The other day I was cleaning out our play room and decided to look inside the game boxes to make sure all the pieces were there. When I opened a box with dice in it, I had an idea. The rip deck workout is popular where cards dictate the exercise and reps, and I wanted to do a timed variation of that. All you need for this workout is 15 minutes and a two dice.

For starters, I took my cell phone and set the timer for 15 minutes. Then I rolled the dice.

I had predetermined I was going to do my favorite exercises of push ups, sit ups, burpees, and squat thrusts all in that order.

Whatever the number came up as I would do that many reps and roll again. Doubles meant double the reps. I would go through each exercise and then start round two.

Round two called for the same exercises in the same order, but this time I did double reps for each exercise. Then triple reps on round three.

The first three rounds went very quickly and I started to doubt my idea, but stuck it out. Round four and quadruple reps was going well until I rolled an 11 on the burpees and again for squat thrusts. I no longer doubted the program. My goal was to get to the seventh round but that did not happen…yet.

You can make this as challenging as you like by altering the rules and exercises. I want to incorporate chin ups somehow, but know I can’t do more than 20 or so in a reasonable amount of time.

I have only done this exercise a couple of times and will use it as a way to break up the monotony of other workouts or when I am in the need of a challenge. One variation I dreamed up for the second time through was to incorporate a “wild card.” For this I chose a random number and when it came up, I had the option to: skip the exercise, half the next exercise’s reps, or to substitute an entirely new exercise for that set.

This is not going to become the next national fitness craze, but it is very fun to do. You can follow my rules as strictly as you would like to or make up your own entirely. The best part about fitness is that you get to alter exercises any way you would like to make it fit your needs.So have fun and avoid the double sixes!

(Photo courtesy of Sanja Gjenero)