How D2C Fitness Brands Can Use Challenges To Boost Engagement and Build Community

Social media fitness challenges are all over the popular FitTok and GymTok sides of TikTok. Trends like the Hot Girl Walk, Leg Day or No Sugar Challenge can be major drivers of engagement and community building — especially when well-known influencers enter the ring. With the right approach, fitness challenges can introduce or reinforce a brand, foster customer loyalty and drive conversions.

So, how do you leverage these viral trends? Let’s look at how D2C brands can engage followers, reach new audiences, and generate buzz by creating fitness challenges on FitTok and other social media platforms.

The Power of Social Media Challenges

Fitness challenges are more than just viral trends — they are potential engagement powerhouses that can deliver significant marketing value. Fitness-related content generates billions of views on TikTok, with hashtags like #FitTok, #FitnessChallenge and #WorkoutChallenge consistently trending.

A well-crafted challenge encourages user participation, which drives likes, shares and comments. When users repeatedly engage with a challenge over days or weeks, they develop a deeper connection with the activity — and a deeper relationship with the brand behind it. Capital One’s 2025 branding statistics highlight that 90% of American consumers buy from brands they trust, and 46% are willing to pay more for a brand they trust. Building a community of engaged social media followers can help generate that trust.

According to insights from Nielsen, when brands integrate their name, products or messaging into branded content, they create a lasting impression on their audience. Capturing interest with interactive fitness challenges can lead to better organic reach as users tag friends, duet videos, or remix content — creating a viral loop that amplifies brand exposure. When combined with influencer partnerships — where trusted fitness creators introduce, promote, and participate — these challenges can further boost brand visibility and credibility.

According to Myriah Castillo, Joybyte’s Director of Social Strategy, “In the right atmosphere, we’ve seen fitness trends be a successful top-funnel strategy to introduce a brand name or product to new audiences.”

Whether the goal is increasing brand awareness, driving sales, or strengthening a fitness community, social media challenges can be a top-tier strategy for D2C fitness brands. So how do you get started? We’ve got the formula!

How To Start a Fitness Trend on Social Media

Starting a fitness trend on social media isn’t only about going viral. It’s about creating a challenge that resonates with your intended audience, encourages participation and builds community over time. For the greatest chances of success, prioritize a campaign that’s engaging, easy to share and fun.

Follow these tips to create a social media fitness trend that keeps your brand at the center of it all.

• Understand Your Audience: You can’t start a trend until you know what gets your followers going. So, make a plan: Analyze current or recent trending challenges, identify what resonates with your target demographic and build your challenge to meet your viewers where they are.
• Create a Simple Challenge: Keep barriers to participation minimal and the timeline manageable — whether it’s a seven-day ab challenge, a daily plank challenge or stitching to add moves to a group dance workout routine.
• Encourage User-Generated Content: Make it easy for participants to tag, duet or stitch your challenge. A clear call to action means your audience can get in on the challenge right away, and this can be a key driver of overall campaign success.
• Leverage Fitness Influencers: Collaborate with a fitness influencer agency to partner with key creators on FitTok, Instagram or your preferred social platform. These influencers can drive engagement and improve the chances of your challenge going viral.

Creating a Strong Association

Your brand should be strongly associated with the trend you’ve so carefully crafted and launched — but how do you ensure you remain connected? While you’re planning your content creation and challenge launch, keep these important factors in mind:

• Consistent Branding: Create a hashtag that features your brand name, work in a custom soundbite or create signature moves that reflect your brand values or products. Baking in the branding can improve the association between challenge and your company.
• Engage With Participants: Dedicate time to commenting, liking, sharing and highlighting user-generated content to connect with your audience.
• Incentivize Participation: Including prizes or giveaways as part of the challenge can draw in more participants, improving your reach and engagement rate.
• Level It Up: When your challenge takes off, introduce new “leveled up” or “hard mode” instances to keep the momentum going.
• Follow Up: A challenge isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it type of campaign. Check in with your followers via video snippets or polls to see how they’re faring and offer encouragement or shout-outs to followers who have been participating.

New Versus Existing Trends: Which Is Right for Your Brand?

With FitTok and other social media platforms filled with viral trends and longtime favorite challenges, is there any reason to throw your own trend into the ring? Likely, yes!

Creating a new challenge infuses it with your brand’s authority and sets you apart. You’ll have better control over the messaging and may be able to forge a stronger brand association. However, developing a brand new challenge takes extra effort to gain traction — and it may not break through to become viral without significant effort (and luck).

Joining existing fitness trends may be an easier and faster way to gain visibility and allow you to add a unique twist to something that already exists — but you risk getting lost in the noise if you haven’t incorporated strong branding to set yourself apart.

Fitness challenges aren’t just trends: When done well, they can be powerful tools for creating awareness, boosting engagement and building brand loyalty. Brands that consistently innovate, collaborate and engage with their audience will see the most success when launching or joining a social media fitness trend. Whether you’re creating a new challenge or jumping into an existing one, authenticity is key. 

For more social media strategy and engagement tips, explore our blog — or contact us today to see how we can help your brand succeed on your preferred platforms.