Thanksgiving Is Over?Now What? Moves to Get You Back in the Grind!

Ahhh…Thanksgiving is full of so many amazing things?food, family, food, fun, and did I mention food? From pie to sweet potato souffl? to rolls to turkey, I certainly enjoyed all things food this Thanksgiving! It was so incredible to relax and spend the whole day with family and dear friends without having my attention divided with work too. I also didn’t track one single macro or calorie, and dang, did it feel good! 

While I am all about enjoying the holidays and holiday food, I am always ready to get back to my routine and workouts (after that final piece of pumpkin pie, of course!). As I discussed in my pre-Thanksgiving blog, the average American consumes NEARLY 4500 calories on Thanksgiving Day! That is an insane amount of calories?nearly triple the calories of what an average female eats in a day!

I could dwell on the calories and feel guilty for enjoying the holiday, but what good does that do besides create a downward spiral of emotions and eating?! No thanks! The BEST thing you can do post-Thanksgiving is get right back on schedule with your nutrition and workouts and keep moving forward, pushing yourself towards improvement and progress!

This is what life is all about all of the time, but ESPECIALLY around the holidays: Finding a balance between discipline and enjoyment and knowing when one needs to be a priority over the other. This is not something we master quickly?if ever!?so know that we are all on this journey together. During the holiday hustle and bustle, it is so easy to push workouts and self-care to the side! Since a guaranteed daily gym workout is likely not in the cards this busy season, I’ve been turning my attention to creating killer at-home workouts that can be done without the need for one single piece of equipment. Yep, that’s right! Every move for this routine uses only body weight, but they will still leave you sweating!

For this post holiday workout, simply complete 3-4 rounds (try for 4!) with 15 reps of each exercise!

Sounds simple enough, right?! Think again! Check out my snazzy GIFs below for a quick how-to!

Air Squat: This is one of my FAVORITE moves and is a great exercise for everyone from beginners to pros! I love any exercise that focuses on the glutes (yay for strengthening those buns!!!) and helps with mobility. Make sure to keep your weight in your heels with your torso upright and shoulders back.

Air Squat Mod: Perform the move as usual, using a sofa or chair to assist. 

Push Up: These may seem basic and simple, but they are another super effective body weight exercise! Not only do push ups work the chest (pectoral) muscles, but they are also great for the shoulders, arms, and core too. Check out these three videos for different modifications based on your ability.

Push Up (Mod 1): Perform a normal push up but from your knees instead of your toes.

Push Up (Mod 2): Perform a normal push up but from your hips instead of your knees.

Burpee: This often-dreaded, but always amazing full body move targets almost every muscle group in the body. For this reason, it is a favorite when you want to feel the burn but equipment and time is limited. FUN FACT: Burpees actually burn more calories than isolated body moves do! While they might not be well liked, they rank at the top of my list!

Burpee Mod: These are easier than you might think. Simply lower yourself to the ground, chest and thighs touching, then stand back up to the starting position, clapping above your head.

Swing Up: This classic abdominal move will never go out of style! Using your arms to create momentum, swing them up over your head in an arc motion while raising your shoulders and torso off of the floor.

Swing Up Mod: Instead of aiming to reach your toes or knees, simply touch your thighs at the top of the motion.

Lunge: No post-Thanksgiving workout would be complete without lunges. Not only do lunges help with flexibility and leg strength (quads, hamstrings, AND calves!), but they help tone our glutes too?that?s what I?m talkin? about! While there are many different variations and types of lunges, for this workout, we will focus on a standard reverse lunge.

Lunge Mod: Same as usual, but hold on to a stable object, such as a chair, for balance.

With Thanksgiving over and literally only FOUR WEEKS until Christmas, let?s focus on fitting in our workouts, breaking a sweat, and getting stronger every day? all while we soak in the joys of the holiday season!

Xoxo,

Heidi

Related reading:

Tip of the Day: Couch Potato Workout
Fit in 9 Minutes: The Busy Woman?s Workout
Fit On The Job! 6 Tips + 14 Exercises for the Desk Bound Professional
A Lotta Tabata || 4-Minute Total Body Toning Workouts
Top 10 At-Home Exercises for Total Body Toning

4 Responses

  1. Hi
    I still have a 1 Finger gap between my abs after 4 Kids and am wondering If its ok to do the push ups and swing ups. I am busy drawing in and vacuuming every single day but still its not close! (Which kind of frustrates me!). Thanks Tina

    1. Hi Tina: If you have any concerns at all, I’d chat with your healthcare team and then follow their recommendations. You’re doing awesome! 🙂

  2. hi! could you tell me which are the best exercises for slimming legs at home only with the body weight?…thank you…

    1. Hi Lucia: Unfortunately, you cannot spot reduce since any extra fat will leave your body in its own unique way. The best way to lose unwanted fat is to follow a sound nutrition program and work out all parts of your body through regular strength training and cardio. Heidi has some great at-home workouts on this blog: https://heidipowell.net/category/blog/workouts/. Here’s one she added a couple of days ago: https://heidipowell.net/13160. You might also be interested in checking out Chris and Heidi’s carb cycling program: https://heidipowell.net/9060, or their new app, which offers you a totally customized nutrition and exercise program that progresses as you get closer to your goals: http://thetransformapp.com. No matter which option you choose – you can do this! 🙂

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