100 Energizers: Best Examples [Groups, Classes & Team Building]

Are you looking for the best examples of energizers for your group, for example in the classroom during an (adult) training, team building or workshop? In this article you will find all kinds of popular energizers, for example for movement or creativity.

These energizers are suitable for both adults and children. It is all about creativity, body intelligence and movement. And then it can never be ‘too childish’. That’s the whole point! Let’s start quickly with the first energizer …

Energizer 1 – Attract and repel

1. All participants are crisscrossing each other in the hall. Now give everyone the following two instructions.
2. Now choose 2 people in your mind: someone you feel attracted to and someone you feel rejected.
3. Don’t tell anyone who you chose. Walk away from the person who is rejecting you as much as possible and approach the person you are attracted to as much as possible.
4. Be surprised by the chaos that ensues!

Energizer 2 – The secret triangle

1. All participants are criss-crossing each other in the hall. Now give everyone the following two instructions.
2. Now choose 2 people in your mind.
3. As everyone continues to walk, create an imaginary triangle through the distance between you. You do not say who the 2 people you have chosen are. Everyone has to keep walking.
4. Be surprised by the game that arises!

Energizer 3 – Walk and stop with everyone at the same time

1. Walk through each other in space.
2. Everyone stops at exactly the same time. There is no speaking. It is only felt when the group consciousness is about to stop.
3. Everyone walks at exactly the same time.

Encourage everyone to do this with a focus.

Energizer 4 – Variation on the previous energizer: straight ahead

1. Everyone stands side by side in a line. Everyone is also looking straight ahead.
2. Encourage everyone to keep looking straight ahead and to turn on their peripheral vision. That means you are aware of everything that is going on around you, while staying focused on one point in front of you.
3. Feel when the whole group will start walking. Make sure that the whole group starts and ends exactly at the same time.

Energizer 5 – I know where you are!

Give the following instructions to everyone in the group:

1. Everyone walks through the room together.
2. Look closely at each other and greet everyone as you keep walking around the room.
3. Stop.
4. Close your eyes.
5. Keep your eyes closed and point to Piet with an outstretched arm. Keep your eyes closed and now point to Marie.
6. Open your eyes and see if you got it right and how many others got it right.

Energizer 6 – Clap simultaneously

This energizer trains your sensory acumen because you have to feel each other well.

1. Make a circle.
2. Clap your hands as you turn to the person standing to your left or right.
3. The person you clapped at should clap their hands exactly at the same time as you.
4. Now it is the turn of the other. He also flips back to the person standing on his left or right. So it can happen that you get the blow back. In that case you are clapping twice in a row.
5. Variation: you can now also pass the blow to everyone in the circle instead of just the person standing to your left or right.

Energizer 7 – Count in a circle focused in turn to as high as possible

1. Stand together in a small circle.
2. Focus on one point in the middle.
3. Start counting the entire group, one person at a time, from 1 to as high as possible.
4. Whenever two people speak at the same time, start over from 1.

Energizer 8 – Collaboration twister

The entire group must jointly carry out one assignment. For example: make sure that a total of three feet, two hands and one ear touch the ground. Start simple and make the assignments more complex with more necessary collaboration.

Energizer 9 – Circle sitting

1. Stand in a circle behind each other.
2. Slowly sit down (work together!) Until everyone is on their knees behind them.
3. Now also stand together again at once, so that there is a standing circle again.

Energizer 10 – Human pyramid

Divide the group so that most of them are in a crawling position at the bottom shoulder to shoulder. Now put a second layer of people on top of the first layer. These are of course fewer people, so that a pyramid shape is already created. Make the following layers as well. More and more help and cooperation is needed at each layer.

Energizer 11 – We’re going to … Get really excited about everything!

Above all, this is a very funny energizer.

1. Make triplets.
2. Walk through the room together.
3. Person A says let’s do it. For example, let’s do a pirouette.
4. Person B and C say very enthusiastically ‘yeah, yeah, they repeat what person A said and then everyone does what person A said, yeah! Let’s do a pirouette!
5. Then it is person B’s turn. Then again C. Then again A. Nice and often repeat!

Variation: Make it even more enthusiastic during the next round!

Variation: Make the actions narrative / sequential, so let them relate to each other.

Variation: After a while, let the pairs and triples merge with the whole group, creating one large group and escalate.

Energizer 12 – Unlikely twist

1. Make pairs.
2. Person A determines which profession person B has.
3. Person B starts to talk about how he / she ended up in this profession. The story begins about something completely different that has nothing to do with it, and through all sorts of surprising, unrelated or unlikely twists and turns you have arrived at your final profession.

Energizer 13 – Whoosh Pow Boink

Make a circle and use the following rules.

1. Say ‘whoosh’ and swing your arms left or right in turn to pass to the person to your left or right. This continues for a minute.
2. ‘Boink’ is added: make a cross with your arms and say ‘boink’ to take turns sending it back to the person who sent it to you.
3. ‘Pow’ is added. Point to someone and say ‘pow’ to take turns to pass to every possible person in the circle.
4. ‘Panic’ is added. When it’s your turn and you shout ‘panic’, everyone gets into a panic running and screaming. After that, the circle reappears and a random person takes over the turn.
5. ‘Je donne’ and ‘Je prend’ will be added. These are french words for ‘I give’ and ‘I take’. Throw your turn in the center of the circle and say ‘je donne’. Someone else from the circle may pick up the turn from the center of the circle, while that person says ‘je prend’.
6. The tunnel is added. When you say “tunnel” and swing your arms left or right, the next two people jump so that the third person gets their turn.
7. ‘Sea cucumber’ is added. When someone says “sea cucumber,” everyone in the group raises their arms and everyone waves their body like a sea cucumber.

Energizer 14 – Head, shoulders, knees and toes!

Put on an energetic, hyperactive version of ‘Head, shoulders, knee and toe’ on the speakers and let yourself go!

Energizer 15 – Secretly imitate someone

Explain the game as volts:

1. Stand together in a large circle.
2. In a moment you choose someone and you keep that to yourself.
3. I’m now going to turn on the music and start moving (while everyone stays in the circle).
4. Now start secretly mimicking the movements of the person you had chosen in your mind.
5. After a while: increasingly exaggerate the other person’s movement.

Energizer 16 – Consciously imitate someone

1. Make pairs. One person is A and one person is B.
2. The music is turned on.
3. Person A mimics Person B’s dance moves.
4. Make it as difficult as possible for each other!

Energizer 17 – Rocking back and forth and copying each other

1. Stand together in a circle.
2. Everyone will rock back and forth in sync with the whole group by taking turns leaning on one leg. The rocking movement is: one step in the circle, one step back, one step in the circle, one step back …
3. A leader is appointed. The leader takes a step to swing in the circle and says something in an expressive way. Almost like a cartoon. This can be a statement, but it can also be without words (but with sounds). For example, “Well …” “Are you really serious?” “Well, no …” “Stop it” “Pfff”.
4. Everyone still swings synchronously. Even when swinging to the other leg (towards the outside of the circle), the declarer still has time to finish his / her statement. So the leader can make the decision in two steps.
5. When it’s time to swing in the circle again, the whole group mimics exactly what the leader just did.
6. The next time there is swinging in the circle, the declarer may make a new statement, which is imitated at the next step in the circle.
7. After about 10 statements, you can change leader.

Energizer 18 – Wink Killers VS The Awakeners

1. Have everyone close their eyes. Tap two people who will be the murderer.
2. Have everyone close their eyes again. Tap two awakeners.
3. Everyone walks through space. The wink killers have to kill as many people as possible by winking at them.
4. Whoever has been murdered falls to the ground.
5. The awakeners can bring the dead back to life by touching them.
6. The awakeners have the ability to catch the killers by saying who it is. They can guess once.
7. The awakeners win when both killers are caught.
8. The killers win if everyone else is dead.

Energizer 19 – Bite!

1. Everyone closes their eyes. Two taggers are appointed.
2. Everyone walks through a small space. So make the space artificially smaller by indicating a boundary.
3. The taggers have to work together to tap someone. They have to make a circle with their arms that traps the person they decide to tap. They say ‘Bite!’
4. Every time after they kill someone, everyone closes their eyes so that two new tickers are appointed.
5. Anyone who suspects someone of being a ticker can say so. Guessed wrong? Then that person is finished. Good guess? Then the tagger is finished.
6. The two people who remain the longest win.

Energizer 20 – Blind Tag (good for training concentration and hearing)

Can you make your space completely dark? For example because it has no windows or a roller shutter? Then you can play Blind Tag. If not, make it as dark as possible and instruct the participants to keep their eyes closed all the time.

A person is designated as ticker, but nobody is allowed to know who it is. The lights go out, everyone keeps their eyes closed and it starts. The ticker’s job is to tap everyone off with a hug. Just as long until there is no one left. Whoever is finished can watch from the sides.

Energizer 21 – Seven Up

Do you see the video above? The video shows this energizer that goes like this:

• The circle is started and each person adds a number to 7. Then it starts again at 1.
• It is not just counting, but there is always a gesture. At 1 to 6, that’s a knock on one of your shoulders. At 7 it is a different gesture: your hand above your head.
• The direction is determined by the direction in which you make the gesture: to your left or to your right.

Is this going well? Then you can make it increasingly difficult by, for example, also giving the 3 a different gesture. After that you can also give the 5 a different gesture and maybe even more numbers if you really want to make it really challenging. However, if the 7, 3 and 5 already have other gestures, it is challenging enough.

Energizer 22 – Trust games

There are a number of great games where you have to trust each other. My favorite two:

• Fall back and be caught by your fellow players.
• Close your eyes (and turn off the light) while your fellow player puts his / her hand on your back. This will send you. Letting go is braking / stopping.

Energizer 23 – Literally exercise

Do you want a good energizer? How about getting serious and showing some strength and stamina? Consider doing a serious warm-up.

• Run together in a circle. Always call a number between 1 and 5. Each number represents a different fitness exercise, such as a push-up, burpee, squat or something else.
• Do a real relay race: run to the other side of the room and do a fitness exercise halfway between the room and across the room. You can add new exercises per relay race.
• You can also do stretching (in pairs) and other good exercises that the physical therapist would recommend.

Energizer 23 to 41 – Need something a little quieter? Do these cozy icebreakers

This collection of icebreakers is ideal if you want to do something more relaxed with your group or if you want to get to know each other better. They always work!

Energizer 42 to 50- Can the group go outside? Then do games with a parachute

Take the largest possible parachute and then check this page for examples of what you can do with a parachute. The parachute always attracts attention, so you even spontaneously get new players.

Energizer 51 through 70 – Do these fun pattern breaks

Energizers are already pattern breaks, but check out the pattern breaks collection as well.  They include some interesting exercises and they serve the same purpose: variation, dynamism, action, wonder, energy and novelty!

Energizer 71 to 100 – You will find hundreds of ideal energizers in the form of theater sports games

The purpose of energizers is often to activate the creative part of the brain. Use the following three resources to find all possible theater sport formats / games:

• improvencyclopedia.org/games

Pay particular attention to the ‘toss games’. These are smaller improvisation games without immediately setting up an extensive scene. Think of the question toss: you play a scene with two people and you may never answer someone’s question, but you always have to ask a question back.

Bonus Tip: Use the magic phrase to get an energizer started

You should pay attention and use this phrase if you want to start with an energizer while everyone is still on the side. As soon as you stand in the middle of the room, take an active position and say, “Okay, let’s start,” a circle will automatically form.