Tag: Chewy

  • Some things old, some people new – from Russo

    Based on reading backblasts and personal witness, it’s the opinion of YHC that the MVP of summer beatdowns is Jose 10k. But recently, Bypass is giving Jose a run for his money for July. Joining us just over a week ago, not only has he continued to post, but he already EH’ed Deep Six into joining us, even if it’s only temporary.

    The “new” were joined by 4 “old” Pax for one of my favorite standbys. Rainy, humid conditions at Granny’s this morning, where we managed to avoid most of the torrential rain both before and after beatdown. We were able to witness the, ahem, progress, the city is making on the splash pad (hence the need for fence construction). Let’s just say there are a few new holes from broken concrete and some more mud than usual.

    Warmup (10-20x, IC)
    – SSH
    – Arm circles
    – Self Love
    – Toe touches
    – High knees
    – Goof balls
    – Imperial Walkers

    We moseyed all around Granny’s and the warehouse to stretch our legs before….

    Thang
    More math with the return of the Deck of Death/Destruction/Discomfort/Delineation

    Suits from a standard card deck represent an exercise, the number/face the number of reps (Aces high at 15 reps). Flip over the card, perform the exercise, rinse and repeat.

    4 Rounds, 13 cards each round….Math!!!
    Spades – Shoulder Tap Merkins
    Clubs – Crab Cakes
    Diamonds – Jump squats
    Hearts – Circle Ups

    Spades – Merkins
    Clubs – Calf Raises (2x)
    Diamonds – SMCs
    Hearts – Leg raises

    Spades – Carolina Drydocks
    Clubs – Monkey Humpers
    Diamonds – Squats
    Hearts – 6 inch drill (IC)

    Spades – Peter Parker’s (2 is 1)
    Clubs – Plank Jacks (2 is 1)
    Diamonds – High knees (5x)
    Hearts – Gas Pumps

    In between rounds, we moseyed through the columns at Granny’s slalom style. YHC has to note that Jose must have known his MVP status was in jeaopardy, because he absolutely killed the last mosey.. He and Zoolander completely left the rest of the pax in their wake.

    With just a minute or so left, old fashioned merkin wave closed us out, where again Jose outperformed!

    We closed with the COT, name o rama, announcements, and prayer.

    Reminders:
    Gnarly Nutria tomorrow! Meet at 7:45 around the old Winn Dixie

    Friday: A1C one year anniversary – 5:15AM and PickleBall at Pelican Park around 6:30 (I think)

    Thank you again for the opportunity to lead, and I hope if you’re reading this, you’re safe, high, and dry from today’s storms.

    SYITG

  • Bunch of Dora’s – from Akbar

    16 PAX arrived at the Lakefront Saturday to get better. Today’s agenda would be simple, a Steve workout if you will. Dora 123 * 3. Great to be back with my brothers after a 10 day vacation.

    WU – SSH, Merkins, High Knees, Butt Kicks x 25. Grass Grabbers, Self-Love, Arm Circles (F/B) x 10

    THANG: 3 Doras, partners switch each time

    Mosey to the wall at Rips

    Dora 1

    Partner 1 runs to the top of the stairs at Rips, 10 Calf Raises, return to relieve Partner 2

    100 Stone Mountain (feet on wall)

    200 Freak Nasty

    300 Halleluiah Squat (hand up in the air)

    Mosey to the wall at the Gazebo

    Dora 2

    Partner 1 Bear Crawls to sidewalk, mosey back to relieve Partner 2

    100 Dirkins

    200 Gas Pumps

    300 Superman Rows

    Mosey back to the flag

    Dora 3

    Lightning round, partner 1 runs to the street and back, relieve partner 2

    50 Big Boy Situps

    100 American Hammers (2 is 1)

    150 Step Ups (1 is 1)

    Most were finished with 2 minutes left, but not all. QIC called recover and we circled up to honor The Manny with 25 Little Manny Crunches.

    Count, Name-o-Rama. Welcome Swole Patrol!

    NMM – T Claps to The Manny for making the trip from Picayune, great to see you brother. Manny will try and make 2 workouts a month going forward. And to Grundy for the EH of Swole Patrol, who walked up late with no fear and jumped right in. Going head-to-head in Bear Crawls with Swole was quite impressive, he gave it all he had. Chainsaw and Pickaxe teamed up with YHC for the lightning round, with impressive modifications and counts. Also great to see Bypass again for his 3rd beatdown of the week. We worked a lot more shoulders than I thought, mine are still burning at this writing. Hammer named Swole, reminiscing back to his working days on the West Bank – where he saw a stout dude in a truck with Swole Patrol emblazoned on the front. Good work men.

  • 3…2…1…Blast off! – from Russo

    Pax of 4 in the gloom at Granny’s, where the “under construction” fences were up for an as-yet-undetermined project. Undaunted, we pressed on!

    Warmup (all IC, 10-20x)
    – sealjacks
    – cherry pickers
    – imperial walkers
    – toe touches
    – windmills
    – arm circles

    Thing before the Thang
    Having planned to use the benches that were now blocked off when the City of Mandeville built that wall, pax moseyed to Lafayette street to visit the Rusty Pelican for some brief tabata: 45 seconds each (not 45 minutes, Chewy, that would just be crazy) – – (1) Freak Nastys (2) Step Ups (3) Urkins

    A two block mosey back for The Thang:
    Something YHC called 3-2-1 Blastoff:

    3 reps at a column, mosey to the next column, 2 reps, mosey a column, one rep, then at the last column, up the pilot house for 10 calf raises and back down to start.

    Rounds – 3 merkins, 2 jump squats, 1 SMC
    3 shoulder taps, 2 Apollo ohno’s, 1 suicide squat
    3 plank jacks, 2 Bobby Hurley’s, 1 high knee/ super calf raise
    3 Peter Parker’s, 2 tuck jumps, one groiner
    3 werkins, 2 lunges or SMCs, one monkey humper

    Thing after the Thang:
    With a few minutes left, it was a good opportunity to complete a Motivator, if for no other reason than to rectify the count issues YHC had on the last one we completed. This Motivator went to 7 (not 11) and for the most part we counted successfully.

    COT, Name-o-Rama, Announcements, and Prayer closed us out for today.

    Special note for a busy week upcoming:
    Wednesday 7-21: Gnarly Nutria
    Thursday 7-22: FIA/F3 mixer
    Friday 7-23: A1C one year anniversary and Pelican Park Pickleball (P3-4-F3?)
    Saturday 7-24: Thibodeaux road trip for a Q school with Goose

    Special recognition/ T claps to a returning Akbar who made it back from his adventure outwest and also to Bypass, who made it back after his first beatdown yesterday at the Marsh. Keep posting as you are able, sir, and we’ll be there to continue moving you forward, because as a reminder, we’re committed to leaving no man behind and no man where they are.

    SYITG

  • “Flexing Fletch” with special quest “Butts and Balls!” – from Shooter

    After a week away YHC decided to sign up for Today and Thursday as the Q sheet remains empty for the most part.. After arrival YHC saw the likes of Fletch pulling in to Flex his posting abilities and shortly thereafter the likes of Jose (on summer vacation) 10k as I planted the flag.. To even up the PAX Mandeville’s own Chewy pulls in and we commence to get this party started..

    Warmup
    15IC Windmills, Toe Touches, Cherry pickers, self love, SSH and Butt kicks.

    Thang
    Moseyed along the streets of Mandeville to the Marsh stopping along the way at each corner for 5 Burpee (2x Merkin), 10 Merkins and 15 Jump squats. Realizing there was only 2 corners to get there we extended around the backside to gather 2 additional blocks to get some reps in. Upon arrival at the Marsh YHC planned on some actual BLOCK work, however it appears we have been sabotaged yet again by our fellow Mandevillians or our local parish workers simply following orders in the removal of our ditch baring F3 coupons. Maybe the Qs sight is deteriorating or the GPS coordinates in my mind is way off.. Nevertheless Jose 10k tried shining a light literally to no avail.. One could understand if the removal was for the purposes of grass cutting or Bush trimming but the area we were looking through certainly shows no sign of say a “Bushwacker!” Or by no means a pruning machine in “Tanked up!” Called an audible using the monkey bars for (3x)
    5 pull ups, 10 squat thrusters minus the coupon and 5 chin ups. Back to the streets for the return stopping along the way yet again this time for 5 8 count body builders, 10 Lunges and 15 Apollo onos..
    Returned at the pavilion for some core work. PAX held chillcut while each man moseyed up and around the flag pole returning till everyone completed. Next round alternating Nolan Ryan’s 5 each side and the same up and around.. Final was 10 OYO donkey kickoffs..

    Count, Annouce and COT

    Big thanks to my Lee road Cowboys for journeying down this morning..

    Don’t forget open to all Pickle ball at Pelican park on Fridays 630PM hosted by Chewy..
    Fun times for sure..

    Appreciate Fletch 🙏🏼🙏🏼 us out and until the next Gloom 👊🏼👍🏼✌🏼!!!

  • Halfpipe – from Russo

    Pax of 6 this morning at not-quite-as-miserably-hot-and-humid Granny’s, including Jose10k, who YHC feels might have been inadvertently duped into “little or no running” because he saw YHC as Q.

    Warmup (10-15x IC)
    – Seal jacks
    – Air presses
    – Imperial walkers
    – Windmills
    – Arm circles
    – Self love

    Thing before the thang
    3 rounds of 10 freak nastys on the blue benches
    2 round of 10 step ups (2 is 1)

    We then moseyed through the woods to the tunnel of love, where YHC’s flashlight app finally worked for the first time since Bush was president (the broccoli hating one).

    Thang
    YHC called it “the halfpipe” for the tunnel’s resemblance to a skateboard halfpipe, or at least as close as we could get in south LA. I wanted to change into my Vision streetwear and chucks, but decided there was no time.

    Simple 4-3-4 reps of merkins, mosey down and back up between: 4 at the top, 3 mid pipe, 4 at the top again.

    Round 2 switched to Groiners and a 3-4-3 rep count.

    Mosey back to the pilot house and with around 10 minutes left, we did the thing after the Thang:

    Choose your own adventure: Pax chose option A: calf raises up and down the pilot house steps, where, among mumble chatter about accountant analytics, probabilities, and the pros and cons of choosing options A vs. B, YHC heard the best out of context quote so far this year: “Runners are the worst!!” Two thumbs up.

    Choose your own adventure continued with option B, a merkin wave of 6.

    We wrapped up with “the hands of time”, where pax does one leg raise and holds the low position until each person completes the rep (Rinse and repeat 6 times), and 10 “contractually obligated” crunchy frogs.

    COT time, including count, Name-o-Rama, announcements, and prayer, where we noted keeping all those traveling in our thoughts.

    Reminder about a busy third full week of July:
    21st: Gnarly Nutria
    22nd: Mixer
    24th: Thibodeaux visit to see Goose

    A thank you to the 5 folks pushing me today and letting me lead, and to the rest of you for continuing to be quality individuals.

    SYITG

  • Rock me like a…post tropical cyclone? – from Russo

    Pax of 11 braved the 14 mph gusts and one major squall lasting 3.4 minutes at Granny’s this morning. YHC arrived early to do a little chalk drawing of the day’s activities and Hammer was already ready to get going.

    Warm up (all IC, 10-15x each)
    – seal jacks
    – imperial walkers
    – cherry pickers
    – high knees
    – windmills
    – arm circles

    Thing before the Thang
    Never one to shy away from a good mosey (ahem), YHC led a slow mosey around the warehouse and back through Granny’s columns (where Hammer had flashbacks to 1986 in the Lakeside mall arcade lining his quarters up to challenge any and all comers to Centipede).

    In tribute to Shooter and his reluctance to get calf implants, Pax did calf raises up and down the pilot house (3 for each step).

    Thang
    Ladder: (A) 10 exercises, descending rep count from 10 to 1
    (B) 10 rounds
    (C) 10 different starting exercises, so theoretically 55 reps for each movement, 550 total (MATH!!!)
    (D) Rotate clockwise positioning so each person calls out the next rep count and exercise

    – merkins
    – scissor kicks
    – jump squats
    – crab cakes
    – plank jacks (2 is 1)
    – big boy sit-ups
    – sister Mary Catherine’s
    – monkey humpers
    – shoulder tap merkins
    – crunchy frogs

    Post-Thang Thing
    Continuing with the theme of 5 (at marked market position 55 as noted by Chewy), YHC fondly remembers when Arby’s would fill up a growing boy with their “5 for $5” so pax did 5 reps of 5 exercises
    – freak nastys
    – circle ups
    – groiners
    – leg raises
    – suicide squats

    A plank for a minute or so of remaining time closed us out.

    COT, count, name o Rama, and prayer wrapped things up.

    A few reminders:
    (1) FIA/F3 mixer this Thursday!
    (2) Jose is shooting for 15 at the A1C on Friday!
    (3) Gnarly Nutria is scheduled for 7/21
    (4) Planning trip to help out our brother Goose down in God’s other country (Thibodeaux) on 7/24

    BONUS set list from this morning:

    Nutshell – Alice In Chains
    Over the Hills and Far Away – Led Zepplin
    The Zoo – Scorpions
    Broken – Seether
    Money Talks – AC/DC
    Psycho Killer – Talking Heads
    Policy of Truth – Depeche Mode
    Wheels – Foo Fighters
    Little Things – Bush
    Dead Man’s Party – Oingo Boingo

    As always, thank you all for joining me, letting me lead, and helping with that task throughout, but mostly for continuing to entertain me as we make sweat angels. SYITG

  • How to Not Win Friends and Influence People – from The Hammer

    On Friday afternoon, as my thoughts strayed from work, and found their way to my F3 brothers, I noted Bushwhacker’s bat signal that the Lakefront had no Q for the following day. Unacceptable! I leapt at the opportunity to lead such finely honed machines and volunteered to take the proverbial bull by the horns.

    Later that Friday evening, as Bushwhacker destroyed me in Pickleball while local pros Chewy and Nacho gave YHC pity looks, we discussed the following morning’s beatdown. Shortly thereafter, Zoolander texted to inquire if the beatdown would be “burpee heavy”, as he was already 2 scotches in. Apparently YHC’s reputation for continual, repeated, full body movement exercises is well-established because he later assured me he cut himself off at 5, though I thought I detected a faint Highlands brogue in his speech.

    Anyway, 15 strong, including FNGs (Xerxes and Snapper) posted. And away we go…

    Warm Up:

    SSH x 15
    Butt Kicks x 10
    Cherry Pickers x 10
    Arm Circles x 10
    I think one more exercise…

    Thang:

    Mosey towards the beach, stop at Noah’s Ark for 15 Derkins, 15 Irkins oyo…then continue to the beach for…the most intense Battle of the Poles since Jaworski and Bartowski faced off in the early 80s.

    We split into teams of 2, though this was an individual exercise. To quote those motivational sages of Rocky lore, Survivor, “Its you against you”, and “though his body says stop, his spirit cries, NEVER!”

    The Main Event:
    Descending ladder of 8 count body builders. YHC did this once in my spare time and hated it, so I knew others would feel likewise. It goes like this — Each 8 count bodybuilder consists of merkin, plank jack, and groiner movements, so we began descending rounds from 10 to 1.
    Round 1: 10 bodybuilders (Each bodybuilder required 10 reps each of merkins/plank jack/groiners). Thus, to complete this round, one would have done 100 of each movement (10×10).

    Good news: Each round descended by one not only in bodybuilders, but also reps of each movement, thus:
    Round 2: 9 BBs (9 of each movement per rep = 81 each of Merks/PJ/Groiners)
    Round 3: 8 BBs (64 merks/PJ/Groiners)
    Round 3: 7 BBs (49 each)
    …you get the picture. By the Round of 5, it was actually quite refreshing.
    For those that finished, like Sir Whacker, I believe that translated to 387 reps of each movement. (check my math)

    Between each round, we ran about 50 yards to tag a swingset pole and run back.

    We called it about 7:23, and did an Indian Run back to the flag. Said Pledge of Allegiance, and moved our minds and hearts upon the heroic men and women who gave it all so we have the luxury to recreationally torture ourselves. Though best known for one of the most annoying earworms of the early 90s, Billy Ray Cyrus got it right in his song “Some Gave All”:

    “All gave some, but some gave all. Some stood true for the red, white, and blue, and some had to fall. If you ever think of me, think of all your liberty and recall…some gave all”

    YHC prayed us out, lifting up brothers Hog’s Breath, Jose, and welcoming FNGs Xerxes and Snapper. Welcome guys!

    Thanks for letting me lead. It is always a privilege. God Bless!

  • Northshore H8! Practically Perfect in Every Way – from TurboTax

    21 PAX posted for the fourth semi-annual and second official Northshore H8! which, like Mary Poppins, was practically perfect in every way. The weather was great, the course was marked clearly and the PAX were motivated. Plus everyone knew that whatever we did it would be at least .01% better than anything the Southshore could accomplish. We have the Freedom Hammer to prove it.

    Anywho…we hit it hard. Reputations were burnished, feelings were hurt and everyone seemed to get their money’s worth. Several PAX completed eight laps and those that didn’t weren’t far behind. Except, of course, for Akbar who very conveniently was “injured.” YHC didn’t see any doctor’s note…just sayin.

    8 laps translates to 3.2 miles running, 550 yards of bear crawls, 36 burpees and 120 hand release Merkins. Not too shabby.

    So rest up for 6 months, guys, and we’ll test ourselves again in November. Thanks for letting me lead. Over and out.

  • – from Bushwacker

    As I stood in the gloom and watched the the headlights roll in, I thought about all of the “regulars” I was going to see at Granny’s. And when the PAX circled up, including Chewy doing his best Cowbell impression, I didn’t see ANY regulars…all I saw were a group of HIMs ready to start their day off with an offering to the gods of sweat and pain! And thoug YHC brought every excuse as to why this beatdown would be “a little less intense”, the PAX brought their A game all the same.

    WARMORAMA

    All IC x10:

    SSH
    High Knees
    Butt Kicks
    …? (sorry I went on to lead PT for my fellow recruits and have become confused)

    THANG
    But anyhoo…We broke into groups of 2 and reported to either the benches, the pillars or the stairs. Different exercise at each station and rotate several times.
    Benches – Freak Nasties
    Pillars – Squats
    Stairs – Bunny Hops

    SECOND EVOLUTION

    Benches – 100s
    Pillars – Tuck Jumps
    Stairs – run up, 5 burpees, around tower, 5 burpees and down

    THIRD EVOLUTION

    Benches – Freddy Mercuries
    Pillars – Lunge Walks
    Stairs – run up and down twice

    COT

    Count and name, with Chewy praying us out. Thanks for following the gimp of my lead gents.

    See yall at the H8!……?

  • We Interrupt This Broadcast – from Grundy

    Bushwacker:
    Welcome to the Zoo-rich classic everyone and thank you for tuning in! Excited is just not a big enough of a word to accurately describe how I’m feeling today.

    Jose-10k:
    You took the words right out of my mouth Wacker. Covid-19 took many things from us, but I think we can all agree that it crossed the line when it forced the Zoo-rich classic to be cancelled in 2020.

    Bushwacker:
    You got that right. It was tragic. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that this event might be the biggest source of hope and inspiration for America.

    Jose-10k: AND THE WORLD!

    Bushwacker: So here we are. The moment we have been waiting for for over 2 years. It is time for the Zoo-rich classic! And nothing, I MEAN NOTHING, can stop this thing from happe…

    We interrupt this broadcast to inform you that the Zoo-rich classic is currently in a weather delay and has been officially postponed until 5/1/2021. We thank you for your patience and do hope you enjoy today’s programming brought to you by the washed up wanna-be trainer Grundy.

    The Warm-Up

    We started with the following exercises in-cadence:
    * SSH
    * Seal Jacks
    * Windmills
    * Imperial Walkers
    * Cherry Pickers
    *Arm-Circles

    We continued with the warm-up by lining up on the base line in a bear crawl formation. We did a alligator crawl together across the court where we stopped to do 2 merkins every third movement.

    The next sequence turned out to be way harder than the Q anticipated. We split the group in half and each took a corner of the basketball court. We went around the court in circles doing gorilla crawls from baseline to baseline, and side crawls between the two baselines. We went for 10 minutes which worked out to be 4 trips around the court (after 2 trips we went the opposite counter clockwise). I definitely didn’t anticipate it being that difficult in my head when I made it up. Live and learn.

    The Main Event

    We walked over to grab the cinderblocks for what was the main thing the Q wanted to do that day. It was an exercise sequence first introduced to me by an Israeli personal trainer named Sagi Kalev. In it, the Q almost splashed merlot after attempting it for the first time. In the exercise Sagi gave some incredible advice, he said “When you feel like you can’t go anymore and you want to drop the weight and quit, what you need to do is… NOT QUIT!!!”

    The Q couldn’t offer any better advice to the PAX than that. Let’s do this thing!

    In this sequence the first step is to assume a lunged position over the cinderblock. Next you grab the block overhand using the opposite hand of your outstretched leg while the other hand grabs the backside underhanded. Straighten your back and try to keep the weight as much as you can to be right underneath your outstretched leg so when you straighten your leg in the lunge, the weight will hit the middle of your hamstring. As soon as you begin holding the weight underneath like that, your leg gets put into a tension that will not be relieved due to its positioning until you drop the weight. It makes it very difficult to cheat.

    The sequence then begins by doing 7 reps of the lunge by straightening your leg until the coupon hits your hamstring. After the 7 reps you go back to the starting position and begin a 10 count hold. (REPEAT SEQUENCE FOR 7 ROUNDS (COUGH COUGH sometimes 8 rounds)…

    We didn’t have enough cinderblocks for everyone to do the sequence at the same time so half the group did merkins and held a plank in the same cadence as everyone else. Rinsed and repeated on the opposite leg (and did squats and al gores the second round instead of merkins)

    Great job men!

    We walked back over to center court and did a core sequence that got named “Slot Machines” which really turned out to be quite effective.

    We went back to the monkey bars and did some forearm and grip training by hanging on a bar for different lengths of time interspersed with merkins.

    We circled up, counted off, and Waterpik closed us out.

    (Now back to your regularly scheduled programming. We thank you for your patience. Enjoy the Zoo-rich Classic)

    …ning!!!!