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10,000 Burpees Later

Why I Built a Challenge-Based Fitness App

By
Nik Hill
-
May 21, 2025

GENESIS

It started with a personal challenge: 100 burpees a day for 100 days. No gimmicks. Just reps. I filmed the whole thing and threw it on YouTube. Over 400,000 views later, it was clear—people weren’t just watching the pain. They were responding to the discipline. That’s when the idea for NRTH started to take shape.

Going Viral with Discipline

The challenge was simple. Do the work. Every day. No matter how I felt, where I was, or what else was going on. People seemed to really resonate with that kind of consistency. Whether they wanted to do it themselves was another story—but it triggered something. And I figured, if I could turn that feeling into an app, at least the stimulus would be out there. A spark. Something to push people to show up.

Why Fitness Apps Weren’t Cutting It

Most fitness apps lean on external pressure—reminders, push notifications, streak counters. And sure, we use some of that too. But those things only get you so far. Real change happens when the pressure comes from within. When you feel off for not doing the thing. When breaking the streak nags at you more than the app ever could.

That’s what we’re building with NRTH

Not just a tracker, but a system that helps you create internal momentum. One that helps you show up for yourself—even when no one’s watching. If you eventually build the discipline to stop needing the app entirely, we consider that a success.

What NRTH Is (And Isn’t)

NRTH is a daily challenge platform. That’s it. One challenge, each day. You log reps, not selfies. Yeah, we have the option to record—but that’s for your own accountability, not for likes. It’s a tool to help you stay consistent. Deliberately minimal. Deliberately hard.

Reinventing Myself in Public

As a Creative Director, I’ve spent most of my career jumping between roles and industries. I’ve never really stayed in one lane—and I’m not about to start now. NRTH became a way to rethink what I wanted out of work, identity, and fitness. It’s part experiment, part therapy, and part design rebellion.

Designed for Discipline

The app had to mirror the mindset: clean UI, quick inputs, no noise. Open it, log your reps, close it. It’s not supposed to feel rewarding in the traditional sense. It’s meant to feel necessary. Like brushing your teeth. A ritual. Something you do because it shapes who you are.

What’s Next

We’re rolling out more live challenges and community features to keep people connected. But the foundation stays the same: one challenge, every day. Simple, consistent, and just uncomfortable enough to force growth.

Because at the end of the day, it’s not really about burpees or reps or times logged. It’s about building the habit of showing up—especially when you don’t feel like it.

The real gains happen in the mind.

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MEET THE AUTHOR
Nik Hill

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/nik-hill-23rdc

Nik’s career began whilst studying for his BA in Motion Graphics at London Met, where he entered a competition with studio Factory 311. After winning, Nik went on to create motion design for Arsenal FC’s online TV channel - Arsenal 360. Nik graduated with honours in 2012 and freelanced at studios such as SPOV, Weare17 and Territory, where Nik was taken on as Senior Motion Designer. Here he worked on a number of feature films, including Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, Guardians of the Galaxy, Jupiter Ascending and Agent 47. He was later promoted to Art Director at Territory, where he led a number of design and animation tasks for screen graphics that featured heavily in Denis villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 . Nik later went freelance for a change of pace, but the freelance demand grew exponentially and evolved into the design studio that is now Twenty Third C. Nik has also presented at IBC and NAB for Adobe as well as Siggraph for Maxon Cinema4D and hosts an online course for CGSOCIETY. He also makes time to appear as a guest alumni lecturer at London Met.

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