Designing Your Holiday Workout

With December right around the corner, many of you are going to be stressing slightly about what's to come of your current fitness routine.

Right now you might be fully dedicated to hitting the gym 5 days a week, putting in a good 45 minutes to an hour of intense physical training. With all the various Christmas parties, family functions, holiday shopping, and baking that's calling your name, that now leaves little time left for your workouts to take place.

So what do you do?

Many will be tempted to just give up for December. They will simply write off this month, stating that holidays are such a busy time and it's okay to take a break right now; they'll get back into it in the New Year.

While this is fine, and for some, if they've been training really hard for the last eleven months it might even be beneficial, for most of you, thirty days of inactivity coupled with holiday buffet after holiday buffet (not to mention that everyone and their dog at the office seems to have baked goods to pass around), will result in an unwanted weight gain.

As New Years resolutions typically centre around some sort of diet plan, minimizing excess holiday weight gain is likely in your best interest.

Just how do you go about doing this?

Sticking with that fitness plan! I know what you're thinking - you've just made a complete circle!

But, keep in mind that sticking with a fitness plan and doing your current fitness plan are different things.

No one says you can't alter your current plan in order to meet the extra demands you will experience during the season.

As long as you alter it in smart ways, you'll find that it's very possible to maintain your fitness level without spending hours in the gym.

The topic we'll discuss in this article is that of frequency. You know that in order to get results from a fitness plan, you must go on a regular basis. This is not new news and if you've been actively working out for a few months or more, you know that extended weeks off leave you feeling weaker than usual upon returning.

The important thing to remember is that new gains require more frequency. You must continually stimulate that muscle in order to make it grow. Maintaining your current strength, however, does not require as much frequency and can be done on a minimal basis.

So, just how much is 'minimal'? Two to three times per week.

Your best bet, if you are really pressed for time with your workouts, is to move whatever type of split program you are on right now, to one of a full body.

This allows you to hit every major muscle group two or three times per week so that certain parts don't go any longer than 5 days without being stimulated.

5 days seems to be the 'magic' number, if you will, here. In order to maintain your current strength levels, each muscle needs to be worked at least once every five days - at minimum.

While yes, theoretically you could do one full body workout, every five days and be fine, you'd fair better if you could squeeze in two or three workouts every seven days (for those doing the math, hitting the gym three days every seven will provide you with one extra workout per fifteen day period then twice every five days).

So, keep this in mind next time you start to feel fear creep up over your ability to maintain your workout schedule over the holidays. There is nothing wrong with reducing the frequency so long as you do still get to the gym.

If you do, when the New Year's hits, you will largely find yourself much more on top of your game in comparison to the person next to you who decided to forgo their sessions and spend a little more time in a baking mode instead.