A great workout should never be complicated. When it comes to your conditioning, it is one of the best assets you can ever have and it's important to know that you don't need some manual telling you to use 12 pieces of equipment or get lost in the shuffle because some dude decided you're better off doing making it harder than it needs to be.
One of my personal favorite workouts to stay in solid condition is using the Dopa Band and a Deck Of Cards. That's really it. The cards are your coach and unlike a typical training partner, that deck doesn't negotiate.
Here's the setup I use:
Hearts = Chest Flys
Diamonds = Wave Pulls
Spades = Squats (Underhook is my go to)
Clubs = Dopa Skis
Jokers = Propellers
Now for the numbers game:
2-10 = Whatever that card is
K/Q/J = 10 reps
Aces = 16 reps
Jokers = 50 Propellers
One full deck is 500 total reps in this capacity.
Can't have a crazed workout without a joker. There's a reason behind that. The propeller is the king of the conditioning exercises in the Dopamineo Arsenal.
Start shuffling and be ready to pull the cards. You may start with 5 Chest Flys, seems easy enough right? A 9 of clubs comes up and you got Squats to do. 10 Diamond and you've got your Wave Pulls. All of a sudden, the Joker appears. The deck has decided that if you thought you had it easy, it doesn't care, it will kick your ass whether you like it or not.
What is the Outlook on this kind of Conditioning???
It's not always about the reps. It's the constant change that truly makes the difference. Moving from exercise to exercise which can start out hard or easy. It doesn't settle something predictable throughout, so you have to constantly adapt. The randomization isn't some gimmick, it's more philosophical or a different view point of how life can be. Things aren't always planned out. You have unexpected challenges and things can change in the blink of an eye. Just when you thought you were comfortable, a joker will laugh and say "you're shit out of luck, get to work or quit." That happens in life often.
You're not always in control of the cards you're dealt with. You can however, learn to control how you react to them and be prepared to deal with it. This lesson is more than just a workout, it's expecting the unexpected. You never know what what will come up so you adapt to what will be in front of you. A carryover beyond the aspects of conditioning.
Care to attempt this twice???
Going through this monstrous workout a couple times in a row creates a unique amount of work that forces you to maintain pace and technique as the fatigue builds up. Trust me, I've done it and although I enjoy a challenge, this will test your sanity. Getting through the first deck consistently may seem comfortable but doing a second time may have you questioning your life choices. Can you keep up with yourself? Maintain form with precision? Be able to follow through the work volume without falling apart? This is where your conditioning is truly tested.
It's not about survival. It's the development that builds the ability to withstand a workload that is unpredictable and having the guts to keep performing. That in turn is useful more than than you may want to believe. The real world won't always warn you what will come next which makes the deck no less different.
Get to shuffling....
The band is the resistance and the cards provide the randomness. A joker will sooner or later be a reminder that you should have read the fine print. You provide the effort. Can't control what comes next, the only thing you can control is the reaction. That's real conditioning with a bit of philosophy thrown in. Shuffle the cards, start flipping, do the work and repeat until you can do a full deck.
Be amazingly awesome and hope you succeed in your endeavors. Go to Dopamineo.com, pick your band, get familiar with the exercises and see what you're made of with the Deck Of Cards workout (Use Code POWERANDMIGHT at checkout). One of my favorite decks to use is the Dark Knight Deck from Theory 11.
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