F3 New Orleans

Category: New Orleans

  • Delayed Mountain Time

    Apologies for the delay but from way back on Friday at Wolfpack Mountain: Pax took off from the North end of Audubon Park at 0530 headed west along St Charles wrapping back around and ending up at the great circle courtyard for quick warmup:

    – Sidestradlehops; Self Love; Imperial Walkers; Peter Parkers

    Straight away to the mountain-garage – Pax headed up the mountain after some BLIMPS-planation: 5-10-15-20-25 with alternating Bear Crawl and Backward Jog up the parking garage

    – Rinse and Repeat the rest of the way up to the top Some Mary and an extra set of Side Stradlehops during another amazing NOLA sunrise

    Back down the stairs for a set of Dips on the benches Finally mosey back the circle…No not that circle the other circle…Mass confusion was averted as the flock made it back to the flag(less) pole in time for a final round of Bob Dole Tree Hugging and Smurf-Jacks (because why have thighs if you can’t make them burn).

    Counted off 30 strong with 1 FNG: Welcome Bobby Walsh; Just passing through aptly named ‘Layover’ Wrapped up with a thoroughly beatdown ball-o-man and then off to Coffe-teria at PJs

    Thanks for the great work gents!

    -Tubesteak

  • 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

  • Is this Heaven? No, it’s Lafreniere Park.

    While perusing the Q list to see who would be leading the beatdowns this week of the AOs I most often attend, I happened to see my name listed. I thought this was odd because I had just Q’ed 2 last week and didn’t remember signing up. I then gazed up to see that I was Q for Popeye’s which is not my regular Wednesday AO. I’ve been out there a few times and enjoy the challenge of a virtual blank slate of opportunities to lead a PAX. I accepted the challenge of Q’ing an unfamiliar locale and brought 2 Lakeview guys with me. 8 PAX joined me at the shovelflag, brought to you courtesy of Fracsac, disclaimer was given, directions were asked by me to the exercise area near W. Napoleon, and off we went.

    Warm up:

    Mosey over to the parking lot directly next to exercise area where we circled up.

    • SSH x 20 IC
    • Windmills x 10 IC
    • Concrete grabbers x 15 IC
    • Arm circles fwd/rev x 10 each direction IC
    • Self love x 10 IC

    Thang #1:

    Tabata is always a tough routine to choose as the Q because you never know how many PAX will be there, odd numbers always make it interesting, and the AO site can make it interesting to select exercises. So naturally we had 9 men total. I was going to initially go solo but I was appropriately convinced to go with 3 groups of 3. I opted to have the groups perform 2 sets of 3 different exercises. (for a total of 6 sets per round). Rinse and repeat x 3 additional rounds with all different exercise combinations.

    • Round 1: Pull ups, 8-count absolution, box jumps/step ups
    • Round 2: Burpess, Al Gore, Jump the snake
    • Round 3: Merkins, Low plank, Rocky Balboas
    • Round 4: Box cutters, Freddy Mercurys, levels

    Thang #2:

    I figured most, if not all, of the PAX had not experienced my son’s previous suggestion for a “game.” So we proceeded to play the F3 version of Red Light/Green Light. As explained in previous backblasts all red light exercises will be static and all green light exercises will be dynamic. Exercises alternate between red light and green light. Timer for each exercise is controlled by randomity timer.

    Red Light exercises:

    • Al Gore
    • High plank
    • L side plank
    • R side plank
    • Low plank
    • Static lunge with L leg in front
    • Static lunge with R leg in front
    • Reverse plank
    • Static calf raise (heretofore renamed Tippy Toes)
    • Static leg hold (level)

    Green Light exercises:

    • Mountain climbers
    • LBCs
    • Merkins
    • Lateral lunges
    • High knees
    • L single leg wife pleasers
    • R single leg wife pleasers
    • Penguins
    • Crunchy frog
    • Freddy Mercury

    20 exercises total, randomity timer set between 15-45 sec. Average time of 30 sec per exercise should take about 10 minutes total for the routine. While toggling between apps on my phone while leading the Q it was only until I was on my way home that I accidentally skipped over one of the side planks and lateral lunges. Sorry guys.

    But it all worked out in the end because at 6:10 we moseyed back to the shovelflag and got back at exactly 6:15. See I knew what I was doing all along. Countoff, name-o-rama, announcements, intentions, sweaty ball of man. Can’t wait to come back to Popeye’s for future beatdowns and whoever put me on the list can do so in the future if you are looking for Q’s.

  • Born in the Shadows

    9/16/19 – Mothership

    Another Saturday morning, another Friday Night decision to choose the gloom over old habits.  

    A warm and inviting morning of about 40deg met the pax and everyone loved it. Greetings and disclaimer, mosey to the peristyle for warmups.

    WARMUP

    Mix of arm circles, grass grabbers, squats, round robin merkins (all pax holds plank while each pumps out 10 merkins in succession, complete the circle). 

    THE THANG

    Mosey to the base of Roosevelt Mall. Using the concrete benches – 10 box jumps, run to next, 10 incline merkins, all the way up mall. Plank for 6 at the practice track. 

    Practice Track – Partner up. Catch me if you can, one lap. 
    Keep your partner – double up with another set of pax partners. (we had 10 total pax, evenly split to two lines of 5, do not recommend going over 5) The exercise is Bear Crawl Inch worm. Make two lines in plank position, hands lining up behind feet of pax in front of you.  Pax at rear bear crawls to front of line, holds plank, next pax at rear bear crawls to front, holds plank… keep going. Half the football field. Cause why not. 

    Count to 20 for a breather (quickly). Back to your original partner. 200 squats. Set of 20 while partner holds a tree (Al Gore). 

    Mosey, listen to the mumblechatter, recalibrate, make a democratic decision to take the long way. All will celebrate. Back to the great lawn.  Tclaps to Triple shift who led some mary while six was swept. 

    Great lawn for 11s.  LBCs and Bonnie blairs across the lawn. Finished exactly on time. Mosey to flag, circle up. 

    Thanks to whoever tracked, we ran 3.6 miles with the workout. Tclaps to all. I didn’t exactly intend on it being quite so long… oops. We did some serious work. So for those who completed all the above… Respect. 

    THE NOTE

    A special huge shout out to F3 Kansas City!

    YHC was out in Kansas City for work this week and it’s worth mentioning how re-energizing it is to visit another outfit.  When I reached out, their lead, Blistex, went out of his way to organize with other pax.  Someone went out of their way to give me a ride from the hotel to beatdown, and some one else covered me for the ride back – every morning!  Just awesome that the beatdown means so much and the spirit of F3 would connect people to go so out of their way, for a stranger, to workout on a freezing cold morning, in the gloom. I mean how totally weird, and awesome is that?? I hope we NOLA Pax are representing ourselves and treating our visiting brothers even half as well. 

    Our F3 brothers founded their pax just in April of this year and they are already big enough to be holding steady AO’s 6 days a week.  Their push and their attitude was great to see and a solid reminder of just how needed, beneficial, and empowering F3 nation is. You’re not just showing up for yourself, even though that’s how it starts.  Once your life vest is on and you’re hooked, you’re showing up for the next man. For your neighbor. For some one who needs this just as much as you, but hasn’t started yet. 

    Speaking with one of the KC founders – Tapps (a great example of the F3 spirit) – he talked about how just like when you’re born in the hospital, you don’t get to chose your name, when you’re born in F3 you don’t get to chose your name.  You earn it by showing up and going through the pain of birth (or beatdown) and getting named by your new F3 family. So we are all born in the shadows, in the gloom. That’s the start of the new us, committed to being a little bit better, every day. 

    Thanks for the F3 community. Thanks for letting me lead. Thanks to the gloom. 

  • Renaissance 1…2…3…

    YHC felt the need to Lead, so sign up to Q he did! Four men and a canine posted for a classic Renaissance beat down courtesy of YHC. But first, a brief disclaimer and a reminder to show the shovel flag some respect……

    Mosey to the steps of NOMA for the warmup

    SSH IC x 31
    IW IC x 15
    Grass Grabbers IC x 10
    Abe Vigodas IC x 10
    PP IC x 20
    MC IC x 20

    During the Abe Vigodas, YHC was nearly bludgeoned during a drive by from the Super Size Sunday Paper being delivered….Totally worth the risk!

    Dora 1…2…3….
    Partner up for cumulative exercises

    100 Burpees
    200 Merkins
    300 Squats
    Partner 1 starts exercise partner 2 runs a lap around NOMA then flap jack.

    Mosey to the Big Lagoon for Bataan Death March. Indian run with last man dropping for 3 Burpees then sprint to front. Continue for 1 full lap.
    Finish up with some Sunday Mornings at the back of NOMA.
    10 air presses in peoples chair
    5 mule kicks against wall finishing last one with a Balls to the Wall and 1 shoulder press. Repeat x 5.

    Times up! Mosey to flag for COT where we did Count off, Namorama, Announcements, Intentions, and ended with a prayer to the Sky Q.
    Notice SOGO has the weighted vest going. #HIM
    Thanks for posting with me today!

    SYITG




  • Ants on the Mountain????

    It’s another crisp, cool Friday morning.  The PAX are ready for the Mountain what to do?  Hmmm…we shall see.  With a disclaimer, let’s mosey!

    Mosey to under the mountain for warm-up all in cadence:

    • IW’s
    • Self-Love
    • Grass Grabbers (Cement Grabbers)
    • Self-Love
    • Toy Soldiers
    • Open-Gates

    Count off by 1 and 2

    Here we go, let’s do something I don’t believe we have done at the Mountain before.  Time for Ants up the Hill!  Team 1’s mosey to second staircase while Team 2 stays at first staircase for…bear crawl to top of Mountain up stairs!

    At top of Mountain circle up for Mary until Six including (all in cadence):

    • Russian Twists

    What comes up must come down.  Team 1 Crab Crawl Down first stair case. Team 2 mosey to second stair case and crab crawl down.

    At bottom of Mountain circle up for Mary until Six including (all in cadence):

    • Penguins
    • Hello Dolly

    All the Pax are here, let’s mosey to quad between Monroe and Bobet Halls for:

    7 of Diamonds (Do all exercises at each corner of quad):

    • Burpees X7
    • LBT’s (2 is 1) X14
    • Merkins X21
    • Squats X28
    • Merkins X21
    • Flutter Kicks (2 is 1) X14
    • Burpees X7

    Time is running out YHC calls it.  Mosey back to Flag.  We are done! 

    Count-off, name-o-rama, announcements, prayer.

    Thanks for letting me lead!

  • Getting Arctic Blasted at Grandma’s House

    Temps dropped considerably overnight due to an Arctic Blast moving in. Add to it a little rain, but there was no stopping four F3 Northshore Hard Legs from showing up in the gloom.

    Warm O Rama: Good Mornings, Toe Touches, Arm Circles, Side Straddle Hops, Wind Mills, Imperial Walkers.

    The Thang:

    Mosey over to the playground basketball court where PAX did the Wilt Chamberlain routine(Named for his 100 point game): PAX ran to end of court, did 100 LBC’s. Ran to other side, did 100 squats. Ran back to other side, did 100 Flutter kicks. Ran again to other side and finished with 100 lunges.

    Next PAX did the “Nolan Richardson” routine (slightly modified) on the court: PAX Partnered up. PAX 1 performed each exercise denoted below as partner 2 backpedaled (Forgot to do the Bobby Hurley), and jogged back to continue the exercise from the count accumulated by partner 1. PAX continued until the repetition count stated below was met: 1. Burpees(75) 2. Squats(150) 3. Big Boy sit ups(150) 4. Arm Circles 5. Merkins(75) 6. Imperial Walkers(150)

    PAX then moseyed over to the Trailhead. On our way, a couple hunting and fishing stories are told. One PAX mentions a story of deer that was shot (either by him or a partner) 100 yards away with a cross-bow. Confessed that it was in reality probably only 50 yards (half that). PAX joked about “fish tales” and how when discussing hunting and fishing, things are 1/2 as far away than they really are. Or in some cases things are 1/2 the size it really is…As one PAX pointed out, same as when spitting game with women.

    At the trailhead, rain started to pick up.

    With time running out, YHC called an audible and shortened his planned routine at the Bell Tower. PAX partnered up again. PAX 1 did Irkins up the stairs and ran back down while PAX 2 did squats at the bottom. Idea was to keep going and flap jack until 150 squats were accumulated. We got it done in only 2 rounds.

    YHC had more fun and games planned, but will had to save for next week as time had expired.

    COT – Counto Namo

    Cowbell prayed us out.

    Thanks Guys, for letting me lead!!!

  • Meltingship Throwdown

    A solid PAX of 25 men posted a few Saturdays ago in City Park for what would be a merged workout, a “melting ship” if you will, with team competitions to test our feats of strength. Cool, crisp air made for perfect conditions as Mahatma rallied the troops at The Mothership and YHC rallied the guys from The Muscleship. We kicked around some ideas beforehand with hopes that the competitive juices along with some good ole fashioned pissing matches would be a fun yet intense way to push the PAX through an hour long beatdown…and maybe some banter thrown in for good measure. As the clock struck 6:30, both groups moseyed towards one another and convened in the grass field near the track for a warmup: SSH, PP, WM, LCC, LSS, IW…then headed to Lelong Dr in front of NOMA for the meat and potatoes.

    Team Respect (45+) vs Team Hate (44-)…splitting up by age
    Round 1: Bear Crawl across the neutral ground 10 times, then line up in order of completion…young bucks prevailed!
    Round 2: Merkins Catch Me If You Can with a run around NOMA…young bucks won again!
    At this point Team Hate got to pick a “punishment” for Team Respect…15 Peter Parkers…good smack talk was in the air. .

    Team Veterans (>2 years of F3) vs Team Rookies (<2 years)
    Round 1: Straight up race down Lelong Dr and back (.4mi), lined up on opposing sides as to eye up your opponent along the run. Photo finish with newbies taking the trophy.
    Round 2: Block drag under plank tunnel race…newbies took it again.
    Burpees (?) for the losing team…more banter. Lagniappe Merkins thrown in courtesy of Mahatma.

    Team David vs Team Goliath…splitting up by height
    Round 1: Bear crawl to and fro x10, again, with the shorties prevailing!
    Round 2: Line up in a one arm plank with other hand on teammate’s shoulder, hold as long as you can. Lots of chatter throughout this, including Angie relaying he was “hard as a rock” with someone else chiming in about “not even a cat can scratch it”…referring to his forearm one would presume. One by one guys dropped with team David winning again.

    Team LSU vs Team Other…splitting by your favorite team to root for
    Lagniappe Round: Over under block pass relay….Tigers won!

    Wrapped things up with a joint COT where Mahatma closed us out with a prayer.

    Moleskin: Original ideas for this workout called for a series of more structured competitions and formal scoring system along with a referee/timekeeper but we couldn’t find any takers. Seemed like we succeeded with the goal of camaraderie topped with lots of good chatter, banter, and fellowship. Managed to break a sweat as well, albeit maybe not Iron Pax level.

    Sorry this backblast is past due and fuzzy with some details. YHC usually tries not to half-ass anything….will do some extra burpees in the gloom for redemption.

    Tool

  • Lunatic Fringe – We all know you’re out there. But where is Bogey when you need him?

    The iconic opening words to the song made famous by the 1985 smash hit “Vision Quest”. Who could forget this iconic scene? Look at those moves! No wonder this movie was so popular!

    Okay, so perhaps a minor exaggeration on my part as not a single member of the Pax could identify that song this morning, or its significance (Lunatic Fringe is in main song played in Vision Quest, which is where the name Kuch comes from). At least Shuffles has the excuse of not having been born in 1985. Bogey would have nailed it of course.

    Despite my disappointment, we decided to workout anyway on this cool crisp morning. Temperature at kickoff was right around 50, and although we may have felt a few raindrops, the weather, overall, was pretty nice.

    We moseyed to the center of the intersection, with some high knees etc… on the way, for some quick, fast paced warmups so we could all…. warm up. Except High Rise of course, who some might say was slightly over-dressed for the occasion, having worn perhaps his entire closet full of sweaters, scarves, parkas, mittens and what have you. Fitting for a man who solved the climate crisis yesterday by declaring it #2cold2warm. Regardless, High Rise remains #2legit2quit in my book.

    Once the warm-ups and player intros were complete, we headed up to the levee to Indian Run to the concrete portion for our next activity. Rockin tunes were played as we passed the speaker off. When we got to the concrete portion, there was a fence that briefly confounded all my 5:40 AM logistics… luckily, someone suggested we walk around it, which we did.

    On the concrete, we did a couple rounds of merkin ring of fire, and moved right along to a simple tabata, 20 seconds on, 7 second rest, 4 exercises x2 for each session. Burpees, LBC’s, Merkins, Squats. After completing each round of those 4 exercises twice, we ran up and down the levee 10 times to catch our breath. We completed this circuit 3 times, before Indian running back the other way.

    When we reached the intersection, we headed back to the flag for a few more rounds of merkin ring of fire until 6:15.

    We prayed for the strength to take care of our elders, the ability to appreciate our own health, and the humility to grasp that one day, we may be the ones who need help. I know that I need your help to continue to get better, and so, as High Rise suggested this week (before solving an existential crisis for all of humanity), I note that I am truly thankful for all of you, for everyone who showed up today, for everyone who has ever shared a word of encouragement with me during a workout, for everyone who has ever held me accountable, and for everyone of you, who inspires me each day. Thank you. – Kuch

  • 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.