Vacation Workouts

Earlier this month, my family and I spent a week in Italy for our annual get-together. We spent the first six days in Lake Como and the last full day in Milan. We stayed in a villa during our stay and, as you can imagine, a proper gym was hard to come by.

Given that I’m in the middle of contest prep for my upcoming bikini show, not getting in workouts wasn’t really an option. At the same time, however, I was aware that so long as I planned ahead and got in some type of exercise on some days during my trip, I could still stay more or less on track with my prep.

I know many of you travel quite a bit, sometimes to places where getting to a gym is simply not feasible. So I’ve put together some travel workouts for you. These are great because they don’t take much time and, more importantly, you can do them anywhere. All you need is a few pieces of equipment (that are very portable!) and probably some good tunes to jam out to.

You’ll notice in the workouts below that I stick largely to some pretty basic movements – pushups, inverted rows, etc. I don’t see a need to get super creative when you’re simply trying to maintain coordination and work up a light sweat during this time.

As always, please proceed with common sense. If anything hurts, stop. You may substitute out exercises as you see fit. If you don’t have a TRX for the inverted rows, then you can try bentover rows with whatever weights you can find as an alternative, or maybe even do inverted rows off a table or something equally sturdy.

There are 1,001 ways to get in quality workouts without a gym. You can do hill sprints, you can do bodyweight metabolic conditioning sessions, you can use the Shake Weight (just kidding about the last one). These are just three of a multitude of ways.

If you miss a workout, don’t stress.
If you have to cut a session short, don’t stress.
Whatever you do, don’t stress.

Lastly, remember that no amount of exercise is going to counteract eating like a glutton. It’s far easier to consume 1,000 calories in one sitting than it is to burn that off in exercise bout. With that said, workout when you can, get in extra walking whenever possible, but be sensible with your eating.

What you need: minibands, long bands (Perform Better, eliteFTS, resistancebandtraining.com are all good brands)
Time required: 30 minutes
Recommended frequency: 4x/week maximum, or whatever works with your schedule

Day 1

For the first tri-set (A1-A3), complete all exercises three rounds through with little to no rest. The second tri-set (B1-B3) is to be done in the same manner.

For C1-C2 and D1-D2, you can casually alternate between the exercises and rest as needed.

A1. Banded step-out to squat 3x10ea

A2. Seated band hip abduction 3×15

A3. Banded walking lunge with pulse 3x5ea

B1. Banded squat to reverse lunge 3x15ea

B2. Standing band hip abduction 3x15ea

B3. Feet-elevated BW glute bridge with band around knees 3×20

C1. Pushups 4×8-12

C2. Inverted rows 4×8-12

D2. Band push press 4×12-15

D2. 1-arm band rows 4×12-15ea

Day 2

The first giant set (A1-A4) is to be completed in circuit fashion with little to no rest for all four rounds. The bodyweight walking lunge (B) is a stand-alone exercise and is to be done for just one set. Follow that up with C1-C2, resting as needed, and then D1-D2, also resting as needed.

A1. Band hip abduction from the floor 4×20

A2. Banded single-leg hip thrust 4x10ea

A3. Monster walk 4x10ea

A4. Band glute kickback 4x15ea

B. BW walking lunge 1x30ea

C1. 1-arm band chest press 3x10ea

C2. Bentover row 3×10

B1. Band bicep curl 3×12-15

B2. Band tricep extension 3×12-15

Day 3

This third day is to be done using a weight. If you have access to a dumbbell or a kettlebell (or a pug!), that would work perfectly. If not, try to get creative by using whatever weighted object you have access to. I’d recommend something between 15-30lbs.

If you don’t have access to any weights whatsoever, you can omit day 3 and simply alternate between day 1 and day 2 above.

A1. Goblet squat 4×20

A2. Reverse lunge 4x20ea

A3. Zercher good morning 4×20

A4. Weighted hip thrust 4×20

B. Seated band hip abduction – 3 ways 3×15,15,15

C1. Pushups 3×8-12

C2. Inverted rows 3×8-12

D1. Band push press 3×12-15

D2. 1-arm band rows 3×12-15ea