Card Tearing

Tearing a deck of cards in half is another common feat of strength. It requires intense hand strength to hold the deck in place with one hand while the other tears it off like a paper cutter. Requires a strong pinching grip but not necessarily in the same manner most people train their pinch.

This is just one method of tearing a deck of cards in half, another being to grip the deck with the hands facing the opposite way and twist it apart.

It is a progressive exercise as you can start with less cards and work your way up to a full deck or even beyond. More advanced card tearing feats involve tearing it into quarters or eights, notching the deck, doing it behind the back and more.

Different cards will have different difficulty. You can start with easier decks and work your way up to harder decks like the Bicycle brand.

My first torn deck of Bicycle Cards

Here is me tearing a deck and a half of cards. These cards were easier than most, but still I was happy with the progress.

Here’s tearing a deck of cards in the box into quarters.

I’m a long way from “Mr. Hands” John Brookfield who tears fifty decks in under a minute here.

Some people fake this stunt by baking the cards in an oven. This would make them brittle and easy to tear.

If you want to be able to tear cards you are going to have to get a bunch of decks to practice with. Here is my recommended resource from Amazon. The best part is you get a variety of decks with different difficulty levels. And at a good price too! You can also find good deals on eBay sometimes.

If you need more information on card tearing you’ll want to check out the Feats of Strength video set I did with Bud Jeffries. It has tons of training information, covering different techniques, how to train on card tearing as well as much more.

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