A challenge, you say?  What is this?!?
The Nerd Fitness Challenge is a six-week long event where members of the community come up with four goals that they would like to achieve.

 

They then come up with a plan on how to achieve those goals, and work towards achieving them over the course of the six weeks. 

 

At the end, we pick a winner who gets an awesome prize (usually something from the Nerd Fitness store) and an awesome badge for their profile.

Sounds great, I’m in! When does it start?
The challenges run for 6 weeks with a week (sometimes two) break in between. The (tentative) dates for the challenges in 2013 are as follows:

• January 7 - February 18
• February 25 - April 8
• April 15 - May 27 - CURRENT
• June 3 - July 15
• July 29 - September 16
• September 23 - November 4
• November 11 - December 23

Ok! I’m ready! What do I do?

 

ONE - SIGN UP

You can find the signup sheet for the current challenge here.  Your name for this is your username, not your real name.

TWO - DECLARE YOUR GOALS

Pick 3 Diet and Fitness Goals and 1 "Level Up Your Life" Goal. These goals should be SMART goals - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely.

So, basically, it should be realistic that you can complete them in the 6 weeks, and there should be an easy way to measure your progress and how you did. However, they should be realistic but also challenging - that is, you need to actually work for them.

Also, read this: How not to suck at goal setting.

Examples of good goals:

 

• Run a 5k without stopping
• Back Squat 250 five times (in one set!)
• Go to the gym 5 times a week.
• Cut out soda completely
• Pay $1000 towards debt

Examples of bad goals:

• Work out 17 hours per day (not smart)
• Lose Weight (not measurable)
• Run a 5k in 12 minutes (not attainable)
• Squat 1,000lbs 5 times (not realistic)
• Pay off ALL $30,000 of your student loan debt (not timely unless you win the lottery)

Also, I strongly suggest you ONLY pick four goals.  The more goals you have the LESS LIKELY you are to succeed.

 

 

 

THREE - PICK A GROUP TO JOIN

Since we have a large number of competitors, we like to keep everyone in smaller groups based on their goals.  Since this is Nerd Fitness, we create our groups based on "class" or "profession".  Your main goals will determine what class to join.

Notes about your class:

• Yes, you absolutely have to pick a class and you can not make up your own!
• You do not need to pick a race. That’s just for fun. The class is the only required part.
• No, you can not multi-class for this
• Yes, you can change your class per challenge. So if you focused on running one challenge, you could be a scout, and then when you realized running is miserable (LOVE YOU DAWSY) you could make your next challenge be about barbell training and be a warrior.
• You don't need to do anything "official" or fill out any form to join the group.

More info on classes here. 

 

FOUR - CREATE YOUR THREAD AND COME UP WITH A PLAN
In the challenge area of the forums you will see subforums for each class. Find your class subforum and create a thread there.

In the thread, you should include the following items:

• Your starting point. Whatever you want to include here - weight, height, starting lifts, photos (you should take photos even if you do not post them!)
• Your goals
• How you plan to achieve those goals over the next 6 weeks.

Please put your username in the name of the thread.

FIVE - ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS

• Put your plan into place and work towards achieving your goals!
• Post updates to your thread at least three times a week. Some people post more, but the minimum is 3 times a week. These updates do not need to be long (We would definitely rather you be achieving your goals than writing about them), but are more to hold you accountable.
•  

SIX - PARTICIPATE IN SIDE CHALLENGES/ENCOURAGE OTHER CHALLENGERS/ACCOUNTABILIBUDDIES

• If you want to create or join an accountability group, I have created a spreadsheet for this here.  The idea for this is you create a smaller group to hold yourself accountable.  We have created an accountabilibuddy forum for your team threads here.
• Commenting on other challengers threads encouraging them or offering ideas is highly encouraged, even if you are not in an accountabilibuddy group with them.
• Mini challenges will be posted throughout the challenge. There is no specific amount or frequency or mini challenges.

SEVEN - GRADE YOURSELF

• Grade yourself on a A-F scale for each goal, and give yourself an overall grade.
• Post a summary in your classes summary thread (will be posted after the challenge is over) by the Friday after the challenge ends.
• If you are playing our Real Life Role Playing Game award yourself your earned attribute points.

 

HOW WE PICK A WINNER

 

• At the end of the challenge, one of the Guild Leaders will post a thread asking for your challenge summary and grading. Post your grade and a quick summary of your challenge in this thread. Summaries must be posted by the Friday after the challenge ends.

The Guild Leaders will pick one winner from each Guild by the sunday after the challenge ends. Winners will be based on the following:

• Completion of goals
• Mini Challenge Participation
• Participation in other’s challenges (helping others out, even if it’s just encouragement)

The guild leaders will then all get together and pick a winner. 

LEGAL STUFF!

 

In order to be eligible for a prize you must: 

• Sign up by the first Wednesday after the starting date of the challenge.
• post an update to your challenge at least three times per week for the six weeks of the challenge.
• Complete in the side challenge for your guild
• Post your challenge summary and grade into the challenge summary thread (will be created on the last day of the challenge) by the Friday after the challenge ends.
• No purchase necessary to enter or win. Anyone over the age of 18 as of the first day of the challenge is eligible to enter.

**NOTE: If you want to play our real life role playing game, these challenges are how you gain attribute points.

***If you're coming into this late, you can still join at anytime (even if there's only a week left).  You just aren't eligible to win (however, any sort of upgrade to your life is a win in my book )