Dungeons & Dragons workouts put a fantasy spin on physical fitness

Dungeons & Dragons may not seem like an obvious place to get inspiration for fitness, but tabletop RPG writer and fitness enthusiast Steve Huynh has found a way to combine two of his favorite hobbies in a new workout guide.

The Earned Workout Guide is a new fitness guide written by Huynh, which features exercises inspired by and named after various subclasses in Dungeons & Dragons 5e. Workouts are organized by those subcategories and Challenge Ratings, or “CR” on a scale of 1 to 20. Suggested regimens vary greatly from beginner-specific workouts that only require you to be out of the house for a certain amount of time to vigorous body movements and lifts.

Huynh is a Toronto-based TTRPG writer and designer who has been playing Dungeons & Dragons since high school. However, his passion for exercise didn’t develop until after college, when he joined a fitness group that helped him fall in love with it.

“I realized I was finding a community, and that really motivated me, because I was on a certain level [and] Huynh said in a recent interview with Polygon about his workout guide.

While the guide was written with Dungeons & Dragons fans in mind, Huynh hopes it will help bridge the gap for anyone struggling to reach their fitness goals.

“In my personal experience, the majority of people have some experience with physical fitness […] But I would like to say that many people are missing something, Huynh said. “I hope this text helps people see where this gap really is. […] We hope it helps this kind of person to get out and start achieving their goals.”

Huynh also focuses much of his guide on accessibility across body types and experience levels, because he hopes beginners will learn to find joy in their bodies.

“I do my best to talk about accessibility, because I think people should know that there are at least people trying to break down systems,” Huynh said. He hopes that his guide, especially for beginners and relative fitness outsiders, will kind of help motivate them to understand that their fitness journey, goals, and fun—are their own, and that may not fit the mold that people want. ”

Huynh also hopes to use Dungeons & Dragons as a lens to help examine the world of fitness more meaningfully and make it more accessible to others — as well as more fun.

“I think I can use Dungeons & Dragons to continue talking about toxicity in fitness culture,” he said, as well as “how athletes should see and frame their fitness journey, focusing less on aesthetics and more on joy.”