If you enjoy travelling, you’ll know just how much of a strain it can place on your fitness routine. The bad diet you eat, the stuffy hotel rooms and different climates don’t make for a great environment for keeping fit, but if you plan ahead you can ensure that you maintain your running record while you’re on holiday. There are some great indoor workouts you can do while you’re on the road, and all you need to complete them is a smart phone or watch, and a skipping rope. You may also want to download a tabata app for some of the workouts, which is a form of interval training where you perform an exercise at a high intensity for 20 seconds then 10 seconds of rest, for a series of eight rounds. Another workout which is really effective is eccentric training, which is the lowering phase of an exercise. Such as when you perform a push-up then lower your body as slowly as you can to the floor. When you reach it, you hold the position for three seconds, then return to the starting position. As a warm up, you can do the following routine: run or use the skipping rope for two to four minutes, perform ten air squats, ten arm circles – both forward and backwards, 20 lunges then five to ten push-ups. To cool down, you should walk for two to four minutes, then do five to ten minutes of static stretching.
These workouts should be done as a circuit, in which you should do each exercise consecutively without taking a break. The first workout begins with ten air squats, ten push-ups, ten sit-ups, ten lunges, a one-minute plank then rest for 30 seconds. You need to repeat the circuit five to ten times, then cool down with the above routine. Another routine which is great for getting your heart rate up is one minute of skipping rope followed by ten burpees; one minute of skipping rope followed by ten squats; one minute of skipping rope followed by ten sit-ups, then one minute of rest. As before, do five to ten rounds of the circuit then rest with a cool down session for five minutes. The third circuit is a Tabata circuit which you’ll complete for 32 rounds. You need to set your tabata timer for repeat 32 times for 20 seconds. Do each exercise for 20 seconds, rest for ten seconds then move onto the next exercise. Each of the exercises you’ll need to complete are as follows: skipping rope, squats, plank and lunges. Depending on how fit you are, you can always do the 32 rounds twice, with a two minute break in between.
Another tabata round, for eight rounds this time, consists of burpees, mountain climbers, sit-ups and jump squats. If time permits, you can always double this and do 16 rounds with a short break in between. The final workout requires you to set your timer to 12 to 15 minutes – remember that the goal of this particular circuit is not to take any breaks. See how many times you can get through it! It comprises 30 lunges, 15 push-ups, one minute of skipping rope and 30 seconds plank or 15 sit-ups. These workouts are tough enough to make you feel like you’ve had a workout, but simple enough that you don’t need to bring your entire gym with you in order to complete them. Circuit training such as this is ideal if you’re travelling – all you need is 30 minutes to yourself and enough room to move, and you can create an effective training session to maintain your fitness on the road.