Any fun, creative exercise ideas? Please help!

kekl
kekl Posts: 382 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi everyone -

I am in Army ROTC at my college, and my class is in charge of writing a few weeks worth of PT plans for the other classes. (Pt being 3x a week) A lot of our plans were rejected for being too boring and repetitive, and we were told by our cadre that we needed creative, fun, pt plans.

Our PT runs from 0645 - 0800, and have mandatory warm up and cool down drills (about 20 minutes) and 30 minutes of cardio (running). The rest of it is fair game but situps and pushups are on our PT test so there is a high priority for exercises that work the same area.

I already am thinking circuits (lots of circuits), a 'scavenger hunt' across campus (incorporating running and situps/pushups), contest-type activities, HIIT/Sprinting intervals, but I am tearing my brain for other things.

So I ask you all.... any suggestions to make this more creative?

Replies

  • SmudgerSmithRhino
    SmudgerSmithRhino Posts: 96
    You could do worse then introduce them to the Tough Mudder training programme, the link is;

    http://toughmudder.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/tough-mudder-boot-camp.pdf

    They'll hate you and love you in equal measure. Although probably hate you more!
  • TrailRunner61
    TrailRunner61 Posts: 2,505 Member
    Hula hoops!!
  • baxgilter
    baxgilter Posts: 246 Member
    What kind of workout equipment do you have access to if any?
  • kekl
    kekl Posts: 382 Member
    You could do worse then introduce them to the Tough Mudder training programme, the link is;

    http://toughmudder.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/tough-mudder-boot-camp.pdf

    They'll hate you and love you in equal measure. Although probably hate you more!

    Thank you for that link! I will definately use some of those! That's awesome!
  • capnrus789
    capnrus789 Posts: 2,736 Member
    Look up some old Walter Payton or Jerry Rice workouts. Football drills will likely be very different than what they are used to.
  • mandiam
    mandiam Posts: 109
    How about adding in some gun tactics??
  • mandiam
    mandiam Posts: 109
    also mind games...example: write the ABC's backwards while in a plank.
  • Loulady
    Loulady Posts: 511 Member
    Tell them to quit their whining - it's the Army (rotc), not summer camp. ;-)

    Mark's Daily Apple has lots of workouts of the week that are generally outdoors, don't need much equipment deals:
    http://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-fitness/workout-of-the-week-archive/#axzz26vSKzqqx

    Do you have any obstacle course or park with a jungle gym on campus that you could invade for the morning?
  • kekl
    kekl Posts: 382 Member
    Tell them to quit their whining - it's the Army (rotc), not summer camp. ;-)

    Mark's Daily Apple has lots of workouts of the week that are generally outdoors, don't need much equipment deals:
    http://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-fitness/workout-of-the-week-archive/#axzz26vSKzqqx

    Do you have any obstacle course or park with a jungle gym on campus that you could invade for the morning?

    Haha, I wish I could. It's the cadre who want it to be exciting and nonrepetitive, not the cadets.

    Thank you for the suggestion, I will also be checking that out!
  • bonniebug50
    bonniebug50 Posts: 12 Member
    Tap out XT...a little mixed marshall arts, a great all over body workout, it rocks!
  • nevertoolate2
    nevertoolate2 Posts: 309 Member
    Orienteering - with way points in hard to get to places or waypoints with exercise challenges
    Human chariot or wheelbarrow racing
    3 legged races
    British bulldog


    good luck!
  • katsmo
    katsmo Posts: 219 Member
    Geocaching, which is similar to orienteering. It's basically an outdoor scavenger hunt where you use your GPS to find hidden stuff. It's done all over the world. I would suggest something with a difficult terrain. You have to climb trees or traverse water to get to some. It's free.

    https://www.geocaching.com/
  • Topsking2010
    Topsking2010 Posts: 2,245 Member
    Have team competition with different workouts at various stations.
  • kekl
    kekl Posts: 382 Member
    What kind of workout equipment do you have access to if any?

    We have access to the campus gym facility - so kettlebells, barbells, etc. However we don't have much time to go and grab them, and there are 12 people that need to be exercised in a short amount of time so usually we just stay outside and do body weight exercises.
  • Lleldiranne
    Lleldiranne Posts: 5,516 Member
    Obstacle course? Or mix it with the scavenger hunt - you know, find a certain feature on campus and then do some sort of activity.
  • chrishgt4
    chrishgt4 Posts: 1,222 Member
    At Taekwondo we used to do things like pairing up and racing in various ways such as piggy pack down a course, switch round at the end and then run back up the course. Losers get pressups/situps/burpees etc.

    Wheelbarrow races except instead of walking on hands you have to do like a press up bounce along. Same thing - losers get burpees.

    At football we jog round a set area and there are various calls that people have to follow - losers get exercises. Things like left hand down/right hand down/both hands down/jupms/star jumps/get into groups of 3/4/5 /get on piggy backs etc

    We also do various types of races and time everyone. Such as you have to start laying flat on your belly arms out, then get up and run somewhere, do an activity (for us it's like football skills but you could amend it) then dodge in and out of cones back - do something else, then sprint round another course and back.
  • edge_dragoncaller
    edge_dragoncaller Posts: 826 Member
    Setup an Amerian Ninja Warrior ( show on G4 ) style obstacle course!
  • kekl
    kekl Posts: 382 Member
    Setup an Amerian Ninja Warrior ( show on G4 ) style obstacle course!

    oh man, I so would if I could. ;)

    Thank you everyone for your suggestions, by the way! You're helping a LOT! :)
  • MeanSophieCat
    MeanSophieCat Posts: 200 Member
    If yoga is acceptable, I like sun salutations done quickly with some challenging holds in each set.

    If you are not familiar with yoga, here's a step-by-step on the basic sun salutation: http://yoga.about.com/od/yogasequences/ss/sunsalutesteps.htm

    Here's some additions:

    1. During the first sun salutation, hold plank (#5 in the above link) for 60 seconds and the 2nd downward dog (#10) for 60 seconds
    2. Do a full push up between plank and chaturanga (#6) during each sun salutation
    3. The second (and all subsequent times) you do sun salutation, add a hold after the last lunge (#9). 30 seconds is a good hold time. Some classes I take do 60 seconds.

    Some suggested holds are:

    1. Boat pose: http://yoga.about.com/od/yogaposes/a/boat.htm
    2. Crow/crane pose: http://yoga.about.com/od/yogaposes/a/crow.htm
    3. Scale pose: http://yoga.about.com/od/yogaposes/a/pendant.htm
    4. Warrior III: http://yoga.about.com/od/yogaposes/a/warrior3.htm

    In general, keep moving quickly. Aside from the holds mentioned, you should just get into the pose and then began to move to the next.
  • Bull2707
    Bull2707 Posts: 106
    You can always do cross fit exercises, run swim runs pending on the weather, with your circut training add combat fighting into the routine. I have seen lot of military do Insanity. Love it!
  • GSCPostBaby
    GSCPostBaby Posts: 111 Member
    The Kama Sutra.
  • GSCPostBaby
    GSCPostBaby Posts: 111 Member
    Seriously though, bodyrock.tv posts workouts daily which will kick your *kitten* and are really fun and challenging.
  • acksaysbillthecat
    acksaysbillthecat Posts: 64
    I don't know if you do this already, but our instructor (former Army) throws into our workouts:
    Reverse Fireman Carry (dragging body)
    Fireman Carry (carrying a person on your shoulders)
    Shadowboxing/MMA
    Squat Jumps
    The jumps where you put your hands around your knees/legs as you jump up in the air
    You could have a soccer game.
    I don't know what you call this, but you are down really low like a spider and have to basically run on all fours. We did that in the sand and it was sooo hard.
    While one person is in full arm extension plank position, the other person has to jump over the planker's legs facing toward the legs. make harder by jumping sideways. As the jumper gets over he must drop and both people push up at the same time. Then switch positions.
    Leap Frog over each other. The person bending has to stay relatively tall but with head tucked under.
  • alpine1994
    alpine1994 Posts: 1,915 Member
    I know this isn't creative but my little brother's ROTC class did P90X together.
  • kekl
    kekl Posts: 382 Member
    Here's one I wrote up... this will be fun :devil:

    ‘Duck Duck Goose PT’ – Cadets will play a modified version of ‘Duck Duck Goose’. Cadets will form a circle. One cadet will walk around the circle, calling out ‘Duck Duck Goose’. While they are doing this, all the other cadets are in the plank position. When they need to rest, they will switch automatically to the front leaning rest and begin doing pushups continuously. When they need to rest from pushups, they will switch back to plank position. They will repeat this throughout the exercise. Whoever is selected as the ‘goose’ will race the cadet who selected them 50 m away and back from the exercise area. Whoever loses has to do 5 burpees before resuming planks/pushups while the winner continues to go around the circle. If a Cadet wins 2 sprint rounds or is selected to sprint 2 times in a row, they will be placed back in the plank/pushup circle and another cadet will be selected so that each cadet will have a round to sprint.

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