CORE TEAM PHYSICAL TRAINING
DESIGN WORKOUT EVOLUTIONS
Use Google Maps
Plan your route. Depending on groups abilities, a good rule of thumb is to plan a route no longer than 2.5 miles for a one hour workout. See Resources page for more information
Keep Everyone Moving for the Whole Hour
• lead an exercise
• ask someone to lead an exercise
• send them to touch a tree, run to top of hill, etc
• send them to an obstacle: climb gate, cross bars
• have them bear or crab crawl to an object
• have them touch three trees or posts, etc.
• Jogging in place
• Continuous Calf Raises
• Plank
• Push Up position (continuous): wide, tricep, spiderman
• Back To Last
• Jumping Jacks
• Squats
• Star Jumps
• “Last One In, Lead In Ten”
• Finish Exercise, then “Come Find Me”
Techniques to Vary/Make Interesting Standard Exercises/Evolutions
• Speed: slow count exercises (i.e. 8 count push-up), timed exercises (go fast!), percent exercises (helps with warming up: for example, start at 50%, then 75%, then 100%, allowing for active rest between)
• Chants: chant about the weather, the location, an upcoming holiday, an upcoming sport event or race, someone in the group having a special occasion
• Riddles: come prepared with a riddle or joke
• Lessons: talk about an exercise and it's proper form (flutters, hagglers, atomics), about how to stretch, about nutrition in the news, about a good habits
Accommodations for Guests
• Demonstrate an exercise to whole team. Have team do 20 more and then run to new location. Stay with new member to discuss form, not sending them on the run portion.
• Assign a series of 1 exercise with 1 location in a team. (For example, go to circle and 50 setups as a team, then go to sunken field and do 50 marvin hagglers, etc.). Use the same exercises that were demonstrated before/above.
• Touch trees and line up in push up position
• Relay races at end of workout.
Abdominal Evolutions
• Build numbers: 10 hand to toe, 20 opposite knee sit up. 30 hagglers, 40 flutters, 50 crunches, 60 criss-cross. Run to new location and repeat.
• Assign Exercises and Numbers to groups. Have one person running to touch an obstacle
• Destination: Pick a spot, assign 50 sit ups, have them return to me, assign ab, go back to destination for 50 sit ups, return to me in new spot with new ab, repeat
• One Running: Break into teams, assign abs, have one person running to touch a landmark at all times
• Work with a partner: Alternate 25 of an each with a one minute ab contest. Keep score
• Adding On: Corner 1 - 20 squats, Corner 2 - 20 squats, 30 sit ups, Corner 3 - 20 squats, 30 sit ups, 40 atomics, Corner 4 - 20 squats, 30 sit ups, 40 atomics, 50 superman ,etc. (maybe have an acronym and when they figure it out they can stop)
• Triple Crown Race (do in May): 3 different lengths of time (sit up race)
• War (like the card game): Line up most fit to least fit, divide into 2 teams by counting 1, 2; 2s turn 180 and everyone take 5 steps. Count off in your rank and remember your number. Winner of competition keeps both members. Everybody does the exercise. Losing team chooses the exercise, if a tie then instructor chooses.
Cardio Evolutions
• Staggered races (fountain lake, Brown's island). If lots of members then start two or more at a time.
• Partners run opposite loop to tag
• Indian Run - Long
• Indian Runs - Short loop of Indian Runs then stop for exercises (and/or quiz questions) and then indian run again. Exercise #s based on answers to quiz.
• Whole group races, timed: have whole group run to location and back > time group as a whole
• Alternating sprints: sprint then jog between landmarks
• Loops & obstacles (spiral): stand at pull up bars or fence or other obstacle. Have members run up a hill or to a tree then back to me. Do obstacle then run loop to new location
• Triple Crown Race (do in May?): 3 different distances
• Stair Evolution: Brown’s Island at canal, Dogwood Dell Amphitheater to Carillon
• Sprint for shade
• Bridge Sprints: Sprint (or lunge, skip, hop, grapevine) to one side do exercise. Sprint to the other do exercise. Have numbers in a pattern.
• Arrival numbers: have arrive and hold plank, push up, continuous squats,etc. have count off. Remember number. Next time if number improved, lower count of leg exercises
• Lead, Have, Find: Lead Exercise, Have do different exercise, then Find me while doing 3rd exercise (example: Lead Star Jumps, Have do Squats, Skip to Instructor)
• Run/Push-Up Pyramid: 12 push-ups at the top, run down hill, 11 at bottom, run backward up hill, 10 at top; repeat
• Pick a route, locate grass spots along the way for sit-ups, push-ups, etc. find a hill for sprints (either races or run up fast 2 or 3 times)
• Push the loop: instruct works way around a loop (like pump house road), sending runners off to smaller loops and exercises
• One partner does an exercise (like burpees) while the other partner bear crawls up a hill or crab soccers up a hill, etc.
• Assign Race: Break into 2 groups. Assign 10 locations with exercises. Give return time
• Chase: line up fastest to slowest. Look at person to your right (faster person). That is the person you are chasing. Establish a course. Possibly have them spread out to make catching more difficult. Launch at staggered times, holding plank while waiting.
Upper Body
• Push ups in the round: break into groups based on number of push ups in 30 seconds. Go around 1 at a time, 1 push up then 2 push ups then 3 etc until one person left
• Serpentine bear crawls up and down a short hill, try in a line or in groups
• Push up and then scoot over, on a curb
• Pairs in a race: how many dips in 3 minutes
• Push up contest: line up most push ups to least, count 1, 2 then alternate push ups (staying off knees) until winner
• Form groups of 4 or 5. Give a route and have group do 200 push up each along the way
• Pull up pyramid: 2 pull-ups, x 2 push ups x 3 atomics
• Dirty Dozen: pushup & atomics (78 of each)
• Race on the monkey bars at Bryan park.
Acronym Evolutions
• FLASH - Flutters, Leg levers, Atomics, Sit-ups, marvin Hagglers
• CHAOS - Crunches, Half sit-ups, Alternating knee crunches, Open/close, Superman
• HEART - Hip thrusters, back Extensions, Alternating knee sit-ups, Russian twists, hand-to-Toe sit-ups
• HAPPY – Hagglers, Atomics, Push-Ups, Plank Push Ups, Yd-grip Push-ups (25 each)
• BLOOMS - Back Extensions, Leg Levers, Open/Close, Oblique Crunches, Marvin Hagglers, Sit Ups
• FLAMBOYANT – Flutter Kicks, Leg Levers, Atomics, Marvin Hagglers, Burpees, Open/Close, Wide Grip Push-ups, Atomics, Jack Knives, Triceps
• SAMPLE – Sit Ups, Atomics, Marvin Hagglers, Push Ups, Leg Levers (50 each), Eight-Count Body Builders (10) or back extensions
• SLEIGH - Superman, Leg Levers, Eight Count Body Builders, Iron Mikes, Groiner, Hagglers (25 each except 10 body builders)
• JACK FROST - Jumping Jacks, Atomics, Crunches, Jack Knives, Flutter Kicks, Chase the Rabbits (or Russian Twist), Open/Close, Superman, Triceps (30 each)
• I LOVE ABS: incline sit-ups, leg levers, open-close, v-open close, 8 count push-ups, atomics, burpees, sit ups
• IRELAND: incline sit-ups, reach push-ups, 8 count body builders, leg levers, atomics, Jack Knives, decline push-ups
• JULY: Jumping Jacks, UChoose, Leg Levers, Y’d grip push ups
• OREGON HILL: Open/close, Russian Twist, 8 Count Body Builder, Groiner, Oblique Sit Ups, Hagglers, Iron Mikes, Leg Levers, Lateral Lunge
• AUTUMN: Atomics, Push Ups, Triceps, Sit Ups, Marvin Hagglers, Jack Knives
• TURKEY: Triceps, Push Ups, Chase the Rabbits, Jack Knives, Back Extensions, Wide Grip
• Make up your own!
Intense Evolutions
• Drop Out (if drop out of exercise, run up hill or stairs, get back in)
• Pyramids (sit ups, pull ups, etc)
• Teams of 2 vs teams of 2: have a contest, winners stay and losers go to top of hill. Winners have new competition with new pair
Timed Evolutions
• Two-Minute Timed Sit Ups or Push-Ups
• Tabata (download and use a Tabata app on your smart phone)
• Location Races: Run to various location and do one-minue ab or push-up races; keep score
• Out & Back: Using a timer, run out for a timed amount and back for the same timed amount (i.e. run out for 5 minutes then turn and run back to start for 5 mintues for a 10 minutue Out & Back). Variation: Have Team run Out but tell them they have to be Back to a designated location by a designated time.
• One-Minute Pop & Drop (push up position touching alternating shoulders, someone says “drop” and all have to do a push up, then resume “popping” shoulders )
Quick Evolutions
Useful to fill in if have a little extra time at end of workout:
• Crab soccer tag
• Bear crawl #1, crab soccer #2, run #3 (forward then backward). Indicate a certain direction is considered "forward" and don't turn around.
• Relay races in Dell circle
• Suicides (tennis courts, soccer fields, repeating trees); make go forwards, then backward
• Amphitheater exercises
• Arm Circles
• Slow count incline sit-ups
• Touch water fountains, trees, poles, crape myrtles (when return: push up in order of arrival, plank in order of arrival, jogging in place); after giving directions, could have them circling me until I say go - don’t step on your buddy
• Speed dating: must be fast between dates
• Plank Contest: one group does a four count exercise while the other holds plank, then swap
• Buddy back extensions
• Assign exercise have run/ touch obstacle, return, repeat
• Alternating pairs: While one partner does sit ups (or atomics), the other bear crawls (or crab soccer) up to landmark and runs back. Do for 3 minutes.
• Roulette: Divide into two teams, one person choses someone from the other team their birth day or birth month and then their team has to do that many push-ups, or Burpees or sit-ups or whatever
• Lightning Race: Do 20 sit ups, 20 superman, stand up with a "Done!" or "Hoopla!"