4 ways to help you stay fit over the holidays
The holidays are filled with temptations, not only on Christmas, but for some reason the entire December seems to be packed with holiday treats of some kind.
Everywhere you go you can see Christmas cookies and candy on display, not to mention all the food that comes with the holidays.
So here are a few guidelines to help you maintain your fitness lifestyle and your mentality in December:
1. Don´t have as much time on your hand?
Don´t worry, you can speed up your workouts with training methods like rest-pause, HIIT training, supersets, giant sets or cirquit training. This will take less time as well as burning more calories then your standard "rest for 1 min between sets" program.
Also you should prioritize your time. Do your workouts in the morning so you won´t miss out on your training because you had to go shopping for gifts for your loved ones.
2. The gym is closed?
Many gym´s are closed over the holidays so you might have to take matters in to your own hands.
Go out for a run. Start by doing a 10 min warm up by jogging and then do a 20 min HIIT training, sprint for a minute and then jog for a minute, 20 min in total.
You can also train at home even if you don´t have any equipment.
Try doing these exercises as a cirquit training:
Easy
A. Bodyweight squats 20x
B. Push-ups (do it on your knees if the regular one´s are to hard) 10x.
C. lunges 30x.
D. Sit-ups 20x.
E. Plank 60 sec.
F. Sprinting in place 60 sec.
Do all the exercises in a row, then rest for 60 sec and repeat 4 times.
Hard
A. Squat jumps 20x.
B. Push-ups on one leg 20x (10 on each leg).
C. Jumping lunges 30x (15 on each leg).
D. Starfish crunch 30x.
E. Plank on one leg 60sek (30 sec each leg).
F. High knee sprints in place 60 sec.
Do all the exercises in a row, then rest for 1 min and repeat 4 times.
3. Choose your treats wisely
Choose your treats wisely; eat proteins like turkey, ham and red meat, and vegetables like beans and fresh garden salat and less of bread and potatoes. Go easy on the high calorie drinks like beer, eggnog and sodas.
If you start your day with a healty breakfast like oatmeal or eggs it´s more likely that you´ll eat healty throughout the day. So a healty breakfast with complex carbs, good protein and some fatty acids is a must.
4. Get your rest
Try to use the holidays to get some rest, there is no reason to spend your free-time in stressfull enviroment. Prioratize your time, sleep in if possible and spend time with your loved ones. Do your Christmas shopping early and your holidays should be stress free!
Remember that training, eating well and resting is a good recipe for muscle gains.