A Minute To Win It Yoga

Time is probably the worst human invention… It causes us all so much stress and anxiety.

But in this class, we are going to play with time and make it fun!

If you've ever seen the TV game show A Minute To Win It, these are funny physical or mental challenges that your students will have to complete in under a minute (great for many laughs). Think picking up Cheerios with a toothpick (and their mouths), reciting the alphabet backwards (without any mistakes!), sorting a big bowl of Skittles by colour, or bouncing ping-pong balls into a cup… But now with yoga poses!

Again, I don’t usually make yoga competitive, but kids loved my Yoga Survivors and The Floor Is Yoga Lave classes so here is another one for that series!

These Minute To Win It Yoga activities are perfect for all ages – Challenging enough for older children and even adults, but with small adjustments also easy enough for little kids to join in the fun.

Activities like Minute To Win It Yoga are more than just games — they’re powerful teaching tools. When we mix movement with creativity, breath, teamwork, and mindful focus, kids don’t just “do yoga”… they experience confidence, connection, and joy.

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Ready, steady, Go!

To Bring: Stopwatch (on your phone will do, but a sports one is way cooler), paper cups, paper straws, pompoms or cotton balls, light scarves or tissue paper, water, candles and matches

Intro

Do you know the TV show, the board game or even the video game A Minute To Win It?

In these games, you have 60 seconds to complete a task… Ready to play it with yoga, breathing and a lot of focus today?

Let’s do it!

1 Minute

A Minute To Yoga Pose It

How many poses can you do in 1 minute?

This will be our warm-up.

Each person, the teacher goes first, has 1 minute to guide the group through as many poses as possible. Everyone tries to keep pace with them and follow the poses as best they can.

The whole group counts together the poses as they are performed together.

You can keep the results in your head or write them down on a piece of paper or the whiteboard.

Rules:

• You can’t repeat the same pose twice in your 1 minute. If you do your turn is discounted.

• You need to do the pose properly or close enough. Half poses will not be counted.

If you have a group of more than 15 people, do 30 seconds per person instead of 60.

Guess The Pose

The teacher will do many yoga poses in one minute. The students compete on how many poses they know the name of.

*Let students lead this too if you have time.

A Minute Of Variations

Each student pics a pose. The challenge is to see how many variations on the pose (while staying in the same basic pose) you can come up with in one minute.

Think about banding in all directions, using different handholds and positions etc while still in the basic pose.

A Minute To Balance

We’ll have a few challenges here; whoever gets to stay in the balancing pose for the whole minute gets a big applause:

• Stand in Tree Pose on your right foot for 1 minute

• Stand in Tree Pose on your left foot for 1 minute

• Be in an upside-down balancing pose for 1 minute (headstand, handstand, scorpion etc.)

• Have students choose (or help them choose) 3 more balancing poses to compete in

Rules:

• Swaying around is fine, but coming out of the pose is not

• No aid (such as a wall or a friend) is permitted

15-30 Minutes

A Minute To Breath It

Suction Breath

Give each student 2 bowls and a paper straw. Put a big pile of cotton balls in one bowl.

The challenge is to move as many cotton bowls as possible from one bowl to another by suctioning them with your breath using the straw.

Rules:

• There is only one way to move the cotton balls; using suction with the straw

Distance To Cover

Give each student one paper straw and one cotton ball. The challenge is to cover as much distance with by pushing the cotton ball along the room by blowing threw the straw.

Set the path for the students such as moving from a certain wall to the opposite wall in the room in a straight line back and forth counting how many times did you cross the room in this way in one minute.

Rules:

• There is only one way to move the cotton balls; blowing through the straw

Keep It Up

Give each participant a light scarf or tissue paper. The challenge here is keeping a scarf in the air with your breath alone for 1-minute

Rules:

• You can only use your breath. If you use your hands or feet or any other body part to keep the scarf up, you are out

• If the scarf touches the ground, you are out

*To make it a bit easier we can do one more round with breathing the scarf against the wall which is quite a bit easier

10 minutes

A Minute To Work Together

Keep It Up Two

Divide the group into pairs. Give each pair a light scarf or tissue paper. The challenge here is keeping a scarf in the air with your breath alone for 1 minute. 

*You can have an extra easier round next to a wall.

Back-to-Back Stand

Tell participants to partner up and sit on the floor back-to-back with their partners. Ask them to link arms with their elbows interlaced with those of their friend and attempt to stand up. Once they do that, have them sit back down and do it again. Whoever is able to stand up the most frequently in one minute wins!

Rules:

• Your elbows must stay linked at all time

• It only counts if your bottoms touch the floor and then you stand totally back on your feet nice and tall

Cup Bite

Divide into two teams and give each team a paper cup. Team members must take turns picking the cup up off the floor using only their mouths. If any team member touches the ground with her hands or more than one foot, she is out and other team members must keep going. After each turn, the team member must rip off the part of the cup their mouth touched, ensuring the cup will get smaller and smaller (and thus harder to grab). Whichever team has the most team members standing at the end of one minute wins. If you need a tie-breaker, the team with the smallest cup after one minute wins.

*Play again but in yoga poses.

**Play again with members needing to stay standing on one leg. If anyone puts a second foot down they are out.

Cup Stack

Divide into 2 or more groups. This game challenges players to stack the tallest pyramid of cups in under a minute. The challenge is that we have to work together being careful not to knock off our pyramid.

Rules:

• Any formation of the cups is valid

• The pyramid must stand on its own without anyone touching it

*Play again with all members having to be in a yoga pose while making the pyramid. If anyone is not in a yoga pose your team is out.

**Play again with members needing to stay standing on one leg. If anyone puts a second foot down they are out.

Chopstick Relay

Divide into teams and stand in a circle. In this game, players must pass a cotton ball from one teammate to the next using only chopsticks. The team that has completed the most rounds wins.

Rules:

• You can only use the chopsticks to pass the cotton ball

• If the cotton ball falls you need to start going around the circle from the begging because that round will be uncounted for

*Play again with all members having to be in a yoga pose while making the pyramid. If anyone is not in a yoga pose your team is out.

**Play again with members needing to stay standing on one leg. If anyone puts a second foot down they are out.

15 Minutes

A Minute To Laugh

Face The Chocolate/Oreo

In this game, players must move an Oreo (yes, they are vegan) or a vegan chocolate piece from their forehead to their mouth using only their facial muscles.

Rules:

• You can use your hands or anything but your face

• If you drop it you lose it

Enjoy!

2 Minutes

A Minute To Be Mindful (& Fast)

Cup On Your Head

Move through a yoga sequence following the teacher for one minute. The catch is that a paper cup must stay balanced on your head (it can be with the open wider part on your head to make it a bit easier) for the whole time.

Rules:

• If you drop the cup you are out

• If you touch the cup you are out

Move slow. 

*Repeat 3 times with harder and harder sequences. 

Walk The Bell

Walk around the room for one minute without making a sound. Easy!?

Rules:

• You must keep walking

• If the bells ring you are out

Keep The Flame Going

Walk around the room for one minute without the candle flame blowing off.

Rules:

• You must keep walking

• If the flame goes out you are out

Walk The Water

Walk around the room for one minute without any water spilling.

Rules:

• You must keep walking

• If the water spills you are out

If it is too easy just fill up the cups a bit more.

Backward ABC

Participants attempt to say the alphabet in reverse. Each player only has one minute to complete the task. Then, whoever can say the alphabet backward in the shortest amount of time wins.

5-10 Minutes

A Minute (Or A Few) To Relax

Lie down and be still, completely still, for one minute… But you can make that minute extra long and make it last a few.

5 Minutes