F3 New Orleans

Tag: Thumb War

  • Swingers Style Football

    “The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.” –Vince Lombardi

    Cool and crisp morning a few Saturdays ago at The Muscleship, perfect conditions for a beatdown.  Six men posted, ready to get better.  T-claps to SOGO for getting in a pre-run w/weighted vest beforehand…#beast!  Lots of good football being played the past few week in South LA, minus the Falcons game, so YHC decided to repurpose a football themed Chamber workout from a month ago.  The extra 15 min allowed for some tweaks and lagniappe.  Thanks to quick google search, we had a list of motivational quotes from coaches and players that would hopefully keep things in high gear throughout the game. 

    Warmup:  Started with an impromptu mosey near the shoreline of the Big Lake, including a landmine run through duck poop alley, then circled up in front of NOMA for SSH, AC, IW, LSS, WM, and one or two more.      

    The Game:  We grabbed some half-sized cinder blocks (20lbs) and made our way to the field where two rows of cones approx. 25yds apart.  The game plan called for (4) 5 min quarters, partnering up with a different PAX each time….a swingers party if you will.  PAX #1 stays at the line doing one stationary exercise while PAX #2 does moving exercise to the cones and back.  Flip flop for the full five min quarter with focus on using good form and digging deep the whole time.  Strive to do more than just go through the motions, something we may all be guilty of from time to time.  But first, another Lombardi quote… 

    “There is only one way to succeed in anything…and that is to give it everything.” –Vince Lombardi

    1st Quarter: PAX #1 – Lunge walk w/block to cone then run back, PAX #2 merkins till fatigue – then hold plank.  Flip flop 5 min.

    “Stay focused. Your start does not determine how you’re going to finish.” – Herm Edwards

    2nd Quarter: PAX#1 – Tricep extetension w/block,  PAX #2 – crab walk and run back.  Flip flop 5 min.

    “Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it.” — George S. Halas

    Halftime: Mosey over to the Big Lake ledge for RLSU x20, Dips x15 (requested by Gabrielle), LLSU x20, Ledge Crunches x20.  Mosey to the Singing Oak for some round robin Mary led by Gabrielle, Thumb War, and Tanner, maybe?  Then an Indian Run around the rest of the track finishing up near the cones.  

    “Don’t let good enough get in the way of greatness. That just means come back to work on Monday ready to go. Still lots of ways we can improve.” –Joe Burrow

    3rd Quarter: PAX #1 – Curl Press w/block, PAX #2 Side lunge there and back.  Flip flop 5 min.

    “Success isn’t owned, it’s leased. And rent is due every day.” –J.J. Watt

    4th Quarter: PAX #1 – Standing bench press/block ext….audible called halfway to kettle bell swings, PAX #2 – Bear crawl there and run back.  Flip flop 5 min. 

    “You cannot make progress with excuses.” –Cam Newton….followed by some chatter from the PAX about our favorite Panthers player.    

    Overtime (w/added Iron Pax flashbacks for good measure): PAX #1 – Thrusters!!! w/block, PAX#2 – Backpedal, 3 burpees, run rack.  Flip flop 5 min. 

    “Success isn’t measured by money or power or social rank. Success is measured by your discipline and inner peace.”  –Mike Ditka

    Squeezed in a minute of stretching followed by COT and prayer. YHC mentioned that he didn’t play football growing up but has developed an appreciation for the game and enjoys seeing the hard work unfold on the field by the players and coaches alike. The level of dedication put in is admirable, something we can strive to do in our own lives with work, family, fitness, etc.

    Reconvened for coffeteria at our favorite caffeinating hole with our Mothership buddies. 

    Tool

  • 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.

  • Great Idea – Let’s Bear Crawl up Roosevelt Mall!

    Nice fall weather greeted 12 PAX for the beatdown at the Foundry. When the blackberry beeped signaling 5:30am, YHC issued the disclaimer and off we went.

    We started with a short mosey to the round-a-bout for high-knees, and carioca left and carioca right around the neutral ground. PAX circled up in the grass area of the neutral ground for warm-ups including SSH x 18, Imperial Walkers x 18, Windmills x 14, Arm Circles, Grass Grabbers x 14, and Self-love.

    Thang 1 – YHC wanted to do something that had not been done before at the Foundry so we decided to incorporate bear crawls up Roosevelt Mall to the new Louisiana Children’s Museum. We met at the light post near the flag and PAX would alternate bear crawl and sprint between each of the 15 light posts from the flag to the Louisiana Children’s Museum. At each light post, each PAX does 10 Monkey Humpers. We did have to watch out for land mines when bear crawling – sorry @Dirty Dell.

    Thang 2 – PAX circled up near the benches by the Louisiana Children’s Museum for 1 minute AMRAP of the following exercises, alternating Mary and other. Dips, LBC’s, Incline Merkins, Flutter kicks, Step-ups, Freddie Mercury’s, Decline Merkins, and Plank.

    Thang 3 – With about 10 minutes to get back to the flag we started from the far end of Roosevelt Mall and alternated lunge walk and sprint between each of the 15 light posts up Roosevelt Mall. At each light post, each PAX does 10 Merkins. We got through about 10 light posts and sprinted back to the flag for 6:15.

    PAX circled up for count-off, name-o-rama, intentions, and closing prayer to Sky Q – I am grateful for the support of F3 Nation and the opportunity to lead. @High Rise – thanks for the heads up on the Q this week as I had not checked the Q sheet.

  • Hold It

    Mondays up in the Chilly Gentilly are strong.

    YHC had the opportunity to Q at the Renaissance the day before, which is a great AO to workshop new ideas. Today we got to tighten it up.

    WARM UP –
    x10 Arm Circle
    x10 Reverse AC
    x10 Abe Vigoda
    x15 Side Straddle Hops
    x10 Parker Peter
    x10 Peter Parker
    Mosey to Elysian Fields – Indian run to end.
    x20 SSH

    THE GRIND –
    Adaptation of the 4 corners
    Goal is to do two rounds of one movement with a paired static hold. At each corner. Bringing with you a reminder of the previous corner, to compound the pain.

    First Corner –
    Circle Up. All hold plank position. One pax member starts off – 10 merkins – then next starts on his completion. All hold plank till circle is complete. Clockwise. Yup, hold it. We had a bigger group so short recovery upon completion of each circle throughout workout was decreed. Do two rounds. Run to next corner (approx 100 yards)

    Second Corner –
    Circle up. Plank. Reduced value of 5 merkins. Complete circle. One Round. Move to your six. 20 LBCs per pax, complete the circle. Doesn’t matter how you do hold it, but feet may not touch the ground. Just hold it… 2 rounds. Run to Next Corner.

    Third Corner –
    Circle Up. Plank. 5 Merkins, complete circle. On six. 10 LBCs, complete circle. Back to Feet for next movment. All hold trees (al gore) while each pax cranks out 20 squats. Seriously. Hold it! 2 rounds. Immediately sprint the distance to last corner.

    Fourth Corner –
    Circle up. 5 of each movement while all hold matching static movement. Complete then run back to starting point for stretching.

    I’d like to work out the kinks on this one a little better so we could push through with enough time to go back down. It would be a good – solid – 45 minute plan for any Q. Either way, playing with the numbers a bit at each point is all it would take… For any interested to borrow.

    As a note, what YHC likes about this type of workout is it is F2 conducive. As others have noted about the Stomp, doing a sustained exercise with opportunity to banter is always a good one to solidify the community and accountability.

    As always, thanks for letting me lead. Thanks for the accountability to kick the week off right.

  • Low Impact Muscleship

    Conditions: 68 degrees with 94% humidity. Lots of debris across the park as a result of either Tropical Storm Olga or VooDoo Fest…not sure which.

    Warm-up

    Imperial Walkers x 25; Windmills x 15; Alternating Lunges x 10; Tempo Merkins x 20; Low Slow Squats x 25; Forward Arm Circles x 20; Moroccan Night Club x 25; Backward Arm Circles. Hobbs starts to worry about the extended amount of shoulder warm-up.

    The Thang

    Bear Crawl the length of Lelong Dr. (a little shy of 1/4 mile). When lead dog, err..bear, reaches Wisner, he turns around and bear crawls back toward the six. As the lead bear gets to you, turn around and join his crawl to the six. Hobbs fears are realized.

    Mary: Flutter Kicks x 20; LBCs x 20; Penguins x 20

    Head back toward museum along the tree line. Jameis Winston for two trees, bear crawl two trees, lunge walk two trees. There were 16 or so trees. Again, the lead pax came back to the six and all joined in along the way.

    One more bear crawl for 6 or so tree lengths.

    Grab a cinderblock and start walking toward the Baby Foundry, aka the Refinery. Along the way we…walked Cusak Style, did curls, did Farmer Carries.

    Partner up at the BF Refinery. One partner pulls a Bernie Sanders on the pull up bars while the other does a Curl, Squat, Curl, Press Combo. Flap Jack when partner one falls out. After two rounds or so, it turned to straight curls. Did 3 or 4 rounds.

    Walk back with block, moving it from right shoulder to left shoulder via a shoulder press on call. Stopped at Victory Avenue for some Curls in Cadence.

    8-count merkin walk over block x 7

    Cool Down

    World’s Greatest Stretch, Touch your Toes, COT

    NMM

    • I listened to a F3 Roundtable Call with F3 Gastonia. They have a no run AO called Pain Lab. They take it as far as to have no high impact exercises…No-Impact = two feet on the ground, Low-Impact = one foot on ground at all times; High Impact = both feet come off the ground. I thought the Muscleship would be a great place to try this out. It meant no SSHs in the warm-up and no burpees.
    • The bear crawl was Epic. SOGO did a quarter of a mile without stopping. The rest of us were not far behind. How far can someone bear crawl without stopping?
    • JVs audible exertions are reaching new levels.
    • From what I could understand, Tool’s Coach O impersonation was very encouraging.
    • SOGO agrees that rain-soaked coupons are the best coupons
    • War Eagle hates Lloyd Dobbler. Not sure about his feelings for Diane Court. What am I saying? He has know idea who those people are.
    • There are patriots among us at City Park. Our flag fell while we were at the Refinery and someone stuck it back in the ground. This evens the score for when they stole our flag a few years ago. City Park Patriots 1 – City Park Commie Bastards 1.
    • Can I still say Commie or is that a Twitter offense?
    • Thumb War was noticeably excited about the Yoga at the end. Beware, I see some Warrior poses in his future Qs.
    • T-claps to all our F3 brethren that ran the Jazz Half and those doing the GoRuck tonight.

  • You don’t have to be perfect, just better than yesterday

    20 runners were greeted with an absolutely perfect pitch black morning at the Stomp today. The temperature hovered around 65 degrees for the entire run, and at no point did we see the sun. Thanks to Daylight Savings Time and those long Spring and Summer days, we’re treated to at least a mid-workout sunrise for most of the year. In fact, the sunrises will be back next month when Daylight Savings Time kicks in. Until then, let’s enjoy these last few chances to make our way through the dark, quiet streets of New Orleans while the city sleeps.

    About 6 months ago, some of us timed ourselves in a 1-mile at the Danger Zone. Since the DZ is no more, YHC decided to bring the time trials to The Stomp. The instructions were simple…. well, I thought they were simple at least.

    • Bring an activity tracker
    • All run one warm-up mile together
    • Once your activity tracker makes 1 mile, run Mile 2 as hard as you can
    • Regardless, turn back at 20 minutes and run back to the flag.
    • Send me your mile 2 time

    Even with a little confusion, this mostly went off without a hitch. The purpose of the time trial is not to see who’s fastest, but see how we’re improving. Sure, it’s fun to run around in a tank top in the early morning grabbing grass and doing a few burpees, but overall, I think we all want to get a little better, faster, stronger. To that end, I’ll post your time from today if you send it to me, and I’ll tag this post with #timetrial . Search that tag next time we do this and see how you’ve improved. Here is what I have. This is not necessarily the order in which they finished:

    1. Shuffles
    2. Tua 6:47
    3. Dirty Dell 6:37
    4. Briefs
    5. Screwtop
    6. Belloq 6:51
    7. Hawg 6:40
    8. Jesus Juice 7:02
    9. Rudy
    10. Kuch 7:06
    11. Breadsticks 6:32
    12. Rev Sox 7:51
    13. Tool 8:49
    14. Woz
    15. Bongo
    16. Chips
    17. Tugboat
    18. Hokie Pokey 10:30
    19. Thumb War 8:13
    20. Gideon

    Few rounds of Mary led by different PAX, and then 5 burpees for each pax member who did not stick with the group early on. The usual formalities and a prayer for peace and stillness in our lives. Thanks for having me. – Kuch

  • Monday Legs Day with No Rain and a Sketchy Drive by

    After 94 days as a part of this rock solid organization, I took the plunge into Q-ship. Here’s my maiden Voyage:

    Warmup:

    Parking Lot Tracers (w/ back peddling and side shuffling)  – Dug into Exicon for this. The Chamber just might have the smoothest, well marked and lit parking lot in all of NOLA.

    Circle Up for:

    SSH (15 ct.) /  Forward Arm Circles (15 ct.) / Reverse Arm Circles (15 Ct.) / Grass grabbers (15 Ct.) / Low Slow Squat (15 Ct.)

    Dirty MacDeuce:

    4 Rounds – 3 Exercises (Chest, Legs, Abs Focus) x 12 reps with Lap around Chamber parking lot.

    • Round 1 – Merkins / Squats / Big Boy Sit Ups
    • Round 2 – Incline Merkins on the Curb / Calf Raises / Flutter Kicks
    • Round 3 – Wide Grip Merkins / Summo Squat / Freddie Mercuries
    • Round 4 – Carolina Dry Docks / Bonnie Blairs / Reverse Crunches

    Moseyed to the Soccer Field…

    Leg Wrecker Round 1

    Split into 2 groups/partner up. One Pax does Lt. Dan’s across the width of field will the other holds Al Gore’s

    Moseyed to Bleachers…

    • Right Legged Step Ups (20 Ct.)
    • Dips (20 Ct.)
    • Left Legged Step Ups (20 ct.)
    • Incline Pushups (20 ct..)

    Leg Wrecker Round 2 – The Same

    Wrapped up the workout with some Mary (LBC’s x 20, American Hammer x 20, and Penguins x 20) and some stretches.

     Concluded with COT and Prayer.

    Many thanks for the support and feedback from the group through the workout. Thanks for the opportunity to plan and lead as Q and already looking forward to my next one. I encourage those who haven’t taken the plunge to just do it!

  • 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

  • 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!

  • We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Grass

    After my Okwata beatdown last week which led to many bites on several PAX I made a guarantee that we would not use the grass at UNO this morning. Thankfully our lovely website has several options for beatdown routines to be performed on asphalt and/or football field. And wouldn’t you know it the parking lot at UNO is smooth asphalt and larger than a football field. 11 PAX (and Gideon’s well trained dog) joined me in the still humid morning (no cool front yet). Disclaimer was given and off we went.

    Warm Up:

    Mosey a lap around the parking lot and circle up:

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

    Thang #1 Quarter Pounder:

    All PAX line up at the edge of the parking lot. Thanks to Kuch for providing the tape measurer which I was able to use to mark off 25, 50, 75, and 100 yards (roughly). All PAX run 25 yards, perform 25 merkins, and run backwards to the start. Run 50 yards, perform 50 squats, and run backwards to start. Run 75 yards, perform 75 mountain climbers (1 is 1), and run backwards to start. Finally run 100 yards, perform 100 reps of any ab exercise(s) of each PAX choosing, and run backwards to the start.

    Thang #2 Dominoes:

    All PAX line up on the curb in a side plank position with left hand in air. PAX member on the farthest right end of the line rotates into a high plank position and performs 5 merkins. He then holds the high plank while the next PAX performs 5 merkins, and so on, and so on until the PAX member on the farthest left end of the line performs 5 merkins. He then immediately performs another 5 merkins and then rotates into a side plank with right had in air. The merkins and side planks continue until the man who started it off completes his 5 merkins.

    Round 2: flapjack and start from opposite end of the line to even out the amount of time spent in right side plank and left side plank.

    Thang #3 Leg Wrecker:

    PAX is split up into 2 groups lines up on either side of the short side of the parking lot. Group 1 performs Lt Dan’s (1 squat and 2 lunges) across the parking lot while Group 2 holds an Al Gore. Flapjack once Group 1 completes the trek across the parking lot.

    Thang #4 The Gross:

    Seeing as how everyone in F3 NOLA should be familiar with Mardi Gras we should also know what a gross is. It’s a dozen dozen. So the gross consists of 12 exercises of 12 reps (some IC and some not). I opted to split it up evenly into 4 upper body, 4 lower body, and 4 abs.

    • Floyd Mayweathers
    • Low Slow Squats
    • Flutter Kicks
    • Carolina Dry Docks
    • Calf Raises
    • Hello Dollies
    • Overhead hand clap/DJ Jubilees (T-claps to Kuch for this name suggestion; as in “East coast where you at? Let me get a hand clap!)
    • R Side Lunges
    • Box Cutters
    • Diamond Merkins
    • L Side Lunges
    • Freddy Mercury’s

    Cool down with another lap around the parking lot and some static stretching.

    Count off, Name-o-rama, Announcements, Intentions, and Sweaty ball of man. Thoughts and prayers were offered up for Da Parish’s cousin Jonathan Serigne (F3 name Bellhop) and his family. May he rest in eternal peace.