| Hi Friend!
Happy September to you!
I hope you had a great holiday weekend, August and summer so far and you're ready for a new month. Mine felt very full and very blessed and I'm ready to ramp up for all that comes next.
And what is coming next is Phase 10.
Phase 10 Overview This is our taper phase / power endurance phase. The last phase of our 4 phase, 3rd quarter.
Taper, for those unfamiliar is a reducing of training volume and intensity to allow your body to accumulate energy and recover to perform at your best ability. In 5-10k races and sprint triathlons, there are usually a week of taper before the race. In longer races and triathlons there are usually 2 weeks. Our taper phase isn't a true taper phase because its longer than a week (or 2) and its more like a peaking phase, but I call it a taper phase because of the audience I'm working with (you) and what is happening in the month of September (transitioning).
September as you're well aware is a mental transition from summer, bbq's and vacations to more seriousness at work, on the roads and for those with children, back to school. Many people use the Labor Day holiday or rather the Tuesday after Labor Day, as a deadline date to get refocused, kind of like the fall version of New Years Day resolutions (and a great idea). All of this creates a bottle neck of buzz that makes for longer lines in stores, more full roadways and more full schedules at least for the first few weeks.
So...I ramp down the training volume and intensity (load is 15-35% compared to last phases 25-45%). The workouts will always feel challenging and hard, but different. The goal is for you to leave every workout feeling energized and good and over the course of the phase to accumulate more energy like a champagne bottle being shaken that wants to explode with great energy. This will allow you to destress easily from your days and leave feeling recharged for the next day. It'll also help you to peak for fall races if you choose to do them, fall sports and fall photo shoots for holiday cards.
Progressions & Regressions The A1/A2 and B1/B2 exercises have progressions and the rest of the workout stays the same or has regressions. I've progression the med balls, hurdles and plank exercises because they're easy natural progressions to learn and implement and the work set is a density set nature allowing you to go at your own pace.
The Dumbbell Complex (C1-C4), has lighter loads (15-35%), less work time (10s vs 20s), less expected reps (2-4 vs 4-7), shorter recovery time (40s vs 70s) and 1 extra round (3rds vs 2rds). This is an area where it'll still feel hard (max reps, 3rds and 40s rest b/w rds), but not as hard as last phase, allowing you to not detrain and get faster.
The strength (D1, E1, F1 and G1) will be 2-4 rd straight sets, vs super set, density circuits. This means instead of going back and forth between 2 different exercises for 4 minutes straight, doing as many sets as possible, you'll stay on 1 exercise for 2-4 sets/rds straight, before moving on to the next exercise. Each set will consist of 20seconds of maximum reps, followed by 10sec of rest. The straight set nature will accumulate fatigue. To allow you to practice best case form, accumulate sufficient volume to grow and not detrain, I've regressed many, if not all of the exercises, 1 or more levels.
E.g. Half Kneel TRX Y-Raise compared to last phases' Split Stance TRX Y-Raise
Also, I took out the extra core exercise in the strength section (Towel Tucks and Hip Lifts) to keep the Antagonist exercise to push ups and pull ups, the Floor Slides and Facing Wall Slide Lift Offs. I felt like that was a better option for your posture; I felt like your core is still getting addressed sufficiently with the warm ups, the Push Up T's and the Spider March Kick Thru's. I could change my mind next year and bring it back and I also could change my mind next year and give each leg its own exercise so 1-leg squats on the left leg gets 2-4 sets and 1-leg squats on the right leg gets 2-4 sets. To be continued.
Conditioning There are a couple of changes here. (1) is to get you out of the door by the end of the hour, which is important to everyone and most especially the 6am crew, I've cut the 2nd circuit of conditioning. It usually gets cut anyways during the 1st two weeks, but in my program design budget, it got chopped. However, since many of you will get the program real quick, if we're making good time, I did leave it in the interval app, so don't be surprised if I add another 2min of conditioning.
(2) To make the most of the conditioning, I made the circuits a little easier. On the triathlon relay day, I made the backward lunge with a reach to overhead, a Towel Overhead Backward Lunge. That should cut the lunge time in half making it more possible to finish a full round of conditioning in 2 minutes. Of course the bear crawl is the great equalizer so if it's still crushing you, then you might only do a bear crawl and overhead towel run in 2 minutes and that's o.k.
The base running stays the same and the Band Relay returns to the no-band, Multi-Directional Day with a ready position bounce (RPB), elasticity primer. This will help you be very fast and finish the full circuit in 2 minutes.
Goals I share sets and/or reps goal recommendations for each exercise in light gray as goals and targets for you to shoot for. Take a look before starting every workout / exercise to prime your brain and performance with goals to shoot for.
Workout Cards You can see Workout A & B below, so if you travel and forget your workout card, you can reference these and/or print them out. | 
