The Fitness Junction

This week:

• Knowledge Corner: Thriving during travel

• Monthly Challenge Update: May yoga-a-thon

• Meme Center: On the origins of dad bod

Knowledge Corner: Thriving During Travel

Summer is practically upon us and hopefully your next few months will include some well deserved vacation. Whether it’s for work or for pleasure, traveling has a way of throwing a wrench in your workout and nutrition plans. Busy itineraries, a lack of access to your usual gym or kitchen, and copious amounts of eating and drinking can all make it difficult to stick to your fitness habits. Vacations are for cutting loose, but if you're someone who wants to avoid losing too much progress on fitness goals, then today's newsletter is for you.

The key to thriving during travel is damage control. You should always enjoy traveling and have a good time with your family and friends. But you don’t need to go hog wild every, single, night. As someone who often has FOMO and can be easily swayed to have "just one more," I know how tough that can be. So go all out some nights, but try to give yourself a few lighter days of food and drink as well.

For vacation nutrition, here are a few tips for saving on some calories so your binge doesn't go too overboard. Little decisions here and there will add up:

• Drink your coffee black

• Swap your fries for a side salad

• Instead of eating buns, wrap your burger/sandwich in lettuce

• Drink light beer, it's better than IPAs anyways, just ask John Madden or John Wayne

• Keep the liquor neat, don't be double-fisting fruity cocktails (sorry Garth)

When it comes to working out on the road, just remember that something is better than nothing. You know what’s worse than only going for a 15 minute run? Not running at all. So get workouts in when you can, even if they’re short and sweet. Here are three workouts you can do anywhere in just 15min:

Workout 1: Do the following five exercises in a circuit, completing as many rounds of the circuit as you can in 15min:

• 5x walkouts

• 5x supermans

• 5x squat jumps

• 10x pushups

• 10x crunchy frogs

Workout 2: 15min EMOM (Every Minute On the Minute) circuit. Every minute, do the three exercises at the prescribed reps; when you finish those reps, rest the remainder of the minute. Repeat every minute for 15min.

• 5x burpees

• 10x squats

• 15x situps

Workout 3: Do the following five exercises in a circuit. You will do each exercise for 30sec, followed by a 15sec rest before proceeding to the next exercise. Complete 4x total rounds of the circuit.

• Alternating jump lunges

• Plank to pushup

• Wall sit

• Mountain climbers

• Dive bombers

Trivia

Speaking of The Duke, what school did John Wayne play college football at?

• A. Notre Dame

• B. Texas

• C. Washington State

• D. USC

May Challenge: Yoga Once Per Week

As promised, I knocked out two yoga sessions this week to catch up. I followed along with two solid Youtube yoga sequences, this one and this one. Both were great mobility sessions that aided in my flexibility for squats and squat cleans later in the week. Don't believe me? Check out this quick read to learn more about how yoga can benefit weightlifters.

Meme Center:

Trivia answer: D. USC. The Duke played offensive tackle for USC until his junior year when an injury ended his football career. Fun fact, his football scholarship was a whopping $280 per year.

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