F3 New Orleans

Tag: Topanga

  • Double or Nothing

    Extra Credit

    Side Effects offered some extra credit for a few pax that showed early. After 5 rounds of 30 seconds of burpees topped off with a couple rounds of pull ups, we felt pre-warmed up.

    Warm up

    What’s the second greatest time of year? You guessed it- The NBA Finals. On the heels of feeling inspired that LeBron James and I started the Finals from the same place this year, it was time to get off the couch and engage in competition fit for the gym.

    We moseyed to the nearest circle for a round of Ring of Fire. This time only called for defensive slides. Then the following:

    15 Al Gores
    15 Bobby Hurleys
    15 merkins
    30 circle of merk(ins)

    The Thang

    With the teams assembled and no basketball court in sight, it was time for a different competition: Ultimate Frisbee. After explaining the rules (props to Shangeaux for the Spanish translation for our FNG) and playing a warm up, it was time to get serious. Enter sports betting. The winning team places the exercise bet (er, punishment) that the losing team must fulfill before the next game. Games were first to 3 points.

    The punishments that followed:
    8 wolverines (if burpees and Peter Parkers had a baby…)
    20 Bobby Hurleys
    20 Heels to the Sky
    Something forgotten here…

    With the series tied 2-2, we started the tie-breaking game. 10 Doctor W’s to the loser. The winning team won and Topanga, refusing to go down easily, doubled down the bet to 20 Doctor W’s for one more game. Fortunately, the rematch did not change the outcome and Topanga soon became very acquainted with Dr. W, an experience his abs will not soon forget.

    Count-a-rama. 11 Pax
    Name-a-rama
    COT

    Big Easy

  • We Played With Jugs (#NotWhatYouThink)

    The Scene:  The Knoll

    Conditions: Early. Cool. Breezy. Gloomy like we were on the set of the movie The Fog.

    We took a photo early so we wouldn’t forget.
    Oh, look…a cast member from the movie The Fog joined us for the workout.
    Sadly, it couldn’t keep up with us and faded into the wind……….

    Welcome

    Disclaimer 

    Warm-a-Rama:

    20 rep warmups at the shovel flag

    • Arm Circles Forward
    • Arm Circles Reverse
    • Squats
    • Several types of stretching so we wouldn’t blow our quads. I told the guys to just watch me and count in cadence.
    • Mosey……

    1st Circle 

    I cannot recall what we did here but I hope to remember so I can type it out here but if I don’t then you have this fun sentence to read. Mosey to the sundial.

    Sundial

    • Squats
    • Upcline Merkins
    • Mosey to the 2nd circle.

    3rd Circle

    • Side Straddle Hops – 20
    • Side Straddle Punch – 20 *I made this one up. The foot motion is the same but the punch is out and in. Basically, we all looked pretty goofy doing this darn thing. It’s harder than you might think because it’s an imbalance in the mind.

    Return to Shovel Flag

    • Arm Circles Forward Forward 
    • Arm Circles Reverse Forward
    • Squat stance 20 count rep
    • Several types of stretching so we wouldn’t blow our quads. I told the guys to just watch me.

    The Thang: 

    Grab milk jugs of H2O. Start walking. I did inform the guys for those that wanted to modify they could go ahead and mosey to each circle area but once they arrived the water jugs had to be lifted outstretched and hold the position till the six arrived. Of course the younger guys mosey’d and the season’d gentlemen walked.

    • Hammer Curls to 1st Circle

    First Circle:

    Squat with jugs held to chest #NotWhatYouThink- On your own

    Hammer Curls to the Sundial

    Sundial:

    • Butterfly’s on the wall – 30 count
    • Flutter kicks on the wall – 30 count
    • Water jug snatch – in squat position, pick up jug, raise above head, lower down and repeat with other arm – 30 count
    • Crunches on the wall – partner steps on feet while the other is crunching on the wall – 30 count

    3rd Circle:

    Hammer Curls to the 3rd circle. The season’d gentlemen decided to have fun with the younger guys and we slowed down our walking pace as we neared the 3rd circle.

    More squats in 30 count and then held in squat position for a 30 count. I told the men I love the sound of groaning in the morning.

    We all mosey’d to the shovel flag so we could release our hands from our jugs. #NotWhatYouThink

    Mary:

    Jane Fonda – 30 – No jugs were handled during this excercise.

    American Hammers – 30

    Bicycles – 10

    Count-o-Rama

    Name-o-Rama

    COT / BOM: 

    Prayer request for needs and concerns.

  • Our White Knight

    The Scene:  The Knoll

    Conditions: Cloudy. Chilly for a Baton Rouge March.

    Welcome

    Disclaimer

    Warm-a-Rama:

    Looked like a b-class soccer team as we jogged about 50 yards, and then in pairs went to a lightpole about 20 yards away and did:

    High Knees/Butt Kicks/Side shuffle/Knee over-unders/Jog backwards

    Jogged to the sun dial for some fake jump roping! all reps of 20x:

    Regular jump rope/ side to side/ one legged/ one legged side to side/ double jumps.

    Now that we were nice and warm!

    —

    The Thang:

    11 is the #!

    11 reps of six different exercises followed by 11 burpees after each set.

    Box jumps/pistol squats/split squat jumps/paper beneath hands merkins/derkins/merkin walkout(which is underrated!)

    Our white knight came sprinting across the land halfway through this exercise^^^ that helped us grind through it.

    Ran over to the jungle gym and split into three groups. Each group had to do 100 total reps of each exercise:

    Al gores/big boy sit ups/inverted row

    Mosey’d back to the flag!

    Mary:

    15x:

    starfish/flutter kicks/upper circle crunches(brutal)/plank work

    Count-o-Rama

    Name-o-Rama

    COT / BOM:

    Great times before the humidity!

    Announcements:

  • partial Backblast for July 15, 2018

    F3 July 15, 2018, LBCs, IMG_0008

    I’ve been out of town and didn’t get the BB from Dagwood before I left so the above is all I have at the moment.

  • Backblast for 7-8-18. The Knoll

    The Scene:

    The Knoll

     

    Conditions:

    Surprisingly refreshing for a July Saturday morning at 7am.

     

    Welcome:

    8 men posted.

     

    Disclaimer:

    Money Cat: “I am not a professional trainer….huh? Why’s that funny to y’all??? Seriously guys…why is that funny?? Stop laughing or I’ll bring back Fastball and make all of y’all feel the pain!!!”

    Warm-a-Rama:

    Money Cat led the first third of the workout. I told the guys we would start off on a mosey but would call out a change and to mimic my movement regardless if I was at the front or the back because I’m usually in the back on these running kinds of things. At the sundial I called out a fast walk. At the next change I called out a mosey and after that was a fast walk. I decided to try something different. I called out a left side straddle mosey. During the side straddle mosey I called out to switch sides and lead with the other leg…(that means we now switched to leading with the right leg.) By now we had mosey’d the course almost two times and felt for the last 50 yards (I’m guessing) to the sundial we needed to do a full sprint. I could tell the guys were itching for me open it up a bit. I had the lead the entire way until I yelled out “FULL SPRINT!” And suddenly Mega Dad passed me up. What he doesn’t know is I allowed him to pass me on my left side. I didn’t want all the attention by getting there first so I turned down the after burners and slowed up a whole lot….it’s my story and I’m sticking with that. Remember….don’t question the Q.

     

    Money Cat called out a recovery countdown….it sure seemed to go by fast.

    We began our morning exercises.

    20 Arm Circles Forward

    20 Arm Circles Backwards

    20 Raised Arm Claps

    20 Dips

    20 Mexican Dips

    20 Walking Al Gore’s

    10 Burpees

     

    I was glad to turn over the next 3rd of the Q to my F3 brother Work Horse.

    Workhorse jumping in!  Well, missing Fastball’s beatdowns I decided to combine his “quarterpounder” and the “Murph”.  We based in the Sundial as it’s called, so it went like this!

    I had four F3 brothers pick an exercise, Topanga (Al Gores), Dagwood (Little Baby Crunches), Big Easy (Merkins), and Shangeaux (Side Straddle Hop). The strategy was to do a 25 count on exercise #1 and then run a lap around the running track and at the last turn heading back to sundial, turn and run backwards to complete at sundial. Plank until the last man was in!

    #1 – 25 Merkins and Lap

    #2  – 50 Little Baby Crunches and Lap

    #3 – 75 Al Gores ( which Shangeaux hijacked from Topanga )

    #4 – 100 Side Straddle Hops (which actually “unfortunately” with Topanga’s count ended up being 200) then a Lap, but changed the turn at last corner to a sprint to the sundial.  Shout out to youngster Trooper, he was in the mix leading the charge back to complete.

    At this point, we began a mosey back to the flag to do some Mary’s to close it out.  Megadad took over from there.

    • Lay Flat sit ups
    • Buddy Back Squats (wall squats on partners back)
    • Crunchy Frogs
    • Jane Fonda’s ( 3 ways right and left) for Rocket
    • Partner Leg Toss ( 10 straight, 2 left and 2 right)

    Circle of Trust

    • Name off and prayers ( special intention for F3 brother “Trooper” recently lost his daughter )

  • An Ode to the CWS

    The Scene:  The Knoll

    Conditions: Sunny. We passed the longest day of the year so only getting shorter from here, a la a time is coming when it’s still shady for this workout.

    Welcome

    Disclaimer

    Warm-a-Rama:

    Mosey’d the main loop before descending the hill toward the road, crossing and stopping in the outfield.

    [All in place]

    • Seal Jacks 13x
    • Imperial Walkers 13x
    • Windmills 13x
    • Butt Kicks 13x
    • Open Faced Strike 20x (sit down in the squat position and with an open palm out, strike straight out at the air and alternate arms)

    —

    The Thang:

    Shoutout to Omaha, CWS and Fastball for giving us the inspiration for this one.

    Pax goes into high plank in semi-circle around home plate. One person gets up, runs the bases (pax holds high plank entire time), and when they get back, one merkin is done by the pax. 2nd person runs around the bases, followed by two merkins, etc.

    We had six in our pax, before the glorious arrival of Shangeaux, so we snaked 1-6, and then went back down.

    —

    Same concept but this time we did big boy sit ups while each person ran to the left field foul pole and back. We didn’t snake this time. Shoutout the guys for helping the next guy up.

    —

    Same concept. Al gores with a variation—hands behind your head with a squat. Ran to the right field foul pole and back.

    —

    The glorious arrival of Shangeaux! Shades of Gandalf arriving to the battle at Minas Tirith, no horse. (Puts our pax at 7 now)

    —

    We stood in a circle and decided the exercise we were best at that we could do in place, then moved our exercise to the person to our left.

    We ran to center field this time and back, while doing an exercise. When our runner got back, we “passed” our exercise to the left.

    • Al gores
    • Big boy sit ups
    • Merkins
    • Arm Circles
    • Butt Kicks
    • Crunches (can’t remember name)

    —

    Walked it off to edge of baseball fence and then mosey’d to the jungle gym/refinery/steel factory (pull up bar area).

    —

    Circuit was 20x each exercise.

    • Step ups on low bar
    • Incline Merkins
    • Decline leg lifts (bless that thing)
    • Pull ups

    —

    Mosey’d the lap and ran backwards, shuffled, broke up the mosey till we got to the flag.

    Mary:

    American Hammers

    Jane Fondas

    1 minute hold of high-low plank (get into high plank, count to 10, drop to low plank, count to 10, move up to high plank)

    Count-o-Rama

    Name-o-Rama

    COT / BOM:

    Duracell returns soon!

    Announcements:

  • Scales and Burnout

    The Scene:  The Knoll

    Conditions: Sunny. The sun makes you sweat while you stand there with no exercise.

    Welcome

    Scales came today, which was awesome!

    Disclaimer

    Warm-a-Rama:

    Little mosey around the “huge baseball field”, aka to the sun dial and back to the flag via the path.

    [All in place]

    • Jumping Jacks x12
    • Butt Kicks x12
    • High Knees x12
    • 123 Heisman (strike the heisman pose with side-to-side shuffles in between) x12
    • Mummy Kicks x12

    Moseyed to the sun dial as part of the warm up. This round we did it as fast as we could to really fire up the muscles.

    • Jumping Jacks x20
    • Butt Kicks x20
    • High Knees x20
    • 123 Heisman x20
    • Mummy Kicks x20
    • 5 burpees-on your own

    Two sets of recovery countdowns after that warm-up. Worms points out the sun dial doesn’t work correctly.

    The Thang:

    The pyramid!

    • Slow-Jangle Biscuit x15
    • Merkins x20
    • Al Gores x25
    • Freak Nasties x30

    ***recovery countdown*** Did each exercise as a pulse-style on the way down the pyramid. Start halfway positionally and then you are doing small “pulse” reps during the count.

    • Freak Nasties x30
    • Al Gores x25
    • Merkins x20
    • standing lunges on each leg x15

    ***Hard to walk after the way down the pyramid. They do say it’s harder to go down stairs than up.

    —–

    Moseyed to the patio area for the circuit.

    **15 reps each exercise; 3x on our circuit**

    • Dwight Howards (bend to to a squat position next to a wall and then explode up like you are trying to touch the top of the backboard)
    • No-momentum Merkins (go down in your Merkin to where your chest is on the ground, act like you are skydiving, and then go back up)
    • Faux Upper Cuts (sit in the squat position and then upper cut with alternating fists)
    • Take a lap around the building

    —–

    **really starting to sweat now.

    Walked to edge of grass of our proverbial football field.

    Wide football sprints!

    In place, hands out, quick tapping of your feet while on our five pax sprinted to the sundial across the grass and back. Once they got back we did an up-down, and then the next person sprinted out. Props to Shangeaux for really legging it.

    —–

    We walked to the jungle gym (I can’t remember what worms called it!) as our recovery countdown and did a team exercise.

    Gathered around a middle-heigh pull up bar. One person stepped up and did burn-out pull ups from a 45 degree. (arms in pull-up position on the bar, feet “stepped through the bar” so when you are “down” you are at a 45 degree position to the ground. Pull up.)

    The pax gathered around and counted/cheered for each guy as they stepped up and gave every rep they could. Gotta love the burn out! Very fun.

    Props for Scales for killing it with 60! Those biceps…

    Moseyed back to the flag and did six inches for six till Worms finished telling a guy about F3. T-claps to worms!

    Mary:

    • Crunchy Frog x10 (shout out to Snack Pack)
    • American Hammers x15 (Rocket, I thought of you)
    • Ski abs x20 (Worms said he’s a great skier)
    • Leg lifts x25

    We all laid on the ground for a solid 30 seconds.

    Count-o-Rama

    Name-o-Rama

    COT / BOM:

    Duracell’s wife coming home from Thailand!

    Scale’s friend.

    Fastball being gone to Georgia. #respect

    Announcements:

  • Fastball honorarium event exercise

    By: Money Cat

    The Scene:  The Knoll

    Conditions: Sunny (longing for arctic air in June.)

     

    The men of F3 Baton Rouge gathered together in a circle. A voice spoke up, “who’s going to Q?” Immediately the men’s eyes darted skyward and downward. A look so reminiscent from childhood as if their mother’s caught them with their hands in the cookie jar. You could cut the fog of silence with a dull butter knife like Scooby-Doo did in his weekly cartoon. A lone wolf could be howling out on the football field. Suddenly, Fastball spoke up…”I’ll do it!” And thus was born the Ballad of Fastball.

     

    Welcome: 11 men posted.

     

    Disclaimer:

    After the disclaimer Fastball informed the men this was his last week in F3. He explained his job with Home Depot ( cue Home Depot music ) will take him out of town for 2 weeks and after that he’ll be home to help family pack up and make the move to Georgia. This sudden news caught the men by surprise. We knew Fastball would be leaving us soon, but not this soon! The men began loudly weeping and tearing their shirts!!! Runners near us stopped in their tracks, cupped their hands to their ears and headed back in the direction they came. Thankfully someone made a joke about all of us receiving Home Depot gifts (free orange aprons) Fastball would send back to us. Aprons are nice for making lemon zest bundt cakes but I believe many of the men secretly longed for one thing and one thing only…power tools and bandoleer’s filled with beef jerky (GRUNT!) (GRUNT!) (GRUNT!)

    Warm-a-Rama:

    We mosey’d around the track once and cut into the middle for warm ups.

    Jumping Jack’s, arm circles-forward and backward, goof-balls, Bobby Hurley’s were all done in cadence.

    Merkins and burpee’s were done on our own in a count of 10.

    The Money Cat was breathing heavily when Fastball gave the order to mosey to the football field. 

    The Thang: 

     

    Out on the football field Fastball explained the routine.

     

    • Sprint out 25 yards and perform 25 merkin’s. Run backwards to start.

     

    • Sprint out 50 yards and perform 50 Al Gore’s. Run backwards to start.

     

    • Sprint out 75 yards and perform 75 crazy leg stretchy thingy’s. Run backwards to start.

     

    • Sprint out 100 yards and perform 100 jumping jacks. Run backwards to start.

     

    After each man lost 5 pounds of sweat on the field, Fastball told us to mosey to the sundial for more back breaking exercises.

     

    At the sundial many F3 men planked while waiting for Worms and Money Cat who was ripely turning into a Smelly Cat. The next group of exercises started at 25 and decreased at increments of five. There were two sets: merkins and dips. The Money Cat was running on his 7th life and ready to give up his 8th when the tiny twinkling stars appeared in his eyes. He began pawing at them like a real cat would and was meowing loudly. Money Cat realized it would be best to lie down on the concrete bench and perform standard flapping motions with his arms. The amusement was seen by all but just like the Honey Badger…..Money Cat don’t care!

     

    Fastball gave the order to mosey to the pavilion for some warm tepid water. At the pavilion Fastball noticed Money Cat hiding in the slender shadow of a pole. Fastball asked him if he was ok. Money Cat gave him a thumbs up as he figured it would be impolite to give him the middle finger of friendship. Fastball yelled out, “hey gang….lets go have a groovy time across the street on the baseball field” or at least that’s what I think I heard??? The Money Cat realized he needed water. He lumbered to the Catmobile and secured his iced cup of H2O. He and worms made it over to the ball field where the guys partnered up. Half the guys ran around poles out in the outfield and the other guys did grunting exercises. Money Cat couldn’t see what the exercises were because his concentration was on the clear frosty water cascading down his throat providing well needed relief to his thirsty soul. Not excited to pass on a raging case of cooties to the other men…Money Cat drank alone.

     

    The guys made it back to finish up with Mary’s at the Pavillion. Not wanting to have all the “Q” glory to himself, Fastball started the first set but called out F3 names to lead a Mary. The called on dudes did as they were told and there was great splendor in the grass……well, not the 1961 dramatic romance movie staring Natalie Wood type of splendor in the grass. That…would…just…be…wrong…..

     

    Count-o-Rama

    Name-o-Rama

    Circle-o-Rama 

    ***TISSUE ALERT***

    All of us F3 dudes are going to miss Fastball saying, “I’ll go ahead and Q, but you guys are going to hate me!” We are going to miss the pain our F3 brother put us through. I recall being partnered up with Fastball when he used baseball seasons’ opening day as his theme. When we ran the foul poles 5X’s in the outfield…I thought I was gonna die!!! But I didn’t and if I had…the Money Cat has 8 more lives to give. I went back to read all the back blasts that he led on those early Saturday mornings. Reading these memories are good for the soul! It reminds me what I was and where I’m headed. I believe I speak for all of us F3 guys that Josh Black aka FASTBALL lives the F3 Credo: leave no man behind, but leave no man where you find him. Fastball, you have left your mark on F3 Baton Rouge -The Knoll and The Colosseum. We all thank yeaux for molding us into better and thinner men. We know you’ll leave your mark with more guys where ever the Lord leads you.

    Friends – Michael W. Smith

    And friends are friends forever
    If the Lord’s the Lord of them.
    And a friend will not say never
    ‘Cause the welcome will not end.
    Though it’s hard to let you go
    In the Father’s hands we know.
    That a lifetime’s not too long
    To live as friends.

  • Rest Up Snack Pack

    The Scene:  The Colosseum

    Conditions: Early. Cool. Not nearly as humid.

    Welcome

    High Interest joined us from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina! Welcome High Interest. You reminded us how humid it is here.

    Disclaimer

    Warm-a-Rama:

    Snack Pack took Q for us as we started.

    Moseyed to field by stadium for Warm a Rama

    • 10 Abe Vigodas
    • 12 jumping Jacks
    • 13 Seal Jacks
    • 10 forward arm circles
    • 10 reverse arm circles

    The Thang

    • 13 Freak Nasties

    Then moseyed to hill for…

    • Run down backwards, run up forward 10x

    At this point Snack Pack went down with a calf strain. Get better Snack Pack! T-claps to Shangeaux for helping him to get back to the flag.

    I tried to slide in as Q for Snack Pack with far less wisdom. The rest of the Pax performed

    • Lucky Number Seven- Start at bottom of the hill, do a burpee, run to base of the hill and do a merkin, bear crawl up, and then do a squat at the top. Run down, rinse repeat, but add a rep each time so at the end you do 7 burpees, 7 merkins, 7 squats. This is when we realized it’s cool, but still Louisiana and humid.

    Moseyed to our usual spot by the gym and did 23 counts of each exercise as an ode to the date being May 23. Arbitrary, I know.

    • Cryojacks 23x
    • Incline Merkins 23x
    • Upper Cuts 23x
    • Decline Merkins 23x
    • Attack 23x (sit down in squat and open hand strike, alternating hands. Wears you out fast)

    Nice job by all channeling our inner Floyd Mayweather and hope to do more soon.

    Moseyed near the Colosseum and gave the 6 a.m. workers a show as we…

    • Wide football sprints in place (think Remember the Titans; quick feet), then on my call, sprinted about 25 yards and did a burpee, and got back into wide football sprints. Did this the length of the Colosseum and got a couple ooo’s and ahh’s from the workers (I think).

    We were happy to see Snack Pack waiting at the end of our proverbial football field. He’s a trooper.

    Moseyed to the jungle gym area for…

    Mary:

    • Leg Lifts 15x
    • Ski Abs 15x
    • Crunchy Frog 15x (shout out to Snack Pack)
    • Swimming Kicks 15x (Thanks Big Easy)
    • Jane Fonda’s 15x (a Dagwood favorite)

    Count-o-Rama

    Name-o-Rama

    COT / BOM:

    Snack Pack’s Calf!

    High Interest’s wife back home in Myrtle Beach taking care of the two kids.

    Announcements:

  • Houston sends big guns to Baton Rouge Knoll

    Baton Rouge, Knoll AO

     

    PAX – MoneyCat, Shango, Topanga, SnackPack, MistleToes, BigEasy,Workhorse, Dagwood, Worms Qs-Boyscout TP

    Conditions – Hot and Humid

    The PAX circled up. Boyscout and YHC were introduced as the co Qs.   Push yourself don’t hurt yourself. You against you. We are not professionals.  

    The Thang

    Warms ups consisted of SSH, Seal Jacks, Plank Jacks,  Smurf Jack. Without saying, a hat trick of Jacks completes a jack off.  Mountain climbers, burpees, Abe Vigoda, and Grass grabbers completes the warm up.  

    The PAX mosied to the sun dial for a Dora.  The Dora consisted of 100 burpees, 200 Merkins, and 300 Big Boy sit ups.  

    We mosied to one of the hills to look for keys while doing bear crawls.

    We mosied back to the sun dial for a Blue Falcon    Teams we’re divided into two and we had 3 min to do as many OYO exercises as possible. The other team then had to match that effort in their 3 minutes.  

    We finished with announcements and COT

    Thank you to the Baton Rouge PAX and to Worms for letting us have this Q.  You guys have created an awesome AO.

    Jason Godfrey

    281 814-7958

    Spectrum Water Technology