Hope everyone is either having a great time on holiday or has one planned!

As it’s the time of year when most people are taking a break, I thought I’d write my first blog on how you can stay fit and strong while you’re away having a great time. It’s very common for people to go away on holiday halfway through an exercise programme that’s giving them great results, only to come back from their travels to take off from where they started and find that they’ve lost all the gains that they achieved before the holiday! This can be disheartening for some beginners to exercise and might even lead to some giving up their goals for some time.

The good news is that it doesn’t take long for an exercise session to at least maintain what you have achieved in your programme before and you don’t have to have access to a gym either. Let’s face it, most hotel gyms leave a lot to be desired anyway!

Above you can see me messing around on a Swiss ball in Gran Canaria a few weeks ago. The gym had no air con and very limited equipment, so I decided to do a short 20 minute bodyweight circuit with high reps to at least get the heart racing and activate the muscles. I did 6 circuits of Swiss ball 1 leg push ups, explosive alternating lunge jumps, chin ups, 1 leg jack knifes and hand stand shoulder presses. This didn’t take long at all and made it easier for me to relax for the rest of the day (I get bored easily and have a lot of energy ;))
So you can make up your own training session based on your abilities.

Other options include doing fun activities like I did earlier in the year in Barcelona with the Jet ski’s below. That’s a fantastic workout because of the constant movement and balance systems being used. The waves were a decent size that day so there was a lot of air time which got the adrenaline going!

Have a great trip!

Rupert Hambly