Planksgiving Micro Workouts Challenge
Happy Planksgiving! It’s time to give planks for 5 days leading up to Thanksgiving so you can earn some guilt-free holiday calories because as we all know trying to burn ALL those holiday treats is a futile endeavor! The best part about this challenge is it’s a time efficient micro workouts challenge so you can squeeze it into a super busy schedule any time of day you like and the more micro workouts you accumulate the bigger the payoff at the end of the challenge with more calories earned, more fat burned, and more holiday stress relief too.
Planksgiving Micro Workouts Challenge Instructions & Tips
Accumulate 4-20 minutes of plank based movement per day for 5 days leading up to Thanksgiving. That’s 4 minutes minimum and 20 minutes maximum. Below are all your options for getting it done. Try one option per day or mix and match the options!
As long as you do 4 minutes a day you’ll be boosting your metabolism and blocking some of the holiday fat storing!
Option 1: Do 4 minutes of intervals up to 5x a day similar to my quick bcff video from my bodycon rapid fatloss workout plan. Need to lose fat fast? Get Started with the Bodycon Plan here
Plank Thruster Jack
Plank Rotation + Any Pushup
Plank Walk Out or Bear Plank to Sit Thru
Plank Knee In or Mountain Climber
Repeat
Option 2: Do 7 minutes of planks and lower body circuits 3x a day similar to my detox workout video here. Get The Full Detox & Workout Here
Plank Walk Out
Deadlift single leg or regular
Plank Knee In
Lunge reverse or side or walking
Modified Side Plank
Squats with jump or hop if you like
Tabletop Plank or Revolving Pike
Bridge feet elevated or Thruster with weight
Repeat or Go Run Up A Steep Hill A Few Times!
Option 3: Do 10 minutes of cardio and plank core work 2x per day
4 minutes cardio intervals of your choice
1 minute of plank core work of your choice
Repeat
Option 4: Do a 20 minute plank based workout
4 minutes of any cardio warmup
4 minutes of any dynamic plank intervals
4 minutes of any cardio intervals
4 minutes of any plank core work
4 minutes of leg and core stretches
Tip: Arm Balance Practice counts as core work so if you enjoy that do that instead of traditional core work as shown in my arm balance video
Why The Earn Calories Approach Works Better Than “Burning Calories”
One of the biggest obstacles clients must overcome in health and fitness is the calories in vs. calories burned mindset. This idea that you go to the gym to burn off what you ate or that you need to eat just enough for the amount of calories you burn in a day.
The trouble with this common misconception is the human body doesn’t exactly work that way. The body is always looking for opportunities to store fat in case of a food shortage emergency so when you consume more calories than your body needs the body gets busy storing all the excess that it doesn’t use as fat and here’s where it gets tricky. After those excess calories are packed away tightly in your fat cells it takes a monumental effort to tap into those fat stores.
First your body taps into stored glycogen for fuel. This means it bypasses any recently consumed calories. Only after the body uses up stored glycogen does it begin to tap into other fuel sources so if the body is constantly in an over fed state it is constantly replenishing those glycogen stores and never becoming depleted enough to break down those fat stores. The body is super smart like that and prefers to use fuel that is easily available which is in your glycogen stores.
What Happens when you don’t exercise much before feasting?
So if you’re too busy to exercise the days prior to a huge feast like Thanksgiving and you also add in other extra calories the days leading up to Thanksgiving which is pretty common, then your body is at a huge disadvantage when you finally decide it’s time to burn the stored fat.
If the holiday overconsumption of calories starts around Halloween then continues through New Year’s Eve the effort to burn those extra calories would have to be the equivalent of running an ultra marathon or competitive powerlifting to even tap into that fat. Can you really train that hard? If so for how long can you keep that up to burn off the thousands of excess calories?
Earn It Don’t Burn It Is Just The Smarter Way to Go
The smarter way to burn excess calories is to actually create the calorie deficit for several days leading up to calorie overconsumption. What happens when you do this is your body becomes depleted and instead of storing excess as fat , it uses calories to replenish glycogen, build muscle, and perform all the other recovery functions that happen post workout. Creating a deficit before you indulge is the easy way to treat yourself without triggering fat storage.
