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Hello everyone, haven't posted for a while as not really had a lot to say lol. RMR holding troop is ticking along nicely. I'm still the least fit person there, but I have seen improvements in my fitness and once my exams finish (tomorrow!) I'll be able to really push on with it.

Anyway, my reason for posting is to share with you a circuit I've just done (about 20 minutes ago!). It's called the 'deck of cards' circuit. You can find a full description by following the link at the bottom, but the gist of it is you get a full deck of cards, then assign an exercise to each colour. Then turn over the cards one by one and do the number of reps of the relevant exercise shown on the card. For example, I chose burpees for black cards and press ups for red ones, so a black 7 would mean 7 burpees, and a red 10 would mean 10 push ups.

After reading about it, I though it sounded like a bit of a challenge, so I thought I'd give it a go! Well, 260 burpees and 260 press ups later, after soaking my carpet with sweat, I realised it was one of the hardest circuits I'd ever done! I'd thoroughly recommend it to anyone though!

The idea is that you try and get through the deck as quickly as possible. To start with I was banging them out no problem, but towards the end of the deck I was having to take a bit of a rest between each set, especially the push ups, as I was really struggling to push myself up. A really good workout and I'd recommend it to anyone, though I warn you it's not for the faint-hearted! For those of you who are less confident it may be an idea to just use half the deck (e.g. just use 2 suits, like clubs and diamonds, rather than the full deck)

Has anyone else tried this circuit, and what did you make of it?

I've also got a load of ideas for other circuits from our PTI at Holding Troop. Let me know if you're interested and I'll post them up here. There's quite a range of ideas and they can all be adapted depending on your fitness level.

The link for the 'deck of cards' circuit is:-

http://www.rosstraining.com/articles/deckofcards.html

Sounds like a good circuit and i will try it out tomorrow. I would also be very interested in any other circuits you have up your sleeve!

yes please mate post them up! something to try in the gym tomorrow!

James

Sounds like a wicked circuit!

As a thought to make it a little easier for some - maybe assign the exercise per suit instead of per colour and then really bang it out.

For example:

clubs: pressups
hearts: burpees
diamonds: situps
spades: squats

Might make the circuit a little less intense yet make it a bit more of a whole body thing.

Guess there are loads of variations with this sort of setup!

Thanks Chris, will have a crack at your one this evening!

Cheers
James

Just tried this circuit...it definitely is a killer!

yea i heard about that somwhere else and tried it, was definatley a killer but didnt really like it. burpees are very tough though!!!!!!!!

Had a few of you mention you'd like to see the circuits we're doing on holding troop, so I'll try and get them typed up this week. I'll probably post them up on my sticky on the RMR forum, then link to it from this site, rather than adding extra threads.

James_m, good idea about separating the circuit further into suits as opposed to just colours. If you do it the way I originally posted you'd have to work through the deck twice to get more of a full body workout, doing pressups and burpees on the first time and then situps and squats on the 2nd - more intense but can be quite time consuming (I had originally planned to do it that way, but couldn't as I had an exam the next day and needed to do some work!)

Anyway, I'll let you all know when I've written up those circuits

Chris

Chrisbrum, I got in yesterday and fancied something different to a run, and remembered this circuit. As this wasn't working yesterday, I did 10 for each face card and 11 for aces (this works out at 190 I'm quite sure, not 260?). Anyway, it's also class as ear phones don't fit my ears when I run, so I could just do this in the garden with the tunes playing. Great circuit overall. Like you said, would be worth doing again with squats and sit ups. I'm pretty sure it's do-able after a good run as well, was going to do it today but didn't have time after running - the burpees would have been a killer though. I'll be interested to see those other ones too.

Hello all, just so you know I haven't forgotten to post those other circuits yet, just been pretty busy this week with job interviews and such. I'll have them up within the next week hopefully!

Jammin, you're right about the numbers, 190 if you count Aces as 11, 170 if you count them as 1, not sure where I got 260 from! Maths was never my strong point!

Chris

It's no drama either way mate, cheers for posting the whole thing.

Sounds good mate. One circiuit ive been doing latly is a skipping routine,its a killer as well. Basically, in one circuit you do 10 things,and inbetween each you skip for say 30secs to a minute. Example.


Pull Ups 10

Skip

Sit Ups 40

Skip

Burpees 10

Skip

Pull Ups 15

Skip

Free Sqauts 20


etc etc The skipping means your heartrate is kept up,and that after 3 sets of this (1 set lasts about 15 minutes if you do 10 differnt things) you are hanging!

james_m wrote:Sounds like a wicked circuit!

As a thought to make it a little easier for some - maybe assign the exercise per suit instead of per colour and then really bang it out.

For example:

clubs: pressups
hearts: burpees
diamonds: situps
spades: squats

Might make the circuit a little less intense yet make it a bit more of a whole body thing.

Guess there are loads of variations with this sort of setup!

Thanks Chris, will have a crack at your one this evening!

Cheers
James

Finished this one about a half hour ago. An enjoyable workout, definately gets the perspiration flowing. Nice idea.

Burpees are pretty difficult hey?

Heres on you might be able to do chrisbrum, its called chariots of fire and needs a maximum of four people to complete.

You place two cones at about 25-30 meters apart and organise yourselves into two pairs holding hands (sounds gay i know) ,standing at either cone. The aim of the circut is to chase the other pair around the cones in a circle and try and touch them on the back. The losers then have to complete 20 pressups, 30 situps, 20 burpees four times. This is a good circut as it increases your sprints and gives you some motivation to win. lol.
The other one i did on monday is good for pressups. In a group of no more than four label yourselves 1-4 and get into the pressup position in a circle facing each other. Person number one must then complete 10 pressups while the others hold the pressup position, then person two completes ten pressups, the third person and so on. you continue this process however taking one pressup off each time, 9,8,7,6,5 all the way down to one. This one is a real killer and will have you shaking and sweating like a pig.