What’s in my purse? FitDeck — My Personal Trainer.

Fun, Practical and Effective. FitDeck Reviewed.

I first heard about FitDeck from a friend. Actually, I didn’t hear any­thing about it. I just saw it on the table when I vis­ited. I opened the plas­tic box, and totally amazed at the cards. I asked Santa (ok, my boyfriend) and he sent me 3 sets. Now I’m a proud owner of BodyWeight, Core Blast and S.A.Q. (speed, agility, quickness).

So what is it

A deck of cards with fit­ness train­ing instruc­tions printed on them. That’s basically it.

The FitDeck has a two line of prod­ucts, the FitDeck, and the FitDeck Boosters. The FitDeck con­sists of more than 50 cards of instruc­tions for train­ings designed for a spe­cific fit­ness. eg Bodyweight, Pilates etc. They do not require equi­ment as long as you have ample space. (As long as your legs and arms to hit any­thing when you move around). FitDeck Boosters are decks of 26 cards designed with a spe­cific loca­tion or piece of equip­ment in mind. eg Office, Toning Ball, Core Blast. These usu­ally work best when mixed with other FitDecks.

Cards are color-coded for dif­fer­ent trainings

Each card has illus­tra­tions, instruc­tions, and to me, most impor­tantly, the num­ber of rep­e­ti­tions or inter­vals depend­ing on your abil­ity. I like how they are printed on the card, because, frankly as some­one with pretty bad mem­ory, I never remem­bered how many I am sup­posed to do each train­ing for, though the effec­tive­ness on the work­out depends highly on that. The var­i­ous work­outs on the cards basi­cally cov­ers all the work­out rou­tine you find in a typ­i­cal fit­ness train­ing. (At least that’s what I’ve seen when I was train­ing as an ama­teur ath­lete) I usu­ally try the advanced num­ber of rep­e­ti­tions except for pushups, which I have to go “Easy”.

How to use it

It’s really up to you how you want to use it. You can do 1 exer­cise every­time you have your 10 min break, do it at home or chal­lenge your friends. FitDeck, the company, itself has a tons of sug­ges­tions on the website. I per­son­ally just draw 5 or 6 cards from the Bodyweight and another 5 cards from the Core Blast, and go through them in order. This prob­a­bly is the most bor­ing way to go through the cards, but the exer­cises them­selves are fun enough that it doesn’t really matter.

Comes with infor­ma­tion card about stretches and how to use the deck

What I think of it

Superb idea. And one that is fun and effec­tive. Loving my FitDeck. I did it just for fun, but I could def­i­nitely see myself slim­mer in the mir­ror. I did mea­sure my waist and it dropped an inch after the first few times of doing them. (27 to 25.5) My heartrate went up, I sweated, and felt exhausted after the work­out. To me that is a good work­out. My arm mus­cles are stronger too and I love I can do it in my home office. (I have heard of too many sto­ries of sin­gle guys try­ing to hit up girls in gyms). I wish I have had it when I was in college.

Pros

• portable
• effec­tive
• fun work­out
• easy to fol­low instructions
• can be done anywhere
• con­ve­nient (you can even buy it as a phone app if you can’t pull your­self from your iPhone or Blackberry)
• inex­pen­sive

Cons

• card does not yell at you
• self-motivation required

Where to get it

Fitdeck.com $9.95 and up. (I told you it’s inexpensive.)

Who’s the genius that comes up with this idea

Mr Phil Black. He is a grad­u­ate from Yale University and Harvard Business School, U.S. Navy SEAL and Navy SEAL Instructor, for­mer Goldman Sachs Investment Banker, Certified Personal Trainer, Firefighter, Entrepreneur, Author, Speaker, and father of four boys. Now you can totally see how this prod­uct is a prod­uct of this diverse and impres­sive background.