The Ultimate Guide to Garmin Badges

Digital Life Central is reader-powered. We are a participant in the Amazon LLC Associates Program and other affiliates programs. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Although your Garmin badges will not increase your bank balance, they are a fun way of getting recognition for your achievements. 

We are going to explore the wonderful world of Garmin badges. First of all, you may want to know how you get them. 

How Do I Get Garmin Badges? 

Garmin badges are earned when you achieve specific goals and milestones. However, it has to be said that Garmin like to mix it up a bit. For instance, they like to issue special badges related to specific events such as Global Running Day. 

How many Garmin badges are there? At the moment, there are 188 badges that you can get after you have earned enough points. Check on Garminbadges.com for a complete list of the past and present Garmin Badges available.

How Do I Join Garmin Badge Challenge? 

Joining a Garmin badge challenge is a popular activity. All you have to do is to open the Garmin Connect App.

From the front screen, find More and then select challenges. First, look at the available challenges and determine which one you would like to do. Then, select Now to join in various challenges. 

All you have to do to complete a challenge is follow the instructions relating to that particular badge. 

How Do I Earn Garmin Badges? 

The general impression of the Garmin fitness tracker is that it is more for the serious athlete. Yes, you can say that Garmin has always been associated with extreme sports. 

The reputation mainly comes from its association with the Forces. You probably would not catch a member of a Special Forces Unit without their Garmin Smartwatch

Garmin badges have a certain amount of points assigned to them. The points range from 1 to 8, depending on the task’s difficulty. 

Like with Fitbit, you are awarded badges for a range of activities. They include yoga, swimming, running, walking, climbing, and more. 

A badge that Special Forces often strive for is the Insanity Badge. That means you would have to complete a 100-mile run for which you get 8 points. 

Popular Garmin Badges

What are the most popular Garmin badges? The most popular Garmin badges with beginners are probably one-time badges. 

When you are just getting into fitness, getting a pat on the back is fun. That is what one-time badges are all about. 

One of the most popular badges is the Milestone app, which is rewarded after a mile 1-run. 

Repeatable Badges

Garmin also has a system for what are called repeatable badges. If you are after one of those, you have to work harder. 

When you are an athlete, you probably want to push yourself. If so, you can aim for the 50-mile Ultra badge, which is available when you have completed 50 miles as a single activity. 

If you see one of those next to someone’s profile, you know you are dealing with a serious athlete. 

Limited Time Garmin Badges

Limited time badges are pretty cool. 

A limited-time badge is rewarded when a Garmin user completes a particular activity within a specific period of time. 

They are great for when you want to challenge yourself. For example, perhaps you want to challenge yourself on a specific day of the year, such as New Year. 

Taking A Look At The Badges List

What we are going to do now is to look at the Garmin Badges list. Don’t worry. We will not dive in at the deep end of the pool and ask you to swim 10k in one go. 

We have already mentioned the Milestone badge. These are some of the other badges you may want to aim for before you try to reach for the stars:

  • 5k Run – Awarded after a continuous 5k run
  • 10k Run- Awarded after a continuous 10k run
  • 13,1 Miles Run – Received after a 13.1 Run

Do you have to complete these runs outside? No, you don’t. If you don’t feel like running outside, you can run on your treadmill at home or in the gym. 

There are specific badges relating to treadmill running. Here are a couple of examples if you would like to go for them. 

  • Treadmill 1 mile 
  • 5k Treadmill
  • 10 k treadmill

A fun treadmill badge to aim for is Treadmill 50. It carries four points. To get your four points, you have to do 50 treadmill activities. That can be anything from walking to running. If you want to try to win this badge, it is a good idea to learn how to tab. 

This is something Special Forces do when they want to cover long distances. It means you walk for a certain number of steps and run for some steps. Tabbing has many health benefits. If you are serious about your fitness, you should learn how to tab. 

If you achieve this badge by tabbing on the treadmill, you have increased your level of fitness. 

Other treadmill badges include Treadmill 50 and Treadmill 100. You have probably guessed – it means you have to do 50 or 100 activities on the treadmill. 

Cycling Badges

Garmin is a popular fitness tracker with cyclists as well. If you get into cycling, you can use Garmin badges to keep yourself motivated. 

Your first cycling badge is the 5-mile Ride. Once you have completed 5 miles, you can start shooting for 20 miles and 50 miles. 

One of the reasons cyclists like Garmin so much is because they are rewarded for hill climbs. The starting point for hill climbing is Climber 1, which means you have climbed 500 meters. 

What about spinning? Once again, Garmin has got it covered with a range of indoor cycling badges, including a 50-mile ride. Again, an excellent badge to boost when you have taken part in an indoor spinathon, but you will have to train for your indoor cycling event

By now, you have probably got the idea. With one-time badges, you get rewards for challenging yourself. You can also get one-time badge awards for other things, including weight and being well-rested, which means you have slept for 8 hours. 

Repeatable Garmin Badges

Garmin goes on to repeat more of the same with its repeatable badges. 

Popular badges include the Marathon badge. You are probably a rather serious athlete if you have got this far on your fitness journey. 

Other repeatable running badges include 50k Ultra and up to 100k ultra badges. 

Cyclists can collect a 100-mile ride badge. That means you have been in the saddle for a continuous 100 miles. That is not for the faint-hearted. 

Can You Get Awards For Walking with Repeatable Badges? Yes, You Can. 

The team at Garmin probably sat down and thought about how they could make Garmin more “desirable” for the average person. They came up with Steps badges that are very “doable.”

This is the list: 

  • A 60-day goal badge is a badge you get when you have reached your steps goal every day for 60 days.
  • 10k a day challenge is a good one. You earn this badge after you have walked 10,000 steps in a day for 30 continuous days. And yes, you can do it. To make it more fun, you can download an app called Sweatcoins. It gives you a fun boost to try to achieve those 10,000 steps per day. 

Limited Time Badges

These change all of the time. They are limited-time badges. They are often more fun to collect than the other badges. 

This is a selection of limited-time badges from 2021. 

March Step Month – record 300,000 steps from March 1 to March 31. 

March Rundown – 50 miles of running activities during March.

March Awakening record 30 minutes of yoga for three days. 

Cool Badges For 2022 include: 

April Weekend walking – rewarded after a 3-mile weekend walk

April Weekend 5k – awarded if you went for a 5k run between April 8 to April 10

April Weekend 40k – Cycle at least 40 kilometers to get this badge

April Swim Week – 17th – April 23 complete 1,000 meters of swimming activity

April Namaste – complete at least 60 minutes of yoga between 1st – 17 April. 

April Step Challenge – You must have taken at least 300,000 steps during April to display this badge.

Garmin also launched two different special badges for 2022. If you feel ready to challenge yourself, you can take the running challenge, which means you have to run 1,200k in 2022 to achieve the badge. 

Aim for the walking badge, and you have to walk 365 miles in one year. That is perhaps a bit more reasonable for most people. 

These two badges are stage badges. That means the year is divided into different stages. For instance, the step challenge is divided into four 3-month stages. That makes the thought easier to cope with when you are just getting into walking. 

Then again, stop and think about it, and you will realize that 365 miles in one year equate to one mile per day. Remember to wear your Garmin Smartwatch, and you can do it. 

You have probably got the idea of Limited Time Badges now. But, unfortunately, they are only available for a limited amount of time. 

Where Do I See My Garmin Badges? 

Your Garmin badges are available on your profile. The profile screen is not as creative as the Fitbit screen, but it is okay.

When you want to see what badges are available, you can see them on the following screen. 

How Do I Get More Badges? 

Garmin announces new badges every month. Typically, they do so well in advance. If you want to keep yourself motivated, it is a good idea to check out what badges are available. 

Don’t go for badges that you don’t think you will achieve. That only becomes disheartening. You will probably find yourself training and workout less when you don’t achieve a badge. 

If you have just bought a Garmin, you are probably someone who takes fitness seriously or is planning to take it more seriously. 

When you get your Garmin, one of the first things you should do is log into the site and see what badges and challenges are available. Unless you are already riding your bike 10k per day or running 10k per day, you don’t want to start there. 

Instead, start with some of the other badge challenges, such as yoga and walking. You be surprised how easy it is to gain badges once you get going. 

To gain a step badge, you don’t have to walk outside. Instead, you can do one of the many walks at home videos available on YouTube. Yoga videos are a great alternative to going to yoga classes. You will still get your yoga badges when you do yoga at home. 

What Garmin Smartwatch Do I Need to Have? 

When you want to take part in any Garmin challenge or get Garmin badges, you need to have a Vivosmart 4, Vivosmart 5, Venu 2, or Fenix 7. 

Do you need to use an app? You need to use the dedicated Garmin App available for iOS or Android or directly log on to the Garmin website.

Who Is The Garmin Smartwatch For? 

It is a matter of preference. Often, Garmin Smartwatch is seen as a more quality device. 

The Garmin team does put a lot of effort into research. However, compared to Fitbit is a different ball game. Therefore, it has to be said that it is crucial to choose the right tracker for your needs. 

When you are a serious athlete, it would probably be fair to say that Garmin is the better choice. 

Garmin is also the right one for you if you want to challenge yourself.

Fitbit is more user-friendly, but your Fitbit is not made from the same premium materials as Garmin. 

In Conclusion

There is something special about the Garmin badges community. In many ways, achieving a Garmin badge means that you are serious about health and fitness. They make you feel special. 

When your ultimate goal is to get fitter and stay up there, Garmin is a great fitness tracker. Once you have earned your first Garmin badge, you have become part of a rather exclusive community.