Tag: Bean

  • Reindeer Games – from Russo

    Temperature was down to 37 this morning at the Gipper, which was not quite low enough for a winter wonderland (or sleeves for YHC), but cold enough for some reindeer games.

    As a kid, if you asked me what the best part of Christmas was, the easy answer was presents. From Legend of Zelda II: Adventures of Link to a Commodore 64 and its floppy disks, from Castle Grayskull to Optimus Prime, nothing beat the joy of ripping open wrapping paper, fumbling to tear apart boxes, and hoping you wouldn’t have to deal with the nightmare of shrink wrap. I got really, really good at feigning joy when clothes or books were the end result.

    As I got older, the best part of Christmas (besides the whole Jesus in a manger thing) moved from gifts to sleeping late because there was no school for two whole weeks, then to holiday parties, and then again to where it currently resides: eating. And more eating. And then eating some more.

    But because the gifts are a staple of the holidays, YHC was in a giving mood today, serving as the MC for a few rounds of Dirty Santa!

    Warmup (All IC, either 12x or 21x to honor today’s date as a palindrome – 12-22-21)
    – Seal jacks (not plank jacks)
    – SSH
    – Cherry pickers
    – Grass grabbers
    – Imperial walkers

    Thang
    Your basic Dirty Santa / White Elephant. The rules are simple:
    (1) Each HIM picks a number.
    (2) Number 1 picks a random gift/exercise from Santa’s bag (in this case, Santa was slumming it with a quart sized Ziploc) and performs said exercise while the other HIM perform the standard (e.g. merkins).
    (3) Number 2 has a choice: Number 1’s chosen exercise, the standard, or a new “gift”. If he chooses either of the first two options, the one who had their “gift” stolen can steal or select another mystery “gift”.
    (4) Around and around we go, until all HIM have a chance to select.

    The “gifts”:
    -10 merkins
    -20 jump squats
    -30 squats
    -8 Hand release merkins
    -20 hello dollies
    -20 leg lifts
    -30 monkey humpers
    -25 plank jacks
    -4 krakken burpees
    -8 SMCs
    -15 murder bunnies
    -20 bear crawls
    -10 diamond merkins
    -50 high knees
    -24 Apollo ohnos
    -15 scissor kicks
    -12 star jumps
    -20 freak nastys
    -1 burpee
    -2 calf raises
    -20 hip slappers
    -12 hallelujah squats
    -2 gas pumps
    -33 cherry pickers
    -6 donkey kicks

    Between rounds, Pax also moseyed around the courthouse and square to provide for some strategizing.

    A mosey back to home base, COT, name-o-rama, announcements and prayer closed us out.

    T claps to Fletch for also playing Santa and gifting us with his famous hot sauce.

    I don’t often have a chance to make the Gipper because of weekly commitments, so I appreciate you all joining me and letting me lead you all.

    One final note: I had an opportunity to watch The Chosen’s Christmas program, and the theme was “People must know”. People must know about the wonder of the Nativity, and who Jesus is, and how blessed we are with a Savior.

    My goal in the new year is to use that theme of “People must know”, not only regarding the gospel, but also about the benefits of F3. We all know them, and have been EH’ed at some point, and if you’re reading this, it stuck with you. I challenge us to continue the EHs, step out of our comfort zones, and spread the word.

    SYITG

  • Back to the Boatyard – from TurboTax

    It was back to the boatyard with our coupons this morning in the Gloom after a warmup of Imperial Walkers, Peter Parkers, Hillbillies, Parker Peters, Seal Jacks, Shoulder Taps, SSHs and Merkins, all IC 10x, with 5 burpees OYO to wrap things up.

    Four cones spaced 10 yards apart comprised our playing field. Each round consisted of an exercise with the coupon first (swings, around the worlds, figure 8s, and V seated shoulder presses) followed by a coupon carry (suitcase, overhead or soldier), mixed in with various modes of travel (jog, backpedal, shuffle, skip, lunge, bear crawl, crab walk, frog jumps) and capped off by a 30 yard sprint.

    After six or seven rounds, we made our way back to the shovel flag with a few stops for Manmakers.

    Bean prayed us out after BBQ confessed to various offenses and then we were off to start our respective work days.

    Thanks for letting me lead guys. It’s always fun.

  • Inaugural Fire Fighter Challenge – from Bushwacker

    Since April 27 of this year YHC has been, for better or worse, persona non grata around the F3 northshore. I’ve done my best to show my face at least enough so that yous guys don’t forget what I look like. The Wacker of bushes has been on a journey to become a community servant as a Wacker of Fires. And thus, the long awaited, highly anticipated Fire Fighter Challenge has arrived!

    During academy, and from time to time on shift, we don our turnout gear – boots, pants jacket, hood, helmet, and mask – and go “on air” slinging a self-contained breathing apparatus and 4000 PSI air tank onto our backs – up to 80lbs! We then perform a series of strenuous activities which test our strength, stamina and endurance. And so it was with great preparation and only last minute planning that YHC brought to the men of the Lakefront a facsimile thereof as well as could be expected in the gloom. And, perhaps, a tradition was born?

    WARMORAMA

    In increasing reps starting with 12 (excepting for supersticious 13):
    SSH,
    High Knees
    Butt Kicks
    Cherry Pickers
    Windmills
    Fire Hydrants

    THANG

    We mossied to the gazebo for a few quick rounds of Merkin Waves and Squat Waves. This allowed for 2 things: QIC’s opportunity to count PAX for teams, and one of our resident byciclists, Turbo, to catch up to the crew.

    We then mossied to the shaft where, thanks to help from early birds Steve, Shooter, and Waterpik, the field was set! Breaking up into teams of appx. 3 the PAX lined up, each at a station including the Tire Toss, the Ax Chop, the Tire Flip, the Tire Drag, the Tire Pull, and Moby Chain Drag. While P1 was tackling the task, P2 & P3 was doing a specified exercise, including LBCs, Flutter Kicks, Mnt Climbers, High Knees, Leg Lifts and Gas Pumpers.Somewhere along the way, Waterpick split the massive log, and in a temper tantrum over having not been he who split the mighty oak, the lugubrious Shooter shattered the hickory handle of the ax! There was continuous conversation as men of all ages and capabilities gave it their all battling amongst a sea of black rubber with shimmerings of silver links, all covered in the grassy morning dew. After a couple of rounds, proving to edict that many a hands make light a work, the PAX loaded all the coupons back on the trailer from whence it came, and back to the flag we mosied.

    MARY

    With 3 minutes to spare, it was on your 6 for 20 Putins IC, 20 Flutter Kicks IC, and 100 100s OYO.

    COT

    Count and name-o-rama before naming FNG Dangerfield. Turbo prayed us out. (and Cowbell made it just in time for “Amen”)

    Gentlemen, it was a pleasure that I’ve missed, being back in the main event, and I want to thank ll of you for making F3 Northshore what it is, and allowing me the humble honor of leading you bunch of yahoos through a taste of a new chapter of my life.

    SYITG

  • Cornucopia at the Gipper – from Einstein

    a cool 41 degrees at The Gipper

    and after a short disclaimer…

    Warmup:
    all 20xIC: Toe Touch, Side Straddle Hops, Good Mornings, Hillbillies, Shoulder Shruggs, Imperial Walkers,
    Thumb Drives, Swimmers, Neck Roles, Mummy Kicks, Scissor Hops, maybe some more…
    and a new one from BBQ called the “Cornhole Picker Dance,” which is hard to describe, but picture Afgan soldier trainees trying to learn semaphore signals, and you’ll get the idea.

    Thang:
    Onto the Upper Deck of the Justice Center Parking Garage, via reverse lunges and sprints up the ramps
    with BBQ again providing the entertainment, with his Seinfeld-esque company Turkey trot story, where he beat his office nemesis in front of a large spectator crowd. He attibutes his swiftness to F3.
    Then, atop the deck, we did strenuous core excercise at each corner and in between corners we did even more torturous exercises at every other parking spot stripe.
    Then… we did all of that in again, but in reverse.

    Mosey back to the invisible flag.

    Count-o-rama
    Bean leads us out with prayer.

    Thanks guys. Always extremely decent of you letting me lead.

  • Yankee Doodle Dandy – from TurboTax

    Tomorrow is Veterans Day so YHC thought it’d be fitting to visit the American flag displays proximate to The Gipper. Amnesia reinforced this line of thought when he rolled up wearing Stars and Strips socks and bike shorts, our very own Yankee Doodle Dandy. At any rate, after a warmup of imperial walkers, shoulder taps, seal jacks, mountain climbers, hillbillies, merkins, and SSHs, the 9 PAX split up into three teams of three and the games began.

    Armed with tennis balls, each team was tasked with moving from flag to flag. The rules were simple: (1) the PAX holding the ball could take no more than one step while holding the ball and (2) every time a team dropped the ball, each team member had to execute two burpees before resuming the game. Then we were off to the races, visiting the flag displays at the School Board building, the Fire Station, the Justice Center, the Police Station and finally our own Shovel Flag.

    But we didn’t just travel. At each flag we paused to execute a sequence of isometric holds (Al Gores, front planks and shoulder taps, isometric Bulgarian Squat holds-where were you this morning Steve?-and hollow holds), dynamic exercises (squats, merkins, Bulgarian Squats, and leg raises), and explosive exercises (jump squats, clap merkins, Sister Mary Katherines, and heels to Heaven). And to top it off we executed a couple of agonizingly long isometric holds upon returning to the Shovel Flag.

    Countorama, nameorama and Einstein succinctly prayed us out. Good teamwork this morning, guys. Thanks for letting me lead.

  • Grundy Shrugged – from TurboTax

    It took a good thirty minutes, but Grundy eventually shrugged…or groaned…or exhaled loudly. Sources later confirmed that Grundy experienced a little fatigue at this point in the beatdown. It made YHC feel good. Honestly.

    At any rate, 11 PAX posted in the Gloom this morning. We warmed up with burpees, mountain climbers, SSHs, imperial walkers, and hillbillies and then made our way to the back of the Justice Center.

    We dispersed among the back benches for 3 sets of 10 Bulgarian split squats each leg and 10 derkins, all IC.

    Crab walk to the smoker’s lounge then a long lunge Indian walk/run to the front of the Justice Center.

    Circled up for 3 sets of 10 T merkins, 10 Nolan Ryans each side and 10 hollow hold flutter kicks, all IC.

    Deployed to the front benches for 3 sets of 10 lateral step ups each leg and 10 good mornings, all IC.

    Lunge Indian walk/skip back the way we came where we hit 3 quick rounds up and around the Justice Center stairs and ramp.

    Closed the deal with 3 sets of 10 shoulder taps and 10 Peter Parkers, all IC.

    Countorama, nameorama and a nice positive prayer from who else but Grundy.

    Thanks for letting me lead guys.

    Great to have Cowbell back from his marathon, Maverick back from his injury, and Bubba back from his hiatus for his 3rd Gipper post in a row.

  • 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 👍🏼👊🏼✌🏼!!!

  • UPPER DECK – from Einstein

    Short disclaimer…

    Warmup:
    all 20xIC: Toe Touch, Side Straddle Hops, Good Mornings, High Knees, Shoulder Shrugs, Imperial Walkers,
    Swimmers, Butt Kicks

    Thang:
    After a reverse lunge walk and sprint mix on our way up the ramps to the upper deck of the Justice Center Parking Garage,
    The Pax did a set of elevens with burpees up hill and merkins down hill
    Next Thang:
    Using the twenty four parking space striping, the Pax performed a StarJump routine:
    1 jump every other space, jog back, 2 jumps every other space, jog back, 1 jump plus 1 up to 13 for every other stripe

    Mosey back to the flag for times-up.

    Count-o-rama, Akbar leads us out with prayer.

    Thanks guys. Always extremely decent of you letting me lead.

  • Iron Pax week 4: We’re all super ants! – from Russo

    Pretty nice weather, a little on the humid side, but that’s picking nits, for the final week of the 2021 Iron Pax at the Lakefront this morning.

    Between a storm, a sinus infection, and vacation, YHC has been MIA for most of this year’s IPC, so my goal was to at least proctor and attempt some of the fun this week.

    As we gathered, Tanked Up took things to that next level with a (homemade) tee showing off his Raider Pride. Any Rummel alumni worth his salt (admittedly not much) knows the story of the Super Ants: an underdog Raider football team defeated the might Chalmette Owls (!!!) back in the day, and the moniker Super Ants made it into the newspaper write up (remember those?). From them on, a super ant is anyone that displays courage, heart, fight, and a motor that never quits (all characteristics of your typical college football “possession receiver”). Think Don Beebe running down Leon Lett. Danny Amendola. Abram Booty. Any Iowa receiver.

    I digress, but this week there was a colony of super ants that gave an incredible effort and pushed themselves HARD in the gloom.

    Pre Thang
    Quick warmup of seal jacks, cherry pickers, toe touches, and mummy kicks approx. 10x each, all IC)

    Thang
    A descending ladder, each set 25 reps, with a 25 yard run, followed by three burpees, and then 25 yards back for the next round of 25 reps.

    Rounds were:
    8 sets of curls (200 total)
    7 sets of squats (175 total, you get the picture)
    6 sets of overhead presses
    5 sets of kettle bell swings
    4 sets of merkins
    3 sets of thrusters
    2 sets of Bonnie Blair’s
    1 set of blockers

    Finish those, and you work your way back up the ladder, times for a total of 52:30.

    Major T claps to Grundy and Tanked up for setting the pace, but incredible effort and very little resting (excluding YHC) from what I saw.

    A mosey back from the Shaft and a COT closed us out with name-o-rama, announcements (F3/FIA mixer on the 21st and NOLA convergence on the 16th), and a prayer. Special appearance by Speedy and Cowbell, while Bean, Swoll Patrol, and an FNG had to scamper out early.

    Much respect to Zoolander for commandeering the coupons and markers and helping to coordinate this week. It was very much appreciated.

    Raider Pride and SYITG