If you really think about it, the struggle during this time year is about finding balance in your healthy lifestyles during the holidays. All of a sudden you’ve got a ton of extra commitments that you normally don’t have that start rocking the proverbial boat. We want to make this time of year easier for you, so we’ve come up with some of the best holiday season fitness tips.
I’m going to borrow a page from a colleague Dan John, and I want you to think of yourself like an athlete for a second. Athletes have off-season training when they recover from the previous season and start getting stronger and rebuilding. Next you have the pre-season training. This is intense conditioning getting the athletes in tip-top shape for the season. Then, obviously, you have the in-season training. In-season training isn’t as grueling. Why? Because the athletes are busy competing at their sport and staying off the injured roster. During this time it’s about maintaining what they have.
Now many of us aren’t athletes, however, we all have times in our lives that life is more stressful or demanding than others. This will be your ‘in-season’ time. The holiday season tends to be most peoples ‘in-season’ training time. We don’t have as much time to work-out with other obligations and the eating isn’t the best. The key isn’t to give up during the holidays, rather ‘tis the season to STAY in shape.
Here are our 4 best holiday season fitness tips to keep you going:
Increase intensity
How do I increase the intensity? Lift heavier weights. If you don’t have access to heavier weights, then try doing isometric holds. Isometrics are a great way to get some time-under-tension which is needed for muscle growth and strength.
Increase the speed of the movement
This is similar to the first item. Speeding up the movement is another way to increase intensity. You can do this with any movement. Walking turns into jogging, skipping, running or sprinting. Lunges turn into split lunge jumps. Squats transform into squat jumps or box jumps. Bench pressing turns into plyometric push (clap) push-ups. And a simple inverted row can be become a row & reach.
Move faster, and you’ll increase the intensity which is necessary when you have limited time.
Make a schedule
Chances are you have a set schedule. You know when you’re going to wake up. You know when you’ll go to the gym, when your meetings are, etc. During the holidays people usually go into ‘DEFCON 1’ mode with sirens and hazard lights going off. Instead, plan out your week and MAKE a new schedule to get everything in. It most likely won’t be an hour gym session, but you’ll have a greater likelihood of working out if it’s scheduled than not.
The joy of quickies
5 minutes of working out is better than nothing. Consistency is SO crucial to keep up the habit and motivation. Instead of worrying about doing 3 sets of 10 reps of something, maybe do 10 sets of 3 reps, spread throughout the day or even week. Either way in this example you’ll be doing 30 reps. Why is interval training so popular? Because it’s effective to get in something intense, but short duration. You don’t have to do a full-on grueling HIIT (high intensity interval training) session, unless you can and want to. Simply put, you can still reap a lot of benefits by doing little bouts.
Once again, these tips aren’t about getting in the best shape of your life. It’s about maintaining your fitness level that you’ve already earned, namely your healthy habits.
