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Holiday Workouts -
IN Just 30-MINUTES

By Don Heatrick

It’s the time of year when we’re thinking about getting in better shape for  our summer holidays. But how about keeping on top of things while on holiday too? You can then enjoy the extra food and drink guilt free! To be practical, our training programme mustn’t use any equipment or require much space and take under 30-minutes. Let’s take a quick look at our three key training objectives.

Objective 1: Fat loss

Not to be confused with merely losing weight - you must only reduce stored  body fat. The secret is burning as many calories as possible in our  30-minute session. No long, slow cardio here!

Objective 2: Improved Muscle Tone

You MUST maintain your muscle mass to be a calorie consuming furnace! If  you lose muscle, your metabolism drops and you’ll store fat easier and  hang on to your existing fat supplies longer!

Objective 3: Increased Fitness

Fitness is a natural by-product of your training, giving you more energy,  better sleep and generally improve your quality of life - and you’ll  beat the kids at their chosen beach sport.

The Solution: Body Weight Circuit Routine

You can achieve all of this with one, concise time-based bodyweight circuit session conducted 3-times a week.
Work each exercise in succession for the prescribed time with a small rest  period between each one. When all 6 exercises are completed, a larger  rest interval is given before the circuit is repeated again.
Begin with standard exercises, and progress to the sophisticated version later. The work/rest timings also progress from level 1 through to  level 4 over the following weeks.

Circuit Exercises - standard or sophisticated

1. Push Up or Swing Push Up
2. Prisoner Squat or Single Leg Deadlift
3. Kneeling Hand Walkout or Hand Walkout
4. Supine back extension or Single Leg Supine Back Extension
5. Platform Rocca Press or Rocca Press
6. Supine Floor Wiper (bent legs) or Supine Floor Wiper (straight legs)

Detailed exercise descriptions for this circuit are shown below.

Circuit Progressions

The rules:

1. Spend at least 5-minutes warming up with jogging on the spot, rotating arms  and legs, bending back and forth and rotating your spine.
2. If you’ve not worked out in a while, ease in gently and build from there.
3. After the initial couple of sessions make sure you’re working up a sweat - or you’re not working hard enough!
4. Start at Level 1 and move through the circuit levels progressively - NO SHORTCUTS!
5. Only use the sophisticated versions of the exercises if the standard ones don’t challenge you.
6. Train 3-times a week, performing a session at each level at least twice (longer if needed) before moving up a level.
7. Don’t use the circuit on consecutive days - if want to train the next day, go for a run!
8. Cooldown using basic stretches at the end of your session.

You can expect to burn up to 400 calories in less than 30-minutes if you work hard on this circuit.

I hope you enjoy the challenge and get some great results - let me know how you get on in the comments section at the bottom of this page!

Exercise Detail

Push Up

• start face down on the floor with your weight on your toes and supported on your hands with straight arms
• maintaining a straight body alignment from shoulders through hips to ankles, bend  both arms, lowering your chest towards the floor while inhaling
• exhale as you extend both arms driving your body back to the start position
• If the full version is too difficult, use a push up position from the knees rather than the toes

Swing Push Up

• start as for a regular push up, then lower your body weight toward one hand while inhaling
• exhale as you extend back to the starting position
• repeat lowering the body to the opposite hand
• if the full version is too difficult, use a push up position from the knees rather than the toes

Prisoner Squat

• stand with the feet about shoulder width apart with the toes slightly turned out
• inhale while bending your knees as if sitting down onto a seat, while keeping  the head and chest up and maintaining a neutral spine - sticking your  backside out (think silverback gorilla)!
• keeping the head tall, exhale as you stand back up to the starting position

Single Leg Deadlift

• begin standing on one leg, inhale as you tip forwards at the hip, maintaining a neutral spine while bending the leg reaching toward the floor with  outstretched arms
• exhale as you stand tall back to the starting position

Kneeling Hand Walkout / Hand Walkout

• start in pushup position with neutral spine, shoulders pulled down away from  your ears, glutes tight, and belly button pulled in slightly
• exhale and contract your abs as you walk your hands forward - go as far as you can while maintaining a neutral spine - if you find yourself losing  alignment or sagging as you walk the hands out, back off
• hold the extended position for up to 10 seconds
• walk your hands back in to pushup position
• if the full version is too difficult you can perform the same exercise from your knees

Supine back extension / Single leg supine back extension

• begin by lying on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor
• keep pressing the shoulder blades into the floor and exhale as you raise  your hips from the floor and drive your pelvis to the ceiling
• squeeze the quads, using the front of your thighs to lift a little higher and hold for up to 10 seconds
• if you want more of a challenge, repeat this move while holding one leg  vertically, driving the heel to the ceiling - alternating legs

Platform Rocca Press / Rocca Press

• begin as for a push up, then walk you feet a little closer to you hands and bending at the hip into a pike position
• maintain a straight back and legs - the steeper you make you back, the harder the press
• inhale as you bend your arms lowering your head toward the floor
• exhale as you extend your arms back to the starting position
• if the full version of this is too difficult then place your hands onto a  platform to place more weight onto your legs rather than the shoulders

Supine Floor Wiper (bent legs) / Supine Floor Wiper (straight legs)

• begin lying on your back with your arms outstretched straight out to the side, palms down
• lift your legs, bent at right angles, so the thighs are vertical and contract the abs, pulling the belly button in
• pressing your shoulder blades, arms and hands into the floor, inhale as you  rotate the hips lowering your knees sideways toward the floor - but  don’t touch
• exhale as you return back to vertical, then repeat to the opposite side
• if you want to increase the load then simply work with extended legs rather than bent ones

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