How to stay fit over Christmas (and still enjoy Christmas)!

Simple ways to get the most out of your workouts over Christmas!

As the festive season approaches, the amount of time you can dedicate to exercise might take a back seat (quite rightly), so here are 4 ways to increase the intensity of your workouts to ensure your sessions remain as effective and as time-efficient as possible.

1) Supersets, tri sets, drop sets, negatives

If you're looking to achieve muscular failure in a time-effecient manner, a great way to do so is to incorporate different set structures into your sessions. For example, performing 2-3 exercises back to back with minimal rest in between, or, incorporating additional work in the form of drop sets to help cram in more volume in a less time.

2) Full-body vs split workouts

If you're workout schedule is about to take a bit of a hit and you're typical 4 sessions a week might turn into 2 then full body workouts are the way to go! Also, if your aim is to stay lean then full-body workouts are again your friend as you’ll burn more calories due to hitting more major muscle groups everytime you hit the gym. The structure of full-body workouts can vary massively but if you find yourself short on time, give the workout below a go, or tailor the exercises and reps as desired.

20 minute EMOM (every minute on the minute, complete the prescribed reps for that specific minute and then rest for the remainder of the minute).

1st minute - 12 barbell bulgarian split squats (Left leg),

2nd minute - 12 barbell bulgarian split squats (Right leg),

3rd minute - 12 barbell overhead presses,

4th minute - 12 pull ups/rows

5th minute - 12 burpees OR rest.

Repeat x4.

Perform with a weight that makes the reps challenging but not impossible to complete whilst avoiding going to failure (in the first few rounds).

3) Add finishers to your workout!

The best thing about finishers? They can be absolutely anything you want, cardio-focused, core-focused, body part-specific, just keep them short and keep the intensity high!

Get as creative as you want with them, no finisher ever needs to be the same. By adding finishers, you ensure you finish the session at a high-intensity. Again, a win-win when short on time.

4) Your go-to home workout

Lastly, have a go-to home workout that you can perform whenever you don’t manage to get to the gym. Whilst it doesn’t have to be the same every time, repeating a workout that you know is effective, time-efficient and full-body is often a better choice rather than aimlessly throwing movements together without direction. What’s more, repeating the same workout, or potentially making the reps slightly harder, will ensure progress and create a bit of inner-competition with yourself to beat your previous time. All of this will ensure you are still working as hard as you would in the gym.

I hope this helps and a big Merry Christmas Workout Family!