resistance band stack 52
- 52 of the most effective resistance band exercises on enlarged suited and numbered playing cards.
- Never do the same workout twice: Kills boredom, increases your motivation
- Shuffle the deck and deal yourself a workout or play a Stack 52 card game.
- Easy to learn: Scan the QR code for a video demonstration of each exercise (or see below for videos).
- Progressive difficulty: ideal for beginners and experts.
resistance band Stack 52 Exercise Videos
The Games
Tabata Fit 4
The Great Wall Sit Challenge
Interval Draining
Crazy Eights Tournament
3 Card Challenge
Memoroids
Flick ‘Em
Kevbo’s Left Foot
The Limbo Bimbo
Memory
5 Card Monte
TV Challenge
Interval War
Quick Call
Shark Tank Challenge
Fast and Furious
Life in the Fast Lane
Fit Poker
The Coworker Drop
Slap Me with a Frozen Squirrel
War
The Peppercorn Greyhound
Interval Draining
Goal: To be the first person to complete the circuit (or, if your playing solo, to beat previous best time)
Instructions: Divide the shuffled deck in stacks of three and place each stack about 100 feet apart from each other in a triangle shape. Once the three stacks are placed on the ground (or table) you should see the stacks in the shape of a triangle. Make one triangle for each person playing. Each player lines up at one stack on their own triangle and someone yells go and starts a timer. Each player starts by flipping a card at the stack they are standing near and complete the exercise. Once that exercise is completed, the player(s) is to run to the next stack in their triangle and complete the exercise at that stack. This process continues until the exercises at each stack is complete. The first player to finish all their exercises wins.
Variations: 4 common variations:
1) If you have more than 6 people and want to team up, create a tournament where the fastest team wins and advances to the next round.
2) Do an entire Interval Draining circuit with only one or two body types, picking out only the appropriately colored cards (i.e. yellow cards for legs and blue cards for cardio)
3) Take out all timed cards (i.e. wall sit for 60 seconds), this will even the playing field and allow players to complete only exercises with rep counts.
4) Instead of sprinting from one stack to the next, you can designate certain stacks as a “backward run” to the next stack, or even a one legged hop You’re limited only by your imagination with this variation.
War
Goal: To deal the highest card.
Instruction: Deal entire deck evenly among all players. Each player throws their top card in the center of all players. The player who threw the highest card wins, all losing players must perform the exercises on the cards that were thrown.
Wild card: Trumps all cards
The Coworker Drop
Goal: The player who has the most cards at the end of the day loses, the player with the least wins.
Instruction: This game works best when each player has their own deck. If each player doesn’t have their own deck, divide the deck equally among all players. This game is played throughout a 24 hour period. It is best played with co-workers who see each other many times in one day.
Once the deck is divided equally, each player comes to an agreement as to how often they can “drop” an opponent. Create a verbal or body action that can cause a player to be dropped. An example of a verbal cue would be every time one of the players says the name of a Microsoft product like Excel or Word, or says a word that starts with the letter L. An example of a body cue would be every time a player scratches their head.
When a verbal or body cue is triggered, a player can drop the player who triggered the cue by throwing a random card down. The person dropped must do the exercise on that card. The player doing the dropping must have the cards on their person in order to do the drop. The drop must occur within 5 seconds. In other words a player cannot trigger a cue to be dropped and then be reminded of it a minute later then get dropped. Once a player is dropped, they keep the cards that dropped them. If 3 or more people are playing, the first person to throw the cards down wins that drop. For example if a player triggers the verbal cue by saying the word “lunch” and 2 other players are standing nearby and notice, the first player to throw the card down wins that round.
The player who has the most cards at the end of the day loses, the player with the least wins.
Quick Call
Goal: To be the first person to shout the name of the exercise on the card
Instructions: Each player is dealt one card face down. When the dealer yells go, the players flip the card and shout the exercise on the card. The last person to shout the exercise on the card does the exercise.
Wild card: automatic winner
Video instructions from the creator of Strength Stack 52 (with surprise marriage proposal)
The Great Wall Sit Challenge
Goal: To be the last player remaining with cards
Instructions: All players flip a random Strength Stack card to determine who goes first. The person who flipped the lowest number on the card goes first. Each player gets 9 randomly drawn cards. Each player is to perform a 60 second wall sit, one at a time. Once one player finishes, another player starts (while the person who just finished rests). The players alternate with 60 second wall sits until one player quits and can’t complete their 60 second wall sit. When one player quits, that player must give 3 of their cards to another player. That other player must perform the exercises, then when it is their turn, complete the wall sit. The last player remaining with cards wins.
TEAM PLAY: For a group, break up into teams. You can do small or large teams. Assign one person on each team to start the one minute wall sit. Someone starts a timer and yells “go”. For 60 seconds the player must hold a wall sit position. Once that minute is up, someone else on the team takes over for one minute until each person has a turn. If one person does NOT complete their 60 second wall sit, everyone else on that team must flip a Strength Stack card and perform the exercise. The winner is determined by the most people on the team who complete their wall sits.
Variations: Limited only by your imagination. One common variation to to extend the 60 second wall sit to 90 seconds
TV Challenge
Goal: To complete as many cards as possible. Each card is worth 1 point.
Instructions: This game is played while watching your favorite television show. First, shuffle and divide the deck among all the players. During each commercial break, the players race to perform as many cards as possible. Each card completed is worth one point. At the end of the television show, the player with the most points wins.
Variations – Shuffle the deck but do not divide it among the players. Everyone will do the same cards. Draw a card for each commercial. The player to perform the most repetitions during that commercial wins the card. Example: If during a television break there are 4 commercials, then the players will do 4 exercises (one for each commercial). Player One may win the first card during the first commercial, and Player Two might win the 2nd card during the 2nd commercial and so on. At the end of the television program, the player who has won the most cards wins.
Interval War
Goal: To win as many cards (battles) as possible.
Instructions:
Shuffle the deck and agree on the number of cards (battles) that will be in the war. Beginners may want to do 4-6 cards, intermediate might choose 8-12, and advanced may choose 15+.
Download an interval timer for your smartphone. We recommend the free HIIT Interval Training Timer app for Android and the free Interval Timer on iTunes for the iPhone or iPad. Intervals will be a period of exercise followed by a period of rest. For example, 20 seconds of exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest is a very common interval made famous by Dr. Tabata, but you may choose different variations (30:15, 40:20, 60:30, etc).
Lay the cards out and set the interval timer. For example, if you choose to do 10 cards at the Tabata Interval, you would set the work at 20 seconds, the rest at 10 seconds, and the number of rounds to 10.
During each interval, the players attempt to perform as many repetitions for the exercise on the card as possible. At the end of the interval, the player with the most repetitions wins that card (battle). After all the intervals, the player who has won the most cards (battles) wins the war and the game.
Variations: Players of different fitness levels can compete by applying a multiple to the weaker player’s repetition count. For example, the weaker player could multiply their repetitions by 1.5x or 2x for each battle.