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Giving Back To Veterans: CrossFit Invictus Partners With The Honor Foundation For “The Veteran WOD”

October 30, 2020 by Kay Wiese

Courtesy of the Honor Foundation

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The CrossFit Community is well known for its history with the armed forces. In fact, the United States Army has its own functional fitness team.

One big thing: Each year, the CrossFit Community hosts hundreds of workouts and fundraisers honoring service members. However, few of those funds are directed towards helping returning service members adjust to real life. This year, CrossFit Invictus and the Honor Foundation have partnered to change that.

“Memorial Day has “Murph” as its signature workout, but nobody has created a workout to honor those who come back from service and face the difficulties of resuming or transitioning into civilian life,” said CrossFit Invictus founder Cj Martin.
“Many of our service members make it home but are not the same as when they left. Rates of suicide, divorce, homelessness, etc., are exponentially higher in our veteran populations,” Martin continued.
Working with former CrossFit Invictus member Joe Musselman and his foundation, The Honor Foundation, CrossFit Invictus has developed “The Veteran WOD” for the inaugural year of what they hope to be an annual fundraiser.

The details so far: The workout is scheduled to be performed on Veterans Day (Wednesday, November 11th), and gyms and athletes across the country are encouraged to register and participate.

Gyms and athletes can register and donate here.
Athletes working out from home are welcome to register under CrossFit Invictus as their gym.

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Please join The Honor Foundation, local San Diego gyms and the fitness community for a fun workout to pay tribute to all U.S. Veterans. This event can be done anywhere you can run, thruster, and burpee while paying tribute to the men and women who serve and have served our nation. Visit the link in our bio to register today and help members of the Special Operations community transition into their next adventure.

A post shared by The Honor Foundation (@honorfoundation) on Oct 29, 2020 at 1:02pm PDT

The Workout: While the workout will have multiple scaling options announced on the CrossFit Invictus Instagram page in the coming days, the Rx version of the workout is as follows.

Eleven rounds for time of:
400 Meter Run
11 Dumbbell Thrusters (50/35 lb DBs)
11 Burpees

Why it matters: CrossFit has had longstanding affiliations with various charitable foundations and many affiliates found working out to be an ideal way to bring communities together to give back. This new project by CrossFit Invictus and the Honor Foundation ties together two important elements with which CrossFit has always connected, service members and giving back to the community.

“George Washington famously said that ‘A nation is judged by how well it treats its veterans.’ Frankly, we’re failing,” said Martin.
“But the CrossFit community has always had a deep and profound respect for members of our armed forces. I believe our community would be excited to honor those who have served and those who continue to serve,” Martin added.

Looking to the future: Martin hopes that this is just the start of the Veteran WOD. He hopes to continue to work with the Honor Foundation and make the Veteran WOD even bigger next year.

“The Honor Foundation is an incredible organization that we’ve been supporting for a couple of years now,” he said.
“We’ve had almost universal support so far – including from CrossFit HQ,” Martin added, hoping that this year’s significant interest in the project serves as a catalyst for an even bigger event next year.