Pic is my medicine ball on our driveway on Cape Cod
When we leave town, we remain very "active" people, as they say of the middle-aged who are not flabby couch potatoes. We swim, kayak, hike, climb hills and all that, but that is just being "active" and alive. It's not "exercise". Exercise means high stress, high intensity.
In 5 days without stressful exercise, a fit adult begins to lose strength and endurance to a measurable degree. A non-fit adult deteriorates more slowly because there is less to lose.
Hotels and ships all have fairly decent gyms in them, but when you go somewhere quiet with no gym I think 45-60 minutes of early morning calisthenics is the best way to begin an active day. Calis are great for outdoors, even if it's raining, sleeting, snowing, or storming. More fun outdoors.
So, for our beach house "vacations" with the whole family and my in-laws, and all of our sisters and our cousins and our aunts, Mrs. BD and I have a pre-breakfast cali program to prevent any backsliding.
(My sibs, who join us on the Cape with us with their kids, do an early morning biathlon, alternating days between a 16-mile run + a one-mile swim, and a 40-mile bike and a one-mile pond swim. They race each other. They are such strong swimmers that the last time I competed with them in that I came close to drowning. Not exaggerating. They would never have noticed if I sank because I was so far behind the rest of them. Years ago I swam a mile daily but have not done so for many years. Some of my kids will join my sibs, but I will do my Cali program routines mostly on the empty beach or driveway and I could care less whether I look stupid.)
This is maintenance, not building. Also relevant: Unlike weight lifting, calis need no recovery days. All we bring are jump ropes, 10-lb. weights, leg bands, and a medicine ball. Obviously, no medicine ball or weights on airplanes. We do a varied circuit of things like this but never the same item two days in a row. Just keep pushing it until the time is up:
Jumping squats
Lunges with weights
20-30 -second wind sprints and 30-second jogs
Jump rope
Medicine ball slams, and playing hard side-catch with the ball
Jumping jacks
Squats with overhead weight lifts
Burpees and Mountain Climbers
Planks
Push-ups (or inclined push-ups)
Various walks with leg bands
High-rep arm lifts with the wts: forward, side, overhead, curls
