Tips for Getting Workouts In While on Vacation

Happy Friday!

The kids are finally out of school! Summer has officially begun!

In honor of the start of summer—and the start of summer travel–this Friday’s post will focus on how you can keep up your exercise routines while travelling.

In fact, there are a lot of opportunities to get in a good workout, no matter where you are. Just because you’re spending the day at the beach doesn’t mean you can’t also get in your daily exercise.

Here are some tips for staying fit during vacation.

5 Tips for Staying Fit on Vacation

1. Add Exercise to Your Travel Itinerary

Are you about to take a vacation? Therefore, you need to consciously add sessions of physical activity to your travel plans. That dream vacation is much more enjoyable when regular exercise keeps you from developing stress, anxiety, heart burn and possibly dangerous heart conditions due to a lack of physical fitness.

2. Book a Hotel with Workout Facilities 

If you have a say-so in where you will be staying, choose a hotel, motel, or resort that comes equipped with a gymnasium or health club. It’s much easier to stay physically fit when you travel if a quick session of aerobic exercise or weight lifting is conveniently available right now the hall. Hotel and motel workout facilities are notoriously under-used, meaning no waiting in line or sweaty equipment.

3. Carry a No-Excuse Workout Package

Pack a heart rate monitor and jump rope in your luggage. Don’t forget your ankle weights, dumbbells, and portable chin-up bar. When you carry workout gear with you on any trip you will begin to look for time in your travel plans to enjoy some physical activity.

4. Turn Sightseeing into Exercises

If you are traveling to a new town or city, there are so many discoveries that await you.  Sightseeing feeds your brain and emotions and before you know it, you can walk 10 or 20 miles while you are enjoying all that this new destination has to offer.

5. Get Up 1 Hour Early

Whether traveling for pleasure, you’ll probably have a schedule. Wake up 1 hour earlier than you need to. This leaves plenty of time for a walk, a jog, some yoga or Pilates.

Other Options

So, you didn’t book a room at a hotel that has a fitness center, or you don’t want to use it. Or do you just want to spend all of your time on the beach? Here are some exercises that you can do on the beach and some that you can do in your hotel room

On the Beach

Try HIIT Workouts

HIIT, or high-intensity interval workouts, are great to do at the beach since they only take a few minutes. In just 5-10 minutes, you can do an intense workout that burns a lot of calories and will get you in great shape. Another excellent thing about HIIT workouts is that they can work out your entire body in such a short period of time.

One good idea of a HIIT workout is a simple tone-up workout. This takes about 8-10 minutes. You want to do some lunges or squats for about 30 seconds to warm up your body. You will then alternate different exercises, making sure you use as much intensity as possible with each one. This includes a plank drag, side shuffle, and single-leg bounding. You can look up these exercises to find out exactly how to do them.

Run Sprints Down the Beach

Another high-intensity workout that doesn’t take a long time is to run sprints down the beach. Not only do sprints really get your blood pumping, but it’s a lot harder to run through sand. You will find that you don’t go as fast as on flat ground, and that your legs, buttocks, and abdominal muscles feel the burn very quickly. Try a sprint, a HIIT workout, and then a light stroll back to the other side of the beach and repeat as many times as you want.

Play Frisbee

If you want to do something with your family while at the beach that’s also a good workout, try playing Frisbee. You can start by just being a few feet away, then every time someone catches the Frisbee, you each move back a foot or so. Keep doing this until you are so far, you can no longer catch or throw the Frisbee at that distance. You can then stop or walk toward each other and do it again.

Go Swimming

You’re at the beach and in your swimsuit, so go swimming! Even if you’re afraid of the waves, you can just swim back and forth in the shallow part of the ocean. If you feel brave enough and can swim well, consider swimming under the waves and heading to the back where the surfers usually are. This allows you calmer ocean water for swimming.

In a Hotel Room

If you’ve been following a workout routine at home, it can be a little stressful when you are away from home for a while. If your hotel doesn’t have a gym, use the room itself for your workouts. Here are a few different ways to do that.

Commercial Break Workouts

First, you can just do exercises when you’re watching TV during the commercials. This is perfect if you are there to relax, but still want to find time to exercise as well. There are quite a few things you can do just during the commercial breaks with very little effort. For example, you can use one commercial break to do planks on the ground in front of the bed, then you can try wall sits or squats during the next commercial break. Lunges are also good to do during the short commercial breaks.

Use the Bed for Crunches

The bed in the hotel room can be used to do crunches or sit-ups. This will let you work out your abdominal muscles. You can do some crunches when you wake up in the morning and before your shower, after dinner in the evening before relaxing, or while watching television. Using the bottom of the bed allows you to do full sit-ups as well without having someone hold your feet.

Circuit Training

All you need for full-body circuit training workouts is a small room. There are a variety of different workouts. Turning on the TV and letting a television show play or listening to your playlist on your cell phone can provide a good way to time the workouts. Here are some different workouts that are good for hotel room circuit training:

• Push-ups
• Luggage rows
• Squats and lunges
• Inverted rows with the desk
• Jumping jacks
• Running in place
• Mountain climbers
• Burpees

Another option you have for hotel room workouts is to open up your laptop and access free workouts on YouTube. You might also be able to find workouts on television.

There you have it. Vacations can be a time of fun, relaxation, and spending time with your family and friends. With a little bit of effort, you can continue your fitness goals while you have a good time.

This post is a bit close to home. We are going to vacation next week. I will try to incorporate these ideas into my vacation itinerary and report back.

Have a wonderful day!

Loving Life—The Reboot!

Dominique