L-Sit Pullups in the Eastern Aegean
My last few vacations have been characterized by self-imposed demands to make time for some tough workouts. While I enjoy time relaxing at the beach as much as the next person, my need to stay active seems to overrule my agenda. Past attempts to squeeze in workouts involved everything from packing portable resistance bands in my luggage to doing pull-ups on hotel doors. While it’s possible to devise bodyweight routines that you can do in your hotel room, I realized quickly that these workouts just weren’t in the spirit of a vacation. They felt like obligations and certainly nothing like pleasure. Not to mention the fact that it seemed senseless to tote workout equipment along on a holiday!
Over the past few years, I’ve moved my vacation workouts out of the hotels and fitness facilities and into the great outdoors. Lots can be done in a park or playground. In northwestern Greece last year, I decided to tangle with some school-ground monkey bars. In 40 degree heat and in direct sunlight, I thought that I could bust out 100 burpee-pullups. What a mistake that was! I think I made it to about 50 or so before I had to stop because of heat and exhaustion. I was so gassed that I didn’t realize that I had torn my hands and ripped just about every callus that I had previously developed on my hands.
This year, I took a much more rational and satisfying approach. Taking some of the elements that I learned from natural movement guru Erwan Le Corre, I decided to try and train in nature as much as possible, and I also made a conscious decision to back off a bit in intensity when I felt like I’d “had enough”. That was certainly the case on my most recent vacation, which was spent on the island of Ikaria in Greece. While there, I scouted the landscape for training opportunities, and managed to find a number of great locations in which to incorporate running, lifting, throwing, swimming, jumping, balancing and other movements. I used only natural movements that people have been doing for hundreds of thousands of years. No gym or equipment was needed.
Getting outside...it's just better!
Beach circuits are great
Overhead Presses
I spent quite a bit of time just working on skills. I even managed to train barefoot most of the time, which was challenging given the rough mountainous terrain — terrain that was covered with dense scrub, thorns and brush. I’d find a heavy rock and deadlift it; I’d work on my barefoot running technique; I’d practice muscle-ups on tree limbs and work on my tree-climbing ability. I tried jumping from one rock to another, or jumping from a high place to the ground, with a roll-out at the bottom. These activities didn’t seem like workouts at all, but they certainly had strength and conditioning benefits!
Old stone walls -- a perfect training ground
Up and over...
Old anchor chains...the higher I lifted, the heavier they got.
After working skills, I next put together some conditioning circuits combining several movements that I repeated for a fixed interval of time, usually around 15 minutes. One workout combined the following: cleaning a heavy rock from the ground and then throwing it from chest level as far as I could; sprinting to where it landed; repeating the clean and throws 4 more times; walking on all fours up a rough surface; performing dead-hang pullups from a tree branch, and finally maintaining a static tree-hold for as long as I could. Putting together circuits isn’t difficult if you learn to identify opportunities hidden in the natural surroundings.
Static tree holds
Barefoot trail walking and running
Sumo stance for deadlifting heavy rocks
Crawling and climbing on all fours
Now this was a vacation, and I certainly don’t want to give the impression that I spent all my time trail running and lifting heavy rocks. Believe me: I had my share of rest and relaxation, socializing, and sightseeing. I fit in my workouts as situations presented themselves, and also got in a good amount of hiking and mountain bike riding. Overall, I can’t say enough about this method of training. Whether you’re on a holiday, living in the country, or at home in an urban setting, it often just takes a short drive to access some natural workout area in the great outdoors. Even city parks have great opportunities for training, as there’s plenty of things you can do with an open field, a rock, a bench or step, and a strong tree branch. I urge you to give it a try!
Tags: Erwan Le Corre, Ikaria, MovNat, natural movement, vacation, workouts
I’ve often felt the same way when on vacation – like workouts were obligatory, that I couldn’t skip a week or do something different. I eventually realized that I didn’t need pure willpower to help me reach my goals. What I really needed was willingness, and that changed everything.
It’s funny how training with Erwan opens up your eyes to new training possibilities. I’ve seen so many new jumps, climbs, and balancing opportunities that I had never noticed before. My back yard has never looked this diverse and wild
Willingness instead of willpower — I like that!
[...] am copying from the entry relevent to his doings in Ikaria posted in Sept [...]