Category: Fitness

Fitness Musical Hoops

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Grade level: 2-8
Equipment: Hula hoops, music
Game Description: In this fitness or warm-up game, hula hoops are placed around the basketball court perimeter. Choose a direction for players to travel: clockwise or counter clockwise staying on the outside of the basketball court line. Players cannot cross through center. Once the music starts they perform the cardio exercise of the teacher’s choice: jogging, running, skipping, cross-overs, etc. When the music stops they must get to a hoop within a few seconds. There can be as many people inside any hoop as possible, however everyone must be in a hoop. If anyone person is not standing inside a hoop, including all feet, then the entire class must do reps of a muscular exercise (push-ups for example). Once completed, a new cardio activity is given, the music begins again and the students do the next activity, however, once the music begins and the students are moving, the instructor removes one hula hoop from the game, etc, etc, until there is only one hoop left. At this point, give two jumping jacks per person for every one person that doesn’t make it into the hoop. And that’s fitness musical hoops!
(Thanks to Paul Ford for this game idea)

Jump Jump Fit

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Grade Level: 5-8
Equipment: Skipping ropes, lilly pads
Game Description: In Jump Jump Fit, players will get a good fitness cardio workout. Partners will find an area and set-up in the gym. 1 player will get the skipping rope. 1 player will place down 5 lilly pads on the floor to jump in a sequence. When groups are ready, the teacher or leader will set the timer for 1 minute and it’s go time! The player with the skipping rope will see how many skips he/she can complete in the minute. The other player will see how many reps of jumping on the lilly pads he/she can complete in the minute. After the minute, partners switch and go again. Try adding skipping tricks or 2-foot, left-foot, right-foot jumps and switch things up.

Army & Navy

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Grade Level: 2-8
Equipment: None
Game Description: This fitness or warm-up/running game is a calling game. The caller (usually the teacher) calls out these commands:

Army: Run to one side of the gym
Navy: Run to the other side of the gym
Hit the deck: Lie face down
At ease: Stand up

Try adding some rules such as “first one to Army gets a point” or “last one to Navy is out”. Players must be careful to wait for the “At Ease” command before getting up to run somewhere. Or add your own ideas to modify this quick physical education game to suit your needs. (Thanks to Justin for this game idea)

Classy Moves

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Grade Level: 2-8
Equipment: None
Game Description: This is a great warm-up game; it can be used in fitness, dance, stretching, or even just making goofy moves. Students form a circle around a leader who has 20 seconds to perform an action. The students must mimic the action, and then it’s someone else’s turn to be the leader. That’s it, that’s all. Simple and effective.

Card Suit Pickup

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Grade level: 2-8
Equipment: Decks of cards
Game Description: This is a fitness building relay-style game for PE class, using decks of cards. There are 4 teams, each one representing either diamonds, spades, clubs, or hearts. Teams will try to collect cards of their own suit by hustling to their deck and grabbing a card, one player at a time. The first team to collect all of the cards of their suit wins. Play again and again until you can’t run anymore! Also switch up the movement style from running to an activity of choice – lunges anyone? Read More →

Hourglass Relay

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Grade level: 3-8
Equipment: None
Game Description: Hourglass Relay is a continuous running and cardio-building activity that gets students moving in the shape of an hourglass. Depending on the group, you can adjust speed of the activity – slow, medium, fast. With a sports team, it might be a great sprinting activity. With a physical education class, it might be a great jogging activity or student choice for speed. Simple yet effective. Read More →

Speedway

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Grade level: 1-8
Equipment: 6 cones/pylons
Game Description: A fantastic running or dribbling game with lots of positive review. Teams will run or race on the Speedway, with players on each team taking turns cruising laps. A unique relay-style idea to get imaginations flowing and bodies moving. This is a continuous motion game with lots of room for variations. It can be played competitively or non-competitively. Read More →

Fitness Dodgeball

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Grade level: 3-8
Equipment: Pinnies, dodgeballs
Game Description: In Fitness Dodgeball, the ‘Personal Trainers’ (the taggers) will go around trying to throw the ball at the players running around. When hit, the players must perform some action such as pushups, situps, jumping jacks, before getting back into the game. Dodging, running, throwing, rolling, and a variety of exercises makes for an active PE game.