To support and motivate all Otanko members through the upcoming 3 weeks with even stricter restrictions, we are hosting Otanko’s own lockdown challenge! Our aim is to reduce feelings of isolation by bringing a social nature to your training AND boost training motivation with easy-to-follow training routines, social activities, and inspiring, cool new things to learn. And, of course, there will be prizes for the most active participants!
The challenge will last from 8th to 28th March 2021.
How DOES THE challenge work?
You sign up to the challenge and join our Telegram group (instructions below). Then you get points from completing our training routines, doing moves from our tutorials, participating in social activities, and sharing content with others. You can also get bonus points from consistency in training. Based on the points you can level up to gain special advantages, and we are also handing out titles with prizes for most active participants.
The challenge is open for Otanko members only meaning that only Otanko members can join the Telegram group, participate in the social events, and get prizes. If you’d like to become a member it only takes 5 minutes, check the instructions here. However, non-members are also more than welcome to follow our training routines or count their own points for their own pleasure. We are also happy to share your progress in our media as long as you tag @otanko_poledance.
Detailed information on signing up, gaining points, prizes, levels, training, upcoming events and more below!
How to JOIN THE CHALLENGE?
We are asking for the following information:
Name, this is so we can identify you as an Otanko member
Alias, this is the nickname under which we will be showing your points and announcing possible title wins. We won’t give your identity away without your consent.
Instagram nickname*, this is optional to participate in the challenge, but if you want to gain any social media points then you’ll want to fill in this so that we can give your alias the points it deserves. We’ll also follow all these accounts so make sure you accept our request so we can see your tag if your account is private!
Sign ups are open all the way while the challenge is running, but naturally you’ll have more time to gain points if you are with us from the very start!
2. Choose your goal move and take a ‘before’ picture or video (optional)
Your goal move can be anything you want to focus on during the three challenge weeks. However, based on our training routines we recommend choosing one of these four: the splits, the wheel pose, push-ups, or handstands.
While the splits and wheel pose do well with a ‘before’ photograph, you might want to take a video of your max reps push ups or max hold handstand against the wall. If you can’t do any version of your goal move yet, just capture some kind of best effort in your camera roll!
The before picture is not mandatory for participating in the challenge, but you’ll earn extra points for having a before-after -picture or video pair when the challenge ends!
3. Post a short introduction of yourself to the participants’ Telegram group
You’ll get a link to join the chat after signing up.
We want you to get to know each other straight away from the start of the challenge, so please post a short introduction of yourself.
The introduction can be of free form, or you can just tell the following things:
- Your name (you can also tell your alias if you don’t want your points to be anonymous, but this is 100% voluntary)
- Your goal movement in the challenge
- Your favorite quarantine hobby
- Which pole dancer’s skills would you take if you could
- A fun fact about yourself!
We are asking for the following information:
Name, this is so we can identify you as an Otanko member
Alias, this is the nickname under which we will be showing your points and announcing possible title wins. We won’t give your identity away without your consent.
Instagram nickname*, this is optional to participate in the challenge, but if you want to gain any social media points then you’ll want to fill in this so that we can give your alias the points it deserves. We’ll also follow all these accounts so make sure you accept our request so we can see your tag if your account is private!
Sign ups are open all the way while the challenge is running, but naturally you’ll have more time to gain points if you are with us from the very start!
2. Choose your goal move and take a ‘before’ picture or video (optional)
Your goal move can be anything you want to focus on during the three challenge weeks. However, based on our training routines we recommend choosing one of these four: the splits, the wheel pose, push-ups, or handstands.
While the splits and wheel pose do well with a ‘before’ photograph, you might want to take a video of your max reps push ups or max hold handstand against the wall. If you can’t do any version of your goal move yet, just capture some kind of best effort in your camera roll!
The before picture is not mandatory for participating in the challenge, but you’ll earn extra points for having a before-after -picture or video pair when the challenge ends!
3. Post a short introduction of yourself to the participants’ Telegram group
You’ll get a link to join the chat after signing up.
We want you to get to know each other straight away from the start of the challenge, so please post a short introduction of yourself.
The introduction can be of free form, or you can just tell the following things:
- Your name (you can also tell your alias if you don’t want your points to be anonymous, but this is 100% voluntary)
- Your goal movement in the challenge
- Your favorite quarantine hobby
- Which pole dancer’s skills would you take if you could
- A fun fact about yourself!
How to get points?
1. Training
You get 1 point every time you do any of our four training routines. Because we want to reward consistency, you’ll also get 3 additional points if you complete one specific routine on 4 or more days in one week. Every time you do a training routine, please submit it through our challenge Google Forms that is linked in the participants’ Telegram group’s description. You should submit your training points latest on Sunday of the week when the trainings were done. However, we recommend doing a daily submission after your training session.
2. Participating in social events
We’ll host one social event every week and you’ll get 5 points per social event you participate in. Detailed info on taking part in the events is published in the participants’ TG-group. The times and descriptions of the events can be found below. Our event host takes note of the participants and you will get your points automatically.
3. Doing a weekly challenge pose
Each week we’ll release two new tutorials: one of a pole shape and another of a floor shape. Take a picture of yourself doing one of them! Sharing the picture in the participants’ Telegram-group grants you 2 points, and sharing it on Instagram with @otanko_poledance tagged grants you another 2 points. We count these points for you so once you’ve done your shares we’ll automatically add you your points.
To make it fair for people who don’t have a pole at home, you can get points for only one pose per week. However, the poses are open to be done at any point in the challenge so if you don’t have time to do any pose in week 1, you can do both the week 1 and week 2 pose in the second week and so forth.
4. Posting a before-after picture or video
Post a before-after picture or video of you doing the goal movement you chose and get 2 points for a Telegram group share and 2 points for an Instagram share with @otanko_poledance tagged. These points can be gained only once. We count these points for you so once you’ve done your shares we’ll automatically add you your points.
5. Sharing your best “How to stay sane during lockdown” -tip
Again, 2 points for Telegram group share and 2 points for Instagram share with @otanko_poledance tagged. These points can be gained only once. We count these points for you so once you’ve done your shares we’ll automatically add you your points.
6. Weekly surprise challenge!
Follow the participants’ Telegram group and our Instagram @otanko_poledance where we’ll publish a way to get extra points every Wednesday! After the extra challenge has been published, you’ll have the rest of the challenge to complete it.
Example points calculation for one week
SuperHero123 did
- the splits stretching routine once on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, and twice on Friday = 5 points + 3 bonus points for consistency
- the handstands routine twice on Tuesday and twice on Saturday = 4 points (no bonus points, because the training wasn’t done on 4 separate days)
- posted a picture of the weekly pole pose to the Telegram group and Instagram = 2 + 2 points
- posted their best lockdown survival tip to the Telegram group = 2 points
- participated in the remote cooking class = 5 points
SuperHero123 gained a total of 23 points from the first week. Of these, 12 were training points and 11 were non-training points.
WHAT DO I GAIN FROM THE POINTS?
We are handing out prizes for the most active participants:
- Top Participant (most points overall)
- Top Athlete (most training points)
- Top Socialite (most non-training points
- Top Cheerleader (people who have supported others remarkably during the challenge, we might give out several of these)
The prize winners will get a pair of Otanko shorts from our upcoming April issue in their own size! In addition, the top participant will get a special surprise prize. 😉
One person will only get rewarded once and the hierarchy of the titles is as presented above. Say the Top Participant has also the most training points, they will get only the Top Participant reward and the participant with the second most training points will get the Top Athlete title and so forth.
The challenge also has levels to achieve!
- Bronze level (35 points)
- Silver level (50 points)
- Gold level (65 points)
- Diamond level (90 points)
For all participants who get at least to the Bronze level, we are arranging a special event whenever the situation finally normalizes and makes face-to-face events it possible.
Everyone getting to the Silver level will get a new exclusive Otanko overall badge. We recently got our new set designed based on our new brand – none of these have yet been sold or handed out!
People leveling up to the Gold level will get a special shout out in our Instagram, either with their Alias or their IG-nick as well if so wished.
Diamond level achievers will get a small goody bag delivered to their home (within the Helsinki metropolitan area) once the challenge ends!
TELL ME MORE ABOUT…
…the training routines
We are publishing 4 training routines each of which lasts from 10 to 15 minutes to complete. We are also supporting these with a quick warm up routine in case you don’t want to dive head first to the training routines. Each training routine is from its own topic, and the topics are
- Stretching for Splits
- Stretching for Backbends
- Core and Upper Body Strength
- Handstands
The training routines will be published on Sunday 7th March. Stay tuned for more info!
… the social events
Each challenge week we are organizing a remote social event for the challenge participants. The events will be
… the weekly challenge poses
At the beginning of each challenge week we are publishing a tutorial for two named challenge poses – one with the pole and one on the floor. We guarantee that at least one of them is always beginner friendly.
The first challenge moves will be published on Monday 8th March when the challenge starts both in the participants’ Telegram-group and Otanko’s Instagram.