F3 New Orleans

Tag: Mahatma

  • No really – Stop me if you’ve done this before

    YHC’s 4th year anniversary in F3, so what to do? Why – how about the same thing that he did for 3rd year, 2nd year and 1st year? The Q that writes itself…

    Looking for Amnesty

    YHC was joined on a gloomy, chilly Monday morning at Rock City by 13 PAX. Several had been there for previous celebrations. And one made his first ever appearance at the 4th celebration of his Fart Sacking of my first workout. Welcome, Amnesty! Conversely, thank you Bogey – not only did you drag me into this, you’ve actually been at the anniversary each year (as far as I recall, anyways…)

    The Thing

    Same thing again. Quick warmup before grabbing rocks and heading to the trees.

    Captain Dan

    With your rock, 2x Lunge, 1x Squat. Repeat, increasing reps each time. Get to the fence at the end of the field. YHC was up to 14x Lunge steps. Scantron and his legs seemed to make it in about 6x Lunge steps.

    Take a seat in the People’s Chair while we patiently wait for Triple Shift to arrive. Then we patiently continue sitting waiting for Triple Shift to realize that he is also supposed to take a seat.

    Jack Webb

    1x Merkin (hand on rock), 2x Shoulder Presses (with Rock). Start increasing. Up to 8x/16x. PAX humored YHC by following his slower-than-you cadence. But everyone powered through…

    Circle of Abs and Pull Ups

    Circle up for some ab work. While one group of 3-4 ran off to the playground to get 10 Pull Ups in, the rest of the group did some ab work. Box cutters, Flutters, Dollys and Penguins while everyone got their pull ups. Marlin gave a 20 count in his head. The rest of us waited in silence.

    Start heading towards home by Lieutenent Danning back to where we started.

    Bloom Where You’re Planted

    Lets run through some reps without putting the rock down. Shoulder Press, Curl, Row. x12, x10, x8, x6, x4, x2. YHC did need to take a break.

    Back to the Flag, still had time for 10 Burpees OYO. PAX – we are getting faster. Previous years, we’ve not had time for EXTRA work at the end.

    Thanks for a great 4 years!

  • My Qs are Impetuous

    Conditions:  70 and light rain

    Our curiosity had us gather near some type of Rock ‘n Roll Series race starting at the Peristyle.  Triple Shift said it started at 6:30. I think he was trying to get a free t-shirt and some post race pastries.  YHC gave a well thought out disclaimer and we headed toward NOMA

    The Thang

    In the aforementioned disclaimer, YHC had warned the pax that we would attempt to get in some miles and that if a pax member was not interested in running miles they could peel off and join the Muscleship.  Apparently the Mothership pax came ready to run. 

    Warm-up:  Hillbillies x 20; Low slow squats x 20; Merkins (IC) x 10; BTW

    Foundry: The Democratic Convention – Pax 1 with a Bernies Sanders; Pax 2 holds Al Gore.  Flapjack when Pax 1 falls off the monkey bars.  Did roughly 3 rounds

    Football Field:  Ten rounds of Tyson – Sprint 50 yards, do 10 reps of exercise, Sprint 50 yards, do 10 reps of exercise, Sprint 50 yards, do 10 reps of exercise, Sprint 50 yards.

    • Round 1 – Burpees
    • Round 2 – Jump Squats
    • Round 3 – Diamond Merkins
    • Round 4 – Dying Cockroach
    • Round 5 – Sumo Squats
    • Round 6 – Wide Merkins
    • Round 7 – LBT
    • Round 8 – Bonnie Blairs
    • Round 9 – Carolina Dry Docks
    • Round 10 – 8 Count Body Builders

    Hustle back to flag

    NMM

    • A lot of talk about the blistering 9:30 minute mosey pace we started with. My reputation for speed precedes me.
    • BTW was NSFW
    • All agreed that the greatness of the football field we used for 10 Rounds of Tyson was well worth the long run to get there (and back).
    • Ten Rounds of Tyson was introduced at the F3 NOLA launch by Chung-Li.  We did 5 rounds that day I think.  To my knowledge this was the first time that the full 10 rounds were completed in NOLA
    • I was afraid that some pax might quit on me if I called out burpees for Round 10.  The Body Builders were well received. 
  • Rev Sox’s Birth Story

    Rev Sox’s Birth Story

    On a brisk and windy November 11th, at the lake front on the Northshore YHC was birthed into the world of F3 kicking, complaining, and crying. It wasn’t pretty for anyone involved. Hawg may have denied knowing YHC. Two years later, at the 610 Stomp YHC led 20 men in the remembrance of his birth into F3.

    YHC’s brain has wisely blacked out and refused to retain the memories of his first workout in F3 as he complained through the entire workout with fellow FNG bootsies. The only thing YHC can remember from that fateful day is lots of running alongside the lake with step-ups as the Q’s go to exercise in each stop (sadly there is no Backblast to commemorate the workout).

    The 610 Stomp recreated this workout by running a shortened version of the standard route with step ups thrown in (lots of step ups). Following the disclaimer, the Pax was told to run the standard route without leaving City Park, but this morning they were stop at every bench for 10 alternating step ups (one is one). Only 4 men are allowed per bench, so if the bench is full, they are to pass it by and run to the next bench.

    Each lap from the 610 Stomp start to the City Park entrance on New Carrollton and back has 40 benches. Each lap is aprox 1.5 miles.

    With not enough complaining for YHC’s plans, they set out. Everything worked out well for the first lap, but YHC needed to modify the number of step ups on lap 2, so all the Pax could finish. YHC estimates that each Pax member did 300-500 step ups while running 3 miles.

    Don’t forget the Christmas Party on December 9th and the Krazy Ivan on January 18th as we had a special guest of the Freedom Hammer this morning.

    thanks for 2 years of agony,

    Rev Sox

  • 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

  • Is this Heaven? No, it’s Lafreniere Park.

    While perusing the Q list to see who would be leading the beatdowns this week of the AOs I most often attend, I happened to see my name listed. I thought this was odd because I had just Q’ed 2 last week and didn’t remember signing up. I then gazed up to see that I was Q for Popeye’s which is not my regular Wednesday AO. I’ve been out there a few times and enjoy the challenge of a virtual blank slate of opportunities to lead a PAX. I accepted the challenge of Q’ing an unfamiliar locale and brought 2 Lakeview guys with me. 8 PAX joined me at the shovelflag, brought to you courtesy of Fracsac, disclaimer was given, directions were asked by me to the exercise area near W. Napoleon, and off we went.

    Warm up:

    Mosey over to the parking lot directly next to exercise area where we circled up.

    • SSH x 20 IC
    • Windmills x 10 IC
    • Concrete grabbers x 15 IC
    • Arm circles fwd/rev x 10 each direction IC
    • Self love x 10 IC

    Thang #1:

    Tabata is always a tough routine to choose as the Q because you never know how many PAX will be there, odd numbers always make it interesting, and the AO site can make it interesting to select exercises. So naturally we had 9 men total. I was going to initially go solo but I was appropriately convinced to go with 3 groups of 3. I opted to have the groups perform 2 sets of 3 different exercises. (for a total of 6 sets per round). Rinse and repeat x 3 additional rounds with all different exercise combinations.

    • Round 1: Pull ups, 8-count absolution, box jumps/step ups
    • Round 2: Burpess, Al Gore, Jump the snake
    • Round 3: Merkins, Low plank, Rocky Balboas
    • Round 4: Box cutters, Freddy Mercurys, levels

    Thang #2:

    I figured most, if not all, of the PAX had not experienced my son’s previous suggestion for a “game.” So we proceeded to play the F3 version of Red Light/Green Light. As explained in previous backblasts all red light exercises will be static and all green light exercises will be dynamic. Exercises alternate between red light and green light. Timer for each exercise is controlled by randomity timer.

    Red Light exercises:

    • Al Gore
    • High plank
    • L side plank
    • R side plank
    • Low plank
    • Static lunge with L leg in front
    • Static lunge with R leg in front
    • Reverse plank
    • Static calf raise (heretofore renamed Tippy Toes)
    • Static leg hold (level)

    Green Light exercises:

    • Mountain climbers
    • LBCs
    • Merkins
    • Lateral lunges
    • High knees
    • L single leg wife pleasers
    • R single leg wife pleasers
    • Penguins
    • Crunchy frog
    • Freddy Mercury

    20 exercises total, randomity timer set between 15-45 sec. Average time of 30 sec per exercise should take about 10 minutes total for the routine. While toggling between apps on my phone while leading the Q it was only until I was on my way home that I accidentally skipped over one of the side planks and lateral lunges. Sorry guys.

    But it all worked out in the end because at 6:10 we moseyed back to the shovelflag and got back at exactly 6:15. See I knew what I was doing all along. Countoff, name-o-rama, announcements, intentions, sweaty ball of man. Can’t wait to come back to Popeye’s for future beatdowns and whoever put me on the list can do so in the future if you are looking for Q’s.

  • 11 11 11 and Saban what?

    Veterans Day occurs on November 11 every year in the United States in honor of the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” of 1918 that signaled the end of World War I, known as Armistice Day.

    It had been a few weeks (50+) since I had last Q’d a workout and yes my Q skills were a little rusty.  I saw some new faces and some old ones.  After the disclaimer we mosey’d toward the rock pile stopping for 11 burpees on the way.

    Circle Up for the Warm UP

    S – ide Straddle Hops – IC 11

    A – rm Circles – IC 11

    B – onnie Blairs – IC 11

    A – merican Hammer IC 11

    N – olan Ryan -IC 11

    S – murf jacks – IC 11

    U – p downs  IC 11

    C – opper head squats – IC 11

    K – nerkin IC UD

    S – eal jacks I C 11

    11 Burpees OYO

    We then moved to the tree line.  Trees were larger and further apart than I remembered.

    11’s – on the tree lines starting with 1 Merkin and 10 Squats

    Then to the rock pile to retrieve a rock or block depending on personal preference. 

    The movements were done in cadence

    Rock Curls on our knees 22

    Rock Squats – 11
    Elf on the Shelf – 11 each leg

    Rock up – flutter kicks – 22ish

    Chest press – 22

    Curls – 10 IC

    11 burpees OYO

    Mosey back to the flag for some Mary

    High plank Peter Parkers – IC 11

    Low plank Peter Parkers – IC 11

    LBC – IC 22

    Pretzel Crunch – IC 11 each leg

    High plank Parker Peter – IC 11

    Low Plank Parker Peter – IC 1

    Real Freddie Mercuries – IC

    Last round Burpees 11 OYO

    Count off, name-a-rama, announcements, intentions (Marlon’s friend and all Veterans), Prayer

    Thanks for letting me lead. 

    Almost forgot War Eagle paid is bet to Tua in the form of a 100 yard bear crawl. We wish we had a camera.

  • All Hail Sir Shuffles! or the 7th Running of the H8

    All Hail Sir Shuffles! or the 7th Running of the H8

    On a windy Thursday by the shores of Lake Pontchartrain, history was made in F3 New Orleans.

    Triple Shift and Kuch kicked off the festivities for the H8 VII! They split the Pax up into two groups due to the great showing of 33 men to take on the challenge. Little did anyone know that someone was about the conquer the H8 as never seen before.

    YHC was the first and only one to bow out early due to struggles with his shoulder. The rest of the pack ran hard, bear crawled hard, and burpeed with everything they had through 40 minutes of pain and exhaustion. These are the men YHC is not ashamed to call his brothers.

    Then what men said could never be done……….. it happened.

    They said no one could run 100m in less than 9.6 seconds and on August 12, 2009 Bolt became the fastest man in the world at 9.58.

    They said no one could run a marathon in under 2 hours and on Saturday, October 12, 2019 Eliud Kipchoge ran a marathon in 1:59:40.

    They said no one could run 9 laps on the H8 and on Thursday, October 17, 2019 Shuffles ran 9 laps of the H8 with 30 seconds before the 40 minute mark.

    Tclaps to Shuffles for 9 and Tclaps to all of our finishers for setting the bar and giving the rest of us something to strive for. Your Fall 2019 H8 finishers: Shuffles, Breadsticks, Mahatma, Sogo, Rudy, Tua, Col Mustard, Quarterpipe, Screwtop, and Tanner.

    The Pax counted off, Name-O-Rama, Welcome to FNG Crackles, Intentions, and Prayer for the Pax

    -Rev Sox

  • Rockless City

    On Saturday, YHC discovered that the Q Sheet for Rock City was mysteriously blank for the upcoming beatdown. Knowing that these opportunities do not occur often. YHC jumped at an opportunity to lead his home AO.

    Since the end of IPC, coupons have been the preferred weight of choice for YHC so before the Pax appeared from the gloom four heavy coupons were positioned at the starting point.

    Disclaimer, Grab the Coupons, turn LEFT, and Mosey toward the parking lot.

    Warm-Up: SSH, Imperial Squat Walkers, Hill Billies, Windmills, Arm Circles

    After the warm-up, we counted off for some circuit work at the vastly underused playground on the south side of the park.

    Thang #1

    One minute of the following:

    Group 1 – Pull-Ups at the playground

    Group 2 – Alternating Leg Step-ups at the shelter

    Group 3 – Shoulder Press w/ Coupon under the shelter

    Group 4 – Underdogs at the swing set

    Thang #2

    One minute of the following:

    Group 1 – Pull-Ups at the playground

    Group 2 – Alternating Leg Step-ups at the shelter

    Group 3 – Curls under the shelter

    Group 4 – Underdogs at the swing set

    Thang # 3

    One minute of the following:

    Group 1 – Pull-Ups at the playground

    Group 2 – Irkins under the shelter

    Group 3 – Squat Thrusters under the shelter

    Group 4 – Underdogs at the swing set

    Thang #4

    Mosey to the football field and partner up.

    Pax 1 – Run 10 yards do five merkins and return

    Pax 2 – Squats until Pax 1 returns

    Rinse and Repeat adding ten yards.

    Once both pax completed 50 yards squats were replaced by LBCs until both pax completed 100 yards.

    COT, Namarama, and special attention given to those battling cancer, and for all F3 men to be a better husband, fathers, and man.

  • Embrace the Suck

    A great turnout at the Uptowner as we had 21 pax come out to enjoy another warm and humid October morning.  

    When I think back to what initially led me to F3, it was being able to have a great workout that always had a different twist; stepping out of our comfort zone to continually push ourselves to get better, and improve in areas that we may struggle or be uncomfortable with.   As I thought about how to lead this workout, I wanted to incorporate some atypical aspects into the traditional “no running” workout and challenge everyone to “embrace the suck”.  

    With that said the standard disclaimer was given and we moseyed from the flag to the football field in the middle of the track.  The warmup consisted of:

    • SSH x 20 IC
    • Arm circles (10 front and 10 back) IC
    • Windmills x 10 IC
    • Mountain Climbers x 15 IC
    • Hold the plank position after mountain climbers for 1 minute
    • Indian run around the track for 1 lap (4 groups of 5-6)

    The thang-

    All pax lined up in one end zone.  There were 3 cones spaced out (20, 40, 60 yards). 

    • Sprint to first cone and do 15 Burpees then sprint back to start line and do 20 merkins 
    • Sprint to second cone and do 10 Burpees then back to starting line for 15 merkins 
    • Sprint to third cone and do five Burpees and then back to start for 10 merkins 

    As pax finished they did some Mary waiting for the six and then did 20 LBC IC as a group.  

    Next was a crab walk from the end zone to midfield.  

    Once all pax arrived we lined up for an all-out,  everything -you- have sprint to the opposite end zone.  In the end zone we did a quick set of 20 flutter kicks IC.   

    From here the group moseyed to the playground and got back into groups of 4.  Groups 1 and 2 lined up at the “ring pull-up station” and did 1 round of AMRAP of pull-ups.  Groups 3 and 4 did 25 merkins on own, and when finished while waiting for the other pax to finish their pull-ups did squats.  Once done the groups flip-flopped

    Once everyone finished we moseyed over to the hill on the other side of Pontiff where we bear crawled over the hill and did 15 Carolina dry docks followed by a bear crawl back over the hill.  

    Moving on we moseyed to the shelter nearby where we completed the following:

    • 15 power ups each leg IC
    • 15 SLOW deep dips IC
    • 15 diamond merkins IC

    With about 5 minutes remaining we headed back for the flag for some more Mary called out by different pax.  

    Ended the workout with the COT, announcements and intentions.  Special intentions for family members battling cancer and age-related struggles and illnesses.  

    I hope everyone enjoyed this beatdown as much as I did leading it.   Thanks for allowing me the opportunity to lead as always!

  • Failing Upwards

    These warm, thick, moist ( I said it) Southern mornings seem to stretch in front of and behind us without variation. It’s unmistakable. That feeling, the transition, of stepping from your front door (that sweet clean cool conditioned air) into the physical force of warm jell-o that is the south. A low level of perma-sweat is the accepted norm. Under these conditions 20 men (one FNG) met, with great enthusiasm, in the gloom of City Park.

    YHC was looking forward to his Second Q. He even planned out a few maneuvers he thought might be fun and thought of how to map out the days work. However, today’s BB is not a story of great triumph, it is one of progress.

    To start YHC forgot about the disclaimer momentarily, so some men did think I was a professional and did not know that they could modify. Second, YHC bumbled through the lead-in to each warm-up exercise, giving a variation for each, which opened the door to chatter amidst the ranks. As Q, variation can lead to chatter, chatter, can lead to dissent, dissent can lead to mutiny. A fair warning for any who might take the mantle as future Q. But not to worry, YHC was open to input, heard the people and adjusted accordingly.

    The THANG

    Warm Up in Peristyle (…to the best of recollection)
    x10 Arm circle fwd/bck
    x10 Hill Bill
    x20 Peter Parker
    x20 Parker Peter
    x15 jump jack
    Then everyone pick a column x3sets of Sunday Mornings:
    People’s chair w/ x10 jack web
    Donkey kicks x5
    Balls to wall, count to 10
    (three movements = 1 set)

    Line up – Mosey/Indian run to practice track
    Partner up
    1. Catch me if you can – Partner runs ahead backwards while other partner drops for 5 burpees, sprint to catch, alternate, 400m
    Cont. w/ Partner – following cumulative
    2. 100 Merkins – Sets of 10, partner holds plank while other partner completes set, alternate to total
    3. 200 LBCs – Sets of 20, partner holds legs raised while other completes set, alternate to total
    4. 300 Squats – Sets of 30, partner holds squat while other completes set, alternate to total

    At this juncture YHC had two ideas of what he wanted to do, but was a little uncertain of time. Opting to start a mosey back to the Great Lawn, he lost a little control of the group, who, like cats when not given explicit direction, had a mind of their own. This led to a different route back, which altered timeline. YHC takes full responsibility for this fork in the road, which was a result of indecision. Once outside my comfort zone, I turned to a wisened veteran, Screwtop for a tip on a next workout, he advised 4 corners. Since YHC wanted to keep momentum and control, he jumped on idea, announced to group, and tasked 4 individuals with deciding on a movement for each corner. However, in haste, I was not clear about time spent at each corner, or much of anything, so it turned in to everyone being responsible for their own time in 4 corners.

    While this was not the smoothest F3 beatdown that many know and love, I feel like there was plenty of sweat and ready-to-be-done’ness’ by the end of our hour to say it was a successful day nonetheless.

    My lesson – don’t go in to a Q with too many ideas of what to accomplish. Pick your workouts. Keep it simple. And stick to your plan. Any time allowed to think about what to do next, gives rise to chaos. Anarchy. (Don’t look into applying this reminder to life… it might lead to improvement). Also, the older I get I find myself abiding the principle, “If you haven’t failed at doing something, and gone back to it to keep doing it, are you even invested in it?”


    I appreciate the patience of all while I had a growth Q and want to thank the spirit of F3 for keeping it fun for all. Veterans stepped up, tclaps to those who did, and ultimately this group is about camaraderie, practicing leadership, and pushing each other to be better all around. I am excited to step up to another Q in the near future, and tighten up the execution then.