F3 New Orleans

Category: Backblasts

  • MASTER MELVIN AO – LAUNCHED! #1

    Welcome to Master Melvin aka Mel Ott Park in GRETNA on the West Bank!  AKA The BEST BANK!  AKA watch out for the speed trap on the way in.  Gretna Native – Mel Ott hit over 50o HRS playing from the New York Giants in the 50s.  A stud – a phenom!  I like that as we get ready to rumble in G-town.

    Definitely had to set the alarm for 415 this am to arrive to my AO on time.

    Got a nice text from Seaman letting me know that he will join me in the gloom of Gretna.

    Nip Tuck ditched me for a carpool for Swim Practice – oh well.

    A double nice surprise with King Kong and Medulla Oblangata – posting in the GLOOM of GRETNA.

    Started out with the disclaimer – and a quick explanation of the three Fs.  Also the 5 rules of F3.

    Mosey’d a short distance – Side Straddle Hop x 20, Imp Walker Squats x 15, Mtn Climbers x 20, LBCs x 20

    Then Mosey’d to the ballpark for some bases work but park was locked.  SO sudden change to the bleachers.  At the bleachers we did Left Leg Step x 20, Right Leg Step up x 20, Decline Merk x 10 On Your Own, Incline Merk x 10 OYO, Dips x 15, Bulgarian Split Lunge x 20 each leg  **Someone mosey’d off the the bathroom at this point and I thought to myself – wow in gretna they trust their people so much the bathrooms are open at night

    Then we mosey’d down to a path.  Here we did a short – FLIP/FLOP with partner.

    10 pullups and shoulder taps while we wait for partner doing pullups.  We did As Many Reps As Possible x 2

    Then we did BLIMPS – 5 burpees-10lunges – 15  imperial walkers – 20 merkins – 25 squat jumps and 30 squats.

    Getting tired but we mosey’d to big parking lot by gym.

    Here we did 6 minutes of Mary.

    I had the other guys share leading duties here:

    RY dying roach x 20, seaman box cutters x 20 king kong flutters x 20, medulla freddie mercury x 20, and moist did x 20 LBCS.

    We got back to the FLAGa little early  and we did a little PLANK O RAMA until 615.

    Wow I feel lucky I got to Q the first WANK beatdown.  It happened so quick – I figured we needed to strike while the IRON is hot.  We need to EH some guys for Wednesday at Mel Ott aka Master Melvin.  Get it done and grow this AO one PAX member at a time.

    Prayed for a bunch of intentions and asked for the grace to be better men in all our interactions.

    See You in the Gloom (SYITG)-Reluctant Yankee

     

     

  • Veni Vidi Vici

    Six PAX gathered in the Gloom at The Gipper this morning to tackle the fourth and final week of the IronPAXChallenge.  Anticipating that this installment of the Challenge would be tough to complete in our scheduled 45 minutes, YHC called for an early COT.  Countorama, nameorama and a short prayer and then we were off on a short mosey to a local gym with pull up bars to get down to business.

    Mogadishu Mile for time:

    1 mile run

    50 pull-ups

    4 rounds of: 25 alternating leg traveling lunge steps and 25 air squats

    4 rounds of: 25 merkins and 25 yard sprint

    100 cinderblock squat thrusters

    50 pull-ups

    1 mile run.

    After weeks one and two, YHC thought that F3 Greenwood was out to kill us.  After week three, YHC was pretty sure he was right.  This morning’s beat down eliminated any lingering doubt.

    Julius Caesar may have said “veni vidi vici” when he made short work of Pharnaces II of Pontus at the Battle of Zela but if he had participated in the IronPAXChallenge he may have been singing a different tune.  Something along the lines of “we came, we saw, we kicked our own butts so badly that it has been tough to straighten our arms or bend down to pick something up for the last four weeks.”  Nevertheless, we did survive and hopefully made ourselves better in the process.

    T claps to the PAX F3 Greenwood for challenging us.  It has been a great reminder that we here at F3 Northshore are part of something much bigger.

     

  • That’s All It Took Was Just One Look

    One look at Greenville’s Iron Pax Challenge posting for this week, and YHC felt weak in the knees.  50 pullups??  Then do a bunch of stuff and do 50 more pullups???  I really love F3 and how much stronger and more fit it has gotten me, but I had no illusions of completing that challenge.  So, hat’s off to the men who will participate in the last week of the Iron Pax Challenge.

    So, here’s what we did instead:

    Warmarama

    SSH, High Knees, Butt Kicks, Arm Circles all IC x about 10.  Bushwacker says, “boy, good luck with the backblast, youre not gonna remember how many we did.”  and, bushwacker, youre right.  I cant remember.

    Thang.

    Mosey to workout equipment.  Tabata set 1 minute of alternating exercises. Merkins/ pullups, squats/freak nasties, wifepleasers/bigboy situps.

    Mosey back to basketball court for some line drills–10 total.  After each line drill, we did an exercise x 10 reps.  more merkins, squats, leg raises, calf raises, vertical jumps.

    Sprinkle some more merkins, rower situps, freak nasties, and box jumps in there the workout is nearly complete.

    Then, it was, Yoga.  Making Chewy proud!

    10 minutes of Yoga, stretching, Down Dog.  And of course, our newest fun–Making fun of the Lady on the Down Dog App.

    Countarama, Namorama, and YHC prayed us out.

    Thanks for following my lead, men.

    See you in the Gloom

  • Try Something New – 2 Year Anniversary

    2 Years ago, YHC arrived in the gloom of City Park at the suggestion of a work colleague. Little did YHC know that he was going to be embraced by fellow men and begin a journey to become a High Impact Man.   F3 took this Sad Clown out of his regular routine of pumping dollars into the gym, living the POGO40, and letting his Jester rule his life.  This was because YHC decided to TRY SOMETHING NEW; take the DRP.  Too many times we are scared by the unknown  that we deny ourselves the possibility of something we may enjoy.   Today, YHC remade the commitment he made 2 years ago and decided to try something new.   Rock City is the not the home AO for YHC.  What better way to take the DRP than to sign up to Q.

    During YHC’s Sad Clown days, he had a subscription to Men’s Health Magazine. In an effort to give the PAX a Downpainment, YHC skimmed the dusty magazines for Rock City inspiration.  While there was a lot of great information, there were also some exercises that should be put back on the shelf.

    Disclaimer; Mosey to rocks

    W/U – 1 mi. AMRAP each exercise

    • Squats
    • Merkins
    • Mountain climbers
    • V-ups
    • Split squats (:30 per leg)
    • SSH
    • Plank
    • Single Wife Pleaser (:30 per leg)
    • Burpees

    Grab a rock

    • Lunge & Twist x 20 paces
    • Curls, Press, Carry x 20 paces
    • Rinse & Repeat

    Mosey to the Pavilion

    • 10 IC Incline Bench, Military Press, Merkins
    • 10 IC Tricep Extensions, Bicep Curls, Rows
    • 10 IC Goblet Squats, Bulgarian Split Squats, Rock Swings

    Partner up

    • Big Boy Sit ups x 10 (each)
    • Standing Torso Twist x 10
    • Plank Combo x 10

    Mosey Back to the Rocks (Time toTSN)

    • Over – Under x 10 – Stand back to back with your partner and pass the rock over head, then bend down and pass it through your legs. This received quite a bit of Mumble chatter, but here we have Bogey & Wall Eye with excellent form.

    • 20 IC Merkins
    • Mosey to the Flag

    Counterama, Namerama,

    Announcements – Pelicanman Duathlon, New Kenner AO

    Ball of Man thanking the Sky Q for the gift of today, the opportunity presented by F3, request for strength, and the Serenity Prayer.

    Thank you for the opportunity to lead,

    Da Parish

  • More Mary with Bittersweet

    19 PAX posted for a humid and sweaty full moon beatdown.

    I arrived right at 530am and quickly took off for the bandstand.

    Warmed up with SSH x 20, Imp Walker Squats x 20 and then went into ROXANNE

    Roxanne is a pushup every time Sting sings Roxanne and a plank jack every RED LIGHT.

    From there we set up the TABATA counter and did 45 seconds on and 15 rest.  Not officially tabata bc we switched exercises every minute.

    Dead Roach

    Penguins

    Alternating Knee Crunch

    Crunch push throughs

    Leg Elevations

    LBCs

    LBTs

    Russian Twists

    Dead Bugs

    Leg Presses

    That was 10 – so we switched it up.

    NEXT SET/PEARL –

    We did 10 burpees at the bandstand, 20 rows, 5-10 pullups (or max out), 30 dips at the benches

    You could do them in any order but you had to run on the track outside to the next station.

    Played BITTER SWEET on the run.  Say HI if they say HI back they are Sweet if they say NOTHING they are bitter.

    We did this x 2.

    Shoulder Taps and wait.

    NEXT SET we did a few more TABATA counter exercises out of cadence

    Peter Parkers

    Donkey Kicks

    Side Crunches – LEFT and RIGHT

    Low Country Crab

    Fire Hydrants L and RIGHT

    It was 613 so we headed back to FLAG.

    Arrived at the FLAG 614 so we did x20 Parker Peters IC

     

    Always a pleasure to lead – prayed for the PAX to not take for granted the time we share with family and friends

  • Put Me In Coach

    “The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.”  -Vince Lombardi 

    Another notch was added to The Foundry belt when 10 of F3’s finest gathered in City Park for the weekly hump day workout.  Lots of themed workouts lately with Elvis, Notre Dame, Iron Pax, etc so YHC kicked around several themed ideas with no avail until finally formulating a plan 5 minutes prior to kickoff.  Nothing extravagant in store, just a mix of usual stuff and few things with a twist, all of which would hopefully break a sweat along with building some endurance and muscle.  Being that football season is upon us, why not steal a few drills from the world of pigskin….who knows, one of us may get called up to the big leagues.  After the PAX of 10 assembled and the usual disclaimer, the clock started for 4 quarters of sweaty goodness.

    1st Quarter:

    Mosey down Roosevelt Mall with some high knees, butt kicks, and backpedaling thrown in for good measure.  Huddle up in the grass for IWx20, PPx20, ACx20, WMx10, Seal Jacksx10, capped off with approx 20 Up-Downs.  Then, a mosey to The Refinery.

    2nd Quarter:

    5 Stations including Body Rows, Hanging Knee Ups, Squats, Pull Ups, with timer being Step Ups x12L + x12R.  Rinse and repeat.  YHC’s forearms were screaming from lots of bar gripping so thinking we should have substituted the rows for dips or merkins.

    Then to the sideline (large landscape timber) for Derkins x20 OYO, Lunge Walk to tree and back, followed by Derkins x20.

    Halftime:

    Mosey to water fountain for hydration and 1-2 min plankorama.

    3rd Quarter:

    Mosey over to Christian Brother’s Falcon Field for some turf time.  First up would be a partner routine with PAX #1 performing AMRAP Burpee Jump Overs in rapid fashion on the goal line while PAX #2 runs across the field to the opposite endzone for 10 Merkins then runs back.  Flip flop, rinse and repeat.  Lots of grunts and heavy breathing.

    4th Quarter:

    The last circuit was originally designed to be somewhat of an experiment to test our athleticism but YHC botched it up a bit due to a cardio buzz.  Plan called for a series of relay team sprints (40yds) to see if we could put any correlation to age, F3 tenure, etc….and get the competitive juices flowing.

    Sprint #1:  Line up by age with young bucks on one team and old dudes on the other.  First person from each team sprints 40yds and touches goal line, which then prompts next person to run, and so on.  This resulted in a photo finish so we concluded it was a tie.  Looking back, YHC could have laid this out in a different way but we rolled with it.

    Sprint #2:  Line up by amount of time participating in F3 which had it split with guys around 1 year or less on one side and the vets on the other.  Same 40 yd sprint with the newbies coming out on top.  T-claps to Mahatma for pushing hard, maybe too hard.

    Sprint# 3:  Line up again but due to time ticking and YHC having a brainfart, we settled for a group sprint then proceeded to mosey across the grass, alongside the track and back to the flag:

    Two Minute Warning:

    Plankorama and Hip Flexors to seal the deal.

    Overtime:

    COT and sweaty BOM to cap things off.

    Not much mumble chatter or buffoonery to report.  It was a rather quiet 45 minutes…YHC can only hope that was due to a good beatdown being delivered and not a just a poor job of keeping the PAX entertained.

    Thanks for the motivation, camaraderie, and chance to lead.

    SYITG,

    Tool

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • 1 Year Into My F3 Addiction

    Do not count the days. Make the days count

    -Muhammad Ali

    That being said, it has been around 365 days since Ben Todd showed up to the Mandeville lakefront to see what this F3 thing he had been told about was exactly.  Uncomfortably out of place and uninitiated, he stood there , hands in his pockets just waiting for, he knew not what. When an older gentleman offered his hand and introduced himself as Captain Sparkles (RESPECT), he wondered what he had gotten himself into. That day he was pushed and, in turn, pushed himself. He heard all the nicknames and still had no clue. A burly bruiser of a man called Shooter chatted him up here and there throughout the “beat down” extending just enough extra welcome that a return the following week seemed like a slightly less uncomfortable idea. At the conclusion of the sweaty soreness-inducing session, he was given his own nickname, Bushwacker, and the social and physical discomfort slowly began to dissipate. YHC has been hooked on F3 ever since, and has love, gratitude, respect and appreciation for each one of his brothers.

    If you’re still with me, this is how it went down today…

    WARM UP

    Toe Touches x20 IC

    Scorpion Kicks x20 IC

    Air Presses x20 IC

    ACTION

    Mosied to Marigny for: Dora 1, 2, 3 – partner up, cumulative 100 merkins, 200 LBCs, 300 squats, p1 exercises while p2 runs up the block and back, switch

    Next, on to Lamarque for a roll of Dice of Doom – 20 putins IC

    On to Foy for another roll – 5 freak nasties

    Beachbound for Ring of Fire : 4 stations/4 groups – 3 exercises per station – rotate stations until all exercises have been performed by all groups for 1 minute (FNG Duck Sauce sealed his nickname with banter of foul fornication as it related to some of our sandy spastic movements and exercising efforts)

    Indian Run back to the Flag (T Claps to Tiny Tim, who didn’t have the juice to enjoy the full beatdown, but was awaiting our return, having never stopped moving in active recovery)

    MARY

    Crunchy Frogs x10 IC

    Freddy Mercuries x10 IC

    Superman/Banana

    Naming of FNG: Duck Sauce

    Tiny Tim prayed us out with heartfelt thanks.

    One year down, the rest of my life to to go! Many thanks for following my lead today and for y’alls friendship

     

  • Chumbawamba!

    Chumbawamba!

    The Scene:  The Knoll

    Conditions: Sunny. Humid. Watery grass.

    Welcome

    Disclaimer

    Warm-a-Rama:

    Looked like a b-class soccer team as we jogged about 50 yards, and then jogged backwards to the flag.

    Butt kicks about 20 yards out and then high knees back to the flag.

    Shuffle facing the road about 20 yards and then shuffle back.

    Brought us to the real warm-a-rama.

    Q asked the pax if they loved 90’s music. Chumbawamba was mentioned (t-claps to Shangeaux for supporting this).

    Proceded to play Chumbawamba’s only hit, Tubthumping. Performed SSH the entirety of the song and everytime the song said “I get knocked down, but I get up again…” the group did a burpee. It started with fun smiles and ended with everyone hating the repetitiveness of this hit.

    —

    The Thang:

    Indian run to the football field.

    Wide football sprints in place (think remember the titans but without the up-downs. We did not get blood on our uniforms).

    Lined up under the field goal. Sprinted to the other field goal post. 15 second break. Did this 4x overall for a real punch to the gut.

    Lined up three cones five yards apart for shuttle runs. Line up at middle cone, sprint to one cone and touch the line, run to the farthest cone and then back to the 2nd cone. Pax planked while everyone went through this d-lineman drill.

    Took three cones and made a ‘L’ shape, 5 yards apart. Start at one cone, run around the middle cone and make a hard u-turn around farthest cone, and then sprint back to original cone. Pax did six inches for six while everyone did this drill.

    —

    Made a baseball diamond with the cones. Pax divided into four teams of three. Each team starts at its own base. Teams completed a cumulative number of reps of different exercise at each base:

    100 team merkins at first, 100 team crab cakes at second, 100 team lunges at 3rd, 100 team squats at home, and then sprinted to each next base. Each time a team passed a station, it got a point. Did this for a 15-minute period.

    A solid competition ended with 2 teams having 13 points, one with 12, and one with 11. A masterful effort.

    As reward, the 13-point teams ran to midfield and back, the 12-point team 75 yards and back and the last team ran to other field goal post and back.

    Mosey’d back to the flag!

    Mary:

    Crunchy Frogs x20 in honor of Snackpack being back!

    Count-o-Rama

    Name-o-Rama

    COT / BOM:

    Great to see Snackpack and Trooper!

    Announcements:

  • A Brief History of Notre Dame

    YHC finished up his birthday Q week with Q at the Mothership.  Thanks to everyone who has shown up for my Qs this week….

    YHC dropped 2 kids at his University last week, hoping and praying that they will have experiences similar to his – the types of experiences that make one a Domer-for-life.  During the welcome weekend talks for the parents, much conversations  about the history of Notre Dame and the Holy Cross congregation.  YHC thought that would make a good topic for a Q.  So here we go…..

    First a (very flawed and poor) disclaimer.  I should be better at these by now.  Especially when we have an FNG in the fold (way to go, Calliope – rapidly taking over Top EH title from Triple Shift…).  Mosey off to the lawn in front of the museum.

    Warm Up

    Grass was long.  Very long.  Some questions about whether we should stop and look for Cowbell in the grass….

    • SSH x51 (PAX appropriately noted the relevance of this number for YHC)
    • Peter Parker x20
    • Plank Jack x20
    • Parker Peter x20

    Lets get to work…

    Presidential Pyramid

    Line up at Tree #1 (or Tree #0 as Woz and I refer to it).  We are doing a pyramid.  Each set recalls one president of the University.  Each set adds to what we’ve done before (i.e., do all of the exercises from previous sets then add the exercise for this set).

    • 5 Burpees for Blessed Father Basil Moreau, founder of the Holy Cross Congregation.  Run to first tree and back.
    • Add 10 Squats for Fr. Edward Sorin, founder of the University.  Run to second tree and back.
    • Add 15 Merkins for Fr. Andrew Morrisey.  Run to third tree and back.
    • Add 20 Crunchy Frogs for Fr. William Corby, chaplain of Irish Brigade in Civil War (and 2 time president of the University.  Run to fourth tree and back.
    • Add 25 Imperial Walkers for Fr. Thomas Walsh, president who oversaw rebuilding the University after the great Fire.  Run to fifth tree and back.
    • Add 30 Hello Dolly for Fr. John Dillon, entered the priesthood at age of 12, and served as president for one year during Civil War before dying prematurely of illness.  Run to sixth tree and back.

    Mosey to the Water Fountain to hydrate, then off to Lightpole #1.

    National Championship

    YHC takes a lot of flak for how long its been since the last ND National Championship.  The last one was 1988 (coincidentally, YHC’s senior year.)  30 years ago.  Sigh…

    Lets do a Route 88 with Bobby Hurleys  What’s that you ask?  A Route 66 but add 2 at each stop.

    • First Lightpole: BH x3
    • Second: BH x4
    • …
    • Eleventh: BH x13

    At completion, we’ve done 88 Bobby Hurleys.

    Top game of that year?  Notre Dame vs Miami.  Catholics vs Convicts.  What better way to remember the Catholics than with the Genuflect.  1:2 ratio of kneeldown/standup : lunge step.

    • 1 (4 count) kneel down/standup.  2 Lunge steps
    • 2 KD, 4 Lunge
    • 3 KD, 6 Lunge
    • …..

    In interest of time, YHC called it when clubhouse leader (#Tclaps for Outbreak) completed 10:20.  Most PAX were somewhere around iteration 7 or 8.

    Mosey to the Refinery.

    5 Pillars of Holy Cross Education

    Split PAX into 5 groups:

    • Box Jumps
    • Dips
    • Body Builders
    • Pull Ups
    • Merkins

    Rotate for 5 Iterations – one Iteration for each Pillar of a Holy Cross education.  Each iteration is a 60 second AMRAP.  30 second break between iterations to rotate and recover.

    • Iteration 1: Mind – Seeking understanding through the integration of faith and reason.
    • Iteration 2: Heart – Discerning our personal vocation in service to the Church and world.
    • Iteration 3: Zeal – Fueling the desire to offer our gifts for the good of all people.
    • Iteration 4: Family – Embracing Christian community as the context for lifelong formation.
    • Iteration 5: Hope – Trusting in the cross and God’s promise of the kingdom

    Mosey back to the Great Lawn.

    Mary

    Running low on time, but no Notre Dame workout will be complete without some Mary.  As PAX arrive at the lawn, join the circle and start LBC.  Once all PAX arrive, cadence starts and we finish with all LBC x25 together.

    COT

    Back at the flags, circle up for count-off, Name-o-Rama.  Welcome aboard Satchmo (he’s a musician, and an arborist).  Upcoming CSAUPs – talk to Da Parish if interested in Pelican Man duathalon.

    Intentions shared around the circle.  Sky Q – hear and answer them as you deem best for each of us.  Sweaty-ball-o-man to close with prayers.

    Thanks for the opportunity to Q, gentlemen!

     

  • IRONPAX III

    Hawg stole YHC’s Q for this morning with IronPax Week III, and YHC was not happy.

    YHC loves his precious F3 workouts and these stupid IronPax Challenges were just ruining a good thing. The first challenge left me hobbled like a 90 year old grandma, but YHC is into it now. After watching Amnesia and Hawg up their scores in week two by over 100 from their first run at the IronPax at the Birdcage to their second run at the Uptowner, YHC was ready to take up the challenge and work his way into top 100 in the nation for week 3.

     

    Hawg weighed out a dozen 25-30lbs rocks, Mahatma set off cones 10 ft apart (we quickly corrected his mistake before the challenge started), and YHC led a warmup of 20 SSH and 15 PeterParkers.

    Mahatma served as our time keeper as he recovered from an injury and we were off. The IronPax challenges are surprisingly quiet as we go all out trying to get in the most burpees and other stuff as possible.

    This week’s challenge was a confusing one, but here it is in a nutshell:

    15 burpees, 50 hand release merkins, broad jump (bunny hop) 10 yards and back

    14 burpees, 50 goblet squats, broad jump (bunny hop) 10 yards and back

    13 burpees, 50 leg lifts while holding rock in bench press position, broad jump (bunny hop) 10 yards and back

    rinse and repeat while counting down the burpees

    Once again JV is the tops of the morning with an astounding 626 reps

    Hawg 532

    RevSox 519

    TripleShift 455

    Tool 440

    Rocket 431

    FracSac 404

    War Eagle 394

    Two Utes 389

    Amnesia 384

    Abacus 265

    YHC improved from 404 to 519. YHC points this out to say it was all based on watching his brothers tough it out last week in the challenge and push him to do better. You never know how you will challenge, encourage, or push the men out here simply by being present and challenging yourself. YHC is stronger and healthier thanks to all of you in F3, and he can’t put into words what this group has meant to him over the last 10 months. F3NOLA, keep pushing forward, so we can all journey with you.

    RevSox