5 Workout Moves to Keep You on Track With Your Fitness Goals Over the Holiday

With the festive season comes an abundance of irresistibly good food, late nights and busy schedules, making it nearly impossible to stick to our regular workout regimes. Instead of waiting til the New Year to reset, our friends at Equinox have provided us with five simple exercises to maintain physical fitness throughout the holiday season. Enjoy! —Vita Daily

squats. Start with feet shoulder-width apart, act like you are going to sit on a chair whilst driving your knees out and keeping your chest up—place your stance so that your thighs go parallel to the floor (or lower if your back doesn’t round). Stand up squeezing your butt and finish in the start position. Make sure your weight goes through your heels and they remain in contact with the ground.

multi-directional lunges. Take an exaggerated step forward and bend both your front and back knee until your front knee gets to 90 degrees and your back knee remains an inch from the floor. The difference with this lunge and to get maximal glute activity, make sure to take a slight forward lean with your torso but still making sure your back is straight. You can do this as points on a compass, with your moving leg aiming for north pole / south / east and west.

pushups. When getting into your push up position, be it on your knees, toes or with your arms on something, make sure your torso is completely straight, squeezing both your glutes and your abs. Also ensure wrists are below shoulders. On the descent make sure your elbows don’t flare out too much, either keep them tight into your side (for your triceps) or at a 45-degree angle (for your chest). Inhale on the way down and exhale on the way up whilst always engaging your shoulders and not letting your upper back sag down.

plank. Similar body positioning as the push up but starting with your elbows bent and resting forearms on the floor—this is very important to squeeze everything, your abs, glutes and thighs as well as keeping your upper back active and not letting it sag. If you start to feel your upper or lower back starting to ache, rest, reset and try again.

glute bridge. Lie completely flat on the floor, bend your knees so your feet are flat on the floor, cross arms over your chest, squeeze your butt and raise your butt and back off the floor so that it’s just your head, shoulders and feet touching the floor. Make sure you squeeze your abs at the top though because we don’t want you over extending. The finish point should be a completely straight line that has no bend to it. If this feels too easy, rest your shoulders on the edge of a bed and try the same, your butt should drop down as far as you can and then you can finish with your knees at 90 degrees and your body parallel to the floor.

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