WHAT IS IT?

This challenge was designed by OptimizeMe Nutrition. Eat 800 grams (g) of fruits and/or vegetables, by weight, per day. 

No foods are eliminated, but only fruits and veggies count toward the 800g. Eat the fruits and veggies of your choice. Hit the macros you want.

Raw, cooked, canned, frozen; doesn’t matter!  If you can weigh it as a standalone and unprocessed fruit or vegetable, you can count it. Yep, that’s it! Here’s a one-sheet with all the rules and scoring details.

So why 800g? It’s associated with increased health and is a simplified way to hit those recommended servings of fruits and vegetables. Read more here.

DATES: January 4 – January 31

We will host a meeting at the gym to go over all the challenge rules and answer your questions. Be sure to be there on Saturday, January 2nd at 10 AM!!

You can sign up for the challenge here.

With the holidays upon us and the new year quickly approaching, we often lose sight of our goals and get off track. Here’s a few simple tips to keep you on track during this busy season of the year.

1) Work, work, work. Dreams won’t work unless you do – No doubt talent is absolutely needed, but it is hard work that is crucial for success. If determined to succeed, then it’s time to turn the working mode on. The true results don’t come from hitting that EPIC PR, Regionals or the games, the results come from simply showing up day in and day out doing the BEST you can each and every time.  Even if you have an off day, or twenty, keep at it! The results don’t come unless you keep consistently moving forward.

2) Be stubborn and persistent – Little by little, day after day, triumph comes at a steady pace, dressed in small efforts. Follow your success road faithfully and take tiny achievable steps, each one at a time. Winners are those, persistent to progress, obstinate to never give up and be patient to wait for the results.

3) Discipline matters – Self-imposed control are required to keep the rhythm up. That only means one thing: get ready to be fully devoted to achieving success.

4) Plan and organize in advance – Good planning equals to 80% of success. Learn how to arrange your priorities and manage your time. Put small targets and chase them until fully completed. Learn how to optimize your time schedule so you can make the most out of it.

5) Concentrate on the goals – As Henry Ford says “Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.” In other words, the best you can do is to dismiss fears of failure and duly focus all your energy and efforts on the targets. Letting no other distractions stay in your way, will save you precious time for what really matters.

If you’re interested in starting your health journey in 2020, schedule a free ‘No Sweat Intro’ with one of our coaches today! We will have a 15 minute consultation with you regarding your goals and how to achieve them! Come check out Ole Glory CrossFit!

Are you already a member and want to set some goals to get on track in 2020? Schedule your appointment for a Strategy Session with one of our amazing coaches today! We would love to help you get on track and have a plan for greatness!

Welcome back for our final week on the ten general physical skills! Over the past several weeks we have touched on how eight of the physical skills are improved through CrossFit training. Throughout our discussion of endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, speed, power, coordination and agility, you may have noticed a common topic repeated frequently. “Aging” or “Getting Older” was discussed quite a bit. Why is that? Let’s face it, we aren’t getting any younger and everyone wants to “age” gracefully.  All ten physical skills improve our quality of life and as we age we must focus more on building those skills to ensure that quality is up to par. The final two skills are no different, balance and accuracy, both begin to fade away the older we get. 

Balance and accuracy are not often thought about unless they become issues for you or a loved one. Most likely you’ve known an elderly person that uses a walker, cane or even a wheelchair because they can’t place one foot in front of the other to walk without assistance or support. Balance refers to the body’s ability to control the placement of our body’s center of gravity in relation to its support base. (CrossFit.com) While accuracy refers to the ability to control that placement or movement in a given direction or at a given intensity. (CrossFit.com) These two skills allow us to place one foot in front of the other to walk or run, and not fall over. Taking a simple step requires you to balance your full body weight on one supporting leg, while accurately placing the opposite foot forward. On days we work unilaterally, such as single leg deadlifts, we’re working to improve not only our strength, but our balance as well. Every time you throw a medicine ball to the blue line on the wall or the target you are working on accuracy. 

Are there other factors in life that can affect our balance and accuracy? Of course. Various things in life can affect these skills; such as our vestibular system (equilibrium), alcoholism and medication. All of these things can affect balance and accuracy, but proper training is imperative for the unknown and unknowable in life. If your functional fitness is maintained, then your risk for injury will drastically decline.  Now do you understand why we refer to CrossFit as “functional fitness”? All of the physical skills build upon one another to create an athletic, able-bodied, functional human being.  Let’s continue to train all of these skills so that we can truly enjoy our “golden years”. 

This week we are back with a continuation of our ten general physical skills. These next two skills are often not a focus in training, but are a necessity in life. Coordination and agility are our topics of discussion!!

Coordination is “the ability to combine several distinct movement patterns into a singular distinct movement.” (CrossFit.com) This is most likely a term you’ve heard all of your life. You won’t remember it, but you first heard it in your early childhood. Coordination comes into play when developing gross motor skills. Learning to walk, jump and climb all require combining multiple movements into one singular movement. When you are first learning a new skill, you may often feel jerky and awkward, like a baby learning to walk. Think back to On Ramp when you first learned the clean or snatch. How smooth was the movement? Probably not very smooth at first, but over time and with more practice, these movements became easier and you felt more “coordinated”. In the weeks and months after On Ramp class, you probably performed most of these movements with less thought about each individual step. Coordination can only be improved through practice. Over time, your muscles learn to work together and less energy is required to perform the movement. Better coordination means fewer falls and injuries in everyday life.

Agility is “the ability to minimize transition time from one movement pattern to another”. (CrossFit.com) It’s your body’s ability to be efficient and effective in movements. How quickly can your brain tell your muscles to respond to a situation that requires a quick, change in direction. Agility training will improve your natural reflexes and your overall balance, which will allow you to remain functionally independent for many years to come. Agility is extremely important in the sports arena, but it’s often a forgotten skill for an average individual. Everyone is capable of improving their agility, but it takes lots of practice. 

Next time we have that agility ladder out at Ole Glory. Give it your best effort. Let’s see how quickly and efficiently you can move through it. 

Here is the down low on the upside of using whey isolate. Whey is a milk product derived from cheese manufacturing. It’s uses go far beyond adding quality protein to your diet, it can be found in everything from conditioners and facial moisturizers to cake batters.

As you might expect the quality and bioavailability of whey used in cake batter and high quality whey isolate is worlds apart. The whey isolate used in the Driven whey and the IsoDrive is produced using microfiltration. This process uses filters to separate only the Isolate fractions of whey followed by a temperature neutral drying process. The whey is never given a charge, no chemicals are used and the protein is never heated. The end result is the most bio available protein on the planet!

What’s this mean for you?

IsoDrive hits your muscles fast! After a WOD your broken down muscle tissue is starving for amino acids to repair and rebuild. IsoDrive is quickly digested, flooding the muscles with an abundance of amino acids. IsoDrive is as lean as it gets when it comes to adding extra protein to your diet. It contains only one gram of sugar, one gram of carbohydrate and less than one gram of fat! Being nearly free of lactose whey Isolate is also an ideal protein for those who are sensitive to milk products and associate whey protein with gas and bloating.

When is the best time to use it?

IsoDrive can be used anytime but there are two ideal times you can get an added boost from this super protein. One is immediately upon waking up in the morning. When you sleep (and don’t eat) for long periods your body is in a catabolic (muscle wasting) state. By ingesting a fast source of protein you can quickly stop this muscle breakdown. The other time you want to take advantage of isolates fast breakdown is, as mentioned before immediately following intense strength training for quick recovery and to prevent further breakdown of muscle tissue. You don’t grow and get stronger in the gym, that process starts right after the last rep is completed. It’s up to you to make sure you have the right nutrients to create this anabolic environment.

Is it expensive?

Whey isolate does cost more than lower quality proteins but consider this. When you purchase IsoDrive® that percentages jumps to 93% pure protein! While the cost is more upfront you get more bang for your buck in terms of quality!

To recap, for high performance athletes and those wanting maximum recovery pure IsoDrive is best!

Get with an OG Coach today to get your favorite flavor on our next order in a week!

Power and speed are physical skills that are instrumental in achieving results during CrossFit WODs. In past weeks, we’ve covered endurance, stamina, strength and flexibility. These four build upon and enhance our power and speed. Today, we will learn about why training power and speed are essential to fitness. 

CrossFit defines power as “the ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply maximum force in minimum time.” (journal.crossfit.com) Power is much like strength but incorporates the application of force but with an added time element. Simply, the faster a load is moved the more powerful. For example, if two people squat 200 pounds, athlete A squats in four seconds and athlete B squats in three seconds, who is more powerful? The latter, but why? He/she was able to apply the force in a shorter amount of time, therefore, producing more power. Power is determined by the amount of force applied, the distance the force is moved, and the amount of time to complete the movement. Now take the same example of two athletes squatting 200lbs. Athlete A is 6’0” and athlete B is, let’s say, 6’9”. They both squat 200lbs. in 3 seconds, who is more powerful? Athlete B. The formula for calculating power output is Force X Distance / Time. In CrossFit, we train power in many ways. Some examples include: Olympic weightlifting, throwing medicine balls and box jumps. Anything that requires explosiveness will improve power output. Being powerful, requires strength but it also requires the second physical skill for today, speed. 

CrossFit defines speed as “the ability to minimize the time cycle of a repeated movement.” (journal.crossfit.com) If power is the ability to apply force in a minimal time frame, then training our speed is just as important as strength training. To be more powerful, we must move quicker, but we also must have a solid strength foundation. However, you can’t move 200 pounds quickly, if you can’t move 200 pounds at all. In standard gyms, most people train for strength by performing slow isolated lifts and don’t necessarily train for power. They often train for speed separately. In CrossFit, we combine the two and the result is an increase in power.

Why is it important to continue to train for power and speed as we age? Trainings these skills can improve your reaction time, increase bone density, improve your coordination and balance. Wouldn’t you want to react quicker if life throws a dangerous scenario at you? 

SWOLE AND FLEXY!! You’ve all heard that term from ROMWOD.com videos, but why is it significant today? “Swole and Flexy” refers to the next two general physical skills that we work on improving in CrossFit. Along with endurance and stamina, we strive daily to improve our strength and flexibility.  

Strength is “the ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply force” (CrossFit.com). Strength training can and will improve your overall health. As we age, the human body’s muscle mass diminishes. This is usually caused from lack of muscle use. The phrase “use it or lose it” is real! Have you ever missed a week or two at the gym and felt really weak your first few days back? Or broke a bone, removed the cast and was in shock by the look of your skinny limb? Day in and day out we drive our cars, sit at our desks and maybe walk only a few steps per hour. Our bodies are not meant to be immobile. During the childhood years, we were always running, jumping, playing sports and climbing trees or monkey bars, thus keeping our strength up. When we become an adult that is often put on the back burner. Jobs, parenthood and stress take over our lives. We tend to sit majority of the day and move less. Strength training is important as we age to develop strong bones, manage our weight and often times improve chronic pain in the back, hips, neck. Do you have to be huge and bulky to be considered strong? No, of course not! Simply, build lean muscle mass in order to sustain your ability to walk, climb, lift and maintain your functional independence! Basic strength is of the utmost importance.  

The second physical skill for this week is flexibility!!! CrossFit defines flexibility as “the ability to maximize the range of motion at a given joint”. (CrossFit.com) Much like strength, flexibility tends to decrease as we age. The less we move, the stiffer our joints get. Do yourself a favor, stand up, bend over and reach for your toes with your knees locked out. Can you reach them? If you can, great! If not, you have some work to do! Working on flexibility allows muscles and joints to remain mobile and reduces “stiffness” in the body. It will reduce soreness and improve posture over time. Joints that are flexible require less energy to move and are less prone to injury. Flexible hips, quads and hamstrings reduce stress on the lower back. Flexible calves reduce tension on the ankles and knees. There are multiple ways we work on flexibility. In our warm ups, we tend to use dynamic stretching and/or joint rotations with minimal external weight to get blood flowing and increase our body temperature. Joint rotations should be done daily. Even if you don’t come to the gym, doing simple things throughout the day like wrist and ankle rotations, arm circles and hip openers will improve your flexibility. Post-workout we lean more towards static stretching. Classic pigeon, couch stretch and seated pike are great examples of static stretches that will improve your flexibility over time. Stretching regularly is required to maintain flexibility. So next time you’re getting “swole” in the gym, don’t forget to squeeze in the “flexy” time! 

In our last Wednesday Wisdom, we introduced you to the ten general physical skills used to define fitness. They are cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. According to CrossFit, “you are as fit as you are competent in each of these ten skills.” As promised over the next few weeks, we are going to discuss each of the skills further and explain why they are important in day to day life. 

The focus this week is cardiovascular/respiratory endurance and stamina. These are significant because both can only be improved through training. Training is “activity that improves performance through a measurable organic change in the body” (CrossFit Journal). You can gain these skills, however, they take time and energy to improve. You must put forth the effort and discipline to improve in these areas. 

Let’s begin with endurance. You probably often hear your coach say ‘your endurance will get improve over time’ or ‘man that guy has great endurance!’. We must train our engine to make it stronger! In CrossFit, we define endurance as “the ability of body systems to gather, process, and deliver oxygen.”(CrossFit Journal) To endure means “to undergo especially without giving in” or the ability to keep pushing through something for a long time! Running a marathon is a great example! 26.2 miles on foot is quite a trek and many people do not have the endurance to keep pushing through to the end. Why do we need to improve our endurance? Endurance activities, such as running, swimming, biking, burpees and others, keep our heart and lungs strong and healthy. If you improve your endurance, completing daily tasks such as bringing in the groceries, playing with your kids and walking up the stairs at work become easier. It will improve your quality of life. 

The second skill is stamina. Like endurance, it increases your bodies ability to perform over time. Stamina is defined as “the amount of time that a given muscle or group of muscles can perform at maximum capacity.” (Livestrong.com)  While stamina focuses on performing at max capacity for a given amount of time, endurance focuses on maximizing the time regardless of the capacity. Next time, you’re doing Fran, is it the burn in your limbs that forces you to take a break or is it because you’re gasping for air? The first would mean that you’re lacking in stamina and the latter would refer to your endurance conditioning. You must train your muscles to work at a higher capacity for a longer period of time. Next time your coach tells you to lower the weight so that you can push through more reps, he/she is trying to improve your stamina. Is it better to have a 10 minute Fran time at prescribed weight or reduce the weight by twenty pounds and go unbroken on the thrusters? Incremental increases in weight with larger sets will improve your muscle stamina, ultimately going unbroken. Think about it next time. Maybe we should program Fran soon to test it out??? Hmmmmm….

There you have it…endurance and stamina! Stay tuned next week as we continue with the ten general physical skills for your Wednesday Wisdom!