Playing Card Workout Schedule

I’ve always done my best to stay active. No matter what my schedule, I’ve at least consistently walked my dogs. My dogs, however, are getting older. Both of them have heart problems, and in the heat of summer I noticed even the youngest dog slowing down. We’ll walk for a half hour and barely make it around the block when previously we could get across our neighborhood in the same amount of time. Towards the end of the summer, I was experiencing the toll of an inactive lifestyle: more achiness and less flexibility in my body, easily winded climbing a flight of stairs, and of course the inevitable weight gain. (physiological)

When my daughter started back at school, I resolved to prioritize daily exercise. Since I’ve been devoting so much of my time to getting fit again (and, boy, was I out of shape! I have essentially been sore for the past six weeks as I’ve started to use muscles that my body had forgotten about), I want to share the playing card workout schedule I’ve developed to easily plan a fun-for-me week of varied exercise. To be clear, my only fitness goal is to have fun moving my body so that I can continue to move into old age. If you have other fitness goals (such as weight loss or running a marathon), this is probably not going to be the solution for you.

I’m sharing a sample spreadsheet like the one I use to plan out my schedule with the first week filled in (Columns F & G of Sheet 1). Columns A-D are the categories of workouts I use, and these have changed over time. For example, Column A, Clubs, used to represent the local gyms where I maintained membership. With a child at home, I found it more convenient to do online classes than scheduling around child care hours, so I ended up canceling my gym memberships. For Column B, Diamonds, I am old school and maintain a collection of workout DVDs. You might replace the DVD category with an App category or with any other category of workout you like to use. For spades, I have assigned the category to Build Your Own (BYO) workouts. More on this in a moment.

I tend to plan seven weeks ahead because 49 is the most I can get out of a 52 card deck. For each day, I’ll pull a card and use that to identify the workout for the day. The bold lettering of a cell indicates the last one chosen. If, for example, I pull an 8 of Clubs, I’ll count down 8 from the bold lettering in Column A (sarahfit.com), which takes me to the YouTube channel BeFitIn90. In the process, I’ll remove the bold formatting from sarahfit.com and add the bold formatting to BeFitIn90 to mark my spot for the next Club.

I record the 8C because on the day of the workout, I’ll use the 8 to pick the video on the YouTube page, often combined with the current day of the month. So for the BeFitIn90 page, they have a Home page with some highlighted workouts and a Playlists page with a greater number of workouts. Since 8 is an even number, I’ll go to the Playlists page, and if I were to do the workout today, October 7, I’d count down every 7th playlist until I found a workout that meets my criteria (>15 mins). Today that takes me to Day 64.

BYO Workouts

For my BYO workouts, I often start with a list of exercises to do, such as by taking inspiration from a Pinterest-discovered workout:

This suggested workout is 6 exercises. On the sample spreadsheet I provided, there is a second sheet called BYO Circuits that I use to turn these six exercises into a full workout. If an ace of spades got me to this workout, I’d use the Ace (1) to select the next circuit exercise (from the last one I used in bold), 3-2-1’s, and use the moves in the Pinterest workout to fill in the strength moves. My workout might become:

Set 1:

• 3 mins of Strength:

  • 30 sec. chest press

  • 30 sec. chest fly

  • Repeat 2x

• 2 mins of Cardio:

  • 30 sec. high knees

  • 30 sec. skaters

  • Repeat 1x

• 1 min of Abs:

  • 30 sec. crunches

  • 30 sec. reverse crunches

Set 2:

• 3 mins of Strength:

  • 30 sec. shoulder raises

  • 30 sec. prone T shoulder raises

  • Repeat 2x

• 2 mins of Cardio:

  • 30 sec. cross-room shuffles

  • 30 sec. burpees

  • Repeat 1x

• 1 min of Abs:

  • 30 sec. flutter kicks

  • 30 sec. bicycle crunches

Set 3:

• 3 mins of Strength:

  • 30 sec. rows

  • 30 sec. bicep curls

  • Repeat 2x

• 2 mins of Cardio:

  • 30 sec. tuck jumps

  • 30 sec. speed bag

  • Repeat 1x

• 1 min of Abs:

  • 30 sec. plank crunches on hands

  • 30 sec. steady plank on elbows

This is an 18-minute workout.* Adding in a warm-up and cooldown and rests between the sets makes it a decent half hour workout And IMO it’s fun! The reasons I view it as fun are: it’s challenging, it has me using equipment I don’t often use, the combination of moves is unique, and it’s a relatively short, fast-moving workout where the exercises change frequently.

I love talking about exercise and workouts. Do you have a free or cheap source of workouts that you’d recommend? What are your favorite circuit types? How do you stay motivated with your fitness?

*Tip: I use an app called Interval Timer to help me keep track of the time and where I am in the workout.