With a big holiday weekend upon us, this a great time to take a break and enjoy this season with friends and family. And while a break from our daily lives is a terrific way to recharge, it doesn't mean you have to take a break from your workout.
While holidays can upset our natural routines, we can still benefit from keeping our fitness regimen intact which can help us stay sane during the holidays. For a lot of us, though, falling off the wagon and maintaining pre-holiday form is a major challenge. Missing our workouts, eating too much and just making excuses is an easy way to feel guilty and anxious.
But it doesn't have to be that way, even if you're traveling and away from your favorite treadmill, bike or elliptical. Here at Landice, we've come up with several things you can do no matter your location, time of day or what fitness equipment you have around. As long as you push yourself and move quickly from exercise to exercise, you’ll be able to get through some productive workouts in a short period of time. Here are some familiar exercises that you can use to create your own routine:
Pushups
Classic. Great upper-body exercise activating the chest, shoulders, arms, and core.
Side-ups
Strengthens the obliques. This is the one where you lie down on your side and engage your obliques by raising your legs while lunging your free elbow toward them simultaneously.
Dirty Dogs
This exercise targets the hips and glutes. This can be done utilizing a few different variations. The easier one involves rotating one of your legs out while on your knees. A much more intense, engaging version requires you to get into a completed pushup position and rotate one of your legs away from your body and then across it, repeating until fatigue sets in on your core.
Sprints
Maybe you can borrow Aunt Jenny's treadmill that's in the basement. Set up a comfortable incline level and blast off some high speed sprints.It’s a great way to work off fat, burn some stress, and release some endorphins.
Burpees
Burpees are a great exercise because they work the whole body. It's a squat thrust combined with a pushup and a jump. You're working your lower body, your upper body, and your heart. Combine these three exercises in a tri-set fashion for 2-3 sets of 20 reps and you'll need a nap.
Squat Kicks
With arms up in guard, squat as low as you can, taking the hips back. As you stand up, kick with the right leg. Repeat the move, kicking with the left leg. Repeat, alternating kicks for one minute.
These are just some exercises you can do pretty much anywhere. How much time you put in to them depends upon what your current level of activity is. Typically, this can range from as little as 20 minutes once a week for beginners to 45 minutes three times a week if you're more conditioned. The nice thing, though, is that holidays are over quickly and your structured exercise routine should be something easily to get back in to. Enjoy!
