We love them, we look forward to them, we talk about them for weeks before and weeks after – vacations. Those 1-2 weeks of the year when we get away from it all – work, responsibilities, car pools.
Unfortunately, there is something else we tend to leave back at home – exercise. But it doesn’t have to be this way. There are plenty of ways to stay on top of your routine, even when you are far away from your exercise comfort zone. Also this training methodology is great for work take 10-15 minutes and takes up little space.
Easy Exercise Equipment
There are a few, simple pieces of equipment you can take with you on your trip that you can get serious use out of (and trust us, they won’t take up a lot of room in your suitcase). The first one is an exercise band. With an exercise band, you can do dozens of different exercises, hitting all areas of your body. You can do chest press, core circles, shoulder press and back rows but feel free to experiment and create your own. Three other pieces of equipment are ankle weights (or dumbbell), a stress ball, and a jump rope. You can strap on those ankle weights for leg raises, calf raises, or other leg exercises. You can even strap them around your wrist and do bicep curls or use dumbbells at the office. A stress ball works your forearms. The beautiful thing about using a stress ball is that you can do it anytime, even when you are driving! With a jump rope you can, well, jump rope and get your heart rate pumping for 5 minutes whenever you want to re-energize your day and fire up the calorie-burning furnace.
Oldies but goodies
There are plenty of exercises you can do anywhere, which require no exercise equipment at all. First are two oldies but goodies – pushups and sit-ups. Pushups are underrated as an exercise for your chest and arms, while sit-ups are important for your core. Feel free to turn your sit-ups into crunches, which will hit your upper abdominals as opposed to your lower abs.
Lower Body
3 great leg exercises are calf raises, forward lunges, and squats.
For calf raises, all you need is a raised surface. A step works great for this. The front of your foot is on the step while your heel hangs over the edge, parallel to the ground. Standing straight up and holding onto something for balance, rise up on your toes, lower down by dropping your heels, raise back up, and continue. Try it on one foot at a time, but if you’re having trouble balancing, use both feet.
While calf raises work your lower legs, forward lunges will work your upper legs. To do forward lunges, stand with your knees 6 inches apart and your toes facing forward. Step out 2 – 2.5 feet with one foot and then lower your body straight down until both of your knees are at a 90-degree angle. Then stand back up and repeat.
Squats are great total body exercise with the greatest benefit being upper legs and core. Bend at the hips as if sitting down, once parallel return to start position.
Work that Core
Besides sit-ups, there are numerous other exercises you can do that will work on your core, which is your lower back and abdomen region. Planks are fantastic as the build core and lower back strength together. Also, an exercise that is vital, yet overlooked, is stretching. Just 15 minutes a day is great exercise.
Cardio
- Just do it
- Stairs (10 sets or 10 flights times 3)
- Jump rope
- Walking briskly
- Interval
- 20 minute jog at your pace
- Play sports
Lesson
Quality exercise is at your fingertips all day everyday. Just prepare your workout from this article and set 10 minutes aside every day at the beach, office or spare bedroom. It is a good or better then a gym. We guarantee it
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