by
Mike Geary
, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer
Author of best-seller:
The Truth about Six-Pack Abs
Instructions:
1. Use all 54 cards (including the jokers).
2. One player pulls a card for the second person, who performs the
exercise and number of reps as described in the table below.
3. Immediately after this person completes their exercise repetitions, they pull a card for the other person.
4. Keep switching back and forth until you've gone through all 54 cards for a fun and intense full-body workout that strengthens and tones the entire body
, while stimulating the metabolism, and burning serious fat.
If you don't have a training partner, you can try this workout by
yourself as a great variation to your normal routines; finish as much of
the deck as you can and work your way up to the full deck after several
weeks or months.
Progression: At first, if you know a lot about exercise science, you may think that one flaw to these workouts is that there's no progression. As you can see with these workouts, your exercise sequence will be completely random and different every time you do one of these workouts (since you draw the cards in a different sequence every time), but there's the exact same amount of reps for a specific workout in a deck of cards, right?
Yes, but there are more ways to progress on an exercise routine than just reps! So...
Here's how you progress and improve...
What you need to do is time yourself (with a stop watch or
exact time on a wall clock) how long it takes you (or you and your
partner) to go through the entire deck of cards. You make improvements
by reducing the amount of time it takes to make it through all exercises
and reps in the entire deck of cards. This essentially means that
you're increasing the exercise "density" by doing the same exact amount
of exercise in a shorter time period...a classic method of progression!
Fitness Card Game #1 (bodyweight exercises example)
perform the # of repetitions of squats or pushups based on the # on the card
Example: Red 8 = eight bodyweight squats
Example: Black 6 = six pushups
* exercise descriptions and pics are at the bottom of the page
Fitness Card Game #2 (barbell/dumbbell example)
Instructions:
1. Here's an example routine to use the deck of cards to really shake up your weight training routine in the gym. Just grab a couple sets of dumbbells, set up a barbell with weight for deadlifts, and use a flat bench for your step ups, dumbbell bench press, and one arm rows.
2. All you need is a small area to do these so you don't have to move all over the gym from exercise to exercise.
3. Use all 54 cards (including the jokers).
4. One player pulls a card for the second person, who performs the exercise and number of reps as described in the table below.
5. Immediately after this person completes their exercise repetitions, they pull a card for the other person.
6. Keep switching back and forth until you've gone through all 54 cards for a fun and intense full-body workout that strengthens and tones the entire body, while stimulating the metabolism, and burning serious fat.
If you don't have a training partner, you can try this workout by yourself as a great variation to your normal routines; finish as much of the deck as you can and work your way up to the full deck after several weeks or months.
Example: Red 8 = eight overhead dumbbell presses
Example: Black 6 = six barbell deadlifts
Fitness Card Game #3 (bodyweight exercises example)
Instructions:
1. Use all 54 cards (including the jokers).
2. One player pulls a card for the second person, who performs the
exercise and number of reps as described in the table below.
3. Immediately after this person completes their exercise repetitions, they pull a card for the other person.
4. Keep switching back and forth until you've gone through all 54 cards
for a fun and intense full-body workout that strengthens and tones the
entire body, while stimulating the metabolism, and burning serious
fat.
If you don't have a training partner, you can try this workout by
yourself as a great variation to your normal routines; finish as much of
the deck as you can and work your way up to the full deck after several
weeks or months.
perform the # of repetitions of squats or pushups based on the # on the card
Example: Red 8 = eight bodyweight squats
Example: Black 6 = six pushups
* exercise descriptions and pics are at the bottom of the page
Fitness Card Game #4 (bodyweight exercises example)
Instructions:
1. Use all 54 cards (including the jokers).
2. One player pulls a card for the second person, who performs the
exercise and number of reps as described in the table below.
3. Immediately after this person completes their exercise repetitions, they pull a card for the other person.
4. Keep switching back and forth until you've gone through all 54 cards
for a fun and intense full-body workout that strengthens and tones the
entire body, while stimulating the metabolism, and burning serious
fat.
If you don't have a training partner, you can try this workout by
yourself as a great variation to your normal routines; finish as much of
the deck as you can and work your way up to the full deck after several
weeks or months.
perform the # of repetitions of squats or pushups based on the # on the card
Example: Red 8 = eight bodyweight squats
Example: Black 6 = six pushups
* exercise descriptions and pics are at the bottom of the page
Fitness Card Game #5 - The "Ab Assault"
Instructions:
1. Use all 54 cards (including the jokers).
2. One player pulls a card for the second person, who performs the
exercise and number of reps as described in the table below.
3. Immediately after this person completes their exercise repetitions, they pull a card for the other person.
4. Keep switching back and forth until you've gone through all 54 cards
for a fun and intense full-body workout that strengthens and tones the
entire body, while stimulating the metabolism, and burning serious
fat.
If you don't have a training partner, you can try this workout by
yourself as a great variation to your normal routines; finish as much of
the deck as you can and work your way up to the full deck after several
weeks or months.
perform the # of repetitions of squats or pushups based on the # on the card
Example: Red 8 = eight bodyweight squats
Example: Black 6 = six pushups
* exercise descriptions and pics are at the bottom of the page
Exercise Descriptions
bodyweight squats -
stand with feet slightly wider than shoulder width and arms
held straight out in front of body; keeping your weight back on your
heels instead of the balls of your feet, squat down and back by "sitting
back" with your hips; squat down until your thighs are parallel to the
ground, and then push back up to starting position. For a more difficult
version, try jump squats in which you forcefully explode up on the
squat so that you actually jump off the ground, then come right back
down into the next jump squat on your landing.
walking lunges -
lunge forward until your thigh is approximately parallel to
the ground; make sure to take a long enough stride so that your knee
does not extend past your toes and your shin is nearly vertical; from
that position, move directly into the lunge forward with the opposite
leg; you will essentially lunge walk across the room or field and
back.
standing reverse lunges -
lunge backwards bringing the front thigh down to parallel with
the ground; knee should not go forward past toes and keep shin
vertical; alternate legs
mountain climbers -
get down on hands and feet in pushup position; quickly bring
one leg in so it's under chest; quickly switch to other leg; keep
quickly switching legs so that it looks as if you were climbing a
mountain
mountain jumpers -
get down on hands and feet in pushup position; quickly bring
both legs in so they are under chest and immediately pop back out to
starting position; keep quickly "jumping" both legs in so that it looks
as if you were jumping, while on the ground.
ab bicycles -
Start by lying on your back on a mat with both your hips and
your knees at 90ï‚° angles and your head and shoulders slightly lifted
off the ground with your fingers touching the sides of your head (not
pulling on the back of your head). Perform the movement by crunching the
left side of your upper body off the floor and bringing your left elbow
and right knee together simultaneously. Then extend your right knee out
and bring your right elbow and left knee together simultaneously. This
ends up almost mimicking a bicycling movement in a lying position,
except keeping your legs moving in and out linearly instead of
cyclically.
ab scissors -
lie on your back; with legs straight and out about 45 degrees
from vertical and arms out straight and back about 45 degrees from
vertical, bring legs and arms up together and cross slightly as in a
"scissor" motion.
bear crawls -
get down on hands and feet and crawl forward on hands and feet (not knees) across room or field and back
crab walks -
sit down on the ground with your hands behind your back and
feet on the ground in front of you; then elevate your waist off the
ground so that your weight is on your feet and the palms of your hands
and your torso is nearly parallel to the ground; then walk forward using
your hands and feet
reverse crunches -
lie on your back with your feet flat on the floor, your knees
at a 90ï‚° angle, your palms on the floor by your hips, and your head
and shoulders slightly lifted off the ground. Slowly crunch your lower
body off the ground by curling your pelvis back toward your head. Do not
use momentum. Rather, use your abdominal strength to perform the
movement.
lying leg thrusts -
2 part movement; lie on your back with your head and shoulders
raised off of the floor, your hands (palms down) on the mat by your
hips, and your legs at a 90ï‚° angle from the floor. Slowly lower your
legs only half way to the floor to an angle of approximately 45ï‚° from
the floor. From the 45ï‚° position, raise your legs back up to the 90ï‚°
position, and then thrust your hips off the floor about 6-8 inches.
breakdancers -
get down in pushup position; bring right leg under body so
that it nearly touches the left hand; immediately reverse movement and
bring left leg under body to near the right hand; it should look like a
jumping action, almost like elementary breakdancing.
military burpees -
start in a normal athletic stance; lean fwd and drop down
quickly to floor and immediately into pushup position with arms
extended; then pull legs back in under body and immediately jump back up
to a stance.
opposite raise on hands/knees -
assume a position on your hands and knees. Raise your right
arm and left leg out simultaneously and hold for three seconds. Repeat
movement with the opposite leg and arm. Alternate reps from side to
side.
duck waddles -
squat all the way down with your butt near your heels; without
getting up, walk or waddle forward; kind of resembles of duck
walking…your partner will be laughing at how goofy you look doing
this!
These card game workouts are fun!
...and a great way to "spice" up your workouts. Feel free to
share this page with any friends, family, or colleagues you know that
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