A Deck of Cards Workout

If you read my post yesterday, you saw I went to Boot Camp. My friend Rachel was teaching and she killed us with her "deck of cards" workout (among other things!). Rachel, if you are reading, I am so sore today! I thought it was an awesome way to mix things up, add an element of surprise, and I think this is definitely something you could do at home. A husband vs. wife challenge, perhaps? Or have a friend(s) over and try this workout on for size.

Ok, here's how it works. There are four suits in a deck of cards: hearts, diamonds, spades and clubs. Next, choose four different exercises to perform. Try to select exercises that work different areas of your body. For our workout yesterday, we did the following (I think I am remembering correctly; I might have blacked out at one point!):

Hearts: jumping jacks

Diamonds: squats

Spades: squat thrusts 

Clubs: high knees

Jumping jacks and squats are pretty self-explanatory. Squat thrusts involve squatting down, placing your hands on the ground in front of you, jumping both feet backward so you are in a plank position, then jumping your feet forward again, standing up, and finishing with a jump with hands in the air. Killer. And high knees are just jogging high knee style, one "high knee" is counted after lifting both right and left knees. 

Next, grab some water, turn on some good music and shuffle the deck. Turn the top card over. If it's a seven of hearts, perform seven jumping jacks. If it's a queen of spades, do twelve squat thrusts. Aces are low, so thankfully those only involve doing one of whatever exercise you have chosen. If you have jokers in the deck, use them to take a water break and a pulse check. And yes, go through the WHOLE deck! You will be sweating and calories will be burned. And you didn't even have to go to a gym!

I've challenged Mike to a workout, but I have to recover first. My muscles are still a little sore!