4 tips to keep fit during the holiday season

Winter holidays can really put our physical shape to the test. That's why it’s more important than ever to take some time for oneself to keep fit. Staying active and eating properly can help keep stress to the minimum and help get into the new year on the right foot. Here are four tips to help you stay fit during the holiday season.

• Find some time to exercise
• Give the proper attention to meals
• The right workouts for winter holidays
• Keep muscles and joints flexible

Find some time to exercise

Winter holidays are usually a period of the year filled with not-very-active plans. It may sound like a no brainer, but exercising a little even in these days is the key to keeping fit. Let's be realistic: the calories count will add up but – instead of cutting back, which may be hard and stressful, particularly in these days  – focus on increasing your calory burn.

It's important to focus on short workout sessions, anytime you manage to find some time: go for a walk after large meals, or go for the stairs rather than for the lift. The American Council on Exercise recommends 60 minutes of physical activity per day: you can break them down into two 30-minute sessions or even four shorter ones. Just be sure to move.

Give the proper attention to meals

A report published by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that being mindful during meals can help stave off weight gain. What’s more, the study found that paying attention doesn’t just help to better notice when you’re full, but it could also help you eat less later on.
What does this imply? Obviously, there's nothing bad in eating a little more during the holidays, but savouring your food and truly enjoying each bite could help prevent you from devouring too many cookies or an extra slice of pecan pie.

The right workouts for winter holidays

During the holiday days, it's likely workout sessions will take a back seat. Treadmills and indoor bikes can serve as the ideal allies to keep you fit during this period of the year, since they provide easy-to-follow and not-too-demanding cardio workouts; at the same time, they help make sure you’re working hard enough to earn your burn. Strength-training machines are also especially helpful when you're looking for an alternative to jogging and sweating.

Keep muscles and joints flexible

When a period of physical inactivity starts – short or long – it doesn't take much time for our body to experience the first downsides. Not properly stimulated anymore, muscles and joints (of hips, back, neck, knees, just to name the main ones) get stiff and lose flexibility. On Technogym App, you'll find a wide variety  of stretching, yoga and general mobility exercise options, for any part of the body.

Regaining muscle and joint flexibility can also be a great way to retrieve some motivation to properly work out, which is often put aside when one feels stiff.

To reactivate hip mobility, hold the back of a chair – or anything stable to keep balance – and stand on one foot. Swing your other foot from side to side in front of your body, then swap sides.
Wellness Ball Active Sitting is the ideal choice to keep the proper posture of back and hips, and make your abdominal and lumbar muscles perform a series of micro-movements that stabilize the spine while sitting. Using Wellness Ball Active Sitting, you can can stretch, strengthen and tone muscles simply sitting: a great option for the holiday season.
The versatility of this tool also allows to relieve neck and shoulders tension and stiffness, and to enhance leg joints flexibility through elongation exercises which can be easily practised in your living room or at your desk.