Workout of the Day:
Four sets of:
Bulgarian Split Squat x 6 reps each leg @ 30X1
Rest 90 seconds
Ab-Wheel or Barbell Roll-Outs x 8-10 reps @ 3010
Rest 90 seconds;
and then,
Three rounds for max reps of:
2 minutes of Double-Unders
1 minute of Air Squats
Rest 2 minutes

In Need of A Green Wave!
Written by Marc Homan

Help Needed: Friday September 3rd and Sunday September 5th. Need a Green Wave of Positive Thoughts flowing from all Invictus members to Darrell McPherren in Frisco, TX as he embarks on his quest for a National Championship at the USA Cycling Masters National Championship.

In CrossFit we strive for broad, inclusive fitness, yet we also work hard to expose and correct our physical shortcomings also known as our “Goats.” For the last 11 weeks Darrell, or DMac as I call him, has been working on his Goat: High-end, Unilateral Power. Why? So he can go as fast as possible on his bike this weekend, why else?

DMac’s Friday event is the Match Sprint. This is a single elimination tournament pitting two riders against each other for three laps of the velodrome. First across the line moves on, second place goes home. This is a highly tactical race with the first portion done at slow speed often culminating with both riders coming to a dead-stop called a “track stand.” An explosive move followed by a sprint to the finish line determines the winner. Our training will help DMac when he makes his move, or “jump.”

Sunday morning will see DMac competing in a 500m time trial. From a dead stop riders go as fast as they can for 500 meters with the fastest time winning. Times usually are between 35 and 40 seconds. We have been training DMac to go sub-35 sec. DMac has been working to start really fast through exploding off the start line and holding that effort for another half-minute.

Sunday afternoon is the Olympic Sprint where a team of three start from a stand still and do 3 laps against the clock. The team starts in a line abreast but quickly move into a paceline where the person in front is creating a draft for those behind. The first person does a lap and pulls off, the second does the second lap and pulls off and the third sprints the last lap for the finish line. DMac is the first guy to go which again calls for an explosive start and then increasing his speed for the remainder of the lap.

Darrell’s body and mind are tuned to crush these events; what we need is a Green Wave of positive energy flowing from all Invictus members to send him on his way!!

And a special thanks to the 9:30 am group who have been so gracious as we have bounced, screamed, and sweated our way around the gym the past few months. Your patience and understanding as we have taken up more than our fair share of space has been much appreciated.

Workout of the Day:
Five sets for Max Reps of:
90 seconds of Deadlift (225/155 lbs.)
90 seconds of Rest
90 seconds of Dumbbell Push Press (55/35 lbs.)
90 seconds of Rest
90 seconds to complete a 400 Meter Run
90 seconds of Rest

Report three scores for each of the five sets – e.g., 1. 42/50/1:13, 2. 38/45/1:15, etc….
Sneak Preview of the 2011 CrossFit Games Competition Movements

Workout of the Day:
Five sets of:
Weighted Pull-Ups x 3 reps @ 21X1
Rest 90 seconds
Single-Leg Squats x 6 reps each leg @ 30X1
(perform all 6 reps on one leg before switching – progression = squat to a box, squat from a box, pistol, weighted pistol)
Rest 90 seconds;
and then,
As many rounds as possible in 12 minutes of:
10 Pull-Ups
20 Russian Step-Ups with DBs (10 left leg, then 10 right leg)
30 Walking Lunges (bodyweight)

Proud papa Justin with his son, Caleb Nahama - 2030 firebreather!

Who’s Ready for a Challenge?
Written by C.J. Martin

September is going to be a busy month at Invictus.  It’s going to be filled with great educational opportunities and a couple of opportunities for you all to test yourself in various challenges.

First, we will be commencing our second Look Good, Feel Good, Play Good Challenge on September 15, 2010. More details will be coming out about the challenge in the next couple of weeks, but start thinking about your goals and what is possible. Several participants in the first LGFGPG Challenge lost 40 lbs. and improved their strength and conditioning benchmarks in just 7 weeks. A few participants got free memberships and a lot of cash for their efforts as well. We’ll put all of the pieces in place for all participants to succeed and look, feel and perform better than ever.

Second, Invictus has the pleasure of hosting the first OPT Big Dawg Challenge on Saturday, September 25, 2010. The challenge will be comprised of just one workout that promises to be challenging, but a lot of fun. Among the participants competing at Invictus will be James “OPT” FitzGerald – founder of Optimum Performance Training, the OPT Big Dawg Blog, and my coach. But participation in the Big Dawg Challenge will not be limited to those able to join us at Invictus. Big Dawg’s all over the United States, Canada and overseas will be participating at various host sites or in their garages and posting their results online.

As explained on the Big Dawg’s Blog:
Big Dawg competitions have traditionally been and will maintain its goal of being a gathering place for folks to compete together or online against one another based on prescribed fitness workouts.

They have been and will continue to be built so that anyone can do them anywhere with the basics. Only expectations are honesty in movement standards and a willingness to help other athletes. For live events the gathering has traditionally been judged by other competitors – i.e. counting reps, watching movements, etc…to keep the camaraderie high. We only expect full effort.

The OPT Big Dawg Challenge will support the Big Dawg’s Dish, a community supported pool of funds used to ensure that no athlete is unable to compete in Regional or National fitness competitions due to their financial situation. Athletes who have shown the heart and desire to compete should be able to do so, and the Big Dawg’s Dish makes that possible. The registration fees are only $5 to participate in this challenge. To register, click here. We will also put a sign up sheet on the whiteboard so you can challenge some folks to join you!

Steel yourself for the challenges, they’re going to be fun!

Workout of the Day:
Five sets of:
Front Squat x 3-4 reps @ 20X1
Rest 60 seconds
Dumbbell External Rotation x 10-12 reps each @ 2110
Rest 60 seconds;
and then,
Three rounds for time of:
30 Wall Ball Shots (20/12 lbs.)
20 Toes to Bar

Bookmark this NOW!
Written by C.J. Martin

Kelly Starrett, owner of San Francisco CrossFit, has just created my new favorite website. K-Star is, and always has been, the man when it comes to making athletes better and stronger by increasing their range of motion – or more generally, fixing their s@*t. Now he’s getting his message out to even more folks by putting it on the web.

You now have five tasks that you MUST complete today:

1. Go to http://www.mobilitywod.blogspot.com/.
2. Bookmark the page so that you can look at it every day.
3. Watch the video of the day.
4. ACTUALLY DO THE HOMEWORK! (Seriously folks, watching the videos is great, but you don’t get the benefit unless you actually perform what is suggested.)
5. Tell a few friends about your new favorite (er, maybe second favorite) website.

Failure to take proper restorative measures is the number one problem I see with our athletes. Everyone wants to lift heavy and push hard in conditioning workouts, and CrossFitters have an amazing tolerance for pain when doing so. Most of you reading this have engaged in the insanity of tearing your hands or pushing yourselves to the point of vomiting in your workout; but most of you also refuse to put up with the pain of stretching or rolling on a lacrosse ball every day. Check your priorities kids. Stretching and foam rolling doesn’t just buy you longevity in this game, it also makes you stronger in the short-term by improving tissue quality and range of motion.

At the gym, we provide you with six essential foam rolling and stretching exercises to complete before and after your workout, but now you have some homework.  It takes less than 10 minutes every night. Get home, eat some dinner, hang out with the family, but leave yourself 10 minutes to make yourself a better athlete.

Workout of the Day:
Four sets of:
Weighted Pull-Ups x 5 reps @ 21X1
Rest 2 minutes
Good Mornings x 8 reps @ 3011
Rest 2 minutes;
and then,
Four sets for max reps of:
60 seconds of Hang Power Cleans
30 seconds of Rest
60 seconds of Handstand Push-Ups
30 seconds of Rest
60 seconds of Double-Unders
30 seconds of Rest

Josh B - Eric's mustache is super cool, and so is this t-shirt he's rockin. We'll have to hook you up with one when you get back. Stay well and drop us a line once in a while.

More Testing Questions and Answers
Written by C.J. Martin

I got back late Monday night from the OPT CCP Nutrition Module in Calgary (which was awesome!) and saw a couple of great questions on the blog that I want to address so that everyone has these answers. So here they are:

From Courtland – “[C]ould [you] explain how the testing ties in with the strength cycle we are entering (if I’ve correctly understood previous posts). Is it the case that we will be encountering dead lifts, squats, presses and weighted pull ups more frequently over the next couple of months, or that the prescribed loading will be on the heavier side for that time period?”

Not necessarily, but quite possibly. Because our general philosophy is to develop clients who are fit and capable at a wide variety of tasks, we will never have a cycle that is solely focused on one aspect of fitness (such as strength). Remember, we have also conducted conditioning tests over the last couple of weeks which were extremely light or bodyweight only (Lucky Sevens, Jackie, 50 Burpees for time). I am as interested in seeing your progress on those workouts as I am in seeing your deadlift increase. So this is where things get tricky, or from my perspective, FUN!

If I were coaching solely for strength gains, I assure you the program would look VERY different. Similarly, if I was training someone solely to master light workouts or endurance affairs, that training protocol would look much different than ours. What’s fun is trying to get someone as strong and fast as possible.

That said, you will certainly notice trends in our programming cycles (you picked out a few). I believe you MUST have repetition and volume with a particular lift to see genuine progress in a short span of time. I have experienced and witnessed many athletes get stronger pretty quickly with a completely varied program and relatively few exposures to some lifts, but I am firmly of the belief that we can get athletes there quicker and make them stronger by focusing attention on a couple of things at a time. You will see trends where a few lifts get much more exposure than others for a 4, 6, or 8 week cycle to develop competence in that lift, and then it will likely be placed on a maintenance rotation while a few other movements take a priority. That’s true of our conditioning cycles as well – you might see similar movements, rest intervals or time domains popping up more often in one cycle and then appearing less frequently in the next.

The whole point of the testing is to see which types of programming cycles effect the most change in our athletes. If our results don’t look great on one aspect or another then we know we need to change something up.

From Brad – “How should one go about making up a testing day? If that is an option?”

Yes, that is an option. In fact, I strongly encourage it. If you miss a testing day and would like to make it up, please email info@crossfitinvictus.com and let us know when you would like to come in and make it up. We will, within reason, try to accommodate you and even pair you up with someone else who is looking to make up a test day. An email 8-10 hours ahead of time will give us a chance to let the coach know you’ll be doing something separate from the main group. Of course, I would ask that anyone making up a test be respectful of the larger group and understand that if the gym is slammed and space and/or equipment is scarce, they will need to postpone their make-up for another time.

From Lena – “These tests are perfect for newbies like me – hard to tell how I’m progressing when I don’t even know where I started!”

EXACTLY!!! I love the Lewis Carroll quote (slightly altered for Alice in Wonderland), “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.” Similarly, if you don’t know where you are starting from, then you have no idea where you can go or how to get there. Whether you’re a newbie or a grizzled veteran, it’s important to know where you’re at and whether you are progressing. Without some baseline tracking, it can get hard to stay motivated and on the right track over the long haul. And while I encourage lots of short-term goals, my priority is helping your short-term goals add up to make you all strong, fit and healthy for decades to come.

Now, go have fun.  Know that future tests and re-tests are on the horizon, and train hard to set new personal bests each time they do pop up.

Workout of the Day:
TESTING DAY – Please follow prescription and report scores. We will be using this data going forward to track our athletes’ progress.

Strength Testing
Five or Six sets of:
Bench Press @ 20X1 tempo
Rest 3 minutes between sets
(use this time effectively to work on hip mobility or glute activation exercises – your coaches can help give you some suggestions)

Perform the following reps and percentages:
* Set 1 – 50% of possible 1-RM x 3 reps
* Set 2 – 75% of possible 1-RM x 2 reps
* Set 3 – 85% of possible 1-RM x 1 rep
* Set 4 – 90-95% of possible 1-RM x 1 rep
* Set 5 – Test 1-RM
* Set 6 (optional) – Exceed Set 5 weight

Conditioning Test
For time:
50 Burpees

Some of the Invictus Relay for Life Team

What’s With the Testing?
Written by C.J. Martin

Some of you might have questions regarding why we are testing, and what we plan to do with this information. The answer is simple – we found a better way to monitor the performances of our group coaching athletes.

This is not a novel concept. We have always tested our athletes. All of the athletes who trained for competitions last Winter and Spring went through some testing (whether they knew it or not) at the beginning of each training cycle. All of my individual program design clients go through some manner of testing at various points in their training cycles. And lastly, all of our group coaching clients have gone through different testing periods by way of max effort lifts and benchmark workouts.

The primary differences between these groups has been how records of those tests have been kept. With the clients for whom I design programs, it’s really simple, they upload their results and I have access to all of their workouts and results. The same was true of the Invictus team and individual competitors. The groups, on the other hand, are a bit more tricky. Each time we would have a benchmark workout I would take a snapshot of the whiteboard, and then we would upload those scores to our databases. The problem was, I had databases of the group results, but no easy way to access exactly how a particular individual in our group sessions had performed in various benchmarks over the past year or more.  Now we do.

I won’t bore you all with the details of how this works, but basically we now have electronic files of all of our athletes.  When they sign in for a session on a test day, we will be notified that they were present for the testing and will have the opportunity to document their results of the tests given on that day. We can then pull up their athlete profile at any time and track their progress on various tests for as long as they have been members of Invictus.  So now with just a few quick keystrokes I can see if you’re getting consistently stronger and faster on the various tests that we set up. Cool, huh?

But why is this important? Simple, we want to see everyone progress. If I am unable to pull individual files and efficiently monitor the progress they have made, it is much more difficult to adjust the program or learn how we can be better as coaches. On the other hand, if I can see trends through individual athletes – for example, if their strength progress is outpacing their progress in speed lifts – then it will inform how the program is altered to maximize your performance.

So, my plea to you is this, make every effort to get in on a testing day, then follow the prescriptions and report your results accurately. If you do that, I will give you my very best effort to create a program that benefits (almost) everyone. If you feel like you’re not progressing at the rate of your peers, that’s the time to schedule a 20 minute chat and we can sit down and look at your actual results, discuss your perceptions and the best methods to getting you to where you want to be.