For healthy bodies, we know we need to fit at least 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous activities into our day. Any daily routine can get boring, however, so workouts should be fun and playful. Try any of these games to bring more play into your exercise routine.
Games for one person or more:
- Animal Yoga. Make your yoga even more playful by doing animal poses and noises, such as frog, cat or camel.
- Hop’n Freeze. Challenge your balance skills by trying different movements in the game of hop’n freeze. Each time you freeze, see how long you can hold that pose.
- Iron Lungs may not be the most complicated game, but can be very fun and challenging. Measure how far you can travel in one breath one week, then try again the next to see if you’ve improved.
- Jump Rope is a classic game with great aerobic benefits. Pick up a rope, get skipping and see how you fare.
Games for two or more people:
- Dance Freeze is simple and fun. Play music for as long as you want, when the music end, everyone must freeze. Start the music again, everyone dances their heart out.
- Back-to-Back Get Up requires partners to work together to stand up from sitting position on the ground without pushing off the ground with their hands.
- Booty Ball. Play a game of seated volleyball with two people, especially working to us your core muscles to get the ball back over the net (or string or chairs).
- Move Your Feet. Gather a pile of soft dodgeballs and create two teams. Rules allow players to throw the balls at each others feet while everyone must also move their feet quickly to avoid being hit by a ball.
- Exuberant Animal is a playful practice by creator Frank Forencich. Check out and try his practices, such as balancing on one foot with a partner, holding each other’s shoulders and working moving just enough to make each other work to stay on that one foot.
- Shadow, Shadow. In pairs, take turns being the other person’s shadow while the first person tries to shake his/her shadow off.
Games for three or more people: try Over Under, Over Under Relay, Pickle, Fake Out or Continuous Relay.
Games for four or more people:
- Most tag games are highly active, especially if there are continuous roles, such as:
- Triangle Tag is also a fun game that encourages vigorous activity and movement that uses different muscles.
- Over Under Kickball, Crazy Kickball or Multi-Ball are all fun versions of kickball that include continuous running of the bases, which increases activity and decreases waiting time. Another great tip for games with waiting: add a rule that requires a certain movement or drill, such as squats or lunges, while players wait.
How do you make your workout playful?
