**Scroll down if you want to skip the TIPS and just get the workout!
All summer my husband and I have been traveling with our 3 boys around New England for the past month and have managed to train with kettlebells 3-4 days per week.
With a family of 5 moving around from place to place on vacation, being consistent with training could be almost impossible except that we had THREE simple strategies for getting out workouts in.
These particular strategies not only worked for us on this vacation, but they are my GO-TO strategies for both myself and my clients to stay consistent in our training EVEN when our full and busy lives make it difficult, so here they are:
Simplicity
Flexibility
Accountability
Let’s talk about them.
Simplicity:
WE kept our workouts MAJORLY simple on this trip for two primary reasons,
1. We only had space in our car and ease of transport for two kettlebells (12 K and 16K) and two resistance bands. IF we had brought much more than that, the equipment would have become a burden, nuisance to have around PLUS it would have been too cumbersome to lug to the beach, or pull out in the AirBNB yard to get our sweat sesh on.
This was the case for us on this trip, but this may be the case for you right now!
If you don't have room in your home, the stroller, your car or your home office for lots of equipment, don’t worry. Being consistent with just a few pieces of equipment can build your body and physique AND help you to truly master exercise.
In Kettlebells For Cool Kids-my 12 week kettlebell program we only use TWO pieces of equipment!!
And
2. When you’re traveling and managing a family of 5, you simply don’t have the bandwidth for COMPLICATED workouts.
We found that it was FAR easier to be consistent in our training by keeping our training sessions to 3-4 compound (utilizing multiple muscle groups and joints) movements only.
If we wanted to add a few in more at the end, like a finisher, we had that option, but when we met out in the yard or at the beach to train, we knew that we were simply going to do a 3-4 exercises at a set number of reps and then move on with our day!
The weights were relatively light, so we kept the pace up and worked as hard as we could, resting as needed.
Flexibility:
I tell my clients this all of the time, but it was especially important on a family vacation, the only way to be CONSISTENT in your TRAINING is to be FLEXIBLE around what it looks like, where and when it takes place and how perfect it is.
On the days that we trained, we had a plan as to what we would do, but if we simply gave up when things weren’t going to plan (breakfast ran late, getting to the beach took longer, we forgot a piece of equipment, the kids needed us, etc….) then we would NEVER have honored our commitment to workout 3 times a week this month.
And so when things when awry, we just went with it.
We improvised with bodyweight exercises.
We accepted interruptions, even embraced them, “Sure kids we’ll play with you, let’s sprint down the beach to those rocks!?”
We just kept going as best we could and knew that whatever we managed to make happen was better than NOTHING!
That #persistenceoverperfection mindset, man, it is the BEST way to get things done and keep us coming back!
Accountability:
Feeling like our commitment matters is helpful.
On this particular trip, Jeremiah (hubs) and I were accountable to each other in the way that my Kettlebells For Cool Kids are accountable to their fellow cool kids, my clients are accountable to me and you can be accountable to your friend, partners, coach, neighbor, or online community.
Rather than solely focusing on my own self and my own commitment, I also wanted to show up and train to support Jeremiah, my partner in crime.
I mean when it’s 92 degrees, sunny and you’d love to just lay around and drink coffee or nap and chill at the beach, knowing that your bud is willing to train with you and also wants to honor their own commitments can make all the difference.
At the end of the day, diet and exercise culture has trained us to think it’s OK to give up on our commitments to ourselves because many of us have DECADES of experience trying crash diet and exercise programs, that we quit because let’s face it, they suck and are impossible to stay with.
But the truth is COMMITMENTS matter.
It takes time and help to BREAK the habit of quitting and giving up on the promises that we make to ourselves.
Effective and smart programming shouldn’t MAKE you feel like you want to quit.
It should be adaptable to your real life, BUT you also have to be tenacious and determined to show up and do what you said you were going to do.
I have personally seen that for myself and my clients, the accountability piece is HUGELY important.
We are FAR less likely to break a promise ourselves or put our goals on the back burner because they are inconvenient, uncomfortable and or too much work IF we know someone is watching.
PLUS when we partner with someone else in our commitment, on those days when we truthfully don’t feel like working for ourselves, we can often muster the strength to show up for someone else.
This summer on days when we needed the SIMPLEST of workouts that would pack a PUNCH, workout WHOLE BODY and leave us feeling like we had WORKED OUT HARD-you know all that burny, sore good feelings we did the following workout:
In any order, complete the following (it takes about 30-45 minutes, depending on how much rest you take and you should rest as needed!:
100 KB swings **(beginners sub KB deadlifts)
100 pushups **(beginners sub 50 incline pushups)
100 weighted squats **(beginners sub bodyweight)
If you’ve NEVER learned how to do a kettlebell deadlift, proper pushup or squat, get
Kettlebells For Cool Kids™!
Sarah Smith is a former athletic coach, personal trainer, level two Russian Kettlebell Instructor, postnatal fitness specialist and functional pelvic floor and gut health advocate with a Masters in Soil Science and Agricultural.
She works online and in her garage gym in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Sarah is a published author and has a decade experience conducting research at The National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, University of Arizona and North Carolina State University. She uses evidence-based strategies to help her clients grow strong, confident and capable in their bodies-even when struggling with pelvic floor dysfunction, pelvic organ prolapse, gut health complications and other injuries or health conditions.
She is a mom to three boys and one English Bulldog. She loves kettlebells, leisure walks, chickens, soil, coffee, not folding laundry and watching people move-in a non-creepy way.