3 Quick Fit Tips To Keep Your Body Fat-Free For The Holidays
December 20, 2008 by admin · Leave a Comment
Everyone is busy during the holidays. Don’t let that be an excuse to avoid your training regimen. Choose to be sedentary and you risk losing the lean muscle mass and strength you have worked so hard to build and maintain. Loss of lean muscle mass will lower your resting metabolic rate, the amount of calories you burn even when sitting around. This means that everyday you will be burning less calories while eating the same amount as always. Where do those extra calories go? Right to your fat sites! To top it off losing strength will mean that the next time you start to work out your performance will be sub par and you’ll get smacked in the face with that ugly word that no one ever wants to encounter when it comes to their training: regression! There are many clever ways to maintain or increase the number of calories you burn per day, both from exercise and from your normal daily activities, to stay slim this holiday season. Use the strategies below to maintain and/or increase your current amount of lean muscle mass and maximize your daily calorie burn to best protect yourself against holiday fat gain!
1.) Perform at least one intense strength training session per week
Studies show that performing at least one strength training workout per week is an effective way to maintain your current levels of strength and lean muscle mass. To best maintain your fitness levels shoot for at least one good strength training workout per week and prevent unwanted regressions. To best prevent weight gain, aim for three total body strength workouts per week. To maximize fat burning, perform three total body strength workouts per week and also perform three cardio interval workouts per week on non strength-training days.
2.) Sneak in Mini-Workouts
When you honestly cannot find a five to 20-minute time slot to complete an effective total body workout, look for hidden chunks of time during the day to get in a certain number of exercises that work your entire body. Got a free moment from now until you need to take the turkey out of the oven? Then, bang out 10 push-ups, 10 rows, and 20 squats. Using this method throughout the day will lead to big numbers that will burn calories and let you keep that metabolism boosting muscle.
Make sure to pick multi-joint, compound movements that hit as much of your body’s major muscle groups in the shortest amount of time possible (e.g. squats, deadlifts, lunges, push-ups, rows, etc.). Use the plan below as guide to build your own Mini-Workout. Adjust the repetition ranges accordingly based on your current strength levels. The only thing you need is your body weight and resistance bands or dumbells. Perform this plan up to three times per week, resting a day between workouts. Make sure to alternate between Plan A and Plan B for more variety. You can either hit your total by doing one exercise first (e.g. perform push-ups rest-pausing as needed until you get 100 total), or by simply employ circuit style training (e.g. 20 squats, 10 push-ups, 10 rows, repeat 10x throughout the day to hit your totals).
Your Mini-Workouts For The Holidays
Plan A-
Body weight Squats or Hip Extensions: 100-200 total
Push-ups: 50-100 total
DB/Band Rows: 50-100 total
Plan B-
Body weight Lunges or Single-Leg Hip Extensions: 50-100/total per leg
Off Chair/Couch Dips: 50-100 total
DB/Band Curls: 50-100 total
3.) Engage in more outdoor holiday activities
I have been in some pretty incredible snowball fights in my day. Though I was always having a blast while pelting my friends behind cleverly built igloos, I was never aware of how exhausting a good snowball fight can truly be until I came indoors afterwards. My snowsuit was soaked with sweat and I had spent the last 30 minutes or so in total fight or flight mode. Talk about an awesome way to burn calories without even thinking about it! Get outdoors this holidays season and throw around the pigskin or have your very own “Ice Bowl.” Once again, all these calories here and there truly do add up and could make a difference between you fitting in your pants or ripping your pants by the time the clock strikes midnight this New Year!
