Workout of the Day:
Four sets of:
Weighted Pull-Ups x 4-6 reps
Rest 90 seconds
Ab-Wheel Roll-Outs x 6-8 reps
Rest 2 minutes;
and then,
For time:
30 DB Push Press or Jerk (shoulder to overhead anyhow – heavy)
40 Dynamic Push-Ups (chest must touch and hands must leave the ground)
50 Pull-Ups

The ice bath isn't nearly as fun as they make it look.

Thank You to the Invictus Supporters
Written by Nichole DeHart

This past weekend was pretty spectacular for so many reasons. All the athletes were amazing and taught me some valuable lessons throughout the weekend. However, this was also a spectacular weekend because of how the Invictus community pulled together to support one another.  I would like to acknowledge all those who came out to support the athletes through a grueling two days of workouts. You all pulled 12 hour days, brought food to share, encouraged each and every one of us through the workouts and took care of us when it was all said and done. And an extra special thank you to those who made the ice bath a reality. Man, was that a joy to get into!

I would like to specially thank those of you who came out to cheer each athlete on. You have no idea how much this helped each of us get through the workouts knowing that we could look out and see smiling faces cheering us on!  I have to say that I have not put myself in a competitive event in a long time. I tend to, how can I say it, get down on myself if I don’t perform as well as I would like to. This tends to be a terrible cycle as I set extremely high standards for myself, therefore I never perform as well as I would like. But something changed me this weekend. I realized that everyone who came out to support all 13 of us could care less about our placement or how well we do at Sectionals. Instead, you guys came out to show your support and encouragement for us just to get through the workouts. It didn’t matter our time on the workout but it did matter that each athlete had a large group of supporters cheering them on throughout the workout. About half way through the first workout it dawned on me that this is more than just deadlifts, kettlebell swings and running (well, more of a shuffle for me). This is about a group of people who can be called family coming together to support each other. Whether that support came from pep talks between the athletes before we each went out to our heat of the workout, having plenty of food and water ready right after the workout, making sure that everyone had cowbells to ring or just knowing that we could look out to our friends and family during the workout and know that they were there to support us. I can personally say that I could not have got through this weekend without all of you. You guys put a smile on my face as I worked out and your positive energy, encouragement and genuine support was what made this weekend a huge success. Thank you to the Invictus family and to all the athletes who showed the rest of the community how unconquerable, unbowed and unbroken we are.

Workout of the Day:
Three sets of:
Back Squat x 5 reps
Rest 90 seconds
Ring Rows x 10-12 reps
Rest 2-3 minutes;
and then,
For time:
20 “Clusters” – Clean & Thruster (135/95 lbs.)
50 Burpees

Two of our phenomenal 13 competitors

Unbelievable Weekend!
Written by C.J. Martin

I am whooped, and I couldn’t possibly do justice tonight to how amazing our competitors and supporters performed this weekend.  I promise I will write more when I am more rested, but for now, please join me in congratulating the following six individuals who earned the right to compete as individuals at the Southwest Regional Qualifier in May:

• Sage Burgener – 5th Place Overall Female (5th on Chipper)
• Lacie Miller – 9th Place Overall Female
• Nichole DeHart – 10th Place Overall Female
• Josh Edgeman – 5th Place Overall Male (4th on Chipper)
• Nuno Costa – 12th Place Overall Male (2nd on Chipper)
• Shane Farmer – 17th Place Overall Male (4th on Snatch/DU workout)

(Not bad on the chipper for a group that never does chippers and very rarely conditions for more than 12 minutes.)

And a huge congratulations to all of the other athletes, who made us just as proud with their performances as those who found themselves in the top 20.  Please congratulate the following on their amazing performances:

• Calvin Sun
• Patrice Madrid
• Ben Sullins
• Josh Holcombe
• Jim Hollingsworth
• Andre Castro
• Frank Martinezcuello

And finally, to every member of the Invictus family who came out to support our athletes, THANK YOU!!!  You are what makes this community so amazing.

***Scheduling Reminder – Invictus will be closed this weekend so we can support our athletes at the CrossFit Games Sectional Qualifier.***

Workout of the Day:
Take 15 minutes to find your new one-rep max Deadlift
(Your lift shall be considered a failure if you fail to maintain proper posture throughout the movement. We are looking for you maximum effort with technical perfection.)
and then,
Three rounds for time of:
15 Deadlifts (use 60-65% of 1-RM)
20 Pull-Ups

The Invictus Athletes Need Your Support This Weekend
Written by C.J. Martin

This is going to be an exciting weekend for all the members of the Invictus family.  With the Look Good, Feel Good, Play Good Challenge now wrapped up (well, except for the final voting and party), our focus now turns to the 15 athletes who are participating in this weekend’s CrossFit Games Sectional Qualifier here in San Diego.

Our Sectionals competitors have been working really hard for the past few months and need as much support as we can give them.  We are hoping as many members of the Invictus community as possible can come out to the site (CrossFit SoCal in Kearny Mesa) and cheer on our competitors.  We even have special t-shirts and tank tops for the event so that our competitors can identify all of their friends who are there to support them.  If you plan on attending, please pick up your t-shirt or tank top at the gym today, or find our tent at the event and we will get you your shirt.

To make your lives a little bit easier, I thought I would post the schedule that we received so you will have an idea as to when our athletes are scheduled to compete:

• 8:30 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. – Nuno Costa and Ben Sullins
• 9:00 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. – Josh Edgeman, Shane Farmer, Josh Holcombe, Andre Castro, Jim Hollingsworth
• 9:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. – Calvin Sun
• 10:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. – Frank Martinezcuello
• 12:00 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. – Patrice Madrid
• 12:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. – Katie McLaughlin, Nichole DeHart, Lacie Miller
• 1:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. – Sage Burgener

We will not know when our athletes will begin competing on Sunday until Saturday night, but the top ranked athletes will kick off at 8:00 a.m., so we hope that all of our athletes will be kicking off the competition early in the day on Sunday.  All competitors will be finished by 1:00 p.m.

Of course, all times are subject to change, and there are going to be phenomenal athletes competing in every heat that will be worth watching.  So for those of you that want to stick around all day, we will have a couple of pop-up tents to provide some shade, some snacks and water.  Please bring your own chair.

Tickets will be available at the site of the event (5375 Kearny Villa Rd. Suite 116, SD, CA 92123).

We hope to see you all there!  If you can’t make it, check the blog late Saturday night.  I will try to post a few pictures of our athletes in action.

***Scheduling Reminder – Invictus will be closed on Saturday so that we can support our athletes at the CrossFit Games Sectional Qualifier.***

Workout of the Day:
Take 15 minutes to find your new max effort shoulder press;
and then,
In three minutes, sprint 400 meters and then complete as many reps as possible of Push Press (Men – 95-115 lbs./Women – 65-80 lbs.).
Rest for three minutes.
Repeat for a total of three rounds.

Max J. - Invictus kid thriving running the 400 for his high school team! Keep up the great work Max!

What is Death?
Written by Sage Burgener

There are three questions that every single human being will ask at least once in their lifetime:

#1  Why, when taking a nap, is it more comfortable to sleep on top of a well made bed as opposed to being under the covers?

#2 Why did the oompaloompas change colors from the very first Willy Wonka movie to the more modern one?

#3 What is death?

Well I’m here to answer question #3.

Death comes in three forms:

1) Rounding the back when pulling weight off the ground.

If you do not tighten everything that can possibly be tightened when pulling a barbell off the ground, you. are. going. to. die. What happens is that the bar starts to pull you WAY far forward and when that happens, you’ve lost control of the weight.  Not being in control of the weight means that you cannot use your great technique to get that barbell over your head.  Instead,the bar will be flying all over the place.  Trust me, that is NOT a pretty sight…  And we’re all about being pretty.  So squeeze your shoulder blades together, get your chest up, shift your weight back onto your heels, AND THEN proceed to lift the bar off the ground.

2) Not fully extending AKA not finishing

Some people LOVE the feeling of the bar hitting them right in the face, but I personally do not love it.  I don’t know why, but I just never wake up in the morning and say,  ”You know what I would really love today?  A good smack in the face by a heavy barbell!” Call me crazy, but that’s just me.  SO, if you’re on the same page as me, take my advice and FINISH your pull.  A good finish (and by finish I mean the movement, not a Finnish person) is with the body fully extended, a big proud chest at the top, and the shoulders slightly behind the barbell. That will allow for a great path for that barbell to travel straight up.  If your finish is with your hips vertical, but your shoulders hunched over the bar, you’re inhibiting that bar from taking the path that it wants to take in life, so in turn, it will smack you in the face or be out in front of you in a position where you cannot stand up with it cause its too far forward. (talk about a run on sentence) Anyways, it’s a mutual relationship here people.  Love the bar, let it take it’s desired path in life (which is going over your head) by getting your chest and face out of the way, and it will do good things for you.

3) Not flipping the hook grip out on the turnover on the clean

I’ve seen broken wrists TOO many times from slow elbows on a clean.  Fred Lowe, a million time Olympian, was helping me at my cert this past weekend in Chicago.  He said the greatest quote EVER… “The turnover is an attitude”.  He is totally right.  Turning those elbows around FAST and with a “junk yard dog” (as my dad likes to say) attitude, is the only way you will not die on a clean.  And the only way to get that incredibly ghettofabulous fast turnover, is by flipping your hook grip out and letting that bar land back on your finger tips with your elbows WAY high up.  Keeping the hook grip means low elbows, which means all the weight is on your arms, which means arms hitting the knees at the bottom of the squat, which means broken wrist, which means death.  Got it? Think about turning the elbows ALL the way around (flipping the hook grip out) the same time that the feet hit the ground.  MAKE THE LIFT SNAPPY!

Don’t make me post a video of some guy doing a clean with slow elbows and his wrists are flying all over the place hitting people in the audience in the face.  They show those videos enough on the news.  Which pisses me off, btw.  But thats a whole different blog post for a whole different time.

Workout of the Day:
Four sets of:
Bulgarian Split Squat with Dumbbells x 8 reps each leg
Rest 90 seconds
L-Sits (30-45 seconds total, partition in 2-3 attempts if necessary)
Rest 90 seconds;
and then,
Three rounds for time of:
20 Goblet Squats (heavy)
30 Knees to Elbows
100 Meter Farmer’s Carry (heavy)

Why Row, Why Now?
Written by Shane Farmer

“Marathon runners talk about hitting ‘the wall’ at the twenty-third mile of the race. What rowers confront isn’t a wall; it’s a hole – an abyss of pain, which opens up in the second minute of the race. Large needles are being driven into your thigh muscles, while your forearms seem to be splitting. Then the pain becomes confused and disorganized, not like the windedness of the runner or the leg burn of the biker but an all-over, savage unpleasantness. As you pass the five-hundred-meter mark, with three-quarters of the race still to row, you realize with dread that you are not going to make it to the finish, but at the same time the idea of letting your teammates down by not rowing your hardest is unthinkable…Therefore, you are going to die. Welcome to this life.” –Ashleigh Teitel

As Crossfitters, we are all accustomed to experiencing the fierce pain that accompanies an intense workout. The intense burn, the mental fatigue that seems to set in as you hear “3…2…1…,” and most of all the pleasant euphoric sensation that sets in as you complete your final rep of a workout. For some this is a daily occurrence that sets a standard for their life. With it, one feels a step ahead each day. Without, a bit of emptiness sets in leaving us searching for what else can fill that void.

Being proud companions of this physical drive, it’s common to want to explore our limitations and expound on talents. To this,I say “Great!,” let’s get started with one of the often overlooked yet important exercises in the gym, rowing.

Rowing is a full body movement, involving unique technical aspects much like Olympic lifting, aimed at using the full body to pull off one stroke, then repeating this movement anywhere from 50 to 1000 times in a workout. It’s commonly said that this is simple but not easy to accomplish. The movement may seem simple enough in theory; back and forth holding onto the handle. However, to be efficient, effective, and injury free on an erg one must learn how to properly position their body, move the handle and apply power before they can expect serious results.

Often though this attention to detail is overlooked with rowing. Someone will jump on, set the damper setting to 7, row a few hundred meters and call it quits. I liken this to walking into the gym, grabbing a barbell, loading it with 95 lbs and doing something vaguely similar to a clean 50 times never having studied what a clean really is. It leaves others watching inquisitively and can look quite painful. (This is a bit exaggerated, but you get my point.)

So why row? In rowing it is not uncommon to find rowers as young as 90 still getting on an erg every day with the same form and zest as the 18 year old right next to them. This is a wonderful testament to the hard work and low impact rowing can have on your body. Learning how to row can not only make you a better at Crossfit, but it can prolong your active lifestyle and throw some variety into your life.

And why now? Because we all know we’re going to walk in the Invictus door some day soon, read the white board and silently rejoice that we’ve taken the time to study one more intricate part of what Crossfit is. Just like a part of every day is dedicated to learning or refining some form of lifting, it’s time to make rowing a part of your life.

(Editor’s Note – Shane is a heck of an athlete who rowed for University of San Diego.  He’s passionate about rowing and instructing others how to row efficiently.  Shane is going to be leading rowing clinics and erg training sessions at Invictus beginning in April.  More information, including scheduling, is forthcoming, but please let us know if you are interested so that we can notify you and possibly accommodate the schedules of those expressing interest.)

Workout of the Day:
“Rabbit’s Delight”
This is one of my favorite workouts.  It will be completed in teams of two.  A full explanation of the rules and movements will be given at 8:30 and 10:00 a.m.
(To all of our out-of-town friends, I am sorry to leave you hanging.  I only have two or three workouts that I like to reserve for our locals, this just happens to be one of them.)

The Invictus Saturday crew from a few weeks back. Saturdays are always fun, this one will be no different.