I got an email from Rubin at Parkfit Cambridge at the start of the month. I’ll begin by sharing it with you:
Bootcamp Monopoly
Set up circuit stations in a large square not forgetting dynamic exercises such as jerry can carry and sprints clients can be partnered up if even numbers. Using a large dice you can move the clients to their next station i.e.a roll of the dice shows 4 so they move 4 places around the square. Make sure you have a jail station where burpees or get ups are performed and a station where playing cards are placed such as hearts = push ups ,diamonds =squat jumps etc .time per station should be 60 secs, this can be a lot of fun.
Of course, like you, I thought this was freakin’ awesome idea! – and I have been hanging out to share my take of it with you.
Bootcamp Monopoly
Goals: Fun
Time: 60 minutes
Equipment: Cones, Mats, Tyres, Ropes, Street Cards
Warm Up
500m group run.
Core warm up:
Set up mats parallel in a row, there should be one mat between two people. Clients take it in turns doing the core exercise and resting. Use a repetition ladder starting at 2 and going up by 2 each round until they hit 10 reps. Then they should minus 2 reps each round back down to 2 reps.
- Round 1: Rest – Plank. Core – standing knee to elbow
- Round 2: Rest – jog on spot. Core – Knees up crunches
Concept
This game works just like the board game Monopoly except instead of being able to buy properties, clients must do the activity on the card before rolling the dice again. Once a team makes it around and past GO they get 1 point.
Set Up and Rules
Note: You will need extra time to set up this workout, but it is well worth it.
Set up circuit stations in a large square. The square circuit will consist of 12 stations – 4 corner stations and 8 “streets” (2 streets between each corner). I wrote down the street names and exercises on the back of a laminated piece of paper.
As you lay out the square, try and keep 3-5 metres between each station in case you end up with multiple groups on one station.
I used a small white board as a flat surface and a large rubber 6 sided die. Clients could mark off their points on the whiteboard when they pass GO.
Other rules:
- Clients will be in partners or threes (fitter clients in pairs). I only had one group of three.
- One person from each team will run into the centre and roll the die to decide what the next station will be. (eg. a roll of the dice shows 4 so they move 4 places around the square).
- After the starting roll teams move at their own pace, sending in one person to roll the die afta
- Rolling the same number on the die two rounds in a row will send you straight to jail (do not pass go etc.)
- Clients only do burpees in Jail IF they have been sent there, not if they are just visiting. If they are just visiting the simply roll the die again.
- Stop the game every 10 minutes for drink break. To keep their motivation up send the whole group past GO for an extra point on their way to grab their water bottles. Start everyone back at GO on the next round.
Stations
Corner 1 (Pass GO) – Keep on rolling, one point scored for your team.
Street 1 (Band Alley) – 20x band curls, 20x upright rows
Street 2 (Squat Street) – 10x close feet squats, 10x sumo squats, 10x regular squats
Corner 2 (Jail Station) – Roll again unless you have been sent to jail. Clients in jail must perform 15 burpees before rolling the dice once more.
Street 3 (Rope Road) – 15x rope slams (each person)
Street 4 (Push Up Place) – 10x close push ups, 10x regular push ups, 10x push up pulses
Corner 3 (Free Parking) – A trick! No free money here, just a challenge. 20x 180 degree touch jump squats
Street 5 (Tyre Trail) – Shuttle the stack of tyres 15m (one at a time per person) from one stack to the other.
Street 6 (Lunge Laneway) – 30m walking lunge
Corner 4 (Go to Jail!) – Go straight to corner 2
Street 7 (T Junction) – 20x T-Pushups
Street 8 (Park Lane) – 3x laps of the Monopoly Square
Flaws and things you might consider changing
- Rolling 6 on the die when you were in Jail sent you straight back to Jail again. I had one pair do this 4 times in a row. You might want to change this.
- To speed things up you could change the 1 on the die to another number (so clients could not move just one square).
- If you land directly on GO you get an extra point.
- Instead of going to Jail for rolling the same number twice you could go directly to GO.
- Unfortunately in my version their are no cards as I had another card game workout set up for my clients earlier in the same week that I ran this so I didn’t include any cards in my Bootcamp Monopoly, but this is something you could add as Rubin suggests.
- Use your imagination!
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Let me know if I missed anything guys or if you need something explained. This is a serious kick butt workout. If you want more, join our emailing list.
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Image: Mark Strozier
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P.S. The next competition is coming end of September. More news on Friday!
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Kyle Wood created Bootcamp Ideas in 2010 when he was hunting around on the internet for workout ideas. He ran a successful bootcamp in Victoria, Australia and spends his spare time managing this site, adventuring (or lazying) with his wife and find new ways to make bootcamps even better.
Sick idea. I will do this as a Monday funday or a fun friday!
Rubin is top class, I’ve never met a PT like him. He puts so much thought, planning and creativity into each session that makes it a killer yet fun workout.
Wow Rubin, I hope you steal this for your testimonials 🙂
Thanks for the kind words Joseph.
Genius! Using this Friday!!!
Ha ha I’m sure he will be asking for a discount now.Excellent rep challenge added and I’m sure your readers will add there own spin on it and that’s what this great website is about ..
I love this! am going to try it out tomorrow. I’ve added Heartbreak hill (hill sprint, bear crawl forwards up hill and bear crawl backwards up hill) as well as Agility Avenue (agility ladder and hurdles). Fun! thankyou 🙂
I love the sound of Heartbreak Hill 🙂
I got my campers to do this yesterday for our final fun session of this 4-week bootcamp and they loved it! I changed a couple of exercises to better suit my group. They really powered through it and everyone was sweating, laughing and not to mention groaning (for all the jail burpees!)
Such a great workout idea – thank you!
Hi! I just got a job as a fitness provider for middle school girls. I will be in charge of setting up bootcamps and circuits…pretty much any fun workout I can come up with. The idea is a girls empowerment fitness hour and I would really love to do this workout with them.
I had a few questions concerning some of the workouts and It says to email if I had any questions. What are some workouts I would be able to replace for “Tyre Trail” considering they are only middle schoolers, and that equipment wont be available.
Also, I am a bit confused as to the dice concept. Here are a few questions I have:
Should I buy dice or make them?
Should I time them at each station, or should they roll the dice when they are finished with the reps?
Is the concept that when they finish each station, they roll the dice, which ever number they land on, they go to that specific numbered station?
Or, do they start at Go, all roll one dice, and move to how many spaces they landed on?
And if I am correct, when they passed around the whole board, they get 1 point?
My apologies for all the questions, I just want to make this as fun for them as I can possibly make it, but in order for this to happen, I have to have a full understanding of the concept!
Thanks a bunch!
Hi Nicole,
That sounds like good fun! Stay tuned for the fitness games coming on the site today as I think they should be a good help for you too.
To answer your questions:
• I would replace tyre trail with something like a 20 metre bear crawl. Or you could put a pile of basketballs and make them carry those one at a time to a spot 10 metres away and then back.
• For the dice, I just used a large single die 6 that I found at a post office. It’s actually an eraser but still functions well as a die 🙂
• Yes, only roll the die again after you have finished the station. Keep the die in the middle of the circuit. Whatever number they get they then count on from that like board game. So if I am on station number 6 and I roll a 3, I go to station number 9.
• Yes when they make it around they get 1 point.
Let me know if you have anymore,
Kyle
I did this workout and clients loved it. I made up my own stations to fit the bootcamp. But it was fun! Love this site and the ideas!
Hi Kyle,
I’m very excited to do this with my clients on Monday. Quick question, how did you go about partnering up your group. Did you put least fittest with fittest?
Thanks
Nicole
Hey Nicole,
Yes I did do that, but the random nature of the workout means that even a fit pair could come last so it doesn’t matter too much in hindsight.
Kyle
I used this idea for my training bootcamp. Worked brilliantly except for, like you said, one couple of guys went to ‘Jail’ about 4 times in a row.
I split this up in to two rounds of 15mins. Next time I will amend the rules so that in round two, to get out of Jail you can do 15 Burpees or lose a point.
I really like the option of burpees or lose a point. I will keep that in mind for the next time I run this. Thanks Rebecca!
Hi guys!! This is such a great idea, and will be running it as a monthly game over at our bootcamps. It was really fun coming up with new names for the streets like: Hip rotation station and Burpee Boulevard… Also we made the punishment in Jail as an isometric squat (Seated against the wall for 20 seconds), this was not overly difficult but we had one team land in jail over 9 times, and once combined with the other exercises, it became the worst station to land on… Looking at the board (made of fitness mats) the first row of streets we put the hardest exercises but 5 reps, the next row of “streets” were slightly less difficult and 10 reps and so on until the final row (from jail to Go) had more cardio exercises like Jumping jacks and Belt kicks, and they had to do 20 reps of the exercise they landed on before rolling again.
We also bought a HUGE, GIANT dice from the internet (as you can see here http://www.tvacbootcamp.com/recent-fun-and-games-bootcamp-monopoly/) It is 50cm x 50cm x 50cm and made of foam. It was abit expensive (£60) but well worth it for the amount of fun we had during the session.
I would recomend playing around with this and changing the rules up too, as it is great fun and going to become a monthly occurance over here… If your in the Eton/ Windsor area come and see us for awesome results!
That’s awesome Sam! I love the huge d6.
I also like the idea of running this is a monthly regular. It would work well for a weekend class.
I played this game with a mixed group of hardworking seniors and older adults. I modified a few things to fit my group and space. I used the indoor track in our gym as the board game and set up the “streets/spaces”/stations around the entire gym. They had SO much fun and appreciated the challenge!! Thanks!!
Thanks to Rubin and Kyle for sharing this workout. I’ve been wanting to use it for ages, and I finally did. My Boot Campers loved it (except for the gaol burpees ofcourse). I used jigsaw mats decorated with street names/traditional board spaces. I added 4 extra spaces (which helped avoid the issue of rolling 6 in landing straight back in gaol…
– 2 CHANCE squares = a variation of the 54 CARD ATTACK DRILL. Players pick the top card and complete reps/exercise based on card number/suit.
– RECOVERY RAILWAY = an opportunity to take a break before rolling again
– WATER WORKS = a drinks station where everyone kept their water bottle. Including this square and Recovery Railway eliminated the need to stop everyone at a set time.
Overall a great success. Thanks 🙂
Tried attaching a photo of the GO square but no luck. Hopefully you can access via this link…
https://www.facebook.com/kateauldPT/photos/a.172500666233720.1073741828.170321096451677/395882703895514/?type=1&theater
Haha this is great! Thanks for sharing your stations Kate 🙂
Jigsaw mats squares 🙂
Sounds awesome and I want to give it a go this week. A couple of questions. At the start of the game do all teams roll the dice one after the other? After completing the designated rep number they roll again? So they may have to wait for another team to roll ahead of them or do you have multiple dice? On free parking how long do they stay there? How do you just “visit” jail? Sorry about all the questions. Your help is appreciated.
Hi Geno,
No worries. I’ll do my best to answer.
Yes, everyone rolls at the start, remembers what they rolled and then waits at the ‘Go’ station. When you call out START everyone moves forward whatever they rolled and does that station.
Once they finish their station one team member runs into the middle and rolls again. That team then moves that many stations forward around the board. I do have multiple dice but it also only takes about 5 seconds to roll one die and read the result. The teams will get spaced out as the game plays out.
As for free parking. No rest time, they just roll again.
For visiting jail, do you remember in the original Monopoly how you had to be ‘sent’ to jail by a card, rolling too many doubles or landing on the go to jail tile? Same rules here. If you just land on the jail station by rolling, you don’t go to jail. Instead the same rules as free parking apply.
Hope your group loves it!
Kyle
Great Idea! Been expanding the game each time we play. Finally have it complete expanded edition with rules set in stone. Teams can buy land. Teams have to pay rent. 10 community chest cards and 10 chance cards. It’s been one of the favorites among my students.
I see a lot of comments are from 2-4 years ago but I’ll still post my comment.
I liked Sam’s idea; street one 5 of eveything, 10, 15 nd final street 20 of cardio.
For gaol we made it a 40 seconds wall sit.
To buy property:
A team must perform so many burpees OR double of the exercise on a chosen station within a timeframe that is timed by the instructor to enable them to “buy” the station.
If a team (trespassers) lands on their station, the trespassers must perform double the exercise on that station and give one of their points to the “land owners”.
can i do this workout in the big group? i have apprx 60 people who joined my bootcamp.
Hi there…I am still confused by “time per station should be 60 secs” vs “Once they finish their station one team member runs into the middle and rolls again”….so do they perform the designated exercise for 60 seconds, or do they perform the designated amount of exercises and then roll…or are given a minute maximum to finish and even if they are not finished they have to roll? How do you keep track of timing that each team is not at each station for more than a minute? Thanks! 🙂