I dunno about you Badasses, but over the next 48 hours I plan to eat a lot.
Not fruit and veggies, mind you. Nope, I'm headed this Christmas Eve to a traditional Cuban feast of roasted pork, frijoles negros, plantains and other deliciousness. This will be followed by tomorrow's Christmas dinner of steaks, sweet potato casserole, macaroni and cheese, green bean casserole, and my homemade Italian Creme Cake.
Not exactly eating light. So penance will follow. It must. Because that's how Badasses do. We enjoy life and its awesome feasts, but we also work hard and sweat it out.
The best calorie torchers involve intensity intervals and using the biggest muscle groups. That would be the legs. And if you swap circuits back and forth between the legs and upper body with something like pushups, your heart will have to work harder as the blood pumps from one extremity to the other. THIS burns lots of calories. THIS is penance for the FEAST.
So try this workout to ease yourself out of the Christmas Food Fog. No weights or equipment required, so you can even do this while visiting friends and family away from home. It might hurt a little, but it will help a lot...
Post-Holiday Feast Penance Workout
Warmup:
- Jumping jacks, 30 seconds
- Running in place, high knees, 30 seconds
- Shuffles from side to side (while in a low squat), 30 seconds
- Mountain climbers, 30 seconds (pictured below)
- Repeat all four
Circuit One
- Regular lunges, 15 forward
- 15 burpees
- Regular lunges, 15 back to where you started
- 15 burpees
- Repeat
Circuit Two
- Crossover (curtsy) lunges, 15 forward
- 15 burpees
- Crossover lunges, 15 back to where you started
- 15 burpees
- Repeat
Circuit Three
- 15 diagonal lunges (stepping forward at 45 degrees with the lunging leg)
- 15 regular pushups
- 30 seconds of mountain climbers
- 15 diagonal lunges (stepping forward at 45 degrees with the lunging leg)
- 15 regular pushups
- 30 seconds of mountain climbers
Circuit Four
- Regular lunges, 20 forward
- Traveling pushups, 5 sets: Get into a pushup position. Do one pushup, then shift your arms to the right and do another pushup. Shift to the right again and pushup. Now travel back to the left, three pushups total, until you end up in the center. That's one set.
- Regular lunges, 20 back to where you started
- Close-grip pushups, 20: On your knees or on your toes, place your hands closer together than a regular pushup, so that your elbows are rights at your sides. You should feel this in the triceps as you lower down and come up.
- 10 burpees
- Frog pushups, 20: Place your hands in a regular pushup position. Bend both knees, bringing the feet up under your torso like a frog.
Now slowly go down and push up, feeling this in your arms and shoulders.
- 10 burpees
Cardio Finale
- Jumping jacks, 30 seconds
- Running in place, high knees, 30 seconds
- 15 burpees
- Shuffles from side to side (while in a low squat), 30 seconds
- 15 burpees
- Mountain climbers, 30 seconds
Coming next week: The Badass CEO's Best of 2010 playlist; the (Badass) gifts you should get yourself if noone else did; and a resolution-worthy workout
