A Full-Body, Hard, Slightly Insane Holiday Workout and A Bonus To The First Reader Who Proves They Did It.

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Do you ever feel like briefly getting away from the holiday rush, shopping, work, family, kids, loud relatives and yuletide stress?

During this time of year, that feeling occasionally  happens to me, and when it does, I head to the gym for a hard holiday workout. After all, multiple research studies have proven that exercise is stress relieving and produces loads of happy endorphins.

Plus it feels good to just throw some Tiesto in my .mp3 player and just lay down the hurt for a little while – burning a ton of calories and injecting an enormous amount of both cardiovascular and muscular fitness into my body during the process.

So if Santa music at the mall isn't doing for you, then toss this full-body, hard holiday workout into your routine once or twice this holiday season, and I guarantee you'll leave the gym feeling refreshed, restored and (my apologies in advance) slightly sore.

The workout is split into three separate blocks (upper body, cardio and lower body) and will probably take you about two hours (I did it 4 days ago and it took me 2:04). Feel free to add or subtract as you please to fit your time, or even split it into the upper body component in the morning and the cardio and lower body components in the evening.

Finally, be sure to scroll down to the end of this post for a little bonus I'll throw your way if you make it through the whole routine.

—————— The Full-Body, Hard, Slightly Insane Holiday Workout ——————

Block 1: Upper Body

Warm-up/movement prep:

10 Dynamic Arm Swings in each direction

10 Lateral Lunges in each direction

5 Four-Step Hip Stretches per side

5 Standing Lat Stretch per side

20 seconds Figure Four Stretch per side

20 second Scorpion Stretch per side

Chest:

4x through 10 Stability Ball Chest Press to 20 Med Ball Slams (recovery is 30 seconds jumping rope or jumping jacks after each set)

Shoulders:

4x through 10 Overhead Push Press to 20 Dumbbell Side Raises (recovery is 30 seconds jumping rope or jumping jacks after each set)

Back:

4x through 5 Wide-Grip Pull-Ups to 20 Straight Arm Cable Pulldowns (recovery is 30 seconds jumping rope or jumping jacks after each set)

Arms:

4x through 10 Alternating Biceps Curls to 10 Tricep Pushdowns (recovery is 30 seconds jumping rope or jumping jacks after each set)

Core:

4x 10 Bicycle Crunch per side to 20 Side Plank Rotations per side (recovery is 30 seconds jumping rope or jumping jacks after each set)

Block 2: Cardio

9×30 seconds treadmill sprint – maximum incline and maximum speed you can handle.

After first, second and third sprints: 20 push-ups

After fourth, fifth and sixth sprints: 20 body weight squats

After seventh, eighth and ninth sprints: 10 Swing Squats per side

Block 3: Lower Body

Warm-up/movement prep:

10 side-to-side leg swing per side

10 front-to-back leg swing per side

Legs:

Complete 4x through the following 4 exercises, with minimal rest:

10 dumbbell or barbell squats

10 dumbbell or barbell deadlifts

3 single leg squats per side

25 fire hydrants per side

Core (yes, again):

20 stability ball pikes to 20 stability ball bridge

Cool-Down

Full body foam roller – 10 rolls per body part

——————————————————

Congratulations.

You made it. At least through the reading part. Now you ready to do it?

Here's the bonus if you do:

I will send a hard copy book/DVD of the Shape21: The 21 Day Lean Body Manual to the first person that A) puts on a heart rate monitor; B) completes this entire workout then C) sends me the heart rate monitor file to prove you did the workout, along with a quick video of you telling me how the workout felt or any other noteworthy thoughts of the workout (just send to support @ bengreenfieldfitness.com).

I will also give a digital copy of Shape21 to anybody who does what I just described above! But the first person to do it gets a hard copy.

Shape21The reason I chose Shape21 is that I would say that the book of mine that contains the most “metabolic” style, full-body workouts like this one is Shape21: The 21 Day Lean Body Manual – which is also a good last minute Christmas idea, as it ships hard copy book with exercise DVD.

Get it for yourself, or anybody else you want to burn fat, get lean muscle or make sore.

They'll thank you later.

Questions or feedback? Leave them in the comments section below.

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7 thoughts on “A Full-Body, Hard, Slightly Insane Holiday Workout and A Bonus To The First Reader Who Proves They Did It.

  1. Doug says:

    Wow – what an awesome post Christmas, gosh I feel fat workout!!! Really kicked in my "get going again" commitment to myslef in the rear! My HRM doesn't have any sort of interactive function that I can download and post, but for 2:10 the average was 132, with peaks of 189 during the fast uphill TM. Love that part the best … always like to push myself on the TM and that was KILLER! And anytime the foam roller is included in a workout, I smile. I love mine!!! Will definitely keep this one in the vault to use again!

  2. Jill says:

    Thanks Ben! Great workout. Here's my video and HR file. http://www.trainingpeaks.com/sw/GTX4JFAVNJEZM2C6H… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrI9vTLEO9s

  3. Bill says:

    Thanks for the workout…it kicked my butt! Here is my video with comments and heart rate file.
    http://connect.garmin.com/activity/135029334#.Tu3…
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhsPxpMmmoc

  4. Leah says:

    Thank you for this -Great workout and pretty easily adopted to my home gym (12 lb dumbbells and 26 and 35 lb KB) – took me about an 1 hour and 10 minutes…(okay, I know I have some work to do) no heart rate monitor and no treadmill so I substituted KB snatches (26 lb) and heavy swings (35 lb) for the sprints, but my arms were shaking by the end…think I'll try this weekly to see if I can improve…

  5. aaron jensen says:

    will it count if I do split this into upper body and lower body to make it an hour workout instead of 2 hours?

    1. Yes, that's OK. Just all has to be done in one day.

  6. Becky H says:

    Looks like a GREAT stress busting workout… thanks

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