Article Source: makeyourbodywork.com
You've been working hard to get in great shape; your diet has been clean, your gym routine has become habit and you've started to see real progress. Congratulations!
But now you're about to embark on an extended vacation that will keep you away from the gym. Is all that hard work you've put in going to waste? Are you going to end up right back where you started?
Not at all!
Here are three reasons why you can stay in great shape even while you travel:
1. You Don't "Lose Your Fitness" As Fast As You Might Think
Although it might seem like improving your fitness takes forever and losing it happens in the blink of an eye, that's not entirely the case.
There is quite a steep drop-off in fitness during the first week or two of complete inactivity. In fact, during one study participants lost seven percent of their aerobic capacity after going just 12 days without training. Not good news!
However, this trend doesn't last long. The first two weeks of inactivity lead to the most noticeable losses before things begin to level out. This means that a longer vacation¬, of say 3 or fourweeks, will not set you back much more than that first week you were off your exercise routine.
2. Fitness "Maintenance" Doesn't Take Much Work
While it can be disheartening to learn that even a week or two away from exercise will cause your body to backslide, it's important to know how little effort is actually required to maintain what you've worked so hard to achieve.
A different fitness study had participants follow a very disciplined exercise routine for nearly a year. As you can imagine, all of the participants got in really great shape.
But then the researchers did something unexpected: They had the participants cut their exercise back to just one session per week. This was a major change from the daily fitness routine they had become accustomed to.
This one-workout-per-week rule was enforced for 4 months. Guess what happened to the participants?
Actually, not much changed at all.
After the 4 months were up the researchers re-tested the participants and found that they had "largely maintained" their fitness and weight-loss even though they had been barely exercising at all!
This is great news for your time spent travelling. Even one exercise session per week can help you stay in great shape!
3. There Are So Many Travel-Friendly Fitness Options
While it's nice to have a gym at your 24-hour disposal, nobody needs one to stay active. The easiest way to stay fit while travelling is simply by walking more.
Get a pedometer phone app and aim for 10,000 steps per day. Walking might not seem like much exercise but those 10,000 steps will burn up to 600 calories, which happens to be the same amount you'd burn during a spin class at the gym.
If you want work up a bit more of a sweat, there are any number of amazing online fitness classes that you can do in your hotel room or outside.
Here's a compilation of the 50 Best Home Workouts that require no equipment and not much time either. With simple workouts like these, you can practice yoga, do some strength training, energize with Pilates, or work up a cardio sweat, whether you're at home or on the road.
Getting in shape takes too much work and is too much of an accomplishment to let it slip away while you travel. Instead, plan on doing even a little bit of exercise during your vacation so that you will come home feeling refreshed and feeling fit!