4th Annual Battle for the Iron Phoenix!

There have been many questions about the Battle for the Iron Phoenix this year and I wanted to take the time to address some of them.

When is it? Sunday, May 21st. I’m hoping to open the gym at 7:00, start the first event around 8:00 and be done by noon-ish.

Can I do it? Yes (as long as you are a current ICA member 2/week or unlimited)! The goal of this event is to celebrate fitness.

Why should I sign up? Awesome question and I’m glad you asked! The answer is because you fit into one of the following categories:

You could win! That is awesome, and I love it. You will put on a show and the rest of the gym will cheer you on as you go hard on every workout. Sign up.
You are thinking about entering some local competitions but are unsure. Cool, this is a great way to compete within a comfortable setting with your every day coaches on hand to answer questions. We can help you strategize, adjust weights, etc. You’ll love it. Sign up.
You want a good workout. Great. Notice that classes have been cancelled for that Sunday so if you want to work out, this is it. Moreover, you rarely get to go through multiple workouts in one day so this is a bonus. So much fitness! Sign up.
You want to appease the statistical brains of your nerdy gym owners. Yes. Anytime you perform an experiment, it is important to have as large a sample size as possible to produce the most reliable results. Three years ago, the addition of one athlete (who didn’t win) into the final workout changed who won the whole competition. Maybe you can’t win, but you are good at something. If that something comes up, I want you to win it. Even if you get crushed on the rest of it, make the champs work hard and make my results more meaningful! Sign up.

What will we have to do? We still need to finalize the workouts but I can tell you that they were designed with the goal of allowing lots of athletes to participate. You should be able to perform the following feats of fitness to be able to compete:

front squat a barbell to full depth
run
power clean (115/75#)
wallballs (20/14# to 10/9′)
deadlift (135/85#)
burpees
squat snatch your bodyweight
muscle ups (ring or bar)

Alright, the last two are blatant lies. In reality if you plan on winning you will need some higher order skills like thrusters, toes to bar, pull ups and double unders but they are not needed just to compete. Actual workouts will be released early next week.

OK, I’m in! Now how do I sign up? Great news! In a change from years past, the first workout of this year’s competition must be completed sometime between right now and the end of open gym on Thursday, May 18. Once you complete this workout with a judge present, you are officially signed up!

“Event 1”

Row as far as you can in 30 seconds, then rest 30 seconds.

Repeat for a total of 15 rounds. Score is total meters rowed.

Rules: Five of the six rowers have this workout as an option under “custom workouts”. At the end of each 30 second interval, it will display how far you rowed during that 30 second window. You’re judge will have to record 15 distances and submit them to John with the athletes name at the top. Once you’ve done this, you are in the competition! Everyone gets one attempt at this 15 minute workout.

GET JACKED UP!!