Here is our list of the best online team fitness classes & ideas for work.
Online team fitness ideas are physical contests and activities that improve the team’s physical and mental health and foster team bonding. Examples include Strong Teams, Yoga with Adrienne, and shadowboxing challenges. The purpose of these activities is to help create a culture of health in your company, promote workers’ mental and physical health, and increase productivity.
These experiences are examples of team workouts and employee wellness ideas.
This list includes:
- online team fitness classes
- online team fitness ideas
- virtual team building fitness activities
- Zoom group fitness classes
Let’s get physical!
List of online team fitness classes
Online team fitness classes will provide the motivation and encouragement that participants will not achieve with a solo fitness session. This list comprises online team fitness classes suitable for workers with varying physical endurance.
1. Yoga with Adrienne
Yoga is a mind and body practice that involves movement, breathing techniques, and meditation to promote physical and mental wellbeing. Regular yoga practices will help promote strength, flexibility, strength, well-being, and endurance for your team.
Yoga with Adriene is a subscription service offered by Adriene Mishler. You can access the free online yoga classes via YouTube, where you will enjoy daily yoga practices. You can also join the Find What Feels Good service, where your team will access exclusive yoga and meditation videos.
Learn more about Yoga with Adrienne.
2. Strong Teams
Strong Teams are 45-minutes professional fitness classes with different styles of exercise. An experienced fitness instructor who accommodates all levels of physical fitness will lead the workouts. These exercises do not require any equipment. However, participants should bring exercise or yoga mats for floor activities.
Types of fitness classes offered include yoga, dance cardio, strength training, HIIT, barre, and Pilates. Each class accommodates up to 30 guests. If you have a large group, then you can schedule multiple sessions or allow teams to select their preferred class.
3. Blogilates
Blogilates are strength training workouts that focus on abs and arms. Most sessions are 10 minutes or less, making these classes ideal for teams with only a few minutes to spare. With Blogilates, your team will access short and attainable workouts to tone and strengthen muscle.
Learn more about Blogites.
4. Move with Color
Move with Color offers free dance sessions between 10 to 45 minutes. Your team will enjoy a wide variety of music choices. The sessions are a great way to boost your team’s physical activities, learn new dance moves, and have fun while working out.
Learn more about Move with Color.
5. Heart and Soul Fitness
If you want a free HIIT workout for your team, then Heart and Soul YouTube sessions are a must-try. Heart and Soul Fitness offers quick workouts as short as 15 minutes. The workouts are enough to keep the team energized with guidance from two instructors. These classes do not require a lot of space and are ideal for participants with varying fitness levels.
Learn more about Heart and Soul Fitness.
6. Down Dog HIIT
Down Dog HIIT offers a variety of fitness and wellness options, including Yoga, HIIT, running, meditation, prenatal yoga, and Barre. The platform provides personalized workouts that are also ideal for teams. You can select one type of workout for your team or allow teams to choose their preferred workouts.
Learn more about Down Dog HIIT.
7. Heather Robertson
Heather Robertson is a certified personal trainer who offers a wide selection of free workouts on YouTube. If you are looking for low-impact and jump-free workouts for your team, then your group will enjoy the sizable library of routines. You may need to do a team warmup before these workouts since there are no cooldowns or warm-ups. You can make this activity more involving by having participants lead the winddowns and pre-class stretches. These timed workouts are best for fit teams or participants looking for a workout challenge.
Learn more about Heather Robertson.
8. Johnson & Johnson Official 7-minute workout
Johnson & Johnson Official 7-minute workouts are free 7 to 22 minutes workouts. Options include high-intensity circuit workouts. Although short, these exercises can be intense and may not be suitable for participants with health conditions. These teammates may want to sit out these workouts or make modifications. If done right, this challenge is one of the best online team fitness classes to get your team into the workout habit.
Learn more about The Johnson & Johnson Official 7-minute workout.
9. Daily Burn
If you want a variety of workouts for your team, then you will love the workouts offered by Daily Burn.
Daily Burn offers over 1,000 classes and includes:
- Full-body workouts
- Beginner exercises
- Cardio strength
- Barre
- Yoga
- Pilates
- Cardio kickboxing
- Flexibility and stretching workouts
Apart from the access to daily live workout classes, your team will also have access to tracking apps. You will find classes as short as 10 minutes and others up to one hour long.
Learn more about Daily Burn.
10. Booya Fitness
Booya Fitness offers a range of cardio workouts, including dance, Barre, bodyweight sculpting, HIIT, boot camp, and sports conditioning. The workouts require minimal equipment and are ideal for virtual teams. With the live streaming pop music options, expect your team to have fun as they work out.
Learn more about Booya Fitness.
List of online team fitness ideas
Adding these challenges to your work routine will ensure your team achieves optimal physical fitness and mental wellbeing, even if working from home. Our list of online team fitness ideas will also foster team bonding among workers.
11. Walking challenge
The walking challenge is one of the simplest yet most effective virtual team building fitness activities. You will ask all participants to record 10,000 steps daily for this challenge. Participants can use fitness tracking apps such as Samsung Health, FitBit, or The Activity app to record the number of steps.
Employees will take a picture of the number of daily steps on the tracking apps and share it with the team. To motivate participants, have an incentive for the person who records most steps. Any team player can participate in this activity.
12. Stretch challenge
If your virtual team sits at their home offices all day, then workers need this stretch challenge to loosen up the limbs. For this challenge, you can compile stretch exercises that all participants can do. Ask all participants to have a yoga mat and complete the stretch workouts on Zoom. To make the exercise more interesting, have a rotational schedule where each participant leads the team in doing the stretches. This activity is ideal for a short virtual workout that you can do before or after work sessions.
13. Plank it challenge
Planks are one of the simplest yet most engaging online team fitness ideas. This move improves participants’ endurance and strength. Planks require minimal workout equipment and range from a few seconds to minutes. Participants will bring a slip-safe mat and workout shoes to do this exercise. For the plank-it challenges, set a time where all participants will be available for the challenge. We recommend starting with a 30 seconds plank challenge. You can then upgrade to the one-minute plank challenge and increase the time depending on the team’s endurance level.
Ensure that you have a team leader who will demonstrate the correct form to prevent injuries. However, be aware that this challenge is not ideal for workers who suffer from medical conditions that hinder them from engaging in intense physical activities.
14. Deep breathing challenge
Deep breathing exercises have a calming effect on the brain and reduce stress. The participants will partake in a three-minute deep breathing exercise for this challenge. Set a time where every participant will log to a collaborative platform such as Zoom. Once all participants join the platform, guide them into inhaling to a count of four, holding to a count of four, and exhaling to a count of four. When doing this challenge with my team, I start the inhale, hold, and exhale with a count of two and progress to a count of five. You can also use this challenge before and after a workout session.
15. Shadowboxing challenge
Boxing is an excellent upper body workout. Shadowboxing is a workout where participants throw defensive punches at their own shadow. This challenge is a great virtual fitness activity that does not require complex workout equipment. For this challenge, ask participants to wear comfortable workout clothes and optional boxing gloves. You can either hold this challenge on Zoom or ask participants to record a five to ten-minute shadowboxing session and share it with the team.
16. Fresh exercise challenge
Doing similar workouts every day can get mundane. However, introducing a new workout each day or week can increase the motivation to work out. For this challenge, you can send a new workout to the team daily or weekly. You can also let each participant introduce a new workout and explain the routine’s benefits, challenges, and safety considerations. Different Zoom group fitness classes are clever ways to get each participant involved in the fitness and wellness journey.
17. Park and walk challenge
Most folks prefer to park their cars as close to a destination as possible. However, walking for a few minutes can keep your team fit even without other workout challenges. For this activity, participants will park a distance away from their destinations. For instance, participants can park several blocks from the grocery store and walk for a few minutes. Participants can record the distance they walk instead of driving and share the results at the end of the week.
18. Push up challenge
If you are looking for a fun, simple, yet challenging fitness activity for your team, then you need to try the push-up challenge. For this activity, you will set the number of push-ups that every participant will do. You can also let participants do as many push-ups as possible within a specified time.
Before the challenge, brief the team on the correct push-up form. I ensure that every participant gets the form right by requiring them to do one push-up as other participants watch, and the results are often hilarious. You can give a prize to the participant who does the most push-ups. I also reward the most improved contestant.
19. Stairs challenge
Often ignored, taking stairs is a great physical activity that you can plan for your workers. For this simple challenge, ask workers to take the stairs instead of the lift. Participants will record the number of steps taken and share them with the team. You can set an incentive for the player who records the most steps.
20. Squat challenge
Squats are workouts that target lower body muscles. For this challenge, participants will record themselves doing 15 squats and share the video with the team. You can also do a joint squat challenge where you invite participants to a Zoom call. At the onset of the challenge, you will find that participants may dread the next day’s squat challenge. However, as endurance improves, enthusiasm for the activity may grow.
To prevent soreness and keep the team motivated, start with five squats and gradually increase the number of squats. First, however, ensure that all participants are free from knee and joint problems.
21. Meditation challenge
Meditation has a positive effect on productivity and mental wellbeing. You can conduct an eight-minute meditation challenge for team members. Each participant will bring a yoga mat and stay in a serene spot in their home. Ask participants to switch off all gadgets apart from the collaboration platform. You can guide attendees through the meditation or ask them to install a meditation app. This challenge is incredibly impactful at the start or end of a workday.
22. Eight-hour sleep challenge
Lack of sleep and poor-quality sleep are significant causes of stress and unproductivity among workers. Inadequate sleep may increase workers’ irritability, inability to concentrate, and chances of injuries and serious accidents. Employees tend to have disruptive and irregular sleep patterns with remote work arrangements.
For this challenge, you will ask participants to download a sleep cycle tracking app and create a challenge where employees will get quality sleep for eight hours daily. You can set the challenge for seven to 21 days. Once done, employees will share the results of the experience.
To encourage healthier sleeping patterns, acknowledge participants with the healthiest sleep patterns. Be sure to look at the sleep duration and the quality of sleep. This challenge will encourage workers to adopt better sleep hygiene.
23. Healthy eating challenge
Healthy eating is a significant component of good physical health. By encouraging workers to eat healthier, you promote both physical and mental well-being. For this challenge, you can ask participants to share a picture of one nutritious meal eaten during the day. You can also ask employees to share videos of preparing a healthy meal such as a salad.
If you want to make this activity more engaging and foster team building, then schedule a day that each participant will teach the entire team how to make a healthy and simple meal or snack. Participants can also share a list of healthy snacks they have eaten throughout the day.
24. Hydration challenge
I thought this was a simple wellness challenge until I tried it with my team. This challenge requires participants to take the daily recommended amount of water. Since the amount of water consumed may come from food and other drinks, you can have a challenge where every participant takes 2 liters of plain water daily.
Participants can use a water tracking app or water bottles to track progress. Be sure to give participants the freedom to modify the water intake based on the environment, overall health, and physical activity. This challenge will help increase water intake for people who do not consume enough water throughout the day.
25. Salsa
Salsa is a fun physical fitness exercise that serves as an aerobic and cardio workout. For this fitness activity, participants can do the basic salsa steps with family members, partners, or friends. Participants can record the dance and share the video with the team. You can make this activity more interesting by having a salsa instructor teach participants new moves to replicate with their families.
26. Virtual run
A virtual run is a clever way to get your team up and about. For this activity, set a route based on your team’s capabilities. For instance, you can target a five-kilometer run. Participants will record the activity on run tracking apps and share the data with the team.
Some of these apps include:
- Strava
- RunKeeper
- Charity Miles
- Runtastic
- Endomondo
You can reward the fastest participant with clever gifts such as running shoes. I like a five-kilometer run challenge as it gets my team out of their comfort zones.
27. One-minute wall sit challenge
I always thought wall sit exercises were simple until I tried a two-minute wall sit challenge. For the activity, participants will sit against a wall without using any chairs for one minute. Ensure that each participant maintains the proper form. You can reward participants who complete the challenge with several points. You can do the wall sit challenge before beginning a workday, week, or meeting.
This challenge is among my best online team fitness ideas with my team. We are now at a two-minute wall sit challenge with my team!
Check out more online challenges for teams.
Conclusion
Online team fitness classes and ideas are a great way to improve your workers’ productivity, encourage daily movement, and boost workers’ physical health and mental wellbeing. The challenges also help remote workers to bond and can be fun when integrated with wellness initiatives. Combining fun fitness challenges and wellness challenges is a great way to ensure that workers form and maintain healthy habits.
For more online team building group classes, check out these lists of virtual tea tasting and virtual coffee tasting experiences.
We also have a list of Mental Health Awareness Month ideas.
Grace He