F3 New Orleans

Category: Backblasts

  • Mid-Month AMRAP Recap

    At a cool 38° and with the Ides of March approaching, it wasn’t a Shakespearean betrayal that had YHC worried – it was what miserable AMRAP challenge would Turbo come up with next?  So 14 days in, I figured we’d sprinkle a few of the past challenge exercises (italicized below) throughout today’s beatdown as a reminder of this month’s short but effective doses of pain.

    Warm-Up: Good Mornings x15, IW’s x20, Windmills x15, SSHs x25, 8-Count Bodybuilders x15, Shoulder Taps x25, all IC.

    The Thang: First and foremost, mosey to the back of the Justice Center to knock out today’s challenge before our legs were jello (gotta keep those numbers up!): 90 seconds of one-legged curb hops (45 secs each leg).  Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson were somewhere around the block in downtown Covington this morning, starring as two Texas Rangers on the hunt for Bonnie and Clyde.  Had they seen Turbo perform his one-legged curb hops with his usual sense of ease, he surely would’ve merited a part as a Ranger alongside the two (though, probably one who gets shot down early on in the film).  Is there enough room on the Northshore for two stars of the silver screen?

    Onward to the Veteran Memorial for a COP:  Burp n’ Groin, Burpees with ascending groiners after the merkin, up to 10x. As the PAX has noticed, groiners have become my new go-to.  Out with the old (Sayonara Bulgarians!), in with the new.

    Animal Walk on the grass back to the rear of the Justice Center: Bear Crawl, Monkey Humpers x20 IC, Duck Walk, Monkey Humpers x20 IC, Crab Walk, Frog Jumps x10 (forward and back)

    Next up, an AMRAP run up the rear justice center walkway: 10x Hand Release Merkins at the starting line, 10x derkins at first set of benches, alternating one-legged Freak Nasties x10 at second set, and up the stairs for 10x Butt Kick Jumps.  Reverse, hitting those same stations until reaching the starting point.  Rinse and repeat for approx. 8 mins.  (Hitting the derkins station for the 3rd time and facing a slab of concrete with weakened arms was a good reminder that YHC had forgotten the disclaimer.)

    Finally, plank up and wait while each man takes a turn sprinting the corridor, up the stairs and back.

    YHC wanted to return to the flag for and get in a few minutes of Mary, but alas, out of time.  Greeted at the flag by a nearly fully-recovered Moby, who is looking rested and slim!  Countdown, nameorama, and Shooter prayed us out.  T-claps to Turbo for reminding us to sign up to Q – if you haven’t already, please do.  Let’s get this next month all locked up.  Thanks for the opportunity to lead guys!

  • Sudden Change!

    8 F3 regulars circled the virtual site flag on a cool 50 degree gloom ready to get better!

    DISCLAIMER

    Mosey to the track and around it once doing butt kicks, high knees, karaoke each way, repeat X2.

    COP #1: WARM UP
    SSH X 20
    Hillbillies X 20
    J Lo’s X 10
    Squat Pulses X 20
    Good Mornings X 10
    Burpees X 5 OYO

    Mosey to the Foundry stopping twice for sudden change: 5 Burpees OYO
    The mumblechatter was music to my ears!!

    Foundry Circuit: Partner up, 4 groups
    – Run to water fountain, 5 Burpees, run back (timer)
    – Hanging leg lift oblique twists
    – WWII Sit Ups
    – Pull Ups

    Rinse and Repeat

    Mosey to NOMA stopping on the bridge for sudden change: 5 Burpees OYO
    YHC noticed a well lit area with a nice sized curb, perfect for D14 ISI!
    Single leg curb hops X 45 seconds each leg.
    If you’d like a demonstration on perfect form, just ask Bogey.

    Line up at the fountain for:
    Dips X 20
    Ierkins X 15
    Derkins X 10

    COP #2: MARY
    LBC X 30
    Russian Twist X 20
    Crunchy Frog X 20 (RIP Shorty/Snooze)
    Hello Dolly X 10

    Mosey back to the VSF.
    Hold up, sudden change: 5 Burpees OYO

    Made it back with 30 seconds to spare, my bad…
    5 Burpees OYO

    Sealed the deal with COT: Count-off, Name-o-rama, announcements, intentions, and Prayer.
    Good luck to those Tough Muddin’.

    Thanks for letting me lead.
    Cowbell

  • Pilates for Men?

    4 Pax met up in the brisky gloom this morning for a round of  hip mobilization and core activation activities.

    Joe Pilates, back in 1919, promised that by following his methods you would develop a flexible youthful spine, a strong center, and system wide integrated strength. Ol’ Joe was a cigar smoking boxer, acrobat, and gymnast, and he developed his exercise program from that background first and foremost for men.

    The Thang:

    -Warm-up lap around the trailhead

    -Down dog stretch

    -Anterior Lunge with Bilateral OH Arm swing x 10

    -Post Lunge with bilateral Arm swing at ankle height x 10

    -The Pilates 100

    -Hamstring stretch: 3 sec hold x 10

    -The Roll Up  x 5

    -side lying leg raise X 25 IC

    -Single leg glute bridges x 25 IC

    Jack Webb: (Chewy style)

    (1) Chaturanga Dandasana 3 count hold : (2) Bruegger Exercise with 3 count hold  to 8

    Here’s some references in case you are wondering:

    7 Steps to Master Chaturanga Dandasana

    http://www.stretching-exercises-guide.com/bruegger-exercise.html

    -Plank walk across the stage

    -Jump Rope x 1 pax while the other 3 zig zagged poles up and down tower.

    “Jumping rope is barely possible with poor form or poor technique. Everyone will make consistent mistakes and be interrupted by a rope that catches on a foot. The rope is the coach. Jumping rope is what I call a self-limiting exercise. Participants are limited in their ability to perform the exercise by lack of technique. In other words, truly poor technique will prevent the participant from performing the exercise, so bad movement patterns cannot be reinforced. This is the most important reason for jumping rope. It is possible to perform sprints, shuttles, and agility work with poor form as long as times are adequate. Other forms of popular endurance work such as jogging, cycling, and rowing can also allow poor form without supervision and coaching. Poor form can be reinforced without the athlete ever realizing it.”

    “Much of the impact of jumping rope is taken through the leg muscles. The erect posture and long spine forces the abdominal muscles to hold the midsection tight and work in perfect coordination with the back muscles to form the same kind of intern al pressure as a weight belt.” ~ Gray Cook Excerpted from Athletic Body in Balance, pages 125-129

     

    Same side and Opp side lateral lunges with OH arm swing x 10

    Anterior and posterior foot reaches with Bilateral arm swings x 10 for increased stability.

    Name-o-rama, COT, Prayer.

    Thanks guys for letting me lead.

    Chewy

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Track Work

    7 men gathered in the chilly gloom to better themselves today.  Instead of venturing down the usual Stomp route (honestly…it’s been so long…i didn’t know what usual was anymore), YHC choose to play it safe and get after it on the track.  We were off…but first…

    DISCLAIMER

    The Thang

    Mosey over and around the track one time, then circle up for a quick warmup:

    15x SSHs IC
    6x Don Quixotes IC
    6x Good Mornings IC

    YHC explained to beatdown to come…1 min AMRAP of an exercise, then a lap around the track….plank and wait for the six.

    Exercises:
    1) Squat Jacks
    2) Switch Kicks
    3) Jump Knee Tucks
    4) Speed Knee Curls
    … 12 count by Woz…
    5) Burpees
    6) Frog Jumps (Front/Back)…Cowbell had an advantage of course (this joke never gets old!)
    7) Low Plank Parker Peters
    8) Plank Jacks (Modify 1min to 3min to handle the daily challenge) #ISI Tclaps Turbo!

    Slowzy back to the flagless AO, where we had a Plankorama OYO for the last 2min.  Pax gathered around for the COT, which included the Countoff, Nameorama, Shoutouts and a Prayer.

    The Pax moved quickly through this beatdown. Well done, men!  Time flies when you are having fun….Oh, yeah…no more Hate for YHC!

    Thanks for letting me lead!

    Moleskin

    Miss you guys.  Definitely needed this beatdown to get my ass back in shape.  Best way to start the day!

    Tough Mudder is this weekend.  Good luck to the guys getting after it!

     

  • The bear went over the mountain

    The PAX gathered at the AO in the refreshingly cool morning gloom, and as Brown Bag was not wearing a parka, YHC knew it must be just above 50 degrees.

    Standard disclaimer and mosey around the track with a hard right turn across Magazine St, through the bollards and around much standing water to relative high ground in the oak alley.

    Warm up COP

    5 burpees OYO , SSH x20 IC, Peter Parkers x20 IC, 5 burpees OYO, Sealjacks x20 IC, ParkerPeters x20 IC, 5 burpees OYO, Smurfjacks x20 IC, Mountain Climbers x20 IC, 5 burpees OYO, plankjacks x20IC

    Mosey down magazine to the field in front of the zoo, which was looking like a lake. Much mumble chatter about puddles and wet shoes. We modified to the parking lot, using it as a large rectangle for cycling through BLIMPS at the corners. 5 Burpees, 10 lunges (2 legs is one), 15 Imperial Walkers, 20 merkins, 25 Plankjacks, 30 squats.

    PAX then assembled in two lines for Indian run across the levy to the ‘fly.  One large pool of water disrupted the smooth flow of the indian run formation with PAX tacking starboard and port to avoid it, except for Sea Man, who would not be deterred by mere water and kept his line straight down the middle of it.

    PAX assembled at the molehill at the end of the soccer fields.

    We then bear crawled up over and down the other side of the mountain, to see what we could see.

    On the other side we did 30 LBCs, then moseyed back around the mountain and reassembled.  Up and over the mountain again, but the second time we planked until all assembled, then Jack Webb 7s (merk followed by 2 air presses, to 7 merks) . Bear crawl back over the mountain to Jack Webb’s meaner brother, the Iron Hulk 6s. (merk followed by 4 air presses to 6 merks). Bear crawl back over the mountain.

    4 trips over the mountain and we were out of time.

    fast mosey back to the flag, COP, announcements and intentions.

    Thanks for the opportunity.

     

  • The Q needs a flashlight and directions

    The only thing worse than posting at 5:30am to workout is posting at 5:30am on the Monday after Daylight Savings Time. I should have checked on that before asking Hawg to let me Q for the first time. Hawg did make my morning by arriving with the flag just before we started to get going. I think this was the 3rd or 4th time I’ve seen the elusive F3 flag.

    Disclaimer and then mosey to the rocks.

    The cadence was shaky but we did:

    – SSH x 20

    – Peter Parkers x 30

    – Imperial Walkers x 20

    – Propellers x 22 (11 each direction)

    -Hillbillies x 20

    We grabbed our rocks for some classic rock city exercises with more of my shaky cadence:

    Shoulder Press x 15

    Curls for the Girls x 15

    Rows x 20

    Low, Slow Squats x 30

    We moseyed over to the playground equipment for a 4 part rotation exercise. I needed a little help along the way to locate both the swings and later to the hill. It turns out that working out in the dark doesn’t help me know how Pontiff Park is laid out.

    Our rotation workout:

    Elf on the Shelf with a rock for a 10 count while we rotated between elf, underdogs, dips, and mercins.

    After playing around under the swings, we took our rocks to the hill for elevens. It was 10 bench presses with the rock on one side of the hill and 1 burpee on the other to start.

    We ended with Mary:

    American Hammer x 15

    Penguin x 20

    Dying Cockroach x 15

    LBC x 15

    We dropped off our rocks and moseyed back to the flag. I got us there one minute early and was threatened to put shame upon my family name for finishing at 6:14, so we did Freddie Mercury for one minute.

    Count off, namerama, announcements, and a prayer.

    I led. I survived. I am now a man.

  • Marsh Madness!!!

    With the beginning of the week and March madness tipping off on Thursday. The QIC arrived at the Marsh to the sights of 2 Cinderella hopefuls waiting at center court. Would either be selected by the NCAA committee for this weekends tournament? Or would they need to except another invitation to the CUSAP at the Tough Mudder on Saturday spearheaded by the Bushwacker? With the latter of the 2 choices clearly in their sights as well as mine we tipoff our training with the warmup..

    25IC SSH, 15IC WM, 25IC IW, 15IC GM, 25IC BK, 15 IC SJ

    With the opportunity of slipping in as a number 16 seed the ISI challenge would prove the worthiness of one Steve rocking out 35 on this Gloom.. With Captain taking second and the QIC rounding out the PAX we all responded with a sigh of completion and reverence to Turbo for coming up with such great challenges… We began a Mosey down Lamarque to the lakefront. Arriving at the bulkhead we completed an upper body of 15IC Freak nasties, followed by 15IC Derkins and 15IC Erkins. Climbed on top the sea wall and Racoon crawled about 50 yards west. Next we focused on legs completing 10 step ups each leg, followed by 15 box jumps. Using the sea wall as a guide to a perfect 90 degree squat of 15 followed by right single leg squat 10IC back to regular squat 15, and completed left leg single 10IC. We then began our journey back up Marigny to the Marsh. Closing things up we completed 8 count bodybuildiers to 20 and then took to the six for Mary. 30IC flutter kicks, right single leg extension wife pleaser and left single leg wife pleaser wrapping up with 30IC flutter kicks..

    countoff, announcements, COT

    Thanks to Captain for praying us out and Steve for the lessons of survival when supporting a fellow brother on a bachelor party.. Well done lads!!

    Appreciate the lead!

     

  • Daylight Savings at The Knoll

    Knowing that we were about to lose an hour during the coming evening, we wasted no time getting started!

    The Scene:  The Knoll

    Conditions:  Chilly, a bit wet but no rain… we thought.

    Welcome. Saw no FNGs so we skipped the Disclaimer.  (Noted that since my last Q when I was not a professional trainer, I’m still not a professional trainer.)

    Warm-O-Rama:

    Mosey – Two laps around the Field – one forward, one back.  A bit of competitive spirit kicked in, with relish.  Then for some breath-catching and stretching exercises:

    Shoulder Circles.

    Imperial Walkers.

    SSH.

    Windmills.

    SSH.

    Al Gores.

    SSH.

    The Thang:

    Mosey to The Sundial, our faithful companion, for some upper-body work.

    Freak Nasties, putting “diamonds of gold” (a Tony Horton term) on our upper arms.

    Incline Merkins, to sharpen the edges of our pecs.

    Step Ups, to vary from upper body and give us the Buns of Steel that drive our wives crazy.

    And then some Partner Plank Curls, for biceps (which are hard to hit in F3) – where one guy planks and the other does standing bicep curls with his partner’s ankles.  We definitely learned a bit about ourselves on this one… and not necessarily for the better.  (10 curls each man, except for YHC who had no partner in this odd-numbered PAX)

    Then a second round of the above to make sure we all hit our Personal Best.

    Finally some La La Leggy to hit the buns again.  A 10-count of squats and lunges and calf raises.  (Yeah, your buns needed it, and you know who I’m talking to.)

    Mosey to The Hill, our Other faithful friend.  (Not the first hill, but across the creek to the second hill.  That’s where the action is.)

    Partner Run & Windmill Merkins.  One partner runs up the hill and back while the other does windmill merkins (just google it if you don’t believe me).  Got to 50 merkins per team, which brought a lot of groans from the girls in the group (And I’m talking about Tiger Bait, whose noisy complaining must spur him on because he finished first.)

    So we cooled down with more Shoulder Circles, before one more trek up the hill:  Bear Crawl Up, Crab Walk Down.  Dagwood made a fine showing until his log roll to the finish line.  But he also finished near the front of the pack.

    Then Black Snake back to the Shovel Flag – mosey in single file, with the last man weaving his way to the front until everyone has woven once.  This one seemed to raise everyone’s enthusiasm a bit, or maybe it was just knowing that we were almost done…..

    6MOM:

    LBFC:  LBCs while doing Flutter Kicks.

    Jane Fondas (in honor of Rocket who could not be with us.  I don’t know what he thinks of Jane’s politics, but he sure likes her leg exercises)

    American Hammer, to fist-pound our way to the finish.

    Homer to Marge (leg lifts), which always makes us recall The Simpsons fondly, and which also got us facing upward just as a delicate, refreshing drizzle began.  Just God’s way of saying He’s proud of us.

    And one more set of Jane Fondas, to close out with a second tribute to Rocket.

    COT/BOM.

    Then to the coffeeteria for some Friendship building, hoping the barista wouldn’t comment on the way we smelled.

    Now don’t forget to set your clocks forward tonight!

  • AB-solutely Appreciative

    “I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another” Thomas Jefferson

    And it was, indeed, a pleasure doing a good job whooping on the the PAX this morning!

    Warm-o-rama:

    Air Squared (people’s chair with seal claps) x20

    21s – SSH in cadence, 1-5 out loud, 6-21 in our heads. Shooter drew a yellow flag  by starting #22, so we dropped for 5 merkins and gave it another shot. An antsy Tanked Up tried throwing some accusations Water Pic(k)’s way, but the PAX wasn’t having a round 3.

    We finished up with a cameo from our ISI AMRAP, courtesy of Turbo Tax. Single-leg lateral hops, 1 minute each leg.

    The Thang:

    After moseying to Marigny and partnering up (thanks Beast for showing up late to even out our number), YHC unveiled the as-yet-unperfected Bushwacker’s Ladder. Using the 6 telephone poles as markers, while P1 did merkins at 1st pole, p2 bear crawled to second pole and proceeded to do merkins while p1 bear crawled to meet him. Proceeding thusly, burpees/ sprint, alt single leg lunge/ high step, plank/squat walk, and finally p1 &p2 together SSHed laterally to the last pole.  To get back to the lakefront p1 carried p2 half way, then switched to complete the journey.

    We mosied towards the little bridge near the “beach”, but, after realizing it was a farther mosey than YHC realized, we broke it up with a quick set of 25 merkins.

    At the bridge we secured our feet under the bottom rail and busted out 20 or so sit ups. Now realizing the agony of my decision to both our feet and tail bones, we shifted over to the grass for 25 LBCs and 25 Heels to Heavens.

    Half-way along our return mosey we stopped for an invigorating game of F3 Pinocle (f3nation.com’s spelling not mine). In a circle each PAX was issued before him 5 cards (though time only allotted the use of 3 each) from my son’s deck of average, non-playboy playing cards . Each at a time flipped and we all performed however many reps as the number on the card (A=20), with the suite determining the exercise: Heart = merkin, Spade = squat, Diamond = burpee, and Club = putin. Mostly putins, very few burpees, and only 1 Ace. YHC would like to think he wasn’t alone in being APPRECIATIVE that we did 3 rounds instead of all 5, as a revealing of the remaining unturned cards produced such terrors as the A of spades, A of hearts, and the dreaded A of diamonds.

    Mary:

    (2) 10x Outlaws aka OOOOH Marys (Someone check for security footage from Don’s!)

    25x Freddy Mercurys

    20x Feddy Flutters

    3 minute plank, while I expounded on my appreciation for the fine gentlemen who surrounded me, those who could not post today, and the F3 organization as a whole. We should never be so far gone as to lose sight of the gifts we’ve been blessed with.

    As a parting gift, the chiseled brother fresh on his journey into his 60th year on this planet, graced us and the Mandeville Lakefront public with a brief, but titillating, strip tease of male dancing as only a landscaper could!

    YHC prayed us out with more urgings of appreciation for all things precious

    Gentlemen, it was an honor and a pleasure

    Thanks for the generosities of Shooter

  • Its march, must be basketball time

    It’d been several months, but YHC was ready to get back to business. Unfortunately, in the meantime – apparently YHC had forgotten many aspects of how to Q, and the PAX was always ready and willing to point out his many mistakes and flaws. Oh well. You get what you pay for….

    Arriving at 6:20, YHC enjoyed some good F2 with the early arriving PAX. Slowly but surely a good size crew pulled in, and as 6:30 rolled around, the crew of 19 set off towards the east – enjoying the pink and orange hues from the sunrise as we moseyed towards the lawn in front of the museum.

    Warm up:

    • SSH x25 (Here comes Coxswain – he seems to think the workouts start at 6:35)
    • Smurf Jack x20 (Mumblechatter about “Smurf Jack” and “Cowbell” seemed rampant)
    • Hillbilly x25 (Bogey decided to point out some flaw in YHC’s form.  YHC thought his form was perfectly adequate.)
    • ISW x20

    Its March, leading up to the NCAA tournament.  So lets talk basketball…

    Thing 1: Notre Dame reference, of course.  Wednesday Night, YHC making dinner and turns on the TV to discover ND playing Va Tech.  Early in the second half, ND is down by 21 and looking terrible.  End of second half, ND is up by 5 and celebrating.

    • Peter Parker x21, 5 Merkins
    • Parker Peter x21, 5 Merkins
    • Shoulder Taps x21, 5 Merkins
    • Floyd Maywether x21, 5 Merkins

    Little did he know at the time, but our FNG is a Va Tech fan.  Sorry (but not really) about that.

    Thing 2: 2000s and the advent of the “1-and-done”- 1 year of college bball before moving on to the pros.  Anthony Davis wins national championship and Final Four MVP.  Then on to the Pelicans.

    PAX splits into 3 groups for the “1-and-done Indian Run”.  Each group runs from the front of the Museum out to Wisner, then back and on to the Refinery.  The “1-and-done” part: the last PAX drops for 1 Burpee before sprinting to the front of the line.  Each PAX seems to get about 5 burpees in during the run.

    Thing 3: Duke and the dreaded “Bobby Hurley”.  Dang them and their slap-the-floor approach to defensive intensity, epitomized by Bobby Hurley in the early 1990s.  PAX pair up – 10 groups.  YHC fumbles a bit trying to get the 10 exercises ordered to intermix legs, arms, and core.  YHC fails miserable.  Many PAX point out YHC failings.  YHC perseveres.

    • 15 Bobby Hurleys (the timer)
    • Box Jumps
    • Ski Jumps
    • Pull Ups
    • Step Ups
    • Dips
    • Mountain Climbers
    • Rows
    • Knee Ups
    • Merkins

    Repeat for 2 cycles.  Bobby Hurleys followed by Box Jumps followed by Ski Jumps: that’s a bad ordering of exercises.  Note to self to try and avoid that next time.

    Mosey to the great lawn

    Thing 3a: Quick Pitstop at the Tool Wall for 25 Calf Raises and 25 Monkey Humpers.  Just because.  Mosey on to the great lawn and plank in the center for the 6.

    Thing 4: Dean Smith and the 4 Corner offense.  OYO – 8 8-count-body builders at each of the 4 corners around the great lawn.  Start where ever, go in whichever direction.  YHC doesn’t care.  Just get to each corner and do 8.  Go.  El Guapo had to be reminded what a “corner” is.  its not the straight away.  Its the corner.

    Return to the center to plank for the 6.

    Thing 5: Fab 5 from Michigan – we’ll do the Ab 5

    • Ray Jackson (the lesser known member): LBC x25 (because YHC couldn’t think of a J ab exercise, though several astute PAX later pointed out the J-Lo….
    • Jimmy King: flutter Kick x25
    • Jalen Rose: dying cockRoach x25
    • Juwan Howard: american Hammer x20 (YHC feeling the pain…)
    • Chris Weber: that’s right, the dr. W x10

    Thing 6: Nolan Richardson and Arkansas “40 minutes of Hell”.  PAX finish with our version of “4 minutes of hell”.  Suicides across the great lawn OYO for 4 minutes.  Go.

    Mosey to the VSF (20 PAX and we have a VSF?  Where are the flags?!?!?!?)

    Count-off, Name-o-rama.  YHC told he is doing it wrong (which, apparently, he is).  Naming of our FNG – was “Papa Bear” (celebrating his brood of 3 married children and youngest 9 year old), until we realize that “Papa Bear” is already claimed.  So late pivot, naming him “Hokie Pokey” for his Va Tech connections.

    Announcements (Thursday Night Basin Run, next week’s Tough Mudder).  Intentions and Prayer to close.  Today’s scripture is the parable of the pharisee and tax collector praying in the temple.  Jesus instructs us to pray as the tax collector, humbly.  Lord, teach us to be humble.  Lead by our example, not by our words.

    Gentlemen, thank you for the opportunity to lead.