Cruise Ship Workout
Why workout on vacation?
Great question, its vacation so why should you work? Isn’t vacation all about relaxing and letting loose? Eating all you want and drinking all you want? No, not in my book – not at all! If eating all the free pizza, hot dogs, and cake you want and washing it down with buckets full of beer is your idea of a vacation then clearly you are on the wrong website. My work weeks at home are 12 hour days where every second has to be optimized for efficiency. Vacation for me is a chance to have leisurely, relaxing workouts and a time to explore new workouts. A cruise ship is not an opportunity to eat junk food but rather an awesome opportunity to lower my bodyfat because all the healthy food is already prepared for me, I just have to choose it!
If you hate working out and cant wait to take a break from it then something is VERY wrong. Working out should be enjoyable and make you feel better, if it doesn’t, then you need to either re-examine your goals or choose a new workout program. If this sounds like you then your upcoming cruise is a GREAT time to do a fitness reset.
Doesn’t the body need a rest from working out?
Yes, it does! Its good to give the joints and muscles a break now and then, especially when you are lifting heavy with low reps. The thing is, real life provides more than enough times when you cant workout and you cant predict when they will happen. You get the flu, you sprain your ankle, you have a work/school project due – you get the idea. If you haven’t had a week off from working out in the last year then yes, you probably want to take a break but I am guessing that most of you have taken a break. Think how disappointed you would be though if you skip working out during the cruise and then right when you get home, you get mono and cant workout for a month.
Getting a good workout in a cruise ship gym
To get a good workout in a cruise ship gym requires preparation because you have to bring some equipment with you. Remember that this is a ship and ships rock and roll. Safety dictates that they don’t have heavy dumbbells, olympic bars, or facilities to squat. Not only that, often times cruise ship gyms often seem to be designed by interior decorators rather than being designed by people interested in strength training or bodybuilders. In all fairness, bodybuilders are a minority in a world where 1/3 of people are clinically obese and people don’t get enough cardio. This cruise ship is a great example. 4000 passengers and yet the free weight area is only 10 feet by 10 feet (3m x 3m)! Crazy from the perspective of a bodybuilder but it makes sense from who the cruise ship demographics.
Although there is an AWESOME 250 yard (230 meter) running track on deck, the shipboard gym devotes 90% of its floorspace to cardio equipment and only 10% to a free weight area. By the way, the largest dumbbell was 95 pounds. So here is the point, the small free weight area is hopelessly overcrowded and unworkable at all hours so if you want a good resistance training workout you have to bring your own equipment. You need a $6 suspension trainer and resistance bands. These things take very little space in your suitcase and give you infinite workout options. You can workout in your stateroom, on a balcony, or up on deck.
Rather than be frustrated that the ship gym “isn’t as good” as your home gym, embrace the opportunity to really mix up your workout! Resistance bands and suspension trainers are the unsung heroes of the workout world. If you want to do a few exercises in the crowded freeweight area if you are lucky enough to find it empty, thats fine, but be prepared to make a fast exit to the top deck and finish with your resistance bands should things become unworkably crowded. Flexible, you have to roll with the ship here because elbowing your way into a packed free weight area is not only frustrating but dangerous. This is exactly what happened to us when we did todays shipboard workout, the gym was strangely empty when we started but by superset 2, it got unusably crowded so we moved up top.
Third superset of three exercises
Fourth superset of three exercises
So why am I coming out now? I am not coming out *now*, I have always been out – read the versions of the ‘about me” pages for the last 10 years, they always mention the word married but never include the word ‘wife’ or ‘her’ but always ‘partner’ or ‘spouse’. The only real question was if I am African American or Jewish – google that :) This wasn’t really planned, we saw the shadow while filming our workout and thought it was really cool.
The reason I didn’t talk about personal things in my videos was not because I was embarrassed about anything but rather because I just didn’t want to divert attention from what is most important which is how YOU can get stronger and leaner.
Back in 2006 I was the only fitness channel on YouTube and the spotlight on me was scorching hot. Now there are literally thousands of fitness channels and the spotlight is off me. Not only has the spotlight come off me with all these new fitness channels but my audience has matured as well. It used to be that even a fart would completely de-rail the message of a video with peals of laughter. Anyway, now that nobody really cares I felt it was fine to spend 7 seconds in a 10 minute video to mention my husband.
My mission remains exactly the same as it did in 2006, its still to show people how they can get in shape and feel better about themselves using home workouts and only a minimum amount of cheap, used equipment.
