I recently wrote about some exciting slack line obstacle courses and decided I wanted to share some more fun obstacle course ideas with you. I love going on outdoor adventures so finding exciting ideas for obstacle courses in your backyard, park and off the beaten track in forests and woodland, was easy. Finding ideas for obstacles indoors was also fun, but a lot more challenging so I’m excited to have found some and to be able to share my ideas with you.
With exploring and fitness two of my favourite hobbies, I’ve used a lot of equipment that tests your balance, strength and ability to navigate challenging and fun obstacles. I want to share all my equipment ideas with you and give you a few ideas about how you might combine different obstacles together to create an exciting course.
I’m going to share ideas that are great for both kids and adults, separated into 2 sections, one for outdoors and one for indoors. Some of these ideas can be used both indoor and outdoors. I hope you enjoy creating your own adventure courses using the equipment and ideas I mention below. Use your creativity and there is no limit on how much fun you can have, but be sure to stay safe.
Indoor obstacle course ideas for kids & adults
If you live somewhere as wet and cold as I do then you’ll appreciate some ideas for fun indoor obstacle course equipment. There are lots of different items you can use to create obstacles indoors.
I like to combine stepping stones, carnival games, monkey bar climbing frames and stall bars for challenging activities that both kids and adults can enjoy. If you don’t have a lot of space indoors then you can use timed exercise stations, challenging hand-eye coordination activities and aerobic exercises into your course.
Idea 1 – Artoflifer balance beam balance blocks
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This set of 20 balance beam blocks is a fun obstacle idea because each of the 20 blocks can be slotted together to create circle, square, arch, oval and a number of other shaped adventure tracks. You can use some of the blocks to create one track and then place the other blocks individually like stepping stones or create 2 smaller tracks.
If you place all the blocks together you can create a massive 133 inch long course or a wide 89 inch circular shaped course. Each of the light and dark green blocks are made of a strong PE plastic and are easy to connect to each other using hooks that form a tight connection. I really like the quality of these blocks and they can hold up to 400lbs which is a lot of weight for some children’s balance stones.
I think it’s a fun idea to add these blocks to your course as part of the balance section, testing your ability to stay on the blocks and learn to balance your way around each of the different shaped circuits you create. To make this section more fun and challenging you could carry a large ball, balance a bean bag on your head or avoid soft objects being thrown in your direction.
Idea 2 – National Geographic Balance stepping stones
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I first saw these national geographic stepping stones while writing an article about children’s stepping stones. It s always a great idea to add stepping stones into any obstacle style course indoors or outdoors. These stones aren’t cheap but each foam stone is colourful, durable and crafted to look like a colourful rock to help connect kids with nature while having fun. Ideally you want to use these stepping stones to connect different areas of your obstacle course together.
You could use one of the climbing frames below and then lead kids to a hula hoop or some carnival style games using stepping stones. To make the course more challenging you can position the stones further apart and it’s a good idea to bring them closer together and hold your toddlers hands if they are still learning coordination and balance skills.
Idea 3 – Sportbaby indoor climbing frame
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The sportbaby wooden climbing frame could be seen as a complete indoor obstacle course by itself, but the idea of a course usually involves moving around so you can add stepping stones to lead kids to the climbing frame where they can climb up the ladder, swing on the rings or sit on the swing. The idea behind this piece of equipment is to let kids enjoy climbing and swinging,
For an even more exciting experience you could consider the Pegasus indoor monkey bars I’m going to write about below, or for adults, check out the stall bars listed below too. You could also think about adding some parallettes to your obstacle course as an exercise section.
Idea 4 Pegas indoor monkey bars
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Indoor obstacle course idea number 4 is a more expensive option but this is an indoor climbing frame with monkey bars, ladders, climbing rope and swing attachments. Again, you could see this as a complete indoor obstacle course, saving you from having to think up lots of ideas for home made obstacles and carnival games. Kids can spend hours thinking up games, adventures and routes across this climbing frame. They can climb up the metal ladder or learn to climb up a real rope.
This is much more challenging but learning rope climbing skills is great fun and once your children can climb up they’ll feel a real sense of achievement. You could time how long it takes them to climb up the rope, cross the monkey bars and climb down the other side to keep children even more engaged and give them something to aim towards. Add some stepping stones or balance blocks at the bottom leading back to the start of the rope climb and you’ve got a complete indoor adventure course.
Idea 5 – Limitless XVP Stall bars
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These stall bars are a great choice for an indoor obstacle course plan designed for adults. Both children and adults ca n use these stall bars to climb, stretch and workout your upper body and core with a variety of different exercises. You could use the slanted pull up bar at the top for a pull up challenge, or add hanging leg raises into your course plan. There are so many different body weight exercises you can perform using stall bars. Usually I would add stall bars into a course design by trying to complete a set number of exercises before moving on to the next activity, a little bit like a circuit training session but all put together in one continuous circuit or course.
Outdoor obstacle course ideas
These outdoor obstacle course idea will hopefully inspire you to create a fun course design for your garden or any outdoor space. There are many more options for outdoor obstacle courses because of the extra space. You can create a course that is much closer in design to a real life assault course with the possibility of including exciting rope structures, rope tunnels, trampolines, bouncy structures, water parks and many more fun obstacles. With these outdoor courses you can get wet, swing, slide and add so many more physical challenges into your course design.
Outdoor idea 1 – American Ninja warrior race course
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This race course set is a great idea. There are 33 pieces in the set and some diagrams that give you a few ideas for creating a course layout in your garden. You can be as creative as you like but the layout ideas are interesting and will give you something to start with, In this set you get 2 strong hop sacks. Sack racing is a lot of fun and it always makes me laugh watching people trying to jump and race inside a sack, or just falling over laughing many times. There are 8 agility rings which can be used as course markers, stepping stones, or use the ring connectors to connect them together and then step from ring to ring quickly like you would in a football drill to test your agility.
If you enjoy skipping then you’ll be able to use the 2 quality competition standard jumping ropes as part of your course. You can aim to skip between to objects, around a circuit or on the spot for a certain number of jumps. There are also some bear crawl posts and lots of twine so you can create an exciting crawling section to race along. If you want to get all your friends racing or all the family this race course set is perfect for anyone aged 3 years or older so is great for both children and adults.
Outdoor idea 2 – Hyponix obstacle course
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This Hyponix obstacle course is a massive 60 ft long slackline kit. You have to connect the rope to trees or other suitable objects that are between 15 and 60 foot apart. No obstacle course would be complete without an amazing backyard slackline kit that has 13 different obstacle attachments for you to navigate across. This course is great because there are so many different attachments and you can place them in whichever order you like. If you want a more challenging course you can place lots of challenging obstacles side by side, or spread them out and make it easier to find a way across the line without touching the floor.
The Hyponix line has 2 monkey bar attachments for swinging on. These attachments are easy to grip on to but the angle they are facing can make it difficult to swing on to the next object if it is facing in a different direction so you really need to be able to twist your body and have the strength to hold yourself up until you manage to reach across to the next attachment. If you’ve ever tried gymnastics rings you’ll know how challenging they are for keeping yourself stables as they rock and swing back and forth. In this kit there are 2, that definitely help make this course more challenging and a lot of fun. Other attachments include a triangle shaped hold, ball holds which require a strong grip, monkey knots and 2 traverse rings. If this selection of challenging attachments wasn’t enough there is also a rope ladder, monkey climbing net and a swing to make this one of the best outdoor options.
Outdoor idea 3 – Best party inflatable bounce house race
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What obstacle course design would be complete without an inflatable bouncy castle style race course. This is one of the ultimate inflatable racers, designed for 2 people to race side by side over the 18ft long course. When you begin this course you have to crawl under a bouncy tunnel and then climb over 2 inflatable climbing wall sections to be able to reach the final slide and slide down to the finish before running back around, stepping across stepping stones to a slack line rope section for the next part of your course or completing more loops of the bounce house. I love how colourful the bouncy structure is with bold red, orange, yellow, blue, purple and green colours making the design even more exciting for kids.
Outdoor idea 4 – Carnival games
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To add an extra, less physically demanding element to your obstacle course consider including some fun carnival games in your design. This set includes cones for throwing some of the 10 rings on to as part of a ring toss game. use the bean bags balanced on your head to run around a circuit or throw them into a bucket. Testing your hand eye coordination with these colourful carnival style games is a lot of fun. I always loved bean bag races and throwing rings over cones is always fun. To make your garden stations more challenging you could throw the rings while balancing on stepping stones or swinging on a swing.
Final ideas for creating a obstacle course in your garden or inside your house.
Creating your own obstacle course is a lot of fun. You can use your imagination along with a whole range of different equipment stations to create a course that is exciting and will test your fitness, balance and coordination skills while taking part in lots of fun activities. Indoor obstacle courses are usually much smaller than outdoors so you need to try and use the space you have as effectively as possible. Indoor climbing frames make use of your space both horizontally and vertically so you can make sure you are using ever bit of space possible. carnival games can be used indoor, especially ring toss games, but you could also use a mini basketball hoop hanging on the door, a simple monkey bar, cushions as stepping stones and a whole range of different items.
Your outdoor obstacle course design can be much bigger and use a wider range of equipment. Slacklines and monkey bar courses are some of the most popular pieces of equipment for creating an exciting outdoor course because they cover a long distance and can hold lots of different fun obstacles. If you are racing outdoors you can also use inflatables, balls and any outdoor sports equipment you have. Make sure you look at all the different items and sports equipment you own and see what other ideas you can come up with, but most importantly laugh and have lots of fun with the people you love spending time with.