DEEP DIVE

The Chair Challenge, also known as the Chair Trick or Chair Experiment, has existed for decades and has previously circulated online. This past month, it went viral on TikTok via the hashtag #ChairChallenge.

The challenge involves putting one’s head against a wall, picking up a chair, and then standing up. Generally, women can complete this challenge and men cannot. The premise has inspired many videos in which men and women both attempt it. The reason women are better at this than men has been attributed to differing centers of gravity and/or foot size.

On TikTok, the hashtag #ChairChallenge currently has over 82 million views. It started spreading on the app after user @spicynug22 posted a video on November 15th, which has received over 1 million likes.

Try The TikTok Chair Challenge

In order to attempt the chair challenge, you need a chair and a wall. Put your feet against the wall, walk back three-foot lengths, place your feet shoulder-width apart, bend down and put your head against the wall at approximately a 90-degree angle, place a chair between you and the wall, bend over, pick it up, and then stand up.

On TikTok and other video sharing platforms, a number of videos show men successfully completing the Chair Challenge, revealing that the gender disparity is not a hard and fast rule, but an indicator of a general trend.

Some variations of the challenge turn it into a prank: