The Wellness Edit: fitness challenges – the good, the bad, the ugly

Fitness challenges have always been popular as they combine goal setting and current fitness trends to engage people in exercise and movement. However, social media takes them to the next level, showcasing challenges that take the body one step further, and advertising ‘life-changing’ results once the challenge is complete. These challenges are often designed to involve large groups in fitness, highlighting the changes they might see over the set challenge period. This article will address the good, the bad, and the ugly of these challenges, when they may be ideal to follow, and when you should take a big leap to avoid them.

Although you might see great outcomes from following a challenge like 75 Hard, this requires daily consistency with no mishaps which is often not a reality in everyday life

One of the most notable is 75 Hard, a 75-day mental toughness programme incorporating fitness as one of its key components. The critical tasks include following a nutrition plan with no alcohol or cheat meals, two workouts a day, drinking a gallon of water a day, and taking consistent progress pictures. Influencers, especially on TikTok, have embraced this challenge and ran with it by promoting it as something that everybody should be doing if they want to get fit. This trend and others which follow strict rules are often overly intense, encouraging exercise that might cause over-tiredness for your body or muscle damage if you don’t properly rest in between which is usually recommended when training. Furthermore, an intense challenge for a certain number of days is unlikely to be sustainable in the long run. Although you might see great outcomes from following a challenge like 75 Hard, this requires daily consistency with no mishaps which is often not a reality in everyday life. Over-exercising can lead to ligament damage in the long run, making it a challenge that should simply stay as what it is – 75-days and no longer.

However, fitness challenges are popular for a reason. They offer a clear set path to achieving goals which can be a good guide for those of us who need and find it easier to have a training plan made for us. When a schedule is already laid out, it can make following a routine easier and offer clearer motivation and discipline. Alongside this, when challenges become popular online, they create a sense of community and the high engagement rates can offer additional motivation. Often, seeing others succeed can be the extra push needed to engage in challenges and work hard alongside others.

Although this is not always the case, many of these challenges are also created by personal trainers with qualifications and expertise or have partnered with companies to ensure challenges are safe. This can mean that amongst the minefield of fitness creators showing their top exercises, these challenges can often be specific and work to support your fitness effectively and safely. As always though, it’s important to make sure challenges are created by fitness professionals and that if you do have any concerns be cautious with them.

Understand what goals you want to achieve before choosing a challenge and then don’t be afraid to modify it to suit your needs

Fitness challenges bring together top fitness tips and the motivation from being part of a community. But when social media is already a breeding ground for comparison, how does this worsen when challenges are instinctively competitive? Showcasing results and changes online to share a challenge can be motivating, but it can also turn challenges into a way of increasing insecurities and self-comparison. This only worsens when it’s full-time creators or influencers whose job it is to dedicate their time to creating content. They have the time to commit to long challenges which many of us don’t. Not all lifestyles are adaptable to these challenges and they simply might not work for your body either. No matter who completes the same challenge, the results will never be identical.

Understanding how these challenges work and what goes behind the content sharing them is important. These challenges can be great for getting into fitness and following a routine but accepting that they aren’t always realistic in the long term and won’t provide the exact results that an influencer is sharing is important to remember. Understand what goals you want to achieve before choosing a challenge and then don’t be afraid to modify it to suit your needs and lifestyle. These challenges are intended to benefit you and your body and are not something you should force yourself to do and cause long-term damage.