F3 New Orleans

Tag: Bushwacker

  • Northshore Convergence – 3 Year Anniversary

    We all come to F3 as individuals, men with our own past and our own unique stories.  But we all share one very similar story, which is the story of our first post to an F3 beatdown.  This story usually involves a little fear, a lot of pain, and in some cases, a splash of merlot.  My story took place at Grandmother’s House (before it had a name), and I can be honest and say it was filled with trepidation: Will I be able to make it through this?  What if I don’t like some of these guys?  Are they going to ask me to lead part of it?  And why the heck am I up so damn early???

    Everyone knows how the story goes – YHC was accepted but quickly pushed to be a better man in all aspects. That impact – an effect felt on all F3 brothers – is what we came together to celebrate on the Lakefront today. F3 has now been thriving and changing men on the Northshore for three years now.

    A few lucky Southshore men arrived early, unaware they’d get roped into a 2 mile pre-thang. Back at the flags (four flags this morning), YHC gave a quick welcome and disclaimer, and we got this thing started:

    Warmorama:

    Three years, three sets of 8-count bodybuilders.  Founding year 2016, so 16 reps of each.  Sprinkled some standard warm-ups in between:

    • 8-count bodybuilders x16 IC
    • SSH, IW’s x20 IC
    • 8-count bodybuilders x16 IC
    • Toe Touches, Windmills x20 IC
    • 8-count bodybuilders x16 IC

    The Thang:

    3 Stations for 3 Years: Every Man Leads

    Leadership is one of the skills F3 hones that YHC is most thankful for. It’s also the thing YHC was most uncomfortable with those first few weeks. These stations were meant to honor the leadership impact that F3 spreads.

    The PAX was split into three groups, with three leaders picked for an impromptu lead at each station. The leader got two minutes to come up with a routine while the rest of the PAX circled up for Peter Parkers x15 IC, Shoulder Taps x15 IC, and Merkins x15 OYO.

    If memory serves, here’s what each leader had us performing:

    Station 1: The Gazebo, led by Sparky Time

    Freak Nasties x10 IC, Step Ups x10 IC (each leg), Squats x10 IC, repeat.

    Station 2: East Swingset Pad, led by Jose 10k

    Squats x10 IC, Jane Fondas x10 IC (each leg), Lunges x10 IC, Monkey Humpers x10 IC.

    Station 3: West Swingset Pad, led by Russo

    Little Manny Crunches x10 IC, Six-Inch Exercise x10 IC, Crunchy Frogs x10 IC. (Pretty sure there was something else in there….)

    Mental and Physical Toughness with Fracsac

    Next up, the baton was passed to Fracsac for a little taste of the Southshore. He told us of his recent Spartan Race with Triple Shift, how challenging it was, and how F3 had prepared him both mentally and physically.  So this next pearl would exemplify both. 

    The physical part was an Indian Run (PAX split into 2 groups), where the man sprinting to the front would yell out an exercise, the PAX would quickly disperse and perform 5 of said exercise (burpees, jump squats, derkins, one-armed merkins, to name a few) before getting back in line and continuing the run.  Halfway through we were stopped for the mental exercise: perform 21 SSH’s, with only the first 10 called out in cadence.  If one man fails to halt at exactly 21, there was a penalty of 30 burpees.  After some mumble chatter about who’s cadence was the correct cadence, we all performed the penalty burpees. The Indian run then headed in the opposite direction, with the same mental exercise waiting at the end of the line – this time 17 SSH and only 6 called in cadence.  Another failure and another 20 burpees were in order.

    Team Races: Pushing Each Other Forward

    YHC took the final pearl with some competitive team exercises. This section was cut short due to time, so we did one quick hopscotch race: the original three teams lined up in plank position, with the last man rising to bunny hop over the rest of his team, and then drop back into plank position. Teams finished once their last man crossed the finish line – the infamous lakefront shaft.

    The two losing teams would need to do a penalty exercise, but the true winning team would never be known because there were some last-second shenanigans on all three teams as they neared the finish line. So we all performed the penalty together: the 8-count exercise known as Absolution.

    Mosey back to the flag, where Shooter led a very abbreviated Mary of planking before we called it.

    COT: Count-o-rama, name-o-rama, naming of an FNG (welcome Stockboy!) and Triple Shift led us in a prayer of thanks.

    Coffetería brought out a few of our injured brothers, with Butt Splice, The Manny, and Tanked Up joining us. T-claps to our Southshore brothers for making it across the pond to make this a true convergence, it wouldn’t be the same without you guys. And t-claps to all the guys who led today, it’s an honor to work beside you men. SYITG.

  • AKA, Patiently-Waiting Penny

    For the nearly three years that we’ve been coming to the Justice Center parking garage, she has been there.  Waiting, presumably, to clock in across the street.  But why two hours before?  Where does she come from?  What is she doing on her phone for two hours?  And why the heck does she leave her car running even in the greatest of weather?

    These questions and many more may never be answered.  And that is as it should be.  For Patiently Waiting Penny (AKA, Smartphone Stalking Suzie, Carbon Monoxide Camille, Facebooking Fanny) is an enigma and should remain one – something for the PAX to ponder as we  shuffle backwards up the parking ramp.  As such, a portion of today’s beatdown was dedicated to our most ardent, yet involuntary, fan.

    Warmorama: 

    Arm circles x15, toe touches x15, IW’s x15, Abe Vigodas x10, air presses x25, SSH’s x20, all IC.

    The Thang:

    Started with a mosey to the Taj, to do a riff on last week’s parking garage exercise: the pax is divided in two, with each half headed in opposing directions around the building.  Bunny hop the east/west sides, bear crawl north/south.  At the meeting point on the opposite side, we did 8-count bodybuilders 10x.  Head back the same way, and did another 8-count exercise, absolution.

    Next up, mosey to the bottom of the parking garage for a SCOP (semi-circle of pain): The Penny.  The Penny consists of the stupidest and most awkward-looking exercises in the exicon.  These are the exercises that are not suitable for the public eye.  But of course, with the amount of time Patiently-Waiting Penny has already put in with the Pax, she is practically one of us.  So we opened our circle to her and performed the following:

    • Goofballs x20 IC
    • Smurf Jacks x20 IC
    • Star Jacks x20 IC (look out PAX, YHC has a new favorite!)
    • Howling Monkeys (each man performs 10X IC monkey humpers while the PAX holds their ankles)
    • Wife Pleasers x20 IC
    • Hello Dollies x20 IC
    • Rosalitas x20 IC
    • Pattycake Merkins x20 OYO

    Having amused YHC, we moseyed (then sprinted) up to the top, where we then began a Bataan Death March.  Well, more of a Bataan Death Loop as we circled until each man got his burpees and sprints in.  Then a short Indian run back to the flag for…

    Mary:  Crunchy frogs, flutter kicks, and Freddie Mercuries, all x20 IC

    COT and Shooter prayed us out.  Thank you gentlemen for the push and for indulging me today’s lead –  I appreciate it!

  • No Rain

    90% chance….whipping gusts….but no rain! No fishing or camping either, I might add (and you call yourselves Ragnarians).

    As expected, the reliant visages of Waterpik and Garfield greeted YHC as he rolled up. With another three amigo post apparently in store in store for the scramblers, it was a pleasant surprise to see Burgundy join us to give his recovering leg a little work.

    WARM UP

    Torso Twists x10

    Toe Touches x10

    Cherry Pickers x20

    Imperial Walkersx10

    High Knees x10

    Fire Hydrants x10 r/l

    Scorpion Kicks x10

    THANG

    The regular route was run, an we ran into the regular runners along the route. The 4 scramblers held together as the PAX all participated in the ramblings of early-morning mumble chatter. A slightly deceptive 8:41 was the pace, and as we returned to the flag, Burgundy exclaimed that there was no rain! “BOOM,” retorted Mother Nature!

    THANG PT2/Mary

    Inspired by both Shooter and Coconuts, Q had a mind to insert a plethora of burpees for the rest of the beatdown. However, 2 rounds of 10 burpees on the minute was all the painment Q decided to dish out. We did follow up with some calming stretches and some iso ab work.

    COT

    Burgundy lead us out with a familiar, yet always apropos theme of appreciation.

    While we saw no rain, we held no illusions as to the rest of the day. Gentlemen, enjoy this wet n wild Thursday!

  • No Animal Left Behind

    We began with a brief warmup: Side Straddle Hops x 15/Windmills x10/High Knees x15/Butt Kicks x15/Imperial Walkers x 15 in cadence.  We then finished with 5 Burpees on your own. 

    QIC then had us mosey to begin our commemoration of the biblical account of Noah’s Ark.  We paired up, and while one partner ran the length of the ark (450′) out and back, the other did Mountain Climbers until each team reached a cumulative of 600 (Noah’s age when he built the ark. 

    All teams performed that task with such ease, we added 300 cumulative Merkins on the back end, much to Shooter’s chagrin. (Noah lived for another 300 years after the flood.) 

    With our chests nice and fatigued, we moved on to the animal portion.  Each partner stood 75′ apart from each other (the width of the ark), and took turns doing the following:  Bear Crawls/Crab Walk/Duck Walk/Gecko Walk/Rabbit Hop/Run.  While one partner was performing the task, the other waited by doing squats.  

    As if that were not enough, we then honored the 40 day/40 night flood by doing 40 Frek Nastys/ 40 Lunges/ 40 Monkey Humpers.  (3 sets to honor each of Noah’s 3 sons.) 

    We then moseyed back to the flag for some Mary.  Since there was no dry land for 7 days after the rain stopped, we performed 7 different exercises to finish up:  20 x Crunchy Frogs/Dying Cockroaches/Freddy Mercurys/Putins/Peter Parkers/Parker Peters/Little Manny Crunches. 

    We finished by saying the Pledge of Allegiance before Bubba prayed us out.  We then enjoyed some F2 at the Beach House, as is customary. 

  • I Am Groot-er!!!

    YHC walked up to the flag and waited for the overachievers to make their way back from their run, and as that infamous group rolled in there was one notable absentee. Shooter was not among the Mandeville crew and he was the one that was supposed to be the Q!

    It turns out that Shooter had one great reason to be out. His daughter was in the hospital about to make Shooter a grandpa!!! Grandpa Shooter, or what I would like to call him “Grooter”! I hope all is well in the family my friend.

    With the Q understandably out, we all chipped in for a round robin beatdown!

    Warmup

    Bushwacker picked up the torch first and warmed us up with some different items all IC

    Toe Touches
    Cherry pickers
    High Knees
    Butt Kicks
    Scorpion Kicks

    Bushwacker threw down the torch and Steve picked it up and we moseyed to the Justice center stairs

    The Thang

    Steve pulled out his favorite bag of tricks starting with 11’s. Bottom of the stairs was erkens, and top of the stairs was derkens.

    We then did a series of moves all IC to 12.

    Step ups (both right and left leg)
    Freak Nasties
    Albanian Split Squats (both right and left leg)
    Freak Nasties

    Turbo was next and he had some diabolical plans in the tank. We moseyed to the top of the parking garage and partnered up for a series where we traveled to opposite sides of the garage (either in side plank crawls, lunges, crab walks, or bear crawls) and went down to the bottom of the stairs and back up until you met your partner back up top.

    Killer idea there Turbo!

    Next YHC took the final leg and took us back to the Justice center where we did a yet to be named sequence where you cover a distance by taking two lunges forward and one lunge back. Tough stuff.

    We moseyed back to the flag for a quick 20 IC reverse crunches. We circled up and Bushwacker closed us out.

    Great job everyone!

  • The Trifecta and Smart-Sackin’ Steve

    With a pre-announced smart sack strategy, YHC knew The Marsh would be Steveless. And with a congressional psychology strategy (ask for more than you need then negotiate down to what you want;), Shooter was a lock. The rest of the PAX was going to be a mystery. The rest of the PAX turned out to be The reigning Northshore H8 champion, Waterpik! With a trifecta achieved, we began…

    WARMORAMA

    15xs IC:

    Toe Touches

    Cherry Pickers

    Torso Twists

    Imperial Walkers

    High Knees

    Butt Kicks

    Fire Hydrants

    Scorpion Kicks

    THANG

    We started at the monkey bars with 4 “as long as we can” rounds of this month’s ISI of flexed arm hang/dead hang

    Inspired by the consistently frenetic quality of Saturday’s H8 beat down, QIC lead the guys around the block 2 times, with a high rep exercise at each corner:

    50 merkins

    50squats

    100 LBCs

    50 lunges

    50 100s

    50 jump squats

    50 freak nasties (a la conveniently placed neighborhood bench)

    50 freddy mercurys

    10 burpees

    MARY

    The PAX finished with some well-deserved and much-appreciated yoga stretches

    COT

    Q took us out with appreciation of his F3 bothers and the day full of possibilities and opportunities. Many thanks, guys, for your diligence an effort. There can be no one to lead if there is no one to follow.

  • Shooter Blanks

    YHC cannot remember the last time Shooter fartsacked a Gipper beat down. In fact, it just may be that today was the first time. The PAX nevertheless had to press on in the not so gloomy Gloom, wondering what Shooter was up to early this Spring Equinox morning.

    With some trepidation, YHC rolled out on a mosey in an unaccustomed direction at the opening bell. Trepidation because we were sure to miss those PAX who typically roll in hot. Not to mention any names but let’s just say we didn’t want to miss those PAX whose names rhyme with Bundy and Baverick. They fartsacked by all appearances but, if not, they hopefully will post their own back blast(s) to fill the rest of us in on their activities.

    Enough about fartsacking. The beat down went like this:

    Mosey to the St Tammany Parish WWI memorial for our warmup of SSHs, woodchoppers, overhead hand claps and good mornings, all IC 10-15x.

    Mosey to Christ Episcopal Church for a set of 7s. Bobby Hurleys on one side, butt kicks on the other, separated by bear crawls one direction and crab walks on the return.

    Short mosey to the entrance to Bogue Falaya Park for some sprinting and change of direction drills that looked like this:

    Round 1: sprint 10 yards, backpedal 10 yards, then sprint 20 yards

    Round 2: backpedal 10 yards, sprint 10 yards, then backpedal 20 yards

    Round 3: shuffle 10 yards, shuffle back to the start line 10 yards, then turn and sprint 20 yards

    Round 4: rinse and repeat Round 3 facing the opposite direction

    Round 5: rinse and repeat Round 1; last round best round

    Then the PAX moseyed to the Columbia Street Landing for a plank-a-thon: merkins, Peter Parkers, Parker Peters, plank jacks, right arm high, left arm high, shoulder taps, right arm high, left arm high, then one arm pulses each arm before heading back towards the Trailhead on a mosey

    Sudden change on the way

    Then the PAX closed out the beat down with Mary consisting of dynamic side planks, straight legged jackknives, dynamic back plank, and flutter kicks.

    Countorama, nameorama and Barely Legal prayed us out to start the day.

    Thanks for letting me lead guys. YHC always appreciates you playing along with the monkey business.

  • Mr. Anderson’s On the Clock

    With a high of 59, 20% chance of rain and breezy, the forecast promised an invigorating and intense Saturday beat down. But instead, morning rain, still, humid air and Jose 10K helped deliver and invigorating and intense Saturday beat down!

    PRE THANG

    The usual pre-thang suspects gathered at the usual pre-thang time to run the usual pre-thang 2 miles. T-claps to to Waterpik for taking the pre-thang red pill, despite a scheduling conflict for the beat down proper.

    WARM O RAMA

    x20 IC:

    SSH

    Imperial Walkers

    Butt Kicks

    Slow Squats

    Cherry Pickers

    Arm Circles (10>, 10<)

    THANG

    The newly spoken-for King of the Pre-Thang and this month’s current ISI crusader Jose` 10K joined YHC for his VQ, and the baton was now passed his way. The PAX mosied to the Marsh for 10K’s very own On the Clock. 12 stations were set up in a circle, including merkins, jump squats, LBCs, putins, shoulder taps, lateral jumps over cones, soccer ball taps (rocky balboas), peter parkers, plank jacks, and 3 others. moving from station to station, round 1 was 41 seconds each, round 2 was 30 seconds each.

    Pax mosied down Larmarque back to the lakefront where we split into 2 teams for 4 rounds of sloppy tug-of-war. Winners got to pick from 2 options for the losers’ penalty exercise while they planked. There was a “HALF-assed” 100 yard bear crawls, 25 burpees, 50 mountain climbers, and 100 LBCs.

    After the last round, we mosied back to the flag all holding on to the battle rope for the last 2 minutes.

    MARY

    With 2 minutes to spare, Jose lead the PAX in a quick round of righ and left side jane fondas.

    COT

    Count off and name-o-rama, before Pastor Grundy prayed us out. Congrats to Jose 10K for poppin’ his cherry! It was a great beatdown, and we look forwards to more opportunities to experience his leadership.

    POST SCRIPT

    Of course, a proper back blast would not be complete without special mentions of Zoolander’s kilt…will it make another appearance tonight?

  • Bushwacker misses out on PI day opportunity

    he should have slipped some PI day into his 3/14 Q … guess he is too busy dreaming up sesquipedalian verba, to use in his backblasts.

    Although I must say the wacker does have a good vocabulary.

    so on 3/13, at the Gipper, we had a conventional workout and here’s (here are?) the details:

    disclaimer

    warmup: 10 exercise each 20xIC; side straddle hops, toe touches, etc.

    mosey to the Taj-Mahal: partner up – one partner in wall chair position, the other runs around the building. Then circle up around the flag for some bear-crawling.

    mosey to the front of the Justice Center: run a few laps – adding in crawling under the benches – then up the stairs and around.

    mosey to the Justice Center Parking garage for merkins and laps around the concourse.

    mosey back to the trail head as time expires.

    Coconuts leads us out with prayer.

    is that a coconut pie?

  • Horrendously Happy

    Today was a prime example of the efficacy of the self-EH strategy of signing up to Q. After a horrendous night sleep, YHC was begrudgingly ready to get some miles in with the always semi-chipper PAX known colloquially as the City Hall Scramblers.

    WARM O RAMA

    Windmills x15

    Imperial Walkers x15

    Torso Twists x15

    High Knees x 17

    Donkey Kicks rx10, lx10

    Down Dog Merkins (credit Chewy for naming rights) x15

    Scorpion Kicks x15

    THANG

    The tradish Old Mandeville route was tackled this gloom. Garfield smartly listened to his body and passed on Sun Set Point. YHC wished he had done the same down the final stretch. Avoiding thoughts of a post-post trail run with Steve as best as possible, Q instead focused on one foot in front of the other in the NOW.

    MARY

    Taking advantage of the pull up bar at the park, the PAX each tested their metal in this month’s ISI of flexed-arm hangs, while the rest of the group did unending LBCs, Freddy Mercurys, and Heel Touches.

    COT

    Garfield took us out with positive vibes and grand hopes for the day. Thanks for posting , guys, and for following the sometimes predictable, yet often unpredictable lead of he who is feared by bushes far and wide!

    POST SCRIPT

    Steve and I did successfully complete a 1 mile trail run without being attacked, or otherwise molested by: alligators, snakes, spiders (though their webs kept things interesting), raccoons, squirrels, or devilish forest gnomes. We are looking forward to adding more miles and more men to the next run!

    POST POST SCRIPT

    I passed an active scene with a very totaled St Tammany Sherrif’s suburban on the way home. Please say some prayers for the officer invoved.