reverse pyramid problem solving

• 1-800-565-8735
• [email protected]

22 Unbeatable Team Building Problem Solving Activities

Problem-solving is a critical skill for professionals and with team building problem-solving activities, you can sharpen your skills while having fun at the same time.  

Updated: March 1, 2024

In the professional world, one thing is for sure: problem-solving is a vital skill if you want to survive and thrive. It’s a universal job skill that organizations seek in new potential employees and that managers look for when considering candidates for promotions.  

But there’s a problem. 

According to Payscale, 60% of managers feel that new grads entering the workforce lack problem-solving abilities – making it the most commonly lacking soft skill.  

Problem-solving skill needs to be practiced and perfected on an ongoing basis in order to be applied effectively when the time comes. And while there are tons of traditional approaches to becoming a better problem-solver, there’s another (much more interesting) option: team building problem-solving activities. 

The good news? This means learning and having fun don’t have to be mutually exclusive. And you can create a stronger team at the same time. 

16 In-Person Team Building Problem Solving Activities for Your Work Group  

1. cardboard boat building challenge, 2. egg drop , 3. clue murder mystery, 4. marshmallow spaghetti tower  , 5. corporate escape room, 6. wild goose chase, 7. lost at sea  , 8. domino effect challenge, 9. reverse pyramid  , 10. ci: the crime investigators, 11. team pursuit, 12. bridge builders, 13. domino effect challenge, 14. hollywood murder mystery, 15. code break, 16. cardboard boat building challenge, 6 virtual team building problem solving activities for your work group  , 1. virtual escape room: mummy’s curse, 2. virtual clue murder mystery, 3. virtual escape room: jewel heist, 4. virtual code break  , 5. virtual trivia time machine.

• 6. Virtual Jeoparty Social

There are a ton of incredible team building problem solving activities available. We’ve hand-picked 16 of our favorites that we think your corporate group will love too. 

Split into teams and create a cardboard boat made out of just the materials provided: cardboard and tape. Team members will have to work together to engineer a functional boat that will float and sail across water without sinking. Once teams have finished making their boats, they will create a presentation to explain why their boat is the best, before putting their boats to the test. The final challenge will have teams racing their boats to test their durability! Nothing says problem-solving like having to make sure you don’t sink into the water!

Every day at work, you’re forced to make countless decisions – whether they’re massively important or so small you barely think about them.  

But your ability to effectively make decisions is critical in solving problems quickly and effectively.  

With a classic team building problem solving activity like the Egg Drop, that’s exactly what your team will learn to do. 

For this activity, you’ll need some eggs, construction materials, and a place you wouldn’t mind smashing getting dirty with eggshells and yolks.  

The goal of this activity is to create a contraption that will encase an egg and protect it from a fall – whether it’s from standing height or the top of a building. But the challenge is that you and your team will only have a short amount of time to build it before it’s time to test it out, so you’ll have to think quickly! 

To make it even more challenging, you’ll have to build the casing using only simple materials like: 

• Newspapers 
• Plastic wrap
• Rubber bands
• Popsicle sticks
• Cotton balls

Feel free to have some fun in picking the materials. Use whatever you think would be helpful without making things too easy! 

Give your group 15 minutes to construct their egg casing before each team drops their eggs. If multiple eggs survive, increase the height gradually to see whose created the sturdiest contraption.  

If you’re not comfortable with the idea of using eggs for this activity, consider using another breakable alternative, such as lightbulbs for a vegan Egg Drop experience. 

With Clue Murder Mystery, your team will need to solve the murder of a man named Neil Davidson by figuring out who had the means, motive, and opportunity to commit the crime.

But it won’t be easy! You’ll need to exercise your best problem-solving skills and channel your inner detectives if you want to keep this case from going cold and to get justice for the victim.

Collaboration is critical to problem solving. 

Why? Because, as the old saying goes, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This expression reflects the fact that people are capable of achieving greater things when they work together to do so. 

If you’re looking for a team building problem solving activity that helps boost collaboration, you’ll love Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower.  

This game involves working in teams to build the tallest possible freestanding tower using only marshmallows, uncooked spaghetti, tape, and string.  

The kicker? This all has to be done within an allotted timeframe. We recommend about thirty minutes.  

For an added dimension of challenge, try adding a marshmallow to the top of the tower to make it a little more top heavy.  

Whichever team has the highest tower when time runs out is the winner! 

If you’ve never participated in an escape room, your team is missing out! It’s one of the most effective team building problem solving activities out there because it puts you and your colleagues in a scenario where the only way out is collaboratively solving puzzles and deciphering clues.  

The principle is simple: lock your group in a room, hide the key somewhere in that room, and have them work through challenges within a set time frame. Each challenge will lead them one step closer to finding the key and, ultimately, their escape.    

At Outback, we offer “done-for-you” escape rooms where we’ll transform your office or meeting room so you don’t have to worry about:

• Seeking transportation for your team 
• Capacity of the escape rooms  
• High costs 
• Excessive planning  

That way, you and your team can simply step inside and get to work collaborating, using creative problem solving, and thinking outside the box.   

In this smartphone-based scavenger hunt team building activity , your group will split into teams and complete fun challenges by taking photos and videos around the city. Some examples of challenges you can do in this activity are:

• Parkour:  Take a picture of three team members jumping over an object that’s at least waist-high.
• Beautiful Mind:  Snap a photo of a team member proving a well-known mathematical theorem on a chalkboard.
• Puppy Love:  Take a photo of all of your team members petting a stranger’s dog at the same time.

It takes a ton of critical thinking and problem-solving to be crowned the Wild Goose Chase Champions!

Can you imagine a higher-pressure situation than being stranded at sea in a lifeboat with your colleagues? 

With this team building problem solving activity, that’s exactly the situation you and your group will put yourselves. But by the time the activity is over, you’ll have gained more experience with the idea of having to solve problems under pressure – a common but difficult thing to do. 

Here’s how it works. 

Each team member will get a six-columned chart where: 

• The first column lists the survival items each team has on hand (see the list below) 
• The second column is empty so that each team member can rank the items in order of importance for survival  
• The third column is for group rankings  
• The fourth column is for the “correct” rankings, which are revealed at the end of the activity 
• The fifth and sixth columns are for the team to enter thee difference between their individual and correct scores and the team and correct rankings 

Within this activity, each team will be equipped with the following “survival items,” listed below in order of importance, as well as a pack of matches:  

• A shaving mirror (this can be used to signal passing ships using the sun) 
• A can of gas (could be used for signaling as it could be put in the water and lit with the pack of matches) 
• A water container (for collecting water to re-hydrate ) 
• Emergency food rations (critical survival food) 
• One plastic sheet (can be helpful for shelter or to collect rainwater) 
• Chocolate bars (another food supply) 
• Fishing rods (helpful, but no guarantee of catching food) 
• Rope (can be handy, but not necessarily essential for survival) 
• A floating seat cushion (usable as a life preserver)  
• Shark repellant (could be important when in the water) 
• A bottle of rum (could be useful for cleaning wounds) 
• A radio (could be very helpful but there’s a good chance you’re out of range) 
• A sea chart (this is worthless without navigation equipment) 
• A mosquito net (unless you’ve been shipwrecked somewhere with a ton of mosquitos, this isn’t very useful) 

To get the activity underway, divide your group into teams of five and ask each team member to take ten minutes on their own to rank the items in order of importance in the respective column. Then, give the full team ten minutes as a group to discuss their individual rankings together and take group rankings, listed in that respective column. Ask each group to compare their individual rankings with those of the group as a whole. 

Finally, read out the correct order according to the US Coast Guard, listed above.  

The goal of this activity is for everyone to be heard and to come to a decision together about what they need most to survive.  

If your team works remotely, you can also do this activity online. Using a video conferencing tool like  Zoom , you can bring your group together and separate teams into “break-out rooms” where they’ll take their time individually and then regroup together. At the end, you can bring them back to the full video conference to go through the answers together. 

Many problems are intricately complex and involve a ton of moving parts. And in order to solve this type of problem, you need to be able to examine it systematically, one piece at a time.  

Especially in the business world, many problems or challenges involve multiple different teams or departments working through their respective portions of a problem before coming together in the end to create a holistic solution. 

As you can imagine, this is often easier said than done. And that’s why it’s so important to practice this ability.  

With a collaborative team building problem solving activity like Domino Effect Challenge, that’s exactly what you’ll need to do as you and your group work to create a massive, fully functional chain reaction machine. 

Here’s how it goes. 

Your group will break up into teams, with each team working to complete their own section of a massive “Rube Goldberg” machine. Then, all teams will regroup and assemble the entire machine together. You’ll need to exercise communication, collaboration, and on-the-fly problem solving in order to make your chain reaction machine go off without a hitch from start to finish. 

Being a great problem-solver means being adaptable and creative. And if you’re looking for a quick and easy team building problem solving activity, you’ll love the reverse pyramid. 

The idea here is simple: break your group out into small teams and then stand in the form of a pyramid.  

Your challenge is to flip the base and the peak of the pyramid – but you can only move three people in order to do so.  

Alternatively, rather than doing this activity with people as the pyramid, you can do another version –  the Pyramid Build  – using plastic cups instead.   

This version is a little bit different. Rather than flipping the base of a pyramid to the top, you’ll need to build the pyramid instead–but in reverse, starting from the top cup and working down. 

With this version, you’ll need 36 cups and one table per group. We recommend groups of five to seven people. Give your group 20 to 30 minutes to complete the activity. 

To get started, place one cup face down. Then, lift that cup and place the subsequent two cups underneath it. 

The real challenge here? You can only lift your pyramid by the bottom row in order to put a new row underneath – and only one person at a time can do the lifting. The remaining group members will need to act quickly and work together in order to add the next row so that it will balance the rest of the pyramid. 

If any part of your pyramid falls, you’ll need to start over. Whichever team has the most complete pyramid when time runs out will be the winner!  

The value of being able to approach problems analytically can’t be overstated. Because when problems arise, the best way to solve them is by examining the facts and making a decision based on what you know. 

With CI: The Crime Investigators, this is exactly what your team will be called upon to do as you put your detective’s hats on and work to solve a deadly crime. 

You’ll be presented with evidence and need to uncover and decipher clues. And using only the information at your disposal, you’ll need to examine the facts in order to crack the case. 

Like many of our team building problem solving activities, CI: The Crime Investigators is available in a hosted format, which can take place at your office or an outside venue, as well as a virtually-hosted format that uses video conferencing tools, or a self-hosted version that you can run entirely on your own.  

Each member of your team has their own unique strengths and skills. And by learning to combine those skills, you can overcome any challenge and solve any problem. With Team Pursuit, you and your team together to tackle challenges as you learn new things about one another, discover your hidden talents, and learn to rely on each other.

This team building problem solving activity is perfect for high-energy groups that love to put their heads together and work strategically to solve problems as a group.

Collaborate with your colleague to design and build different segments of a bridge. At the end, see if the sections come together to create a free-standing structure!   

Together as a group, see if you and your colleagues can build a gigantic “chain-reaction” machine that really works!

In smaller groups, participants work together to solve the challenge of creating sections of the machine using miscellaneous parts, and at the end, you’ll have to collaborate to connect it all together and put it in motion.

The case is fresh, but here’s what we know so far: we’ve got an up-and-coming actress who’s been found dead in her hotel room following last night’s awards show.

We have several suspects, but we haven’t been able to put the crime on any of them for sure yet. Now, it’s up to you and your team of detectives to crack the case. Together, you’ll review case files and evidence including police reports, coroners’ reports, photo evidence, tabloids, interrogations, and phone calls as you determine the motive, method, and murderer and bring justice for the victim.

You’ll need to put your problem-solving skills to the test as you share theories, collaborate, and think outside the box with your fellow investigators.

Using Outback’s app, split up into small groups and put your heads together to solve a variety of puzzles, riddles, and trivia. The team who has completed the most challenges when time is up, wins!

Can you stay afloat in a body of water in a boat made entirely of cardboard? Now that is a problem that urgently needs solving.

With this team building problem solving activity, you and your colleagues will split into groups and create a cardboard boat made out of just the materials provided – cardboard and tape.

Team members will have to work together to engineer a functional boat that will float and sail across water without sinking. Once teams have finished making their boats, they will create a presentation to explain why their boat is the best, before putting their boats to the test. The final challenge will have teams racing their boats across the water!

If you and your team are working remotely, don’t worry. You still have a ton of great virtual team building problem solving options at your disposal.

In this virtual escape room experience, your team will be transported into a pyramid cursed by a restless mummy. You’ll have to work together to uncover clues and solve complex challenges to lift the ancient curse.

You’ve probably never heard of a man named Neil Davidson. But your group will need to come together to solve the mystery of his murder by analyzing clues, resolving challenges, and figuring out who had the means, motive, and opportunity to commit a deadly crime. 

This activity will challenge you and your group to approach problems analytically, read between the lines, and use critical thinking in order to identify a suspect and deliver justice.  

If you and your team like brainteasers, then Virtual Escape Room: Jewel Heist will be a big hit.  

Here’s the backstory.

There’s been a robbery. Someone has masterminded a heist to steal a priceless collection of precious jewels, and it’s up to you and your team to recover them before time runs out.

Together, you’ll need to uncover hidden clues and solve a series of brain-boggling challenges that require collaboration, creative problem-solving, and outside-the-box thinking. But be quick! The clock is ticking before the stolen score is gone forever.

With Virtual Code Break, you and your team can learn to be adaptive and dynamic in your thinking in order to tackle any new challenges that come your way. In this activity, your group will connect on a video conferencing platform where your event host will split you out into teams. Together, you’ll have to adapt your problem-solving skills as you race against the clock to tackle a variety of mixed brainteaser challenges ranging from Sudoku to puzzles, a game of Cranium, riddles, and even trivia. 

Curious to see how a virtual team building activity works? Check out this video on a Virtual Clue Murder Mystery in action. 

Step into the Outback Time Machine and take a trip through time, from pre-pandemic 21st century through the decades all the way to the 60’s. 

This exciting, fast-paced virtual trivia game, packed with nostalgia and good vibes, is guaranteed to produce big laughs, friendly competition, and maybe even some chair-dancing. 

Your virtual game show host will warm up guests with a couple of “table hopper rounds” (breakout room mixers) and split you out into teams. Within minutes, your home office will be transformed into a game show stage with your very own game show buzzers! 

And if your team loves trivia, check out our list of the most incredible virtual trivia games for work teams for even more ideas.

6.  Virtual Jeoparty Social

If your remote team is eager to socialize, have some fun as a group, and channel their competitive spirit, we’ve got just the thing for you! With Virtual Jeoparty Social, you and your colleagues will step into your very own virtual Jeopardy-style game show—equipped with a buzzer button, a professional actor as your host, and an immersive game show platform! Best of all, this game has been infused with an ultra-social twist: players will take part in a unique social mixer challenge between each round. 

With the right team building problem solving activities, you can help your team sharpen their core skills to ensure they’re prepared when they inevitably face a challenge at work. And best of all, you can have fun in the process. 

Do you have any favorite team building activities for building problem-solving skills? If so, tell us about them in the comments section below! 

Learn More About Team Building Problem Solving Activities  

For more information about how your group can take part in a virtual team building, training, or coaching solution, reach out to our Employee Engagement Consultants.     

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

And stay updated, related articles.

The Role of Corporate Training in Employee Experience

18 Incredible Virtual Trivia Games for Work Teams

29 Spring Team Building Activities to Help Shake Off the Winter Blues [Updated for 2024]

I love how this blog provides a variety of problem-solving activities for team building. It’s a great resource for anyone looking to foster teamwork and collaboration!

• Tips for Trainers

Reverse Pyramid Build

• March 20, 2019

From the Book:  Cup It Up, Team Building with Cups, by Chris Cavert and Barry Thompson

Activity Objective:  Build the tallest cup pyramid starting with the top level of a single cup.

Facilitated Objective:

•  Small Group interaction
• Communication behaviors.
• Identifying, delegating, and taking on different roles and responsibilities.
• Encountering and managing failure.
• Perseverance.
• Consensus Building.

Needs Per Group:

• 36 cups (It will be good to have extra cups available in case more building levels can be achieved.)
• 1 table for each small group – rectangular tables work out the best allowing a group to be closer to their pyramid structure.  However, wooden platforms, flat-top benches, or picnic tables are other options.

Note:  We have done Reverse Builds off of the floor (solid concrete or tile), but it’s a bit more challenging to get enough bodies around the structure to support the lifts.  You could also use a 2×6-inch board about four feet long balanced across two chairs as a viable option for a building surface.  Be creative in order to meet you needs. 

Numbers:    Create small groups of five to seven players.  If you have enough cups and tables, one facilitator can manage as many as 10 groups building at a time. 

Time:  20-30 minutes

Procedure:   Based on the dynamics of the Reverse Build, we consider this a small group activity (so far, anyway).  Groups of five to seven players have worked well for us.  If the situation arises where on group needs more hands, they can ask players from another group to help.  (this consideration might not work if the build is set up as a competitive activity.  Notice, we did say “might not” work.  We’ve seen competitors help each other.)

Give each group a nested stack of 36 cups and a designated building area.  Here is generally what we say when we present the activity:

“For each small group, your objective is to build the tallest pyramid using the cups provided.  In our definition, a pyramid consists of stacked rows of cups (not a nested stack) in which each row will have one less cup than the row below it.  For this build however, you are required to start form the top row of the pyramid – one cup.  To begin, set this one cup down on your building surface.  Then, anyone in you group can lift this first cup so that two cups can be placed under it, forming the second row of the pyramid.  From this point forward you are only allowed to lift the bottom row of your pyramid structure – the row touching the table – to add the next row underneath.  All other cups in the pyramid can be touched or supported by any players index fingers (only) before, during and after a lift, but they may not be grabbed and/or lifted in any way.  Again, only the bottom row of the pyramid can be lifted.  If any part of your pyramid structure falls apart you must start your building process over from one cup.  If you manage to use all the cups provided at the start of the build, more will be given to you.  After I answer any questions you have about the direction, you will have 15 minutes of building time to see how high you can get your pyramid.

Most facilitators will answer questions without giving solutions to the challenge.  (However, if the group’s objectives allow for help or “coaching”, answer in the way that will work for them.)  We often simply refer back to the rules provided.  See Facilitation below for some typical inquiries.

This general presentation does not suggest any sort of competitive encounters.  However, if you’ve been leading team building activities long enough, you know, in most cases, the competitive spirit does present itself.  In the short life of this activity so far, we have yet to see groups help each other, but our hopes are still high.  We typi8caly run the build for about 15 minutes to see how well each group can perform.  Success is fairly certain for the first three or four rows.  After, four rows it’s up the creativity, focus and tenacity of the group.  Cups will be falling.  We keep encouraging attempts as long as there is time to build.

When our program objectives include competitive activities, we set it up a bit differently.  We allow the small groups four to five minutes to practice and form a building plan.  Then we give a 10-minute building window to achieve the tallest pyramid possible.  They can use their 10 minutes in any way they like, as long as they stay around their building area (table) during the build.  When the 10 minutes is up (i.e., when we say “Stop~”) all the cups standing are worth a point value.  How you score it will be up to you.  We give one point for every cup that is touching another cup in a row above or below it. Or, simply count the number of rows – there are more ties in this scoring method. 

As you might have determined already, the Reverse Build does not require a high level of energy, but a determined amount of focus.  So, choose wisely when programming this one – what groups will benefit from this type of activity and where do you place it in your sequence?

Safety:  At this time, no real safety issues have been observed.   Bodies do tend to get pretty close to each other during the lift, so potentially some space issues could emerge.

Facilitation:  During the Reverse Builds we have facilitated so far, we have found it important to provide our expectations of the pyramid structure.  When beta testing this activity a number of groups spent a lot of time trying to find loopholes in the rules and spent little time building.  We wanted this activity to help us work on the facilitated objective of working through/with failures – since, in most cases, cup tumbling does occur during the process.  When we started sharing our expectation of a pyramid more hands-on building ensued.  The following sentence in the directions that specifies our expectations:

A pyramid is defined as each row (not a nested stack) of cups will have one less cup than the row below it. 

During the cooperative version we move around the groups and continue to encourage working together and starting over after a collapse.  We like to reiterate that the build is about “sticking to it: overcoming the collapses (great metaphor to come back to), and improving to the best of your ability.  We also use this one in the hopes that groups will share strategies and maybe even resources (e.g., people) to help others be successful.

During the competitive version we have seen two different trends.  Die hard builders (DHBs) and waiters (in the act of waiting – not waiting tables).  DHBs are motivated by building the tallest pyramid, using all the time allotted = especially if they know the “world record” (to date eight rows – eight cups at the bottom level – is the highest for a group of seven players following the guidelines above (see Variations below for another presentation option and world record.)

Waiters will build the highest pyramid in relation to other groups.  If they see another group has five cups at their base the waiters will go to six cups.  If a group gets six cups the waiters try for seven.  If they find themselves in the lead with time left, they will wait it out to see if they stay on top.  Some with even be happy with a tie if little time remains.  All good things to discuss once the activity is over.

One more thing we would like to share at this time.  If you have the opportunity to build outside atop a solid flat surface, be mindful of the wind.  It can be an asset or a detriment depending on your group’s goals. 

• Watch this group make a valiant effort on their Reverse Pyramid Build:
• https://youtu.be/ZeVNA44H0gg

Observations/Questions:

• Rate, on a scale of one to five by holding up your fingers on one hand, how well your group worked together.  Five is “the best group work ever” and one is, “we need lots of improvement.”  If you didn’t give your group a five, what would it take from the group to raise your rating one point?
• What is your comfort level working with groups?  Do you prefer to work in groups or on your own?  Why do you think that is for you?
• What is the most challenging thing for you to overcome when working with a group?
• Communication Behaviors
• What did the communication sound like and look like during the activity?
• If you could change one thing about the way you communicated with each other during the activity what would it be?
• Identifying, delegating, and taking on different roles and responsibilities:
• What roles and responsibilities did your process include?
• How did these roles and responsibilities get delegated?
• During your process did you find/discover the need for any additional roles and responsibilities?
• Did any of the roles and responsibilities change after you started your process?  Why did this happen?
•  Encountering and managing failure:
• What did you find yourself focusing on more – your successes or your failures?
• What did you find yourselves doing after the cup collapses?
• What choices do you have after a “failure”?
•  Perseverance
• What does perseverance mean to you?
• At any point during the activity did you find yourself persevering?
• Which part(s) and why did you feel the need to persevere through the particular part(s)?
• What are the positive aspects of perseverance?
• What might be some negative aspects of perseverance?
•  Consensus Building
• What does it mean to reach consensus about a task or part of a task before starting?
• Did you ever reach a consensus during the activity?
• If you can remember, share what this looked like and sounded like.
• Why might teaching consensus be important to a group?
• When might consensus be a detriment to a group?

Variations:

• Taylor, a friend and colleague of ours, allows his building teams to rebuild a pyramid after a collapse up to where it was when it went down.  For example, if the builders are lifting a pyramid that has five cups at the bottom, attempting to move in six cups, and the cups fall, the group builds up without limitations a pyramid with five cups at the base so they can make another attempt at moving in six cups.  He tells us this option gives groups the motivation to building instead of waiting around for someone else to build a higher pyramid.  The record for this variation, as we know right now, is a pyramid with nine cups at the base – so, a nine-row pyramid.
• Require a different combination of lifters each time a bottom row is lifted.
• Allow for adjustments to be made to the cups before a lift.  Anyone from the group can touch any of the cups to make them more structurally sound.  Again, they can touch any cup but not lift. 
• Allow for outside resources.  During one interaction of the Reverse Build, Chris did not mention that outside resources could not be used.  One of the building groups remembered an oversized set of cards used in a previous activity so they picked them up and incorporated them into their build.  This was a valuable learning experience for this group in relation to resources – looking around to see what was possible.  Now, the kinds of resources you leave around (e.g., masking tape) will be up to you.

Purchase a copy of Cup It Up here.

For more info about Chris Cavert visit his website at www.Fundoing.com .

• Bouldering Games for Kids
• Bullying Prevention
• Communication
• Partner Activity
• Problem-Solving
• Recovery & Wellness
• Uncategorized
• Virtual Team Building

Recent Posts

• Five Reasons Team Building Should Be A Priority For Your Team
• 7-Up – a Problem-Solving Activity
• Human Pegboard Activity
• Anomia Cards – Total Recall Game
• Clasped Hands

Michelle Cummings

Founder / Facilitator / Big Wheel of Training Wheels

• 1-888-553-0147
• [email protected]
• 7095 S Garrison St, Littleton, CO 80128 USA
• Online Courses
• Trainings & Workshops
• Games Database

15 Team Building Problem Solving Activities

In this article you will find:

• 15 problem-solving activities for your team to master
• Frequently asked questions about team building

Here are 15 problem-solving activities for your team to master:

15 Problem-Solving Activities

1. a shrinking vessel.

Why adaptability is important for problem-solving:

Adaptability is highly associated with cognitive diversity, which helps teams solve problems faster, according to the Harvard Business Review. Innovation and disruption are happening faster than ever before. People, teams, and organizations that can adapt will come out on top.

What You'll Need:

A rope or string

Instructions:

1. Using the rope, make a shape on the floor everyone can fit into.

2. Slowly shrink the space over a time period of 10-15 minutes.

3. Work together to figure out how to keep everyone within the shrinking boundaries.

2. Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower

Helps with: Collaboration Why collaboration is important for problem-solving: “Collectively, we can be more insightful, more intelligent than we can possibly be individual,” writes Peter Senge in The Fifth Discipline. We can solve problems better as a team than we can alone, which means developing your team's collaboration skills will lead to better problem-solving outcomes.

What You'll Need (per team):

20 sticks of uncooked spaghetti

1 roll of masking tape

1 yard of string

1 marshmallow

1. The goal of this exercise is to see which team can use the materials provided to build the tallest tower within an allotted time period. The tower must be able to stand on its own.

2. To make this exercise more challenging, try adding a marshmallow to the top of the tower. This team problem-solving exercise helps teams think on their toes while building camaraderie and leadership.

3. Egg Drop

Why decision-making is important for problem-solving:

Making decisions isn't easy, but indecision leads to team paralysis, stagnant thinking, and unsolved problems. Decision-making activities help your team practice making quick, effective choices. Train your team's decision-making muscle and they will become more adept at problem-solving.

A carton of eggs

Basic construction materials such as newspapers, straws, tape, plastic wrap, balloons, rubber bands, popsicle sticks, etc., tarp, or drop cloth

A parking lot, or some other place you don't mind getting messy!

1. Each team gets an egg and must select from the construction materials.

2. Give everyone 20-30 minutes to construct a carrier for the egg and protect it from breaking.

3. Drop each egg carrier off a ledge (i.e. over a balcony) and see whose carrier protects the egg from breaking.

4. If multiple eggs survive, keep increasing the height until only one egg is left.

4. Stranded

Helps with: Communication and Decision-Making Why communication is important for problem-solving:

More employees work remotely than ever before. Good communication skills are vital to solving problems across increasingly virtual teams. Working on communication skills while your team is together will help them better solve problems when they're apart.

Your team has been stranded in the office. The doors are locked, and knocking down the doors or breaking the windows is not an option. Give your team 30 minutes to decide on 10 items in the office they need for survival and rank them in order of importance. The goal of the game is to have everyone agree on the 10 items and their ranking in 30 minutes.

1. Divide everyone into small teams of two or more.

2. Select an overseer who isn't on a team to build a random structure using Lego building blocks within 10 minutes.

3. The other teams must replicate the structure exactly (including size and color) within 15 minutes. However, only one member from each group may look at the original structure. They must figure out how to communicate the size, color, and shape of the original structure to their team.

4. If this is too easy, add a rule that the member who can see the original structure can't touch the new structure.

Collaboration

A lockable room

5-10 puzzles or clues (depending on how much time you want to spend on the game)

The goal of this exercise is to solve the clues, find the key, and escape a locked room within the time allotted.

Hide the key and a list of clues around the room.

Gather the team into the empty room and "lock" the door.

Give them either 30 minutes or 1 hour to find the key using the clues hidden around the room.

7. Frostbite

Decision Making, Adaptability What You'll Need:

A blindfold

1 packet of construction materials (such as card stock, toothpicks, rubber bands, and sticky notes) for each team

An electric fan

Picture this... Your employees are Arctic explorers adventuring across an icy tundra! Separate them into teams of 4-5 and have them select a leader to guide their exploration. Each team must build a shelter from the materials provided before the storm hits in 30 minutes. However, both the team leader's hands have frostbite, so they can't physically help construct the shelter, and the rest of the team has snow blindness and is unable to see. When the 30 minutes is up, turn on the fan and see which shelter can withstand the high winds of the storm.

8. Minefield

An empty room or hallway

A collection of common office items

1. Place the items (boxes, chairs, water bottles, bags, etc.) around the room so there's no clear path from one end of the room to the other.

2. Divide your team into pairs and blindfold one person on the team.

3. The other must verbally guide that person from one end of the room to the other, avoiding the "mines." 4. The partner who is not blindfolded can't touch the other.

5. If you want to make the activity more challenging, have all the pairs go simultaneously so teams must find ways to strategically communicate with each other.

9. Blind Formations

1. Have the group put on blindfolds and form a large circle.

2. Tie two ends of a rope together and lay it in a circle in the middle of the group, close enough so each person can reach down and touch it.

3. Instruct the group to communicate to create a shape with the rope a square, triangle, rectangle, etc.

4. If you have a very large group, divide them into teams and provide a rope for each team. Let them compete to see who forms a particular shape quickest.

10. Line up Blind

1. Blindfold everyone and whisper a number to each person, beginning with one.

2. Tell them to line up in numerical order without talking.

3. Instead of giving them a number, you could also have them line up numerically by height, age, birthday, etc.

11. Reverse Pyramid

1. Have everyone stand in a pyramid shape, horizontally.

2. Ask them to flip the base and the apex of the pyramid moving only three people.

3. This quick exercise works best when smaller groups compete to see who can reverse the pyramid the fastest.

12. Move It!

Chalk, rope, tape, or paper (something to mark a space)

1. Divide your group into two teams and line them up front to back, facing each other.

2. Using chalk, tape, rope, or paper (depending on the playing surface), mark a square space for each person to stand on. Leave one extra empty space between the two facing rows.

3. The goal is for the two-facing lines of players to switch places.

Place these restrictions on movement:

Only one person may move at a time.

A person may not move around anyone facing the same direction.

No one may not move backward.

A person may not move around more than one person on the other team at a time.

13. Human Knot

1. Have everyone stand in a circle, and ask each person to hold hands with two people who aren't directly next to them.

2. When everyone is tangled together, ask them to untangle the knot and form a perfect circle without letting anyone's hand.

Our last two problem-solving activities work best when dealing with an actual problem:

14. Dumbest Idea First

Instant Problem Solving What You'll Need:

1. "Dumb" ideas are sometimes the best ideas. Ask everyone to think of the absolute dumbest possible solution to the problem at hand.

2. After you have a long list, look through it and see which ones might not be as dumb as you think.

3. Brainstorm your solutions in Wrike. It's free and everyone can start collaborating instantly!

15. What Would X Do

1. Have everyone pretend they're someone famous.

2. Each person must approach the problem as if they were a famous person. What options would they consider? How would they handle it?

3. This allows everyone to consider solutions they might not have thought of originally.

Looking for more team building games? Check out these virtual icebreaker games Ultimate Guide to Team Building Activities that Don't Suck.

People also ask these questions about team building activities

Here are the answers to the most common questions about team building activities:

What is the team building process?

This process of learning to work together effectively is known as team development. Bruce Tuckman, an educational psychologist, identified a five-stage development process that most teams follow to become high performing. He called the stages: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning.

What is team building?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines team building as: “The action or process of causing a group of people to work together effectively as a team, especially by means of activities and events designed to increase motivation and promote cooperation.”

How often should you schedule team-building activities?

One of the most important aspects of team building is that it is an ongoing process. One team-building session can be effective, but your team could benefit more from multiple sessions. In fact, it may be beneficial to make it a part of your regular program. For team building to be effective, you should repeat it as often as you feel it is useful. This largely depends on the activity you choose. You can do quick activities on a more regular basis since they don't interfere with the regular work schedule. You will probably conduct longer, more elaborate activities less frequently so the team can get work done.

Author Details

What you should do now, more articles.

20 Fun Zoom Games to Play with Coworkers for Team Building

10 Critical Thinking Team Building Activities

Talent Extravaganza: Top Talent Show Ideas 2024

• Testimonials
• Our Client List

11 Problem Solving Activities That Will Blow Your Mind!

Written by Lisa Lawrence

Team building events | team collaboration | team communication, november 14, 2023.

  Problem solving activities is a vital skill in the professional world, but many new graduates lack this skill.

Team building problem-solving activities offer a fun and interactive way to develop problem-solving skills while creating a stronger team.

Whether in-person or virtual, these activities provide an opportunity for teams to enhance their problem-solving skills and collaboration.

List of In-Person / Virtual Problem Solving Activities

Key takeaways.

• Problem-solving activities for team building are essential in developing problem-solving skills and creating a stronger team.
• Both in-person and virtual options are available for team building problem-solving activities.
• In-person activities include the Cardboard Boat Building Challenge, Egg Drop, Clue Murder Mystery, Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower, Corporate Escape Room , Wild Goose Chase, Face-2-Face Feud, Reverse Pyramid, Move it.
• Virtual activities include Virtual Escape Room: Mummy’s Curse, Virtual Clue Murder Mystery, Jewel Heist, and Virtual Trivia Time Machine.
• Each activity offers a unique challenge that requires teamwork and problem-solving skills.

In-Person Team Building Activities to Solve Problems

In-person team building problem-solving activities are a great way to strengthen your work group while developing crucial problem-solving skills.

These activities offer a hands-on and interactive approach to team building .

They allow participants to work together towards a common goal. Below are 11 engaging in-person activities that will challenge your team’s problem-solving abilities:

In-person team building problem-solving activities offer a fantastic opportunity to enhance problem-solving skills and foster collaboration among team members.

Here are 8 exciting activities that will challenge and engage your work group:

• Cardboard Boat Building Challenge:  Teams will design and construct a functional boat using only cardboard and tape. The objective is to create a boat that can float and navigate through water without sinking.
• Egg Drop:  Participants will create a protective casing for an egg using limited materials like newspapers, straws, tape, and balloons. The challenge is to prevent the egg from breaking when dropped from a height.
• Clue Murder Mystery:  Teams will work together to solve a murder mystery by deciphering clues and identifying the culprit, motive, and means. This activity tests participants’ problem-solving, critical thinking, and communication skills.
• Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower:  The goal is to build the tallest freestanding tower using marshmallows, uncooked spaghetti, tape, and string. This activity promotes teamwork, creativity, and problem-solving.
• Corporate Escape Room:  Participants must collaborate to solve puzzles and uncover clues that will help them escape a locked room. This activity encourages teamwork, problem-solving, and quick thinking under pressure.
• Wild Goose Chase:  Teams will embark on a smartphone-based scavenger hunt, completing challenges and riddles in the city. This activity fosters problem-solving, communication, and teamwork.
• Team Pursuit:  Teams compete in a series of challenges that require problem-solving, teamwork, and communication. The objective is to accumulate points by successfully completing each challenge.
• Family Feud: Teams face off in a wild, yet friendly and funny game of revealing top surveys.  Questions can be customized specifically to your group. This activity requires problem-solving, communication, and coordination.

1. Cardboard Boat Building Challenge

Teams are tasked with designing and constructing a functional boat using only cardboard and tape.

The challenge lies in creating a boat that can sail across water without sinking.

This activity requires creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving skills to engineer a sturdy and seaworthy vessel.

This activity not only fosters collaboration and teamwork but also encourages participants to think outside the box and come up with innovative solutions.

It requires teams to analyze the principles of buoyancy, weight distribution, and structural integrity to design a boat that can support their team members.

Throughout the process, participants will face challenges and setbacks, but these obstacles provide valuable learning experiences and opportunities for growth.

The Importance of the Cardboard Boat Building Challenge

The Cardboard Boat Building Challenge offers several benefits for teams in the workplace.

Firstly, it promotes effective communication and collaboration as team members brainstorm ideas, delegate tasks, and work together towards a common goal.

Also, this activity enhances problem-solving skills as participants encounter unexpected obstacles and devise creative solutions.

By engaging in the Cardboard Boat Building Challenge, teams also develop resilience and adaptability.

They learn to embrace failure as a stepping stone towards success and understand the importance of persistence and continuous improvement.

This activity fosters a positive team culture, encouraging individuals to support and motivate each other throughout the challenge.

Overall, the Cardboard Boat Building Challenge is a fun and interactive team-building activity that not only strengthens bonds among team members but also cultivates essential problem-solving and communication skills.

It provides a memorable and engaging experience that can be applied in a professional setting, helping teams become more effective, innovative, and collaborative.

2. Egg Drop

The Egg Drop activity is a challenging and engaging team-building exercise that tests creativity, problem-solving skills, and collaboration.

Teams are given the task of designing a contraption that can protect an egg from a fall using limited materials.

With only items such as newspapers, straws, tape, and balloons at their disposal, teams must think quickly and strategically to build a casing that can withstand a drop without breaking the egg.

This activity not only promotes critical thinking and innovation but also encourages effective communication and teamwork.

Teams must work together to brainstorm ideas, share their knowledge and expertise, and come up with the best possible solution.

It requires a combination of individual creativity and collective effort to design and construct a successful contraption.

By participating in the Egg Drop activity, teams learn valuable lessons about problem-solving under pressure, thinking outside the box, and the importance of collaboration.

It provides a fun and interactive way for team members to bond and develop their problem-solving skills while facing a common challenge.

The Egg Drop is an exciting team-building activity that will leave participants feeling accomplished and motivated to overcome future obstacles together.

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” – Steve Jobs

3. Clue Murder Mystery

Teams become detectives in a thrilling murder mystery scenario.

By gathering clues, analyzing evidence, and working together, participants must solve the mystery by identifying the culprit, motive, and means.

This activity requires critical thinking, problem-solving, and effective communication to crack the case.

the Clue Murder Mystery is a popular choice. In this interactive and engaging activity, teams must put their problem-solving skills to the test as they work together to solve a murder.

By gathering clues, analyzing evidence, and collaborating effectively, teams can uncover the truth and identify the culprit, motive, and means.

This activity not only fosters critical thinking and problem-solving abilities but also promotes teamwork and communication.

Participants must work together to share information, brainstorm ideas, and piece together the puzzle.

The Clue Murder Mystery is a thrilling and challenging experience that will keep teams engaged and motivated while honing their problem-solving skills.

“The Clue Murder Mystery activity requires teams to think critically and collaborate effectively to solve the mystery and uncover the truth.”

5 Benefits of the Clue Murder Mystery Activity

• Promotes critical thinking and problem-solving skills
• Fosters teamwork and collaboration
• Enhances communication and information sharing
• Provides a thrilling and engaging experience
• Promotes creativity and analytical thinking

Overall, the Clue Murder Mystery activity is an excellent choice for in-person team building problem-solving activities.

It challenges teams to think critically, work together, and communicate effectively while having fun and solving a thrilling mystery.

By participating in this activity, teams can develop and enhance their problem-solving skills, which are essential for success in the professional world.

4. Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower

The Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower is a popular team-building activity that encourages collaboration, creativity, and problem-solving skills.

In this activity, teams are tasked with building the tallest freestanding tower using only marshmallows, uncooked spaghetti, tape, and string.

The challenge lies in constructing a stable structure within a given timeframe.

This interactive exercise promotes teamwork as team members must work together to brainstorm ideas, share perspectives, and delegate tasks.

It requires critical thinking skills as participants analyze the strengths and weaknesses of different tower designs.

Additionally, the activity encourages creativity as teams experiment with different techniques to construct a sturdy tower.

The Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower activity is not only a fun and engaging team-building exercise but also serves as a metaphor for problem-solving in the workplace.

It highlights the importance of strong communication, adaptability, and resourcefulness when facing challenges.

By participating in this activity, teams can develop their problem-solving skills while strengthening their bonds and fostering a collaborative environment.

Example of a Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower:

In the example above, Team C built the tallest tower, standing at 32 inches.

This showcases the competitive nature of the activity and the determination of each team to excel.

The Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower activity not only fosters healthy competition but also reinforces the importance of teamwork and problem-solving skills in achieving success.

5.  Wild Goose Chase

The Wild Goose Chase is an exciting and interactive team-building activity that combines the thrill of a scavenger hunt with the power of problem-solving and teamwork.

In this smartphone-based adventure, teams explore the city and complete challenges by taking photos and videos.

It’s a thrilling race against time as teams navigate their way through a series of clues, collecting points along the way.

Engaging in the Wild Goose Chase activity not only promotes problem-solving skills but also enhances communication and collaboration within teams.

The challenges require teams to think creatively and work together to come up with innovative solutions.

It’s a fantastic opportunity for team members to showcase their individual strengths and contribute to the collective success of the team.

The Wild Goose Chase is a versatile activity that can be customized to fit different team sizes and goals.

Whether it’s a small team bonding exercise or a large-scale company-wide event, this interactive game is sure to leave a lasting impression.

So gear up, grab your smartphones, and get ready for a thrilling adventure that will take your team to new heights!

“The Wild Goose Chase activity was both challenging and fun. It brought our team closer together and forced us to think outside the box. We had a great time exploring the city and completing the various challenges. Highly recommended!” – Participant from ABC Company

Get ready to embark on an adventure like no other with the Wild Goose Chase!

This team-building activity will not only strengthen your problem-solving skills but also foster collaboration and camaraderie within your team.

So, put on your thinking caps, keep your eyes peeled, and prepare for an unforgettable experience that will leave you with memories to cherish.

Benefits of the Wild Goose Chase:

• Promotes problem-solving skills
• Enhances communication and collaboration
• Encourages creativity and out-of-the-box thinking
• Builds camaraderie and teamwork

So why wait? Plan your Wild Goose Chase adventure today and watch your team bond, laugh, and conquer challenges together!

6.  Reverse Pyramid

The Reverse Pyramid activity is a fun and challenging team-building exercise that requires problem-solving and communication skills.

In this activity, teams are tasked with rearranging themselves from a pyramid shape horizontally, by flipping the base and the apex using only three movements.

It may sound simple, but it requires strategic planning, coordination, and effective communication among team members.

By participating in the Reverse Pyramid activity, teams can strengthen their problem-solving abilities and learn to work together more efficiently.

This exercise encourages creative thinking as teams explore different strategies to achieve their goal.

It also fosters collaboration and trust, as team members rely on each other’s input and support to successfully complete the task.

Through the Reverse Pyramid activity, participants develop their communication skills by effectively conveying ideas, coordinating movements, and adapting to changes in the team’s plan.

It promotes a sense of unity and camaraderie as teams celebrate their accomplishments together.

This activity can be adapted for various group sizes and is suitable for in-person team building events.

Benefits of the Reverse Pyramid Activity:

• Encourages creative thinking
• Fosters collaboration and teamwork
• Develops effective communication
• Builds trust and unity within the team

Overall, the Reverse Pyramid activity is an engaging and effective way to enhance problem-solving abilities and strengthen team dynamics.

It provides an opportunity for team members to work together towards a common goal, while also having fun and building stronger connections with one another.

Incorporating this activity into a team building event can lead to improved problem-solving skills and a more cohesive and productive team.

7.  Move It!

As a team-building activity, Move It! requires two teams to navigate specific movement restrictions and switch places.

This dynamic challenge promotes teamwork, decision-making, and adaptability.

The objective is to communicate, strategize, and problem-solve effectively to achieve a successful switch.

The activity tests the team’s ability to think on their feet and work together seamlessly.

Move It! encourages teams to work collaboratively and find innovative solutions to overcome the restrictions imposed.

By embracing open communication and actively seeking out strategies, teams can optimize their chances of a successful switch.

This exercise fosters a sense of unity and camaraderie, as team members learn to rely on each other’s strengths and support one another.

With its emphasis on teamwork, decision-making, and adaptability, Move It! cultivates essential skills that are vital in the professional world.

By participating in this activity, teams can enhance their problem-solving abilities, learn to make quick and effective decisions, and develop their capacity to adapt to changing circumstances.

Ultimately, Move It! provides a fun and engaging experience that strengthens team dynamics and encourages growth.

8.  Face to Face Feud

Looking for a  fun and interactive office game idea  for team building? Consider adapting the  classic game show Family Feud !

This game encourages communication, collaboration, and friendly competition among team members.

How to Set up Family Feud Style Game for the Office

To set up Feud  for the office, you’ll need to:

• Divide your team into two groups
• Hire a facilitator  to read the questions and keep track of points
• Create a list of questions related to your workplace or industry
• Create a survey to gather responses for each question from your team members
• Display the game board and prepare buzzers for each team

Once the game is set up, it’s time to play!

Teams take turns answering survey questions and earning points for the right answers.

The team with the most points at the end of the rounds wins the grand prize.

3 Main Benefits of Face-2-Face Feud

Face-2-Face Feud is a great game for team building because it:

• Encourages communication and collaboration among team members
• Promotes friendly competition and team bonding
• Allows team members to share their knowledge and insights with each other
• Builds team momentum and boosts morale

Basically, playing this game played in the office is just a fun and engaging way to build stronger teams  and enhance team morale.

Virtual Team Building Problem Solving Activities | Top 3

Virtual team building problem solving activities are an effective way to enhance collaboration and problem-solving skills for remote teams.

These activities provide an opportunity for team members to work together and tackle challenges in a virtual environment.

Here are five engaging virtual problem-solving activities that can transform your work group:

1.  Virtual Escape Room: Mummy’s Curse

In this virtual escape room, team members must solve puzzles and unravel the mystery of the Mummy’s Curse to successfully escape.

It requires critical thinking, problem-solving, and effective communication to work together and solve the challenges within a given time limit.

Team members will need to utilize their creativity and collaborate effectively to crack codes, decipher clues, and escape the room.

This activity fosters teamwork and encourages participants to think outside the box.

2.  Virtual Escape Room: Jewel Heist

In this virtual escape room scenario, teams are tasked with planning and executing a daring jewel heist.

Participants must work together to solve puzzles, decipher codes, and navigate through a virtual environment to successfully complete the mission.

This activity encourages problem-solving, teamwork, and effective communication as team members collaborate to achieve their common goal.

It’s an immersive and engaging way to enhance problem-solving skills in a virtual setting.

3.  Virtual Trivia Time Machine

The virtual trivia time machine is an interactive activity that combines problem-solving and general knowledge.

Teams travel through time, answering trivia questions and solving puzzles from different historical periods.

By working together, participants can pool their knowledge, brainstorm solutions, and strategize to win the game.

This activity fosters collaboration, critical thinking, and effective communication while having fun in a virtual team environment.

Frequently Asked Questions – Problem Solving Activities

frequently asked questions

What are some problem-solving activities for team building?

Some problem-solving activities for team building include the Cardboard Boat Building Challenge, Egg Drop, Clue Murder Mystery, Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower,

Corporate Escape Room, Wild Goose Chase, Reverse Pyramid, CI: The Crime Investigators, and Team Pursuit.

Are there virtual problem-solving activities for remote teams?

Yes, there are virtual problem-solving activities for remote teams. Some examples include Virtual Escape Room: Mummy’s Curse,

Virtual Clue Murder Mystery, Virtual Escape Room: Jewel Heist, Virtual Code Break, and Virtual Trivia Time Machine.

What is the Cardboard Boat Building Challenge?

The Cardboard Boat Building Challenge is an in-person team building activity where teams create a functional boat using only cardboard and tape.

Teams must work together to engineer a boat that can float and sail across water without sinking.

How does the Egg Drop activity work?

The Egg Drop activity challenges teams to design a contraption that can protect an egg from a fall using limited materials.

Teams must think quickly and creatively to build a casing for the egg using items such as newspapers, straws, tape, and balloons.

What is the Clue Murder Mystery activity?

In the Clue Murder Mystery activity, teams must solve a murder by identifying the culprit, motive, and means.

This activity requires problem-solving skills, critical thinking, and collaboration.

How does the Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower activity work?

The Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower activity promotes collaboration and problem-solving skills.

Teams must work together to build the tallest tower possible using only marshmallows, uncooked spaghetti, tape, and string.

What is the Corporate Escape Room activity?

The Corporate Escape Room activity immerses teams in a scenario where they must solve puzzles and decipher clues to escape a locked room.

Participants must collaborate, think critically, and use problem-solving skills to work through challenges and find the key to their escape.

How does the Wild Goose Chase activity work?

The Wild Goose Chase is a smartphone-based scavenger hunt activity where teams complete challenges by taking photos and videos in the city.

This activity requires problem-solving, communication, and teamwork as teams work together to complete fun challenges.

What is the Lost at Sea activity?

Lost at Sea is an in-person activity that simulates being stranded in a lifeboat with limited supplies.

Teams must work together to rank survival items in order of importance, making decisions under pressure.

This activity tests problem-solving skills and the ability to collaborate and make tough choices in a high-stakes situation.

How does the Reverse Pyramid activity work?

The Reverse Pyramid activity challenges teams to rearrange themselves from a pyramid shape horizontally.

The goal is to flip the base and the apex of the pyramid using only three movements.

This quick and fun team-building activity promotes problem-solving and communication skills.

How does the Move It! activity work?

Move It! is a team-building activity where two teams must switch places while following specific movement restrictions.

Teams must communicate, strategize, and problem-solve to successfully switch places. This activity promotes teamwork, decision-making, and adaptability.

Got Team Building Games? – PRESS PLAY!  #boostmorale

Book a  live game show experience  today! Contact us  for further details. For Immediate assistance by text – 917-670-4689 No deposit required.  5 Star Google Rated Activity . We plan and  facilitate all activities .

Attention: HR Managers, Team Leaders, and Executive Assistants

Looking to book your next team building experience with no deposit required? Give us a call.  Live Game Shows are our specialty.

You May Also Like…

Creative Company Outing Game Ideas to Try!

May 21, 2024

Did you know that companies with a strong and engaging team culture outperform their competition by as much as 202%?...

Energize Your Meetings with Fun Morning Games

May 1, 2024

Did you know that incorporating fun morning games for meetings can increase engagement by up to 65%? Team building...

5 Guessing Games that Promotes a Culture of Learning and Growth

Apr 22, 2024

From sharpening analytical skills to improved memory, your company can provide a fun and engaging game to encourage a...

PROMO: 10% OFF

No deposit required.

Book a game show within next 48 hours and get a discount upto 10%.

We will contact you shortly.

25 Team Building Problem Solving Activities

25 problem solving team building activities.

While we are in lockdown (transition to or from) and acclimating to virtual life, these activities will engender trust, create strong bonds, and improve the problem solving abilities of everyone that plays them!

Benefits of Team Building Problem Solving Activities

Problem solving skills are one of the most essential components of a competent workplace. When we attempt to solve problems within a group, we need strong communication skills, adaptability, and collaborative clarity. The team building activities in this list house a smattering of interactive and creative approaches that can help foster these skills in any healthy team. 

Making decisions isn’t always easy, but the inability to make decisions can stagnate a team and lead to thought paralysis. Decision-making team building activities help your staff make quick and effective choices, and oftentimes their gut instinct is the correct way to go.

Play this game using a carton of eggs, construction materials (newspaper, tape, rubber bands), and take the party out to the parking lot. Give each team an egg, and let them select whatever they wish from the construction materials. Allow everyone twenty minutes to construct a special egg carrier, then drop the egg off a ledge and see which carrier works. Repeat until there is only one egg left! If you want to, you can discuss the thought processes that went into the egg carriers afterward.

A Shrinking Vessel

Adaptability is an important aspect of problem solving, the feature that allows us to understand shifting needs in real-time. Adaptive teams can solve problems quicker and innovate in the middle of a crisis. Those of us that can adapt on the fly will come out on top in the long run.

Using a piece of rope or string, make a shape along the floor that your team can comfortably fit into. Over the space of fifteen minutes, gradually shrink the space. Your team should work together to figure out how to keep within the shrinking boundaries, communicating in real-time to figure out how to best make everyone fit.

Scavenger Hunt

The goal of the scavenger hunt is for each time to navigate a list of items and bring them all back within a set time frame. Whoever comes back first, wins. You can mix up your scavenger hunts by utilizing different items and locations, and include time limits or windows to increase the challenge. Having scavenger hunts outside can be a fun and interesting way to break up the workday. 

This cityHunt Scavenger Hunt is a fantastic way to get your group problem solving together!

Virtual Team Building 

Remote work can be daunting, and many of us still haven’t adapted to this new way of life. Luckily when it comes to team building activities, there are tons of options! The virtual world is filled with fun games that can easily be adapted to this new format.

Whether it’s virtual scavenger hunts, game shows, trivia, challenges, or other team-based games, there are many ways to enjoy problem solving activities together. Virtual team building games can be hosted on the virtual conferencing platform of your choice, where teams can tackle different events and games together.

Virtual scavenger hunts are a great way to get your team working together.

Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower

Sounds messy, doesn’t it? Don’t worry, we aren’t going to cook any of it.

A critical component of good problem solving is collaboration, and the team that learns how to play together will know how to work together. We can achieve truly great things if we work together, and what better way than to build a tower out of dry spaghetti noodles and tiny marshmallows?

Each of your teams is going to attempt to build the tallest tower they can by using nothing but marshmallows and dry spaghetti noodles (okay, you can also provide them with tape and string, we aren’t monsters). Give them a timeframe and see who can become more accomplished! The tallest tower wins!

Dumbest Idea First

What’s more fun than a dumb idea? For this game, encourage your team to unify and quickly think of the dumbest ideas they can to solve a specific problem. Once accomplished, consult the list and flesh out the ideas that aren’t actually dumb so you can serve up a good solution to your problem. You might find that these so-called “dumb” ideas are actually fairly creative and host some original solutions!

This game helps everyone build strong communication standards and enhances the foundations of decision-making among your employees. It’s imperative that your teams learn proper communication strategies, especially when it comes to problem solving. In our remote-work world, communication skills are extremely important to mitigate frustrations and smooth the channels that lead to impactful problem solving.

To play Stranded:

• Your team is stranded in the office!
• The doors and windows are locked and cannot be opened.
• Give your team half an hour so they can choose up to ten items necessary to survive.
• Rank their ten items in order of necessity.
• The goal of this game is that at the end, each team member of each team will agree on the ten items needed and their ranked order, coming to a conclusion that will rescue them from being stranded.

End in Mind

This brilliant problem solving activity lets your team backtrack toward a proper solution. Begin with the end in mind, considering how your team must move backward in order to accomplish the task. Set up some milestones, dates, and steps within a task that would be useful but show them in reverse order. Begin with the end of the project and work toward the beginning, tasking your team with effectively putting things together in the right order and having them think outside the box on how the totality of a project might come into existence.

Another team building activity that will help with communication, Legoman is a fun game that will task everyone with playing with their favorite childhood toy.

Divide your team into small groups, typically around two or three people. Task another person who isn’t on any of the teams with building a random lego construct within ten minutes. Ask the teams to create the structure exactly within the same time frame, only give them an aside: only one person can actually look at the structure, and they must describe it to the rest of the team in order to build it!

This fun game enhances collaboration amongst your staff. Utilizing clues and tools, they will attempt to unlock a room within a given time frame. You will need a room that you can (safely) lock, a key for that room, rope, and a set of puzzles and/or clues.

The basic idea of this game is to solve all the clues presented and find the key so that they can unlock the room. Hide the key somewhere in the room, and make sure that the list of clues and puzzles that lead to the key are solvable and not too obtuse. Once your team is ready to go, you can give your team a time limit to complete the activity.

This game truly shows why team building is important!

Let’s take a break from the communication problem solving activities and play a game that requires decision making and adaptability. To play Frostbite, you will need an electric fan, some card stock/sticky notes/rubber bands, and a blindfold.

Your team is out on an exploration of the arctic. Separate them into groups of about four or five people, and have them choose a leader for the adventure. Your teams need to construct shelters that will protect them from an oncoming storm front that will ruin them in thirty minutes. Like the name of the game, your team leaders are suffering from frostbite, and the rest of the team is blinded because of the snow. Using the provided materials, team leaders and team members must rely on one another to build shelters that can endure the “high winds” when the storm hits (the electric fan). When the time comes, turn on the fan and see whose shelter can weather the storm!

This is another fun adaptability game that encourages collaboration and communication among your staff. To play this game you will need at least one item that can “mark” a space, such as tape, paper, chalk, etc.

• Divide the group into two teams, and align these teams so that they’re facing one another. 
• Using your space marking item, label an area for each person to stand in.
• Make sure you leave some space between the rows of people facing each other.
• To solve the objective, have the two lines of facing team members swap places.

Caveats: Only one person can move at once, moving backward isn’t allowed, a person can only move around the people from the other team one at a time, and a person can’t move around anyone if they’re both facing the same direction.

It’s tough! 

What Would X Do

Is your team stagnating on new ideas? This problem solving activity might stimulate your staff toward innovation.

In order to play What Would X Do, allow your teams to pretend to be someone famous. As a famous person, address an issue at hand. Have them ask themselves, what might they do in this particular situation? What might they consider? What choices would they make? This helps your team consider things in a new light.

Bonding Belt 

For this game, divide your groups into five participants, binding them together with tape or rope in order to limit their movements. You want the teams to go from designated Point A to Point B, and make sure you record the time. Each team will work together in order to beat their previous scores. 

To play Minefield, we are going to place items around the room in a randomized fashion so that the path from one side to the other is properly occluded and confusing. Divide up your team. Blindfold one team and have the other team serve as the guides.

The guide team then navigates the blindfolded team through the minefield, being certain that players don’t touch (any players that touch are out!). This is a team building activity of trust and survival, one that requires concise communication and collaborative problem solving.

Reverse Pyramid

Direct your team to stand together in the shape of a pyramid. What you want to do here is “flip” the base and apex of the pyramid, limiting who can move to only two or three people. Your team will want to work together in order to flip the pyramid successfully, and this game works as a great communicative device that will need a lot of proper decision making. 

Direct your team to stand in a circle, where each person holds the hand of a person that is not standing directly next to them. When the entire team is sufficiently connected, attempt to untangle without letting go of anyone’s hand. You may have played this game before at summer camp, and it remains an effective method of group problem solving. 

Dog, Rice, and Chicken

This is a fun, silly problem solving activity that might help your adult staff cut loose. Direct one team member to play the role of the farmer, and the other team members are the villagers that advise them. The farmer will get three items: a dog, some rice, and a chicken, which they take across a river via boat.

You may have played this game before, or maybe you’re aware of the narrative device: only one item can be taken across at a time, and there are limits. The dog will eat the chicken. The chicken will eat the rice. Your team will have to work together to figure out how to properly bring everything across the river.

Crack The Case

Have you ever played a classic murder mystery group game? These virtual “Whodunnits” force employees to work collectively to crack a case or solve a murder. Remote games are super fun, and everyone from commuters to remote workers to in-house staff can play together.

Virtual Clue Murder Mystery Games use video conferencing platforms and apps to let coworkers solve cases together. They can study case files, look over clues, and work together to parse out motive, method, and everything else behind classic mysteries. It’s a great time.

What Would You Do

This hypothetical question game will favor communication and brainstorming efforts by gathering your team together for a problem solving activity that is intriguing and silly. This game works by asking absurd questions and getting thoughtful answers. 

For example, you could ask someone “If you didn’t have to breathe, what would you do?” or “If you never had to eat, what would you accomplish?” Your hypothetical questions should be fairly optional and open, and they need to get your team talking. Try to come up with an inventive, fun list that garnishes thoughtful responses.

Can You Tell What I Changed?

This great communication-based problem solving activity doesn’t take too long and is fun for everybody. To play it, divvy up your team into groups and have them face each other in a line. Observe the individuals standing across from one another, giving them a minute or so to look. Then have them close their eyes.

Instruct the other line of people to make a bunch of quick changes to their appearances. They can put their hair up or down, take off their jackets, turn out their ties, and whatever else they might come up with in that short period of time. Have the other group open their eyes and identify each change as quickly as they can. Play this game as many times as you want, making it more and more complicated.

This is a fun problem solving activity that makes a great team icebreaker or just a quick break from office work.

Organizational Jenga

You may need to buy a Jenga game to play this one, or at least search out some blocks that can serve as Jenga pieces. Label the blocks in hierarchical order, according to your company. You might have blocks labeled for HR, management, IT, support staff, etc. The blocks themselves should match your office’s general composition, each block amount matching the department it’s representing.

Divvy up your team and give them equal amounts of the labeled blocks. Provide guidelines for the structure they must build, set a time limit, and start removing blocks without ruining the structure similar to Jenga. Challenge them to build a structure that can last longer as blocks are removed. This exercise is great to show the necessity of departments within your workplace, and that removing even an individual can make everything fall down. This is a conversational game, one where your teams must face the necessity of your office’s diversity.

Web of Wools

For this game, divide your team up into equal parts. Have your team form up a “web of wools,” one that should be as intricate as they can manage. Using yarn or string, your teams should entangle themselves together. Then switch the teams up so that everyone has a different web. Have one team member on each side be blindfolded and attempt to untangle each web only by the provided instruction of the other team members. Whoever does it first is the winner! 

This is a fairly difficult game that can come with its own unique frustrations. The blindfolded person will have to balance their own preferences and instincts with the instructions of their teammates. This is a great team building activity that balances communication with problem solving.

The Barter Puzzle

How well do your teams and departments perform under pressure? 

Divide each group into teams of about five people. Provide differing jigsaw puzzles of various complexity. Instruct them that the puzzles are actually mixed up, each puzzle containing pieces of the others. The goal here is to have one team complete the puzzle first, but the only way to accomplish this is through negotiation, bartering, and assigning important roles. This needs to be done as a team; don’t let individuals strike out on their own in an effort to quickly solve the puzzle. This problem solving activity shows who the best negotiators are, and tells you who needs work on their communication tactics.

Create your own

This is a unique version of the above games. The point of this game is for the team to brainstorm and come up with their own problem solving activity that is unique to your business and supports your values, ideals, and needs. By conquering this team building game, your team will build creativity and decision making skills.

Give them an hour to craft a team building exercise that is based on problem solving. Divide your staff into teams where they will be encouraged to develop new exercises that fit into your organization. The exercises should be unique, fun, and engaging. Then, have each team show off their created activities to everyone else. Have the others show the pros and cons of the created activities, and discuss how they came to the idea and what the benefits are.

No matter what you decide to play, we are certain that there are enough ideas on this list to get your group up and problem solving together! These team building activities are such a great way to get your team to communicate and negotiate, and best of all these games will bring your staff together during this tumultuous time. Problem solving is one of the backbones of any successful, growing business, and these games are sure to be celebrated by your staff for years.

If you’re looking for ways to bond beyond the rigors of the office, consider these virtual happy hour ideas that will bring your staff together in a relaxing way.

Related Resources

Top Team Building Activities in Las Vegas, NV

Top Team Building Activities Denver

Top Team Building Activities Chicago

Team Building Activities in Seattle

Experience team building   like never before, fill out our form to receive a custom proposal..

" * " indicates required fields

• Skip to content
• Skip to primary sidebar
• Skip to footer

unremot.com

Developer marketplace

Top 50 problem solving activities, games & puzzles for remote teams

Blockchain and Crypto / March 6, 2022 by admin

Here is a list of the top 50 problem solving activities, games & puzzles best suited for remote teams. Read on!

What are problem solving activities?

The success of a company or organization depends heavily on the managers’ ability to help workers develop their problem solving skills. Problem solving activities that address areas such as teamwork and cooperation, adaptability or reinforcement of decision-making strategies help.

All processes of problem solving begin with the identification of the problem. The team will then evaluate the possible course of action and select the best way to tackle it. This needs a profound understanding of your team and its core strengths.

Not only among corporates, but problem solving activities find their use in educational settings as well. Students who are good at solving problems will become much more successful than those who are not. Remote work and education are on the rise.

Enabling smooth interpersonal communication to solve problems can become a task in these situations. However, engaging all the people concerned in problem solving activities before shifting to the remote space can ease the process.

Also Read: Keen to invest in bitcoins – find a trustworthy bitcoin trader now!

Key skills evaluated in problem solving activities

Problem solving skills refer to the necessary thinking skills that an individual or group uses when met with a challenge. Many issues require the use of several skills; others are easy and may require only one or two skills. These are some skills that help to solve problems,

• Communication skills
• Decision-making skills
• Analytical thinking
• Negotiation skills
• Logical reasoning
• Persistence
• Lateral thinking

Problem solving skill examples

Several problems occur at the workplace. Problem solving skills can be technical problems that occur on websites or apps or addressing client concerns. Problems could be simple or complex. Business managers spend time and resources to solve problems.

They encourage their team to improve their analytical and logical abilities. Common issues in companies can be exploding data or changing technology, or financial management.

Did you know? Emotional intelligence plays a crucial role in problem solving!

Also Read: Keen to invest in Ethereum – find a trustworthy ETHtrader now!

Problem solving scenarios

Many problem solving scenarios occur at work. The basis to solve any problem is to evaluate and arrive at a solution. Analytical skill or problem solving ability is a skill many employers evaluate while hiring candidates.

Strong problem solving skills can be an asset to any organization. Organizations organize problem and solution activities to improve the problem solving abilities in the workplace.

1. Decision making games

Businesses are looking for new and innovative ways to stimulate their staff. Decision making games help employees to learn new skills and work effectively as a team. Decision making activities help to improve the creative problem solving and decision-making skills of the team. Here are some best Decision-making games,

1. Dumb Idea first – This game gives a hypothetical problem that could occur in your company. Ask each manager to think of the dumbest solution to the problem. After compiling the list of the ideas, the team reviews them.

You have a brainstorming session to make the “dumb ideas” feasible. This problem solving exercise underlines the importance of out-of-box thinking.

Benefits: Decision-making skill

Time duration: 10 to 15 minutes

Team size: 2 to more team managers

Material: Paper and pencil

2. Egg Drop Idea – The objective of the game is to build a container to protect the egg when dropped from a specified height using the material provided. Each team nominates a presenter who explains why the egg will survive the fall.

Once they have presented the idea, the team drops the egg to check if the idea has worked. Egg drop pyramid activities like the marshmallow challenge help teams to think on their feet.

Benefit: Decision-making skill and is a top problem solving skill example

Time duration: 15 – 30 minutes

Team size: 6 or more

Material: A cartoon of eggs, aprons to protect clothes, material for packing (cardboard, tape, elastics, plastic straws, etc.), material to clean up.

Instructions:

• Every team gets an egg and should choose from the building materials. 
• Grant everyone 20-30 minutes to build an egg carrier and guard against breaking. 
• Remove each egg carrier from a ledge (that is, over a balcony) to see which carrier prevents it from cracking. 
• If several eggs survive, continue to heighten until only one egg remains.

3. Dog, Rice, and Chicken – The dog, rice, and chicken game can be fun decision-making activities for adults. In this game, one team member plays the farmer, and the other team members are villagers who advise him. The farmer has to take three items chicken, dog, and rice across the river by boat.

There are the following constraints:- only one item can be carried on the boat. He cannot leave the chicken and dog alone because the dog will eat the chicken. He cannot leave the chicken alone with the rice because the chicken will eat the rice grains.

Benefit: creative problem solving examples that are applicable at work.

Time duration: 10-15 minutes.

Also Read: Keen to invest in bitcoins – find a trustworthy bitcoin broker now!

2. Teambuilding puzzle

Team building exercises are fun and creative ways to get your team to work together and improve problem solving skills.

1. Lost at Sea – In this game, you and your friends have chattered a yacht to sail across the Atlantic Ocean. Since you do not have any navigation experience, you hire a captain and a two-person crew. Unfortunately, the crew and captain die when a fire breaks out on the yacht.

The yacht is severally damaged and is sinking. You and your friends have managed to save 15 items and a lifeboat. Your task is to rank the 15 items while you are waiting to be rescued. The activity lost at sea team building underlines the importance of problem solving skills in the workplace.

Benefits: Team building exercise and interaction

Time duration: 30 to 40 minutes

Team size: 4 to 6

Material: Lost in sea ranking for interaction chart for each member

2. Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower – The marshmallow team-building activities have the goal of building the tallest tower as quickly as possible. To make the task more challenging the marshmallow is placed at the top of the tower. This is a fun puzzle activity for team building.

Benefit: Teambuilding puzzle

Time duration: 30 minutes

Material required: 20 sticks on raw uncooked spaghetti, a marshmallow, masking thread, and yarn of thread.

3. Go for Gold – This is an example of a marshmallow challenge similar to activities. The objective of this exercise is to create a structure using pipes, rubber tubing, and cardboard to carry a marble from point A to point B using gravity.

Benefit: team building problem solving scenario examples

Team size: Minimum 6 persons

Material required: Each member has different material

Also Read: Keen to learn about bitcoins – find an experienced bitcoin consultant now!

3. Work Problem Solving

Work problem solving activities help to use the skills you used in problem solving activities in your workplace.

1. Create your own – this game aims to create a brand new problem solving activity for the organization. The team can brainstorm for 1 hour. After one hour each team has to give a presentation about their activity outlining the key benefits.

Benefit: Understanding the problem solving process. Build creativity, improve negotiation, and Decision-making skills

• When the participants arrive, you declare that they will create an original problem solving activity on their own, rather than spending an hour on an existing problem solving team-building exercise. 
• Divide members into teams and encourage them to develop a new problem solving team-building exercise that will fit well with the organization. The activity should not be one they have engaged in or heard of before.
• Every team has to show their new activity to everyone else after an hour and outline the main benefits.

2. Shrinking Vessel – make a shape on the floor using a rope where all the team members can fit. Reduce the size every 10 -15 minutes. The real challenge for the team is figuring out how to work together and keep everyone together.

Benefits: Adaptability and cognitive diversity

Material: Rope and large room

• Place on the floor a big circle of rope. Position your whole team inside the circle. 
• Lessen the circle size steadily. When it gets smaller, advise the team to keep the entire team inside the circle. Nobody must move out of the loop. See how small you can make the area until it cannot remain inside.

3. Legoman – the team is divided into groups of two or more people. Select an impartial individual who will make a structure in 10 minutes. Each team will compete to recreate it in fifteen minutes. Only one person is allowed to see the structure. They need to communicate vital parameters like color, shape, and size.

Benefits: Communication

Tools: Lego

4. What Would X Do – This problem solving activity stimulates teams to think of new ideas.

• Benefits: Instant problem solving
• Time Duration: 10-15 minutes
• Materials Required: N/A
• Let every team pretend to be someone famous. 
• Every team needs to address the issue as if they were a famous person. Which are the choices they would consider? How will they do this? 
• It helps all to consider options they may not have initially thought of.

Tip: Before you decide, a problem is worth solving, weigh the risks of solving it versus not solving it. 

Also Read: Keen to invest in crypto – find the best crypto financial advisor now!

4. Team building riddles

Team building riddles are a great way to show the team group problem solving is usually more effective.

1. Barter puzzle – the team is broken into groups. Give each team a different jigsaw puzzle to solve. The groups have to complete the puzzle at the same time. The twist in the game is that some pieces of their puzzle belong to other puzzles.

The goal is to complete the puzzle before the other teams. Each group has to come with their method to convince other teams to handover the pieces they need, either by bartering pieces or donating time to the other teams. This puzzle piece team-building activity helps teams to collaborate.

Benefit: Team building and negotiating.

Material: Jigsaw puzzle for each team

Time: 30 minutes

2. Scavenger Hunt – in this game, each team has a list of the article to locate and bring back. The goal of the game is to finish the assigned list first. In the scavenger hunt, the team has a time limit to make the game more challenging. You have the flexibility of having the hunt outside or within the premises. The team-building puzzle game helps the team to look for creative solutions.

3. Escape – the goal is to solve clues and find the key to unlock the door in a limited time. Hide the key and a list of clues around the room. The team has 30 to 60 minutes to figure out the clues and unlock the door.

Benefit: Team building exercise

Material: Rope, key, lockable room, 5 to 10 puzzles

Also Read: Interested in crypto – find an expert crypto consultant now!

5. Work together problems

Work together on problems helps to underline the need to collaborate while solving issues at work. Group challenge activities help the team work well together.

1. Bonding belt – each group is divided into 5 to 6 participants, who are bound together with rope or tape so that their movements are limited. The team has to reach from point A to point B, and the time is recorded. The teams collaborate to beat their previous score.

Benefits: Helps the team to collaborate and skills for problem solving scenario/

Time: 20 to 30 minutes

Material: Cling film, belt, or rope

2. Scramble puzzle – the team members with blindfolds sit in a circle with the puzzle. The teammate without the blindfold sits outside the circle, with their back to the group. The blindfolded group tries to assemble the pieces of the puzzle. The outsider who has the same puzzle gives the team instructions to solve it.

Benefits: trust, leadership, and communication

Material: Preschool-level puzzles and blindfolds.

3. Flip it over – this is a classic work-together problem. In this game, 6 to 8 participants stand together on a blanket/towel/tarp. The challenge is to flip over the blanket or reverse it. The rule is that none of the participants can leave the blanket.

Benefit: Work together exercise

Duration: 30 minutes

Material: Blanket

Also Read: Building a blockchain – browse varied blockchain consulting services now!

6. Team building survival games

Team building survival games helps to fine-tune problem solving scenarios that may occur at work. The activities encourage creative problem solving and decision making.

1. Stranded – Stranded helps in building effective communication. In this setting, the team is stranded in an office. The rooms will be locked, and doors and windows cannot be broken down. The team is asked to make a list of 10 items that they need to survive.

They need to rank items in the order of their importance. The team has to agree on the items and the order. Stranded is one of several popular survival team-building exercises.

Benefit: Team building and Decision-making exercises

• Your team is stuck inside the building. Doors are closed, so there is no option to kick down the doors or smash the windows.
• Grant the team 30 minutes to determine what ten things they need to thrive in the office and list them in order of importance.
• The goal of the game is to get everyone to agree in 30 minutes about the ten things and their ranking.

2. Minefield – you randomly place items around the room or hallway and there is no clear path from one end of the room to another. The team is divided into pairs. One team member is blindfolded, and the other team member is the guide.

The guide navigates the blindfolded person across the minefield. The two partners cannot touch. This survival team-building activity underlines the need for clear communication.

Benefits: Communication and collaborative problem solving

Duration: 10-15 minutes

Material: Blindfold, empty room or hallway, and collection of random items.

3. Frostbite – in this survival scenario team-building exercise the team is trapped in Siberia. Each team has to elect a team captain. The team has to build a storm shelter with the material provided.

The twist in the game is the team captains cannot help physically since they have frostbite. Other team members are suffering snow blindness and are blindfolded. The electric fan will be turned on in 30 minutes to see if the shelter built will survive the storm.

Benefit: Leadership, skills action plan, and team building survival games

Team size: 4 to 5 members

Material: An electric fan, blindfold, simple building materials like cardboard paper, rubber bands, toothpicks, masking tape, straws, sticky notes, etc.

Also Read: Lost your bitcoins? Find a bitcoin recovery expert to retrieve it!

7. Group decision making games

Group decision making games help encourage creative problem solving and decision making at work. Here is a bunch of group decision making games

1. Reverse Pyramid – the team members stand in a pyramid shape. The next step is to flip the base and apex of the pyramid. The limiting factor in only three persons can move.

Benefits: Group Decision-making and collaboration

2. Tower of Hanoi – in this game, there are three towers/posts/rods with 5 or more discs arranged conical shape with the smallest shape at the top. The objective of the game is to move the entire stack to another location retaining the shape. Some conditions of the games are only one disc can be moved at a time. Only the top disc can be moved. Another rule of the game is larger disc cannot be put on a smaller disc.

Benefits: This team-building exercise helps problem solving within the participants.

3. Human Knot – the team stands in a circle every person holds hands with a person not standing next to them. When everyone is cross-connected, the aim is to untangle the structure without letting go of anybody’s hand.

Benefit: group problem solving

Also Read: Interested in crypto – find an expert digital asset investor now!

8. Funny problem solving games

We need to solve problems for personal and professional lives. Funny problem solving exercises are a light way. Funny problem solving can help reduce stress levels.

1. Pencil drop – in the pencil drop challenge, one end of the pencil is tied to a pencil and the other is tied around the waist of a team member. The other team member puts the pencil into the bottle placed below. The participants are not allowed to use their hands.

Benefit: Team bonding

Team size: 2 members each

Material: Some pencil and bottle

2. Blind drawing – this game requires two players to sit back to back. One participant describes an image in front of them without giving stating anything obvious. The other participant needs to draw it using the description. The outcome can be fun.

3. Be the character – in this activity, you pretend to be an imaginary character while trying to solve a problem. This game gives a unique perspective on your solution and whether the solution is feasible for other members.

Also Read: Keen to invest in crypto – find a trustworthy cryptocurrency consultant now!

9. Group problem solving activities for adults

Group problem solving activities are very efficient, especially for adults. These can be used in any setting to enhance problem solving skills. 

1. Human Knots

• Benefits: Communication skills, collaboration
• Time Duration: 10 – 15 minutes.

This is one of the most straightforward group problem solving activities that can be done with any group. It facilitates communication and critical thinking in the face of a challenging and complex question. Various group members will possibly suggest a variety of solutions, and each will need to be reviewed and adopted by the organization as a whole.

• Have the group stand in a small circle (make several circles when you are a larger group). Every person in the loop will hold the hands of 2 other people who are not directly next to them. That would make a messy crossed arms knot.
• Ask the group to disentangle themselves without moving their hands at any point in time. They may be unable to disentangle completely to form a circle again. Still, they would have begun to work together to solve the problem by the end of the activity.

2. Frostbite 

• Benefits: Leadership, decision-making, trust, adaptability
• Time Duration: 30 minutes.
• Materials Required: An electric fan, blindfold, simple building materials like cardboard paper, rubber bands, toothpicks, masking tape, straws, sticky notes, etc.

Your group is trapped in the barren deserts of Siberia, and a sudden winter storm is approaching. You have to create a shelter with only the materials in hand that can survive the storm’s harsh winds. The leader of your expedition was afflicted with frostbite in both hands, sadly, and all the others experience severe snow blindness.

• Divide the group into clusters of 4-5. Every group will have to elect a chief. 
• Group leaders are not allowed to use their hands to support the group in any way, and group members should be blindfolded during the exercise. 
• The groups have 30 minutes to build a small tent structure that can withstand the wind from the fan’s highest location. 

3. Dumbest Idea First

• Benefits: Critical thinking, creative problem solving, quick problem solving
• Time Duration: 15 – 20 minutes
• Materials Required: Pen or pencil, a piece of paper.

Dumbest Idea First is one of the most creative problem solving activities for groups. This can encourage your creativity by thinking out of the box and lead you to ideas that would typically sound too insane to work. You can broaden the possibilities by looking at these crazy solutions first, and find potential alternatives that might not be as obvious.

• Present your team with a question. It could be a real-world dilemma facing the group, or it could be a created scenario. For example, your company attempts to beat a rival to win a high-paying customer contract, but the customer bends to your competitors. You have a short period before they make the final decision to change their mind.
• With the given question, advise your group to come up with the dumbest ideas to tackle the issue. Anything can be written down. 
• After each person has put forward a few ideas, go through the list, and analyze each plan to see which are the most feasible. List them from the highest level of feasibility to the lowest level.  

4. Wool Web 

• Benefits: Leadership, communication
• Time Duration: 30 minutes
• Materials Required: Some balls of yarn.

As hard as replicating the magnitude of the real-world problems is, that is no excuse not to try! Wool web creates a dilemma that appears complicated at first, but groups will learn to break down complicated challenges into solvable problems one move at a time.

This happens by using the right strategy and working together. Undoubtedly, this is one of the most stimulating problem solving activities for adults.

• Split the group into similarly large teams. Every time, it receives a yarn ball. 
• Tell each team to turn the yarn ball into a vast web. Give them around 5-10 minutes to do this. When done, rotate all the teams so that every team is on a yarn web they have not set up. 
• Every group must choose one person to untangle the web. That individual would be blindfolded and be guided by the rest of the team on how to unwind the web using only verbal instructions. The first team to achieve it wins the game.

5. Tallest Tower 

• Benefits: Creative thinking, collaboration
• Materials Required: 1 bag of marshmallows, one packet of uncooked spaghetti.

Simple building projects can help group members create strategies to overcome box issues. Tallest Tower is another one of the most creative problem solving activities. Groups will compete with only two materials to make the tallest tower in a fixed period.

• Divide the group into two, which have an equal number of players. Provide 20 – 30 uncooked spaghetti noodles and 3-4 marshmallows to every team. 
• Groups must compete in the provided period to build the tallest tower using only the materials supplied. A marshmallow has to be set at the top of the tower.

Also Read: Struggling with blockchain – find an expert blockchain analyst now!

10. Problem solving activities for students

Below is a bunch of problem solving activities for students and kids,

1. Brainstorm Bonanza – Brainstorm Bonanza is one of the best problem solving activities for students. As a teacher, making your students create lists relevant to something you are teaching at the moment can be a fantastic way to help them expand their knowledge of a subject when learning to solve problems.

• Benefits: Problem solving
• Materials Required: Pen and paper

1. If you are discussing a real, current, or fictional occurrence that did not work out well, let your students imagine ways that the protagonist or participants might have produced a better, more favorable result.

2. They can brainstorm independently or in groups. 

2. Clue Me In – this is one of the most enjoyable problem solving games. It facilitates logical thinking and cognitive development.

• Benefits: Cognitive development, logical thinking
• Time Duration: 20 minutes
• Materials Required: A bag, clues, items as necessary
• Select a collection of things relating to a specific occupation, social phenomenon, historical incident, object, etc.
• Assemble individual objects (or pictures of things) commonly linked to the target response.
• Place all of them in a bag (five-10 clues ought to be enough).
• Then, have a student reach into the bag and take out clues one by one.
• Select a minimum number of clues to draw before they make their first guess (two-three).
• After that, the student should guess, pulling each clue until they think it is right.
• See how quickly the student can solve the riddle.

3. Survivor Scenario – Create a hypothetical situation that allows students to think creatively to make it through. One example may be being stuck on an island, realizing that three days of help would not come.

The community has a small amount of food and water and has to establish shelter from the island’s objects. This would undoubtedly be one of the fascinating problem solving activities for students.

• Benefits: Logical thinking, collaboration
• Encourage working together as a group.
• Listen to each student who has an idea about making it safe and secure across the three days.

4. Moral Dilemmas – Create several potential moral dilemmas that your students can face in life, write down, and place each object in a bowl or container. These things may include items like, “I’ve seen a good friend of mine shoplifting. What is it that I would do?” or “The cashier gave me an additional $1.50 in change after I purchased candy from the shop. What is it that I would do?”

• Benefits: Logical thinking
• Time Duration: 5 minutes per student
• Materials Required: Container, bits of paper with moral dilemmas written
• Ask every student to draw an item from the bag one after the other and read it aloud. 
• They must then tell the class the response on the spot as to how they would handle the situation.

5. Problem solving box – this is an activity that will help on both cognitive and emotional levels for students. 

• Benefits: Logical thinking, decision making
• Materials Required: Box, paper, pen
• Have your students design and decorate a medium-sized box with a top slot. Name it as the “Problem Solving Box.”
• Invite students to write down anonymously and apply any concerns or problems they may have at school or at home, which they do not appear to be able to work out on their own.
• Let a student draw one of the things from the box once or twice a week, and read it aloud.
• Finally, as a group, let the class work out the best way students can approach the problem and eventually solve it.

Also Read: Invest large in bitcoins – get a profitable deal from a bitcoin OTC broker now!

11. Problem solving activities for kids

Below is a bunch of problem solving activities for kids,

1. Puzzle-solving – Solving puzzles is one of the best problem solving activities for kids out there. Essentially, every puzzle is a big collection of muddled-up items to figure out and bring back together again.

Kids must be introduced to puzzles with regularity. These are useful for improving skills in reasoning. The best kinds to choose from are wooden puzzles with a wooden frame. They last long, and the structure serves as the foundation to direct children during construction. 

• Benefits: Reasoning skills
• Time Duration: Varies
• Materials Required: Puzzles according to the age level

Instructions: 

• Show the kids a demo of how a particular puzzle can be solved. 
• Then, let them choose a puzzle of their liking from the available choices. 
• Ask them to solve their chosen puzzles. 

2. Memory Games – Memory games will improve memory and attention to detail for your child. 

• Benefits: Attention to detail
• Materials Required: Matching pairs of images
• Using matching pairs of images and turn them all face down, shuffled, on a table.
• Take turns to pick any two cards, and face them on the table.
• You hold the cards if you turn over a similar pair, and if the pair does not match, turn the cards over before it is your turn to try again. 
• A teacher/parent must encourage the kids to concentrate on where the pictures are, and seek to find a matching pair on each turn.

3. Building games – Construction toys like building blocks, wooden blocks, or legos should be a staple in a kid’s home every day. Playing with them is one of the most fun problem solving activities for kids. Anything that your child builds is a challenge as it involves thinking about what to create and how to put together the parts to get a workable and usable design. 

• Benefits: Decision making
• Materials Required: Construction toys.

1. Let your child build a challenge openly and often, and ask him/her to build a particular structure, with conditions. For instance:

• Create two towers with a bridge that connects them.  
• Create a creature that stands alone and has three arms.

2. Observe how your child uses trial-and-error before finding a way to bring the idea into motion.

4. Tic-Tac-Toe – this is an excellent game for teaching decision-making skills. It encourages kids to think before they act and weigh the potential consequences. 

• Materials Required: Pencil, paper
• Draw a simple tic-tac-toe table on paper or chalkboard.
• Take turns to add a nought or a cross to the table to see who is the first to make a line of three.
• Your kid will likely catch on in no time before placing their symbol and start thinking carefully.
• Coloured counters or different items can be used to play this game as well.

5. Building a Maze – This activity is fun and fits for any age. It will also be a lot more enjoyable than doing a maze in an activity book, particularly for younger kids. 

• Materials Required: Chalk
• Draw a big maze with jumbo chalk on the paving. Make passages, including one or two, which end in an impasse. Teach your kid how to get out of it.  
• Make the maze more complicated and add more dead-end passages as your child gets better at figuring out a path and finding the way out.

Also Read: Developing a blockchain – hire an expert blockchain developer now!

What is a problem solving process?

When a team or person faces an issue or obstacle, it can be tempting to quickly track a potential solution and set up a fast fix. This could happen without understanding the complexity of the problem and pursuing a systematic approach to seeking a solution.

The attempts to address issues or obstacles may become unstructured and frustrating without a consistent method. End-to-end processes for problem solving offer a mechanism for a community to tackle any size or nature, and see results. Problem solving activities for adults, kids, and students can help make the problem solving process very useful.

Army problem solving process

There are 7 steps to problem solving army model,

• Recognize and define the problem – The first step army problem solving process is defining the problem precisely and determining the root cause.
• Gather facts and make assumptions – You need to gather all information you have at your disposal. Common resources for information may be documentation and policies. Assumptions are unsubstantiated facts. Use facts rather than assumptions when you need to analyze the scope of the problem.
• Generate alternatives – One of the key steps in military problem solving is finding ways to solve the problem. Ideally, it best to have multiple approaches to solve the problem. Take input from peers and subordinates if possible.
• Analyze possible solutions – Analyze each possible solution with advantages and disadvantages. You evaluate each solution according to screening and feasibility criteria. Reject the solution when it fails in the screening process.
• Compare Alternatives – Another crucial step in the army problem solving model is to evaluate alternatives for cost and benefits. You need to consider your experience and immediate future. Tabulating each solution with the pros and cons will help clear the picture.
• Make an executive your decision – Make a decision and prepare an action plan, and put it in motion.
• Assess the result – You need to monitor the implementation of the plan and modify it if required. Establishing critical steps and milestones will help to ensure success.

Army problem solving games

• Capture the flag – the game helps in team building and army problem solving. Two teams compete against one another to retrieve a flag or object from the opposing team camp base and get into their camp base. This game is flexible, and ground rules need to be set before the game starts.
• Paintball – Paintball is a fun military problem solving activity. You can have many modifications and variations of the paintball game. The aim is to fire paint pellets at the opposing team. Laser tag is another variation of the game.
• Firing blind – Firing blind is a game where each team has a large number of water balloons. At the other end of the field has to hit the target is protected by a tarp from direct firing. The team has to hit the target that is covered. One team member acts as the observer and directs the team to hit the target with the water balloons.

Also Read: Interested in NFT – find an expert NFT consultant now!

Obstacles to problem solving

Problem solving can take time and patience, one of the best ways to solve any problem is pausing and evaluating the problem. Obstacles to problem solving are,

• Misdiagnosis – Misdiagnosis is a common problem can occur due to preconceived idea, biases or judgments. Defining and having a concrete understanding of the problem is the first step in the problem solving activity. This can be difficult. If you are not careful, you may spend your time and resources solving the wrong problem and finding the wrong solution.
• Communication bias – Communication barriers are caused when we are unable to explain the problem to the team, or presuming we know more than everyone else. Everyone on the team must be on the same page. You may need to acknowledge you have a limited understanding of the problem.
• Solution bias – A common obstacle in problem solving is thinking there may be a universal solution or thinking the same solution can solve multiple problems. You need to evaluate a problem independently than try to force-fit a solution that worked previously.
• Cognitive bias – One of the barriers to finding an effective solution is cognitive bias, or the tendency to jump to conclusions. To find solutions fast firms often end up with an irrelevant solution. This may cause more problems down the line.
• Lack of empathy – Every problem is associated with human emotions or abilities. It is important to identify and recognize people affected by the problem or it will be difficult to find a solution that will solve help.

Also Read: Developing an NFT – hire an expert NFT developer now!

Famous virtual problem solving software

Traditionally watercoolers chat is a great way to bring people together and help team members interact with one another. A virtual water cooler has a similar concept where people interact in a similar virtual setting or a dedicated virtual room. It allows remote teams to bond. Software that offers virtual water coolers services,

• unremot.com – provides users with a unique water cooler experience. The app provides unique solutions to remote teams.
• Microsoft Teams
• Informal Whatsapp group
• Donut over slack channels

Blockchain & Crypto

Best Crypto Trading Tools You Need to Know About 

It's 2023, and crypto trading is still waxing strong, getting more popular as the day passes. …

Continue Reading about Best Crypto Trading Tools You Need to Know About 

Decoding the Layers: Simplifying Crypto Wallet Security

In this article, we will delve deep into the intricacies of crypto wallet security and provide …

Continue Reading about Decoding the Layers: Simplifying Crypto Wallet Security

Uniswap: A Decentralized Exchange Protocol for Ethereum Tokens

In this article, we will explore what Uniswap is, how it works, and why it has become so …

Continue Reading about Uniswap: A Decentralized Exchange Protocol for Ethereum Tokens

Background checks in less than 30 minutes!

Get the background checks completed for anyone in less than 30 minutes. Just enter the email ID and press start verification!

Tales of Soldiers and Civilians, By Ambrose Bierce

Why do you need unchek?

Instant background check on anyone | Generate reports in 30 minutes | Run checks on anyone with an email | Completely free and online | Includes professional and educational checks | Covers social and personal insights

Don't have a personal office yet?

Nurture healthy conversations at your office with 360-degree virtual experiences of your real-office water coolers, cafeterias, and game zones!

...it’s not nice to talk about people behind their backs, but that’s not to say that gossip doesn’t have any social value. In fact, it has plenty. Gossip is the foundation of our species’ survival...

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari

Select from many spaces.

Cafeteria | Watercoolers | Virtual Gym Game Zone | Conference Rooms | Virtual Spa Ping-pong Tables | Fun Zone | Office Rooms and more...

• Pyramid Rule : Each horizontal level/row of cups has only one more cup than the level above it. 
• Start with one cup on the table (i.e., flat surface). 
• Only the cup(s) touching the table can be lifted.
• Cups may only be added underneath the pyramid structure. 
• If a cup falls from the pyramid in any way, start over with one cup. 
• If you are not lifting the pyramid, only by the bottom row, you can use your index fingers (only) to touch the pyramid structure. 

Leave a Reply.

Blog Author

Dr. Chris Cavert is an internationally known author, speaker, and trainer in the area of adventure-based activity programming and its relation to community and pro-social behavior development.

Blog Purpose

This blog is a space for hands-on programable fun - energetic activities and ideas that can be used as a means to bring people together; activities and ideas we as educators can add to our social development curriculums. 

All Activities A Files A-Files Challenge Course Chiji Cards CUP Activities Ed Tech 4 Adv Ed Facilitation Fun Props Lessons Let's Talk About List Play Noodles No Props On Pedagogy Print N Play Processing Programming Puzzles Read This Repurposed Resources Small Group Activities Tools For Team Builders Top 10 Activities Variations Videos Virtual What? & Why?

May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012

Group Dynamics

Team Building and Group Activities

Reverse Pyramid

Reverse Pyramid Activity

The Reverse Pyramid is an activity that forces people to be active, thinking about strategies, assuming roles and responsibilities.

Create small groups of five to seven players. If you have enough cups and tables, one facilitator can manage as many as 10 groups building at a time.

Give each group a nested stack of 36 cups and a designated building area. For each small group, your objective is to build the tallest pyramid using the cups provided.

In our definition, a pyramid consists of stacked rows of cups (not a nested stack) in which each row will have one less cup than the row below it. For this build however, you are required to start form the top row of the pyramid – one cup.

To begin, set this one cup down on your building surface. Then, anyone in you group can lift this first cup so that two cups can be placed under it, forming the second row of the pyramid.

From this point forward you are only allowed to lift the bottom row of your pyramid structure – the row touching the table – to add the next row underneath. All other cups in the pyramid not be grabbed and/or lifted in any way.

Again, only the bottom row of the pyramid can be lifted. If any part of your pyramid structure falls apart you must start your building process over from one cup.

The topics of this publication:  interactions ,  strategy ,  collaboration ,  leadership ,  teamwork , creativity

How useful was this post?

Click on a star to rate it!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Receive FREE dynamics in your email

Bibliographic reference (apa standard).

Group Dynamics (2016-2023). [Title of the activity or exercise]. WWW: Group Dynamics. Page [URL of the activity or exercise].

Top Ten Posts

Culture Shock

Odd Couples

The Shrinking Vessel

The 30 Circles

Hear Me and Draw

Cross The Line

Pictures that Talk

INFOGRAPHICS

Recent Posts

About group dynamics.

With this site we propose to disseminate and share activities and dynamics to work with groups. The website is intended for all people who do team building activities.

A group-dynamic game is an experiential education exercise that helps people to learn about themselves, interpersonal relationships, and how groups function from a group dynamics or social psychological point of view.

We thank those who spread our ideas through different media because they give the possibility for more people to know us and access the content.

Copyright © 2024 Group Dynamics

Design by ThemesDNA.com

Privacy Overview

All articles

Problem solving team building activities, filter by category.

Problem solving team building activities listed in this article will help improve your team's efficiency and collaboration in a fun and engaging way!

Problem solving is a vital attribute for any professional working in their field. It will help them to be as successful as possible in their endeavors, and it is definitely something that employers look for in potential employees when hiring, or handing out promotions. 

However, possessing problem solving skills is easier said than done, with the majority of managers expressing concern that new graduates do not have this skill. In fact, problem solving is the skill that is most commonly lacked in the workplace!

The reason that problem solving skills can be quite hard to come by is because they must be honed by practise and perfecting on a consistent basis. This allows them to be used effectively and efficiently when needed. This is why in recent times problem solving team building activities for adults are being increasingly used in the workplace. 

Here's our pick of some fun problem solving team building activities that you can try straight away!

Cardboard Boat Building Challenge

Divide the workers into teams and task them with creating a boat out of cardboard. They will have just tape to hold it together, and the boat must not just look the business, it has to be functional as well. It must be able to float on water and be able to move across it as well without any problems. Once their masterpieces are finished, a presentation must be put together to show why their particular boat is the best boat that could have been made. Nowadays, with the best AI presentation maker it can be done very quickly. 

The aim of this activity is to create a device that will protect an egg from a fall from a certain height. The teams will be given a certain variety of construction materials, and some eggs, obviously. Be sure that you conduct this test in a place where you wouldn’t mind getting covered in eggshells and yolk. There is a time limit for this challenge, so the teams will have to act and think quickly! The materials can consist of any basic materials that you have in the office, or anything that you can think of.

Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower 

Teamwork is critical to this activity, where the teams have to build the highest possible tower using marshmallows, tape, string, and uncooked spaghetti. Along with this difficult task, there is a time limit! The team that possesses the highest tower when the time runs out, wins!

Reverse Pyramid 

The “Reverse Pyramid” is a simple exercise created to get the problem solving gears in the team’s head moving. Creative solutions will be needed here, where the group is separated into small teams and instructed to stand in the shape of a pyramid. The team must then flip the pyramid by only moving three people. This will require a lot of collaboration between the team and group decision making. This can also be completed with plastic cups, where a pyramid must be constructed from the top down, starting with one cup. One team member must lift the bottom of the pyramid by the bottom row only, and the rest of the team must work together in order to construct the next row as quickly as possible.

  A Shrinking Vessel

A Shrinking Vessel is a fun game for teams that may be struggling with their teamwork and adaptability when working together. The team members will have to work together quickly to solve the problem of the shrinking vessel.

The principle of this game is a rope of sufficient length is laid in a circle on the ground and all team members must stand inside of the rope. Over 15 minutes the size of the circle will be gradually reduced, forcing the team to think quickly to keep everyone inside of the boundary. You will be amazed at what ideas people will come up with to save their colleagues from being eliminated from the game!

This is a simple idea which can have some great results. To find a solution to a specific problem a fun idea is to have a mock trial about the issue. Some or all members of the teams will come up and give their view or ideas in “court” and will also state their opening and closing statements. This gives everyone an idea of the various perspectives of the problem in the team, and makes it much easier to come to a solution.

Dumbest Idea First

In order to increase all team member’s confidence when solving problems, the game “Dumbest Idea First” can really help show that everyone's input, no matter how small, is valuable. The team is presented with a problem they have to solve, but they must all quickly think of the dumbest ways of solving the problem. Once all of the “dumb” ideas have been collected it will easily be seen that even suggestions that one might think are stupid or silly, help to shape a suitable solution to any problem.

This activity is perfect for teams who don’t mind getting up close and personal with their colleagues. All members of the team must hold hands with someone that is not standing directly beside them. When everyone is fully connected, they must untangle themselves to make a correct circle without anyone letting go of anyone’s hand. Great fun for everyone!

Will you be trying any of these activities at your workplace? Do you have any activities that you have tried previously that deserve to be on this list? Clinked would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Read more about team building:

• Fun Office Games: Small Fun Activities for Employees
• Team Building Activities for Work
• Virtual Team Building Activities
• Joke of the Day for Work: Best Work Appropriate Jokes

Let Us Know What You Thought about this Post.

Put your Comment Below.

Related articles

Find out how Clinked can help you achieve your goal

• Client Portal
• Partner Portal
• Secure File Sharing
• Collaboration Software
• Communication Software
• Intranet Software
• Project Management Software
• Virtual Data Room
• White Label Software
• SharePoint Alternative
• Accounting Client Portal
• Financial Services Client Portal
• Legal Services Client Portal
• Help & Learning Center
• Clinked Blog
• Case Studies
• About Clinked
• Career Hiring!
• Partner with Clinked
• Security and Compliance
• Service Status
• Submit a Ticket

Subscribe to our newsletter

The latest Clinked news, articles, and resources, sent straight to your inbox every month.

• Terms of use
• Privacy Policy
• Clinked EU Data Processing Agreement

How to Use Reverse Pyramid Training to Switch Up Your Workouts

Take your reps from low to high to shift your session's structure for even more gains.

That’s why seasoned lifters keep a handful of set and rep schemes in their back pocket. Drop sets , monster sets, super sets , tri-sets—each of these lifting strategies has a place in a periodized program and every one of them can help amplify your long-term gains. So can a pyramid set structure , which entail working your way up from 12 or more reps of a light weight to just a few reps of a heavy one in successive sets.

But if you want to maximize your progress, you’ll take a page from the training manuals of some of the world’s top bodybuilders by flipping that pyramid scheme on its head.

What Is Reverse Pyramid Training?

Just as its name implies, a reverse pyramid rep scheme is the inverse of a regular pyramid structure. In practice, that means instead of starting with, say, 12 to 15 reps of a relatively light weight, you begin with a weight that challenges you to perform no more than four to eight reps of a given exercise.

In each successive set, you’ll reduce the weight by 10 percent while increasing the rep count by two, ultimately maxing out at around 12 reps. If done correctly, you’ll struggle to complete the last two reps in each set with perfect form.

What Are the Advantages of Reverse Pyramid Training?

Regardless of whether you’re doing a classic pyramid or a reverse one, the goal is the same: introduce a novel structure for your training, and maximize the engagement of both type I (endurance-oriented) and type II (strength and power-focused) muscle fibers. Although the latter fiber type has more growth potential, research shows that you need to hit both to optimize muscle building—and that’s where a reverse pyramid has an edge.

If you start out with low weight and high reps (as you would with a classic pyramid), you’ll hit your type I fibers first. Consequently, your type II fibers will be nearing exhaustion by the time you hit nail directly at the top of the pyramid, and as a result, you won’t be able to engage them as optimally as you would if they were fresh.

Not so with a reverse pyramid, which pounds your type II fibers at the beginning when they’re strongest and engages your type I fibers increasingly in later sets, thus allowing their true value (endurance) to shine through. Best of all, since both fiber types have growth potential, you’ll optimize your gains across the board.

How to Use Reverse Pyramid Training in Your Workout Program

Reverse pyramid training can be extremely taxing, so you don’t want to make it your sole set/rep scheme for any workout—let alone your weekly routine. Instead, employ it two to three times a week across two to three workouts, targeting key muscle groups—the bigger, the better—each time.

Here’s an example of how you might use it to upshift muscle growth in your pecs in a specific training session with the barbell bench press :

• Set 1: 12 to 15 reps
• Set 2: 8 to 12 reps
• Set 3: 6 to 8 reps
• Set 4: 4 to 6 reps

Repeat that sequence up to three times with 30 to 60 seconds of rest between efforts. Your muscles should be begging for mercy by the end of the third set, but that deep burn just speaks to the hypertrophic results to come. Embrace it. And if you have the time, stack on any of our recovery routines to bounce back fast and keep performing at your peak.

.css-1fpt53b{height:1.25rem;}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-1fpt53b{overflow:unset;line-height:1.25rem;}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.css-1fpt53b{line-height:1.25rem;}}.css-1fpt53b:before{background-color:#D2232E;color:#fff;margin-right:0.625rem;width:1.25rem;height:1.25rem;content:'';display:block;} Fitness

5 Shoulder Exercises to Avoid

How Many Calories You Can Burn Just By Walking

Find Your Best Workout With Our Optimized Tool

The New Science of Hip Mobility

Could You Be the Next Men's Health 'Ultimate Guy'?

Best On Memorial Day Sales

How This Podcaster Cut 15 Percent Body Fat

Train Eccentric Overloads for Serious Gains

How to Get Your Body Ready for Summer

Our Top Ice Baths Are on Sale for Memorial Day

This Fundamental Workout Will Build a Summer Body

• Supplements
• Macro Calculator
• Workout Routines
• Build Muscle
• Intermittent Fasting

The Best Reverse Pyramid Training Guide: Exercises & Sample Program

By Ben Dillion, BHSc MST, PT

Ben Dillion, BHSc MST, PT

Ben Dillion has a bachelor of Health Science, Musculoskeletal Therapy and Certified Personal Trainer with over 10 years experience in coaching clients.

Learn about our editorial process

Updated September 15, 2023

What's inside

Is your workout routine feeling a bit too routine? 

Pyramid training has long been used by lifters to change things up. The ability to stack sets and work with greater resistance can be a great way to challenge your mind and body.

But what about reverse pyramid training?

In a nutshell, reverse pyramid training takes us through our heavy sets and finishes with lighter sets. I’ll share a lot more information about this coming up.

Over my time in gyms, I’ve witnessed the benefits of training in both reverse pyramid and standard pyramid. We’ll explore those, too. 

And if you decide you want to try reverse pyramid training, I can get you started. Keep reading to get the best reverse pyramid training guide, exercise, and sample program.  

What is reverse pyramid training?

Reverse pyramid training (RPT) is characterized by performing exercises with a heavy set first, dropping resistance, and increasing repetitions with each set. 

This reverse pyramid contains three sets. Each set is followed by a 60-second rest before performing the reverse pyramid again.

What is the difference between reverse pyramid training and traditional pyramid training?

Pyramid training is performed with lighter sets first and heavy sets to finish.

Reverse pyramid training is done by completing the heavy sets first and lighter sets to finish.  

As resistance gets heavier the number of repetitions decreases. At the same time, lower resistance repetitions will increase.  

Both pyramid and reverse pyramid training results in enhanced muscle hypertrophy.

Looking to build lean muscle? Check out A Healthy 3000-Calorie Meal Plan With PDF

Reverse Pyramid Training vs. Straight Sets

Reverse pyramid training is an incredible way to increase the volume of your training.

Straight sets training requires us to perform sets of 8-12 repetitions. Outside of choosing the right weight, this can leave us with some fuel in the tank.

Reverse pyramid training, on the other hand, requires us to lift heavy sets of 4-8 repetitions, a moderate set of 8-12 reps, followed by a light set of 12-15 reps.

This increase allows us to stimulate the muscle for longer, while the increased volume of training is beneficial for promoting muscle hypertrophy .

Is reverse pyramid training effective?

Related: Horizontal Push Exercises

Yes, and there’s some research behind this. Reverse pyramid training has scientifically been shown to promote muscle hypertrophy . 

The ability to fatigue the muscle past its limits that is traditionally found with straight sets allows for increased volume which is beneficial for increasing muscle mass. 

Reverse Pyramid Training Benefits

Here’s my list of the benefits and reasons you should consider implementing reverse pyramid training.

Progressive Overload

Reverse pyramid training for mass can work for you. It’s a great way to promote progressive overload, which is crucial to improving strength and increasing muscle .

Reverse pyramids allow you to train through the full repetition spectrum.

By training at rep ranges of 4-8, we will promote strength and hypertrophy , while sets of 12-15 promote endurance .

This gives you the opportunity to overload your muscles at the beginning of each set with heavy resistance for a short time, followed by lighter working sets.

Over time, this will increase strength and muscle size.    

Promote Muscle Hypertrophy

Reverse pyramids can be a tool for increasing your muscle mass .

Many people find that this method helps them perform more reps.

Naturally, this increase in volume is associated with increased muscle mass .

Increase Strength

One of the best things about performing reverse pyramids is that you implement strength working sets.

When performing regular straight sets, we’re locked into our repetition ranges.

However, when we practice reverse pyramid training, we get the benefit of low repetitions and heavy weight training , which is beneficial for developing strength.   

Increased Muscular Endurance

When we increase the volume of training and work to high repetition ranges, we’re challenging our muscle tissue and cardiovascular system to adapt.

This makes reverse pyramids great for improving endurance and overall performance .

Reverse Pyramid Training Drawbacks

Reverse pyramids may be a great method of training , but they’re not without their drawbacks.

Here’s a list of cons to reverse pyramid training. 

Time-Consuming

When we perform straight sets, we can typically get through a single exercise in between 3-5 minutes, assuming we are performing three sets.

When we perform RPT, on the other hand, we’re essentially tripling out sets for the exercises, which may also increase rest time.

Instead of one set being a set of 8-12, it is one set of 4-8, followed by a set of 8-12, with a finishing set of 15. 

This dramatically increases the time spent in the gym , even if it is just for one exercise.

Reduces Exercises During Session

The increase in single exercise sets and repetitions will require you to omit other movements from your workout.

As the RPT adds extra time to an exercise, we may need to remove other exercises to make fit a realistic time frame.

This may mean that you sacrifice your favorite arm exercises at the end of the session in favor of hitting your chest a bit harder.

This can be difficult for many, as we all have areas we want to hit during our session.

The compromise of added growth from RPT potentially leads to other areas taking a back seat.

Not for Beginners

Reverse pyramid training is advanced and not suitable for beginners.

When we approach the gym as beginners, we require less stimulus to get our initial results.

Research indicates that 1-3 sets of 8-12 repetitions are sufficient for muscle hypertrophy.

Meanwhile, advanced lifters would benefit from an increased volume of 3-6 sets of 1-12 repetitions.

This can take a considerable toll on the body, and that’s where reverse pyramid training programs come in.

So while beginners can technically do RPT, it’s not recommended or necessary.

Can Result in Poor Technique

RPT is great for promoting strength , mass, and endurance. However, when we work to the level of fatigue toward the end of each set, our technique may suffer.

This may not always be the case for all lifters, but if you’re advanced and you want to be pushing your body to these limits, it’s likely that some reps will be performed poorly.

To reduce poor technique and forming bad habits, consider reducing the weight further if you cannot perform them correctly.

This will help you still get the most out of your training without creating bad habits or sustaining an injury.

Reverse Pyramid Training Guidelines

Here is a list of guidelines to follow when you are undertaking RPT.

Reverse pyramid training is performed using three sets in succession, decreasing weight with each set while increasing repetitions.

RPT can be categorized into two different styles, narrow pyramid and wide pyramid.

These dictate the rep ranges, you should perform for each set.

RPT is an intense style of training , which means adequate warm-up is required prior to performing your first exercises.

Perform 1-2 sets of the first working set at a light resistance, combined with some dynamic to prepare.

This will prepare your nervous system and get blood flow to working muscles, leading to improved performance .

RPT Progression System – How to Progress in Reverse Pyramid Training?

To ensure you get the most out of your reverse pyramid training program , plan to progressively overload each week by incrementally increasing weight.

Here’s an example of a weekly weight increase bench press.

9 Best Exercises To Include in Your Reverse Pyramid Training 

Here’s my list of exercises to put into your reverse pyramid training program.

1. Barbell Bench Press

The barbell bench press is considered one of the best ways to develop strength and size for the upper body .

The racked position also allows for quick weight changes between your reverse pyramid sets.

• Bench Press
• Weight Plates

How To Perform Bench Press

• Lie on the bench, facing up, with your head resting at the top end of the bench.
• Grasp bar just wider than shoulder-width apart and firmly plant feet on the floor.
• Lift the barbell off the rack and position it over chest height.
• Lower the barbell down to the middle of the chest.
• Once the barbell makes contact with the chest, drive the bar back up to starting position. 
• Reduce weight, perform two sets, and repeat for the third set.
• Increase upper body strength
• Targets chest, shoulders , and triceps
• Before each set, be sure to have feet firmly planted. This will give you a solid base to press from.
• Focus on breathing, inhaling and bracing the core at the beginning of each movement and exhaling when pressing the bar up.

2. Barbell Back Squat

The barbell back squat is one of the most effective ways to train the muscles of the lower body .

Its ability to work the legs , hips, and back muscles are nearly unmatched, which makes it a great exercise for your RPT program.

How To Perform Barbell Back Squat

• Standing in the squat rack, step under the bar and position the bar on the belly of your trapezius .
• Push legs up, lift the bar off the rack, and walk back into your squat position.
• Leading with hips backward, begin to lower hips until they are parallel with the floor.
• Once you reach the bottom, push through the legs and drive through the hips until you reach the upright position. 
• Remove the weight, perform two sets, and reduce weight for the third set.
• Increase lower body strength and size
• Targets quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes , and core
• When performing the back squat using the RPT, start with a lighter weight for your heavy set. This will allow your body to adjust to the stimulus. Following this set, you can begin to push.
• Inhale and brace the core on the way down and exhale on the way up.

3. Barbell Deadlift

Related: A Detailed Guide To Hook Grip Deadlift

One of the cornerstones of weight training, the deadlift is an excellent exercise for developing size and strength. 

It’s a no-brainer for your reverse pyramid training routine .

How To Perform Barbell Deadlift

• Stand in front of the barbell with a bar over the top of your shoelaces.
• Bend forward, drop the hips, and grab the barbell with hands shoulder-width apart.
• Gently pull the bar to create a proud chest and squeeze shoulder blades back toward the hips to increase tension through the body.
• Begin by lifting the bar upward to the knees.
• Once the bar gets beyond the knees, begin to push forward with the hips until you reach the upright position.
• Gradually lower by leaning forward until the bar is just below the knees.
• Then, bend the knees and lower them until the weight makes contact with the floor. 
• Once you have completed your heavy set, reduce weight for the second and third sets.  
• Increase strength and muscle mass
• Targets quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, core, and upper back
• For your first set, start with a lighter weight. This will allow you to get used to the movement and understand how the working sets feel.
• When setting up, be sure to gently pull the bar and create tension through the body. This will reduce injury and improve the quality of your lift.

4. Lat Pulldown

The lat pulldown has the ability to help us pack on serious size. Its pin-based system allows for smooth transitions between sets, making it an excellent exercise for an RPT program. 

• Lat Pulldown

How To Perform Lat Pulldown

• Sit on the lat pulldown with knees tucked under support pads.
• Reach overhead and grab the bar just wider than shoulder-width apart.
• To begin, lean back slightly and engage the shoulder blades back and down.
• Leading with elbows, pull the bar down to your collarbone, focusing on the contraction of your lat.
• Gradually release until your arms are stretched overhead.
• Once the first set is complete, reduce weight and perform for the remaining two sets.
• Builds upper back and arms
• Pin-based system perfect for weight changes
• When performing the lat pulldown, keep the chest up and focus on depressing the shoulder blades. This will ensure you hit your target muscles.
• Exhale as you pull the bar down and inhale as you release.

5. Machine Hack Squat

The hack squat machine is known for its torturous muscle-building capabilities. It guides lifters through a squat path using a set of tracks.

These tracks remove the need for balance and stability and help you focus on muscular contractions and pumping out reps.

• Hack Squat Machine

How To Perform Machine Hack Squat 

• Step into the hack squat machine and place feet in the middle of the platform, shoulder-width apart. 
• Rest your back on the carriage with shoulders under the shoulder pads.
• To begin, push legs up, take the weight off the carriage, and unlock the safety mechanism.
• Lower your hips down toward the platform, aiming to finish at a 90-degree bend at knees and hips.
• Once you reach the bottom, push through your legs until you return to the starting position.
• Perform your first set, and remove weight. Repeat for the remaining two sets.
• Great for changing weights for RPT
• Builds legs and hips
• Carriage removes the need to stabilize which allows you to focus on lifting heavy
• For foot positioning, place your feet shoulder-width apart in the middle of the platform. This will allow you to push through your foot evenly.
• At the top of each rep, tense your glutes, inhale, and active abs. This will help increase core stability and glute focus.

6. Romanian Deadlifts

Romanian deadlifts are a compound movement that helps develop our posterior chain (glutes, hamstrings, and erectors).

Targeting this area using reverse pyramid training is a great way to improve hips hinge strength and mechanics, which is essential to our long-term physical health.

How To Perform Romanian Deadlift

• Standing upright, hold a barbell using an overhand grip, shoulder-width apart.
• Gently engage the shoulder blades back and down.
• With knees unhinged and fixed in position, lead back with the hips and gradually lower the barbell down the front of the legs.
• Lower until the barbell is just below knee height.
• To return, pull upward, pushing through with the hips until you reach the starting position.
• After completing the first set, reduce weight and repeat for the next two sets.
• Functional movement, improve posterior chain mechanics
• Strengthens glutes, hamstrings, erector spinae
• When performing the Romanian deadlift, unhinge the knees but do not let them bend throughout the movement. This will help to target the hamstrings.
• At the top of each rep, focus on tensing glutes and resetting posture. This will help you start fresh for the next rep.

7. 45-Degree Leg Press

Related: Leg Press Foot Placement

Like the hack squat, this exercise is an excellent way to challenge the muscles of the lower body.

As the carriage guides the weight for you, there’s no need to focus on stabilizing, so you can focus on pumping out those reps.

• 45-Degree Leg Press

How To Perform 45 Degree Leg Press

• Take a seat on the leg press and place feet in the middle of the platform, shoulder-width apart.
• Push legs up to take the weight off the safety guards.
• Unlock the safety guards.
• Bend the knees and lower the carriage down toward your body until your knees are bent at 90 degrees.
• Once they reach the bottom of the movement, push through the legs until they’re at the beginning position.
• Once you have completed your first set, remove weight plates and repeat for your last two sets.
• Carriage removes need to stabilize, allowing you to focus on pushing weight
• Strengthens glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps
• Place feet in the middle of the platform. This will allow you to push evenly through your feet.
• Focus on breathing, inhaling when lowering and exhaling when pressing the movement up. 

8. Bent Over Barbell Row

The bent-over barbell row targets the muscles of the back while engaging the core and lower body.

This compound movement has long been used to increase muscle mass and improve strength .

How To Perform Bent Over Barbell Row

• Standing upright with the barbell in hands, grips shoulder-width apart.
• Lean forward at the hips until you reach 70 degrees.
• To begin, engage the shoulder blade and pull the barbell toward the bottom of the chest.
• As you pull, bring the shoulder blades together until the bar reaches the body.
• Gradually lower the barbell to the starting position.
• Complete the first set and decrease the weights for each subsequent set. Repeat.
• Full-body exercise
• Great for building strength and mass for the upper back
• The bent-over position can be difficult to maintain, especially with heavier weights. Consider reducing the weight and increasing reps, or allowing the barbell to rest on the floor between reps. This will help you pull more weight.

9. Seated V-Bar Cable Row

The seated V-bar cable row’s pin-based setup makes it a great row alternative to add to your reverse pyramid programming.

This will allow you to target the muscles of the upper back and transition smoothly between sets.

• Cable Row Machine 

How To Perform Seated V-Bar Cable Row

• Take a seat on the cable row and place your feet on the platform.
• Grab the handle, straighten your legs, and brace yourself, sitting upright.
• To begin, activate the shoulder blades back and down, with the row bar toward the belly button.
• Once the bar meets the body, gradually release it until arms are outstretched. 
• Complete the first set, drop the weight, and repeat the process for the remaining two sets.
• Pin weight system is great for changing weights
• Before each rep, pull shoulder blades together. This will draw focus to the muscles of the upper back, ensuring you’re hitting your target muscles.
• When performing, focus on inhaling when releasing and exhaling while rowing.

The Best Reverse Pyramid Training Program 

Interested in trying it for yourself? Here’s a sample reverse pyramid training workout plan .

Each day will contain two large compound movements. The following two exercises are for smaller groups to be performed in straight sets.  

RPT Program

Day 1 (30 – 35 mins)

Day 2 (30 – 35 mins)

Day 3 (30 – 35 mins)

Need some tips for building the perfect program? Check out How Many Exercises Per Workout? Muscle Grouping, Sets, and Reps Guidelines  

Pro Tips for an Effective Reverse Pyramid Training

Here is a list of tips to get the most out of your RPT program.

Reverse pyramid training is a great way to increase your strength and mass.

When you perform your reverse pyramids sets, be sure to incrementally increase weight every week.

This will help you improve each week, resulting in big gains months down the track.

Reduce Weight When Form Breaks

If the weight you are lifting begins to alter your technique, consider decreasing the weight.

While this may be a hit to the ego, it will help you perform the reps correctly and focus on contracting the target muscle .

This will still help you obtain those results while reducing the risk of injury.

Program Limited Reverse Pyramids

RPT can be time-consuming and make your programming feel too long and repetitive.

When programming RPT, consider implementing no more than two exercises.

This will allow you to get the benefits of RPT without the risk of becoming burnt out from the repetitiveness and lack of variety.     

Before you head into your RPT, be sure to warm up. This style of training can be demanding on the entire body.

Warming up the muscles, increasing blood flow , and preparing your nervous system will improve your lifting capacity , resulting in better gains.

Focus On Compound Movements

When programming reverse pyramids into your training, be sure to use them on compound movements.

By using RPT on exercises such as squats, deadlifts, and chest press, you will be targeting multiple muscle groups at once.

Strength training has been identified to induce growth hormone and testosterone when performing movements with major muscle groups.

When we double down on this and perform RPT on our compound lifts, we target multiple muscle groups and promote hormone release. 

Final Thoughts

Reverse pyramid training is an incredible way to build muscle and strengthen your body.

The combinations of sets and repetitions with application to different exercises are near endless.

However, when programming RPT, we need to consider the toll it will take on our bodies. We need to program RPT to get the most out of the body, without overtraining and burning out.

This will allow us to take the benefits without the drawbacks and stay consistent for the long haul.

Have you tried RPT or are you thinking of implementing reverse pyramid sets into your program?

Let me know in the comments below.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does reverse pyramid training work.

Reverse pyramid training has been scientifically shown to promote muscle hypertrophy and increase strength.

RPT increases the volume of repetitions, which has been indicated as a key factor in increasing muscle mass .

While the range of repetitions, with heavier sets performed at 1-5 repetitions is beneficial for strength gains.

Is pyramid or reverse pyramid training better?

Both pyramid training and reverse pyramid training are effective. 

Research conducted on both PT and RPT indicated that the difference between the two methods was negligible.

Ultimately, both methods are effective ways of training for muscle hypertrophy and strength . 

What is reverse pyramid strength training?

Reverse pyramid strength training is when your working sets are completed at lower repetitions ranges with a heavier weight.

An example of this is a narrow pyramid , with sets of 1, 3, and 5 repetitions.

Performing these repetitions will require you to perform at 85%-100% of your 1RM, which is beneficial for increasing strength.

Is reverse pyramid training better than straight sets?

In terms of increasing mass and strength, reverse pyramids training can be better than straight sets.

This can be due to the increased volume and loading that RPT offers.

However, RPT should not be implemented solely based on this.

As RPT is so challenging for the body, watch out for burnout and overtraining. 

Can I use reverse pyramid training for fat loss?

Reverse pyramid sets can be used for fat loss. RPT takes our bodies through a spectrum of repetitions.

This challenges our muscles and cardiovascular system to adapt.

When pursuing fat loss goals, a calorie deficit, and the implementation of a high protein nutrition plan have been scientifically indicated to yield the best reverse pyramid training results.

This helps to maintain lean body mass while decreasing body fat .

The Reverse Pyramid Training Guide

January 25, 2018 — Posted in Training

Reverse Pyramid Training

My physique and strength  are built on Reverse Pyramid Training ( RPT ). My clients ? RPT. In my 19 years of weight training, I’ve tried countless methods, but always revert back to RPT. It’s the most reliable and effective I’ve ever come across.

If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t be using it. I’m not married to methods, only results. I live and die by results, that’s how I make money.  Don’t have a training book about RPT to sell and nothing in it for me by making these claims or writing this guide. Only appreciation once your experience reaffirms my own.

Below details specifics of RPT for beginners and intermediates. It provides tools for progressing well into the advanced stage and possibly past that (as I’ve done). It does not detail the full scope of RPT for muscle gain for advanced or highly advanced lifters for two reasons. 1

• Advanced lifters represent  10% of my audience.
• Optimising RPT for Advanced/Highly Advanced is considerably more complex and involves several modalities that would require lengthy explanations and double the length of the article. Depending on reception, I may write about this in the future.

That said, I address the dos and don’ts of RPT for muscle gain and show a general setup.

Required reading: Fuckarounditis   2

Optional reading (RPT background/setup): Reverse Pyramid Revisited   3

Enjoy. And don’t forget to read all the footnotes.  4

There are two areas in which RPT excels. The first is time efficiency. Indeed, studies show RPT to be more time-efficient than 5 x 5 and suggests superior results 5 . So yes, if  time is limited and you can’t be in the gym more than thrice a week,  you must make every set count.  RPT does. There’s no room for phoning in or half-assing. Every set is an AMRAP. 6   If it isn’t, you’re not doing RPT.  Can’t handle it? Then stop reading, because RPT isn’t for you.

The second is dieting. RPT is hands down the most effective way to gain or retain muscle and strength while losing fat. While there aren’t comparative studies on weight training methods,  when cutting–proof is in the pudding. I’ve made a lot of pudding in my days and most of my clients come out stronger and leaner when I’m done with them. It’s also in my own self-best interest to put clients on the best program because again, it’s how I make money.  Their success is my own.  And why they’re on RPT.

Could add a third point and say RPT is the most fun way to train. But that would be too much on the subjective side of things. Personally though,  appreciate RPT for that reason as well.

Is RPT the Holy Grail of weight training? In some ways yes, but there are cases in which RPT isn’t ideal. Powerlifting for example, is about developing motor patterns and technical proficiency in the bench, squat and deadlift.

To become a competitive powerlifter, you can’t rely on 2-3 sets to failure once or twice a week. You’re going to need 5 to 10 times the weekly volume, 4-6 days in the gym, patience, preferably a coach, and a whole different attitude towards progression.  7

Training to failure and and relying on linear or double progression is not how the successful powerlifters I know train. And know quite a few, either directly or indirectly. But this can be said of any sport that does not solely rely on raw strength and muscle hypertrophy, including Olympic Weightlifting and Strongman.

Let’s get down to the nitty gritty. The pyramid in Reverse Pyramid Training references pyramiding reps, a training technique popular among bodybuilders. A typical pyramid starts with lower loads and higher reps, progressing into higher loads and lower reps, thus finishing with the heaviest set.

RPT is the reverse, starting heavy and finishing high, which makes a hell of a lot more sense. Why engage the heaviest loads, using compromised technique and underperforming because you’re fatigued from previous sets? Sounds like a recipe for injury and shitty results.

But if you flip that pyramid upside down, magic happens. Here’s how:

• Warm-up: 2-5 sets at 40-67% of your first set x 3-6
• Set 1: 100 x 8
• Set 2: 90 x 10
• Set 3: 80 x 12

That’s how a typical RPT sequence looks. Now, let’s discuss warm-ups, Goals, progression and breakdowns.

Warming up is highly individual and not something I intend to flesh out in greater detail than this.

• An RPT session always starts with the deadlift, bench or squat. Depending on how the rest of your workout looks, you can be fully warmed-up for everything else if you just do a proper warm-up for the first exercise. That’s what I do, but your mileage may vary.
• Generally speaking, people in their twenties need less warming up than someone in their fifties, for example.
• It also follows that some movements require more warm-up before the first work set, a common example being squats.
• All this said, do as much warm-up as you need before feeling comfortable going into your first workset.
• …BUT, and this is key, keep your warm-ups separate from your work set. No half-assed sets that aren’t challenging enough to be a real set, but hard enough to cause fatigue. I see a lot of this shit in the gym, where you can’t really tell if the person is doing a limp-dicked set or just taking his warm-up too far.
• If you need rough guidelines, warm-up with 2-5 sets of 40-67% of your work set for deadlift, bench and squat. Personally, I use 2 sets for bench, the last being 2-3 x 67%. For deadlifts, I do 4-5, starting at 4-5 x 50% and ending at 2-3 x 67%. Same for squats.

Goals and Progression

There’s two main areas of interest when it comes to progression on RPT, Goal and Set 1.

Quick primer on linear and double progression. Linear progression is when you’re upping the load every workout, doing 100 first week, 102.5 next week, 105 third week, and so forth.

Problem with linear progression is your reps can’t keep up, because there’s no way you’re going to keep adding 2.5 kg or 5 lbs to the bar every week. Sooner or later, you’re killing your limbs and shortchanging progress with 3-rep grinders. Don’t get me wrong, linear progression has its place, but not in this context.

RPT uses  double progression . Double progression is when you’re progressing in reps and upping the load once a certain number of reps can be completed. This certain number is the Goal. In the sequence above, we have “Goal: 8” and “Set 1: 100 x 8.” If the Goal is 8 and the number of reps >8 in Set 1, this set is eligible for an increase next session. Let’s simulate this session.

• Set 1: 102.5 x 8
• Set 2: 92.5 x 10
• Set 3: 82.5 x 12

Those are some solid gains, +2.5 across the board! Congratulations, you’ve gained muscle, gotten stronger, and taken one step towards the physique of your dreams. Let’s see how next week goes.

• Set 1: 105 x 7
• Set 2: 95 x 9
• Set 3: 85 x 12

Looks like we didn’t quite hit the Goal this session, but look at set 3. You’re up +2.5 from last week’s set 3. You’ve gotten stronger, but the increase is not sufficient enough to register a +2.5 increase across all 3 sets. Prepare to encounter this situation most training sessions if you’re intermediate.

You’re not going to see linear increases of 2.5 week to week, that’s just not possible. But you can and will  see increases in set 2 and 3 if you’re doing it right. Using the aforementioned example, once you’re at 10+ in set 2 and 12+ in set 3, it’s only a matter of time before you get 105 x 8 and can up the weight to 107.5.

But wait a second!  Some you are thinking this very moment. In Reverse Pyramid Revisited  I detailed a system where each set progresses independently, so that set 2 and 3 would eligible for an increase in Week 3, where as set 1 wouldn’t. Well, based on my experience since, I’ve now scrapped that system in favour of this.

Why? Because it’s more effective, simple as that. And if you’re a client reading this, then yes, switch from the independent system to the dependent system (this). 8

A key component of RPT, breakdown denotes how much the load is reduced each set following the first. This is expressed in percentage and varies depending on movement.

• Deadlift, squat, weighted chin-up and row: 10%
• Bench press, overhead press and seal row: 5%
• Assistance/accessory movements: 10%

Using these figures will typically result in an increase of 0-2 reps per set, occasionally more. Feel free to experiment and adjust as long as the sequence resembles a reverse pyramid, i.e. starting lower and finishing higher.

AMRAP vs Maximal Effort vs Training to Failure

I’ve always had a problem telling people they should “train to failure” on RPT, because that’s not really the goal. Personally, I can’t recall the last time I actually failed to complete a repetition. There was that one embarrassing moment where I got stuck with a barbell on my chest 15 years ago, but that’s honestly the only time I’ve ever “trained to failure.”

So instead of training to failure, I told clients to exert maximal effort each set. This, I explained, meant they should do as many reps as possible – using good form – and terminate the set when they doubted their ability to complete another repetition.

The above is also what I mean when I say every set is an AMRAP – an abbreviation most lifters are familiar, which is why I more often use that expression instead of maximal effort.

Hope this clears things up. Some people interpreted Reverse Pyramid Revisited to mean one should complete (Previous set rep number + 1) in sets following the first, which is not the case. Every set is AMRAP, whether you’re doing as many reps as the previous set or 2-3 more reps doesn’t matter. It’s the effort that counts.

Lastly, don’t use spotters unless they can follow instructions to never touch the bar. The spotter is only there to help you rack the bar if you fail to complete a repetition. They’re not there to help you eek out extra repetitions when you can’t on your own. So don’t use them for that purpose.

RPT Sample Week

Alright, so let’s have a look at a basic setup, using Monday, Wednesday and Friday. If you don’t like those days, use Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday or Wednesday-Friday-Sunday.

• Deadlift – 2 x 6
• Row or Overhead Press – 3 x 8
• Accessory: Calves, biceps or triceps – 2 x 10
• Bench press – 3 x 8
• Squat – 3 x 10
• Weighted Chin-Up – 3 x 8  9

Notes on Routine

• 2 x 6 means 2 sets with the Goal of 6. 3 x 8 means 3 sets with the Goal of 8. Etc.
• Starting out, select a load you can manage no less than Goal -1 in the first set. >7 reps in the bench press is fine, <6 is not.
• Each workout has two compound movements and one accessory movement. Always start big (squats) and finish small (calves, biceps/triceps, etc).
• In the example above, you can choose whether you want rows on Monday, Overhead Press on Wednesday, or vice versa. With regards to accessory movements, you can choose whether you like one each workout or two; to save time, for example, you can do biceps and triceps back to back, e.g. alternate curls and pushdowns with 60-90 sec rest in between movements. 10
• Rest at least 3 minutes between sets, preferably more between sets of deadlift and squat.  11
• Use sample routine as is if you’re dieting, preferably eating more on training days, less on rest days, e.g. as outlined in The Leangains Guide . Done right, this will result in strength and muscle gain up to and including the intermediate stage.
• If you’re maintaining, which is a practice and word I detest, you can experiment with more sets, even if I personally think that’s pointless.
• No deload if you’re dieting. No need.

RPT for Muscle Gain

The sample routine can and should be used as outlined if you’re dieting. Increasing volume or other changes are more likely to be counterproductive than effective, so do it at your own peril. Muscle gain is another story. If you’re maintaining a weekly caloric surplus of at least 2000 kcal 12 , increasing volume by 1-3 sets per movement yields better results.

A post shared by Martin Berkhan (@martinberkhan) on Jan 12, 2018 at 5:59am PST

There are different ways to do this. Here’s a few examples, including some primers on RPT for muscle gain.

• Add a 4th day on Saturday. This workout would then look similar to Wednesday in structure, but slightly different in execution. If you intend to use the same movements, increase Goal by 2, and reduce loads 5%. If you want to change movements, you’ll find suitable replacements in the Weighted Dip or Paused Bench Press, T-bar Row or another variation of the Wednesday row, and whatever BS you can come up with for calves, biceps or triceps.  13
• Add more volume for legs on Monday. To make this work with squats, you need to place squats before deads; however, I don’t recommend RPT for this squat session (you’ll die). Instead, squat for volume at an RPE of 7-8. Another alternative is to add a few isolation movements like leg curls or leg extensions to the end of the workout.
• A) The deadlift should never be done more than once a week.
• B) Train either the row or the chin-up twice a week; doing both twice a week is overkill in my experience.
• Allow 72 hours of rest between lifts and variations thereof.
• Deloads are necessary sooner or later, but due to the complexity of this subject, I’ll say that I’m no fan of deload weeks . Do deload days instead. If your joints hurt and everything feels heavy, reduce the load by 15% for all movements and go for a good pump. Yes, I’m serious.

Whew! Alright, that’s all folks. Hope you enjoyed the read and find the teachings useful. I’ll probably check back in during the weekend and add/change/clarify whatever’s needed. Let me know if something’s crazy or confusing, OK?

Oh, and please share and help me cure humanity of fuckarounditis. Make the World a better place.

P.S. My first book is delayed ’till February. Don’t worry, it’ll come. Everything just takes longer than expected. When it finally does arrive, don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

P.S.S. Q&A #4 comes out tomorrow and will most likely involve RPT. If you haven’t subscribed, do it and now and join 35k+ recipients of the only no-BS newsletter in the fitness industry. Actual content, not scams and money grabs.

P.S.S.S. If you like my stuff and want to show your support, please  contribute .

Article Footnotes

• Strength standards for intermediate, advanced and high advanced are discussed in Fuckarounditis
• If you don’t understand the fundamentals and aren’t willing to learn, you’re wasting your time on The Reverse Pyramid Training Guide.
• RPT progression and certain specifics have been revised for The Reverse Pyramid Training Guide. However, if you’re completely new to Reverse Pyramid Training, reading Reverse Pyramid Revisited first might make parts more understandable at first glance.
• This is a footnote.
• Fisher, J. P., Blossom, D., & Steele, J. (2016). A comparison of volume-equated knee extensions to failure, or not to failure, upon rating of perceived exertion and strength adaptations. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism , 41 (2), 168–174. 
• AMRAP: As Many Reps As Possible
• I know one competitive powerlifter who trains thrice a week. Each session takes 3 1/2 hours.
• Comparison of grouped client data using the dependent or independent RPT system slightly favours former. Despite matched set volume, higher total volume may explain favourable results in dependent group (p = 0.011)
• If you’re not strong enough for weighted chin-ups, do body weight chin-ups; when you’re strong enough to do 10, you’re good for weighted chin-ups starting at body weight +5 kg/10 lbs. If you can’t do 6 body weight chin-ups, do pulldowns or band-assisted chin-ups instead.
• Alternating protagonist and antagonist muscle groups in this fashion results in no performance loss.
• An exception to the 3-minute rule is described in the previous footnote.
• As discussed in Q&A #1 and #1.5 of the newsletter.
• Personally, I don’t include biceps in my programs, but that’s another story. To write this guide, I have to simplify a few things.
• Variation of lift included, i.e. the Weighted Dip can be your bench variation.

Share this post

Martin Berkhan

My name is Martin Berkhan and I work as a nutritional consultant, magazine writer and personal trainer.

You might also like..

Fuckarounditis

September 27, 2011

Supplements You Might Actually Find Useful (Oct 7th, 2018: EAA Update)

December 12, 2017

Cheat Day Strategies For A Hedonist

November 25, 2010

Top Ten Fasting Myths Debunked

October 21, 2010

The Leangains Guide

April 14, 2010

January 25, 2018

Sure-Fire Fat Loss

June 27, 2008

• August 24, 2021
• Featured , Management Tips , Mental health , Team Building , Virtual Experiences

Post: The 13 Best Team Building Problem Solving Activities

This post was last updated on, August 13th, 2022

There is a team-building problem-solving activity for everyone. Whether you’re looking to have fun and make new friends or sharpen your team’s skills, team-building activities are the perfect solution!

In this blog post, we will cover 13 team-building activities that can help improve problem-solving skills while increasing productivity and morale.

Benefits of problem solving activities team building

We all know the importance of team building . It’s how we build relationships, foster creativity, and innovate in order to succeed. One way that team building is done today is through problem-solving activities.

Problem-solving activities:

• Build stronger teams, improve morale and encourage employees to work together. Collaboration is improved because teams are better able to solve problems together when they’re more engaged with each other
• Foster better communication skills among team members, especially amongst remote teams.
• Provide an outlet for creative thinking and increase confidence in employees who may not otherwise speak up or participate in departmental meetings.
• Group problem-solving activities help your team increase productivity and motivation within the workplace and can align employees with company goals and objectives.
• Improve mental health of team members by reducing stress and improving the moods of team members.

Problem solving team building activities are hands-on, creative, and collaborative. They help team members trust each other more in order to grow their relationship as teammates. 

Oftentimes problem-solving team-building activities can be done virtually which is important for virtual teams or remote companies who don’t have the opportunity to interact face to face.

What is problem solving in team building?

Rather than having so-called frivolous fun with ice breaker questions and virtual happy hours (those types of team building activities do have their place) problem solving games are about identifying leadership and decision-making skills by solving problems.

The more efficient a team is at problem-solving activities, the more successful they can be at actually solving real-world problems in the workplace.

Quick and easy team building problem solving activities

It’s time to have some problem-solving fun! Here are some quick and easy team-building games for your next event.

The blind drawing game challenge

In this creative problem solving challenge, team members have to rely on their teammates for input when drawing an object from a list.

Each team chooses one participant to wear a blindfold while another member describes the item they must draw without telling the “artist” exactly what that item is.

The team whose drawing is closest to the actual item at the end of the activity wins!

Ideal for small groups of up to six.

Stumped for ideas on what to draw? Ask teams to draw your company logo.

Pro tip: to make this simple team building exercise even more challenging, have each non-drawing team member provide just one clue as to what the item is.

Inspired by the Jodie Foster Panic Room movie, group members of this team-building activity must take refuge in a boardroom, but before they do each participant must take with them just one item they feel will help their team’s survival before locking the door.

Once inside each participant must present to the rest of the team why they choose their specific item and then work together to rank the items in order of importance to their overall survival.

Pro tip: Each team must decide in 30 minutes or less whether or not their goal is to either survive in the panic room for a long period of time or to break free! In those same 30 minutes, teams must also collect their 10 items so time is of the essence.

Reverse Pyramid

While using copious amounts of red plastic cups is not ideal, nor environmentally friendly, playing with glass cups or ceramic mugs may potentially be dangerous.

In ‘Reverse Pyramid’, teams must build the tallest pyramid from the ground up. Starting with just a single cup (recyclable paper cups are also another great alternative) teams must work together to lift the top of the tower to add to the base below.

Hard to imagine? Watch this YouTube video of a ‘Reverse Pyramid’ in action.

Classic team building problem solving activities

The famous high school egg drop experiment.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall … Humpty Dumpty had a great …(sorry we couldn’t help ourselves).

The egg drop team building exercise, also known as ‘Defend the Egg’ is a problem solving skills game that involves building a structure out of random ordinary items such as masking tape, rubber bands, sticky notes, etc that will protect a raw egg from breaking when dropped from a high elevation.

The goal is to have each team build a structure that they can agree upon that will not only protect the egg but also allow it to be retrieved afterward.

The team with the highest percentage of successful drops wins!

Ideal for groups of up to six people.

The Lego challenge

The Lego challenge is one of the best team-building activities out there. In this activity, groups have an hour to complete a piece with their given number of LEGO bricks (which may vary depending on complexity).

After time runs out, everyone will get together and show off what they made!

The goal? Improve communication among team members by refining methods for problem-solving through creative thinking.

Domino effect challenge

Though it may sound like a simple game, the Domino effect challenge is an initiative that has been used in schools and businesses all over the world.

The challenge? To create the largest chain reaction contraption possible using whatever materials you wish including dominos should you choose to.

In this collaborative and creative problem solving exercise, participants are split into teams, and each work together on building their own individual section of the challenge.

Once group members agree on their final design, or time is up, all teams will then come together to either join their sections together to create one cohesive chain reaction, or to compete against each other.

Ideal for teams of up to five people.

Fun fact: The Guinness World Record of the most dominoes toppled by an individual is 321,197 by Liu Yang (China). And the Guinness World Record for the largest human mattress chain of dominoes was 2,019 people by Ortobom Globo of Sao Paulo Brazil #truestory!

Fun team building problem solving activities

Organizational jenga.

Think of the board game Jenga, with a twist. Divide your group into small teams and give them equal numbers of blocks, either wooden blocks or an actual Jenga set!

After everyone has built their structure as per company hierarchies, divide resources evenly between each group so they are balanced in size and type.

Now comes the fun part: take turns removing one block at a time without destroying any other pieces on that level- if there is too much weight on top then it will collapse!

This exercise gets people thinking about what happens when we don’t have the right personnel for every position.

This team building activity is great for groups of up to six people.

Pro tip: Use colored blocks instead of regular ones and get ready for laughter when someone knocks down another person’s block.

The marshmallow & spaghetti tower

The spaghetti tower is a classic team-building game and a great way to use up leftover spaghetti in your kitchen cupboards.

Participating people gather uncooked spaghetti and marshmallows, to build the tallest tower possible.

Besides the structural integrity of the tower, teams are then evaluated on three major factors: the amount of towers, tower height, and uniformity.

Got a remote team? In the virtual team building version, participants create their own towers, rather than building one grand freestanding tower.

Escape room 

Escape rooms are excellent group problem solving exercises that usually take place in an hour or so.

Players have to solve puzzles and riddles based on a theme to escape the room.

Teams are usually split into groups of six and have an hour to solve the puzzles in order to escape from the room. If they fail, then they are locked inside until their time expires!

They’re quite difficult to create on their own, so you may need to team up with an escape room company for this. Ideal for groups of up to six people, with one or two facilitators, present along the way, and reasonably priced at approximately $25+ per person.

Best Virtual Problem Solving Games & Activities for Groups

Geocache adventure.

This treasure hunt will require a GPS device, in the form of an app on your phone or built into it. The clues you hide are part of a bigger question that needs to be solved by finding and locating Geocaches within different locations.

One variation is using QR codes around the office or home where we can mix geographic coordinates with other hidden treasures which could be identified through any smartphone-enabled camera (i.e., scanning for riddles).

This activity promotes creative problem solving while working together as teams towards accomplishing specific aims at designated times!

Online escape rooms

Being “trapped” in an escape room is a satisfying challenge for any puzzle solver. With digital versions, you can now enjoy the experience from anywhere with just your computer!

Players are given a set of puzzles or clues and have to use their problem solving skills in order to escape.

This team building activity is great for groups of up to four people, with one team member as the team leader who can allocate tasks so everyone feels involved.

Virtual scavenger hunt

A virtual scavenger hunt is perfect for a team that is working remotely and wants to have a little bit of fun while problem solving. It also makes for a great team building event if you’re looking to change things up while increasing your sense of teamwork. Here are the basics: 

Your group will be given a list with different items, locations, or actions written on it.

Each item has been assigned a point value so teams (or individuals) can compete against each other by trying to collect as many points before time runs out.

As the world becomes increasingly more competitive, businesses are looking for new ways to keep their small teams happy and productive. One way of doing this is through problem solving activities that present novel tasks in a fun environment.

Working with others on challenges can help build better communication skills with remote teams as well as make teams more cognizant of team roles.

Businesses all over are starting to realize how important group interaction is for improving morale while also making work environments less stressful since it’s always nice having peers there who will support you.

Team building problem solving activities like these provide an excellent opportunity for teams from various departments to interact easily without feeling overwhelmed by unfamiliar circumstances—while also getting comfortable with taking risks and thinking outside the box.

In the professional world, one thing is for sure: problem solving is a vital skill if you want to survive and thrive. It is a universal skill sought by employers and managers alike.

Problem solving activities are perfect opportunities to explore different aspects of what it means to be an effective team while still being a collaborative team.

Table of Contents

Latest articles.

Staying Connected While Working Remotely

The best wfh productivity tips for remote workers in 2024 .

Asynchronous Work – Build a Robust Company Culture Environment

It’s party time.

Are you ready for virtual team-building that’s more exciting than a unicorn riding a rainbow? WOYAGO is here to make your team-building experience one to remember by taking your team to travel virtually.

You may also be interested

Despite competing interests in the battle for employees to return to the office, remote work is here to stay. Telework

Staying productive while working remotely can be challenging, especially when deadlines draw closer and tasks pile up. Some individuals turn

In today’s ever-evolving work landscape, asynchronous work has redefined how companies operate and teams collaborate. As the traditional 9-to-5 office

Fill the form to see the demo, get excited and be the team’s hero for bringing the joy!

Your Architects of Unforgettable Parisian Journeys and Engaging Team Experiences

PARISIAN PRIVATE EXPERIENCE

• Craft Your Parisian Itinerary
• Parisian Private Tours
• Once in a Lifetime Experiences

TEAM EXPERIENCE

• Virtual Team Building
• Parisian DMC

USEFUL LINKS

• Stock images by Depositphotos

Woyago 2024 © All Rights Reserved

Privacy Policy   |  Terms of use

This website uses cookies

This site uses cookies to improve the user experience. If you continue to use the site we will consider that you agree with our terms of use and privacy policy .

Pyramid training, often called “crescent training” in the research, is when we combine both heavier and lighter sets for our main exercises. Instead of using the same weight every set, we add or remove weight from the bar.

There are two types of pyramid training: ascending and descending.

• With ascending pyramid training, we add weight to every set. For instance, we might do a set of 12 reps, add weight, rest, and do a set of 10 reps, add more weight, rest, and then do a set of 8 reps.
• With descending “reverse” pyramid training, we remove weight from every set. For instance, we might do a set of 8 reps, remove weight, rest, and do a set of 10 reps, remove more weight, rest, and then do a set of 12 reps.

Reverse Pyramid Training is the more popular of the two approaches, and with good reason. We gain 1-rep strength more easily from doing heavy sets while fresh, whereas we gain muscle size just as easily when training with some fatigue. As a result, it usually makes more sense to start heavy to get the strength gains, then shift lighter to stimulate more muscle growth ( more on that here ). Since this article isn’t about powerlifting, though, all of the rep ranges we’re talking about are technically “moderate.” Some sets are heavier than others, but all are light enough to be ideal for gaining muscle size.

Reverse Pyramid Training isn’t a specific workout routine; it just means stripping weight off the bar between sets. This adds extra rep-range variety to our workouts. In that sense, it’s very similar to starting with heavy compound lifts and then doing lighter accessory lifts , doing a heavier and lighter workout each week (daily undulating periodization), or doing a few weeks of training heavier followed by a few weeks of training lighter (block periodization). It’s one of several ways of adding rep range variety to our training.

You may enjoy Reverse Pyramid Training for some lifts but not others. For example, maybe you do Reverse Pyramid Training for your squats. The extra variety might make a difficult sets of squats more bearable. Then, with your biceps curls, maybe you keep things simpler, sticking with the same rep range from set to set.

Sometimes people use Reverse Pyramid Training to break through plateaus. For instance, if you’re having trouble adding weight to your overhead press, you could try a phase of Reverse Pyramid Training to get your numbers moving up again.

Reverse Pyramid Training is when we strip weight off the bar between sets, allowing us to get extra repetitions with every set.

Although Reverse Pyramid Training is just a way of adjusting reps between sets, when most people talk about Reverse Pyramid Training, they’re talking about building an entire workout routine around it. They’re talking about using it for all of their compound lifts. And there’s a specific minimalist, high-effort way of doing Reverse Pyramid Training.

The first person to truly popularize Reverse Pyramid Training was Martin Berkhan of LeanGains , with this guide (which is quite good). Several other strength coaches, such as Greg O’Gallagher of Kinobody , then adopted his training style. These routines are usually built around a few common principles:

• Three full-body workouts per week, each done with a day of rest between them. For example, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
• Two main lifts in each workout, such as the squat and chin-up, overhead press and deadlift, and bench press and row. These two exercises are the main part of each workout.
• Weight stripped off the bar from set to set. For instance stripping 10% of the weight each set, starting with 200 pounds for 8 repetitions, then 180 pounds for 10 repetitions, and then 160 pounds for 12 repetitions. Or, for a wider variety of rep ranges, strip 15% off the bar, doing 8, 12, and 15 reps.
• Only 2–4 hard sets per lift, such as the 3-set example described above. This is a minimalist approach to training, and it can be quite effective when done cleverly.
• AMRAP—0 reps in reserve, not necessarily lifting all the way to absolute muscular failure , but going to the point where we wouldn’t be able to complete another full rep. (We’ll discuss whether this is ideal in a later section.)
• Double progression, working within a narrow repetition range and adding weight when we reach the top. For example, prescribing 6–8 repetitions, starting with a weight we can do 6 reps with, and increasing the weight when we can do all 8 reps. Each set is progressed individually, giving you multiple opportunities for progress each week. When you can complete the prescribed reps for a given set, increase the load next week. For instance, if you can get 8 reps during your first set of the bench press, add another 5 pounds to that set next week. Otherwise, try to fight for extra reps next week.
• 2–5 minutes of rest between sets to allow our muscles to recover properly between sets. This is what differentiates Reverse Pyramid Training from doing drop sets . Another way to use rest times is to wait until your breathing has returned to normal between sets.
• A couple of accessory lifts after the big lifts. These accessory lifts are usually done for 2–3 sets of 10 repetitions.

When most people talk about Reverse Pyramid Training, they’re talking about a minimalist, high-effort, full-body training program built around the big compound lifts and designed for maximal efficiency.

Is Reverse Pyramid Training Good for Building Muscle?

A few studies have compared pyramid training to traditional hypertrophy training .

• The first study found that hypertrophy training stimulated 0.1% more muscle growth. As you can imagine, the difference wasn’t even close to being statistically significant.
• The second study on pyramid training had similar findings. Again, the traditional hypertrophy training group gained more muscle size, again without reaching statistical significance.
• The third study found that using a tight rep range (12, 10, and 8 repetitions) stimulated the same muscle growth as using a wider rep range (15, 10, and 5 repetitions). This suggests that if we’re lifting within the hypertrophy rep range , it doesn’t matter exactly how many reps we do per set, just that we’re training hard enough.
• The fourth study found that doing power training, strength training, and hypertrophy training in the same workout stimulated more muscle growth than splitting those types of training into different phases. This suggests that pyramid training could offer an advantage. Mind you, there weren’t any differences in upper-body muscle growth. Plus, this study is an outlier.

The other defining feature of pyramid training is that the sets are often taken to failure. Some research shows that when doing fewer sets per exercise, it’s better to push them closer to failure ( study ). However, as Greg Nuckols discovered , that benefit only seems to apply to novice lifters doing isolation lifts ( study ,  study ,  study ,  study ). When we look at intermediate lifters doing compound lifts, there appears to be no difference between going to failure and leaving 1–3 reps in reserve ( study , study , study , study ).

However, some top researchers, including Brad Schoenfeld, PhD, speculate that training to failure stimulates more muscle growth. His recommendation is to leave a couple of reps in reserve during most sets but to take some of our final sets to failure, especially with smaller isolation lifts.

Occasionally going to failure also ensures you aren’t accidentally leaving more than 2–3 reps in reserve, which can severely reduce muscle growth. When an intermediate lifter hits a plateau, it often helps to spend some time practicing lifting to failure (at least on some sets). That’s what we do in our Outlift Program .

One study found that doing 1–2 easy heavy reps with 90% of 1RM before doing lighter sets increased performance ( study ). As a result, reverse pyramid training might be better than pyramid training.

On the other hand, another study found that doing hard heavy sets before lighter ones didn’t improve performance. The conclusion was that unless the post-activation potentiation sets are far from failure, they generate fatigue and thus don’t give a performance benefit to subsequent sets. Since Reverse Pyramid Training has us lifting hard every set, it probably doesn’t offer us an advantage over traditional hypertrophy training.

Overall, Pyramid Training seems to stimulate the same amount of muscle growth as traditional hypertrophy training. Doing sets of 8, 10, and 12 repetitions probably stimulates the same amount of muscle growth as doing 3 sets of 10 repetitions.

Sample Reverse Pyramid Training Workout Routine

Any workout routine can use Reverse Pyramid Training, but the most popular way of doing Reverse Pyramid Training is to use a 3-day full-body workout routine with each workout built around two big compound lifts. These workouts are usually designed to be short, intense, and efficient, allowing people to build muscle at full speed without spending as much time training.

Here’s a sample Reverse Pyramid Training routine built around the Big Five Hypertrophy Lifts . As most Reverse Pyramid Training programs are, it’s loosely based on Martin Berkhan’s approach, but we’ve adjusted it a little bit for the goal of gaining muscle size. The training volume is slightly higher, the lifts are slightly different, and we don’t recommend using 0 reps in reserve on every set (as discussed below).

• Bench Press : 3 sets, starting with 6–8 repetitions, stripping 10% off the barbell, then doing 8–10 repetitions, stripping off another 10%, and then 10–12 repetitions (3×8,10,12)
• Barbell Row *: 3 sets of 8, 10, then 12 repetitions (3×8,10,12)
• Skull crusher : 2 sets of 10 repetitions (2×10)
• Barbell Curl : 2 sets of 10 repetitions (2×10)

*The barbell row is chosen because it makes a good accessory lift for the deadlift, giving our spinal erectors and hips extra work along with our upper-back muscles. This means we’re training our entire posterior chains twice per week. It’s okay to swap these out for other row variations, such as dumbbell rows or seal rows, but we’d lose that accessory work for the deadlift. That’s why the barbell row is the default. You can, however, choose whichever variation of barbell row you prefer. I prefer the “bodybuilder” variation, as shown above.

• Front Squat *: 3 x 6, 8 then 10 repetitions (3×6,8,10)
• Chin-Up **: 3 sets of 6, 8, then 10 repetitions (3×6,8,10)
• Hanging Leg Raise: 2 sets of 10 repetitions (2×10)
• Barbell Curl: 2 sets of 10 repetitions (2×10)

*We chose the front squat over the back squat because it works the knees through a deeper range of motion, is safer and easier to recover from than back squats, and works our spinal erectors, giving it good carryover to our deadlifts and rows.

*We chose the chin-up (underhand) over the pull-up (overhand) because it uses a larger range of motion and engages the biceps.

• Conventional Deadlift * : 2 sets of 6 then 8 repetitions (2×6,8)
• Overhead Press : 3 sets of 6, 8 then 10 repetitions (3×6,8,10)
• Lateral Raise : 2 sets of 10 repetitions (2×10)
• Overhead Extension: 2 sets of 10 repetitions (2×10)

*We chose the conventional deadlift over the sumo and Romanian deadlift because uses a deeper range of motion and works the spinal erectors harder.

This workout routine is just an example. It isn’t set in stone. Feel free to swap out the main lifts for similar variations, such as swapping front squats for high-bar back squats. With the accessory lifts, you have even more freedom. For example, you could swap out biceps curls and triceps extensions for neck curls and extensions to emphasize neck growth or swap them for leg curls and extensions to emphasize leg growth.

And, as always, listen to your body and adapt accordingly. If your spinal erectors are struggling from all the big lifts, feel free to swap out deadlifts for Romanian deadlifts or barbell rows for dumbbell rows. If your elbows are getting beat up, try doing chin-ups with a neutral grip, barbell curls with dumbbells, or curl-bar curls (with a curl bar or “EZ Bar”).

Reverse Pyramid Training is typically done right to the cusp of failure, with zero reps left in reserve—AMRAP. However, as discussed in the next section, that doesn’t seem ideal for most intermediate lifters, given that it can cause quite a large performance drop between sets. It doesn’t seem to hurt, either, though, especially since this is a fairly low-volume routine where overall recovery shouldn’t be an issue. For optimal results, though, I’d recommend leaving 1–2 reps in reserve on the earlier sets of each exercise, doing as many reps as possible on just the final set of each exercise.

If the workouts feel too short and easy after the first three weeks, add extra sets to your main lifts or an extra accessory lift. If the workouts feel too hard, feel free to remove an accessory lift. But they shouldn’t feel too hard. This is a fairly low-volume routine. If you choose exercises that suit you well, you should be able to handle them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Reverse Pyramid Training is better than Pyramid Training. Heavy sets produce better strength gains when we’re fresh, so it’s better to do them first. Moderate-rep sets stimulate just as much muscle growth whether we’re fatigued or not ( study ), so it’s fine to do them afterwards. Plus, doing heavier sets before lighter sets can make the lighter sets feel easier.

Yep! You can do Reverse Pyramid Training while bulking . It stimulates just as much muscle growth as traditional hypertrophy training. You can go with your preference.

We don’t recommend Reverse Pyramid Training to beginners . It complicates training without offering any advantage. If you’re still learning to lift weights, I’d stick with traditional hypertrophy training.

Yes. Reverse Pyramid Training is an efficient way to stimulate muscle growth. It will help you maintain or gain muscle mass while cutting . Plus, it’s efficient, which can be especially helpful if you find that eating less energy leaves you with less energy.

Overall, Reverse Pyramid Training is an effective way to gain muscle size and strength. It’s not better than traditional hypertrophy training, but it’s not worse, either. Doing a set of 8, 10, then 12 repetitions stimulates the same muscle growth as doing 3 sets of 10 repetitions.

Alright, that’s it for now. If you want more, we have  a muscle-building newsletter .  If you want a customizable workout program (and full guide), check out our  Outlift Intermediate Bulking Program .  You get to pick between four different workout programs. Or, if you’re still skinny or skinny-fat, try our  Bony to Beastly  (men’s) program  or  Bony to Bombshell  (women’s) program .

Shane Duquette

Shane Duquette is the co-founder of Outlift , Bony to Beastly , and Bony to Bombshell . He's a certified conditioning coach with a degree in design from York University in Toronto, Canada. He's personally gained 70 pounds and has over a decade of experience helping over 10,000 skinny people bulk up.

Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS

Marco Walker-Ng is the co-founder and strength coach of Outlift , Bony to Beastly , and Bony to Bombshell , and is a certified trainer (PTS) with a Bachelor's degree in Health Sciences (BHSc) from the University of Ottawa. His specialty is helping people build muscle to improve their strength and general health, with clients including college, professional, and Olympic athletes.

15 Comments

Void report—Greg from Kinobody has made a fortune from advocating RPT and intermittent fasting with slick videos. Turns out it is not that much different after all!

I’ve heard that Kinobody’s programs are heavily based on Martin Berkhan’s Reverse Pyramid Training routine and intermittent fasting diet, yeah. Berkhan has accused him of plagiarism, saying that he was a former client who repackaged the coaching advice he got and sold it as a workout and diet program. I have no idea if any of that is true, but I remember those accusations coming out a couple of years ago.

One thing I’ll say is that most programs are largely based on previous programs. And if it isn’t, the likelihood of the program being good isn’t very high. With our own programming, our training method was rooted in what Marco learned while interning under Eric Cressey. We then evolved it over time based on our own experience, new research, and running thousands of clients through it. But it’s not like we sat down and invented it from scratch, you know? And Cressey didn’t do that either. It’s a traditional type of training that’s been slowly evolving over the past few decades. With that said, I’m not sure how much new stuff Kinobody brought to the table or whether it’s enough to make his own approach unique.

I bought Berkhan’s guide before writing this and thought it was great. He’s a smart guy and he’s had a huge influence on the fitness industry. I haven’t seen Kinobody’s programs and can’t really comment on them. I mentioned Berkhan in the article because I think he deserves the credit on this one.

Great article Shane! As always extremely informative and supported by scientific journals. I was actually watching videos on YT about RPT and AMRAP and the detail in this article really cleared up the why for me. Also, I just so happened to read this in reverse (bottom to top) — i’m not sure why lol

Thank you, Mickey! You know, I wasn’t sure whether to put the “how” before the “why” with this one. I just wanted to make sure that people who hadn’t heard of Reverse Pyramid Training knew what it was before talking about whether/why it was effective. Makes sense to read it from bottom to top, too.

What about any warm up sets prior to the 8, 10, 12? How many sets, reps, %max of warm up sets if any at all?

Reverse Pyramid Training doesn’t require a special way of warming up. For instance, for your warm-up sets, you could start off doing 10 reps with a weight you could do 20 reps with, then 5 reps with a weight halfway between that weight and your working weight. And then some people like to do 2–3 warm-up reps with their working weight (or 10% higher) for post-activation potentiation, too. That’s usually enough warming up, but once you get really strong, oftentimes extra warm-up sets are needed.

We should probably write an article on warming up.

This article was surprisingly great. I’ll be honest, after getting bored with the review of Starting Strength article, I didn’t expect much from this. The articles in this review series have all had the same underlying theme of “it’s not bad but it’s not optimal for building muscle”. This was a nice change up.

You even listed a free workout program! Totally blew me away, and I actually really like the looks of the program. Down and dirty and to the point. Very simple, but I could see some guys putting on a lot of muscle with something basic like that. Especially beginners. It reminds me of a simplified version of one of the Outlift programs.

Great article guys, 10/10!

Thank you, Matt 😀

I really love your content and the new website. Really well written and informative. I also like the Reverse Pyramid Training routine from the article and can’t wait to put it to use. The only thing I wondered was how good it is for bulking up, since you only hit every lift of the big five once a week. How does this routine compare to a full body workout in which you hit all the main lifts three times a week?

Reverse Pyramid Training done in the Martin Berkhan LeanGains style is designed for cutting and body recomposition. The idea is to use lower-volume training when people aren’t consuming a ton of calories, and thus might have less energy to spend in the gym. The modified routine in this article is slightly higher in volume than LeanGains. You can use it for bulking.

There’s nothing wrong with only doing the Big 5 lift once per week. In fact, extra exercise variety tends to be a good thing at an intermediate level. Just make sure to take care of your target muscle groups with the accessory exercises. This sample routine emphasizes the arms, but you can swap out those curls and extensions for other lifts to suit your goals 🙂

You guys always write incredibly well-researched, thorough, and clear articles—very much appreciated! You really got me back onto front squats after neglecting them for so long.

I wanted to ask about the rep ranges (i.e. 6,8,10 for squats vs. 10,12,14 as I’ve seen Berkhan recommend). I know “hard sets” are the true stimulus for muscle growth, but do you think either matter on a “cut” as long as the volume is less to compensate for less energy during a session?

Do you think RPT is similar in theory to “max rep sets” or other intuitive auto-regulation schemes that compliment cutting? Thanks!

Thank you so much, Dawid!

Anywhere from 4–40 reps per set is good for building muscle. 6–20 reps is slightly better. So whether you’re doing 6,8,10 or 10,12,14, you’re in the middle of the hypertrophy rep range either way. For bigger lifts like squats and deadlifts, I prefer the lower end of that rep range (6–10). For most lifts, I prefer the middle (8–15 reps). And for some lifts, like barbell rows, I prefer the top (15–20). But that’s up to you, and a variety tends to be best 🙂

RPT is a low-volume way of training. It’s not overly difficult or unpleasant. And for that reason, it tends to work really well during cuts. Not because it’s better, but because it’s enjoyable and easy to manage.

Great article! Just have a question. I have been using this approach but with 4-6 sets instead of just 3. I use 90% 1rm all the way to 40%. Is this as effective? I make sure the intensity goes up each week through progressive overload. I just like to hit the exercise EX: (Front squat, Bench, Overhead press) with different loads. My first hard set is anywhere from 3-5 reps, and my last set is anywhere from 15-25 reps. The mid between sets 6-15. Would appreciate a response, Thanks!

Yeah, that sounds great. Depending on the person, those fourth, fifth, and sixth sets might be deep into the point of diminishing returns, but it varies, and it sounds like you’re making progress, so that’s perfect 🙂

[…] programs at all. For example, they may try to bulk with a strength training program, such as StrongLifts 5×5. I don’t have anything against StrongLifts, but at its heart, it’s a strength program, […]

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Notify me of new posts by email.

Join Our Bulking Newsletter for Guys, Get Our Muscle-Building Mini-Course.

Or click here to join our newsletter for women

Want the perfect workout program?

• Gear & Guides
• Workout Programs
• SFS Fat Loss
• SFS Strength
• SFS Hypertrophy
• SFS Foundations
• SFS Powerbuilding
• Muscle Building
• Conditioning
• Pro Athlete & Celeb
• Chest Exercises
• Shoulder Exercises
• Ab Exercises
• Dumbbell Exercises
• Barbell Exercises
• Cable Exercises
• Protein Recipes
• Supplements
• Your Cart is Empty

The Ultimate Guide to Reverse Pyramid Training (Spreadsheet Included)

Written by Kiel DiGiovanni | Co-founder

Fact checked by Kirsten Yovino, CPT Brookbush Institute

Updated On: May 13, 2024

Sometimes we get stuck in a training rut and can’t seem to break through, if that’s the case then you might want to give reverse pyramid training a shot. Reverse pyramid training sometimes referred to as RPT can help to build strength and muscle and if done right can have you in and out of the gym faster than many strength training protocols. If you haven’t tried reverse pyramid training before then this post could be a good starting point. We will break down RPT, how to execute it while providing a sample reverse pyramid training workout program and spreadsheet to follow.

What is Reverse Pyramid Training?

Also known as the Oxford Method, reverse pyramid training is a protocol where the first set has the smallest number of reps and heaviest weight. Then you add reps and lower the weight as you move through sets. The decrease in the weight is generally 5-15 percent of the max weight. In scientific papers someone by the name Zinovieff may have first discovered the benefits of reverse pyramid training but it was  popularized by Martin Berkhan of LeanGains .

Looking at bench press for an example. First complete 3 warm up sets of 3-6 reps of 40, 50 and 60% percent of your working weight before proceeding to the reverse pyramid training. Reps don’t have to be exactly as follows but they should include a range where both strength and muscle gains are possible. Our working weight or first set will be done at 200lbs then we reduce 10% for the subsequent sets.

There isn’t a defined number of sets in reverse pyramid training but you’ll find most people work with a range of 3-5 sets. The first set should be very difficult to finish the last rep. Reverse pyramid training is built around the concept that you should start lifting the heaviest weight when you’re fresh and have enough gas in the tank.

So, in theory reverse pyramid training makes much more sense than pyramid training because it matches the body’s capacity of producing force to lift weight. As you progress through reverse pyramid training the goal is to add either weight or reps to your workout.

Which Is Better Pyramid Training or Reverse Pyramid?

Reverse pyramid training is superior to pyramid training because heavy sets are done at the beginning of the workout when the muscles are fresh. Strength gains come from these heavy sets in the beginning. The moderate rep range sets can still result in muscle growth whether we’re tired or not, according to this study .

Let’s take a deeper look below:

• Pyramid Training: This is based on each set ascending in weight while descending in reps. For example, first set might be 10 reps at 100 pounds, second set at 8 reps at 120 pounds then third set of 6 reps at 140 pounds.
• Reverse Pyramid Training: The opposite of pyramid training the weight will decrease as the reps increase. For example, first set of 6 reps at 200 pounds second set of 8 reps at 180 pounds and third set of 10 reps at 160 pounds.

Benefits of Reverse Pyramid Training

Good for Strength & Muscle Gain: RPT has a great mix of set and rep ranges that can promote both strength gain and muscle gain. The first set you will be lifting heavy at a lower rep range, this is where you can gain strength. By the last set of an exercise, you will be in rep ranges that are great for hypertrophy or muscle gain.

Matches Energy Levels: Reverse pyramid training is no joke as each set should push yourself to limits. Having the heaviest load in the first set makes the rest of the workout feel like you’re moving downhill as the weight decreases.

Saves Time: RPT is hard but you will be able to get a grueling workout done in a reasonable amount of time as the set ranges can be 3 per exercise and between 3-6 exercises total. One the low end if you were to do 4 exercises of 3 sets of 6-8-10 reps at 3 seconds per rep with an average of 2.5 minutes of rest between sets, your workout would be roughly if you’re already properly warmed up:

(4 exercises*(24 reps*3 seconds)) + (2.5mins*12) = (288secs + 1,800secs)/60 = 34.8 minutes

Reverse Pyramid Training Methodology

Reverse pyramid training is usually used for the compound lifts at the beginning of a workout session where you will tackle the hardest and most taxing exercises such as deadlifts or squats . Some general guidelines to follow when completing a reverse pyramid training program are:

• 3x Per Week: Schedule your RPT workouts with one day of rest between each workout with a total of 3 workouts a week. This gives you some flexibility as you can do M-W-F or T-Th-Sa. Choose a schedule that fits your life.
• Decreasing Weight Main Lifts: Aim for 3 sets of your main lifts, starting with the lowest number of reps and the heaviest weight. Each subsequent set remove 5-15% off of the starting weight. For example, with squats, you could start with 8 reps of 300 pounds, rest, 10 reps at 270 pounds then 12 reps at 240 pounds.
• Compound Lifts: Each workout should include 2 main compound lifts . For example, you could do bench press and bent-over row or overhead press and squat.
• Isolation Lifts: Apart for the two main lifts you can incorporate a few accessory or isolation lifts after the compound lifts are completed. These isolation lifts should be performed at a hypertrophy range of 2-3 sets of 8-12 reps.
• Minimal Approach: RPT training relies on quality reps that push you to your limits. Only shoot for 2-3 working sets per lift.
• Adequate Rest: RPT requires rest between sets of 2-5 minutes. This is one major difference between drop sets where the rest periods are short but you’re also decreasing weight lifted and increasing the reps completed.
• Close to AMRAP: AMRAP technically means you go to failure but in this case, we want to come close to that without failing. The goal is to complete the desired reps each set.
• Continuous Progression: The goal of each workout is to improve upon the previous workout. You can make improvements by adding an extra rep or weight each week and/or both. For example, is you can hit 6 reps during your first set of squats, then try adding 5 pounds or more reps the following week.

Sample Reverse Pyramid Training Workout Program

As mentioned above the first set of the main lifts should be the heaviest load for lower rep range of 6-8 reps. These sets should be done close to AMRAP. Make sure to get 2-5 minutes of rest between each set, we usually aim for 2.5 minutes but in either case make sure your rest is long enough so that you can complete the next set’s required reps. We also designed this RPT routine for the end goal of adding muscle rather than power. If you’re looking for more power or strength gains then opt for lower rep scheme than we used.

First Set: Aim for a weight that you come close to failure on for 6-8 reps.

Second Set: Shoot for 90% of the weight you used in the first set for 8-10 reps.

Third Set: Drop weight another 10% of the starting weight for 10-12 reps

All of the first two exercises in each workout should be done in RPT style

• Squat:   3 sets x (6, 8, 10)
• Lat Pulldown: 3 sets (6, 8, 10)
• Cable Crunch: 3 sets x 10 reps
• Preacher Curls: 3 sets x 10 reps
• Bench Press: 3 sets x (8, 10, 12)
• Yates Row: 3 sets (6, 8, 10)
• Triceps Pressdown: 3 sets x 8 reps
• Cable Curl: 3 sets x 10 reps
• Deadlift: 3 sets x (6, 8, 10)
• Overhead Press: 3 sets x (8, 10, 12)
• Upright Rows: 3 sets x 8 reps
• Skull Crushers: 3 sets x 10 reps

SFS REVERSE PYRAMID TRAINING SPREADSHEET

This reverse pyramid training workout can be customized to your personal preferences. We just set a rough outline of what you can expect with this training method. The key points are to make sure you have at least 2 major lifts in each workout session that will follow RPT methodology. If you want to switch up regular squats for front squats or bench press for incline bench press, that’s your prerogative. The isolation or accessory lifts give you complete freedom to work on the muscle groups that you want to target.

How to Progress on the Sample Reverse Training Routine

The goal of progression is to increase the weight and/or number of reps each week. You can run the above reverse pyramid training routine for up to 8 weeks then reassess your progress. Let’s have a look at how double progression can come into play with RPT:

• First workout should set a benchmark of a good working weight that is difficult enough so that you can complete the target reps while leaving enough in the tank to do one more partial rep.
• If in week one you get 8 reps of bench press at 200 pounds for the first set then the following week you should go for 205 pounds for the 8 reps or you could try to go for 200 pounds for 9 reps. You would then adapt the percentage of weight decrease for subsequent second and third sets.
• If you fail to hit your target rep or weight, adjust accordingly then continue

Does Reverse Pyramid Training Work?

Yes, reverse pyramid training works. However, studies have shown that it’s no more effective than traditional hypertrophy training in stimulating muscle growth. In essence reverse pyramid training is just another way of stimulating muscle growth but we can’t say that it’s better than traditional hypertrophy resistance training. If we combine the reps from 3 sets of reverse pyramid training of 6, 8 and 10 repetitions the total number of reps would be similar to 3 sets of 8 reps for hypertrophy training. Studies like this have shown similar muscle growth in both powerlifting rep range and bodybuilding rep range. The common thread in gaining muscle mass centers around progressive overload through the right rep and set range combined with a challenging level of intensity.

Is Reverse Pyramid Training Better Than Straight Sets?

Reverse pyramid training doesn’t seem to be better or worse than straight sets when comparing the ability to build muscle according to multiple studies that have looked at the two methodologies. Reverse pyramid training might have a slight psychological edge as it might seem like you’re doing less reps as the weight you lift decreases as the reps increase.

Overall, both straight sets and reverse pyramid training will only yield results if you put in the hard work pushing yourself while also making sure to consume enough clean calories and protein to gain muscle and strength.

Related:   How To Build Muscle Without Fail

How Long Should You Rest Between Pyramid Sets?

Reverse pyramid training requires you to push yourself to the max. Therefore, you should take adequate rest between sets to settle your heart rate and recoup your strength. For the larger compound lifts such as deadlifts , squats, overhead press or bench press then this resting time could be from 2-5 minutes depending on the individual factors. For the smaller isolation lifts, resting times can range from 1.5-3 minutes.

Now that you’re familiar with reverse pyramid training you can try to put it to work next time you change up your training routine. At the end of the day, RPT is a logical way of training to put on some muscle and gain strength. However, reverse pyramid training isn’t necessarily better than traditional straight sets of hypertrophy training as they are almost neck and neck when it comes to muscle building. If you’re short on time to get in the gym and feel like you’ve hit a plateau in your training then a reverse pyramid training routine could be exactly what you need.

More Resources on Workout Programs:

• The Ultimate PHUL Workout Program
• The Best PHAT Workout Program
• 12 Week Powerbuilding Program
• The Ultimate 3 Day workout Split
• The Ultimate 4 Day Workout Split
• The Ultimate 5 Day Workout Split
• The Ultimate 6 Day Workout Split
• 5 Best Strength Programs With Spreadsheets

Kiel DiGiovanni

Also in blog.

The Fasting-Mimicking Diet: Benefits Of Fasting While Still Eating

Cluster Sets: How To Break Through Your Plateaus

The 9 Best Post-Workout Supplements To Maximize Gains

At SET FOR SET, we strive to equip you with the tools and knowledge needed for your fitness journey. Our team of experts, including certified trainers, dietitians, and athletes, brings over a decade of industry expertise. Our goal is to be your primary resource for all fitness inquiries, guiding you toward a stronger and healthier life. Sign up to stay up-to-date!

Recent Articles

• SFS Programs
• Terms & Conditions
• Privacy Policy
• SFS UGC Policy
• SFS MBG Policy
• Disclosures
• Legal Disclaimer

Sign up to get the latest on sales, new releases and more…

Apps & Integrations

• Microsoft Teams
• See all integrations

Explore Wrike

• Book a Demo
• Take a Product Tour
• Start With Templates
• Customer Stories
• ROI Calculator
• Find a Reseller
• Mobile & Desktop Apps
• Cross-Tagging
• Kanban Boards
• Project Resource Planning
• Gantt Charts
• Custom Item Types
• Dynamic Request Forms
• Integrations
• See all features

Learn and connect

• Resource Hub
• Educational Guides

Become Wrike Pro

• Submit A Ticket
• Help Center
• Premium Support
• Community Topics
• Training Courses
• Facilitated Services
• Collaboration

Top 15 Problem-Solving Activities for Your Team to Master

May 27, 2022 - 10 min read

Some people see problems as roadblocks, others see them as opportunities! Problem-solving activities are a great way to get to know how members of your team work, both individually and together. It’s important to teach your team strategies to help them quickly overcome obstacles in the way of achieving project goals.

In this article, you’ll explore 15 problem-solving activities designed to enhance collaboration and creativity. Additionally, if you want to discuss the insights and outcomes with your team after the activities, you can use Wrike’s actionable meeting notes template. This template allows you to record meeting discussions, assign action items, and ensure that everyone is on the same page.

The importance of problem-solving skills in today’s workplace

According to a 2019  report by McKinsey , soft skills are increasingly important in today's world — and problem-solving is the top area in which skills are lacking. A company or team’s success weighs heavily on the willingness of managers to help employees improve their problem-solving abilities. Team building activities targeting focus areas like communication and collaboration, adaptability, or strengthening decision-making techniques help.

All problem-solving processes start with identifying the problem. Next, the team must assess potential courses of action and choose the best way to tackle the problem. This requires a deep understanding of your team and its core strengths. A problem-solving exercise or game helps identify those strengths and builds problem-solving skills and strategies while having fun with your team.

Problem-solving games aren't for just any team. Participants must have an open mind and accept all ideas and solutions . They must also have an Agile mindset and embrace different structures, planning, and processes. Problems usually arise when we least expect them, so there's no better way to prepare than to encourage agility and flexibility.

Another aspect to keep in mind when engaging in problem-solving games and activities: There are no winners or losers. Sure, some games might end with a single winner, but the true goal of these exercises is to learn how to work together as a team to develop an Agile mindset. The winning team of each game should share their strategies and thought processes at the end of the exercise to help everyone learn.

Here’s a list of fun problem-solving activity examples to try with your team. From blindfolds to raw eggs, these problem-solving, team-building activities will have your team solving problems faster than Scooby and the gang.

Classic team-building, problem-solving activities

1. a shrinking vessel.

Helps with: Adaptability

Why adaptability is important for problem-solving: Adaptability is highly associated with cognitive diversity, which helps teams solve problems faster , according to the Harvard Business Review. Innovation and disruption are happening faster than ever before . People, teams, and organizations that can adapt will come out on top.

What you’ll need:

• A rope or string

Instructions:

1. Using the rope, make a shape on the floor everyone can fit into.

2. Slowly shrink the space over 10-15 minutes.

3. Work together to figure out how to keep everyone within the shrinking boundaries.

2. Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower

Helps with: Collaboration

Why collaboration is important for problem-solving: “Collectively, we can be more insightful, more intelligent than we can possibly be individually,” writes Peter Senge in The Fifth Discipline . We can solve problems better as a team than we can alone, which means developing your team’s collaboration skills will lead to better problem-solving outcomes.

What you’ll need (per team):

• 20 sticks of uncooked spaghetti
• 1 roll of masking tape
• 1 yard of string
• 1 marshmallow

1. The goal of this exercise is to see which team can use the materials provided to build the tallest tower within an allotted time period. The tower must be able to stand on its own.

2. To make this exercise more challenging, try adding a marshmallow to the top of the tower. This team problem-solving exercise helps people think on their toes while building camaraderie and leadership.

3. Egg Drop

Helps with: Collaboration, decision-making

Why decision-making is important for problem-solving: Making decisions isn’t easy , but indecision leads to team paralysis, stagnant thinking, and unsolved problems. Decision-making activities help your team practice making quick, effective choices. Train your team’s decision-making muscles and they will become more adept at problem-solving.

• A carton of eggs
• Basic construction materials such as newspapers, straws, tape, plastic wrap, balloons, rubber bands, popsicle sticks, etc., tarp, or drop cloth
• A parking lot, or some other place you don’t mind getting messy!

1. Each team gets an egg and must select from the construction materials.

2. Give everyone 20-30 minutes to construct a carrier for the egg and protect it from breaking.

3. Drop each egg carrier off a ledge (i.e. over a balcony) and see whose carrier protects the egg from breaking.

4. If multiple eggs survive, keep increasing the height until only one egg is left.

4. Stranded

Helps with: Communication, decision-making

Why communication is important for problem-solving: More employees work remotely than ever before. Good communication skills are vital to solving problems across  virtual teams . Working on communication skills while your team is together will help them solve problems more effectively when they’re apart.

Here's the setting: Your team has been stranded in the office. The doors are locked, and knocking down the doors or breaking the windows is not an option. Give your team 30 minutes to decide on ten items in the office they need for survival and rank them in order of importance. The goal of the game is to have everyone agree on the ten items and their rankings in 30 minutes.

Creative problem-solving activities

Helps with: Communication

What you'll need:

1. Divide everyone into small teams of two or more.

2. Select an overseer who isn't on a team to build a random structure using Lego building blocks within ten minutes.

3. The other teams must replicate the structure exactly (including size and color) within 15 minutes. However, only one member from each group may look at the original structure. They must figure out how to communicate the size, color, and shape of the original structure to their team.

4. If this is too easy, add a rule that the member who can see the original structure can't touch the new structure.

• A lockable room
• 5-10 puzzles or clues (depending on how much time you want to spend on the game)

1. The goal of this exercise is to solve the clues, find the key, and escape a locked room within the time allotted.

2. Hide the key and a list of clues around the room.

3. Gather the team into the empty room and "lock" the door.

4. Give them 30 minutes to an hour to find the key using the clues hidden around the room.

7. Frostbite

Helps with: Decision-making, adaptability

• A blindfold
• 1 packet of construction materials (such as card stock, toothpicks, rubber bands, and sticky notes) for each team
• An electric fan

Instructions:  Your employees are Arctic explorers adventuring across an icy tundra! Separate them into teams of four or five and have them select a leader to guide their exploration. Each team must build a shelter from the materials provided before the storm hits in 30 minutes. However, both the team leader’s hands have frostbite, so they can’t physically help construct the shelter, and the rest of the team has snow blindness and is unable to see. When the 30 minutes is up, turn on the fan and see which shelter can withstand the high winds of the storm.

8. Minefield

• An empty room or hallway
• A collection of common office items

1. Place the items (boxes, chairs, water bottles, bags, etc.) around the room so there's no clear path from one end of the room to the other.

2. Divide your team into pairs and blindfold one person on the team.

3. The other must verbally guide that person from one end of the room to the other, avoiding the "mines."

4. The partner who is not blindfolded can't touch the other.

5. If you want to make the activity more challenging, have all the pairs go simultaneously so teams must find ways to strategically communicate with each other.

9. Blind Formations

1. Have the group put on blindfolds and form a large circle.

2. Tie two ends of a rope together and lay it in a circle in the middle of the group, close enough so each person can reach down and touch it.

3. Instruct the group to communicate to create a shape with the rope — a square, triangle, rectangle, etc.

4. If you have a very large group, divide them into teams and provide a rope for each team. Let them compete to see who forms a particular shape quickest.

Quick and easy problem-solving activities

10. line up blind.

1. Blindfold everyone and whisper a number to each person, beginning with one.

2. Tell them to line up in numerical order without talking.

3. Instead of giving them a number, you could also have them line up numerically by height, age, birthday, etc.

11. Reverse Pyramid

Helps with: Adaptability, collaboration

1. Have everyone stand in a pyramid shape, horizontally.

2. Ask them to flip the base and the apex of the pyramid moving only three people.

3. This quick exercise works best when smaller groups compete to see who can reverse the pyramid the fastest.

12. Move It!

• Chalk, rope, tape, or paper (something to mark a space)

1. Divide your group into two teams and line them up front to back, facing each other.

2. Using the chalk, tape, rope, or paper (depending on the playing surface), mark a square space for each person to stand on. Leave one extra empty space between the two facing rows.

3. The goal is for the two facing lines of players to switch places.

4. Place these restrictions on movement:

• Only one person may move at a time.
• A person may not move around anyone facing the same direction.
• No one may not move backward.
• A person may not move around more than one person on the other team at a time.

13. Human Knot

1. Have everyone stand in a circle, and ask each person to hold hands with two people who aren’t directly next to them.

2. When everyone is tangled together, ask them to untangle the knot and form a perfect circle — without letting go of anyone's hand.

Our last two problem-solving activities work best when dealing with an actual problem:

14. Dumbest Idea First

Helps with: Instant problem-solving

1. "Dumb" ideas are sometimes the best ideas. Ask everyone to think of the absolute dumbest possible solution to the problem at hand.

2. After you have a long list, look through it and see which ones might not be as dumb as you think.

3. Brainstorm your solutions in Wrike. It's free and everyone can start collaborating instantly!

15. What Would X Do

1. Have everyone pretend they're someone famous.

2. Each person must approach the problem as if they were their chosen famous person. What options would they consider? How would they handle it?

3. This allows everyone to consider solutions they might not have thought of originally.

Looking for more team-building and virtual meeting games? Check out these virtual icebreaker games or our  Ultimate Guide to Team Building Activities that Don't Suck.

Additional resources on problem-solving activities

• Problem-Solving Model : Looking for a model to provide a problem-solving structure? This detailed guide gives you the tools to quickly solve any problem.
• The Simplex Process:  Popularized by Min Basadur's book, The Power of Innovation , the Simplex Process provides training and techniques for each problem-solving stage. It helps frame problem-solving as a continuous cycle, rather than a “one and done” process.
• Fun Problem-Solving Activities and Games : Looking for more ideas? Check out this list of interesting and creative problem-solving activities for adults and kids!
• The Secret to Better Problem-Solving:  This article provides tips, use cases, and fresh examples to help you become a whiz at solving the toughest problems.

How to organize problem-solving activities with Wrike

If you want to make problem-solving activities more effective, consider using team collaboration software such as Wrike. 

Wrike’s pre-built actionable meeting notes template helps you keep track of meeting discussions, assign action items, and keep everyone in the loop. It’s an effective tool to streamline your problem-solving sessions and turn insights into real projects.

Brianna Hansen

Brianna is a former Content Marketing Manager of Wrike. When she’s not writing about collaboration and team building games, you’ll find her in the kitchen testing out the latest recipes, sharing her favorite wine with friends, or playing with her two cats.

Related articles

7 Teamwork Terrors and How to Conquer Them

Since the dawn of man, teamwork and cooperation has been the preferred method of getting things done. From the pyramids of Giza to the Golden Gate Bridge, we rely heavily on teams of engineers and architects to create such majestic masterpieces. However, where there is teamwork, there is work required to be a team. Too many voices and conflicting opinions can lead to a giant headache and bring productivity to a grinding halt. Throw in egos, politics, and laziness and you've got a recipe for disaster. Here are 7 barriers that harm the harmony of your team: 1. Anchoring Have you ever been part of a group brainstorming session where, once two or three ideas have been shared, new ideas stop flowing and the group sort of shuts down? That’s anchoring. Teams get mentally stuck on the first few ideas and stop thinking of new solutions. Avoid the anchoring trap with these 7 brainstorming tricks, including brain writing. Be sure to keep all types of workers in mind with team building exercises for remote workers, so everyone feels included in the creative conversation. 2. Groupthink This teamwork barrier occurs when a majority of the group conforms to one idea despite their own concerns and insights, perhaps due to laziness, fear of judgement, time limitations, or being subjected to peer pressure from other members of the group. Because this is another common brainstorming risk, techniques like Stepladder and Round Robin brainstorming encourage everyone in the group to share their thoughts before settling on a course of action. 3. Social Loafing "If I don't get around to it, then someone on my team will just do it for me." If you've said this to yourself, then you're guilty of social loafing. Don't pat your lazy self on the back quite yet, you might have just cost your team some valuable productivity! Social loafing is the act of putting in less effort for a team project than you would for a solo task. This forces other team members to pick up the slack and possibility grow to resent you. One way to avoid this is by breaking a project into individual tasks and holding each team member accountable for certain steps. See how Wrike can help you assign tasks and delegate big projects. 4. Unresolvable Conflict Even the most successful teams sometimes experience conflict due to differences in opinion, perspectives, and experiences. However, if there is no way to resolve the conflict, then conflict harms your project's outcome. Unresolvable conflict can be caused by unclear goals and expectations for the project at hand, so avoid it by clearly communicating goals with the team and helping everyone understand their role. 5. Confirmation Bias Confirmation bias is the tendency to only accept information or evidence that confirms your own preconceptions. This bias can quickly become a roadblock when trying to iron out team conflict or justify a decision, and it can potentially lead to the Halo/Horn Effect (see below) and compromise good decision-making. To ward off this bias, challenge your beliefs and play devil's advocate. The Six Thinking Hats technique can also help you see a different perspective on the issue. 6. Halo/Horn Effect The way you perceive an individual strongly affects how you interact with them. If they made a poor first impression, or an offhand comment rubbed you the wrong way, you may have a subconscious bias against them. When that individual voices an opinion, you might automatically be more critical than you normally would. This can work to the opposite effect too. When someone you like shares their opinion, you might have a tendency to agree. When making big team decisions, try to be aware of this bias and focus on the best outcome for the team. 7. Overconfidence Effect Your perceptions and experiences inevitably shape who you are — but they can also lead to subtle mental biases that result in flawed decision making. The Overconfidence Effect happens when you accept or reject an idea based purely off a hunch with no evidence to back you up. (In fact, studies show that entrepreneurs are more likely to fall for this mental fallacy, rejecting others' ideas because of the false belief that they know what's best.) Don't fall for this mental trap! Always research new information and seek objective evidence to combat confirmation bias (and hopefully learn something new as well). What other teamwork barriers have you experienced? We'd love to hear how you resolved your teamwork troubles in the comments!

13 Awesome Team-Building Games (Infographic)

Whether you want to do new hire orientation icebreakers or just bond your team closer together, check out our list of awesome team building games that you and your team will want to play over and over again.

6 Different Team Effectiveness Models to Understand Your Team Better

Understanding these 6 team effectiveness models can help you figure out which model to adopt for your own team. Or it may simply help shed light into what's working in your own group, and how to help improve what's lacking.

Get weekly updates in your inbox!

You are now subscribed to wrike news and updates.

Let us know what marketing emails you are interested in by updating your email preferences here .

Sorry, this content is unavailable due to your privacy settings. To view this content, click the “Cookie Preferences” button and accept Advertising Cookies there.

Subscribed successfully

Email address error, valid email error.

• Project Management
• Productivity
• Entrepreneurship

black friday & cyber monday

Season's Discount Offer

Flat 20% Off

Top 10 problem solving activities that your team should perform today.

Irrespective of who you are and what you do, you will encounter problems. Some of you might see it as a hurdle while others might treat it as an opportunity. No matter how you think about problems, it is important to hone your problem solving skills so you can overcome roadblocks in your personal and professional lives.

In this article, you will learn about ten problem solving activities that your team should actively participate in to get better at solving complex problems.

Top 10 Problem Solving Activities

Here are ten problem solving activities you should try today.

1. Build a Tower

If every member of your team is moving in different directions and don’t collaborate with other team members, this is the activity you should perform. It will foster team collaboration and cohesion.

Divide the participants into several teams and ask them to build a tower by using sticks of uncooked spaghetti, masking tape, which can stand on its own. Make the challenge more interesting by asking them to put a marshmallow on top. Keep a short time limit and see how your team collaborate to create the tallest tower.

2. Go on a Scavenger Hunt

Instead of giving your team a single challenge to complete, you should increase the complexity of challenge by multiplying the number of activities. Divide the participants into two teams and ask each time to complete a set of tasks. Use a task management software or pen or paper to create To-Do list and make sure that tasks are arranged in ascending order based on complexity.

Make sure the easiest task is listed on the top and the hardest task is present at the bottom of the list. The team that completes all the activities wins.  For instance, you can hide multiple items on the floor, provide a list of items to the teams and ask them to go on a scavenger hunt and find each and every item. Every item that they found gives a clue and asks the participants to find the next treasure.

3. Egg Helmet

Lack of decision-making skills can paralyze your team, put the brakes on your thinking. If you want to get out of this mental block or polish your decision-making skills, then this activity is for you. All you need is an egg, some construction materials such as straws, rubber, sticks, plastic wrap, tape, etc.

Teams must choose construction materials and create a carrier which can hold an egg. Once done, ask each team to drop their carrier with an egg in it from a height and see which carrier successfully manages to protect an egg from breaking.

4. Picture Pieces Puzzle

Select a full-size picture of a well-known personality. Cut the picture into multiple square shapes. Give each piece to a team member along with a pencil, colored markers and a ruler. Now, ask them to turn the puzzle piece they have into a five-time larger image and see what they do.

5. Escape the Room

Another activity that can enhance your team collaboration is an escape. For this activity, you will need a rope, a key, a room and few clues or puzzles. Lock team members inside a room and ask them to find clues hidden in the room. Once they have found all the clues, they should find the key and escape the room. Hide the key and the list of clues in a secret location. Give your team anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour for this activity.

6. Walking on a Plank

Create two teams with an equal number of members. You might need four 2×6 board for this problem-solving activity. Place two boards end to end and other two boards in parallel few feet away from the first two boards. Teams must push other boards forward while standing on one board. The real challenge is that you don’t have to get off the board you are standing on while doing so. If a team does that, they must start again. The team that successfully push the board beyond the finish line wins.

7. Reverse Pyramid

This activity helps with adaptability and collaboration. Tell team members to stand in a pyramid shape horizontally. Now, force them to flip the base and apex of the pyramid just by moving three people. It is a great activity, especially if you have many small teams competing with one another. It will clearly show which team is better at creating a reverse pyramid faster. The team that does that wins.

8. Minefield

This activity involves spreading all the items such as chairs, water bottles, bags and boxes in an empty room in such a way that participants cannot go from one end of the room to another. Each team consists of two members. One is blindfolded while the other one is not. The person who is seeing everything should guide his blindfolded partner from one end of the room to another without touching any of the objects by giving out instructions. This activity will enhance communication and collaboration between your team members.

9. Frostbite

Don’t get scared by the name of this problem solving activity because it as interesting as other activities on this list. It can improve your decision-making skills as well as show your team how to adapt according to the different situations. To perform this activity, you will need a packet of construction material, an electric fan and a blindfold.

Create five-member teams and let them choose a leader to guide them. Every team is required to build a shelter by using construction material within half an hour. The leaders cannot help their teams physically because they have frostbite. On the other hand, team members have snow blindness. Once the 30 minutes time ends, turn on the fan to see which shelter blows away by winds and which ones are not. The team that makes a shelter which manages to stay firm despite the winds, win.

10. Human Circle

Make everyone stand in such a way that it forms a circle. Now, ask every team member to hold hands with two people who are not next to them. This will result in a tangle and it will mimic a human knot. Once all the participants are in a tangle, ask them to untangle and come back to their previous state, which is to form the circle again, but the catch is that they don’t have to let go of anyone’s hand while doing so. Such group problem-solving scenarios will help your team adapt according to situation.

Use TaskQue , a smart task management software that helps you complete tasks more efficienlty.

Have you tried any of the team building problem solving activities mentioned above at work? Do you have any team building ideas that people would love to know? If yes, then share them with other readers in the comments section below.

RELATED ARTICLES MORE FROM AUTHOR

Conquering the chaos: how hr management software streamlines efficiency, how to fall asleep fast more rest means greater productivity, 7 project recovery techniques when you feel like the project is getting out of hands, leave a reply cancel reply.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Recent Posts

How to keep your team in sync and productive, is situational leadership the best leadership style, 7 emotional intelligence hacks to help you become a better leader, an in-depth look at the top caribbean medical schools 2024, editor picks, 7 project recovery techniques when you feel like the project is..., popular posts, top 15 leadership qualities that make good leaders (2024), 6 inspiring leadership traits of barack obama, top 10 project management blogs to follow in 2020, popular category.

• Productivity 97
• Project Management 72
• Small Business 63
• Interviews 57
• Entrepreneur 45
• Leadership 39
• Infographics 23
• Management Lessons 21

Quick Summary

How to do a reverse pyramid training routine, best rpt exercises, weighted chin-ups, bench press, barbell rows, overhead press, what is reverse pyramid training, the benefits, tips to progress in your reverse pyramid training program, short comparison of reverse pyramid training vs traditional pyramid training.

• Reverse Pyramid Training Guide

Reverse Pyramid Training Guide: Maximum Gains, Minimal Reps

Reverse pyramid training (RPT) is a high-energy exercise strategy.

It prioritizes quality over quantity, pushing your muscles to the limit with each rep. Lots of athletes perform it without knowing it.

Drawing from our experience, RPT concentrates effort on the initial sets, maximizing results.

Our training technique exploration highlighted the effectiveness of this training and confirmed that reverse pyramid training is ideal for those seeking muscle gain.

I’ve tested the training myself, and even when you end up with more body aches than you do with other workouts, it also performs better when done correctly.

I’m sharing my insights on how to get the maximum effort with fewer reps.

• To start with reverse pyramid training, you need to identify the 1RM (repetition maximum) for every exercise in your routine.
• Reverse pyramid training allows you to gain muscle by lifting the maximum weight you can with fewer repetitions and then decreasing the load while increasing reps.
• According to studies published in Research Gate, reverse pyramid training is an effective way to build muscle, enhance strength, and boost metabolic conditioning.
• From my experience as a fitness coach, I believe RPT is unparalleled in maximizing workout efficiency and achieving rapid strength improvements.

To perform a reverse pyramid training routine, you need to establish the maximum weight you can lift and prepare a routine where you decrease the load and maximize reps.

This is called one-repetition max (1RM). For each exercise, check the deadlift max calculator to determine your one-rep max (1RM).

Here’s how you structure an RPT routine:

• Select your exercises: RPT works well with compound exercises like squats, bench presses, and deadlifts.
• Set your maximum weight: Use the maximum weight for 4 to 6 repetitions in the first set. This is typically 85–90% of your 1RM.
• Decrease the weight by 10–20% for the next set: If you lifted 200 pounds in the first set, decrease to 160 and 180 in the second.
• Increase repetitions in the second and third sets: If you did five repetitions in the first set, aim for 6–8 in the second.
• Take a 2–3 minute break between sets.

RPT works great with full-body workouts and exercises compared to other training methods. This includes:

“Deadlift strength training, even without direct core training, was able to produce significant improvements in core strength.” - Christian Wisdom Magtajas Valleser, Master of Science in Human Movement Science

The deadlift is a fundamental exercise in strength training that primarily targets the back, hips, and legs, as shown by studies published by Research Gate [ 1 ].

When executing it within the framework of a reverse pyramid training style, it's pivotal to grasp your personal strength capacities.

Implementing this exercise into your RPT-centered workout programs offers you the dual advantage of promoting power initially and progressively stimulating endurance as the loads decrease. 

This approach not only broadens your strength but also contributes to a well-rounded and effective workout routine, as I've observed in several of my clients' progress."

Here’s how to do it:

• Establish your one-rep max (1RM) to calculate the maximal weight and a rep range of 4-6 reps.
• Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Put the barbell over your feet.
• Squat and take the bar with an overhand or mixed grip.
• Maintain a straight back as you lift the bar, extending your hips and knees to full extension. Keep the bar close throughout the motion.
• Repeat with less weight after 2-3 minutes.

Related Articles:

• How To Do Romanian Deadlifts
• Best Trap Bar Deadlift Workouts
• Top Deadlift Alternatives

Weighted chin-ups challenge your upper body, focusing on your lats, biceps, and upper back.

Incorporating these into an RPT regimen requires carefully considering your ability to lift added body weights.

• Determine your 1RM, which includes your body weight plus the extra load.
• Secure the weight on your body using a belt. Position your hands shoulder-width apart on the pull-up bar using an underhand grip.
• Pull your body until your chin is at bar level. Keep control during the motion.
• Repeat through the whole set with the same weight.

Bench press, a quintessential chest exercise , also engages the shoulders and triceps effectively, which helps with substantial muscle growth.

It boosts hypertrophy when integrated into a reverse pyramid training routine.

Here’s how to do it: 

• Go to the bench with your feet flat on the floor. Grab the barbell with a grip wider than shoulder-width.
• Lower the barbell to your chest in a controlled manner, then press the bar back until your arms are fully extended.
• Repeat according to your rep ranges.

Related: What Muscles Does The Bench Press Work

The barbell row is an exercise that primarily targets the back muscles while also engaging the biceps and shoulders, and is a crucial component of a reverse pyramid training workout.

How to do it:

• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
• Bend your knees slightly. Lean forward from your waist while keeping your back straight.
• Hold the barbell with an overhand grip. Let it hang in front of your knees.
• Pull the bar to your chest, and squeeze your shoulder blades together.

Also Read: Top Barbell Exercises

When performed properly, overhead presses can enhance reverse pyramid training routines by targeting shoulders, triceps, and upper chest.

This exercise promotes lean body mass and complements the “reverse pyramid” strategy, optimizing strength gains and muscular endurance.

• Stand upright, and hold the barbell at shoulder height with your palms facing forwards.
• Push the barbell over your head until your arms are fully extended, then lower it back down in a controlled motion.

The back squat is a core strength exercise focusing on multiple muscle groups in your lower body, including your quadriceps, glutes, and hamstrings .

Incorporating it into a reverse pyramid regimen amplifies its potency, allowing for a more significant display of strength at the onset and targeting endurance as the weight lessens.

• Position the barbell on your shoulders, just below the neck.
• Lower into a squatting position by bending your knees while maintaining a straight back.
• Push back up to the starting position.

As an experienced personal trainer, I recommend complementing these workouts with a tailored nutritional plan, focusing on macronutrients and recovery.

I've seen firsthand how this combination can amplify the results.

Reverse pyramid training (RPT) is a strength training method where you start with your heaviest weight and fewest reps, then progressively lighten the load and increase reps.

According to studies published on Research Gate, it’s an effective way to build muscle, enhance strength, and boost metabolic conditioning [ 2 ].

Rooted in hypertrophy training principles, RPT maximizes muscle demand when it's most responsive, optimizing strength and growth.

In my coaching experience, clients have achieved better recovery times with this approach, as it balances high-intensity exercise and recovery by preventing early workout fatigue.

“It is recommended to use the reverse pyramid method for exercises and be more careful when performing pyramid exercises.” - Ali Abbasi, Ph.D. in Sport Biomechanics

RPT has five key benefits for gaining muscle.

They’re all based on the double-progression principle.

• Efficiency and Time-Saving: Reverse pyramid training efficiently enhances muscle mass. Compared to traditional hypertrophy training, RPT maximizes your efforts in less time by focusing on heavy lifts when you're most energized.
• Promotes Strength and Muscle Gain: RPT initiates your workout with the heaviest weights, activating muscle fibers and stimulating growth. As a key element of the reverse pyramid training guidelines, the gradual reduction in weight and increase in reps promotes hypertrophy and lean body mass.
• Prevents Overtraining and Enhances Recovery: The reverse pyramid effectively prevents overtraining. Lifting your heaviest weights when fresh reduces the risk of fatigue-related injuries. The subsequent decrease in intensity promotes muscle recovery, an essential aspect of muscle building.
• Suitable for All Levels: RPT can be adapted to all levels, enhancing muscle mass for beginners and experienced lifters alike. This is where reverse pyramid training shines, making it a versatile weight-training approach.
• Psychological Benefits: Beyond physical gains, the psychological resilience developed through RPT is a significant benefit, enhancing mental toughness and focus, which is crucial for athletes and fitness enthusiasts alike.

Here are some of the tips I always emphasize when working with clients. Apply them to your compound movements and workouts to protect your muscle tissue and have the best overall results.

• Prioritize Form and Safety: Proper RPT form is essential for muscle growth. Start with manageable weights, ensuring safety and building muscle over time.
• Progressive Overload: Constantly increase your weights or reps as you control the loads. This training method promotes muscle gains and strength improvement.
• Adequate Rest Between Sets: Resting between sets prepares you for as many reps as possible in the next set. Allow 2-3 minutes of rest for optimal performance.
• Stay Consistent: Regular workouts in your RPT program lead to consistent muscle gain.
• Listen to Your Body: Adjust your weights or take a rest day. Your body's recovery is vital for gaining muscle. Be mindful when building strength and muscle.

Reverse pyramid training (RPT) starts with high weight and low reps, harnessing peak energy levels for strength gains.

Instead, traditional pyramid training (TPT) or traditional hypertrophy training begins lightly, gradually increasing weight to prep muscles, proving beneficial for beginners or endurance training.

How is Reverse Pyramid Training Effective?

Reverse pyramid training is effective by leveraging your strength at the start of workouts, allowing you to lift heavier and thus promoting superior muscle growth and strength gains.

How Long Should I Rest Between Reverse Pyramid Training Sets?

You should rest between 2-3 minutes between reverse pyramid training sets. This timeframe gives you enough recovery time and strength restoration for your next round.

Should I Add Warm-Ups in Reverse Pyramid Training Programs?

Yes, warm-ups are essential in RPT. They prepare your muscles and joints for heavy lifting, reducing injury risks and prime your nervous system for the exercises ahead.

Is Reverse Pyramid Training Good to Gain Muscles?

Yes, reverse pyramid training is good for gaining muscles and bulking. This is hypertrophy training that ensures muscle growth.

References:

• https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315730069
• https://www.researchgate.net/publication/361107704

About The Author

Benedict Ang is an author and ex-National Soccer player turned MMA and Kickboxing champion who's been featured on ESPN, Yahoo, USA Today, Sherdog, and Tapology.

A believer in fitness's transformative power, he empowers clients with passionate training and personalized supplement selections, and ignites results for readers by unifying his expert advice with a do-or-die mantra.

You May Also Like

Write a Reply or Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Rating 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star

ULTIMATE BODY TRANSFORMATION E-BOOK STACK

We’ve compiled the knowledge and experience of our entire team to create these 3 Free E-books that will help you lose fat and re-build your body from the ground up.

lallous' lab

Life is a Lab! To Learn, read. To understand, think. To know, write. To master, teach.

The inverted pyramid puzzle

The other day, I was talking to a friend of mine about the Z3 theorem solver and he mentioned the inverted Pyramid puzzle. I told him: “I think this can be solved with Z3” and hence this blog post.

So what’s the inverted pyramid puzzle?

Imagine the following pyramid with 4 rows:

The numbers in that triangle are just placeholders for the sake of explanation. The goal of the puzzle is to find the right order for those numbers in the triangle in such a way that:

For the 4th row, we must have whatever is at the position denoted with [number] subtracted from its neighbor equals the value of the next row’s value beneath the top 2 numbers (note: we take the absolute value of the subtraction). So:

And for the 3rd row, we must have:

And for the 2nd row, we must have:

Of course, we stop at the first row.

For now, here’s a solution for the inverted pyramid with 4 rows:

The numbers configuration from above satisfies the conditions explained above.

Please note that the only numbers accepted in the pyramid are [1.. Sigma(rows) ]. Sigma denotes the sum of the arithmetic series going from 1 to rows .

To solve this problem, we need to be able to:

• Construct a dummy pyramid with the needed number of rows
• Walk the pyramid and access the slots in questions that we need to do the subtraction operations on.
• Print a pyramid nicely (optional)
• Create the proper Z3 constraints

Steps 1 to 3

If we can achieve step 2, we can leverage Z3 and have it solve this problem for us.

When ROWS is 5, we have Sigma(5) elements, thus 15 elements. So the accepted numbers accepted are 1 to 15 (but we don’t know their proper positioning yet):

To go from ROW=5 to ROW=4, we can deduce that the first element in ROW=4 is Sigma(4) , thus 10. Etc. Our goal is to be able to access slot 15, slot 14 and slot 10. Then, slot 14, slot 13 and slot 9, etc.

To construct the pyramid, we can use this simple comprehension list syntax:

To print the pyramid, we can do:

To walk the pyramid and access the needed elements, we can do:

Step 4 – Using Z3

Now that we know how to create, print and walk the pyramid, we need to use Z3 and give it the proper constraints so it can solve the problem for us.

The solution is implemented in a class for convenience and cleanliness of the code:

Things to note:

• The unsolved pyramid is stored in the data member variable
• The Z3 solver is initialized in the solver member variable
• The symbols dictionary for each slot [1.. Sigma(rows) ] is called syms

We need to create a Z3 symbol for each slot, for that we use this helper function:

We use a dictionary to map a slot index to a Z3 symbol. It is important to always return the same symbol for the same slot.

Now we can leverage the walk_pyramid function to walk the pyramid and add constraints for us. Instead of printing the numbers, we do the following:

With this code, we tell Z3 that slot |’a’ – ‘b’| should be equal to slot ‘c’. The a, b, and c denote the two numbers at the top row and single number at the lower row (respectively).

Having walked the whole pyramid, we have created all the basic Z3 constraints.

We are not done yet with the constraints though, we have two more constraints:

• We cannot have repeating numbers

We use Z3’s Distinct to conveniently said that no symbol equals to another. This makes our pyramid with unique numbers

• The numbers should be bounded from [1.. Sigma(rows) ]

The final constraint is to tell Z3 that each symbol is bounded:

We are now ready to ask Z3 to solve this problem and give us a model (one possible solution):

If we found a solution (the solver returns sat , then we can get a valid numeric value for each symbol at a given slot and patch them into the data variable (which contains the unsolved pyramid values).

You can find the full solution code on my GitHub: https://github.com/0xeb/puzzles/blob/master/InvertedPyramid/ .

That’s it!

You might also like:

• Dennis Yurichev – SAT/SMT by example
• Short jokes about the genders and sexuality
• Joke: Jesus saves

Share this:

Leave a reply cancel reply.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

The Algebra Problem: How Middle School Math Became a National Flashpoint

Top students can benefit greatly by being offered the subject early. But many districts offer few Black and Latino eighth graders a chance to study it.

By Troy Closson

From suburbs in the Northeast to major cities on the West Coast, a surprising subject is prompting ballot measures, lawsuits and bitter fights among parents: algebra.

Students have been required for decades to learn to solve for the variable x, and to find the slope of a line. Most complete the course in their first year of high school. But top-achievers are sometimes allowed to enroll earlier, typically in eighth grade.

The dual pathways inspire some of the most fiery debates over equity and academic opportunity in American education.

Do bias and inequality keep Black and Latino children off the fast track? Should middle schools eliminate algebra to level the playing field? What if standout pupils lose the chance to challenge themselves?

The questions are so fraught because algebra functions as a crucial crossroads in the education system. Students who fail it are far less likely to graduate. Those who take it early can take calculus by 12th grade, giving them a potential edge when applying to elite universities and lifting them toward society’s most high-status and lucrative professions.

But racial and economic gaps in math achievement are wide in the United States, and grew wider during the pandemic. In some states, nearly four in five poor children do not meet math standards.

To close those gaps, New York City’s previous mayor, Bill de Blasio, adopted a goal embraced by many districts elsewhere. Every middle school would offer algebra, and principals could opt to enroll all of their eighth graders in the class. San Francisco took an opposite approach: If some children could not reach algebra by middle school, no one would be allowed to take it.

The central mission in both cities was to help disadvantaged students. But solving the algebra dilemma can be more complex than solving the quadratic formula.

New York’s dream of “algebra for all” was never fully realized, and Mayor Eric Adams’s administration changed the goal to improving outcomes for ninth graders taking algebra. In San Francisco, dismantling middle-school algebra did little to end racial inequities among students in advanced math classes. After a huge public outcry, the district decided to reverse course.

“You wouldn’t think that there could be a more boring topic in the world,” said Thurston Domina, a professor at the University of North Carolina. “And yet, it’s this place of incredibly high passions.”

“Things run hot,” he said.

In some cities, disputes over algebra have been so intense that parents have sued school districts, protested outside mayors’ offices and campaigned for the ouster of school board members.

Teaching math in middle school is a challenge for educators in part because that is when the material becomes more complex, with students moving from multiplication tables to equations and abstract concepts. Students who have not mastered the basic skills can quickly become lost, and it can be difficult for them to catch up.

Many school districts have traditionally responded to divergent achievement levels by simply separating children into distinct pathways, placing some in general math classes while offering others algebra as an accelerated option. Such sorting, known as tracking, appeals to parents who want their children to reach advanced math as quickly as possible.

But tracking has cast an uncomfortable spotlight on inequality. Around a quarter of all students in the United States take algebra in middle school. But only about 12 percent of Black and Latino eighth graders do, compared with roughly 24 percent of white pupils, a federal report found .

“That’s why middle school math is this flashpoint,” said Joshua Goodman, an associate professor of education and economics at Boston University. “It’s the first moment where you potentially make it very obvious and explicit that there are knowledge gaps opening up.”

In the decades-long war over math, San Francisco has emerged as a prominent battleground.

California once required that all eighth graders take algebra. But lower-performing middle school students often struggle when forced to enroll in the class, research shows. San Francisco later stopped offering the class in eighth grade. But the ban did little to close achievement gaps in more advanced math classes, recent research has found.

As the pendulum swung, the only constant was anger. Leading Bay Area academics disparaged one another’s research . A group of parents even sued the district last spring. “Denying students the opportunity to skip ahead in math when their intellectual ability clearly allows for it greatly harms their potential for future achievement,” their lawsuit said.

The city is now back to where it began: Middle school algebra — for some, not necessarily for all — will return in August. The experience underscored how every approach carries risks.

“Schools really don’t know what to do,” said Jon R. Star, an educational psychologist at Harvard who has studied algebra education. “And it’s just leading to a lot of tension.”

In Cambridge, Mass., the school district phased out middle school algebra before the pandemic. But some argued that the move had backfired: Families who could afford to simply paid for their children to take accelerated math outside of school.

“It’s the worst of all possible worlds for equity,” Jacob Barandes, a Cambridge parent, said at a school board meeting.

Elsewhere, many students lack options to take the class early: One of Philadelphia’s most prestigious high schools requires students to pass algebra before enrolling, preventing many low-income children from applying because they attend middle schools that do not offer the class.

In New York, Mr. de Blasio sought to tackle the disparities when he announced a plan in 2015 to offer algebra — but not require it — in all of the city’s middle schools. More than 15,000 eighth graders did not have the class at their schools at the time.

Since then, the number of middle schools that offer algebra has risen to about 80 percent from 60 percent. But white and Asian American students still pass state algebra tests at higher rates than their peers.

The city’s current schools chancellor, David Banks, also shifted the system’s algebra focus to high schools, requiring the same ninth-grade curriculum at many schools in a move that has won both support and backlash from educators.

And some New York City families are still worried about middle school. A group of parent leaders in Manhattan recently asked the district to create more accelerated math options before high school, saying that many young students must seek out higher-level instruction outside the public school system.

In a vast district like New York — where some schools are filled with children from well-off families and others mainly educate homeless children — the challenge in math education can be that “incredible diversity,” said Pedro A. Noguera, the dean of the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education.

“You have some kids who are ready for algebra in fourth grade, and they should not be denied it,” Mr. Noguera said. “Others are still struggling with arithmetic in high school, and they need support.”

Many schools are unequipped to teach children with disparate math skills in a single classroom. Some educators lack the training they need to help students who have fallen behind, while also challenging those working at grade level or beyond.

Some schools have tried to find ways to tackle the issue on their own. KIPP charter schools in New York have added an additional half-hour of math time to many students’ schedules, to give children more time for practice and support so they can be ready for algebra by eighth grade.

At Middle School 50 in Brooklyn, where all eighth graders take algebra, teachers rewrote lesson plans for sixth- and seventh-grade students to lay the groundwork for the class.

The school’s principal, Ben Honoroff, said he expected that some students would have to retake the class in high school. But after starting a small algebra pilot program a few years ago, he came to believe that exposing children early could benefit everyone — as long as students came into it well prepared.

Looking around at the students who were not enrolling in the class, Mr. Honoroff said, “we asked, ‘Are there other kids that would excel in this?’”

“The answer was 100 percent, yes,” he added. “That was not something that I could live with.”

Troy Closson reports on K-12 schools in New York City for The Times. More about Troy Closson