It's that time again! On Monday, January 6 we start our annual New Year's challenge. It's a time of competing with your fellow athletes and yourself to get stronger, faster, and leaner as quickly as you can and take home some big bucks in the process. Of the maximum 200 points 100 of them are easy and only require following directions. The other 100 will end up going to the people that take the challenge seriously, eat well and show up for all the workouts.
Here are the details.
Entry Fee:
$50 - As always, 100% of the money goes back to the winners. Please pay in cash to Mary by January 31.
Scoring:
- 80 Points - Percent Improvement on the 8 workouts over the 6 week challenge
- 40 Points - Before/After Pics (See details below)
- 20 Points - Bonus for performing the best on the initial workouts
- 20 Points - Attendance on 5 Randomly Selected Days
- 20 Points - Food Logs on 5 Randomly Selected Days
- 20 Points - Bonus - 5 Questions or Fitness Tests that can be asked at any time by your coaches
Requirements:
- To have any chance of winning you must perform all 8 workouts the week of January 6-10, and again the week of February 10-14. You will be able to make-up workouts those weeks if something comes up and you can't make it to the normal class times.
- Pay the entry fee
Before & After Pictures:
Everyone participating in the challenge will need to submit before & after pictures following these guidelines.
- 1 Pic from the Front
- 1 Pic from the Back
- 1 Pic from the Side
- Your before and after pics MUST be taken in the same outfit.
- Make sure the pictures are taken in good light with everything from your ankles to the top of your head visible.
- Make sure you wear clothes where the judges will easily be able to see improvements in body composition. For girls we recommend sports bra and shorts, and for guys nothing but shorts. If you are not comfortable taking pics in a sports bra then make sure you choose a shirt where improvements will be easily seen. When selecting your shorts choose some where improvements in your legs will be obvious to the judges. A lot of people like to take the initial pictures in an outfit they want to look good in by the end of the challenge. The pictures will not be shown to anyone other than the judges without your permission.
- If you would like to start your nutrition plan today on the 1st instead of waiting for the challenge to start on the 6th, you may take your before pics today.
- The before pictures are due by January 10.
- Mary will be available to take your pictures for you if you would like on 1/2, 1/6, 1/8, or 1/9 before or after the workouts.
Initial Performance Bonus:
We started doing this with the last challenge to keep people from sand-bagging and to give the better athletes a chance to compete.
Food Logs:
- There will be a blog post every day of the challenge and your food logs should be posted to the comments by the end of the following day. In other words, Monday's food logs can be judged anytime after the sun comes up on Wednesday. If you wait until Saturday or Sunday and post the whole week's food logs and they have already been counted before you post then they will not count.
- The content of your food logs will not be judged. The only requirement is that you post everything you eat for the entirety of the challenge. The only thing I don't need to know about is water. Yes, that means you must mention chewing gum.
