Too hot to handle?! Here are top tips and exercises to get your heart rate pumping and get you sweating in the sun as whether you’re abroad or staying at home, exercising in the heat comes with its sweating safety baggage.
Heat increases your overall core body temperature which increases your heart rate, leaving less blood for your muscles. With this in mind, we must watch out for signs of overheating when exercising in hot and humid conditions.
Signs can include weakness, headache, dizziness, muscle cramps, nausea and vomiting. These are all signals that your body temperature is too high to continue exercising. But of course we all love a good workout and want to get our pulses raised in more way than one on holiday, so here are a few ways you can keep active and stay safe.
Exercises to do in the water
In addition to simply swimming (which can burn 600 calories per hour) you can do the following moves for two minutes per exercise in the shallow end of the pool, to help sculpt your entire body whilst improving your stamina.
- Jog in place
Ensuring you keep the knees high
- Squat jump
Squat down with arms extended at shoulder height; jump as high as possible while raising arms overhead
- Bicycle
Lean with back against side of pool, arms outstretched at edge and pedal legs at surface
- Flutter kick
Hold onto edge of pool, arms extended; kick legs quickly
- Push ups
Hold onto edge of pool with your chest almost touching the wall of the pool edge too, feet facing the ground. Slowly push your hands down and extend your arms as though you’re getting out of the pool before slowly lowering yourself back into the water and repeat as many times as you can in two minutes.
No gym? Here are some moves to do at home or in a hotel room. Importantly these exercises don’t require any equipment at all, and will still help you feel energised for the day – there are no excuses people!
Do each exercise for a minute each, rest for a minute and then repeat. You’ll have a fat burning, body toning workout done and dusted in less than 15 minutes!
- Star jumps
- Crunches
- Sit ups
- Press ups
- Burpees
- Plank
Exercises to do on the beach
Beach games are a great way to exercise without even thinking about it. Playing catch with a ball, frisbee and beach or pool volleyball will work out your entire body, burn calories and bring out your competitive side. Fun and fitness combined!
