Steve Haywood Health & Fitness

This workout is great if you’re a bit bored of the same old routine. Mix it up a bit by gambling on your exercises. Will it be a sit up? or will it be press-up? Let the cards decide.

First get changed for a bit of a workout. Next get your pack of cards. You now need 4 exercises that involve little or no equipment:- eg ab curls, back extension, side bridge (each side), bicep curls (see the Gym Free Workout Guides for more ideas).
Each exercise then needs to be associated with a suit of cards:-

1. Eg abs curl – diamonds
2. Back extension – clubs
3. Side bridge – spades
4. Eccentric curl- hearts.

Remember that aces are high, they count as 11.
Warm up firstly. Then, with the pack facing down, turn over the top card and perform the required number of exercises:-

1. Eg 10 of spades- 10 side bridges to each side then -
2. 6 of diamonds- 6 abs curls

There is no break between exercises but neither is there a rush, always take time to think about correct technique.

Never try to go through the whole pack as that is 95 of each exercise times 4 giving 380 exercises. If you are a beginner try 10 minutes for starters and see how you feel the following day. For more seasoned exercisers try 20 minutes of one group of exercises, shuffle the pack and change to another four, with a maximum of an hour ie 3 x 4 exercises.

This way of training is great fun as it relies totally on the run of the cards so you may get hammered on one exercise and virtually nothing on another. I would recommend this type of workout no more than once a week. Remember to cool down and stretch afterwards.