When you’re missing friends and missing the gym, why not bring both back together?Fitness games are perfect for cutting down on boredom and reconnecting with friends, so exercise, laugh, and sweat it out. Get some friends on an online chat (or play with the people you’re staying with) and compete against them with active games just like the good old days.
1. Zoom Yoga Challenge
Often yoga is about finding inner peace, but it doesn’t need to be — it can be about putting our friends in painful positions and seeing who can last the longest too.What do you need?
Just a zoom call and enough space for everyone to see you do yoga.How do you play?
Get on a call with as many friends as you want and put on some music. One person does a pose, everyone else copies, and whoever can hold the position the longest wins the round and gets a point. If people are still holding after 60 seconds, they all win. Take turns choosing a pose and keep a note of the score.You’re all going to be shaking and sweating and laughing at each other's struggle through this, so make the poses as difficult as possible to challenge your friends. The competitiveness will have you holding poses longer and give you that extra stretch — even if you don’t feel the same inner peace. It’s fun, challenging, and a barrel of laughs.
2. The Card Game
Sitting down to play cards? Not here. This is a classic fitness game that will give you motivation to do effective body-weight exercises and keep your heart racing more than poker ever would.
What do you need?
Just a pack of cards and a couple of people.
How do you play?
Get a bit of paper and write up a key for the cards. Have an exercise that corresponds to each suit — for example, diamonds for squats, spades for sit-ups, hearts for push-ups, and clubs for star-jumps.Put a deck of cards on the floor and pick the top card. Look at the card and do the exercise that corresponds to the suit at the number that appears on the card. So, for example, seven of hearts? Seven push-ups. For Kings, Queens, and Jacks, double the amount of the previous card and keep going until you finish the pack. You can even add jokers in for a wild-card. This is a killer fitness game for a killer workout. It’s good fun, especially if you can play together, but you could do this over video chat as well.
3. Wheel of Fortune Race
Spinning the wheel of fortune makes anyone sweat, but you’ll be breaking an even bigger one if you need to run afterwards.
What do you need?
An online wheel spinner and video chat with screen sharing.
How do you play?
Find an online wheel of fortune or wheel of names — there are loads to choose from. One person pulls up the wheel of fortune and shares their screen and, in the wheel, writes a load of exercises with rep ranges on them. For example, '10 push-ups', '22 squats', ‘5 pistol squats’. Spin the wheel and everyone does the exercise it lands on; the first one to finish the set gets a point.
You’re going to be racing and pumping out reps quicker than usual, which is going to be a nice change from slow and controlled and causing loads of laughs. Racing against others motivates you and playing it with the wheel keeps it interesting.You could even do themed ones with squat variations or abs exercises as well.
4. Towel Tug-of-War
If you and your friends and family are all locked down together in real life, this is a fun fitness game to play. It’s an ancient game modernised and improvised.What do you need?
Some old towels and some space.How do you play?
Take some strong material—like towels—and tie them up to a good length. If you can’t tie them together, just use one and twist it up and play 1v1, so you could play with as little as two people.Put a line between the two sides, pick up the towel and, just like any tug-of-war game, tug. If you cross the line, you lose.Tug-of-war is hard: it’s going to work your core, arms and grip strength. Still, if you’re locked down with your buddies, it’s a killer real-life workout and a lot of fun.
Take-Home Message
Play some games, have some fun, and reach your fitness goals while you’re at it. We’re always looking forfun things to do at home, but you don’t need to buy anything to keep fit and reconnect with friends. If the fitness games here don’t interest you, think of your own — you can adopt loads of classics to become active games — give them a go with your buddies and make your home workouts fun again.
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