How To Keep In Shape Over Christmas With These 8 Simple Exercises

Christmas probably means missed workouts, or, at best, squeezing in sessions on the fly (and usually without the best equipment). Then you eat like a pig during the meal, which incapacitates you for days afterward.

What you need—beyond a little self-control—is a workout you can do anywhere that helps to reverse the effects of all the “fun” you’re having. We prescribe the following routine, which combines cardio and lifting for a lasting metabolic boost.

Perform the workout up to five times per week, but no more than three days in a row. Complete one set of 8–15 reps for each exercise, resting as needed between exercises—that’s one circuit. Repeat for 3-5 total circuits.

If the weights you have are light and the exercises feel easy, reduce your rest time and/or try to perform each rep more slowly and with more control. If you don’t have weights, try to improvise with objects like milk or water jugs, or a backpack.

1. Alternating Shoulder Taps:

How to:

Get into a pushup position with your legs spread wide for support.
Brace your core, and reach your left hand up to your right shoulder and tap it briefly.
Repeat on the opposite side.
Reps: 8-15 (each side).

2. Alternating Lateral Lunge w/ Hop:

How to:

Step your right leg out to the side and push your hips back.
Bend your knee until your right thigh is parallel with the floor.
Drive your heel into the floor as hard as you can, then rebound out of the lunge quickly, hopping back to a standing position.
Reps: 8–15 (each side).

3. Alligator Plyo Pushup:

How to:

Get into a pushup position, and stagger your hands so one is slightly closer to your shoulder and the other is near your belly button.
Do an explosive pushup, then switch the position of your hands so the lower one is high and the other is low.
Reps: 8–15.

4. Prisoner’s Bulgarian Split Squat:

How to:

Get in a lunge position and place your rear foot on a box or bench behind you, with your toes pushing into the box.
Lace your fingers behind your head like a prisoner being frisked.
Keeping your chest up, squat down until your back knee is nearly on the floor.
Drive through the heel of your front foot to return to the start position.
Reps: 8–15 (each side).

5. Burpee:

How to:

Squat down and plant your hands on the floor.
Shoot your legs back into pushup position.
Then hop your feet back up to your hands and jump as high as you can with your arms extended.
Reps: 8–15.

6. Bulgarian Split Squat to Press:

How to:

Hold a dumbbell in each hand at shoulder-level, palms facing each other.
Get into a lunge position and place your rear foot on a box or bench behind you, with your toes pushing into the box.
Squat down until your back knee is nearly on the floor.
Drive through the heel of your front foot to return to the starting position, then press the dumbbells straight overhead.
That’s one rep.
Reps: 8–15 (each side).

7. Two-point Row:

How to:

Grasp a dumbbell with one hand and push your hips back, allowing your knees to bend slightly so your chest is parallel with the floor.
Raise your free hand out to the side and, without moving your torso, row the dumbbell to your ribs.
Drive your elbow toward the ceiling.
Reps: 8–15 (each side).

8. Single-leg RDL:

How to:

Grasp a dumbbell in your right hand and hold it in front of your body.
Push your hips back and raise your right leg behind you as you reach the dumbbell toward your left foot.
Keep your lower back in its natural arch, then extend your hips to come back up.
Reps: 8–15 (each side).

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