Sometimes, creativity doesn’t come easily. This is certainly true when it comes to developing workouts. And considering that staying motivated can be the single most challenging aspect of working out, creativity becomes even more crucial to help keep you going.
When you’re bored to tears with your current workout program, you don’t feel like spending a lot of money on fitness or you find yourself just going through the motions when you hit the gym, it’s time to get the creative juices flowing and infuse some inexpensive spontaneity into your fitness program.
This month, we’re going to help you get creative. We’ve always held it to be true that as long as you have gravity, you can get a good workout. But if you can invest in a couple of dumbbells ($1—$1.50 per lb.), resistance bands ($10—$35) and a door-mounted chin-up bar ($20—$50), all the better. Combine these tools with the power of good workout partners, and you should be able to pick yourself up out of the fitness doldrums and into a fun, spontaneous workout. The workout we’re referring to is called “The Deck of Cards,” and it’s a great way to get your crew or friends involved in a creative and butt-kicking workout.
The Deck of Cards
Here’s how it works: As you know, a standard deck of cards has four suits: hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades. The idea is to assign a specific exercise to each suit. This works out nicely because you can either work the “push-pull” angle (working opposing muscle groups) or you can simply make the four suits the arms, legs, back and abdominals. For example, if you choose to work opposing muscle groups during your workout, you could assign pull-ups to clubs and incline push-ups to spades, lunges to hearts and hanging knee raises to diamonds.
Further, you don’t have to focus on isolating muscle groups. You can incorporate into your program exercises that recruit multiple muscle groups, such as burpees, squat jumps, push-ups and lunges. (See the sidebar “Good Exercises for the ‘Deck of Cards’ Workout.”)
Once you’ve selected the exercises for the day’s workout, break out the deck of cards and get busy. Shuffle the cards well. As you flip the cards over one at a time, do the prescribed exercise the number of times designated by the number on the card. Aces are equal to 11 reps and all face cards are 10. Regardless of the card’s number designation, any static exercise should be held for 30 seconds. Also, peek at the next card before you begin each exercise. If it’s the same suit, add the reps and do them all in one set.
Incorporating equipment isn’t a problem even if you’re limited on how many people can use any one piece at a time. Simply assign each suit to a specific exercise for a specific person. For example: Jeff, Matt, Kevin and Gil want to do the Deck of Cards workout. They’d like to include incline bench presses, pull-ups, weighted squats and V-ups. Because they only have one bench, pull-up bar and squat rack, they can’t all do the exercises at the same time.
Clubs will be Jeff’s bench press, spades his pull-ups, hearts his squats and diamonds his V-ups. Matt would have spades be his bench, hearts his pull-ups, diamonds his squats and clubs his V-ups, and so on for Kevin and Gil. It may seem complicated, but if you jot it down in simple chart form on index cards, it’ll be easy to follow. Other exercises that also work well with this type of workout: kettle bell swings, jumping rope and get-ups.
As you finish each exercise, keep your rest time to a minimum. Flip the next card as soon as you’ve completed the previous exercise. Don’t forget to peek at the following card so you get the added benefit of compounding reps without rest if the suit is the same.
Get Playin’
The Deck of Cards workout may sound silly at first, but it’s a great way to break out of your workout mold. Mixing things up and working several muscle groups in a short period of time helps with muscle integration and balances muscle development.
Save your workouts on index cards if you’ve found them to be particularly satisfying. If you want to really mix things up, have four people assign each suit without knowing what the others are and then go with it. Don’t forget to give those muscles plenty of rest once the delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) sets in. (For more on DOMS, read “Ouch! It hurts, but muscle soreness is key to muscle strength” on the FireRescue blog on FirefighterNation.com.)
The bottom line: Have fun with it. Keep it interesting and get your friends or crewmates involved. The synergistic effect of team training is profound. You’re more motivated to participate, compete and complete your workout, which is a win/win for all parties involved.
Good Exercises for the “Deck of Cards” Workout
- Planks
- Lunges
- Hanging knee raises
- Push-ups
- Pull-ups
- Burpees
- Sit-ups
- Squats
- Chair dips
- Wall squats
- Incline
- bench press
- V-ups
