Vanquish Newsletter September 21st
“Girls playing sports is not about winning gold medals. It’s about self-esteem, learning to compete, and learning how hard you have to work in order to achieve your goals.”
- Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Week 6: Animal Instinct
This week, we’re tapping into our Animal Instinct.
The theme is simple: attack with intention, then stay in control. You’ll see a mix of fast starts, sustained efforts, and workouts that reward smart pacing. The goal isn’t to throw everything at the first two minutes—it’s to know when to push, when to settle in, and when to turn it up again.
Expect plenty of barbell work, squats, pulling, pressing, conditioning, and some serious grip work as we move through the week. The weights stay manageable and repeatable, so the challenge comes from density, intensity, and how well you manage your effort.
Monday — Ambush
We kick things off with a snatch complex paired with depth jumps to box jumps, followed by Ambush—a 10-round sprint designed to test how well you can attack the work and recover during the built-in rest.
Tuesday — Fight or Flight
It’s #TEAMPRVNTUESDAY. After a power clean complex from the knee and low hang, we hit Fight or Flight: a run, burpee box jump-over, and bike combination that will have you working at a true 10/10 effort.
Wednesday — The Chase
Four sets of six on the Back Squat set the stage before The Chase. You’ll tackle three 5-minute AMRAPs featuring pull-ups, sit-ups, and air squats. Find a pace you can sustain—and then see how much you have left in the tank.
Thursday — Engine Day
Thursday brings one of the week’s biggest conditioning pieces: a 20-minute AMRAP of rowing, heavy deadlifts, and strict handstand push-ups. There are plenty of options to help everyone find the right stimulus.
Friday — Apex
We pair Bench Press work with Apex, a descending toes-to-bar ladder broken up by loaded front-rack lunges. Expect your core, grip, and pressing strength to get plenty of attention.
Saturday — Pack Mentality
Grab two teammates and get ready to work. Pack Mentality is a two-station team grinder featuring bike calories and synchronized movements. This one is all about communication, effort, and letting your teammates pull you along.
Sunday — Strength & Grip
We close out the week with a dedicated strength day featuring rope climbs, barbell rows, and hammer curls. A perfect way to finish Animal Instinct and build the pulling strength and grip capacity that carry over into everything else we do.
The takeaway: This week isn’t about simply going harder. It’s about learning when to attack, settle in, and attack again. Trust your training, move with purpose, and let the pack pull you along.
What We're Celebrating —
More Girls in Sports. More Research for Female Athletes.
We’ve got some great news to celebrate in women’s and girls’ sports.
More girls are playing high school sports than ever before. During the 2025–26 school year, 3.65 million girls participated in high school sports in the U.S.—nearly 115,000 more than the year before. That continues a five-year trend of growth and is a pretty incredible jump from the fewer than 300,000 girls who participated in 1971.
Some of the biggest growth is happening in sports that haven’t traditionally had as much participation from girls. More than 102,000 girls now play flag football, while nearly 89,000 girls participated in wrestling during the 2025–26 school year. Volleyball also crossed the 500,000-player mark for the first time.
And there’s another reason to celebrate: female athletes are finally getting more attention from sports science.
For years, much of sports medicine research was conducted primarily on men, leaving important questions about female athletes without enough research behind them. Topics like menstrual cycles, RED-S, ACL injuries, puberty, pregnancy, and endometriosis deserve research that specifically considers the female athlete.
The Global Alliance for Female Athletes is working to help close that gap by connecting research with the doctors, physical therapists, nutrition professionals, coaches, and athletes who can put it into practice. The alliance now includes nine countries, with additional supporting partners.
At Vanquish, we believe strong women and girls belong in the weight room, on the field, and wherever they choose to compete. Seeing participation grow while the science catches up is something worth celebrating.
More girls playing sports. More research supporting female athletes. We’ll take that as a win.
STOP TRAINING AROUND PAIN. FIX IT.
That shoulder that won’t quiet down.
Knees that hate squats.
Hips that feel locked no matter how much you stretch.
You don’t have to work around it anymore.
At Innovate Sports Medicine, Lara (your on-site Athletic Trainer + Gym Manager) will pinpoint the real issue, treat it, and give you a clear plan to keep training—without guessing or sitting on the sidelines.
No band-aids. No fluff. Just real answers and real progress.
If it’s been bothering you, it’s time to handle it. πͺ
Show up. Put in the work. Let’s go. π₯











