The gym in summer is very lazy. Well, in Euskadi not so much, basically because we don't have summer. We have a kind of autumnal spring in which the day the sun comes out we keep in our memory as if it were the day of our life, the best day of our life.
So in these parts, not going to the gym because of the heat is a bad excuse. But it is true that our habits relax, we feel less obliged to comply with the plans we have planned and we leave the strength work a little aside. Wrong. It is not necessary to work out like Silvester Stallone, but neither should we lie down and think that in this fine body and strength business we can live off the rents.
Oh, if only you could! But no. We can lower the intensity, skip a day or two, but abandoning strength training is not a good idea. Especially since we'll soon be back to our training plans and routines, and if we've completely abandoned the work, it's going to be much harder to get back to it. You have to see how quickly you lose your form and how hard it is to regain it.
Things get even more complicated if we leave our usual home and head to a summer resort. Arriving at the destination and looking for a gym nearby can cause us some problems unless we have a partner or a family that leaves us for impossible. Otherwise, to dispense with some vacation plans to go to work the force can cost us some other "disagreement", and the vacations are not a time to discuss but to relax.
Since it's not about talking about problems but to propose solutions to the ones we face, here's my way of not giving up what I like to do and that, yes, has almost become a necessity. There is no reason to give up the sport even when you go out for the summer.
If I'm going to stay in a hotel for a week or two, I look for one that has a gym. That's it. I don't have to leave the environment to continue with my daily plan. Of course, in order not to interfere with the family's plans, I have to get up earlier than the others. You can't expect to get up at eleven in the morning to go down to the gym and have everyone else waiting for you. That would be the easiest way to start the day with a grumble. To avoid it, if the plan is to have breakfast at nine, for example, you get up at seven, run, do your strength training planks, stretch and at the appointed time you are like a brush in the hotel restaurant for a perfect post-workout refreshment.
And if there is no gym?
Then we apply Plan B. Full libre training.
We have it very easy to run because we will surely be in a new place to get to know with the help of our running shoes. And if it is not, we will enjoy doing miles on unusual paths. There is no excuse here. Of course we can relax, go at a different pace, go out less days if we don't feel like it, etc. But if we want to continue training we can do it in an enjoyable way.
The strength
Not having a gym at hand has to make us work our heads to find ways to work it only and exclusively with our own body or with the alternatives that nature or urban furniture gives us.
In addition to the shoes, I always carry a TRX in my suitcase. It's a non-elastic adjustable harness that attaches to an attachment point that can be a wall, a door, a tree or any other high, strong and static surface. I bought mine in one of those big sporting goods stores for only 19 euros. It always goes with me because it gives the possibility to work all parts of the body even without leaving the room, can be collected and carried in a small bag and takes up little space. As a plus I will say that I find training with TRX very fun.
Abdominals
There is no excuse here. You can lie down anywhere and spend some time working on your six pack. I usually do them in a field. Lying down on the grass after a good run is wonderful. Especially if you do it first thing in the morning and the gardeners have taken care of trimming the grass. There is a fresh smell that together with the endorphins obtained from the training gives you energy and joy for the rest of the day. You don't need anything more than the desire and your own body. Oblique, lower, upper... all in the same space and only with your strength and will. Remember that belly fat can not be lowered only by doing these exercises, no matter how many miles we do every day.
They must be combined with aerobic exercise and a good diet.
Stretching
A wall, a bench, a statue, the curbs, stairs, railings ... absolutely everything we have around us can serve to stretch and return to our vacation plan with all the work done. From the soleus to the cervical through the rest of the body we can stretch without using any device.
We have already gotten up early, warmed up, done some running technique, trained, worked on our strength and stretched without having to spend money or use anything foreign to our body.
Now we can, with the energy and joy that physical exercise has given us, face another great day of vacation.
Let's go for it!
