Keep fit on holiday... now there’s a thought
Sun loungers and wine at noon have a habit of ruining those pre-holiday workouts. Keep your body ticking over with these 10 tips from our favourite trainers
Ten pro tips for beach-body harmony
Is your usual break spent prone on a lounger, with long lunches and vats of rosé? Well, perhaps this year, you’ve expended a fair amount of sweat to feel good in your swimsuit, so you don’t want to let it all go in seven days of hedonism. For you, we asked some of our favourite trainers for their holiday advice. It turns out you don’t need to do Crossfit or Ironman-level workouts, but just enough to keep your muscle strength and metabolism ticking over. “You can stay fit without spending your precious time off in an air-conditioned hotel gym, missing out on family time or fun,” says Lucy Wakefield, founder and creative director of Calmia. In fact, doing new and fun activities and mixing up your training might just give you a fitness boost. Happy, healthy holidays!
MAKE A PLAN Trainer Shona Vertue, author of new fitness bible The
Vertue Method (Yellow Kite, £18.99), says she always advises clients to “plan a mini 20-minute workout you can do, with minimal equipment – or possibly none at all. Do your workout every other day, first thing after you drink your coffee. Then the rest of the day will be all yours – the best feeling.”
GO BAREFOOT ON THE
BEACH “If you haven’t got any injuries, try barefoot running on sand,” says Anya Lahiri, Barry’s Bootcamp master trainer and Nike NTC elite trainer. “It’s much more difficult than on concrete or grass and your whole body will be moving differently. You’ll feel it in different muscle groups, such as your calves, and you’ll find you won’t be able to run so fast. I like to create a little beach circuit to make it more interesting. Run to a certain point, do a resistance exercise, for example 10 squats, then run again, do another exercise such as 10 push-ups, run again and do 10 press-ups and so on. Revisit each one on the way back.”
BE SUPER ACTIVE “Do not just lie by the pool,” says Vertue. “There’s no point leaving your desk for a week to sit in another chair all day.” She advises one activity a day; kayaking, paragliding, water-skiing, paddleboarding, surfing, sailing or whatever you fancy. Join in with games of beach cricket, volleyball, Frisbee. If you’re worried about too much bounce in your swimsuit, Aussie swimwear brand Seafolly make sports bras that double up as bikini tops, in and out of the water (see Hipandhealthy.com).
GO HIKING Pack a pair of comfy, light trainers and see the local sights. Aim for a minimum of 10,000 steps a day (most phones now have a pedometer, or you can download an app), which is roughly 100 minutes of walking at a moderate pace. Don’t forget a hat, sunglasses, cover-up, and sun cream (try Sunsense Sport Gel, £15.99 from Johnlewis.com). TURN YOUR SWIM INTO A WORKOUT Instead of leisurely lengths, make every minute count with Shona Vertue’s swim programme: Warm up doing breast stroke, swimming constantly for five minutes (set a timer on your phone). Do five fast laps of front crawl (or speedy breast stroke, if you can’t). Rest for 20 seconds. Do four fast laps, rest for 20 seconds. Do three fast laps, rest for 20 seconds.
If you want to make it more hardcore, instead of the 20-second rests, get out of the pool and do two or three toning moves for a minute each (see Shona Vertue’s 30-minute workout for examples at Redonline.co.uk).
Not a strong swimmer? You can still get the benefits of the sea. “Walk through the sea at thighlevel,” says Wakefield. “You get all the resistance of the water, which is great for keeping your legs toned. It’s also good if you feel a bit self-conscious walking along the beach.”
SLEEP MORE Going out late plus more alcohol plus saltier food is what leads to fluid retention – and holiday puffiness. “Get at least eight hours’ sleep. Nine is better,” says
Vertue. “Nine solid hours will give you more energy to exercise, better recovery and, over time, less weight gain and less fluid retention.”
COPY THE KIDS “My children never sit still,” says Wakefield. “They are always jumping in and out of the pool, having swimming races, playing tennis, running up and down the beach, jumping the waves. This kind of fun is infectious and when I join in with the same enthusiasm I sleep like a baby and my total steps for the day are off the chart!” RESET YOUR HABITS “Take advantage of being somewhere beautiful to add something good to your life,” says Paulo Pacifici, teacher of the Derose Method, a lifeimproving technique. “You may want to exercise more in your daily routine, or to meditate, or walk more often. Do it for five or 10 days when you’re away, and when you get home your body will be demanding it.” DRINK, DRINK, DRINK “So many people become dehydrated on holiday – the low humidity on the aeroplane, you’re sweating more, you may have a few too many cheeky cocktails,” says Faisal Abdalla of PMA Fitness. There are some telltale signs you may be dehydrated: darker-than-usual urine, feeling lethargic, dizzy, confused or being constipated, craving sugar and muscle cramps while training.
Here’s Abdalla’s hydration plan:
Drink lots of water the day before flying, and during the flight. Pack your own food as plane food is often salty. Avoid tea, coffee and booze while flying.
If in doubt about how much to drink daily, take your body weight in kilograms and divide it by 30.
I’m 92kg so should drink about three litres. (Add 350ml to your quota for every half an hour you work out.)
Eat your water. Around a fifth of your water comes from food, mainly from fruit and vegetables. Foods with a high water content include: watermelons, cantaloupe melons, strawberries, pineapples, oranges, apples, tomatoes and cucumbers – perfect in a hot climate.
WHATEVER HAPPENS, ENJOY
YOURSELF “We often tend to be pretty wired and tuned into our ‘work mind’ before the holiday kicks off, believing that we have to maintain our usual fitness routine,” says Jess Schuring, founder of Heartcore Fitness. “But holidays are magic. They break our behavioural cycle, help us let go and reset both mind and body. So listen to what your body wants and do what makes you happy. True wellbeing starts from the inside.”