These 3 Workouts Will Burn Off Your Thanksgiving Dinner

During the holidays people count their blessings, but often forget to count their calories. The average Thanksgiving meal hits its high note of a whopping 3,000 to 4,500 calories. So... let's just say it's a holiday you don't want to make a rest day. Be ready with your Thanksgiving workout.

“Most people have breakfast, then snacks and appetizers and maybe some drinks before sitting down to Thanksgiving,” Anne L’Heureux, R.D., Spartan SGX trainer and Elite Spartan racer, says. “The Thanksgiving meal is usually well-rounded with protein, vegetables, and starch. But then you add alcohol, second helpings, dessert, more alcohol, and these extras are what really contribute to the excess calorie count.”

Related: 6 Healthier, Macro-Friendly Swaps for Your Favorite Thanksgiving Dishes

Instead of telling you how many miles you’d have to run or (35+) or how many hours of yoga you’d have to do (about 17) to burn off that dinner, play it smart: First, trim the fat from your Thanksgiving meal using these tips from L’Heureux, and then do these three workouts which burn between 500 and 1,000 calories each, depending on your intensity, weight used, and athletic capacity.

“I also recommend putting extra focus on eating healthy beforehand,” L’Heureux adds. “Eat as healthily as possible right up to the meal itself, and get right back to it once the meal is over.”

5 Ways to Trim the Fat from Your Thanksgiving Feast

1. Skip the heavy appetizers.

Why fill up on cheese and crackers when there is a nice home-cooked meal to enjoy?

2. Pass the rolls.

This means less processed flour and less butter.

3. Reduce or eliminate your portions of gravy, cranberry sauce, and butter.

These calories add up quickly. Also opt out of whipped cream or ice cream with your pie to save calories and fat.

4. Choose white turkey meat over dark.

White breast meat has fewer calories per ounce because it is the least fatty part of the bird. And whatever you do, skip the high-fat skin.

5. Choose plain veggies or salad over creamed spinach, candied yams, or green bean casserole.

The Ultimate Thanksgiving Workout to Help You Burn off Dinner

Turkey Day Training Triplet 

Maintaining a consistent workout schedule even during the holidays is key to keeping your weight in check. Map out a program that includes the week leading up to Thanksgiving (or Christmas or Super Bowl) and several days following, and incorporate these three high-intensity workouts to get the burn on — and keep it on. (See the sample workout schedule below for ideas).

“High-intensity training will burn a large volume of calories in a small period of time,” L’Heureux explains.

Then, of course, there is the afterburn effect of a metabolic conditioning session in which your body burns additional calories as it works to repair and replenish itself over the next 48 to 72 hours.

Related: This Is How to Maximize the Anabolic Window for Greater Muscular Gains

The calories you burn during the workout itself have everything to do with effort: The more intensely you train, the more calories you will burn — both during and afterward — so aim for between 80-95% your maximum heart rate. 

Also, try to get your friends and family involved and pay your fitness forward: Take a post-meal walk, go for a hike if the weather cooperates, or challenge them to the Fat-Burning Face-Off against you and a partner (Workout C below).

Sample Workout Schedule

WORKOUT A: Round and Round

This Thanksgiving workout burns approximately 100 calories per round. Do it five times through and you’ll blast away 500 calories.

• 50 Jumping Jacks
• 40 Butterfly Crunches
• 30 Air Squats
• 20 Push-Ups
• 10 Jump Squats

WORKOUT B: Burning Bear

Barbell complexes are one of the most challenging workouts you can do, combining cardiovascular conditioning with intense strength training (and the Bear Complex is categorically the most notorious). This makes it a good Thanksgiving workout.

Load a single barbell with a moderate-to-heavy weight, then — without putting the barbell down — do one rep of each of the moves seven total sets for 35 reps nonstop. Repeat that for five rounds, resting briefly when you must. And if you really want to burn off those biscuits, aim to complete all 175 reps unbroken — we dare you.

Bear Complex

Repeat the below sequence seven times through to complete one round. Do five total rounds.

• 1 Power Clean
• 1 Front Squat
• 1 Push-Press
• 1 Back Squat
• 1 Push-Press

WORKOUT C: Fat-Burning Face-Off

Pair up with someone of comparable ability, and square off against another couple at your gym or box. Decide how you want to split up the reps — 5s, 15s, all 30 at once — then start the clock. While one partner works, the other rests. For instance, Partner A does 10 wall balls, Partner B rests. Then Partner B does 10 while Partner A rests, and so on until all 30 reps are complete. Then, you move to the pull-ups. Complete a total of four rounds and earn your bragging rights.

Perform four rounds for time:

• 30 Wall Balls (20 pounds for men, 14 pounds for women)
• 30 Pull-Ups
• 30 Hand-Release Push-Ups
• 30 Hang Power Cleans
• 30 Shoulder-to-Overhead
• 300-Meter Row
  
  

This workout is courtesy of David Plumey, owner of Shoreline Athletics in Branford, Connecticut.

How to Do Every Exercise From The Thanksgiving Workouts

Thanksgiving Workout A: Round and Round

Jumping Jack

Stand with your feet together and arms at your sides, knees soft. Jump your feet apart and raise your arms overhead, then jump them back in again.

Butterfly Crunch

Lie face up with the soles of your shoes together and allow your knees to fall open. Lie back with either an Ab Mat or a folded hand towel underneath the small of your back for support, fingers reaching toward your feet. Curl your head, neck and shoulders off the floor, sitting up all the way up and reaching your hands to touch the floor in front of your shoes. Curl back down slowly and repeat right away.

Air Squat

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, legs and feet turned out slightly, arms at your sides. Push your glutes back and bend your knees, simultaneously lifting your arms in front of you as counterbalance. When you hit parallel or below, drive through your heels and stand to the start.

Push-Up

Place your hands shoulder-width apart on the floor and extend your feet behind you, head, hips and heels aligned, and head and spine neutral. Bend your elbows and lower your body toward the floor until your chest nearly touches, the forcefully press back to the start.

Jump Squat

Stand with your feet hip-width apart, arms at your sides. Quickly squat down and swing your arms back, then explode upward as high as you can, reaching your arms overhead to gain height. Land softly, reset and repeat.

Thanksgiving Workout B: Burning Bear

These moves should flow seamlessly, one into the next.

Power Clean

Stand behind a loaded barbell and take a shoulder-width overhand hook grip on the bar. Drop your hips, lift your chest and look forward. Powerfully extend your knees and hips to pull the bar up in a straight line from the floor along the front of your body. When it comes to your hips, rise up onto your toes, shrug your shoulders, then catch the bar across your front delts and upper chest, flipping your elbows underneath.

Front Squat

From there, keep your elbows and chest lifted and your weight in your heels as you bend your knees and hips and lower into a deep squat. Drive powerfully up out of the hole to the start.

Push-Press

Now bend your knees and hips slightly while keeping your heels on the floor, then extend them quickly and use that momentum to press the bar straight up overhead to full extension. Lower it behind your head to rest across your upper back and traps.

Back Squat

Next kick your hips back and bend your knees to lower into a deep squat, then drive through your heels to return to standing.

Push-Press

Bend your knees and hips to load up, then extend them powerfully to press the bar from your back-rack position up overhead. Lower it to the front rack position, then back down to the back to floor. Repeat right away without putting the barbell down.

Note: You can blend the squats and push-presses together make a thruster. It saves time, but it’s much more taxing than pausing briefly between each move.

Thanksgiving Workout C: Fat-Burning Face-Off

Wall Ball

Hold a medicine ball at your chest with both hands, elbows down. Face a wall and stand about a foot away with your feet shoulder-width apart, legs and feet turned out slightly. Keep your weight in your heels as you squat down, then explode upward and throw the medicine ball to hit a target above you—such as an 8- to 10-foot mark. Catch it as it descends and drop right into your next rep.

Pull-Up

Take a wide overhand grip on a pull-up bar and hang underneath with your legs together. Pull your shoulder blades together, then drive your elbows down and back to bring your chest up to the bar. Lower slowly and go right into the next rep. These can be done kipping, if that skill is in your wheelhouse.

Hand-Release Push-Up

Place your hands shoulder-width apart on the floor and extend your feet behind you so your head, hips and heels align. Bend your elbows and lower your body all the way down to the floor. Pick up your hands briefly, replace then and press forcefully up to the start.

Hang Power Clean

Hold a loaded barbell in front of your thighs with an overhand shoulder-width hook grip, and stand with your feet about hip-width apart. Press your glutes back and slide the bar down along your thighs until it comes just above the knee, back straight, head neutral. Quickly straighten your knees and press your hips forward to pull the bar up along the front of your body. When the bar comes to hip level, rise up onto your toes, shrug your shoulders then catch the bar across your front deltoids and upper chest, flipping your elbows underneath.

Shoulder-to-Overhead

Hold the bar in the front rack position and stand with your feet hip-width apart. Bend your knees and hips to load your posterior chain, the quickly extend them, using that momentum to press the barbell overhead to full extension. Lower slowly and repeat right away.

Note: This can be any manner of overhead press — strict press, push-press, push-jerk — so long as it goes from the racked position to an overhead position.

300-Meter Row

Sit on the rower and take an overhand grip on the handle, back straight. Extend your knees and hips explosively and as you come to full extension, pull the handle in toward your abdomen by driving your elbows back. Next, extend your arms and then bend your knees and hips to slide the seat forward and repeat right away.