Turn workouts into a fun game with just a deck of cards! Whether rain or shine, work up a good sweat and stay healthy by doing the Deck of Cards workout! Each workout lasts for about 15 to 30 minutes depending on the speed and intensity of the cards you draw. You don’t have to worry about doing repeated workout routines anymore!
Materials needed for Deck of Cards Workout
As the name suggests, the main item needed is a deck of cards. We catered the instructions for a standard 52 deck of cards, although this can also be adapted to other cards with numbers such as a deck of UNO cards.
Before starting the workout, you can also ensure that there are other accessories such as:
- An exercise mat for extra support
- Water to hydrate
- light weights or resistance bands
How to do the Deck of Cards Workout
1. Pick four exercise moves
To ensure a full-body workout, you can pick four exercises that focus on different areas of the body.
Lower-body workout: Squats, lunges, bridges, calf raises etc
Upper-body workout: Push-ups, shoulder press, triceps dips etc
Core workout: Sit-ups, leg lifts, plank-jacks, oblique twists etc
Cardio workout: Jumping jacks, high knees, mountain climbers, burpees etc
Alternatively, you can also pick four random exercises that you enjoy doing and is suitable for your body. Do note that static exercises such as planks and squat holds do not work as well for the nature of this Deck Of Cards workout as these are meant to be done as repetitions. (Unless you wish to hold a plank for more than 10 minutes)
2. Assign Each Exercise to a Suit in the Deck
Next, assign each of your four exercises to one of the suits of cards.
For example:
Diamonds = Squats
Hearts = Push-ups
Spades = Jumping Jacks
Clubs = Sit-ups
To help you remember which exercise is associated with which suit, you can write it down on a piece of paper for easy reference. Alternatively, you can write it on a whiteboard for easy reference.
3. Know the number of repetitions
The number or number equivalent of the card you draw from the deck is the number of reps you’ll perform. If you wish to make this a long drawn out workout, you can also take it as the total number of sets that you will do.
As the face cards, the jacks, queens and aces, do not have numbers there are many variations that you can do.
You could choose to assign each face card the equivalent of 10 repetitions, so that no matter which faces card you draw, you always perform the same number of reps.
You could assign each face card a different number of repetitions. For instance, jacks might represent 11 reps, queens 12 reps, and kings 13 reps.
You may also choose to remove the face cards for this activity altogether.
In either scenario, decide what to do with aces and the joker card. Similarly, you can treat them as a face card, assigning them the equivalent of 10 or more repetitions, or you can treat them as one, assigning them a single repetition. There is also the option for taking the joker card as a wild card and using that as a static exercise for a fixed amount of time, such as a 1-minute plank or a 30-second squat hold.
4. Draw a card and get started!
Shuffle your cards and pull the first card from the deck. Perform the designated exercise for the assigned number of repetitions, then immediately pull another card from the deck. Try to reduce the time in between, but always listen to your body and take a break if needed.
The set ends when you’ve completed the different exercises or you’ve done a satisfactory number of rounds per exercise. Parents can do this along with their child for a time of bonding a fun. For other interesting indoor exercises to do with your child, click the link here.
