F3 New Orleans

Tag: Grundy

  • When Life Gives You Cinderblocks…

    Everyone can finish the saying, “When life gives you lemons…”. But not everyone knows how to complete the saying, “When life gives you cinderblocks….” So let YHC help everyone out; “when life gives you cinderblocks, you use them in your workouts!!!”

    The PAX learned the truth of this saying this morning in a more than intellectual level. And even though this workout was very difficult, I would argue that all the blame should be placed on TurboTax. For he’s the one who lent me his cinderblocks. I take no responsibility, Turbo should have known better.

    So after a disclaimer was given, the fun began.

    Warmup

    Side straddle hop In cadence to 52! I wanted the pax to remember Dredd’s saying when he came down for our GrowRuck, “Be prepared for the expected, but be ready for the unexpected.” Doing side straddle hops to 52 definitely drove that idea home.

    Then we did:

    Windmills in cadence, and a shoulder series warmup in cadence.

    The Thang

    Moseyed to the opening before the bridge where the Grundymobile was parked with the aforementioned cinderblocks. But first we did something called the welsh dragons.

    Welsh Dragons: Remain in plank position the whole time. Bear crawl forward 4 steps, do 1 merkin, 1 plank jack, and tap the BACK of each shoulder 1 time. Repeat adding 1 rep to each exercise each time – bear crawl forward 4 steps, do 2 merkins, 2 plank jacks, 2 sets of back of shoulder taps… etc. We went until We reached 10 reps each and covered 30-50 feet.

    Then the Q realized he had left the keys to his car back at the flag… So the Pax got a 5 minute plank/rest while the Q ran back to grab them. I’m sure everyone held a plank the whole time…

    Upon returning, the grundymobile was opened and the cinderblocks were distributed. It was time for the main event. Everyone partnered up (some teams had 3 people), and we did a Dora 1, 2, 3 with cinderblocks. Round 1 (100 step ups on to the sea wall with the cinderblock) partner 2 ran to the walkway and did 3 burpees and returned to take over the rep count. Round 2 (200 kettlebell swings), and round 3 (300 overhead presses).

    There was much pain involved but kudos to all of the pax for pushing through! We returned the cinderblocks and moseyed/walked back to the flag for some Mary.

    Like the beginning of the workout, be ready for anything. Like Little Manny crunches in cadence to 53!!!

    Circled it up and Manny closed us out wonderfully.

    Great job everyone!

    Until next time, Grundy

  • F2 With the boys

    Warmup– SSH, Windmills, Toe Touches, Mummy Walk,

    Main Event–10 minute circuit– 10 of each, Squats, Merkins, Scissor Kicks, LBC’s. Include stair run and 50 meter run.

    Move on to arm presses and extended arm rotations.

    Mosey back for some cool down exercises.

    Prayer led by Grundy then on to the Top Room for some refreshments

  • Twenty Hate

    YHC rolled up to The Gipper in the Gloom this morning armed with the knowledge that Grundy turns 28 years old today. What better present could YHC bestow than a proper beat down? So once the preliminaries were out of the way, the birthday celebration began with a warmup of

    28 Seal Jacks IC and 28 Toe Touches IC followed by the first of four 70 second front planks

    Mosey to the back of the Justice Center where YHC deployed a quick feet ladder a few yards in front of the stairs. The PAX then executed some agility drills:

    two feet every hole then one foot every step up the stairs, leading with the right foot on the first two trips and the left foot for the next two trips

    two feet in and one foot out then one foot every other step up the stairs, again leading with the right foot for the first two trips and the left for the next two

    hop scotch through the ladder then two foot hops every step up the stairs, leading with the right foot for the first two trips and then left for the next two

    lateral one foot hops through the ladder then crossover run up the stairs, leading with the right foot for the first two trips and then left for the next two

    The PAX then hit their second 70 second front plank, made their way to the North side of the Justice Center for 4 sets of 7 T Merkins punctuated by 28 yard sprints, and then hit their third 70 second front plank.

    Mosey back to the South side benches for 4 sets of 7 lateral box jumps separated by 28 yard sprints.

    Return to the quick feet ladder for a four rounds of high knees through the ladder followed by a jog up the stairs and then a single depth jump on the way down the stairs and four rounds of two feet every hole moving laterally and then sprinting up the stairs as quickly as possible.

    Last 70 second front plank, giving us a total of 280 seconds in the front plank position on the day (leaving our ISI participants with only 20 seconds to complete on their own to punch today’s 300 second ticket), and then return to the trailhead with a mosey.

    4 way Jane Fonda (straight leg, forward circles, backwards circles and pulses) for 7 reps each, 28 Scuba Steves IC, and 28 Nolan Ryans each side IC and this morning’s twenty hate birthday celebration was complete.

    Nameorama, countorama and a short prayer to wrap things up.

    Thanks for letting me lead today guys and Happy Birthday Grundy!

    Next Wednesday is Einstein’s 3rd year anniversary Q. Don’t miss it!

  • ACME Round Robin

    Eight PAX arrived in the Gloom at The Gipper this morning only to learn that their favorite out of work hairdresser had been called away from his Q duties for, get this, work. Those who do not know him better might think that “work” is his euphemism for “fartsack” but they would be mistaken. When Hollywood calls, real life movie editors must respond, Q duties notwithstanding. So there we were left in the Gloom to our own devices.

    Not one to let a leadership void go unfilled, Shooter stepped up to the plate to suggest a Round Robin Q. The Mumble Chatter of assent was heard by all and then Shooter chose the magic number of twelve and got us started with a warmup of 12 reps IC of windmills, toe touches, imperial squat walkers and side straddle hops.

    Blood flowing, we moseyed to Bedrock for an appointment with coupons. After 12 IC each of OH presses, rows, curls, chest presses, chest presses with legs at 6 inches, triceps kickbacks, OH tricep extensions and lateral arm raises, we shed our coupons and headed over to the back of the Justice Center where YHC picked up the torch.

    There, the PAX partnered up for rounds of Wile E. Coyote, coupled with butt kicks, high knees and ice skater hops. Partner one made his way up the Justice Center ramp suspended with hands and feet only on the railings (a suspended lateral plank walk with consequences) while partner two performed the requisite butt kicks. Flip flop with your partner and then rinse and repeat for two more rounds substituting high knees and ice skater hops for butt kicks. YHC has loved the Wile E. Coyote since experiencing it at a Charlotte Metro beat down and hopes to share the pain with the rest of the PAX at his earliest opportunity.

    Jose 10k is somewhat glum about the possibility of more

    Cowbell then confidently assumed the mantle of leadership and mosied the PAX to the top of the Justice Center parking garage. We promptly partnered up again for a Dora 1-2-3 of Putins (100), Merkins (200) and LBCs (300), punctuated with trips to and from the nearest light pole with 3 burpees at each turnaround.

    The sweaty and heavy breathing PAX then made their way back to The Gipper for the COT. We would have made you proud this morning, Steve.

  • Boot, Scoot, and Burpee

    It was F3 Northshore’s own ne’er-present Ocho that EH’d YHC exactly a year ago. The High Impact Men of this group routinely post to support each other and lift each other up, day in and day out. Despite the broken leg and ankle, there was no way YHC was going to give up his anniversary Q and miss out on celebrating this gift of F3. So, with QIC donning a Boot and a Knee Scooter, we got started with a long “warm up”:

    12 x Toe Touches

    12 x Arm Circles

    12 x Gas Pumps

    12 x Putins

    12 x Scissors

    12 x Heels to Heaven

    12 x Air Presses

    12 x Oblique V-Ups

    12 x Little Manny Crunches

    12 x Crunchy Frog

    12 x Freddy Mercuries

    12 x Van Gohdas

    12ish Flutter Kicks

    12 x Morrocan Night Clubs

    12 x Lazy Peter Parkers

    12 x Scorpion Kicks

    12 x LBCs

    12 x Cherry Pickers

    12 x Cherry Pickers

    …and 1 Burpee

    Short scoot toward Mississippi and we circled up for some high rep Mucho Chesto:

    18 x Merkins

    18 x Wide Merkins

    18 x Diamond Merkins

    18 x Stagger Left Merkins

    18 x Stagger Right Merkins

    …followed by 12s. Why 12, and not 11 asks Jose 10k. Because that’s how many screws are in the old kicker, Jose.

    We partnered into groups of 3 and completed Freak Nasties on the Lake Wall and Big Boy Sit Ups on the side walk with 2 Partners carrying the third in between. Grundy and Toto were great sports as they quickly learned that they’d be carrying QIC for each run. Thanks guys!

    Circled up for a Mucho Chesto bonus:

    12 x Military Merkins

    12 x Makhtar N’ Merkins (5 count?, 6 count?…who’s counting?)

    12 x Irkins

    12 x Carolina Drydocks

    12 x Dirkins

    Back to the shovel flag for some Mary:

    Hello Dollies

    Jane Fondas (Left)

    Abrinome

    H2H Freddy Mercuries

    Wife Pleasers (grunted out by Sparky)

    Jane Fondas (Right)

    100s

    …and 1 Burpee

    Counterama; Name-orama; Maverick prayed out the group of 21 PAX. Thanks for following my handicapped lead, men. SYITG.

  • Everybody Partner Up!… Well That’s Not Gonna Work

    Building a workout can sometimes require some pretty big assumptions. Asking yourself how many people will be there by mentally making a checklist of names. Well this Marsh, I didn’t quite make the best assumptions and had a workout in mind that required everyone to partner up for the majority of what I had in mind. With three people there, there had to be a slight change to the initial strategy. What followed was still quite a fun beatdown.

    Steve and Waterpick were at center court and already started to warmup as the Q was 1 minute late (no one gasps in surprise). After we concluded with some traditional warmup sequences I quickly introduced the “proper pushup” which would make an appearance in the next event.

    A proper pushup is when drop into a standard push-up until your chest touches the ground. Make sure your hips stay off the ground, creating a bridge between chest and toes. Stretch both arms out to the side. Bring arms back to push-up position, come up and return to plank.

    This type of merkin ensures that your form stays true on all reps. Cowbell would be pleased.

    First we did a Colonel Trautman. Pair up (or three people pair for us) and one partner runs 20 yards to the pull up bar and do 3 pull ups while the other partner does 5 proper pushups and then holds a plank until their partner returns. And you do as many sets as you can with in the time frame. We did this for 10 minutes.

    Next we did a lazy dora. An estranged and despised relative of Dora 1-2-3. Partner up. Partners perform 100 Merkins, 200 LBCs, & 300 Squats as a team. Here’s the catch…no running. P1 starts with 10 Merkins while P2 planks, then switch. Continue switching between Merkins and plank until 100 total Merkins reached. Next, while P1 does 20 LBCs, P2 performs a 6″ leg hold until P1 is finished, then switch. Continue switching until all 200 LBCs are completed. Finally, P1 does 25 squats while P2 does squat hold, then switch. Continue switching until 300 total squats are completed.

    We continued this sequence with freak nasties to 200 reps.

    We then concluded with 5 minutes of mary, counted off, and Waterpik prayed us out.

    Thanks gentlemen for making sure I was not alone today. Partner exercises alone wouldn’t work at all!

    Until next time,
    Grundy

  • To Keep the Backblast Short…

    Bushwacker lamented that he had yet to do a workout where the Pax does one thing for the duration of the workout. It’s a simple idea but it can be tough to find that right workout that fits the time frame just right. I drill into the f3 exercise list searching for that perfect but elusive combination of a tough routine that will take the whole time. One of the reasons I particularly like doing this is that it can keep the backblast short. I’m all for that! Luckily, I was able to find one for this beatdown.

    After a warmup of IC Seal Jack’s, windmills, cherry pickers, and high knees, the Pax moseyed the shortest distance possibly ever in F3 history (about 50 feet) to diagon alley. If you are wondering what diagon alley is, it’s what I’m starting to call the alley that connects the trailhead and the justice center. Deal with it…

    We did walk like an Egyptian down the alley to the stop sign. This exercise is an indian run concept using lunges and holding them until the entire group moves forward one leg at a time with the person in the back running to the front. The cycle continues until said destination is reached.

    We then made our way to the justice center for the main event. The exercise was a simple 11 series with jump squats and merkins, the caveat is that you do the jump squats in the back of the justice center and the merkins in the front. In between you do an indian run as a group.

    Everyone did a great job and all told the distance of the indian runs was over 2 and a half miles!!!

    After our last lap we made our way back to the flag where we circled it up, counted off, and cowbell prayed us out.

    What an honor it is to lead. Thanks for letting me do that.

    Until next time,

    Grundy

  • The Bear Necessities (Song)

    Look for the bear necessities
    The simple bear necessities
    Forget about your whining and your strife
    I mean the bear necessities
    Old Grundy’s evil recipes
    That brings the bear necessities to life

    Wherever I wander, wherever I roam
    I couldn’t be fonder, of my F3 bro’s
    The PAX as fussy as can be
    And to think it’s all because of me
    When they looked into the groupme chats
    And took a glance at the glove demands
    Then said, maybe I’ll fartsack this too…

    The bear necessities of life will come find you
    They’ll come find you! (Looking at you EIEI)

    Look for the bear necessities
    The “simple” bear necessities
    500 yards of bear crawls will suffice
    I mean the bear necessities
    Then after we can rest at ease
    With just the bear necessities of life. (Coffee and F2)
    With just those bear necessities of life!!!

    Hope you enjoyed the song! I’ll be releasing an album of all of my F3 hits coming this Fall.

    YHC thought that all of us needed a good reminder of just how hard a Saturday F3 beatdown could be. Those 15 extra minutes can be absolutely brutal. We always need that reminder.

    With that in mind, this beatdown was going to bring a pain that will never be forgotten.

    #NeverForget

    Warmup

    SSH 20 IC
    Seal Jacks 20 IC
    Shoulder Series
    Carolina Dry Docks 10 IC

    Mosey to the open field for the main event.

    THE THANG

    FIVE ROUNDS:
    20x SQUAT JUMPS
    50 YARD BEAR CRAWL

    Before we moved onto the next set of crawls we hit core with some Reverse Manny Crunches and LBCs.

    FOUR ROUNDS:
    20x SPLIT JUMP each side (sister mary catherines)
    40 YARD BEAR CRAWL

    THREE ROUNDS:
    20x BURPEE
    30 YARD BEAR CRAWL

    We formed two lines and staggered back indian run style to the flag. After we got back, an excellent display of what F3 is all about occurred with many men going back to leave no F3 man behind.

    We circled up and counted off and Butt Splice prayed us out.

    I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of this group of the highest quality men and to be pushed beyond what I believe is possible. It’s an absolute honor to be able to lead you men any opportunity I get.

    Until next time (after I’ve recovered from this one…)

    Grundy

  • Memorial Day Murph at the Marsh

    Fourteen men posted this morning to pay their respects to Lt. Michael Murphy and the millions of others who have sacrificed everything for our country.    To honor that sacrifice, we did The Murph.

    YHC gave a quick recap of Lt. Michael Murphy’s story – he was part of a four-man Navy Seal team that was overwhelmed by Taliban forces in Asadabad, Afghanistan.  All four men had already been wounded and, unable to radio for help from their sheltered mountainside position, it was Lt. Murphy who opened himself to more gunfire in order to successfully make the call.  In fact, after being shot in the back and dropping the radio, he picked it back up and finished the call before returning to the fight. He saved one man’s life that day.

    The crazy thing is just how many similar stories there are.  There’s PFC Ross McGinnis, 19, who deliberately threw himself onto a grenade in Iraq to save all four people in his vehicle.  Or Sergeant Henry Johnson, part of the Harlem Hellfighters, who suffered 21 wounds while rescuing a soldier and repelling a German raid in WWI. Or 1st Lt Jack Lummus who continued to give orders at Iwo Jima after losing both legs to a landmine.  The list goes on and on.  And today, we should take a minute while we are at our family BBQ’s or poolside and reconnect with that history and remember the legacy of these heroes.

    With that in mind, we began the simple benchmark workout:

    • 1 mile run
    • 100 pull-ups
    • 200 merkins
    • 300 squats
    • 1 mile run

    The PAX broke up the middle section into 20 rounds of 5 pull-ups / 10 merkins / 15 squats, then hit the final run hard, finishing right around 50 minutes.  COT and Grundy prayed us out.

    It was an impressive sight to see so many men post to the Milestone Marsh at 0500 on their Monday off.  For me, the legacy of our fallen heroes is folded into the DNA of F3.  I see the qualities of leadership and selflessness spreading across F3 nation as if they’re contagious.   And it’s not simply as a group, but the individual men of F3 all seem to embody that spirit personally.  And isn’t that the best way to remember our heroes, to try and embody their greatest qualities?  Thank you men for the remarkable effort, and enjoy your Memorial Day!

  • Fuzzy Balls

    22 PAX strong on the Mandeville Lakefront. 23 if you count Brat who joined us for a little foreplay as he works his way off injured reserve. Brat, an officer with the NOPD, injured himself successfully tackling and arresting a bad guy. The PAX’s consensus is that he should use a Tazer next time Indiana Jones style or perhaps transfer to a Northshore police agency where a polite request to stop, issued with an English accent, is all that is required to apprehend a criminal.

    Kicked things off with warmup of seal jacks, toe touches, SSHs, imperial walkers, merkins, and Jane Fondas. We then divided into three teams, and YHC retrieved his bag and revealed his fuzzy balls.

    Each team received a fuzzy tennis ball (yes, YHC had three) and instructions to race with it about a half mile west along the Lakefront to the Shaft. To begin, there were only three rules: first, you cannot run if you are holding the ball; second, no pass backs-you cannot receive a pass back from the man you just passed to; and third, the entire team had to stop dead and perform five burpees every time the ball touched the ground before proceeding. Then Cowbell whipped a legal pad out of his briefcase and starting asking questions and for clarification on a few items so we ended up with a few more rules. No wonder you guys don’t get anything done on the Southshore.

    Circled up upon arrival at the Shaft for T merkins and alternating Supermans..

    Back to the races with another tennis ball sprint further westward along the Lakefront to the playground where we circled up for prisoner squats, hand release merkins and crab cakes.

    Raced back eastward with our fuzzy balls to the Shaft for a third COP consisting of a merkin wave, lunges, Supermans, arm circles, overhead hand claps, and air presses.

    One final race back to the shovel flag, wrapping things up with some Mary…single leg raises, scuba Steves and a 60 second plank.

    Countorama, nameorama and Phoenix prayed us out on the way to the coffeeteria.

    Thanks for letting me lead, guys, and thanks for competing so earnestly in the silly tennis ball game.