Rohit Tiwari- Fitness Challenge Insights from a Winner

If you are paying attention to the fitness world, you must have already noticed that fitness challenges are the new fad. From celebrities on Instagram to people around you, everyone, everywhere, seems to be either hosting or participating in a fitness challenge.

SocialBoat hosted a ‘5K Calories Challenge’ last month and received a pleasantly surprising participation. Rohit Tiwari, the coach with the largest community of 72 people, managed to bag the winning rewards. Here, he shares his experience of winning the challenge, what he did differently, what he learned from it, his fitness journey, and so much more.

Rohit’s father was a physiotherapist and he grew up in an environment that focused on physical activity. However, he started moving towards a more serious, structured, and dedicated fitness journey in the year 2012.  Rohit had realized that his passion was fitness. He says,

“If I had a choice I would eat, sleep, wake up in the gym itself.”

Rohit had been working as a marketing professional since 2004 and his fitness coaching was a part-time job. Meanwhile, he got his certification from the American Council of Exercise (ACE) and topped it up with a certification in Sports Performance Specialist. Finally, around Diwali 2021, Rohit thought it was finally time to take the plunge and make fitness training his full-time profession, now that he had the required knowledge and experience to do so.

Read on to know valuable tips for the challenge and for fitness training-

Yes, fitness challenges work and there is a science behind it.

Because of the increasing popularity of fitness challenges, it has even been called a myth by a number of people. To put an end to all the speculation, Rohit, the expert himself, explains the science behind the fitness challenges. They work because of two reasons-

1. Learning with the community.

When a community of like-minded people is constantly engaging with each other, sharing their accomplishments and progress, they automatically complement each other’s hard work and motivate them further.

2. Defined purpose and short sprints.

Fitness challenges last for a short duration of time and hence the goal to be achieved is clearer and the motivation is higher. If the duration is too long, it fails the purpose. People lose interest.

Rohit’s Learnings from the Fitness Challenge

Social Boat’s fitness challenge was Rohit’s first experience in leading a fitness challenge. Rohit says that it was a pleasant surprise for him because he did not expect such massive participation in his community.

“Along with being fun, the fitness challenge week was equally hectic because the engagement was so high. All the participants were fully involved in the challenge. They were even asking for justification and proof from each other, further reiterating the competitive spirit and that they were serious about the goal.”

There are two major observations that Rohit had from the challenge, which he hopes to implement in his future challenges for better results-

1. Reference network

The biggest credit for the extraordinary participation in Rohit’s community goes to the ripple effect that was created by community members and friends. They were referring the challenge further to their friends who were participating with equal enthusiasm. So much so that even on the last two days of the challenge, there were new members signing up!

“The whole network in the community working together definitely got a lot of members for the challenge,” Rohit says.

2. A challenge with a difference

“What I also noticed was that a high-intensity training program caught a lot of interest from the participants. There were people cycling and doing other things which were perhaps very limiting because not everyone has access. At the end of the day, for burning calories, one would walk or run.”

Therefore for the future, Rohit has made a note to create a challenge that can stand out, one that has a differentiating factor, and comes with a lot of variety.

Goals for 2022

As mentioned above, It is only now that Rohit has made fitness training his full-time profession. Based on what he has learned through experience so far, these are his goals for the next year-

1. Rohit says that fitness training is a very unregulated industry, where there is almost no filter for genuine and false information. Moreover, every individual is different, and they have their respective medical histories. Hence, giving generic fitness advice won’t be as effective for each individual. The aim should be to encourage people to consult their physicians and understand any deficiencies or physical needs. Rohit wishes to work towards providing people with advice that is backed by research-based data so that there are no unwanted repercussions. Similarly, training programs should be designed taking into consideration everyone’s respective fitness goals and medical background.
2. His next goal is to reach out to corporates about best ergonomic practices for employees who do not have the time to work out regularly. For example, issues like how should their posture be improved to minimize strain.
3. In a personal capacity, Rohit wishes to reach out to at least 5-6 individuals and work with them very closely on their transformational fitness journey.

Rohit has useful insights to offer for all those who are currently hosting or participating in fitness challenges. You can also keep these in mind when you organize a fitness challenge in the future.

For more insights from fitness coaches, visit SocialBoat.