What should I do to stay fit while still enjoying myself this holiday?
Q
In exactly a week I am heading off on a threeweek beach holiday for a welldeserved break. How can I keep the fitness gains I made this year while still enjoying my holiday?
A
December is always a good time to reflect on the year that was, so on that front, congratulations on making fitness gains in 2019!
You mentioned a welldeserved break. No doubt, like mine, your brain needs some time off to deal with the year’s work, family and financial stress, not to mention the general trauma of living in a country such as SA where the news cycle flies by at 200km/h every day.
Your fear is not unusual. People are often terrified of skipping a day or taking a week off from exercise when they are sick. Well, most people. Young men at gyms seem to enjoy skipping leg days.
But sometimes time away from something you love is the best gift you could possibly give yourself. However, that’s not a licence to be reckless.
When you stop training, your fitness levels will decrease and you will lose muscle. It is called detraining or deconditioning. According to many studies, aerobic fitness decreases faster than strength. How fast this detraining happens depends on a number of factors. The most important are your level of fitness and strength, how long you have been training, your diet, your age and what activity you do during your detraining.
If you are not that fit or strong, have been training only for a short amount of time, are pushing the needle into the red in the age department and eat like an American, then three weeks is enough to say goodbye to a significant amount of aerobic fitness and strength.
If you have been training for a year or longer, you are very fit and strong, eat properly during your time off and exercise a little on holiday, you will hold on to a lot more of your gains. In fact, anecdotally and according to the same studies, over three weeks you are likely to lose a not-so-terrifying percentage of your maximal oxygen uptake and probably not lose meaningful strength at all.
The good news for those of us who have a very good exercise habit and active lifestyle is that getting back into the same shape is a lot easier than starting from scratch. So, whatever you do, and whether you take the advice that is about to be given or not, make sure to get back into your training programme as soon as you return home.
If you have been serious about your training, you will have followed several blocks of varying intensity exercise during the course of the year. It is all cumulative. Your body needs a break from being hammered for 11 months. You will start the new year with energy and progress well after some time off from your regular routine. However, that doesn’t mean stop everything.
You’re going to the coast. Talk to locals. Find out about the most scenic and safe routes. Make the best of it. A run or hike three times a week up and down hills, along the beach and through breathtaking scenery will not only keep your aerobic fitness levels in check but it will be medicine for your soul. Swim as often as you can. Move. Dance. Live.
Squeeze in two 30-minute body weight sessions a week. Thirty minutes of high-intensity sets with little rest will not only keep you in shape but it will give your body a break from your usual, more structured, probably heavier, strength routine. And it will make you feel better about having an extra serving or two of potato salad.
Which brings us to the biggest danger you face. A wellknown study in the New England Journal of Medicine called “A Prospective Study on Holiday Weight Gain” says the average person gains 0.62kg in a year, of which 0.32kg is gained over the Christmas holidays. That’s a conservative estimate, because we all know the allure of mince pies. Let’s be honest, the real number is closer to 1kg.
It means that in 10 years’ time the average person will look back and weigh 6kg more, but probably 10kg more, and not know where it came from. Well, three (or five) of those kilograms will have come from three weeks of forgetting the fundamentals of an active, healthy lifestyle. In which case we say, life’s a beach.
Your fitness goals depend on maintaining optimum weight, mobility, strength and aerobic fitness levels. Go on holiday. Enjoy the food. But do so responsibly and keep moving. Your future self will be grateful.