Born Fitness

The Thanksgiving Day Workout

The Thanksgiving Day Workout

Rumor has it the average American eats around 4,500 calories on Thanksgiving. Remember that number for a moment.

Let’s say you wanted to “undo” the damage of the meal. According to researchers at Southern Main, the average weight training circuit of 8 exercises completed in 8 minutes (when performed at a high-intensity with minimal rest) has the ability to burn approximately 150 to 200 calories. Not a bad 8-minute fat incinerator, but not quite up to par with your feast.

But you wouldn’t stop after just 8 minutes. So you keep going and target an hour-long workout following the same routine. Realistically, if you factor in fatigue every subsequent round of exercise would lower your intensity and require more rest. Using these assumptions it’s safe to say that the calorie burn of each round would most likely drop. But why be negative?

Let’s forget about fatigue, and instead imagine a world where you maintain a blistering, superhuman pace for nearly an hour (7 rounds). At that pace you’d still burn around 1400 calories…or about 3,000 shy of your big T-Day Meal.

Is One Meal Really That Bad?

While it might seem like a lost cause, this is not meant to discourage you from eating on Thanksgiving. In fact, it’s just the opposite.

The hypothetical fitness math should offer evidence that one day of bad eating wouldn’t be cancelled out by one workout…even one of Herculean proportions.

That also means one massive meal (or day of eating) will not outdo a regular lifestyle of healthy eating and consistent exercise.

Which is the perfect excuse to enjoy Thanksgiving with a little more dietary freedom—if that’s how you decide to celebrate it. (If you don’t love eating extras there’s obviously no reason to force it.)

But just because your workout won’t burn as many calories as you eat, you still might want to find time to squeeze in a workout. A hard training session can help put some of those excess calories to good use (think building muscle), or at the very least give you some piece of mind if you choose to be gluttonous.

This workout is designed to do the trick before any feast or cheat day.

It’s is a high-intensity “depletion” workout intended to deplete your glycogen, which is a primary energy source in your body. When glycogen is filled, eating extra calories (and carbs) can play a role in making you gain weight. When it’s depleted, the food you eat will go to refueling your body, restoring your energy, and helping you build muscle and repair after a tough workout.

How To Do This Workout

This workout functions like a big circuit. You’ll perform one set of the first exercise, rest for 20 to 30 seconds, and then move to the next exercise. Follow this pattern until you complete all 11 exercises in the workout, and then rest for 2 to 3 minutes. After your break, keep the weight the same (or decrease if needed) and increase the number of reps you perform the next round. You should perform the following number of reps on each round of the circuit.

First set = 10 reps per exercise.

Second set = 12 reps per exercise.

Third set = 15 reps per exercise.

Fourth (and final) set = 20 reps per exercise.

Notes and Tips

The Ultimate Pre Big Meal Workout

  1. Dumbbell Goblet squat
  2. Dumbbell high pull
  3. Dumbbell overhead press
  4. Dumbbell bent over row
  5. Mountain climbers
  6. Dumbbell front squat
  7. Dumbbell Romanian deadlift
  8. Dumbbell Renegade Row
  9. Dumbbell Alternating Lunges
  10. Dumbbell biceps curl
  11. Dumbbell  swings