The Thirteenth Hour Workout Deck

The Thirteenth Hour Workout Deck is a pocket sized workout tool with 52 exercises that can be done throughout your day with minimal time, equipment, and money.  It was designed with the idea that something is better than nothing.  Exercising for a minute is better than no minutes at all.  While anyone can benefit from the exercises in the deck, it was really designed for people who have the desire but are just not sure where to start.  I hope this deck will give them the little nudge, one card at a time, that they need to start making positive changes in their life.

I wrote the fantasy book, The Thirteenth Hour, partly inspired by my own experience with martial arts.  The confidence I gained over the years from martial arts spilled over into others, including the idea that I could combine ideas that had been percolating in my head for years with my own experiences into a fantasy book.  That’s how The Thirteenth Hour came to be.

On a practical level, the design and idea of this exercise deck came not only from my own experiences but from a little manual written for use by Royal Canadian Air Force pilots stationed in places without access to exercise facilities.  The 11 min 5BX exercise plan for men and the 12 min XBX exercise plan for women had silhouettes of a man or woman demonstrating each exercise, something I wanted to pay homage to by having a pixelart Logan, the main character from The Thirteenth Hour, go through each exercise in a similar way.   To accompany the visuals of Logan demonstrating each exercise, I have tried to include descriptions as well as some pointers on each card.

There are 56 cards (52 exercise cards + 4 wild cards).  Each card is color coded by type of exercise:

1.)    White: warm up and joint loosening exercises to increase bloodflow and prepare the body for activity

2.)    Yellow: bodyweight resistance exercises to build strength

3.)    Grey: martial arts techniques* for agility and coordination

4.)    Blue: cool down / stretching / meditative exercises to wind down

5.)    Orange: wild card – do any exercise you like

Start by shuffling the cards and laying them face down.  A few ideas on how you can use the deck:

-Drawing one card, doing that exercise, then repeating or …

-Drawing a selection of cards and doing all the exercises in your hand, one after another or …

-Separating the cards by type and only doing the cards of that color or …

-Asking a friend to join you as you take turns draw from the deck.

How you use the cards is mainly limited by your imagination, time, and determination.  You will notice that there are no suggested number of repetitions on the cards.  That is up to you, your time, and your ability.  The difficulty of the exercises ranges from basic to relatively advanced.  If you are unable to perform the exercise on the card, just put it aside and draw another or modify the exercise to suit your ability.  For example, if you are unable to do traditional pushups, start off on your knees or do incline pushups.  There are some advanced cards that contain techniques that may be confusing or dangerous to attempt if you have no experience.  For those (e.g. handstands), getting an experienced teacher to help you learn the technique in a safe progression is not only important but will save you time in the long run. 

Included in each download:

-56 cards, which can be printed out

-The design on the back of the cards, which can be used when printing

-Card case template

-Printing instructions

-Card use instructions