Getting ready for the Christmas holidays

Getting ready for the Christmas holidays

The festive season often has one indulging in luxuries that are generally not good for one’s waistline. In order to offset as much damage as possible, it is essential to establish a training routine that would make the best use of the extra calories whilst reducing the damage high levels of sugar can have on our bodies.

Plan your process.

As the holidays grow near look to incorporate a training programme not only centered around burning calories but building muscle too. Higher levels of lean tissue will create an environment for increased metabolism, muscle burns calories so the more you have available the less impact your consumption may have on fat gain. Programming toward hypertrophy (muscle building) needs to have set elements of tension and rest in order to set a productive muscle-building environment. Ration of 1:1 or 1:2 active to rest variables work best to grow muscle tissue, the below is an example of a leg training routine that would enable muscle growth:

                           sets                 reps                 tempo                       rest

A1 Front squat

             5                      6                4010                           60sec

A2 Bulgarian lunges

           5                      6                4010                           60sec

*resting 64sec between each leg and each station. This is for a more compact muscle tone rather than volume hypertrophy regime.

For those looking for a more swole hypertrophy look the following would serve more purpose:

A1 Back Squat

             4                      8          4010                           40sec

A2 FFE split squat

           4                      8          4010                           40sec

*resting 40sec between each leg and each station.

Set yourself up for assimilation.

Once the holiday season is here, look to maximise your calories burnt even before your meal. Opting to do an intense Hypertrophy session a day prior to a feast will induce a great deal of muscle breakdown, when we break muscle down during training we increase our body’s use of oxygen consumption in aid of repair toward damaged tissue. EPOC (exercise post oxygen consumption) is a great incentive to grind out a grueling weights session before a day of festivities, not only will you grow a ton of muscle but you would be less likely to gain excess fat during your gluttony of all things Christmas.

Maximise your detoxification.

MetCon training increases the amount of local lactic acid and immediate oxygen consumption. Combining techniques such as HIIT and MetCon together will set your physiology into increased circulation and enhanced toxin mobility. After having a few glasses of red with a couple slices of sticky toffee a program geared around more ‘cardio’ based exercise will aid in more rapid detoxification. Post boxing day and New Years’ eve bouts of bodyweight dynamic intensive training can truly set your recovery ahead of a delayed forecast induced by excessive sugar and alcohol intake.

Below is a MetCon routine that can go a long way to detoxify your festive alcoholic habits:

A1 shoulder tap

A2 walk outs

A3 pancakes

A4 medicine ball slams

A5 kettle bell swings

A6 prisoner squats

A7 buzz saw plank

A8 prisoner squats

A9 bear crawl

A10 knee highs

All done for 30sec on 10sec off intervals having a total of 3 sets.

In short building muscle will metabolise your calories and  cardio  will detoxify your physiology from additives and sugar you consume during the festive season. So get your pump and sweat going to beat the festive season fat gain.

Find out more on how to optimise your physiology through bespoke programming toward your goals on www.fegym.com