A selection of English ESL at the gym, printables

At the gym.

Exercise and gym activities.  Created for male prisoners to help them learn vocabulary they encounter regularly but don\'t know in English.  Useful for adults, or even teens who go to the gym.  

At the gym

Students listen to an audio track in which a fitness centre secretary speaks with a member of the public interested in buying a membership. Students complete two tasks, the first being mutliple choice questions, and the second a true or false exercise. A link to the audio is provided at the top of the page, as well as boxes for checking students' scores. Answers are revealed on the second page.

At the Gym: Listening (B1 Intermediate)

This gym vocabulary ESL lesson plan is designed for intermediate learners (B1–B2) who want to talk confidently about fitness, exercise routines, and gym culture. Students learn the names of common equipment, key exercises, useful supplements, and phrasal verbs. The lesson combines practical vocabulary with speaking tasks so learners can apply the language in real-life fitness conversations.
This worksheet is part of my Wellbeing English project, where I create engaging wellness-themed ESL lesson plans: https://wellbeingenglish.com

At The Gym - Gym Vocabulary & Speaking

A grammar worksheet themed around gym culture and etiquette, focusing on modal verbs (must, have to, should, might, could, can’t). Students learn how to give advice, express obligation, and discuss possibility through real-world fitness examples. Includes a grammar explanation, gap-fill tasks, a Joey Swoll reading for comprehension, gym etiquette scenarios, a rule-writing task, and a sentence builder activity. Suitable for teens and young adults at B1 level. Great for conversation practice and engagement!

Bro Code of Conduct – Modal Verbs Worksheet (B1, Gym Theme)

This worksheet is designed to prepare students for the Maturita exam topic “My Body and Healthy Lifestyle.” Students read six different monologues from people in Canada, the USA, the UK, the Czech Republic, New Zealand, and Australia. Each speaker introduces themselves, gives geographical hints about where their city is located, and describes their lifestyle, diet, and habits. Students are encouraged to use online maps to find the cities and improve their geographical awareness, and they should also describe the picture connected to the text. Each reading is followed by comprehension questions, and there is a special “Speak Like a Native” section with useful lexical chunks, phrasal verbs, and idioms to help learners sound more natural when talking about health, food, and exercise. Finally, an extra challenge section allows motivated students to compare all six characters, share opinions, and earn bonus marks by answering reflective questions such as who was the laziest, who was the healthiest, or whose lifestyle they would want to try. The worksheet is suitable for high school students at A2–B1 level and can be used for reading, vocabulary building, speaking practice, and exam preparation.

My Body and Lifestyle – Six Voices, Six Countries

This fun and engaging B1-level worksheet is designed to review all four types of conditionals (zero, first, second, and third) through a humorous gym-themed context. Targeted at teens and young adults, especially those interested in fitness or gym culture, the worksheet uses bro-style jokes and relatable situations to reinforce grammar structures. Activities include a grammar recap, gap-fill tasks, roleplay speaking prompts, a sentence-matching game, and a final writing challenge. Great for students who’ve already learned conditionals and need meaningful, motivating review.



Conditionals Review: For the gym bros

This worksheet focuses on health and fitness. Students and teachers will find the Reading, Speaking, Writing, and Vocabulary tasks quite useful and engaging.  The questions and tasks may be adapted to fit learners' needs.

WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR BODY WHEN YOU WALK

This game is for beginner students to practice Past Simple Questions. Through repetition students will memorize the question structure better and will have more fun practicing it than by writing.

Start with a couple of questions on the whiteboard (Did you go to the gym? Did you eat lunch at 12? Did you write a letter?...) and elicit the basic question structure (Did + Subject + Verb + Object) (please note you don't tell the students the structure - they will manage to figure it our by themselves from the examples).

Then, erase some words in those questions to elicit the Wh- question words (Where did you go? When did you eat lunch? What did you write? Why...? How..?).

After that, look at this handout (the first page) and elicit the full questions on the left.

If you work with one or two students, they will ask you the questions and you'll only answer with the words in the tiles that are dark grey on the second page. As you do, the student must draw in the same tiles on their handouts.

Continue this with the rest of the questions, and then the students must tell you what picture they got.



If you're working with a group of students, first do the aforementioned and then give them some time to make up their own picture and proceed with their partner.



Since Word files here often get distorted, here's a link to a PDF file https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LD-lSns0B4N_JnoQhgoRtBxTlctMN2PM/view?usp=sharing (let me know if it doesn't work). 

Past Simple Questions game

**Description of Present Simple**

The present simple tense is used to describe habitual actions, general truths, and routines. It is formed using the base form of the verb for all subjects, except for the third person singular, which adds an -s or -es (e.g., "he walks," "she watches"). 

Common uses of the present simple include:

1. **Habitual Actions:** "I go to the gym every day."
2. **General Truths:** "Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius."
3. **Scheduled Events:** "The train leaves at 6 PM."


Present—- simple

Find the following actions in the puzzle and  write them under the appropriate picture:

Catch a ball

Cook

Dance

Dive

Do gymnastics

Do karate

Draw

Drive

Hop

Ice skate

Jump

Play basketball

Play football

Play tennis

Play the guitar

Read

Ride a bike

Ride a horse

Rollerblade

Run

Sing

Ski

Swim	

Write



ACTIONS - Wordsearch

This is a large town map that you can cut and glue together. You can use it for building names (Hairdresser, Post Office, Train Station, Bank, etc.), asking or giving directions (where is the DVD Store, turn left at the Bank, etc) or giving locations (the DVD Store is next to the Gym, etc).

It is 3 A4 pages across and 1.5 A4 pages down.

Giant Town Map

Culture, intercultural communication, cross-cultural communication

Adjectives to describe feelings, emotions

Adjectives to describe personality and character

Adjectives: Gradable / Non-gradable adjectives

Articles: Definite or indefinite article (a, an or the)

BE + infinitive structures (e.g. he was to become famous)

Clauses of contrast (e.g.  although, while)

Clauses of purpose (e.g. in order to, so that, so as to)

Clauses of reason (e.g. because, because of, due to, as, since)

Cleft sentences (e.g. It's Joey we're looking for)

Comparison: Comparative adjectives and structures

Comparison: Superlative adjectives and structures

Conditional 2 (second conditional) - would

Conditionals: Conditional phrases (e.g. unless, provided that, as long as)

Conjunctions (aka connectives, e.g. and, but, or, so, then)

Contractions (shortened forms, e.g. don't, aren't, etc.)

Determiners (words that can come before nouns)

Formal and informal English (politeness or colloquial language)

Future perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Future perfect simple and continuous (progressive) tense

Future phrases (e.g. be about to, bound to, likely to, due to, set to + INF)

Homonyms (two words with the same pronunciation - homophones and homographs)

It as preparatory subject (e.g. it's raining, it's nice of you to)

Linking verbs (aka copulas, e.g. I am a student)

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how to accuse somebody of something in English

how to apologize, say sorry, forgive and express regret in English

how to ask for information and make inquiries in English

how to ask for something, make requests in English

how to blame somebody for something in English

how to defend yourself from criticism in English

how to deny or admit something in English

how to describe things or people in English

how to emphasize important things in English

how to encourage or discourage people in English

how to evaluate people or progress in English

how to express agreement /disagreement in English

how to express approval and disapproval  in English

how to express cause and effect in English

how to express interest in something in English

how to express likelihood, probability in English

how to express likes and dislikes in English

how to express sequence and chronology in English

how to express shock and disbelief in English

how to express sympathy and condolences in English

how to give permission, authorization in English

how to inform somebody about some news in English

how to interpret what was said in English

how to keep a conversation going in English

how to make guesses about something in English

how to make, accept and refuse offers in English

how to order or make a booking in English

how to persuade, convince people in English

how to praise people and express appreciation in English

how to reassure somebody of something in English

how to refuse and object to something in English

how to remind people of something in English

how to rephrase, paraphrase what was said in English

how to say thank you, express gratitude in English

Nouns: Collective nouns (team, class, family, committee)

Nouns: Proper nouns (names of people, cities, companies)

Oxymorons (phrases with words of contradictory meaning, e.g. living dead)

Participles: Past participle (e.g. HAVING DONE)

Participles: Present participle (e.g. DOING)

Parts of Speech (aka word classes, e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs)

Past perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Phonetics (pronunciation, IPA, phonetic symbols)

Plural nouns: regular plurals with S ending

Prefixes (e.g. A, UN, IM, DIS, MIS, EN, etc. )

Prepositions vs adverbs (e.g. before me, saw him before.)

Prepositions: Double prepositions (e.g. out of)

Prepositions: Participle prepositions (e.g. pending, concerning)

Prepositions: Phrase prepositions (e.g. by means of)

Present perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Present perfect simple or present continuous tense

Present simple tense: S for third person singular verbs

Present simple vs continuous (progressive) tense

Pronouns: EACH OTHER, ONE ANOTHER (reciprocal pronouns)

Pronouns: Possessive pronouns (e.g. my, mine)

Pronouns: Reflexive pronouns (e.g. myself, yourself))

Pronouns: SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, EVERYBODY, NO ONE, NOTHING, etc.

Pronouns: THIS, THAT, THESE, THOSE (demonstratives)

Pronouns: YOU and THEY to talk about people in general

Quantifiers (e.g. some, many, much, any, few, little)

Questions: WH questions (open-ended questions)

Reported speech: reported questions (indirect questions)

There is / there are / there was / there were / there will be, etc.

Verbs: Transitive or intransitive verbs (words that can or cannot stand with objects)

Working with Paragraphs: ordering, titling

Role play, miming, drama activity or improv game

Pictionary (picture dictionary) or picture matching

Writing an opinion essay (persuasive essay)

Learners who are Pre-A1 have just begun learning English and will first learn how to:<ul><li>Say the letters in the alphabet and numbers</li><li>Say hello, talk about names and age</li><li>Name the colors and dates, express likes and dislikes</li></ul>

Absolute beginners who have begun to learn the letters and numbers

Learners taking the A1 Elementary exam should be able to:<ul><li>Introduce themselves and ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, things he/she has, people he/she knows.</li><li>Communicate using very basic phrases as long as the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: common adjectives & adverbs of frequency, going to, how much/how many, imperatives, I'd like, 's – possessive, common prepositions of place and time, present simple & continuous, there is/are</li></ul>

A very basic tourist level, which is enough for buying food and a bus ticket

Learners taking the A2 Pre-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand sentences and frequently used expressions (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment).</li><li>Complete tasks that are routine and exchange information about familiar matters.</li><li>Describe matters of immediate need in simple terms.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: countable/uncountable nouns, adverbs of frequency, future will/going to, much/many, present perfect, past simple, past continuous, common phrasal verbs, common modals: can/should</li></ul>

A tourist who can do basic conversations about the past, present and future

Learners taking the B1 Intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand points regarding family, work, school or leisure-related topics.</li><li>Deal with most travel situations in areas where the language is spoken.</li><li>Create simple texts on topics of personal interest.</li><li>Describe experiences, events, dreams, and ambitions, as well as opinions or plans in brief.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: question tags, intensifiers: too/enough, future tenses, past tenses, modals, conditionals, wh-questions in the past</li></ul>

Learners who can deal with both familiar and routine situations, in friendly and work contexts

Learners taking the B2 Upper-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialization.</li><li>Interact with fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without difficulty for either party.</li><li>Produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain an opinion on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: perfect tenses, mixed conditionals, modals in the present, phrasal verbs, reported speech, wish, relative clauses</li></ul>

The level where you can be a tour guide for your foreign friends and talk about a lot of topics, even abstract ones, with ease and fluency

Learners taking the C1 Advanced exam should be able to: Express ideas fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. Understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts. Produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, using linking phrases (=words that connect ideas between sentences). Main grammar points to know: inversion, mixed conditionals, modals in the past, all passive forms, phrasal verbs (all patterns), wish/if only for regrets

Learners who can smoothly communicate in every walk of life, read long texts and write well

Learners taking the C2 Proficient exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand almost everything read or heard with ease.</li><li>Summarize information from a variety of sources into a coherent presentation.</li><li>Express themselves using precise meaning in complex scenarios.</li><li>Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in the most complex situations</li></ul>

Get here and you are ready to study in English at university

18 At the gym, English ESL worksheets pdf & doc