Tag: Triple Shift

  • 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…

    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

  • 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

  • Born in the Shadows

    9/16/19 – Mothership

    Another Saturday morning, another Friday Night decision to choose the gloom over old habits.  

    A warm and inviting morning of about 40deg met the pax and everyone loved it. Greetings and disclaimer, mosey to the peristyle for warmups.

    WARMUP

    Mix of arm circles, grass grabbers, squats, round robin merkins (all pax holds plank while each pumps out 10 merkins in succession, complete the circle). 

    THE THANG

    Mosey to the base of Roosevelt Mall. Using the concrete benches – 10 box jumps, run to next, 10 incline merkins, all the way up mall. Plank for 6 at the practice track. 

    Practice Track – Partner up. Catch me if you can, one lap. 
    Keep your partner – double up with another set of pax partners. (we had 10 total pax, evenly split to two lines of 5, do not recommend going over 5) The exercise is Bear Crawl Inch worm. Make two lines in plank position, hands lining up behind feet of pax in front of you.  Pax at rear bear crawls to front of line, holds plank, next pax at rear bear crawls to front, holds plank… keep going. Half the football field. Cause why not. 

    Count to 20 for a breather (quickly). Back to your original partner. 200 squats. Set of 20 while partner holds a tree (Al Gore). 

    Mosey, listen to the mumblechatter, recalibrate, make a democratic decision to take the long way. All will celebrate. Back to the great lawn.  Tclaps to Triple shift who led some mary while six was swept. 

    Great lawn for 11s.  LBCs and Bonnie blairs across the lawn. Finished exactly on time. Mosey to flag, circle up. 

    Thanks to whoever tracked, we ran 3.6 miles with the workout. Tclaps to all. I didn’t exactly intend on it being quite so long… oops. We did some serious work. So for those who completed all the above… Respect. 

    THE NOTE

    A special huge shout out to F3 Kansas City!

    YHC was out in Kansas City for work this week and it’s worth mentioning how re-energizing it is to visit another outfit.  When I reached out, their lead, Blistex, went out of his way to organize with other pax.  Someone went out of their way to give me a ride from the hotel to beatdown, and some one else covered me for the ride back – every morning!  Just awesome that the beatdown means so much and the spirit of F3 would connect people to go so out of their way, for a stranger, to workout on a freezing cold morning, in the gloom. I mean how totally weird, and awesome is that?? I hope we NOLA Pax are representing ourselves and treating our visiting brothers even half as well. 

    Our F3 brothers founded their pax just in April of this year and they are already big enough to be holding steady AO’s 6 days a week.  Their push and their attitude was great to see and a solid reminder of just how needed, beneficial, and empowering F3 nation is. You’re not just showing up for yourself, even though that’s how it starts.  Once your life vest is on and you’re hooked, you’re showing up for the next man. For your neighbor. For some one who needs this just as much as you, but hasn’t started yet. 

    Speaking with one of the KC founders – Tapps (a great example of the F3 spirit) – he talked about how just like when you’re born in the hospital, you don’t get to chose your name, when you’re born in F3 you don’t get to chose your name.  You earn it by showing up and going through the pain of birth (or beatdown) and getting named by your new F3 family. So we are all born in the shadows, in the gloom. That’s the start of the new us, committed to being a little bit better, every day. 

    Thanks for the F3 community. Thanks for letting me lead. Thanks to the gloom. 

  • I Simply Must Go (Baby, Its Cold Outside)

    Not every man would wake up before 5am on what may be the coldest day of the year to stay on mission. Five PAX braved the early morning, pressing on towards the goal to win the prize (Phil 3:14). This is their story.

    We begin with a quick run over to the Gazebo in the center of the park for a warm up. Seems that the area in question is fenced off for the upcoming Christmas lighting display.

    Whoops.

    As I was saying, we begin with a quick run over to the Clock Tower near the road for a warm up.

    Warmup

    Side Straddle Hop x 10

    Peter Parker x 10

    Parker Peter x 10

    Smurf Jacks x 15

    Merkins x 10

    LBC x 20

    Bonnie Blairs x 10

    Mission I

    We began by alternating Bear Crawl (10 “steps”) and Lunge Walk (10 steps) across the soccer field to the running track. Upon completing the Bear Crawl/Lunge Walk, the PAX had a longer mosey on the outside running track to the West Napoleon exercise area. Along the way, we stopped to smell the roses (Roses = Burpees, Merkins, American Hammer, Big Boy Sit Ups).

    Mission II

    Once we arrived at the West Napoleon exercise area, the PAX were treated to alternating Pull Ups, Curls, Box Jumps, Big Boy Sit Ups and Chest Press (Curls & Chest press brought to you by cinder blocks liberated from behind the water pump wall at Pontiff). Three rounds on the circuit, pace set by Pull Ups, and a run back to the flag.

    Closing Ceremony

    Count Off, Name-o-rama, Announcements, Prayer Requests, Icy Ball O Man.

    In the end, did we break any new ground? In terms of creativity, not so much. But I’m proud to say each lionhearted man there today in 33° conditions earned the coveted John M. “Jack” Frost Award for Courage Under Cold Weather.

    Of course, the plaque for those “missing in action” today can be found in the Popeyes’s north side ladies room, right next to the feminine hygene products dispenser. Perhaps if you go in there to check it out, you’ll run into one of the handful of elderly ladies we saw on the track this morning while you were sleeping.

  • Saturday morning plyo

    On the eve of what turned out to be a surprisingly strong tropical depression, YHC was looking at the weather forecast for Saturday morning and decided to change things up and keep the pax under the peristyle in an attempt to stay relatively dry.

    Waking up YHC was surprised to find the rain was not as bad as expected, but still drizzly and windy, with storm debris all throughout the streets.  The day started with a bit of adversity as YHC’s route to City park was redirected due to a large tree that had overturned during the night forcing a major detour.  This led to YHC arriving to the Peristyle at 6:35.  T-claps to Shorty for stepping up and leading the pax in some warmup to get things going.   

    We moved from the great lawn over to the peristyle to finish up the warmup of shoulder taps, arm circles, and windmills.  

    Thang 1 

    • Start with burpee/1 merkin and then broad jump.  Burpee/2 merkins/broad jump, Burpee/3 merkins/broad jump……Burpee/10 merkins/ broad jump
    • Now do another round but start at 10 merkins and work down to 1

    With everyone’s heart rate up we moved to to the main event – YHC‘s best impersonation of Tony Horton for a P90x style plyometric workout. 

    Thang 2

    30 seconds each exercise AMRAP

    • jump squats 
    • Run stance squat jumps (4 squats with a jump turn in 4th squat)
    • Jump squat turns (jump squat with turn backwards and then frontwards)
    • Smurf jacks
    • Squat reach jump (Squat and touch ground then jump)
    • Jump knee tucks
    • Bonnie Blairs
    • Twist combo
    • Leapfrog squats (in squat position, 2 jumps forward and 2 back)
    • Bobby Hurleys 
    • Low squat jump turns
    • Hot foot (Jump on one foot) -30 second each leg

    Rinse and repeat entire circuit

    Thang 3

    Chest/tricep (2 rounds)

    • Angle grinders x 20 IC
    • Diamond merkins x 15 IC
    • Shoulder taps x 20 IC
    • Backward plank (60 seconds)

    Finished with a merkin ring of fire

    COT where we welcomed FNG I-heart, gave thanks for good health and fortunes and said a prayer for those in need.  

    Thanks for the opportunity to lead and SYITG!

  • 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

  • 5 year CONVERGENCE!

    Well – 5 years later we are still going STRONG! I remember when we started thinking I don’t have time in my life for this group. After a week of beatdowns I knew that we had to commit to growing this group – it had already begun to change my life and they way I interact with people everyday. I know after a nasty 530am beatdown – that I can handle anything the day throws at me. Thanks to all the guys here in NOLA that keep things running so that we can continue to be a group. Thanks to OBT for taking time out of his life to get us going in the GLOOM! Looking forward to 5 more years of F3 in NOLA.

    Today the pre-run started with about 20 PAX for a run down BAYOU ST JOHN. Beautiful weather, cool air and a crisp breeze. We ran 12 min out and 12 min back so that we could arrive in time for the fun.

    KUCH – has a been a great EH’er and a nice addition to F3 NOLA. Kuch started the party off with a WARM UP circle. SSH, Imp Walkers, Arm Circles, Peter Parkers, Merks.

    Then we divided up by 5 count into teams. We did 5 burpees, 5 Lunges, 5 Merkins, 5 Squats, 5 Plank Jacks. Bear Crawl across the lawn. Run back. KUCH did an excellent job getting the teams set quickly

    5 reps. We ran out of time and had to call it after 3 reps. No team won due to the shortened KUCH set. Kuch represented NOLA well – with a pretty gnarly start to a celebratory event.

    2nd set with DURACELL – FROM BATON ROUGE

    Duracell brought out 2 coupons. 40lb cinderblocks. 2 PAX ran to the center and did 3 thrusters. We went two different directions. A slow starter but once the PAX got the hang out this one – this was a solid beatdown. Duracell had to do about 15 exercises in cadence to 20. Exercises ranged from a regular plank, to shoulder taps, to merk variations to squat/lunge variations. The highlight of this section was Mathlete’s 2.0-Bear getting that cinderblock in the right position and up. Duracell represented the RED STICK well.

    THIGHS FROM THE WANK- 3rd quarter. We started with a solid mosey over the to the lawn in by the museum. Upon arrival we see that Thighs has organized with some printed out signs a 15 min beatdown that is going to suck. At each sign there was an exercise- PAX had to complete 20 reps the first time through, 15 reps the 2nd time through. (Possible 3rd time for the fastest pax members). Exercises were:

    1. Bonnie Blaires
    2. Diamond Merks
    3. Reverse Crunches aka Gaspumps
    4. Bobby Hurleys
    5. Merkin Toe Touches (need to incorporate this more in my Qs)
    6. Freddie Mercs

    RUN back to the start line and do this again. Thighs had the teams organized in a way by street names. Due to 75 PAX that didn’t quite workout but Thighs quickly modified and let the teams fall where they were. A good quick call. Thighs demonstrated that there is nothing easy about the WANK. Those guys are tough! Great turnout by the WB.

    STEVE FROM THE NORTHSHORE- FINISHED OFF The PAX back on the great lawn. Each pax got a partner.

    You had to do your partners age in burpees, your partners weight in LBCS, and your partners months in F3 in Freddies.

    Steve had a few minutes left so he finished with some Peter parkers, and some American Hammer.

    After a 75 PAX NAME O RAMA, NUMBERRAMA – Hokey POkey finished us off with an awesome prayer!

    After the whole beatdown we gathered at Cafe Du Monde for a 5 year celebration party. Tclaps to Rudy, Tool and Gabrielle for making that happen. There were eggs, bacon, sausage, grits, biscuits, beignets and plenty of coffee!

    Thanks to our awesome Qs! IT is NOT easy to Q 75 PAX!

    So blessed to be a part of this group- cheers to 5 more years of F3 NOLA!

  • 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!