Holiday Workouts to Keep You Fit in Minutes

Between Christmas parties, last-minute shopping, kids' activities, and travel, the holidays get hectic for most of us. As a result, we can start to abandon the routines that usually keep us healthy, and working out is often the first thing to go. Couple that with - dare we say - going a little too crazy with seasonal feasting, and you could end up gaining weight and drifting further from your fitness goals than you intended. Here are some convenient ways to work out and stay active when you have limited time.

1) Partner Workouts

If you’ll be staying with family for the holidays, maybe there will be someone there who you can rope into training with you, like a sibling or cousin. In which case, you could head to a nearby gym or make good use of whatever equipment your folks might have on hand. Partner workouts are a perfect fit for this time of year because they keep you accountable, don’t take much time, and are a fun excuse to hang out.

There are a couple of variations you can experiment with:

I Go, You Go. This is exactly what it sounds like. One of you takes the lead with an exercise and when you’re done, the other person repeats the same set. The advantage here is that it builds in breaks, during which you can catch your breath, take a swig of water, or encourage your training buddy.

You Do This, I’ll Do That. This is another self-instructive variation that we borrowed from a recent CrossFit workout of the day (WOD). Decide on several exercises beforehand. You do the first – like 10 shoulder presses – while your training partner does the second, such as running or rowing 400 meters. Then once you’re both done, you trade. Depending on how many rounds you’re planning to do, you could stick to a pair of exercises or do 4, 6, 8, or 10 in total.

2) Minimal Solo Workouts

These are sometimes called dad or mom workouts for good reason: parents are really busy, particularly when we’re trying to keep small kids entertained at Christmastime. The key here is to do the absolute minimum needed to maintain overall fitness or develop one attribute like strength or endurance.

Pick 2. While workouts with a gazillion exercises make for good social media posts, they’re not really practical when time is of the essence. Instead, choose two exercises to do multiple sets of. You could pair an upper body exercise, such as pull-ups, with a lower body one, such as squats, which will minimize fatigue and hit most major muscle groups. Or if you’re usually into body part training, feel free to pick two similar movements.

One-Set Circuit. If you’ll still have access to multiple pieces of gear during the holidays, it’s a fun challenge to try and use them all. But rather than doing multiple sets with each as you would if you were doing less exercises, you could try performing just one of each. To further tax your cardiovascular system, do the entire circuit with minimal downtime, or don’t take a break at all.

20-Minute Timer. Exercise physiologists might disagree on the sweet spot for a minimal workout, but when it comes to the festive season, the simple rule of thumb is that something is always better than nothing. If you divided the 150 minutes of weekly moderate activity that the American Heart Association recommends by seven days, you’d be at 21 minutes. And according to a UW Health article, “The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends that adults should accumulate at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity 5 days per week OR engage in 20-minutes of vigorous activity 3 days per week.”

So set the timer on your treadmill, Peloton bike, or rowing machine for 20 minutes, and keep going until it beeps or buzzes. If you have a little extra time, then go for a bit longer or build in a few minutes of mobility work afterward.

3) Hotel Workouts

When you go on the road – or in the air – for Christmas, you might not have the option of staying with a family member or friends. In which case, you’ve probably booked a hotel room or secured somewhere to stay via VRBO or Airbnb. Some properties might offer a gym, a pool, or other amenities, in which case, you already know what to do to stay active while you’re away. But others may be more minimal and not provide any equipment. In which case, you could try:

Family Walk or Run. Back around Thanksgiving, you might have participated in a turkey trot. Or maybe at other times in the year, you tried a park run. A big plus of such events is that they combine social time with a 5K. There are less events around Christmas, but you could try roping your family into running with you, or at least taking a walk. If necessary, you could add something fun as a bribe/reward at the end, like grabbing ice cream if you’re somewhere warm or hot chocolate if you’re in a wintry destination.

Bodyweight Workout. While it would be ideal to have the use of some cardio equipment or weights, that may not be an option. In which case, default to the thing you always have available for resistance training no matter where you are: your own body. Pick an exercise from each of the categories below and do them as supersets (back-to-back) or with 60- to 90-second breaks in between (we added video links to the less common moves).

Core

· Planks

· Bird dogs

· Side planks

· Sit-ups

· Mountain climbers

Upper Body

· Push-ups

· Chair dips

· Pike push-ups

· Prone IYTs

· Triceps extension push-ups