Secret Santa Workout Gift Exchange
Hey ho, fellow bees! Anyone want to participate in a Secret Santa Holiday Workout Gift Exchange? This is something I used to do with my zombie-apocalypse-themed workout group back in the day, and it was always a lot of fun!
Here's how it works:
The Rules:
Here's how it works:
- You must have an active Check-In Thread here in the Hive to participate. This is so that your Santa can read up on the types of workouts you like to do, so they can design a suitable "gift" for you. * If you're new here: Welcome! You can still join in if you set up a new check-in thread now and post at least three updates prior to the Secret Santa assignments going out. (More is better.) Also: if there's not much content in your check-in thread yet, please post an intro/summary of where you're at in your fitness journey right now.
- If you'd like to join in, sign up by commenting on this thread. The deadline to join is Saturday, December 2, 2023.
- If you decide to join in, you will be assigned your giftee, either by me or by my assistant elf (if somebody volunteers to assist me with this task), via DAREBEE private message. Santa assignments will be delivered by Tuesday, December 5. Be sure to check your in-box!
- Once you receive your assignment, go and read your giftee's check-in thread. (If it's really long, just reading the most recent couple of pages is fine.) Then design a 15-30 minute workout that you think will be fun and challenging for your giftee to complete. The theme of the workout is: Holiday Highjinks in the Hive. (More on this below.) Write up the workout, and send it via DAREBEE private message, either to me or to my assistant elf (whichever elf gave you the assignment). The deadline for turning in your gift is Saturday, December 16. DO NOT BE LATE!
- I will post all of the workout gifts here in this thread (so you won't know who your gift came from). Your gift will be posted here no later than Wednesday, December 20. (I need time to do this. Which is why you need to get your gifts submitted on time!)
- You must complete your workout gift and post in your check-in thread that you did it, no later than Monday, January 1, 2024.
- Is it better to give, or to receive? To investigate this question, you must also complete the gift you gave and post about doing so in your check-in thread. To make it harder for your giftee to identify you, you may break up this workout across multiple days and/or be vague in describing the exercises you did. The deadline for completing this is also Monday, January 1.
- Read up on your fellow Bees' holiday adventures in their check-in threads and try to guess who was your Santa!
The Rules:
- Try to wrap your gift in a story that explains why your giftee must complete the exercises you have assigned to them. (For some inspiration, you can check out past ZOINKS Secret Santa gifts here.) The theme for these stories is: The Bees are all working to organize a big holiday party for the Hive. But trouble ensues which gets in the way of their efforts. Your giftee Bee will conquer this trouble through completing their workout gift. (In the ZOINKS gifts, the trouble is usually zombies, since that was the theme of that group. You can make up whatever sort of trouble you like for this story gift.)
- Don't be gruesome! We're here to challenge one another. But also to have fun. The workout you design is meant to be a gift. Do not assign anyone 100 burpees! (Unless they've written recently in their check-in thread about how much they LOVE burpees and really hope that Santa will gift them with a high volume of them.)
- All exercises assigned should be no-equipment exercises--unless you know from reading your giftee's recent check-in posts that they have regular access to the equipment you're asking them to use.
- If you assign an obscure exercise, you need to include a link to a demo of how to do it. Anything in the DAREBEE video exercise library is fair game (if it's within your giftee's wheelhouse). For yoga poses, please use pose names from the Pocket Yoga pose library (or provide a link to a demo if you're assigning a specific sequence, or a pose that's not in that library).
- Modifications are fine! If you are gifted with push-ups, but can only do kneeling push-ups at this point in your fitness journey, for example, it's fine to do the kneeling variety. Conversely: if you assign your giftee step-jacks as part of their workout, because you've read in their check-in thread that they're not doing high impact activities at the moment, but you want to do jumping jacks as part of your "gift you gave" workout, this is fine too. Try to complete both the gift you receive, and the gift you gave to the best of your ability, using exercise variations that are right for you. In the Hive, we honour where each individual bee is at in their own fitness journey at this moment in time.
- You are welcome to use DAREBEE Workouts as part of, or as inspiration for, the gift you design if you like. Or you can design something totally original. It's up to you. For selecting individual exercises, DAREBEE's handy Bodyweight Exercises and No-Equipment Ab Exercises charts might be useful.
- Try to design a gift that can be completed in ~ 15-30 minutes.
- If you have any questions--either about designing your gift, or about how to complete your gift once you've received it, please post them here. (Or you can PM me if posting your question publicly would give away too much about the gift you're designing.) I will try to answer all gift questions myself (so your Secret Santa does not need to out themself by answering themself). Santas: I, or my assistant elf, may contact you via PM if a question is asked about the gift you gave which I don't know how to answer.
- The December 16 deadline is a HARD DEADLINE. Please don't miss it! If you sign up to participate in this gift exchange, you are committing to desiging a workout gift for one of your fellow Bees, and submitting it to me (or my assistant elf) between December 5 and December 16, 2023.
- Have fun!
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