Our first-ever nutrition challenge on SugarWOD has come to a close and it was a success!
Twenty gyms registered for the #800gChallenge run by OptimizeMe Nutrition. They reported it was “awesome”: it drove better-eating habits, improved performance, and engagement across the community, even from non-participating members.
Here’s what some participants had to say:
“We’ve heard multiple times that this is the most veggies they ever ate in their life. Performance of the participants in the gym has skyrocketed (including mine).” – Mychal Pham, GrudgeFit
“I’ve heard several people mention that they’re feeling better energy levels, and a couple people have seen noticeable weight loss… They’re really enjoying just focusing on ONE aspect of nutrition. And I’m excited to see some of my more ‘rules-based’ members loosen up a bit and enjoy a little more balance…”- Addi Kahrs, CrossFit Omaha
Participating gyms were able to leverage the nutrition content and direction from OptimizeMe Nutrition and the scoring and leaderboarding from SugarWOD to run a positive and professional event for their community. OptimizeMe Nutrition posted content throughout each week (including coaches notes and educational material to participants), reviewed daily food logs, answered member questions, and provided weekly social media content.
“From my side, the social media posts have been really helpful. Images look great, it keeps participants engaged, and they have other people in the gym talking. I know of several people who didn’t sign up but have been increasing fruits and veggies just from being exposed to the info. Everybody wins!” – Addi Kahrs, CrossFit Omaha
“The support received from OptimizeMe Nutrition is invaluable. All of the time consuming tasks are done for you which allows you to focus on your efforts on your community’s engagement. Integration with the SugarWOD app has made this the easiest challenge I’ve ever ran. I would 100% be on board to try anything this team puts together!” – Lindsay Andrew, CrossFit Voltage & Albemarle
“Running the #800gChallenge was the easiest challenge we have run at our two gyms. Having OptimizeMe Nutrition supply all the content needed each week was awesome, and having SugarWOD to enter the scores in and also release content to participants made things even easier. We’ve always been put off running challenges because of the extra workload putting it together.” -Ben Breen, CrossFit Soul Rebel Greensborough & Thornbury
“The #800gChallenge put on by OptimizeMe Nutrition with help from SugarWOD was fantastic! As an affiliate owner I found it provided a new, straightforward approach to a nutrition challenge that was easy to execute. OptimizeMe Nutrition created the content and made it simple to distribute to our members… SugarWOD made tracking points easy to enter on the app for the participants… The #800gChallenge was by far the most simple challenge we have ever executed but also provided more content then we ever have before. I will definitely be doing another challenge with OptimizeME Nutrition and SugarWOD in the future!” –Todd Occhiuto, DRiV FiTNESS
With our new scoring features in SugarWOD, combined with the success of the #800gChallenge, challenges are here to stay in the Marketplace. Some of the lessons learned for future challenge offerings:
- The onsite gym lead matters! If there isn’t support from the owner and staff, the challenge will not get enough sign-ups or retain participation. We encourage gyms to choose challenges for their members they believe in and will participate in fully themselves.
- Gyms can create an additional revenue stream from a challenge that benefits their community (win-win!). At CrossFit Imperial Valley, with a member base of 275 people, over 80 people signed up for the #800gChallenge. By adding t-shirts, body composition testing, on-site meetings, a closed Facebook group, weekly challenges (e.g., 50 sit-ups a day), and a team competition, the affiliate charged $109 per person, which covered their costs and allowed for additional compensation of the organizing on-site coaches.
- Unaffiliated athletes should be able to participate, too! In the future, SugarWOD will offer challenges where unaffiliated individuals can play along! We have a huge international and independent SugarWOD community that can benefit from being part of a challenge even if they aren’t part of an affiliate.
- Participants want to connect with other gyms. In the future, we intend to provide additional forums to enable communication and engagement between all participating gyms and individuals.
- Challenges don’t have to be nutrition-based. Want to run a half-marathon? Drop your 2k row time? Increase your max pull-up reps? There are infinite ideas to drive excitement and interest around fitness-related goals.
Stay tuned for more information on the next #800gChallenge launch. And tell us, what other types of nutrition challenges do you want to see in the Marketplace? Macros? Zone? Paleo? Let us know in the comments!