With parties nearly every weekend during the holiday season, it is difficult to work exercise sessions into your life. In fact, it might not even feel worthwhile to try. Nevertheless, exercise can reduce stress, calm your nerves, and keep weight gain at bay, which are benefits sorely needed during the holidays. With so many holiday treats and interactions, these benefits can restore your sanity and protect your waistline. Here are four cardio exercises you can easily work into your busy schedule.
Swim After Work
The time you spend reading news articles or watching TV to decompress after work can be better spent swimming at a local public pool. Swimming works out all of the muscles in your body with a focus on your arms, legs and core. Furthermore, your heart receives a good workout that increases its strength and stamina.
Swimming for just sixty minutes burns up to 500 calories, though you may want to go for even longer to enjoy the relaxing, calming waters. Maximize your effort by trying out a variety of swim strokes. Go for a jog in the shallow end of the water. While you swim or jog around the pool, you’ll have plenty of time for ruminating about the day’s events or planning your weekend schedule.
Speed Walk the Mall
With the holidays comes plenty of gift giving. You can turn your shopping sprees into a workout by visiting your local mall. The average mall spans across at least five miles of land and offers rain-free, climate controlled walking paths to enjoy. While moving through the mall, maintain a rapid pace to keep your heart rate in range for optimal cardio benefits. Covering two to three miles in sixty minutes burns more than 300 calories. Your leg, back and butt muscles also gain strength during this brisk walking routine.
Hot Yoga Classes
Although yoga classes run at a relatively slow pace, the movements actually push your heart rate into the target range in the first fifteen minutes. The remaining hour drives your heart rate up while pushing all of the other muscles in your body to their limits. Although the challenging poses alone will leave you sweating, hot yoga instructors really crank up the heat in the room to burn more calories and remove toxins.
In addition, the hot temperatures and demanding movements will leave you feeling limber and calm for hours after the class ends. You can expect to burn at least five hundred calories in each hot yoga class you schedule. Many gyms offer these classes to the public on both weekdays and weekends.
Staying On Track
Be sure to pen in your exercise sessions a month in advance to avoid feeling overwhelmed about your booked schedule. Once you input the information, treat it like a work obligation and do not cancel. Even if you’re feeling too overwhelmed beforehand, you’ll feel relieved as stress melts away during the workout.
