One Bottle Each: Water Bottle Warm-Up
A full warm-up using nothing but one full 1.5-liter bottle per student, the cheapest equipment there is. Students mobilize, activate and work on coordination, and they find out they can warm up anywhere with what they already carry in their school bag.
How to play
- Each student takes a full bottle with the cap screwed on tight and finds a spot inside the coned area (1 min).
- Mobility: bottle halos around the head, figure eights between the legs and trunk rotations holding the bottle at the chest (2 min).
- Activation: 10 goblet squats holding the bottle and 8 lunges passing the bottle under the front leg (2 min).
- Coordination: toss the bottle to eye level and catch it with the other hand while walking, then clap once before catching (2 min).
- In pairs, facing each other 10 feet apart, roll the bottle along the floor and shuffle sideways to pick it up (2 min).
Rules
- Bottles must be full and tightly closed; no glass bottles.
- Tosses stay low and never go toward another person, except the rolling pass on the floor.
- Afterward, everyone gets their own bottle back to drink from: no sharing.
Variations
Easier
Use half-liter bottles and skip the tosses.
Standard
Mobility, activation, coordination and rolling passes with a 1.5-liter bottle.
Harder
Give each student two bottles, one in each hand, for the lunges and balance work.
Adaptations
- Blind or low vision: replace tosses with hand-to-hand passes around the body and have the partner call out before rolling.
- Limited mobility: do all trunk and arm tasks seated, with the partner rolling the bottle over.
- Higher body weight: squat to a bench or chair and swap lunges for supported back steps.
Learning goals
- Complete a full general warm-up with everyday objects.
- Improve hand-eye coordination with an irregularly shaped object.
- Recognize that no special equipment is needed to get the body ready.
Equipment for a class of 25
- water bottles: 30
- cones: 4
Teacher tip
Ask students the day before to bring a full bottle and keep a few spares. At about 3 lb, the bottle is enough to feel the activation with no risk.
PatioLab has "One Bottle Each: Water Bottle Warm-Up" and 5176 more activities ready to drag into your lesson and run from your phone in the gym.
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