Quick and Effective Workout Ideas For a Holiday Weekend

There's a holiday weekend coming up in the UK and the US.  These long weekends are a great opportunity to spend time with family, catch up with outstanding jobs around the house and, hey, maybe even relax a bit.

But with all that in mind, there's the nagging thought that you don't want to return to work on Tuesday having gone three days without doing anything active.

So, regardless of what else you've got planned, here are 3 options on how to keep things ticking over with your fitness while leaving you plenty of time to enjoy the weekend.

1) A quick gym workout

• The approach here is that you'll only spend 1-minute on each resistance exercise and 10-minutes on each cardio machine

• Get warmed up and focus on short bursts of strength training with slow movements and good technique, mixed up with high intensity blasts of cardio on the bike, treadmill, X-trainer or rowing machine

• Cool down, stretch and go home

• One 60-minute session like this or 2 of 30-minutes will be enough to keep you in shape over the weekend

2) A quick park workout

• Walk for a few minutes to warm up, then run to the park with a skipping rope

• At the park, skip for 5 minutes then alternate 1-minute of skipping with 1-minute of bodyweight strength training

• Target exercises such as squats, lunges, hops, jumps, press ups, pull ups and dips to recruit lots of muscle groups in one go

• Follow this routine for 20-30 minutes. Skip for 5 more minutes and then run home

• Have a quick stretch and you're done

3) Family activities
There are many ideas for activities you can do with the family, either all together or in small groups, depending on people's preferences and their schedule.

Choose from swimming, football, hockey, cycling, running, basketball, walking, climbing or whatever your family is interested in.  

Kids also love circuit training because its fun. Adults should learn from this and do more of it.  

You can adapt the circuit format to suit everyone taking part you'll still be sure to get a good workout.  Employing kit is a great idea for extra variety.  Fitballs, resistance bands and ropes give you plenty of options on exercises and will also keep you entertained. 

Take a moment today to plan what activities you can fit in over the weekend and you'll return to work next week feeling both rested and energised.

Image by Flickr: MR38