Introducing fun recreation activities you can enjoy in the gym! When you hear variety games or cooperative games, you might imagine playing outside, but there are plenty of activities and recreations you can enjoy in a gym.
Even when rain or snow keeps you indoors, you can still build your fitness in the gym.
Basketball, futsal, dodgeball—there are tons of games and activities everyone can enjoy together! Try making time to be active in the gym with friends or family while having fun.
Exercise energizes both your mind and body!
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Variety Games and Cooperative Party Recs (1–10)
Dash through the gym while scrubbing the floor!
This activity involves racing through the gym while in the posture used for wiping the floor with a cloth—competing for speed while also cleaning the gym.
Since it uses a unique posture different from regular running and involves equipment, you also get to experiment with how to go faster.
Until participants get used to it, it’s recommended to first compete in straight-line sprints, then expand to courses with curves or obstacles.
Even those who aren’t good at regular running might discover that they can win in this posture—there may be new findings like that.
Line-up Game
Teams split up and are given a prompt.
The team that lines up the fastest according to that prompt wins.
For example, “Line up in order of earliest birthdays.” Team members have to share their birthdays and line up quickly.
It seems like it gets harder as the number of people increases.
Co-op Challenge
Instead of making it a competition or a face-off, try a “9-person cooperative arrangement” where everyone works together toward success.
The team can have any number of members.
Set a time limit and rules, and aim to achieve continuous successes.
For example, you can dribble like in soccer or basketball and put the ball into a goal, or you can catch a shuttlecock, a small ball, or a paper airplane in a basket.
It’s a valuable experience for both children who are good at these activities and those who aren’t, as they think about how everyone can succeed together.
Weird relay
By adding rule variations to a relay where team members run in turn, you can enjoy it as a more complex event.
When it’s a person’s turn, they carry out specified actions while thinking them through, cooperate as a team to meet the conditions, and aim for victory—that’s the general flow.
Introducing thinking elements—such as a game inspired by bingo where teams align rows by their team color—creates more opportunities for people who aren’t confident in athletics to shine.
By combining various victory conditions, you can also build excitement through different strategic approaches.
Numbered Dodge
A dodgeball game where dramatic comebacks are possible—that’s Number Dodge.
Players wear bibs with numbers.
If an infield player hits an opposing infield player whose number is higher than their own, they can send out as many opponents to the outfield as the difference between the numbers.
However, if you hit an opponent with the same number or a lower number, you can only send out one player.
When an outfield player scores a hit, it also only sends out one player.
To avoid confusion, this is a sport where the judge plays a crucial role in keeping score.
Rock-Paper-Scissors Basketball
Let me introduce “Rock-Paper-Scissors Basket,” a game that’s fun with a large group.
If you know the game “Fruit Basket,” think of this as a rock-paper-scissors version.
First, everyone forms a circle, and the It player stands in the center.
Everyone plays rock-paper-scissors with It; anyone who loses must move from their current spot to a different one.
Whoever can’t find a new spot stands in the middle and becomes the next It.
It’s easy to understand if you play seated in a circle on chairs, so that’s recommended.
As long as players are old enough to understand rock-paper-scissors, they can enjoy it—give it a try!
Pose Matching Game
As the name suggests, this is a simple, exciting, and fun game where everyone strikes a pose based on a prompt, and you succeed if everyone matches.
If you have a large group, turning it into a team competition makes it even more thrilling! For prompts, it’s recommended to start with easy ones like animals or characters, then gradually ramp up the difficulty with things like “cool poses” or “surprised faces.” By imagining and collaborating so that everyone ends up in the same pose, it can help build team unity and a sense of connection.
It’s a game that’s sure to spark laughter—give it a try!