This month on the Luvo blog, we’re celebrating Festivus a holiday tradition made popular by the Costanzas on the hit 90s sitcom Seinfeld. We already shared our tips on throwing your own Festivus party, and now we’re onto another Festivus tradition: the Feats of Strength.

If you’re a Seinfeld fan, you probably recall this tradition fondly, or at least with a smirk. The Feats of Strength are the grand finale of the Festivus celebration. Following the Festivus dinner, the head of the household challenges one guest to a wrestling match. Festivus doesn’t officially end until the head of the household is pinned to the ground.

As you can imagine, one must be prepared to rise to this challenge or Festivus could continue indefinitely. And because no one knows who will be selected, everyone must prepare. That means some rigorous physical training and fueling for optimal performance.

Training Tips for the Feats of Strength

If you’re celebrating Festivus this year, or just want to be prepared for whatever physical challenges come your way, we’ve got some suggestions to help you become a well-oiled machine, ready to make your family proud and meat any Feats of Strength challenge head-on.

Fitness Apps

Great strides have been made in the world of fitness apps, which can do everything from helping you track your activities, heart rate, and calories to creating some fun competition between friends and other app users. We consulted our on-staff fitness app expert, Oli, for her top fitness app picks to help you reach your goals:

Argus is a health and fitness app that lets you track your sleep patterns, diet, progress and activities including walking, running and cycling. You can also interact with your friends who use the app, and provide encouragement to one another (or heckling, depending on the nature of your friendship). Oli says: “Argus is stunning. It lays out our workout and progress like a mosaic. And it has an awesome step counter built-in.”

Nike+ is the prolific brand’s running app that lets you track your route, distance, pace, time and calories. You can also use it to have fun competitions with your friends, no matter where they are. Oli says: “I love this app’s hilarious push notifications. I also love using it to compete with friends. I had a running contest with my friend in New York. Whoever ran more had to buy dinner next time we met.”

Full Fitness features hundreds of exercises explained in pictures, video and text, so you never have to worry about plateauing or getting bored with your workout. Oli says: “I like it because I’m new to the world of lifting weights and I like to change up my routine when I travel.”

Fitness Tips 

No matter which training methods you’ve chosen for your Feats of Strength preparations, a good stretch may help warm up your body so you don’t pull anything. This is especially important if you haven’t worked out in a while. Should you stretch before or after your workout? Check out our post on stretching basics to learn all you need to know.

Thinking of taking up running to build your endurance? If it’s cold and snowy where you are, congratulations, you’re already a hardcore Festivus warrior. If you’re new to the world of running, we’ve got some tips for you to ensure your success. Check out our Essential Tips for Beginner Runners.

Fitness Fuel

When preparing for any feat of strength, Festivus-related or otherwise, the fuel you put in your body is just as important as your physical training. That’s why we think Dr. Hyman’s 10-Day-Detox is a great pre-Festivus program to help you reboot your system and put you on the path to a Feats of Strength victory.

Developed by Dr. Mark Hyman, an internationally recognized leader in the field of functional medicine, the 10-Day-Detox is a step-by-step program that includes recipes and meals based on the foods that help level your blood sugar, calm inflammation, restore energy and improve your wellbeing. In other words: it’s everything you need to become the ultimate Feats of Strength champion!

Are you training in case you get called to the Feats of Strength wrestling ring? Share your secrets to success in the comments, on our Facebook page, or on Twitter at @luvoinc.