About a month ago a friend, who happens to travel what seems like endlessly for his work, shared with me a workout hack his wife had stumbled across at her gym – the Three Card Flip Workout, though my buddy and his wife called it the Deal Me 3 Workout.
That said, low and behold the same concept surfaced last week in GQ’s Level Up email newsletter (worth a subscribe if you don’t read it already); from the newsletter –
…I’ve been thinking about that idea in a different context recently: exercise. Specifically in reference to my favorite workout hack, something I’ve (very creatively) coined the Three-Card Flip. Pull three playing cards from a deck—the first is the number of push-ups that you’ll do; the second card is the number of bodyweight squats (or lunges, for variety); the third is the number of leg lifts. (Jack, queen, king = 11, 12, 13; Ace = 1…or 14, if you’re a hardo.) Do it all the way through the deck—17 times, in total—and about 20 minutes later you’ll have done 360-plus push-ups, bodyweight squats/lunges, and leg lifts in total. The Three-Card Flip is my go-to on days when I don’t have time to do a longer workout—and it usually leaves me with a similar post-exercise high. (Highly recommend if you’re traveling and you don’t know what your schedule might look like, or if you’ll have access to a gym.)…
I’ve used this a few times now on the road, and even on a day when I need a shorter, intense, HIIT additional workout to meet my targets during a lighter day when weather or schedule intervened.
I’ve been incorporating simple body weight movements for each of the three, typically some combination of pushups, pull-ups, squats, lunges, toe raises, or squat-toe raise combo moves and trying to get through the “deck of exercise” in something close to 20-minutes or less.
Customize to suit your fitness level and capacity, and keep on dealing…
