First, apologies for the very late BB. I generally try to get these done relatively soon after, but the days/weeks quickly came up and here we are……
So, on to the important details….
34 pax including 1 FNG arrived for a beautiful, fall morning at Wolfpack Mountain. Warmup consisted of a short mosey and then everyone circled up for the following:
SSH x 20 IC
windmills x 20 IC
Hillbillies x 20 IC
Mountain climbers x 20 IC
Alternating hand/foot touches x 15 IC
Shoulder taps x 20 IC
Thang 1
Pax formed 3 lines and Indian run to top level
Thang 2
(2 rounds) Circuit of Following –
Staggered merkins (each arm x 20)
Alternating toe touch crunch x 10 IC each leg
Diamond merkins x 20 IC
Crunchy frog x 20 IC
Multi level merkins (high, low, mid)
Levels/protractor- pax on back lifting legs at different levels
Thang 3
– 4 rounds of catch me if you can
Pax in front runs down to next level while the pax behind does 3 burpees. Once finished he try’s to catch first pax.
Finished up with the COT for Countoff, Naming of FNG (Neckbrace), and intentions.
This was YHC’s has first time Qing WPM and I enjoyed the opportunity to lead. Thanks for coming out and until next time…
First Sub 50 degrees post for this Q who came prepared.
Mosey to open green space for warmup
SSH x 20 IC
Arm circles x 15 (front and back)
Windmill x 15
Hillbillies x 15
Grass grabbers x 15
Jog to fountain mountain for a version of Burp Back Mountain with a variation of 2 rounds to the sounds of mountain themed music:
Round 1 – with a partner, one back peddled up and ran forward down 5 times (decline by 1 on each switch) while other does burpees (50 total). By Exicon definition, it called for 100. Ouch.
Round 2 – with a partner, bear crawl up and run down 2 times, while other does squats (150 total)
Bench Work (near by):
Right leg step ups x 15
Left leg step ups x 15
Dips x 20
Box jumps X 15
Decline merks x 13
Mary (on Amphitheater stage):
Dolly
Flutter kicks
LBC’s
Freddie mercuries
Dying cockroaches
Penguin
Side Planks
Jog / return to flag for Stretching & COT.
FNG EH’d by Kuch was named Da Pope by Da Parish. Da Pope was a QB at Slidell High so he will forever pay tribute to his rival.
Thanks for letting me lead for my second time and thanks for showing up!
After reading the email this morning, it occurred to me that I may have forgotten something important last week. It wasn’t my wife’s birthday, remembered that. Thanksgiving? Who could forget it. Black Friday? My coffee at uptown PJ’s only cost an arm and half a leg in celebration of Black Friday, so it wasn’t that. No, YHC may have (allegedly) forgotten (potentially) to post a BB from the Foundry this week. I may have (according to some sources) been mentioned in the weekly email. For this – if it refers to me – I am deeply sorry (allegedly). Regardless, as I have gotten on others before about failing to post a BB, no excuses. Just like it’s better to send a wedding gift six months late than not at all, please allow the following to serve as YHC’s BB from last week.
On Wednesday, we were joined by 1 FNG and 3 out of towners – Side Effects, Charmin, and Uptown Girl – for out traditional foundry workout, consisting of offensive music, an appropriate amount of mumblechatter, and Tabata. The mumblechatter is because we always forget the rotation halfway through; Tabata is because it’s a rockin good time; and offensive music is required by law as a tribute to Jesus Juice, whose playlists consist mainly of people screaming obscenities over 300 beats per minute.
But first, on a muggy morning, we did a quick warmup on the track of
SSHx20
Arm Circlesx20
Mountain Climbersx20
IWx20
Self love OYO as we walked to the lanes of the track
From there, the usual: 2 lines, Indian Run to the Foundry.
When we arrived, 8 stations of Tabata, consisting of
Snake Derkins (just a Derkin on the thing we call a snake, not some cool new exercise that involves slithering around while doing merkins. although….)
Upright rows
seated dips
Squats
Shoulder taps
Hanging crunches
Plank + alternating arms up in the air
Burpees
We got 5 rounds in, and Indian ran back to the track for some cyo Mary, including
LBC’s
Doctor W’s
flutter kicks
something else
We moseyed to the flag where we arrived at 6:15 sharp. COT, prayer, and then coffeeteria at PJ’s on Canal. Thanks for coming out. – Kuch
Nine pax arrived on time at the Chamber for my first Q; one of which was an FNG who Gideon brought in after meeting on a plane. The PAX warmed up with head rotations, self love, grass grabbers and general stretching.
The PAX then did an Indian run up Elysian Fields to station one where I spoke of the artist Tom Sachs and his daily studio practice “work is a privilege, it is not that you have to do 50 push ups but that you can. ” with this in mind the pax did 50 Merkins.
Indian Run to station 2 – Water Feature / here Pax concentrated on core with crunchy frogs, American hammer, J-Lo and dying cockroach – sets of 25 in cadence
Indian Run to station 3 – The Levee / Pax partnered up for Dora, 200 cumulative dips timed by partners running up and down the the levee.
Indian Run to station 4 – UNO Sign / Pax partnered up, 50 lung walks while partners sat in Al Gore.
Indian Run back to the flag – 10 burpees every minute for 4 minutes completing the work out.
Countorama, nameorama / FNG centered up and was officially named Bonvoy. Prayer spoken was centered around gratefulness.
I had a great time leading this work out and look forward to more in the future.
It was a beautiful morning on Lake Pontchartrain, and 17 PAX gathered for a good old fashioned beatdown. I issued the disclaimer, and we headed across the street to the concrete planters along the Lakefront. Once across the street, we circled up for the warmup
Warmup:
20 side straddle hops
20 plank jacks
10 windmills
Self love
15 low slow squats
The Thang:
We sprinted to planter #1, did one burpee, then sprinted back to yellow line
We sprinted to planter #2, did two burpees, then sprinted back to yellow line
We sprinted to planter #3, did three burpees, then sprinted back to yellow line
We sprinted to planter #4, did four burpees, then sprinted back to yellow line
We sprinted to planter #5, did five burpees, then sprinted back to yellow line
Next, we circled back up and did the following:
Hand plank for 1 ½ minutes. While planking we did a merkin every time I said “down”
Kept legs 6 inches off the ground for 1 ½ minutes. Every time I said “go” we did flutter kicks for 5 seconds
20 Carolina Dry Docks
Kept legs 6 inches off the ground for 1 ½ minutes again. This time when I said “go” we would bring our legs toward our chest and do a reverse crunch
Box Jump / dip routine on the planter. Started with 7 box jumps / 14 dips, then went to 6 box jumps / 12 dips, etc
After that, we did another run / burpee routine:
We sprinted to planter #5, did five burpees, then sprinted back to yellow line
We sprinted to planter #4, did four burpees, then sprinted back to yellow line
We sprinted to planter #3, did three burpees, then sprinted back to yellow line
We sprinted to planter #2, did two burpees, then sprinted back to yellow line
We sprinted to planter #1, did one burpee, then sprinted back to yellow line
Next, we circled back up and did the following:
Mission impossible plank position for 45 seconds. While planking we did a merkin every time I said “up”
Did flutter kicks for 45 seconds. Every time I said “stop” we would just hold feet 6 inches above ground
10 Carolina Dry Docks
Got on our six, and kept legs close to our chest in the crunch position. Then every time I said “go” we would put our legs out and bring them back to our chest. This is the oft talked about yet rarely attempted double-reverse crunch. Breathtaking
Box Jump / dip routine on the planter. Started with 4 box jumps / 8 dips, then went to 3 box jumps / 6 dips, etc
After that, we headed back to the flag for the count-off, name-o-rama, announcements, intentions & prayer. Thanks for the opportunity to lead, fellas. I always enjoy it
While perusing the Q list to see who would be leading the beatdowns this week of the AOs I most often attend, I happened to see my name listed. I thought this was odd because I had just Q’ed 2 last week and didn’t remember signing up. I then gazed up to see that I was Q for Popeye’s which is not my regular Wednesday AO. I’ve been out there a few times and enjoy the challenge of a virtual blank slate of opportunities to lead a PAX. I accepted the challenge of Q’ing an unfamiliar locale and brought 2 Lakeview guys with me. 8 PAX joined me at the shovelflag, brought to you courtesy of Fracsac, disclaimer was given, directions were asked by me to the exercise area near W. Napoleon, and off we went.
Warm up:
Mosey over to the parking lot directly next to exercise area where we circled up.
SSH x 20 IC
Windmills x 10 IC
Concrete grabbers x 15 IC
Arm circles fwd/rev x 10 each direction IC
Self love x 10 IC
Thang #1:
Tabata is always a tough routine to choose as the Q because you never know how many PAX will be there, odd numbers always make it interesting, and the AO site can make it interesting to select exercises. So naturally we had 9 men total. I was going to initially go solo but I was appropriately convinced to go with 3 groups of 3. I opted to have the groups perform 2 sets of 3 different exercises. (for a total of 6 sets per round). Rinse and repeat x 3 additional rounds with all different exercise combinations.
I figured most, if not all, of the PAX had not experienced my son’s previous suggestion for a “game.” So we proceeded to play the F3 version of Red Light/Green Light. As explained in previous backblasts all red light exercises will be static and all green light exercises will be dynamic. Exercises alternate between red light and green light. Timer for each exercise is controlled by randomity timer.
Red Light exercises:
Al Gore
High plank
L side plank
R side plank
Low plank
Static lunge with L leg in front
Static lunge with R leg in front
Reverse plank
Static calf raise (heretofore renamed Tippy Toes)
Static leg hold (level)
Green Light exercises:
Mountain climbers
LBCs
Merkins
Lateral lunges
High knees
L single leg wife pleasers
R single leg wife pleasers
Penguins
Crunchy frog
Freddy Mercury
20 exercises total, randomity timer set between 15-45 sec. Average time of 30 sec per exercise should take about 10 minutes total for the routine. While toggling between apps on my phone while leading the Q it was only until I was on my way home that I accidentally skipped over one of the side planks and lateral lunges. Sorry guys.
But it all worked out in the end because at 6:10 we moseyed back to the shovelflag and got back at exactly 6:15. See I knew what I was doing all along. Countoff, name-o-rama, announcements, intentions, sweaty ball of man. Can’t wait to come back to Popeye’s for future beatdowns and whoever put me on the list can do so in the future if you are looking for Q’s.
The iconic opening words to the song made famous by the 1985 smash hit “Vision Quest”. Who could forget this iconic scene? Look at those moves! No wonder this movie was so popular!
Okay, so perhaps a minor exaggeration on my part as not a single member of the Pax could identify that song this morning, or its significance (Lunatic Fringe is in main song played in Vision Quest, which is where the name Kuch comes from). At least Shuffles has the excuse of not having been born in 1985. Bogey would have nailed it of course.
Despite my disappointment, we decided to workout anyway on this cool crisp morning. Temperature at kickoff was right around 50, and although we may have felt a few raindrops, the weather, overall, was pretty nice.
We moseyed to the center of the intersection, with some high knees etc… on the way, for some quick, fast paced warmups so we could all…. warm up. Except High Rise of course, who some might say was slightly over-dressed for the occasion, having worn perhaps his entire closet full of sweaters, scarves, parkas, mittens and what have you. Fitting for a man who solved the climate crisis yesterday by declaring it #2cold2warm. Regardless, High Rise remains #2legit2quit in my book.
Once the warm-ups and player intros were complete, we headed up to the levee to Indian Run to the concrete portion for our next activity. Rockin tunes were played as we passed the speaker off. When we got to the concrete portion, there was a fence that briefly confounded all my 5:40 AM logistics… luckily, someone suggested we walk around it, which we did.
On the concrete, we did a couple rounds of merkin ring of fire, and moved right along to a simple tabata, 20 seconds on, 7 second rest, 4 exercises x2 for each session. Burpees, LBC’s, Merkins, Squats. After completing each round of those 4 exercises twice, we ran up and down the levee 10 times to catch our breath. We completed this circuit 3 times, before Indian running back the other way.
When we reached the intersection, we headed back to the flag for a few more rounds of merkin ring of fire until 6:15.
We prayed for the strength to take care of our elders, the ability to appreciate our own health, and the humility to grasp that one day, we may be the ones who need help. I know that I need your help to continue to get better, and so, as High Rise suggested this week (before solving an existential crisis for all of humanity), I note that I am truly thankful for all of you, for everyone who showed up today, for everyone who has ever shared a word of encouragement with me during a workout, for everyone who has ever held me accountable, and for everyone of you, who inspires me each day. Thank you. – Kuch
YHC was up for his second consecutive Q in City Park. Following the fill-in Q at The Stomp and seeing that the forecast for this morning was for a chilly 34 degrees, I opted to include more running than I typically would include in a Foundry beatdown in order to keep our bodies moving and stay warm. Thankfully there was negligible wind so today actually felt warmer than yesterday. With that said, Al Gore doesn’t know anything about “global warming” when New Orleans is in a near freeze in the middle of November. 11 PAX gathered at the mythical shovelflag, disclaimer was given, and off we went.
Warm up:
With the weather being what it was I opted for a slightly longer warm up so we moseyed from the flag and made a full lap around the practice track. After that circle up.
SSH x 20 IC
Windmills x 10 IC
Grass grabbers x 15 IC
Arm circles fwd/rev x 10 each
Self love x 15 IC
Thang #1:
I chose for a more run based routine and found the Merkin Mile on the exicon. Run a lap (1/4 mile) then perform 25 merkins. Rinse and repeat 4 times. Total = 1 mile and 100 merkins. I also wanted to keep everyone together as much as possible so I added that once everyone’s lap and merkins were complete we would hold the aforementioned Al Gore until the 6 had completed the round.
Thang #2:
After that we recover walked over to the starting line on the back side of the track. Here we would do 40s. This consisted of performing 2 exercises in which you perform 30 reps of exercise 1, run the 100m, perform 10 reps of exercise 2, and run back to the start for round 1. With each round the reps would change by 5 reps. 25/15, 20/20, 15/25, and 10/30. Since we went heavy with arms/chest previously I thought a good leg burn would go over well. Exercise 1 was squat jumps and exercise 2 was single leg wife pleasers (bridges). Plank and wait for 6 when complete.
Thang #3:
Recover walk back over to the warm up area of the track for The Gross. I found this one on the exicon a few weeks ago and since I had some time left over (and the list of exercises still saved on my phone) I went back to the well with a slight adjustment from my previous go round. 12 reps of 12 exercises. I once again tried to even it out with 4 leg, 4 arm, and 4 core exercises.
Low slow squats IC
Jumping/Bouncing IC (don’t let heels hit the ground)
R side lunges
L side lunges
Floyd Mayweathers
Carolina dry docks
Diamond merkins
Air shoulder press
Flutter kicks
Hello dollies
Box cutters
Freddy Mercury’s
Mosey back to the flag and plank for ~1 minute until the clock struck 6:15. Count off, name-o-rama, announcements, intentions, and sweaty ball of man. I once again challenged the PAX to think of something to be thankful for every day as Thanksgiving is approaching. As always it was a pleasure to lead.
Unfortunately Tool was unable to Q this morning and was a late scratch. And whenever there is a need for a Q somehow I seem to be the guy to do it. I usually welcome it as a challenge and I had never been Q for a Stomp before. So 11 lunatics joined me for a brisk morning run with a lovely breeze.
Disclaimer was given. I chose to do something radical and gave the instruction to run 20 minutes out and 20 minutes back. The wind was mostly at our backs on the way out which allowed for a lovely run. Unfortunately the wind in face on the way back with some occasionally strong gusts made for an interesting challenge. However as you would expect all PAX powered through. I am typically among the slow runners so upon my return to the flag Belloq took the lead and had the PAX performing some 8 count absolutions which is always a crowd pleaser. Once the 6 returned a quick round of Mary was done. Countoff, name-o-rama, announcements, intentions, and sweaty ball of man.
Lately with Thanksgiving nearing my M has been challenging the 2.0s and me to come up with something we are thankful for everyday. I challenged the PAX to do the same since despite whatever trials and tribulations we or any family may be experiencing in life we have so much to be thankful for. Looking forward to the next Q (which will be tomorrow).
YHC had the opportunity to Q at the Renaissance the day before, which is a great AO to workshop new ideas. Today we got to tighten it up.
WARM UP – x10 Arm Circle x10 Reverse AC x10 Abe Vigoda x15 Side Straddle Hops x10 Parker Peter x10 Peter Parker Mosey to Elysian Fields – Indian run to end. x20 SSH
THE GRIND – Adaptation of the 4 corners Goal is to do two rounds of one movement with a paired static hold. At each corner. Bringing with you a reminder of the previous corner, to compound the pain.
First Corner – Circle Up. All hold plank position. One pax member starts off – 10 merkins – then next starts on his completion. All hold plank till circle is complete. Clockwise. Yup, hold it. We had a bigger group so short recovery upon completion of each circle throughout workout was decreed. Do two rounds. Run to next corner (approx 100 yards)
Second Corner – Circle up. Plank. Reduced value of 5 merkins. Complete circle. One Round. Move to your six. 20 LBCs per pax, complete the circle. Doesn’t matter how you do hold it, but feet may not touch the ground. Just hold it… 2 rounds. Run to Next Corner.
Third Corner – Circle Up. Plank. 5 Merkins, complete circle. On six. 10 LBCs, complete circle. Back to Feet for next movment. All hold trees (al gore) while each pax cranks out 20 squats. Seriously. Hold it! 2 rounds. Immediately sprint the distance to last corner.
Fourth Corner – Circle up. 5 of each movement while all hold matching static movement. Complete then run back to starting point for stretching.
I’d like to work out the kinks on this one a little better so we could push through with enough time to go back down. It would be a good – solid – 45 minute plan for any Q. Either way, playing with the numbers a bit at each point is all it would take… For any interested to borrow.
As a note, what YHC likes about this type of workout is it is F2 conducive. As others have noted about the Stomp, doing a sustained exercise with opportunity to banter is always a good one to solidify the community and accountability.
As always, thanks for letting me lead. Thanks for the accountability to kick the week off right.
