Trying to avoid the festive season derailing your fitness routine? Here’s how to stay active during the holiday season…
The time between Christmas and New Year can often blur into a cosy haze of sofa time, leftover chocolates and forgetting what day it is. And to be clear, there’s nothing wrong with rest and relaxation. In fact, a pause can be exactly what your body and mind need.
But completely abandoning your fitness routine during the busyness of festive commitments can leave you feeling sluggish, and make January feel like an uphill struggle before you’ve even begun. The good news? Staying active over the festive season doesn’t need to require strict plans, guilt, or extreme workouts.
Small, consistent steps can protect your fitness, boost your mood and help you finish the year feeling energised rather than depleted.
We spoke to leading fitness experts to help you build a sustainable, realistic routine that fits around real life, even during the most chaotic weeks of the year.
1. Focus on ‘bridge the gap’ fitness
Rather than aiming for transformation, the rest of December and early January should be about keeping the gap between “doing something and doing nothing as small as possible”, says the personal trainer Monty Simmons.
“December is a time when people normally often take their foot off the pedal completely. There are Christmas parties, work deadlines, shorter days, and it’s cold and dark, so it’s easy to want to stay cosy and let routines slide. However, what’s harder is trying to kick-start everything again in January after doing nothing. Your fitness drops, you fall out of the habit, and exercise starts to feel harder and more uncomfortable in your head than it actually is.”
The key is to make this festive period about “protecting momentum”, Simmons continues. “It isn’t about chasing progress or pushing hard. Do a little bit of something now and you can build a routine that lasts, rather than saving everything for a big January push. That way, when you are ready to ramp it up, you’re not starting from scratch.”
2. Be consistent, not hard on yourself
If years of diet culture have you feeling guilty about overindulging, meaning you tend to workout intensely afterwards to ‘make up for it’, all the experts we spoke to want to help you banish that mindset. Slow, steady and consistent is actually the better approach.
“Consistency is the real goal. Fitness shouldn’t be about extreme health kicks in January to punish a few indulgent weeks beforehand,” says the Pilates instructor James Shaw. “Maintaining some structure now even at a gentler level helps create sustainable habits and protects both physical and mental wellbeing during a busy season. Try walks between social plans, short morning sessions before the day runs away with you, or just stretching before bed; they all count. A healthy lifestyle is built through commitment and balance, not cycles of all or nothing behaviour. December is actually the perfect time to practise that mindset as consistency always beats intensity.”
3. Try exercise ‘snacking’
In the hustle and bustle of the festive season you probably don’t feel like you have an hour to yourself, let alone an hour to exercise, but do you have ten minutes? More likely! “Exercise snacks are short, focused bursts of movement performed throughout the day, i.e. small bouts of activity that add up to meaningful health and fitness improvements,” reveals the team at Lanserhof at the Arts Club. “Aim for 10 minutes of moderate movement twice a day or short high-intensity bursts three times a day. Just 10 minutes can sharpen your focus for up to two hours, making it perfect between wrapping chaos and family meet-ups. Equally, one-minute of jumping-jacks quickly raises your heart rate, offering an ideal energy boost before diving back into festivities. Remember too that “laughter and exercise both release endorphins, so giggling through a workout brings double happiness.”
4. Make it part of your everyday activity
Another way to beat perceived time restraints: “anchor your movement to things you’re already doing,” suggests Simmons. “If you’re watching TV, move. If you’re waiting for a bath to run, move. If you’re waiting for shopping or a delivery, move. Do short 10 to 15-minute sessions, walks, or cooking breaks. If you’re in a hotel room or lounging by the pool, go and find the hotel gym or go back to your room and do 10 minutes of exercise. It’s not going to be a life-changing workout. You’re not going to build all the muscle you want or lose all the fat you want. But you will build a habit, and those habits add up when you do them every day.”
5. Plan ahead (but without perfectionism)
“Festive days slip away with family, travel and social plans so try to plan ahead and block out short, focused slots to move with purpose every day,” says the regional exercise experience manager at Virgin Active UK, Matt Gardner. However, that doesn’t mean you need to come up with a fully-formed hardcore routine in order to succeed!
“We often overthink the “perfect” workout,” Gardner continues. “Instead, step back, prioritise moving with intent each day over the festive period, and build the detail from there.” Your plan could be as simple as laying out some workout clothes every evening so you can jump into them more easily each morning. Or plan to build exercise into your family meet-ups through dog walks or dancing with your kids.
6. Consider your nutrition
Don’t worry: this tip isn’t a suggestion to ‘watch what you eat’, so you don’t overindulge. In fact, it’s about making sure your body has what it needs to make your festive workouts feel a whole lot easier.
“Start simple – wake and hydrate,” says Gardner. “Even mild dehydration can impair physical and mental performance, so you may only be two or three glasses of water away from feeling and performing better.”
Equally, if you plan to train more in the new year, now is definitely not the time to fear carbohydrates: “they are king for energy, performance, and recovery,” continues Gardner. “Use the simple 90:30 / 30:90 rule: consume carbohydrates 90 and 30 minutes before training, then again 30 and 90 minutes after. It supports output, reduces fatigue, and helps you recover ready for the next session.”
7. Think ahead
If motivation runs a little low, remember that with consistency you are building the roadmap for a healthier 2026 – and beyond, even with small moments of movement.
“Beyond the January health frenzy, women achieve the greatest long-term returns for their health by investing in strength and bone health, aerobic capacity, hormonal stability, pelvic and postural integrity, and consistent recovery practices,” reveals the strength and conditioning coach at Hooke Fitness, Athanasios Tzoumaris – all of which are boosted by tailored (but not necessarily hardcore) exercise. “These foundations support not only longevity, but also daily energy, confidence, and resilience across all stages of life.”
8. Focus on enjoyment
“Finally, remove friction,” advises Shaw. “Choose workouts you actually enjoy and that don’t require loads of kit or preparation. After all, the easier it is, the more likely you’ll do it.”
The exercises to fit into a busy, on-the-go lifestyle
1. Classical Mat Pilates
“Classical Mat Pilates is a ready made solution for travel,” suggests Shaw. “It was originally designed as a home workout to be done anywhere and all you really need is a towel or mat. A short beginner friendly sequence can mobilise and strengthen the whole body in just 15 minutes, even in a hotel room. It’s efficient, restorative and perfect when space and time are limited.” You can find lots of inspiration for Mat Pilates on Youtube for all experience levels.
2. Skipping rope
“With a skipping rope, you’re only 5 -10 minutes away from a great workout,” says Gardner. “It requires minimal space, elevates the heart rate, and adds a skill and fun element.” Best of all, it’s easy to travel with, doesn’t weigh a ton in your suitcase if moving from place to place, and you can pick one up for less than £10.
3. Stretch it out
“Mobility-focused movements are also really important when you are busy and travelling a lot,” says Simmons. “Stretching your hips, spine, and shoulders helps offset all the sitting too. Things like pigeon pose, the world’s greatest stretch, kneeling hip flexor stretches, cobra, figure-four stretches, cross-body shoulder stretches, overhead tricep stretches, cat-cow, and standing side bends all help take away that stiff, locked-up feeling.”
4. Travel-friendly circuits
“Try a short, repeatable bodyweight circuit that requires no equipment, limited space, and only takes ten to 15 minutes per round,” says Tzoumaris (and many of the other experts we spoke to love an at-home workout too).
Start by alternating between exercises for each key area of the body (arms, core, legs etc.). For example, you could try squats, press-ups, jumping jacks, lunges and planks in a sequence. “Work for 30–45 seconds per exercise with minimal rest to keep intensity high, especially when short on time.” Two or three rounds performed consistently is actually enough to get your results, both for muscle toning and a good cardio workout.
5. Take the 12 day fitness challenge
Need a little extra motivation to get moving? Why not sign up to a fitness challenge, like the one offered by the team at Lanserhof at the Arts Club. It’s very simple. You just commit to 12 days of movement, increasing the time you spend exercising by a minute every day. Here’s how you can give it a try:
Day 1: The Power Walk:1 x 10-minute brisk walk indoors or outdoors
Day 2: Core Strength: 2 minutes of plank
Day 3: Festive Dance Break: 3 minutes of dancing to your favourite song
Day 4: Stretch & Shine: 4 gentle stretches: neck rolls, shoulder rolls, forward fold, and chest opener
Day 5: 12 Days of Christmas Circuit: 5 x 5 burpees, 5 squats, 5 lunges, 5 jumping jacks
Day 6: Upper Body Gift Lift: 6 rounds: 10 push-ups + 10 triceps dips (use a chair or couch)
Day 7: Mindful Movement: 7 minutes of yoga or deep stretching
Day 8: Lucky Legs: 8 minutes alternating 8 squats, 8 lunges, 8 calf raises, and 8 wall sits
Day 9: Balance & Posture: 9 minutes alternating single-leg stand (1.5 minutes each leg), heel-to-toe walk (3 minutes), tree pose (1.5 minutes each leg)
Day 10: Home Workout: 10 minute workout that includes Strength (5 minutes): squats, lunges, push-ups, calf raises, plank (1 min each), and cardio (5 minutes): sprint on the spot, step-ups, jumping jacks, sit-ups (30 seconds each).
Day 11: Jingle Bell Jog (or walk): 11-minute jog or brisk walk outdoors
Day 12: Festive Finale: Repeat your favourite workouts from the challenge
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