I was given the opportunity to download RipDeck on my iPhone. This is a super fun app and it’s perfect for anyone who is time-crunched but would like to get a workout in (baby naptime?). Or it can be more intense. Let’s delve into it, shall we?

The start-up screen is very simple, you can either get a workout started or select a different one. The workouts are based on a deck of cards. A standard deck of cards has 52 cards. If your workout has exercises assigned to every single card value, then you’ll have 52 segments in your workout.

While doing the workout, the top box tells you how long you’ve been going and what card you are on in the deck. (example: 12/52 or 6/36) The bottom window shows you what card was drawn and what exercise you are supposed to be doing.

The base beginner workout programmed into the app includes sit-ups, squats, jumping jacks and push-ups. Each of these exercises are assigned to a suit. Example: Hearts were jumping jacks. So if 3 of hearts is drawn… you do 3 jumping jacks. There is also an intermediate and advanced workout pre-programmed into the app.

Upon conclusion the app gives the opportunity to share what you’ve just done via email, Facebook or Twitter.

The app then gives you a breakdown of your workout and stores it in the history, so you have a log of every workout you’ve completed with RipDeck.

You can take as much time as you need/want to get each set done and before moving on to the next exercise.

Where it gets really fun is creating your own custom workouts. Basically, any workout can have 5 different exercises; one assigned to each suit or the joker card. You can assign a value to each card value as well. You might assume that getting a 2 card would mean 2 reps… but you could add a multiplier to that so in actuality it means more reps. And you can assign any number to the face cards, whether you decide they get 11, 12, 13… or maybe you want to be adventuresome and assign them as 20 reps.

You’re not limited to just the exercises they have pre-listed… that’s just a starting point. You can put any exercise in there. Supermans, lunges, Prancercise… My only recommendation is that you know what the name of each exercise you program in means. If you get a cool workout from a magazine and plug-in the names only to end up staring at the app trying to remember what on earth the Boogie Scorpion is or something like that, it’s going to be kind of annoying!

The app is iPhone only and is available in the iTunes App Store for $1.99, a price I think is totally fair for this. I enjoyed doing the preset workout, as well as playing with the idea of my own workouts – even if they need a little more fine-tuning! If you sign up on the RipDeck website for their newsletter, they promise periodic workouts to be sent out. Maybe I’ll create a JillWillRun series to be shared via the app?