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Best Gym Challenges
If you are a regular visitor to the gym, there might come a time when you may get tired of doing the same training again and again.
Such a scenario would inevitably mean that you won’t put all your effort into your work, and consequently, all the hours you spend at the gym would be virtually for nothing.
To get rid of this monotony, you can try setting up gym challenges for yourself. This would bring an aura of freshness into your moribund work-out sessions and motivate you to work even harder every day.
You can participate in challenges only for yourself, or you can compete with friends.
In this article, we will talk about the best and most entertaining gym challenges that can give your gym life a much-needed boost.
Gym Challenges for Beginners
As a beginner in the gym, you can use these challenges to keep yourself motivated and enable you to reach the level of your more advanced colleagues.
Walking Challenge
The walking challenge is the most basic of all beginner-level gym challenges. If you are participating in it alone, you can set certain targets for yourself, with respect to the distance traversed and time taken. If you are competing with friends, then also you can set certain objectives and pick winners based on who completes them first.
Tips for an Effective Walking Challenge
- Start with elementary targets and slowly work your way upwards. Do not set lofty targets in the beginning because that would completely exhaust your muscles which are not used to such rigorous activity.
- Keep track of your fastest time every day and try to beat that the next day.
- If walking becomes too monotonous, incorporate other forms of work-out like sprinting, interval running, etc.
- While you are doing the walk, you can try listening to peaceful music or motivational podcasts to calm your mind and help you to focus on your activity.
Chair Fitness Challenge
If you want to try out slightly more complicated challenges, the obvious option is the chair fitness challenge. You only require a chair to pursue this challenge, which will make it particularly convenient if you are working in a home gym.
You can accommodate work-outs like push-ups, pull-ups, lunges, etc., and set yourself new targets every day. These exercises will boost your upper core, improve your cardiovascular system, and allow your muscles to recover faster between work-out sessions.
You can mix it up and do only one session of each work-out so that it never gets boring.
Gym Challenges for Intermediate and Advanced Levels
For the gym members who have been doing work-outs for a long time, the challenges might need to be a bit more complicated to push them out of their comfort zone.
Squat Challenge
The squat was once a universally hated exercise, but the scenario has changed, and more and more people have taken up squats for all-round benefits to their bodies.
Doing squats would be an attractive choice for the participants, and it will also make them try out different variations of the squat like the Sumo Squats and the Bulgarian Squats.
You can pick each member of your group to try a different variation of squat every day and analyze at the end of the week which variations appeal most to the individuals.
To do a basic squat, start with your feet slightly apart, tighten the muscles of your stomach and lower your knees while keeping your upper body straight. Then lift your body back, and repeat for a fixed set of reps.
Keep in mind that you should always do a full squat; a partial squat damages your body more than benefitting it.
The Squat challenges will be a lot more fun if you create a social media account dedicated to this purpose and upload photos and videos of your progress each day.
Challenges That Focus on Your Core Strength
Every gym member likes to have an attractive core; that is one of the main reasons for which they work so hard in training. Core-strength challenges will thus appeal to the exercise aficionados, and they will also give a good work-out to various muscles of your upper and lower body. There are mainly two challenges that we will talk about here- planks and crunches, but there are also others like sit-ups and pikes that are just as useful.
Planks Challenge
Planks help you to develop strong abs and can also boost your performance and agility if you are a professional athlete. Planks work the muscles of the whole body, from the core muscles to the trapezius to the quadriceps and gluteal muscles.
To do planks, start with your body in the plank position with your legs forward and your elbows beneath your shoulders. Lift your body by engaging your toes while your forearms are pressed to the ground. Hold for 30 seconds, and go back to your starting position.
A common mistake that you should avoid is hunching your back while doing planks, which significantly reduces the effectiveness of the exercise.
While doing the planks challenge, make sure the participants clearly understand what muscles are worked by the exercise and what benefits does it hold for the core.
Crunches Challenge
Crunches activate one of the most significant tissue clusters of your body- the rectus abdominis, popularly referred to as the six-pack. While they mainly focus on the abdomen, they also fix irregularities in the region of the neck and shoulders.
Crunches boost the strength of the entire upper body and also keep the hip muscles fit and functioning.
Doing crunches will help you develop a supremely fit upper body core and also stabilize your spinal structure by activating the spinal muscles. Crunches prevent muscle pains and also limit the risk of frequent injuries.
If you are pursuing this challenge on your own, you don’t need to follow any rigid fitness protocol; you can do crunches wherever you want, whenever you want, as many as you want.
Here is a step-by-step instruction manual for doing a basic low-intensity crunch. You can verify whether you are doing it correctly from the fact that if properly performed, crunches do not exert much strain on your neck, shoulders, and back.
If you are doing the crunches challenge with your gym group, your cohorts will be able to correct you if you do it wrong.
- First, locate an extended empty space in your house. You can do it on the floor itself, or you can place a mat and do crunches on top of it.
- Then lie on the ground with your hand beneath your head and your elbows extended to the sides. Place your body in such a way that your lower back is mildly pushing the floor.
- Once you have established your starting position, lift your upper body while exhaling and keeping your abdomen contracted. The lift should not be more than a few inches, and you must remember not to strain your neck or your shoulders; otherwise, you might injure them.
- Next, inhale slowly and lower your upper body back to the starting position on the floor.
- Once you have reached the starting position again, you have successfully completed one abdominal crunch. You can now continue repeating this for as long as you wish to, but it is best to consult an expert beforehand and set a fixed set of targets that your body could manage.
One Punch Man Workout
The One Punch Man workout originates from anime culture, from a hero named Saitama. It has since been accommodated in gyms as the ultimate workout that will taunt members to exercise the very highest level of strength and endurance.
The One Punch Man exercise includes the following exercises:
- Hundred push-ups per day
- Hundred sit-ups per day
- Hundred squats per day
- Running 10 kilometers every day
The difficult thing about this workout is that you have to do this every day for a week; there is just no let-up at all.
It is extremely likely that you or your gym members might not be able to achieve the objectives of this workout to their fullest.
If that is the case, do not be disheartened, and consider whatever limits you have reached as definite signs of progress.
Benefits of the One Punch Man Workout
- As a fitness routine, One Punch Man is far superior and more versatile than the workout routines people usually follow in gyms. It works for more muscle groups and includes diverse kinds of workout patterns like cardio, core-strengthening exercises, leg workouts, etc.
- Since all the exercises of One Punch Man depend on your own body weight, there is a much lesser risk of injury.
- Doing this workout will improve your cardiovascular system a lot and also increase the strength and endurance of your muscles.
- This workout not only builds up muscle mass but also enables you to burn calories and get rid of unwanted fat.
The Best 30-Day Fitness Challenge
It is, of course, difficult to pinpoint a single exercise routine as the best 30-day fitness challenge since it depends on individual preferences and requirements. However, here are a couple of exciting 30-day challenges that you can try alone or with your friends:
Burpee Challenge
Burpees are a great way of burning calories, getting good cardio workouts, and developing toned muscles. If you get into the groove quickly enough, you can accomplish up to a hundred burpees per day for 30 days.
Tips for the 30-Day Burpee Challenge
- Challenge your body to reach uncomfortable targets. It might be a couple of weeks till you really hit your stride, but once you get used to the intensity, you would be able to accomplish the rest of the challenge quite easily.
- As you increase the number of burpees per day, allow your body extended breaks to boost the recovery process.
T-Minus 30
This workout routine was designed by Hunter Mclntyre, and it includes 21 unique exercises, five days per week, one day of recovery, and one day for mobility exercises. T-Minus 30 is a difficult but entertaining routine that will allow your body to reach previously unexplored heights.
You can also try it with your gym group, but keep in mind that you should get proper recovery, nutrients, and hydration every day; otherwise, your body won’t be able to cope with the challenges.
Final Thoughts
Going to the gym every day will be an enjoyable activity and something you will look forward to if you include these exciting gym challenges within your training. It will help you to make new friends, push your body constantly, and achieve higher levels of fitness prowess.
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