My goodness – I’d forgotten the post-vacation blues.
Like childbirth, I think you block it out. The unpacking, the mail (bills), the return to schedules and cooking. Bleck. Good thing I actually like my normal life. 
(and good thing I don’t actually cook)
As promised, I wanted to share a few more things about our Florida vacation last week. I was hoping to pile everything into one last post, but there’s just too much so today we’ll just talk WORKOUTS!
Vacation Workouts
I know that some people go on vacation and see it as a chance to take a break from working out. I am not one of those people. Not only does it set the tone for the day, but when I have extra hands around, working out is my preferred activity. Not a chore, not a stress – not something I have to do, it’s something I WANT to do. I might be in the minority here but I know there are some readers out there who are in the same boat. Do you work out while on vacation?
I traveled down to Florida with two of my kettlebells (a pood and a 25 pounder). I’m pretty certain the additional weight did nothing for our gas mileage but I wanted to be certain that I had some weights to throw around at the beach. Luckily, Blue Mountain Inn has a pretty decent gym. Three treadmills, two ellipticals, two bikes, a cable tower with two sides and a pull-up middle, plus free weights ranging from 5 pounds all the way up to 50 pounds. I’m pretty easy to please when it comes to hotel/condo gyms. Give me a set of free weights and I can plan out multiple workouts.
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Some days, Katy and/or Adam joined in and others I was all by myself (Travis does not work out on vacation – that’s ok – he watched our kids. ). Even though I’m happy jamming out to music by myself, I’ll gladly take a workout buddy (or two) any day of the week. Katy and I have been sweating together for years so she’s always fun to partner up with.
Here’s a sampling of what we/I did:
Equipment needed: Kettlebell
Katy and I completed this one together one morning. I saw Bonnie post it on Instagram (thus the name) – I love trying out other trainer’s workouts. It’s a good sweaty time. Especially love that you can easily sub in another exercise for the goblet squats and change the whole dynamic (think pushups, push presses, jump squats, anything!).
I used a pood (36#) for my KB weight and felt it in all the right places (I suggest Russian swings vs. American). We finished with 5 rounds of condo stair sprints.
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Equipment needed: Your body!
I created this one over a year ago and had it pinned to my Pinterest page just waiting for me. No equipment necessary so it’s perfect for travel! Run through this twice for a good 20-25 minute workout!
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Equipment needed: Medium & Heavy dumbbells, stability ball
If there’s one thing I’ve missed while working out in the basement, it’s a seated row and a lat pulldown. These are two things that I’m finding hard to recreate – any suggestions? I ran through this circuit 3 times and then finished with a tabata.
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[Tweet “Quick and Effective Travel Workouts! #pinterest #fitfluential #workout”]
All of these were pretty quick (i.e. didn’t eat into our vacation time) and effective! I also did a sprint/jog workout but didn’t feel like creating a special jpeg for it – all you do is play with speed for 20 minutes i.e. push a bunch of buttons. Feel free to steal any of these and try them out yourself!
QUESTION: Do you work out while on vacation?
splendid…lindsay
I agree! I ENJOY working out and do like to do some workouts while on vacation, like at the lake. we run a few times, do our own little workouts on the dock, take walks, whatever it is, just get some movement in, and it totally does set the tone for the day! glad you had a great time!
For lat pull downs, I’d do pull up variations or inverted rows. If you have a squat rack, just rack a barbell on one of the lower rungs, and you’ve got a perfect set up for inverted rows! (Put your feet up on a box/step to make it even worse…I mean, better.)
Oh, and I’m with ya. I almost always enjoy some kind of workouts on vacation!
Typically my vacations are to go run half marathons – at least they were before I got married and had a baby in the last year. So I usually don’t do many workouts because I’m taper and then recovering from the races. We tend to do a lot of walking – zoo, aircraft carrier, around a lake – on our recent vacations, but that’s the extent of my workouts this year anyways with a new baby.
I’d think you could use bands to recreate both the rows and the pulldowns. FYI, Ben Bruno is The Master of exercise substitutes–he has a website & youtube channel.
Totally with ya on the vacation workouts. I think I may even enjoy them more than regular workouts because I don’t have to drag kids along (one of whom hates going to Child Watch). We’re headed to my hometown in WV next week, and I’m looking forward to hitting up the local Y and running outside in cooler (than TX) weather!
this is awesome! I too enjoy working out while on vacay, but if I don’t feel like it, then I won’t!
I love these! Thanks for sharing them! I’m dreading Jess moving because A) my friend is moving and B) I’m losing her awesome workout creation abilities. This totally seems like workouts she would create.
I, too, love working out on vacation, but I do it based on how I’m feeling more than I do it based on consistency when I’m home in my routine. I don’t do push ups or squats on outdoor trips – that’s when I take a break – but when in cities I love doing 15 min of sprints outside or checking out a hotel gym and making it work. It does set the tone for my day too! Although I’m generally the only one – I’d love a sister and brother-in-law to join in the fun. ;) Thanks so much for the shout-out! Made my day – first person to name a workout after me, and I’m sure I got that from someone else too! ;)
Love these! I always go on vacation with the BEST intentions, but only get about 1/2 of my workouts in. TRYING to get better!
Do you have a barbell? A bent-over row (from standing) can help re-create the seated row, plus challenge your core musculature more than a seated row. For a lat pulldown, pull-ups are going to target the same area, and if you can’t do those, assisted ones (using a chair or bands) help. Pull-up bars are easy to DIY, if you don’t already have one.
To recreate a seated row, I find a resistance band anchored to my feet to be pretty good.
great suggestion!!!