Friday, November 26, 2010

Post Turkey Day Workout!

Okay, so Turkey Day has come and gone. Did you eat way too much yesterday? Is the ole gut protruding just a little more than normal? Do you feel that second helping of stuffing creeping onto your thighs? Are you feeling a little guilty for having the second piece of pie? (By the way did you know it takes more than 2 hours to walk off a slice of pecan pie?) The average Thanksgiving meal is about 1500 calories. That's almost as many calories you need for the entire day. Then there's all the leftovers and some of you are you still making the rounds and have other family meals to attend.

Are you panicking at the thought of more culinary delights just waiting to temp you?  Do you feel doomed that from here through the New Year you're going to undo all the hard work you've done the previous 11 months? Not to worry! Couple a little self-control at the table with some high-intensity workouts and you'll enter the New Year with something other than "lose 10 pounds" on your New Year's resolution list. 

Remember that exercises targeting the larger muscles groups such as the hamstrings, glutes, and quads will help you get the largest calorie burn. Muscle is what burns the calories, so if you're working more muscle mass, you'll burn more calories. Squats and lunges are some of the best lower-body exercises that will help up your metabolism. Plyometric exercises (hopping, bounding, jumping) will also get a great calorie burn. Jumpsquats, mountain climbers, burpees, ice-skaters, and lateral hops are simple and effective plyometrics exercises that are great for upping the metabolism. Below are a couple of great post Turkey Day workouts to up that metabolism and burn off some of those few thousands extra calories you took in yesterday.

Ramp it up with a weekly speed workout. Pick one of the workouts below to add to your weekly routine and you'll quickly up your metabolism, drop a few pounds and increase your pace too! (My favorite is #6. It's tough, but man, when you finish it, you feel great!)
  • Workout #1—5x1000m @5K race pace with 2-minute recovery (walk or jog) in between
  • Workout #2—6x800m @10K race pace with 90-second recovery (walk or jog) in between
  • Workout #3—Three sets: 1x1200m @ 10K race pace with 1-minute recovery, 1x400m @5K race pace with a 3-minute recovery (walk or jog) in between each set
  • Workout #4—4x1600m @10K race pace with 3-minute recovery (walk or jog) in between
  • Workout #5—8x800m @10K race pace with 90-second recovery (walk or jog) in between
  • Workout #6—400m @ 5K race pace (30sec recovery); 800 @ 10K race pace (90-sec recovery); 1200m @10K race pace (2-min recovery); 1600m @10K race pace (3-min recovery); 1200m @10K race pace (2-min recovery); 800 @ 10K race pace (90-sec recovery); 400m @ 5K race pace
Not into interval workouts, then try this up-your-metabolism circuit workout.


Or, try this full-body circuit workout.


So enjoy a few of those holiday delights and then hit the road or the gym or both!

8 comments:

Kenley said...

Hey thanks for sharing. This might seem interesting, but I have noticed that one big meal out the year really does not make me gain weight. It's what I do for the other 364 days that counts. If I ever eat a big meal, it just comes out later. Thanks for sharing the exercises man. Will give them a go.

RunnerDude said...

Hi Kenley! Yep, if you're fit, one meal's not going to make or break you, but why sit there with those 1500 extra calories if you can burn them off and have fun doing it! Hope you and your wife had a great Thanksgiving!!

Steven Cohen said...

I really like the ladder-style running, adding a lap each time, then dropping a lap back down to 1. Tough! Gotta say, though, that the best piece I've learned since caring about my workouts is eating right. I ate a regular meal yesterday (well, I had seconds on the pumpkin pie!), and am enjoying leftovers today.

Thanks for the great ideas!

Lauren said...

Yeah from here until new years it's just danger zone!

Kathy said...

Nice, thank you for posting this!

ps. hope you will follow my blog as well :)! Just getting back from a blog land hiadus! Missed the community mucho, much love! :)

Mark said...

I asked you NOT to publish that picture of me I sent you for Runner of the Week. Okay, I jest.

I am so glad I have my Garmin now. Sure, I use it to calculate my splits, altitude, and heart rate. But the real reason I use it to see how far I have to run to eat a second piece of my wife's apple pie. Is that wrong? If it is, then I don't want to be right.

chefstefan said...

Excellant cross training videos. I think cross training is so important to see gains in running and maintain a low fat body mass. Well done. Love the blog

RunnerDude said...

Hi Stefan! Thanks man! I'd love another Chef Stefan recipe for runners to post on the blog. A video of you making it would even be more awesome!!