Warmup after short mosey
Competitive Games:
Bear crawl tag team around great lawn
rest of team imp walker
Jump rope 500 reps
switch when stops or missing
Waiting pax big bois
Rifle carry coupon tag team 3x round great lawn
run with coupon pax
Frisbee relay
drop? Return to start and do 5 burpees
You can play defense
Soccer
back and forth til goal
Tug of war
Lagniappe:
jack webb descend
Mary
Conditions – Clear, 75-ish degrees F
The Thang
Quick Mosey over to the peristyle for a warmup:
Hip Circles (clockwise) x 10 (in cadence)
Hip Circles (counterclockwise) x 10 (in cadence)
Abe Vigodas x 10 (in cadence)
Grass Grabber x 10 (in cadence)
SSH x 30 (in cadence)
Peter Parker x 20 (in cadence)
Plan Jacks x 20 (in cadence)
8-Counts x 10 (in cadence)
Moseyed over to the Great Lawn for a round of the motivator (deconstructed SSH counting down from 10), then split into two teams for 10-ish minutes of ultimate frisbee.
Lined up into two lines for a frisbee-equipped Indian run – person sprinting would run ahead by 10-15 yards, person in front would throw frisbee. Catch = no penalty. Drop = 3 burpees for ALL PAX. Did this all the way to Stonehenge.
At Stonehenge, did a round of Jack Webbs, starting from 1-5 merkins, then incremented by 5 to 10 and 15. Back on feet for a round of the Mutilator (Al Gore countdown, Squats, Jump Squats), counting down from 10.
Continued the mosey to the museum steps for Deep Sea Divers (downward plank going down the steps, starting at the top, hip slappers, taking a step down after each round until the bottom).
Moved over to the field for some balance-y stuff:
Left knee hold (right leg down) – 60 seconds
Right knee hold (left leg down) – 60 seconds
Left knee front extension x 15 (In cadence)
Right knee front extension x 15 (In cadence)
Left knee side extension x 15 (In cadence)
Right knee side extension x 15 (In cadence)
Left knee back extension x 15 (In cadence)
Right knee back extension x 15 (In cadence)
Frisbee Indian run back to Great Lawn for another 5-10 minutes of ultimate frisbee for the finish. Back to flag for COT, coffee afterwards @ PJ’s.
The Tchopitoulos Bar-a-thon the night before very likely led to a light showing at the Mothership. A few beers, some miles and good company is always a good thing. But this rounded out YHCs birthday week, so a few beers wasn’t going to stop this guy.
Lucky for YHC, Igor and Catfish took the DRP and showed up. Rudy, El Guapo and Hawgcycle went running.
Warmup with regular stuff and a new routine, which we’ll call the mutilator. It’s a series of Al Gore, squats and jump squats. There was much joy.
BLIMPS around the Great Lawn.
Next was Bill Murray, aka Groundhog Day. 5 laps around the great lawn, stopping for the following after each lap:
10 burpees, 10 BBSU, 10 Merkins, 10 squats
Time for our resident detective, Jack Webb.
Finish with some Mary, pax choice.
CoT then Coffeteria.
Thankful for another year with F3.
SYITG
Summertime humidity is rolling in. Gone are the glorious days of winter and spring (there was a spring, right?). 8 PAX started off at 6:30 for what would turn out to be a hot, sweaty celebration day.
Warm Up: Some slow count stretching, IW and SSH. Get the blood flowing. Get ready. FracSac and Triple Shift attempted valiantly to correct the Q’s cadence calls, but the Q would have none of that.
PAX – plank up while the Q explains the day. More griping about why the Q doesn’t have to do the planking. Answer: Because I’m the Q.
The theme for today: On This Day – May 6th.
Thing 1: Birthday Burpees. There are a wealth of options for celebrating birthdays on May 6th. Sigmund Freud, Orson Welles, Rudolph Valentino, Willie Mays, Tony Blair, George Clooney. But the PAX got to celebrate with Detroit’s own Bob Seger – turning 78 today.
Q up the tunes, starting with Hollywood Nights. Bob would serenade us throughout the morning.
EMOM – 78 burpees. 10 per minute for 7 minutes, finish with 8 on the 8th minute. Go.
Thing 2: Sports! Head out to the field where a baseball diamond was laid out. 90 feet is a lot farther than it looks on tv. What else happened today? (2 penalty burpees for incorrect guesses from the PAX). 1915 – Babe Ruth hit his first home run, guessed correctly by Heisenberg. We’ll take a home run trot… Bear Crawl the bases, 5 burpees at each base. Go. (100 burpees – done for the day).
and what else? in 1954, Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile barrier. Lets run the bases for 4 minutes, see how far you can get. Catfish led the way – getting about 6.5 laps done in 4 minutes. 1 mile would be about 15 laps…
Onward to the Rocks!
Thing 3: TV Shows. Pick a Friend (i.e., a partner) — 19 years ago was the last showing of “Friends”. 66 years ago was the last showing of “I Love Lucy”. So for today, Dora was renamed Lucy. 100 lunges, 150 merkins, 200 BBSU. PAX 2 timer – 5 each of overhead press, curl, row, and bench press. Go… (took a bit longer than expected – so we called it when Catfish and Heisenberg hit the finish line.
Thing 4: Launches! 2002 – SpaceX. 1998 – iMac. We’ll Launch our Rocks. From one tree line – launch the rock, lunge walk to it. Rinse and repeat to the far tree line and back.
Thing 4a: Failure to Launch – 1934, the Hindenberg. A real Quad Pleaser – 5 sets of 5 reps of Peoples Chair for 5 count followed by squat jump returning right back to peoples chair.
Return the rocks, and back to the flag.
COT: Several prayer requests offered. Thanks, Heisenberg for sharing with the PAX and letting us pray with and for you. And for all PAX in NOLA and elsewhere – lets them find comfort, strength and perseverence – through each other, through their faith, through us.
Great Coffee, especially watching the storm roll through!
Yesterday (April 14th) was 3rd anniversary of my dad’s passing. YHC brought some memories to the beatdown this am. At 628am, YHC opened up the Mini, asked everyone to grab a pair of bricks. At 630am, YHC turned on the 80s playlist, and the 13 PAX moseyed (with their bricks) to the Peristyle.
But wait – Cheese Steak rolled in hot. YHC back to the car to get one more set of bricks. A few minutes later, our DR visitor from Chicago (Bob the Builder) rolled in. Hokie went for more bricks.
After a brief warmup (thank you Mahatma!), we got to work. We were going to visit a few places in the park. At each place, we’d have a cycle of exercises – 60 seconds on, 20 second rest.
Stop #1: The Peristyle with bricks. My father’s favorite evening night cap was a splash of Dewars. We still keep a bottle of it around with my family to periodically celebrate. 2 rounds of exercises to spell out DEWARS
Donkey Kicks
Eagle Wings (bat wings stuff – with bricks)
Wonderbra (peoples chair – then push the bricks out, then push’em up)
American Hammer
Rocky Balboa
Starfish crunch
Stop #2: Return the bricks to the Mini, and head to the rocks by the fountain. My father was an OB/GYN. His passion was delivering babies. What else delivers babies? 2 rounds of exercises (con roca) to spell out STORK
Squats
T-Merkins
Overhead Press
Rows
Kettlebell Swings
Triple Shift gratefully let YHC have a shot with TS’s rock while TS proceeded to one-arm Overhead Press YHC’s rock. Eventually, Frac relieved YHC.
Stop #3: Return the rocks, mosey to the little foundry. My father’s favorite treat that he introduced to my kids – the Peanut Butter and Butter sandwich (only to be made with spreadable tub butter). 2 rounds of PBB exercises
Pull Ups
Burpees
Big Boy Situps
Stop #4: Stop by the Tool Wall. As the cancer took his life, he lost strength in his legs. YHC will pay a bit of honor with some leg strengtheners.
Calf Raises
Monkey Humpers
Bonnie Blairs (modify to Lunges)
Calf Raises
Couldn’t get through 2 full rounds as. we were already late. Back to the flag – getting their about 5 minutes late. YHC didn’t apologize for the delay, as he didn’t feel bad about it.
Finished with our COT. Prayers offered for other PAX who also go through struggles with their aging parents and health concerns.
Thank you all for allowing me to celebrate my father’s life. He meant the world to me. I miss him daily. But I know he has moved on to the next phase of his life, and I know I will be rejoining him again one day.
Leave no man behind, but leave no man where you find him
Warm up in the Peristyle – Imperial Walkers, Grass Grabbers, Abe Vigoda, Peter Parkers, Parker Peters, Arm Circles, 8 Count Body Builders.
Leave No Man Behind – We separated into three groups. Group one carried the 80lb sand medicine ball (“Aponi”), 60lb sandbag (“Sandy”), and a 40lb sandbag (I didn’t catch the name) towards the Foundry. In contrast, the other two groups moseyed a certain distance, then performed three burpees and swept back to meet the group with the coupons. This was repeated as each group took turns carrying coupons or running/Burpees/sweeping the six until we arrived at the Foundry.
Foundry – keeping our groups, we had stations of merkins, pull-ups, lunges, and the timer of running to the walking path and performing three burpees. Those looking for additional work performed the timer with sandbags. We completed three rounds.
Tool Wall – using the one group carries and two groups sweep we moved to the tool wall for some calf work.
Great Lawn –Again, alternating groups with coupons, we moved from the Tool Wall to the Great Lawn for some mary and then back to the flag with a bit of time for some burpees.
COT – Welcome down range Carpool (Northshore, now Woodlands Tx) and Chick (San Antonio, now Chicago), and FNG Clouseau, and welcome back Kotter to Kimchi.
Notes
Aponi (as suggested by ChatGPT) – “Aponi,” which means “butterfly” and is associated with healing and transformation in several Native American cultures. The name is often given to girls with the hope that they will grow up to become healers or medicine women.
TClaps to Mahatma for performing lunges with Aponi and KimChi for his triumphant return.
Conditions – A cool 60-ish degrees
The Thang
Quick Mosey over to the peristyle for a warmup:
SSH x 30 (in cadence)
Abe Vigodas x 10 (in cadence)
Grass Grabber x 10 (in cadence)
8-Counts x 15 (in cadence)
Peter Parker Peters x 20 (in cadence)
Moseyed over to the Great Lawn and partnered up for BOMBS (50 burpees, 100 overhead claps, 150 merkins, 200 big boys, 250 squats). One partner ran to other side, did three 8-counts, then ran back while other exercised. Also got in some some SSH, LBTs, and Dying Cockroaches waiting for the six
Moseyed to the peristyle/bench area for some leg action:
Bulgarians x 20 (in cadence)
Side Leg Lifts x 20 (in cadence)
Bulgarians other leg x 20 (in cadence)
Side Leg Lifts other leg x 20 (in cadence)
Bonnie Blairs x 20 (in cadence)
Back Leg Lifts x 20 (in cadence)
Irkins x 20 (in cadence)
Back Leg Lifts other leg x 20 (in cadence)
Imperial Squat Walkers x 20 (in cadence)
On to sixes for ten Dr. W’s (in cadence), then back to flag zone for CoT.
Pax split into tag teams of 4 and competed to bear crawl pushing two 5 gallon water jugs around the perimeter of the great lawn. Did 100 big bois. Pax choice of exercises with rocks. 6 mins of jump rope.
Brisk Mothership morning. 12 PAX in the cool gloom came out to better themselves. YHC wanted to reward them – and what better way than with burpees.
Mosey over to the Peristyle for a quick warm up of some stretching and SSH/IW.
Thing 1: YHC went way back in the backblast archives looking for something new, and found what Reluctant Yankee termed “The Maverick” from July 2015. But – YHC wanted to one-up them. The Maverick was 11s. What one-ups 11s? A larger number. So in honor of the 220th anniversary of Louis XVI’s beheading – we went for 16s.
16 Squat Jumps to start, in the Peristyle. Run to the benches, stopping for 1 Hand Release Merkin on the way. Then 1 Dip. Return for 15/2/2. 14/3/3. You get the idea. That was a gasser… Way to go, SOGO and Mahatma (the early finishers) as they pushed the rest of us through to completion. Spaulding’s form was, as always, impeccable.
YHC was accused of running away, merely because he had to return to his car to get…. The Deck o’ Death. Mosey to the center of the newly-resurrected Great Lawn.
Thing 2: Hearts = Burpees, Diamonds = Squats, Clubs = Sit Ups, Spades = More Hand Release Merkins (Kennah Brah started griping about that early). Meanwhile, because Macgyver refused to pay attention, he drew a 5 burpee penalty while the rest of the PAX waited. Then the cards began. Out of the gate, Squats took the early lead. But then Hearts started showing. Again. And again. Forever it seemed.
20 mins later, 26 cards down, YHC called it – so we could get to the last thing. 12 of 26 cards were BurpeeHearts. Frac reported that we did a total of 91 burpees.
Thing 3: A few rounds of Tyson, with Core exercises. Sprint half-way on the lawn, 10 reps. Sprint to the end, 10 reps, Sprint halfway back, 10 reps, Sprint to the end, 10 reps. Start with V-Ups. YHC instructed PAX who finished first to keep going until the 6 finished 10 reps. Several of the PAX revolted – leading to a 5 Burpee penalty (96 burpees, YHC thought to himself).
Then we did rounds of Freddy Mercury, Wife Pleasers, and Hello Dolly. Heisenberg and Frac TRIED to get additional penalty burpees to hit 100. But YHC would not bite.
7:29 – time to head back to the flag. BUT WAIT: 3 more burpees, just because. 99 burpees total.
COT: Close up with a count-off and name-o-rama. Lots of stuff going on, especially running – Run Cajun Run, Krazy Ivan and City Pork. Several intentions – new life (congrats Disclaimer!) and sad passings. Prayers go with those heading to the next stage of life, and for comfort for those they have left (temporarily).
And prayers for Spaulding’s friend suffering from Shingles. PSA: The shingles vaccine. If you haven’t (looks askance at himself), please get it. It is painful and 100% unnecessary to suffer through. That is all.
6 men paid another tribute to F3 Cardinal by completing his VQ at the Mothership.
Warm-o-Roma
15- Side Straddles Hops
10- Tempo Merkins*
10- Flutter Kicks Double Count
10- Little Baby Arm Circles Forward
10- “ “ Backward
10- Hallujahs
10- Knoxville Cherry Pickers*
20 Sec. Samson Hold*
PHELPS it out
10- Willie Mayes Hayes
Workout
“Card’s Run and Repeat”
5- Burpees – Moment of silence. Burpee Counter 10
Big Boys
Heels to Heaven
Run to the opposite corner of the Great lawn and repeat (approximately 160 meters)
Run back to original corner of great lawn.
10- Burpees Burpee Counter 30
Little Baby Crunches
Mt. Climbers Double Count
Run to the other corner and repeat and run back
15- Burpees Burpee Counter 60
Air Squats
Freddy Mercury’s
Run to the other corner and repeat and run back
When you return hold squat until all Pax have finished
As a group if there is time
20- Burpees Burpee Counter 100
We continued beyond with the following as we still had 25 minutes to go.
Right leg power ups x 10
Left leg power up x 10
Dips x 10
Bulgarian split squats x 10 (Left and Right)
Bear crawl and burpees on the Great Lawn:
Bear crawl to tree 1 – 5 burpees
Bear crawl to tree 2 – 4 burpees
Continue until tree 5 – 1 burpee
120 Burpees total
Mary
COT where the Q read the piece from the Accidental Adventurer by Matt Crossman, aka F3 Ralph. F3 is a gift, and I’d be lost without you guys. Continue to share this gift with other men as it is needed.
I love each and every one of you.
SYITG
