How-To

Disclaimer: Check with your doctor before performing Lazy Bum Fitness or any other fitness program. Work at your own pace; control the intensity, weight or tempo as needed. Chose variations that fit your current fitness levels if needed. You’re in charge of you – so take care of yourself.

What You’ll Need:

• A deck of standard Poker Cards
• A Pull Up bar (or a sturdy substitute, like a tree branch)
• A Dumbbell
• A Weight Plate

*Note: You can substitute other objects for the dumbbell and/or weight plate and save some additional cash.

How It Works:

Each month I’ll post the monthly workout, and explain what kind of weight we’ll be using (such as a dumbbell, weight plate or simple body weight). You’ll notice that each exercise has a card value associated to it, ranging from Ace (1) to King.

Step One: Determine Exercises for the Day.

Shuffle the poker deck, then draw four random cards. These cards represent the four exercises you’ll do in this workout. We’re only concerned about face values, don’t worry about suites. If you draw a duplicate card (two sevens, for example), discard the second and draw again until you’ve got four different values.

This is where those face values on the Monthly Workout Routine comes in. Check the Monthly Workout for the exercises associated with each face value. Those are the ones we’ll do today.

Example: Let’s assume we drew the following cards:

• Four of Hearts
• Jack of Spades
• Six of Hearts
• Ace of Diamonds

Disregard the suite, and then check the monthly workout routine for the exercises assigned to Four, Six, Jack and Ace. Hypothetically, let’s assume

• Ace = Lunges with the Left Leg Forward
• Four = Pushups
• Six = Shoulder Press with the Right Hand
• Jack = Crunches

Step Two: Assign Each Exercise to a Suite.

Here’s how I like to do it: the first exercise I drew is assigned to Hearts, the second to Diamonds, the third to Spades and the fourth to Clubs. You can choose whatever order you’d like, but this method works for me.

Going back to our hypothetical example, this is how my routine would look:

• Hearts = Pushups
• Diamonds = Crunches
• Spades = Shoulder Press with the Right Hand
• Clubs = Lunges with the Left Leg Forward

Step Three: Shuffle the Deck.

It’s the easiest step of all, and if you’re really desperate you can consider it part of the workout. Just make sure all the cards are in the deck, including the four you drew earlier.

There is a reason I’m bringing up shuffling. The whole point of Lazy Bum Fitness is to draw a random workout each time, but if you never shuffle the cards and you put last session’s cards on top of the deck, you’ll draw the same sequence over and over again.

Step Four: Draw Cards – Perform the Routine.

This is the meat and potatoes of Lazy Bum Fitness. It’s really easy, just follow these steps:

1. Draw a card.
2. Note the suite – that’s the exercise you’ll perform.
3. Note the card value – that’s how many repetitions you’ll perform.*
4. Repeat the whole process until you’ve drawn the amount of cards mentioned on the Monthly Workout.

*Note: Face cards are worth 10 repetitions, aces are worth 11.

That’s all there is to it! But if you’d like an illustration, let’s continue on with our hypothetical example. Here’s how the routine would shape up if I drew the following cards:

• Three of Diamonds: 3 Crunches
• Jack of Spades: 10 Shoulder Presses with the Right Hand
• Ten of Clubs: 10 Lunges with the Left Leg Forward
• Ace of Hearts: 11 Pushups

Step Five: Log Your Results – Reach the Monthly Goal.

After you’ve ran through the prescribed number of cards, add up the total amount of repetitions performed for each exercise. Create a logbook and jot down your results after every workout.

Keep track of the total amount of reps performed for each exercise. Once that total number eclipses the monthly goal, follow the specific instructions outlined in the Monthly Workout.

Example: Let’s say the monthly goal for Pushups is 200 reps, and I’ve already logged 187 reps so far this month. Now let’s assume I perform 37 Pushups today, which brings the total to 224. Congratulations to me, I met the goal for Pushups this month!