Product Review: NURU Exercise Anywhere Cards

First, major thanks to Small Steps to Health for recommending me to NURU for a product review- much appreciate it!

NURU Exercise Anywhere cards are a small deck inconspicuous enough to fit in the back pocket of your jeans (I’m talking girls skinny jeans, too- the kind where you have to lie down on the bed to wiggle you’re way in/out of them. This deck is tiny!). There’s just 30 cards total but they pack a wealth of information.

These cards are designed so that no matter your fitness level and no matter where you are- at the gym, at home, at work, on the bus- you can pull out the deck and quickly choose an exercise (maybe not the bus. Trying to do a triceps dip on a moving vehicle could have disaastrous results). The exercises are divided into two sections; strengthening the major muscle groups and cardio lab. The cards even suggest a sample workout routine for a week to give us a good idea of how these cards can be utilized on a daily basis, alongside a helpful example for how to maximize the effects by pushing to your limit with the number of reps and sets that you perform.

The exercises for the major muscle groups are divided into chest, upper and lower back, shoulders, biceps and triceps, and abs, and the lower body (glutes, quads, hamstrings and calves). The only equipment you need to perform these exercises is your own body weight, and perhaps a mat or piece of rug (because a hard floor isn’t so comfortable). Some of the exercises also make use of benches/chairs, towels (or resistance bands, if you’ve got them), or a tree branch/bar. Cans/filled water bottles, which you could replace with dumbbells, are also incorporated for some of the exercises. The cardio lab section is much shorter, with suggestions for interval training, jumping rope, walking, and squat thrust routines.

I love how these cards really present us with the no-excuses mentality of working out. When you’ve got this deck of cards in your pocket or purse, you can’t ignore the fact that it only takes a few minutes to do some reps of any exercise. Complete with step-by-step instructions and simple yet detailed illustrations accompanying each description, this deck also gives a brief overview of why we need to exercise all of these muscles. For science types, there’s a quickie explanation including the correct terminology for muscles with a diagram of the muscles in the body for each major muscle group.

Even though many of the exercises used in this deck of cards are straightforward (push ups, front shoulder raises, lunges and so on), they have a lot of good ideas for variations on each of these exercises. This deck will be perfect for traveling and I will also be using it if I need a fast strength training routine while at home. When I go away in May to visit my father dear in Cambodia (excitement!), these cards are going to be as close to me as my passport. While everyone else is typing on their laptops during stopovers in the airports between Winnipeg and Phnom Penh, I’ll be whipping out my new favorite deck of cards for a lying tricep extension or a decline push up 😉

Want to win a pack of cards for yourself? Head over to Healthy Living Today to enter Mark’s NURU Exercise Anywhere giveaway!