Michele Cannell

Fitness professional certified in Personal Training, Wellness, CPR/AED, Cycling, Pilates, YogaFit, Tai Chi, and living with Celiac Disease.

Vacation Workout (all you need is the sand)

I just got back from vacation. I was in Florida and South Carolina. I didn’t have a gym in the hotel. My day was packed full of family fun activities from 9:30 am to 10:00 pm every day. I was already feeling guilty about finding time to exercise. I put on my tennis shoes and grabbed my room key and ventured out onto the beach. I was told that if I turned left on the beach I could run for 2 1/2 miles before I hit a rocky area of the beach.

Before I tell you the benefits, I want to tell you what I felt as I was running and even afterwards. While I was running, my joints surprisingly did not hurt like they typically do. I noticed that it was harder to increase my stride and my speed. Afterwards, I really wondered if my workout that only lasted 30 minutes really pushed me? I typically run on a treadmill for 45-50 minutes. The next day I woke up and every muscle in my leg felt used and stronger.

Beach running has so many benefits. You will be engaging your muscles so much more. Lifting your foot up from the sand is harder yet easier on the joints. You will also be engaging smaller muscle groups equally to your bigger muscle groups. The sand is softer which creates less impact on the knees, hips and ankles. Beach running will build those much needed muscles for your pavement or track running days. Add some Bootcamp moves after your beach run and increase your muscles strength even more. An example of my beach routine is below:

After your 20-30 minute jog

Squat thrusts (Burpees) 1 set of 15
Walking Lunges
Mountain Climbers 1 set of 15
Walking Side Squats
Walk Downs 1 set of 15
Straight Arm Plank Hold
Repeat 2-3 times

Walking Lunges

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Version of Walkdowns