An exercise is a special, highly constrained activity that you do in order to develop a certain skill or lead your mind to discovery.

Some exercises

Who Where What
Three Line Scene
Location Exercise
Up to Spec
Name The Game
Raising The Stakes Two Line Drill
Listening Exercise
Expand Or Contract Exercise
Cocktail Party
Silent Cuts
Find a Theme
Remote-control storyteller
Definition Point Circle
Whats in the Box?
No Questions, No Denials
Who are you?

...please add more...

The resistance to doing an exercise

Sometimes we feel ourselves resisting doing an Exercise, because we think it's an affront to our independence and individuality. "Why should I do it just like that? What if I've got other ideas? This isn't how I do improv." Indeed, if you couldn't follow your inspiration like that, there wouldn't be much point in doing improv.

Yet, to get the most out of an Exercise, it helps to follow it exactly. The point of an Exercise is to lead your mind beyond what you would think of if you didn't do the Exercise.

When you do an Exercise, you have a certain kind of experience, which no amount of explanation or forethought could enable you to anticipate. It's the experience that teaches, and you don't have that experience unless you allow yourself to have it--by really playing along with the constraints of the Exercise.

The strange thing is that by having that experience, you discover more of your unique individuality. The constraints lead to discovery.

Happily, you can do Exercises and follow your intuitions without constraint. When the Exercise is over, then you can follow all those other ideas and inspirations. You can treat each Exercise as a temporary experiment. Indeed that's all an Exercise is.