5 Fun Boot Camp Games!

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Want to add a few fun activities to your next boot camp class?  Or looking for a way to add some silliness to a group workout or team building day?  Try one of these entertaining boot camp games that will have participants laughing and time flying while they’re working hard….

1.  Clothespin Chase

Give each participant two to four clothespins.  Participant should place them on the side of their shirts, as close to the edge as possible.  When the game begins, participants should run and try to grab as many clothespins as possible from other players and pin them to their own shirt. The person with the most clothespins at the end is the winner.

2.  Poker Party

Put a deck of cards in a bucket – or split between several buckets if you have a big group – a comfortable distance down the field or gym.  Each participant must lunge walk to the bucket, grab a card, and then run back to their starting place.  They then repeat the activity until they are holding a 5 card hand.  Each participant then looks at their cards and the participant with the best poker hand gets to decide what everyone will do for each suit (for example, hearts = push ups, spades = squats, etc).  You can decide how to structure this – each person can do the number of repetitions on their own hand, each person can follow along with the winner’s hand, or you can rotate through the entire group’s hands.  You can repeat this activity a few times depending on how you’re using it.

3.  Flip the Cones

Set up a bunch of disc cones in a large field or gym.  {Side note – I recommend having some disc cones for any kind of boot camp.  It makes it easy to set up perimeters of a field; shuttle runs; weaving drills; etc.  I ordered this set of 20 disc cones and love them.}  For the flip the cones game, make half of them right side up, and half of them upside down.  Break the team into two groups.  One group should try to get all the cones right side up, and the other’s goal is to get them all upside down.  The team with the most in their direction at the end of the game wins.

4.  Hungry Hungry Hippos

A trip to the dollar store where I found these numbers inspired this game!  {If you can’t find them yourself at a dollar store, you can spend a few more bucks to get some magnetic colored numbers and use those instead.}  Here’s how this game works:  Arrange buckets in 4 corners and place one in the center of a field or gym.  Break into 4 teams, and each team starts at their corner bucket.  When the game starts, one team member at a time must run to the center to pick out a colored number from the center bucket.  Once they return, they put the number in their team’s bucket and then the next teammate runs in (relay race style).

When that part of the game is “done”, then the strength training begins!  Each team should lay out their colored numbers and do all the numbers for each color according to this chart:

• Blue = Burpees
• Yellow = Push-Ups
• Red = Lunges
• Green = Crunches

5.  Toilet Tag

Admittedly, this is not mine and came from BOKS training a few years ago.  I learned it then for kids but think adults have just as much fun playing as the little ones.

Select a few people to be “it” as the taggers.  When participants are tagged, they must freeze into squat position with one arm raised.  Anyone who is not it can lower your arm (“flush the toilet”) in order to unfreeze you.  Play for a minute or so, then take a quick rest and pick new taggers to play again.

Share with me:  Do you have a favorite fitness game that you’ve either played in a class, or used yourself to teach a class?  Do you like games or do you prefer more drill-like activities?

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Chrissy Carroll

Chrissy Carroll is a Registered Dietitian and USAT Level I Triathlon Coach. She specializes in sharing nutrition and fitness tips, as well as recipes, for runners, triathletes, and active women.Chrissy holds a Bachelor's Degree in Nutrition, a Masters Degree in Public Health, and is also an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer.

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