Working out with friends is not only a great way to stay motivated, but it can also make exercise more enjoyable. Instead of tackling fitness goals solo, consider creating a fitness challenge that you and your friends can participate in together. Fitness challenges are fun, competitive, and provide a sense of accomplishment, while also giving you the opportunity to bond with your friends. Whether you’re training for a race, aiming to get fitter, or just looking for a new way to stay active, fitness challenges are a fantastic way to motivate each other and bring a sense of camaraderie to your workout routines.
In this article, we’ll explore a variety of fitness challenges you can try with your friends, ranging from strength and endurance challenges to fun and unique ways to spice up your workouts. Whether you want to push each other to new limits or simply enjoy some friendly competition, these fitness challenges will keep you moving, motivated, and connected.
1. Step Challenge: Compete for the Most Steps
A simple yet effective fitness challenge to try with friends is a step challenge. This challenge encourages you to get moving throughout the day by tracking the number of steps you take using a fitness tracker or a smartphone app. Whether you walk, run, or even take the stairs, every step counts!
How to Set It Up:
- Choose a Time Frame: Set a challenge period, whether it’s one week, one month, or even longer.
- Set Daily or Weekly Goals: Decide on a daily or weekly step goal for each person. For example, you might challenge each other to hit 10,000 steps a day.
- Track Progress: Use fitness trackers or mobile apps (such as Fitbit, Apple Health, or Google Fit) to monitor your progress. You can create a shared group or leaderboard to keep track of everyone’s steps.
Why It’s Fun:
This challenge motivates everyone to get moving throughout the day. Whether you’re walking around the block, taking a walk during lunch, or going for a hike over the weekend, it turns exercise into a fun, daily activity that’s easy to stick with. Plus, the competition adds a sense of urgency and excitement to stay active.
2. Fitness Bingo: Complete Challenges to Win
Fitness Bingo is a fun and creative way to incorporate a variety of exercises into your routine while adding an element of challenge and surprise. Each player receives a bingo card filled with different fitness tasks that need to be completed. The goal is to complete all tasks on the card (or as many as possible) before the other players.
How to Set It Up:
- Create the Bingo Card: Create a bingo card with different fitness activities listed in each square. These could include exercises like 30 push-ups, a 5-minute plank, a 10-minute jog, or even outdoor activities like a 30-minute hike.
- Set a Time Frame: Decide on a time frame for completing your fitness bingo. You could do this over the course of a week or a month.
- Track Progress: As each player completes a task, they mark off the corresponding square on their bingo card. The first person to complete a row, column, or the entire card wins!
Why It’s Fun:
Fitness Bingo adds variety to your workouts by including different types of exercises, from strength training to cardio to flexibility challenges. The randomness of the bingo card keeps the challenge exciting, and everyone can support each other in completing their tasks. Plus, the competitive aspect makes it more engaging!
3. Push-Up Challenge: Who Can Do More?
Push-ups are a classic strength exercise that targets the chest, shoulders, and arms. A push-up challenge is a great way to see who can do the most push-ups within a set time or who can improve their push-up count over time.
How to Set It Up:
- Set a Time Limit: Choose a set period of time for everyone to complete as many push-ups as they can, such as 1 minute, 2 minutes, or even 5 minutes.
- Form Matters: Make sure everyone is doing the push-ups with proper form. This ensures that the challenge is both fair and safe.
- Track Progress: You can also turn this into a challenge over several weeks and track your progress to see who improves the most over time.
Why It’s Fun:
Push-ups are a challenging exercise that test your strength and endurance. By competing with friends, you can push each other to do more than you thought possible. It’s a fun way to build upper body strength together and can be done anywhere, from the gym to your living room.
4. Running Challenge: Set Distance or Time Goals
A running challenge is a great way to stay active and build endurance, whether you’re a seasoned runner or just getting started. Whether you decide to challenge each other to run a certain distance or to run for a specific amount of time, the key is to make it competitive and enjoyable.
How to Set It Up:
- Choose a Goal: Set a target distance (e.g., 5K, 10K, or a specific number of miles) or a time goal (e.g., 20 minutes of continuous running).
- Race Each Other: You can either run together or race each other on your own time. Use running apps like Strava or Runkeeper to track your runs and compare times or distances.
- Vary the Challenges: Switch things up by adding different challenges to the mix, such as hill runs, interval sprints, or trail running for variety.
Why It’s Fun:
Running challenges encourage you to set goals and work toward them, and the friendly competition makes running feel less like a solo activity. It’s also a great way to bond with friends while improving your cardiovascular fitness. Plus, if you live in an area with beautiful outdoor running routes, it’s a great excuse to explore nature together.
5. Squat Challenge: Build Lower Body Strength Together
Squats are a fantastic exercise for building lower body strength, and a squat challenge is a great way to target your legs and glutes while working out with friends. You can make the challenge as simple or as intense as you like, depending on your fitness level.
How to Set It Up:
- Choose a Daily Goal: Set a daily squat goal for everyone, such as 50 squats per day. Start with a lower number and gradually increase the reps over time.
- Challenge for Time: Alternatively, challenge each other to see who can do the most squats in 1 minute, or time each person to see who can complete 100 squats the fastest.
- Add Variations: To keep things interesting, you can incorporate different types of squats, like jumping squats, single-leg squats, or sumo squats.
Why It’s Fun:
Squats are an effective lower-body exercise that can be done anywhere, and they target multiple muscle groups, including your thighs, glutes, and calves. Competing in a squat challenge can be a fun way to push each other while building lower body strength. Plus, you’ll notice improvements in your fitness level over time, which can be very motivating.
6. Plank Challenge: How Long Can You Hold It?
A plank challenge is a simple yet effective way to work on your core strength and endurance. The challenge is all about holding a plank position for as long as you can. This fitness challenge is a great way to focus on building stability and strength in your core muscles.
How to Set It Up:
- Set a Goal Time: Start with a set amount of time for everyone to try and hold a plank, such as 30 seconds, 1 minute, or even 5 minutes.
- Increase Duration: To make the challenge more interesting, you can challenge each other to increase the duration of your planks over time. Set a goal to hold the plank for a certain number of minutes by the end of the week or month.
Why It’s Fun:
Planks engage multiple muscle groups, including your core, shoulders, and legs, making them an excellent full-body exercise. The simplicity of the challenge makes it easy to compete with friends, and it’s also a great test of mental endurance. As you all improve, it can be fun to celebrate your progress and motivate each other to hold the plank for longer.
7. Group Circuit Challenge: Complete a Set of Exercises Together
A group circuit challenge is a fun and engaging way to incorporate a variety of exercises into your routine. The idea is to create a circuit of different exercises, and each person in the group takes turns completing each station.
How to Set It Up:
- Design the Circuit: Choose a set of exercises that target different muscle groups, such as squats, push-ups, burpees, lunges, and jumping jacks.
- Set Timed Intervals: Each person completes each exercise for a set amount of time, such as 30 seconds per station. Once everyone completes the circuit, take a short rest and repeat.
- Track Time or Reps: You can turn this into a competition by timing how fast each person completes the circuit or counting how many reps they do at each station.
Why It’s Fun:
Circuit challenges are great for full-body workouts that keep things dynamic and exciting. The variety of exercises makes the workout interesting, and rotating through stations ensures that no one gets bored. Working together in a group also makes it more enjoyable and allows for plenty of encouragement and support.