Well, tis the season once again and I hope you are all settling in nicely for a well deserved holiday break.
This time of year brings upon it an opportunity to reflect on the year that was (and do we have a lot to reflect on) as well as an abundance of delicious foods, snacks, treats, and just about everything that you could eat to destroy all of the hard work you’ve been putting in with your diet and training up to this point. It’s also a chance to rest and relax to recharge your energy and motivation for living the best type of health/fitness/bodybuilding lifestyle that you can.
As important as it is to live life and indulge every once in a while, it’s also very important to keep your goals in mind while you loosen up just a little to have some much-needed fun.
So to help navigate you through this super awesome time of year while keeping all of your goals in mind, here are some great tips you can use to flourish during the holiday season.
De-Stress
First and foremost, the holidays have to be the happiest time of the year with everything that the season encompasses. Family, friends, and lots of good food are certainly in order so what better time than now to forget all of your troubles, shelve the stress you’ve been carrying around with you, take a deep breath, and just relax.
You should all know by now how damaging stress can be for your health, let alone your bodybuilding aspirations, so do as best you can to clear your mind, focus on fun and let loose a little. You’ll be surprised by how much your body will thank you for just doing this one simple thing.
Eat
If you’re anything like me, you love being on a regimented program that includes a proper diet enriched with all of the necessary nutrients for muscular growth. Along with plenty of fruits and vegetables comes clean fuel sources such as yams, potatoes, and rice and lots of lean cuts of meat and of course VP2 Whey Isolate.
When you eat for a purpose, you don’t really care what it is you’re consuming as long as it’s getting the job done for you. However, you need a break from this at different times of the year so that you can sustain and maintain that type of discipline for longer periods of time.
Well, I can’t think of a better time than during the holidays when there’s lots of food around to just let your guard down and eat to your heart’s content. My advice, take one full day, and eat. Make this day a planned and strategic move within your diet by doing the necessary things prior to so that this one full day of eating will actually further your progress.
Train and Then Rest
I’m all for training as much as you possibly can all year long. It could be the fact that I just love training so much that I never not want to do it. Or that it’s just ingrained into who I am no matter what else is going on I want to train. So in saying that, I think it’s a great idea to train as much as you possibly can right up until a certain day that you set in your schedule and then completely shut it down for at least two full days.
Go as hard as you possibly can with your Max-OT training and then take those couple of days to rest, heal and let all of that amazing food you’re going to be eating go to work in building some new muscle for you. Just relax, soak up all of those calories, drink your Muscle Energy, and then get ready for some of the biggest pumps you’ll have all year long once you get back to the gym.
Re-Prioritize Your Basic Health Needs
During the downtime would be a great opportunity for you to take a look at and review all that you have been doing to maintain your basic health needs. Have you been making use of AST Sports Science’s MultiPro 32X? It is literally the best multivitamin/multimineral supplement that exists for supplying all of your micronutrient health needs.
Secondly, do you have any nagging issues with joint or muscle pain that you’ve been ignoring? Well, perhaps you should schedule an appointment and get some tissue work or physiotherapy done to get you healthy again.
So much goes into just maintaining basic health, let alone building muscle, that taking the time to ensure everything is getting done is incredibly important.
The final piece of advice I will give you here for the holiday season and keeping up with your health is one that will contribute to your overall mental health and that’s set new and exciting goals for yourself. When you have something to look forward to that invigorates you and motivates you, you take on an entirely new mindset that is positive and uplifting.
This is incredibly important for your overall health as it will be a driving force behind all of the other decisions you will make with regards to your bodybuilding lifestyle. So set clear and achievable goals for the upcoming year, work hard at doing everything right within the lifestyle you have chosen to live and most of all, enjoy this time of year.
Happy Holidays from all of us here at AST Sports Science!
