By Miguel J. Ortiz
As we all know, the hardest time of the year to stay disciplined is during the holidays. First, we have Halloween with lingering candy here and there, followed by Thanksgiving, Hanukkah and Christmas.
Getting through the holiday season can seem like a lot, especially if you have some serious health goals. It doesn’t have to be too difficult. It’s going to come with some challenges, but it’s absolutely possible. I want to provide some tips that will help you mentally get through the holidays. Then, we will jump into the type of workouts we need to be maintaining for consistency.
Most people think the food is the biggest challenge during the holidays. It absolutely can be, however a sneaky culprit to holiday weight gain is alcohol. The cold weather, family fun, time off, and good food make it easy to put away a couple of drinks. It is smart to limit the drinking as much as possible. Another challenge is portion control and learning the discipline of appreciating food. We all have those favorite dishes and most people are too scared to tell Grandma that they can’t have the made from scratch stuffing or casserole, and that’s OK. However, the discipline we want to take on will require a little courage to simply say, “I’ll have a smaller portion.” or “I’ll just have a taste.” A smaller portion will allow you to try the food while maintaining disciplinary control of your portions. Nonetheless, the tips above will provide the mental strength needed to help you through the holidays.
Now it’s time to compliment the mental work with the physical. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT workout harder just because you’re not eating as clean as you normally do. The goal is to maintain consistency, punishing yourself in your workouts isn’t going to teach your body to adapt or change because it isn’t in line with your normal routine nor is it maintainable. The second thing we want to consider is the amount of time we have. If you can continue your normal workout schedule during the holidays then good for you. If your time gets tighter because of family then you need to be more efficient with your workouts.
So here is a simple workout routine to follow daily. However, you might want to mix up your exercises depending on how many days you’re training. So, here is an example of 1 good training day, if you’re doing 3-5 a week you may want to mix up the exercises.
Warm up: (5 min) light jog, jump rope, or any consistent light cardio.
Mobility: (5 min) Half kneeling hip opener 2 x 5 each & 90/90 torso reach & rotation 2 x 5 each
Strength: (10 min+/-) 2 main lifts this example will be Squat & Push: 4 sets x 12 reps of each
DB Goblet Squat – 30 sec rest then
Glute bridge & floor press – 30 sec rest & repeat
Strength 2: (10 min+/-) 2-3 accessory & core exercises: 3 sets of the following
1 arm DB squat press 10 reps each – 30 sec of rest
Elevated Glute bridge & Skull crusher 15 reps- 30 sec rest
side Plank rotations 10 reps each – 30 sec rest & repeat.
What you see above is an efficient 30+/- min workout with timed rest to ensure a sense of aerobic consistency while focusing on quality strength training. To make sure you don’t go over time to much, choose a weight that you can maintain good control, this will drive up the fat burning as you will spend more time in that aerobic state versus driving your HR up like crazy –which will only return more of an anaerobic level of work which isn’t going to burn as much fat. Have fun with your workouts, stay consistent with this routine of doing 5-7 exercises or 35 minutes of work or less to keep up the body’s disciplinary response to exercise and enjoy feeling better through the holidays.
