Why Taking a Holiday Break From Your Workout Could Hurt You

If you are looking forward to the holidays, you certainly aren’t alone. But don’t be too quick to put down those weights, step off the treadmill or avoid the gym. It seems that while it may be holiday season, taking a break from your workout could actually hurt according to a recent study conducted by the University of Bath in England.

While a small study that only involved 26 men that were physically active the results were compelling. The men were told to start taking in 50% more calories than what they would normally eat each day and then to decrease the steps they took from 10,000 a day to 4,000 a day. They were told to do this for a week.

Half of the men were told that they needed to vigorously run every day while they overate and did very little the rest of the time. The treadmill steps weren’t counted as part of their daily steps. When the week was over the researchers found those men who hadn’t done any exercise saw a bigger decline in their health including changes to genes regulating metabolism, waning blood sugar control, and they gained 6 pounds in just one week. The group who exercised, only gained 4 pounds and they didn’t suffer any of the negative effects to their health.

Bottom line – the researchers said that if you eat more and move less you’ll experience an energy surplus, which can actually do physiological damage to your body, even in a short period of time. But exercise can offset the negative changes that occur when you have an energy surplus. The author goes on to say that we use fat and carbohydrates when we exercise and we release protein molecules into our muscles – this is called myokines. So if you are planning to gobble those holiday goodies, while relaxing and taking it easy the more intense your workout the better. You need to increase your metabolism.

Easy Exercise Ideas for the Holiday Season

Since you are taking it easy through the holidays, probably the last thing you want is a complicated workout. After all with all the shopping, parties, travelling, and time with family and friends you are probably already exhausted.

It can leave you not even want to workout, but remember according to the study, you shouldn’t take time off. In addition, when you stop exercising it’s hard to get back in your routine. Let’s look at some exercises that are relatively easy to do through the holidays.

#1 Pushups

You don’t need any equipment and pushups are excellent for your core, arms, chest and shoulders. You can do side ups to work your obliques. Easy and effective and you can do them almost anywhere.

#2 Sprint

If you want to burn fat and stress all in one exercise it’s time to run, especially sprint – this will release endorphins that will help you burn fat and relax – that’s a win-win! All you need is your running shoes.

#3 Dirty Dog

Don’t confuse this with the famous yoga ‘downward dog.’ With the dirty dog, it targets your glutes and him. You can do this a few different ways. The easiest way you rotate one of your legs out while you are on your knees. A tougher variation you are in the pushup position and then you rotate one of your legs away from the body and then across your body. You repeat until fatigued.

#4 Single Leg Squats

This is an excellent exercise because it requires a great deal of balance and it requires you to lift your body weight with just one of your legs.

#5 Burpees

This is a popular exercise because it actually works your entire body. This is a squat thrust that’s combined with both a pushup and a jump. You work your upper body and lower body along with your heart.

#6 The Side Plank

This is an exercise is great for developing your obliques. If you decide to add a leg raise, you can make it an over the top challenge. You will enjoy the benefits in your core, glutes and abductor.

#7 The Eccentric Pushup

This is an excellent exercise to isolate the pectorals. You can adjust this exercise to meet your fitness level by increasing your reps and how long you hold each rep.

#8 The Iron Cross

This exercise is excellent for developing your rectus abdominus. It will also strengthen your hip flexors. You extend your arms and legs, and then crunch one elbow to the opposite knee while the other limb is elevated. This is a challenging exercise that’s highly effective.

This is a great group of easy exercises that require no special equipment. Not only are they good through the holiday season, they are exercises you can use anytime of the year and enjoy the benefits.

HGH Is Your Friend

Keeping Your HGH levels high either through, supplementation or physical activity can go a long way into keeping you from gaining weight when not exercising and splurging on food. HGH is proven to help burn more fat even while a person is resting. Thus raising HGH levels can only help with keeping those pounds away especially in periods when we are not working out such as during a holiday.

The easiest way to raise HGH levels is through HGH injections, but because of the high cost and legal requirements for obtaining them most people look for the much easier to obtain HGH releasers like Genf20 Plus, Genfx, Provacyl and Sytropin instead. HGH supplements like Genf20 Plus and Sytropin are natural supplements that raise HGH levels by stimulating the pituitary gland into producing more of our own HGH. Raising HGH levels this way is much safer than HGH injections which have shown to cause side effects such as carpal tunnel, Acromegaly, Gynecomastia in men, cancer and much more.

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