Tis the season! It's that time of the year when you're working hard to make the workouts happen. If you're looking for a festive, fun and effective workout you can do in under an hour, this blog post is for you! The Holiday HIIT Workout will get your heart pumping and your holiday spirit soaring! We organized this workout with very little equipment so that you can rock it just about anywhere. Grab your belt and let’s go!

Warm Up

Start with a 5 to 10 minute warm up in the BLUE and GREEN zones. You can perform your warm up on a piece of cardio equipment, run through a dynamic warm up or drink a cup of hot apple cider while singing holiday songs (we recommend one of the first two options).

Holiday HIIT Workout

The Holiday HIIT Workout consists of 8 exercises that you'll perform for 60 seconds each. In between each exercise, you'll perform 30 seconds of active recovery exercises. You'll perform 4 lower body exercises: a push, a pull, a lateral, and a twist.  You'll also perform 4 upper body exercises: a push, a pull, a lateral, and a twist. Finally, you'll perform core work as your active recovery. This means you'll end up working your entire body, in all planes of motion, during each round!

Perform the 8 exercises with 8 active recovery core exercises in between each, and take a 60 second break when you're done. When your 60 second break is over, begin again with exercise 1 and repeat the sequence. Do this 3 times to complete the exercise.

If you're not familiar with any of the exercises, tune in during Fitness Friday for a demo or check out the Myzone Moves YouTube Channel for the replay.

Lower Body Exercises

Push: Santa Squats - body weight, dumbbell, kettlebell, barbell, or with a reindeer on your back

Pull: Sleigh Bell Single Leg Deadlift - body weight, dumbbell, kettlebell, barbell, or actual sleigh bell

Lateral: Snow Angel Skaters - focus on form rather than speed…and an angel might get its wings

Twist: Little Drummer Boy Lunge with Rotation - body weight, dumbbell, kettlebell, or little drummer boy

Upper Body Exercises

Push: Elf on a Shelf Elevated Push Ups - find a bench, a bar, or a shelf to perform push ups on

Pull: Jingle Bell Bent Over Row - dumbbell, kettlebell, barbell, or a one horse open sleigh…hey!

Lateral: Stocking Stuffer Side Raises - dumbbell, kettlebell, barbell, or your heaviest stocking stuffer items

Twist: Plum Fairy Pallof Press - this is actually an anti-rotation movement, essential to being a plum fairy

Active Recovery Core Exercises

Front Plank

Left Side Plank

Right Side Plank

Bird Dog: alternate extending: right arm & left leg; left arm & right leg

Here are the exercises in sequence:

As mentioned above: Perform the exercises in sequence (1 through 8 plus recovery), take a 60 second break, and then go on to the next round. Perform 3 rounds in total.

Cool Down

Perform a 3 to 5 minute cool down in the BLUE and GRAY zones.

We wish you a very healthy and happy holiday season, full of MEPs of course! 

Enjoy!

Keep Moving Forward!

Remember to use the hashtags #effortrewarded and #myzonemoves when posting your workout pics, and don’t forget to add your workout pics with your moves in your Activity Calendar!

For more tips on how to use the Myzone® heart rate monitor and App, follow us during Fitness Fridays on Facebook Live (subscribe on Myzone’s Facebook Page) – 8 am PT, 11 am ET, and check out our Myzone® Moves Podcast on iTunes or Google Play.