Bulletproof Holiday Fitness

The holidays are designed to test your will. Drunk with gift giving and a little holiday spirit, our strong resilience seems to melt into the first slice of turkey. You may miss a workout or two and, like most everyone, eat a little too much a little too often. If you know you’re going to eat, you can still avoid the holiday pounds with the right strategy. To help you survive the season without losing fitness, three 24 Hour Fitness trainers share how they keep their clients in shape despite the yummy delights of the season.

Burn, baby, burn
There’s nothing wrong with an indulgence or two at the dessert table during the holidays—if you’re willing to pay the price to burn off those extra calories. Will Campbell, a trainer at the Agassi Super Sport 24 Hour Fitness in Las Vegas, has NFL players as clients, so he knows a little bit about stoking the fire. A day after that big meal, Campbell suggests a high-intensity prescription for burning loads of calories.

The Holiday Circuit Workout: For this circuit, you’re concentrating on fat burning, not resistance training, so the reps are a bit higher and weight a bit lower than you may normally do for these same exercises, Campbell says. For each exercise in the circuit, do 12 to 15 reps, and keep moving along the circuit without taking breaks.

*Warm up 10 minutes on a cardio machine
*Sit ups on an exercise ball
*Push ups with feet/lower body on an exercise ball
*Inverted pull-ups
*Walking lunges
*Standing shoulder dumbbell presses
*Barbell bicep curls
*Dips
*Cardio for 5 minutes at 60 to 70 percent of your max heart rate

Repeat circuit three to four times and finish with 10 minutes of cardio.

Plan your plate
An ounce of prevention may be worth a pound of cure, and an ounce of grandma’s fudge may feel like a pound in your stomach. What should you do when it’s time to eat and there’s the typical calorie-laden spread? Danny Fisher, a trainer at the University Towne Center Active 24 Hour Fitness in San Diego, tells clients to go to holiday parties with a five-point plan. Here are his five tips for smarter holiday noshing:

*Eat from a smaller dish, and make the biggest serving on that plate a salad.
*Fill up on protein, like the turkey, before munching on the grandma’s carb-heavy munchies, like stuffing.
*Don’t starve the day before a big holiday dinner. If you don’t eat all day, then walk into a feast, you’ll be more likely to overeat. Have your normal breakfast and a lighter lunch.
*Eat something about an hour before that big dinner. A bagel with peanut butter or an egg with a slice of toast would work.
*Keep tabs on your drinks. There are lots of calories alcoholic beverages. For example, a typical beer may have about 145 calories.

Sneak in workouts
Sure, holidays are a time to relax. With parties and friends and family around, your normal gym routine may be nuttier than a fruitcake. When clients ask Angela Stovall, trainer at the Chino Active 24 Hour Fitness in California, how to slip in some workouts away from the gym, here’s what she tells them:

*Recruit a buddy. Set a specific time where you both will be able to take a jog or some other activity, such as snowshoeing. When you set up a time with someone else, you’re more likely to not slip into a tryptophan-induced nap.
*Look for holiday events. Lots of communities have turkey trots or jingle bell runs. Plus, having such a goal will make you more conscious of your eating beforehand, so you don’t feel like pigging out so much.
*Step out for a walk. Don’t have time for the gym? Slip away with a 30-minute to an hour walk. But don’t dawdle: keep a brisk pace, where you have to concentrate to talk.