A Deck Of Wild Cards

I was reading an older article of mine yesterday and it got me thinking; a workout that was simple, basic but fun to do and can be done quickly so I ended up doing it. It was a deck of cards workout that would be cool to share with that can aid in amplifying conditioning in a very cool and very unboring way.

So for today you don't get 1 but 2 workouts that can get you going. This was a very cool session of flipping a card and getting to move like a wild animal. The objective is to get through the deck as fast as you can but still on good form and getting them lungs firing. It didn't take me too long to get through the deck so it wasn't difficult but wasn't easy either. Most of the cards had me bending my legs either in a full deep squat or partial squat that really hit the muscles everywhere. You pick 4 animals to the regular cards like spades, clubs ect. but the jokers if you had two or three you pick up to 2-3 animals so you can get a variety of movement that isn't on one area of muscles but multiple muscle groups.

I have a deck of Indiana Jones playing cards that are just bad ass to use working out or not and that alone fires me up because come on man its Indy. If you can find a deck of wild animals on the cards that's even better because it gives you a better visualization; oh wait a second I think I found some here. This kind of workout can be done by anyone and you can go as fast or slow as you want all that matters is its fun and doesn't feel like working out. Here is the example I'm speaking of...

Spades= Bear Crawls
Clubs= Monkey Crawl
Hearts= Duck Walks
Diamonds= Chimp Walk
Jokers= Octopus/Starfish/Condor

You can pick other animals if you wish, be creative and do your favorites. For reps its very simple; face value is 2-10 as you see on the cards, Aces are 11-20, King/Queen/Jack is 10-15. Set a timer and have at it. If you can't get through the deck at first that's ok keep building up. Once you beat the deck go for time and really spice up the intensity but don't ever lose form and get sloppy, we want you to be safe and have fun not be lazy and injure yourself. Pay attention to your breathing, count out loud if you want I do that but my motto is to count backwards instead of forward. If it becomes too easy no matter animal you throw in the mix, double the reps and really make it interesting. Normally a deck of cards for training is usually doing Push-ups & Squats which are great i''ve done it many times but I tend to get bored with doing the same one or two movements; my philosophy is to make things interesting and enjoyable but challenging as well. Push-ups & Squats are foundational exercises for sure but eventually it can wear thin and its going to be really boring going just up and down. With Animal Exercises you move in all sorts of directions and your imagination is more open to possibilities.

Have fun with this workout and let me know how it goes for you.

Product Of The Day: Animal Kingdom Conditioning

My all-time favorite fitness book. This course takes away those "human" exercises that can be so tedious and boring and take you to a world full of wonders, possibilities and most of all the imagination. Learn about the strength of animals as you go through this course and mimic the very best of the wild kingdom. There's exercises that have going on all fours, jumping on two feet, hopping on one leg and having you moving more naturally forward, backwards, side ways, long ways, up ways and down ways (sorry got into my willy wonka mode, I miss Gene Wilder RIP bro). It takes you into the jungle that can aid in building functional strength, conditioning, endurance, mobility, brain activity, tendon strength and much much more.

Darebee Of The Day: The Ivy Workout

Now this workout does have simple bodyweight exercises but you can make them even more fun when you ladies imagine yourself as Gotham's Villainous Goddess of Plants World (that was a mouthful). This fun workout has you doing movements that are based on that of the Ballerina & Yoga that strengthens and tones the muscles in the arms, legs and butt so you know you're training those hard to develop type muscles that women are frustrated with. Takes roughly 35 minutes to complete or you can make it shorter by either doing only 3 sets at Level 1 or you can build yourself up progressively by cutting the reps in half and go from there. If you're a lean and mean Goddess of Plants you can double the reps and see how far you get or go for 10 sets of the regular reps, if you can pull that off you would make the majority of men envy of your conditioning and not to mention having an insanely built physique of a Greek Goddess. Enjoy....