Friday, July 4, 2014

On Vacation Workout

A lot of people are traveling or hanging out on the 4th.  I myself am on vacation.  Travel often means sitting, in a car or on a plane.  I sat recently for 14 hours!  Not comfortable for the joints or connective tissue.  Vacation plans will often mean no gym availability.  This is easily circumvented with some creativity and your bodyweight.

I think the goals of your vacation should be to enjoy your vacation.  If you can move for at least 20 minutes science says you will be more alert and have more of the "feel good" hormones.

If you have sat for extended periods of time, the goal should be to unwind a little of that connective tissue creep.  My back was really sore the morning I woke up after sitting in a car for 14 hours.

If you are like most people vacation means more food, more alcohol, more desserts.  This is incredibly important to move then.  Lymphatic system (your bodies way of getting the junking out) needs motion.  Sweating is another good one.

So here are some things to do without any equipment.

1.  Pole squats.  Find a pole and lean away while holding on to it.  Keep your shins perpendicular and sit back.  Sit back and get those hips lower then your knees.  Weight is on your heels.   Take a deep breath at the bottom, inhale and exhale.  Push through your heels and stand up.  Repeat 20x

2.  Chest Stretch.  Hand on the same pole.  Turn your body away from it.  Each time you come to a stop.  Breath in and out.  See how far you can go.  Explore different shoulder heights.  2 min.  Each arm.

You should definitely feel more open now.

3.  Walking lunges set of 20
4.  Push ups set of 20

Repeat 3x

5.  Heidens (lateral jumps) set of 10
6.  Bear Crawls set of 10 yards.

Repeat 3x

If you can find some something to do chin ups on

7.  Chin ups set of 5  (if you can't find this, do isometric contractions pulling against an immovable object.  Hold for 8 seconds.
8.  Goblet squats  (I found a 10lb rock in the woods)  set of 10.

Repeat 1 and 2 for one set.

This should get the blood flowing and work on some mobility as well.



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