3 Summer Vacation Training

Train while on vacation to help enjoy your treats guilt-free 😊

Are you the type of person who enjoys exercise even while on vacation? Answer this before you go any further.  If you answered yes, great read on but if you answered no I respect your decision. Kind of.

Taking time off from the gym allows you to recover and reveal your true strength, exercise outside of the gym still has huge health and calorie-burning benefits. Let’s face it, your diet isn’t going to be perfect while on vacation. So, performing short, intense training while on vacation allows you to maintain what you’ve worked hard to build and to feel less guilty about what you’re (about) eating.

Therefore, you CAN have your cake and eat it too.

Here’s How These 3 Summer Vacation Training Work

Your body is primarily fueled by glycogen (a form of sugar) stored in limited quantities in the liver and the muscles.  Exercise (particularly before eating) increases glycogen breakdown of liver glycogen to maintain blood glucose concentrations to make sure your muscles have enough fuel for movement.

This becomes important as exercise intensity increases and doing moderate-to-high intensity exercise for an extended time results in lowering of liver glycogen stores. (1)The exercise-induced glycogen deficit increases insulin sensitivity and makes your body much more receptive to the calories you’re about to eat.

Otherwise known as burning up upon contact.

3 Vacation Training

These short, sharp training sessions are not about improving your strength or cardiovascular conditioning. They’re about maintaining fitness and being able to enjoy treats guilt-free. Plus, they’re fun but I have a twisted sense of fun.

Play In The Sand

Playing in the sand is more challenging due to the unevenness of the surface. Exercising in the sand activates more muscle groups (as your balance is constantly challenged) and it’s fun. Remember fun? Running, walking, yoga or building sandcastles are all great options but if you’re not feeling creative, try this quick training.

Sprint- Push-up- Sprint – Squat training

Sprint or run as fast as you can for 15 yards and then drop down and do 10 push-ups. Then get up and run 15 yards and do 10 bodyweight squats. Repeat this sequence, going down by one repetition each time on the push-ups and squats until you reach 1 of each. Then jump into the water to cool off because you’re done.

Bodyweight Tabata

Prof. Tabata explains what a Tabata interval is.

“Tabata training is an exhaustive, short-lasting, high-intensity intermittent exercise, which consists of 6-8 sets of a 20-second exercise at the intensity of 170% Vo2max with 10-second rest between bouts.”

Got it?

Doing this with bodyweight exercises such as squat variations, alternating forward/reverse lunges, planks, push-ups, and jump squats/lunges is a great option that doesn’t require any equipment. Just some sweat equity and 4 minutes. Then you are done. 😊

Spoke training

Combining cardio and strength training gives you the best of both worlds and all you need is a towel.  With spoke training, you’ll be alternating between a strength exercise and cardio drill with little or no rest in-between.  Note- Any bodyweight strength exercise or cardio drill works here.

 Bodyweight jump squat 12 reps

Cardio– High knees or ice-skaters 20 reps

Towel row (alternate legs) 30-second hold

Cardio- High knees or ice-skaters 20 reps

Push-ups 8-15 reps

Cardio- High knees or ice-skaters 20 reps

Single leg hip extensions 12 reps on each leg

Cardio- High knees or ice-skaters 20 reps

 Reverse lunge with kick 12 reps on each leg

 Cardio- High knees or ice-skaters 20 reps

Rest 90 seconds and go back to repeat the circuit 1-2 times for a total of 2-3 rounds.

Wrapping Up

Limited equipment, time, and space are no excuses while on vacation. Doing these short training will allow you to maintain your fitness while enjoying the finer things in life guilt-free. Go ahead and enjoy your second helping of dessert. You’ve earned it.  

References

1.   Javier T Gonzalez, James A Betts Dietary Sugars, Exercise, and Hepatic Carbohydrate Metabolism. Proc Nutr Soc 2019 May;78(2):246-256.