Winter can be a tough time for us “fitness folk”.

We usually do ourselves an untold amount of damage (both physical and emotional) as a result of feeling trapped in a vicious circle of wanting to enjoy the seasonal activities but not wanting to wreck the results which took us all year to achieve.

Sound familiar?

Good, because that means you’re in the right place.

You see, this was me throughout my twenties.

And now that I’m 45, I look around the gym and see that this problem still exists for many people. Heck, the rise of social media seems to have made it even worse – just yesterday I heard an apocalyptic thundercunt telling people to “swap Christmas dinner for a low calorie alternative” (?!), and if that wasn’t bad enough, this was quickly followed by another fucking melt telling people to “get an exercise bike at home so you don’t skip cardio on Christmas day”!

Seriously, how did we get here as a society?

Anyway, Uncle Russ is here to rescue you from the nonsense. My quick and easy holiday training guide is going to show you the proven step-by-step plan which I give to my clients at the start of December, which teaches you how to stay in great shape over the entire festive season – without avoiding your favourite treats, or missing family occasions, and without trying to squeeze extra workouts into your already busy festive calendar, or worring yourself into the damn ground!

Oh, and the best part?

Trust me, you don’t need to work anywhere near as hard as some of those spandex-cladded-bright-orange-skinned-luminous-white-teethed unqualified social media “coaches” (the vast majority of whom have never actually coached anyone) claim!

You’re Only Gonna Train 3 Days Per Week

I’ve worked in a lot of gyms, and I’ve noticed there’s two types of “Christmas people”.

There’s those who try to power through the holidays at 100mp/h, and there’s those who say “I’ll leave it until January” on the 1st of October.

I think both approaches are dead wrong.

I used to be one of the folks who tried to power through the holidays because I fucking love the gym (I’ve been known to trudge an hour through a foot of snow just to get my leg workout in!), but over the years I missed so many family occasions and important moments, and to be honest, I’d always eventually crack and then beat myself up for falling off the wagon.

That’s not a healthy way to live.

On the contrary, the people who quit have an equally flawed mentality. It causes them to “push the fuck it button” and go crazy until January, by which time they feel like they’re back at square one, or they don’t return to the gym at all.

I found a better way as I entered my 30s, and it involved reducing my training workload. If you take a look at the Daily Trainer program you’ll see that I cut the schedule to just three sessions per week throughout the festive period, like this:

Honestly, this simple change will make things so much easier for you.

You’ll perform a full-body workout on Monday, an arm workout on Wednesday, and then finish the week with another full-body workout on Friday.

Each full-body workout will be based around heavy lifting, and will make damn sure that none of your major muscle groups are left lacking over the holidays, and there’s a high impact arm workout sandwiched in between to make sure you have a hard time wrapping presents.

This simple training calendar gives you four days off per week, so it can fit into even the busiest of schedules, and it leaves plenty of time to enjoy the holidays – and it also means you won’t feel like you’ve been hit by a truck when you step up the volume again in January!

Let’s Simplify Your Nutrition

The worst thing about trying to diet through December is dieting through December.

I tried it several times in my younger years, and I felt all kinds of emotions including angst (from wanting to headbutt carol singers due to having no carbs in my system) and guilt (for avoiding family occasions out of fear I’d go eat junk).

It always ended the same, of course, because I’d eventually crack and have the mother of all blow-outs!

That all changed for me in 2013, when I began implementing a more flexible diet plan which accounted for the festive period as part of the plan. It’s a method which I have since used with all my PT clients to great success.

At the start of the year we actually schedule this “downtime” for the festive period so they know all year long that they’re going to e able to take it a little bit easier.

When the time arrives, they can enjoy the festivities without the usual “food guilt” other people experience, and without fear that they’re going to ruin their results (because trust me, it won’t!), and in most cases it even helps them stay on track better throughout the year because they know this “downtime” is coming (kinda like how we only eat pancakes on pancake day).

I get them to simplify their nutrition targets to three things:

• Shoot for your total calorie target
• Remember to eat protein
• Drink at least 2 litres of water

Yep, that’s fucking it.

There will still be days where you can’t really focus on anything (such as big family parties, etc), but don’t sweat it.

This simplified nutrition plan allows you to enjoy a much wider selection of foods over the holidays, without damaging any of your hard earned gym results (because you’re still aiming for your calorie target when possible), and it takes the stress out of nutrition at a time when we need it most.

I must’ve used this with at least a thousand PT clients by now, and I’ve not had one single person go back to their old chaotic way of doing things, so give it a try!

Don’t Train Or Track On The Main Days

The simple structure above will help you stay in shape throughout the entire holiday season, but now I want to focus on the main days.

I always advise PT clients that they should not worry about what they eat, and they should definitely not worry about working out, on the main days:

• Christmas Day
• Boxing Day
• New Year’s Day

I realize you love training, but these are family days which you really won’t want to miss out on, so calm your tits and enjoy your damn self.

If you’re anything like I used to be, you might struggle to resist the urge (particularly to train), so if that happens I’d like to you re-open this page and remember that this “downtime” is actually part of your Winter program.

And that’s job done, I’ll see you all in the New Year.

P.S. If you’re looking for the location in the header image, it’s the awesome Alta’s Rustler Lodge.

Further Reading:

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