11:59:59 PM EST on Monday September 17th

During the challenge and starting now you have access to your dashboard. Simply login to your challenge account using your email and password you set up when registering for the challenge. On your dashboard you will see news items, updates, charity features, prize announcements, WOD announcements, reminders, and special sales. Everything you need for the challenge including when to enter each requirement is all located on your dashboard. To make everything even easier, only the items which are required to be entered at that time will show up on your dashboard. From your dashboard you will also have access to the leader boards, journal, nutritional forum with Jeremy Mullins, and your personal profile.

You have 2 weeks, until Saturday September 29th at 11:59PM EST to record their 3 Benchmark WODs, Body Measurements, Make Goals, and Upload Photos.

For example, for Monday's Diet data, you have until the end of Wednesday to enter their diet compliance. This results in someone having to visit the site at minimum of 2-3 times per week. Any day has not been completely entered by the deadline results in an automatic 2 cheats (-10 points).

During the Benchmark Phases (first 2 weeks, and final 2 weeks) you will have 2 weeks to perform and enter all the components: WOD scores, Body Measurements, photos, Goals, and video testimonial (bonus at end of challenge).

The only way you can compete in the Challenge is to belong to an official CrossFit Affiliate. Each participant must have their affiliate owner or level 1 certified CF trainer register the affiliate. The owner/trainer must judge all workouts and take the body measurement. The owner/trainer will then be responsible for logging into their affiliate account to validate the contestants' WOD Scores/Times and Body measurements. The affiliate owner/trainer is not responsible for entering the data as this will be done by the contestant on their dashboard.

This is not allowed. You must be a part of an affiliate because this keeps WOD standards and honesty in check with the CrossFit community values. With the size of prizes on the line, we have to keep the field fair and standardized for all.

You do get 3 bonus points for each goal that you set at the beginning of the Challenge (up to 5 goals) as long as you track their progress/status at the end of the challenge. We are awarding people to make goals and focus on striving to achieve them. Even if you are not successful, you still get points so long as you honestly track your progress. Photos are not awarded points. They are used for 2 reasons. This gives you an honest visual comparison for your progress from the beginning to end of the challenge. Secondly, photos don't lie. In the case of potential winners, a photo would validate the diet scores and body measurements that are reported during the challenge.

You will have an optional journal an extra feature on your dashboard. You don't get any points for using it, but it will help you track your experience, physically and emotionally. It can also be used as a food log.

During the Benchmark Phases, all 3 WODS must be done under the same conditions, RX or Scaled. All 3 Benchmark WOD times are totaled to give you a Benchmark score. You cannot mix and match these 3 workouts because we have to have a consistent comparison to other competitors. You will be getting Performance points for how you rank in your division based on the total time it took you to complete the 3 WODs. In addition, you must repeat these workouts under the same conditions at the second benchmark phase as you did in the first. This will give you your Performance Improvement Score.

During the 5 Weekly Performance WODs you can choose to do some as Prescribed (RX) and some as Scaled. These WODs are independent and will be awarded based on your rank within your division. Keep in mind that if you are able to complete the WODs as RX than you will earn more performance points that as a Scaled WOD.

Yes. After registering your gym, you will have to register as a contestant as well and pay the registration fee like all competitors. As an owner or trainer, all your workouts must be judged by a level 1 trainer and scores reviewed by a different set of eyes. Owners and trainers may also be subject to video submission requests of WODs in order to add another layer of accountability to the competition.

There are 4 Individual Champions Nationwide who have the highest total score (Performance points + Diet Points + Improvement Points + Bonus Points). The 4 Champions will be competitor with the top score in each of our 4 divisions, Men's Opens, Women's Opens, Men's Masters, and Women's Masters. The total prize package is worth over $2000 for these champions.

The Affiliate Grand Prize is given to the top affiliate nationwide (highest average point total of all registered members greater than 20). This prize package is worth $50,000 in prizes from weights, to equipment, to custom white boards, to web design work. It is a complete gym makeover package.

Performance Prizes will be given out to top performers for the best Benchmark Phase 1 score, the 5 Weekly Performance WOD scores, and Benchmark Phase 2 score. Top performers in each division (4) and in each region (5) will receive a Performance Prize. Therefore 20 Performance prizes will be given our during these 7 scored WOD periods for a total of 140 Performance prizes during the competitions

There will also be Sponsor Giveaway opportunities for even more cool stuff, so stay tuned during the challenge.

They are not eliminated from the challenge, but their overall score will be affected significantly by 0 points for that week's performance points. If someone is not able to finish all 3 Benchmark WODs this is even worse because they won't have a baseline to compare Performance Improvement resulting in even greater loss of potential points.

Your registration is refundable until the official start of the Challenge which is September 17th at 12:00 AM. After this point, we will not be able to offer any refunds.

Any supplements that don't contain any non-paleo ingredients are allowed, such as a muli-vitamin, fish oil, LuRong Living Essential, etc. We are making one exception for protein supplementation. Due to the fact that this challenge includes top level athletes who have a real nutritional need for protein supplementation we are making one specific accommodation: Protein supplementation is allowed and is not considered a cheat under the following conditions: it is limited to one serving per day, has less than 25 carbs per serving, is taken within 30 minutes post workout, and cannot be used as a meal replacement. Recommendations: PROGENEX recovery protein is recommended because they use hydrolyzed whey protein isolate that has been cold-processed and enriched with growth factors that are lost through conventional processing methods. Remember, most protein powders have some sugar (natural or artificial), so if you are looking to slim down, be careful. Any other supplement with natural or artificial sugar, or any other non-paleo ingredient is not allowed without a cheat.

Unsweetened Almond or coconut milk is a great substitute. No dairy or sugar. We are allowing up to 1/2 tbsp. daily of natural sweeteners such as agave or coconut nectar. Also, 1 pack (3.5 grams) of Stevia per day is allowable.

Yes

No, Ghee is not Paleo.

It is ok, but you have to make it at home. It cannot be store bought.

No.

Ibuprofen and medications are allowed during the challenge. Please do not make any changes to your prescription drugs or other doctor recommendations without first discussing with your doctor. Have you tried taking LuRong Living Essential? Reason I ask is that LuRong (velvet antler) is a natural anti-inflammatory. Most people find that they no longer need to take medications once they get LuRong in their system for 30 days.  In addition, it also provides other positive benefits to your health including decreased soreness, improved joint mobility, decreased joint discomfort, improved energy levels, and more. For more product information visit our website http://www.lurongliving.com/what-is-lurong.

Yes in moderation. While it is not recommended due to the insulin response it produces in your body, we are allowing one packet (3.5 grams) per day. Stevia is a natural herb but not all companies process their's purely, so do your reseach if you choose to use Stevia.

No. Sweet potatoes are a good substitute, but use moderation is weight loss is your goal.

If you don't eat during one of the six periods of the day than there is no cheat. The time periods are Breakfast, Mid-Morning, Lunch, Afternoon, Dinner, and Evening. If you only eat 3 times per day with no snack and didn't cheat during those meals than you have a perfect score for the day.

Protein supplementation is allowed and is not considered a cheat under the following conditions: it is limited to one serving per day, has less than 25 carbs per serving, is taken within 30 minutes post workout, and cannot be used as a meal replacement. Recommendations: PROGENEX recovery protein is allowed even though it is whey based, due to the high level of processing in their whey.
Remember, most protein powders have some sugar (natural or artificial), so if you are looking to slim down, be careful.

No. One of the primary beauties of Paleo is that is forces/encourages you to eat whole foods. Whole foods have complex nutritional composition are always your best food source. I don't believe there are any meal replacement shakes which contain zero artificial ingredients, preservatives, sugar (natural or artificial), or any other non-paleo ingredient. There is no man made product that can take the place of natural food. Therefore, stick with whole foods during the challenge, so you can learn and practice living healthy.

We have all the WODs set and scheduled. You won't have to worry about making anything up. They have to be standardized across the board in order to create a fair scoring system. We will announce those to the affiliate owners a week before so you can incorporate them into your programming, but we won't be announcing the to the competitors until Sunday night entering each week.

If you attempt a WOD but are unable to complete any reps before time runs out, you can enter "0" REPS which will be considered Scaled and ranked accordingly. If you enter "0" REPS for RX is will be automatically scored and ranked as Scaled when pionts are calculated each week. NOTE: even if you record 0 REPs you will still get the bonus completion points for the Performance WOD.

The weights for the masters division are the same as the opens, but none of the workouts are focused on raw strength, so this should not be an issue. There is a scaled version for each WOD, so you will be able to choose the appropriate option. The RX is designed to be a challenge as it should, and the scaled option is designed to make the WOD accessible to all. The important thing is that your performance is compared to others within your division, so the playing field is level. We have worked with top trainers to ensure that our set of WODs are appropriate for the wide range of competitors we have competing in the challenge.

Every workout in the Challenge will be giving participants performance points so completing all of them is necessary to win prizes and for placement for the Affiliate Team. However, when we were putting the workouts together, we worked with several of our trainer/owner friends and all feel comfortable that you can work these into your current programming. We want you to do your own programming, but just to mix in these workouts for those participating. I am not sure if you participated in the Opens but it would be a similar experience.
The first 2 weeks you will be doing 3 Benchmark WODS, then one performance WOD per week for 5 weeks, and then fishing with 3 benchmark WODs in the last 2 weeks of the challenge. This is a total of 11 WODs during the 9 week challenge.

There is an RX and a Scaled version for each WOD and for Men and Women, so you will be able to choose the appropriate option. The RX is designed to be a challenge as it should, and the scaled option is designed to make the WOD accessible to all. You will have an appropriate option to choose. We have worked with top trainers to ensure that our WODs are appropriate for the wide range of competitors we have competing in the challenge. As a beginner will have lots of room to make improvements during the challenge, and that is going to be exciting to see.

All 3 times will be added together to create you Benchmark WOD score. Since we have to be able to compare WOD scores evenly against other RX or Scaled scores the 3 benchmark WODs at the beginning at the end, all WODs have to be performed at the same level. Therefore, you have to do all 3 Benchmark WODs as Rx or as Scaled, but you cannot mix and match. Again this is for data comparison, and to keep the scoring fair across the board.

Due to stringent laws, participants in the states of Arizona, New Jersey, and Vermont are not eligible to compete in the LuRong Living Paleo Challenge. We have been working with our legal team and state officials to try to find a solution, but unfortunately they are inflexible. We are extremely disappointed that these laws are preventing so many people from being able to participate in an event that benefits charities that are impacting the youth of America. If you share our frustration we invite you to write your congressman and plead your case along with the case for the youth across America.

You are eligible to compete in the challenge even if you are the only one participating. You will still have to get your affiliate to register in order to validate your scores, and body measurements. You will be competing with the chance to win individual prizes including weekly performance prizes and the Individual Champion award which is a head to toe Performance Package worth over $1500.

Unfortunately, the 2012 LuRong Living Paleo Challenge is limited to the US. The overwhelming support of our international friends has been inspiring, so we do However, we are already looking into running other challenges without the same restrictions. Did someone say international challenge? I don't have any hard dates for that, but due to the incredible international support we have been getting we are compelled to make this possible.

We have a set of WODS and standards which will be completed by everyone in the challenge. Don't worry; we are doing all the heavy work and organization. You can focus on coaching, inspiring, and motivating. We will have an RX and Scaled version for both men and women, and the WODs are designed to be challenging to everyone with scaled version that is practice for anyone to be able to complete.  

Here is the basic Schedule for the Challenge:

• Challenge starts September 17th, 2012.
• Weeks 1 & 2 Competitors will complete 3 Benchmark WODs, start eating Paleo, take body measurements, upload before photo and make personal and fitness goals.
• Weeks 3-7 Competitors Compete in 5 Weekly Performance WODs.
• Weeks 8-9 Competitors will repeat the 3 Benchmark WODs, retake body measurements, upload after photo, upload video testimonials, and finish tracking goals.
• Challenge Ends November 18th, 2012.

The before and after photos are completely private, unless you would like to share them at the end of the challenge as part of your living testimony about your life transformation. We will not share these photos EVER, without your permission. They are for your profile only and will not be made public.

The reasons for including these are so you can personally see the transformation and as some extra accountability for contestants. If you say you never cheated once, and your photos don't show any changes we will know something is up with your integrity :-)

Yes, and you can even hassle your friends who haven’t signed up yet. In order to see the current participants registered to your gym do the following:

• Go to https://www.lurongliving.com/challenge/login
• Login using your challenge email and password
• From your dashboard, click on your gym name under LEADERBOARDS
• You will see the complete list of registered member of your gym

You can write in your Affiliate name in order to complete your registration. You can also call us at 888-9LURONG EXT 5 or email us challenge@lurongliving.com.

Unfortunately, with a competition on this scale, our legal team forced us to keep everything as standardized as possible, so we are only allowed to let official CrossFit Affiliates and their members to participate. If pains us not to be able to let everyone joint. However, we are looking to run follow up competitions which may not have the same restrictions, so I would be happy to save your contact info to let you know about any further developments.
Please accept our apology, as we are not supporting an elitist mentality, rather we are trying to run the best event possible within the confines we are allowed.