Happy Friday, friends!
Am I ever glad to see this weekend. Anyone else feel like it took for.e.ver to get through this week? After being stuck in the office, I’m super pumped to be spending a large part of the next couple of days outside. Tomorrow I’ll be doing an early-morning workout before heading to Cypress Mountain to volunteer at the next 5 Peaks trail race in the BC series. After that, it’ll be time for some hiking action (and hopefully working on my tan too!) Sunday will be a bike ride with a group of friends out to a new-to-me lunch spot, some blog work, and (fingers crossed), a nap. Work hard, play hard, right? 😉
Work It Out
This week’s workout is another do-anywhere, no-equipment one – well, almost. You do need a deck of cards. As a kid, I decks of cards were for playing games like Go Fish, Speed, Crazy 8s and Snap with my sister while away on summer holidays. As a university student, they were for drinking games. (Oh how the times have changed. ;)) Now, they’re for workouts!
I created this little routine while running earlier this week and as soon as I finished, quickly scribbled the whole thing down because I was excited to give it a try for myself. It’ll work your entire body, keep your muscles guessing, and best of all, it’s really fun!
The Deck of Cards Workout
Shuffle up a deck of cards and assign an exercise to each of the suits – spades, diamonds, clubs and hearts. For this example, we’ll use the following:
- Spades – Sumo squats
- Diamonds – Tuck jumps
- Clubs – Push-ups
- Hearts – Jumping lunges
To start, lay 5 cards from the deck next to each other. Numbers on the cards (2-10) indicate the number of reps to do. So if you have a 5 of diamonds, that’s 5 tuck jumps. Jacks, queens and kings are 20 reps (ouch!), aces are 1 rep, and jokers are 20 reps of whatever you want – it doesn’t have to be one of the 4 listed above.)
Do the exercises for each of your 5 cards immediately after each other, then rest for 1-2 minutes while you deal out another 5. Repeat for as long as you have time for!
Here’s an example of one set:
And here it is, all in a pretty little picture:
Turn It Up
It seems I’ve really been feeling the girl power in my song choices these days, because this week’s tune is another from a female artist. I used to have a few Anjulie songs on my spin class playlists back in the day, and right now I’m loving her new one, Falling in Love Again. It’s got a nice little build up to each chorus, good for hitting the pedals hard. Let me know if you’re digging it too!
Have A Read
- 5 ways to stoke the training fire – via Ironman. Great if you need a little help staying motivated through training and keeping your eyes on the prize – like I do!
- Beginner’s Luck: Finding the confidence to reach your goals – via Competitor. Geared towards triathletes, but some good takeaways even if you’re not.
And last but not least…
Those of you who follow me on Facebook may already know this, but Vega’s having a massive contest as part of their #BestLifeProject initiative and the prize is pretty outstanding! You could win a 1 year supply of Vega, a Vitamix, and a $1,500 Visa gift card. You’ll also get a 20% off discount code for the Vega online store just for entering. Sweet, right? Enter here!
Now it’s your turn! Tell me…
- What are your weekend plans?
- What’s the most fun you’ve had doing a workout so far this summer?
Love this fun workout idea!
My most fun workout this summer was this past weekend. My husband and I went backcountry camping on the Bruce Trail, which involves a fairly tough hike with a heavy pack, needless to say, my legs were quite tired by the end of the weekend, but it was worth it!
That sounds so lovely, Cara! I’ve hiked bits of the Bruce Trail in the past, but haven’t done much camping. To be honest, I’m more of a ‘glamper’, but I do really love hiking!) I’m glad you had such a good time, and what a great way to spend the weekend together!
Part of my weekend plans involve doing this workout. HOW FUN!
Aside from that, I have a couple workouts, a BBQ with friends and some family time. Love so much fun at the 5 Peaks race – I wish I was there to go hiking with you!
Mmmm BBQ sounds so lovely… I really, really miss having one! Say hello to your fam for me! 🙂
I will have to try this. I have done the dice workout but not the deck of cards workout. Have you done/heard of the dice workout?
hahaha I can agree with you on this, decks of cards were for playing games like Go Fish, Speed, Crazy 8s and Snap while away on summer holidays. As a university student, they were for drinking games. Many uses for them!!! Just to point out the example you put up is wrong. You said Jacks, queens and kings are 20 reps and in the example there is a Jack clubs and you put 15 push ups. I’m guessing you can change each card to whatever exercise you like, so hearts could be crunches.
Hey Adam, sorry for the delayed response and thank you for pointing out that mistake! I promise I wasn’t playing any drinking card games while putting this together! 😉
that’s no problem. If it wasn’t me it could have been someone else. I hope you don’t think I was criticizing?
Are you sure about that one? You coud have been playing a drinking game and came up with the idea 🙂