You would be hard-pressed to find a single person who doesn’t love a good and friendly gym competition. One of the biggest challenges in keeping up with any fitness routine is staying motivated. Many studies find that competition can help people better reach their goals.
Buddy support and music are two other great motivators when it comes to exercise and fitness goals. But, there’s just something about competition. Maybe it’s the feeling of victory or the bragging rights. Maybe it’s the prizes or maybe it’s all the above. Whatever the reason, fitness challenges are great for raising member engagement and marketing your gym. Plus, they’re plain fun to host.
With so many types of challenges to choose from, it can be hard to decide where to start. There are monthly challenges, running challenges, cycling challenges, personal best challenges, and SO. MUCH. MORE. If you’re ready to get some going, we hope this blog helps you. On your marks. Get set…
But First! Before You Start
You want to make sure no matter which gym challenges you choose, they are:
- Easily joined
- Enjoyable
- Compatible with fitness trackers and other wearable technology
- Properly tracked with your software management. Otherwise, keeping tally can get confusing
The Prizes
Prizes can be whatever you want them to be:
- Free gym time
- Cool swag
- A member feature
- Bragging rights
The Gym Challenges
Social Media Challenges
As you’ve probably suspected, most, if not all, of your members, own at least one social media account. So, don’t be shy! Invite them to take part in a social media challenge.
You can do it one of two ways. 1. An on-going challenge for the month where every day members have to upload a photo or video of their workout. And you can even create a special hashtag for your studio. 2. A one-time challenge of a specific, timed task:
- Planks
- Push-ups
- Sit-ups
- Punches
Social media motivates members to stay accountable in front of their friends and family. Once they announce plans to reach their goals they are more likely to hold themselves accountable. Plus again, it’s a great way of marketing your gym. It opens you up to a larger audience and shows people just how fun and supportive you really are.
Running Challenges
People go to the gym for different reasons. But, one of the top ones is probably for burning calories. And what’s better at burning calories than a good old fashioned run? The best part is, running challenges can be done anywhere, anyhow. So, whether you want to gather a big group outside of the gym or, you want to meet up virtually it’s all good.
Cycling Challenges
Cycling challenges are like running challenges because they can be done in-house or virtually too. The difference is that with cycling you can vary it up a bit more and make categories. Winners will be chosen by:
- Best time
- Most distance traveled
- Fastest distance traveled
Personal Best Challenges
Every gym member has their own set of fitness goals. Find out what they are.
The goals don’t have to be the same for everyone in order to participate. It doesn’t matter if they’re trying to be better at their running time, or deadlift. Whatever their current status is, document it and then challenge them to beat it quicker than any other gym member.
Give everyone a month to work at their fitness challenges and see what happens. At the end of the month, take down everyone’s information again to see who beat themselves by the predetermined goal: 10%, 20%, 30%, etc.
Have A Great Time
First and foremost, it’s about having a great time. Smashing fitness goals is a close second. But, fun should come first. So, no matter which types of challenges you pick, have a ridiculous amount of fun putting them on, or even joining in on them!