Hello all and welcome to the next blog. This one comes from a guest this week in personal trainer Michelle Nino based in Wigan, UK.

So, you’ve worked hard getting the beach body, and when holiday time comes it’s great to slip on that swimsuit and wait for the admiring glances by the pool. But unless you’ve planned an active vacation, a fortnight of good food and drink and lounging around could spell the start of a major lapse.

After two weeks of inactivity, you start to lose fitness. Once lost, it can take up to three times as long to regain.

So, without spoiling the holiday mood, what’s the minimum you can do to maintain your fitness? Two 20-30 minute high intensity, circuit-style workouts per week should be enough. You won’t have taken your weights on holiday, so here’s a bodyweight ‘500 rep circuit’ for you to try. This workout can also be done in your lunch hour when you get back home, too:

Warm up: start off with a five minute walk or a couple of minutes marching on the spot.

Loosening up:

Shoulder Rolls Forwards x 5

Shoulder Rolls Backwards x 5

Arm Circles Forwards x 5

Arm Circles Backwards x 5

Main Exercises – 20 reps of each:

Squat

Mountain Climber

Push Up

Triangles (In push up position, jump feet in and out, like a prone jumping jack)

Crunch

Bicycle Crunch (Elbows to Knees)

Side to Side Jumps

High Knee March with Arm Pulldown

Bridge Lifts

Leg V’s (Lying on back, legs up and in a ‘V’, bringing feet together and back out)

Cherry Picking (arms out straight at the sides, opening and closing fingers 20x)

Plank with Leg Lifts

Repeat the Main Exercises Twice. Don’t forget to finish off with some gentle stretching.

If you’re particularly keen, you can always pack a resistance band, too. Stick to big moves which are a more efficient use of your time: upright rows combined with squats, for example.

It will be so much easier to resume your exercise routine when you get home if you’ve at least been a little bit active on holiday. Remember – a beach body is for life, not just for holidays.

Thanks for reading and feel free to find out more about Michelle at her website.

See you all soon for another blog

Anthony