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I don’t normally strength train on vacation, but this time I did—here’s why and the 20-minute workout I used
Going on vacation is not only a welcome break from day-to-day life and work, but my usual workout routine. This is almost always a positive—I love to exercise, but taking time off lets my body rest and it ensures I never get bored of working out.
However, I like to keep up some sort of movement while I’m traveling. Often, this is walking or swimming in the pool and the sea. But as someone who has been strength training for over five years and has a long-term knee injury, incorporating a small amount of strength training into my routine while I’m away can be helpful.
When I’m at home, I go to the gym to strength train two or three times a week and I also do one reformer Pilates session per week. On a recent two-week trip without access to the gym or Pilates studio, and a desire to dedicate less time to exercise while holidaying, I went looking for an efficient strength workout that required minimal equipment.
I came across a Pilates workout by Iris Poldervaart, an instructor whose online workouts I often follow. It takes less than 25 minutes and it uses one of my favourite pieces of equipment—Pilates sliders.
I packed my sliders in my suitcase, because they’re super lightweight and take up barely any space in a bag, and I ended up doing this routine twice a week while I was away.
How to do Iris Poldervaart’s 22-minute Pilates slider routine
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While Poldervaart and I used sliders, you can always use a towel or a blanket on a hard floor.
You’ll also need a pair of weights, but I didn’t pack any, so I used two large bottles of water instead.
Poldervaart guides you through this workout in real time during her video and it incorporates moves that target the entire body.
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The benefits of Iris Poldervaart’s reformer Pilates inspired workout
Bodyweight workouts are a great way to keep fit and integrating Pilates sliders can add a whole new challenge to your workout, because you have to actively stabilise the muscles while moving.
This can increase the strengthening benefits of a workout, and it also activates the stabilizing muscles, which play a big role in injury prevention.
In this way, it mimics the benefits of reformer Pilates, which has helped to reduce my knee pain and improve my overall strength, so I was happy to find a workout with similar benefits.
Pilates sliders are particularly helpful for engaging the core, which is something that I wanted to focus on while on vacation. Maintaining good core strength helps to keep my back pain at bay and makes walking—which I was doing a lot of on this trip—more comfortable.
And although this workout is challenging, it’s low-impact, which means it doesn’t put pressure on the joints, and it also won’t leave you overly sweaty or breathless, so it’s easy to fit into your day. I often did it first thing in the morning or after lunch.
Poldervaart’s routine starts and ends with a short stretching sequence, which is great for maintaining mobility and flexibility while travelling. If you have time, it’s worth pairing this routine with some more stretching exercises to boost your overall health even more.
