Tag: JV

  • All Star Festivities (4 year anniversary) – from Russo

    Beautiful weather this morning topping out at 60 degrees. Flags came in quickly as Shooter and JV arrived early and off we went with the mumblechatter.

    Around 4 years ago, an offhand “You should join us” from Toto began my adventure with F3, so today I thought we’d honor those folks that have shaped our beatdowns and who continue to be positive role models for their friends, family, coworkers, and in their corner of the world. While certainly not the only ones, each of these men have had a favorable impact on my F3 experience and have helped me grow tremendously over he years, with plenty of room for more growth and learning to go. Despite objection, SmashMouth was NOT played.

    Warmup (mostly IC)
    – Sealjacks
    – Arm circles
    – Self love
    – Imperial squat walkers
    – Toe touches

    All Star recognition 1: Zoolander – the HIM most likely to EH someone (and then we never see them again) – Goofballs and then 5 knuckle merkins

    Thang
    All star Speedy – the Crazy Ivan Ringer – mosey to the gazebo

    All star recognition 3 and 4:
    Hammer: pushed me as hard mentally as I’ve ever been pushed by F3 with 1,000 burpees, and Grundy, whose cakewalk is the hardest non-Iron Pax I’ve ever been pushed – cakewalk of 5 merkins

    Mosey to the shaft for more All Star recognitions:

    WaterPik- King of Form: 10 8 count bodybuilders IC

    Moby: Leader of the chain gang – without his chain, we subbed with an Indian bear crawl

    Turbo: the Godfather – mosey back to the flag, teams of 3, passing the tennis balls (NOT golf balls). If the ball hits the ground, team performs 3 merkins (in honor of All Star Akbar: Mr. Merkin Trap). Many T claps to Wicket and JV for being in sync all the way, and leading like they’ve been QBs and/or WRs all their lives.

    On the wall, we honor All Star Bushwacker: King of the impromptu Q: 10 IC freak nastys and 10 durkins, rinse and repeat. We skipped the additional 15 rounds he made us do one week.

    Move to All Star Barely Legal: Who knew his crab walk skills? Crab walk to the street and back to the wall. Bird, I hope your hands are ok.

    Mosey around Noah’s Ark where we honored All Star Jose 10k: most Supportive, Mr. Will Do Anything Another Brother Asks, always one of the first to join in, NOT Mr. Grumble, who “won” White Elephant 2021, by doing cherry pickers while moseying.

    At the block, we stopped to honor All Star Cowbell, Prince of Punctuality: 25 crunchy frogs (just enough for Jose to note “He’s waiting for everyone to just stop”)

    Back at the sea wall, we honored (1) All Star Steve: Most likely to outwork you and smile the entire time: 5 Kraken burpees

    and then (2) All Star Shooter: Most 6 pickups (at least when I was 6): 10 donkey kicks, where MVP was Bird and his handstand yoga walk

    followed by (3) the Futures portion: the 2.0s

    – Pickax
    – Wicket
    – FNG Wookie!
    – Yoda
    – Pixie stick
    – Hazard
    – Chainsaw
    – Gilligan
    – Minnow
    – Bear
    – Trakbar
    – Grover (Welcome back!)
    – Machete

    In their honor we performed 26 Smurfjacks IC (13 x 2.0)

    Moving over to Rip’s, we paused for the In Memorium portion of the festivities, up the steps and back down to honor those that we hope rejoin us one day, including but not limited to:
    – Bypass
    – Butt paste
    – Mick
    – Stock boy
    – Coconuts
    – Amnesia
    – Bends
    – Slider
    – Toto
    – Ocho
    – Pelican
    – Pea shooter
    – Swoll patrol

    Back at the sea wall, it was my pleasure to honor All Star Manny: Encouragement personified, the first to tell me “Just keep coming” – 10 LMCs IC

    Quickly running out of time, we wrapped up with our final All Star: Maverick: the Music Man, who makes me hate Roxanne to this day. Performed to “She’s so Cold” by The Rolling Stones, high knees, with a squat every time you hear “hot” or “cold”.

    Mosey back to the flag where COT, count, Name-o-Rama, announcements, and prayer closed us out.

    Announcements about NOLA convergence next week, Bushwacker’s camping trip and wife’s birthday party, upcoming potential Halloween beatdown on Sunday 10/30, among others. Check Slack for more info.

    Special welcome to Wookie, Chewy’s 2.0 and our newest HIM.

    One final note: as each year passes, I remember less and less of that first October post back in 2018: pre-COVID, pre-Joe Burrow becoming Joe Burrow, pre- many of our newest brothers, 10 pounds lighter.

    I remember I was late, Buttsplice had Q, we did some yoga. But I’ll never forget feeling sore for at least 3.5 days after, and loving it. Doing something different. Outside with no weights.

    Not wanting to make that same mistake, lest I be judged, I was about 20 minutes early, either the next week or the week following that, and made the mistake of being TOO early, to where I joined the pre-Thang run and after about 40 yards, thought “This was a mistake”.

    But then either Tank or Shooter picked me up as the 6 (details aren’t important, because both have done it repeatedly and offered encouragement). Having started off on the wrong foot, not one but twice, would have normally sent me packing and wishing the group the best in future endeavors. But the encouragement sparked me. That kept me coming back.

    I said it last year, and the statement holds true: Because of what we do, and what our mission is, our reach extends beyond losing a few pounds, getting bigger arms for the gun shows, or finding our abdominal muscles again. If we’re doing it right, we’re improving confidence in those around us, encouraging each other to be impactful in our commmunity, and exemplifying Christ’s disciples in our words and actions. My prayer is that we keep doing that. Whatever “that” is, keep doing it. We’re doing something right.

    That’s my goal, and even if I fall short, I know I’ll have another opportunity to do it soon enough.

    Thank you for making that commitment and for all that you do. SYITG

  • Meet me at Messina and Monroe!! – from Shooter

    With humidity and an occasional drizzle 7 PAX converged on the Scramble for a mixup of sorts..
    Warmup consist of 12IC SSH, Toe Touches, Imperial walkers, Grass grabbers, Hillbillies and Windmills…

    Broke into 3 groups Ruckers, Runners and Joggers… Plan was to time out Russo and JV for 10 mins which would hopefully allow them time to get to Messina and Monroe.. Joggers took one direction and the runners another, but all meeting 10 mins later at the corner of Messina and Monroe.. Ruckers dropped their plates and the PAX enjoyed some slight Mosey then increases of 25, 50, 75 and 100 percent effort for roughly 100-150 yards returned with chatter and walk back to start.. R/R backdown and then commenced on our return to the AO..

    Overall felt effective and enjoyed the breakup from the norm…

    Appreciate the post and Russo praying out the PAX..

    Till the next Gloom 👍🏼👊🏼✌🏼!!!

  • Change of pace with the change in weather!! – from Shooter

    YHC loves the seasonal change to fall, there is much reward when you open the door and your not slammed by the heavy humidity that south LA can bring.. It certainly puts a pep in one’s step especially when there is running involved…
    Must give a BIG T👏🏼 to JV for posting even though a late night text from Akbar explaining he would not be rucking this morning and YHC EHing him into running..With a nice showing of PAX we broke into two groups..

    Warmup
    15IC SSH, Toe Touches, Windmill’s, Hillbillies, Imperial walkers and leg swings front/back left/right..

    Thang
    Speed group consisting of Waterpik, Bird, Cowbell and Zoolander journeyed the standard route with 2x through the loop..

    YHC, Chewy and JV to the point and returned to the AO.. Completed 50 SSH OYO, 25 Butt kicks OYO, 15 slow squats with 3 second hold at the bottom.. Targeted stretching and wrapped up with 25 LBCs OYO and 25 hands to heels..

    Appreciate Bird for the closeout and until the next Gloom 👍🏼👊🏼✌🏼!!

  • Squats and Merks, Cardio and Mary – from Russo

    We did indeed reach down into the 60s this morning at Granny’s (67 to be more precise), where a Fantastic Pax of 4 gathered to start their day. Really good mumblechatter today revolving mainly around Cobra Kai, driver’s ed, gambling with quarters, and good Hulu shows about drugs, with a special appearance by the lunge vs. squat debate.

    Warm up (all IC, 10x)
    – Good mornings
    – Cherry pickers
    – Arm circles
    – Toe touches
    – Imperial walkers
    – Self love

    Thang

    40 seconds Tabata – taking turns among Pax choosing between “Squats and Merks” and “Cardio and Mary”, flip a coin to determine which one of the two, then roll dice to determine the actual exercise.

    Choices:
    Squats (Heads) and Merks (Tails)

    2 – Bobby Hurley’s Knerkins
    3 – Jump squats Wide
    4 – Sumo squats. Diamond
    5 – hallelujah squats Split
    6 – Deep squats Side to side
    7- Side to side squats Partner
    8 – Tuck Jump T merkins
    9 – Split squats Merkin (normal)
    10 – Narrow squats. Wild card
    11 – Wild Card Wide
    12 – In and out squats Hand release

    Cardio (Heads) and Mary (Tails)

    2 – High knees Hello Dollies
    3 – Butt kicks Box cutters
    4 – SSHs Rosalitas
    5 – Wild card. Flutter kicks
    6 – Seal jacks. LBCs
    7- Suicides Big boi sit-ups
    8 – Back pedals Wild card
    9 – Karaoke. Leg raises
    10 – Goof balls Gas pumps
    11 – Plank jacks Heels to heaven
    12 – Moroccan night clubs Circle ups

    As promised, there were no burpees and moseying was kept to a minimum (although just barely meeting the “minimum” standard after the suicides).

    COT, Name-o-Rama, announcements, and prayer to close us out.

    Thanks for joining and reading. I’ll work on something even more complicated and with more props for next. SYITG

  • Squats and Merks, Cardio and Mary – from Russo

    We did indeed reach down into the 60s this morning at Granny’s (67 to be more precise), where a Fantastic Pax of 4 gathered to start their day. Really good mumblechatter today revolving mainly around Cobra Kai, driver’s ed, gambling with quarters, and good Hulu shows about drugs, with a special appearance by the lunge vs. squat debate.

    Warm up (all IC, 10x)
    – Good mornings
    – Cherry pickers
    – Arm circles
    – Toe touches
    – Imperial walkers
    – Self love

    Thang

    40 seconds Tabata – taking turns among Pax choosing between “Squats and Merks” and “Cardio and Mary”, flip a coin to determine which one of the two, then roll dice to determine the actual exercise.

    Choices:
    Squats (Heads) and Merks (Tails)

    2 – Bobby Hurley’s Knerkins
    3 – Jump squats Wide
    4 – Sumo squats. Diamond
    5 – hallelujah squats Split
    6 – Deep squats Side to side
    7- Side to side squats Partner
    8 – Tuck Jump T merkins
    9 – Split squats Merkin (normal)
    10 – Narrow squats. Wild card
    11 – Wild Card Wide
    12 – In and out squats Hand release

    Cardio (Heads) and Mary (Tails)

    2 – High knees Hello Dollies
    3 – Butt kicks Box cutters
    4 – SSHs Rosalitas
    5 – Wild card. Flutter kicks
    6 – Seal jacks. LBCs
    7- Suicides Big boi sit-ups
    8 – Back pedals Wild card
    9 – Karaoke. Leg raises
    10 – Goof balls Gas pumps
    11 – Plank jacks Heels to heaven
    12 – Moroccan night clubs Circle ups

    As promised, there were no burpees and moseying was kept to a minimum (although just barely meeting the “minimum” standard after the suicides).

    COT, Name-o-Rama, announcements, and prayer to close us out.

    Thanks for joining and reading. I’ll work on something even more complicated and with more props for next time.

    SYITG

  • Mixed bag! – from Shooter

    With a nice cool front in store, 7 PAX decided to take the Red pill this Gloom and get better in the category of Fitness.. Q had a mixture of levels containing ruckers, runners and joggers to satisfy.. So after a brief warmup of 10IC SSH, Imperial walkers, Windmills, Toe touches, self love and cherry pickers, YHC instructed the RUNNERS in Cowbell, Hammer and Waterpik to journey out the ole path of the Scramble down Messina and through the loop and to the pier (still no progression) back to the AO. Ruckers in JV and Russo set out for 15 mins out and back while Chewy and YHC jogged Messina straight away to the pier and back looping back for the six upon returning. In all the runners completed 3.8 miles while the joggers logged 3.1 and the ruckers somewhere around 2 miles for the gloom. Once back at the AO PAX completed LBCs, hands to heels, wife pleaser’s, flutter kicks and Jane Fonda’s Ic 15IC for all.

    Appreciate you gents for the post, and any Mandevillians out there looking for some extra work checkout Bacchus’ Q at the newly named Splash pad Friday at 0515..
    Anyone further north can join me at the A1c with Jose10k and the Covington crew..

    Appreciate Cowbell for closing in prayer with intentions offered up for the travels of JVs family this weekend and Waterpik’s father in law with his current health..

    Till the next Gloom 👍🏼👊🏼✌🏼!!!

  • Split Q (IronPax and Cakewalk) – from Russo

    78 degrees to start today, and looking for any reason for positive weather news, (1) there was no rain and (2) it was slightly less humid than it has been. Really good start to the morning for a split Q of IPC week 0 and a birthday cakewalk.

    Warmup (between 10x and 14x, all IC)

    -Toe touches
    -Arm circles
    -Self love
    -Cherry pickers
    -Grass grabbers

    Thang: while Zoolander took half the pax to the west for IPC, YHC led a cakewalk (trademark to either Grundy or Zoolander), your basic descending ladder of exercises and reps, starting at YHC’s age (in this case, 44) and work your way to 1, with some moseying in between around Old Mandeville/Lakefront.

    The order:

    44 High knees (2 is 1, which YHC forgot right off the bat and thought “count by 2”, so thanks to Jose for keeping me honest. Math is hard)
    43 SSHs
    42 Plank Jacks
    41 goof balls
    40 squats
    39 Hello Dollies
    38 Calf raises
    37 Apollo Ohno’s
    36 Freak Nastys (correctly guessed by JV Raider Pride!)
    35 step ups (also correctly guessed by the Pax)
    34 flutter kicks
    33 butt kicks (2 is 1) (lead IC by the entire pax rotating, very nice job, gents!)
    32 Peter Parker’s (2 is 1)
    31 imperial walkers
    30 Shoulder taps (2 is 1)
    29 American hammers
    28 Monkey Humpers (Happy Birthday JV!)
    27 Merkins
    26 Smurf jacks (where we were joined by Ms. Cute Young Jogger, who either (1) felt bad for the old guys struggling to mosey and catch their breath, (2) knew it was JV’s birthday and wanted to give him an early birthday present, (3) was on a runner’s high and wanted to be friendly on a Saturday morning, or (4) some combo of all of the above)
    25 leg raises
    24 Rosalitas
    23 crab jacks (crab position – think reverse plank jacks, which Moby was having none of)
    22 groiners
    21 Bear crawls (counting your right hand as a rep)
    20 murder bunnies
    19 Wide merkins
    18 Bobby Hurley’s
    17 crab cakes
    16 circle ups
    15 Bulgarian split squats
    14 durkins
    13 big boy sit-ups
    12 LMCs IC
    11 diamond merkins
    10 star jumps
    9 donkey kicks (an ode to Shooter)
    8 wife pleasers
    7 merkins
    6 6 inch drills
    5 Carolina dry docks
    4 SMCs (2 is 1)
    3 jump squats
    2 burpees
    1 minute plank

    COT, name-o-rama, announcements, and prayer closed us out.

    Thank you, gents, for either joining me or pushing yourself hard with IronPax. And a larger thanks to each of you for not only pushing me harder, making me better through your example, and providing friendship for 4 of my 44 years, but for being a light in your families, work, and communities.

    SYITG

  • 3 for 11’s and 7’s – from Russo

    YHC has to wait another week to provide a weather report that doesn’t include “humid” or “hot and sticky” or “muggy”. Pax of 3 this morning at Granny’s.

    Warmup (10x to 16x all IC)
    – High knees
    – Good mornings
    – Arm circles
    – Grass grabbers
    – Butt kicks

    Thang
    I had a developed plan for next week that I debated pulling forward, but it leant itself to a larger number, so we went with a backup plan of the ever trusty 11s (or 7s in some cases), with a mosey or side shuffle between.

    Round 1 (10 and 1): ST merkins and Nut crackers (2 is 1)

    Round 2 (10 and 1): Jump squats and Apollo Ohnos

    Round 3 (6 and 1): Freak Nastys and Step ups (2 is 1)

    Round 4 (6 and 1): Big boi sit-ups and leg raises

    We wrapped it up with a minute of planking and 10 chill jacks just for fun.

    COT, Name-o-Rama, announcements, and prayer to close us out. Reminder that Hammer’s Bible study (this Wednesday) and the September 11 5k (on 9/10) are both ongoing or approaching. Check Slack for more info.

    Good work, men, and thanks for joining. SYITG

  • What the Ruck is happening here!! – from Shooter

    Well what used to be known as a running AO has quickly changed to a 50/50 mix of Ruckers and runners.. However, the Ruckers today joined by Zoolander outnumbered the stallion’s with a 5/3 advantage, only as the unusually late Cowbell arrived so late that he had to sprint to catch the Ruckers.. Believe he shortened his run as Waterpik and Hammer were just about out of sight by the time we hit Messina.. YHC is still not actually sure why Cowbell is not resting in preparation for Rudy’s 55 on Saturday.. Only thought can be is that he knows Tanked up is losing sleep, still working out in some capacity and putting in 8 hour days in the brutal heat while endlessly planning to conquer and destroy yet another CSAUP… Anyways the PAX did a brief warmup of 20IC SSH, 10IC Windmills, 20IC Toe Touches, 10IC self love and 10 OYO Merkins and squats.. Gave instructions of a route that produced 4.6 miles for Hammer and Waterpik which even though it’s dark outside the heat is still relentless but those guys constantly crush it by running to the AOs and putting in the extra work.. Big T👏🏼 to their discipline and leadership in that way.. As for the Ruckers YHC knew he had to add a little intensity to impress Zoolander, so we stopped 4x for 10 squats and 10 Merkins of course with the Ruck sack..
    Lots of great chatter about high school football games quickly approaching, to insurance coverage, etc.. We chose to not actually solve the worlds problems on this Gloom but who knows what next week will bring..

    Appreciate the following and 👍🏼💪🏼✌🏼 till the next Gloom!!

    Thanks to Akbar for the closing in prayer!!

  • 1-2-3 Go! – from Russo

    Surprise surprise it was hot and humid this morning for a pax of 5.

    Warmup (10x – 16x, all IC)
    – Sealjacks
    – Self love
    – Toe touches
    – Hillbillies
    – Good mornings
    – High knees

    Thang

    1-2-3 GO! (Exercise one, move up a column, exercise two, move up a column, exercise 3…), then up, around, and back down the pilot house)

    Rounds 1 and 2: Absolution

    1 groiner
    2 Mahktar N’dyiae’s
    3 chill jacks

    Round 3 and 4: 8 count body builders

    1 half burpee (ignoring the merkin)
    2 burpees
    3 plank jacks

    Rounds 5 and 6: Front and Back
    1 Crab cake
    2 Parker Peters
    3 Big boi sit-ups

    Round 7: Prey to Predator
    Crab walk one column
    Duck walk two columns
    Bear crawl three columns

    Rounds 8 and 9: Famous People
    1 Kneel Diamond / 1 Apollo Ohno
    2 SMCs
    3 Bobby Hurley’s

    No time for Mary today. COT, Name-o-Rama, announcements, and prayer to close us out. Reminder that Hammer’s Bible study (this Wednesday) and the September 11 5k (on 9/10) are both quickly approaching. Check Slack for more info.

    Thanks for joining. SYITG