Sweat Crawl: Fitness Competition of the Future?

June 17, 2020/Cody Allen/

The fitness community is awesome. There are tons of people, all over the world, who love pushing their bodies to the limit and improving themselves every day. A fitness competition is a great way for that culture to come together.

I’ve been organizing sweat crawls, in partnership with Ten Thousand, in different cities. It’s an awesome experience that brings a bunch of like-minded people into a single fitness experience. We typically start with a workout in one location, then go on a run as a group, and do a second workout at a different location. Ten Thousand is kind enough to contribute some apparel for the group to wear at the event.

In this post, I’m going to talk more about my sweat crawls. Then we’ll go over what to expect from fitness events in your city, and how best to prepare and participate in a fitness competition. Want a sweat crawl in your city? I’d love to hear from you.

What is a Sweat Crawl?

I’ve organized sweat crawls in cities like San Diego and Los Angeles, but the most recent sweat crawl was the Sacramento Sweat Crawl. There are all kinds of cool events for people who are in the music or film scenes. Screenings, festivals, and concerts let people connect. But often our cities get divided up according to different regions, gyms, and types of fitness. The fitness community in different cities needs an event that everyone can participate in. Sweat crawls bring together the fitness and wellness spaces of different cities, crossing those typical regional and gym-based divisions.

The recent sweat crawl in Sacramento was an awesome chance for the whole fitness community of Sacramento to connect over a three workout experience. We started with a strength development workout at Innovative Strength, did a two-mile run through the streets of Sacramento, and then finished off with a cardio-intensive boxing experience at Title Boxing Club.

It’s just a great event for the city. It allows great studio gyms, like Innovative Strength and Title Boxing Club, to show off their facilities and connect with new people. It allows fitness and wellness people in Sacramento to meet each other and hang out for the day. And Ten Thousand was kind enough to give us some gear that would hold up through the rigors of three different workouts.

Sweat crawls allow people to experience fitness in a whole new way. It’s an event, not an individual workout or even a class. This means that the social dynamics are so different. Everyone who is there really wants to be there, so there’s a great energy the whole time. With all fitness competitions, you get this wonderful community coming together to do something that we all love–push our bodies to the limit. The community is absolutely unbeatable, and the whole experience is memorable.

These events really wouldn’t be possible without Ten Thousand. They started these events and have been running them all over the country the last year or so. I just came in to assist and add the “Cody Allen” touch to them. Check out their workout gear. They’ve got a heart for fitness and the technology to help the rest of us pursue it. If you like what you see, use code ALLEN to get a discount on your purchase.

What is a Fitness Competition?

Fitness competitions are fitness events where tons of different kinds of people can come and experience fitness as a group. They typically differ from individual and group workouts in a couple of ways. Unlike individual and group workouts, fitness competitions are single events, not weekly or monthly meetings.

The category of “fitness competition” includes everything from a sweat crawl, to a special wellness event a boutique fitness studio, to a marathon. It is any event where people get together and work out as an experience together!

What’s Great About Fitness Competitions?

Fitness competitions are awesome for a variety of reasons:

Connect with your city. There are probably gyms, fitness spaces, and wellness spaces that you’ve never been to.
Connect with people. We all go to the gym all the time, but we rarely interact with too many of the people who are there. At a fitness competition, the experience is completely different.
Stay inspired. Workouts are great in a group. You’ll find a new community and new inspiration to keep working on yourself and your goals.
New workouts. By doing what the group is doing, you might get to learn some new workouts and new techniques.

How to Prepare for a Fitness Competition?

Different Kinds of Fitness Competitions

Fitness events are becoming more and more popular. People love working out and wellness and they love doing it with other people who love it too.

The right way to prepare for a fitness competition is going to vary based on the kind of competition that you enter into. Certain events, like a marathon, might require rigorous training for a long time beforehand. Other events, like a sweat crawl, are probably great for people at all stages of their fitness journey.

Some events will require not preparation at all, while others will require extensive preparation beforehand.

Something like a Sweat Crawl doesn’t require a ton of preparation. Obviously if you want to perform well, you can always make sure to come into the day in the best shape possible. There is another type of fitness competition that I will be participating in this year, the Hyrox.

The Hyrox has been deemed “The World Series of Fitness”. This true fitness competition is a grueling timed competition that has a men’s and women’s heat along with an open and a pro heat. This event consists of multiple workout modalities that will test endurance along with running to test stamina. It is becoming wildly popular in the United States after originating in Europe. The workout is something like this:

1k run
1000m skiERG
1k run
25m weighted sled push
1k run
25m weighted sled pull
1k run
80m burpee broad jump
1k run
1000m row
1k run
200m farmer’s carry
1k run
100m weighted lunge
1k run
100 wall balls

The current champ is Hunter Mcintyre with a time of 57:34 that he set in Hyrox Chicago.

I’m extremely excited to try this out and hopefully put up and awesome time this fall in Los Angeles. See where Hyrox is going this year and next, you can sign up here and you’ll get 10% off with code CA10.

Nutrition and Resources

Prepare

Fitness competitions aren’t like heading to the movies with a bucket of popcorn and a large soda. You’ll be showing up in workout gear, ready to sweat and build your body. It’s super important that you stay hydrated for fitness competitions. That means drinking a lot of water, starting at least 24 hours before the event.

Get tons of sleep. Working out with only 5 or 6 hours of sleep is an exhausting process. Your brain is not at peak performance, and this can affect your judgment. It’s far easier to push yourself past exhaustion and hurt yourself on a low amount of sleep. Workouts require an extreme amount of focus and concentration. Give your body its best shot by getting plenty of sleep.

Perform

Make sure to stay hydrated during the event as well. Bring plenty of water. The organizers of the fitness event should be in communication with participants about the logistics of the event, that way you know what kind of stuff is provided and what kind of stuff you might want to bring. For something like a sweat crawl, you’ll be able to snag some water at each of the main events, but the run won’t have water.

You’ll also need to keep pushing yourself during the event, which means packing the right kind of snacks and nutrition. You obviously aren’t going to bring a whole meal, but you definitely will want some nutrient-dense stuff to keep your body fuelled. Optimum Nutrition has some great pre-workout supplements that can give your body the right kind of energy for the demands of a fitness competition. Use my code, CODY15, to get a nice discount on your purchase.

Recover

Also think about recovering after the fitness competition. Sweat crawls and other fitness experiences can be extremely emotionally and physically demanding. Your body gets hyped up and loses a ton of energy and calories. Recovery is vital for the rest of the day that way your fitness experience doesn’t turn into a two-day slump.

Make sure that you allow yourself to sleep. Sleep helps our bodies and brains rebuild. It’ll be really important to show up to the fitness experience well-rested, but it is also important to allow yourself to sleep afterward. Let yourself nap if you’re tired, or just prioritize a quality number of hours that night.
Drink tons of water.
Let yourself eat foods that have good nutrients, carbs, and protein to build back your body.
Consider an extra supplement, like CBD oil. Pure Kana is my recommendation for CBD products. They really take their products seriously, sourcing it from the United States and verifying it through 3rd-party testing. If you use my code, CODY20, you can get a discount on your products.

General Fitness Experience Advice

Everyone works out differently. You might be the kind of person who heads to the gym for 2 grueling hours of weightlifting and high-intensity training. Or you might be the kind of person who goes to the gym and just enjoys an hour of low-intensity cardio while you catch up on your favorite show. The fitness community is full of people who want the same thing out of their workout—we all want to get in shape, have a good time, and improve ourselves. But we don’t all get there in the same way. It’s good to keep this in mind when you are heading to a fitness event or thinking about attending a fitness event.

Go with an open mind and an open heart. If you think that you aren’t in good enough shape for a fitness event—think again! When you participate in something like a sweat crawl, you aren’t there to “win,” you’re there to express yourself and participate in a group of people who love fitness. If that’s your goal, you can’t fail, whether you burn the most calories or take the most breaks. If you sweat even a little bit for the day, it’s a job well done.

I love putting on fitness events and experiences. If you’re in the area for one, I’d love to see you there!