Thanksgiving Cardio And Strength Training Workout Routine!

Your Thanksgiving Cardio And Strength Training Workout Routine!

Having Thanksgiving dinner doesn't mean that you have to ditch your training routine. Read on for a few ways to enjoy your dinner and keep your metabolism running. As you get prepared for your Thanksgiving holiday, it's going to be important that you make sure not to let your workout fall by the wayside. There's no question that you'll likely take in a few more calories than you ideally would with your usual diet plan during this meal, even if you are making healthier choices. But, by performing a good workout session the day before, the day of and the day after, you can reduce the impacts this meal has on your overall physique.

The key to coming out of Thanksgiving without an ounce of weight gain is making sure you plan for it carefully. Your strategy for the three days surrounding the meal should be to perform a longer duration cardio session the day before thanksgiving to really boost your overall calorie burn leaning up to the meal, then perform a higher rep strength training workout the day of thanksgiving to deplete the muscle glycogen levels and provide a calorie 'sink' for the coming meal to go into, and then follow that up the day after with an interval training session that will boost the metabolic rate to help burn off any of the left-over calories that you may have taken in.

Little typifies Thanksgiving more than a slice of homemade pie. If you eat it, you gotta burn it off later, so eat one slice, not the whole pie.

By using this pre, during and post-meal strategy, you can eliminate all chances of body fat gain.
Let's have a look at the three workouts that you should be doing so you can get your game plan in gear for the big holiday.

Your Day-Before Cardio Workout

Since many of you may be traveling over to relatives for the holiday, you may not have access to your normal gym cardio equipment. As such, you're likely only left with a few options.

Going out for a long run tops the list of choices as this is not only going to be easy equipment-wise, but it's also great for your total calorie burn. Since running does get the heart rate up higher and is one of the best forms of cardio in terms of how much energy you utilize, this makes it rank right at the top of what you could choose to do.

If running isn't an option - either because of injury or because you simply dislike it, then going for a long walk is another method that you could consider. Get the whole family (or whomever you're sharing the holiday with) involved as walking is something that almost anyone - fit or unfit can do.

Running increases your heart rate as much as listening to your mother-in-law. Get out of the house, save your body and your mind.

If you take a walk around the community for a good hour to an hour and a half, this can cause you to easily burn 400-600 calories. Remember, the focus of this session is not to try and max out your intensity. You're going to save that for the workout after Thanksgiving day. During this point you just want to get out, burn some calories, and focus on staying active.

If you really want to prevent weight gain, you could consider two cardio workouts this day so you burn off an extra thousand calories that day to make room for the meal ahead.
Note that while doing this cardio training on this day though you are not to go replacing those calories with additional food as that would quickly defeat the purpose.

Your Strength Training Workout

Then, on the day that Thanksgiving hits, you'll want to perform a strength training workout utilizing higher rep training with shorter rest periods. This is going to help to deplete the muscle glycogen in the muscle so that when you do eat your Thanksgiving meal, you can intake a higher level of carbohydrates without having them spill over into the body fat stores.

This will be a full body workout to maximize the calorie burn during the workout as well as after and to get those muscles hungry for more carbs.
Note that to make this process work most effectively, it will be best if you can focus on the lowest fat, highest carbohydrate foods at the Thanksgiving table.

Drumstick curls don't count. Slip away to your garage, your backyard, your gym. Go wherever you need to go to pump up and release holiday tension.

Your Full Body Workout

Perform one set of all the exercises in order moving from one exercise to the next as fast as you can doing as many reps as possible within one minute. After one round of the circuit has been completed, take a 2-4 minute rest break and then repeat one more time through to finish off.
This workout should only take approximately 30 minutes to complete so it's easy for you to sneak away and do at some point throughout the day.

Full Body Circuit

• 

  Dumbbell Squat

  1 set to failure
• 

  Pushups

  1 set to failure
• 

  Dumbbell Lunges

  1 set to failure
• 

  Pullups

  1 set to failure
• 

  Barbell Step Ups

  1 set to failure
• 

  Dumbbell Shoulder Press

  1 set to failure
• 

  Flat Bench Lying Leg Raise

  1 set to failure
• 

  Bent Over Two-Dumbbell Row

  1 set to failure
• 

  Air Bike

  1 set to failure

Triset #1:

• 

  Front Dumbbell Raise

  1 set to failure
• 

  Side Lateral Raise

  1 set to failure
• 

  Side Bridge

  1 set to failure

End of triset #1. Begin Triset #2.

Triset #2:

• 

  Dumbbell Bicep Curl

  1 set to failure
• 

  Dip Machine

  1 set to failure
• 

  Hyperextensions (Back Extensions)

  1 set to failure

End of triset #2.

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Repeat circuit.

Your Interval Cardio Session

Finally, to finish off the workout plan for the Thanksgiving holiday you have the day after interval training session. Since you can't work weight weights again this second day since we did your full-body workout the day before, interval training is the next best option to help increase your metabolic rate so you can maximize your calorie burn.

For this interval cardio workout you'll focus on slightly longer interval periods of 45-60 seconds and then couple this with a 90-120 second rest period. Repeat the work to rest intervals 10 times total, meaning that your workout should last somewhere between twenty to thirty minutes.
Also be sure that you start it off with a 5-minute warm-up and cool-down to prevent injury and reduce the chances of post-workout stiffness.

You can perform these intervals however you would like - if you're back at your regular gym doing them on the treadmill may be your best bet or even better, do them outside to make transitioning between the sprint and rest intervals that much easier. Again, if you aren't a fan of running and are back at your usual workout facilities, then you can select any other piece of equipment that you typically do your cardio on instead.

Interval training can increase your metabolic rate and blast fat to help you get over the holdiay bulge.

Running typically is easiest to use for interval training purposes however it's definitely not a must-use if you don't want to. So there you have your workout guide to get you through the Thanksgiving holiday season. If you plan for it carefully there's no reason why you have to come out dealing with fat gain.

Exercise to Lose Weight

Exercise to Lose Weight

What kind of exercise -- and how much -- is best when you're trying to lose weight?

By Barbara Russi Sarnataro

WebMD Weight Loss Clinic-Feature

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

If someone told you right now what the absolute best exercise to lose weight was, would you do it? You might when you read this. Drum roll, please!

The best exercise to lose weight is: "the exercise you'll do," says Timothy Church, MD, MPH, PhD, a professor at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La.

Other experts interviewed by WebMD said much the same thing about weight loss workouts.

"The two things that stop people from losing weight with exercise are either boredom or injury," says physical therapist and strength and conditioning specialist Ben Quist, PhD, NSCA.

 The truth is that weight loss is about creating a calorie deficit -- in other words, burning more calories than you take in. So, they say, while running at an 8-minute-mile pace might be a great calorie burner, if you're not going to do it, it's not going to help you. Instead, start with something you can do, like walking or working out on an elliptical machine or exercise bike.

The Beef on Strength Training

In all cases, however, you'll burn more calories with cardio (aerobic) exercise than with strength or resistance training.

"Strength training itself will not lead to an appreciable amount of weight loss because it just doesn't burn enough calories," says Glenn Gaesser, PhD, FACSM, kinesiology professor and department head at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

But what about all that talk that more muscle mass equates to more calories burned, even when you're at rest?

"It's a myth. It's not going to happen," says Gaesser.

The only successful studies to show a significant calorie burn following a weight-lifting workout (afterburn) were done with serious lifters, working out for 60 to 90 minutes at a time and lifting as much as they could on every set.

In fact, Gaesser says, at best, gaining one pound of muscle will help you burn 5 to 10 extra calories a day. You could do that chewing gum.

That's not to say that strength training isn't important for the overall health of the body. But when it comes to burning the most calories, go for cardiovascular exercise. And vary the intensity, says Quist.

"Do aerobic base-building workouts," he says, where you alternate between moderate and higher intensity, either within the same workout or on alternate days.

Quist also recommends cross-training -- that is, doing a range of different activities during your workouts. Not only does this help you keep from getting bored, it's better for your body. Doing different activities recruits different muscle groups. You're also less likely to develop an injury, says Quist, since doing the same thing day after day creates wear patterns on your joints.

Get creative, says Gaesser, whose graduate students teach an entire class on novel ways to burn calories. For example, he says, if you're a golfer, ditch the cart and walk with your clubs. You'll do what you love -- and burn more calories.