An Overview of Fun Workout Challenges
Three fitness challenges are:
- Squat and bench every day, also known as the Bulgarian method. This challenge is great for strength and making people more comfortable with heavy weights.
- Walk 10,000 steps a day. It’s fun, simple, and not as intimidating for beginners.
- Do 20 consecutive push-ups. Follow a 30-day progression scheme to build pressing strength.
What Makes for a Good Fitness Challenge?
There are lots of ways to set up engaging fitness challenges. However, there are also plenty of mistakes you could make. To that end, here are a few things to consider when generating fitness challenge ideas:
1. It Needs to be Specific
Challenges, like goals, need to be specific. For people to stay motivated, they must know precisely what the objectives are and what they must do every day to stay on track.
Vague challenges won’t pique anyone’s interest or keep folks engaged beyond the first few days.
2. It Must Be Measurable
Measurability is often a by-product of specificity, but it still needs to be said. Ideally, people will have a simple way to track their daily and weekly progress to ensure they are moving in the right direction.
Bonus points for fostering healthy competition between people by having a leaderboard or a group chat where everyone can share their progress.
3. It Should Be Realistic
Everyone can create a fitness challenge, but it takes a true expert to develop one with objectives that are within reach so long as people go beyond their comfort zone.
People enjoy a challenge, but only when it’s reasonable. If something is too easy, people get bored and give up; if it’s too hard, they get discouraged and give up.
4. It Needs to be Relevant to People’s Goals
Successful fitness challenges are relevant for those participating. For example, if you own a small powerlifting gym, the fitness challenges you create should connect to strength training and the big three lifts.
In contrast, if your gym members are primarily average people who simply want to feel and look better, you could put together various challenges.
5. There Must be a Deadline
The race to the finish line is part of what makes a challenge fun. For people to engage, the challenge must have a clear start date and deadline.
That way, those interested would know precisely how long they would need to participate and if they have a chance to come out on top.
6. People Must Feel Accountable
No matter the challenge, some form of accountability is necessary because people lose interest, get distracted, or get busy with other things.
Part of the challenge could be for participants to include daily proof of participating in the challenge. For example, if you’re putting together running challenges, participants could post screenshots of their runs from an app.
Related article: Workout Accountability for Clients: 8 Effective Tactics
7. You Need to Help
Consider what tools can make it easier for people to participate, track their performance, and report their daily activities. Depending on the challenge, that could mean fillable spreadsheets, step-by-step instructions, app recommendations, video instructions, access to an online community, and more.
For example, our personal training platform, Hevy Coach, could be great for setting up resistance training challenges for your clients. You can assign the same workout plan to multiple people and track their performance and adherence on the dashboard. Your clients can access their workout plans and log their workouts through the Hevy app.
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8. There Has To Be a Reward
Challenges are cool, and they can certainly be a lot of fun. Still, people generally need an incentive to participate––whether that’s a discount code for your physical or digital products, a shoutout on social media, free access to your membership site, exclusive webinars, or something else.
Related article: 11 Fitness Incentive Programs Ideas for 2024
Before We Move On
Many people resort to rep-based challenges––for example, do 100 push-ups daily. These are relatively easy to set up and can be beneficial, but you should be careful with them.
While the goal of challenges is to push people beyond their comfort zone, it’s also important to consider the physical demands of each workout and whether people can recover from the volume to continue being productive.
The problem with high-rep training, especially when done daily, is that it can generate a lot of fatigue and increase the risk of nagging aches. Stressing the body in a specific way every day doesn’t give it enough time to recover adequately, which could be problematic if the challenge lasts 20-30 days.
If you do want to set up more demanding challenges, let people know how difficult they are and perhaps dissuade beginners from participating.
6 Popular Workout Challenge Ideas
1. 30-Day Movement Challenge
To start our list, we have something simple for beginners. Don’t prescribe push-ups, squats, planks, or burpees. Instead, promote behavioral changes by encouraging daily physical activity of any form.
The beauty of this challenge is that it doesn’t put pressure on people because there are no must-do activities, and the minimum time required could be as little as 5-10 minutes per day.
Suitable activities for people include:
- Swimming
- Dancing
- Doing bodyweight exercises
- Walking
- Going for a brief jog
- Climbing stairs
- Hiking
- Beginner Yoga
- Gardening
- Cleaning the house
- Playing with the kids
- Going for a bike ride
Simply put, any form of physical activity can count toward the challenge. For example:
Monday – going for a swim at the local pool
Tuesday – dance class
Wednesday – squats and glute bridges at home (10-minute workout)
Thursday – going for a long walk after dinner
Friday – doing a beginner yoga class at home
Saturday – hiking
Sunday – gardening/playing with the kids
Then, once the week is over, repeat the whole thing, re-arrange the activities, or try some new ones. To keep people accountable, encourage them to post a daily selfie, video, or screenshot (such as showing their daily step count) into a group chat.
Such a challenge can be beneficial because it makes people move more and subconsciously seek daily physical activity. It could be the starting point for a lifelong fitness journey.
2. Daily Yoga Challenge
Yoga is an ancient practice praised for its unique ability to promote balance, strength, flexibility, and mindfulness. It delivers numerous health benefits, promotes wellness, and could be a keystone habit that gets people to seek out other positive behaviors.
For these and other reasons, a challenge that gets people to practice yoga daily could be a fantastic idea, even if your clients are primarily interested in strength and muscle gain.
As far as duration goes, the challenge can last anywhere from one to eight weeks, with four weeks typically being the sweet spot. It’s enough time for people to build some yoga skills and start enjoying the practice more. Plus, doing something for 28-30 consecutive days can be enough to build a new habit, though more complex activities take longer.
If your audience and clients are experienced yoga practitioners, the challenge could be more demanding, such as trying to master a new pose. However, if your audience consists of runners, lifters, cyclists, or other athletes, it would be better to ease into the challenge.
Not a yogi yourself? That’s even better because it allows you to participate in the challenge with your audience or clients and learn together.
Here are some tips to make the challenge work:
- Be consistent – decide on a specific time each day and show up
- Don’t just focus on strength and balance – breathing and mindfulness are big parts of yoga, so dedicate time to them
- Document the journey – write down what you’re doing daily and aim for gradual progression by holding poses for longer and learning more challenging ones
- Celebrate milestones as a team – do a weekly recap and celebrate your progress over the past seven days
3. Squat & Bench Every Day
You’ve undoubtedly heard of the Bulgarian method, which has been around for decades and is popular among lifters. The basic premise of its modern interpretation is simple:
Perform the squat and bench press daily (or as close to that as possible). The objective is to reach a daily ‘max’ on both exercises, where you lift as much weight as possible without your technique breaking down.
Greg Nuckols, a strength coach, writer, and respected powerlifter, has a unique take on the method:
- No need for true daily maxes – lift heavy, but not to the point of grinding reps
- Autoregulation – lift based on how you feel; some days will be heavier, others will be lighter
- Include variations – instead of only doing regular squats and bench presses, incorporate variations like pause squats and close-grip bench presses
- Acclimate – gradually increase the frequency over a couple of weeks to get used to daily squatting and bench pressing
Considering the modern version of the Bulgarian method and Greg’s recommendations, we can create an individual or competitive challenge. In essence, this could be a squat challenge but beefed up for more advanced lifters.
Given Greg’s recommendations for acclimation, it would be best to tell those interested to prepare in advance by gradually working up to a daily max on the squat and bench press more frequently. For instance:
Week 1 – squat/bench two times
Week 2 – squat/bench four times
Week 3 – squat/bench five times
Week 4 – start the challenge
Participants can post daily screenshots of their workouts (for example, by logging them on the Hevy app) or videos of their top sets to track progress.
The challenge could be to see who can squat and bench the most times in a month and who would see the most significant boost in their strength for these two movements.
4. Walk 10,000 Steps Every Day
Regardless of how you feel about walking 10,000 steps a day (there is an ongoing debate on the topic), using that objective as the basis for a challenge could be fun. It’s a nice, round number, and people are sure to get a dopamine spike when they reach the daily objective.
Plus, tracking everyone’s progress is relatively easy. Participants can use one of many apps, or you could recommend one app for everyone to download to increase accuracy.
The advantage of such a fitness challenge is that walking is not as intimidating as other activities (say, running) but still offers many benefits:
- Weight loss
- Cardiovascular benefits
- Well-being
- Improved endurance
- Better sleep
Participants can incorporate walking into their days instead of specifically dedicating time out of their busy schedules to the activity. Here are some examples:
- Get off the bus one stop earlier and walk the remaining distance
- Park your car farther and walk
- Leave your car at home and walk to closer locations
- Take the stairs
- Go for a walk after dinner
The good thing about this challenge (and similar ones) is that it helps people build healthy habits and become more aware of their behaviors. For instance, by encouraging people to sneak more walking into their days, they could become more mindful of the fact that they generally avoid walking and only move during dedicated exercise times.
5. Get to 20 Consecutive Push-Ups
Push-ups may not be the biggest chest-builder, but the movement is still highly beneficial for shoulder health and balance. Plus, there is something inherently cool about being able to bang out a set of 20 consecutive push-ups.
The first day is for testing purposes. Participants should get on the floor and see how many reps they can do. Performing each rep correctly and through a full range of motion is vital. Half reps don’t impress anyone.
If regular push-ups feel too difficult, beginners can start with knee or incline push-ups instead.
Let’s quickly go over a 30-day progression plan:
- Days 1-3: do 3 sets of as many push-ups as possible; maintain good form
- Day 4: rest
- Days 5-7: add 1 extra rep to each set; do 3 total sets like before
- Day 8: rest
- Days 9-10: repeat the objective of days 5-7
- Days 11-13: introduce a 4th set and try to match your performance from before
- Day 14: rest
- Days 15-17: add 1 extra rep to each set to beat your performance from day 13
- Day 18: rest
- Days 19-20: try to do 2 extra reps on all 4 sets
- Days 21-23: introduce a 5th set and try to match your performance from before
- Day 24: rest
- Days 25-27: add 1 extra rep to each of the 5 sets
- Day 28: rest
- Day 29: try to do 2 sets of 15 consecutive push-ups with 2-3 minutes of rest in between
- Day 30: warm-up and give it a go; try to get 20 push-ups without taking a break
6. Pull Yourself Up 10 Times
Similar to the push-up challenge, getting people to 10 consecutive pull-ups can be an impressive achievement. Plus, pull-ups are fun and build excellent back mass.
This is a good challenge for people who can already do at least one or two regular pull-ups or chin-ups, but it can also be modified for those who can’t. For instance, folks who can’t do the pull-up can do:
- Band-assisted pull-ups
- Machine-assisted pull-ups
- Eccentric-only push-ups
It can still be a great workout challenge and get people to their first unassisted pull-up.
Here is a sample progression:
- Day 1: grab a pull-up bar and see how many reps you can do
- Day 2: 2 sets of 1-2 pull-ups, then 3 sets of negative pull-ups (4-5 reps)
- Day 3: rest
- Day 4: 2 sets of 1-2 pull-ups, 3 sets of 3-5 dead hangs for grip strength (20-30 seconds)
- Day 5: rest
- Day 6: 3 sets of 1 pull-up, then 3 sets of assisted pull-ups (using a band); 3-4 reps
- Day 7: rest
- Day 8: 2 sets of 1-2 pull-ups, then 3 sets of 4-5 negative pull-ups
- Day 9: rest
- Day 10: 2 sets of 2 pull-ups
- Day 11: 3 sets of 2 pull-ups
- Day 12: 2 sets of 2-3 pull-ups, followed by 2 sets of negative pull-ups (3-4 reps)
- Day 13: rest
- Day 14: 3 sets of 2 pull-ups, followed by 2 sets of assisted pull-ups (3-4 reps)
- Day 15: rest
- Day 16: 4 sets of 2 pull-ups
- Day 17: 2 sets of 3 pull-ups
- Day 18: rest
- Day 19: 3 sets of 2-3 pull-ups
- Day 20: 3 sets of 3 pull-ups
- Day 21: 4 sets of 3 pull-ups
- Day 22: rest
- Day 23: 3 sets of 3-4 pull-ups
- Day 24: rest
- Day 25: 2 sets of 4 pull-ups, then 2 sets of 3 pull-ups
- Day 26: rest
- Day 27: 3 sets of 4 pull-ups
- Day 28: 4 sets of 3-4 pull-ups
- Day 29: rest
- Day 30: max out day; warm up and see how many consecutive pull-ups you can do
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Don’t Forget About a Healthy Eating Challenge
Exercise and healthy eating go hand in hand, so let’s look at some simple eating challenges that can lead to better habits and help people lose weight.
1. Fruit-Every-Meal Challenge
Much like the ‘30-Day Movement Challenge’ we reviewed above, this one is simple and fantastic for beginners looking to sink their teeth into something actionable but not too demanding.
The premise of this challenge is simple: participants should eat at least one piece of fruit (even a small apple would do) as part of every meal or snack. Doing so isn’t too challenging, even for people who don’t generally eat fruits, because there are plenty of options to pick from.
No matter a person’s preferences, they can always enjoy some fruit and eat all their favorite foods before and after.
The great thing about such a challenge is that it gets people to eat more nutritious and filling foods. As a result, they may not feel as hungry, leading to a reduction in their calorie intake and some weight loss.
Plus, fruits are an excellent source of fiber, vitamins, and minerals, which are crucial for our health and well-being.
2. Epic 21-Day Smoothie Voyage
Do you want to get your audience and clients to eat better but aren’t a fan of drastic dietary restrictions? If so, helping people improve one of their daily meals could be a good start.
For instance, instead of relying on donuts and other fast-food goodies for breakfast, participants in the challenge can blend a quick smoothie, enjoy it in a few minutes, and head out the door.
Like fruits, smoothies are jam-packed with healthy nutrients that support our health and well-being. Plus, they can be incredibly low-calorie, tasty, and filling––the perfect combination for people looking to lose some weight.
An excellent way for people to stay accountable is by posting a daily photo of their smoothie along with the ingredient list or recipe. That way, participants can get ideas from one another and share tips.
3. 30-Day Sugar-Free Soda Challenge
Many people struggle to lose weight because they ingest too many calories from beverages like sugary soda. However, quitting that habit is often easier said than done. So, rather than getting people to quit, advise them to move from regular to sugar-free soda.
A 30-day challenge could be the way to make the transition and reap lasting benefits by sticking to diet soda.
One of the most notable benefits is the reduced sugar and calorie intake. Depending on how much soda a person drinks, that could be as little as 10-20 fewer grams of sugar or as much as 250-300 grams daily, equivalent to 1,000-1,200 calories.
Final Words
Fitness challenges might seem unnecessary. However, they can be quite helpful when done correctly because they boost engagement and could help you grow a fitness business.
Good challenges motivate people, often encouraging healthy practices that could turn into habits.
So, if you’ve been on the fence, pick a challenge that could work well for your clients or audience and give it a go. You might be surprised by the results.
Also, check out Hevy Coach and try it for free for 30 days. Our all-in-one personal training software allows coaches to create training plans, assign them to clients, and track progress from the dashboard. These features make assigning programs to people and monitoring their efforts in a workout challenge easier.
FAQs
1. What makes workout challenges good?
Good fitness challenges are specific, realistic, and relevant to people’s goals. Challenges should come with a deadline, and you should help people with whatever you can to promote consistency.
For bonus points, consider some catchy fitness challenge names to attract people’s attention.
2. How often to employ workout challenges?
Workout challenges, like the popular January exercise challenge, can be used as often as every month or as rarely as once a year. They should be infrequent enough for people to see them as special and be more likely to participate.
3. Can I combine multiple challenges for my clients and audience?
Absolutely. You can combine food and workout challenges for the ultimate test. However, be mindful of their difficulty because there needs to be an element of sustainability.
