What’s going on, guys? Sean Nalewanyj, www.SeanNal.com and I figured with summer coming up this would
be a good topic to cover, so I want to talk a little bit about bodybuilding while on vacation.
So what are some tips you can follow to either stay completely on track with your fitness
plan while you’re away or at least not fall too far off track depending on how you personally
want to approach it. Now, the first that I would mention here is to keep in mind that
a vacation is exactly that it’s a vacation, so it’s all good that you are dedicated
to your body building and fitness plan but at the same time if you get overly excessive
about it then you can kind of end up defeating the purpose of the vacation in the first place
because you won’t be able to truly relaxed and unwind and have a good time. Because all
you’ll be thinking about is hitting the gym and hitting your macros and not doing
things that are going to negatively impact your physique. And you’ll just have that
subtle background stress the whole time that you’re away. Also keep in mind that exactly
how closely you’ll need to monitor your training and nutrition while you’re away
largely depends on how long your vacation is. For example, if all you’re doing is
going out of town for a few days or even a week, that’s probably not going to be long
enough to have any serious impact on your results as long as you’re not going totally
off the charts eating eight thousand plus calories a day. Your body’s levels of muscle
mass and fat mass are not going to change significantly over night and letting loose
a bit over the short term is highly unlikely to truly damage your physique. Not to mention
that any minor damage that might occur in terms of fat gain or muscle loss, that can
be really quickly reversed once you get back to your regular training and diet. Now, on
the other hand if your vacation is going to be lasting for a longer period of time, say
two to four weeks or more, then it becomes more important for you to dial things n a
bit more closely if you don’t want to fall too far off track. So, some actual practical
tips: On the training end of things, the first question that you need to ask is, do you really
even need to work out while you’re on vacation. A lot people think that their muscle are just
going to start rapidly wasting away the minute that they stop training but the reality is
that as long as your diet is somewhat on point. Meaning that you’re eating at least somewhere
around your maintenance calories and you’re getting enough total daily protein, which
is pretty easy to do, as long as you’re doing that then muscle loss won’t actually
occur until about two weeks of inactivity. And even then it’s a pretty slow and gradual
process from week to week. You’ll probably notice a small visual difference, you know,
you won’t be quite as full looking or quite as defined because of that period of inactivity
where your muscles basically become less activated, some of the inflammation goes down, there
can be changes in glycogen and water levels but that’s not a result of actual losses
in lean muscle tissue. And it will come back very quickly once you start training again.
So if your vacation is only going to be for a short time period of one to two weeks and
you’d prefer to just kick back and relax completely then that is a perfectly viable
option. In fact, I actually recommend that people take a full rest week from the gym
after six to twelve weeks of consistent training anyway, or at least a deload. So if you can
tying things out according to that then there’s no need to feel any guilt whatsoever for not
training while you’re away. Because taking regularly scheduled rest week is probably
going to be beneficial to you over the long term. Now, if your vacation is going to be
over a longer period of time, or you just really enjoy hitting the gym and you want
to keep that consistency going then there are a couple of things you can do. If you
have access to a fully equipped gym and you’re perfectly happy continuing with your normal
workout routine then you can go ahead and do that. But if you want to as efficient as
possible without detracting from your vacation time then what you want to do is condense
your workout down to the most basic essentials. I would say that the simplest way of doing
that is with a fullbody routine done twice per week or an upper-lower split also done
twice per week. Even a fullbody workout done once per week will probably be enough to fully
maintain your levels of strength and muscle mass as long as you employ enough total volume
and total intensity. So keep your workout focused around the big basic compound movements
that hit multiple muscle groups at the same time so that you can get the most bang for
your buck. You might not have access to the best gym equipment depending on where you’re
staying so you just have to make the best of it, but you really only need a few basic
movement patterns to train all the different muscle on your body effectively anyway. And
even a set of dumbbells alone can probably accomplish that for you. I’ll put a sample
of vacation maintenance workouts that you can out in the description box below. And
if you only have access to lighter weights, which is definitely a possibility if you’re
training at one of those lower quality hotel gyms, then just go ahead and use higher rep
ranges to compensate. Even as high as twenty-five reps per set can still produce positive adaptation
for mass and strength. I don’t think going that high is going to be ideal on a long term
basis, of course, but again, if it’s only over a shorter term vacation then that’s
not going to be a big deal and it will still produce results for you. And then in terms
of cardio, if regular cardio is a part of your training plan and you want to keep that
up, again if it is efficiency that you’re after then the simplest thing you can do is
to just focus on HIIT cardio. So, short duration, high intensity sessions using intervals that’s
going to be way more efficient than a standard forty-five minute moderate pace session. A
solid HIIT workout can last anywhere from literally just a few minutes up to, maybe,
fifty minutes or so depending on how hard you’re going. So you can get that out of
the way very quickly. And if you want to be even more efficient then just put your cardio
session at the very end of your weight training workouts. Also keep in mind that any activity
involving at least moderate physical exertion of some kind over a sustained period is going
to burn calories and ultimately counts as a form of cardio. So depending on what sort
of vacation you’re taking, you might not need any cardio at all. If it’s like beach
vacation where you’ll mostly just be laying around and relaxing then that’s going to
be a bit different but if you’re going to be out exploring and doing a lot of walking
and sightseeing or outdoor activities like surfing or biking or hiking or things like
that then that can count as your cardio right there and running on a treadmill at your hotel
gym probably isn’t going to be necessary, so on the training side there’s really not
much to it. Two fullbody workouts per week or an upper body day and a lower body day,
some optional extra HIIT cardio that should only take up, maybe, two to two and a half
hours of total time for the week, which isn’t much. And it will allow you to, for sure,
at least fully maintain your physique and if you have access to decent equipment then
you can actually still progress. Now, in terms of nutrition, this usually where it gets a
bit trickier because it’s a harder thing to control but again, this is a vacation so
I wouldn’t recommend getting overly obsessive with your diet. My overall recommendation
would just be two very basic things, and that would be to roughly estimate your calorie
intake, key word there being roughly, and make sure that you’re getting enough total
protein to maintain muscle mass. Protein will also help to regulate your appetite as well.
You don’t need to be tracking every single macro or trying to eat perfectly clean while
you’re away as long as your calories are roughly around your right level and your protein
intake is not going excessively low that’s going to be plenty dietary tracking for a
shorter term vacation. So if you’re a more experienced lifter then you can probably just
gauge your calories based on hunger and just by eyeballing things and if you’re less
experienced then you might want to track things in a little bit more detail. You can look
items up using an app like MyFitnessPal or another type of tracker. You can check the
nutritional information for the restaurants that you’re going to be eating out at if
they have it available. And if you don’t have access to that then just do the best
that you can, the numbers don’t need to be perfect, though. Because, again, going
a bit off course with your nutrition in the short term is not going to be a big deal as
long as it doesn’t throw you off track in the bigger picture. So whether or not you
even specifically log things is really up to you and just how serious you are about
it. The number of calories that you aim for is going to depend on whether you continue
training or not. So if you decide to take a break from the gym then you’ll want to
stay closer to around calorie maintenance level. Whereas if you are going to continue
hitting the weights and your primary goal is to gain muscle then you can eat in your
regular calorie surplus. I don’t think most people would want to be eating in calorie
deficit while they’re on vacation so if your current goal is fatloss then I just recommend
that you just treat your vacation as a diet break and eat at your maintenance level assuming
it’s going to be over, maybe, one to two week period. One other tip that you can use
if food is going to be a big part of your vacation and you may be find it kind of hard
to control yourself is to move a higher percentage of your calorie intake into the later hours
of the day. So if you eat a bit lighter at breakfast and a bit lighter in the early afternoon
hours then that’s going to help to create a calorie buffer for later where you can eat
those higher calorie meals and drinks with less of a chance of going overboard. So that
takes care of calories and then for protein if you are eating at least around your maintenance
level and you’re getting in three standard meals per day or more that are based around
some sort of basic protein source then there’s a decent chance that you’re probably going
to get enough protein right there by default since you really don’t need to eat that
much protein in the first place. You really only need about 0.8 grams per pound of bodyweight
daily. But if you really want to be sure about it then one thing that I do is to either bring
some protein bars with me and/or some protein powder because that’s just a very quick
and easy way to be a hundred percent sure that you’re getting enough. So maybe a protein
bar or a scoop of whey per day just for some extra insurance. So those are some basic training
and nutrition tips that you can follow assuming you do want to keep things on track while
you’re on vacation. I would mention as well that there is another option here, and that
is to actually just consciously allow yourself to go off track on purpose. If you’re still
in the beginning stages of your fitness plan and you just start fully bingeing during your
vacation for a lengthy period and you end up erasing a good portion of the progress
that you’ve made and that de-motivates you and throws you off track in the bigger picture
then, yeah, that’s not going to be the best idea. But on the other hand, if you’re a
bit more experienced and you just say, “Screw it, I’m just going to go ahead and fully
enjoy myself. I’m not going to train. I’m going to eat and drink whatever I feel like.
Maybe I do gain three or four pounds of fat but I’ll just go ahead and diet it off for
a week or two afterwards when I get home in order to burn it back of.” That’s a perfectly
viable option as long as you know what you’re doing, why you’re doing it and you feel
that it’s worth the trade off. I mean, that’s basically what I did when I went to Thailand
last year because I just wanted to enjoy myself, take some time off, and not worry about my
training or diet for that period. I was there for about a month. I did two total workouts
while I was away. I basically ate what I wanted. I drank and partied. I did lose a small amount
of muscle and strength but I came home, when back to the gym and after two to three weeks
of regular training and eating I was right back to normal and everything was fine. So
that is an option if you do want to go that route. Or the other option is to actually
diet for a week or two leading up to your vacation because that going to create basically
a bodyfat buffer so that you can let loose a bit more without regressing in the big picture.
Drop three pounds of fat leading up, gain three pounds of fat while you’re away and
you will ultimately end up back at the same point. So again, just how much attention you
pay to your training and your diet does depend on the length of your vacation, it depends
on your experience level, how serious you are and what your overall mindset is. You
have to find the right level for yourself. But I would say that for most people in most
situations a good middle ground is probably best and the tips that I’ve given in this
video can help you achieve that. So, thanks for watching, guys. I hope this was helpful
if you are going to be vacationing in the summer. If it was, make sure to hit the like
button, leave your questions and comments and I’ll d my best to get back to you. And
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