There’s a workout program that you can fit in the palm of your hand, use every week, take with you everywhere that you go, that can adapt to any kind of exercises and will provide you with a challenging workout that changes every time you exercise.

Interested?  Then come on in and read more…

In this day and age of high-tech exercise equipment and complicated, “cutting edge” training philosophies, I find a great deal of comfort and get a great deal of challenge from old school training methods.  You’ve probably caught a hint of this fondness for the simpler methods of weight training and exercise if you’ve visited our site before and read my items about kettlebells, dumbbells and Converse All-Stars.

However, this little, perfect workout program represents the most bare boned of training programs.  I call it “The Deck of Cards” because I actually use a deck of cards to design my workouts.

Yes folks, in that little stack of 54 plastic coated paper cards you can find the most tortuous, maniacal, evil workouts known to man.  The random power of the cards can create workouts that will try to break your will, get your muscles shaking, heart pumping, lungs burning and have you soaked in your own sweat.

Are you curious?  Am I mad?  Quite possibly.

Using the deck of cards to guide you through a workout is an illustration of how beautiful and challenging a simple workout can be. No machines, no gym, no strength coach, no wrist wraps or weight belts or fancy sneakers or Under Armor. No changing weights or checking your pulse.  All you need is a deck of cards, your body and a clock to keep time.  And if you’re feeling old school, go shoeless.

There are many ways to craft your training session with the cards, but for now I will favor you with the most basic method of using the deck, and my personal favorite.  So here goes….

In this routine you will perform no exercises other than body weight squats and push ups.  If you flip a red card do the amount of push ups equal to the face value of the card, while a black card will compel you to pop a squat similarly.  Face cards will require more effort as Jacks count as 11, Queens as 12 and Kings as 13.  Aces count as 15 and for those bold enough to include the Jokers in the deck, they will oblige you to perform 20 reps each of squats and push ups.

If you can get through the entire, Joker-laden deck these rectangular bringers of havoc will have pushed you to perform 230 repetitions of each exercise.  I will tell you that once you try to get through “the Deck” you will never be the same again and will never look the same way at a deck of cards.

For noobs, finishing the deck in 30 minutes is quite an accomplishment, with 40 minutes being more likely.  For starters, I recommend giving 20 cards a shot and see how long this takes.  But for the brave (foolish?) who are willing to dive in 100% my advice is to take about 15-20 seconds between cards and 60-90 seconds rest after every 10 cards.  This plan might take you a little longer, but you’ll have a better shot at finishing the deck with proper form.

And just as an FYI, the fastest time I’m aware of for finishing the deck is 11:45.

As we move forward, I’ll tell you about other ways to use the deck to create great workouts, but for now give this simple plan a shot.  I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

After you’ve completed the first level of the HealthAndFitnessAdvice.com Conditioning Gauntlet for men, give level 2 a try.

If you’ve been around the site you should know that I don’t care if how much someone can bench press or if they do Zottman curls. The scale can’t measure a person’s fitness level and weight loss isn’t an indication of improvement of any kind.  Performance and capability rules the day and is what matters when measuring the success of a fitness program and a person’s progress.

I have developed a “Conditioning Gauntlet” that I use with clients and kids on the teams I coach, and have guidelines for both men and women.  The Gauntlet is split into 2 sections.  The first section consists of pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, 60-yard shuttle runs and the broad jump and the second section consists of the split jerk, squat, military press, dead lift and snatch.

There are no body building exercises – did I mention that Zottman curls don’t matter? – and as a matter of fact, there aren’t any weight lifting exercises.

There are 2 levels for each section that reflect difficulty and conditioning level.

Here’s level 2 of the HealthAndFitnessAdvice.com Conditioning Gauntlet for men.

• Pull-ups – 1 set of 15 repetitions
• Push-ups – 1 set of 75 repetitions
• Sit-ups – 1 set of 70 repetitions
• Broad jump – 9 feet (best of 3 jumps)
• 60-yard shuttle runs – complete 12 in 12 seconds (or under) each taking 48 seconds rest in between shuttles

If you can do any one of these tasks you’re probably in pretty good shape, especially the shuttle runs.  However, being able complete these level 2 tasks consecutively, means you are in fantastic shape.

Just as you would do before any training session, allow plenty of time to warm up.  Do a set of each “event” and give yourself no more than 3-minutes in between exercises before running the Gauntlet.  You cannot try to complete this test until you have worked on these events and completed level 1 of the Gauntlet.  The shuttle runs alone are much more than most people can handle.

Level 2 of the HealthAndFitnessAdvice.com Conditioning Gauntlet for men provides an accurate measure of your fitness level and anyone who can complete this test is in fantastic shape, no matter what the numbers on the scale say.

The deck of cards workout is one of my all-time favorite workouts, and is the perfect way to exercise while on vacation.  All you need is you and a deck of cards!

I’ve been using the deck of cards workout for almost 30 years and have performed an endless string of variations of this great workout.  The basic deck of cards workout consists of doing body weight squats for every black card selected and push-ups for every red card, and there are no limits to the way this exercise routine can be tweaked.

While on vacation the basic deck of cards workout provides you with the perfect exercise routine because it can be done in just about any location and doesn’t require any equipment.  Of course if you’re able to have a few pairs of dumbbells with you and/or a Kettlebell, the deck of cards workout offers an even more incredible training stimulus.

The deck of cards workout can be modified in any number of ways, but a few basic alterations are to substitute lunges for squats, split the red cards into push-ups and sit-ups and/or to split the black cards into squats/lunges and squat thrusts.

If you split the deck up and include one joker with the black and red cards, the colors account for 230 repetitions.  Here are the rules and the basic breakdown.

• Jacks are 11 reps
• Queens are 12 reps
• Kings are 13 reps
• Aces are 15 reps
• Jokers – if you have them in the deck – are good for 20 repetitions
• For every red card turned you do push-ups – for the King of Hearts you do 13 push-ups
• For black cards you do body weight squats – for the five of Clubs you’ll do 5 squats.
• Each suit of cards contains 105 repetitions T
• The extra 20 reps come from the Jokers

Once you’re familiar with these guidelines you can make any adjustment that you see fit.  No matter how you slice it – or cut it – the deck of cards workout will challenge even the fittest.

Level 2 of the HealthAndFitnessAdvice.com Conditioning Gauntlet can serve as a real challenge for even the fittest women.

Last month I posted an item detailing the first level of a conditioning test that I use with both my athletes and regular clients. If you’ve tried it and aced it, or looked at it and thought it was too easy for you, level 2 of the gauntlet is worth of your consideration.

Regular visitors to the site should know I don’t believe in using the scale as a measure of a person’s fitness and don’t care how much someone weighs. Weight loss is a bogus way to measure “improvements” in a person’s fitness level.

For professional or college athletes, competitive weekend warriors or gym rats performance and capability is what rules the day and is all that matters when measuring the success of a fitness program.

The “Conditioning Gauntlet” I use with my clients and kids on my team is split into 2 sections; the section one consists of pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, 60-yard shuttle runs and the broad jump, the section two consists of the split jerk, squat, military press, dead lift and snatch.

I use different guidelines for men and women, and there are 2 levels for each section that reflect difficulty and conditioning level.

Here’s level 2 of the HealthAndFitnessAdvice.com Conditioning Gauntlet for women.

• Pull-ups – 1 set of 7 repetitions
• Push-ups – 1 set of 40 repetitions
• Sit-ups – 1 set of 65 repetitions
• Broad jump – 7 feet, 8 inches (best of 3 jumps)
• 60-yard shuttle runs – complete 12 in 14 seconds (or under) each taking 46 seconds rest in between shuttles

No doubt about it, if you are able to perform any of these tasks you are in very good shape.  However, anyone woman, of any age, who can complete these tasks consecutively, is in phenomenal shape, and can be considered a stud!

If you’ve taken a shot at the first level you know how you need to prepare; allow plenty of time for a general warm up, do an abbreviated set of each “event” and give yourself no more than 3-minutes in between exercises.

And please do not try to complete this test if you haven’t completed the first level of the gauntlet and until you have actually worked on these events.  The shuttle runs aren’t for newbies – even for people who do regular cardiovascular exercise.  Unless you’ve worked on running full-effort shuttles you should not try this test.

The HealthAndFitnessAdvice.com Conditioning Gauntlet provides an accurate measure of your fitness level and if you can complete this test – regardless of what the scale says – you are in top-level shape.