Staying fit on vacation!
Staying fit while on vacation.
Going on vacation often results in major blowouts and little to no training. Traveling whether for business or pleasure will throw you out of routine. But that’s okay, that’s what holidays are all about, taking a break from your regular routine and indulging a little.
So how do you stay on track when you’re surrounded by delicious food, you’ve got places to go and people to see and fitting in an hour long workout might not be in the agenda.
Firstly some good news or all the iron addicts out there. You can go up to 6 weeks with inactivity and still maintain the majority of your strength gains. So if you’re away for a week or two you need not worry about not being able to lift weights. In fact that time off might just be the deload your body needs to fully recover and break that plateau.
The best way to go about keeping your metabolism up on a holiday is short but intense metabolic conditioning (metcon) workouts. The best thing about these is that they don’t take long, they don’t require any fancy equipment and they can be done just about anywhere.
Intense full body circuit workouts every other day, spending no more than 30 minutes training. Because you have better things to be doing. Exercises you can include are air squats, pullups, pushups, chair dips, situps and lunges.
It’s always good to get creative and use your environment as well. Hiking and running are the best ways to get out and see the city you’re visiting up close and personal. If you’re at the beach do some sprints in the sand!
How to eat on vacation.
No one wants to stick to their strict diet on vacation, and you don’t have to. There are a few tactics you can use that will still allow you to indulge whilst minimising weight gain. The most effective and enjoyable way is called carb back loading.
When we consume carbs early on in the day our fat cells are more sensitive to the insulin spike that occurs after you consume those carbohydrates. If you consume your carbs later on in the day, especially after one of your metcon workouts, then the muscle cells are more sensitive to the insulin spike resulting in more muscle growth then fat storage.
So if you can stick to fruits, meats and fats in the morning for breakfast and lunch and have low carb snacks throughout the day, you can feel free to go all out on that burger and chips for dinner.
The bottom-line is, you’re on holiday. Do what you can when you can. But if you want a stack of pancakes for breakfast with maple syrup overflowing the edges, do it. It’s not going to set you back that much so long as when you get back home you make the effort to get back into your routine.
Koben Moore
Team ASF