Top Tips to Stay Fit on Holiday (or When the Kids Take Over Your Summer)

Whether you’re lying by the pool in Spain, staying in an Airbnb in Cornwall, escaping to a retreat in Mauritius, or simply trying to survive the school holidays at home, staying fit can suddenly feel a lot harder.

The reality is, it doesn’t have to be.

You don’t need a gym. You don’t need any equipment. You don’t need an hour and a half every day. You just need to make the most of what you’ve got and stop looking for reasons why you can’t exercise.

Here are a few simple tips that genuinely work…

Walk more. 

This is the easiest win of them all. Walk to the shops. Walk the dog. Take the kids to the park. Meet a mate for a coffee and walk there instead of driving. Explore somewhere new. Go for a long walk at the weekend rather than sitting around all afternoon. Two hours of walking can easily get you around 12,000 steps, so it’s not difficult to stay active if you actually make the effort.

And while we’re talking about steps, can we finally stop pretending that 10,000 steps is some magical number? It isn’t. Nothing special suddenly happens when your watch ticks over from 9,999 to 10,000. It’s simply a nice, round target that encourages people to move more. If you do 8,000 one day and 15,000 the next, you’ll survive. Just move.

Get your workout done first thing. 

If you’ve got kids, you already know how the day goes. You wake up with good intentions, then someone needs feeding, someone can’t find their shoes, someone wants to go swimming, someone falls over, and before you know it it’s 8pm and you’ve convinced yourself you’ll train tomorrow. Tomorrow becomes next week.

If you can, get your workout done first thing. That might be on the hotel balcony, by the pool before breakfast, on the beach, in the garden or even in the lounge while everyone else is still asleep. Twenty minutes in the morning is worth far more than the perfect workout that never happens.

Keep it simple with a Tabata workout. 

One of our favourites when we’re away is a simple Tabata session. Download any free Tabata timer app, pick four exercises and crack on. Work for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds, eight rounds. That’s four minutes. Do four different blocks and you’ve got a brilliant 20-minute workout.

Pick exercises that use lots of muscles rather than wasting time isolating tiny muscle groups.

For example:

• Burpees

• Reverse lunges or jumping lunges

• Push-ups or kneeling push-ups

• V-sits, mountain climbers or squat jumps

The aim is to get your heart rate up and make every minute count. One mistake people make is going absolutely mental in the first interval. If you do seven burpees in the first 20 seconds and then spend the next seven rounds wondering whose idea this was, you’ve paced it terribly. Instead, pair a tough exercise with an easier one. Twenty seconds of burpees followed by 20 seconds of bodyweight squats works brilliantly because it lets you recover just enough to keep the intensity high throughout.

Turn family days into active days.

Exercise doesn’t always have to look like exercise. Take the kids to a water park. Hire bikes. Go exploring. Walk around a new city. Visit somewhere like Thorpe Park and you’ll probably do 25,000 to 30,000 steps without even noticing. Spend the day climbing stairs at a water park and your legs will know all about it the following morning. You don’t always need to schedule exercise if your day naturally involves loads of movement.

If you’re short on time, prioritise cardio.

Before anyone starts an argument in the comments, we’re not saying cardio is better than strength training. We’re saying that if you’ve only got half an hour while the kids are occupied and your goal is simply to burn a few calories and maintain your fitness, cardio usually gives you more bang for your buck. Go for a run. Go for a brisk walk. Hire a bike. Go for a swim. When normal life resumes, you can get back under the barbell.

Drink more water.

This sounds obvious, but loads of people get it wrong. When it’s hot, people often think they’re hungry when actually they’re just dehydrated. Drink plenty of water throughout the day, especially if you’re active or spending time in the sun. You’ll generally feel better, recover better and you’ll probably snack less as well.

Don’t let other people sabotage your goals.

We’ve all got that mate –  “You can miss one workout.” “Go on, have another drink.” “You’re on holiday.”

Look, if you want the extra beer, have the extra beer. Holidays are there to be enjoyed.

But don’t do it because someone else thinks you should. Good friends support your goals. They don’t mock you for going for a morning run or choosing water instead of another cocktail. A holiday doesn’t have to mean pressing pause on looking after yourself.

The bottom line: Staying fit over the summer isn’t about perfection. It’s about keeping yourself moving, getting a couple of decent workouts in each week and making sensible choices most of the time. Do that and you’ll come home feeling good, rather than spending the first week back wondering where your fitness disappeared to.

The Move Well Coaching Team 

Back from your holiday and ready to make real progress? Sign up for our £49 1-month unlimited trial.