So it is one of the busiest times of the year right now and your schedules are jammed packed with parties, family gatherings and hectic weekends, trying to finish up your last minute Christmas shopping. As I wrote about last week consistently sweating is key, especially during times like this. So to help you out, and to make sure that you come into 2018 as healthy as possible, I’m sharing a really easy, yet efficient, way to keep yourself in check during the holidays.
This workout only takes 30 minutes and it can be done on a bike, a treadmill, an elliptical, a stair master, walking outside or even in the living room of your home. It looks like this:
Start moving at a pace that you could sustain for at least an hour, which is going to be your recovery pace. If you are on a treadmill maybe it is walking at 3.5 miles per hour, or a light jog. If you are on a bike then perhaps it is 75 rpm on light resistance. If you are on an elliptical find a nice cruising pace. If you are at home, maybe you just march in place for 5 minutes. Make sense?
For the next 5 minutes you are going to pick up the pace. Which means add incline to your walk, increase the speed to your run, add resistance to your bike or increase your leg speed on the elliptical. If you are at home, turn on some music and dance your heart out. Just get that heart rate up.
Then, you go back to your recovery pace, for 4 minutes. When that 4 minutes is up you pick up the pace again, but you need to make it harder than the 5 minutes you did previously. This means adding more incline, and speed too, to your walk, increasing your running pace, adding more resistance to the elliptical or if you are outside picking up the pace of your walk or run.
Continue this pattern for a 3 minute set of each, a 2 minute set of each and a 1 minute set of each, increasing the intensity with each set. Your last 1 minute should be as hard as you can possibly go. And that’s it! 30 minutes and you are finished. (To recap, 5 minutes easy, 5 minutes hard, 4 minutes easy, 4 minutes harder, 3 minutes easy, 3 minutes harder, 2 minutes easy, 2 minutes harder, 1 minute easy, 1 minute hardest.) However, if you have a little bit of extra time, do a quick circuit at the end. It doesn’t have to be intense, just something to challenge your muscles.
Try this:
1 minute of squats
1 minute front plank
1 minute right leg lunges
1 minute side plank (break this up into smaller set if you need to)
1 minute left leg lunges
1 minute side plank (other side, and again you can break it up into smaller sets)
1 minute push ups
That is a 37 minute workout, start to finish, that promises to leave you sweaty and ready to take on the challenges of the holiday season.
Attached: Ashlee Simpson after workout in studio city on December 11, 2017.
