Are you worried you will be unable to keep up with your workout routine while on vacation? No matter how strong your willpower is, travel tends to throw fitness plans out the window.
While we travel, we almost always take it easy, and our fitness plans automatically go down the priority list. However, it is essential to maintain an active lifestyle, even when you are on vacation. This is because minute changes in lifestyle can add up to have severe effects on your mental and physical well-being.
Contrary to popular belief, you can work out even during your vacation. Exercise is a way to move, stretch, breathe, and unwind, and we often do not realize the stress we put our bodies through while travelling.
However, not all exercises and workouts are travel-friendly. You may be used to exercising with gym equipment, which you may not have access to when you are travelling. What can be done in these cases?
Fortunately, there are different exercises that you can opt for instead that are travel-friendly and can be done from anywhere. These are low-maintenance and comfortable workouts that will keep your mind and body refreshed and allow you to enjoy your vacation even better. These also promote relaxation and blood circulation and activate different muscle groups across the body. Let us look at five travel-friendly workouts for when you are on vacation.
HIIT
HIIT, or High-Intensity Interval training, is a special type of workout that involves short periods of exercise followed by short rest periods. HIIT gives a lot of benefits in very little time, which is why it is ideal to include in your tightly-packed vacation schedule.
The best thing about HIIT is that you do not require equipment—maybe just a gym mat. A mat is helpful because it can prevent falls and other accidents. Just a 20-minute HIIT session is enough to get your heart rate going and burn some fat. This is because the very nature of HIIT makes you burn calories long after you have finished your workout.
Here’s a travel-friendly HIIT routine that you can do anywhere:
• Push-ups
• Butt kicks
• Squats
• Tricep dips
• Side lunges
Repeat every workout for three sets of 45 seconds, with 15 seconds of rest in between.
Jogging
Jogging is the ultimate bodyweight workout that you can do anywhere at any time. If you are in your hotel room, you can jog in one place instead of moving around. If you can manage to go outdoors, you can take a quick jog around the neighbourhood. You can wear your usual travel shoes for jogging and do it for at least fifteen to twenty minutes.
Jogging is one of the best workouts for boosting cardiovascular health. If jogging itself seems boring, you can incorporate other elements to make it more interesting. For example, you can add some rounds of sprints into your jogging schedule to make it somewhat similar to a HIIT routine- where jogging would count as your period of rest, and the sprints would be your periods of activity.
This is also a very convenient exercise since most hotels have gyms that have treadmills, so you can easily go down to the gym and work up a sweat on one of the machines. You can listen to music or a podcast as you go through your exercise schedule.
Burpees
Burpees are a full-body functional workout that you can do anytime, anywhere. The main idea behind this workout is fairly simple; however, it engages almost every muscle in the body, so its explosive power should not be underestimated. Burpees can be integrated as part of an EMOM workout.
To perform this, you must jump high and bend down until your body is in line with the floor. It builds cardiovascular strength and also strengthens the lungs. It is the most basic version of burpees. There are several other versions that differ in terms of their power as well as difficulty level. Some of these are mountain climber burpees, split-leg burpees, reverse burpees, etc. Depending on your fitness level, you can either stick to the standard form or go for any of the variations.
Push-ups
A classic bodyweight exercise, push-ups are important for your cardiovascular health and also to train your core. Travelling inadvertently involves discovering a lot of cuisines and, consequently, eating many different kinds of foods. The push-up is a very demanding form of workout that is ideal for dropping all those stubborn vacation pounds. This exercise works almost all upper body muscles, strengthening them exponentially.
It is important to remember that while doing push-ups, form is more important than speed. If you have the correct form, you may not necessarily be able to do more than 30-40 push-ups per second as a beginner. There is no reason to go over this limit either. As long as you do around eight to ten repetitions, you will be all set.
One of the important aspects of a push-up is breathing correctly. You can make your workout routine more meditative by breathing correctly while doing your push-ups. Breathe in when you lower yourself, and breathe out when you push yourself back up.
Shadowboxing
If you are looking for a more dynamic form of workout that burns fat and works your upper body, shadowboxing can be your best pick. The best part is that you do not even require a yoga mat for this. All you need to do is simply mix jabs, hooks, crosses, and uppercuts in any way you want for about three minutes straight. Rest for around thirty seconds, and then continue the set all over again.
It might seem a little uncoordinated if you are a beginner, but it will slowly begin to make sense as you get more and more used to it. This is a power-boosting workout, meaning it strengthens the entire upper body.
If your hotel has a gym, you can practice shadowboxing with some proper boxing bags as well. You will require very minimal boxing gear, and most gyms will already have boxing bags and some gloves.
The Bottom Line
Staying fit even while travelling is entirely possible. You do not need to spend hours behind the workouts; you simply have to choose them carefully. Remember that bodyweight exercises are the best. These require absolutely no equipment and can be done almost anywhere.
About the author of this guide
Sean Lynam is a fitness enthusiast and personal trainer by profession and a passionate freelance health writer. Sean writes and shares his knowledge for a range of health, fitness, and nutrition brands.
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