Tips for maintaining strength on a short term break

ericos_bob

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What do you do if you're on a break from training for a couple weeks to prevent detraining an resume where you left off? I have 2 weeks off training. I have some ideas floating around. Thinking pushup variations and for legs there's not a lot I can do but I guess vertical leaps, pistol squats would make some use of my leg power. Understand I have zero equipment available where I'm going. Anyone got an away from home training routine they follow to cover the bases?
 
Dz23

Dz23

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What do you do if you're on a break from training for a couple weeks to prevent detraining an resume where you left off? I have 2 weeks off training. I have some ideas floating around. Thinking pushup variations and for legs there's not a lot I can do but I guess vertical leaps, pistol squats would make some use of my leg power. Understand I have zero equipment available where I'm going. Anyone got an away from home training routine they follow to cover the bases?
Once I lived in some place in the outback of Australia and there was no gym whatsoever.
I was there for 2 months.

I ended up finding as many gallon jugs and water bottles as I could, filled em with sand or water, put them into a bed sheet and made weights. I could do curls, presses, squats and all sorts with them.

Not ideal I know but I was desperate to train so had to be creative.

Obviously anything like push ups, pull ups, sit ups.

If there is a local park u can find a bar to do pull ups and stuff.

Where u going?
 

ericos_bob

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Outback Australia. The simpson desert and surroundings for a couple weeks. Normally I'd just say stuff it I won't bother training but as I had the flu 6 weeks ago and lost on my lifts I've just now gained back to where I was prior and don't really want to detrain. Will be seeing a few bars but not the kind you do pull ups on lol. Thanks for the tips I like the creativity.
 

PaulBlack

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I have a pair of green bands I drag along on vacation with me at times, especially if I am going to be away for a few weeks. They take up no room in a bag and one can do quite a few tings with them if you use your imagination. Depending on how I may loop them, I can get anywhere from pump work to an almost really heavy single on a few movements. Google resistance band workouts.
 
Smont

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Find some big circular rocks and use them like atlas stones, heavy duty resistance bands, push up, pull-up, running stairs or running in the sand. Depth jumps. Just gotta be creative
 

ericos_bob

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Awesome stuff. My mate has been thoughtful enough to plan a routine for me and adopt the role of PT. I'll be carrying cases of beer to the car along with loading supplies, pushing bogged 4x4's through the sand, swapping flat tyres, setting up camp and digging dunny holes.
 
VO2Maxima

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2 weeks, doubt you'll lose much strength. If anything, you'd lose the speed component. While normally you'd train that with ~50-60% load, since that's not an option, next best thing you can do will be things like vertical leaps and plyo pushups (which isn't a perfect translation, but better than nothing). In two weeks you won't lose much as far as actual strength or muscle loss, I'd worry more about that if it stretches to 3-4 weeks or so, so most likely when you get back in the gym, you'll get back to where you left off fast, pretty much as soon as you get used to the movement again and get the speed part back.
 

ericos_bob

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thanks for the tips. Have returned from my couple weeks in the desert. Did pullups where possible and pushups every few days. For legs just high rep pistol squats 20+ for 5 sets. Didn't lose any strength but did shed fat.
 

kisaj

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Keep your calories up and you are not going to lose much, if any, strength in a 2 week period. When I take a break, it is usually 5-7 days and I come back stronger than where I left off.
 

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