Should You Workout While on Vacation? Here’s How to Decide

"One must maintain a little bit of summer, even in the middle of winter." — Henry David Thoreau

Now that it's officially summer, you probably have some travel coming up soon.

And if so, you might be pondering whether or not you should plan on exercising while on vacation...?

There's one camp that will reassure you that you deserve to rest and that you should take vacation completely off from training. 🏖️

While the other camp will insist that 'beast mode' must remain activated at all times and therefore you must absolutely stick to your routine. 🏋️‍♀️

And then there's me over here, factoring in context and nuance (how dare I? 🙄), to tell you that..."It depends".

Now I know that's an incredibly disappointing piece of advice,

But before we can answer the age-old question of "To Train or Not to Train",

We need to consider the following:

1. What are your goals?

2. What's your history with exercise?

3. What's your relationship with exercise?

4. How long (and busy) is your vacation?

5. How frequently do you travel?

1) What are your goals?

If you are training for a specific event or have a time sensitive goal, you'll probably want to stick to your plan.

But, if your main purpose for exercise is to promote general health and wellness, a few days off won't have a major impact.

2) What's your history with exercise?

If you have a long history of training consistently, taking time off while traveling isn't likely to interfere with your ability to get back to your routine once you return.

But, if you've had many 'start/stop' periods of exercise in the past, then it might be best for you to keep your routine (or a modified version) in order to reinforce this new habit.

3) What's your relationship with exercise?

Does the idea of missing a workout cause you to feel anxious or stressed? If so, it might be a valuable to take time off so that you can practice a more flexible mindset around exercise.

Does exercise feel like something you HAVE TO do? If so, it might be valuable to seek out activities that involve physical movement like walking tours, hiking, bike rentals, etc so that you can practice seeing exercise as something you look forward to and WANT TO do.

4) How long (and busy) is your vacation?

If your trip is short, you can try 'front or back loading' your weeks by getting a few more workouts in the days leading up to or after your vacation.

If you'll be visiting multiple locations with frequent travel days, your body might want movement to counteract long periods of sitting OR it might want extra rest after many nights of crappy airplane sleep.

If you'll be in one location for a long period of time, you may be able to get a short term membership at a local gym (which can also be a really fun way to get to know more about the area).

5) How frequently do you travel?

If you rarely go on vacation, you might want to take full advantage of the opportunity and dedicate all of your time to exploring a new place.

But if you travel frequently for work, you might want to maintain your normal routine as close as possible since working out while traveling is something you're already used to (or will need to get used to).

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So, should or shouldn't you workout while on vacation...?

You can see why my answer is 'it depends' now, right? 😜

Which is why black/white health and wellness advice isn't very helpful.

What IS helpful is having a set of clear processes and tools to use for goal setting, action planning, decision making and overcoming obstacles.

And it just so happens that working with a coach can help you build all of those things. 😉

Keep an eye out in the coming weeks for some new opportunities to work together. 👀

But in the meantime,

Will you be working out on vacation?