Workout at home this Christmas with these five easy exercises

No gym open at Christmas? No problem

If you travel home for Christmas, it can be easy to fall off the wagon and away from your usual routine. Visiting relatives, meeting up with friends and family, eating enormous meals and snacking like there's no tomorrow often mean that going to the gym is the last thing to enter your mind. And that's without Christmas beers taken into account. But what can you do to beat the festive bulge when all the gyms around you are closed? Put this five-part full body home workout into action. It works all major muscle groups and also incorporates elements of high-intensity interval training (HIIT), working as a wicked fat burner too.  

1) Milk carton kettlebells

No kettlebells? No problem.

Get yourself two four pint milk jugs, and you can do a ton of weight-based exercises right in your living room. Shoulder presses, lateral raises, bicep curls, and goblet squats make for an ideal four-part giant set using milk jugs.

Just remember to fill them full of water so you get some form of resistance.

2) Inverted rows between chairs

If you don't have a pull-up bar at home, chances are you still have a mop or broom handle. Place one of these over two strong and sturdy chairs.

Get underneath, take a shoulder-width grip and pull yourself up to where your chest brushes against the mop or broom handle. You'll soon feel the pump in your lats, biceps and forearms.

3) Press-ups

It often goes without saying, but press-ups are one of the fundamental bodyweight lifts. You don't really need any equipment, but chairs can boost your results.

Make sure your body is straight at all times and that you take your chest to the floor. Your chest, triceps and shoulders will thank you later. Raising your feet onto a chair can increase the amount of upper chest involvement too - this is an area often difficult to recruit with most pressing movements.

4) Run up and down the stairs

Your folks will have less than fond memories of you running up and down the stairs as a kid, but you’re a grown adult now and you can do what you like.

Why not turn this section into a short Tabata-style HIIT workout? Run up the stairs for 10-20 seconds, take a light jog back down. Repeat for 8-10 rounds.

5) Burpees

Burpees are an absolute killer, but can be done almost anywhere. Most gym goers hate this exercise, but if it’s not difficult it’s not worth doing.

Remember, the more you workout over Christmas, the less guilty you have to feel about reaching for another pig in blanket.