When the long-awaited days of rest arrive, what you most want is to disconnect and enjoy, and for many people, sport and physical activity tend to take a back seat until the dreaded concern about fitness appears. loss of muscle mass and the decline in physical fitness. Are we going to lose everything we had gained by training before the holidays in just a few days by not continuing with the fitness routine? The answer is negative, but the ideal is to continue training so that the excesses of the summer do not affect us to a great extent.
Why not stop training
When the body is used to training or doing daily physical activity, it is important not to give up suddenly. It depends on the time that is abandoned will have major or minor consequences. Brooklyn Fitboxing experts remember the following:
– A week off without doing sports: If you have trained regularly, the body can benefit from a couple of days of rest and take the opportunity to recover and repair the muscles. After a week without activity, it is normal to feel good, but the muscle fibers are already beginning to weaken and the body is beginning to retain more fluids than normal.
– After two weeks of vacation without frequent physical activity: in this case the physical condition begins to decrease in a more evident way and the cardiovascular resistance decreases considerably. All activities will require extra effort.
– One month without sports or physical activity: You notice the loss of muscle and resistance that had been gained in the previous months of training. You begin to gain more fat and muscle weakens, so fewer calories are burned during rest times. It is also likely that stress levels increase and the quality of sleep worsens.
– Several months without training: affects the metabolism, in addition to burning fewer calories, the feeling of fatigue increases. The physical form diminishes completely and can seriously affect the health.
Exercises for physical activity
Efthalia Tsimkas, Brooklyn Fitboxing Master Trainer, has prepared a fullbody routine for us to exercise and tone the whole body, made up of 5 rounds of five exercises, with one minute of work (4 seconds of execution and 15 seconds of rest) and one minute of rest at the end of each complete series. Go for it!
1. push up. Complete exercise with great results. Focused mainly on working arms, chest and upper body, but also a great unknown such as the core that involves its activation during execution.
«Focus on bringing the chest towards the ground, keeping the body in block, and that the elbows point back without exceeding the shoulder. If it is difficult for you, try supporting your knees or widening the distance between your feet, ”recommends Efthalia.
2. ‘Thruster’. Complete functional exercise with which we are going to manage to involve large muscle groups, focusing on quadriceps and shoulders, mainly through the combination of two movements: ‘Front Squat’ and ‘Push Press’.
«It is very important that, for a correct execution of the movement, you keep the middle area active and help yourself with the strength and momentum of the lower body to raise the arms, pointing at the ceiling with the knuckles».
If you want more intensity and power you can add external load by placing two dumbbells on your hands.
3. Bulgarian squat. Movement similar to a Lunge, although more demanding and powerful, perfect for hitting the glutes and quadriceps.
It is done with the back foot raised and supported on some stable support. Place your hands on your hips and bend your front leg until your knee is in line with your ankle and hip. If you want to increase the intensity, take a dumbbell in each hand.
4. Iron. Perfect exercise to work on “Core” strength, by maintaining support on the forearms we will focus more on the transversus abdominis muscle.
For more intensity, squeeze your glutes, contract your quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves, keeping your body in a straight line.
5. burpees. Strength, endurance and coordination, all in one. I work with a high metabolic component. Strongly activate all the anterior musculature (abdomen, chest and quadriceps) in the extension to avoid overloading the lower back.
