We've all done it. You find yourself working out every day, making great progress and then you skip a day. Before you know what has happened, you haven't been to the gym in three months and things are getting jiggly. To get anywhere on the road to fitness, consistency is king. Vacations are an excuse to forget all about our daily routines and eat massive quanitities of crap that we would never eat otherwise. When we come home our good habits are broken and the bad ones must once again be broken.

Part of the reason this happens on vacation, holidays or even when we are too busy to work out is that we don't have access to gym equipment. Our routine gets thrown out the window and picking it up becomes more of a chore than if we had never dropped it at all. I propose, a toned down version of our usual activities to keep us on track. I'm constantly looking for new ways to incorporate into my idea of vacation fitness. Some working out is better than none and if anything it will get us out of bed and moving. The most important factor many people don't realize is crucial to both weight loss and working out effectively is to increase the heart rate and to keep it accellerated for the entire work out. Believe it or not, to achieve this doesn't require a gym or any equipment. All it requires is some basic movements and a bit of stamina. I used to think that workout videos were for women. Real men don't do aerobics, they bench, grunt and curl plates. Wrong. I decided to try out a Denise Austin workout DVD my girlfriend had lying about one day as I didn't have time for the gym. I like to think I'm in good shape as I work out at the gym at least three times a week. I barely got through two sessions panting and sweating. After this, I took it as a challenge to take out the whole DVD. I learned something from this. Aerobic activity hurts a lot. It hurts because it works, your lungs burn, you sweat like hell and when your done your heart rate has been easily ramped up like it should be during a workout.

My girlfriend's personal trainer told me this is why a lot of guys hit the gym constantly and manage to develop big arms but maintain a bulging gut. Resting for long periods of time between sets allows your heart rate to slow and you burn far less calories. When I found out about this I shortened my rests in between conciously and my workouts were far better because of it. When you know that you will be away from your usual workout places for a long time, bring an aerobics DVD. You can practically fit this in a jacket pocket and as long as you have a DVD player your golden. I actually memorized a bunch of moves from mine so I don't even need it. I finished them an hour ago after three sets of pushups and two different types of situps. When you are hot after a workout you know you've done a good job because your heart rate has increased from the intensity.

Here are some good ideas for vacation fitness that I use to keep up a work out schedule and curb the holiday gut. Push ups are a staple for a great workout when you don't have access to gym equipment because they are what is known as a compound movement. This means that they work out many muscle groups at the same time. Chest, shoulders, and back are all effected by this exercise. By elevating your feet while you do pushups you train the muscles at the top of your chest and achieve the same effect as you would on an incline press. By doing pushups by placing your hands on an elevated surface, such as a step or a bed rail (that will hold you and is thick enough to be comfortable) you work out the muscles at the bottom of your chest. This achieves the same effect as you would get on the decline press machine at the gym. Another easy muscle group to keep in shape on vacation is the abs. There is a lot of confusion on the correct way to perform a sit up. My favorite as of late has been a two tiered attack. The first type is for the upper abs and is done by laying on your back with your hands behind your head. The legs are crossed and curled up so the knees are at a 90 degree angle. These crunches are then done slowly and the elbows are brought up to touch the knees fifteen times for three sets concentrating on the tension in the upper abs each time.

The second attack on the abs concentrates on the lower. For this type, lay flat on your back with your hands on the floor next to you. Next, lift the legs up so they are at a 90 degree angle. When you let your legs down to lay on the floor, let them fall but try to stop that fall by tightening your lower ab muscles. This exercise can be done by a partner pushing your feet forcefully down but you can do it alone. Do this 15 times for three sets and your abs will be screaming. To top things off, luggage can make a descent set of weights for doing reverse curls. This type of curl does the forearms as well as the biceps. Simply stand up your wheeled luggage and put in the appoprate amount of clothing you believe you will need to adjust the weight. Grab the handle with and overhand grip and slowly curl it as you would a weight. Keep your back straight and do the movement slowly feeling every rep. Switch arms.

Although these suggestions will never truly replace an intense exercise program with proper equipment the point is to keep us in the right frame of mind. Consistency in workouts is important because it's easy to stop going to the gym. Also muscles that are not used do not retain their firmness or ability. Working out a bit a few times a week will keep it fresh in the mind so we don't lose three months. The best type of vacation fitness one can do in a hotel room would definitely be a form of aerobics. An intense 45 minute session of combination kicks, lunges, twisting, bending and possibly even a few dance moves will work out almost every muscle you have and the intensity of it will raise your heart rate and therefore burn calories. Why wait to start reshaping things when you get home? You can be lazy and eat crap the other 23 hours and 15 minutes of you vacation day. Get up and burn off a freakin cookie or two!! The jolt you get from the workout may be enough that you don't want to sit around and may feel like going out for a bit more intense vacation activity like snorkeling, renting bikes, or site seeing.  We work hard for our vacations dammit, and going somewhere nice includes seeing it.  Why not experience what is has to offer while your there?