Black Jack 21s
Run lap, warmup
7 stations
Field
burpees
Sit-ups
Squats
Gazebo 1
Step ups alternating
Derkins
V ups
Wall Gym
Plank ups
Wall step ups
Incline wife pleasers
Stairs Gym
Calf raises
Balls to walls 21 secs
People’s chair
Gazebo 2
Dips
Bulgarian split
Decline shoulder taps
Hill
Bear crawl to top and crawl bear down
Incline hello dolly
21 incline burpees
Rocks
Thrusters
Curls
Russian twists
Mary
It was a cloudy morning, overcast, 76 degrees Fahrenheit, 98% humidity from the rain the day before, when 11 members of the PAX showed up to the Stage to prove once again they are worthy. Bone thugs convinced an FNG to follow him along today and we were blessed to name a new face to the group. The St. John crew continues to impress with the show rate. Turt made a second appearance, even though Dox continues to tout the JBL is waterproof up to 6 ft and in all respects better than any other speaker available.
Journal log 9/5/2023 – My observation of this group continues, though less intently today as YHC focused on leading these men through his first Q, the VQ they call it. The first few encounters for YHC’s documentary have been odd. They seem to use a completely different language and enjoy the workouts when they are tougher. Who uses cinder blocks (where does coupon even come from?) to workout? Even though odd, these men continue to show up week after week and seem to enjoy themselves. Is it the pain they enjoy? Do they enjoy sitting down on the toilet and getting up grunting because of the soreness? YHC is at his wits end trying to figure it out. Contemplating, YHC is reminded of another documentary-“The Office”. At first with “The Office”, YHC questioned the Michael Scott methods of leadership, the romance within the work place, and how many employees are needed for a small satellite office that sells only paper. But, as observations continued, YHC slowly saw how Michael Scott (who initially seemed unfit to lead an obese cat to a bowl of food) actually was one of the best leaders to get this mangy group of people to work together and actually enjoy selling paper of all things. As Scott said “The only time I set the bar low is for limbo”. Furthermore, the usual bad taste of dating someone in the workplace turned out to be the best love story since Romeo and Juliet. YHC was proved wrong and is determined to find out what makes this group of F3 men tick…
Warmarama
Side straddle hops
Wind mills
Imperial walkers
Mountain climbers
Arm circles forward
Arm circles back
The thang
1 mile run – 0.5 mosey with 0.5 Indian run to finish at the Bumper to grab coupons. During the first part of the mosey, the mind started to wonder. As we lined up for the Indian run at the halfway point, YHC wondered if he would be enough to lead this group of men. How will the PAX make it through workouts today without having the impressive form and determination of Paradiddle to gaze upon. But to my wondering eyes, we saw the brown locks of hair bouncing past us during his run to the front of the line to signify he made it and caught up during the warm up run. We were going to be ok. Diddle was with us.
After the warm up run and a couple 10 counts The PAX were split into 4 groups of 2 and a single thruple for a continuous AMRAP – 25 minutes total, 5 minutes at each station. Since iron PAX week 0 was still fresh in the mind, the goal for today was to get a full body cardio workout without failing a single particular muscle group. The stations were as follows:
The love story (who doesn’t love Jim and Pam) – catch me if you can – nur around track, other partner does 5 burpees and sprints to catch
The warehouse – 15 Bobby Hurleys (squat to touch the ground then jumps up raising arms), 15 overhead presses, 15 deadlifts
Parkour – leap frog your partner from one picnic table to the other, once there do 10 Jillian Michaels, rinse and repeat.
The annex (because everyone hates Toby) – 10 man makers, 20 captain Thor’s, 10 thrusters
The Stanley Hudson – 26 merkins (anything is possible if you want to leave work early for the day), 15 pretzel crunches left, 15 pretzel crunches right (because Stanley loves pretzel day)
It wasn’t long after starting that we found out that “Parkour” was going to be the tough station, even though Toby in the Annex upset everyone. It’s never a good sign when the super group of Goose and Diddle ask if I’m keeping time because they were ready be done with the Parkour fun. Alas, they still had 1 minute to go as YHC peered at the timer. The chatter otherwise was kept to a minimum while the PAX grinded through each station. America’s Best was unlucky enough to have YHC be his partner again. Once again he continues to proved his name change to America’s beast as he nurred (nar?) around the track at lightening speed. If he was in “The Office” there would be no love story, Pam would have never caught up to him.
After 25 minutes and each group visiting every station, time was called. We circled up and cloudy vision and foggy minds set in after the beat down as we prepared to name and bring the FNG to the PAX. The absence of Yankee Jeaux was felt as we missed his whimsical naming ability. In the end our FNG was fittingly named Hypotenuse, giving Enron a huge confidence boost as he bagged his first naming. Announcements were made, iron pax week 1 schedule was discussed, prayers were lifted, Dumbledore prayed us out.
…In the end, I have finally figured out why people keep showing up week after week, day after day, and persuading other people they actually like in their personal lives to join them in the F3 brotherhood (aka cult). Because YHC is not the greatest with words and the poetic form of Yankee Jeaux and Goose was not inherited I’m going to quote one of our own. Cardinal once wrote:
“Whenever I tell someone about F3, it’s usually something like ‘we exercise early and it usually sucks. But it’s some of the best men I’ve ever met in my life.’”
The human body can only take so much alone, physically and mentally. It takes other good people around to push us to new heights. YHC will always have huge respect to every person in the PAX for that reason.
Welcome hypotenuse! The workouts do suck, but you will get to know some great men and be a better person for it.
In celebration of Labor Day and Thighs turning 44 on the 5th, Thighs led the Q dedicated to the #44.
We started w/ a warm-up:
Mosey around the block
15x Jumping Jacks
10 Sec Run in place
10 Sec High Knees
10 Sec Butt Kickers
8x Windmills
8x Cherry Pickers
8x Merkins
8x Peter Parkers
8x In Tempo Merkins
8x Squats
8x In Tempo Tempo Squats
Then we mosey-ed to the covered farmer’s market.
We created 4 stations out of the 8 beams holding up the covered area.
Starting at the beginning, we did:
11x Tricep Merkins
Ran to the next station and did:
11x Bonny Blares
Next Station:
11x Hello Dollies
Next Station:
11x Plank Toe Touches
We ran back to the beginning and started the gauntlet back over reducing the reps by 1.
We kept going through the gauntlet until we got down to one.
Instead of a 20 sec rest at the end of that set, we had T-Square tell a Dad Joke.
We then ran back to the AO start, and pulled out the F3 Workout Deck w/ dance music in the background.
Each PAX turned over a card and we did the 4-count exercise listed with the amount of reps being the # of the card.
Jacks = 11
Queens = 12
Kings = 13
Aces = 14, but also 100 reps by direction of the card deck.
Once the total turned over cards equaled 44, we ran down to the archway and reset the cards.
We got 2 rounds in of the F3 Workout Deck.
We ended with the usual close out, sending us off with a prayer.
Looking forward to next time!
10 pax showed up to either do S&M with Bolt, Knees over Toes with Hokie, or Sprint under the instructions of Pai Gow.
It was indescribable. It was more than perfect. YHC didn’t know what to expect on this Labor Day morning after a destructive IPC Saturday, and at 5:14 sitting with Pope in an empty parking lot, we thought maybe we’d be going back to bed to keep nursing our wounded muscles and pride. But, we could never have expected the overwhelming gift, the perfect storm of perfectness that lay ahead. Diddle pulled in as the clock struck 5:15, and it…it…began.
To try put into human words, even in these sacred annals, the blessed events that occurred, that washed over and through us this morning, would be an unforgiveable blasphemy and would leave you, dear reader, in the same awe-struck paralysis of wonder that YHC has been lost in these past three hours. (I just regained use of my hand, and what a tragedy, what a heartbreak to have to come back to what is now a world of mediocrity).
It is clear that what we experienced was the greatest beatdown that has ever occurred, that will every occur, that could ever possibly occur. And, to even keep speaking about it would…would……
From flag to rocks – mosey’d
Pick a light rock, or a heavy one Mayhem.
Front Raise then full circle Clockwise/AntiClockwise 10x
Simulating a baseball or golf swing l/r 10x
Orbit the rock around your head CW/CCW 10X
Sumo Squats 10x
Slowsey to Parking lot
Pick Med Rock
Ladder Reps per round – 5/10/15/20/20/15/10/5 (100 reps per – for those who struggle with math)
At parking lot Move from tree to tree – at each tree 3 Burpees after the movements. Except for the 20 rep set – stay where you are for the downhill side of the ladder, then move on.
Rd 1 – Curls
Rd 2 – Rows
Rd 3 – Squats
Rd 4 – OHP
Essentially there and back 2x.
See? it’s simple!
Warm up
Stretch arms
Abe vigoda
Calf scoop
Grass grabber
Imperial walker
Arm circles
Timer- run to can 2 jump squats
Sit ups
Bench press
Kettle bell
Dips
Step up
Merkins
Planks
You are gazing upon the happenings of Thibodaux, La on the morning of Sept 2 and there are many sights to behold. In the deep gloom near Peltier park several athletes push their bodies to the max in an annual event meant to find the limits of cardiovascular and psychological endurance. It comes every fall and like cool weather and Friday night football it signals the changing of seasons. That event is known as the ED White Cross Country meet.
….
Now take your telescoping lens and scooch it over just a hair ..adjust the mean age by 17 years , sprinkle in wisdom and wrap it in grit and tenacity. Remove the cheering family and substitute with dual connect JBLs. There, there you are, just right. Now you have it.
Can you see 15 pax surrounded by coupons and encircling the shovel flag prepared to face IPC week zero?
IPC is finally here!!
here’s how week zero took place on da bayou.
Duke! Roll the footage and wake me up when September ends!
Warmups
After a week of prep with some finely tuned beatdowns, YHC wanted to add an extra layer of lather and injury protection before we put the pedal all the way to floor so we had round 1 of warmups at the flag with Seal Jacks , IW , Arm circles , CP, Self love , High knees , Butt kicks.
The pax were loose and ready to dive in as we coupon moseyed to the ThunderDome for the main event.
The Thang
It’s taken YHC a few years to decode our QIC Gooses love language but most days I can translate it well. A few examples : “Your shorts are too short” really means “I’m shopping for shorter shorts tonight because they highlight your quads”. And “Those High Knee Arm circles are the dumbest thing in the known universe” really means “that’s an effective and thorough warmup Dox and I think you are swell”
Of course this takes years of verbal battery to acquire but here I am better for it.
So when YHC unveiled a 7 foot particle board sign with todays week zero instructions and Goose simply said “I wish it was taller” then I really knew he was saying “I’m overwhelmed by its magnificence and only a sonnet would suffice for praise”
Fair enough my friend but I know how you really feel.
YHC gave a quick rundown and we got to the work below:
Start the timer
Warmup
13 reps
SSH- IW-MC-ST-PJ
800 meter run
Then 85 Reps of each followed by 8 burpees after each round of :
HR merkins
BBSU
Dips
Goblet Squats
Coupon OHP
4 count flutter kicks
KB swings
800 meter run
The Iron PaxCenter Top Plays
Brought to you by CoolJabs :
As most IPCs go when the whistle blows the vision tends to get hazy. Week zero was no exception and although YHC teetered somewhere between blurred vision and syncope for the duration these were the observations.
-The pax got off to a nice start on the 800 meter with DiddleGoose (don’t google this ) upfront amd Pope as the pace car and the second wave of pax keeping a conservative pace just behind.
– Turns out America’s Beast is an actual Virginian grizzly bear. Some think he began the transformation during Popes halo bear crawl of death. Whenever it was I’m here to tell you The BearMan was rolling with good form early with the HR merkins and YHC found inspiration in his intermittent bear grunts. If only we had a shirt for this occasion.
– The 2.0s provided both stern form advice (Duke) and light hearted banter (Coyote) along with the watchful eye from our wagon EMT (Jack B Nimble)
– Team JBL reassured the pax of high performance audio after a shaky week. Tuesday we were upstaged by a younger and more beautiful turtle box and Thursday JBL flip 6 (our brother formerly from OLOPs) provided some questionable connection. So Diddles JBL Burrito saved face and YHC did my best DJing to keep the pax spirits high. If some one doesn’t show up at my funeral and play Turn Down for What I’ll be a tad disappointed.
– Dumbledore was performing coupon goblet squats so perfect and so deep I had to stop mid beatdown and write Crayola a letter via owl from the Hogwarts school of Glute and Quads. Well done Dore.
– The goblet squats were a gut check for us all and it was no surprise they brought out Smooths best . He was hammering them 10 at a time and there was no quit as the Clydesdale awoke in him.
– Great to have LOX back with us today! bringing in the summer magic and getting a good break from reading all those rich mohagney seminary books.
– Gi Joe brought a steely performance amd YHC kept seeing him hit a wall, take a breath and break through to the next set. Well on his way to bring the fittest GI Doc in the state.
– Overall this crew stood their ground through some ridiculously high reps and stayed in the fight till we hit 7:30 and circled up. T-claps indeed.
COT and Goose prayed us out
Grateful to lead men
Keep hammering
Moleskin :
If you’ve attended 1 beatdown or really any social gathering you can usually find the guy in a group who has an internal pressure to hear his own voice. YHC was born with this affliction. So every year when IPC rolls around I find it a nice change of pace (if only brief) to work on battling the inner voice. The one that says 85 reps is stupid and that things are burning and here’s 9000 reasons you should stop. But 1 reason to keep going IS present and part of the iron sharpening process is looking over and seeing the guy next to you fighting that same battle. Each rep, each set, each week we sharpen each other a little more.
Welcome to September men.
See you in the Gloom
Dox
YHC – showed up with 5 minutes, planted the flag AT the Rock Pile as we did pre plandemic. Dropped off his TJ Max bag with Pickleball gear then headed down to the cage arriving just as the seconds ticked off to 5:30. Quick disclaimer as the Knots crew headed to the track and the rest of the pax to a slow walk back to the rock pile all the while with chatter as to what’s this about an “old” starting spot for “the” Uptowner!
After 6 years YHC learned a few things and one is don’t get sucked in to the chatter as it will never go your way! So circle up for a warm up.
Various cadence:
2 rounds Scantron stretch
Side Lunge
Windmills
Nolan Ryan’s
Peter Parker’s
Mnt Man Poopers
Parker Peter’s
Forward Lunge Left leg with Arm circles
Flap Jack
SSH
Grab a rock
1st AMRAP (as many ROUNDS as possible)
Thrusters (a.k.a. squat press) x 10
Merkins x 10
10 wall jumps or alternating step ups
Lunge walk from tree to light pole
Walk or run back
This is 1 round – complete as many rounds as possible in 10 minutes
Grab your rock relocate on the other side of the road – 4 rounds of Mary
2nd AMRAP
6 burpees
Extended Curls x 10
6 burpees
Squat front raises x 10
Bernie Sanders from tree to power pole
Walk or run back
That is one round – again complete as many possible in 10 minutes
Rtn the rocks – 1 minute of plank to push ups
COT
Just a general feel of excitement from PAX for it felt…… Cool??, maybe it was just strong Lakefront wind or a bit drop in humidity? It won’t be here for long though, but nice. I consider this the last day of summer even though not formally per season divisions, “the summer is out of reach, empty lake, empty street, Sun now goes down alone”.
Regardless none that has anything to do with the work out below, I have just needed to Q for sometime and took day off from Norco to do this, so here it is:
Had a nice (8) folks show, and hopefully I gave everyone their money’s worth:
Warm up
SSH X 24
IW X 15
GG X 15
AV X 15
Arm Circles X 20
Mountain Climbers X 20
PP X 20
Burpees X 5
Off to circle of benches for some dip rotations, X 5 at each bench with lunge walk or bear crawl in between. We should use this set up more at Okwata.
Dora 1,2,3 = 100 Merkins, 200 Sit Ups, 300
Indian run back to flag and round robin of Mary at waterline by all as sun rises.
As always I appreciate the opportunity to lead with F3.
See you on the radio as I am now.
Bongo
