3 Thanksgiving Workout Strategies

The average American consumes about 4,500 calories during a Thanksgiving meal. And when you have large meals like this, there are some pretty disturbing health issues that can follow shortly after or even the next morning. Scientists have even found there’s an increase in your risk of dying from a heart attack after eating a hefty meal.

But you’re probably still going to have at least one big meal this week on Thanksgiving Day, accompanied by higher amounts of carbohydrate or alcohol than you may normally consume. So with most gyms closed on Thanksgiving, what are some workouts you can do to maximize calorie burn and limit the damage from excessive eating? Here are three easy and fun Thanksgiving workout strategies:

1. Use 10-Minute Workouts

Even with a ton of family activities on the horizon and little free time to oneself, most people can still find 10 minutes to squeeze in a quick exercise session. That’s plenty of time to do a calorie-burning, metabolism-boosting workout! For each of these three 10-minute workouts, you don’t worry about a long warm up or cool down — everything is wrapped into the 10-minute session. And if you find extra time, you’ll get the added benefit from repeating the 10-minute workout two to three additional times during the day.

10-Minute Workout #1: Full Body Burn

Equipment: One pair of dumbbells and a chair, step, stairs, or box

Instructions: Warm up with 25-50 jumping jacks, then complete 10-12 repetitions of each set of exercises twice, back to back with minimal rest, and move on to next set.

Set 1: Dumbbell Squat With Overhead Press to Bent Side Raises

Set 2: Dumbbell Push-Up Row to Single Arm Dumbbell Row

Set 3: High Knee Step-Ups to Reverse Lunges