This no-equipment home workout starts with the deck of cards, my best travel routine, then spices it up with a cooler: you assign an exercise to each of the four suits, then use the cooler to upgrade the moves, like burpee step overs, decline push-ups with your feet on it, and step-ups in place of squats. Staying fit lets you keep hunting, fishing, and hiking for life. In this Physical Friday I break down the deck of cards and cooler combo.
Listen now: press play in the player above and follow along.
It is my favorite no-equipment workout: assign one exercise to each of the four suits, then flip cards and do the reps. My go-to is spades for burpees, clubs for push-ups, hearts for sit-ups, and diamonds for squats, with a run or flutter kicks on the jokers. You can do it anywhere, from a hotel room to your backyard.
Use the cooler to upgrade the exercises. Do burpee box jump overs or step overs in place of burpees, decline push-ups with your feet on the cooler, and step-ups, step-overs, or jump-overs instead of squats. Same deck, but a completely different and harder workout.
Because doing the same deck every day on a trip gets old, and if a workout gets stale you can fall off. Adding the cooler makes the movements more difficult and more interesting, so it keeps a favorite workout fresh and keeps you in the habit.
Push-ups, sit-ups, squats, and burpees make a solid full-body foundation, which is my standard setup. You can substitute any four exercises that hit different muscle groups, and the cooler lets you upgrade each one when you want more challenge.
Because keeping your body fit, strong, and healthy is what lets you keep hiking, fishing, hunting, and camping deep into your seventies and eighties, the way my dad still does. Simple bodyweight training done consistently builds the strength and endurance to do what you love for life.
Yes. Beginners can use easier exercise variations, count face cards and aces low, or pull cards to shorten the deck. The cooler upgrades are optional, so you can run the standard deck of cards at your level and add difficulty as you get stronger.
Physical Friday is about keeping your body fit, strong, and healthy so you can keep doing what you love, like hiking, fishing, hunting, and camping, deep into your seventies and eighties, the way my dad still does. I wanted to show how to keep a favorite workout fresh so you do not get tired of it and fall off.
Here is exactly how I run the deck of cards and use a cooler to make it harder and more interesting.
When you are away from the gym and your routine with little equipment and little time, the deck of cards keeps you on track. Four suits, four exercises, and my go-to is burpees, push-ups, sit-ups, and squats. I explain the structure in the episode, so press play in the player above.
Doing the same deck every day on a trip gets old, so I use the Yeti to change it. Burpee step overs for the burpees, decline push-ups with my feet on the cooler, step-ups or jump-overs instead of squats. Same deck, totally different stimulus. I walk through each swap in the episode, so press play in the player above.
The whole point of Physical Friday is staying strong enough to hike, fish, hunt, and camp into your seventies and eighties, like my dad still does. Keeping the workout varied is how you avoid getting stale and falling off. I talk about that in the episode, so press play in the player above.
You can spice things up considerably with something as simple as a cooler, either upgrading the exercises you already use or swapping in step-ups, step-overs, and jump-overs you were not doing.
I would love to know how you use your cooler and your fishing gear to get a workout on the road. Put those moves into the deck of cards and run it as normal. Press play in the player above.
Physical Friday is my weekly fitness series for fishing guides, anglers, hunters, and outdoorsmen — the training, nutrition, and mindset to stay in the game for life. Watch and listen to every Physical Friday episode from Tom Rowland.
Tom Rowland · deck of cards workout · Yeti cooler · burpee step over · decline push-ups · step-ups · jump-overs · push-ups · sit-ups · squats · Physical Friday · Saltwater Experience
I’m Tom Rowland, a professional fishing guide based in the Florida Keys, host of the Tom Rowland Podcast, and the longtime host of the Saltwater Experience television show. On the podcast’s Physical Friday series I share the training, nutrition, and mindset that keep fishing guides, anglers, hunters, and outdoorsmen strong, healthy, and able to do what they love for life — in short, practical episodes you can put to use right away.
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