Vacations or business trips are no excuse to stop working out! In fact, they are the perfect time to workout because there are fewer distractions than at home. I took a few days off before my triathlon but started working out again the day after. Now Im not suggesting you waste your entire vacation to working out, that would be silly, but even working out just twice a week is enough to keep from losing your strength and mass gains. Here is a great vacation workout schedule that wont annoy your family/spouse with its obsessiveness but will keep you in top shape, once a week:
Workout 1 – 50 min pushup workout doing all pushup variants. 10 min abs
Workout 2 – 50 min pullups using all variations. 10 min abs
The reason I have chosen these two excercises is that they combine to make a complete upper body workout because they are both compound exercises. Pushups work your shoulders and triceps as well as your chest and pullups work your biceps and forearms as well as lats. Notice there is no cardio or legs, Im assuming you are doing lots of walking as transportation. If thats not true, then you need to go for a walk at least 20min every day. The daily walking is important to maintain leg mass and strength as well as to keep you from getting fat. By the way, please see my website to see all the types of pushups and pullups you can do. Without fail, people always complain that they have ‘nowhere’ to do pullups. This is why in my travel workout kit I bring two 6″ sections of wooden broom handle with holes drilled thru each end. I then tie each end to its corresponding end on the other stick with rope like this:
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I then can fling this over anything to do pullups- a big pipe in the car park, a stair in a staircase, or a tree. If you are having trouble visualizing this, please check out the “Travel Workouts” section of my website where I have photos of my travel pullup bar in use.
The people who scoff at “just” doing pushups for chest or “just” doing pullups for lats have clearly never done them for 50 minutes! When done properly they are brutal and will make you sore even if your normal workout at home doesnt.
Yesterday I did pullups and today I did pushups and had great workouts. By the way, you will note that I worked out in the hotel ‘gym’ but as with many hotel gyms, the equipment is worthless so I just stuck to my pushups, crunches and pullups.
Tomorrow is my last recouperation day after the triathlon and I will be washing, shopping, and packing for my cycling journey. I still have serious blisters from the race but I should be fine cycling. My first day cycling is 105mi, might have been a mistake to cycle so long on the first day with all the logistical stuff I have to deal with that morning. Rain is forecast but Im hoping they are wrong!