Vacation Time!

Yeah, I know your probably a bet jealous. Tomorrow morning, I am headed to Daytona, FL for a week of bikes, beaches, and bicep curls. Well, maybe no the curls. The point of this blog is to go over what you should do when exercising on vacation.

Now, I talked in a previous blog about knowing your goal and periodization. Which means that, if you listened to me, you should know what your doing for a workout a couple weeks in advance. So, if your real good you would plan your vacation week to be your "deload" or "recovery" week. However, some people still just do the same thing every day, or just wing the workout based on what they feel like doing that day.

So, your in Florida, or Cali, or Cancun, or where ever, and you want to workout. Notice, I said want. I actually recommend, if you haven't given your body a solid week off of exercise is over a few months, your body will greatly appreciate the rest. However, the issue with that is when you do that you usually lower your caloric intake. Unfortunately, on vacations our caloric intake is typically doubled or tripled. So don't be shocked to see some weight gain after a week in Cancun of just beer and burritos with no exercise in between.

If you do choose to workout, you have a few options depending on where you are. If your in a nice hotel, you probably have some sort of gym access. Usually all machines due to liability, but if your lucky some hotels do staff their gyms and will have dumbbells. So, in that case you can pretty much do the same thing you were doing before you went on vacation.

If you don't have a gym or not a good gym, then you may be forced to make some changes. I highly recommend bodylastics. They are rubber band resistance training bands that come in package with all different kinds of handles, attachments, and even instructional DVDs that are not actually that bad. They have the ability to put up to 234lbs of resistance, and you can over 134 exercises with them. The kit runs about $90, but if you spend a lot of time in a hotel room, it is definitely worth the investment.

When all else fails, just use your own body. Your body is Heavy. How many pull-ups can you do? Most of you can't do any, and some may be able to get single digits. Now, that's fine, but it just shows you how heavy your body is and how it can be used for weight training.

Here is a sample body weight workout:


20 Prisoner Squats
15 Push-ups
Pull-ups to failure
15 dips
Chin-ups
Plank
10 burpees

Now, you notice that is full-body. With minimal time and options, you are best to do full-body workouts in a situation like this. You can do this 2-6 times, depending on your level of fitness, but it will definitely get you sweating.

As far as cardio goes, there are a few options. My personal favorite would be swimming. Most hotels nowadays have pools, if not, sorry. People are constantly doing cardio on hard pavement, hard treadmills, etc. and it puts a lot of pressure on their ankles, knees, hips, and lower back. Swimming is a great full-body cardio workout that will burn calories like no tomorrow. The best part is, it is non-weight bearing so it gives your joints a break from the pavement and hard treadmills.

My other personal favorite is beach running. If you ever tried running on the beach you know what I'm talking about, it sucks. It is 10x harder then regular running, but burns a ton of calories. This obviously takes some good endurance and some good coordination, but if you are at the appropriate level, it can be great cardio.

So, next time you go on vacation, although you deserve to sit on the beach and sip martinis, try to get even 30 minutes a day in for a good workout. Note, these exercises typically are not high weight, if any weight at all, so your rest periods should be short. With 20-30 minutes you can get an incredible workout.

With loads of laundry and some major packing to do, ill have to cut this short. I will try my best to get a blog or two in while down in Florida, but can't make any promises. I hope you all have a wonderful week and half, and enjoy the cold :)

Best,

Doug Spurling, CSCS, NSCA-CPT
dspurling@une.edu

RANT...Gym Etiquette

Tonight I have to go on a little rant. I worked out for the first time in the evening, after always working out in the early morning. As a result, there were a lot more people in the gym tonight. Some of the things, I saw were unbelievable. People have no gym etiquette!



1. Don't stand two inches away from the mirror. Yeah, I know your biceps are huge, and you can curl 1000lbs, but I can't get to the dumbbells because your so damn close to the rack. Stand a few feet back!



2. Wipe your benches down-I know you like to wear cut-offs and leave a pool of sweat on the bench, but I don't feel like taking a shower every time I lay down on the bench. It takes two seconds to wipe your equipment down.

3. Speaking of cut-offs. I don't care what you wear at the gym, but don't stand in front of the mirror and flex your biceps, and shoe everyone how big your triceps is. Unless your a bodybuilder preparing for competition, you should not be flexing in front of the mirror. I have always wanted to go up to those fools and say, "Hey, flex your right latissimus for me." First of all, I would be lucky if they even knew what muscle I was talking about, and second, I HIGHLY doubt they know how to flex their lat.

4. Don't Curl in the Power/Squat Rack-There called a power and squat rack for a reason. It is designed for exercises that build power, or if your squatting. Sorry, you're not building power curling. Power and squat racks should be used for cleans, deadlifts, bench press, squats, and other olympic lifts.



5. Don't have your DROID out playing the latest hip-hop on speaker- Yeah, Lil' Wayne may be good, but they 45 year old mom next to you doing lunges does not need to hear it. Invest in some headphones please!



6. Put your shit back!-The worst is I go over to the rack to clean or deadlift and their is 400-500lbs on the bar from some clown doing half-ass, incorrect shrugs. Put the plates back on the stand. That goes for every piece of equipment, ropes, medicine balls, foam rollers, everything!



I speak this as both a gym member and a gym employee. I am on both ends, and it is frustrating for both parties. I don't want to clean up after your mess, your not 8, this isn't your house, and I'm not your mom!

Anyways, sorry for the harsh words, but please take my advice. Look forward to tomorrows blog on exercsing when on vacation.



Best,



Doug Spurling, CSCS, NSCA-CPT


dspurling@une.edu

Sprinters throwing fastballs and football players running marathons!!!???

If you want to be a better football player you train like a football player. You train for strength and power and the ability to develop max power for 8-10 seconds with 30-45 seconds rest. If you are a marathon runner you build up enough endurance to run 26+ miles. So, why doesn't everyone train that way? I recently saw a football player at a gym running on a treadmill for a good 30-45 minutes straight at the same pace. Sure, it is better then doing nothing, but is it going to make him a better football player? NO! He would get more benefit from running 10-15 30 yard sprints with a 30 second to a minute break in between. Same thing with a sprinter. Why would you run for multiple miles when in your race you are only running 100meters. You should train to best simulate a game like situation. What happens if you train like a marathon runner instead of a sprinter. Along with building endurance and a much more leaner build you are going to recruit slow twitch muscle fibers instead of fast twitch muscle fibers. As a sprinter it is crucial to have more fast twitch muscle fibers throughout your body then slow twitch muscle fibers. So, train the way you play. If you need to build endurance and run a marathon, run long distances. If you are a football player, lift heavy for power, and complete sprints, not triathlons.

The same thing goes with bodybuilders and power lifters. How your body looks depends on how you lift. I often say, a bodybuilder looks like he can bench 500pounds but a power lifter can press that 500 pounds with ease. A bodybuilder cares how they look, a power lifter cares how much they lift. If you want to look like a bodybuilder you must lift like a bodybuilder. You must complete isolation movements and relatively high reps(8-12) to get the definition. If you lift constantly with ONLY compound movements and low reps(3-6) you are going to look and perform like a power lifter. That is not to say that bodybuilder cannot perform compound movements such as dead lifts, squats and bench press. However, to get the symmetry the judges are looking for isolation movements must be completed. On the other hand, why should power lifters spend there time doing biceps curls? There time would be better spent working on the big three, squat, dead lift, and bench press. They also of course should perform other exercises to supplement the big three such as rack pulls and close grip bench press. However, there time should not be spent performing 1,001 reps of biceps curls.

So, leave with this. If you want to be a good sprinter, train like a sprinter. If you want to be a good football player, train like a football player. If you want to be a bodybuilder, train like a bodybuilder. If you want to be a power lifter, train like a power lifter. Don't forget that. A lot of people want to be a football player but want to look like a bodybuilder. You cant train for explosive power and have the symmetry of a bodybuilder. At the same time you can train isolation movements all the time and have the speed, strength, and power of a football player. Train for what you want to be!

Stay tuned for Wednesday! I am preparing to head down to Daytona, FL with the girlfriend and some friends to enjoy a spring break. I will be blogging about how to workout while your on vacation, and what kinds of things you can do!

Best,

Doug Spurling, CSCS, NSCA-CPT
Spurling Strength & Speed