What Are The Best Pieces Of Portable Fitness Equipment?

Everything seems to drag on and on and on and on at the moment…..but we’re already starting to look forward to the Summer. Travelling abroad (hopefully), blue skies, summer sun, beaches and good food. But, if we want to, how can we keep ourselves active, lean and strong on our holidays? Well don’t worry I’ve got you covered with kit you can take everywhere with you, it’s inexpensive and you can reap the benefits of a great session.

Skipping Rope - The cheapest, and most portable, cardio equipment you can own. You can scale the resistance up or down with weighted ropes or you can change bounce methods from regular two foot bounce to boxer skip, double unders, single foot, run in place, cross jumps or even a combination of all of these! The list goes on and on! Skipping is really good fun, and has skills to master so you can keep up engagement whilst pushing yourself further. Also anyone can learn to skip so it’s really accessible. I would recommend interval training switching between bodyweight exercises, like press ups and squats, and 30-40 seconds of skipping in between. You can scale it to a time and intensity that suits you too! Or you can skip in between resistance sets in a gym, or in conjunction with any of the other bits of kit I’m going to talk about.

Gymnastic Rings - Not only are the Gymnastic Rings portable and versatile, but you can master some incredible skills and exercises using them. Hang them from a bar or a tree or wherever, and you have a mini gym right there! I’ve spoken a lot about Gymnastic Rings before, and there’s many reasons why. You can practice pull ups, press ups, dips, rows, etc. You can use the rings to perform most movement patterns across multiple planes of motion and use multiple types of muscle engagement with only 2 bits of wood! That’s before we get onto gymnastic skills such as muscle ups, levers or planches, so there’s something in there for everyone. For great compound movements, and having fun, there’s nothing like the Gymnastic Rings.

Core Sliders/Socks on a smooth floor/ A Towel – You’ve packed your suitcase and think you’ve packed too many socks. Good news! You haven’t. A pair of socks on a smooth floor can be a great way to train mobility, core compression or to add a little more difficulty to your interval training. All you need is a smooth floor and you can perform pikes, l-sit to pikes, climbers, bear crawl shuffles, lunge squats, etc. You can use core sliders to achieve the same thing on a different floor surface. And what’s that? An extra beach towel! Excellent! You can use a towel under your hands on a smooth floor to perform archer movements, plank reach outs or anything single sided. Again you can use core sliders under your hands as well. My advice would be only destabilize either hands or feet, not both. As that can lead to all sorts of problems and probably injury.

Resistance Bands –A fundamental tool in any portable arsenal. Not only can resistance bands aid in warming up and stretching but are also great for resistance training. You can perform rows, chest press, bicep curl, squats, deadlifts and tricep extensions others. Also, if that wasn’t enough, add resistance to classic bodyweight exercises such as push ups. But if you’re also worried about losing progress trying to get to that first pull up, just tie a band round a bar and off you go! So if you’re going anywhere, resistance bands are a very useful portable training tool.

Walls And Floor – A bit of a technicality here I’ll admit, but does the place you’re going on holiday have flooring and walls simultaneously? Then you can train! And you don’t need to pack anything extra. Practice handstands, place your feet against the wall and perform press ups. Use the wall on one hand and perform a press up with the other. You can practice elevated pike push ups too, or wall sits for the lower body. Just be careful and make sure you feel stable before attempting anything too crazy!

So there’s plenty of equipment we can take away with us to train, and some of it might already be there. I’ve put together an example workout for you guys, so you can make use of these great bits of kit.

Skip – 2 foot bounce or boxer – 40 on/20 off x5
Skip – 2 foot bounce or boxer – 30 on/ 30 off x5

Rest 1 min

Ring Pull Ups – 4 x 8-12
Ring Dips – 4 x 8-12
Superset (go straight from one pull set into a pull set)

Rest 1 min

Ring Rows (feet against wall) – 4 x 8-12
Ring Press Ups – 4 x 8-12
Superset (go straight from one pull set into a pull set)

Rest 1 min

Mountain Climbers
Pikes
Bear Crawls
Press ups to reach out (Archer)
Perform each for 40 secs on/ 20 secs off, 1 min rest, then perform again 30 secs on/ 30 secs off

Now after that workout you will have earned a space at the delicious restaurant buffet! Tag me @rtg.fitness and show me your holiday workouts and holiday snaps, because I’ll be stuck here and very jealous!

 I hope this article helped raise your game!