Written by Josh Hoodless
If you can honestly stick to your regular exercise routine over the summer festive season uninterrupted, then that’s great!
But for most of us, the summer holiday period involves work parties, family, friends, more parties, the ‘day after the party’ party, eating, shopping, vacations, school holidays, decorating and much more.
Something must give, and it’s usually your workouts. Time to get festive and maybe try a new routine.
The goal is to maintain!
Try a new full body three-day split program at the gym with different repetition ranges each day. You can fit those three gym workouts into each busy period of 6-10 days. That way, you can train three days in a row or once every three days, so your schedule won’t matter as much. The goal is not to make any progress but to maintain your levels that you worked hard for all year.
When it comes to cardio, stretching, playing sport other training modes, make sure you fit them in when you can. It’s a possibility that you don’t know when your next workout is so make it a good one.
Without daylight saving in our part of the world, the sun is getting up very early – maybe you should too. Fitting in an early morning run to beat the heat or at the gym to beat the crowds will increase your chance of getting your daily exercise done. This may also increase your chances of going to bed earlier and decrease the late-night binge drinking and eating – well, cut it down a bit. Every calorie counts.
Only have 30 minutes for your gym workout? Do big compound movements, like deadlifts or squats, that use a lot of muscle and burn calories rather than just pumping the guns.
Putting on extra kilos of fat doesn’t come from just one big Christmas buffet; it comes from the days to weeks to months total calorie intake.
A good tip here is to cut down on your calories during the day and prepare for the night-time feast!
Let’s face it, the boss has paid for an open bar with whatever expensive food options that takes your fancy, and you say no? Mum and the family have just spent two days preparing the Christmas feast and you say no? All-inclusive resort and you can’t walk past the buffet for fear of going into a feeding frenzy? No way! Enjoy yourself during the summer season. Here’s a tip: Fill up on whole foods like vegetables, meats, potato dishes and salads. That way if you’re full, you’ll have less chance to eat the high calorie dessert or fit another beer in.
Speaking of beer, try a lower calorie beer if you’re having more than a couple. A typical IPA or pale ale is roughly 200 calories where a pure blonde is 92 calories. Avoid the high sugar/calorie mixers with your alcoholic beverages. Less refined carbs, less refined sugar.
Check this out: 6 double vodka and cokes is 1350 calories! 4 single vodka and coke zero with 2 just coke zero (sneaky) is only 240 calories!! Late night doner kebab with heaps of dressing is 1400 calories or large drink of water with electrolytes is 0 calories. It’s your choice, you can still party and be social over the summer but just remember it’s a looooong summer.
Have fun but be smart. Think feast or famine rather than just constantly grazing. Whenever you get to exercise – make it worthwhile, whenever you get to indulge – make sure you choose low calorie options that don’t blow your daily calories completely out of the water.
Do you want to spend the first 6 months of 2022 trying to get back into shape or maybe just January? You could STAY bikini ready every month of the year.