F3 New Orleans

Tag: Russo

  • Another Cakewalk – from Russo

    Hurricane Ida wrecked a lot of plans this year. She did a lot of damage, broke a lot of hearts, made life a ton more difficult. But one thing I’ve learned is that even in the darkest of hours, God can find a way to turn something terrible into something good.

    I don’t want to belittle the struggle our region is still dealing with, and I can tell you firsthand there is a lot of work left. But I can also tell you firsthand that God has given us an opportunity to grow together, help each other, and all in all, be better people.

    My original plan for the first week in September was to do a birthday Q, and following the lead of Grundy and/or Zoolander (depending on how good an idea it was), complete another “Cake walk” and hope it catches on as a thing.

    Well, those plans changed due to Mother Nature, but God’s timing is perfect, so a pax of 17 said “Take Two” under beautiful weather with low humidity and temps topping out at around 71.

    Warmup (between 10x and 20x, all IC)
    Seal jacks
    Toe touches
    Arm circles
    Torso twists
    Goofballs

    Thang: A cakewalk, your basic descending ladder of exercises and reps, starting at YHC’s age (in this case, 43), and work your way to 1, with some moseying in between around Old Mandeville/Lakefront.

    The order:

    43 High knees
    42 SSHs
    41 Plank Jacks
    40 merkins (where Bird started to wonder where the burpees were)
    39 squats
    38 Hello Dollies
    37 Calf raises
    36 Apollo ohnos
    35 Freak Nastys
    34 step ups
    33 flutter kicks
    32 butt kicks (2 is 1) (lead IC by the entire pax rotating, very nice job, gents!)
    31 Peter Parker’s (2 is 1)
    30 imperial walkers
    29 Shoulder taps (2 is 1)
    28 American hammers
    27 George thoroughgood
    26 Smurf jacks
    25 leg raises
    24 Rosalitas
    23 crab jacks (crab position – opposite plank jacks)
    22 groiners
    21 Bear crawls
    20 murder bunnies
    19 Hand release merkins
    18 Bobby Hurley’s
    17 crab cakes (2 is 1)
    16 circle ups
    15 Bulgarian split squats
    14 durkins
    13 big boy sit-ups
    12 LMCs
    11 diamond merkins
    10 star jumps
    9 donkey kicks
    8 8 count body builders
    7 makhtar n’jais
    6 6 inch drills (where Zoolander was wise to my plan)
    5 Carolina dry docks
    4 Bonnie Blair’s
    3 jump squats
    2 burpees (here they are Bird!)
    1 minute plank

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

    This Q doubled as my 3 year anniversary Q, so it’s time for me to again thank Toto for EH’ing me. Like I suspect has happened to many of us, I had no idea what I was in for. I showed up late to my first beatdown (Splice was Q) and quickly wondered what I got myself into. Manny’s words to me were “just stick with it” and he was right.

    More than once, I was the 6. I’m still the 6 on occasion. But each and every time, someone is there to pick me (or you) up. Tanked up was the first I remember. Shooter seems to do it the most (especially on moseys).

    And that’s what makes this group of men so darn solid. What started out as “I could use the exercise” or “I want to get back in shape” quickly turns to something more.

    The F for Fitness is lowercase. The other two are uppercase. I’ve enjoyed laughing with you all, especially when Hammer gets a pax going with his 80’s references, or Zoolander makes an off color joke about doing a Freddy Mercury. You each have enriched me, made me a better person, lended guidance, and just in general have been a blast to be around.

    Before I started, I didn’t have a lower back that constantly aches or stiffens up, nor did I have a left shoulder that tells me “That’s enough merkins for today.” I didn’t even know I had an Achilles’ tendon.

    But it has all been worth it. Ever nagging pain and shortness of breath: worth it knowing I’m making a decision to better myself as a leader, a Christian, a productive member of society. And that’s due to each of you, whether I called you by name above or not. Because finally, after 3 years, I think I’ve learned your real names, which is maybe a bigger compliment.

  • When Life Gives You Lumber – from Grundy

    The old saying goes that when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. A lesser known saying is that when life gives you lumber, make a bunch of other guys move it around back and forth pointlessly for an hour. So, when Ida provided my backyard and neighborhood with a plethora of logs and stumps, YHC went ahead and tried out that lesser known saying. In addition, the Q was able to get rid of the lumber at the end of the beatdown which was in danger of becoming part of the permanent fixtures that are still adorning many neighborhoods around the Northshore. Win-Win.

    So after having almost knocked out Bird with my open car door before the beatdown, I proceeded to try to give us all that same opportunity of physical injury by throwing, dragging, pressing, lifting, and flipping logs/stumps.

    That’s really all there was too this workout. After a brief warmup, we went to the field where YHC placed all of the logs. All of the logs had different corresponding exercises associated with them and we rotated through them for the hour. The signaling of when to rotate was when the one individual flipping the main log returned to the starting line.

    Sprinkled in the beatdown was some Mary as well.

    We left the field a little worse than we found it, but I guaranty that we were better men by the end of it.

    We returned to the flag and Russo closed us out.

    Thanks guys for letting me lead and have a great weekend!

  • Streaking – from Russo

    YHC believes streaks were meant to be broken, and then celebrated. Cal Ripken wasn’t penciled in for game number 2,633. DiMaggio went 0-fer in game 57. The Patriots couldn’t overcome a miracle play from David Tyree and Ei Manning and finished the season 18-1. YHC can only eat the same lunch for 5 or 6 days in a row.

    So hearing that Steve had Q’ed Granny’s for 4 or so straight weeks, I thought he might need a break and let someone else count cadence for once.

    Pretty decent weather on Tuesday morning for a Pax of 7, including a returning Bushwhacker, with temps topping out at 77 degrees, plenty warm enough to sweat profusely.

    Working in a profession that requires balance, order, and consistency, YHC carried that over to rep count.

    Warmup (all IC 15x)
    Seal jacks
    Imperial walkers
    Toe touches
    Cherry pickers
    Mummy kicks

    Thang
    With Granny’s still feeling the effects of a spruce up, remodel, and/or renovation, her benches were not available behind fence, so Pax moseyed over to the Rusty P for some work:

    At benches:
    15 freak nastys
    15 step ups
    15 derkins
    15 more freak nastys

    Some more moseying took us to the bus stop, where 15 box jumps were in order, and then more mosey to the tunnel, where we knocked out the main portion of the beat down:

    5 merkins, a mosey through the tunnel, where it was 5 more merkins in the center, and then a reverse mosey and 5 more merkins at the top, repeated 5 times.

    Heading back home, we knocked out 15 squats IC around coffee st., and then wrapped it up with some Mary:

    15 plank jacks IC
    15 LMCs IC
    15 six inch drill IC

    COT, name-o-Rama, announcements (F3 and FIA game night 10/21 at what’s left of the Mandeville Gazebo at 6:15, NOLA convergence on Saturday), and prayer closed us out.

    Thank you gents for joining and making it another good one.

    And If you’ve read this far because of the title and hoping to hear about us going streaking through the quad Old School Will Farrell style, I hate to disappoint you. But there’s always next week!

    SYITG

  • Iron Pax week 4: We’re all super ants! – from Russo

    Pretty nice weather, a little on the humid side, but that’s picking nits, for the final week of the 2021 Iron Pax at the Lakefront this morning.

    Between a storm, a sinus infection, and vacation, YHC has been MIA for most of this year’s IPC, so my goal was to at least proctor and attempt some of the fun this week.

    As we gathered, Tanked Up took things to that next level with a (homemade) tee showing off his Raider Pride. Any Rummel alumni worth his salt (admittedly not much) knows the story of the Super Ants: an underdog Raider football team defeated the might Chalmette Owls (!!!) back in the day, and the moniker Super Ants made it into the newspaper write up (remember those?). From them on, a super ant is anyone that displays courage, heart, fight, and a motor that never quits (all characteristics of your typical college football “possession receiver”). Think Don Beebe running down Leon Lett. Danny Amendola. Abram Booty. Any Iowa receiver.

    I digress, but this week there was a colony of super ants that gave an incredible effort and pushed themselves HARD in the gloom.

    Pre Thang
    Quick warmup of seal jacks, cherry pickers, toe touches, and mummy kicks approx. 10x each, all IC)

    Thang
    A descending ladder, each set 25 reps, with a 25 yard run, followed by three burpees, and then 25 yards back for the next round of 25 reps.

    Rounds were:
    8 sets of curls (200 total)
    7 sets of squats (175 total, you get the picture)
    6 sets of overhead presses
    5 sets of kettle bell swings
    4 sets of merkins
    3 sets of thrusters
    2 sets of Bonnie Blair’s
    1 set of blockers

    Finish those, and you work your way back up the ladder, times for a total of 52:30.

    Major T claps to Grundy and Tanked up for setting the pace, but incredible effort and very little resting (excluding YHC) from what I saw.

    A mosey back from the Shaft and a COT closed us out with name-o-rama, announcements (F3/FIA mixer on the 21st and NOLA convergence on the 16th), and a prayer. Special appearance by Speedy and Cowbell, while Bean, Swoll Patrol, and an FNG had to scamper out early.

    Much respect to Zoolander for commandeering the coupons and markers and helping to coordinate this week. It was very much appreciated.

    Raider Pride and SYITG

  • Red Light, Green Light – from Russo

    Sometimes the most fun and effective way to get some something done is to take it back to when we were kids, when it seemed like everything was simpler.

    That was the goal this morning at Grandma’s. Grover owns the “Duck Duck Goose” beatdown, and I still haven’t found a way to plan an effective “Red Rover Red Rover Send Bushwhacker On Over” beatdown in a Post-COVID world, so in the meantime a fine looking Pax of 7 took to the old Mandeville streets to play some Red Light Green Light.

    Warmup (all IC 15x to 20x)
    SSH
    Grass Grabbers
    High Knees
    Cherry Pickers
    Imperial Walkers
    Mummy Kicks

    Thang
    Very simple: mosey around, call “Red light” randomly along the way, and perform exercises of varying reps (e.g. 10 burpees, 50 butt kicks) and distance (e.g. Duck walk), call “green light” to pick the mosey back up.

    The goal was to push the pace a little, but keep it light enough to figure out what our favorite football teams would do in the fall, and if there was time left, solve the world’s problems.

    Beatdown included the following:
    – circle ups
    – merkins
    – squats
    – Apollo Ohnos
    – Bobby Hurleys
    – monkey humpers
    – gas pumps
    – plank jacks
    – shoulder taps
    – butt kicks
    – duck walk
    – murder bunnies (what’s up, IRON Pax, we’re ready)
    – freak nastys
    – step ups
    – LBCs
    – big boi sit-ups

    YHC timed it relatively well, leaving no time for Mary, but plenty of time for a COT, name-o-Rama, announcements, and prayer from Hammer (thank you, sir).

    Announcements included kick ball this Thursday, Iron Pax starting up soon (register, earn points good toward nothing but pride and fellowship), and Akbar’s anny Q on Saturday.

    Thank you, gents, for joining and wishing Cowbell a safe and enjoyable trip out to Oregon this week.

    SYITG

  • Rising Up, Back On The Street – from Russo

    YHC was taught in 2nd or 3rd grade that if you want to attract eyeballs to your writing, you need a hook: a catchy title or an opening sentence or paragraph that draws attention.

    I may not always be successful, but that’s my goal with these. I had no hook for this morning: that is, until the twin muses of Eagle 98.1 and the band Survivor provided inspiration from the 80’s classic “Eye of the Tiger”.

    Good looking pax of 10 braved the heat and humidity this morning to “rise up” and get “back on the street”…literally. They did their time and took their chances, went the distance, and got back on their feet: just men and their will to survive.

    Warm-up (all IC 15x to 20x)
    – Seal jacks
    – Grass Grabbers
    – Cherry Pickers
    – Self Love
    – Torso Twists
    – Goofballs
    – Imperial Walkers

    Thang

    Tabata today, 45 seconds on, 15 seconds rest, 1 to 3 exercises per stop, mosey a block or two between stops.

    – 8 Count Bodybuilders
    – Squats
    – LBCs (multiple rounds)
    – Shoulder taps
    – Scissor kicks (definitely NOT flutter kicks)
    – Lunges
    – Flutter kicks (definitely NOT scissor kicks)
    – Peter Parker’s
    – Crab cakes
    – Burpees
    – Monkey Humpers (Not at Steve’s front door desire the request)
    – Star Jumps
    – Freak Nastys
    – Step UPS

    A mosey took us back to start, where YHC could sense Shooter itching to stretch out his calves, so we did 3 calf raises at each step of the pilot house.

    Back at the bottom, a few more LBCs, a standard plank, and a chill cut wrapped things up.

    COT, Name-o-Rama, Announcements (sign up for Iron Pax, leadership meeting tonight on SS), and Prayer closed us out.

    Thanks, gents, for joining me. It’s always enjoyable, especially when we’re graced with a Bushwhacker sighting. Best of luck to you as you start your new adventures!

    It was encouraging seeing a couple newer faces (Bends and Swoll Patrol). I hope these two stick around! And the same goes for the “regulars”.

    Until next time, SYITG.

  • Alvin Kamara LITE – from Waterpik

    Scrounge around the garage for some coupons and emerge with a punching bag, a kettle bell, and some empty large pool chlorine buckets. There are some Alvin Kamara offseason training videos floating around you tube and this was an exceptionally weak attempt at replicating his workout.

    Here’s what happened.
    Strap a rope to the punching bag and drag it to the shaft on the Lakefront and back. Each Pax completed that at least once.

    YHC filled the chlorine buckets with water. Each pax competed step ups on the seawall and well as carrying the buckets the the street and back.

    Use the kettle bell for 50 reps of American hammer.

    Cot and thanks for letting me lead. Thanks to true coat for praying is out.

  • No legs workout for the runners and cyclists among us – from Amnesia

    Warmup:
    20 x SSH, MC, IW, Peter Parkers, Windmills – all IC.

    The Thang:
    EMOM – first minute, 5 reps of merkin variant; next minute, 15-25 reps of other upper body exercise, all OYO. Next round, increase merkin variant reps by 5. Got through two rounds and started the third before YHC noticed we wouldn’t have enough time. Good thing, too. YHC wouldn’t have made it through round 3, but don’t tell any of the PAX that attended!

    Merkin variants: vanilla, diamond, clerpin, derkin, Carolina Dry Dock, diamond derkin
    Others: first round was mostly overhead press w/coupon (with some chest presses thrown in there); second round was more consistent: 20 coupon curls. Third round was coupon chest presses. Since only one merkin variant was completed on round 3, the coupon chest press was rolled over to the 6MOM.

    6(ish)MOM:
    20 ab exercise reps IC alternated with 30 coupon chest presses OYO. Abs exercises were leg raises, flutterkicks, plank (chillcut, both sides, and reverse), dying cockroaches, Freddy Mercuries, and finished with crunchy frogs led by the man himself. No presses after last ab exercise.

    COT:
    Count-o-rama, Name-o-rama, announcements, intentions, and prayer. Happy 3 years to YHC!

  • 1 year anniversary – from Jose10k

    Warm-up: ssh, grass grabbers, arm circles, windmills all reps of 15 in honor of my daughter turning 15 on Tuesday. The thang: moseyed to the courthouse for some dora. 100 merkins, 200 squats, 300 lbcs partner work. While one partner was performing each exercise, the second partner climbed the walkway rails hand over hand. Once finished, moseyed back to the parking garage entrance, then sprint up the inclines up to the top. Once at the top, Moby busted out the chain. We gathered in a line and each man pulled the chain across the parking garage. Last 5 minutes, busted out some mary. Leg raises, crunchy frogs, etc.. COT and Shooter prayed us out. BBQ busted out some birthday brownies along with some party poppers. Thanks to his wife for the tasty treats.
    Thanks for letting me lead, thanks for celebrating 1 year at the A1C, and thanks for the support for creating the AO. Y’all push me to be better.

  • Some things old, some people new – from Russo

    Based on reading backblasts and personal witness, it’s the opinion of YHC that the MVP of summer beatdowns is Jose 10k. But recently, Bypass is giving Jose a run for his money for July. Joining us just over a week ago, not only has he continued to post, but he already EH’ed Deep Six into joining us, even if it’s only temporary.

    The “new” were joined by 4 “old” Pax for one of my favorite standbys. Rainy, humid conditions at Granny’s this morning, where we managed to avoid most of the torrential rain both before and after beatdown. We were able to witness the, ahem, progress, the city is making on the splash pad (hence the need for fence construction). Let’s just say there are a few new holes from broken concrete and some more mud than usual.

    Warmup (10-20x, IC)
    – SSH
    – Arm circles
    – Self Love
    – Toe touches
    – High knees
    – Goof balls
    – Imperial Walkers

    We moseyed all around Granny’s and the warehouse to stretch our legs before….

    Thang
    More math with the return of the Deck of Death/Destruction/Discomfort/Delineation

    Suits from a standard card deck represent an exercise, the number/face the number of reps (Aces high at 15 reps). Flip over the card, perform the exercise, rinse and repeat.

    4 Rounds, 13 cards each round….Math!!!
    Spades – Shoulder Tap Merkins
    Clubs – Crab Cakes
    Diamonds – Jump squats
    Hearts – Circle Ups

    Spades – Merkins
    Clubs – Calf Raises (2x)
    Diamonds – SMCs
    Hearts – Leg raises

    Spades – Carolina Drydocks
    Clubs – Monkey Humpers
    Diamonds – Squats
    Hearts – 6 inch drill (IC)

    Spades – Peter Parker’s (2 is 1)
    Clubs – Plank Jacks (2 is 1)
    Diamonds – High knees (5x)
    Hearts – Gas Pumps

    In between rounds, we moseyed through the columns at Granny’s slalom style. YHC has to note that Jose must have known his MVP status was in jeaopardy, because he absolutely killed the last mosey.. He and Zoolander completely left the rest of the pax in their wake.

    With just a minute or so left, old fashioned merkin wave closed us out, where again Jose outperformed!

    We closed with the COT, name o rama, announcements, and prayer.

    Reminders:
    Gnarly Nutria tomorrow! Meet at 7:45 around the old Winn Dixie

    Friday: A1C one year anniversary – 5:15AM and PickleBall at Pelican Park around 6:30 (I think)

    Thank you again for the opportunity to lead, and I hope if you’re reading this, you’re safe, high, and dry from today’s storms.

    SYITG