The importance of sleep and recovery for training.

The holiday season is finally here! With it comes gifts, love and you guess it, food! But not any type of food, the food you enjoy like no other and have way too much of! With it usually comes increased sitting and sedentary with all the meals, food, and partying that you are going to enjoy. You will likely see an increased caloric intake and a reduced caloric output, which may lead to some weight gain. You may as well experience stiffness due to the reduced movement if you are not exercising. 

It is important to take time for yourself and enjoy Christmas with your family and enjoy the celebrations. You may even take time off from training, which is perfectly valid and okay to do. However, try to find ways to keep the movement going. You can for example suggest going on walks with the family after the long Christmas meals, or you can try to go explore and relax outside, maybe to places you have never been before! It is also the perfect time to try something active you have never done before. You could go on bike rides if you don’t bike often or haven’t done so in awhile. It’s the time of the year to be creative. You could even do some challenges that you find interesting or that you have been wanting to try for a while. If none of these seem attractive to you, you could create your own challenge to do everyday and try to push it over the holidays. Here is a short and sweet workout you could do everyday for 10 min:

15 squats

15 knee push ups or couch push ups

15 mountain climbers

15 swimmers

Repeat for 10 minutes, counting the rounds, and try to push yourself to do better everyday! You could even make it a family challenge and have your relatives do it with you to see who gets a better score! 

This holiday season is also a good time to reflect on your workouts and on what you like to work on. Think about the hard sessions that you have had with your trainer and that you hated in the moment but felt very proud of after. Think about the push ups you thought you could never do but were able to complete! Think about all the hard work you have put in this past year and what you would want to do better or do more of in the New Year. You can inform your trainer so you can work towards new goals this upcoming year!