F3 New Orleans

Tag: Kuch

  • Baby, it’s cold outside

    To quote the late great Johnny Mercer, ‘baby, it’s cold outside.’ Or at least it was last Wednesday at The Foundry. When we got out of the car, it was 39 degrees with wind gusts of 20+. To get the blood pumping, I issued the disclaimer & then we mosey’d from the flag to the museum. Once at the museum we did the warmup.

    Warmup:

    Side straddle hops – 15 in cadence

    High knees – 15 in cadence

    Butt kicks – 15 in cadence

    Mountain climbers – 15 in cadence

    Windmills – 10 in cadence

    Self love

    Next we did The Thang:

    The Thang:

    Mountain climbers – 25 in cadence

    Irkins on fountain – 25

    Mountain climbers – 25 in cadence

    Box jumps on fountain – 25

    Mountain climbers – 25 in cadence

    Dips on fountain – 25 in cadence

    Next we partnered up and did a Dora 1-2-3. We did 100 merkins, 200 LBC’s & 300 calf raises. While one partner was doing the exercise, the other partner would run a lap around the museum

    Lastly, we did a burpee circuit on the museum steps. We ran up & down the steps of the museum & then did 1 burpee. Then we ran up & down the steps again & did 2 burpees. And so on until we reached 7 burpees.

    Once we completed that, we took a quick water break & then mosey’d back to the flag. Once at the flag, we did the count-off, name-o-rama, announcements, intentions & prayer. It was a cold day, but a good day. And, as always, thanks for the opportunity to lead, fellas  

  • It’s All About the Benjamins

    “Well done is better than well said.” ― Benjamin Franklin

    Another Monday in the books at The Chamber.  Today we had 9 men and 1 K-9 looking to sweat out the frustration of a Saints loss, and also sweat out any celebratory weekend libations of LSU’s win and/or holiday festivities.  Since we haven’t ventured much to the westward region of the AO, YHC figured we’d explore a bit and check out the area near Ben Franklin High School, and use the namesake as our theme for the day. Here’s what we did: 

    Warmup – quick lap around the lot, IW, WM, PP, Plank Roll

    Moseyed to the front of BFHS, kicked around the F3 mantra of “male leadership”, followed by an intro about Ben Franklin’s impact as a leader of his time.  Since he’s on the $100 bill, 100 would be our number of the day….cause “it’s all about the Benjamins“, according to Puff Daddy.    

    Wall Sit for 100 sec to start things off while YHC shared a refresher of BF’s accomplishments, contributions, and accolades….

    “Benjamin Franklin played an important role as one of the eight Founding Fathers, helping draft the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. He never served as president but was a respected writer, printer, political philosopher, politician, Freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, humorist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat.”  Then a few quotes to stew on….“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”……….“In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is Freedom, in water there is bacteria.” ― Benjamin Franklin

    BF stop #2 at the front steps, partnered up for a Dora-ish circuit…..PAX #1 works on 100 Step Jumps (2nd step) followed by 100 Declined Hip Slappers  while PAX#2 runs the parking lot loop, where some good F2 was had along the way.  T-claps to Pop Tart for the brisk runs!  

    BF stop #3 near the rear of the building for another Dora-ish circuit…PAX#2 works on 100 Hand Release Merkins followed by 100 Low Slow “Real Man” Squats, cause Ben Franklin didn’t shortcut anything, while PAX#2 runs a similar parking lot loop….more good F2.   

    Since ole Ben was a smart fella, most would assume he was no stranger to the library, so that’s where we headed next.  As the centerpiece of UNO’s campus, the Earl K Long Library boasts some of the finest concrete ledges and sprawling grass around, ideal for some staple F3 exercises.  The plan called for 100 total reps on each of the 4 sides of the building…

    #1 – Dips x25, Calf Raises x25, rinse and repeat  

    #2 – Wall Sit for 100 sec while we brushed up on the history of Earl Long, a former Louisiana governor, leader, and lover of the ladies.    

    #3 – 25 merkins, 25 step lunge walk, rinse and repeat

    #4 – no time left sooo….

    Indian Run back to the flag, getting back just in time.  Capped off with a COT, announcements, and prayer intentions for several families battling serious medial issues, along with those fighting addiction, and for guidance to continue to be strong men, husbands, fathers, and leaders.  

    YHC then remembered to share yet another Franklin quote on the wanke, this one with a bit more substance and relative to what we strive for through F3, and Holy Grove was really digging it, so it was requested that it be read again…      

     “Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.” ― Benjamin Franklin

    Thanks for the opportunity to lead.  

    Tool 

  • A great turnout at WPM

    First, apologies for the very late BB.   I generally try to get these done relatively soon after, but the days/weeks quickly came up and here we are……

    So, on to the important details….

    34 pax including 1 FNG arrived for a beautiful, fall morning at Wolfpack Mountain.  Warmup consisted of a short mosey and then everyone circled up for the following:

    • SSH x 20 IC
    • windmills x 20 IC
    • Hillbillies x 20 IC
    • Mountain climbers x 20 IC
    • Alternating hand/foot touches x 15 IC
    • Shoulder taps x 20 IC

    Thang 1

    • Pax formed 3 lines and Indian run to top level 

    Thang 2

    (2 rounds) Circuit of Following –

    • Staggered merkins (each arm x 20)
    • Alternating toe touch crunch x 10 IC each leg 
    • Diamond merkins x 20 IC
    • Crunchy frog x 20 IC
    • Multi level merkins (high, low, mid)
    • Levels/protractor- pax on back lifting legs at different levels 

    Thang 3

     – 4 rounds of catch me if you can

    • Pax in front runs down to next level while the pax behind does 3 burpees.  Once finished he try’s to catch first pax.  

    Finished up with the COT for Countoff, Naming of FNG (Neckbrace), and intentions.  

    This was YHC’s has first time Qing WPM and I enjoyed the opportunity to lead.   Thanks for coming out and until next time…

  • Mountain Music

    Conditions: 47 degrees, dry and WINDY

    First Sub 50 degrees post for this Q who came prepared. 

    Mosey to open green space for warmup 

    • SSH x 20 IC
    • Arm circles x 15 (front and back)
    • Windmill x 15
    • Hillbillies x 15
    • Grass grabbers x 15

    Jog to fountain mountain for a version of Burp Back Mountain with a variation of 2 rounds to the sounds of mountain themed music:

    Round 1 – with a partner, one back peddled up and ran forward down 5 times (decline by 1 on each switch) while other does burpees (50 total). By Exicon definition, it called for 100. Ouch.

    Round 2 – with a partner, bear crawl up and run down 2 times, while other does squats (150 total)

    Bench Work (near by):

    Right leg step ups x 15

    Left leg step ups x 15

    Dips x 20

    Box jumps X 15

    Decline merks x 13

    Mary (on Amphitheater stage):

    Dolly

    Flutter kicks

    LBC’s

    Freddie mercuries

    Dying cockroaches

    Penguin 

    Side Planks

    Jog / return to flag for Stretching & COT. 

    FNG EH’d by Kuch was named Da Pope by Da Parish. Da Pope was a QB at Slidell High so he will forever pay tribute to his rival. 

    Thanks for letting me lead for my second time and thanks for showing up!

  • The Freaking Exception (?)

    After reading the email this morning, it occurred to me that I may have forgotten something important last week. It wasn’t my wife’s birthday, remembered that. Thanksgiving? Who could forget it. Black Friday? My coffee at uptown PJ’s only cost an arm and half a leg in celebration of Black Friday, so it wasn’t that. No, YHC may have (allegedly) forgotten (potentially) to post a BB from the Foundry this week. I may have (according to some sources) been mentioned in the weekly email. For this – if it refers to me – I am deeply sorry (allegedly). Regardless, as I have gotten on others before about failing to post a BB, no excuses. Just like it’s better to send a wedding gift six months late than not at all, please allow the following to serve as YHC’s BB from last week.

    On Wednesday, we were joined by 1 FNG and 3 out of towners – Side Effects, Charmin, and Uptown Girl – for out traditional foundry workout, consisting of offensive music, an appropriate amount of mumblechatter, and Tabata. The mumblechatter is because we always forget the rotation halfway through; Tabata is because it’s a rockin good time; and offensive music is required by law as a tribute to Jesus Juice, whose playlists consist mainly of people screaming obscenities over 300 beats per minute.

    But first, on a muggy morning, we did a quick warmup on the track of

    • SSHx20
    • Arm Circlesx20
    • Mountain Climbersx20
    • IWx20
    • Self love OYO as we walked to the lanes of the track

    From there, the usual: 2 lines, Indian Run to the Foundry.

    When we arrived, 8 stations of Tabata, consisting of

    • Snake Derkins (just a Derkin on the thing we call a snake, not some cool new exercise that involves slithering around while doing merkins. although….)
    • Upright rows 
    • seated dips
    • Squats 
    • Shoulder taps
    • Hanging crunches 
    • Plank + alternating arms up in the air
    • Burpees

    We got 5 rounds in, and Indian ran back to the track for some cyo Mary, including

    • LBC’s
    • Doctor W’s
    • flutter kicks
    • something else

    We moseyed to the flag where we arrived at 6:15 sharp. COT, prayer, and then coffeeteria at PJ’s on Canal. Thanks for coming out. – Kuch

  • Campus tour

    Nine pax arrived on time at the Chamber for my first Q; one of which was an FNG who Gideon brought in after meeting on a plane. The PAX warmed up with head rotations, self love, grass grabbers and general stretching.

    The PAX then did an Indian run up Elysian Fields to station one where I spoke of the artist Tom Sachs and his daily studio practice “work is a privilege, it is not that you have to do 50 push ups but that you can. ” with this in mind the pax did 50 Merkins.

    Indian Run to station 2 – Water Feature / here Pax concentrated on core with crunchy frogs, American hammer, J-Lo and dying cockroach – sets of 25 in cadence

    Indian Run to station 3 – The Levee / Pax partnered up for Dora, 200 cumulative dips timed by partners running up and down the the levee.

    Indian Run to station 4 – UNO Sign / Pax partnered up, 50 lung walks while partners sat in Al Gore.

    Indian Run back to the flag – 10 burpees every minute for 4 minutes completing the work out.

    Countorama, nameorama / FNG centered up and was officially named Bonvoy. Prayer spoken was centered around gratefulness.

    I had a great time leading this work out and look forward to more in the future.

    Tom Sachs:
    Website
    10 bullets, “Working to Code”

  • Delayed Mountain Time

    Apologies for the delay but from way back on Friday at Wolfpack Mountain: Pax took off from the North end of Audubon Park at 0530 headed west along St Charles wrapping back around and ending up at the great circle courtyard for quick warmup:

    – Sidestradlehops; Self Love; Imperial Walkers; Peter Parkers

    Straight away to the mountain-garage – Pax headed up the mountain after some BLIMPS-planation: 5-10-15-20-25 with alternating Bear Crawl and Backward Jog up the parking garage

    – Rinse and Repeat the rest of the way up to the top Some Mary and an extra set of Side Stradlehops during another amazing NOLA sunrise

    Back down the stairs for a set of Dips on the benches Finally mosey back the circle…No not that circle the other circle…Mass confusion was averted as the flock made it back to the flag(less) pole in time for a final round of Bob Dole Tree Hugging and Smurf-Jacks (because why have thighs if you can’t make them burn).

    Counted off 30 strong with 1 FNG: Welcome Bobby Walsh; Just passing through aptly named ‘Layover’ Wrapped up with a thoroughly beatdown ball-o-man and then off to Coffe-teria at PJs

    Thanks for the great work gents!

    -Tubesteak

  • Double Reverse Crunches…Is This Guy Serious?!

    It was a beautiful morning on Lake Pontchartrain, and 17 PAX gathered for a good old fashioned beatdown. I issued the disclaimer, and we headed across the street to the concrete planters along the Lakefront. Once across the street, we circled up for the warmup

    Warmup:

    • 20 side straddle hops
    • 20 plank jacks
    • 10 windmills
    • Self love
    • 15 low slow squats

    The Thang:

    • We sprinted to planter #1, did one burpee, then sprinted back to yellow line
    • We sprinted to planter #2, did two burpees, then sprinted back to yellow line
    • We sprinted to planter #3, did three burpees, then sprinted back to yellow line
    • We sprinted to planter #4, did four burpees, then sprinted back to yellow line
    • We sprinted to planter #5, did five burpees, then sprinted back to yellow line

    Next, we circled back up and did the following:

    • Hand plank for 1 ½ minutes. While planking we did a merkin every time I said “down”
    • Kept legs 6 inches off the ground for 1 ½ minutes. Every time I said “go” we did flutter kicks for 5 seconds
    • 20 Carolina Dry Docks
    • Kept legs 6 inches off the ground for 1 ½ minutes again. This time when I said “go” we would bring our legs toward our chest and do a reverse crunch
    • Box Jump / dip routine on the planter. Started with 7 box jumps / 14 dips, then went to 6 box jumps / 12 dips, etc

    After that, we did another run / burpee routine:

    • We sprinted to planter #5, did five burpees, then sprinted back to yellow line
    • We sprinted to planter #4, did four burpees, then sprinted back to yellow line
    • We sprinted to planter #3, did three burpees, then sprinted back to yellow line
    • We sprinted to planter #2, did two burpees, then sprinted back to yellow line
    • We sprinted to planter #1, did one burpee, then sprinted back to yellow line

    Next, we circled back up and did the following:

    • Mission impossible plank position for 45 seconds. While planking we did a merkin every time I said “up”
    • Did flutter kicks for 45 seconds. Every time I said “stop” we would just hold feet 6 inches above ground
    • 10 Carolina Dry Docks
    • Got on our six, and kept legs close to our chest in the crunch position. Then every time I said “go” we would put our legs out and bring them back to our chest. This is the oft talked about yet rarely attempted double-reverse crunch. Breathtaking
    • Box Jump / dip routine on the planter. Started with 4 box jumps / 8 dips, then went to 3 box jumps / 6 dips, etc

    After that, we headed back to the flag for the count-off, name-o-rama, announcements, intentions & prayer. Thanks for the opportunity to lead, fellas. I always enjoy it

  • 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!

  • Lunatic Fringe – We all know you’re out there. But where is Bogey when you need him?

    The iconic opening words to the song made famous by the 1985 smash hit “Vision Quest”. Who could forget this iconic scene? Look at those moves! No wonder this movie was so popular!

    Okay, so perhaps a minor exaggeration on my part as not a single member of the Pax could identify that song this morning, or its significance (Lunatic Fringe is in main song played in Vision Quest, which is where the name Kuch comes from). At least Shuffles has the excuse of not having been born in 1985. Bogey would have nailed it of course.

    Despite my disappointment, we decided to workout anyway on this cool crisp morning. Temperature at kickoff was right around 50, and although we may have felt a few raindrops, the weather, overall, was pretty nice.

    We moseyed to the center of the intersection, with some high knees etc… on the way, for some quick, fast paced warmups so we could all…. warm up. Except High Rise of course, who some might say was slightly over-dressed for the occasion, having worn perhaps his entire closet full of sweaters, scarves, parkas, mittens and what have you. Fitting for a man who solved the climate crisis yesterday by declaring it #2cold2warm. Regardless, High Rise remains #2legit2quit in my book.

    Once the warm-ups and player intros were complete, we headed up to the levee to Indian Run to the concrete portion for our next activity. Rockin tunes were played as we passed the speaker off. When we got to the concrete portion, there was a fence that briefly confounded all my 5:40 AM logistics… luckily, someone suggested we walk around it, which we did.

    On the concrete, we did a couple rounds of merkin ring of fire, and moved right along to a simple tabata, 20 seconds on, 7 second rest, 4 exercises x2 for each session. Burpees, LBC’s, Merkins, Squats. After completing each round of those 4 exercises twice, we ran up and down the levee 10 times to catch our breath. We completed this circuit 3 times, before Indian running back the other way.

    When we reached the intersection, we headed back to the flag for a few more rounds of merkin ring of fire until 6:15.

    We prayed for the strength to take care of our elders, the ability to appreciate our own health, and the humility to grasp that one day, we may be the ones who need help. I know that I need your help to continue to get better, and so, as High Rise suggested this week (before solving an existential crisis for all of humanity), I note that I am truly thankful for all of you, for everyone who showed up today, for everyone who has ever shared a word of encouragement with me during a workout, for everyone who has ever held me accountable, and for everyone of you, who inspires me each day. Thank you. – Kuch