It’s that time of the year again: The sun’s out, and the temperature is up. Kids are done with school. And there are graduation parties, family gatherings, and vacations in the near future.
One of the common questions I’m asked—in general, but even more when summer rolls around—is: “What kind of exercise should I do when I’m out of town or on vacation?”
Unless your current goal involves an impending national or international event—something like a high-level powerlifting meet, martial arts tournament, challenging outdoor adventure, or the Olympics, in which case you should follow this advice and figure out how to continue your current training—these are my top four recommendations:
1. Don’t train.
This one surprises most people, but it shouldn’t. After all, rest is important. If you’ve been training hard (← an important caveat) and are going to be away for an extended weekend or even a week, taking a break from your training will give your body and mind some needed recovery time and potentially amplify your results when you return from your time off.
2. Do easy, general activity.
If you’re going somewhere with “touristy” activities, do one or a few of those things each day. Walk on the beach or through the woods; swim, SCUBA dive, or take a stand-up paddleboard on the water; play pickleball, tennis, or golf. You get the idea.
These types of activities are usually less intense than what you would do at the gym, thereby providing some restorative benefits like the first suggestion above. At the same time, they’re more intense than simply existing, so they’ll keep you in the habit of moving, burn off a little physical and mental energy, and provide some active entertainment.
3. Skip the gym; use your body weight instead.
If you want to include more activity than the previous two suggestions, there’s still no need to find a gym while you’re away. Instead, pick a few body weight exercises, and spend 15–60 minutes every 1–3 days rotating through the exercises in an easy circuit.
Use any 3–5 exercises you know and are able to do—push-ups, body weight squats, lunges, pull-ups, “naked” get-ups (i.e. just without weight, not actually naked), planks, crawling, body weight hinges, handstands—and don’t worry too much about the repetitions. Just do what feels moderately challenging and move on.
Bonus points if you include explosive or fast movements like sprints (5–15 seconds, not long runs), jumps (vertical or horizontal, from a squat or lunge), or power push-ups (moving quickly enough to “de-weight” your hands at the top). Without going into too much detail, fast movement has been shown to recruit a greater amount of muscle fibers during exercise, similar to using heavy weights. Just make sure to take long breaks between sets so your movement speed remains high throughout the entire session instead of slowing down as you tire.
4. Go to the gym, and do something different.
No matter where you’re traveling, you probably won’t be hard-pressed to find a gym somewhere nearby. But finding a gym doesn’t guarantee that it’ll have the same type of equipment you’re used to using. Instead of seeing that as a problem or an excuse to not train, use it to your advantage by doing something different than what you traditionally do. Grab some dumbbells and do some curls (or get-ups). Hop on a machine and do whatever it’s designed to do. Or do some stretching on the mats in the corner.
Like suggestion #3, don’t worry too much about weight or reps, but do what feels moderately challenging and move on. Not only will the variety be novel and hopefully a bit fun, it’ll also show you how far you’ve progressed since the last time you trained that way or where you have some opportunities to improve.
Putting it into practice
In my estimation, the biggest vacation-related training issue isn’t what you do while you’re gone but rather what you do before you leave and when you return.
Before you leave, it’s easy to skip your normal training because you’re packing, making sure work-related loose ends are tied up, and looking forward to some R&R. When you return, it can also be easy to skip your normal training for an additional week or two because you’re catching up, getting back into your routine, and think that you don’t have enough time.
It’s for those two reasons—but specifically the latter—that you should make a conscious choice about what you plan to do for training on vacation before you actually leave. If you make that choice (even if it’s to not train) and remain disciplined to executing it when you’re gone, then it’s much easier to get back into your routine quickly when you return.
So, this week look ahead to any upcoming time you’ll be away this summer. Decide what training strategy you’ll implement while you’re gone and when and how you’ll get back to your routine after returning. You may be surprised at how effectively those pre-decisions keep your actions and progress on track.