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How to Keep in Shape Over Christmas

Christmas is an important period in almost everybody’s calendar, time to kick back and relax, eat plenty and spend time with loved ones.

But what should a boxer’s Christmas look like?

Well, it should be no different. However, when you have fights lined up early in the new year you have to look after yourself.

Over indulgence and under activity will result in a more difficult weight making process, affecting performance in training and in the ring. Upcoming professional and amateur boxers would not want to start the year with a potential ‘banana skin’ moment due to too much turkey leftovers and dipping their hands in the boxes of chocolate.

Don’t worry ….. Christmas is NOT cancelled

We are not going to tell you Christmas is cancelled, we believe boxers should enjoy the festive period as much as everybody else. It’s all about maintaining a balance so you are ready to return to training in the best possible shape.

In this section, we will provide a guide to structure your nutrition and training, as well as a range of tips to help you keep motivated.

Step 1 – Eat Well

Before we start, we are not saying every boxer should be really strict at Christmas. This is a time to enjoy time with the family, you don’t want to be grouchy because you can’t join in the festivities.

However, if you are fighting January / February, it is VITAL that you have some sort of nutritional and training structure to make sure you are not making it more difficult to make weight in the new year.

It’s what you eat most of the time that counts so try to follow the 80/20 rule, Eat well 80% of the week but also enjoy the foods you like 20% of the time.

Eat a High Protein and Moderate Carbohydrate Diet

High protein intake is recommended to help maintain muscle mass during reduced activity and to satisfy hunger for longer – making sure you’re not wanting to carry on slipping your hands in the box of chocolates.

Due to inactivity, you can’t go mad with the carbohydrates as unused fuel will result in being stored as fat.

Aim to consume 2 g per kg or body weight BW of Protein and 5 g/kg/BW of Carbohydrate. If you weigh 80 kg that is 160 g PRO and 400 g of Carbohydrate!

Eat little, often and keep a record

Make sure you fuel those muscles every 3 hours. Eat snacks in between  your breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Enjoy the festive food & drink but watch the portion sizes. You don’t want to come back with excess body fat in January so watch those portion sizes.

A general tip would be to eat more vegetables and Protein during main meals.

The Xmas Portion Flow Chart

Try to follow the flow chart below to make sure the food you eat matches the energy you expend. When you have rest days you should in principle reduce your portion sizes, in particular, carbohydrates. If you gain fat quickly remember, unless you burn it off…you will gain body mass.

Watch what you Drink!

Remember that 1g of Alcohol contains 7 kcal! To put that in perspective…

5 pints of lager (average) = 900 kcal

That’s approximately 30% of your recommended daily calorie intake!

Let your hair down Christmas day and New Year’s eve but just because it’s the holidays doesn’t mean you stop being an athlete!

Keep your goals in mind….the new year is just around the corner!

A little tip, have 1 pint water for every alcoholic drink. This helps flush out the alcohol quicker.

So if you are taking the advice on board… Keep drinking! Even though you are not training as much you still need at least 2 L (4 pints) of fluids. Use milk, cordial/squash, and fruit juice to keep your muscles hydrated.

Keep Active to Maintain Fitness

The gym is shut, the weather is cold, and your family is lounging about the house watching their favourite Christmas films and TV box sets.

It is very easy to skip the gym and see this as a recovery period. However, we need to keep working towards our goals in the new year, so training is still important.

In this section, we offer advice on how to keep fit over Christmas.

Tick Over and Monitor Training Load

At Boxing Science, we have often explained the importance of monitoring and controlling training loads.

There is strong evidence that shows that large increases in training load can increase the likelihood of injury and illness. This is the last thing we want when restarting training in the new year.

At Boxing Science, we generally aim for a threshold of 20% increase in total training load – this is an accumulation of their Boxing and Conditioning training.

We have outlined an example below based off an athlete doing just two sessions per week on the two weeks over Christmas, then return to full training on the first week of January.

You can see below that there is a 100% increase in Training Load when returning back to training!

This significantly increases the likelihood of athletes experiencing an illness or picking up an injury.

Want to know more about how to monitor your training load?

You should check out our webinar ‘Programming and Planning for Boxing’ on the Boxing Science Membership

Up the volume!

During the festive period, athletes could become under active – either sitting at home or not hitting the gym as frequently. This can cause an athlete to lose muscle mass and strength.

To maintain or increase muscle mass, many coaches implement high volume working sets to create mechanical tension, muscle damage and metabolic stress. This is an ideal time to put in high volumes as the boxers will need to work harder in each session, plus they can afford to be sore the next day.

However, this means that the intensity (weight load) will decrease, which may result in decreased strength. We want to give our boxers the best possible chance to be hitting the big numbers when they return to the gym in January – this means increased volume, with high intensity…. A great method for Boxers could be…

Cluster Training

Cluster training is where a set is broken up into multiple blocks, allowing the athlete to have recovery periods in between reps.

Example: 4 reps, rest 20 seconds, 4 reps = 1 set

Traditional Back Squat Set @ 8RM = 90kg x 8 reps = 720 kg

Cluster Set Back Squat @ 6RM = 100kg x 4 reps (pause 20s) x 4 reps = 800 kg

Resistance x Reps = Volume Load

Traditional Back Squat Set @ 8RM = 720 x 4 sets = 2880kg

Cluster Set Back Squat @ 6RM = 800 x 4 sets = 3200 kg

In the example shown above, it is clear that the inter-set rest periods during cluster training can help raise the volume load and intensity of the exercise, making this method an excellent way to maintain muscle mass over Christmas.

Cluster training can be a good way to shock the body under increased loads to develop muscular hypertrophy whilst maintaining strength.

The gym might be shut this Christmas…. what should I do?

You should check out our ‘Lockdown Workouts’ on the Boxing Science membership – we have a range of different bodyweight and limited equipment workouts.

Click here to find out more and start your 7 DAY FREE TRIAL TODAY

Here is a taster;

Keep your hips and shoulders loose

If you’re anything like me, you will be planning to kick back and relax over the next two weeks. This is fine, but this might have an affect on your mobility.

Due to the extended time sitting down, your shoulders and hips may become a little tighter than usual. When you return to training, you want to be sharp, loose and injury free, so be sure to factor in mobility sessions every day.

They are easy to do, take 10 minutes to complete and are important for you to start the year right!

Target the Core

In many of our articles, we explain the importance of core mass to developing a forceful punch. It’s role in trunk rotation and tension upon impact is integral for fast hands and a thudding blow.

Over Christmas, the reduced exposure to high loads during strength training sessions may result in reduced mass of the core. This is not ideal if we want an explosive start to the year.

A good idea may be to factor in a quick core workout to complete 4-5 times per week. Like the mobility drills, this is a quick and easy way to maintain performance.

Conditioning

We would love to come up with some fancy, new ground breaking method to for Christmas conditioning.

However, our advice is pretty basic. Which is great, as it is very often that it is these methods that are the most effective.

Basically, the type of conditioning you do is dependent on your portion sizes and how much weight you need to lose.

Eating a lot + Heavy = Longer running intervals

High intensity intervals of 4-8 minutes will help increase running volume to burn off the extra calories. Furthermore, a decrease in intensity will help reduce the risk of overuse injuries.

The impact on the joints during high intensity runs can be troublesome at times, especially if you are completing the runs at a much higher body mass.

With this in mind, it might be a good idea to take the load of your joints and perform the high intensity intervals in the swimming pool or using a stationery bike in the gym.

SESSION: 4-8 minute intervals x 3-6 reps

Controlled portion sizes + The weight is OK = Normal training resumes.

There is no need to change your training plan if you haven’t gone on an eating binge and you have kept a low body weight. Professional and amateur boxers should be using a running program training towards a particular goal, so Christmas should not get in the way of that.

Try Hill Sprints

We understand that gyms are shut and maybe you want to stay close to home. Hill sprints may be a good training alternative for the Christmas period.

Yes running up hills are hard, but we always look for a purpose. 

Hill sprints are a great way to develop acceleration technique as it promotes high knee drive, stride frequency and force production.

The hill also forces you to be in more of a forward lean, this is a difficult position to get in on a flat track as you need to be strong. A greater forward lean leads to a greater leg extension, therefore more force is produced.

This reduces the amount of impact on the joints whilst creating a higher demand on the lower body muscles – resulting in an increased cardio-respiratory response.

Try these hill sprint workouts…

Step 3: Stay Focussed – By Rory Mack

Christmas is upon us once again, and it seems to start earlier every year, not just the peeling of sprouts and Christmas music in the supermarket, but also a dip in productivity and ‘winding down’ at work and in the gym.

This time of year must be a boxer’s worst nightmare, given that it’s geared around food, alcohol and rest. It can become increasingly difficult to keep up the motivation for something when it seems that everyone around you is watching boxsets and eating leftovers in their onesies.

The weather is really turning, and the gym is probably closed.

We have heard from Mayur and Danny about what to do and how to do it, so now we have the tools for a less damaging festive period.

But sometimes it is easier said than DONE! We know that, and we certainly don’t want to ruin your Christmas. We believe in keeping a balance so you maintain your training and avoid eating too much…

Work Hard, Play Hard

So here we present some tips for staying focused and motivated over the Christmas and New Year period, to help you hit the ground running in January.

Work

Keep long term goals in mind

Motivation can really take a hit at this time of year, because it’s based on how you feel about something at any given time (e.g., going for a run in the rain and the dark at 6am).

But ask yourself, ‘what am I committed to?’ What is the long term plan? What is the outcome goal that you’re working towards?

Keep a reminder of this somewhere you can see it every day. Commitment to something stable is what gets you through the hard times of a dip in motivation.

Set daily goals

Now that you’re clear on what you’re working towards, what are the daily goals you need to be ticking off in order to achieve this? Remember we focus on the daily processes that put us in the best position possible to achieve our outcome.

Prioritise

Of that list of daily goals, start with the most important one each day. It’s easy to procrastinate and do the easy stuff first, thinking you’ll get to the important one later. Get that one ticked off early, and feel productive for the rest of your day.

Here are some useful tips in staying committed this holiday season

Play

Don’t beat yourself up!

Let’s be realistic and honest up front here: you’re going to be taking time off, eating and drinking things you normally wouldn’t, training less and staying up later than usual. It’s the nature of this time of year, and much of this is out of your control. So firstly, let’s not beat ourselves up for not robotically sticking to our normal regimes.

Have a plan

So, factor breaks, and even complete days off, into your Christmas and New Year schedule, and plan your training around that. This way you won’t feel like you’re missing out on something, while not completely taking your eye off the target.

Set a return to training day.

Time off can easily snowball (pun intended) on you if you allow it to; so when you’re thinking about the time you might take off, set yourself a definite restart date, so you don’t take off more than you meant to.

Maybe coincide it with the re-opening of the gym, and maybe arrange to train with someone else, to create a ‘social contract’ with each other.

Work hard, play hard, and have a great Christmas and New Year.