The world around us is shifting again. The workplace is changing, kids are back in school, and the holidays are coming.

All of a sudden days that we felt we needed to fill are busier than we could have ever imagined, and the downtime we once had is quickly going away.

As a result, your workouts need to become the non-negotiable aspect of your day. Stepping into a workout needs to become the act of stepping into a space where you can metabolize all the new stressors that are coming into your life, so you know when you step away from that workout, you can show up for the people and community who need you the most in the best form of yourself.

Beyond being a source of stress relief, maintaining a consistent workout routine through the holidays will also ensure that you will not be starting the New Year with more work to do.

There is nothing more demoralizing and frustrating than regressing in your health journey because you took a hiatus and are now starting over again.

The holiday season is not an excuse to take a break from taking care of yourself, it is a chance to give to yourself and a chance to learn how you can be flexible with your workouts so you know you are still moving forward with your fitness goals without sacrificing time in other areas.

Here Are 3 Tips For Maintaining A Workout Routine During The Holidays

Your fitness goals

1. Set yourself up for success

We let ourselves down when we set unrealistic expectations for ourselves. That potential for disappointment leads to us avoiding what would disappoint us in the first place.

Being healthy and maintaining a consistent workout routine does not always mean putting in a ton of hours at a gym or stepping away from working out completely when life gets busier than our standard chaos.

Be flexible: When you are planning your workouts for the week, do not feel like you need to adhere to the same schedule you had before the holiday season.

Maybe you are used to working out 5 days a week, but you know 3 or 4 days a week will be easier to maintain through the holidays.

Maybe you are used to spending an hour or more in a workout session, but you know over the holidays, 30 minutes is going to be easier.

Maybe you are working out on different days during the week than what you typically do.

Adjusting your workout schedule will help you stay on track without leading to frustration.

Those shorter workouts still add up to create change, as long as you continue to show up and put forth your best effort.

High-intensity interval workouts

2. Add in more HIIT workouts

High-intensity interval workouts are great options for the days when you know you can work out but you do not have a ton of time to spend at the gym.

The action of increasing and then rapidly decreasing your heart rate in short bursts leads to a reaction called excess post-exercise oxygen consumption.

This is the afterburn, where your body continues working after the workout is over, so you keep burning calories and building lean muscle even when the work is done.

Trainer Tip: HIIT can be a complete game changer when it comes to creating muscle mass and losing weight. Paired with the proper post exercise nutrition, results can occur rapidly and be long lasting.

Here’s a workout:

  • Tabata Circuit
  • 12 rounds each circuit
  • Alternate exercises each round
  • 20 seconds of work
  • 10 seconds of rest
  • Circuit #1
  • Mountain climbers
  • Kneeling bicep curls
  • Deadlift
  • Circuit #2
  • Swings
  • Halos
  • Crunches
  • Circuit #3
  • Gorilla rows
  • Tricep presses
  • Bicycle crunches
  • Circuit #4
  • Push press
  • Lateral lunges
  • Plank hold

Accountability buddy

3. Get an accountability buddy

Whether this is paying a trainer to do the planning piece for you or this is you asking your best buddy to go to a spin class with you every week, show up for someone besides yourself.

Those hard workouts are a lot more fun when you have someone to commiserate with and we tend to be more likely to show up if we know someone else will be there with us.

Trainer Tip: Keep it exciting. There are tons of options for free class passes for you and a friend to try out new workouts.

Make a plan with your friend to try out a different class every week. Step outside of your comfort zone and you might find a new kind of workout that you love!

Conclusion

After you take these tips into account and incorporate them into your fitness routine, remember to keep your excuses in check.

The easiest thing to do during the holidays is to let our minds convince us that we purely do not have the time to take care of ourselves when in reality that is not the case.

Track your progress, track your workouts, and be mindful of the steps you are taking towards wellness through your fitness.

Take advantage of the chance to show yourself that fitness can be fluid and can work with you instead of being an inconvenience.

Use this time as an opportunity to prove to yourself that even in the busiest of seasons, your health will not take a backseat to any other priorities that might come up, and that you will start the New Year off strong because you have not regressed on your workouts.