Challenge Play: Connecting Exercise and Fun

We all know this client’s story: Mary is a 40-plus, career-oriented woman with two kids and with 40 extra pounds she’d like to lose. Mary knows how to overcome her obesity—at least temporarily. She’s done it before. But she always gains even more weight back when she falls off her strict exercise and nutrition regimen.

Mary is caught in an ongoing struggle with weight, self-image, vitality and overall well-being. Her strategies for losing weight and becoming healthier may indeed work, but they offer only a short-term, partial solution. What can keep Mary on the exercise wagon?

So far, she has relied on external goals, which are easy to set but hard to sustain. Psychologists know that internal, intrinsic motivators—things people do purely out of enjoyment—are much more effective at driving change that lasts. What can trigger Mary’s deep-down desire to be healthier?

The answer is making exercise fun again—it needs to become play. Stuart Brown, MD, a leading researcher on play and the co-author of Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination and Invigorates the Soul (Avery 2009), defines play as “an absorbing, apparently purposeless activity that provides enjoyment and a suspension of self-consciousness and a sense of time” (Brown & Vaughan 2009). Exercise, on the other hand, is traditionally defined as a physical activity that must serve a purpose, typically with an external motivation: for example, losing weight, toning up, boosting sports performance, adding muscle or improving health.

Most people hire a personal trainer to achieve a goal, not to play. Clients look to experience change, so failure to achieve change is seen as a failure in service. One way to bridge this gap is to marry the concepts of exercise and play. As trainers, we can foster an environment where clients experience physical, mental and emotional transformation while enjoying an atmosphere that allows them to become lost in the moment. Think of it as “challenge play.”

“Play” is a relative term, as Brian Sutton-Smith describes in his book The Ambiguity of Play (Harvard University Press 2001). One person’s play can be somebody else’s tedious hard work. Therefore, the psychological aspects of a client are just as important to understand as the physical aspects.

Highly motivating challenge play offers a competitive environment—typically some kind of game. Clients generally stay motivated if they can measure their success, if they feel they are pushing their body to new limits and if they experience novelty within their exercise progressions. Some clients, however, may not enjoy competitiveness and may find challenge play scary, risky and daunting. For these clients, other forms of play are preferable.

While providing the “suspension of self-consciousness and . . . time” that Brown describes, games can simultaneously place the ideal stress on the human body to elicit desired adaptations. Let’s look at six categories of games that you can use to create challenge play: time trial play, 3D play, mass play, distance play, partner challenge play and group challenge play. The following examples give details on each model and may spark some connections to help you discern which styles could fit specific clients.

Definition A challenge that asks how many of X you can do in Y amount of time.

Physical Benefits Improves speed, agility, quickness, power, anaerobic conditioning.

Considerations The faster and more capably clients can perform a given exercise, the shorter the time under tension should be—to avoid excessive soft-tissue irritation. For example, clients who can move quickly through a speed ladder send a high level of stress into the plantar fascia. Keep the time under tension to under 20 seconds for advanced clients. Avoid injury with proper exercise progression.

Examples CrossFit®, obstacle courses, 40-yard sprints, relay races.

Requirements A minimum of three HyperWear® SandBell hoops (6–20 pounds) and at least six agility rings; timer; one to two people.

Setup Line up three agility rings side by side. Line up the other three rings roughly 10–15 feet away, opposite the first three rings. Place a SandBell in each of the three rings on one side of the playing field. Set the timer to 1 minute.

Execution The participant must squat, pick up a SandBell and then throw it to the opposing ring before moving on to the next ring and throwing the next SandBell across. Once all three SandBells are thrown on one side, the player must then sprint to the other side and throw the SandBells back. The activity continues for a full minute. Landing a SandBell in the opposing ring scores a point. The objective is to see how many points the player can achieve in the given amount of time.

Variations

• Vary the work-to-rest ratio to challenge various energy systems.
• Use SandBells of different weights for additional challenge.
• Set rules for different types of throws (chest pass, lateral toss, underhand).
• Try this challenge in a prone position and crawling.
• Play with a partner or in a competitive group setting.

Requirements 1 ViPR; 1 timer; one-on-one or group training.

Setup Choose a ViPR suited to the client’s capabilities and the desired outcomes. Lighter ViPRs are for improving endurance, speed and the aerobic energy system. Heavier ViPRs are for improving strength, power and the anaerobic energy system. Identify four locations on the ViPR where players can catch and throw it.

Execution Grabbing Position 1 while the ViPR is on its end, the player throws the equipment vertically, using a squat pattern, and catches it on Position 2 while decelerating back into a squat. The player now throws to Position 3, then 4, then back to 3, 2 and then to 1, preventing the ViPR from touching the ground. Be sure the client can throw and catch the ViPR safely from the positions you choose. The lower the position on the ViPR, the more challenging the exercise becomes. Repeat for the desired amount of time (30–60 seconds) and count how many catches each player is able to make.

Variations

• Vary the work-to-rest ratio to challenge various energy systems.
• Vary the order in which players throw and catch the ViPR. Example: Try a 1-to-4-to-1 lifting sequence.
• Add locomotion to the exercise (lunge or shuffle pattern, for instance).
• Start with the ViPR lying on the ground.
• Play with a partner or in a competitive group setting.

Definition A challenge for players who enjoy exploring what the body can accomplish in 3D space.

Physical Benefits Improves coordination, rhythm and timing, various energy systems, connective-tissue health, ability to react.

Considerations Always allow the client to start with at least 5 practice reps of the given movement, to ensure good form. Start with known movements, and progress to lesser-known movements (e.g., progress from a front lunge to a diagonal cross-over lunge).

Examples Coaches Call, Simon Says, Exercise Matrix.

Requirements Light dumbbells (3–10 pounds).

Setup Identify the space around the participant by using the image of a clock (12 is straight ahead, 3 is to the right, 6 is behind, 9 is to the left). Identify which foot you want the client to bound with.

Execution The player bounds to the number you call out and then returns to the start position. When the client demonstrates good bounding ability, ask him to drive the opposite hand to knee height while bounding in a given direction. Always have the player bound back to the start position before you call out the next number. The player bounds with the same foot for 30–60 seconds before switching legs.

Variations

• Add more coordination challenge by alternating legs with each bound vs. repeating with the same leg.
• Vary how far the client must bound.
• Ask the client to hold the bound on one leg for an added balance challenge.
• Vary how high the dumbbells are driven.
• Play with a partner or in a competitive group setting.

Definition A challenge for people who enjoy trying to move the maximum amount of mass in a given exercise.

Physical Benefits Improves strength and power.

Considerations Only advanced clients who have had months of practice should attempt lifting at near-maximal intensities. Provide a safer environment by using a 5-repetition maximum.

Examples Power lifting, Olympic lifting, strongman competitions.

Definition A challenge that asks how far players can go while performing a given exercise.

Physical Benefits Improves endurance and power.

Considerations This works best in spacious outdoor environments.

Examples Running, swimming, cycling, jumping, bounding, hopping, throwing, crawling, rolling for distance.

Definition Any form of the aforementioned challenge plays performed with a partner.

Physical Benefits Improves social camaraderie; pushes people to work harder because of the competition involved.

Considerations Partner up people with similar capabilities. Be sure to teach proper agility techniques to avoid injuries.

Examples Speed-Ladder Speed Game, SandBell Hoops, ViPR Lift.

Requirements One speed ladder; two people. Cones can be used, but a speed ladder creates an efficient boundary.

Setup Lay down a speed ladder, and have participants stand on opposite ends, facing each other.

Execution When the whistle blows, each player runs to her right (in relation to the ladder) and touches the end of the ladder on the opposite side with her hand. Partners must return to the start position in the same direction they came, and then repeat the action on the other side. After performing on both sides, the player who can return to her start position faster is the winner.

• Repeat the drill for a set time to challenge various energy systems.
• Vary the distance of the ladder.
• Change the locomotion—shuffle, carioca, backpedal, hopping, etc.
• Change how players start the exercise (e.g., have them start in a prone position or with eyes closed).
• Play in a competitive group setting.

Definition Any form of the aforementioned challenge plays performed in a group.

Physical Benefits Improves social camaraderie; pushes people to work harder because of the competition.

Considerations This is best for those who enjoy competition.

Examples Relay races, pentathlon (five-exercise event), decathlon (10-exercise event), obstacle courses.

To promote and maintain health, most people should exercise 5 days a week for 30 minutes at moderate intensity or 3 days a week for 20 minutes at vigorous intensity, advise the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association (Haskell et al. 2007). For many, this may be a daunting task. It is therefore our duty as fitness professionals to provide intrinsically motivating exercise activities that enable people to adhere to their exercise goals. With challenge play, we can evolve from “working out” to “playing out” and create a much more inviting exercise experience for all.