10 Physical Team Building Activities from Bear Grylls

When you work in a busy and possibly stressful workplace, it can be easy to forget that your part of a team. Effective team building can help to change that and will create long-lasting benefits in the corporate workplace.

Whilst there are hundreds of outdoor team building options available in the UK, there’s nothing quite like the physical team building activities on offer with the Bear Grylls Survival Academy.

We’ve taken some of Bear’s most challenging skills and turned them into a selection of physical team building activities designed to test you, your colleagues, or your employees.

The physical team building challenges below will help to promote the importance of team development, co-operation, communication, and trust. You will all need to rely on each other as your team works together towards a common shared goal.

Each of the physical team building games and activities will encourage team members to help each other, meaning mistakes are reduced, and productivity increases. The end result is something fun, challenging, and a total game changer in how your employees work together.

Physical team building activities like this all take place outdoors. It takes your team away from the stresses and habits of your usual work environment and will bring different aspects of character out you won’t have seen before.

So, if you want to see your corporate team’s motivation increased as they flex with problem solving skills in an outdoor and physical environment, look at what’s on offer below.

Physical team building activities

This is just a small selection of our Bear Grylls’ inspired physical team building event challenges. We can also arrange bespoke corporate events for your company, in a Covid safe and secure manner.

1. Axe Throwing

To get your team warmed up, this popular physical activity requires stepping outdoors and moving stealthily like Bear to avoid detection from predators. Your team will then be taught to perfectly rotate an axe and hit the target in one throw. Can you and your team win this exciting challenge?

2. Archery

An important physical skill for you to master not only for protection in the wilderness, but to hunt for food and even firing a burning arrow into the sky for rescue! Be guided and coached by our team of instructors, using modern equipment before really testing your newly learned skill with improvised ash arrows – will you still hit the target and contribute towards your team's success?

3. Giant Knot Tie

It might not sound physical at first, but rest assured, you will need to work hard on this as a team. In this task you will need to learn a variety of potential life-saving knots before attempting the giant knot challenge with the whole team to see who wins this event.

4. Commando Crawl

If you are looking for a physical team building activity where you get your hands dirty, look no further. This is the perfect physical challenge event for teams that really want to test themselves with something straight out of an army training manual. You will need to cross the gorge commando style on top of the rope using balance, strength and core stability skills to regain your position.

5. Tyrolean Traverse

In this high ropes’ activity, watch out instructors use their expertise to create a Tyrolean Traverse. Your corporate team will then have to use a fixed line to cross from one point to another, while wearing a harness. Clip onto the rope and pull yourself and crucial stores across – you might need a head for heights… kind of.

6. Raft Build & Race Challenge

Prepare to get wet in this extreme physical team building challenge as you compete in teams to build rafts and then race the other contestants. Does your team have what it takes both creatively, mentally, and physically to plan and build the perfect floating raft? We will have to see won't we!

7. Stretcher Race

A member of your team / crew has been injured. The pressure is now on to use your team's physical strengths, experience and mental skills to treat and carry the casualty to safety. You'll need to make use of what's around you, to build an improvised stretcher and as the patient's condition deteriorates, the race against time (and the other teams) begins to reach the pick-up point as quickly (and safely) as possible.

8. Fire Lighting

A fundamental skill which can determine how likely you are to survive when left alone to survive in the great outdoors! You will learn the most effective ways of building and lighting your fire in the wild, and just as importantly; how to put it out again before continuing your journey on... possibly to find food in the next challenge...

9. Stalking

To hunt for your food in the wild, you need to keep a low profile. Being aware of your physical shape and silhouette, your smell and sounds you might make while moving slowly will all increase your chances of a successful hunt! Let's see who in your team has got what it takes to capture their prey... or alternatively which team member would simply starve in the wild!

10. Wild Food Preparation

Hunting and catching your food is one thing, but knowing how to prepare and cook it is just as important. Knowing when the fire is ready and how to place your food to make sure it's cooked correctly is vital to ensure you remain in peak physical shape to survive. Without food, you will soon start to waver in your attempt to win any of our Bear Grylls' themed physical team building challenges.

Want to know more?

While we do have “off the shelf” physical team building events available, we also specialise in creating exclusive experiences, which are designed to meet your desired outcomes, with a good dose of Bear Grylls GRIT thrown in!

Get in touch with our team today or request a call back – we look forward to speaking to you!