Jacks, Aces, Kings and Queens... Playing cards can do a lot more for you than just killing time while amusing you. Some of the games with playing cards compel you to think and some of them just make you think harder... in this way they help you jog your brain cells and make you a more patient and thinking person. Games like Poker and Bridge would really get you pondering and brooding and prepare you for life.
By now, you must have guessed that in this article we will talk about playing cards and their benefits to the players. It is because of their dual benefits of entertainment and honing intelligence, that make them so popular around the world. From the countries of the great stretch of Africa to the regions of North America, from costas of South and Central America to the countries of Middle East, from counties of Europe to the suburbs of Asia, every corner of the world is engaged in some or the other game played with playing cards.
Now let us come to the benefits of playing cards. Although playing cards and games played with them are banned by many countries and states, these cards have many benefits when played with responsibility. Apart from entertainment and amusement, some of games (like Baccarat, Blackjack, Poker, Bridge, Patience, Gin Rummy and Go Fish) titillate and tickle the adult brains to put in extra efforts to their thought process, while some of the games help children to sharpen their memory and think smart.
Despite being banned in different countries, people still play – either when they are visiting other countries where card games are allowed or illegally and furtively. Such is the craze for card games, however we should not forget that playing cards and card games are best enjoyed when played with responsibility.
If you have a deck of cards then you have the perfect means to get a wicked fat burning workout while you are on the road or in the field. This is a workout I use with my fitness-orientated clients that want a change of pace. It's perfect for the people that don't want massive muscles but want to burn fat and stay athletic and trim. My clients find that after a couple weeks of this style routine, they are able to climb, snowboard or keep up a high energy pace all day long.
In my army days, this was a great one to do while on exercise in the field because it required no equipment and the cards could be used for less physical fun later!
If you do MMA, you can also get great results with this routine. All that changes is the exercises in order to better mimic actual fighting movements. For example the Burpees would turn into more of a sprawl. The jumping jacks and step ups could be replaced with specified reps of combinations on the heavy bag.
It's simple yet so effective, just keep flipping cards. Give this a shot and maybe keep a bucket handy if you are really going to give a good go.
Start off with one minute each of the exercises below. Go through the whole list before taking a break:
Jumping Jacks
Bodyweight Squats
Sit-ups
Pushups
Now onto the good stuff. Assign each suit in the deck with an exercise. Here is what I usually pick for the beginner level:
Clubs - Burpees on bench or floor
Spades - Walkouts
Hearts - Sit-ups
Diamonds - Pushups
This is the easiest assignment. Whatever number card you pick, you do the number of the card with the exercise for that suit. For example if you turn the Jack of clubs, that means you would do 10 Burpees. All face cards are 10. Aces thank goodness are only one! Black jokers are 100 bodyweight squats in under 4 minutes. Red jokers are 75 sit-ups where every five you flip to do a pushup in 4 minutes. I have a "special" deck that a couple extra jokers sneaked into somehow. You do ten cards nonstop and then take a 30 second break if you are new to this type of training.
If all is going well and you want to up the ante some, then try this assignment. It will work the muscles with higher resistance movements with focus on the lower body.
Clubs - Burpees off the floor with a jump.
Spades - Dive Bombers or Hindu Pushups. This is a killer effective when done right.
Hearts - Do a sit-up on the floor, then standup and do two punches (jab, straight) and two front kicks (left and right).
Diamonds - Jumping three way lunges
Start fast and attempt to complete all the cards and jokers by the end of 60 minutes. If you start to fade on the high impact exercises, throw in an active rest. You do this by automatically adding the equal amount of jumping jacks followed by step-ups as the previous card had you doing. For example: An eight of hearts would mean 8 sit-ups, 8 jumping jacks and 8 step-ups, then flip the next card.
When you do finish the deck in under an hour, then you start to race the clock. Keep track of how long it takes to complete the deck and race to beat that time at your next session.
This method has given my clients and myself many hours of "pleasure"! Give it a try when you want to do something different for a workout, want extra conditioning for MMA, sports or have little weight training equipment available.
Article Source :
About Author
Both Mike Joe & Raymond Burton are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Mike Joe has sinced written about articles on various topics from Beauty Tips, Travel and Leisure and Manchester Travel. Author: Mike Joe is a connoisseur of traveling and entertainment. He loves journeying far and wide in the quest of experiencing different lifestyles and gathering information about the best places to eat, drink and stay in different countries and l. Mike Joe's top article generates over 22200 views. to your Favourites.
Raymond Burton has sinced written about articles on various topics from Multi Level Marketing, Home Management and Lose Weight. Ray Burton is the owner of BuildingBodies Personal Training and author of the . Ray teaches you how to lose fat and increase your meta. Raymond Burton's top article generates over 823000 views. to your Favourites.