F3 New Orleans

Tag: High Rise

  • Running With Scissors

    I had been looking forward to this (1 day after) Birthday Q. Since I am a Physical Therapist I wanted to introduce a few exercises that I have my patients perform in the clinic or suped-up modifications of those exercises. I had considered using the great lawn for a portion of the beatdown but due to the amount of rain we had received and the lack of any animal crawls I opted to stay dry (of water, not sweat) which I hope the PAX appreciated. 8 men gathered in the humid, muggy, but sunny morning, the disclaimer was given, and off we moseyed to the pavilion by the Festival Grounds as everyone carried their soon to be announced coupons while I carried the scissors so said coupons could be distributed.

    Warm Up:

    • Side straddle hops x 25
    • Windmills x 10
    • Self love x 10
    • Hillbillies x 20
    • Mountain climbers x 20

    Thang #1:

    I was inspired by 2 recent beatdowns by Mr. Awesome and Kuch that included Tabata. So I performed a dry run the night before with a free app I downloaded and chose a 90s grunge playlist on Amazon Prime for 20 sec of exercise and 10 sec of rest for a group of arm exercises all using Theraband. We performed 2 rounds, with some questionable grunge selections by Amazon (Goo Goo Dolls and Dave Matthews Band are not 90s grunge).

    • Shoulder flexion (forward straight arm raise)
    • T’s/airplanes (separate arms apart while maintaining arms at shoulder level)
    • External rotation (elbows by your side and swing open arms like a gate)
    • Shoulder abduction (lateral straight arm raise)
    • Biceps curls
    • Triceps extension

    Thang #2:

    With everyone’s shoulders burning it was time to work on some legs. After shifting the picnic tables out of the way, PAX lined up on one end of the pavilion and performed a series of exercises back and forth across the pavilion

    • Lunge with twist, there and back
    • Toe walks, there
    • Heel walks, back
    • Monster walks with Theraband around ankles, forward there and retro back
    • Lateral monster walks with Theraband around ankles, alternate direction after a lap

    Thang #3:

    Everyone’s quads and gluts seemed to be burning after those so PAX circled back up for a some merkin and plank variations all performed in cadence

    • Merkin plus x 15
    • Merkin into side plank x 10
    • Plank on elbows into a birddog position (lifting alternate arm and leg) x 10

    At this point my arms were getting worn out and I was slipping from my sweat on the pavilion concrete so I made slight change in my exercise order. Time for some People’s Chair x 30 sec each, with modifications of course to target different muscle groups.

    • Feet flat on ground
    • Shift weight towards heels to fire the gluts
    • Shift weight towards balls of the feet to fire the quads
    • Single leg with right leg in air
    • Single leg with left leg in air

    Following this I went back and completed by merkin/plank exercise group with side planks into a straight leg raise x 10 each side.

    Thang #4:

    Following our pavilion portion of the beatdown we moseyed over to the deck in front of Big Lake while carrying coupons (and scissors of course). All exercises done in cadence.

    • Prone T’s/airplanes (Theraband optional) x 15 ; my apologies to the tall people/people with long arms
    • Prone W’s x 15
    • Dips x 15
    • Step ups x 15; 1 set leading with right then 1 set leading with left leg
    • High rises x 15

    Yeah, I named an exercise after myself. I have a lot of patients at the clinic perform wife pleasers. However, I do not call them wife pleasers. They are called bridges. Wife pleasers/bridges seemed too simple for this group of men so I modified it into something different. Starting position is in a crab walk, then lift your hips/butt into the air while also lifting 1 leg in the air. So it’s a suped-up single leg wife pleaser. Hope this makes sense to anyone reading this nonsense.

    Mosey back to the Muscleship shovelflag for some static hamstring, butterfly, and figure-4 piriformis stretching x 15 sec hold for each. Count off, name-o-rama, annoucements, intentions, and sweaty ball of man prayer. Thanks to all PAX for showing up. Hope everyone was as sore and fatigued as I was.

  • Hoke no like Cinder Block. Hoke Smash.

    On a warm, muggy morning that serves as a reminder of what’s to come in the next few months, 13 PAX (a Popeye’s record) gathered for YHC’s Q, motivated only by getting better and not missing YHC’s Q…. and maybe because Popeye’s was the ISI point today. Perhaps they knew there would be smashing involved.

    Brief mosey to one of the workout areas with some high knees and butt kicks along the way, followed by a fast-paced warm-up of the following:

    • Imperial Squat Walkers x10
    • SSXx20
    • Arm Circlesx20
    • Parker Peterx20
    • Self love

    The workout

    8 stations using Tabata as a timer (20 seconds on, 10 seconds to rotate)

    • Turkish Get Up’s w/ 10lb Kb (became sweat angels when we “ran out of” a cinder block)
    • Jumping rope (with 2 recently purchased speed ropes, neither of which withstood the workout. This eventually became Rocky Balboas)
    • Pull-ups/hang from pull-up bar
    • Burpees (of course)
    • 8 count bodybuilders (right after burpees because why not?)
    • Dips
    • Jump Squats (side note: while on vacation recently, I attended a yoga class that took place on a raft in the pool. One exercise was jump squats, and let’s just say the instructor’s form was a bit better than mine. He would squat down, jump up, turn 180 degrees in the air, and would drop back into a squat as he landed. This resulted in YHC falling off the raft several times, but being convinced this was the right way to do a jump squat. YHC encouraged everyone to try it this way today.)
    • Curl and press with cinder blocks.

    A couple rounds in, and we were all feeling it, some more than others. And by some, I mean Hokie Pokey, who opted for a demonstration of strength during this exercise. And by demonstration, I mean he smashed the cinder block at his feet, and then stood over it like a DB who had just leveled a receiver coming across the middle. We all applauded this feat of strength, made certain modifications and mental notes, and moved on.

    All in all, I think we got 5 rounds of this Tabata circuit in. For the first 3, we listed to Rage Against the Machine songs, but YHC made the mistake of throwing out a couple song choices to the Pax. Thus, our final round was done to “Video Killed the Radio Star”, compliments of Frac Sac. Thanks?

    We moseyed back to the flag, down a coupon, for some stretching led by Mahatama, and then a bit of planking. We gave thanks for the day, and remembered to appreciate even the hot, muggy days.

    Thanks to our Uptowners, Nip Tuck, Bones and JV who hopped on their flights this morning and made it all the way out to Lafreniere. And thanks for letting me lead. – Kuch

  • Shorty Dooby Doo…Where are you?

    So as YaMomAnEm and I arrived in the smallest possible LVCC possible to the AO a small group of men were ready to engage in some Shorty-style sprinting. I don’t own a watch but I knew 5:30 had to be approaching so I casually turned to Rudy and asked, “Is it 5:30 yet?” since our Q hadn’t arrived. He looked at his watch and said, “It’s 5:30 now. And since you asked you’re the Q.” Mildly taken aback I took it in stride, said the disclaimer, and moseyed over to the track.

    Dynamic Warm Up:

    • Frankenstein kicks
    • Butt kicks
    • Open the gate/Close the gate
    • Toe grabs
    • Karaokes
    • Standing quad stretch (with partner for balance)
    • 100m run at 50% speed

    At this point I opted to steal from Hawg’s Danger Zone debut so we did some sprints of varying lengths with a walk back to the starting line following each sprint. We roughly did 25m, 50m, 75m, and 100m sprints.

    After this, I stole from Screw Top’s Danger Zone beatdown and we ran 4 laps, split into 2 groups of 3, around the track with 100m sprints on the straight-a-ways and a mosey in the turns.

    During our 4 laps a growing crowd of runners was gathering near the entrance to the track. Following the completion of our 4 laps I wanted to perform some static stretching. Since there were only 6 of us, the PAX decided to perform these stretches in the warm-up section of the track in the turn to stay out of that group’s workout.

    Static Stretching:

    • Seated hamstring stretch 2 sets each leg x 15 sec hold
    • Butterfly stretch 2 sets x 15 sec hold
    • Supine figure-4 piriformis stretch 2 sets each leg x 15 sec hold

    Since the other group was breaking off into smaller running groups, I wanted to get 1 full sprint with all 6 PAX in our respective lanes. So we lined up for one more 100m sprint which YaMomAnEm took home handily. Afterwards we moseyed back to the warm-up area for some Mary.

    Mary (all done in cadence):

    • LBCs x 20
    • Sweaty Angels x 15
    • Dying Cockroaches x 20
    • Freddie Mercury’s x 15
    • Single-leg wife pleasers x 10 each leg

    Mosey back to (invisible) flag, count off, name-o-rama, announcements, intentions, sweaty ball of man.

  • H8! #6

    The Thang

    Event: The 6th running of the H8!

    Conditions: 72 degrees, 90% humidity, winds out of the SSE at 4 mph.

    Participants: 30 Pax including, 7 H8!ers, and 14 first timers.

    Each lap consists of running south to the top of the levee, crossing canal (bear crawling the neutral ground), running south to the bottom of the levee, cross canal and run north to the top of the levee, cross canal (bear crawling the neutral ground), running north down the levee and back across canal to the starting point.  At the starting point you do a descending burp and merk pyramid starting at 8 (burpee with 8 merkins, burpee with 7 merkins, …..burpee with 1 merkin)

    At the end of the 2nd lap the burp and merk pyramid starts at 7, etc.

    The goal is to complete 8 laps in 40 minutes.  According to MapMyRun, each loop is approximately 0.4 miles.  Therefore, to conquer the H8! you will have to do the following in 40 minutes:

    • Run just less than 3.5 Miles of Hills
    • 550 Yards of Bear Crawls
    • 36 Burpees
    • 120 Merkins

    We did AMRAP and then moseyed back to the flag.

    The Skinny
    • 12 finishers for a 40% success rate: SOGO, Cowbell, Smooth, Mahatma, 86, Thighs, Mariah, Triple Shift, Dirty Dell, Ya Mom N Dem, Screwtop, and Hawgcycle
    • No one got nine. Who will be the first?
    • I feel like YHC spent most of my energy chirping at Mahatma, at least until the 5th lap at which point he left me far enough behind he couldn’t hear me anymore.
    • I may have to put cones out next time to protect the integrity of the H8!.
    • Rudy had his first DNF at the H8! but it was for medical reasons. His doctor says no burpees. I would like to find a doctor like that.

  • 11 from Heck

    Okwata started with a beautiful moonrise and gentle breeze and then quickly went to CSAUP.

    After the disclaimer, the PAX moseyed to the Center of the Universe for the warm-up: SSH x 25, Abe Vigoda x 15, Imperial Walkers x 25, Peter Parkers x 20, Parker Peters x 20, Sun Gods x 10 (each direction). The PAX then moseyed to the bottom of the levee for the THANG.

    The THANG was an 11 using one-side of the levee: Merkins at the top (descending) and LBCs at the bottom (ascending). To achieve full CSAUP status, YHC directed the PAX to Quadrofeelia (a.k.a. Bernie Sanders) up the levee and Bear Crawl down the levee during the 11. After this, YHC needed O2, so Two Youths gave the PAX a twenty-count.

    Next, the PAX moseyed to the seawall in front of the MG fountain for a Hurricane Hoedown. YHC was so spent the PAX DJ-ed the cadence. Then, the PAX DJ-ed some additional MARY: Sweat Angels, Dying Cockroach, Real Freddie Mercury, and more LBCs.

    The PAX moseyed then to the virtual flag for the COT. Count Off. Nameorama. Announcements. Intentions. Prayer. Lord, teach me to be generous. . . .

    Moleskin: It was a great effort from the PAX today. YHC was beat after the 11. The PAX also stepped up to help YHC with cadence and then MARY. Future Qs sharpening. Fellowship. Teamwork. You name it.

  • These are a few of my favorite things

    14 Pax including 1 FNG posted in the gloom at City Park next to the imaginary flag.

    The QIC (YHC) was commemorating a belated birthday Q (first Q in over a year), and thought it would be fun to do a few of his favorite things. But first, a quick mosey to the grassy neutral ground for a little warm-up COP.

    • SSH – in cadence x 20
    • Hillbillies – in cadence x 15
    • Self Love – ic x 10
    • Merkins – ic x 10
    • Slow Windmills – ic x 10 (or was it 15?)
    • 10 Burpees on your own

    Then the Pax followed a slightly lost Q to “the Refinery” – a bit farther away than YHC remembered for some simple exercises in groups.

    • Burpess x 10 for the count
    • jump the snake
    • pull ups
    • dips
    • knee ups

    And with all that out of the way, the fun was about to begin. Mosey over to the big grassy area next to the water – it was nicely lit by the construction lights at the Children’s Museum. Pax put on a show for the construction fellas.

    First: Tabata!! (20 seconds on, 10 seconds off x 8)
    Exercises: mountain climbers, burpees, squat jumps, lunges, and repeat.

    Now that the PAX was nicely lathered up, some more fun was to come: Animal movements! Out about 10 yards and back, 5 burpees then the next movement.
    Movements: bear crawl, frog jumps, crab walk, shoulder rolls (followed by dizzy burpees)

    There was some mumble chatter about this time, especially about prickers and dizziness. YHC was having a blast.

    On to the climax of the morning – mosey to the track for … 1000 meters of Hades!!
    Run/sprint 400m, walk 100m
    Run/sprint 200m, walk 100m
    Spring 100m, walk 100m

    By now, we had run out of time for anything besides the short mosey back to the imaginary flag and the COT where we named SlowJo.

    Happy birthday to me.

  • “F3 Has Changed My Life”

    In a feat only New Orleans can accomplish, the PAX arrived to a cool yet muggy morning at 5:30 today. The sun might even have been peeking through the clouds as we set off into the humid air for a run. With the H8 last week, the new sprint workout, and the general level of intensity at the workouts lately, YHC thought a simple run this morning – no burpees, no sprints, no Mary – would be a nice change of pace. And so, that is what we did.

    One of the nice things about a run is that it gives you time to talk. I personally got to run with several different PAX and catch up on all the latest. Among those I was able to run with was Steinbrenner from F3 Memphis, who is in town for a convention. We traded some war stories, learned we were both former high school wrestlers with a tendency to eat an entire large bag of chips in one sitting, and talked about the myriad ways F3 had affected our lives. Somewhere along the way, he looked me in the face and said “F3 has changed my life”.

    Later I went to lunch with a friend, and we were joined by another PAX member from this morning, Briefs. Briefs is new within the last month or so, but you wouldn’t know it from the workouts. As we were walking out of the restaurant and chatting about the run this morning, he looked me in the eye and said “F3 has changed my life.”

    They say good things come in threes, and it is F THREE, so I will say this much: F3 has changed my life. I think the myriad ways in which this statement is accurate are well known to all of us, and to suggest it’s only a physical change would be silly.

    So thanks to all of you for that, as well as the opportunity to lead this morning.

  • 21 – Blackjack Baby!

    So I googled “blackjack quotes” and the following was the first one that appeared.

    “I like to play Blackjack. I am not addicted to gambling. I am addicted to sitting in a semi circle. ” Modify as needed – “I like the count-off and name-o-rama and intentions. I am not addicted to F3. I am addicted to the COT and standing in a circle.”

    The Lakeview clown car pulled up to the front of the museum with just a few minutes to spare this morning. After a quick disclaimer, the PAX moseyed for a warm-up run around the Museum and settled back on the grass in front of the lake for warm-ups as follows:

    SSH x 21, Windmills x 21, Peter Parkers x 21, Nolan Ryan x 21 (R & L), Merkins x 21 (this was input from youngest son last night when planning Q) and finish warm-up with some self love for one minute.

    Thang 1 – searched the F3 lexicon last night and stumbled across the “Blackjack” – we moseyed back to the area by the Muscleship flag, look up and see the Mothership PAX approaching/crossing the railroad tracks – like a scene from West Side Story, Romeo & Juliet, or possibly Revenge of the Nerds, a battle seemed imminent. Some mumblechatter ensued between the PAX and the Mothership PAX proceed to greet us with monkey humpers, but the Muscleship PAX cannot be distracted and remained focused on the beatdown and the F3 task at hand. Blackjacks – similar to 11’s, but better – ie. 21’s. Start with one Merkin, run three trees, then 20 LBC’s. Continue 21’s until 20 merkins and 1 LBC. The PAX powered through the end for the last 20 merkins. Apologies to Chips for not providing clearer instructions to the PAX. You may have done a few more LBC’s but your abs will be thanking you tomorrow.

    Thang 2 – continuing with the “21” theme we moseyed to the neutral ground in front of NOMA and lined up in single file line facing the museum for some 21’s. SSH x 5 in cadence. SSH 6-21 done in silence and PAX to stop at 21. Abacus, the Q, lost count and did one too many. No penalty burpees.

    Thang 3 – son Joel suggested toe-taps, aka Rocky Balboa’s. So the PAX did 100 Rocky Balboa’s on neutral ground by NOMA. 20 second rest then another 100 Rocky Balboa’s.

    Thang 4 – sensing the PAX shoulders were still steaming from the 21’s, we altered the Q’s plan and moseyed to the deck in front of the lake by NOMA. Time for some leg work. “Aiken legs” done in succession with no rest – Squats x 21, Lunges x 21, Box jumps/step-ups x 21, and Monkey Humpers x 21. 20 count recovery. Rinse and repeat a second time. The Q did not want the legs to miss out on the work-out.

    Thang 5 – short mosey back to the flag for the “Bear Crawl Ring of Fire” – circle up near flag and bear crawl in counter-clockwise motion. Upon direction from Q, stop and do 10 merkins. Resume bear crawl again. 10 additional merkins. Close out the last few minutes with some flutter kicks x 21 and warrior one stretch poses.

    Circle-up for count-off, name-o-rama, announcements, and intentions. Thanks to Kenner-Brah for reminding the 10 PAX of the importance of thankfulness and gratitude. Well said. Weather was perfect this morning, with sunrise over the lake by NOMA, slight breeze. Soon enough we will be working out in the “dog days” of summer. Thankful for the support and opportunity to lead the PAX this morning.

  • Coupon H8

    YHC is nothing if not not creative. After employing the pax at Popeyes a couple weeks back to transport coupons back to the flag, and noticing how little fun we all had doing it, the idea of a coupon run was born. Luckily, I overbought pavers a while back for a backyard project, and not wanting to do the walk of shame to return some pavers that each cost about 50 cents, we now have some “square running coupons”. They shall be referred to as the SRC’s henceforth, and they will always have been bought for the good of the F3 Nola pax, not my much smaller than expected backyard project.

    Warmup

    • Mosey to the center of the intersection with some high knees and butt kicks
    • SSHx20
    • Arm circlesx20
    • Parker Peterx20
    • Hold for planking on each hand
    • Open the gate, close the gate
    • LSSx10

    Station 1

    An abbreviated H8 with the SRC’s. Grab 1 in each hand, run to the top of the levee, deposit them, bear crawl across, run down to the bottom, straight back up, bear crawl across, retrieve SRC’s, down to the bottom at Lakeshore Drive for 5 Manmakers w/ the coupons. X 4.

    A few Pax completed 5 and even got in some Bernie Sanders while they waited for the slow guys, i.e., YHC to complete their 4th.

    Station 2

    Indian Run to the end of the levee on the concrete, where we got in a bit of Mary.

    • Crab Cakes x20
    • Absolution x10 (pretty sure I messed this one up again – going to need another demonstration the count, Triple Shift)

    Mosey down the levee and back to the flag, led by our FNG, Chips. Chips was EH’d by Hokie Pokey, and he put in a hell of an effort for his first workout. I saw he posted the next day at The Uptowner as well, so if you have not met him yet, you’ll probably see him soon. He’s a great addition to F3 Nola.

    We also bid farewell to Cowbell, who is going to the Northshore. Our loss, their gain. Cowbell is a quiet leader who pushes hard and helps those around him. Hopefully we’ll SYITG from time to time.

    Thanks for having me. I see the next month is covered, but we have been having some difficulty filling Q’s for Okwata. This is the best time to sign up for Okwata, as the days get longer, and we get absolutely beautiful sunrises over the lake. Show up for an Okwata or two when you can, and then sign up to lead one. With so many options for exercises, it’s truly one of the great AO’s we have. – Kuch

  • I Feel the Need

    The newest F3 Nola workout exploded on to the scene today with a Pax of 6. This was my first workout with Rudy since he has been back. It was nice to have him keep me accountable on the time as I started one minute late with the disclaimer.

    Warm-Up

    I believe this AO will prove to be high risk / high reward so the warm-up will prove to be the most important part of the workout. Today was cooler than normal so it became extra important.

    Jog to the track and continue for one lap (About 1/3 of a mile).

    • Lunge walk x 10 each leg
    • Elephant walk (Reach down with your right hand grabbing the toes on your right foot and pull up on them for 2-3 seconds. Take three steps and repeat with left foot, yadda, yadda, yadda.
    • High knees
    • Butt kicks
    • Carioca right then carioca left
    • Exaggerated Skip aka Super Mario
    • Short sprints with recovery (10 yards, 20 yards, 30 yards, 40 yards, 50 yards)
    The Thang

    We ran a mile for time to set our baseline. The plan is to check our progress in 3 months or so. Here are the times:

    • El Guapo: 7:01
    • High Rise: 7:54
    • Kuch: 7:29
    • Rudy: 7:09
    • Screwtop: 6:48
    • Hawgcycle: 6:37

    After finishing the mile we did some more stretching: Butterfly and Hamstring.

    A few more sprints: 220m at 75%, 110m at 50%, finished with 3 100m sprints at full speed

    Cool Down

    Easy Jog for 330m followed by lunges x 10 each leg and a mosey back to the flag for COT.

    The Skinny
    • Cool morning so the long warm-up was necessary. I stuck with my plan in spite of Rudy’s mumble chatter. To tell you the truth, I enjoyed it. It’s been a while. It’s possible that I started a minute late and extended the warm-up just to hear his sarcasm.
    • Kuch and Screwtop set the standard for the 100m sprints.
    • Screwtop and YHC both left the track a little gimpy. Based on early returns there is only a 33% chance of getting injured at this AO. This is better than I envisioned. The risk is high, but I think the reward will be greater.
    • Screwtop stepped up to take the next Q. Don’t miss out.
    • Still looking for a name. I’m good with “Need for Speed” if nothing else emerges over the next week or so. After he set the bar for the first two 100m sprints, we could go with “The Kuch is Loose.”