Sorry for the blogging absence since the end of the summer, I have been on holiday, travelling and navigating the ups and downs of job applications!
However on the travels note I though I would blog about holiday workouts. Is it realistic to expect that you will work out on your break from the norm and when push comes to shove are you really going to get out of bed half an hour early to practice your yoga by the pool whilst watching the sun rise? Hmm well I went to Florida full of good intentions, I would run whilst it was cool either in the early morning or late evening and I would take advantage of the heat to practice my Bikram Yoga by the pool, I was also adamant to keep up my sit-ups and push-ups to retain muscle tone. Madness? Well almost- I did run and I did do some yoga and some sit ups but only 3 or 4 times on a two-week holiday. In the end the sun lounger and the chance to catch up on reading for pleasure after a year of master’s degree reading was too much to resist – not to mention that after a couple of poolside margaritas my ability to pull off a non-wobbly “dancer pose” was vastly reduced, ah well, when in Rome! Therefore I have come to the conclusion that in the future I will still take a capsule workout wardrobe on holiday as when I did workout it gave me an energy boost to hit those theme parks harder, but I won’t expect to use it every day…or every two days!
If you think you will work out on holiday then here are my tips for baggage restriction friendly exercises. Obviously in the days of restricted baggage weights you would have to be nuts to consider packing your kettle bell or dumbbells but do consider taking a resistance band! You can stand on a resistance band or wrap it around a (sturdy!) banister and use the resistance to do bicep and tricep curls. Another useful piece of lightweight kit is a skipping rope. This is particularly useful if there is nowhere suitable or safe for you to run as you can use it indoors or poolside. Ten to twenty minutes of fast skipping is excellent exercise and will really get your heart rate pumping. Finally you can always keep those abs in shape by using time when you are waiting for people to get ready to do five minutes of crunches or a few core-stabilising planks. If you do all that when you are on holiday you really do deserve that margarita!
Happy holidays/workouts!
Gym Bunny Blog
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