We know, we know. Between the parties and the family meals and the cookies at the office, it’s hard to keep weight off around the holidays. But if you try our fun 12 Days of Fitness Workout you’ll be sure to stay on track just in time for your New Year’s resolution.
Your holiday workouts don’t have to mirror your hectic holiday schedule. The best thing you can do to avoid seasonal weight gain is to be “as consistent as possible, “Even if you can fit in only 20 minutes, just try to do something as many times as possible during the week. You will feel better and keep your metabolism revved up, and you won’t start packing on the pounds.”
Here are 12 days of fitness goals to keep you motivated and moving. It’s our gift to you!
Day 1: Clock a 5K. Time how fast you can run 3.1 miles on a treadmill and remember your time. When you’re setting your resolutions for 2018, you’ll already have a starting point for your running goals. Not in running shape? Time the same distance on an elliptical.
Day 2: Do 100 push-ups. Break them up throughout the day—do a set when you get out of bed, another after your shower and more during evening TV commercial breaks.
Day 3: Spin like Lance. Sit in the front row of a cycling class and lead the pack. Vow to keep moving as fast as the instructor or the fastest person in class.
Day 4: Compete in your own indoor triathlon. Hit the gym and tackle the elliptical for 10 minutes, the stationary bike for 20 and the treadmill for 15, with minimal rest in between.
Day 5: Do 200 crunches. Break these up throughout the day, as with the push-ups. For variety, switch up regular ones with bicycle or reverse crunches.
Day 6: Rest. Wrap up whatever holiday cookies are still lying around the house and give them away.
Day 7: “Climb” the Empire State Building. Get on a stair stepper and climb 102 floors—or 1,860 steps to the top.
Day 8: Join the Marines. Okay, not really. But you can use their fitness test to see how you measure up against Marine Corps standards: 1) How many pull-ups can you do (men), or how long can you hold a flexed-arm hang (women)? 2) How many crunches in two minutes? 3) How long does it take you to run three miles? Find out if you’re tough enough at military.com.
Day 9: Recover with yoga/Pilates. “The holidays can be stressful, but yoga and Pilates are great because they help stress reduction by offering an opportunity to connect mind, body and spirit, “They also give you an opportunity to focus on yourself.”
Day 10: Try kettle bells. Add kettle bells to your normal routine for an added strength and endurance workout. Start with the “swing”: Place a kettle bell between your feet. Bend down as if you’re sitting and pick it up. Snap your hips and swing it up to chest level. That’s one rep. See how many you can do.
Day 11: Partner up. Bring one of your friends to Fitness 1440, using our Day Free Pass. Both of you should design a workout plan for the other—and make it tough! We all ate more than a fair share of pecan pie, and that belly’s not going to shrink on its own.
Day 12: 3-2-1 Countdown. Try Braganza’s go-to workout, the 3-2-1 Training Method. Alternate five-minute bouts of cardio between a circuit of three strength-training exercises, doing them three times through with minimal rest. Thirty minutes of heart-pumping exercise, done.