Challenges are a tried and true method of increasing client engagement and retention in your groups. They can be a great way to boost client health and fitness results or simply to have a bit of fun with your campers to lift spirits throughout the year!
Not sure where to start with a challenge? Here are 16 proven challenge ideas from trainers all around the world. Feel free to pick and choose – and change up a challenge to suit you and your group.
These challenges have been segmented into their types –
- Movement Challenges usually aim to increase exercise time or to improve fitness levels;
- Nutrition Challenges usually aim to improve how your clients are eating or their awareness of positive nutrition;
- Fun Challenges are a little bit silly and funny, and are a low commitment way for your campers to stay connected;
- Festive Challenges are based around a celebration or holiday;
- And All-Rounder Challenges incorporate movement, nutrition and holistic health habits.
And you can also see there are three different ways challenges can be delivered:
- On Social Media – which allows campers to participate in a challenge remotely or at home (without necessarily having to attend bootcamp sessions)
- At Bootcamp – be it face to face or virtual, campers need to attend a bootcamp session to participate in these challenges
- Via Email – where all communication during the challenge is done via inboxes
So, lets take a look at the 16 challenges:
Movement Challenges
1. Move Your Body (Laura Varey)
Delivery: Social Media and Bootcamp
- Do something active every day for a month, post proof to social media group
- US$10 ‘buy in’
- Winner collects money at the end – either for themselves or to give to charity
2. 4 Week Movement Add On (Jessica Chattrabhuti)
Delivery: Social Media
- Completed 5 days per week for 4 weeks
- Week 1 – 25 Squats, 25 Push Ups, 25 Sit Ups and 15 Burpees
- Week 2 – 50 Squats, 50 Push Ups, 50 Sit Ups and 25 Burpees
- Week 3 – 75 Squats, 75 Push Ups, 75 Sit Ups and 35 Burpees
- Week 4 – 100 Squats, 100 Push Ups, 100 Sit Ups and 45 Burpees
3. Burpees Challenge (Steve Tallis)
Delivery: Social Media or Bootcamp
For this workout you will need a watch. One burpee in the first minute. Two burpees in the next. Three in the one after and so on until you cannot complete the allocated burpees in the minute you are up to. Your score is the last completed full round.
4. Walk To The Beach (Niki J Torres)
Delivery: Social Media
- Set a location to aim for
- Clients post their daily walk distance to social media group, this is added to the team total by the team Captain.
- Use an online map service to help track the distance travelled.
5. Run To Sparta (Richie Kiely)
Delivery: Social Media
- Similar to the above Walk To The Beach challenge
- Great for Spartan training groups
- Use an online map service to calculate the distance from your location to Sparta.
6. Climb The Empire State Building (Missi Ballison)
Delivery: Bootcamp
- Great if you have access to stairs or a stair master machine.
- Timed challenge – how quickly can campers climb the 102 floors?
- Use as a fitness test and aim to beat the time at the end of the month.
7. Three Different Month Long Challenges (Diane M Anderson)
Delivery: Social Media or Bootcamp
- Campers complete these 5 days per week for a month
- Timed planks – starting at 30 seconds and adding 20 seconds every day
- Push Ups – starting at 5 and adding one Push Up each day
- Wall Sits – starting at 30 seconds and adding 20 seconds every day
Nutrition Challenges
8. Submit A Recipe (Nick Karagiannis)
Delivery: Social Media
- Campers submit a recipe for any meal type to your social media group. They must include a photo
- Has to be the clients own recipe to keep it more personal to your group
Fun Challenges
9. Submit a funny selfie to make the group laugh (Nick Karagiannis)
Delivery: Social Media
- A simple one off challenge to throw down in a quiet week.
10. Perform a random act of kindness for a neighbour, family member, stranger (Nick Karagiannis)
Delivery: Social Media
- Pick 6 acts of kindness and roll a 6 sided die to pick which one you’ll do that day.
- Inspired by Daily Mission Cards
Festive Challenges
11. Trick Or Treat Challenge (Niki J Torres) – Halloween
Delivery: Email series
- An email series is a set of emails that are usually automated to be sent out to your email list at a scheduled time – in this case, one per day for the duration of the challenge.
- ‘Trick’ – exercise challenge for the day, ‘Treat’ – nutrition challenge for the day
- Campers post a cryptic message to their own social media page (ie. ‘The deed is done’) and tag business page
- Have a consequence if deed is not done!
12. Word Of The Day (Heidi Lootsma) – Valentine’s Day
Delivery: Social Media or Bootcamp
- Assign each letter of the alphabet with an exercise
- Post a ‘word of the day’ (ie. heart, Hallmark, red, etc) and campers complete a set amount of reps for each letter of that word
13. Planksgiving (Missi Balison) – Thanksgiving Day
Delivery: Social Media or Bootcamp
- Assign a new plank variety each day of the month
- Repeat a daily gratitude mantra while completing the plank
All Rounder Challenges
14. Lockdown Bulletproof Challenge (Leonie Tilley)
Delivery: Email, Social Media or Bootcamp
- Have a song and a word as the theme each day
- Daily challenges that include small things like mobilisers to ‘un-do the desk’
- The idea is to try and shift negative feelings and inspire motivation and community interaction.
15. ‘September Slayer’ Health Eating and Fitness Challenge (Clare Eaton)
Delivery: Email, Social Media or Bootcamp
- Month long nutrition and movement focus
- Everyone who participates for the full month goes into a draw for a free month of virtual classes (rather than focus on weight loss as all campers will have different levels of success)
16. Spring Challenge (Theresa Prior)
Delivery: Email, Social Media or Bootcamp
- Individual challenge for the entire Spring season (yes, lots of work for you as a trainer!)
- Points based challenge
- Use your social media groups to post photos and share points tallies
- Assign points for certain activities, for example –
- 5 points for 1st bootcamp session of the week
- 2 points for every other bootcamp session that week
- 1 point for 30+ minutes of exercise outside your bootcamp sessions
- 1 point for meeting up for a walk/run/ride with another camper outside your sessions
- 5 points for bringing a new friend to bootcamp
- Throw in some extra weekly challenges – like drink 2L water each day for a week, have 2 serves of fruit each day for a week, meditate each day for a week, write a gratitude journal each day for a week
Do you have your own great ideas to add to this list?
Or do you want to share how you changed up and delivered a challenge? Feel free to share this for other readers in the comments below!
Theresa Prior has a mission to bring Mums and women together in a safe and supportive environment that just so happens to have fun fitness sessions at it’s core. She has been running her own personal training business since 2013. Theresa helps her clients understand that all aspects of their health are equally important.
Great ideas, thank you! I’ve done a planksgiving challenge, it went well.