First came the planking craze — people lying face down in public places. They did it in airports, food stores, at work and at school, on strangers and over bodies of water. The odder the better, and what gained popularity in the U.S. at the beginning of the decade became an Internet sensation you couldn’t avoid. It was contagious.
#TakeAKnee is #Planking without the creativity or physical ability pic.twitter.com/8HaZb7Q1a6
— C?L (@cereslight) September 26, 2017
Then came other classics like the ever-popular mannequin challenge.
CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! #MannequinChallenge #GiantsPride pic.twitter.com/vxRhjdXICZ
— New York Giants (@Giants) November 6, 2016
Now, there’s another viral trend of sorts. It’s called the “Invisible Box” challenge, and people everywhere are ending up on the floor trying to replicate it (and not because they’re bringing the plank back). The rules seem simple: pretend there’s a box on the ground in front of you, place a foot on that box, hold it there and jump over the box using the other foot.
Easy enough right?
Anderson University football player Dontez Hines and high school cheerleader Ariel Olivar both received attention for their successful attempts.
Watch successful Invisible Box Challenge attempts:
Stepping over you haters like?? pic.twitter.com/RDbyl8ywlf
— teedoe (@thecvmevp) August 18, 2017
challenge accepted pic.twitter.com/QQ1JWbkXx0
— ariel (@arielo1220) December 2, 2017
“It is really nothing special,” Hines told Men’s Health. “I just imagined that there was a box and stepped on it.”
“It’s hard to explain, I just keep the leg in the same exact spot,” Olivar, whose video went viral last week with over 140K retweets, told The Houston Chronicle. Her sudden Internet fame even landed her a spot on the TODAY show.
Men’s Health fitness editor Ebenezer Samuel said that it actually takes a lot of muscle control to pull this move off. You’re essentially doing a “one-legged hop forward with a lot of elevation,” he explained, and the leg you’re moving — the one not on the invisible step — is driven by “very explosive hip flexor, abdominal and glute strength.”
Though it may seem like a piece of cake to some, there are plenty of failed attempts online that reveal it’s harder than it looks. Watch, but don’t laugh too hard because it very well could happen to you.
Watch these people take on the Invisible Box Challenge:
— kt (@salicylics) December 3, 2017
#InvisibleBoxChallenge with @patwalkerwx #invisiblebox pic.twitter.com/GVaMISHfHW
— Natalie Walters (@NatWaltersWX) December 5, 2017
Challenge accepted pic.twitter.com/JdOKKdzhXB
— Holly (@HollyStier) December 3, 2017
Any takers?