NEW ATHLETE

  • With a new member or visiting athlete, try “quick fire questions”. Everyone goes around says their name, and asks a new member quick questions with quick responses. Try limiting the scope of the questions (eg. questions can't be about food)

SMALLER GROUPS

  • You can also ask a group question, break into smaller groups or partners with specific category and bring people back in to go over answers (gets people who wouldn’t normally chat talking to each other). This can be good for a 400m run warm-up in pairs. Example question: if you could have one new piece of technology to make your life better what would it be? (give each smaller group a specific category, e.g. at home, transport, etc…)

As a resource, this webpage can be used: https://conversationstartersworld.com/

Some other ideas for icebreakers are below:

Reusable

*These questions may be repeated for multiple weeks.

  • What are you doing this weekend?

  • What did you do this past weekend?

  • Give one word to describe how you are currently feeling?

  • Give one word to describe what is on your mind?

  • Give one word to describe your weekend?

  • Icebreaker Cards: (in the office) go around the circle and get each athlete to say their name and then answer a different question from the icebreaker cards.

    • Alternative: give each athlete an individual card, athlete gets to choose which questions to respond to.

    • Alternative: give each athlete a card, that athlete chooses another athlete to ask one of the questions.

  • What is one positive thing about your day? Week? Year?

  • What's up?

  • What are you currently working on outside of the gym? (cannot be work or school related)

  • Partner up, find 3-5 things you have in common with that person? (cannot be obvious - both live in Canada, both do CrossFit, etc...)

  • Scale of 1-10 (1 being the worst you have felt, 10 being the best), how do you feel today? (can ask this for physical, mental, general, etc...)

  • What is a book you recently read? OR a TV show you recently watched?

  • What goals are you currently working on inside the gym?

  • What is something you did recently which ‘used’ your fitness? (outside the gym)

  • List one thing you are doing this weekend, and guess one other person in the group who is doing the same thing? (must use their name)

Training-Related

  • What is your favourite and least favourite CrossFit movement?

  • As a CrossFit athlete, what type of a car are you and why? (e.g. sturdy truck, sports car, great engine)

  • If you could magically master one CrossFit movement what would it be?

  • What person from history would you want to workout with?

  • What do you do to mental chalk? (physical chalk gets your hands ready, what do you do to buy time during a workout and get your mind back in it)

DAILY LIFE

  • What is one of your favourite things to do on the weekend?

  • Tell us about 1 personal item you carry with you every day.

  • What do you do for fun?

  • What is one thing you do to keep your life organized? (could be an activity, practice, or physical thing)

  • What do you do to make your day better when you’re having a bad day?

  • What is one good thing which has happened to you in the past week?

  • What is your favourite hobby?

  • What did you do this weekend? What are you doing this weekend?

  • Tell us something which happened to you in the past week?

  • What's on your mind? What are you thinking about right now?

  • What is the most interesting thing you have ever found or won?

  • What is the most interesting card in your wallet?

  • What do you spend most of your day thinking about?

  • What do you collect? (or have you collected in the past?)

  • What have you put in your body so far today? (food, liquids, supplements, etc...) - best for morning athletes

If you had to Choose...

  • Would you rather be able to fly or breathe underwater?

  • If you could be any avenger, who would you be?

  • If you could have anyone's voice over your life, who would you choose and why?

  • If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life (whenever you turn on music it would be playing), but different artists could sing it, what song?

  • Batman or Spiderman?

  • If you could live in any other city in Canada, which city would you live in?

  • If you were stranded on a deserted island and could only bring 3 movies, which one would you bring?

  • If you had to get rid of one piece of clothing for the rest of your life, what would it be?

  • If you could spend time on a beach or mountains, which one would you choose?

  • If you could only have 2 foods for breakfast for the rest of your life, what would they be?

  • If someone were to play you in a movie who would it be? Who would you want it to be?

  • If you could choose an imaginary friend, who would you choose and why?

  • If you could be one age forever, which age would you choose and why?

  • If you had to change your name, what would you change it to and why?

  • If you had to create a slogan for your life, what would your slogan be?

  • If you could be any movie or TV character, who would you be?

  • Would you rather meet your ancestors or descendants?

  • If you could have one superpower what would it be?

  • Would you rather have the ability to be invisible or to read minds?

  • If you could spend a day with one person from history, who would it be?

  • If you could invite 1 famous person (past or present) to dinner who would it be?

  • If you could fight one horse sized duck, or 100 duck sized horses, which would you choose?

  • If you were a piece of furniture, what furniture would you be and why?

  • You can have an unlimited supply of one thing for the rest of your life, what is it?

  • If you could be any supernatural creature, what would you be and why?

  • If you had to teach a class on one thing, what would you teach?

Favourites + FooD

  • What is your favourite thing that you own (must be a physical thing)?

  • What is your favourite vegetable?

  • What’s your favourite sports team?

  • What’s your favourite movie?

  • What is your favourite childhood memory?

  • What is your favourite smell?

  • Least favourite ride at the fair?

  • What is your favourite holiday? Why?

  • What’s your favourite TV show?

  • What movie or TV show have you rewatched the most times?

  • Describe your ideal meal from start to finish.

  • What’s your favourite city/town/place in the world?

  • What’s your favourite mythical creature of all time?

  • Who’s your favourite superhero?

  • What’s your favourite cheat meal?

  • What’s your favourite ice cream flavour?

  • Beer or wine?

  • What’s your go-to restaurant when you don’t want to cook?

  • When you went trick or treating as a kid, what was your favourite candy to get? Least favourite?

  • If you could only eat at one restaurant for the next year, which would it be?

  • What is your favourite question to ask on a first date?

  • What is your favourite activity to do on a first date?

  • What was your favourite childhood game?

  • Favourite Harry Potter book/movie?

  • What is a brand you are loyal to?

  • What was your least favourite food as a child? How do you feel about it now?

  • If you had to eat one meal everyday for the rest of your life what would it be?

PAST + FUTURE

  • What new thing do you want to do next?

  • What is one of your proudest moments?

  • What is the most challenging physical thing you have done?

  • Something you are grateful for?

  • Tell us about an adventure you have been on.

  • What is the longest you have gone without food, water, or sleep?

  • What is the most interesting thing you have eaten? (or put in your mouth)

  • Name one goal for this year.

  • What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?

  • What’s the scariest thing you have ever done?

  • What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received?

  • What’s the last book you read?

  • Name the most famous person you’ve seen or met in person.

  • Have you broken a habit?

  • What is one thing you remember getting in trouble for as a child?

  • What was the worst style choice you ever made?

  • As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

  • As a child, what was something you got in trouble for?

  • What's the worst purchase you ever made?

What would you do IF? 

  • It’s 12pm on Tuesday and you are about to start the class. A stranger hands you $10000 cash. The only rule is you must spend it all within 1 hour. What do you buy? (nothing online)

  • If you could spend a day with anyone from any time (do not have to be alive) who would it be? (not allowed to choose friends and family)

  • If you could learn one new language, which one, and why?

  • If there was a zombie apocalypse, where would you go?

  • If you were sent to live on a space station for three months and allowed to bring only one personal item with you, what would it be?

  • If you were to open your own business what would it be?

  • If you had a time machine for the weekend, where would you go?

  • If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?

  • Where do you hope to live when you retire?

  • If you had 10 million dollars how would you spend it?

  • If you could play any sport professionally, what would it be and why? (you can invent a sport as long as you can justify how you would play it, e.g. professional gardening planting flowers for time)

  • If you could go without sleeping or without eating, which would you choose and why?

  • If you ruled the world, and could make 1 thing a national day (where everyone had to do it), what would that be? (e.g. a day of playing with dogs, ice cream day, exercise day, etc…)

  • If you became president of the world, what would you do first?

  • If you could go back in time and be the inventor of one thing, what would it be and why?

  • What ancient civilization would you like to belong to?

  • If you met someone at a coffee shop and had to introduce yourself with one fact about yourself, what would you say?

  • If you had your own late night talk show, who do you invite as your first guest?

  • If you were famous, what would you be famous for?

  • You have to sing karaoke, what song do you pick?

  • If you were a wrestler what would be your entrance theme song?

  • What fictional family would you be a member of?

  • If you could instantly become an expert in something, what would it be?

  • What would your talent be if you were Miss or Mister World?

Quirks AND Personality Traits

  • What physical talent/quirk do you have? Strangest thing you can do with your body?

  • What is your biggest fear?

  • What are you anal about?

  • What’s your mundane super power? (e.g. ambidextrous, very organized, good at cleaning)

  • Something you are grateful for?

  • What’s your pet peeve?

  • What do you do when you are procrastinating?

  • What is your name? What does your name get mistaken for? (what do people mistakenly call you)

  • What is something 'weird' or unusual you do? (e.g. wax ears 3x/day, collect binoculars, etc...)

  • What are you superstitious about?

  • What is something you know a lot about?

  • What is something you should be embarrassed about but are not?

  • If the apocalypse happened, and you were in a group of survivors, what skill would you bring to help the group?

  • What is the story behind one of your scars? (show the scar and tell the story)

  • Which movie do you relate to the most?

  • What's the weirdest sound you can make with your mouth?

PETS + ANIMALS

  • If you were making an all animal football team (with one type of animal), which animal would you choose and why?

  • If you could tame any animal to be your pet, what animal?

  • If you were a turtle and could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?

  • If you woke up tomorrow as an animal, which animal would you choose to be and why?

  • Porn star name: “Name of first pet” + “First street you lived on”

  • If you could have the appendage of any animal, what would you choose? (e.g. gills, wings, antennas)

  • What is your spirit animal?