F3 New Orleans

Tag: Akbar

  • Slow Ride – from Akbar

    4 HIM at the Marsh today. Mumblechatter was all about Goose’s beatdown and the pain he brought to all. JV And YHC were sore from head to toe.

    Conditions: 67 and misty

    Warm Up: IW, Grass Grabbers, SSH, Butt Kicks, Self-Love x10

    Thang: Slow tempo with focus on form. A beatdown made for the king of form himself, Waterpik. 3 exercises: Block row, goblet squat, merkin.

    Block row and goblet squat at one end of the court, run to the other end perform 1 merkin. Perform 1 rep each, and add 1 each round. Rinse and repeat until time runs out. If form is compromised, stay at that number or decrease reps.

    Slow jams accompanied us to keep the pace.

    Metallica: Fade to Black
    Foghat: Slow Ride
    Twisted Sister: The Price
    Deep Purple: Perfect Strangers
    Puddle of Mudd: Blurry
    Ozzy Osbourne: Dairy of a Madman
    Dokken: Alone Again
    Fleetwood Mac: Tusk
    Pearl Jam: Black

    Mary: Leg raises, hello dolly, Little Manny Crunches x10

    COT: Jose prayed us out with thanks for the F3 brotherhood and how it changed his life physically and mentally.

    Announcements

    Turkey Trot Thanksgiving Day in Covington. 4-5 are hard commits. Sign up here if you want to join. https://solerssports.raceentry.com/races/san-antonio-food-bank-turkey-trot-/2021/register

    NMM
    Great to see Jose 10k out again with the school break. Waterpik came running in hot after being greeted by 2 dogs on his typical run to the AO. The dogs circled back around and hung out with us for a while, racking JV at one point. Rep counts were 17-20 before calling time. No clean up required this gloom, the playground was in good shape.

    Til next gloom, Akbar

  • A Bonnie Blair By Any Other Name Still Sucks – from Zoolander

    I know it says Zoolander was the Q for this one, but that’s only because YHC’s name isn’t on the dropdown menu yet. And, it was ultimately Zoo’s idea to get the fellas from down the bayou to Q a November Lakefront beatdown, and we couldn’t be more grateful!

    YHC showed up in the Goosemobile with four men and two boys who’ve been looking forward to this for weeks. It’s become very clear to me over the years that God has wired men in such a way that the more we suffer together, the more we come to care deeply about each other’s well being, regardless of differences in background, lifestyle, (number of kids), etc. So, it was easy to jump at the opportunity to travel north and lead a beatdown out of gratitude for the men who have allowed me to suffer with them and who first shared the gift of F3 with me. Now, the cycle is continuing down in Thibodaux with a growing PAX!

    Disclaimer was stated for the benefit of an FNG (Welcome, Crock Pot!). Warmups consisted of IC: SSH, Windmills, Imperial Walkers, Arm Circles, Cherry Pickers, Self Love, High Knees, and Butt Kicks, followed by a mosey to Noah’s Ark.

    YHC revealed an F3 Workout Deck, and three cards were pulled and listed exercises completed with a promise of more random suffering to come. This was followed by partner BLIMPS, but with a bit of a twist. Grundy’s late arrival provided an opportunity to reminisce back to YHC’s first beatown, whcih was Q’d by Grundy. It included Sister Mary Catherine’s in the warmup, which totally burned out my legs before we even got to Noah’s Ark. A fitting memory to share before introducing these BLIMPS:

    Thang 1:
    Partner 1 ran around Noah’s Ark, while Partner 2 huffed and puffed his way through their shared total of:
    50 Bonnie Blairs (another name for SMC’s),
    50 Lunge Jumps (another name for SMC’s),
    50 Iron Mikes (another name for SMC’s),
    50 Merkins,
    50 Plank Jacks,
    50 Sister Mary Catherine’s (SMC’s)

    Thang 2:
    Moseyed once again, stopping to complete exercises from three more cards from the deck, then lining up along the wall for two version of a newly minted “Indian Inchworm Wall Crawl”. The first version consisted of all PAX in dip position on the wall moving to the right and completing a dip with every “step” while the man in the rear of the line crab walked to the front. After a number of traffic jams and Bushwacker grumbles, the last of the PAX had crabbed their way to the front, so it was time to turn around and go the other way. Pax assumed the irkin position on the wall and moved to the right, completing an irkin with every “step”. The rearmost PAX bear crawled their way to the front of the line this time, so things moved a little more quickly.

    Thang 3:
    Another short mosey brought us to a grassy area big enough for the highly anticipated Tunnel of Love. Ironically, Zoolander had just shared his gratitude that YHC hadn’t included this exercise since it was a memorable highlight from my VQ a few years back. So, it was with a special joy that I announced that all PAX would be snuggling up shoulder to shoulder in plank position while the rearmost PAX in the line army crawled through Tunnel of Love. Bushwacker’s encouraging “love whacks” kept the line moving while the plankers’ shoulders burned and threatened to give out.

    Hope then rose in the hearts of many as we lined up for what would be a wildly chaotic Indian run back to the flag with many PAX digging deep, knowing that this would ultimately be the last time they’d have to push. But, YHC knew what lurked amongst the cards in the deck, and after two relatively harmless pulls to fill the small amount of time left before 7:30, a third and final pull was offered to the FNG. It was the new guy, at 7:29, who managed to pull the 400 meter sprint card, arguably the worst card in the deck. So, despite the shared astonishment and disbelief, the beatdown ended with 25 men sprinting toward an inhabited car and then back to the flag, all residual energy and will to live good and drained.

    COT, announcements, and prayer by Enron of F3 Thibodaux.

    Coffeeteria offered time to catch up and enjoy the beautiful weather before the long ride home to Thibodaux. All PAX in the Goosemobile shared their gratitude for the opportunity to experience F3 on that level and for the men who were willing to suffer with us as we continue to strive to get better at doing hard things. It was a great gift to get to spend such high quality time with you guys this morning, and I very much look forward to seeing you in the gloom (wherever that gloom might be)!

  • Day of remembrance – from Shooter

    6 PAX converge on this Veterans Day to get some before the daylight breaks the horizon..
    Brief warmup all to 11 SSH, Toe Touches, Butt kicks, Windmills, Squats and Merkins..

    Different route through Mandeville stopping along the way for reps of 11 Merkins, Squats, Crunchy frogs, Burpees..

    Returned back to use the barricades at the Scramble for curls, presses and shrugs…

    Appreciate you men posting and allowing me to lead!!

    Till the next Gloom 👊🏼👍🏼✌🏼!!!

  • These go to 11…or 9…or 11 – from Russo

    A brisk temperature of 48 degrees (still not cold enough for sleeves) and a clear sky greeted a pax of 5 this morning for an organized, balanced, and repetitive beatdown that of course incorporated number patterns because that is how YHC maintains a small measure of control in an otherwise chaotic world.

    Warmup (believed to be all IC, 10x, but that’s difficult to confirm when Bushwhacker gets to talking about rookie hazing and toilet scrubbing at the firehouse)

    – Grass grabbers
    – Torso twists
    – Cherry pickers
    – Toe touches
    – Arm circles
    – Good mornings

    Thang before the Thang

    A two block mosey down Girod to the Rusty P and their outside benches to get us started, where YHC wondered how long it would take before someone figured out the secret repetition code. Answer: not long, even in the early morning hours, not with a sharp as a tack Chewy on the case.

    11 step ups were followed by 9 freak nastys, then 9 step ups followed by 11 freak nastys.

    The gig was up, but the question remained: Why 9 and 11? Despite thoughts of September 11, January 19th, calling 9-1-1 hoping Bushwhacker makes house calls, and something or other about 91, the clue of today’s date finally allowed YHC to see the bright light bulbs going off among the Pax: November 9, which is either brilliant or incredibly lazy in its simplicity. It was probably the latter.

    As we moseyed closer to Granny’s (with either 9 or 11 diamond merkins, jump squats, big boy sit-ups interspersed) the pax was briefly stopped by some “traffic”. Prayers up to that mailbox.

    Pax made it to the bus stop, where the sequence was 11 Bulgarian split squats, 9 durkins, 9 BSSs, and 11 durkins before a short mosey to begin the Thang:

    With only 2 minutes or 25 minutes left (depending on whether you were using Bushwacker’s timekeeping or YHC’s), we worked 6 rounds of alternating reps of 11 and 9 at each column, followed by a trip up and back down the pilot house:

    – 11 SSH and 9 squats
    – 11 seal jacks 9 merkins
    – 11 high knees 9 LBCs
    – 11 Apollo Ohnos 9 plank jacks
    – 11 mummy kicks 9 lunges
    – Butt kicks, hello dollys, and merkins in a 9-11-9 sequence

    Just enough time remained for a 90 second plank, and then we closed with a COT, name-o-rama, announcements, and prayer.

    As always, I’m appreciative of the opportunity to lead such a fine group of men.

    SYITG

  • Muhammad Jenga – from Hogs Breath

    So YHC was wide awake at 0300, wide awake… No excuse not to post on a cool autumn Friday.
    So after a trip to the coffee pot, and a quick check of the Q list, YHC saw “A1C Needs a Q”
    Always at the ready I grabbed the giant F3 Jenga and made way towards the 22nd Judicial Court parking garage [A1C]. Arriving at precisely 0515 with my fuel gauge so low the needle was ready to break off.
    Jose 10k, BBQ, and Aikbar steadfastly waited for my amazing arrival, mustache and all!
    “Anyone have the Q?….Alright I got this!” I declared.

    Warm Up:
    20 SSH ic
    10 Mummy kicks ic
    10 Good Mornings ic [with lots of Dad groans]

    We then did a Muhammad mountain mosey to the start of the parking spaces; Mosey forward 3 spaces, and backpeddle 2 spaces; lather, rinse and repeat till we made our way across the entire garage floor. At the far side of the parking garage we did a Muhammad mountain bear crawl; three spaces bear crawl forward and two spaces backpedal.

    The thing

    This is where the giant outdoor Jenga took place. After assembly in the middle of the A1C garage YHC went over the rules

    Much like Jenga each pax would move forward and remove a block. Only One block could be removed, or touched, at a time. The block was then placed on top of the tower and pax would preform the exercise listed, it was dealers choice if OYO or IC. YHC also gave the stipulation if the tower fell, then the person who removed the block and the pax to the left would preform burpee’s until the other pax rebuild the tower.

    Who knew that grown men could have so much fun at Jenga? The suspense built as the tower also was built in height. The tower developed a northern lean as we built it up. There were many surprising moves “he won’t get that block out!!!! Oh crap he did!”
    “It’s the game where everyone wins!” Said Hogs Breath
    “Hey don’t make me do burpee’s” dryly replied Jose 10k

    The tower ended up growing to 19 stories. Since this jenga set had both a combination of Fia/F3 names there were differences in lexicon and ex icon terminology
    “What is a curtsy lunge?” And “what are leg levers [leg raises]?” Pax did their best to interpret and adjust on the fly. There were several blank blocks which became dealers choice, which meant merkins.

    On the 19th tower level, Hogs breath removed a block “jump squats” and place it on top of the ‘north leaning tower of Covington’. Jose 10k took several steps back so his massive earth shattering jumps would not impact the tower. But it was to no avail, around the fourth or fifth iteration, at precisely 0556, the tower’s lean became to much and came crashing down. BBQ and Hog’s Breath began burpee’s while Jose and Aikbar listened to confusing mumblechatter of rebuilding the tower, or putting it away, then rebuilding, finally deciding to clean up the blocks and place them away.

    One more round of Muhammad mosey, three forward, two backpedal to round out this a.m.’s beatdown.

    Ended with Count-o-Rama, Name-o-Rama, and COT

  • The Addams family – from Shooter

    YHC planned a coupon workout for this Gloom that would see the likes of 5 PAX.. Thank you to Hogsbreath for today’s title, but know gentlemen I have selected with great thought your Addams family names..

    We started off with the warmup consisting of 10IC, some 15IC as well as 20IC mixture of Grass grabbers, Torso twists, SSH, Butt kicks, Imperial walkers, Hillbillies and Cherry Pickers..

    Our cast members of the day included Hogsbeath (Gomez).. The Stache is golden and Bushwacker is sure to be jealous of how you rock it.. Then there is Akbar (Uncle Fester) wide eyed and refreshed returning from a trip with the family to VA.. Followed by JV (Pugsley) mostly for being the young chap at this mornings AO, but also seems like an individual who might have aggravated a sibling a time or two in his past… Next we have Waterpik (Cousin ITT), now I know there may be some confusion on this one, so let me explain. Last Thursday at the Scramble YHC had noticed Waterpik had not seen the barber in awhile, so much so that at the Mothership Saturday YHC noticed right away that his ears had been pulled back from a trim.. Now it is only fitting that I name myself (Lurch) simply because it was my duty to lead these men this morning..

    Workout consisted of coupon Work starting out on the court and at the playground. Each PAX performed Squat thrusters while all did 8 pull-ups. Took to the street carrying coupons along the way alternating sprints, shuffles, back pedals and skips as we made our journey towards the lakefront stopping at each stop sign for called exercise. PAX without coupon did called core work while the PAX with coupon did stated rep count of called exercise. Coupon work consisted of shoulder presses, Block burpees, Kettle swings, One arm alternating kettle swings (which Gomez demonstrated perfectly in rhythm), Curls and cross arm block squats.. I realize there is another name but cannot think of it at the moment..Core work was plank, chillcut plank, Little Manny crunches, leg lifts, hello Dollies and flutter kicks..

    Arrived back right on time for count, name and COT…

    Appreciate the lead and follow gentlemen and until the next Gloom 👍🏼👊🏼✌🏼!!!

  • Another Cakewalk – from Russo

    Hurricane Ida wrecked a lot of plans this year. She did a lot of damage, broke a lot of hearts, made life a ton more difficult. But one thing I’ve learned is that even in the darkest of hours, God can find a way to turn something terrible into something good.

    I don’t want to belittle the struggle our region is still dealing with, and I can tell you firsthand there is a lot of work left. But I can also tell you firsthand that God has given us an opportunity to grow together, help each other, and all in all, be better people.

    My original plan for the first week in September was to do a birthday Q, and following the lead of Grundy and/or Zoolander (depending on how good an idea it was), complete another “Cake walk” and hope it catches on as a thing.

    Well, those plans changed due to Mother Nature, but God’s timing is perfect, so a pax of 17 said “Take Two” under beautiful weather with low humidity and temps topping out at around 71.

    Warmup (between 10x and 20x, all IC)
    Seal jacks
    Toe touches
    Arm circles
    Torso twists
    Goofballs

    Thang: A cakewalk, your basic descending ladder of exercises and reps, starting at YHC’s age (in this case, 43), and work your way to 1, with some moseying in between around Old Mandeville/Lakefront.

    The order:

    43 High knees
    42 SSHs
    41 Plank Jacks
    40 merkins (where Bird started to wonder where the burpees were)
    39 squats
    38 Hello Dollies
    37 Calf raises
    36 Apollo ohnos
    35 Freak Nastys
    34 step ups
    33 flutter kicks
    32 butt kicks (2 is 1) (lead IC by the entire pax rotating, very nice job, gents!)
    31 Peter Parker’s (2 is 1)
    30 imperial walkers
    29 Shoulder taps (2 is 1)
    28 American hammers
    27 George thoroughgood
    26 Smurf jacks
    25 leg raises
    24 Rosalitas
    23 crab jacks (crab position – opposite plank jacks)
    22 groiners
    21 Bear crawls
    20 murder bunnies
    19 Hand release merkins
    18 Bobby Hurley’s
    17 crab cakes (2 is 1)
    16 circle ups
    15 Bulgarian split squats
    14 durkins
    13 big boy sit-ups
    12 LMCs
    11 diamond merkins
    10 star jumps
    9 donkey kicks
    8 8 count body builders
    7 makhtar n’jais
    6 6 inch drills (where Zoolander was wise to my plan)
    5 Carolina dry docks
    4 Bonnie Blair’s
    3 jump squats
    2 burpees (here they are Bird!)
    1 minute plank

    COT, name-o-rama, announcements, and prayer closed us out.

    This Q doubled as my 3 year anniversary Q, so it’s time for me to again thank Toto for EH’ing me. Like I suspect has happened to many of us, I had no idea what I was in for. I showed up late to my first beatdown (Splice was Q) and quickly wondered what I got myself into. Manny’s words to me were “just stick with it” and he was right.

    More than once, I was the 6. I’m still the 6 on occasion. But each and every time, someone is there to pick me (or you) up. Tanked up was the first I remember. Shooter seems to do it the most (especially on moseys).

    And that’s what makes this group of men so darn solid. What started out as “I could use the exercise” or “I want to get back in shape” quickly turns to something more.

    The F for Fitness is lowercase. The other two are uppercase. I’ve enjoyed laughing with you all, especially when Hammer gets a pax going with his 80’s references, or Zoolander makes an off color joke about doing a Freddy Mercury. You each have enriched me, made me a better person, lended guidance, and just in general have been a blast to be around.

    Before I started, I didn’t have a lower back that constantly aches or stiffens up, nor did I have a left shoulder that tells me “That’s enough merkins for today.” I didn’t even know I had an Achilles’ tendon.

    But it has all been worth it. Ever nagging pain and shortness of breath: worth it knowing I’m making a decision to better myself as a leader, a Christian, a productive member of society. And that’s due to each of you, whether I called you by name above or not. Because finally, after 3 years, I think I’ve learned your real names, which is maybe a bigger compliment.

  • When Life Gives You Lumber – from Grundy

    The old saying goes that when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. A lesser known saying is that when life gives you lumber, make a bunch of other guys move it around back and forth pointlessly for an hour. So, when Ida provided my backyard and neighborhood with a plethora of logs and stumps, YHC went ahead and tried out that lesser known saying. In addition, the Q was able to get rid of the lumber at the end of the beatdown which was in danger of becoming part of the permanent fixtures that are still adorning many neighborhoods around the Northshore. Win-Win.

    So after having almost knocked out Bird with my open car door before the beatdown, I proceeded to try to give us all that same opportunity of physical injury by throwing, dragging, pressing, lifting, and flipping logs/stumps.

    That’s really all there was too this workout. After a brief warmup, we went to the field where YHC placed all of the logs. All of the logs had different corresponding exercises associated with them and we rotated through them for the hour. The signaling of when to rotate was when the one individual flipping the main log returned to the starting line.

    Sprinkled in the beatdown was some Mary as well.

    We left the field a little worse than we found it, but I guaranty that we were better men by the end of it.

    We returned to the flag and Russo closed us out.

    Thanks guys for letting me lead and have a great weekend!

  • Blocks and Jocks Oh my!! – from Shooter

    11 PAX posted at the Gipper on this Wednesday for YHCs return after a month and a half layoff would certainly require some coupon work… So after returning with Einstien, Legal and Steve on the 1 mile prethang we got right to it…

    Warmup
    15IC Cherry pickers, Toe Touches, Imperial walkers, Windmills, Butt kicks and Grass grabbers.

    Thang
    Gathered 6 coupons for our mosey over to the courthouse.. Partnered up..
    First round
    P1 Using coupon did murder bunnies up the stairs keeping rep count. Combined count of 100 cumulative while P2 did rail crawls up the ramp returning to pickup count.
    Second round
    Moseyed to back side of courthouse where P1 did Curls and P2 bunny hopped up returning to pickup count..200 cumulative
    Third round
    Moseyed back to front for P1 Squat thrusters 100 cumulative while P2 Crawl bearers half the ramp the bear crawls other half.

    Moseyed back to AO returning coupons wrapping up with Mary of 20IC Flutter kicks, LBCS and Hello Dollies..

    Count, Announce, COT

    Thanks to Moby for the closeout in prayer and until the next Gloom 👍🏼👊🏼✌🏼!!!

  • Methodical Monday – from Akbar

    Conditions – upper 60’s, windy, clear with lots of stars

    Methodical is defined as something done according to a systematic or established procedure. Which is exactly what 3 PAX did at the Milestone Marsh. We ran the regular big block route to the Lakefront, Rips, and back up Noah’s Ark. YHC made it early today, watch reading 2:19am, since I didn’t synch the watch after battery failure. Pik helped me stay on track throughout the workout.

    WU – IW, Hillbillies, arm circles (f/b), SSH, grass grabbers x12

    Thang: 2 exercises per stop, OYO, 21-15-9-5 reps (for our non-accountants, that’s 50). Mumblechatter was mostly about weekend soccer and the cool front coming in this weekend.

    Mosey to Lakefront stopping at intersections for 21 Merkins, 21 Squats; 15 Merkins, 15 Squats, etc.

    Head to the Wall for Freak Nasties, Superman, and splashes from Lake Ponchartrain

    Mosey to Rips for Stone mountains with feet on curb, and calf raises. Quick hello to Garfield running by, who promised to be in the gloom soon.

    Mosey back to the Marsh stopping at intersections for Shoulder Fly’s, bent over back fly’s – both with a pause at the top on each rep.

    Mary – Leg raises and Little Manny crunches, 4 sets x12, x10 x8, x5

    Upcoming: Convergence in New Orleans this Saturday; Hogsbreath/Barcelona leading F3/FIA Thursday Oct 21st at the Lakefront.

    Count, name, Pik prayed us out.

    As always, a pleasure to spend Monday morning with ya’ll – Akbar