10 Engaging Weekly Fitness Challenge Ideas To Encourage Employee Wellness

At the start of every year, most people set a resolution to embark on a fitness journey and achieve their fitness goals. You and I have probably been in the same situation at some point in our lives.

Everyone has their personal fitness goals and reasons to achieve them. Some do reach them, while others find it an uphill battle. Especially if you are an office-goer, you might find incorporating fitness into your daily routine difficult.

However, fret not. After reading this blog, you will find your successful fitness mantra. Losing weight, gaining muscle, or whatever might be your goal, you will be able to achieve it in just a week!

Yes, you read that right. A week is all you need to get started on your fitness journey. So, let’s get started and take a look at ten fantastic weekly fitness challenge ideas to help you take your and your employees’ fitness to the next level.

What Are Fitness Challenges?

A fitness challenge is an initiative designed to set health goals that will motivate participants to attain optimum physical fitness. This type of initiative consists of a series of physical activities and lifestyle changes.

Fitness challenges run on time limits. These can be a few days, weeks, or even months. Fitness professionals and experts are the ones who curate such challenges. The ultimate goal of a fitness challenge is to instill the zeal to take wellness seriously while pushing their limits.

The Increasing Popularity of Fitness Challenges

Most employers today recognize that employee health and fitness are crucial for the overall success of their organizations. Companies, both big and small, are offering numerous corporate wellness and fitness programs to ensure that employee health is in check.

If you closely analyze a company’s wellness program, you will see that fitness challenges are integral. From basic fitness challenges to complex ones, including such activities is essential for employee health.

Fitness challenges are a no-brainer for organizations because of their popularity among employees. Such challenges are exciting, fun for employees, and rewarding. Moreover, with new-age digital corporate wellness solutions, incorporating fitness challenges is a piece of cake for employers.

Here are just a few benefits of introducing fitness challenges among employees:

• Improved Mental and Physical Health
• Increased Productivity and Performance
• Better Team Building and Communication
• Reduced Absenteeism
• Enhanced Work Culture
• Positive Work Environment

Fitness challenges can also vary according to duration, goal, etc. Here are a few types of challenges that are popular -

• 30 Day Fitness Challenge
• Squat Challenge
• Step Challenge
• Nutrition Challenge
• Workout Challenge
• Healthy heart-rate Challenge

10 Weekly Fitness Challenge Ideas For Insane Results

So, tell me. Do employees in your company take part in any individual or group fitness activity? If so, I’m sure you and your employees will enjoy participating.

However, there must be many variations in terms of the challenges and contests. Participating in the same kind of challenge every week can become boring at one point.

Hence, to satisfy your own fitness needs and your employees’ as well, I have listed down ten brilliant weekly fitness challenge ideas that will surely drive participation and bring guaranteed results.

1. Step-It-Up

Put simply, a step challenge is one of the best ways to incorporate fitness into your employees’ daily routines. It is highly versatile and can be easily tweaked as per your requirements. Step challenges have a set target, like 5000 or 10000 steps that participants have to achieve to be eligible for prizes.

A great way to make your step challenge an exciting and competitive one is by increasing the daily target every day for a week. For example, on Day 1, the target can be 1000; on Day 2, it can be 2000, and so on.

This way, your employees will know that they have to step it up every day to win the challenge, keeping engagement and motivation levels high.

2. Pour the H2O

Another great weekly fitness challenge idea is a hydration or water drinking challenge. Drinking water is necessary for everyone, but many people still fall short of the daily recommended amount. To ensure that your employees drink all the water they need, introduce a water challenge at your workplace.

Ramp it up by slightly increasing the amount of water your employees have to consume every day. Drinking sufficient water is beneficial to both the body and the mind. From aiding weight loss to improving mood, a water challenge will surely make your employees healthier.

3. Plank and Rank

Have you ever tried a plank? It is one of the most effective exercises for building abdominal muscle and increasing core strength. Also, the satisfying feeling of your abdominal muscles after doing a plank is something that you have to experience to know.

So, why not introduce a plank challenge at work? Doing so can be a fantastic way to increase competitiveness and camaraderie among employees. You can steadily increase the difficulty throughout the week by increasing the minimum plank duration.

4. Squat till you drop

There is a reason why the squat is called the “king of all exercises.” Performing a squat increases muscle and bone strength increases hormone production, and also improves mood. Well, the list of benefits goes on and on.

Introduce squats in your workplace fitness program and see the results yourself. As squatting every day can be difficult and downright painful for beginners, make sure that form is prioritized to minimize injury and pain. Also, provide high-protein snacks to employees to ensure their nutrition is on point.

5. Yoga rejuvenation

I’m sure you have heard or read about the amazing benefits of yoga. The ancient practice originated in India and is now highly popular among people worldwide. It helps reduce stress, increase flexibility, improve physical and mental awareness, and more.

Yoga in the workplace is one of the best ways to combat workplace stress and improve concentration and focus. Performing yoga poses and stretches in the morning can help your employees rejuvenate and declutter their minds.

6. Zumba mornings

Zumba has taken the fitness world by storm in recent years. It combines Latin and international music with dance moves and switches between low and high-intensity movements. It is a great full-body workout and an effective stress reliever. Performing Zumba is a fantastic way to increase the number of calories burned.

Incorporate Zumba into your workplace fitness program to spice up your fitness challenges and increase participation and fun. People love fun workouts, and your employees are guaranteed to thank you for incorporating Zumba into their routines.

7. Weekly Mile-a-thon

Similar to a step challenge, a mile-a-thon or a distance-based challenge is about who walks, runs, or cycles the most distance in a given time. The distance can vary according to your requirements. You can easily introduce such a challenge with a corporate wellness platform that supports GPS-based fitness tracking.

If you introduce a distance-based challenge, increase the daily distance to raise the bar for your employees. Keep lucrative prizes at the end of the challenge so that your employees give their best to come out on top.

8. Stair climbing challenge

Taking the stairs is a great form of exercise. It is, infact, recognized as a sport internationally. Stair climbing under the category of vertical training. It is an exercise that requires moving the body mass vertically against gravity.

Climbing stairs helps improve respiratory and cardiovascular health. This can be an aerobic or anaerobic exercise, depending on how the members engaged are doing the activity.

9. Minute exercise challenge

Minute exercise challenges are also fitness challenges designed to improve employees' health effectively. This includes workout programs that participants need to complete within the specified minutes.

Minute exercise challenge covers all the dimensions of wellness - physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. Here are some minute exercise challenges that you can plan for your employees to practice healthy living:

• 10-minute mindfulness challenge

• 30-minute full-body workout challenge

• 7-minute office workout challenge

Such challenges can be easily incorporated into a weekly fitness routine.

10. Kill the calorie challenge

Calories are essential components for the human body to sustain. However, the intake of excess calories that the body requires can lead to unwanted health issues. The biggest struggle of working individuals is the urge to munch on something as they bury themselves in work. This eventually leads to weight gain or, worse, chronic diseases.

So, employers and HRs need to put out a weekly fitness challenge that will help employees cut down their calorie intake. To proceed with this, you can maybe start a healthy eating challenge where members engaged have to track their daily calorie intake.

Or else you can also keep a weekly fitness challenge to exchange healthy meal recipes. This will encourage members of the challenge to be mindful of their dietary habits.

Suggested reading: Try NEAT Exercises To Burn Your Calories Faster

Final Words

So, there you have it. Use these fantastic weekly fitness challenge ideas to spice up your workplace fitness program, maximize employee participation, fix the retention rates, and increase their fitness level.

A weekly fitness challenge is a great way to incorporate the seed of healthy behaviors in sedentary employees. If you have any ideas of your own, feel free to let me know in the comments below. Stay fit, stay healthy!

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why are weekly fitness challenges beneficial?

Corporate employees often tend to develop a sedentary lifestyle due to work demands. So, weekly fitness challenges are a great way to make sedentary employees move from their couches or work desks.

As a result, they will eventually develop a sense of well-being, which is essential for mental and physical health maintenance. These challenges can also help employees stay motivated and engaged in their work.

2. How do I choose the best weekly fitness challenge for my needs?

The thumb rule for choosing the appropriate weekly fitness challenge for your needs is to do the following:

• Study your current fitness level.
• Set your desired fitness goals.
• Go for activities that you are interested in.
• Determine how much time you can give in training.
• Carry out thorough research on all the fitness challenges. You can also take the assistance of wellness professionals who can create wellness programs for the same.
• Track your progress to stay in the fitness game.
• Always set a realistic goal and never push yourself too hard.
• Remember to have fun in the process.

3. Do I need special equipment for these fitness challenge ideas?

You can carry out almost all fitness challenges with the help of your body weight.

4. Are there any health precautions I should take before starting a fitness challenge?

Before starting off any fitness challenge, it is smart to consult with a health physician once to get the green signal. You may have to go through the usual health assessment tests for confirmation.

Also, before you get into the challenge, always practice body warm-up exercises, follow a nutritious diet, and drink plenty of water. Lastly, don’t forget to rest your body.