When our athletes go away on holidays for a week or two, we're often asked what they can do to stay active while vacationing. Sure, some of you reading this will have absolutely no interest in working out while you're away, some of you intend on walking well over 20km a day on your holidays but some of you may have a bunch of beach or poolside lounging lined up and would like some ideas on how to stay active with no gym or limited equipment access.

We often overlook using our own bodies as resistance and think that we need equipment or machines to get a tough workout in. If you are staying at an Airbnb while on holidays, it's pretty unlikely that you will take time out of your vacation to drive to a gym, spend an hour working out, then trek back to shower and get ready (that's an easy 2-3 hours taken out of your day). So here are some tips on how to get a quick and dirty workout in, with minimal equipment:

1) Always have a time parameter; when there is a time domain, the intensity of the workout increases which means that your heart rate will increase! You don't want to be spending more time than necessary working out, so why not be efficient.
2) Use your body (or a pair of dumbbells); you don't always need a barbell. A few movements we gravitate towards when there are space restrictions include (but not limited to) lunges, push ups, sit ups, squats, burpees, mountain climbers. Movements that are static can be made dynamic, like jump lunges, jump squats and even clap push-ups. If there are dumbbells where you are staying, turn your squats into thrusters or your plank holds into renegade rows to make the movements extra spicy. Access to a running path? Running can easily be incorporated into your holiday workout
3) Mix it up and be creative; there is no right or wrong when it comes to holiday workouts. Try to incorporate a pushing, pulling and squatting motion into each workout and change up your rep schemes. You are just staying active so have some fun with it!

Here are a few workouts that we've actually done on a beach, in a hotel or even in a backyard. Bear in mind, all of these work outs are intended to be done as fast as you can.

WOD 1

5 Rounds:
10 Pike Presses
10 Squats
10 Burpees
10 Sit-ups
10 Jump Lunges

WOD 2

2 Rounds:
50 Mountain climbers
40 Situps
30 Burpees
20 Push-ups
10 Jump Squats

WOD 3

8 Rounds of:
8 Pistol Squats (4 each side)
8 Push-ups

WOD 4

Run 1 mile
*10 jump squats at the top of every
minute until 1 mile is complete*

WOD 5

With Dumbbells
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 of:
Russian Twists
Thrusters
Renegade Rows

WOD 6

40-30-20-10 of:
Hollow Rocks
Goblet Squats
Arch Rocks
Burpees

Hopefully this helps some of our you who are gearing up to go away! Sprinkle a couple of these into your vacation and let us know how it goes. Good Luck :)

Staying Active While on Holidays