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I am publishing the workouts we use for the calisthenic portion of the workouts we do at the fitness platoon. These are good workouts to do if you are training to go to boot camp, or if you simply want to be fit like a Marine.
It typically takes about 20 minutes to do this workout.
Directions
Mark up a deck of cards with the exercises listed below. To workout, simply flip the card and do whatever is on the face of it. The goal is to get through the deck as fast as possible to keep the heart rate up. Because the order of the exercises are never the same, there is variety built into these workouts.
Details
For a two-count exercise you count each portion of a movement. There are two counts in one regular push-up, the down movement (the first count) and the up movement (the second count).
For a four-count exercise you count each portion of a movement, you just do more. A four-count push-up is 2 regular push ups. Down (the first count), up (the second count), down (the third count), and up (the fourth count).
There are a lot of four-count exercises in all of the decks. If this is at all confusing, just ask any Marine to demonstrate a four-count exercise for you. Eventually, I’ll post something on YouTube to make this clear.
Aces in this deck count for 1
Jacks count for 11
Queens count for 12
Kings count for 13
If there is an exercise you don’t know how to do, feel free to substitute:
Deck — PHASE 1 – Light Full-body Workout
Spades:
A (low) — 4 count push ups
2 — 4 count push ups
3 — 4 count push ups
4 — 4 count push ups
5 — 4 count side straddle hops
6 — 4 count boot beaters (deep squat without weight)
7 — 4 count windmills
8 — calf stretch (10 seconds)
9 — cherry picker stretch (hamstring stretch — left, right and center 10 seconds each)
10 — quad stretch (10 seconds)
J — elephant stretch (upper body arm and shoulder stretch, 10 seconds)
Q — 4 count side crunches
K— 4 count side crunches
Diamonds:
A (low) — 4 count push ups
2 — 4 count push ups
3 — 4 count push ups
4 — 4 count push ups
5 — 4 count side straddle hops (a.k.a. jumping jacks)
6 — 4 count boot beaters
7 — 4 count windmills
8 — calf stretch (10 seconds)
9 — cherry picker stretch (hamstring stretch — left, right and center 10 seconds each)
10 — quad stretch (10 seconds)
J — elephant stretch (upper body arm and shoulder stretch, 10 seconds)
Q — 4 count crunches
K — 4 count crunches
Clubs:
A (low) — 4 count push ups
2 — 4 count push ups
3 — 4 count push ups
4 — 4 count push ups
5 — 4 count side straddle hops (a.k.a. jumping jacks)
6 — 4 count boot beaters
7 — 4 count windmills
8 — calf stretch (10 seconds)
9 — cherry picker stretch (hamstring stretch — left, right and center 10 seconds each)
10 — quad stretch (10 seconds)
J — elephant stretch (upper body arm and shoulder stretch, 10 seconds)
Q — 4 count flutter kicks
K— 4 count flutter kicks
Hearts:
A (low) — 4 count push ups
2 — 4 count push ups
3 — 4 count push ups
4 — 4 count push ups
5 — 4 count side straddle hops (a.k.a. jumping jacks)
6 — 4 count boot beaters
7 — 4 count windmills
8 — calf stretch (10 seconds)
9 — cherry picker stretch (hamstring stretch — left, right and center 10 seconds each)
10 — quad stretch (10 seconds)
J — count elephant stretch (upper body arm and shoulder stretch, 10 seconds)
Q — 4 count bicycles
K — 4 count bicycles
Joker 1 — 20, 4 count side straddle hops
Joker 2 — 20, 4 count side straddle hops
Ironically, we never do phase 1 as a workout for the group, however, it is a good workout to start with if you haven’t been working out in a while. I’ve also used the decks as a warm-up before weightlifting, and I often do the workout in my off days. This is also a very good workout to do with children to get them interested in fitness. I do this workout with both of my daughters (ages 3 and 7) and they both love it. My oldest is a beast and my youngest is a flutter-kick machine.
A special thanks goes out to my good friend Tony Haynes. The workouts in this series were developed with him and are based on a workout he published on OO-RAH.com a few years back: Link
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