If you have only recently started planning to book a holiday, one thing you probably haven’t thought too much about is whether you will be engaging in a lot of physical exercise while you are away. If you regularly work out at home, you might want to take a break from doing so for your holiday.
“For some people, a break can actually be hugely beneficial, especially if you’ve been training consistently for some time leading up to going away,” personal trainer Luke Goulden tells Condé Nast Traveller. However, staying fit on holiday is not as tricky as you might have thought.
What if you just aren’t in the mood for exercising on holiday?
Don’t fret if you struggle to get into the right mindset for holiday workouts. Goulden advises: “It sounds obvious but focus on what you can do when you’re away and the overall benefit of why staying on top of your fitness regime is important to you both physically and mentally.”
You should “remind yourself of the importance of the energy boost and endorphins you get from exercising,” as Goulden adds. Besides, your reticence could have more to do with the specific exercises you have in mind than exercise per se.
How to get yourself excited about holiday exercising
Let’s assume that your dream holiday would be on a beach. You could look for Cunard cruises where several of the stops would give you ready access to beach locations.
You could then explore simple ways of getting more exercise into your schedule at those locations. In an article for Verywell Fit, certified personal trainer Paige Waehner points out: “Walking in soft sand is a killer workout and burns more calories than walking on flat ground.“
There might even be the opportunity to play some beach volleyball. Waehner says about this activity: “You can burn more than 150 calories an hour, depending on how hard you work and it’s a great way to meet other people at the beach while having fun.”
If the workouts you tend to like are more water-based, you could consider surfing, which Waehner hails as “a total body workout that will challenge every muscle in your body. Even if you just paddle out to the waves and fall off, you’ll get a great workout.”
However, keep your expectations in check
On some days of your trip away, you could lack enough enthusiasm for engaging in strenuous exercise — and you shouldn’t beat yourself up if that turns out to be the case.
Goulden says: “Be realistic. Imagine a volume dial on a stereo that you can turn up and down. Accept that you may have to dial down your fitness routine, but not dial it completely off.”
What exact form a dialled-down workout takes for you is ultimately your decision, and could involve something as simple as walking between tourist attractions rather than getting to them via means of a vehicle or public transport.
Your holiday workouts don’t necessarily have to be as full-on as your home-based ones.
