As the festive season sinks in, you should ensure that the feasting and merry-making do not wear you down by engaging in some form of physical activity.
With long-lost relatives getting to meet for the first time in months or ages, one may be tempted to sit and catch up all day and laugh all night over meals. But with a sedentary life, comes a whole host of lifestyle diseases and conditions.
Once in a while, you should sneak in a few workout exercises to ensure you log in your daily minutes of sweating the food and drinks out.
As you may have known, exercise improves metabolism, boosts immune function, and brain function and boosts the mood of the person doing it. Similarly, it improves sleep and cardio-respiratory functions.
Now, these are some of the simple workout exercises to keep you fit and charged during this festive season.
Whole-body resistance exercise
This exercise requires absolutely no workout equipment. All you need to do is find a spacious area and jog on the spot for 30 seconds. Follow the jogs with another high-knee jog for 30 seconds. In between the exercises, rest for 30 seconds.
The benefit of this cardio exercise is that it will get your heart pumping and ready for the next exercise that will keep you fit and charged during your entire holiday season.
Once your blood gets flowing, you should try the inchworm exercise.
Inchworm
In this simple exercise, you start at a standing position and bend your knee as you bring your hands to touch the floor or workout mat. Once your hands touch the ground, walk them forward to be in a plank position and briefly stay in this position for a few seconds before walking back and standing in your original position.
This exercise targets the arms, shoulders, abdominal muscles, glutes and legs.
Squatting with calf raised
Another simple exercise you should try over the holiday season is the squat but with a twist. This workout targets the thighs, glutes, calves arms and balance coordination.
To begin, in a standing position, bend from the hips while lowering the lower hip to the floor with your hands stretched away in front of you and the palms facing down.
Raise your heels from the squatting position while squeezing your bottom for at least 2 seconds before resuming the standing position.
Push-ups
Push-ups are some of the most effective full-body exercises to include in your holiday schedule. The benefits of push-ups range from boosting bone health, and heart functionality, building strength, improving core strength and aligning body posture among other various advantages.
Push-ups come in different variations and you could try some of them as your strength permits. These are the wide-angle push-up, diamond push-up, and weighted push-up where a weighted vest is placed on your back or plate, incline or decline push-up and the close-grip push-up among others.
Lunges
In this exercise, you start with your feet split apart and lower your knee to the floor. Alternate your feet as you move while fixating your gaze on an area in front of you. This exercise targets your glutes, and upper thighs and improves the overall balance of the body.
Forearm plank
Ensure that you place your forearms on the floor or mat, and stretch your feet all the way back to keep a straight line from your head to feet. Hold a straight position without either sagging your waist or lifting it too much for between 30-60 seconds
This exercise tests resistance and improves body and core strength.
Hollow hold to jackknife
In this exercise, you lie on your back and extend your arms from above your head. As you engage your core to rise from the ground, also raise both of your feet. To add a bit of complexity, keep your legs fully stretched as you bring your arms to touch the feet while getting back to the original lying position.
Advance bird dog
In this simple exercise, place yourself in a normal plank position with both of your hands and feet on the floor with a straight back.
Now, lift your arm from the floor upwards as you simultaneously lift your opposite leg from the ground. Repeat the motion alternating between each arm and foot for at least 30 seconds for better results.
Jumping jacks
This full-body exercise is usually used as cardio for most people in the gym. To begin, stand straight with your feet together and toes pointing straight ahead of you. Bend your knee and jump up as you raise both your feet and hands up. As you go down, return both your feet to the original position.
You can do sets of between 10-100 jumping jacks after a 30-second rest depending on your strength and time available.
Burpees
This is an exercise that you should try because it combines several ranges of motion into one set. Here, you jump with your arms raised, squat and dive into a plank position.
Tricep dips
You could do this while sitting or squatting with your arms behind your back and knees bent at an angle. Slowly bend your arms as you dip your hips down to achieve an effect in your triceps.
Jogging
With the vast spaces that are synonymous with upcountry homes, spend some time jogging as you site see and catch up with long-lost friends and relatives. Having a routine in these exercises will guarantee you the best results.
