Interested in Virtual Team Building Events?
9 mins 
If your team has been working from home for a while, you would know all too well the struggle to stick to your fitness goals. There’s a limited range of motion and since everything happens on the screen we tend to move around a lot less. Now we all know the classic adage- “Health is Wealth” and it’s widely known that a healthy workforce performs better which in turn helps the organization as a whole. So, as employers, how can you help your remote employees stay fit? The answer is virtual team fitness challenges.
To help you get started on this fitness journey, we have put together a comprehensive list of virtual team fitness challenges for teams that are both simple and easy to take up. Let’s dive in!
1. 9 Virtual Team Fitness Challenges to Try Out
1.1. Meditation With Hooray Teams
Meditation relieves stress and helps you achieve a state of calm that can be very handy at the workplace. This is one of the virtual team fitness challenges that everyone can participate in as a team. Our pick is the Online Meditation Class by our sister site Hooray Teams. This 60-minute guided session is helmed by a meditation guru who will help you learn the basics of practicing mindfulness along with breathing exercises.
All you need is -
- You will require access to Zoom
- A quiet spot to meditate
Who Can Participate: Beginners and experienced
How Often: Regularly
Tools You’ll Need: Just book a session at Hooray Teams
1.2. The Stretch Challenge
Stretching exercises are a great idea among top virtual team fitness challenges. You and your team get to practice a series of full, half, and modified stretches to help relax and loosen up taut muscles.
Participants also have the option to initially do the challenge as a group or privately and individually. Stretching for 10-15 minutes in a session helps participants improve their posture, which is essential if you have a desk job where you’re hunched over a monitor or laptop for several hours. There are plenty of online 30-day yoga challenge apps you can choose from, some of our picks are StretchIt and Start Stretching. You can even try a Chair Yoga Class by Hooray Teams if you are looking for a low-impact fitness class for the whole team.
Who Can Participate: Yoga practitioners would fare better but anybody can take part in this.
How Often: Three to five days a week, or a short session in tandem with other fitness challenges.
Tools You’ll Need: Yoga mat(optional), towel and a bottle of water
(People with heart conditions or a history of injury should consult their physician before taking part.)
1.3. Sleepathon Challenge
We dug out a report from the Academy of Management that studied the effects of sleep deprivation. The result? People in leadership who slept poorly were more irritable and abusive, which adversely impacted their interactions and decision-making abilities.
The Sleepathon is one of the virtual team fitness challenges that aims to correct this. You can have the team install an app such as Pillow or Better Sleep which will remind them to get enough sleep. Individuals can measure their progress by checking if they got in more and better sleep, or were able to identify what keeps them awake. Everyone can send in their screenshots of the app in a shared group so that everyone stays on track. This is one of the virtual fitness challenges that anyone can partake in irrespective of their fitness level.
Who Can Participate: Everyone
How Often: Check in weekly or monthly
Tools You’ll Need: Sleep tracking app
1.4. 1-Minute Plank Challenge
Planks are a part of core workouts and help improve one’s strength and endurance. There are plank challenges that range from a few seconds to hours. However, the latter virtual exercise challenge is recommended only for more experienced people. For a virtual team fitness challenge, a few seconds to a minute plank challenge will suffice.
The correct form and posture should be demonstrated by someone or through a tutorial before getting started to prevent incidents of injury. You can time the virtual team fitness challenges and increase the timer gradually, from 20 seconds to a minute or two, with each time corresponding to a level. For example, people who can maintain their position beyond a minute are Beasts, while those who manage 30 seconds are beginners!
Who Can Participate: People who don’t have any underlying medical conditions.
How Often: Once a week or 4-5 times a month
Tools You’ll Need: Shoes, breathable clothing, and a slip-safe mat with cushioning for the elbows and toes.
1.5. The 5k Walk Challenge
Walks are known to be the best ways to build up cardiovascular health. Additionally, everyone on your team irrespective of age can join in this online fitness challenge. It is one of the most inclusive virtual fitness challenge ideas on this list.
Challenge your teams to beat their own records for walking. You can start at 5K and then raise it to higher figures as everyone’s stamina builds up. Participants can opt to use their phone’s built-in pedometer, wear a step counter, or download a tracking app that counts the number of steps walked.
Who Can Participate: Anyone
How Often: As often as you can or recommended by your physician
Tools You’ll Need: Step counter app
(People with pre-existing conditions or a history of injury should consult their physician before taking part.)
1.6. Cook Healthy, Eat Healthy Challenge
This virtual team fitness challenge helps make nutritious meals a part of your employee's daily diet. Everyone can maintain a journal on apps like Penzu or Diarium documenting recipes or switch to healthy alternatives. For example, a member who consistently maintains their track record of snacking on baked crisps or roasted nuts over fries gets extra points on their score thus helping keep their fitness motivation high.
Members can also boost their scores on the leaderboard by posting pictures or videos of their culinary experiments or participating in a recipe swap for the week. ,
Who Can Participate: Anyone
How Often: As per set diet schedule
Tools You’ll Need: Online cookbooks and an app like My Net Diary to start.
1.7. Squat and Lunge Challenge
Squats and lunges are exercises that target the back, gluteal muscles, calves, and hamstrings. They are a great workout for sedentary workers looking to enjoy virtual team fitness challenges together. The team can set targets in terms of the number of sets and types of lunges and squats to do (such as walking lunges, or wall squats).
You can calendar the event and have everyone turn their video on. If members are unable to join in, they can record themselves instead and upload their videos on a group channel.
Who Can Participate: Anyone free from a history of back, knee, or joint aches.
How Often: Once or twice a week
Tools You’ll Need: Fitness trackers like 7-minute workout or Nike training club app.
(People with heart conditions or a history of injury should consult their physician before taking part.)
1.8. Shadow Boxing Challenge
Many people are daunted by the prospect of punching or sparring, but shadow boxing is a great upper-body workout to get started on. As the name suggests, you won’t be punching an object but will throw defensive and offensive punches at your own shadow. Apps like Shadow Boxing App and Fight Camp are great starting places for your shadow boxing journey.
Challenge participants can also opt to use a punching bag but will need gym gloves to cover and protect their hands.
Who Can Participate: Anyone, barring people with pre-existing health conditions
How Often: Twice weekly or once in a fortnight
Tools You’ll Need: Comfortable clothing & Boxing gloves
(People with heart conditions or a history of injury should consult their physician before taking part.)
1.9. Hydration Challenge
Getting enough water is as important as eating right, which is what this virtual team health and fitness challenge sets out to help members accomplish. You can turn it into a contest where whoever clocks in their water intake consistently for the duration of the challenge, wins.
The amount varies depending on your gender, environment, and level of activity, but according to the Mayo Clinic’s recommendations, the average person should drink between 2.7 to 3.5 liters of water a day. They’ll need to either set reminders themselves or download a water-tracking app that will remind them to have a glass.
Who Can Participate: Everyone
How Often: Everyday
Tools You’ll Need: Hydration app
Read our articles on virtual meditation classes, virtual yoga classes, and virtual chair yoga classes for tips on relaxation, stress relief, and improved overall well-being from the comfort of your own home.
You can also explore our articles on virtual Zumba classes for a fun and energetic way to stay active and boost your fitness.
2. FAQS
2.1. What are virtual team fitness challenges?
Virtual team fitness challenges are activities designed specifically for online members. There’s a mix of solo and team exercises. In groups, teams join a meeting link at the appointed hour and go through the sets. Solo challenges can be taken at one’s convenience and according to personal preferences.
2.2. How do you do a virtual fitness challenge?
With so many options for virtual conferencing, everything is a lot easier, including taking part in virtual fitness challenges. You can make things interesting by creating a leaderboard to indicate who all are consistent. Vying for the top spots, especially for group challenges, brings out your team’s competitive side.
2.3. What are some virtual fitness challenge ideas suitable for remote teams?
Any virtual fitness challenge ideas for remote teams should be designed based on the level of comfort and familiarity with the activity. Remote teams can indulge in walking, warm-up, or calisthenics together since it requires no equipment. Even water and sleep tracking can be a group activity in order to help remote teams stay productive and fresh when they are logged in.
2.4. How do fitness challenges help teams bond better?
Challenges give teams a shared goal to work towards, which in the case of fitness, is to stay healthier and fitter together. Teams can bond over pep talks, workout routines, and what works or does not work for them on an individual basis.
2.5. How do I decide if the challenges are safe and inclusive?
Include your team in decisions regarding virtual team fitness challenges. You can ask them privately if there are any exercises or workouts that they are advised not to take up due to comorbidities. Come up with a list of challenges that are safe and fun to try out.
