By Jane Sandwood
There are a lot of ways to get a quick workout in while you’re on vacation—but do you really have to?
Well, if you have been consistently putting in the work for quite some time now and are already pretty fit, then studies show that you may be able to get away with taking as much as three weeks off from training before you start seeing any decline in your endurance, strength and muscle mass.
So, to answer the question at the beginning of this article: no, you don’t have to unless you want to. Keep in mind that even if you don’t actually hit the gym during your trip, you’ll still probably end up burning a whole lot of calories anyway.
You’ll be walking a lot
One of the best ways to make the most of an out-of-town trip is to just walk around to take in as much of the destination as possible. But walking does not burn a lot of calories, right? Well, it will if you do it all day every day, especially if you add carrying a lot of shopping bags to the mix.
Bonus points if you also take the stairs whenever you can.
Sure, doing so will not help you build more muscle, but it will definitely keep you from putting on a whole lot of fat. The sheer number of steps you’ll be taking each day would make it virtually impossible.
Pay attention to the food
Even if you decide to spend majority of your vacation sitting or lying down, you could still stay in pretty good shape provided you don’t go overboard in terms of your daily caloric intake. After all, fat gain still has more to do with your diet than your exercise program.
The good news is that experts say you could get away with eating clean just around 80% of the time—unless you’re looking to compete professionally as a bodybuilder—so you don’t really have to keep yourself from enjoying your destination’s local delicacies.
Besides, good food is not always unhealthy. Just be sure to pick delicious but relatively healthier dishes most of the time and you’ll be fine.
The fitter you are, the faster you’ll recover
The good news is that even if, for some reason, you start to lose muscle during your vacation, it still should not be that big of an issue. You see, there’s this thing called muscle memory, and it refers to the ability of your body to not only hold on to your muscles for an extended period of time after you stop training, but also get them back faster once you start lifting again.
So, as long as you already have a pretty solid foundation before going on vacation, you should be able to keep muscle loss to a minimum and quickly get everything back as soon as you get home.
Deloads are good for you
First things first: what is a deload?
Simply put, it refers to the process of taking a break from from extended periods of intense training to give the body time to recover fully and come back bigger and stronger.
It is typically done either by significantly cutting the total work volume (i.e., the weight x the number of reps x the number of sets) you do in the gym or just completely staying away from any form of intense physical activity for a couple of weeks—which is exactly what going on vacation allows you to do.
But why exactly is it good for you?
Well, it all boils down to more recovery. You see, while taking a couple of days off in between training sessions should, in theory, allow your body to recover, in most cases, it is not really able to do so completely—especially if you train hard all the time.
Over time, the accumulated damage could not only cause you to stop progressing, but also increase your risk for injury. Doing deloads from time to time allows you to prevent all of this from happening.
It’s okay to let loose once in a while
At the end of the day, you don’t really have to worry about losing all your gains if you’re only going on vacation for a week or two. If you’re already in good shape, then your body won’t really significantly change even if you don’t workout or eat healthy the whole time you’re away.
On the other hand, if you’re just starting out, then you don’t really have a lot to lose anyway. In any case, the goal of going on vacation is to relax and have fun. Don’t let your workout and diet keep you from doing so. Besides, training breaks normally lead to better results in the long run anyway.
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