Vanquish Newsletter September 21st

Steve Jarecki • September 21, 2026

“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. πŸ’ͺ


MAKE AN APPOINTMENT WITH LARA


Show up. Put in the work. Let’s go. πŸ’₯


Rows of black dumbbells on a gym rack, close-up view.
By Steve Jarecki • October 12, 2026
Read the October 12th newsletter on strength tests, workouts, and health insights. Join us to enhance your fitness journey today!
By Steve Jarecki • October 5, 2026
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By Steve Jarecki • September 28, 2026
Read the latest Vanquish Newsletter on Week 7 of Hercules training. Join us for group & personal training to enhance your fitness journey!
By Steve Jarecki • September 15, 2026
“You can’t be afraid of failure. You have to be willing to fail in order to succeed.” - Geno Auriemma β€ŠHercules Week 4: Familiarity With a Twist This week might feel a little familiar — and that’s intentional. You’ll see workouts that borrow from past experiences, with a few twists along the way. Repetition builds recognition, and recognition builds confidence under fatigue. Expect muscular endurance, midline work, mixed-modal conditioning, grip challenges, and plenty of opportunities to practice pacing and repeatable effort. Monday — Echo: Speed deadlifts followed by pull-ups and Echo Bike intervals. Tuesday — Jamais Vu: Front and back squat work followed by a descending ladder of kettlebell thrusters and burpees. Wednesday — Doppelganger: Two 12-minute pieces featuring running, rowing, GHD/V-ups, kettlebell swings, sit-ups, and dumbbell snatches. Thursday — Identity Crisis: Push press and push jerk work followed by bench press, double unders, and farmers carries. Friday — 9/11: A 2001m row buy-in followed by nine rounds of eleven reps. A workout built around remembrance and resilience. Saturday — Familiar Stranger: A two-person waterfall workout featuring running, hang power snatches, and back-rack step-ups. Sunday — Double Take: A 30-minute strength EMOM featuring bench press, sandbags, rows, carries, and planks. The Challenge Pick your number. Then hold yourself to it. This week isn’t about going out too hot. It’s about knowing what you can sustain, sticking to the plan, and owning the result. Set the plan. Trust the plan. Own the score. β€ŠπŸš§ Brookfield Road Construction Update Starting September 3, Brookfield Road will be closed to through traffic for approximately 2.5 weeks. Vanquish will remain accessible, but you’ll need to approach the gym from the south during this phase of construction. Please follow posted detour signs and flaggers and allow a few extra minutes for possible delays. Thanks for your patience! β€ŠWhat’s On Our Watchlist? The Dynasty: UConn Huskies . Apple TV’s The Dynasty: UConn Huskies takes a look at one of the most successful programs in women’s college basketball. But what stood out to us wasn’t just the championships. It was the standards. UConn didn’t become UConn because they discovered a secret training method. They built a culture where excellence was expected , and then passed that expectation from one group of athletes to the next. Geno Auriemma’s coaching style is demanding and, at times, confrontational. But the bigger lesson isn’t that everyone needs to coach like Geno. In fact, coaches like UCLA’s Cori Close show that you can have incredibly high standards while leading in a very different way. The important part is not lowering the standard just because the approach changes. Listen to players like Rebecca Lobo, Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore, Breanna Stewart, and Paige Bueckers talk about their experiences, and you hear the same theme: they weren’t looking for comfort. They wanted to find out how good they could become. That’s something we can all take from. At Vanquish, we believe training should challenge you, support you, and help you become better than you were yesterday. The goal isn’t perfection. It’s showing up, doing the work, and continuing to raise the standard. Great cultures don’t happen by accident. They’re built one workout, one rep, and one expectation at a time. STOP TRAINING AROUND PAIN. FIX IT. ο»Ώ 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. πŸ’ͺ MAKE AN APPOINTMENT WITH LARA Show up. Put in the work. Let’s go. πŸ’₯
Person preparing to lift a barbell with large plates in a gym, wearing blue shoes.
By Steve Jarecki • September 8, 2026
Read about our weekly workouts, including a 9/11 tribute. Join us to embrace challenges & build your fitness plan today!
By Steve Jarecki • August 31, 2026
“You’ll never do a whole lot unless you’re brave enough to try.” - Dolly Parton β€ŠπŸ§  Hercules Week 3: The Mandela Effect Things may look familiar this week… but don’t trust your memory. Week 3 is all about The Mandela Effect —when we collectively remember something that never actually happened. Each workout takes something recognizable and adds a twist, flips the script, or sends you in a different direction. Expect power snatches, toes-to-bar, burpees, wall balls, double-unders, strict handstand push-ups, deadlifts, bench press, back squats, running, and plenty of barbell work. The big focus this week? Pacing and execution. A workout may look familiar, but the demands are different, so don’t let your memory dictate your pace. Coaches will help you spot the difference during the whiteboard brief. Listen for what’s changed, understand the intended stimulus, and attack the workout that’s actually in front of you—not the one you think you remember. 🧠πŸ’ͺ β€ŠπŸš§ Brookfield Road Construction Update Starting September 3 , Brookfield Road will be closed to through traffic for approximately 2.5 weeks. Vanquish will remain accessible , but you’ll need to approach the gym from the south during this phase of construction. Please follow posted detour signs and flaggers and allow a few extra minutes for possible delays. Thanks for your patience! β€ŠπŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ Labor Day Schedule We’re keeping things simple this Labor Day! There will be no regularly scheduled classes , but we’ll have one all-levels class at 8:00 AM for anyone looking to get their holiday workout in. Open Gym will remain available 24/7 as usual, so you can train on your own schedule. Enjoy the holiday! πŸ’ͺ β€Š 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. πŸ’ͺ MAKE AN APPOINTMENT WITH LARA ο»Ώ β€Š Show up. Put in the work. Let’s go. πŸ’₯
By Steve Jarecki • August 25, 2026
“Train for the life you want to live.”
By Steve Jarecki • August 17, 2026
“Hercules didn’t become strong by accident. Neither will you.”
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“There’s no crying in baseball!”
By Steve Jarecki • August 3, 2026
“Test yourself. Trust yourself. Keep going.”