Top 16 'Grit-Gauging' Fitness Challenges to do at home to Forge Mental Fortitude This Year - Goh Ling Yong
Ever feel like you’re stuck in a fitness rut? You go through the motions, tick the box for your workout, but the fire just isn’t there. You’re maintaining, but not growing. The truth is, physical plateaus are often symptoms of mental ones. To truly break through, you need to challenge not just your muscles, but your mind. This is where the concept of "grit" comes in—that potent combination of passion and perseverance that allows you to push through when everything in you screams "quit."
This year, let's shift the focus from just aesthetics or performance to something deeper: forging unshakeable mental fortitude. The beauty of this goal is that you don’t need a fancy gym membership or expensive equipment. Your living room, garage, or backyard can become the perfect crucible for testing your limits and building resilience. The challenges we’ve curated are designed to be uncomfortable. They will test your discipline, patience, and your ability to sit with the burn and keep moving forward.
Here at Goh Ling Yong's blog, we believe that the strength you build wrestling with a barbell or battling through the final rep translates directly to how you handle challenges outside the gym. So, clear some space, take a deep breath, and get ready to discover what you’re really made of. Pick one of these 16 grit-gauging challenges and commit. Your future self will thank you.
1. The 100 Burpees a Day Challenge (For 30 Days)
This challenge is as simple as it is brutal. The rule: perform 100 burpees every single day for 30 consecutive days. It's not about how fast you can do them; it's about the unwavering commitment to show up and get them done, no matter how you feel. The burpee is a full-body movement that demands cardiovascular and muscular endurance, making it a highly efficient—and humbling—exercise.
The real test, however, is the mental grind. Around day four or five, the novelty wears off, and the excuses creep in. "I'm too tired." "I'll do 200 tomorrow." This is where you forge grit. Pushing through the monotony and physical discomfort day after day builds a powerful sense of discipline that bleeds into every other area of your life. It teaches you to honor the promises you make to yourself.
Pro-Tip: Don't feel you have to do all 100 in one go. Break them up throughout the day: 10 every hour, 25 in the morning, 25 at lunch, etc. Focus on perfect form—chest to the floor, a small jump with hands overhead at the top. If needed, scale by removing the push-up or stepping back instead of jumping.
2. The "Deck of Cards" Workout
Inject some unpredictable chaos into your training. Assign an exercise to each of the four suits (e.g., Hearts = Push-ups, Diamonds = Squats, Spades = Sit-ups, Clubs = Lunges). The number on the card is the number of reps you perform. Face cards (Jack, Queen, King) are 10 reps, and Aces can be high (11 or 15 reps) or low (1 rep). Jokers are usually a high-rep penalty, like 25 burpees.
This workout is a mental test because you can't pace yourself. You never know what's coming next. You might pull three Kings in a row, forcing you to do 30 reps of a grueling exercise when you're already fatigued. It forces you to adapt, react, and keep moving forward, regardless of the hand you're dealt—a perfect metaphor for life.
Pro-Tip: Shuffle the deck thoroughly and flip one card at a time. The goal is to finish the entire deck. To make it harder, add a time cap and try to beat it next time. To make it easier, use half the deck or choose less demanding exercises.
3. The "Bring Sally Up" Challenge
Find the song "Flower" by Moby. The lyrics are simple: "Green Sally up, and green Sally down." Pick an exercise, most commonly the push-up or squat. When the song says "down," you lower yourself into the bottom position (chest hovering above the floor or thighs parallel to the ground). When it says "up," you press back to the start. The song is only 3 minutes and 28 seconds long, but it will feel like an eternity.
This challenge is a masterclass in isometric and eccentric strength, but its true value is in teaching you how to handle sustained discomfort. Your muscles will burn, shake, and beg you to stop. Your mind will tell you it's impossible. Staying in that difficult position, waiting for the cue, builds incredible mental resilience and the ability to remain calm under pressure.
Pro-Tip: Start with bodyweight squats—it's surprisingly difficult. If you want to level up, try it with push-ups. For the truly advanced, try it with pull-ups (this is exceptionally hard). The key is to not break form or rest at the top.
4. The 75 Hard Challenge (At-Home Fitness Rules)
While the full 75 Hard program has multiple non-fitness rules, you can adopt its core physical principles for a grit-gauging home challenge. The rules: two 45-minute workouts every day for 75 days straight. The key stipulation is that one of these workouts must be done outdoors, regardless of the weather.
This is a challenge of logistics, discipline, and non-negotiable commitment. Rain? Put on a jacket and go for a walk or run. Snow? Same deal. It completely removes your feelings and the "perfect conditions" from the equation. You learn to just do. Completing 150 workouts in 75 days rewires your brain to view obstacles not as stop signs, but as simple problems to be solved.
Pro-Tip: Your workouts don't have to be high-intensity every time. A 45-minute brisk walk is a perfectly acceptable outdoor workout. Your second workout could be a yoga session, a bodyweight strength circuit, or stretching. The goal is consistency, not constant intensity.
5. The One-Mile Lunge
This challenge is a true test of leg strength, hip mobility, and, most importantly, mental fortitude. The objective is exactly what it sounds like: travel one full mile (1.6 km) by performing walking lunges. This is not for the faint of heart and will likely take a significant amount of time (often over an hour for the very fit).
The sheer volume of this task is what makes it so mentally taxing. After the first hundred meters, your quads and glutes will be on fire. You'll have to break it down into manageable chunks—lunge to the next lamppost, then the next tree, then the next driveway. It's a profound lesson in breaking down an overwhelming goal into small, achievable steps and just focusing on the next rep.
Pro-Tip: Find a track or a long, uninterrupted path. Focus on good form to protect your knees: take a controlled step, lower your back knee to just above the ground, and keep your front knee behind your toes. Bring a water bottle. You'll need it.
6. The 10,000 Kettlebell Swing Challenge
Popularized by coach Dan John, this challenge involves performing 10,000 kettlebell swings over the course of a month (typically 20 workouts). A common structure is to do 500 swings per workout, broken into sets. For example: 5 rounds of (10 swings, 15 push-ups, 25 swings, 15 goblet squats, 50 swings, rest).
This challenge builds a powerful posterior chain, incredible conditioning, and a "what's next?" mindset. The high volume forces you to perfect your form and become brutally efficient. Mentally, you learn to embrace the grind. Knowing you have 500 swings to complete forces you into a focused, almost meditative state where you just execute, rep after rep.
Pro-Tip: Choose a moderate weight—one you can swing for 20-25 reps with perfect form. The goal is completion, not injury. If you don't have a kettlebell, you can substitute it with a dumbbell or even do bodyweight hip thrusts or broad jumps for a similar stimulus.
7. The Max Plank Hold
Simplicity itself. Get into a proper plank position—forearms on the ground, body in a straight line from head to heels, core and glutes engaged—and hold it for as long as you possibly can. Time yourself. The goal is to beat your own time.
The battle here is purely internal. There's no movement, no distraction, just you and the shaking in your core. The first minute is physical. Everything after that is 100% mental. It's a direct confrontation with the voice that says "stop." You learn to acknowledge that voice, thank it for its concern, and then tell it you're holding for 10 more seconds. And then 10 more.
Pro-Tip: Squeeze your glutes and quads as hard as you can. This creates full-body tension and takes some of the strain off your lower back. Look at the floor just in front of your hands to keep your neck in a neutral position. Record your time and try to beat it once a week.
8. The "Death By..." Protocol
This workout uses an EMOM (Every Minute On the Minute) format. Pick one exercise, like burpees or air squats.
- Minute 1: Do 1 rep. Rest the remainder of the minute.
- Minute 2: Do 2 reps. Rest the remainder of the minute.
- Minute 3: Do 3 reps. Rest… and so on.
The workout ends when you can no longer complete the required number of reps within the 60-second window. The beginning feels deceptively easy, which lulls you into a false sense of security. But as the reps climb, the rest time shrinks, and panic can set in. This teaches you to stay calm under escalating pressure and to manage your work/rest periods efficiently. Your score is the last full round you completed.
Pro-Tip: This works best with full-body movements like burpees, thrusters (with dumbbells or a sandbag), or kettlebell swings. Pace yourself at the beginning. Don't fly through the early rounds; conserve your energy for the war of attrition in the later minutes.
9. The 30-Day Cold Shower Challenge
While not a traditional workout, this challenge has a massive carry-over to your physical and mental performance. For 30 days, end your daily shower with at least 1-3 minutes of pure, cold water. Or, for the truly brave, take the entire shower cold.
The practice is a direct exercise in willpower. Your body's instinct is to recoil from the shock of the cold. By consciously choosing to step into it and control your breathing, you are training your nervous system to handle stress. You are intentionally choosing short-term discomfort for long-term benefit—the very definition of discipline. As Goh Ling Yong often emphasizes, the discipline you build in small, daily habits is the foundation for tackling life's bigger challenges.
Pro-Tip: Start small. Begin with 30 seconds of cold water at the end of your normal shower. Focus on your breathing—long, slow exhales. This helps override your body's panic response. Gradually increase the duration as you adapt.
10. The 5-Minute Squat Hold
Another isometric beast. Set a timer for five minutes, lower yourself into the bottom of a bodyweight squat (thighs parallel to the floor), and hold it. No bouncing, no resting your elbows on your knees, no leaning against a wall. Just hold.
This is a deep dive into discomfort. Your quads will scream. Your mind will invent a thousand reasons why you should stand up. The challenge is to find stillness within the storm. You learn to scan your body, relax the muscles that don't need to be tense (like your jaw and shoulders), and focus on your breath. It's a powerful moving meditation that builds an iron will.
Pro-Tip: Keep your chest up and your back straight. Distract yourself by listening to a song, a podcast, or focusing on a spot on the wall. If you have to stand up, shake it out for a few seconds and get right back into it, but try your best to hold for the full, unbroken five minutes.
11. The Accumulating AMRAP
This workout structure tests your memory as much as your conditioning. Set a timer for 15 or 20 minutes.
- Round 1: Do 1 push-up.
- Round 2: Do 1 push-up, 2 air squats.
- Round 3: Do 1 push-up, 2 air squats, 3 sit-ups.
- Round 4: Do 1 push-up, 2 air squats, 3 sit-ups, 4 burpees.
Continue adding a new exercise (and increasing the reps by one) each round. Your goal is to see how far you can get before the timer runs out.
As you get more fatigued, it becomes harder to remember the sequence of movements. This forces you to stay mentally sharp and present, even when your body is tired. It's a fantastic tool for training your brain to perform complex tasks under physical duress.
Pro-Tip: Write the sequence down on a whiteboard or piece of paper before you start. Choose 5-7 bodyweight exercises you know well so you can focus on the pattern rather than the movement standards.
12. The Handstand Hold Progression (30 Days)
This is a skill-based challenge that requires patience, consistency, and a willingness to be a beginner. The goal isn't necessarily to hold a perfect freestanding handstand in 30 days, but to consistently work on the progressions every single day.
Start with wall-facing holds to build shoulder strength and stability. Then, practice kicking up against a wall, and eventually, work on balance drills. This challenge builds mental fortitude by teaching you humility and the power of incremental progress. You won't see massive gains overnight. Grit is built in those small, daily five-minute practice sessions where you show up even when you don't feel like you're improving.
Pro-Tip: Warm up your wrists thoroughly before each session. Film yourself to check your form—aim for a straight line from your hands to your hips to your feet. Celebrate small wins, like holding for two seconds longer than yesterday.
13. The "Filthy Fifty" At-Home Edition
A classic CrossFit "chipper" workout, adapted for home. The goal is to complete all reps of one exercise before moving to the next. The workout is: For Time, 50 reps of 10 exercises.
- 50 Jumping Jacks
- 50 Air Squats
- 50 Push-ups
- 50 Walking Lunges (25 per leg)
- 50 Knees-to-Elbows (or V-ups)
- 50 Broad Jumps
- 50 Sit-ups
- 50 Glute Bridges
- 50 Mountain Climbers (50 per side)
- 50 Burpees
This is a long, grueling workout that tests every aspect of your fitness. The mental challenge is seeing the huge list and not getting overwhelmed. You have to stay focused on the task at hand—the 50 reps right in front of you—and chip away at the mountain, one rep at a time. Finishing this workout provides an incredible sense of accomplishment.
Pro-Tip: Scale the reps down to 25 or 30 if you're a beginner. Break up the harder movements (like push-ups and burpees) into small, manageable sets from the very beginning. For example, do 10 sets of 5 push-ups instead of trying to go to failure on your first set.
14. The "Tabata Gauntlet"
Tabata is a form of high-intensity interval training: 20 seconds of all-out effort followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated 8 times for a total of 4 minutes. A Tabata Gauntlet involves doing multiple Tabatas back-to-back with a short rest in between.
For example:
- Tabata Air Squats (4 minutes)
- Rest 1 minute
- Tabata Push-ups (4 minutes)
- Rest 1 minute
- Tabata Burpees (4 minutes)
This challenge teaches you how to push to your absolute max, recover quickly, and go again. The 10 seconds of rest feels impossibly short, and your mind will tell you to quit long before your body actually gives out. Learning to command your body to move for just one more 20-second interval builds a powerful sense of mental dominance over physical sensation.
Pro-Tip: Use a Tabata timer app to keep you honest. The key is maximum effort during the 20-second work periods. If you can hold a conversation, you're not going hard enough.
15. The Century Club (Single Set)
The goal is to perform 100 consecutive, unbroken reps of a single exercise. The most common challenges are the 100-rep push-up or 100-rep bodyweight squat.
This is a monumental test of muscular endurance and pain tolerance. The first 30-40 reps feel manageable. The next 30 are a struggle. The final 30-40 are a pure battle of will. Your form will want to break down, and every fiber of your being will want to stop. Pushing through to hit that 100-rep mark is a huge mental victory.
Pro-Tip: This isn't something you'll likely achieve on day one. Test your max reps, then work on increasing that number over time using programs like the "grease the groove" method (doing multiple, non-fatiguing sets throughout the day) or by doing one max-rep set every other day.
16. The Murph Prep Challenge
The "Murph" is a hero workout consisting of a 1-mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 squats, and another 1-mile run. A fantastic at-home challenge is to build up to completing a "Half Murph" or a bodyweight-modified version.
A great way to train for it is to do partitioned rounds. For a Half Murph (0.5-mile run, 50 pull-ups, 100 push-ups, 150 squats, 0.5-mile run), you could perform 10 rounds of 5 pull-ups (or bodyweight rows), 10 push-ups, and 15 squats, bookended by the runs. This challenge is about strategy, pacing, and sheer endurance. It honors the spirit of sacrifice and pushing beyond your perceived limits.
Pro-Tip: If you don't have a pull-up bar, substitute with inverted rows using a sturdy table, or bent-over dumbbell rows. The runs can be done on the spot (high knees) or by running up and down stairs if you're stuck indoors. The key is the high volume and the mental stamina required to see it through to the end.
Your Forge Awaits
These challenges are more than just workouts; they are invitations to meet a stronger, more resilient version of yourself. True mental fortitude isn't built when things are easy. It's forged in the fire of voluntary hardship—in the final reps, the last few seconds of a hold, and on the days you show up when you don't want to.
Don't be intimidated by the numbers. The goal isn't to be perfect on day one. The goal is to start. Pick the one challenge that both scares and excites you the most, and commit to it for 30 days. Track your progress, embrace the struggle, and pay attention to how the discipline you build here starts to positively impact the rest of your life.
Now it's your turn. Which challenge will you take on? Let us know in the comments below, and let's hold each other accountable on this journey to becoming mentally unbreakable.
About the Author
Goh Ling Yong is a content creator and digital strategist sharing insights across various topics. Connect and follow for more content:
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