December is upon us and everyone is starting to think about the Christmas Holidays. Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, it’s likely that your normal routine may change a little as you have time off work and the kids are off school.
I’m a firm believer that fitness and training should always be a part of your life. Everyday you should make a deposit into your fitness account. For the last 3 months, DEFY has been booming with people chasing their goals. Naturally over the holidays, it will be a little quieter as people go away or visit family.
While you may be away from your regular routine, it’s important for your long term goals that you keep training over this period.
There’s a lot of reasons (excuses) throughout the year to let your workouts slip. Easter holidays, summer holidays, Christmas holidays, work projects – I see many people regress over these periods. It’s a constant ebb and flow of progress. Over the years you end up relatively similar in terms of your fitness, strength and skills.
You may not have access to a gym, you may not have much equipment (or none) and you may have a little less motivation if everyone around you isn’t very fitness minded. Don’t let that deter you. You have goals, you are the person who has committed to their fitness and you make daily deposits.
While it may not be ideal or as good as your usual workout routine, you can still get it done. If you find yourself struggling, try this:
- Commit to getting warmed up – often the hardest part is starting. Put a clock on for 5mins and get moving. See examples below
- Get family involved – make it fun. Get your brother or your spouse and get them moving with you.
- Lower the intensity – you don’t need to be going full throttle all the time. If you’re not feeling it after a few extra drinks the night before – just get some low intensity stuff going
- Get it done early – when you have time off and you feel like you have the whole day to get a workout in, you usually end up running out of time. Get up, drink coffee and get it done – you’ll feel great for the rest of the day.
BUILD YOUR OWN WORKOUTS
The simpler the better when you might not be in the mood. You can build some super simple workouts with the format below
Warm up – jog on the spot 30s – down ups x10 – spidermans x10 (do this 3x) then:
- Pick a lower body exercise – squat, lunge, cossack, jump lunge, glute bridge etc.
- Pick a core exercise – plank, hollow rock, leg raise
- Pick a upper body exercise – push up, row, handstand
- Pick something to raise your heart – burpee, run, skipping
- Now take each of those and do them for 40s with 20s rest between – repeat for 30-40mins. See below
40s Squats 20s rest
40s Plank 20s rest
40s Push Up 20s rest
40s Mountain Climbers 20s rest
Repeat 8x = 32mins
Another option is to pick a few movements and do 100 of each
Run 1mile
100 Burpees
100 Lunges
100 Sit ups
These are super simple and will get the job done over a holiday period. When you come back to your normal routine, you’ll feel great and get straight back to it. Long term you’ll keep making progress towards your goals
Happy Holidays!