Fitness and Health - One Day at a Time

Fitness on Vacation

Turns out some people do actually read my blog posts! Yesterday I gave a summation about Eating Healthy on Vacation. I had used some of the previous blog posts to help me get through a golf vacation without gaining back all the hard earned lost weight I managed to lose. Today I will tell you how I managed to get in quick 20-30 minute daily exercises without going to the gym while on vacation. Besides who wants to spend time finding a gym while on vacation let alone spending an hour a day in the gym well on vacation.

Fitness on Vacation – Day One
To sum up the first day I couldn’t swim, the condo had a pool but it was too cold. I couldn’t get my heart rate up on the golf course because we were required to take golf carts. Getting in some fitness on vacation required me to improvise. Normally I would have done a chest and back on workout today, but there was no gym available so I decided to get in a quick 20 to 30-minute workout. I started my fitness on vacation workout with a quick five-minute walk around the condo grounds. From here I did five minutes of stretching and moved into some old-fashioned push-ups. I did six sets of pushups to failure. Three sets of normal pushups and three sets of decline pushups. The decline pushups were accomplished by putting my feet up on the couch and following the normal push-up form. Hands shoulder width apart focusing on easy up and down movements, stopping before your arms are fully extended so you can isolate your chest is a good way to do a pushup. Total exercise 22 minutes.

Fitness on Vacation – Day Two
Same as day one, if I wanted to exercise I would have to improvise. Today for getting in my fitness on vacation workout I would concentrate on abs, biceps and triceps. I started again by walking around the condo for five minutes to get my blood flowing then I stretched out. I moved into dips to work my triceps. This was accomplished using the kitchen chair. The movement itself was done slowly. Focus on letting yourself down slowly and pushing up slowly and not forgetting to flex you triceps at the top of the movement when your arms are fully straight. I did six sets to failure resting about 30 seconds between sets. Feel free to add weight to this exercise by setting something heavy onto your lap. After the last set of triceps I immediately moved into biceps. This would require a towel and one of my friends. The bicep workout was accomplished by having my friend grip one end of the towel and me holding the other end. While my partner stood on his knees I laid on the floor. He would pull down on the towel while I would resist. Then I would pull up on the towel while he would resist. This exercise is basically simulating a preacher curl. I did two sets of 12 for each arm and then kicked my friend to the side immediately starting on abs. Two sets of your basic crunches; two sets of sit-ups and two sets of leg raises would allow me to complete this workout in 25 minutes.

Fitness on Vacation – Day Three
Today I lucked out it was warm enough to utilize the pool. Again, I walked for five minutes stretched out and then started in on swimming. I had several options that I could do but since the pool was basically empty I decided to just do laps. If the pool was crowded I could have just simulated running in place with the water providing resistance. I did as many laps ad I could in 15 minutes. Total workout time with stretching and warm-ups was 25 minutes.

Fitness on Vacation – Day Four
It was warm enough for me to utilize the pool again but since I just did cardio I decided to work my lower body since I had managed to neglect it so far on vacation. I focused today’s exercise on quads and calves. After the 5-minute walk and quick stretch I started in on working my quads. The easiest exercise to do was squats. By keeping your feet a little wider than shoulder width apart lower yourself to your but is parallel to the floor, then explode up. After three sets of 25 I decided to switch to sustained squats. This is accomplished by lowering yourself to the bottom of the squat position (where your but is parallel to the floor) and holding as long as you can. Do this three times and then move onto your calves. Calves can be worked by doing calf raises. Find some stairs, stand on one foot and slowly lower and raise yourself. Concentrate on flexing at the top of the movement and then lowering yourself slowly. Total exercise time 20 minutes.

Fitness on Vacation – Day Five
Today it was gorgeous out so I decided to just go for a nice jog and get some more cardio in. After that I was still feeling good so I decided to work my abs. I got in three sets of crunches and three sets of leg raises and then called it a day. Total exercise time 30 minutes.

posted by Oshburg @ Thursday, March 30, 2006