Shop then drop for pushups: Take your workout to the mall

WASHINGTON — Your social calendar is packed with holiday soirees. There are the cocktail parties, office must-shows and family get-togethers. Every other waking hour is devoted to gift-hunting. So when do you squeeze in a gym visit? You probably don't.

But there's no need to resign yourself to a Santa physique. Here are three ways to make your December world a workout wonderland.

Take, for instance, all those hours you'll be logging at massive shopping centers. You could circle around the parking lot until you find a primo space, target stores in the most direct possible fashion and then pig out at the food court. Or you could handle mall visits another way, with the help of Nathan Stormer, Washington area fitness manager for Bally Total Fitness, HealthPoint Plaza trainer Matt Johnston and Fitness Plus fitness expert Cassie Kipper.

For starters, park at the far end of the lot. Johnston said you should do this yearround, but it's easier to do with packed parking lots. You'll still have plenty of time inside to hear that Christmas muzak.

Stormer suggests that you make the trek with walking lunges or side squats. It looks a tad silly, but as he said, "Any time you move in a lateral motion, you burn more calories."

Once you've made some purchases, any movement is going to be more effective because you're holding weights. "The primary thing to remember is that shopping bags are a kind of resistance," Stormer said. Use them for biceps curls, overhead presses or lateral raises while debating whether your mother-in-law would really enjoy that birding book. Waiting in line? Stand on one leg and pump the other leg back, knee bent or straight, to engage your glutes. Points deducted for kicking the shopper behind you.

Between each store, try taking a lap around the mall. Think of it as window shopping with benefits: You're on your way to racking up serious mileage.

"If you can dodge the people and get going fast enough, you can definitely get the heart rate up," said Kipper, the trainer from Fitness Plus. "Especially if [you[']re] carrying a ton of bags."

Don't stop moving when you're trying to decide your next store stop. Johnston said to find a secluded bench and do step ups to work your lower body.

And always take the stairs. Even if it's only the four steps on the way to Bath and Body works, Johnston said, "take the stairs."

When it's time to take a break, shield your eyes from the cookie stand and find a bench instead. But don't just use it to plop your butt down. Start with triceps dips. Hold on to the bench's edge while sinking your rear below the seat, and then press up. Or flip your body around, place your hands down and go into elevated push-ups and plank pose.

You're worried about stares, right? Don't. We tried this workout at the West Park Mall on a Monday afternoon and only got a few confused looks. Passersby seemed fairly entertained by our healthy antics.

Given our weekday time, the "workout" wasn't interrupted by throngs of people, but doing bicep curls or shoulder presses with a shopping bag in a narrow aisle would be troublesome during peak shopping hours.

The laps around the mall add four to five minutes each to your trip. A lap before and between, say, four stores would give you a collective 20 minutes of fast-paced movement.

Provided you don't mind a few funny looks and wearing tennis shoes to shop, these activities can help take little steps to combat all those little treats.

Southeast Missourian features editor Chris Harris contributed to this report.