Managing Exercise and Excess When on Vacation
Everyone needs a vacation, but some worry that taking a break from working out while on vacation could wreak havoc on the body. While you may think a week off from the gym might mean your body will turn into a blob, fret not a week off could be a good thing.
Taking a break from working out can be good for the body and is ok to do so while on vacation. But for those worrying about weight gain, a week will not do too much harm to the body as long as you don't go too crazy in the diet department.
In a recent article in Reuters Mark Hendricks, the group fitness manager at an Equinox fitness center in New York, explains how a work-out break is ok:
A week's vacation, which is generally what most people take, will make no difference in your cardio vascular fitness. I don't think it's necessarily such a bad thing to take a week off and let your body recover from all the workouts.He also adds that gaining a significant amount of weight in one week is unlikely but ok:
And if you do gain a few, they will come off just as quickly when you get back on your routine
The important thing when on vacation is to not feel guilty about taking a break or worry that something bad will happen. A good way to combat this is to stay active while on vacation. Swim around in the pool, go for a hike, explore where you are traveling to. Hendrinks states that this is a good time to break for the normal routine and try different activities.
Another component to vacationing is the food. A good rule of thumb is to try and eat healthy majority of the time but allow yourself some indulgences so you can enjoy the cuisine from the place when you are traveling to.