OVC "OPEN" Performance Challenge Returns in 2019!
As we begin to gear up for the 2019 CrossFit Games Open we are excited to announce the return of our OVC "OPEN" Performance Challenge!
This team based challenge will be scored with points being awarded on the basis of nutrition, attendance, performance, and Open participation.
3 WOD's will be tested during Week 1 and then performed again near the end of this year's Open to compare performance improvement.
Nutrition and body composition will be measured by utilizing 5 Star Nutrition's InBody Machine.
Points will be awarded to each athlete per team based on the following:
- 1 point per pound weight loss
- 1 point per percentage body fat loss
- 1 point per class attended during challenge
- 2 points per rep improvement on tested WOD's
- 5 points per successfully completed and submitted Open WOD
- 10 points per CrossFit Open Registration
- 10 points per CrossFit Judges Course Participation
- Weekly "BONUS" Point Opportunities Announced
A cash prize will be awarded to the winning team, with additional prizes awarded for top performers and weekly throughout the Open.
The best news of all is that this challenge will be completely FREE!
More details will be announced as we get closer to the start but for now please sign-up at the box or via the link below and commit to starting your year off on the right foot.
OVC "OPEN" Performance Challenge RESULTS!
Over the past 12 weeks we have challenged ourselves to work harder and eat healthier as part of the 2018 OVC "OPEN" Performance Challenge.
We experienced the excitement and struggles of the CrossFit Games Open together and grew as individuals, teams, and a community within OV CrossFit.
In this time we improved in every aspect of our fitness leading to amazing results during our check-out assessments over the past few weeks:
- 330lb. Cluster Improvement
- 942 second Assault Bike Improvement
- 440 rep Wallball Improvment
- 211lbs. Weight Lost
- 97.7lbs. Body Fat Lost
- 2,204 Individual Classes Attended
This was named a "Performance Challenge" because at the end of the day nutrition is about what you put in your body to fuel its performance in life, work, and sport. What you choose to eat is a direct result of the output you will get, whether too much or too little. We hope that everyone was able to realize this in some way during the challenge and make changes that will improve their fitness and life.
After calculating all scores we are excited to announce Team Ionic as the winner of the 2018 OVC "OPEN" Performance Challenge! Congratulations to them, as well as all the other amazing teams on their performance.
We additionally want to award several individuals for the improvements they were able to make in nutrition and performance on a personal level throughout the challenge.
Most Improved Body Composition
Dawn Schoolcraft
Gaby Martin
Most Improved Performance Results
Mark Waters
Karen Norman
Thank you again to everyone who participated in this year's challenge. We look forward to doing this event again next year, as well as adding other performance challenges throughout the year for our members to take advantage of!
The “OPEN” Performance Challenge has begun…. Now what?
With last week marking the beginning of the “OPEN” Performance Challenge and the teams being released, we want to make sure that we arm you with as much information as possible to set you up for success. Hopefully you have been following along with our e-mails and blog posts and saw our post highlighting some of the different information, diets, and options for you to make the most out of this challenge. Be sure to check it out here. (needs hyperlink) If you are still feeling overwhelmed or confused by macro counting, Whole 30, The Zone Diet, Paleo, clean eating, or the multitude of other options-this information is meant to further guide you in the right direction.
One of the most important things for you to understand about the human body is that each one is unique. The technical name for this is bio-individuality and it is a critical factor to remember in deciding what nutritional plan best suites you. Each of you are unique and have unique nutritional requirements. The diet or style of eating that works best for you may or may not be the one that works best for someone else. The key here becomes listening to the needs of your own body and incorporating principles that you know you will be able to follow.
During the 2 months of The “OPEN” Performance Challenge you need to make decisions that will benefit both your physical and training goals. You also want to ensure that the nutritional path you embark on is sustainable once the challenge is over. Whether you are choosing to dive into the Whole 30, count your macros, embark on the Zone Diet or just clean up your eating habits there are a few fundamental principles that everyone should be employing throughout this challenge not only to see the best physical results but also to reduce your risk for disease and be emotionally and mentally healthy.
1. Nutrient dense foods should ALWAYS be prioritized
No one principle is more likely to support healthy eating than the principle of nutrient density. The nutrient density of food is the amount of nutrients you get for the amount of calories. You want to look for foods that are rich in vitamins, minerals, complex carbohydrates, protein and healthy fats. Regardless of the diet you are choosing, nutrient dense foods will ensure that you pack in the most nutrition while staying within your calorie limits. By consuming nutrient dense foods your body will receive concentrated amounts of valuable nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, fibers, proteins, essential fatty acids and phytonutrients.
The nutrient density of food varies and you can find plenty of complex lists and information online. But simply what you need to do is prioritizing eating nutrient dense foods by consuming more fruits and vegetables-especially leafy greens, whole grains-if they fit into your diet, and getting your protein from clean sources such as meats, eggs and seafood.
2. Say no to sugar and processed foods as often as possible
Processed foods are readily available and easy to grab and go, but at what cost? These foods do not contain valuable nutrients or fibers and they are often packed with added sugars, refined carbohydrates, trans fats and processed vegetable oils. While it is true that some processed foods may be better than others, it is best to avoid them altogether. Your body will absorb and make use of the vitamins and minerals from natural sources better than they will from processed.
Refined sugars are calories with no essential nutrients, proteins, healthy fats or enzymes that have a negative head to toe impact on the human body. There is no one person who wouldn’t benefit from drastically reducing or eliminating added sugar from their diet. They put stress on the liver, increase bad cholesterol and triglycerides, create an addictive sugar response in the brain and can contribute to leptin resistance (which then causes weight gain, cravings, sleep trouble, etc.). Cutting out refined sugar completely can be very difficult and in a later post we will go into this a bit further. If you are consuming a lot of refined sugar and aren’t ready to do a complete detox from it try to use honey and maple syrup in its place whenever possible.
3. Avoid all artificial Trans Fats
If you are already avoiding processed foods this one will be pretty easy. If you are struggling to avoid processed foods, be sure to pay attention. The process that makes partially hydrogenated oils creates trans fats that aren't found in nature. You will find these oils in a wide variety of food from cookies, cakes, donuts and frozen pizzas to salad dressings and even foods disguised as healthier boxed options. There are companies that have phased them out but you can still find them hiding in many food options-especially things like protein bars. These fats greatly increase your risk of heart disease and raise your LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and lowers your HDL (“good”) cholesterol.
Again, the best way to avoid trans fats is to eat only whole, real food but if you are grabbing something on the go be sure to check nutritional label and go straight to ingredients and look for the words “hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogenated”. There is a usually a trans fat marking on the top but companies are allowed to still have a certain amount of trans fat and mark it at 0 so always check the ingredients just to be safe.
4. Fruits and Vegetables should always make up half of your plate/meal
This one is pretty straightforward. Fruits and vegetables are full of important nutrients like vitamins A and C, folate and minerals like potassium and magnesium as well as fibers. These nutrient packed foods keep you healthier, your digestive system regular and your bones strong. When you are planning out your meals be sure that you are stacking half of your plate or half of your meal up with them. If you feel like you are struggling with less sugar, fruits are the perfect way to get in that dose of sweet.
Here are a couple of things you should ask yourself before choosing a nutritional plan:
1. How much time are you willing to put into calculating what you are eating?
The Zone Diet and counting your macros can be very effective but they are not the only way to revamp your eating habits. Make sure you are willing to commit the time to tracking and weighing your food. For some who are busy, you may find this difficult and again the key here is to find something that is sustainable for your lifestyle not something that you stop doing after a week or two. If you feel like that applies to you you could choose to kick off this challenge by eating only clean, unprocessed foods or moving into a Paleo diet. Remember, you are doing this challenge to increase your athletic performance and your quality of life, not to cause yourself unnecessary stress. The best diet you can go on is the one you think you can stick to.
2. Do you suffer from any food allergies/intolerances, struggle with autoimmune disease or chronic illness or suffer from serious fatigue issues?
If the answer is yes, make sure you take this into consideration when choosing a diet. If you are looking for something to truly help heal your body and are up for the commitment to yourself, The Whole 30 is likely the best option for you as it can be tailored to help with many different conditions. If you are looking for something more intense than Whole 30 you would want to look into Autoimmune Protocol or a GAPS diet.
A Few General Tips:
- If you are choosing to count your Macros you should be aware that on its own this is not a diet. If you want to see the most success with it, you should couple it with another specific way of eating such as eating clean or The Whole 30. Be careful not to use this method as an excuse to allow just any food into your diet. This may still sway the scale a bit but your athletic performance and general health will plateau much sooner and since this is a performance challenge and not a weight loss challenge we want to see your body improve as a whole.
While changing your eating patterns could result in feeling a bit hungrier than usual, you should never feel ravenous. When you are hungry, your body doesn’t necessarily want food, it wants nutrition. As discussed, if you feed it foods that are nutrient-poor, your brain and body will never really feel totally satisfied. The key is to feed yourself real and fresh foods that are high in nutrients that will satiate your hunger. If you are finding that any one of these nutritional plans is leaving you starving be sure to consider what you are eating and ensure that you are consuming enough.
While some supplements can prove useful, they are certainly not necessary. However, focusing on having a healthy gut is essential. Eating all this healthy food is great but having a healthy gut is imperative to your bodies ability to digest and absorb this food. Your gut is where nutrients are absorbed, assimilated, and incorporated into the body and the health of it dictates every other process, system, organ, and cell within you! Basically, all of your bodily systems revolve around your gut. So be sure to make the most of all the hard work you are doing in the kitchen and get yourself on a high quality probiotic. Some brands to consider are Klaire Labs, Garden of Life and Active Balance.
Remember, this is a community challenge and we have an awesome community. Be sure to lean on the members of your team and the gym to support you and share tips and tricks while learning from each other along the way! Stay tuned throughout the coming weeks while we cover in detail different topics including eating for energy and increased athletic performance, how to get the most out of counting your macros, what sugar is really doing to your body and much more.
Nutrition - OVC "OPEN" Performance Challenge
When we originally came up with the idea for this year's OVC "OPEN" Performance Challenge, one element discussed in depth was the idea of nutrition to fuel performance.
To each individual this means something completely different, which is why a winner will not be determined solely on body composition, but more on how their nutrition, dietary changes, and dedication in the gym impacts their overall CrossFit performance.
The second thing we discussed is why we have chosen to make this challenge Free to any member wanting to participate. If you have money to spend and want to seriously commit to this challenge, it should be spent on educating yourself properly on what your nutritional needs are spending the money needed on quality food, vitamins, and supplements to achieve it.
What we offer below is a guideline to get you started. Want more information? Ask.
Just as we cannot make you choose to show up for a workout, we cannot control what you choose to put in your body each day. You need to make that decision because you want to see results and you want a better and healthier future.
Overview
To do CrossFit and ignore nutrition is similar to driving a new sports car with a hundred year old engine that is burning oil and on its last breath. What gives us the results we desire in both performance and physical appearance is paying detailed attention to what our body needs and how to fuel it properly.
CrossFit Founder and CEO Greg Glassman described this focus on diet and nutrition by saying, "Finely tuned, a good diet will increase energy, sense of well being and acumen, while simultaneously flensing fat and packing on muscle. When properly composed, the right diet can nudge every important quantifiable marker for health in the right direction. Diet is critical to optimizing human function.”
It is no surprise based on this statement where nutrition's place is on the theoretical hierarchy of development. Without placing a primary focus on nutrition, you will never accomplish what you desire in the performance elements of the pyramid.
Educate Yourself
Most of you by now have likely heard of someone counting macros at the gym. In the simplest terms possible this means that they are tracking how many grams of carbohydrates, protein, and fats they put into their body daily.
Dr. Barry Sears placed great attention to this macros concept when creating The Zone Diet. Although we could go into great detail about the Zone Diet and why we recommend it as a way to start yourself towards healthier nutrition habits, it makes much more sense for you to click the link below, purchase a copy of his book, and educate yourself on what and why this will help you:
Start Measuring & Start Tracking.
To begin to realize what you've been eating, how it's not doing good things for your body, and what to do to get on the right track there is only one place to start: Start Measuring & Start Tracking Today!
Don't wait for the challenge to "officially" start to do this but begin the process today while you read and learn more about macros and The Zone Diet.
Purchasing a scale similar to the one linked here will be a great start. It doesn't have to do anything fancy like play music or flash lights... It just needs to weigh food.
Your most important tool will be to download the app My Fitness Pal for your smartphone. This app provides a single database with which you can log and record all of your food consumption and get detailed data regarding calories, macros, and your bodies needs.
Once you have decided how many blocks or macros your body needs these two tools will be indispensable.
Supplements Don't Do Everything
We mentioned this in our last post but feel it's an important topic to bring up again. As with anything you put in your body we recommend you do your research or ask someone you trust before purchasing any type of vitamin or supplement. Supplements are just that: Supplementation's to your diet that should not be relied upon or used daily with the expectation that they will completely change your appearance or performance.
If you think that taking anything that says you can lose 15 pounds in 15 days sounds remotely healthy for your body we need to have a serious conversation.
There Are More Options Outside Zone & Macros
Even though we have primarily highlighted The Zone Diet and macros based nutrition plans, these are not the only option when it comes to selecting a diet plan that works for you. Check out the following books and resources for information on additional options that may be more appealing to you:
The Paleo Diet
The Paleo diet is the healthiest way you can eat because it is the ONLY nutritional approach that works with your genetics to help you stay lean, strong and energetic! Research in biology, biochemistry, Ophthalmology, Dermatology and many other disciplines indicate it is our modern diet, full of refined foods, trans fats and sugar, that is at the root of degenerative diseases such as obesity, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, depression and infertility.
The Whole 30 Program
Certain food groups (like sugar, grains, dairy and legumes) could be having a negative impact on your health and fitness without you even realizing it. Are your energy levels inconsistent or non-existent? Do you have aches and pains that can’t be explained by over-use or injury? Are you having a hard time losing weight no matter how hard you try? Do you have some sort of condition, like skin issues, digestive ailments, seasonal allergies, or chronic pain, that medication hasn’t helped? These symptoms are often directly related to the foods you eat—even the “healthy” stuff. So how do you know if (and how) these foods are affecting you?
Strip them from your diet completely. Eliminate the most common craving-inducing, blood sugar disrupting, gut-damaging, inflammatory food groups for a full 30 days.
Have Fun & Ask Questions If You Need Help
At the end of the day eating healthy to fuel your body does take some serious thought and work, but once you know how, it becomes easy and second nature.
Have fun and remember why you are doing this challenge and why you do CrossFit. We are striving to prepare our body for what life throws at it and combat disease in order to live a happy and healthy life.
If you don't feel comfortable doing this alone always remember that your coaches are here for you to answer questions or help create a nutrition plan that works for you. Additionally, if you are interested in fully committing to your nutrition and want to be held accountable, we would recommend you spend your money on a nutrition coach. We have a close relationship with fellow CrossFit athlete and nutrition coach Frank Mastroianni and believe his company Activeworks Nutrition can provide you with a superior service geared towards your personal goals and needs.
Don't forget to complete your body composition before January 15th @ 5 Star Nutrition in St. Clairsville, OH! Performance test check-in's will begin next week!
As always if you have any questions or concerns feel free to talk to Paul & JR, or email info@ovcrossfit.com!
OVC "OPEN" Performance Challenge: Getting Started!
Thanks to everyone who has already registered to participate in our Free OVC "OPEN" Performance Challenge starting January 7th and running through March 26th!
It's still not too late to join us! Email info@ovcrossfit.com, Sign-Up on Mindbody, or let Paul or JR know at the box!
This team based challenge will be scored with points being awarded on the basis of nutrition, attendance, performance, and Open participation.
While signing up is nice, completing the tasks outlined below over the next two weeks will fully show your commitment to this challenge.
Please read each section carefully and if you would have any questions feel free to email info@ovcrossfit.com.
Nutrition / Body Composition Check-In
- Between January 2nd - January 15th all participating athletes will need to do their baseline body composition check-in and provide the results to Paul or JR.
- Nutrition and body composition will be measured by utilizing 5 Star Nutrition's InBody Machine. Visit their location near the Ohio Valley Mall in St. Clairsville, OH and tell them you are with OV CrossFit and are doing our performance challenge and would like to do your initial body composition.
- This a very simple process and only requires you to remove your shoes, stand on the machine, and input a few pieces of information.
- Once completed you will receive a piece of paper with your test results. This is what you will provide to Paul and JR for your check-in.
- Please note that we believe 5 Star Nutrition has some decent products available, however we do not personally recommend any products they may suggest during your visit. As with anything you put in your body we recommend you do your research or ask someone you trust before purchasing anything. Supplements are just that: Supplementations to your diet that should not be relied upon or used daily with the expectation that they will completely change your appearance or performance.
Performance Check-In
- During the week of January 8th - January 12th we will perform three baseline performance tests to accumulate baseline data.
- Your attendance in class or during Open Box to complete these workouts is required. If for some reason you are unable to attend on a day of these workouts, arrangements can be made so that you can complete the workout at another time when the box is open.
- This data will be recorded and compared with check-out data at the conclusion of the challenge.
Your participation and completion of the check-in activities listed above will act as your official registration for the challenge. This will allow us to then select teams from a pool of individuals who have committed themselves fully to participating.
Please note that if you are still interested in participating but have conflicts not allowing you to complete these activities during the given timeframes we can attempt to make accommodations to get them completed as soon as possible once you are available. Email info@ovcrossfit.com to arrange this.
Teams will be announced by the end of Week 2.
A cash prize will be awarded to the winning team, with additional prizes awarded for top performers and weekly throughout the Open.
Don't forget to pre-order your OPEN Performance Challenge baseball tee at the box now through January 15th!
