Tag: Pop Tart

  • Rev Sox’s Birth Story

    Rev Sox’s Birth Story

    On a brisk and windy November 11th, at the lake front on the Northshore YHC was birthed into the world of F3 kicking, complaining, and crying. It wasn’t pretty for anyone involved. Hawg may have denied knowing YHC. Two years later, at the 610 Stomp YHC led 20 men in the remembrance of his birth into F3.

    YHC’s brain has wisely blacked out and refused to retain the memories of his first workout in F3 as he complained through the entire workout with fellow FNG bootsies. The only thing YHC can remember from that fateful day is lots of running alongside the lake with step-ups as the Q’s go to exercise in each stop (sadly there is no Backblast to commemorate the workout).

    The 610 Stomp recreated this workout by running a shortened version of the standard route with step ups thrown in (lots of step ups). Following the disclaimer, the Pax was told to run the standard route without leaving City Park, but this morning they were stop at every bench for 10 alternating step ups (one is one). Only 4 men are allowed per bench, so if the bench is full, they are to pass it by and run to the next bench.

    Each lap from the 610 Stomp start to the City Park entrance on New Carrollton and back has 40 benches. Each lap is aprox 1.5 miles.

    With not enough complaining for YHC’s plans, they set out. Everything worked out well for the first lap, but YHC needed to modify the number of step ups on lap 2, so all the Pax could finish. YHC estimates that each Pax member did 300-500 step ups while running 3 miles.

    Don’t forget the Christmas Party on December 9th and the Krazy Ivan on January 18th as we had a special guest of the Freedom Hammer this morning.

    thanks for 2 years of agony,

    Rev Sox

  • Campus tour

    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.

    Tom Sachs:
    Website
    10 bullets, “Working to Code”

  • Double Reverse Crunches…Is This Guy Serious?!

    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

  • Al Gore is an idiot

    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.

  • Great Idea – Let’s Bear Crawl up Roosevelt Mall!

    Nice fall weather greeted 12 PAX for the beatdown at the Foundry. When the blackberry beeped signaling 5:30am, YHC issued the disclaimer and off we went.

    We started with a short mosey to the round-a-bout for high-knees, and carioca left and carioca right around the neutral ground. PAX circled up in the grass area of the neutral ground for warm-ups including SSH x 18, Imperial Walkers x 18, Windmills x 14, Arm Circles, Grass Grabbers x 14, and Self-love.

    Thang 1 – YHC wanted to do something that had not been done before at the Foundry so we decided to incorporate bear crawls up Roosevelt Mall to the new Louisiana Children’s Museum. We met at the light post near the flag and PAX would alternate bear crawl and sprint between each of the 15 light posts from the flag to the Louisiana Children’s Museum. At each light post, each PAX does 10 Monkey Humpers. We did have to watch out for land mines when bear crawling – sorry @Dirty Dell.

    Thang 2 – PAX circled up near the benches by the Louisiana Children’s Museum for 1 minute AMRAP of the following exercises, alternating Mary and other. Dips, LBC’s, Incline Merkins, Flutter kicks, Step-ups, Freddie Mercury’s, Decline Merkins, and Plank.

    Thang 3 – With about 10 minutes to get back to the flag we started from the far end of Roosevelt Mall and alternated lunge walk and sprint between each of the 15 light posts up Roosevelt Mall. At each light post, each PAX does 10 Merkins. We got through about 10 light posts and sprinted back to the flag for 6:15.

    PAX circled up for count-off, name-o-rama, intentions, and closing prayer to Sky Q – I am grateful for the support of F3 Nation and the opportunity to lead. @High Rise – thanks for the heads up on the Q this week as I had not checked the Q sheet.

  • Hold It

    Mondays up in the Chilly Gentilly are strong.

    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.

  • Great > Good

    “Don’t let good enough get in the way of greatness. That just means come back to work on Monday ready to go. Still lots of ways we can improve.” -Joe Burrow

    A victorious weekend of football on 10/12 & 10/13 made for lots of happy PAX this past Monday morning at The Chamber. The Saints pounced the Jaguars, LSU took a rather large bite out of the Gators, and Tulane rolled over The Huskies….great motivation to start the week off with a bang. YHC felt a football themed workout would only be fitting. The goal was to use good form and really push through….do more than just go through the motions, something many of us can often be guilty off. Ten PAX posted, surprisingly not the hangover rate one may expect after such a weekend. Here’s what we did:

    Warmup: Capri Lap around the parking lot, dodging some unusual early morning traffic, followed by a quick COP with SSH x42 (LSU points/score), IW x13 (Saints), and headed to the curb for Rocky Balboas x49 ea leg (Tulane). Then Burpees x10 to give a shout out to the defenses that all had a stout week.

    Then grabbed some 8x8x8 “half blocks” (20lbs) that YHC had in the truck, and made our way to the field where cones were positioned for some 4 rounds aka “quarters” of 5 minute long partner circuits.

    1st Quarter: Lunge walk w/block overhead to cone while PAX#2 performs merkins till fatigue followed by planking. Flip flop for five min.

    2nd Quarter: Tricep extetension w/block while PAX#2 crab walks to cone and runs back. Flip flop for five min.

    Halftime: Some attempts at a Coach O pep talk, then Indian run (.4mi) down Elysian Fields toward the lake followed by a quick Mary COP. a run back at your own pace with tire flips x5 and burpees x5 when back at the starting area.

    3rd Quarter: One hand block curls while PAX #2 bear crawls to the cone and runs back. Flip flop for five min.

    4th Quarter: Everyone’s favorite, Thrusters!, while PAX#2 backpedals to the cone, knocks out 3 burpees, then runs back. Flip flop for five min.

    COT and BOM to seal the deal….strive for greatness, prayers for the Hard Rock victims. Nice to see The Chamber with a strong foothold and steady following of PAX. Let’s keep it going.

    Tool

  • 5 year CONVERGENCE!

    Well – 5 years later we are still going STRONG! I remember when we started thinking I don’t have time in my life for this group. After a week of beatdowns I knew that we had to commit to growing this group – it had already begun to change my life and they way I interact with people everyday. I know after a nasty 530am beatdown – that I can handle anything the day throws at me. Thanks to all the guys here in NOLA that keep things running so that we can continue to be a group. Thanks to OBT for taking time out of his life to get us going in the GLOOM! Looking forward to 5 more years of F3 in NOLA.

    Today the pre-run started with about 20 PAX for a run down BAYOU ST JOHN. Beautiful weather, cool air and a crisp breeze. We ran 12 min out and 12 min back so that we could arrive in time for the fun.

    KUCH – has a been a great EH’er and a nice addition to F3 NOLA. Kuch started the party off with a WARM UP circle. SSH, Imp Walkers, Arm Circles, Peter Parkers, Merks.

    Then we divided up by 5 count into teams. We did 5 burpees, 5 Lunges, 5 Merkins, 5 Squats, 5 Plank Jacks. Bear Crawl across the lawn. Run back. KUCH did an excellent job getting the teams set quickly

    5 reps. We ran out of time and had to call it after 3 reps. No team won due to the shortened KUCH set. Kuch represented NOLA well – with a pretty gnarly start to a celebratory event.

    2nd set with DURACELL – FROM BATON ROUGE

    Duracell brought out 2 coupons. 40lb cinderblocks. 2 PAX ran to the center and did 3 thrusters. We went two different directions. A slow starter but once the PAX got the hang out this one – this was a solid beatdown. Duracell had to do about 15 exercises in cadence to 20. Exercises ranged from a regular plank, to shoulder taps, to merk variations to squat/lunge variations. The highlight of this section was Mathlete’s 2.0-Bear getting that cinderblock in the right position and up. Duracell represented the RED STICK well.

    THIGHS FROM THE WANK- 3rd quarter. We started with a solid mosey over the to the lawn in by the museum. Upon arrival we see that Thighs has organized with some printed out signs a 15 min beatdown that is going to suck. At each sign there was an exercise- PAX had to complete 20 reps the first time through, 15 reps the 2nd time through. (Possible 3rd time for the fastest pax members). Exercises were:

    1. Bonnie Blaires
    2. Diamond Merks
    3. Reverse Crunches aka Gaspumps
    4. Bobby Hurleys
    5. Merkin Toe Touches (need to incorporate this more in my Qs)
    6. Freddie Mercs

    RUN back to the start line and do this again. Thighs had the teams organized in a way by street names. Due to 75 PAX that didn’t quite workout but Thighs quickly modified and let the teams fall where they were. A good quick call. Thighs demonstrated that there is nothing easy about the WANK. Those guys are tough! Great turnout by the WB.

    STEVE FROM THE NORTHSHORE- FINISHED OFF The PAX back on the great lawn. Each pax got a partner.

    You had to do your partners age in burpees, your partners weight in LBCS, and your partners months in F3 in Freddies.

    Steve had a few minutes left so he finished with some Peter parkers, and some American Hammer.

    After a 75 PAX NAME O RAMA, NUMBERRAMA – Hokey POkey finished us off with an awesome prayer!

    After the whole beatdown we gathered at Cafe Du Monde for a 5 year celebration party. Tclaps to Rudy, Tool and Gabrielle for making that happen. There were eggs, bacon, sausage, grits, biscuits, beignets and plenty of coffee!

    Thanks to our awesome Qs! IT is NOT easy to Q 75 PAX!

    So blessed to be a part of this group- cheers to 5 more years of F3 NOLA!

  • Embrace the Suck

    A great turnout at the Uptowner as we had 21 pax come out to enjoy another warm and humid October morning.  

    When I think back to what initially led me to F3, it was being able to have a great workout that always had a different twist; stepping out of our comfort zone to continually push ourselves to get better, and improve in areas that we may struggle or be uncomfortable with.   As I thought about how to lead this workout, I wanted to incorporate some atypical aspects into the traditional “no running” workout and challenge everyone to “embrace the suck”.  

    With that said the standard disclaimer was given and we moseyed from the flag to the football field in the middle of the track.  The warmup consisted of:

    • SSH x 20 IC
    • Arm circles (10 front and 10 back) IC
    • Windmills x 10 IC
    • Mountain Climbers x 15 IC
    • Hold the plank position after mountain climbers for 1 minute
    • Indian run around the track for 1 lap (4 groups of 5-6)

    The thang-

    All pax lined up in one end zone.  There were 3 cones spaced out (20, 40, 60 yards). 

    • Sprint to first cone and do 15 Burpees then sprint back to start line and do 20 merkins 
    • Sprint to second cone and do 10 Burpees then back to starting line for 15 merkins 
    • Sprint to third cone and do five Burpees and then back to start for 10 merkins 

    As pax finished they did some Mary waiting for the six and then did 20 LBC IC as a group.  

    Next was a crab walk from the end zone to midfield.  

    Once all pax arrived we lined up for an all-out,  everything -you- have sprint to the opposite end zone.  In the end zone we did a quick set of 20 flutter kicks IC.   

    From here the group moseyed to the playground and got back into groups of 4.  Groups 1 and 2 lined up at the “ring pull-up station” and did 1 round of AMRAP of pull-ups.  Groups 3 and 4 did 25 merkins on own, and when finished while waiting for the other pax to finish their pull-ups did squats.  Once done the groups flip-flopped

    Once everyone finished we moseyed over to the hill on the other side of Pontiff where we bear crawled over the hill and did 15 Carolina dry docks followed by a bear crawl back over the hill.  

    Moving on we moseyed to the shelter nearby where we completed the following:

    • 15 power ups each leg IC
    • 15 SLOW deep dips IC
    • 15 diamond merkins IC

    With about 5 minutes remaining we headed back for the flag for some more Mary called out by different pax.  

    Ended the workout with the COT, announcements and intentions.  Special intentions for family members battling cancer and age-related struggles and illnesses.  

    I hope everyone enjoyed this beatdown as much as I did leading it.   Thanks for allowing me the opportunity to lead as always!

  • Ain’t Skeered

    ‘Twas my turn to Q The Foundry this Wednesday, but I was having some trouble thinking about what to do. So I did what any reasonable PAX member would do in this situation: I read a backblast from a workout that i liked, and pretty much copied it on Wednesday morning. Shout out to my man, High Rise, as he was the Q on Monday at The Chamber, and it’s his exercises that I used for most of the workout on Wednesday

    Warmup:

    • Side Straddle Hops – 15
    • Grass Grabbers – 15
    • Arm Circles – 8 forward, 8 backward
    • high knees – 15 cadence count
    • butt kicks – 15 cadence count
    • self love – 15 cadence count

    The Thang: Gross 1

    • Floyd Mayweathers – 12
    • Low Slow Squats – 12
    • Flutter Kicks – 12
    • Carolina Dry Docks – 12
    • Calf Raises – 12
    • Hello Dollies – 12
    • Right Side Lunges – 12
    • Box Cutters – 12
    • Diamond Merkins – 12
    • Left Side Lunges – 12
    • Nola Claps – 12

    The Next Thang:

    • Partner Up and then:
    • Partner 1 does a lap around Noma
    • Partner 2 does Rocky Balboas on Noma Steps
    • ROTATE
    • Partner 1 does a lap around Noma
    • Partner 2 does dying cockroaches
    • SWITCH
    • Partner 1 does a lap around Noma
    • Partner 2 does hand release merkins
    • SWITCH

    The Next Thang: Gross 2

    • left leg step ups on fountain – 12
    • derkins on fountain – 12
    • LBC’s – 12
    • Irkins on fountain – 12
    • Calf raises on fountain – 12
    • Box jumps on fountain – 12
    • Mountain climbers – 12
    • decline Floyd Mayweathers on fountain – 12

    We ran out of time, so we weren’t able to finish all 12 exercises for the last Gross. After the DFFM’s (decline fountain Floyd Mayweathers), we mosey’d back to the flag for the COT. Also, i couldn’t think up a good title for the workout, so i just named it “Ain’t Skeered” because I saw one of those bumper stickers on a truck the other day, and they’re still timeless