5 ways to stay lean and gain muscle on holiday
Are you worried about losing that hard-earned muscle when you go on
holiday this summer?
Do you want to arrive home looking and feeling better than before you
went away?
Then you are going to want to read this and find out how using a few
simple strategies can help you maintain or improve what you have worked so hard
for in the gym.
Lets face it most of us if not all train hard all year round only to go
and lose everything we’ve gained within that short 7 day holiday we cant wait
to go on. Only to come back looking exactly the same as what we did 12 months
ago feeling depressed about our physiques and that we have to do it all over
again.
Well how would you feel if I told you that you can afford to eat huge
cheat meals everyday on holiday and not have to worry about it?
Or continue progressing with your training improving or at least
maintaining your physique and conditioning.
Well by applying a few simple protocols all this is possible and you can
go back home still looking and feeling great. Read my 5 tips below on how to
maintain muscle and stay lean while on holiday and put them into practice.
1. Keep Protein
Levels High
When we travel away on business or spend some time in the sun one thing
we tend to neglect is the amount of protein we consume each day compared to
when we are in our everyday routine sometimes counting every calorie! It’s
often far to easy to switch the protein out and replace it with as many comfort
foods as you can. But this comes at a cost.
Without a sufficient amount of protein we are likely to lose muscle,
which is the last thing we want. So aiming for foods such as Greek yoghurt,
Lean Meats, Protein Powders, Fruits, Nuts is crucial.
2. Do Interval
Training
Whether you are looking to gain weight, lose weight or just maintain we
always want to keep our body fat % as low as possible and a great way to do
this is through Interval training.
Why?
Interval training is shown to be a far greater method of burning
calories that long steady state cardio. This is because it creates an after
burn effect meaning you continue to burn calories after your workout for
sometimes up to 72 hours later as your metabolism is given such a boost it can
take it that long to return back to a normal level. Also you only need to work
for around a 20 minute period to get this effect making Interval training a
great go to option for exercising when you are away. Another great benefit is
that due to the energy systems that are used in interval training it helps to
keep you anabolic meaning you are less likely to break down muscle.
3. Try
Intermittent Fasting
A typical dieting solution that might work for you whilst travelling as
well is intermittent fasting. This reason for this is that you are likely to be
skipping meals whilst you are away so using this technique means you don’t have
to worry about your metabolism being effected by not managing to eat at your
regular intervals and here’s how it works; -
Basically you eat your days worth of calories in a selected window
during the day. Usually an 8-hour period for men and 10 for women. This means
that for the rest of the day you are fasting, which helps to reduce fat storage
as fasting has great fat burning effects.
The reason this can be very beneficial for most people is because
generally when we are on holiday or travelling our meals tend to be a lot
bigger so therefore by intermittent fasting you can still afford to have
perhaps two big meals that you will enjoy eating out and not blow your calorie
goal into oblivion.
4. Work Out in
your hotel room
That’s right you don’t need a gym to get a good workout in while you’re
away. If where you are staying has a gym or if there is one close by that you
can get a pass for then go for it. But why not start your day off with a quick
full body circuit or HIIT workout in your room or on the balcony if you have
one.
My Advice would be to use the tabata style protocol where you exercise
at your maximum intensity for a period of 20 seconds followed by a 10 second
rest period. You then repeat this a further 7 times meaning you will have
completed 8 x 20 Second bursts. This is one complete round of tabata. Rest
around 2-3 minutes and aim to do 3-5 rounds of this.
Tabata is so effective in creating that after burn effect I mentioned
earlier making it the perfect choice. Also because you are working at maximum
intensity it ensures you stay in a catabolic state and will not break muscle
down (you can even gain some).
With regards to exercise choices just select any of the following;-
Press ups, Bear Crawls, Squat Jumps, Crunches, Leg Raises, Burpees, Froggers,
Inch Worms.
I would recommend selecting 4 exercises and just repeating each one
during the round the make the 8 x 20 Second intervals. But be creative and
select some of your own exercises too and like I said you definitely don’t need
more than a hotel room to do this! My Super HIIT workout available on my
website here - http://bit.ly/2bnI0z6 is a great plan
to take on holiday with you.
5. Workout before
a meal
Do you want to gain some “free” calories in the day? Don’t we all! Then
working out before a meal is a great idea and here’s why…
When you workout your body uses all of its energy stores in the muscles
(Glycogen we take from carbohydrates). Therefore with these stores being
completely depleted from a HIIT workout we need to replenish them and we need
to eat carbohydrates to do this. So you are almost entitled to a cheat free
meal as you wont store any carbohydrates as body fat until your glycogen stores
are replenished. Go easy though!
As you can see by implementing a few simple strategies into your daily
routine when you are travelling you can be sure to come back feeling like you
have maintained most of what you worked long and hard for before you went.
Hopefully this will be useful for the majority of you and remember any
further questions just ask.
E
