At Home Workout Series #2 – You Gotta Play The Hand That’s Dealt Ya!

In this second at home workout, you’re going to need 1 piece of equipment that most of us have around the house, and a lot of us have gotten very familiar with these past few weeks – a deck of cards. Some of you may already be familiar with this workout, but I’m going to mix things up a little bit if you’re already familiar with it – Let’s dive in!

The workout goes like this:

• Remove any jokers and shuffle a standard 52 card deck.
• Decide how brave you’re feeling, in all seriousness, what “level” are you? Be honest here, and select your number appropriately, but no less than 10 cards. If you’re feeling strong, go for the entire deck if you think you can manage.
• Got your number? Good, now deal those cards – face down and put the remainder back in the pack.
• Choose your muscle group from the list below.
• Turn over your first card and get to work!

Whatever number is on the card is how many of each exercise you will perform, the suit will determine the exercise. Each face card (Jack, Queen, King) are 10, and aces – well, they’re 11.

Upper body:
Hearts: Push-ups
Diamonds: Chair Triceps Dips
Clubs: Pike Presses
Spades:Back Widow (paper plates underneath elbows)

Lower Body:
Hearts: Body Weight Squats (2 per number)
Diamonds: Alternating Leg Lunges (both legs = 1)
Clubs: Glute Bridge
Spades: Body Weight Calf Raises

Core:
Hearts: Sit-ups (2 per number)
Diamonds: Superman (or Superwoman!) (2 second hold per number)
Clubs: Bicycle Crunches (2 per number)
Spades: Plank (3 seconds per number)

Yes, there’s a lot of fate at play here in how tough your workout could be. You MIGHT get a good hand – all 2’s, 3’s and 4’s, but you might also get a hand of aces and kings. You MIGHT get stuck doing just one exercise until you hate it, you never know.

This is a fun way though to break up the uncertainty of what to do in your home gym, and this requires no gym equipment, just a deck of cards, so once this quarantine stuff has passed, carry a deck of cards on vacation, or on business trips, and you’ll always have an easy way to work out.

Have fun with this, mix it up and push yourself! Mix and match the different muscle groups into one workout if you want to, but above all, push yourself! If you get an easy hand, by all means, deal yourself a few more cards – just try to avoid the aces!

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