As the holiday season approaches and 2020 starts to draw to a close, finding time to get workouts in can often seem harder and harder.

Whether it’s travel, family/friend gatherings, or a loss of motivation during the winter months, it can be hard to get it in. I find that a slight change to my training routine can help with the increase in unpredictably to my schedule.

Knowing that consistency is truly key for long term progress I rethink my priorities. I commit to minimum two workouts per week and pick two movements for each session I want to work on, one upper body one lower body.

Two sessions gives you flexibility to move them to different days of the week if your traveling and the two moves lowers the mental barrier to get in the door that people have when they know they have a long workout.

Now I allow myself to do more than two moves per session if I have the time, energy, and motivation but I don’t pre plan it. If I get in my two moves and that’s all I have time for I see it as success and get out of the gym. If I want more I do as much as I desire and see it as icing on the cake.

You make look at this and say two workouts, two moves each, that’s not enough....is it?

A couple of important notes on that:
You want to make the moves compound, think squats, pull-ups, etc.
You want to try HARD, like actually put in effort if your only doing two movements per session don’t leave much in the tank. Put on some music, focus and get it done.

We are trying to maintain, not necessarily improve. Most people have a hard time training at all over the holidays much less improving. Two hard sessions a week is more than enough to maintain if you have a hectic schedule at the end of the year.

As much as people preach no days off, hard work, etc. It really doesn’t work for most people, I can tell you from experience if you have a hard time with motivation committing to more often backfires, try less first.

Let me know if this helps you stay consistent during busy times and feel free to reach out if you need more guidance.

--Will
Trainer, LoHi Athletic Club

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