Welcome to day eight of the 12 Days of Fitmas. Today we bring together the last four days’ worth of exercises to form a complete mini routine.
Remember, if this is your first time here, you might want to start with the First Day of Fitmas, and check out our How-To guide.
Exercise
Today, we are adding wide squats to the routine. These are a step up from normal squats, exercising a greater range of muscles. They help to develop explosive thigh strength and firm your bum!
Day Eight Routine: Glutes II, Wide Squats
- 3 sets of between 10 to 30 wide squats
These are similar to the normal squat, but need a wider leg stance to work a whole extra set of muscles.
Keep your back straight, use your arms for balance if necessary. Breathe in on the way down and out on the way up. Go down as far as you can, and use controlled, steady movements.
If you can manage more than 30, do it, or consider these ways to increase the challenge:
- Try holding weights – even a kilo in each hand can make a difference
- Move your hands in time with your squats – reach up as you stand, and bring your arms back down as you squat again
- If you have space, turn your squats into jumps. From the squatting position, jump up, landing with your feet together, then re-position them in the wide position with a small jump for the next squat. Explosive and very tiring!
Remember, increasing the challenge helps you achieve more in less time.
RECAP: Days 4-8 exercises
You’ve accomplished so much- two days each of core, arms, legs and glutes! We hope you’re in the spirit to do some more. Here is a suggestion for putting all of these intermediate exercises together to form a complete, all-over workout that can be done in a matter of minutes.
Adding some cardio in between, like star jumps or running with high knees in place, gets your heart racing and helps solidify those muscles.
Intermediate Routine
Set 5: 15 second side plank, 2 sets per side
[Optional star jumps]
Set 6: Leg hinges, 2 sets of 10 per leg
[Optional high knees]
Set 7: 3 sets of 15 close hand press-ups
[Optional star jumps]
Set 8: 3 sets of 20 wide squats
[Optional high knees]
Recipe
Fast Turkey Tagine
This incredible Turkey tagine is a great way to use up all that leftover meat. It’s simple and easy to make, and those Moroccan flavours really bring the meat to life.
Ras el hanout is a Moroccan mix of spices – if you can’t find it, you can use a combination of any of the key North African flavours, such as cumin, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger and garlic. It’s all good!
Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1 red onion, thickly sliced
3 carrots, thickly sliced on the diagonal
3 parsnips, thickly sliced on the diagonal
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tsp ras el hanout
500ml turkey or chicken stock
400g can chopped tomatoes
400g can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
140g mixture of dried apricots and prunes, roughly chopped
300g leftover turkey, cut into chunks
good drizzle of clear honey
½ small bunch coriander, roughly chopped
1 tbsp flaked almonds
couscous, to serve
Greek yogurt, to serve
Method
Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the onion and cook gently for 8 mins or until softened. Add the carrots and parsnips, and cook for 8 mins until starting to soften and brown a little. Stir in the garlic and ras el hanout, and cook for a further 30 secs. Tip in the stock, tomatoes, chickpeas, dried fruit and 150ml water. Season, bring to a simmer and cook for 25-30 mins until the vegetables are tender.
Add the turkey and simmer for 5 mins to warm through. Stir in the honey, then scatter over the coriander and almonds just before serving with couscous and Greek yogurt.
Recipe courtesy of BBC Good Food.
Now let’s move onto Day 9!
