The 12 Days of Christmas Workout

 Merry Christmas Fitters!
 And happy holidays to everyone. Since it is ever so timely, I want to share a very fun workout scheme that is great for the holidays, The 12 Days of Christmas. The gist of it is this......take 12 workouts, but them in a list, and put the numbers 1-12 in front of it. Start with the first movement, do one rep. Then do two reps of the second movement, and one of the first movement, then three reps of the third movement, two reps of the second movement, and one rep of the first movement. Repeat until you have done all twelve movements, returning to the other movements each time. Think "One first day of Christmas my first love gave to me, One Burpee. On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me, Two Dumbbell Thrusters and One Burpee. One the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me,  Three Power Cleans, Two Dumbbell Thrusters, and One Burpee....".

This is a great way to do a lot of work in "little time" (this can take up to 20-30 minutes, depending on your intensity and the moves you choose). It is also a fun way to workout, as you are not spending too much time on a single exercise. You can also do it with any type of exercise, which makes it versatile and mobile (you can do it anywhere!). A tip in making selecting your exercises: Keep the heavier exercises (cleans, deadlifts, heavier deadlifts) towards the beginning (1,2, or 3 reps at a time), or at the end (11 or 12, but only done once or twice).

Here is an example of The 12 Days of Christmas (in this one, you would need a barbell loaded with a challenging weight that could be used for all barbell exercises):

1 Burpee

2 Dumbbell Thrusters
3 Power Cleans
4 Deadlifts
5 Box Jumps
6 Pushups
7 Jumping Lunges
8 1-arm Dumbbell Snatches
9 Kettlebell Swings
10 Squats
11 Pullups
12 Manmakers

Here's to celebrating the holidays fitness-style!

Stay Fit.