Are you the type whose running shoes & clothes take up most of the space in your vacation suitcase? While some of us prefer to leave the exercise routines at home and take a break from everything but fun and sun, many scoop readers just transport their workouts to whatever exotic or sandy locale they’ll be visiting this summer.
To them, it just seems easier not to let it all go, since the back-to-reality recovery is HARD. Our advice? Do something exercise-y every day, even if it’s just a plank or push up series, or a long walk pre-happy hour. Stumbling home after dinner doesn’t really count though.
We believe: don’t make your workouts your mission, cause then it wouldn’t be vacation break now would it? I’m pretty sure no ninety year old ever says “my one regret is that is I didn’t spend more time running on the treadmill on my summer vacations”.
We reached out to our favorite CLT fitness instructors for their best moves outside the studio to keep you in shape no matter what your destination. Watch their short videos for some fun ideas on squeezing in that daily dose of healthy living. And please tag us and your favorite studios in your photos of you and yours exercising on vacation at @scoopcharlotte on Instagram! There will be prizes.
Orange Theory Fitness
With 4 CLT locations OTF CLT has a lot of studio experts to demo Vacation Workout Ideas for us. This one, by the Ballantyne OTF Head Coach Thad, is particularly beast. I would pay you to come on vacay with me and do these so I stay in shape by just watching you do them.
Hilliard Studio Method
The Hilliard ladies are bikini-body-ready every day of every month of the year. Their advice? to work your total body with no equipment on the go, complete this series 3 times on both legs for a perfectly strong and toned summer body:
- Pull your abs in tight and sweep your right leg on the back diagonal into a curtsy lunge. Square your shoulders forward to work your obliques. To modify, you can hold a chair or counter. Bend your back knee into a deep lunge, then drive through your front heel and engage your glute and hamstring to lift back up. Repeat 10 times.
- Step your right leg straight back into a lunge. Keep your front knee behind your toes and repeat the lunge 10 times.
- Place your hands on the floor and sweep your leg back to a plank position. Bring your left knee in to your chest and extend your left leg through your body in line with your hip to create an L shape. Walk your hands wider than your shoulders and complete 10 push-ups.
- Switch legs and repeat steps 1-3.
Workout with Hilliard Studio Method anywhere using our streaming videos and Be Powerful!
Cycle South
Cycle pro Annie Dixon’s tips on getting your workout in daily on vacay:
Flywheel & Flybarre
First from Matt Yost – Flywheel Instructor
Push-ups are my favorite body weight exercises to do because you don’t need equipment, you can do them anywhere, they are versatile, and they can challenge all levels of fitness. Push-ups mainly target your upper body and core muscles. You can be very creative and easily challenge or modify the basic push-up simply by adjusting your hand or foot position. Here are four variations you may want to try:
- Walk out push-up – Start standing, bring hands to the ground in front of your toes and begin to walk your hands away from your feet until you’re in a high plank position. Perform one or more push-ups and walk your hands back in returning to a standing position. Repeat.
- Hand release push-up – Start in a high plank position. Lower your whole body to the ground. Briefly lift your hands and toes off the ground and place back down. Then push back to starting position. Repeat.
- Power push-up – Start in a high plank position. Lower slow and controlled until your chest is a couple inches over the ground. Then push explosively back to the start position. A plyometric push-up is exploding so your hands come off the ground as you push up. Repeat.
- Push-up with a leg abduction and knee tuck – Start in a high plank position. Lower slow and controlled until your chest is a couple inches over the ground. At the same time lift one back foot and pull it away from the body as you lower keeping the leg straight. As you push up pull the leg back in-line with the body and drive your knee towards your chest. Extend leg back to starting position. Repeat on same side and then equal the reps on the other side of your body.
And from Kelley Thompson – FlyBarre Instructor
My favorite vacation exercise is the burpee that’s featured in the Sport Cardio class. The burpee can be low impact with a plank followed by a squat. Or the burpee can be a higher impact exercise by performing a push-up after the plank and a squat jump once you rise.
Core Revolution
Jarrod, cycle instructor at Core Revolution in Ballantyne, has many vacation workouts that you can do anywhere anytime. Here are two perfect for poolside.
