New Member Challenges - Gym Owner Monthly Article

Gym challenges are a great way of boosting member engagement, giving members something to aim for and a sense of achievement, and giving instructors a (much needed) excuse to talk to members.

However, many fitness challenges are too challenging. They only motivate the kind of people who are already motivated. You don’t need to work hard for these members, it’s the quieter ones, or new members that need the boost. As fitness professionals we think it’s our job to push all members to the limit, but that will put many off (see my October 19 Gym Owner Monthly article about onboarding). You need to aim low to motivate the members that need it. 

Simple, Inclusive and Varied

The best challenges are simple, inclusive and varied. Sometimes, it’s worth dropping the word challenge, as this itself puts off some members. Events that allow you to “Donate your moves”, or “Join the 5% club” can be more appealing to the masses. Getting new members into the habit of joining challenges is a great way to build a connection.


Ultimately, fitness challenges improve engagement and retention because they give instructors something to talk to members about. Really good challenges get members talking to each other too, and help increase the feeling of community, or club within your club. The more inclusive they are, the better. Build clubs, not cliques.

Here are a couple of challenges to run for new members that have just joined your club:

Zero to Hero

There are lots of “Couch to 5k” apps, which are reasonably successful at getting inactive people active. Breaking down the huge (to some) goal of being able to run 5km into manageable chunks, and offering motivation and encouragement is why people buy into these apps.

So, offer your new members a plan to make them fully fledged gym members within a month. Integrate them into the ways of your club as soon as possible. Some new members will do this by default, but others need a helping hand.

The Zero to Hero plan is not an app, simply a tick list of achievements. Pick a handful from these or make up your own.

• Gym orientation (attend and complete gym ‘induction’)
• Make at least 1 visit per week for the first 4 weeks
• Make at least 6 visits in the first 30 days
• Attend at least 1 fitness class in the first 30 days
• Complete the new members survey (sent to you by email in week 2)
• Login to the member portal
• Follow us on Facebook or twitter
• Check in on Facebook or leave a comment
• Bring a friend with your guest pass

The list can be as short or long as you wish, with the achievements simple or hard. You can run it on a simple member card with a stamp for achievements, or through your front of house system with triggered communications.

All italicised numbers can be tailored, but the trick is to communicate with the member throughout the journey.
When they’re on track, or achieve a milestone, congratulate them.
If they’re looking like they might fail, encourage them… for example, someone who’s not visited for 6 days could get a nudge message to make that weekly visit.
Of course, you want them to succeed, so deadline extensions and lenience can help as bonus interactions that get the member really integrated into the fabric of your club, after which, they’re never going to leave!

The Hi-five Challenges

The Hi-five Challenges are specifically aimed at new members and are a series of challenges that you progress through in turn. They are not necessarily progressively harder but use gamification to motivate members and get them into the exercise habit. Each challenge should be completed before starting the next one.
Existing members could also join the Hi-five challenges, especially those returning from absence.

Each challenge is supposed to take a few weeks to complete, but there’s no limit. It’s possible that one or two members could run a marathon in one or two visits, but in reality, most members will take 20-40 visits to run 42km. All stats can be recorded through the club app, or manually added to a spreadsheet daily.

1. Make 2,500 MOVEs (Technogym) or collect 1,300 MEPs (myzone)
2. Burn 3,500 kCal
3. Row 6,800m
4. Cycle 100km
5. Run 42km

The mywellness challenge app manages these ‘perpetual’ challenges by awarding prizes as entry to the next challenge in the series. For clubs not using mywellness, it’s as simple as keeping a manual spreadsheet for each challenge that is updated daily with totals for members, and regularly updating a whiteboard or printing league tables to pin to the noticeboard and publishing on social media
If you have a budget for an award for completing the Hi-Five challenge, you really can’t go wrong with a branded t-shirt or referral voucher worth £50.

Challenge calendar

Planning your fitness challenges for the whole year is a great idea, so you and your members can see what’s coming up. Download your challenge calendar template at ggfit.com/challenge.

It’s OK to run more challenging challenges occasionally to appeal to your hardcore members. But most of your fitness challenges should appeal to most of your members. Keep challenges simple, inclusive, and varied to motivate the masses, not the few.

This article was originally published in the January 2020 issue of Gym Owner Monthly.