People love to tell me, “Life is about balance.” Unfortunately, I tossed that saying out the window many years ago after I left the friendly confines of undergrad life in Boulder, Colorado. That’s when balance appeared to leave, replaced by the ebb and flow of life. Some days insanely busy, others relaxing enough that you can tolerate the oftentimes turbulent ways of reality. As I currently experience my own personal down time, a week away on the Celebrity Solstice, I’ve found the “balance equation” dramatically tilted in my favor unlike ever before. I have a tremendous staff on the ship that takes care of my every need. There are pools and relaxation areas at every corner. A casino to fulfill any gambling vices. A theater for entertainment. An internet cafe so I can blog. And some of the best food I’ve ever tasted in my life (and enough protein to fill my dreams..and that of Alan Aragon).
All of this makes my day’s almost too good to be true, and a much needed change of pace from what I typically do. But its also presented a different problem: What about exercise? As fitness editor, it’s essential that I not only share the information from some of the brightest minds in the world, but also practice what I preach. So even when relaxing and my life’s balance is tipped in my favor, there still seems like there’s no time to exercise (because I’d rather be relaxing). But that’s just another excuse. I’m lucky that the ship has a exercise facility with enough equipment to fulfill my needs. But no matter where you are, it’s still easy to squeeze in a workout, whether it includes weights, cardio, or just bodyweight movements. I already mentioned in my last post that some of my exercise is fulfilled with other activities, like swimming and basketball. But resistance training is still the best way to build muscle and lose fat (yes, even better than traditional cardio).
On vacation? That's no excuse to stop challenging your body.
Today, the need for fitness was even greater than usual. While I typically find a way to avoid the lure of many of the treats on the ship, I stopped by Bistro on Five (a specialty restaurant on the ship), and enjoyed crepes, crepes, and more crepes. That meant heading to the gym for an afternoon upper body session followed by some conditioning. This week I’ve split my workouts between full body days, upper body, and lower body workouts. Here’s today’s workout. In each circuit, rest 30 seconds between exercises, and then rest 2 minutes after completing the entire circuit before repeating again.
Dynamic warmup: 10 minutes of total body exercises
Circuit 1:
1A)Flat dumbbell bench press 4 x 10
1B) Weighted pullups 4 x 8
1C)Planks 4 x 60 second holds
2A) Incline bench press 3 x 6
2B) Dumbbell rows 3 x 10
2C) Cross-body mountain climbers 3 x 45 seconds
3A)YTWLI 2 x 12 reps each
3B) Swiss ball rollouts
Conditioning: Treadmill sprints: 30 seconds sprint/30 second jog–8 intervals
