3rd 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?  Saturday, May 21st.  I’m hoping to start off the first event around 8:30 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.  You will get to test yourself in a competitive setting while enjoying food and drinks and the company of an awesome crew of people!

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. You want a good workout.  Great.  Notice that classes have been cancelled for that Saturday so if you want to work out, this is it.  Moreover, you rarely get to go through 3 workouts in one day so this is a bonus.  So much fitness!  Sign up.
4. 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.  Two 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 valid!  Sign up.

What will we have to do?  We still need to test the workouts to finalize them but I can tell you that the workouts 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
• shoulder press a barbell
• wallballs (20/14# to 10/9′)
• deadlift (135/85#)
• burpees
• row 5k
• 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.

I don’t remember signing up for this, why is my name on the list?  No idea but I’d get that checked out.  I hear fish oil is good for memory.  The point is your name is written in pen and cannot be erased.  See you there.

Can I just show up and compete the day of?  NO!  To ensure the event runs smoothly and doesn’t take all day, you must sign up in advance.  I am moving the sign up deadline from Friday to Saturday to give you one more day to think it over.  It is not difficult for me to remove your name from the heats the day of the competition if something comes up so if you think you can make it, sign up.

Be there!