12 Days of Fitness Challenge: 3rd Day of Fitness

Time is always tight during the holidays, but it’s not the time to forgo your fitness goals. With a little motivation, planning, and a set goal in place, you can feel great and even enjoy your favorite holiday treats.

HOLIDAY MOTIVATION

Obtaining the right amount of motivation for working out can be challenging, especially when other ‘things’ seem more appealing. We manage find time for shopping, wrapping, cooking, sipping… so what about sweating?

When you are motivated, you can accomplish all you set out to achieve. Find your inner drive to set your goals and enjoy the holiday season.

HOLIDAY HABITS

Motivation is important, but so is forming good habits. They go hand and hand.   Creating a habit is something that has to start small and build up over time. For instance, doing 1 push up or one crunch a day may seem easy for some, but you have to start somewhere. Setting a goal to achieve each day is what helps form our behavior into a habit. Before you know it, you may progress to doing 100 push-ups or 500 crunches each day.

It is also vital to gain the motivation to form a weekly cardio habit. Knock off the excuses of why it’s not a priority and begin to think of how it can benefit you even if it is for small amounts of time. It all starts with the motivation to move and creating a habit that you can accomplish and then progressively increasing your time. For example, if your goal is to pick up running, but it’s a love hate relationship, start with 1-3 minutes and add another minute every few workouts until you can sustain a set amount of time. Eventually, you will feel good and your body will adapt.

Motivation allows you to accomplish greatness as long as you create consistent habits and set goals. There’s no sugar gumdrop sweeter than the sense of accomplishment that will fuel you to do more the next time.

Bottom line, we all need to start somewhere.  To form a habit that sticks, start in small doses so that you’re not overwhelmed and progress when you feel ready.

Let’s motivate and get your holiday sweat on…

12 DAYS OF FITNESS CHALLENGE

The 12-day series starts easy and builds up into more intense challenges as the day’s progress.  The moves are simple, but you can advance them to challenge your own fitness level.  Starting with small tasks will ensure you stay on track.  After the first few days, the series will get more intense to allow you to improve upon what you started.

CHALLENGE OVERVIEW

• The daily workouts are designed to focus on a different muscle group each day.
• Follow the prescribed reps and sets as directed each workout.
• Challenge your strength level each workout.
• Complete the ‘Daily Challenge’ by the end of each day.

Jingle, no jiggle = a jolly progress!

3^rd DAY OF FITNESS CHALLENGE: ARMS

This is day 3 of the holiday challenge; if you’re just joining in now, please refer to the 1st Day’s blog and video to get the full program details.

DAILY WORKOUT

Equipment needed: Total Gym

• The 3^rd day of Fitness challenges the ARMS.
• Perform 10 reps, 1 set of each exercises listed below.
• Complete the ‘Daily Challenge’ by the end of each day.
• Adjust the incline to accommodate and challenge your strength level.

Begin each workout with a dynamic warm-up & conclude with a cool down.

• Warm up: Perform a 3-minute dynamic warm up to prepare your muscles in all ranges of motion. (Ex: jumping jacks, squat knee up, lunge & twist, etc.)
• Cool Down: Conclude each workout with a series of stretches to recover and lengthen the muscles worked. Stretching prevents injury and prepares you for the next workout! (Ex: runners lunge, figure 4, forward fold, down-dog, etc.)

ARM EXERCISES

1. Lat raises
2. Flies/ hug a tree circles
3. Surfer row
4. Glide board dips

DAILY CHALLENGE

• PLANK HOLD: 45 seconds
• LUNGES: 25 reps per leg

Check out the video to see how these exercises are performed!

Stay tuned for the 4^th Day of Fitness Challenge.

Merry Fitness & Happy Sweating,

Maria

FOCUS OF TODAY: Create a healthy habit