Tag: Angies List

  • HEY, IT’S CALLED A CO-OP!

    Last minute switch on Q for Screw Top as he ran a marathon a few days before! YHC was happy to help out.  T-claps Screw Top! Meanwhile, (“unbeknowanstince” to us) a prepared and excited Catfish noticed an empty slot on the list and couldn’t wait to jump in.  A short conversation on site and we decided to split the difference for a progressive Co-Op Q; to which there was much applause and general excitement from the Pax. As we know, everybody loves change. Here at the Mothership, we call it growth.  Off to the Peristyle… DJ Diver had the tunes for the beatdown.

    WARM UP

    Arm Circles (front/back)
    Grass Grabbers
    Hill Billies
    Peter Parkers
    Parker Peters
    Run to Marconi and back, plank for 6

    PART ONE 

    10 Pax (and one K9) – Break into 2 lines of 5 pax, plank position with hands at feet of pax in front of you, straight line all facing forward, at bottom of the Great Lawn.
    Last Pax bear crawls to front of the line, shouts, next pax bear crawls to the front… etc
    At every second tree all pax recover to feet, ring of fire with your group, 20 squats while others hold Al Gore, back to crawlin’ maggot! We’re doing the whole lawn! The length, not across..

    Make it to end. Took longer than YHC anticipated. Partner up. Move to side of lawn.
    DORA 123
     -Merkins 100
     – LBCs 200
     – Squats 300
    Partner runs across lawn. 2 burpees on the other side. Back to trade off.

    PART TWO

    Complete and hand Q to Catfish who started us off with his favorite crowd pleaser:

    Jack Webs.. in perpetuity… (to 15 merks, 30 air presses)

    Back by popular demand, his world famous 8 count body builders – Couldn’t count that high.

    Run to Marconi and back

    20 Box Jumps

    20 Monkey Humpers

    Infinite Donkey Kicks…


    Back to the flag for COT, announcements etc. Lots of health and life and death concerns today. As a general announcement to all – the holiday seasons are of course a special time and there is a lot to get caught up in and fun to be had. As leaders in our community, don’t forget that little voice at the back of your head reminding you that folks around us are still going through real challenges. Think of those struggling with addiction, depression, and isolation as well.  Don’t forget to reach out to that person struggling, without any pressure. Let them know there is a door open for them somewhere, with warm food, good spirits, no judgement. At this high pressure time of the year, these small gestures can have huge impacts for those walking through a tough cycle of their life. Just another way for us to strive to be good HIMs in our community. Always sweep the 6.

    Thanks to all for showing up in the gloom yet again, to hold each other accountable to another victory in the morning. Accelerating in to the new year.

  • 12 Days of Christmas – Sunnyside

    More 2.0s than Dads gathered at UrbanSouth Brewery for the annual Christmas beatdown and fest. Quick disclaimer and we were off up Market St. Some ambitious 2.0s had to be full-stopped before racing across Religious St. in the dark. A few motorists were surprised by the pack the of seemingly feral children that were leading a group of wheezing middle aged men, winding through the dark streets between the warehouses.

    We arrived at Annunciation Square and circled up. Quick 20 SSH in cadence to warm us up. Then the began the days, using the 2.0s as coupons where possible. YHC lucked out with a 2.0 under 25lbs. For PAX without a 2.0, they borrowed from others with several to spare. Modifications were offered if 2.0s were uncooperative.

    1. Partridge in a Pear Tree – squat thrust 2.0 up to the shoulder; or a burpee
    2. V-Ups
    3. Lords/ladies leaping (2.0s hop over dads in plank)  or Russian Twists
    4. Flutter Kicks 
    5. Dizzy Bears
    6. Dying roaches
    7. Plank Jacks
    8. Freddy Mercurys
    9. Measly Merkins
    10. Baby crunches
    11. Crabs a crawling
    12. Burpees or a (12) Partridge in a Pear Tree. 

    The PAX then went to COT and the naming(!) Lots of creativity and individual expression from the 2.0s. Then a mosey back to Urban South to a feast, a bounce house, sweaty & dirty children, and excellent fellowship. Much good food, but shout out to #bones for the smoked boudin he served up.

  • Total Tension

    7 pax met at the grassy knoll at the Fly on the Sunday after Thanksgiving for some Sweaty Bells. YHC’s plan was to introduce the pax to the Total Tension strength program that we completed recently in Area 51. Details can be found here: https://www.strongfirst.com/total-tension-kettlebell-complex/

    After a brief disclaimer (maybe?), we circled up for a little instruction prior to the start of the workout. The first lesson: you need bigger bells. After that, we did a quick hard-style plank to get the feeling of the total body tension you’re supposed to be trying to achieve during this workout. Next, I explained the four exercises we’d be using today: the clean, the overhead press, the squat, and the renegade row. We partnered up by bell size (with one set of triplets due to the odd numbers).

    The Thang:

    • Double clean x 1
    • Double press x 1
    • Double front squat x 1
    • Renegade row x 1 per side – a renegade row is when you plank on the bells and row one, then the other

    Each round, increase the press reps by 1. The goal is to get to 6-8 presses before coming back down by one rep per round. If it’s too easy, you should increase the weight for the next workout.

    The finisher: 100 double swings in sets of 10-25

  • Poker Run

    Its the game all the new cool kids are playing.

    “A poker run is an organized event in which participants, usually using motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles, boats, snowmobiles, horses, on foot or other means of transportation, must visit five to seven checkpoints, drawing a playing card at each one. “

    YHC has previously over-estimated the PAX’s ability to listen to and understand directions. And YHC was afraid that this particular set of instructions was going to be beyond the attention span of the PAX. The PAX were warned that this was going to require attention. And all but Angie’s List seemed willing to give it a shot.

    Quick warmup with some SSH (x31 – to celebrate 31 years since ND’s last National Championship. YHC promised this would be the only ND reference during the workout) and Windmills.

    Then – PAX assume plank position while YHC explains the game. The more backtalk and sass, the longer we stay in plank position. Except Jingle Vader. JV apparently has some objection to Plank, so he stood in the Vertical Plank with arms crossed.

    The Rules: there are 5 stations around the park. See the map. At each station there are some cards (playing cards) and a card (workout card). Each group picks a playing card, and the workout card tells you what to do (which exercise, how many reps).

    Each team visits each of the stations, getting 5 cards. OK, there were other rules too. But I don’t need to go through them all here. The 3 teams (Hawg, King Kong and Bongo; Douille, Angie’s List, Jingle Vader; Catfish, Rudy, iHeart, Da Parish) each took off.

    5 Stations with Legs, Planks, Merks, Abs, Burpees. Side note: drawing the Ace of Hearts and its 30 8 Count Body Builder reward kind of sucked. Thanks Catfish.

    OK, its about 7:20 and everyone is back in the Great Lawn with 5 cards. Circle up for opportunities to replace cards.

    Monkey Humpers: Do Monkey Humbers for longer than YHC, and your team can exchange a card. Rudy got to x40. Hawg, King Kong and Bongo tapped out after 2, and assumed the Al Gore position of shame.

    Plank: Plank longer than Rudy and your team can exchange a card. Rudy got to about 90 seconds. Hawg, King Kong and Bongo tapped out after about 10 seconds.

    Burpees: Everyone on your team get 10 burpees in less than a minute? Exchange 1 card. Hawg, King Kong and Bogo tapped out at exactly 9 burpees each.

    NOTE: Everyone should have realized something by this point.

    The Wager: Each team automatically antes 10 burpee. Winner does no burpee, losing teams pay the bet. Douille, Angie’s List and Jingle Vader call the lazy triplets at 25 Burpees. While Catfish et. al. ponder their move, Hawg announces the natural full house they pulled. Fortunately, that allowed Catfish et. al. to Fold and only pay a 15 burpee penalty.

    Congrats to the winners who SWEAR they drew 3 7s and 2 10s blind.

    Thanks all for giving this a shot!

  • Do I look like the kind of guy that can read a spreadsheet?

    In my old age I find my bedtime has moved back dramatically. That being said I was well asleep when Yankee texted me at 9:03 alerting me to my Q at The Skinny in the morning. I awoke around 10 and glanced at the phone and rolled back to sleep while visions of beatdowns danced in my head.

    Mosey to some grass in the park for warmups.

    • SSH X30
    • AC’s X10 forward and reverse
    • GG’s X20
    • PP X20
    • PP X20
    • MC X20

    Line up and head to Row Bear station Indian style.

    • 4 Groups break up for burpees, plank jacks, squats and rows.
    • Burpees sets the pace. Rinse and repeat.

    Line back up and head to grass up by the ole ginkgo tree. Circle up for some ring of fire merks. Do ten and person to your left starts at your 5, Rinse and repeat. Lots of whining here. Lots of kneeling.

    Back to track. At first running man 5 burpees than run hard past 1 to next running man. 5 burpees and repeat till you reach the fountain.

    Once at the fountian we roll right into incline merks, no break or counting to 20 until 6 rolls in. Once six arrived we started right leg step ups fast. then dips fast. then left leg step ups fast. Then dips fast. Tried to keep pace up to keep heart rates up.

    Once done back to track quick for 2 line Indian run to the flag. Apparantly everyone was not down for some over the top cardio this morning. We survived a muntiny mid way back and modified with a “just get back to the flag” run. I circled back for 6 twice and racked up some pretty nice extra mileage doing so.

    We all made it back roughly on time. Fitbit indicated 2.4 miles for the workout.

    Count off, Name O Rama, Announcements, Intentions and SBOM.

    Remember the Christmas party is Monday at Urban South. Potluck. We need food! HNJ Men’s Club is selling trees starting Friday. If you visit our website you can pre order. Ther was some other stuff mentioned, read the email.

    Thanks for letting me lead.

  • My Qs are Impetuous

    Conditions:  70 and light rain

    Our curiosity had us gather near some type of Rock ‘n Roll Series race starting at the Peristyle.  Triple Shift said it started at 6:30. I think he was trying to get a free t-shirt and some post race pastries.  YHC gave a well thought out disclaimer and we headed toward NOMA

    The Thang

    In the aforementioned disclaimer, YHC had warned the pax that we would attempt to get in some miles and that if a pax member was not interested in running miles they could peel off and join the Muscleship.  Apparently the Mothership pax came ready to run. 

    Warm-up:  Hillbillies x 20; Low slow squats x 20; Merkins (IC) x 10; BTW

    Foundry: The Democratic Convention – Pax 1 with a Bernies Sanders; Pax 2 holds Al Gore.  Flapjack when Pax 1 falls off the monkey bars.  Did roughly 3 rounds

    Football Field:  Ten rounds of Tyson – Sprint 50 yards, do 10 reps of exercise, Sprint 50 yards, do 10 reps of exercise, Sprint 50 yards, do 10 reps of exercise, Sprint 50 yards.

    • Round 1 – Burpees
    • Round 2 – Jump Squats
    • Round 3 – Diamond Merkins
    • Round 4 – Dying Cockroach
    • Round 5 – Sumo Squats
    • Round 6 – Wide Merkins
    • Round 7 – LBT
    • Round 8 – Bonnie Blairs
    • Round 9 – Carolina Dry Docks
    • Round 10 – 8 Count Body Builders

    Hustle back to flag

    NMM

    • A lot of talk about the blistering 9:30 minute mosey pace we started with. My reputation for speed precedes me.
    • BTW was NSFW
    • All agreed that the greatness of the football field we used for 10 Rounds of Tyson was well worth the long run to get there (and back).
    • Ten Rounds of Tyson was introduced at the F3 NOLA launch by Chung-Li.  We did 5 rounds that day I think.  To my knowledge this was the first time that the full 10 rounds were completed in NOLA
    • I was afraid that some pax might quit on me if I called out burpees for Round 10.  The Body Builders were well received. 
  • Terrain Race Motheusceship Q on the fly. Exit thru the gift shop.

    Tanner graciously offered to Q the Terrain Race Saturday beatdown at City Park then graciously stayed in bed once I offered to Q. It was my Mothership/ Muscleship VQ.

    7 men opted out of the terrain race and assembled near NOMA for a Saturday morning beatdown. Q eyed the group and deeming them runners all took off for the grass across from the Peristyle cause I am a Mothership man.

    Circled up Warmed up

    Prolly did SSH, GG, PP, PP, MC, AC forward and reverse, Merks,

    Decided to do some travelling BLIMPS with burpees starting at 10 and each following exercise increasing by 10. We meandered throughout City Park with random stops to do the L, I, M, P, S etc.

    After the first set of lunges I was talking smack to Rudy and Douille whence I prompty tweaked my back which hurts to this day FYI.

    Hit the baby foundry and did some excercises in 3 groups. Pullups, Decline Merks and Dips?

    Made our way to the front of the Childrens Museum and did some peoples choice mary. I promised each PAX would get to pick ONE thing from the gift shop. Rudy threw a tantrum over a $65 stuffed unicorn so all bets were off. Nobody gets anything!

    Rinsed and repeated at some point on the traveling blimps show. Just picked random spots to bang out another letter.

    With 8 minutes left we made a quick lap around the pond to finish up in front of NOMA.

    Pretty sure we finished up with a solid 3+ miles for the day.

    COT. Thanks for letting me lead.

  • 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!

  • Happy Veterans Day 11/11/19

    17 other PAX joined YHC on this sunny, clear Veterans Day at 60 degrees for a Skinny beatdown. YHC couldn’t ask for a better day. We moseyed to the band stand with the following warmups in cadence: forward arm circles x 10, backward arm circles x 10 (thank goodness Seaman was not present), windmills x 10, SSHs x 20, Imperial Walkers x 20, and MC x 20.

    The PAX then moseyed through the Oak Alley toward the running track. However, everyone stopped at every other light post in the alley and did 3 burpees. In total, each PAX did 9 burpees before arriving to the track. Everyone then jogged across Magazine Street toward the main entrance of Audubon Zoo on Magazine Street. PAX stopped at the 2nd light post. Everyone completed the BLIMPS starting at the first light post with 5 burpees, next post with 10 lunges, following post with 15 Imperial Walkers… 20 merkins…. 25 plankjacks, and 30 squats. Then ran toward the statue in front of the Zoo for some DORA 1, 2, 3.

    DORA 1, 2, 3

    Partnered up. While one PAX was doing the exercises, the other PAX ran the loop and back.

    100 – box jumps

    200 – LBCs

    300 – Plankjacks

    After the completion of DORA, the PAX moseyed to the grass field in front of Audubon Zoo for some Suicide Drills

    Suicide Drills (each cone is about 20 yards apart)

    Round 1 – sprint to the first cone and back for 10 hand-release merkins, sprint to the 2nd cone and back for 10 hand-release merkins, and sprint to the third (last cone) and back for 10 last hand-release merkins. Total = 30 merkins with about 240 yards of sprinting.

    Round 2 – same as round 1 except the exercise was big boy sit-ups.

    Round 3 – just a plain full speed sprint from one end of the field to the other end.

    Quick Round of Mary in Cadence

    flutterkicks x 20

    hello dolly x 20

    Moseyed back to the flag for COT – we had one FNG ,who is an electrician. So we named him Shocker thanks to Angie’s List. I am always grateful to have the opportunity to lead and workout with the PAX. Thank You and Happy Veterans Day.

    SYITG

    King Kong

  • Saturday morning plyo

    On the eve of what turned out to be a surprisingly strong tropical depression, YHC was looking at the weather forecast for Saturday morning and decided to change things up and keep the pax under the peristyle in an attempt to stay relatively dry.

    Waking up YHC was surprised to find the rain was not as bad as expected, but still drizzly and windy, with storm debris all throughout the streets.  The day started with a bit of adversity as YHC’s route to City park was redirected due to a large tree that had overturned during the night forcing a major detour.  This led to YHC arriving to the Peristyle at 6:35.  T-claps to Shorty for stepping up and leading the pax in some warmup to get things going.   

    We moved from the great lawn over to the peristyle to finish up the warmup of shoulder taps, arm circles, and windmills.  

    Thang 1 

    • Start with burpee/1 merkin and then broad jump.  Burpee/2 merkins/broad jump, Burpee/3 merkins/broad jump……Burpee/10 merkins/ broad jump
    • Now do another round but start at 10 merkins and work down to 1

    With everyone’s heart rate up we moved to to the main event – YHC‘s best impersonation of Tony Horton for a P90x style plyometric workout. 

    Thang 2

    30 seconds each exercise AMRAP

    • jump squats 
    • Run stance squat jumps (4 squats with a jump turn in 4th squat)
    • Jump squat turns (jump squat with turn backwards and then frontwards)
    • Smurf jacks
    • Squat reach jump (Squat and touch ground then jump)
    • Jump knee tucks
    • Bonnie Blairs
    • Twist combo
    • Leapfrog squats (in squat position, 2 jumps forward and 2 back)
    • Bobby Hurleys 
    • Low squat jump turns
    • Hot foot (Jump on one foot) -30 second each leg

    Rinse and repeat entire circuit

    Thang 3

    Chest/tricep (2 rounds)

    • Angle grinders x 20 IC
    • Diamond merkins x 15 IC
    • Shoulder taps x 20 IC
    • Backward plank (60 seconds)

    Finished with a merkin ring of fire

    COT where we welcomed FNG I-heart, gave thanks for good health and fortunes and said a prayer for those in need.  

    Thanks for the opportunity to lead and SYITG!