Steal Carrie Underwood’s Number One Workout Hack for a Lean, Sculpted Body

Carrie Underwood has come a long way since stepping onto the American Idol stage in 2005. Not only has her über successful career catapulted her into country music fame as a household name, but she’s also transformed into a lean, mean workout-killing machine over the years.

Don’t act like you haven’t noticed those sculpted guns of hers or her sexy stems that stretch for miles — we have, too, and luckily we know her fitness secrets.

Before having her and Nashville Predators player Mike Fisher’s 2-year-old son, Isaiah, Carrie would work out six to seven days a week — but now she says she breaks a sweat whenever she can fit it in.

“Now it’s like, ‘Okay, I have 20 minutes. What can I do in 20 minutes?’” she told PEOPLE. “I can go run for a little while, I can go do some Tabata rounds, I can do something.”

One easy workout she often turns to requires only a deck of cards and her favorite exercises.

“I’ll often use a deck of playing cards to make my workouts feel more fun, because I really like to mix things up and get bored easily,” she told Cosmopolitan. “I’ll assign one exercise to each suit, including one upper body move (like pushups or pull-ups), one lower body move (like weighted squats), one abs move (often using an abs wheel) and one cardio move (like jumping rope). Then I pick one card at a time and do as many reps that are listed on each card until I get through half the deck. Then I’ll assign different exercises to each suit, and continue until I finish the deck.”

Up Next: Carrie Underwood’s Full-Body Workout Is Actually Pretty Simple

We love Carrie’s super simple playing card concept to get through a workout — especially for those days when you’re considering hiring a personal trainer just so you don’t have to create another workout for yourself.

Check out the super fun workouts ahead for when you don’t have time to hit the gym but still want to break a killer sweat.

More: These 10 Photos Prove That Carrie Underwood Has the World’s Hottest Legs

Alphabet Challenge

Do you have a little one learning her ABCs? Let her join in on the fun — or just take an alphabet refresher course for yourself. See if you can make it all the way through the alphabet before your time is up. 

SpellYour Name Challenge

Depending how long your name is, this workout could be a breeze or could be the hardest workout of your week! Pro tip: Repeat it a few times if you’re blessed with a super short name.

Treadmill Challenge

Make your 25-minute workout count with this simple treadmill challenge! Follow along with this graphic, setting your treadmill at 3 miles per hour for one minute, 3.5 mph for three minutes, 5 mph for one minute, etc.

Pretty simple, right? Which workout will you try next?