F3 New Orleans

Tag: TurboTax

  • Obstacle Course on the Mandeville Lakefront

    The idea was simple: raid my junk filled garage to come up with some objects to create an obstacle course on the Mandeville Lakefront for the Saturday morning beatdown.  Here’s how it went, more or less.

    Short warm up, then mosey down the Lakefront to the large grassy area for some fun.  (at least that was the original idea)

    PAX lines up behind a set of cones while one man at a time starts running the course.   When one man finishes the first obstacle, the next man goes until everyone is on the course.  The first obstacle was hurtles (2 ice chests and a wagon). Second obstacle…I took the net off of my son’s field hockey goal.  It was perfect to crawl under, or you could pretend you were sliding head first into second base.  PAX moves on to third station.  And on, and on it went.  There were a total of 7 stations. Before moving on to the next station, each man had to complete an exercise.  Here’s a flavor of the exercises we completed: merkins, hello dollys, flutter kicks, Steve’s groiners, burpees, putins, squats, jump squats, sister mary katherines, etc.  After 8 grueling trips through the obstacle course, time was up.  It was time to…

    mosey back to flag for announcements, countarama, and thanks to Maverick for praying us out.

    thanks for letting me lead today, men.  and thanks for helping me become a better version of myself.

    Waterpik

  • Duty Calls

    Making ourselves better is in many ways a critical first step towards making a positive impact on our friends, families and communities.  This simple statement is a core tenant and one of the things YHC loves most about F3.  Making ourselves better requires discipline and hard work.  No one can make you better except for yourself.  You must answer the call of duty if you want to project positive force in the world.  Teddy Roosevelt had this figured out.  He observed “the things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first, the love of soft living, and the get rich quick theory of life.”  Amen.

    In this spirit, five patriots gathered under The Gipper’s gaze to celebrate their 4th of July with some hard work.  Mosey to the St. Tammany Parish Justice Center for a warmup of SSHs, Windmills, Seal Jacks, and Overhead Hand Claps, all IC 10 to 15 reps with trips up and down the Justice Center stairs between exercises.  Then it was off to the animal races with:

    30 yard Ostrich walk, 70 yard strides, and repeat in the opposite direction.  Rinse and repeat with Crabwalks, Bear Crawls, Lizard Walks, and Duck Walks.

    Mosey to the Veterans Memorial at the front of the Justice Center for 30 seconds each of front to back jumps and lateral jumps with a short pause to reflect that we as Americans may be blessed with freedom, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but the duty is ours to manifest and maximize those gifts through our actions and words.

    Mosey to the top of the Parking Garage where we performed a 7 minute AMRAP of sprints down the ramp, climbs up the stairs, and short run back to the starting point complete the loop.

    Mosey to the back of the Justice Center for 30 seconds each of lateral box jumps.

    Then back to The Gipper for our ISI challenge of the day (30 rower situps IC), countorama, nameorama, and prayer.

    Thanks for letting me lead guys.

    God Bless America!

     

  • 8ball Qball

    YHC’s first Saturday Q:

    BACKSTORY: YHC stayed out late the night before and still hadn’t formed the plan…but it was done by about 02:00 when YHC finished his festivities. As a precaution not to fartsack the Q YHC drove to the location and, after attaching a note to the window that said “WAKE THE Q”, turned down the seat and went to sleep until the morning. But the note wasn’t necessary as YHC just shot up awake at 06:00. Fortunately YHC awoke early because, like every morning, there was a sycamore down under if you catch my driftwood…err drift. After running behind a dumpster behind a building to fix the situation, YHC returned to start the thang.

    YHC skipped the foreplay and awaited the rest of the PAX that would show.

     

    Warmup:

    Monkey Humpers, imperial walkers, windmills, monkey humpers

    The Thang:

    1.) partnered up, one person does sit-ups while the other is lunging with twist approx. 30yds and return back with side shimmy to switch with partner until 200 sit-ups reached.

    2.) partnered up, one planks while other sprints same distance back and forth. 10 rounds.

    3.) partnered up, “Bad Dog” one bear crawls while other is in front of them back peddling 30 yds. Then switch roles back to start line. 5 rounds.

    4.) duck duck goose abs circle – PAX in a circle doing flutter kicks until everyone takes a turn sprinting around the circle. Second round was same thing but with Freddy Mercuries.

    COOL DOWN

    ran back to flag, monkey humpers

    COT, BOM – jul 4th event announced by Turbo

    new FNG = ZOOLANDER

     

  • Discipline Equals Freedom

    “Don’t expect to be motivated every day to get out there and make things happen.  You won’t be.  Don’t count on motivation.  Count on discipline.” – Jocko Willink, Discipline Equals Freedom:  Field Manual

    “The test is not a complex one:  when the alarm goes off, do you get up out of bed, or do you lie there in comfort and fall back to sleep?  If you have the discipline to get out of bet, you win-you pass the test.  If you are mentally weak for that moment and you let that weakness keep you in bed, you fail.  Though it seems small, that weakness translates to more significant decisions.  But if you exercise discipline, that too translates to more substantial elements of your life.”  Jocko Willink, Extreme Ownership:  How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win.

    “Our freedom to operate and maneuver had increased substantially through disciplined procedures.  Discipline equals freedom.”  Jocko Willink, Extreme Ownership:  How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win.

    YHC sprinkled words of wisdom from his favorite U.S. Navy SEAL throughout this morning’s beatdown.  He was preaching to the choir, of course, because all seven PAX standing around the shovel flag on the Mandeville Lakefront at 0630 already had passed their first test of the day.  Their alarms sounded and they posted, ready to get some.

    Barely Legal assisted YHC with this morning’s Warmup, a Q school of sorts.  YHC led the PAX in Seal Jacks, lunges, Merkins, Copperhead Squats, windmills, and OH Hand Claps.  Barely Legal followed suit and, being a quick study, had mastered several counting styles in no time at all.  When all was said and done, the PAX had a solid 20 reps IC for each exercise and was ready to mosey down the Lakefront for a

    Ring of Fire

    Forming a ring around YHC’s backpack, the PAX bear crawled around the ring to the left, then the right, forward to the backpack and back, performing Merkins, Parker Peters, and plank variations along the way.  Then we recovered for a standing Ring of Fire, shuffling with thighs parallel to the ground around the ring to the left, then the right, duck walk forward to the backpack and back, with Copperhead Squats and some Al Gore mixed in.  Brief recovery then a mosey further down the Lakefront for

    3×30

    YHC placed two cones about 100 yards apart, sweeping the lane of travel for land mines as an early morning gift to the PAX.  The next bit went like this:

    10 regular Merkins, stride it out to the far cone, backpedal to the near cone; 10 right hand forward Merkins, stride/backpedal again, then 10 left hand forward Merkins, final stride/backpedal

    10 Good Mornings, prime time to the far cone and back; rinse and repeat two times

    10 hand release Merkins, lateral bounce extend to the far cone and back; 10 hand release T Merkins, lateral bounce extend again; 5 regular hand release Merkins and 5 hand release T Merkins; later bounce extend for the final trip

    Another pause to catch our breath and then time for the main event.

    Flying Sprints

    Starting at the near cone, the PAX ran at 50% for the first 75 yards and then executed an all out sprint the remaining 25 yards to the far cone.  Instructions were to give it everything for those final 25 yards, run ugly if necessary to close the distance as fast as possible.  Recovery walk back to the start.  Rinse and repeat twice for 3 high quality sprints.

    Of note, Moby surprised us all, and himself as well, with Bo Jacksonesque sprints.  If anyone personifies our “discipline equals freedom” mantra for the day, it’s Moby.  When was the last time you saw a 67 year old run like a Heisman trophy winner?

    Back to the shovel flag for

    Mary

    70 second front plank, Jane Fonda left then right 20x IC each, single leg lifts 10x IC each leg, and finally a set of scorpions 10x IC.

    Countorama, nameorama and then off to the Beach House for our coffeeteria with a few wins under our collective belts to start our weekends.

    Thanks for letting me lead this morning, guys, and for always pushing me to be better.

  • Just Another Lazy Morning

    It was just another lazy morning for the six PAX that showed up to the Gipper this morning (7 if you count our Honorary Member for the day Moby). Because it was a nice and cool morning I thought it fitting to add an exercise that has “lazy” in the title. How hard can something with “lazy” in the title really be? Well, as the PAX soon discovered, there was nothing lazy about it.

    Warmup

    SSH 25 IC (In Cadence)

    Windmills 15 IC

    High Knees 20 IC

    Butt Kicks 20 IC

    Arm Circles (forward, backwards, and backwards larger circles) 15 IC

    Let’s get this party started!

    The Thang’

    Mosey to the Taj Mahal.

    Today I focused on one of the elements of F3 that sets it apart in my mind, and that is the area of togetherness. No man left behind and we are all in this together! So all of the exercises today were done with a partner or as a team.

    First we partnered up and had one partner get in a wall sqauat. The other partner would do 2 burpees and run a lap around the building (stopping to do 2 more burpees on the opposite side). When partner 2 returns they replace partner 1 on the wall and reverse roles. 3 total laps were done for today.

    After a brief 10-count we split up into groups of three and got about 75 feet apart or so facing each other. Group 1 held an Al Gore while group 2 lung walked to group 1’s location. Once there they switched and group 1 lunge walked back to group 2’s original location while group 2 held an Al Gore. Rinse and repeat!

    After that everyone was acting really lazy so I decided to bring in the aforementioned “lazy” exercise. The exercise is called Lazy Doras.

    The objective is similar to Dora 1-2-3 in that as a group you are to accomplish 100-200-and 300 reps of an exercise. The difference is that  rather than having one partner run off and return to replace the partner at where they left off, both partners never separate. Instead, while one partner does the reps of the merkin portion , for example, the other partner is in a plank. Along those lines, when one partner does squats the other holds an Al Gore, and while one does lbc’s the other does a six inch dead man’s hold.

    The format of accomplishing the objective was split up into 10-20-and 30 reps for each corresponding exercise session. When one partner does 10 merkins, the other partner continues immediately with the next 10 and so it ping pongs until completion. We did 100 merkins, 200 squats, and 300 lbc’s with that pattern.

    It was so hard, that even Einstein’s legs were sweating (his words on the measure of the intensity of a workout…).

    After everyone was done being lazy, we moved into our final event called Blue Falcon. Splitting into teams of three the objective was to create a workout that your group tries to finish in three minutes (with some adjustments to the plan during the 3 minutes granted). Simultaneously both groups attempt their workout and do as much as they can. Once done, the workouts are attempted by the other team. Whoever finishes the other team’s workout first is declared the winner. The loser has some penalty exercise to do.

    The winning team (Maverick, In-Time, and Einstein) were gracious enough to join the losers club (Turbo, Barely Legal, and YHC) in the penalty of 20 Russian Twists IC.

    Slow mosey back to the Flag and lo and behold, there she blows! Moby Dick in the flesh doing some core work! Way to be committed even when most would have just called it a lost day. Nicely done man.

     

    Circled up and counted off.

     

    C.O.T. to close with Maverick praying us out.

     

    Great job everyone!!! It really is such an honor to be a part of this group let alone being allowed to lead some. It’s awesome!

     

    Have a great day men!!!

     

     

  • No U.S.? Who cares! World Cup Soccer–F3 Style

    After playing  touch football (who remembers those kids riding by, windows down, shouting at us??) on Superbowl Saturday (#Turbo Tax) and half court basketball at the Milestone Marsh during March Madness (#THE Manny), YHC began planning a soccer themed beatdown to coincide with the start of the World Cup.  I figured, correctly, that Shooter wouldn’t mind lending his truck to transport my kids’ soccer goal from my front yard to the Mandeville Lakefront.  After all, ISI has necessitated a “very chesty” month for our F3 Northshore PAX who are participating, so it seemed a break from the norm was very much in order.  And so it was.

    Warmup: SSH, High knees, butt kicks.  Mosey to the soccer field on the Mandeville Lakefront that you didn’t know about–the F3 Soccer Field, brah!

    Let’s get right to it:

    Divide the PAX into two teams (shirts and skins—like when we were kids–way before dry-fit, under armour, nike pro combat) and play keep away with the soccer ball in a square grid about 30 x 30 yards.  The Goal: each team tries to complete three consecutive passes without losing possession.  When that happens, the opposing team gets a penalty exercise–merkins, burpees, groiners (Steve may have been cussed here by a very ‘whacky’ someone if memory serves), squats, sprints, flutterkicks, hello dollys, freak nasties, mountain climbers, sister mary Katherine’s.

    After a while and with the competitive juices flowing pretty good among the PAX, YHC began to fear a regrettable, preventable injury, and called for “next goal wins.”

    Time for a change of pace, and more penalty exercises.

    Let’s do some PK’s:

    Each player gets to take a PK.  If you miss, or the goalie saves it, your whole team gets a penalty exercise. If you make it, the other team gets a penalty exercise.  Rinse and repeat until all players on both teams have taken a PK and played goalie.

    Let’s change things up again:

    Shots on an Open Net from about 30 yards out.  If you miss, the entire PAX gets a penalty exercise.  If you make it, everyone rests.  Easy enough, right?  Not so fast, my friend!  Unfortunately, only about 4 people made their shot.

    Now it’s time to mosey back to the flag.  Indian Run Style.

    Count off, naming of FNG, and thanks to Bubba for praying us out!

    Welcome, FNG, In-Time!  Hope to see you at the beatdowns.

    Thanks for following my lead today, men!  I look forward to seeing you all in the gloom.

     

     

     

  • Fun and Games at The Gipper

    Summer is upon us and a number of Gipper regulars are enjoying themselves on vacation.  Expecting a light turnout, YHC was pleasantly surprised when two FNGs rolled in this morning to round off our crew for the day at 5.  Brief disclaimer and explanation of what we are all about in the F3 Nation before getting underway with a mosey to the Justice Center.

    Warmup of SSHs, plank jacks, windmills, Merkins, Imperial Walkers, Peter Parkers and finally some shoulder circles with overhead hand claps.  Mostly in cadence with 10-20 reps for each exercise.

    Mosey to the top of the Justice Center Parking Garage for some Merkin/Squat mountain.  Partner up and execute first 100 Merkins and then 200 Squats while your partner first sprints down/backpedals up the ramp and then lateral shuffles down and then back up the ramp.

    Mosey to the front of the Justice Center for fun and games.  Four cones delineated a rough circle, and the PAX counted off to establish an order and got to work passing a tennis ball around in that order.  Every dropped pass earned an OYO exercise.  While we had it going smoothly for a while, perfection can only last so long and so we ended up doing a fair number of jump squats, Merkins, Sister Mary Katherines, and Seal Jacks.  YHC also increased the level of difficultly as soon as the PAX kinda mastered things and so we switched up the passing order, had to leave the circle after each pass to do a burpee before coming back in to receive the next pass, etc.

    Mosey back to the Trailhead for some abbreviated Mary, a set of flutter kicks 20x IC, and then it was time for closing ceremonies.

    Welcome Bean and Buzz to the PAX!

     

  • Testing Masculinity at the Gipper

    Arrived to the Gipper with mild 70s and a hint of fog. This Gloom certainly lacked previous post of suffocating humidity, which helps with perspiration even when the beatdown may not start as intense and require a sweat towel of sorts. To keep the beatdown as masculine as one may, minus the chatter of “Zoolander” and ballerina spins performed by Maverick during the Qs exercises. The beatdown would soon dampen the chatter and there would be no more ballerina turning when all was said and done.

    warmup

    20 IC Imperial walkers

    10 IC Good mornings

    20 IC Mountain climbers

    10 IC Wind mills

    20 IC Butt kicks

    thang

    Moseyed to the Taj around the flag pole for the “San Antonio Shuffle” which consists of left/right leg lunge, into a Burpee and wrapped up with a Plank jack. We separated into 2 teams and one team held Al Gores while team two completed the shuffle. This is where we were gifted with the talents of Maverick and the Ballerina swirl. R/R till each PAX reached 10 total. Short Moseyed to the top of the parking garage for the completion of the Qs previous deck of death at another post. With half the deck remaining the suits went this way. ♥  SSH, ♠ Merkins, ♣ Flutter kicks and ♦ Jump squats. With cards representing face value and the lone Joker left equaling 25 with the exercise chosen by the man who flipped it at which Einstein calls Burpees. Huh? Exercises are 🙄 sir and that was not an option, so with reluctance he calls the next best to count toward the ISI of this month the Merkin.. Once we completed the deck Moseyed to the back side of the courthouse for another workout grabbed from the Lexicon “Stairway to Seven” which is 1 Burpee 1 Incline Merkin up the stairs 1 squat and backdown R/R till everyone completes to 7. Moseyed to the front of the courthouse and split back into teams. Team 1 did sleeping Hillibilles while team 2 journeyed up the steps for 10 Merkins. Teams swapped positions till each PAX did left/right side then we changed to E2Ks and ended with Peter Parker’s. Total in all was 51 additional Merkins rounding out the ISI counters at 200 on the morning. Moseyed back to the flag for count off, announcements and COT.. Turbo mentioned the CSAUP of the Narley approaching July 19th and Bubba prayed us out.. Welcome to the Gipper Barely legal, glad to see you post..

    Thank you Brothers for the lead!!

    ✌🏻 Till the next Gloom!!

  • JR Smith VS The World

    To recognize JR Smith’s collapse during the first game of the NBA Finals, I decided to work a basketball theme into the beatdown this past Saturday morning. Before we get that started, let’s get warmed up.

    Warmarama: Happy Jacks- 5 SS IC- 2 Squat Jumps: Rinse and Repeat 5 times, IWs- 20IC, Seal Jacks – 21 Style: Complete 21 Seal Jacks IC- First 5 are counted out loud, the next 16 are done in silence. All pacs have to finish at the same time in order to avoid penalty exercise. We were close, but no cigar. All pacs had to do 10 burpees. High Kness – 20IC, Butt Kicks – 20IC…….Mosey to Lamarque

    BLIMPS: 5 Burpess, 10 Lunges (each leg), 15 IWs, 20 Merkins, 25 Plank Jacks, 30 Squats- Rinse and Repeat Twice

    Mosey to the Milestone Marsh – Roughy a 1/2 mile run. Goal was for all pacs to get there in 5 minutes. Goal accomplished.

    JR Smtih VS The World

    Pacs divide into two teams and line up on opposite ends of the court facing midcourt. All pacs assume the Al Gore position. On Go, first pac of each group runs to mid court and grabs one of two basketballs and attempts free throw shot on their goal. If you make it, put ball back in basket and tag next partner. If you miss it, complete 5 burpees before tagging next partner. The team that finishes first wins, and avoids the penalty exercise of a suicide.

    Rinse and repeat this game two more times, but with different shots and different exericses while shots are being taken.  Second shot was a NBA three, measured out before hand at 23.75 feet. It’s  a lot further than it looks on TV. All pacs held plank position during this shot. Third shot was in honor of our former Pelican, JR Smith, a layup. Everyone did flutter kicks.

    Barely legal’s team one the competition once. THE Manny’s team brought it home twice. Good job guys.

    Mary: Circled up around half court for some Mary. 25 LBC’s-IC, 25 Freddie Mercuries-IC, 25 Russian Twists – IC, 25 Straight Leg Lifts – IC

    Circle of Merk: All Pacs stay circled up around mid-court. We assume the plank position. Going clockwise, each pac does one merkin while the other hold the planc position. We rinse and repeat this until we get to 100 merkins.

    Long mosey back to the flag. Goal was to get back to flag in 7 minutes. I think everyone but yours truly made it back that in that time.

    T-claps to Butt Splice for praying us out. A-wall not only made it back to the Mother Ship, but he brought a FNG with him. Welcome abourd Half Pipe

  • Little Humid Today?

    yes… I saw the Gipper statue whip out his hankie and wipe the brow of his over-sized head
    Guess the cool mornings are gone for the next five months or so.

    Anyways, it was still a good day to run all-over downtown Covington.
    and it went like so…

    short disclaimer …

    warmup
    all 20xIC; side straddle hops,good-mornings,lunges,imperial walkers,toe touches,hillbillys,arm circles,high knees

    mosey a few blocks down towards the Bogu Falaya, to Keith’s gravel road with a hill
    buttkicks,then sprint up the hill, walk back
    high knees,then sprint up the hill, walk back
    lunges, then sprint up the hill, walk back
    squats, then sprint up the hill

    mosey a few blocks to the back parking lot of the Taj Mahal
    line up for stops and starts;
    buttkicks, run up 2 parking spaces, back peddle 2, repeat for 4,6 8 spaces
    high knees, run up 2 parking spaces, back peddle 2, repeat for 4,6 8 spaces
    lunges, run up 2 parking spaces, back peddle 2, repeat for 4,6 8 spaces
    squats, run up 2 parking spaces, back peddle 2, repeat for 4,6 8 spaces

    mosey to the front of the Taj Mahal
    break up into two teams of three, one team holds in wall-chair position while the other team runs around Taj. Repeat

    mosey back to the trail head
    one minute of merkins

    count-o-rama, announcements; Moby in for eye surgery next week,
    “I was spottin those raccoons…” ‘They were mailboxes, you idiot. I didn’t have the heart to tell you.” ~~George Costanza and Jerry Seinfeld in “The Glasses”

    Maverick leads us out with prayer.

    Thanks guys, for another enjoyable start to the day.