Short Christmas exercise sessions

I hope we can all rise above our challenges and find something to be thankful for this Christmas. Many of us will find it difficult to maintain our regular exercise routine or resist extra servings of the mouth-watering foods that will be available, thus we will gain weight (if we don't perform some physical activity to utilise the extra energy). If we do a little exercise each day during the season, we are less likely to gain excess weight because we would be using much of the energy gained from what we ate.

Because of the extra demands on our time, we need to apply some efficient exercise strategies to maintain an exercise routine amid all the celebration. If we choose the activities that we enjoy most such as dancing at a Christmas party, aquatic activities at the beach, playing a sport, exercising at home, doing yoga, or enjoying some zumba fitness, we won't have the daunting task to get back on track in the new year. We can also reduce the number of exercise sessions, as well as the duration of the sessions, with fewer sets and repetitions, and still do a high-quality workout.

Increase metabolism

If we are tempted to gorge ourselves and then go to the gym to work off the excess weight, all of that can be prevented by doing our exercise routine before we eat. This will increase our metabolism as well as our level of dehydration, and reduce our hunger urge. When we are dehydrated we will experience the sensation of thirst. The need to drink water will diminish our urge to eat large quantities of food. When we exercise, we increase our metabolism and this helps us continue to burn calories long after we have stopped exercising.

Many of us experience the urge to sleep after eating a large meal; this is a very good time to go for a walk in the neighbourhood or play some music and dance, or go for a bike ride or even play some sport to burn the extra calories. These activities should be done at a moderate pace and at intervals with regular rest periods.

Interval training

For example jog for 30 seconds and then walk three minutes or jog on the spot for a minute and then break for 30 seconds. The secret to success is not how many calories we burn during the exercise routine, but how many calories we burn after the exercise. This is a great way to increase our metabolism and get us through the season until we are back on our regular exercise routine.

Exercises that involve weights are excellent for weight management. Sit ups, push ups and pull ups are a few of the simple activities working against our body weight in the most natural way, and gets us in shape.

Dr Kenneth Gardner is an exercise physiologist at Holiday Hills Research Center. Email: yourhealth@gleanerjm.com.