It’s not hard to be physically active when you’re having fun.

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Fun is one of the most powerful tools you can use to motivate and inspire your group to be physically active.

Gone are the days when ‘running two laps of the oval’ was the only way to pump the blood and get your group moving. These ‘exercises’ were just poor excuses for not know what else to do.

There are so many fun and playful ways to attract people to be physically active, including brain breaks, two-minute energisers, warm-ups, stretches, tag games and hundreds of interactive group activities.

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Some Useful Guidelines for Structuring Physical Activity

  • Start small, and slow. Don’t ask for too much too soon, lest you scare people away.
  • Make it fun. Fun is what motivates people to want to participate because fun is contagious and extremely attractive. Having fun should go without saying, but look around, and you’ll notice many un-fun group activities which aim to achieve the same outcome, eg star jumps, running laps, push-ups, etc.
  • Always honour people’s choice. One of the most critical elements of playmeo’s philosophical framework – Challenge by Choice – insists that we respect the choice of individuals to choose how far they wish to challenge themselves. This is a powerful concept in and of itself, but it demands that we, as program leaders, create first an environment in which people can make appropriate choices.
  • Move frequently from small group to large group activities. The sheer energy that is generated from large groups can provide valuable motivation for some people to give it go. While small group and partner exercises provide a useful safety net for those who prefer to shy away from the spotlight.
  • Mix it up. We all have strengths, but no two people are the same. Your program should aim to change the pace and focus on a wide-variety of physical skills and levels of exertion.

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Activity Ideas Which Help People Be Physically Active

The images below provide links to a sample of group activities which will motivate your group to be physically active and have fun, drawn from playmeo’s innovative online activity database.

Enjoy browsing to your heart’s content.

If you’re not yet a playmeo subscriber, sign-up today to unlock hundreds more group games and activities just like these.

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