Deck of Cards

[Greeneggs&ham]

A friend has been telling me about his latest exercise routine which I wanted to share with everyone since it is fairly easy, adaptable, and requires nothing but a deck of standard playing cards.

Simply shuffle a deck of cards. Predetermine 4 exercises of your choice and assign them to a suit (i.e. hearts=pushups; spades=crunches; diamonds=squats; clubs=jumping jacks). Turn the top card over and do the number of repetitions per the number on the card (face cards count as ten). Work your way through the deck.

The original directions were to make all aces count as 1 minute breaks. For those more fit, you might want to make aces a 1 minute exercise (i.e. run in place). I do the latter and add two jokers which are my breaks.

Since you pick the exercises, this can be easily tailored to your fitness level and you can easily alternate upper or lower body from day to day. It makes for an easy travel option, and I include my kids by having them each pick an exercise, let the youngest turn over the cards, and we all get in shape as a family.

The first time I tried it, it seemed too easy in the beginning (per the exercise examples above), but about half way into the deck I was sweating. I had a face card late in the deck for pushups and barely eked out the 10 reps, when my daughter announced the next card for 8 more. I had to do them on my knees! Thank goodness the last few cards were jumping jacks.

[chinadoll]

Interesting idea for a boot camp day Eric! Out of curiosity, how long does it take to go through the deck?

[buddysgirl50]

LOL must take a while ..she isn't back yet

[stacy3477]

Very cool idea! I'm definitely trying it on my next trip out of town!

[neutronnorman]

Sounds like a discrete probability distribution exercise. But it is a good idea. In fact, it is a very clever idea.

[Greeneggs&ham]

Originally Posted by chinadoll

Out of curiosity, how long does it take to go through the deck?

It takes me about 20-30 minutes to complete a deck depending on which combination of exercises I pick.