Out Of Office
Author: Nathan Edwards, Physiotherapist
If you’re anything like me, sometimes vacation season means more than just time away from the normal work routine; it means ALL routines go down the drain. Afterall, living a healthy and balanced lifestyle is hard enough when you’re on home turf, in your home kitchen, attending your home gym and sleeping in your own bed, let alone when you try and take that show on the road. Now, while I wholeheartedly appreciate that indulgence and tasteful moderation are a huge piece of the vacation experience, it’s still important to try and make some time to move, your body will thank you!
All too often, in my physiotherapy practice, I hear “well, I started to do my exercises for a few days, but then we went away” or the “I was in a really good routine until summer vacation and I just haven’t gotten back to running since”. While these situations (or your version of the same) are valid, there is always room to find some middle-ground while your away, whether you are applying this to your physiotherapy homework, or just your exercise programming in general.
For this blog post I want to do my best to give a couple of thinking points that might help you find that middle-ground.
1. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.
Whether you are applying this thought to your physiotherapy exercises, your running routine, your normal 4-day per week gym program, or whatever your normal is, it does not matter at all. Just because you won’t get EVERYTHING done while away, there’s still a ton of value in getting SOMETHING done. The whole week does not need to a complete wash just because you won’t close every exercise ring on your apple watch that week. You can insert your own version in here, whether that means modifying some of your normal exercises using whatever equipment you do or don’t have at your disposal, or just sneaking in one hotel-gym workout instead of your regular full week program. Disclaimer: I am possibly the worst person I know when it comes to this paradigm, but hey, we all have work to do.
2. A little bit goes a long way.
Take a quick walk. Try a youtube yoga class on the deck. See how many squats you can do with the kids on your back. It doesn’t matter what it looks like, just get the blood pumping and your joints moving. I’m hoping this logic leads to more conversations like: “I didn’t do all 4 of my exercises twice per day, but I remembered my forearm stretches while I was on the plane both ways!” OR “I walked two of my four rounds on this years golf trip”. While it doesn’t sound like much, it’s something positive, and it’ll make the shift back to your normal routine that little bit easier.
3. “Two wrongs don’t make a right”
A lot of people will lean on some kind of twisted logic that sounds a little bit like this: “I am going to eat/drink way too much all week, so what difference is a little exercise going to make?” In this context, some exercise and a little bit of movement is always a positive, it is always good for you, end of debate. While I can understand that some people want to look at their vacation “health” as a balance sheet where they are always going to end up in the red, do your best to get away from this mentality, it’s just not productive! Try the lobster roll, eat the extra slice of pizza, try the local craft beer, but please don’t use this as fuel to move less.
I hope that this will be helpful for your next trip as we cruise into the heart of maritime vacation season, whether applied to your exercise routine/habits in general, or the rehab exercises that were thrown your way by one of the folks at Station Street Health.
TL;DR: Try and get some exercise and move on vacation, you might have to be creative, but try it anyway.
