Workout of the Day:
Three sets of:
Jumping Squats x 12 reps
(aim for between 30-50% of your 1-RM squat)
Rest 90 seconds
Handstand Holds
(shoot for 60 to 90 seconds – use multiple attempts if necessary)
Rest 2 minutes;
and then,
Three rounds for time of:
15 Box Jumps (30″/24″)
30 Anchored Sit-Ups

Another Reason I Love What I Do
Written by C.J. Martin

As I have said many times on this blog, working with the amazing individuals that walk through our doors is a dream come true.  Walking into the gym each day and interacting with the members of our community is as rewarding as any career I could have imagined.  Notes of appreciation like the one below from Isabel are the cherry on top.  I owe so much to the coaches and the members of the Invictus community for making Invictus a place where everyone should feel comfortable and capable of thriving, that I thought it was appropriate to share Isabel’s note:

During my time away from Invictus I have come to some realizations that I wanted to share. I hope you already know all of this, but I just wanted to thank you. Invictus has become so much more to me than just a gym. I have learned what it is to truly be healthy and strong. So many people struggle at other places to project an image, and it’s just that – an image, a toned body that is lean. However, that is not what it means to be strong and healthy. It’s a lifestyle change that you have to decide to make. I have become more aware of what goes into my body not only to take it to the next level, but honestly because you feel it at your next workout.

I love that everybody is viewed equally no matter if your lifting 200 lbs. or just the bar; everyone gets the same encouragement and push. Invictus not only leaves me feeling healthier and stronger but overall better about myself. It means so much to me when I complete a workout, I feel as if I actually accomplished something with my day, and that is not something that I get to feel often. I have more energy and strength to carry on. The people that you get to cheer you on or workout beside have become so much more than just another body. Invictus is truly like another family, I love all the ladies and men that I get to say hello to when I walk into the door. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be a part of Invictus.

Thank you Isabel, and thank you for being one of the amazing individuals that has helped to create our wonderful culture.

Workout of the Day:
Five sets of:
Bulgarian Split Squats x 5 reps each leg
Rest 2 minutes
Ring Dips x AMRAP
Rest 2-3 minutes;
and then,
In 60 seconds, complete the following:
One Suicide Sprint, followed immediately by
As many burpees as possible in the remainder of the 60 seconds.
Repeat for a total of 5 sets, resting 3 minutes between each set.
Record total number of burpees performed in each round.

"I came to Invictus knowing I was going to get in shape, but never imagining all of the other benefits - best of all, the kid-friendly environment. My daughter is my life, and now so is Invictus. Thanks to all the coaches at Invictus." -- Mike V.

Mike V. – Another Success Story
Written by C.J. Martin

Mike V. didn’t wait for the Look Good, Feel Good, Play Good Challenge.  If he did, he would have to be considered a heavy favorite.  Mike came to Invictus with a bit of weight to lose.  He wasn’t overweight, but he knew he was carrying more body fat than was optimal for his health and performance.  But Mike’s resolve to change his body composition and performance has been incredible – and not surprisingly, so too have his results.

On our suggestion, Mike submitted himself to hydrostatic body fat testing at FitnessWave.  His first test was on May 7, 2009 and showed the following:

• 24.9% body fat
• 196.8 lbs.
• 147.8 lbs. Lean mass
• 49 lbs. Fat Mass

We encouraged Mike to follow our principle-based nutrition guidance – “Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar.”  He stuck with that, and made good use of The Paleo Diet website and Robb Wolf’s website as resources.

To be totally honest, Mike was not nearly as consistent with his workouts.  Mike has a beautiful daughter, Sophia, and between work and spending time with Sophia, Mike was only able to workout consistently twice per week.  Nonetheless, with a pretty decent compliance to our nutrition guidance, Mike saw some pretty darn good results when he was retested on October 17, 2009:

• 17.0 % body fat
• 182.6 lbs.
• 150.8 Lean mass
• 32 lbs. Fat mass

So, Mike’s total changes modifying his diet and doing the Invictus workouts twice a week, were as follows:

• Change in body fat percentage: -7.9%
• Change in total weight: -14.2 lbs.
• Change in lean mass: 3.0 lbs.
• Change in fat mass: -17.0 lbs.

Mike has not slowed down since.  He’s in the Challenge and is poised to get his body fat percentage down to 12-14% before it’s over, while still adding lean mass.  Challenge competitors beware!

Workout of the Day:
Behind the Neck Jerk
3-3-3-3
and then,
Five rounds for time of:
9 Pull-Ups
6 Burpees
3 Push Presses (use 65-70% of today’s 3-RM)

The Benefits of Personal Coaching for a CrossFit Veteran
Written by Invictus Charter Member Cynthia Lumley

I’ve been doing Crossfit since May 2008. Before that, I’d never done a squat or a deadlift or any of the movements that I regularly do now. I had the typical gym routine of treadmill and bicep curls and tricep kickbacks. Boring and ineffective, to say the least!

With all these new movements that I’ve learned to love, I have NOT learned to love the aches and pains that my body throws at me every now and then. Granted, I’m 43 years old and was never really in great shape to begin with, so some achiness is understandable. But not pain. And the thought of hurting myself makes me afraid to do some of our lifts with any real weight.

I started having hip flexor aches and throbs a couple of months ago, and laid off squats for a few weeks. That kind of helped, but when I started squatting again, the aches came back pretty quickly. That, coupled with some lower back pain that I’ve had intermittently over the past few years, ended up with me crippled after we did the Crossfit Total last week. Well, maybe not crippled…but it really hurt!

That same afternoon, I emailed Calvin Sun, one of our Invictus coaches who is studying physical therapy and body parts. I had heard that Calvin was good, but little did I know that he would help me as much as he did. Our session included him measuring my flexibility (quads, hamstrings, etc) by moving my legs in different positions and noting the degree of flexion/extension. Then he would do some PNF (see the April 3 blog post) stretching to the part we were working on. Then he had me do some simple air squats. I wish I could convey the happiness that I felt after each stretching segment when he would have me squat. I was getting lower each time, without any pain.

I had thought that my hip flexors needed to be rolled and worked on in order to ‘fix’ me. Though it is important to work on that area, it turns out that my tight quads and calves were the problem areas. There is no way in a million years that I would have figured that out on my own.

So here’s the advice portion of this blog: MAKE AN APPOINTMENT WITH A COACH!! Even you young whippersnappers out there who don’t have any aches or pains. I wish I’d done this a long time ago and possibly prevented some of my problems. But it’s never too late! At the very least, have a coach do a one-on-one to assess any possible weaknesses you have that might cause problems later down the road.

I can’t wait for my follow up appointment with Calvin next month! I’m doing the stretches and foam rolling techniques that he showed me every day after class, and I hope that he’ll be able to see a difference in my movement.

Workout of the Day:
Bench Press
3-3-3-3
and then,
Five rounds for time of:
12 x Bench Press (70% of today’s 3-RM)
12 x Pull-Ups

Big Ben Rides Again
Written by C.J. Martin

A job change recently took Ben S. from us, but it didn’t stop him from rocking his Invictus gear in a recent skateboarding competition. Ben spent a lot of time on his skateboard as a kid (check him out here), and has used CrossFit as his means of getting back into shape to have some fun skateboarding again. Ben put in good consistent work at Invictus for several months prior to this competition, and his hard work paid off. Ben took Third Place in the Masters Division of the competition in Phoenix on October 17. Here is what he reported:

I placed 3rd in the Masters division out of about 15-20 skaters. It was a 5 minute jam style format where 5 guys would skate the entire park for 5 minutes at a time. This is different than your normal 1-2 minute run per skater. Most of the guys got tired after about 2 minutes of skating however, due to the strength and endurance CrossFit has given me, I was able to skate non-stop for all 5 minutes and bang out trick after trick. Is this the first application of CrossFit to Skatebaording? Coincidentally, one of the owners of the skate company is super into CrossFit also. I should also mention, the high for the day was around 105 degrees, and a lot of folks ended up with heat exhaustion, including myself.

And here’s the evidence:

Congratulations Ben! Keep up the good work and keep checking in with us on the blog.

Workout of the Day:
Pull-Up Clinic, or
Three sets for max reps of strict pull-ups,
and then,
“Death by Overhead Squat”
One Overhead Squat in the first minute,
Two Overhead Squats in the second minute,
Three Overhead Squats in the third round, etc….
(Prescribed Weight: Men-45; Women-35 lbs.)

3 Rounds of 11.3 Miles for Time
Written by the one-armed stud of Invictus, Kath Baker

“A blessing in disguise.” If someone had said that to me a month ago I likely would have had a melt down. For the first time in my life I was really hurt. I have had a ton of minor injuries over the years but never anything that took me out for weeks, never mind months.

It wasn’t just that I got hurt. It was how I got hurt. Throughout my life I should’ve been seriously injured or dead a thousand times. Too many falls into crevasses in the middle of nowhere, falls off rock faces that landed me flat on my back in the dirt below, not to mention the gazillion times I’ve gone airborne over handle bars, off skis, or with ice axes flying by my head. But I just took myself out in the seemingly safe environment of a gym (not Invictus). Seriously?!

My head wasn’t in a good place. I had just moved to San Diego and joined Invictus, but I dreaded going. Not only was I the new kid, but because I couldn’t use my arm, I was the one who couldn’t do the WOD. There were no attempts to PR, no goals to work toward, benchmark days made me want to crawl into bed and eat a pint of ice cream. (Paleo started getting REALLY hard!) My attitude was horrendous. But almost everyday a coach would tell me to keep coming to Invictus, that it would help me heal faster and it would keep me strong. Eventually I began to believe them.

Despite continuing to put everything I had into my modified WODs, something was still missing – a goal. I needed to have a goal – something hard and preferably something kinda crazy. One of my doctors happened to be an accomplished ultra-marathoner. He invited me out for a run one Saturday morning – little did I know that in two weeks I would be running my first race.

I found out two days before the Noble Canyon 50K, that I was registered. The race had been closed for months but the doctor managed to get me in. Crap. What did I get myself into? I’ve only run three times – 11 miles, 9 miles and 5 miles. I’m not a runner – running is boring and it makes my knees ache. I’ve never even run a marathon! But it’s in the mountains, and I know I can move in the mountains. I guess I found my benchmark.

7 am – the gun goes off. My strategy: 3 Rounds of 11.3 miles for time. In my head I’m doing a WOD, its something I’m comfortable with and I know what to expect. My first round always feels slow, then I cruise the second round, and then it’s a battle to go as hard as possible to the end.

The starting pace seemed slow, until about a mile in when we start ascending the narrow, rocky, single-track. The race had over 10,000 feet of elevation gain and loss. People seem to be cruising and I’m still out of breath. I try to keep up with two girls I know but before long they were gone. Crap. Ascending is the part that I’m supposed to be good at.

I just left the fourth aid station and am in the middle of my second round. I’m finally relaxed. Not out of breath, no more nerves. I’m tearing around a corner and see the girls I couldn’t keep up with. I can’t believe I caught them, and that I’m about to pass them.

Round three. It’s supposed to start hurting but every mile feels better than the previous. “I just ran a marathon, and I don’t want to stop, why would anyone want to stop after 26.2?” (Clearly I was a little delusional!) “Where’s the wall everyone talks about?” “Maybe I’m going to do good after all.”

Somewhere around mile 30. It’s now 106 degrees and the sun seems to be radiating off of everything. I’d give anything for 40 below zero and howling winds. “Are my shoes melting…I think they’re melting.” Physically I’m fading – big time; but I still feel mentally very strong. I’m almost done with the WOD. I look at my watch and think that I have enough time to finish before the 7 hour mark. I have to finish before 7 hours.

I push as hard as I can and I cross the finish line at 6:57. I’m done. Physically, mentally, emotionally – done. Kinda like after trying to PR Fran.

In the days following the race I reflected on what got me through it and how I did so well, because it doesn’t make sense. As Crossfitters, I think we tend to focus mostly on the physical strength that we gain from the programming, our goals are to lift heavier and move faster. But this race made me realize that the coaches and the programming at Invictus give us so much more. The focus and determination, the mental and emotional strength, and the confidence are what got me through Noble Canyon, and for this I thank Invictus. The coaches encouraged me to continue training even though I was injured, and their positive reinforcement changed my attitude. I would recommend an experience like this to anyone – try something mentally hard and see for yourself how strong CrossFit has really made you.

Although I still do not consider myself a runner I intend to continue doing ultras. My next race is in November and it’s 5 Rounds of 10 miles for time.

(Editor’s Note – Kath is a seriously legit stud. She has battled through more one-arm kettlebell swings, rows, push-ups, etc… than most people do in a lifetime. It’s no big surprise that an athlete of her quality and determination would excel at any endeavor she took on. We’re stoked that Kath is a part of our family, and look forward to seeing her succeed as she chases down new goals and distances on a CrossFit Endurance program.)