Vacation is no reason to halt fitness routine
Posted on Monday, July 21, 2008
With some preparation, I was able to keep up my fitness routine during a five-day family vacation at Walt Disney World.
Planning a cardiovascular workout was no problem. I’d heard that walking the entire loop around Epcot was something like 22 miles (and I might be carrying our 35-pound 4-year-old ). Walking to the bus terminal and our room was going to be almost a mile, and a nightly dip in the pool could include some running in place and leg lifts.
My remaining question was how to get in the strength training and stretching that would be needed before a long day. It was no different than being at home. If I didn’t get it in before the day got going, then it wouldn’t happen.
I created a mini gym in my book bag and filled it with a resistance tubing band with the handles, my workout clothes and sneakers, a portable DVD player and two DVDs — Workout: One-on-One Training With Jackie (for strength training ) and 10 Minute Solution Slim & Sculpt Pilates (for strength and flexibility ). If you don’t have a portable DVD player, most hotels will put one in your room if you call ahead or ask at check-in.
The Workout DVD was created by the buff Jackie Warner, who owns Skysport & Spa in Beverly Hills, Calif., and is on the TV show Workout on Bravo. It’s a 60-minute routine broken into three 20-minute segments — upper body, lower body and core.
Each workout consists of a warm-up, cool-down and three or four strength moves, like pushups, crunches and lunges for 60 seconds, and then a 60-second heart-rate booster such as jumping jacks, mountain climbers and frog hops. The DVD recommends using weights, but you can easily modify each move and use resistance tubing.
Some of the exercises and the length of time spent on each muscle group may be difficult for beginners.
The Pilates DVD helped the muscles that had to work hard at the amusement park. My legs and thighs ached from all the walking, and my back and shoulders hurt from carrying my son or pushing the stroller and carrying a backpack full of supplies.
This 54-minute workout is broken into five 10-minute Pilates routines that can be mixed and matched to work the entire body. The segments focus on upper body, lower body, abdominals, total body and flexibility. A bonus is the 6-foot purple resistance band that comes included.
I woke up an hour before my husband and son every day and put my little black DVD player on the table in the corner while I worked out in a space about the size of a bathtub. The DVD was lighted from the sun peeking in below the closed curtain.
So the conditions were not spectacular, and I have a scar on my foot from stepping on a plastic green army guy we got from Hollywood Studios.
But it was better than doing nothing at all. I had the energy I needed to chase down buses, grab my son away from every sidecart full of toys and goodies, and to carry him when he couldn’t see the action from his stroller.
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