Isometric Deck Of Cards Workout

Doing a deck of cards workout is quite challenging, especially if you put in specific reps for each suit. Although it's far more common today, these workouts were the foundation for many athletes and not always fore recreation or plain fitness. The most infamous athlete to do this type of workout was Karl Gotch but other athletes such as Ray Lewis, Mike Tyson, Ric Flair, Antonio Inoki and Herschel Walker would make the deck an alternative at times when it was needed.

You can put just about any exercise you want in a deck but it's more efficient if it was done bodyweight style because that way you get it done anywhere especially if you're traveling. Sometimes it's good to add a little flare to the deck or even change the entire complexity by doing something very unique. I'm talking about Isometrics.

Even with all the science and expertise, not many today still can't grasp the idea of Isometric Training. Unless you talk to guys like Bud Jeffries, Steve Justa, Steve Maxwell, Jarell Lindsey and a few others, Isometrics have become somewhat of a lost art as a pure common form of fitness training. Now let's take Isometric Exercise and apply it to the deck of cards. How the hell do you do that?

 Instead of doing the typical repetitions, you hold the positions for a count of seconds or breaths. Just holding for seconds alone can be tough but holding positions for breaths is a whole other ball game. What do I mean by this, well after you shuffled and flipped a card, say a 5 and it was a push-up; you do one full rep of a push-up but you count down from 5 in the upper, middle and low positions of that push-up and come back up and move onto another card or you can take 5 breaths in each position and then move on. For squats, I prefer wall sits but you can hold the half squat if you wish.

Now imagine going through a whole deck of this caliber. For the Matt Furey Exercise bible, it's the Hindu Push-up, Wall Sits, V-Up Hold & Tablemaker. If you drew a joker, that's 25-50 counts of a wall sit or you take in breaths which can last longer than seconds, could be a few minutes. It's a very different type of workout where you're focusing not so much on the muscles and speeding through, you're working the tendons and ligaments; strengthening bones and building strength from the inside out. There's no time limit for this workout because you never know how long you hold a position. This takes breathing to another level and you're going to feel amazing.

Now if you were to hold an abdominal exercise such as the sit-up or in my case the V-Up Hold, that's a bit more difficult to hold because this requires more balanced strength and it's definitely a full body hold and most can't hold it for more than a couple seconds. When I get that card, I would hold for as long as I can, come down and hold it again, repeat that until the count for that card is done (sucks the most if you get a face card). It's still a great exercise to test your balance and strength in a fixed position.

I've only done the Isometric deck on a couple occasions and the last one was a couple days ago. It's a different feel and you will sweat, maybe swear and learn a whole new meaning to the words Tendon Strength. This is like a concept martial artists such as Kung Fu masters, Karate guys and Shaolin Monks who would hold stances for extended periods of time and have strength not many can explain. The mindset to do this workout is in a class by itself and most people won't get through it.

Try it out for yourself and see how you do.