We’re at least a few days into this social distancing thing and many of us aren’t getting our regular sources of exercise because gyms are closed, school is online and regular sports activities are suspended. On top of that, perhaps we have lost a bit of our senses of humor as the reality of how long “quarantine life” might last — we are laughing less and worrying more about things big and small. Raise your hand if you’ve barely changed your clothes in the last few days — my hand is up with no shame involved, more outfit changes mean more laundry which means more chores to do. No thank you! So between feeling sluggish and somewhat sick of the other people in our homes and somewhat unkempt to boot, this is the perfect time to introduce the “Dynamo Dice Roll.” This physically challenging and somewhat zany activity will inject some much need activity and humor into your households. It might also cause you to sweat enough to need to shower and change your clothes! We encourage grown ups to participate alongside kids.
Dynamo Dice Roll — How to Play
First, Grab one die and a piece of paper and pen. (If you don’t have a die you can make a cube taping together 6 pieces of paper.)
Second, turn on some music!!!
Third, make the list of 6 exercises with your child to correspond to each of the 6 numbers that can be rolled on a die.
1. Jumping Jacks 2. Push Ups 3. Lunges 4. Squats 5. Star Jumps 6. Burpees.
You can set this game up as an activity for one person, two people or multiple teams depending on how many people are shacked up in your house. You can have the activities done as stationary exercises or participants can race to the other end of the room or the yard to do the exercise there. If you are using teams for this activity, everyone does the activity one after the other before the die is rolled again for the next exercise. This ensures that everyone learns how and practices each activity on the list. There are challenging (especially burpees and push ups) and take time and practice to do properly. Here is our version of the list and we’ve included a video demonstrating each activity:
1- Jumping Jacks (10x)
2- Push ups (5x)
3- Lunges (5x)
4- Squats (5x)
5- Star Jumps (5x)
6- Burpees (5x)
Please patient with yourselves and others in your families on proper form and number of repetitions. Remember, we are trying to lighten the mood and learn something new not dump on each other for how bad our push ups are. Monitor how family members are treating each other and step in as appropriate. Finally, we’ve included a little “Rock, Paper, Scissors” video to show how we resolve conflicts in our Dynamo Girl classes — we use these for issues over who gets to go first, who starts in goal or whether someone is tagged or not. In times like these, it’s also helpful if you can’t remember whose turn it is to unload the dishwasher or sweep under the table or fold the laundry. Good luck and let us know how it goes!
