Category: Northshore

  • The (Birthday) “Cake Walk” – from Grundy

    One might ask why someone would willingly hang around a group of guys who without fail would say that they hate them at the end every workout. To continue to endure that type of verbal abuse for 4 and a half years seems insane. But on this specific July 10th, those words would not be obligatorily uttered any more. The word “hate” would be replaced by silence. On this specific day, YHC moved over into the realm of “Those Who Shall Not be Named” (Those Who Shall Not be Named = The age group of 30-49 where you earn no extra “hate” or “respect”).

    I was now free of hate but had strangely grown accustomed to hearing it! So, in order to receive the word I had heard every workout for 4 ½ years, I had to give the PAX another reason to “hate” me. No problem, that would be a “cake walk”.

    Pre-Thang
    Normal warmup sequence commenced In Cadence ranging from 10-30 counts.
    • SSH
    • Windmills
    • Good Mornings
    • Arm Circle Series

    The Q then took the PAX on a longer than typical mosey to Milestone Marsh where the cake walk would begin.

    The Thang
    Credit Zoolander for saying the week previously that it would be funny to create a workout sequence called the “cake walk” that actually was really difficult. Challenge accepted! Since the beatdown would be on the Qs actual 30th birthday, it just made too much sense to create a workout that had the word “cake” in it. After a quick poll via GroupMe from both the Northshore and Southshore, a quick list of most “hated” exercises were gathered. From there, the Q just worked in the number of the day “30” and the (birthday) “cake walk” was born.

    The cake walk goes like this. Start on the baseline of the basketball court, you will begin with 30 lunge pulses on the right side pausing on every fifth rep for a five count hold before continuing the reps. Continue until every rep is complete. Once finished, you crab walk to half court (you can thank Zoolander again for suggesting this one on GroupMe) to do 29 Sister Mary Catherines. Crab walk back to the baseline for 28 Carolina Dry Docks. Crab walk to half court for 27 Bulgarian split squats (right side). Crab walk one more time back to the baseline for 26 manmakers in cadence (a real crowd pleaser). After you finish that, this is where you can insert a ten count or two since there is no crab walk after the manmakers which means you will still be on the baseline of the basketball court.

    You repeat the sequence of descending reps of Lunge Pulses, Sister Mary Catherines, Carolina Dry Docks, Bulgarian Split Squats, and Manmakers starting now on 25. For every sequence of the 5 exercises, you switch which leg you would do for the lunges and Bulgarian split squats. So, in the second sequence you would do your left side. Continue this sequence until you do the last manmaker!

    Finishing this was quite a challenge and the lack of mumblechatter just further evidenced that fact. Although, legend has it that Barely Legal is still out there doing his speedy crab walks! The workout was done, and the time showed 7:29 AM when we finished the last manmaker. We were half a mile from the lakefront flag but the PAX was gracious with their sentimental Q on this day. We decided that despite the time, we would take a nice walk back most of the way to the flag.

    Once we arrived around the flag we were able to officially welcome our newest FNG Pro Bono! After that I was able to express my gratitude to a group of men who quite literally shaped the man I am today. A group who showed me that as we strengthened our bodies we were also strengthening our friendships, leadership capabilities, and character. I wouldn’t trade this group of men and the lessons I’ve learned for anything and am beyond honored to simply be a part of the group. And although I will never hear the required berating of “hate” after my name again, I will never stop feeling the care that I’ve felt from the first day when I showed up one Saturday morning back in February of 2017. A feeling of care that has continued to grow and which actually feels a lot like love.

    Until Next Time,
    Grundy (He Who Must Not be Named)

  • Can’t Count or Spell – from Einstein

    The Sun posted for a change this morning at the Gipper, after what has seemed like an endless string of rainy days.

    Short disclaimer …
    Warmup:
    all 20xIC: Toe Touch, Side Straddle Hops, Good Mornings, Shoulder Shrugs, Butt Kicks, Swimmers

    Mosey to the upper deck of the St. Tammany Justice Center parking garage
    Event; from the F3Nation Exicon: Hindenburg B.L.I.M.P.S.
    At the four corners of the parking deck, running to each corner
    4×10 Burpees
    4×20 Lunges
    4×30 Imperial Walkers
    4×40 Merkins
    4×50 Plank Jacks
    4×60 Squats (ran out of time to do this last one, the PAX will do this for homework – on the honor system)

    The PAX: Akbar, Barely Legal, BBQ, Cowbell, Fred Einstein, Jose10K, Moby Dick, Shooter, Turbo Tax

    Count-o-rama, Jose10K leads us out with a prayer.

    Thanks guys. Always fun to lead

  • 3…2…1…Blast off! – from Russo

    Pax of 4 in the gloom at Granny’s, where the “under construction” fences were up for an as-yet-undetermined project. Undaunted, we pressed on!

    Warmup (all IC, 10-20x)
    – sealjacks
    – cherry pickers
    – imperial walkers
    – toe touches
    – windmills
    – arm circles

    Thing before the Thang
    Having planned to use the benches that were now blocked off when the City of Mandeville built that wall, pax moseyed to Lafayette street to visit the Rusty Pelican for some brief tabata: 45 seconds each (not 45 minutes, Chewy, that would just be crazy) – – (1) Freak Nastys (2) Step Ups (3) Urkins

    A two block mosey back for The Thang:
    Something YHC called 3-2-1 Blastoff:

    3 reps at a column, mosey to the next column, 2 reps, mosey a column, one rep, then at the last column, up the pilot house for 10 calf raises and back down to start.

    Rounds – 3 merkins, 2 jump squats, 1 SMC
    3 shoulder taps, 2 Apollo ohno’s, 1 suicide squat
    3 plank jacks, 2 Bobby Hurley’s, 1 high knee/ super calf raise
    3 Peter Parker’s, 2 tuck jumps, one groiner
    3 werkins, 2 lunges or SMCs, one monkey humper

    Thing after the Thang:
    With a few minutes left, it was a good opportunity to complete a Motivator, if for no other reason than to rectify the count issues YHC had on the last one we completed. This Motivator went to 7 (not 11) and for the most part we counted successfully.

    COT, Name-o-Rama, Announcements, and Prayer closed us out for today.

    Special note for a busy week upcoming:
    Wednesday 7-21: Gnarly Nutria
    Thursday 7-22: FIA/F3 mixer
    Friday 7-23: A1C one year anniversary and Pelican Park Pickleball (P3-4-F3?)
    Saturday 7-24: Thibodeaux road trip for a Q school with Goose

    Special recognition/ T claps to a returning Akbar who made it back from his adventure outwest and also to Bypass, who made it back after his first beatdown yesterday at the Marsh. Keep posting as you are able, sir, and we’ll be there to continue moving you forward, because as a reminder, we’re committed to leaving no man behind and no man where they are.

    SYITG

  • A Few Card Games – from Hogs Breath

    YHC showed up 5 mins prior and was greeted by the sight of a few pax milling about. We even had a FNG waiting for us!!

    The warm up

    We began with 10 IC mountain man poopers. How YHC found that warm up was by searching through the Exicon and picking funny names. Using the same formula, YHC went to the exicon on my phone began scrolling and had my M say “stop” and that became this mornings workout. So what we we ended up with;

    Boat / Canoe – 60sec
    Burp and Merk – 5 oyo
    Crab Jacks – 10 ic

    The Thang

    An Obama the length of the basketball court.

    Originally a coupon workout was planned, however YHC was told the coupons had been taken, again. At this point the city is probably moving them, if YHC had read the back last from 2 weeks prior YHC would have realized and could have brought some coupons….

    [If anyone wants we were going to preform a workout modified from an iron pax workout:
    10 man makers
    20 overhead press
    30 kettlebell swings
    40 curls
    50 incline merkins]

    So YHC was a great Q and adapted on the fly. Even thought YHC had previous said minimal running and mostly upper body, he had to modify! A Deck O’ Death was pulled out and various games were played:

    War: highest card was the exercise and the low number was added up. I.e. 9 of spades [low slow squats] and 7 of hearts so all pax performed 16 low slow squats.

    After everyone had a turn we moseyed to the Woodlake elementary school and back.
    Then we drew a poker hand and performed all exercises of the highest poker hand. A mosey back to the school.
    Then we drew cards and lined them up highest to lowest, and performed all exercises, and then drew a second round but went lowest to highest.
    At this it was time to wrap up.

    We welcomed, and named, Bypass, a new addition to our Northshore Pax! Named because he had heart surgery last April, he was EH’d by one of our Uptowner pax. Hopefully he’ll return out to us again!

    Ended with a COT with plenty of prayers for upcoming surgeries, travels, and allowing the Great Q to be leaders in our communities as we carry forward.

  • Simple little Mosey – from Shooter

    3 PAX journeyed through the streets of Mandeville this Gloom. At first it appeared to only be Zoolander and YHC until out of the darkness a double flagged what looked like a UFO came rolling in. Amnesia biked in 8 miles from home to join us. I have money 💰 on the fact that he registers more miles between run and bike to the WWII team challenge currently underway..
    Brief warmup 10IC Windmills, Toe Touches, self love, scorpion kicks and Torso twists..
    Changed our direction down to Villere taking a left to Girord to Lakeshore and back up West Beach with a left at Monroe and returning to the AO..
    Time was around 40 mins and with Qs Garmin being a little aggressive at 5 miles I will scale back and say we completed roughly 4 to 4.5..

    Amnesia closed us out in prayer..

    Until the next Gloom 👊🏼👍🏼✌🏼!!

  • “Flexing Fletch” with special quest “Butts and Balls!” – from Shooter

    After a week away YHC decided to sign up for Today and Thursday as the Q sheet remains empty for the most part.. After arrival YHC saw the likes of Fletch pulling in to Flex his posting abilities and shortly thereafter the likes of Jose (on summer vacation) 10k as I planted the flag.. To even up the PAX Mandeville’s own Chewy pulls in and we commence to get this party started..

    Warmup
    15IC Windmills, Toe Touches, Cherry pickers, self love, SSH and Butt kicks.

    Thang
    Moseyed along the streets of Mandeville to the Marsh stopping along the way at each corner for 5 Burpee (2x Merkin), 10 Merkins and 15 Jump squats. Realizing there was only 2 corners to get there we extended around the backside to gather 2 additional blocks to get some reps in. Upon arrival at the Marsh YHC planned on some actual BLOCK work, however it appears we have been sabotaged yet again by our fellow Mandevillians or our local parish workers simply following orders in the removal of our ditch baring F3 coupons. Maybe the Qs sight is deteriorating or the GPS coordinates in my mind is way off.. Nevertheless Jose 10k tried shining a light literally to no avail.. One could understand if the removal was for the purposes of grass cutting or Bush trimming but the area we were looking through certainly shows no sign of say a “Bushwacker!” Or by no means a pruning machine in “Tanked up!” Called an audible using the monkey bars for (3x)
    5 pull ups, 10 squat thrusters minus the coupon and 5 chin ups. Back to the streets for the return stopping along the way yet again this time for 5 8 count body builders, 10 Lunges and 15 Apollo onos..
    Returned at the pavilion for some core work. PAX held chillcut while each man moseyed up and around the flag pole returning till everyone completed. Next round alternating Nolan Ryan’s 5 each side and the same up and around.. Final was 10 OYO donkey kickoffs..

    Count, Annouce and COT

    Big thanks to my Lee road Cowboys for journeying down this morning..

    Don’t forget open to all Pickle ball at Pelican park on Fridays 630PM hosted by Chewy..
    Fun times for sure..

    Appreciate Fletch 🙏🏼🙏🏼 us out and until the next Gloom 👊🏼👍🏼✌🏼!!!

  • Core Crusher and Flickerball – from Zoolander

    from TruCoat…”15 assembled Saturday at the North Shore Lakefront for a multi-phase workout and coffee. Following a short warm-up, the group conquered a 15 minute core toning medley of mountain climbers, V-ups, supermans, squats or jump tucks, and side touches. After a short mosey and 6 rounds of merkins with a soccer ball twist, the group divided and faced off for a 25 minute flickerball match. The Masters, led by Tanked-Up, and the Seniors led by very-soon-to-be-30 Grundy sprinted back and forth the long field trading scores. In the final moments, the Seniors’ secret weapon, 12 year old Baby Yoda, scored with a laser shot to the back of the goal. Bean made the highlight reel with impressive defense and Bird fearlessly recovered balls out of Lake Pontchartrain, proving gators, rough seas, and the possibility of a double dose Z-pak were no match for this aquaman. The game drew a few spectators, possibly to admire the elegant passing among the sides, or more likely, hypnotized by bare-chested Bushwacker wearing a much too small youth pinny. A good time had by all! ”

  • Impromptu 3rd F Beatdown – from Hogs Breath

    Checking the Q sheet after last nights fireworks I didn’t see anyone sign up. So I grabbed my Deck O’ Death (available at Mudgear) and headed out to Taylor Thomas Park. Planting a shovel flag five mins before, I was at least expecting one other pax to show….
    But alas at 0515 I was alone, so I began

    Warm-up
    50 self cadence SSH
    10 mountain man poopers
    10 Hillbillies
    10 toe kicks

    The thang
    Obama the length of the basketball court
    One lap around the block and then I began the Deck O’ Death, turning over a card I would perform said exercise, as I was sweating away in the muggy air I looked around at the refuse and litter left behind by the previous day’s Fourth of July. I can either complain about it, or I could improve my community and be an example and leader. Taking on one of the F3 tenants and “leave no [park] behind, but no [park] where you found him” after each card, I would sprint to a piece of litter, run to the trash can and back to center court to overturn the next card. After performing the nexts card’s exercise, I would rinse and repeat. I made it my mantra to clean the entire park by the time 0600 rolled around.
    I finished a sweaty mess, but accomplished the goal.
    And Pax, this is a beatdown I will be repeating!
    I ended with prayers for y’all! Until next time pax!!

  • 1776 Beatdown – from Hogs Breath

    Pulling in some history theme; The best college lecture I ever heard was “the American Revelation in one hour” so YHC tried to build a beatdown around the American revolution in 45 mins!

    We began much like the colonists with the “7 year war” so 7 burpee’s OYO.

    The colonists were left in a time of confusion and taxation, so YHC ‘purposely’ lead a confusing IC warmup.
    14 overhead presses
    13ish toe kicks
    20ish overhead presses

    And the colonists truly felt they were taking up the rear….. so monkey humpers!!!

    After this the colonists began to revolt, and this culminated with the Boston Massacre and Battle of Lexington and Concorde. So we “marched” [mosey] to get our coupons.
    The Declaration of Independence was signed during this time. The digits 1776 add up to “21” so we did 21 OYO merkins (also we America does 21 gun salutes).

    The colonists realized they were without Artillery so they raided the fort at Ticonderoga and took the British cannons carrying these back across a frozen New York; so we grabbed our Coupons and moseyed back to the A1C parking garage. The colonists had to recruit and train, so we stopped for some overhead presses and Urkins along the way.
    The British attempted to stem the Americans and separate New England with a two-pronged attack, so we counted off in 2’s and one group would backward run the perimeter, while the other group overhead press.
    Rinse and repeat with goblet squats and lunges walks.
    France got pulled in after the Battle of Saratoga, the American revolution truly became a “World War” especially with fighting over the Caribbean islands. So since everyone was getting their butt kicked, we did two rings of fire with monkey humpers!!
    To represent the three main armies (British, French, and American) we did a round of three, with a perimeter run, Urkins, and LBC’s.
    Then came a few years of stalemates, so we held a few planks.
    After that we mosey’d to return the coupons. Similar to Gen Washington marching to meet Gen Lafayette and the French Fleet to moving in for the Battle of the Capes and Battle of Yorktown.
    It has been said that Washington when he met up with Lafayette fell to his knees and cried out “my God thank you!!” So we fell to our knees doing 5 IC lunges.
    It took about 3 weeks for the message to reach England (that the British surrendered at Yorktown,) where the Tory party declared “we are finished…..” with this YHC declared the beatdown was over and “that Pax is how we became a nation!”

    Ended with COT, announcements of Gnarly Nutria, Fia/F3 mixer; and prayers for Akbar as his family traverses the American West, our nation, and ourselves to lead other men!

  • Halfpipe – from Russo

    Pax of 6 this morning at not-quite-as-miserably-hot-and-humid Granny’s, including Jose10k, who YHC feels might have been inadvertently duped into “little or no running” because he saw YHC as Q.

    Warmup (10-15x IC)
    – Seal jacks
    – Air presses
    – Imperial walkers
    – Windmills
    – Arm circles
    – Self love

    Thing before the thang
    3 rounds of 10 freak nastys on the blue benches
    2 round of 10 step ups (2 is 1)

    We then moseyed through the woods to the tunnel of love, where YHC’s flashlight app finally worked for the first time since Bush was president (the broccoli hating one).

    Thang
    YHC called it “the halfpipe” for the tunnel’s resemblance to a skateboard halfpipe, or at least as close as we could get in south LA. I wanted to change into my Vision streetwear and chucks, but decided there was no time.

    Simple 4-3-4 reps of merkins, mosey down and back up between: 4 at the top, 3 mid pipe, 4 at the top again.

    Round 2 switched to Groiners and a 3-4-3 rep count.

    Mosey back to the pilot house and with around 10 minutes left, we did the thing after the Thang:

    Choose your own adventure: Pax chose option A: calf raises up and down the pilot house steps, where, among mumble chatter about accountant analytics, probabilities, and the pros and cons of choosing options A vs. B, YHC heard the best out of context quote so far this year: “Runners are the worst!!” Two thumbs up.

    Choose your own adventure continued with option B, a merkin wave of 6.

    We wrapped up with “the hands of time”, where pax does one leg raise and holds the low position until each person completes the rep (Rinse and repeat 6 times), and 10 “contractually obligated” crunchy frogs.

    COT time, including count, Name-o-Rama, announcements, and prayer, where we noted keeping all those traveling in our thoughts.

    Reminder about a busy third full week of July:
    21st: Gnarly Nutria
    22nd: Mixer
    24th: Thibodeaux visit to see Goose

    A thank you to the 5 folks pushing me today and letting me lead, and to the rest of you for continuing to be quality individuals.

    SYITG