Guest post by Mikaela Söhnchen from Keep Explore
When longer vacancy is approaching, maybe a trip or summer vacation, the everyday habits tend to disappear away for a moment.
Some things we feel great about doing as a routine – the things you just have to do – so that we can use our energy to those decisions that actually will make a difference. Training is one of the habits that tends to diminish or disappear completely during the holidays, even when we really have the best opportunities to make it happen.
I want to share some ways to get up from the hammock even the most relaxing days. My aim is that exercise will be as obvious as brushing the teeth. We do not want to smell bad in our mouth, nor we want to let our body and mind start to rust.
I try to spend my spare time in nature and at sea. It’s a great environment to keep the soul free from rust and it’s also a great place to get your physical exercise done, you just need a little imagination. When I sail, I’ll spend several hours steering or trimming the sails and running up and down the deck. Therefor, it’s important to have a smooth body with good mobility while having a presence and a view of what is happening on board. Physical capacity in all glory, but sailing also requires some mental muscles such as night sailing or rough seas.
My mornings usually start quite early. A condition for that is, of course, to get in bed early. Something that can be difficult to get used to when it’s bright outside. The advantage of early mornings is that you can experience the calm and usually the silence. A quote that I like is: ”Win the mornings and you’ll win the day”.
Make it easy; bring a cup of hot tea, a blanket and enjoy the beautiful views and let the surroundings inspire you. Breathe in and out through your nose and look out over the ocean. Everything in your environment does not have to be perfect. When we practice awareness, it is about accepting our environment rather than modifying it.
I usually start to stretch my body, or challenge it with more heavy physical activity – depending on how my body feels. I want to share some exercises you can do on the most bare island in the archipelago.
“Strong sailor”- program
Pre workout:
I usually mimic animals and how they walk for a distance at about 15 meters. Animals you can mimic can be a bear that walks on four legs, a lizard crushing the field. Why not jump like a rabbit or crawl like a worm. The purpose of the pre workout is to oxygenate the body and activate the largest joints and muscles.
Technique:
I usually focus on some basic exercises depending on the tools I have with me. A simple gear that takes up little space to take on board is a skipping. If you want to activate large muscle groups you can do variations on squats, for example. Pistol squats, bulgarian split squats or regular squats to name a few. Look for a big stone to exercise with and it can even get really hard.
If you have a mate or partner you can do the plank, or other team activities. This part can be done by long or short time depending on your requirements, or skip it completely if you prefer to go straight to the most fun part.
Metcon: Strong sailor, AMRAP 12 min
”Metcon” stands for Metabolic conditioning and simplified it is a collective name for exercises aimed at improving your fitness and metabolism. It varies, but most of the exercises are performed in different sequences that aim to raise your heart rate and they’re often short but intensive. Usually, you should complete the sequence for a certain amount of time, or count the number of repetitions, etc. In our Metcon, we expect AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) for 12 minutes.
So let’s get into what our Metcon contains …
Because we do not want to be dependent to gear, we can work with our bodies, and what nature has to offer. Below are the exercises for one round. How many rounds can you make in 12 minutes?
- 50 jumps (with a skipping for example)
- 40 airsquats
- 30 steps (with a stone if available)
- 20 sit-ups
- 10 push-ups
I hope some of the above exercises can start your imagination on how your workout at the archipelago can be fun, and inspire you to get your exercise done. After the exercise session, it is much easier to take care of your hygiene through a cooling dip in the ocean, and after breakfast you are ready to discover the next spot around the corner.
