3 Quick and Easy Holiday Workout Ideas

Don't let the stress of the holidays ruin your workout progress. See what our experts recommend for avoiding the unwanted pounds.

                                                The holiday season is already upon us, and hopefully all the running around you’ll be doing will prove to be more fun than aggravating. But with all the traveling, gift shopping, seeing family, taking time off work and catching up on everything when you return to it, it’s not really the most conducive season for making progress in your fitness regimen. If you can, more power to you, but for a lot of guys, not falling off the wagon and maintaining pre-holiday form will be a challenge on its own. Here, we have some exercises, tips and advice from well-known trainers throughout the country to make sure you’re not dreading the gym when you get around to that New Year’s Day hangover.

Your Holiday Exercises

Whether you’re traveling or just don’t have as much time as you usually do, here are some exercises you can do just about anywhere, with little to no equipment. As long as you push yourself and move quickly from exercise to exercise, you’ll be able to get through some productive workouts in short periods of time. Feel free to mix and match these exercises so your out-of-gym workouts don’t get stale, while addressing every part of the body.

Trainer Todd Durkin’s Recommendations

Todd Durkin is a renowned trainer in the world of professional sports, having worked with star athletes such as Drew Brees and LaDainian Tomlinson over the course of his career. These exercises he chose will help you get back to basics and engage every major muscle group in your body. Here they are, along with his reasons for selecting them:
Pushups

“Great upper body exercise activating the chest, shoulders, arms and core.” Side-ups—“Great exercise to strengthen the obliques.” This is the one where you lie down on your side and engage your obliques by raising your legs while lunging your free elbow toward them simultaneously.

Dirty Dogs

“An awesome exercise to target the hips and glutes.” This can be done utilizing a few different variations. The easier one involves rotating one of your legs out while on your knees. A much more intense, engaging version requires you to get into a completed pushup position and rotate one of your legs away from your body and then across it, repeating until fatigue sets in on your core.
Sprints

“Get in your running as it’s a great way to blast off fat, burn some stress and release some endorphins.”

Trainer Mike Duffy’s Recommendations

Mike Duffy has run his own successful personal training business for many years and has contributed to several Men’s Fitness articles in the past. Here are his exercise recommendations, which put a huge focus on leg strength, power, endurance and cardio:
“Single leg aquats are a great exercise because they are challenging in two ways. First, you have to lift the whole weight of your body with only one leg, and second, this exercise requires an extreme amount of balance.”
“Lunge jumps work leg strength, power and endurance. A couple sets of high rep Lunge Jumps will make you feel like you sprinted a 5K!”
“Burpees are a great exercise because it works the whole body. It is a squat thrust combined with a pushup and a jump. You are working your lower body, your upper body and your heart. Combine these three exercises in a tri-set fashion for 2-3 sets of 20 reps and you will need a nap!”

Trainer Travis Steffen’s Recommendations

Last but not least, Travis Steffen is a trainer and founder of WorkoutBox.com. Steffen brings his experience as a former D-I football player and MMA fighter to his training, which makes for some intense, creative workout regimens. Here are a few exercises that might introduce new variations into exercises that you’re used to:
“The eccentric pushup is a great way to isolate the pectorals and increase time under tension. As a beginner, each reps should only take 3-5 seconds. However, the advanced exerciser should draw out reps as long as possible. At the bottom, fire the pecs hard and explode up. Perform 3 sets of 5-7 reps.”  
“A side plank itself is an effective exercise for developing the obliques, but adding a leg raise in can make this a formidable exercise. Not only will you see benefits throughout the entire core, but you will also get considerable glute and abductor benefits. Perform 3 sets of 30-45 seconds each (per side) including as many controlled leg raises as possible during that time period.”  
“The iron cross is great for developing the rectus abdominus, and is also helpful in strengthening and defining the hip flexors. It is performed by extending the arms and legs, then crunching one elbow to the opposite knee while each other limb remains elevated. Perform 2-3 sets of 12-15 reps per side.”  

Additional Take-Aways

These are exercises you can do pretty much anywhere, but how much time should you be ready to put in to maintain the fitness level you’ve attained and grown used to? Of course, it depends on where that level is. According to Duffy, this can range from as little as 20 minutes once a week for beginners to 45 minutes three times a week for high level athletes. Durkin recommends shooting for three 20-minute workouts per week while ramping up the tempo throughout.
There are several variables though. Steffen points out that a week off training could be just what you need to recover if you’ve just finished a tough 8-10 week training cycle. On the other end of the spectrum, Duffy says he’s always felt energized by checking out local gyms and what they have to offer while traveling. Regardless, most of you will probably fall somewhere in the middle, which Durkin addresses:
Trainer Q&A: When Should I Take A Rest Day?
“Do something,” he says. “Prioritize your workouts. Do them early in the morning, and don’t settle for taking two weeks completely away from working out. You may not go to the gym as frequently during [the holidays], but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t work out.”
sourcemensfitness