Playing Cards is a work out!

Last night we opted to not go to the gym. Instead we used a deck of cards for our work out. It was actually fun! I think it was more fun to watch Caedmon and Savannah try to do sit ups, push ups and squats though. They really got into it!

For all of you that can’t get to the gym or prefer not to, here is what you do. Take a full deck of cards and assign each suit an exercise. Something like this:

Spades: Sit Ups (the style can vary)
Hearts: Squats
Diamonds: Push Ups
Clubs: Pull Ups (or if you are me and can’t do more than say 3 pull ups on a good day, I did bent over rows using 15 or 20 lb dumb bells)

Shuffle your cards and then start flipping them over one at a time. If you flip over a 5 of Hearts that means you do 5 squats; if you flip over an Ace of Diamonds you do 14 push ups. Complete the entire deck of card; YES all 52!

Once you’ve completed the entire deck of cards you will have completed 104 push ups, 104 squats, 104 sit ups, and 104 pull ups (err..good luck on that one!). Best of all, you can change the exercises to whatever you want: box jumps, burpees, wall balls and if you have actual weights to use – your possibilities are endless.

PS. You can also add running into the mix; every time you pull a Joker card out of the deck, run ¼ of a mile.

It’s a fun little work out and because you are doing each set back to back you get your heart pumping! Enjoy!