Maintain Fitness During Holidays without Gym: Top Tips

The holiday season often disrupts regular exercise routines. You might find yourself in a different location without gym access, or your preferred yoga studio or sports club may be closed. Moreover, the holiday social events can leave you with little time for exercise.

For some, a break from strenuous workouts could be exactly what the body needs, but others may want to maintain the fitness level and strength achieved throughout the year. Besides, certain people crave the mental release that exercise provides.

Here are some effective strategies that require minimal equipment and time, which can help you maintain your exercise routine during the holiday break.

How to Stay Fit During the Festive Season

If you wish to stay fit during the holidays, walking is a simple, low-impact method that allows you to enjoy the health benefits of cardiovascular exercise.

But how much should you walk? The more steps you take each day, the lower your risk of early death from any cause. It’s beneficial to aim for around 6,000–8,000 steps a day for adults 60 and older and 8,000–10,000 steps a day for those under 60.

However, if you’re used to running or playing sports, you might want to maintain a higher level of cardiovascular fitness over the holidays.

Therefore, if you have been incorporating brisk walks, running, or high-intensity interval training into your routine, you might want to reduce the number of sessions or their duration. However, to maintain your fitness, it’s crucial to push to the same intensity level when you do train.

You might also want to try short, high-intensity cardio exercise snacks. These workouts, typically less than ten minutes, have been proven to enhance cardiovascular fitness.

Maintaining Strength During the Holidays

If your goal is to build or maintain muscle strength during the holidays, you can do small bouts of body weight training, which acts as resistance exercise snacks.

These exercise snacks involve using your body for resistance instead of gym equipment. They are lower intensity but performed more frequently.

Here is a suggested approach: do just 1-2 exercises per muscle group and 1–2 sets per exercise for up to 15 minutes at a time, in five to seven sessions a week.

If you have access to gym equipment, you can try a low-volume and high-load approach where you do just one session a week, and one set of exercises, but keep the weight amount the same.

Exercise for Wellbeing

Many engage in exercise because it helps with stress relief and improves mental health.

During the holiday season, finding time for exercise can be challenging. However, this period might be when you need it the most, given the potential for increased social events, fun, stress, tension, conflict, and possible feelings of loneliness.

Activities such as swimming, yoga or walking for 20–40 minutes can help to improve mood, anxiety, and tension.

Taking a Break is Alright Too

Regular physical activity is crucial for health and wellbeing. However, it’s also important to remember that taking a few weeks off can also be beneficial. It allows the body and mind to recover from regular or strict exercise regimes.

Remember to seek guidance from your healthcare provider or an exercise professional before starting a new exercise program during the holidays.