Travel and Vacation Workouts
By David Gluhareff CFT, ISSA
www.trainwithdave.com

How many times have you gone on a business trip or a vacation and have wanted to workout, but have not? Most people do have the best of intentions to workout while on vacation, but for some reason or another fail to complete such simple tasks! Is it that it is too hard to find the time on a trip, do schedules of friends and families conflict, or do you just not know what, when, where, or how to workout while away? Well I have some advice for those of you who know how to workout and are not too lazy to find the time to slip in a few workouts (not at a gym or fitness center) while gone.
1.What 2.When 3.Where and 4.How:

Sample A

1. What type of workout? Cardiovascular.
   
   
2. When? Anytime, but preferably daytime.
   
   
3. Where? Find a trail in the city or county, sports field, track or stadium, tennis or basketball court, park, sidewalk, pool, lake, or ocean.
   
   
4. How? Go walking, jogging, biking, play tennis, play basketball, rollerblade, play Ultimate Frisbee, play flag football, run bleachers, play racquetball, play soccer, or swim laps.

Sample B

1. What type of workout? Interval - Cardiovascular.
   
   
2. When? Anytime, but preferably daytime.
   
   
3. Where? Find a trail in the city or county, sports field, track or stadium, tennis or basketball court, park, sidewalk, pool, lake, or ocean.
   
   
4. How? Go walking with thirty second sprinting intervals, walk with one minute jogging intervals, jog with thirty second bleacher runs, walk or jog with one minute jump rope or jumping jack intervals, jog with thirty second high stepping intervals, freestyle swim with thirty seconds of butterfly strokes, or light freestyle with all-out one minute freestyle swimming.

Sample C

1. What type of workout? Outdoor total body circuit training.
   
   
2. When? Anytime, but preferably daytime.
   
   
3. Where? Find a trail in the city or county, sports field, track or stadium, tennis or basketball court, park, sidewalk, pool, lake, or ocean.
   
   
4. How? Walk for ten minutes, then lunge until burn, then regular push-ups until burn, then dips on a bench until burn, then crunches on ground until burn, then sprints until burn, then jumping jacks until burn, then swim in shallow area until burn, then cool down five minute walk and repeat as much as you are comfortable with. You can also walk, do push-ups with feet elevated on bench, jog, squat without weights, pull-ups on tree limb or bar, lay on stomach and raise legs and arms like skydiver until burn, hanging leg raises, swim butterflies as much as able for a good burn, cool down, then repeat as often as you are able.

Sample D

1. What type of workout? Inside hotel room total body routine.
   
   
2. When? Anytime.
   
   
3. Where? All in the room.
   
   
4. How? Walk in place for five minutes to warm up, then do three sets of squats, three sets of leg kickbacks, three sets of chair dips, three sets of no weight shoulder presses, three sets of crunches with legs up, three sets of low back supported leg raises on the floor for abs, three sets of lying side leg raises, three one minute intervals of jumping jacks, three sets of low back raises (skydives), and three sets of standing calf raises, with a five minute walk in place cool down.

Well that should be a good place to start while away. Make sure you stretch after your warm-up, during your workout, and after the cool down to work on flexibility and help prevent soreness. Always take a good pair of running and or cross-training shoes with you. Having a bag of workout clothes with you is always handy. Keep hydrated with lots of water pre, during, and post workout. Watch your meals while gone. Be sure to keep the sugars, processed foods, and saturated fats to a minimum. Protein sources should usually come from white meats, very lean red meats, low fat dairy and low carb/sugar protein shakes. When eating vegetables, usually the greener the better. Fruits should be slower absorbing sugar fruits such as apples, pears, grapefruit, strawberries, or blueberries. Try to eat at least 4-6 small meals per day every two to three hours and if you are hungry you have gone too long without food and your metabolism has started to slow down. Stay motivated and never give-up!