The 12 Days of Christmas Workout: a Bodyweight Challenge

Food is joyful, as is a little indulgence over the festive season. Don’t deprive yourself this year, but don’t slip into a sedentary slump on the sofa and undo all your training.

Whether you’re at home, on a work trip, or at the gym, this 12 days of Christmas workout is designed to be done anywhere, with zero equipment necessary. They’re all functional bodyweight exercises, but if you want to crank up your effort a notch, grab some dumbbells or kettlebells (or jingle bells) and incorporate them into your workout. Ask one of our personal trainers to guide you on this if you’re unsure.

This 12 days of Christmas workout is a playful way of injecting more movement into December, burning off extra eggnog or three in the process. Ready? We all know the song, so sing along and get a sweat on…

The 12 days of Christmas workout

• 12 star jumps
• 11 split-squat lunges
• 100 seconds plank
• 9 lying hip raises
• 8 bear crawls
• 7 Supermans
• 6 V-ups
• 5 squat jumps
• 4 crab walks
• 30 seconds pushups
• 20 seconds burpees
• 1 minute running on the spot

Repeat the entire set four times as fast as you can.

A few points on the way how to perform the workout

When performing the 12 days of Christmas workout, it’s important that each move is carried out with the unflawed form. If executed poorly, your efforts are tarnished. Here are a few form-cleansing tips to make sure you unlock the most from your movement and avoid any potential injuries from happening:

• During a lunge put the weight into your front heel, not your front toes. You might need to take a larger step to avoid this and get the best glute-strengthening benefits from the move.
• During a pushup, squeeze your lats to keep your shoulders down and form a 45-degree angle with your elbows. If you line-up your elbows with your shoulders, you’re dramatically lessening your power and performance, while increasing the chances of muscular injury in the shoulders.
• During a squat, don’t curve your back – keep it straight while bending the knees and keeping your arms forward while lowering your hips as if sitting on a small chair. Keep your weight on your heels and mid-foot rather than your toes, then bring your hips and knees up at the same time (and at the same speed) when you rise from the bottom of your squat.
• During a plank, fix that droopy lower back by bringing your butt up first and then tucking it under. Voila! You’ll instantly feel this small tweak helps in achieving a perfectly straight back, activating your core in all the right places.

Don’t forget to warm-down with a good walk or stretches. Got a foam roller? Those tissue massagers are the best way to recover from a muscle-sculpting workout. Download our foam rolling guide to learn how to get the best from your recovery. Want to experiment with different workouts? Give this core-strengthening kinesis workout a go on our state-of-the-art Kinesis Wall.