Time’s tight, but you still want to improve your fitness and have fun at the same time, right? It’s time for mini fitness challenges that are fun and easy, convenient and free. Exercise is important, and if you want to get the most out of your life, it’s critical to find new ways to incorporate it into your lifestyle, no matter what. Adding these efficient and effective mini fitness challenges can be just what you need to take your fitness up a notch.

What Are Mini Fitness Challenges?

The thought of a “fitness challenge” may be daunting. But, before you close your browser and move on to something that looks a little less difficult, just take a moment to see what a mini fitness challenge is all about and how you can benefit from doing one yourself.

Mini fitness challenges can focus on one area of the body or the whole physique. The goal is to help you ramp up your fitness game by giving you interesting, enjoyable daily workouts to complete. Lasting anywhere from a week to a month, a mini fitness challenge will have you feeling stronger, leaner, and healthier, all while keeping a smile on your face.

No More Excuses

You may have used some of the following excuses in the past to avoid working out:

• No time
• No money
• No equipment
• Boring

Well, those excuses are no longer going to work for you, and here’s why:

The Benefits of Mini Fitness Challenges

The benefits of exercise are many and are well-known, but the benefits of mini fitness challenges can extend even beyond the benefits of simple exercise.

• On the cheap—most of these challenges don’t require much of an investment, if any.
• Different—getting bored can be detrimental when it comes to exercise. Keeping it fresh will help to keep your mind engaged and will have you looking forward to what’s next.
• Work different muscles—when you’re constantly switching it up, you’re going to automatically work various muscle groups you might not usually get to with a traditional workout routine.
• Simple to do—while the challenge may be more difficult to adhere to, the exercises involved in the mini challenges are short, quick, and simple.
• Portable—many fitness challenges only require your own bodyweight, or at most, a small and transportable piece of equipment like a jump rope or a yoga mat.
• Get stronger—without even realizing it, you’ll be getting stronger and more flexible along the way.
• Get healthy—because you’re having fun, and your mind and body are given a different project every day, before you know it, your health markers will improve across the board, and you’ll be feeling fit in no time.
• Competitive—whether you’re competing with friends or coworkers, or you’re competing with yourself, you can definitely take it to the next level by doing a fitness challenge. Competing makes it fun and gives you something to strive for.
• Bond with friends—and, if you do decide to participate in such a challenge, doing so with friends can be a great way to hang out, get to know each other better, and do something new, fun, and healthy together.

How Does a Mini Fitness Challenge Work?

Mini fitness challenges can be comprised of one type of exercise or activity, or a combo of exercises to form a mini routine. Done with or without friends, at home or at a gym, these quick, versatile workouts will get you results!

Try These Mini Fitness Challenges

You can either do a mini fitness challenge over a short time span (i.e., a one-month challenge) or, you can do a daily challenge for anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour. Here are some challenges for you to try:

Couch to 5K—this infamous challenge spans 9 weeks and has you ease into running by alternating bouts of walking and running. The running increases and the rest times decrease each day. At the end of 9 weeks, you should be able to run a full 5K race.

Jump Rope—the challenge here is to add more skips to your repertoire each day for 30 days. Start with 100 revolutions on day one and add 25 per day. Rest for 20 seconds after every 25 revolutions (or after 50 if you’re a superstar). Try to jump on a cushioned surface if possible, like a gym floor with mats or an aerobic room.

30-Day Plank Challenge—this is a fun exercise in which you try to increase the time you can do a plank. Start by doing a plank for 20 seconds on Day 1. Each day, increase your time in the plank position by 5 seconds.

Push-Up Challenge—The goal is to do 50 push-ups a day. Now, you can use a number you’re comfortable with if 50 sounds like too many, but the goal is to hit this number of pushups each and every day. No, you don’t have to do them all at once; you just need to complete the specified number of push-ups for the day. If you’re a beginner, start with pushups on your knees and work your way up to a regular pushup if you can.

52 Card Pickup—and, for the best challenge of all… make a list of 5 bodyweight exercises that you’d like to do, numbered 1 – 5 (for example, you might do the following):

Exercise 1: Jumping Jacks
Exercise 2: Pushups
Exercise 3: Crunches
Exercise 4: Bodyweight Squats
Exercise 5: Supermans

Next, take a deck of cards and pull a card. The first card you pick will indicate the number of repetitions you’ll do for the first exercise, the second card will be the number for the second exercise, etc. Aces, Kings, Queens, and Jacks equal 10 repetitions, other cards are face value, and if you get a Joker, pick a second card and do double that number of repetitions. Naturally, you can make up any variation of this game you like to suit your fitness needs (get it?!).

Apps for Mini Fitness Challenges

Were you even going to ask? Of course there’s an app for that! Here are a few to get you stared with a short description from each app’s creators:

• C25K Trainer for Google Play and 30-Day Ab Challenge—“a simple 30-day exercise plan where you do a set number of ab exercises each day,” slowing increasing intensity.
• 7-Minute Workout Challenge—“this research-proven workout guides you through the process. Further, it tracks your results and makes it fun by allowing you to unlock rewards as you continue working out.”
• 30-Day Squat Challenge—“The 30-Day Squat Challenge is a simple 30-day exercise plan, where you do a set number of squat exercises each day with rest days thrown in. The workout increases intensity slowly, and day 30 will test anyone.”