I am thankful for my health and for the health of all of my dear family and friends. I’m also very thankful for each day that presents me the opportunity to be around such wonderful members and staff who all share a common daily goal to live a healthy and happy life!!!
Here is my Giving Thanks Workout!
As we all know the holidays are meant to be an enjoyable time with family and friends. It can also be stressful and a challenging time nutritionally. Most people likely take in more calories on Thanksgiving than any other day of the year so I thought I would put together a workout that you could do on your own to relieve stress and feel good about yourself on one of my favorite days of the year. As always if you have questions on any of these movements, need progressions/regressions or wonder if they are OK to do given any current injuries or limitations please just let me know.
Warm-Up
So you forgot that one ingredient you need to make your killer stuffing, maybe the in laws are driving you nuts, you want some quality time with a relative or friend or maybe you want to get the newspaper to hide behind start the morning off with a 15-20 walk or a jog down to the local convenience store or maybe a park or other spot that was an important part of your childhood. For those of you looking to be more structured sign up for a local turkey trot in your community. I do the Feaster Five in Andover each year with a group of friends and it has become a great tradition.
Then no one wants to be cold on Thanksgiving right? So take some time to get outside and chop some wood for the fire. Great aerobic, mobility and strength work and will really warm you up fast. If you don’t have wood to chop you can use a rock, weight, medicine ball etc and mimic the wood chopping motion. Do 15 to one side (across body) 15 to the other side (across body) and 15 straight up and down. Repeat 1-2x.
Strength
So now that we are nice and warm let’s do a few strength exercises.
1) Bridges. Since we all will likely be sitting a lot on Thanksgiving, lets make sure those glutes get activated before the day begins. Repeat 15-20x, 1-2 sets
2) Squats-we know we are going to need to get up from those chairs eventually right so get those legs firing. Repeat 15-20x, perform 1-2 sets. Use a chair as guide if need be or to hold onto if you have any issues with balance.
3) Rows-we live in a forward rounding world and obviously eating over the table re-inforces that positioning and we want to make sure we can pull that turkey out of the oven without dropping it or throwing your back out. Use dumbells or bands attached to a fixated object work on keeping all the muscles of the upper back strong. Repeat 15-20x, 1-2 sets.
4) Push-Ups-we want to be able to push ourselves away from the table when are done eating right. Lots of progressions on these and can be done off counter if need be. Repeat 15-20x, 1-2 sets. Have a friendly competition with your family and friends if you wish.
5) Planks/Bird Dogs-when we sit the core basically goes dormant so some planks and or bird dogs will be a great way to get the core firing to start the day. Hold planks for 30-60 seconds, repeat 1-2x. Bird dogs 10-15x/side, repeat 1-2x.
Cool down/Stretch
-A good total body stretch would be great. Be sure to focus especially on the upper/lower back and hamstrings as these will be the areas that will tend to stiffen up as the day goes on-especially if we do a lot of sitting.
Be well and everyone and best wishes for a safe and happy holiday season!!!