Iron Lungs
Iron Lungs is a relationship mapping exercise that helps participants build useful connections and understand how people, roles, or ideas relate.
How to run it
- Take turns having players run while they yell, as described:
- Have the player take a deep breath and then yell. As they are yelling, they run toward the other side of the space. When they are out of breath, they must freeze.
- Once every player has take a turn, have everyone together yell and run again until they get to the other side of the playing space.
- Alternately, you can have all players practice their iron lungs (run and yell) together both times.
Run this exercise live
The facilitator console stays in this browser. Its QR handoff is a short-lived participant snapshot containing only public exercise instructions, phase, prompt, and timer state.
What participants need now
Materials:
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Prompts to use +
Take turns having players run while they yell, as described:
Have the player take a deep breath and then yell. As they are yelling, they run toward the other side of the space. When they are out of breath, they must freeze.
Once every player has take a turn, have everyone together yell and run again until they get to the other side of the playing space.
Alternately, you can have all players practice their iron lungs (run and yell) together both times.
Run this with your AI assistant +
Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or your own local model: paste this prompt and your AI will co-facilitate this exercise with you.
Adapt this exercise for my exact room. Exercise: Iron Lungs. Readiness: Publishable Draft. Core moves: Take turns having players run while they yell, as described:; Have the player take a deep breath and then yell. As they are yelling, they run toward the other side of the space. When they are out of breath, they must freeze.; Once every player has take a turn, have everyone together yell and run again until they get to the other side of the playing space.; Alternately, you can have all players practice their iron lungs (run and yell) together both times.. Return a concise facilitator script with timing, wording, safety notes, and remote/in-person adjustments.
Origin unverified
- Where we observed it: The strongest current observations come from Playworks; aggregators are listed as additional observations, not origin proof. (1 source observed, including Playworks.)
- What that means: we track where an exercise has been observed in public sources. We do not claim to know who created it, or how popular it is.
- No efficacy claims: appearing in this library is not a claim that the exercise is proven effective. Facilitator judgment and context decide whether it works for a given room.
- Corrections: if you have evidence of an earlier or more accurate source, read our methodology and trust boundary and tell us.