WHY FITNESS CHALLENGES WORK
We’ve partnered up with NFL Legend, Tony Richardson to launch a Two-Week Fitness Challenge! Kickoff is on November 1st and we’re asking everyone to complete 14 classes in 14 days.
NFL Legend, Tony Richardson
WHY JOIN THE CHALLENGE?
Set an intention, dangle some rewards, commit yourself to the task ahead, and hit the ground running…
Experts have studied just about every aspect of physical fitness, and the one thing they tend to agree on is that Challenges work! It’s why you see so many gyms and fitness studios running them throughout the year, and why we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to run our own. Specifically, there are five key benefits to participating in a Challenge, but they may not be exactly what you’d expect…
1. SYSTEMS & GOALS
Goal-setting seems to be an important aspect of any Fitness Challenge. In fact, for most people it’s the number one reason they get involved. But a great deal of data has emerged just in the past decade about the realities of goal setting. Noted author and humorist Scott Adams wrote about it in his book, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, as did James Clear more recently in his New York Times bestseller Atomic Habits. Here’s a brief excerpt from Clear’s book:
Prevailing wisdom claims that the best way to achieve what we want in life—getting into better shape, building a successful business, relaxing more and worrying less, spending more time with friends and family—is to set specific, actionable goals.
For many years, this was how I approached my habits too. Each one was a goal to be reached. I set goals for the grades I wanted to get in school, for the weights I wanted to lift in the gym, for the profits I wanted to earn in business. I succeeded at a few, but I failed at a lot of them. Eventually, I began to realize that my results had very little to do with the goals I set and nearly everything to do with the systems I followed.
The conversation is shifting from being “goals-oriented” to being “systems-oriented,” which is a profound change in the science of achievement!
Scott Adams, creator of the cartoon Dilbert, describes it this way:
Losing ten pounds is a goal (that most people can’t maintain), whereas learning to eat right is a system that substitutes knowledge for willpower.
How many people out there have felt like a failure when they manage to lose only seven pounds instead of the ten that they had committed to? That sense of failure damages us and our future pursuits; more than that, experts believe it’s misplaced. Both Adams and Clear point out that with a “systems-oriented” approach you win in the end EVEN IF you fail at achieving your stated goal.
Why? Because you have done the hard work to assess daily routines, and change the ones that are holding you back. Habits take time to stick, and a 14-Day Challenge like the one we’re running in November is the perfect opportunity to put new systems in place that will serve you better in the long run.
2. INSIGHTS
Ever notice how athletes are obsessed with their numbers? Batting average, free throw percentage, touchdowns, saves, and more. It’s not just about vanity! In fact, there’s an old saying in business that certainly applies here as well: “What gets measured gets managed.” If athletes want to get better they need a benchmark. How can you break the record for single season touchdown passes if you don’t know what number to beat? (Peyton Manning, by the way, who threw for 55 touchdowns in 2013.) And the same is true with you and your journey.
So why not use this 14-Day Challenge as an opportunity to track your progress? Perhaps you’ll take before and after pictures? Do you have a fitness tracker like an Apple Watch or Fitbit? Log your workouts, daily steps, and sleep patterns. Perhaps you’ll decide to go one further and track your eating habits. Sometimes it’s difficult to know what’s holding us back until we see the numbers in black and white.
Finally, why not commit yourself to writing a daily journal entry. Even just ten or fifteen minutes at the end of your day can have a profound impact. Jennifer at Simply + Fiercely says “start simply.” Don’t try to do too much in the beginning. The fact that you’re carving out the time for yourself is reason enough to celebrate.
Still, the blank page can sometimes be overwhelming, so here’s a quick 3-point prompt to give some shape to your daily entries each night.
1. Reflect on the day and talk about one win (big or small).
2. Talk about one failure or setback from the day, and something you learned from the experience.
3. Set an intention for the following day, and outline a couple actionable things you can do to achieve it.
3. MOTIVATION
Sometimes the embrace of a nice, warm bed is just too hard to resist. You hit the snooze alarm a few too many times, and before you know it you’ve missed your class. We’ve certainly all been there before, and can attest to the regret we all feel when we realize we’ve let ourselves down. But that’s where motivation comes in.
A Challenge is only as good as the incentive it provides. In our case, anyone who completes the challenge gets their $49 back as a credit on their account. We’re hoping that FREE MONEY will keep you sufficiently motivated for the duration of these two weeks.
But just in case you need more, here are a few other things to consider:
You’ll be strengthening your practice, and deepening your commitment
You’ll be setting new routines that you’ll be able to maintain long after the challenge is over
You’ll be learning more about yourself and what you’re capable of
You’ll be joining a community of like-minded individuals, inspiring (and being inspired by) others
4. ACCOUNTABILITY
One of the main reasons people never hit their goals (fitness or otherwise) is due to a lack of accountability. It’s also why people so often see results when they start working with personal trainers. The trainer forces you to show up — both for yourself and for them — and consistency has a compounding effect.
So let this Challenge double as your support system over the next couple of weeks. Be there for each other and find interesting ways to inspire one another. Know someone else in the Challenge? Post a photo to Instagram calling them out, text each other throughout the week, make sure you’re both staying on track.
You should also plan out your week and make sure you’re setting aside enough time for class each day. Write it down and commit yourself to maintaining a set schedule. And just like we discussed in #2, track your progress over the course of the week. Measuring the results will provide a daily reminder of the hard work you’re putting in.
5. TRANSFORMATION
At the end of these two weeks, we want you to feel like you’ve discovered a whole new part of yourself. Not someone new, but rather someone who was hiding. You’re bringing them out into the light, proving to yourself and others just what you’re capable of. There’s an ancient Chinese proverb, famous at this point, that says: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” The same is true with anything that matters in this world. Meaningful change begins with a single decision… a commitment… a plan.
All we can do is return to the mat.
Day after day.
It is the starting point of all change, both within ourselves and in the world.
Ready to join the November Challenge?
14 days of UNLIMITED Live Stream Classes for $49
Complete 14 classes in 14 days and we’ll apply that $49 to your bodē nyc account to be used for future classes or packages. Join NFL legend Tony Richardson as he leads us through a two-week Fitness Challenge!