The Ultimate Guide to Health & Fitness

Ultimate CrossFit Gym Guide to Health & Fitness

Here are the Five Factors of Health & Fitness – Training, Nutrition, Sleep, Character, & Family brought to you by the Best CrossFit Gym Near Me in Haslet, TX – CrossFit OYL!

As a human on this earth, we all want to improve our health & fitness. We want to live long, spend more time with our family, and have a better quality life while we spend that time with our family. If we works ourselves ragged in our middle aged years and don’t have anything left when we “retire”, then what was the purpose of all that work?

Rather, we want to focus our efforts in these prime years of our lives to not only live longer, but live with a quality to our lives for those longer years. It may seem far off in the distance, but before you know it, the future will be upon us. We need to take ownership of our lives today in order to have a better tomorrow.

But, many people get stuck. What do I do? Where do I start? Which diet or exercise program do I follow? What is the Best Gym Near Me?

In this guide, we’ll show you how here at CrossFit OYL we use the Five Factors of Health to guide you towards that better, quality life! Let’s do it!

Table Of Contents

  1. Training
  2. Nutrition
  3. Sleep
  4. Character
  5. Family
Working out at a CrossFit gym

CrossFit Gym Health Factor #1: Training

The OYL Prescription: Workout 4-5 Days Per Week With Functional Movements Performed At (Relatively) High Intensity.

That may sound like a lot of gym jargon at first, but let’s break it down:

4-5 Days Per Week.

We choose this number simply because we want to work out more days than we don’t. By getting in that 4th workout per week at a CrossFit gym near you, you’ll workout more days at a CrossFit gym than you don’t. While some workouts may be easier and some may leave you a little sore, it is important to still show up and BUILD THE HABIT of working out. In fact, your whole first month in a new workout program whether it be at a CrossFit gym, or HIIT, or functional fitness training, should be focused on building the habit of showing up. Building the habit of working out is most important. We want to become the type of people that workout 4-5 times per week. We need to make it our identity if this new habit is going to stick.

Functional Movements

Now this could get into a whole lot of hubba jubba, but we’ll keep it simple today: we want to do workouts that mimic real life. At CrossFit OYL, we focus on 3 main categories of movements – weightlifting, gymnastics, and cardio.

Weightlifting

We define weightlifting as moving an external load. Simply put, we are lifting, throwing, pushing, pulling, or moving something extra on top of our bodyweight. This could be a dumbbell, kettlebell, barbell, medicine ball, or even an odd object like a sandbag. This style of training is beneficial because we get stronger! Life is full of external loads – dog food, our kiddos, yard work, moving a couch, putting your suitcase in the overhead bin of an airplane! It’s extremely important that our bodies learn how to move weights well in the full range of motion. Strength is never a weakness!

Gymnastics

Gymnastics is defined as moving your body in space. This is beneficial because the better we are at moving our bodies in space in a controlled environment, the better we’ll be in real life whether that’s on a sports field, or just chasing the kids around the yard. Gymnastics is especially important for your muscular & joint health. By using just your body as the weight, we can move more freely through different positions safely without the risk of “too much weight”. Gymnastics can be as complicated as pull-ups and handstand push-ups, but as simple as a push-up, air squat, lunge, or sit-up. These basic bodyweight movement fundamentally make up what we do in everyday life!

Cardio or Monostructural

And I think cardio speaks for itself, but we define it as a single repetitive motion here at OYL Fitness. Running is what usually comes to mind first. Biking, rowing, and jumping rope are also great examples. These movements are great because they are typically very simple with a small learning curve yet you can burn a lot of calories and gain immense health benefits from the cardiovascular strain!

Constantly Varied

In CrossFit, all the workouts are constantly varied. We don’t often do the same workout twice. There isn’t a “workout routine” or “regiment”. We don’t follow templates or download workouts online. Each day is crafted with a specific goal in mind. Some days are biased towards weightlifting, some towards cardio or gymnastics, but most days are a unique blend of all three! Rather than 3×10 bicep curls, then 3×10 bench press twice a week, these group fitness workouts are new and exciting everyday. Monday’s workout might be 5 Rounds of 500m Bike + 12 Push-ups + 8 Deadlifts with heavy weight. Then Tuesday might be a “lighter” day with rounds of Running and Burpees. Each day the workouts are varied. Some are short, fast, heavy. Others are long, slow, light. There’s even a lot of partner workouts mixed in which is great for building a community within a CrossFit gym near you!

(Relatively) High Intensity

The official prescription is to perform these constantly varied workouts at a high intensity, but we like to further explain with the word “relatively”. What this means is that each person is different. What a college athlete needs for their fitness training is different than what your grandma needs. Both still need to be able to squat well with the knees out, feet flat, chest upright, and hips below the top of the knees, but grandma may not need any weight in order for this to be challenging whereas the college athlete may need hundreds of pounds to elicit a physiologic response. And most of us fall somewhere in between.

What’s so great about CrossFit OYL in the Rhome and Haslet area is that there is every demographic all working out together in a group class. In the Monday example above, some people in class might be deadlifting 65 pounds, and others might use 225 lbs. One group does 500m on the Bike and another group may bump down to 400 meter in order to hit the intended time frame and stimulus. For push-ups, you’ll see a range of knee push-ups, push-ups to a box, or maybe the experienced athletes will do handstand push-ups! But in all cases, each athlete is guided by coach to a version of each workout that they can complete safely and confidently. This is the magic pill – performing constantly varied functional movement at (relatively) high intensity. To quote the founder of CrossFit Inc. Greg Glassman:

“Intensity is the independent variable most commonly associated with maximizing favorable adaptation to exercise.”

Greg Glassman
Training Summary

Training is our first of the five foundational habits to health & fitness and it is what we focus on the most here at OYL Fitness, home of CrossFit OYL. It’s extremely important for so many reasons to train smart and train hard. You’ll feel better, look better, move better, and just be a better person overall because of it! But it’s not the only factor. While much less flashy, Nutrition can play a huge role in your success. Your 23 hours outside of the gym can undo all the progress you make during your 1 hour inside a CrossFit gym, and that’s why we have 5 fundamental habits of health & fitness, not just one! Let’s find out together!

CrossFit Gym Nutrition Guidance

CrossFit Gym Health Factor #2: Nutrition

The OYL Prescription: Eat 3 - 4 Nutrient Based Meals Per Day.
Eat 3 – 4 Meals Per Day

There is so much to be said on this topic and it can be quite confusing so we try to make it as simple as possible. For a typical adult without any special medical exceptions, we need to aim for 3-4 meals per day. Constantly snacking all day is no bueno and neither is starving ourselves all day just to cram in 1 or 2 HUGE meals. Both of these scenarios will confuse your body to operate at a hormonal imbalance. By getting too much or not enough, your body must work overtime to regulate. For most, 3 larger meals and a snack works really well. This is typically great for keeping you full without overstuffing you. But just eating 3 meals per day isn’t enough for our definition. We need to know WHAT to eat!

Nutrient Based

We want all our meals to be nutrient based, meaning we want to base our decision around food on nutrients! Prepackaged, processed foods are usually empty calories just filling your body with junk. Your body needs protein, vitamins, minerals, micronutrients, and fats to perform its best. If we are lacking in any of these areas, we risk imbalance and stressing our digestive systems. Here are three really simple tips for your nutrition choices:

  • Shop the perimeter of the grocery store. These foods are typically less processed / altered from their original form.
  • Eat foods without a nutrition label. Nutrition labels with ingredients are there to tell you what OTHER ingredients are in the food. You don’t need a nutrition label for a banana. Why? because it’s just a banana! Not a banana + sugar or “natural ingredients” or whatever else is slipped into your food without you knowing it!
  • Don’t drink any calories. This is a great hack and reminder of how easy it is to take in unnecessary calories via liquid. And even juices are usually packed with sugar. Even though that aren’t have had the rind of the fruits removed which is a trigger to your body to start digesting!
OK – But How Much Food?

But how big or small is one meal? How much is too much? What is too little? This is a great question and one that varies from person to person. Here at OYL, we provide nutrition and habit coaching programs to help answer this question on an individual level with our clients. But here’s our quick math. We want to get a body scan done to determine how much leans body mass we have (essentially our total weight minus our fat). Then we’ll eat enough food to support our lean mass (muscles, ligaments, bones, organs, etc) while not supporting our excess body fat. Then at each meal, we want to eat a blend of 30% protein, 40% carbohydrates, and 30% fats. This balanced meal helps promote hormone balance while also providing enough of the building blocks (protein) for muscular recovery. What does this look like in practice?

Example Meal Plan

For a 150 lb female with 25% body fat, a meal might consist of 4 oz. of chicken (protein), 1 cup broccoli (carbs), 1/2 cup quinoa (carbs), all cooked in 1-2 tbsp of avocado oil (fats). This is a very simple meal that can be prepped ahead of time and put in Tupperware to take on the go. We can get fancier with our meals, but this is our general base. If you don’t like weighing and measuring your food, you could use the hand method. Pick out a protein the size of your palm, carbs as much as your fist (like rice or potatoes), and fats equivalent to your thumb. Then add as many vegetables as you want! While not perfect, this is a huge improvement of eating for most individuals and can really kickstart your health journey in the right direction!

Many CrossFit gyms offer different types of nutrition or habit based coaching. That’s definitely something you should look into when you are searching out a “CrossFit gym near me” on Google!

The Ultimate Guide to Sleep

CrossFit Gym Factor #3: Sleep

The OYL Prescription: Sleep 7 - 8 Hours In A Cold, Dark Room Every Night.
7 – 8 Hours

Sleep is so under appreciated in this day and age. So many times we are go-go-go all day and night, hustling to and from kids baseball practice and work and trying to cook at home while also trying to get alone time! Not to mention this thing call cleaning the house or doing laundry! And a lot of times, sleep is what gets put on the back shelf first. “I’ll just stay up an extra hour to finish this load of laundry,” or “Just one more Netflix episode so I can relax while the kids are asleep.” But if we are truly trying to live a health life and operate at our highest potential, we MUST sleep! Let me say it again, we MUST sleep!

The OYL prescription is 7-8 hours per night. Not hours in bed, but hours asleep! Using a wearable or other device, one of the most surprising metrics we find is how many “disturbances” during your night. Most of these are subconscious. You may not remember rolling over 12x in your sleep last night but it happens! On average, we will lose about 10% of our time in bed to disturbances. So if in bed for 7 hours, this means we are only getting 6 hours of actual sleep. So when we think we only got 5 1/2 hours, the reality is more like 4 1/2 hours of sleep! No wonder 2pm at the office is so tough and tempts you with yet another cup of coffee. Our bodies are begging for sleep. So, to get 7-8 hours of sleep, we need to be in bed 8-9 hours.

Cold

Every study ever done on optimal sleep temperatures will point towards something in the 62-68 degree range. This is shocking for most. It seems colder than you might typically keep your thermostat, but by sleeping at a cooler temperature, your body is able to relax, your heart rate is able to settle, and you can rest better. In a hot environment, your body is forced to actively work to keep it cool. You’re supposed to be resting and recovering, not still working your body out to cool it down! So tonight when you go to bed, notch that thermostat down a few degrees and let’s see if we can get the house temperature into the 60s for a beautiful, relaxing night of sleep!

Dark Room

Also very undervalued when it comes to sleep is the brightness (or lack of brightness) in the room. Light signals your body that it is day time. Your body gets into what is called a circadian rhythm. This is your body’s natural rhythm in reaction to the sun going up and down. Before we had phones and streetlights, this was our bodies way of signaling to us that if was time to go to bed and wake up. Now that we have electronics and light bulbs and lights everywhere, our bodies get very confused on when it is day & night. After being exposed to blue light (phone, tv, etc), your body think it’s still daylight. Your body can be wrong by up to 2 hours just by scrolling through Instagram on your phone before bed.

So instead of your body thinking it’s going to bed at 10pm, your body interprets the light of the phone to be 3pm in the afternoon and is very confusing and hard for your body to calm down. Even so much as a laser pointer on your foot in a pitch black room is enough light exposure for your body’s circadian rhythm to be interrupted. This is why it’s important to get black out curtains, ensure all lights in the house/bathroom are off, and that you put your phone and other electronics away at least 2 hours before bedtime. It’s also worth investing in a cheap pair of bluelight blocking glasses which can be found with a simple Amazon search. There’s even “dark mode” settings on your phone that can help change the type of light your phone emits starting at sunset!

Every Night

It’ needs to be every night. You can’t just “make it up” on the weekends. Because we all know our weekends turn busier and less relaxed than we expect. Think of it this way, if we need a MINIMUM of 7 hours in a night of sleep, so 8 hours in bed, that means we need 56 hours in bed per week. If we spend our busy week nights only getting 7 in bed, that puts us FIVE HOURS BEHIND heading into the weekend. You can’t just make that up in a weekend, or on a single vacation! Think back to all the “sleep debt” you’ve accumulated over the years not hitting that 8 hours in bed per night, that’s a lot of make up we need to do.

So it may be overwhelming at first, but let’s first start with getting back into a consistent schedule. As we discussed in the previous section about the dark room and your circadian rhythm, your body is also affected by the rhythm of the timing of your schedule. So 8 hours from 12am to 8am is not the same as 10pm to 6am. Your body needs a rhythm and needs to stay on a consistent schedule!

CrossFit Gym Near Me

CrossFit Gym Factor #4: Character

The OYL Prescription: Focus on Attitude and Effort, Not Results.
Focus

Training, Nutrition, and Sleep are the WHAT. They grab headlines and sell ebooks. Things like, “A CrossFit Gym is the best workout”, or “Lose Weight in 30 Days on Keto”, or “Why you should join a CrossFit gym!” But the next two components are the HOW. The first three would not be possible without these last two.

We see it all the time, right? Our friends go on a fad diet and workout program, or even lose some weight and we think they’re doing great, yet a few months later it seems they are back to square one. Or maybe we’ve been the one in that category that, here at OYL, we like to call “yo-yo fitness” where you yo-yo back and forth between levels of fitness & sickness because you can’t seem to stick to a certain program long term. Your issue isn’t the fitness program or the diet, it’s your character. We need to focus on something deeper than air squats and broccoli. We need to focus on ourselves and our personal development.

Attitude & Effort

Here at CrossFit OYL, we preach for athletes to focus on their attitude and effort, not results. Again for the people in the back. We focus on our attitude and effort, not the results. Here’s what this means. If we do a workout that absolutely annihilates us, it’s tempting to fall into a victim mindset that the workout was too hard, or that I’m not good enough. Or the pessimist’s mindset that I’ll never get any better. I’ve been working hard for weeks and no improvement.

It takes a much bigger person to step back, zoom out to 10,000 feet, and realize that what we learn and gain from our workouts is bigger. We need to focus on our attitude and our effort. What’s more important is that we give full effort in our workouts. So getting a better score or a worse score is not the goal. Our goal is to develop our attitude every day in the workout. This is a better carryover into our regular lives than a handful of push-ups.

Not Results

What is our attitude when stuff hits the fan? How about our attitude when both kids are screaming and your boss is calling and can’t hear you? What is our attitude when we get cut off in traffic? That is who we are as a person. That is what we want to develop. And we can use these difficult group CrossFit class workouts to develop that. By focusing on our attitude and effort inside a workout and developing that skill, the “other stuff” outside the gym just becomes easier. We take it on as a person.

We are the type of people that never whine, never complain, never make excuses. I am the type of person that puts in my full effort, regardless of circumstance. I am the type of person that shows up to the gym 4-5 days per week and eats 3-4 nutrient dense meals per day, NO MATTER WHAT. That’s hard to do, which is why we must BECOME that person. First we must BECOME, then we can DO. If we try to “do”, before we “become,” then it’s only a matter of time before we fall off the bandwagon of whatever the latest fitness trend is.

First we must BECOME, then we can DO. If we try to “do”, before we “become,” then it’s only a matter of time before we fall off the bandwagon of whatever the latest fitness trend is.

OYL Core Value #1 – EFFORT

So it should come as no surprise that at the best CrossFit gym in Haslet, the first core value is EFFORT. We define effort as “a vigorous and determined attempt.” We believe in giving our best effort, knowing at first it may be bad or hard. Without first giving effort, we cannot understand how to improve or where to go. We are not afraid of making mistakes or trying. In fact, we invite mistakes because it means we are attempting something rather than sitting back and being okay with the status quo.

OYL Core Value #2 – EXCELLENCE

CrossFit OYL’s next core value is EXCELLENCE which we define as “a state of blissful dissatisfaction”. We are happy that we are taking the actions today that are most important to us, but we also know there is more to go. We believe excellence is thirsting for more. Whether it is family, coaching, training, relationships, or service, we desire to grow and improve in our ability to execute in the areas most important to us.

OYL Core Value #3 – EMPATHY

And lastly, we do these first two with EMPATHY. Empathy is “the ability to recognize, understand, and share the thoughts and feelings of another person”. Ultimately, our ability to affect change lies in our ability to connect with and persuade people. When we empathize, we choose to set our beliefs and circumstances aside to truly hear and understand another person. When we access true understanding of another, we can more clearly identify what to do to create change. Rather than using the shotgun method of blanketing all options, we choose the precision of the sniper, identifying what’s really going on and working on the core.

CrossFit Gym Community

CrossFit Gym Health Factor #5: Family

The OYL Prescription: Commit To Doing These With Others.
Commit to Doing These Things

Finally, the fifth and final component of health & fitness here at CrossFit OYL in Rhome, TX, is Family. We extend our family into the community we have built here at OYL Fitness in our group CrossFit gym classes. But it goes beyond this. As individuals, we must commit to doing these things. Without a commitment to these things, we’ll fall through the cracks. Just like we talked about in the previous section on Character, there’s an underlying principle here of change – commitment. We have to be all in, sold out, fully committed. In the sleeping example, we can’t just “make it up” with a nap or one night’s rest.

Same for our fitness, one great workout doesn’t make up for a lifetime of non workouts. One healthy meal doesn’t undo an entire weekend of eating like a kid in a candy store. And interchangeably, 3 months of good workouts at a CrossFit gym doesn’t cancel out 3 months of bad food. Or 3 months of good food, good workouts at a CrossFit gym, and good character doesn’t cancel out sleeping only 5 hours. This is why commitment is hard alone. There’s an African proverb that says “If you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together.” That’s why we must commit to doing all these things with others.

With Others

We’ll leave you with this – we must do these things together. What value is there in this world of being fit, healthy, having better character, sleeping more, less stressed, more efficient at work, etc if we don’t get to share that life with others. We also make it extremely difficult to do those things is we go at it alone. Rather than paddle a boat upstream, wouldn’t it be easier to get on a ship with others going in the direction you want to go? If we want to be successful in business, health, fitness, training, nutrition, sleep, family, relationships, etc. then we need to surround ourselves with people also trying to go the same direction. Don’t swim upstream. Find a group headed in the same direction as you.

And that’s what we do best here at CrossFit OYL, a CrossFit gym nearest you. We provide an unrivaled group fitness class experience designed to help you push into that next level. The group dynamic is extremely important, and that’s what we focus on most. We all do the same movements at the same time the same way. Classes move together and talk together and workout together. We hang out on weekends and in our closed OYL member-only apps. We’ve created a CrossFit gym community of like minded individuals so that you can work out consistently. Now you can get fit & live a healthy and happy life.

Here at CrossFit OYL, we provide an unrivaled group fitness class experience designed to help you and the person next to you push into that next level.

CrossFit Gym Kettlebell

Ready to Take Ownership of Your Life?

Our mission at CrossFit OYL is to help you work out consistently so you can get fit & live your best + happiest life within the context of a CrossFit gym.

Our coaches are here to guide you through every step of the way. In fact, you’ll be assigned specifically to our Onboarding Specialist for the First 100 Days to make sure you integrate well into our friendly community and CrossFit gym. They will be with you every step of the way so that you feel safe, heard, and able to take Ownership of Your Life!

To learn more about our CrossFit gym, contact us on our website, give us a call at 817-241-3745, or just simply fill out the form below & one of our experienced coaches will reach out to you ASAP and answer any questions you might have! We look forward to working out with you here at our CrossFit Gym, CrossFit OYL!

1 thought on “Ultimate CrossFit Gym Guide to Health & Fitness”

  1. Martiarena Yesenia

    wen I first start training I was so scared, first language barrier and 2nd I was scared of not being capable of performing well. I still struggle with some exercises, I do try my best. thank you for having patience with me.

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