A Deck of Cards

I used to be member of the Matt Furey Inner Circle (now called the Furey Faithful). A while back, we all got a deck of cards called the Matt Furey Exercise Bible. It's a deck of cards with a cariacture of the man doing various exercises on each suit. The game is pretty simple: shuffle the cards, deal a card, and do the exercise shown on the card. The reps are determined by the value of the card. I thought that it was a neat idea but I never used them. They just hung around my workout room for the past two years.

Maybe the problem was that I'm a stubborn, do-it-myself loner when it comes to exercise. I've never liked doing specified routines handed to me. My routines are my works of art that I decide to paint on a given day or week. Besides, I've never seen a magic routine yet. Some work better than others. Most work well with enough heart and dedication put into them. Some principles in preset routines certainly have some noteworthy merit but I'd rather mix and bake as I see fit.

So, I stumbled upon these cards not too long ago and decided that after two years, they were worth a try. I elected to make my own, special rules for the Exercise Bible (I guess I could be presumptuous enough to call it the Justin_P Exercise Bible). I've had a few people ask me about my routine so I thought I'd share with you the rules to my Deck of Cards Workout.

The Set-up
1. Chose four exercises that you can do in one set of 45 reps without too much difficulty. It's also helpful if they're working the body in different directions and body parts. Assign each one to a suit. I really like Furey's selection of the Hindu Squats, Hindu Push-ups, V-ups, and tablemakers.

2. Use the two jokers. Each Joker will be 15 reps of 8 count bodybuilders.

3. The face cards will be 15 reps of the exercise on the suits.

4. You're going to be doing some pull-ups and chin-ups. You should only do them in sets of about 1/5-1/4 of the total reps you can do in one set. I do 8-10 reps.

Playing
1. Deal the cards in sets of 3-6 at a time. If you want more of a strength workout, deal in sets of 3. If you want a workout that's more geared to conditioning, deal them in sets of 5 or 6.

2. Do the exercises in the deal. Once you are finished, do a set of pulls or chins.

3. That's one set. Rest for a few moments, deal another round of cards and top of each set with a different chin-up or pull-up. Continue until you've gone through the deck.

If you want you modify this to suit your needs or wants, then have at it. In case it's not really obvious, I'm a firm believer in individuality when exercising. Try this out and have some fun with it!