It’s two weeks until the New Year and the time crunch is on. Everyone I know has a jam packed schedule. Many people will also be traveling the next two weeks, seeing friends and family for the holiday season and I have heard many of them trying to figure out how to fit in workouts under these conditions.
It can be very challenging when you are pressed for time or away from your gym or a handy dumbbell set to follow your regular workout routine. Often we also have a mindset that if we can’t do our whole workout we might as well not bother. Nothing could be further from the truth. Something is always better than nothing.
The “something” I want to share with you is my holiday survival workout. Think of it as a mini workout you can do anywhere, anytime. It does not require any equipment and can be done in a minimal amount of space. Depending on your fitness level, it should take you 5-10 minutes to complete. If time allows you can do it twice or you can do it multiple times throughout the day.
The goal is to do these exercises one after the other. If you do need to rest between an exercise or reps (like after 10 burpees before you do the next 10) try not to rest any longer than 30 seconds. It is okay to rest though if you do need it. If you decide to do this twice, rest 1-2 minutes before starting again.
- Warm up by walking in place for 2-3 minutes. Do some shoulder rolls or other dynamic stretches while walking to get your body ready for the rest of the workout.
- Jumping Jacks: 20 reps, making sure you use full range of motion.
- Burpees: 20 reps, if you are unfamiliar with this exercise there are many demos on YouTube. Just make sure to thrust all the way back with your feet and hit that full pushup position. When you come up, jump into the air for an extra push.
- Bench dips: 20 reps, this is the only exercise that needs something besides your body. You can use a stair, ledge or sturdy chair. Again make sure you use a full range of motion, coming doing to just under a 90 degree angle and coming all the way back up.
- Walking Lunges: Find a long hallway and prepare to step! Lunge one foot forward, careful to bend both knees and not push the knee past the toe. Step forward with the back leg without putting your foot down. Keep alternating sides for 10 steps on each side.
- Plank: 30 seconds, hold your body straight-no butts in the air!
- Make sure to stretch after you are finished.
Hopefully this mini workout will help fill the gaps in your normal exercise schedule. Try it out and let me know what you think.
