Adjusting Your Workouts for the Holiday Season
November 23, 2022 | Words by Gabe Yanez
Last week in our EOE Newsletter, we announced that we would be answering any questions our readers have over the next six weeks.
We have received some great questions so far, but we’re still looking for topics to cover that YOU will find most interesting and helpful as we close out the year STRONG. So if you have any topic suggestions, questions, or ideas, sign up for the newsletter or message us on social media and ask away!
For this week, we are answering a question from Brandon B. on Facebook:
“Any tips for scaling workout volume and time to still fit in training during the busy holiday season would be really appreciated.”
Awesome question! Let’s talk about it.
Training Through the Busy Seasons
I think that the first thing to point out when answering this question is that the answer applies to many seasons in life, not just the busy holiday season.
We’ll all go through different times of the year when things can get hectic and lose some of the flexibility we previously had to prioritize consistent training as a part of our routine.
The question above is the same whether it’s family, work, travel, or the holidays — how can you stay consistent with your training when you’re short on time?
The unsatisfying answer to this question is that something is always better than nothing. If life gets busy, you may not be able to follow a complete exercise program that incorporates a warm-up, strength portion, workout, and cool-down. You may not be able to drive to your gym and take a one-hour class, but everyone can find 10 minutes in their day to do some air squats and push-ups.
The problem is that since that may not qualify as a “real” or a “complete” workout, as we have defined it, many people skip the 10 minutes of the movement altogether. Many people think such a short workout won’t make a difference, so why bother?
If you’re following any of the programs on the NCFIT App, you could always pick and choose the portions of the programming you have time for and skip the rest. You can still get a quality workout in 30 minutes or less.
Remember that even a simple 10-minute walk, especially after a meal, can be a potent dose of movement that can minimize the glucose and insulin spike after meals, promote better metabolic health, and keep any unwanted weight gain at bay.
If you have a busy season in your life coming up, the best thing you can do is give yourself a bit of grace and do whatever you have time to do and lean into the mindset that doing something — no matter how small that something may seem — is always better than doing nothing.
This may not be when you push your training toward a specific performance or body composition goal. Still, it can be a time when you maintain your fitness level and not allow yourself to take any steps back.
One Thing to Try This Week: Where is Your Time REally going?
If we put the excuses aside, we all have much more free time in the day than we’d like to admit.
It’s easy to say that the holiday season is a busy time and that we no longer have time to train, but is that really the case? Let’s find out.
Use this week to track hour by hour where your time is being used.
Or better yet, just look at the Screentime App on your phone at the end of the week to see how long you’ve spent using different apps.
Are you as busy as you thought you were, or are you using the holiday season as an excuse not to prioritize your fitness as much as you should?
