I’m making my annual trip to Greece in a few days. I want to lower my body fat a little more and have some sort of workouts while I’m there. So, dips, pullups, pushups, crunches. What else? What do you guys do to stay lean in such tempting environments?
“Death by Bodyweight” by Ian King can be found in the T-mag previous issues section.
hey mauvro… did you live in berkeley for a little while about 2 years ago?
i knew someone with that name before but i can’t put my finger on it.
Sex during vacation works wonders for staying lean.
An exercise you might want to try is the Vertical Pushups Against The Wall.
Also, just stand in front of a mirror and do some posing for about half an hour, it will give your muscles a nice look.
My real name is Andreas actually, but I did live in Marin up until a few days ago. I will keep that sex-for-fitness tip in mind. :]
Look at the Ian King article mentioned above for starters, then go MacGeyver on it. One legged squats holding desk chairs for external loading are a favorite. The shoulder pushups are great. If you are travelling with someone, they can be a great source of external loading on exercises like pushups. For latwork, you are obviously going to need to find something that will support your weight from which to hang, bear in mind though that while a bar is most comfortable, nonconforming hand grips will help grip strength. Also if you can support your feet while hanging you can get some horizantal plane pulling action going. Bodyweight curls are great, all you need is someone holding your feet or something to hook them under. If you have a person with you, you should be able to adapt a fairly normal type of routine and split with the abnormal exercises.
I don’t quite understand that bodyweight curl explanation.
if you want to hit the legs nicely you can do full squat jumps. This way you’ll keep your strength lelvels up and the speed of the movement adds intensity in the lack of weight. this will hit the quads, hams and calves. have fun in greece, i will be there in august. laters pk
For the slightly less traditional…
Deck of cards.
Pushups/Rainbows/Up-downs/Pullups for Hearts/Diamonds/Spades/Clubs. Pull a 6, do 6 of that exercise. Pull an Ace, do 15. Run through the entire deck.
Frog walks
Assume a wide pushup position. (hands ~3’ apart, feet ~3’ apart) Move your left hand directly backwards 1’. Now draw your left leg to 1’ behind that hand.
This is your starting position. The movement requires a long stretch of hallway… or a short stretch, if you can do it in reverse. I warn you however, it’s quite difficult.
Move your left hand directly forward, 1’ ahead of your right, while moving your right leg within 1’ of your right hand.
Do a pushup. Continue with the left side. Do a pushup. And so on, until you collapse.
Good luck,
DI