Malachi’s 12 Days of Fitness
By Malachi Fralick, CGC Fitness & Wellness Coordinator
November 24, 2016
The holiday season is quickly approaching and it can be difficult to stay on track with our health, fitness and dietary goals. Visits with family and friends, travel and endless errands make maintaining a consistent gym schedule a challenge. Add to that an abundance of food and drink seemingly around every corner, and it is easy to understand why the number on the scale tends to head North like Santa after a busy evening of delivering presents. Perhaps Santa’s “bowl full of jelly” is due to some of the reasons stated above.
With the time crunch and extra calories the holidays can bring, the secret to keeping your holidays healthy is efficiency. Whether you can fit 10, 30 or 60 minutes of physical activity into your schedule a few days per week, getting the most out of your minutes will be what counts.
When exercising, do full-body workouts and make sure to focus on compound movements that work major and minor muscle groups all at once: squats, lunges, presses, pulls and step-ups. Working these movements through their full range of motion will burn more calories than working smaller muscles or doing isolated movements. For example, you could have fun and get a great workout by following this “12 days of fitness” routine; the exercises do not require a gym so no excuses as Santa’s always watching!
Complete 1, 2 or 3 sets of each of these exercises, using proper form: 12 squats, 11 push-ups, 10 forward lunges, 9 lying hip raises, 8 supermans, 7 overhead press, 6 backward lunges, 5 burpees, 4 crunches, 3 side lunges, 2 min plank, 1 min wall sit. To make it more challenging you can double up the number of reps for each exercise, i.e. 24 squats, 22 push-ups, etc., or introduce some extra weight – soup cans can do the trick.
Going out for a walk in the fresh air with your family is also a great option to keep you moving and burn off some of those extra calories. Taking a leisure stroll after a meal is definitely encouraged.
On a final note, to help practice moderation with your food and drink intake, try reminding yourself of your fitness and wellness goals.*
Merry Fitness & Healthy Holidays!
*But we certainly understand if you indulge in seconds when it comes to Grandma’s double-chocolate Christmas cheesecake.
Article written by Malachi Fralick, Fitness & Wellness Coordinator