If you use this to train for Coast Guard Boot Camp, I would mostly stick to doing the actual exercises you’ll be doing at Cape May. With that being said, throwing in burpees or something else that’s very challenging certainly won’t hurt your preparation. I will also add that pushups and squats should pretty much be a staple every time.

While this is an advanced workout when done as intended, you can certainly modify it to make it a little bit easier if you’d like to try it. Simply add short timed breaks between each card and try to get through the deck that way. As your endurance improves you should be able to take less and less of a break until you no longer require a break and can do the entire deck straight through.

Well there you have it. From my very first time doing the Deck of Cards Workout and to this day, I continue to enjoy it and be challenged by it. I fell in love with it and still do it for the following benefits:

• It’s an excellent measure of total body muscular endurance. It also increases your endurance when you gradually make it more difficult.

• Every time you do it, it’s different. You are at the mercy of the shuffle. There’s nothing quite as brutal as being on the 47th card and getting 3 (or even 4) cards in a row that are all high rep burpees.

• It’s flexible. You can adjust it very easily to make it easier or harder. Just double or triple the face value of the cards to increase the difficulty or give yourself small time breaks between each card to make it easier.

• It’s quick. You get an amazing, high-intensity workout in a short period of time – relatively speaking of course. If you are extremely out-of-shape it may take an hour (or more), but you can always start with a half-a-deck to ease into it. You can also add the small timed breaks in between cards as I just mentioned.