The viral lockdown challenge: Climb like a koala bear

The Koala Challenge has taken TikTok by storm.

The Koala Challenge is a social media challenge that requires quite a lot of strength. For children, this challenge is easy — it’s common for children to climb all over their parents, so you might be able to participate by letting your child climb all over you. That could be seen as cheating, though.

How does the Koala Challenge work?

To really be one of the cool kids, you need to climb all over your partner’s torso, hanging like a koala bear, without falling. The partner who is standing signifies the tree the koala is climbing.

Both partners need to be strong, since the “tree” is not allowed to move and must stay steady throughout the climb. The ‘tree’ starts out by standing legs apart in order to maintain their balance.

The partner doing the climbing needs to start the climb by jumping onto the person standing. The person standing will be stretching his/her arms apart and cannot catch the climber. The ‘koala’ then climbs over the neck of the ‘tree’, hanging face down at the back of the person standing’s body. Somehow the climber then pulls him/herself up from between the legs of the person standing. You are not allowed to touch the ground. Using core and leg strength, the climbing partner then proceeds to climb to the top of the torso of the person standing. The challenge ends in a hug.

Get involved

This is the perfect challenge to attempt during this period of lockdown and social distancing, but it requires practice. This explains why the blooper videos of the challenge are probably the funniest part of it all.

Be sure to hashtag your video #koalachallenge when you give it a try.

Image of the Koala Challenge: @morganrmoroney / TikTok