Christmas, old/ new year, family parties, friend gatherings, … This time of the year it’s all about being together and sharing memories.
But how does training fit into all of this? Let me give you my top tricks.
Go for a flexible approach
As long as you are not an Olympian athlete, changes are low that someone is watching whether or not you really are doing your trainings.
Use this time of the year to relax and let your body recover from the past months.
If you do have time for a training: great! Go for it 😊
If not, not worries. Life happens and especially in this period, you should try to enjoy the extra time you can have with your friends and family.
Every training is a win
This goes together with the previous one but try to look at every training that you can do as a win. Even if it is only a 5K before the next Christmas dinner or 20min of core exercises. A training is better that nothing.
And if you can’t really find the motivation to do your intervals, then let it be. Focus on having fun during your training and doing some form of exercise that makes you happy.
Don’t worry too much about the progress
Something that I often hear from (starting) athletes is that they are afraid of losing all their made progress. Let me reassure you: it takes 3 weeks until your body starts losing it’s fitness level if you do absolutely nothing and 4 weeks until you can see a clear difference in your muscles.
Furthermore, don’t worry about the extra weight you might put on during this period. Most of the time it’s just extra water being hold by your body because of the change in food. In order to really gain 1kg, you will have to eat a surplus of 7000kcal. Which is a lot
For the die hards
If you really want to keep training during this period, try to run to your xmas dinners and ask the host if you can shower at her/ his place. For example, I often run with my dad to my grandparents and we give my mom our clothes so we can change there.
It’s a double win because we were able to do our training and we didn’t have to cut on any family time 😉
But then again, if you simply are not feeling it to exercise that’s fine. Enjoy this period, because it’s only a couple of days a year. The other days you can focus 100% on your trainings again.
