Call for the help of another to get right.
    You can always depend on an F3 brother,
    As Iron Sharpens Iron, so one man sharpens another.

    PAX

    Waterpik, Dangerfield, Freon, Bubba, Moby Dick, Bean, Russo, Jose 10k, Barely Legal, Speedy, Grundy, Bird, Zoolander, Maverick, Akbar, Hammer, Junior Varsity, Cathe (FNG), Teach

    Conditions – 40ish, no wind, a little foggy

    Warm Up – Arm Circles (F/B), Self-Love, Imperial Walkers, Grass Grabbers

    Thang

    Mosey up and down the Lakefront stopping for 2 exercises in each set, one of which would always be Merkins. 12, 8, 5 IC or 24,16,10 OYO. Each set = 50 Merkins, and most were 50 of another exercise except for a couple done Copperhead style.

    1 – Flag SSH, Merkins
    2 – Rips Calf Raises, Wide Merkin
    3 – Parking stripes Lunge walk, 5 Merkins every 2nd stripe
    4 – Noah Wall Tempo Freak Nasties, Dirkin
    5 – Grass Circle Al Gore/Shoulder raise, Wide Merkin
    6 – Wall Copperhead Squats, Irkin
    7 – Grass Circle Scuba Steve, Stone Mountain
    8 – Grass Circle Al Gore/Shoulder raise, Merkin
    9 – Noah Wall Scuba Steve, Diamond Irkin
    10 – Rips Twinkle Toes, Prime Time Merkin
    11 – Flag Little Manny Crunches, Merkin

    Total 550 Merkins

    Mary – x10 IC

    Fire Hydrants, Leg Raises, Hello Dolly, LBC’s, Lay flat on your back for 1 minute, time called

    Count-o-rama, Name-o-rama. Welcome FNG Cathe! Pronounced Cathy

    Announcements

    – Run Cajun Run, log your mileage
    – Hammer, Grundy, Steve, and Tanked Up! have put together a team to support The
    Nehemiah Project. They will run 48 miles over 48 hours on March 18th at Fontainebleau
    State Park. Check Slack for more.
    – Bird has the Q next Saturday

    COT

    YHC prayed us out with thoughts of words like man, father, husband, brother, friend – all verbs – and to take action this week remembering to flex our heart muscle. Don’t forget tomorrow is Valentine’s Day

    Alas, the Admiral did not find Plutonium, or Hawcycle, or the Sword of Light. But what he did find was a group of men who sharpened each other – enjoying camaraderie, food, and a hot cup of coffee for their efforts. Sad, but undaunted, he shall return next year.

    Thanks for letting me lead, and for following.

    SYITG – Admiral Akbar

    NMM

    Of all days to be late, YHC misplaced the keys and had to hall butt to make it there just in time to start.

    Great to have Teach from F3 Cape Fear make the drive from Gulfport while working out of town for a while.

    Bird brought Ian, a FNG who we named Cathe, pronounced Cathy, he works in med devices sales with vascular catheters.

    YHC had to modify pretty quickly after the Dirkins in the 4th set – in which QIC almost face planted from exhaustion. The plan was to go all the way to the playground and work my way back, but time forced a modification. We still got in around 550 Merkins in an hour

    Grundy showed up late, half way through, and owes 250 Merkins.

    I’ve been reading a lot of Jack and Annie books with the kids, and the poem came from a Merlin Mystery novel. I have to admit, these books are great – historical fiction and mystery combined. Kids and adults alike will love them. Sometimes, the book titles become backblast titles.

    The Plutonium reference came from the master backblast writer himself, Hawcycle. Look back and read it, it’s good stuff.

    Coffeeteria was great, this time including more King Cake, breakfast bowls, and my 2.0’s showed up for sugar and hot chocolate.

  • Dearly beloved, we have gathered here today To get through this thing called life Electric word life, it means forever and that’s a mighty long time But I’m here to tell you, there’s something else The afterworld, a world of never ending happiness You can always see the sun, day or night So when you call up that shrink in Beverly Hills You know the one, Dr. Everything’ll Be Alright Instead of asking him how much of your time is left? Ask him how much of your mind, baby ‘Cause in this life things are much harder than in the afterworld This life you’re on your own And if de-elevator tries to bring you down Go crazy, punch a higher floor – from Jose10k

    I showed up early to put a mile in for RCR, which I always listen to music. Our resident pop culture expert, Hammer, inquired what I was listening to. I told him Prince’s Let’s go crazy. To which he just belted out the lyrics as if he wrote them. Most impressive.
    Warm-ups: ssh, grass grabbers, torso twists, cherry pickers all in cadence
    The thang: Mosey to the courthouse for some 11’s. Merkins and jump squats with running the length and up the courthouse steps. Once finished, on lap around the courthouse, then a quick trip to the rock garden. Picked up a good rock for some curls for the girls, rows for the bros, and overhead presses (all in cadence). Back to the A1C for round robin core. Hammer prayed us out. As always, thanks for letting me lead. Still waiting for cowbell to show up on Friday, maybe even Q.

  • Dearly beloved, we have gathered here today To get through this thing called life Electric word life, it means forever and that’s a mighty long time But I’m here to tell you, there’s something else The afterworld, a world of never ending happiness You can always see the sun, day or night So when you call up that shrink in Beverly Hills You know the one, Dr. Everything’ll Be Alright Instead of asking him how much of your time is left? Ask him how much of your mind, baby ‘Cause in this life things are much harder than in the afterworld This life you’re on your own And if de-elevator tries to bring you down Go crazy, punch a higher floor – from Jose10k

    I showed up early to put a mile in for RCR, which I always listen to music. Our resident pop culture expert, Hammer, inquired what I was listening to. I told him Prince’s Let’s go crazy. To which he just belted out the lyrics as if he wrote them. Most impressive.
    Warm-ups: ssh, grass grabbers, torso twists, cherry pickers all in cadence
    The thang: Mosey to the courthouse for some 11’s. Merkins and jump squats with running the length and up the courthouse steps. Once finished, on lap around the courthouse, then a quick trip to the rock garden. Picked up a good rock for some curls for the girls, rows for the bros, and overhead presses (all in cadence). Back to the A1C for round robin core. Hammer prayed us out. As always, thanks for letting me lead. Still waiting for cowbell to show up on Friday, maybe even Q.

  • Tunnel Vision – from Russo

    Slightly warmer 42 outside this morning. RCR is in full swing, because 2 HIM were logging some miles when YHC arrived. Pax grew to 4 eventually for the simplest beatdown YHC has Q’ed in a while (i.e math was kept to a minimum, no permutations, calculus, finance, gambling, or geometry necessary)

    Warmup (10x to 20x, all IC)
    -SSH
    -Imperial walkers
    -Toe touches
    -Self love
    -Cherry pickers
    -High knees
    -Grass grabbers

    Thang
    Mosey over to the tunnel for a round of 11s:
    – Merkins and jump squats
    – Mosey down the ramp, side shuffle step through the tunnel, back pedal up the ramp

    Mosey back just in time for a quick plank until the clock expired.

    COT, Name-o-Rama, announcements, and prayer closed us out.

    Thanks for joining/reading. There was some great work this morning, you guys made it look easy.

    Let’s go out and have a great week.

    SYITG

  • Never have I ever (Yes I have!) – from Russo

    Disclaimer: yes, most of this was written well ahead of time, Zoolander, and copied and pasted, edited, and spellchecked (I think).

    30 degrees greeted a Pax of 13 this morning, perfect sunrise, a little chilly from the remnants of rain.

    Too cold to be called a Warmup (all IC, between 10 and 25x)
    – Sealjacks
    – Good mornings
    – High knees
    – Cherry pickers
    – Grass grabbers
    – Self love
    – Imperial walkers

    Thangs before the Thang
    (1) Mosey down Girod, stopping every block or so for some Ro-Cham-Burpee (10 rounds of rock, paper, scissors, the winner performs merkins, the loser burpees)

    Things we learned:
    – Zoolander and Jose were “pretty even” through 2 rounds
    – Guinea Pig had incredible fortune until he ran into the buzzsaw of YHC’s scissors
    – The ground is cold without gloves

    (2) Card sharks (Complete exercises based on card count, next round guess higher or lower, a correct guess multiplies the rep 2x, incorrect 3x)
    – Crab cakes
    – Scissor kicks
    – Peter Parker’s
    – Big boi situps
    – Plank jacks
    – American hammers
    – Murder bunnies
    – Monkey humpers

    Things we learned:
    – Murder bunnies are a favorite of YHC
    – The deck was most certainly not stacked to finish on an Ace (with a 3x multiplier)
    – Guinea Pig played great strategy on the 10
    – Jose redeemed himself with higher/lower

    Thang

    YHC is not what one would call creative. Completely left-brained, my world revolves around number and order and sequence. I struggle to keep beatdowns fresh. Most of my planning is either “that’s a good idea, let’s modify that” or “what’s a game I’ve played that can be transformed into a beatdown?” The latter held true for a spirited and, at times, confusing, game of:

    Never have I ever (Q calls out an action, If you’ve done said action, move to one side. If not, move to the other. Exercise and rep count will vary based on what side you’re on)

    Actions (“Yes” first exercise listed, “No”second one listed, most of them look right, there was some modification)

    (1) Q’ed the Mothership – 10 merkins, 5 burpees

    (2) Fartsacked a Q – 10 burpees, 10 merkins

    (3) Intentionally run a red light – 10 burpees, 15 squats

    (4) Picked up the 6 – 3 calf raises, 15 SMCs

    (5) Fallen asleep at work – 25 hallelujah squats, 5 Peter Parker’s

    (6) Called a partner the wrong name – 10 donkey kicks, 5 arm circles

    (7) Cut my own or someone else’s hair – 10 merkins, 20 SSH

    (8) Dated a friend’s ex – lap around Granny’s, 5 merkins

    (9) Stopped to help some with roadside car trouble – 5 jump squats, 25 Apollo Ohnos

    (10) Let someone cut in line in front of me – 10 mountain climbers, 10 burpees

    (11) Played wordle – bear crawl, mosey

    (12) Slept in my car – 20 star jumps, 10 arm circles

    (13) Hit a parked car – 20 groiners, 5 merkins

    (14) Sent an inappropriate text or message to the wrong person – 5 burpees, 5 merkins

    (15) Been frisked or in a police car – 30 squats, 10 cherry pickers

    (16) Removed an inappropriate amount of clothes in public – 10 burpees, 1 burpee

    Things we learned:
    – Too many lawyers in the Pax. We had to define “partner”, “hit”, “date”, “mothership”, “intentional”, as well as clarify what is meant by “inappropriate” and “slept”
    – Even after 16 rounds, some of us aren’t really sure which side to go to
    – There were at least two people who found themselves on the side I didn’t expect them to be on (Names redacted, let the speculation commence)
    – Other things that should not be broadcast here to protect the innocent
    – Best line of the Thang (paraphrased): I paid for that 20 years ago and now Russo is making me pay for it again.

    After enough absolution, Pax moseyed back to the flag in a modified Indian run where the lead runner peels off and heads to the back.

    COT, Name-o-Rama, announcements, and prayer closed us out.

    Announcements
    – HogsBreath and Pass Interference are planting the Slidell flag on Monday at 5:30!
    – Hammer is pulling together a fundraiser for the Nehemiah Project in mid-March. I’ll let him provide more details on this worthy cause.
    – There were multiple prayer requests, including friends and family of Akbar, Bubba, Bird, and Jose, so a focus of our prayer was on mental/physical health and God’s gifts of healing, comfort, mercy, and peace.

    One final word on something Bubba brought up:

    There is an awful lot we shoulder every day: work, family, commitments, temptation, life’s difficulties, you name it. We may tend to bottle up stress or pressure until we just can’t take it anymore.

    Most of us have found F3 to be a release of some of that pressure. We’ve stumbled upon a group that, despite our imperfections, will absolutely stand tall in the face of adversity and stand with our brothers. I thank God every day for this group, and each of the men that have helped to shape me into a better human being. You are all leading by example and my prayer is that we do that for everyone around us.

    Maybe you pick up the 6 more, or reach out to ask how something went for someone this week. Maybe you share your Q source, and then make sure it gets read. Maybe you spend a couple hours to drop everything and help someone move. There are countless other examples that I hope we have and can point to when things get tough. There are too many other examples for me to list.

    If anyone is struggling, reach out. My ear is always ready to be bent. SYITG 🤛🏼