On Twitter Reddit etc some people complained that Apple made women work harder, that Apple was insensitive. I thought it would be good to go through some of the one time challenges, and compare.

Some background information: On March 8th, the International women’s day, Apple came out with a workout challenge. Double your move goal, and you will earn a special one time only virtual badge.

Apple creates many challenges that reward badges in its workout app. Some are perennial, such as triple your exercise goal, or close your stand ring for a week, and some are seasonal/topical, such as a complete a 5K workout on thanksgiving day. These badges can be used as stickers in iMessage. The intention, I think, it’s to make workouts more fun, and to bring awareness.

I might be simplistic or naive, and I am not one of those who felt Apple was trying to say women need to work harder. Anyway, here you go, all the fun one time challenges from Apple:

International Women’s Day Challenge:

Double your move goal.

Difficulty:

Veterans’ Day Challenge:

11 minutes of workout.

Difficulty:

Mothers’ Day Challenge:

A 1 mile walk, run or wheelchair workout.

Difficulty:

Earth Day Challenge:

30 minutes of workout.

Difficulty:

Thanksgiving Day Challenge:

A 5K walk, run or wheelchair workout.

Difficulty:

National Park Challenge:

A 5.6KM walk, run or wheelchair workout.

Difficulty:

(Why 5.6km? Apparently this is the distance from Old Faithful to Mallard Lake in Yellowstone National Park, a well-known hike in the US. )

Heart Month Challenge:

Close your Exercise ring every damn day from 8–14 Feb.

Difficulty:

New Year Challenge:

Close all three Activity rings for seven days in a row in the month of January. That’s 31 straight days.

Difficulty:

So there you go. Which one is harder? I think at least one thing is clear: it depends on your typical goals and exercise habits. So this is how I would tell my daughter what the International Women’s Day Challenge means to me: I will put in 200% of love effort attention everything, for you, mom, grandma, and all the women in the world.

(Thanks macworld for the summary)