With all the Xmas parties, shopping and catching up with friends and family the holiday season can be a busy time, dont let yourself get into bad habits and fall into the trap of missing workouts. Missing workouts and losing the lean muscle mass you worked so hard to develop is a big mistake. The reason is less lean muscle equals lower metabolism, muscle accounts for the bulk of your daily calorie burning (between 65-75%). This means that youll be burning less and less calories 24/7 putting you in grave danger of piling on unwanted body fat through the holiday season. It gets worse because the loss of strength will mean your training has regressed, a rude awakening on your first day back to training. However there are a few clever strategies you can use to maintain or even increase the number of calories you burn everyday. Use the strategies below to avoid stacking on the holiday kilos. 1. Reach Your Totals. Your body cannot differentiate between 100 squats all at once versus 100 squats performed in a day. If you honestly cant fit in a 10-20 minute workout during the day, look for little chunks of time where you can get in a certain number of reps a day that will work your entire body. Got a spare few minutes before the turkey has to come out of the oven, then crank out 12 press ups, 12 bodyweight rows and 15 squats. Using this system will soon add up to large number of reps by the end of the day that will burn just as many calories as if you did all the exercises at once. Its important to recognize that this system should only be used as a backup to performing your usual exercise routine of total body workouts and interval training which are scientifically proven to burn 9 times as much fat as traditional. High intensity exercise and short rest periods provide the body with the best hormonal environment for muscle gain and quick fat loss. Be sure to choose large compound exercises that work as many of your bodies major muscles in the shortest amount of time i.e press ups, chin ups, bodwight rows, squats, lunges etc. Use the routines below to reach your totals, adjust the rep range according to your current level of fitness. Theres no need for any fancy pieces of equipment, just use your bodyweight and if you have them dumbbells or barbells. Perform the program every other day ensuring you rotate between routine 1 and routine 2, you can either reach your totals by performing one exercise at a time i.e 100 squats (with rest breaks until you reach your total) or by performing the exercises as a circuit i.e 20 press ups, 20 bodyweight rows and repeat 5 times throughout the day until you reach your total. Reach Your Totals Holiday Program Routine A Press ups: 50-100 total Body weight Squats or reverse lunges: 100-200 total Bodyweight Rows: 50-100 total Routines B Walking Lunges or Hip Extensions: 100 total Bodyweight Dips: 50-100 total Dumbbell or Barbell rows 2. Be More Active. Technology has made us a lazy and overweight society, during these holidays be more active. If you need to go to the shops and its 15-20 minute walk then leave the car at home, take the stairs instead on the escalators and elevators. All these small steps add up to burning more calories at the end of the day. 3. Perform a minimum of one strength training session per week. Studies show that by performing just one strength session per week you can maintain your current level of lean muscle mass. So to be certain of maintaining your muscle mass perform at least one intense strength workout per week to avoid the dreaded regressions in fitness levels. For optimum results try to perform 3-4 total body workouts per week with interval training.
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