Having trouble staying on top of your fitness during the holiday season? Most people will let it slide and say they will kick back up in the New Year. Why let yourself drop off when you can maintain your fitness while in a time crunch? We made a quick reference guide on how you can easily do this based on what you want to focus on. That way, you do not let your hard work go to waste during the holidays.
The easiest thing we can do is prioritize your workouts and keep them simple.
Keep your workouts to 2 days per week for 20-30min if necessary. You will want to prioritize your needs in these workouts. Below is a sample/guideline on how you can do this.
Aerobic Conditioning - Revisit every 20-30 days to maintain. After that, it's about a 10-15% drop-off.
Speed/Power - Revisit every 5-7 days to maintain. After that, it is a 15-25% drop-off.
Strength - Revisit every 21-28 days to maintain. After that, it's a 10-20% drop-off.
Strength Endurance/Hypertrophy - Revisit every 10-14 days to maintain. After that, it's a 15-20% drop-off.
Above, you can see the drop-offs and maintenance needs. For example. if you do absolutely zero aerobic conditioning for 20 days, you will have a minimal reduction in your capacity. (Granted, this is if you have trained this for >3-4 months in any of these qualities). You can see speed and power drop-off the quickest, so your weekly training may need to be prioritized for 10 minutes 1x/a week to maintain just enough during the holidays.
For example, suppose you want to maintain strength, muscle mass, and conditioning. In that case, your schedule may look like this: Conditioning workout every other week, higher reps 1-2x/week for strength training, and heavier lifting methods 1x/week or every other week. Isometrics and slow tempos are safer if you need to do them at home and use your body weight.
You don't have to make these workouts long. Stick to your priorities and focus on improving fitness after the holidays.
If you need help coming up with a plan for yourself, reach out to us and click below to get started.