Two-Minute Spa
A whole spa treatment, performed on yourself, at speed.
You announce a free spa session for everyone, which gets exactly the reaction you would expect, and then run the room through a fast sequence of stretches and self-massage. It gets shoulders moving and necks unlocked after a long sitting stretch, and the joke at the top is what stops it feeling like an exercise class.
Good news — there's a free spa session for everyone here today. Right here, right now, and you're doing it to yourself. Stand up, give yourself some space, and follow me. Nothing hurts, nothing strains, and you stop whenever you like.
The room has been sitting for over an hour and needs physically loosening rather than exciting.
Props: None
Run this when…
If none of these is your room, pick another.After a long seated stretch or a heavy presentation
Mid-afternoon, when the room has gone physically stiff
Before a session that needs people alert rather than loud
How to run it
Written to be glanced at mid-room, not memorised.
- Announce the free spa session with a completely straight face and let the reaction happen.
- Everyone stands with an arm's length of space.
- Shoulders first: roll them back five times, then forwards five times.
- Neck: slow tilts left and right. Say slow, and mean it.
- Hands: press each palm, then shake both out.
- Self-massage the shoulders and the back of the neck for ten seconds.
- Finish with one big reach upwards and a long breath out.
- Straight into the next thing while they are standing.
Running it well
Only the host sees these. Participants never do.
- Deliver the spa line completely straight. The laugh comes from the room working out what you actually mean, and telegraphing it kills that.
- Say slow on every neck movement, and demonstrate slow yourself. This is the one place in the whole set where somebody can actually hurt themselves.
- Nobody touches anybody else. Say it once at the top and it will not come up again.
- End on the upward reach and the breath. It sends people into the next session settled rather than wound up.
Watch out for
Space, safety and the traps worth knowing before you start.
- Necks and shoulders are where people get hurt. Say slowly, demonstrate slowly, and tell the room to skip anything that pulls.
- Say clearly at the start that this is on yourself only — the word massage in a workplace needs that sentence.
- Anyone with a neck, shoulder or back problem should sit this out or do only the hand section, and should hear that from you before you start.
Seated version
“Everybody stand up” is not a neutral instruction. Offer this alongside, not instead.
Every part of it works from a chair — shoulders, neck, hands and the upward reach. Only the standing space is lost.
On a video call
The cards work as they are. This is what changes about how you call it.
Better on a call than in a room, because nobody is being watched. Everything is already done to yourself and above the waist. Say at the start that cameras can go off for this one if people prefer — a room full of people rolling their shoulders is more self-conscious on screen than in person, and the permission removes it.
Run it yourself
Free for thirty days, no card. Put it on the projector and step through it — nobody in the room needs a phone.
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- Where
- Remote or in person
- Props
- None
- Big screen
- Required
- Teams
- Individual only