Four ways to keep up your fitness streak on holiday

The most bittersweet feeling in the world has to be the moment when you’ve been on a great run at the gym, meeting all your fitness goals, staying consistent with all your training sessions and meal plans - and then the time comes to go away on holiday.

Is the thrill of travelling worth losing all that progress?

Well, luckily, it doesn’t have to be one or the other. Here are some tips for maintaining your fitness streak while on holiday.

1. Look into short-term gym memberships

Just about the best-case scenario you could hope for would be that your hotel or resort has its own gym (even better when that gym is actually kitted out with decent equipment).

Hotel gyms will generally be free for guests, or else accessible for a small fee. If this is the position you find yourself in, thank your lucky stars. The universe is working in your favour.

In case you’re not that blessed, your next step should be to investigate the local area and see if there’s a gym nearby which does short-term memberships or runs a pay-as-you-go scheme. These are fairly common in most popular resorts.

2. See what the local terrain has to offer

As useful as it is to have a fully stocked gym on hand, there’s no reason to despair if you don’t.

One of the best ways to ensure you can always get a good workout on holiday is to get really comfortable with bodyweight training and to use the holiday as a fun way to mix things up.

Look for trees or climbing frames in the local park which can be used for doing pull-ups, or for good places to do a morning sprint session. Pushups can be done anywhere, as can squats, and all you need to churn out some dips are a couple of chairs.

3. Pick up some portable workout equipment

If you’re planning to travel to a place where there’s not likely to be much in the way of a gym, or a workout-friendly local environment (if you’re travelling somewhere really cold in mid-winter, or staying in a bad part of town, for example), there’s still hope.

That hope comes in the form of portable exercise equipment that you can easily throw into a suitcase and use to get a good, varied workout session, right in your hotel room.

This could include different types of resistance bands to allow you to do isolation exercises like bicep curls or triceps extensions, portable pull-up bars and frames which can you can fit to doorframes without any screws needed, or inflatable exercise balls for core work.

With a little creativity and a bit of cash spent, you’ll be able to turn any hotel room into a mini-gym. You may not set a new deadlift PR training this way, but you will keep your muscles engaged, and may even improve your overall strength by shocking your body with a new physical stimulus.

For short but effective workout ideas, check out a free workouts section. 

4. Take your nutrition seriously

Any loss of strength, size, or overall fitness you experience on holiday (as well as any excess fat you gain) is likely down to one thing above and before all others: poor nutrition.

All physical development is largely dependent on good nutrition, and a holiday is one of those times when nutrition flies out the window.

Some people tend to under-eat while travelling, some overeat, and almost all disregard the balance of macro and micronutrients they’re taking in while on holiday.

Although no one’s saying you shouldn’t enjoy your meals out, or sample the local cuisine, you should still be mindful of your overall nutritional goals.

If your focus is on building muscle, ensure you get as much protein in your meals as possible. If you’re after fat loss, try to limit how much you indulge in the local desserts, and think long and hard about trading out the bread basket for the salad bowl.

It’s also a good idea to take a multivitamin with you on holiday, to prevent yourself from developing any nutrient deficiencies.