4 Awesome Ways to Keep Fit During the Holiday Season
You know how we feel about travel and fitness. If you're healthy and strong, you're going to have a better experience. There are many reasons for this, of course, and most are no secret.
I lay out some of my thoughts and best practices in this short article on training to travel.
To keep the momentum rolling around the holidays, we've got a guest post from expert trainer Cat Kom, founder of Studio SWEAT OnDemand.
By Cat Kom
It's the most wonderful time of the year, filled with holiday festivities, jam-packed schedules, amazing desserts, and … dropping our fitness routines!
Right?
Oh, heck no!
We know it's not easy to stay fit during the holidays, surrounded by pie, cold weather, and more pie. But just because the weather outside is frightful, that doesn't mean your workouts have to be! By incorporating a bit of the holiday spirit into your health and fitness, you'll be sweating straight through to the new year.
You can get a jump on any resolutions you have in mind, maintain your routine and work off those extra calories that come with scrumptious holiday meals and desserts as you spend time with friends and family. Get going with these fun and festive holiday fitness games:
1. Create a Fitness Advent Calendar
Counting down the days until Christmas gets even more fun when you get a little piece of chocolate every day — for 25 days in a row! Yes, we have traditionally put chocolates in our Advent calendar.
Unfortunately, chocolate isn't the ideal fuel to keep your workout momentum going. So, change up your calendar, replace the candy with cardio and give yourself the gift of health.
Write down 25 exercises, one for each day until Christmas, and place them on a calendar — somewhere you'll be sure to see it. As each day passes from December 1 to 25, complete those 30 crunches, 15 minutes of cardio, or 2 miles of walking you wrote for that day.
To ramp up the difficulty level even more, add each exercise onto the one from the previous day. By the time Christmas comes around, you'll have earned any extra cookies that you desire.
2. Trim the Tree
Decorating the tree is one of the best parts of getting into the holiday spirit. What could possibly make it even more fun? Adding exercise, of course!
This one is a super simple way to spruce up your workout routine. Write your favorite workout move on each ornament. Once you've completed it, put it up on the tree. When you're done, you'll be feeling festive and fit. Plus, you'll have a beautiful tree to show as a result of your dedication — and one that reminds you of your commitment to a healthy lifestyle throughout the year.
3. Give Back to Charity
The holiday season is also the most wonderful time of the year to give back to others. And your hard work and fitness motivation can also benefit others if you participate in a charity event.
If you need some extra motivation to get moving, get in the giving spirit and collect sponsor pledges. Set up a challenge for yourself (be it miles walked, squats done, whatever), and get your friends, family and co-workers to sponsor you, with the proceeds going to a charity of your choice.
This is a great way to feel warm and festive inside and out.
4. Take a Themed Classes
If you really want a heart-pumping, muscle-building workout that will also get you singing along to those classic holiday tunes, take a themed holiday workout with Studio SWEAT onDemand. Fitness classes can encourage you to stay on track, even in those busy winter weeks.
Thanks for reading.
Also, happy holidays, and remember to travel fit, travel happy and travel often!
JR