Deck of Cards Workout: The Rules, the Apps That Draw for You, and a Game That Picks the Moves

How the deck of cards workout works

The deck of cards workout, also called the 52 card workout or the playing card workout, takes a deck you probably own and almost no planning: you pick the moves, the shuffle picks the order and the numbers. Ross Training, a training blog, says it first wrote about the workout around 2003. The rules fit on a sticky note.

1. Shuffle a standard deck: 52 cards, plus the two jokers if you want them.
2. Give each suit a move. Spades push-ups, hearts squats, and so on. Or just two moves: one for the red cards, one for the black. Write it on a note next to the deck.
3. Set your values. Number cards are worth what they say; face cards and aces, what you decide (next section).
4. Flip a card and do the reps. With the note above, a 7 of spades is seven push-ups.
5. Flip the next one. Catch your breath when you need to.
6. Stop at the last card, or sooner if your form falls apart.

You can't see what's coming, so you can't save yourself for the easy cards.

Verywell Fit's version plays against a timer you set instead. In the classic one, the deck is the clock: you're done when it's empty.

What face cards and aces are worth, and what a deck adds up to

This is where versions disagree. Ross Training counts face cards as 10 and aces as 11. Verywell Fit lets you choose: face cards at 10 or climbing, and aces at 1, 10 or 14. A 2024 thread on Reddit's r/bodyweightfitness climbs from jack 11 to ace 14.

Numbers 2 to 10 make 54 reps per suit; the other four cards do the rest:

Jokers not counted. With four moves, one per suit, each move gets the "per suit" number. Sources (read October 20, 2026): Ross Training, "Deck of Cards Workout" (July 9, 2019, updated February 27, 2021); Verywell Fit, "How to Create a Full-Body Deck of Cards Workout" (updated September 17, 2020); Reddit, r/bodyweightfitness (May 2, 2024). Totals: our own sums, number cards at face value.

Small cards feel like a rest? The Reddit poster also counts 2s and 3s triple and plays a 4 as 8. That adds 14 reps per suit: 118 under that thread's full rule, 472 for a deck of one move.

Make every card push-ups and it's 380 push-ups under flat tens: a lot for one go. Give push-ups one suit, as the first deck below does, and a second one when that gets easy. If you can't finish your rule's number with clean reps, shrink the deck: that's not cheating, it's the rule you give yourself.

Picking your moves: four that don't fight each other

Four rules of thumb make a better deck:

• Spread the work. Legs, a push, core, and something that gets your heart going. Four leg moves make the last cards miserable.
• Moves you can do tired. The last cards come when you're spent.
• Reps, not holds. A card gives reps, not seconds: a plank fits only as something you can count, like shoulder taps.
• Jokers: a job, or out. A free pass, a breather, or the move everyone hates.

Three decks to start from:

The first and the two-move decks follow Ross Training's examples, with jumping jacks where it puts pull-ups, so you need no bar.

More moves that are easy to count card by card: lunges, glute bridges or calf raises for legs; crunches, shoulder taps or mountain climbers for core.

Jumping bothers your knees or the neighbors below? Our no-jumping cardio guide has a swap for every jump. Push-ups not there yet? Can't do a push-up yet goes from the wall to the floor. A move that hurts? Ask a doctor before it goes in the deck.

Deck of cards workout for beginners: shrink the deck, don't skip cards

A deck you can't finish teaches you to skip cards. Start smaller and finish every time:

• Half a deck. Shuffle, cut, play one half: about half your rule's total, every move still in.
• Lower face cards. Face cards at 5, aces at 1: 70 reps per suit instead of 95.
• Numbers only. No face cards, no aces: 54 per suit.
• Halve every card. A 9 becomes 4 or 5: pick a rounding rule and keep it.
• Halve just one move. The one that stops you counts half; the others keep their full value.
• Jokers last. Add them the day the deck feels easy.

Then go back up one step at a time.

The honest part: with a paper deck, nothing stops you from turning a 9 into a 6 when you're tired. Nobody counts but you.

See how a game counts for you

Playing it with others

The deck works for a group: one person flips, everyone does the reps. Or take turns flipping. Verywell Fit suggests a partner version with two decks, one each. Pick moves everyone can do, and let anyone swap in an easier version. More group games in our guide to fun fitness games for adults.

Apps that flip the cards for you

An app shuffles, flips and keeps your stats. We opened the top three of a US App Store search for "deck of cards workout". Evolved can even pick the move: give a suit a focus area, like core, and it draws one at random. None of the three says it sees your reps: in Sweat Deck and Evolved, you tap or swipe to the next card.

Searched and read on the US App Store and Google Play on October 20, 2026. US prices, and they change: check the listing before you pay. Sweat Deck's version history shows its last update in January 2020.

Rather not install anything? Some web pages flip the cards in your browser too; for dice, spin wheels and one-click web generators, see our guide to random workout generators.

Deck, app or game: who checks the reps?

All three pick the order for you. The real difference is what happens when you cut a rep short.

Checked on October 20, 2026.

Which one fits your situation

SWADE: when the track deals the moves

SWADE is a fitness game app coming to iPhone and Android; it isn't in the stores yet. Prop up your phone, step back, and the camera turns your moves into the controller. It isn't a card deck, and you can't pick its moves. What it shares with the deck: you don't choose what comes next.

In the Runner, the track draws. A pirate races down three lanes: a low barrier means jump, a high gate means squat, a wall in your lane means step aside. Every run, the track draws its obstacles at random, like a fresh shuffle. It has house rules, like your deck: never two moves at once, never two full-width obstacles back to back, so you have time to stand up again.

The camera checks. No card to round down: skip a jump or a squat and the obstacle hits you. In Timed, a hit just breaks your combo. In Elimination, it costs one of your three hearts. On your Profile, "This month" adds up your jumps, squats and push-ups: a running total, kept for you.

Push Flight, for the push-up deck. Stand your phone upright on the floor, hold a plank facing it, and go low or high to fly Sway, SWADE's weasel, through the gates. A full push-up counts as one, a shallower one as part of one, on your toes or your knees; straight arms never count. Your total shows at the end. Push Flight lives in the Play tab, not on the Path (the tab with SWADE's free daily session): each game spends one energy, which refills over time, and your first, a guided warm-up, is free.

What you don't choose.

• The moves. Jump, squat and side step in the Runner; push-ups in Push Flight.
• The reps. In the Runner, one obstacle, one move.
• The length. A Path session is a timed run in the Runner, sized to your level, and you see its length before you start. Chasing a record? In Elimination, you play until your last heart.

Knees or back? In Profile › Settings › Health, pick knees or back: barriers become walls you dodge with a side step, and the round starts on a squat. Squats stay, just as deep.

Your camera stays on your phone

In SWADE, the camera, the tracking and the counting of your moves run on your phone: no image, no video, not a single frame leaves it. What travels is a game's outcome: a score, your jumps, squats and push-ups. Two exceptions, while "Help improve SWADE" is on, as it is at first: a few numbers on how the camera followed you in Push Flight and, on Wi-Fi only, short samples of your moves drawn as a stick figure, never an image. You can switch it off. Details in the privacy policy.

What this guide doesn't cover

• Pain and rehab. For that, a doctor or a physical therapist.
• Calories and weight. We don't talk about them here.
• Decks for kids or school PE. SWADE is made for players aged 15 and up.
• Playing on a TV or computer. SWADE plays on the phone screen.

Sweat Deck, Deck of Cards Workout: Evolved, WOD Deck of Cards, Ross Training, Verywell Fit, Reddit, Google, App Store, Google Play, iPhone, iPad and Android are trademarks of their respective owners. SWADE is independent and is not affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by any of them.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides