Vacation doesn’t necessarily mean a break from a healthy lifestyle

Jun 5, 2009 19:31 GMT  ·  By

Going on a holiday is often good enough reason for any of us to forget about everything and just take a couple of days away from the everyday world. Still, as the trainers at The Daily Spark point out, this shouldn’t mean taking a break from a healthy lifestyle as well, since we can still take with us some fitness equipment that is both easy to fit in a suitcase and comes extremely cheap.

It makes perfect sense that we can’t literally take the gym with us on holiday, or even the equipment we use at home, such as dumbbells, stationary bikes or even exercise mats. Still, there are at least three items that are incredibly small, cost under 11 bucks and are also extremely efficient when it comes to fighting the flab and keeping the muscles toned, as the aforementioned e-zine also indicates. Until better ideas come to mind, the first three items we should always make room for in our suitcase are a jump rope, a pedometer and resistance bands.

A jump rope, as we also said on a previous occasion, is the ideal accessory for an active girl. Selling for anywhere between $7 to $15 at the most, a jump rope is perfect for several reasons, being extremely portable also included. Among its many benefits, it improves coordination, leads to strength gain and weight loss, while also being an extremely fun and versatile workout item. There is basically no reason not to pack one in the suitcase and break it out in the hotel room or even outside, in the lobby, provided we have the guts to have a couple of people laughing at us.

We should also remember to pack a pedometer next to the jump rope, since it’s cheap and efficient as well. Granted, some pedometers can literally burn a hole in our pocket, being high-tech gadgets that incorporate GPS and track real-time speed, but there are also cheaper versions that work just as fine, save for some cases when they can be less accurate. “One of the best things about a pedometer is that it motivates you to get moving – to compete against yourself and walk (or run) a little further each day. When you’re traveling, sometimes the last thing you want to do is work out – especially if you’re tired from a business trip or trying to relax and enjoy a vacation. A great alternative to a formal workout is to clip on your pedometer for the day and set a steps goal: somewhere near 10,000 steps is good, but 15,000 steps or more is even better on a day that you didn’t do a planned workout.” trainers suggest.

Motivation and efficiency are also two of the strongest suits of resistance bands, the third item we should pack in our luggage. They occupy very little space, come cheap and usually last for longer periods of time but, what’s most important, resistance bands also work most muscle groups in the most efficient way. As the trainers at The Daily Spark put it, there are countless exercises that can be done with just one single resistance band and that aim to tone several groups of muscles and, come to think of it, there’s no better bargain for $10 or less.