The festive season is the one of the few times that most people get to spend quality time with family and friends, as well as travel. This means not going to the gym as frequently as you’re used to. However, that doesn’t mean you should stop working out and taking care of your body.
Personal trainer and fitness expert Donovan Rabie suggests the following easy exercises that you can do while on holiday without any equipment:
1. Push-ups
Place your hands double shoulder width apart, feet together, toes pushing into the floor and knees off the floor. Your head, back and bum should form a straight line. The only parts that should move are your shoulders and elbows. Everything stays in a straight line.
The downward phase begins by unlocking your elbows and bending them outward. This action makes the body move down toward the floor. Don’t drop your hips as you go down. Go down as far as you can or imagine there’s a coke can on the floor in line with your chest; when you reach the imaginary can, stop.
Pause for one second so that all momentum stops. Now push your hands hard into the ground as if you want to push the floor away from you. This action brings you all the way back up. If done properly and with good form, this excellent exercise will work your shoulders, triceps, chest, abs and lower back.
2. Squats
Place your feet double shoulder width apart, with your feet pointing slightly outward. Start by fixing your gaze in front and then as your body lowers, let your gaze stay on a point on the floor about three meters away from you. Unhinge your hips and lower your body as if to sit on a chair.
Let your knees and hips bend. As you do so, make sure you push your bum backwards, as if sitting on a chair. Don’t allow your knees to go past the end of your toes. If your hips are moving backwards, then your back will most likely arch forwards in order to balance the leverage from your hips. This is fine, but you must make sure that your back is straight. An easy way to ensure this is to tense your lower back. To do this, just twist your hips up as if you want your bum to angle higher. As you lower yourself, make sure your knees don’t sway inwards.
If you’re a beginner, lower your hips until your quads are either parallel to the floor or slightly higher. Stop the momentum completely for one second. At this point, your head should be slightly pointed toward the floor and your gaze about one metre in front of you.
Now you are ready to begin the upward phase. With your back straight and at a slight angle, tighten your abs, push hard into the ground with your heels as if to stand back up again. Feel how hard your quads want to work. You should also be able to feel your abs fully engaged as they try and assist your attempts to keep your back straight.
3. Side crunches
Lie down on your back, with your knees up and your feet flat on the floor. Now lift your right leg and cross it over the left knee so that the outside of your foot is sitting on the knee. With your hands placed behind your ears, lift your left elbow and reach for the right knee. Make sure your right elbow stays firmly on the ground while doing this. You should feel your tummy squeeze very tightly.
Try and get your elbow to touch your knee. Once you can go no further, hold that position for one second, then lower your elbow back to the ground. Perform 20 repetitions on that side before swapping leg positions and repeating on the other side.
