Lake bound? Take your workout routine with you while on vacation

With summer sun now baking the Inland Northwest, it’s time to escape to “The Lake.” Any lake will do. To help you stay in shape while you’re away, we’ve asked area fitness pros for tips on taking your workouts with you. Exercising outdoors can be exhilarating, says Randy Johnson, recreation manager of Spokane County’s parks and recreation department. “It won’t even seem like tedious exercise because you’re in beautiful fresh air, whether you’re hiking, playing volleyball or swimming,” he says. Just don’t over do it, he warns. “Take it easy at first and gradually and progressively increase the duration and intensity of your activities,” Johnson says. Here are some suggestions for adapting your indoor routines to outdoor locations:

Water Aerobics

What to pack: Aqua or water shoes, a foam noodle, brightly-colored swim cap, flotation belt or jacket if you’re a weak swimmer. In a pinch, empty gallon milk jugs make good, impromptu floatation aids.

Precautions: Stay clear of boats, boat docks and currents. Buddy-up. Tell someone on shore where you’re swimming and how long you expect to be out.

Nearly every aerobics move you do on land can be replicated in the water, says Vicki Marsh, health and fitness coordinator of active older adult programs at downtown Spokane’s YMCA.

Marsh, also assistant coach of a local competitive youth swim club, recommends taking a few minutes to check out lake conditions before your dip.

“Know what the depth is and what the bottom is like,” she says. “Never dive into a lake if you don’t know the depth. Go in feet first.”

Make your way to waist-high water. Just run in place, do jumping jacks, twist side-to-side or pretend you are cross-country skiing, she says. The water’s resistance will raise your heart rate and strengthen your muscles.

Or grab a water noodle. Wrap it behind you and under both arms. Lie back like you’re in a lounge chair and go through a series of lower body moves.

Marsh suggests circling your legs in one direction and then the other, do scissor-kicks front and back and side to side, and bend both knees and pull your legs into your chest to work your abdominals at the same time.

Next, sit on the noodle like it’s a hobby horse. As you float, work your arms and shoulders. Try overhead presses; upright rows; lateral arm raises; extend your arms to shoulder height, bend your elbows so you make the letter “U” and bring the arms together in front as you try to squeeze the elbows together, release and repeat; then extend both arms at shoulder height and make circles backward and forward.

Be creative, Marsh says. Aim for a minimum of three 20-minute sessions a week.

“As long as you’re moving both your arms and legs and raising your heart rate for about 20 minutes, you’re getting cardiovascular exercise,” she said.

The noodle makes a handy kick board, too. Wrap it across your chest and under both arms to practice a flutter kick, frog kick and butterfly kick

Yoga

What to pack: A yoga mat if you wish to practice in a secluded hotel mezzanine or lake house. Download yoga moves from the Internet to take along as quick reference guides. Sun salutation is at http://yogasite.com/sunsalute.htm and salute to the moon is at www.sierratel.com/yoga/moon.htm.

Peggy Kuwada, yoga instructor and founder of Spokane-based Conscious Connections Yoga, says just going through some basic yoga moves while on vacation will nurture your health and well-being.

“The most important thing for your back and the health of your spine is to move it in six directions everyday – forward and backward, side to side and twisting in both directions,” she says.

Performing the series of poses in a sun salutation and a salute to the moon will move you in every direction necessary to maintain your yoga fitness, she says.

And outdoorsy types will cherish performing yoga’s meditative aspects in natural surroundings.

“Outdoors on the beach, in the warm sand with waters coming in and out would be fabulous. Sit in the sand or on a rock and look out over the lake.

“Focus on one element, a tree or a mountaintop or a seashell.

“Breathe and focus on that object. It helps you connect with it, and you get a sense that you’re just part of nature.

“Listen to the birds, the water, the sounds of nature, and if you concentrate on noticing them and trying to get your breathe in rhythm, it can be really great,” she says.

Trust your inner guru, she says,

“Just by sitting and breathing (mindfully) every day, you’ll connect to your heart, and it will lead you everywhere you need to go,” she says. “Just doing it even for a couple of minutes to center yourself and to have some time when your connecting with yourself and not doing, just being, is really important.”

Body Conditioning/Strength Training

What to pack: Fitness bands or fitness tubing; hand weights or dumbbells; large, inflatable stability ball and/or heavier medicine ball.

Look for fitness ball routines at

http://diet.ivillage.com/tone/0,,p6sv-p,00.html and http://exercise.about.com/cs/exerciseworkouts/l/blballworkout.htm

Precautions: Stay well-hydrated. Drink at lest 8 to 10 ounces of water every few hours.

With any one of the three alternatives listed here, you’ll have everything you need to work every muscle in your body, says Susie Rathbone, program director at Gold’s Gym North in Spokane.

For instance, exercise balls can double as workout benches and also help you engage and strengthen your core muscle groups – abs and back – while you train muscles in the upper and lower body.

Sit on the ball and using your dumbbells, exercise your biceps, triceps, rotator cuffs, shoulders and arms.

Try doing the moves while lifting one leg and holding it up in line with your hip for an extra challenge.

While sitting on the ball, perform alternating leg lifts.

Lie down with the ball under your torso, walk the legs out and dig your toes into the floor for support. From here, perform front and lateral arm raises using hand weights.

Position the ball under the small of your back, step wide to steady yourself and do abdominal and oblique muscle crunches. Stand up and bend from the waist, rest one hand on the ball and perform lawnmower pulls and triceps kickbacks.

Or perform the exercises using exercise tubing with handles and available in varying resistance levels.

You can also work wonders with just a pair of dumbbells, Rathbone says. Just be sure to target muscles in pairs, working biceps and triceps, quadriceps and hamstrings and so on.

Rathbone recommends performing three sets of 15 to 20 repetitions when using resistance bands or tubes. And three sets of 10 repetitions when using heavier weights or higher resistance gear.

“Just throw the gear in your cabin, and you’ve got your whole workout,” she says.