F3 New Orleans

Tag: Steve

  • Throw Grandma something, would ya!!

    Grandmas house looking for some throws on this Mardi Gras Gloom. Q decided to throw some new trinkets on this day for the dedicated men who decided to post… With a cold 34 degrees and a north wind 💨 YHC arrived to a ghost town at the Trailhead. Not knowing if anyone would post, Qs hopes were quickly lifted as the sight of headlights started rolling in from all directions. PAX quickly swelled to 6 with the late arrival of one masked Bushwacker with only eyes and lips showing..

    Circled under the breezeway for the warmup, which consisted of some new exercises not demonstrated by any other PAX to the Qs knowledge. Started with the traditional SSH IC 20, Hillbillies IC 20, Imperial Stormkickers (could not get the cadence) OYO to around 15, Febreze (2:10,4:20,6:30,8:40,10:50) first number big boy sit-up followed by feet 6 inches off the ground with second number air presses, concluded with Donkey Kick-offs (Plank position with kicks to 5 on the pillars with a 5 sec hold, R/R 10 kicks 10 sec hold, 15 kicks 15 sec hold) plenty warm by this point..

    Thang

    PAX assembled on Girard street for Four corners Escalator. C-1 10 Burpees, Mosey C-2 10 Burpees 20 Merkins, Mosey C-3 10 Burpees 20 Merkins 30 Mountain Climbers, Mosey C-4 10 Burpees 20 Merkins 30 Mountain Climbers 40 Shoulder taps.. With the sounds of grunts and groans replacing what would surly be the rumbling of tubas and trumpets as if marching down St Charles, Q calls for (2) 10 counts by Steve and Bushwacker.. Having destroyed the upper half, we turned and de-escalated to grind out the bottom half. Moseyed. C-1 10 Jump Squats, Moseyed C-2 10 Jump Squats 20 Lunges, Moseyed C-3 10 Jump Squats 20 Lunges 30 Squats, Moseyed C-4 10 Jump Squats 20 Lunges 30 Squats 40 Sumo Squats.. With the PAX finishing faster then anticipated, YHC had to react with quick thoughts to finish this carnival ride. Q moseyed the PAX back to the breezeway for the close. Partnered up, P1 did core work while P2 sprinted half of the breezeway up the steps and around the tower flap jacking. Core consisted of Plank, Right arm high/Left arm high, Chillcut, Misson Impossible, LBCs, Hello Dollies and Rosalitas..

    Circled for count, announce, COT.

    Water Pic returning from a guest post in Tallahassee shared that the PAX recites the Pledge at their AOs. We installed the same at Grandmas House on this Gloom.

    Appreciate The HAMMER for praying out the PAX!!!

    All 6 PAX gathered at the Waffe House for some F2 and reminiscing about the 80s and 90s programming. Talks of “Revenge of the Nerds 2” some “SNL” chatter and how Eddie Murphy saves the day.. But one that clearly stood out to the Q, The HAMMER mentioned the radio station WTIX and how they use to play 50s and 60s, but a recent tune in revealed that “Jesse’s girl” is now considered an oldie.. Whoa!!!

    The PAX all allowed that to sink in for a moment, then we continued some great F2.

    Appreciate the recommendation Water Pic of some coffateria after our beatdown on this local holiday. YHC enjoys the time shared with positive men looking to become better physically but ultimately better internally as stated on a recent 43 feet podcast with Dredd…

    Thank you for the chance to lead and ✌🏻 till the next Gloom!!

  • Lundi Gras Legs

    With many Marsh-vets out of town for Mardi Gras, drastically plummeting temperatures, and some excessive crawfish eating, low turnout was expected this morning. What was unexpected, though, was Jose 10k. Lured out by Wacker’s promise of a treat (sorry, can’t disclose – you have to post to find out about such things), it was nice to have a new face at the marsh. YHC had been waffling between a chest or leg-centric beatdown, but that all solidified when I saw Jose, who hadn’t been through my old standby, my bread and butter, the legs, legs, legs beatdown.

    First up, though, it was cold and YHC was half asleep. Warmorama would actually have to do just that – warm us up – so we kicked into high gear with SSH, High Knees, and Butt Kicks, all 30x IC. Then into Toe Touches, IW’s, Good Mornings, x15 IC. There must’ve been something else in there that I’m forgetting, as Wacker quipped that it seemed like we might only do a warmorama on this fine gloom. As much as YHC might like that, only a fool would do an entire beatdown consisting of warm up exercises…. 🧐

    The Thang: PAX assembled on one end of the court to do the San Antonio Shuffle across. (Looked that one up just for you, Wacker.) I suppose it’d be a Semi-San Antonio Shuffle, though, as the real deal calls for a plank jack somewhere in there, and does not include a broad jump. PAX instead did left leg lunge, right leg lunge, burpee, broad jump. Rinse & Repeat for length of court and back. Next up, bear crawl to half court and back, then slow-mosey over to the pull up bars for…

    Set of 7’s: 6 pull ups to 1 merkin. Then 15x hanging knees to chest. As the PAX noted, this was going to severely limit our chances of performing the ISI challenge.

    Next, mosey to the trace until we hit Marigny, for a quick leg COP: 15x IC groiners, 15x IC jump squats, 15x IC monkey humpers.

    Onward to Grandma’s House for a quick use of the stairs: partner up, partner 1 holds a people’s chair while doing air presses, partner 2 runs up to do 2x merkins. Flapjack, and once it’s back to partner 2, add 2x merkins. Up to 10x merkins for each partner. T-claps to the older couple that gets out there (seemingly) each morning at 0500 and doesn’t mind sharing the stairs with the sweaty pax.

    Hit the benches next for Bulgarian Split Squats, each leg 15x IC. Freak Nasties 10x IC. Then knee-ups, each leg 15x IC.

    Mosey back to the Marsh in time for an Ei favorite, the Jane Fonda’s. Left leg 15x IC, held it up for quick pulses 15x IC, then heel-to-knee 15x IC. Other leg and time was up.

    Countdown, announcements, and Shooter prayed us out with special intentions for the victims of the Esplanade crash yesterday.

    The pax being the pax, the regular beatdown wasn’t enough and so we all moseyed back to the pull-up bars to complete the ISI challenge. Even Jose, who had already completed his before the beatdown (of course he had!), took part.

    T-claps to Jose not only for the double ISI, but also for making the most of his week off by posting at the Marsh. And T-claps to Bushwacker for both the delicious treats, and for getting Jose to commit to his VQ on April 16th. Take a page from the Wacker and spread that leadership love, gentlemen. It’s definitely a big part of what makes F3 special to me. Thanks for following me on this chilly morning, Mondays at the Marsh with you men are hands down the best way to start a week.

  • Full Effort Is Full Victory

    We cranked up the morning with a 2 mile run. Tanked Up shared a quote from a book he had on his shelf. The quote stressed when we work our butt off in the streets of Mandeville, or wherever you may be, the satisfaction of that workout lies in the “effort” you give. Full effort is Full victory. Something tells me most of us gave full effort this glorious morning.


    Warmup–SSH, windmills, arm circles, flutter kicks, low ssh,

    The Thang–

    Ab work- circle up in a plank position. Rotate right,stop, merkins, rotate merkins, rotate merkins. Let’s throw in Peter Parkers, Parker Peters and some Up/Downs.. Tanked Up challenged Brother Martin nemesis , Turbo and soccer pal, Jose 10k to some face to face up/downs. Raider Pride.😁

    20 minute challenge-4 exercises merkins, crunches, ssh, squats, 25 reps then run 300 yards. Repeat for 20 minutes.. Zoolander decided to come out guns blazing!

    To the sea wall– 2 exercises by the wall. Derkins Burpees 5,4,3,2,1 reps followed by ascending order 1,2,3,4,5

    Over to the flag for more AB work led by Bushwacker, could not tell you the exercises due to fatigue!

    Circle up for close out. Prayer led by Steve! Coffee and cake for one of the older men in the club.

    Enjoyed the morning with some of the best of the northshore..

  • Pre-thang, Shme-thang

    As the clock runs out on February, YHC happily bids adieu to RRR and all pre-thangs associated with it. With only a day left, the Gipper’s 1 mile run wasn’t terrible, but some secret, John-Hancock-related activity beforehand did leave us a bit behind schedule and, at 0601, we were rightfully greeted back at the flag with a, “Nice of you men to show up.”

    In an attempt to retroactively ‘respect the time,’ YHC took it upon himself (myself? this YHC thing continues to confuse me…) to pack in as much into the remaining 44 minutes as possible. That said, we quickly jumped into…

    Warmorama: Abe Vigodas, Good Mornings, ISW’s, all 10x IC, 20 OYO merkins, and SSH 25x IC.

    The Thang: Then a quick mosey over to the back of the courthouse for an AMRAP routine: 10x merkins, 10x freak nasties, up the stairs, 10x groiners, then run the perimeter of the courthouse parking lot to the start to begin again. About 10 mins later, onto the second portion of today’s thang…

    The Bruce Lee. YHC has never seen Bruce Lee’s most famous movie, Enter The Dragon, but I have seen The Way of the Dragon, which features an epic fight between Bruce and a young Chuck Norris, with Rome as the backdrop and a small kitten as the sole spectator. There’s a lot to love in this fight sequence, including a weirdly prolonged moment of both men removing their shirts, a moment where Bruce rips out a handful of Chuck’s chest hair, and some crazy push-ins on the aforementioned cat. Oh, and there’s also some of the best martial arts in there as well. Anyhow, Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris never met Turbo Tax, so to call this one of the best fights ever may be a tad premature. But it’s pretty good nonetheless.

    So the Bruce Lee. Wacker introduced us to this a while back and, as YHC wanted nothing to do with legs, core seemed like the only decent substitute. 10x IC of Putins, Leg Raises, LBC’s, Heel Touches, Crunchy Frogs, and 100’s. 30 seconds rest between sets, we went 4 rounds.

    Mosey up the parking garage to do the fastest Burp-back Mountain on record. Partner up, partner 1 backpedaling the ramp and jogging back down, while partner 2 starts on the cumulative burpees until they reach 50x.

    Back to the flag right in time for countoff, announcement of Tanked Up’s upcoming birthday, and Ringo prayed us out. Thank you men for following my lead and helping to make us all better and stronger!

  • Running Interference

    YHC woke to the sound of rain, knowing he may have to adjust the planned Beatdown a little. A lot of uphill/downhill sprints were originally planned, but we all know how slippery the tunnel of love gets when wet.

    YHC arrived a little earlier than usual for the Q, but surprisingly, half the PAX was already there. Shooter already drenched in sweat from his run from home. All arrived, 5:15am came, so off we went…

    WarmOrama: Good Mornings, Windmills, Toe Touches, Imperial Walkers

    PAX moseyed to “The Love Tunnel”: Along the way there was concern that a band of rain was on the way. At Grandma’s, there is a covered area to perform exercises, but we took our chances.

    PAX separated into 2 groups of 3. Almost forgetting, YHC gave disclaimer. While group 2 did Freddy Mercurys, Group 1 jogged down the slope of the tunnel, ran at about 80% on the flat, then ran at 100% up the other side, then did the same on the way back. The groups flapjacked. Rinse and repeat; We did a 2nd round, doing squats in place of Freddy Mercurys.

    PAX moseyed to “Interference” bar and Saia’s parking lot, a new venue for the PAX.

    A variation of a routine borrowed from Maverick:

    Pax separated into two groups, and started catercorner to each other across the parking lot. PAX performed 25 reps of a different exercise at each corner of the parking, running from corner to corner: Burpees, Merkins, LBC’s, Lunges. Rinse and repeat for 2 rounds.

    Next, PAX moseyed back to the Farmer’s Market area. As we ran through Wendy’s Drive-Thru, some of the PAX mentioned their favorite Wendy’s meals, like the “Double Stacks;” however, Pelican said that he favors Jack in the Box, going into detail about their tacos…If only Wendy’s were open…

    Arriving at the Farmer’s Market area with only 10 minutes remaing, YHC called for a modified(shortened) version of Dora 1,2,3. Teams of 2 PAX working together to reach cumulative exercise goals of 50 Merkins, 100 Freddy Mercurys, and 150 Squats. PAX 1 executed as many reps as possible while PAX 2 back-peddled about 20 yards down and sprinted back, flapjacking until the team goal was reached.
    PAX finished at exactly the 6:00 buzzer.

    We did circle of trust, and CountOnameO. Thank you Steve for praying us out, thanks Guys for the opportunity to lead…and thank you God for holding up on the rain.

    As PAX dispersed, Bushwacker shared that he knows its a good Beatdown, when he feels a litttle anger towards the Q….

  • The Grundy-mobile

    The PAX knew something was up when YHC walked up to the flag from the backside. When asked about the reason for the strange entrance, a simple “you’ll find out” would suffice.

    With the PAX aware of something looming, we began to warmup.

    • 30 Seal Jacks IC
    • 10 Forward Lunges IC
    • 10 Merkins OYO
    • Shoulder warmup series

    THE THANG

    Unaware of what the Q had in store, the PAX began moseying down the trace toward the tunnel of love with the men almost anticipating something to jump out at them. As we were approaching the final intersection of the trace before the tunnel of love, an object started to come into view… A shadowy object that was first identified by Coconuts… It was the Grundy-mobile!!!

    The Grundy-Mobile with my girlfriend Sandy

    It was only then that the PAX fully realized what I had in store. It was where the Q left his girlfriend Sandy… Don’t be rude guys, she’s a little self conscious because she put on at least 10 pounds since you saw her last. I don’t mind. It’s just more to love.

    After we picked her up, we finished our Mosey to the Tunnel for the main event.

    • Tunnel of Love in the Tunnel of Love. The PAX lined up in a plank and pulled Sandy up the ramp through the plank tunnel. When a PAX finished pulling her through they would get up and go to the front of the line. Rinse and repeat with the opposite arm.
    • Next the PAX did a core exercise while one PAX took Sandy and backpedalled the ramp and ran back. Rinsed and repeat until everyone had gone. Core exercises included: LBCs, flutter kicks, leg raises, hello dolly’s, plank, plank left, and plank right.

    After completing that we went back to the bus stop to finish up (dropping off Sandy at the Grundy-mobile on the way back).

    We finished with what Steve appropriately called crazy eights. It basically is 11’s but with 8 instead of 11. The only difference is the distance between the two points. Point A was the bus stop and point B was the top of the trailhead stairs under the American Flag. Bushwacker said he didn’t want to play anymore. I don’t blame him.

    The two exercises were freak nasties and sister mary katherines. We went until the time expired.

    Circled up at the flag where we went through the typical F3 closing ceremonies and Ringo closed us out.

    It was an honor to lead you gentlemen. Until next time.

    Grundy and Sandy

  • What the Bleep

    What the Bleep

    CONDITIONS

    Weather.com predicted a 100% chance of rain, but the conditions are always cozy in the “Hall of Justice” parking structure. #ThanksParishTaxPayers

    DISCLAIMER

    YHC forgot the disclaimer. I don’t remember any major injuries, so I think it’s a “no harm, no foul” situation. #Don’tSueMyMalpracticeInsuranceHasLapsed

    THE WARM UP

    All exercises done IC, or in cadence-ish. YHC’s counts were so far off, it was a miracle the assembled PAX didn’t disband then and there.

    • Split jacks X15
    • Toe touches X10
    • Abe Vigodas X10
    • Ray Finkles X10
    • Steve Earles Copper head squat finished with hill billy X 10

    THE THANG PART 1: Bleeping beep test


    After warming-up the PAX moseyed to the parking garage at the “Hall of Justice.” Lo, and behold, the magical, beatdown elves had already set up cones precisely 20 meters apart, so it was only natural for the PAX to test themselves against that grueling, gym class, fitness benchmark: the beep test, a.k.a the bleep test a.k.a the multi-stage fitness test, or in F3 lingo, Highlander.

    9 PAX lined up and started running, as the sadistic, electronic tones of the test app, beeped faster and faster. The PAX did fantastic and displayed the fitness levels and VO2 maxes of a bunch of doped up Lance Armstrongs. Whenever a PAX bowed out of the beep test, they kept getting stronger by doing sequences of merkins, squats and LBC’s.
    TClaps to Turbo who was the last bleeping man standing after the rounds of the test had progressed well into double-digits.

    We all know, Turbo could have kept racing the beeps all morning, but he threw in the towel to give the PAX a break from doing Merkins.

    THE THANG PART 2: Play that funky music till you die

    Since the speaker was already set up for the beep test, PAX hung around for three consecutive music driven workout routines.

    • “Bodies” by Drowning Pool 3:21 – Plank through song with donkey kicks and merkins mixed in
    • “Baba O’Riley” by the Who 5:00 – Imperial Walkers for what feels like a lifetime
    • “Tubthumping” by Chumbawumba 3:33 – SSH plus 27 burpees
    Rumor has it that Einstien sure plays a mean, pin ball.

    MOLESKIN

    Well done, F3 bros. Props to Bushwhacker for helping the PAX to clean up the parking garage, because our brother knows that “every day is earth day.” #CaptainCore.

    CountORama, NameORama, and COT

    YHC prayed us out.

    Thanks F3-bros, for the fellowship, the beatdowns and for being willing to follow my lead.

  • Welcoming a Substitute at the Scramble!!

    With fellow F3 brethren arriving equipped and ready to roll. YHC made it known that there would be a substitute teacher today. Ringo would be absent from class today and the Q was called upon to fill in on this mild and foggy Gloom too bring the PAX along this journey of learning.. So since we are always learning, YHC chose warmup exercises not to commonly used from the list provided in the Exicon…

    Warmup

    Toe Touches IC 10, Tabby Taps IC 10, Mantees, Annie IC 20 and Failure to Launch 5..

    Thang

    With 10 min to spare, Q decided to close the PAX out with some Restorative YOGA 🤔!! Oh yeah, the Substitute today was taking a pause from the normal tightening of muscles choosing to loosen instead.. Felt like the PAX welcomed the change of pace..

    Count, announce, COT

    Q prayed us out..

    Appreciate the PAX for following my lead and till the next Gloom 👍🏻👊🏻✌🏻!!

  • The Wheel

    YHC didn’t invent it.

    Tasked by an ailing Einstein for a substitute Q, YHC went to the Hawg playbook and unabashedly copied a recent Red Friday workout, the Loredo. After a warmup of Seal Jacks, Toe Touches, Windmills, Mountain Climbers, Parker Peters, SSHs, Good Mornings, High Knees, Butt Kicks all IC 10x and some arm circles (golf ball to beach ball and back), YHC led the PAX to the Justice Center for a simple but not easy beatdown:

    AMARP for 30 minutes: 25 air squats, 25 Merkins, 25 Walking Lunges and a 400 Meter Run (don’t tell the PAX the rep count was supposed to be 24 and not 25; YHC is old and cannot read his Winke in the Gloom).

    The PAX managed 7 rounds. Probably would have been 12 had YHC used the correct rep count.

    Back to the trailhead for a balance challenge: stand on the right leg for 30 seconds and then 10 right leg hops OYO; rinse and repeat on the left leg; and then a weird balance exercise that is too complicated to explain but YHC will show you some time.

    Countorama, nameorama and Steve prayed us out. Thanks for letting me sub for Einstein guys, and T claps to you for the hard effort this morning.

  • The Extra Mile Is Never Crowded

    Unless, of course, you’re running in Old Mandeville, where there are always other running crews hitting the pavement before 0500.

    First off, t-claps to Coconuts for showing up with some reflective running schwag, instantly making the pax both safer and giving us that “seasoned runner” look (so that when the group of women doing a 6-minute pace passed us, they knew they were passing some serious men).

    Secondly, t-claps to Waterpik, who has posted to more than a few beatdowns while he rehabs his ankle.  He got YHC thinking this morning: would I show up if I couldn’t run?  Probably not.  Maybe the first week, but then the temptation of an extra hour of sleep (maybe 2 for an outta work hairdresser?) would be too much.  Pik leads by example and character like his is one of the biggest reasons why I’ve made F3 such an integral part of my life.

    The Thang: Once our new reflective bands had been properly secured, YHC warned the pax that we’d be skipping our usual warm-up in lieu of a little more distance: 4 miles rather than our usual 3.2.

    Today’s route:

    Back in time for a few flutters (30x IC) and a few merkins (20), before COT with Chewy praying us out.  Thanks for going the extra distance today guys, appreciate it!