Training on Holidays
Training on Holidays, can it be done? Should it be done? Read below to find out.
What is up our Gym N Japan Fam! We want to share with you our thoughts on training while away on holidays. And perfect timing with Jake finally being on home soil after being on holidays for 4 weeks! Now this can highly vary from a short 3-5 day holiday to those big trips you might go on with a partner, lads, or family that last 2+ weeks. Different scenarios can change the outcome of this. Obviously it can be done and should be done if you a) want to look like CBum and b) not lose those precious gains which can take ages to gain.
Ever heard of the saying: use it or lose it? well that applies to the muscle building world with even worse consequences if you do absolutely nothing while on holidays.. A prime example is an immobilised limb say a broken arm - when that bad boy comes out of a cast it looks so small and skinny, and only occurs over a 6 week period. Now that is an extreme case with immobility but you get the gist. When you are on holidays you will likely be walking around sight seeing, using stairs and lifting pints of beer, so you will be using your muscles to some degree everyday. If you don't train for a long period of time you will lose your muscle very quickly and that is why it is important to do some exercise while on holidays, and even just a few sessions a week can be beneficial. FACT: muscle is lost quicker than it is gained. Just let that sink in; you could lose months of progress in the matter of weeks..
Alright here are a few training scenarios for you and your much needed holidays.
Less than 1 week Holidays:
If you are going away for less than or up to 1 week, we honestly think it’s not worth worrying yourself over. Working out does make the body feel good so it could be worth doing 1 quick bodyweight workout during your holiday. But then again if you’re being pretty active, swimming, walking around and doing things, then it probably isn’t worth it.
2 week Holiday:
Okay so now you’ve gone away for 2 weeks and you’re not sure if you should workout in this time. First off, you won’t lose significant gains during this time. However, if you train regularly, you will find your body will start to feel pretty crap towards the end of the first week and even more at the end of the 2 weeks. We would recommend trying to fit in at least 1 workout in the first week and then another 1-2 in the second week. This will just keep the muscles moving, joints feeling good and help with some digestion and mental clarity while you’re away.
3-4 weeks:
Now you’re getting into the dangerous territory, where if you don’t do something to maintain your gains, you’ll come back weaker and smaller than before you left. Honestly it doesn’t sound fun but we recommend trying to get at a bare minimum of 1 workout per week. This will help reduce the amount of gains lost. Ideally if you have access to a gym or even body weight, aim to hit 1 workout in the first week, 2 in the second week and then just add a workout until you’re at about 4 workouts per week. This will minimise the loss and maximise maintenance and even gains if you can manage 4 workouts a week :P.
If you have a holiday planned of hiking, kayaking and adventurous stuff, then you can get away with doing less than what we recommend. But at the end of the day, do you want to enjoy yourself? Do you have time and access to do a workout? Do you want to keep the body moving to feel good? It's all up to you and your goals.
5+ Week Holiday:
Well if you do absolutely nothing for the whole 5 weeks you will go back to the gym a lot weaker than before the holiday... It is difficult to train when on holidays but anything that you do while away will help. So use the 1 per week as a starting point then add more if you have time. If you are bored, boom go jim. Use the same principles for the 3-4 weeks but the more you can do will minimise the amount you lose. Honestly you should be trying to find something to do while away here, other wise you're going to feel like absolute dog water, lose gains and lose strength, which no one wants.
Variables
Finally with all of this in mind there are multiple other variables that can play a major role in a holiday. We would say that the biggest thing to happen on a holiday is unnecessary weight gain, and that is because you want to eat out and try all the good restaurants etc etc.. You will get back home and feel like garbage, and feel like you have lost all of your gains. All is not lost because if you did some kind of training while away you wouldn't have lost everything.. It might just be hiding under a couple of kgs of fat. So get back on the diet, add a little extra cardio and you will look like CBUM again in no time.
Next as much as we give you recommendations it is important to note that the goal of training on holidays is maintain/ not lose as much muscle. Some studies do suggest that you can maintain by doing just 1 session per week but we suggest a little more than that for better maintenance. Any training that you do while on holidays will be beneficial for you and extra walking will help keep off the excess kgs that you will put on.. We do know there are some crazy people out there who can still maintain their gym program while away and that takes some real commitment! I think the thing holding a lot of people back is the gym accessibility. A way around this is to join a gym that has locations all around like snap fitness or making sure you stay in a location close to a gym with casual visits OR even better if they have a decent gym in the hotel!!
Most important of all - ENJOY YOUR HOLIDAY!
But also, "don't be a skinny bitch" - CBum
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