Around three-quarters of Americans don’t get enough exercise. The lack of physical activity can worsen when we’re traveling or on vacation.
There may be proven mental health benefits of time off, but your fitness levels don’t take a vacation. You need to avoid putting on those extra pounds and being inactive while you’re traveling away from home.
However, that’s not always easy when you trapped in a hotel room or on a cruise ship. Check out these travel workouts to stay fit when you’re on vacation. Let’s go go go!
1. Ten-Minutes to Strengthen Those Arms
When you’re on vacation, the only exercise your arms may be getting is lifting your drink up and down to your mouth. You need to keep your arms strong during your travel trip so you don’t lose your hard-earned muscles.
Get started with ten plank ups. Up and down over and over. Then, move to the same number of lateral plank walks. If you’re in a tight space, you can just go side to side each time.
Now for the harder part!
Ten burpee push-ups can really get your blood flowing. After this, return back to the plank for ten shoulder taps. Reach across to the other side of your shoulder for an extra stretch.
If you can handle diamond push-ups, do another ten of these. If you’re not quite up to the challenge, stick to standard push-ups. Lastly, carry out ten mountain climbers lifting your legs up high to push yourself.
You can repeat this routine up to three times to really enjoy the benefits of stronger arms. If you follow this workout every other day on your vacation, you’ll keep your arms strong in only ten minutes per day.
2. Calm Yourself With Travel-Friendly Yoga
For many yogis, doing yoga without a mat is impossible. It kind of becomes a psychological barrier!
And yet, there are tons of yoga moves which can be completed without the support of a mat. You don’t even need soft floors either.
Traveling can cause you to develop lower back, especially if you’ve been squashed on a plane or in the back of the car. The dangle pose can help release the tension in your back. This can be followed up with the garland pose by bending your knees and tucking in your hips to hold the position.
For more advanced yogis, the standing pigeon and lord of the dance poses can also be fulfilled in any environment. Don’t quit your yoga exercises just because you’re missing your weekly class.
3. Simple Way to Give Your Butt a Workout
Do you ever return back from vacation only to notice that your butt has grown in size? You just put those extra pounds on your butt, right?
Well, you can prevent this by giving your glutes a proper workout while you’re away from home. Nothing complicated either – just follow this 3-step trick for stronger cheeks.
Side-step squats can really strengthen your gluteus maximus. Now, get down on the floor and lay on your back for some single leg glute bridges. This one only works if you have a soft floor or a yoga mat.
Follow this up with some curtsy lunges. You can also add a side-kick to the workout to butt muscles an extra boost. You can go over this routine roughly four-times to reap the benefits.
4. 30-Seconds on and off Morning Cardio Workout
The best time to do a workout is on an empty stomach in the morning. This five-step routine will get your ready for a day ahead.
For your morning cardio, you want to take things easy at first. You should simply do 30-seconds of workout immediately followed with 30-seconds of relaxing. Do this over and over for the next five moves.
Jumping with a skipping rope provides great cardio exercise. However, it’s not always easy to pack a rope in your luggage. The good news is that you don’t actually need a skipping rope to enjoy the benefits!
Just carry out a mock jumping rope workout to get your blood pumping around your body. Follow this up with a burpee push-up, squat jumps, plank with shoulder taps before finishing with a jumping lunge.
5. Sprint as Fast as You Can for One Minute
Around 39 percent of Americans expect hotels and other vacation accommodations to provide fitness offerings, including gyms and classes.
That’s a lot of disappointed vacationers because many hotels don’t have such facilities. You simply cannot guarantee that you’ll be able to do your normal workout routine while you’re traveling.
You may not have time either! If you on a business trip for a couple of days, you’re probably going from one meeting to the next. Without any breathing space – when you are going to fit in your exercise routine?
Research shows that one-minute of seriously intensive sprinting could be largely equal to 45 minutes of moderate exercise.
What could be more simple than running as fast as you can down the hallway and back again? Or, avoid waking up the other guests by running outdoors in front of the hotel for a minute or two.
6. Whirlwind Tour During Your City Break
How long does it take to see Paris? Can you get around London in one day? If you’re on a city break you can easily forget your workout.
Whatever the recommendations for a city break stay, you can save speed everything without losing out on the sights.
Ditch the open-top tourist buses, get around the city on foot instead. You don’t need any fancy equipment or expensive clothing – just get out there!
Many people forget that walking can be a workout as well. Sure, if you’re strolling around looking up at the sky the whole time, you’re getting get much of a workout.
But, go faster and walk for longer to get your blood flowing and break a sweat. Besides, this is the best way to explore a city the old-fashioned way as well.
7. Indoor/Outdoor Stairway Cardio Workout
All you need for exercise when traveling is a stairway of around 15 steps or more. If you’re a bit embarrassed, then find a secluded spot to try out this cardio workout. Set your smartphone to “Eye of the Tiger” and get started!
Stomping upstairs can increase your heart rate and engage everything from your glutes to your hamstrings. Begin by slowing scaling to the top of the stairs and back down a few times.
Then, follow this by stepping up and lunging forward to stretch your leg muscles. Now go for skater steps by reaching from one side of the step with your left foot before switching to reach rightwards with the next foot. Do this over and over again!
Don’t let your leg muscles have all the fun. Involve your arms as well with some tricep dips lifting up your body with the step as support.
8. Air Punching Til You Drop
The best workouts are usually the simplest ones. That’s why you don’t need to worry about staying fit while you’re traveling either.
This workout only involves two moves. And yet, it’ll give you a cardio workout to stay fit on vacation while you’re away from the gym.
Start with 30-seconds of air punches. Don’t be lazy with these. Switch between cross punches and straight forward jabs.
Gradually work yourself down from 10 burpees to 1 burpee with 30-second air punch intervals in between. It sounds really easy until you try it!
9. Join the Workout Mile High Club
If you’re a frequent flyer, you know the experience of back and neck pain when you get off the plane. You can avoid the worse effects of flights on your fitness routine with an inflight workout.
When you’re sitting in your seat, keep your feet flat on the floor. Lift up your heels while leaving the balls of your feet firmly grounded. You can repeat this movement a few times holding the position for up to five seconds.
Next, you can lift up one of your legs to stretch and rotate your ankle in one direction and back again a few times over. This can help to release the tension in your leg muscles.
Now lift up your hands to reach over the back of your neck to stretch. Do the same thing by reaching over to the opposite shoulder.
If you get the chance to work out a little bit while you’re waiting for the bathroom, then take advantage of this to shake your whole body.
Break Some Sweat With These Travel Workouts
Even a few days away from your fitness routine can set you back ages. Just because you’re having fun on vacation or attending a work conference, it doesn’t mean you can let your workout slide.
There are no longer any excuses for not keeping up your fitness while away from the gym. Enjoy our travel workouts on your next travel trip.
Do you always struggle to stay fit while you’re traveling or away on vacation? Share these ideas on your social media to spread the word!
