Fitness games have a beneficial effect on health and can significantly improve agility, motor skills, hand eye co-ordination, cardio endurance, as well as sensory motor learning amongst other things.
This is critical for kids but important for everyone as adults are losing these properties as well which deteriorates health and ability.
Beyond those reasons we use games because it gets people to have fun.
Watch someone playing a parter animal move game and tell me if anyone isn’t smiling and laughing while working hard. It takes us back to kid like playing and connects play to fun.
It also creates positive competition and challenging one another to be better which creates connection and community.
This is how healthy individuals and communities are built.
Take tag, why it’s universally so popular is that it taps into something primal and fundamental about what makes us human beings. For centuries children have been chasing each other around on playgrounds, and before that, they merely chased each other around in open spaces.
There are so many physical skills involved in playin tag – skills that children grasp intuitively without formal instruction. They learn how to control their muscles by accelerating, stopping while sprinting around. They improve their agility, balance, co-ordination, accuracy and precision. They learn how to pivot, focus, and reach. And they learn basics of tactics and strategy too.
Like I mentioned before, there are social benefits in tag (and any other partner game). It’s high intensity activity but one that leads to laugher and fun. It’s impossible to play without laughing, shouting, and having a good time. You can play with friends or strangers.
With that said, we wanted to share just some of the games we incorporate into our programs so that our clients (both kids and adults) can develop the above skills, while creating bonds, and enjoying fun high intensity training.
Try one (or a couple) of these fitness partner games next time you’re “working out.”