Why I Joined a Gym on Holiday: The Balance Between Rest and Routine

This year we decided to join a gym on holiday. Some might find this strange and years ago, I would’ve thought the same! Aren’t holidays meant for chilling on the beach, away from the routines of home?

When R&R can Backfire

Yes, holidays are for unwinding, but often, when we come from a busy life and suddenly switch to complete relaxation, it can have unintended effects. Raise your hand if you’ve ever been busy at work or home, gone on holiday, and ended up catching a cold! I have!

Relaxation - Not just for Holidays

My advice to reduce the chances of this happening is to incorporate relaxation into your regular life, not just during holidays, so that your body becomes accustomed to being in a relaxed state. What often happens is that we spend so much time in “fight or flight” mode, dealing with daily stress, that when we finally relax, our bodies take it as a signal to let down their guard and catch an illness or develop a headache.

Switching Off

• Deep breathing can calm the body down. Find a quiet place to sit or lie down and breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. Breathe in for a count of 4 and out for a count of 4, feel your tummy rising on the in breath and falling on the out breath.  You can place your hand on your tummy to feel it and just focus on the breath. Do this for five to ten minutes a day.  Doing this or something similar like mindful meditation or yoga will help balance your body and stress levels.

• Have a good night’s sleep – sleep deprivation is associated with high cortisol levels.  Try to turn of electrical equipment at least 1-2 hours before bed, avoid television, intense exercise, caffeine and bright lights. Relax in a warm bath with chamomile or lavender oil/Epsom salts.

• Laugh!  Having fun can reduce the feelings of stress.

• A good work life balance is essential.  Spending quality time with family and friends is valuable. Taking up a hobby that distracts you from the daily chores of life can also help towards managing a busy life. For me weight training and cardiovascular exercise helps with distraction. On holiday I learned to play an Italian card game that was great for the brain and fun! Learning a language, playing an instrument, reading – anything that can take you away from the everyday news and stuff!

• Exercise is important and regular activity can be a great stress reducer. Exercise alone can improve mood. It doesn’t have to be high intensity either, gardening or a daily walk in the fresh air can all help.

• Massage, reiki, acupuncture or craniosacral therapy are all relaxing therapies.

Switching On - Shaking the Theory Up

Now, what if I told you that bringing a little bit of stress on holiday could help? By staying active—going to the gym or doing something you’d normally do—you keep your body in a balanced state. This reduces the drastic shift from high-stress, go-go-go mode to full relaxation. Instead of completely turning off, you maintain a healthy challenge for your body. It’s about finding a middle ground between “fight or flight” and “rest and digest.”

On this trip, we relaxed on the beach, but we didn’t completely slow down. I noticed on my last workout session of the holiday I was feeling energised but equally relaxed and I had stayed well all holiday! The added benefit I noticed was that when I returned, I maintained my energy. That’s because I didn’t go from one extreme to the other.

The nervous system needs to adapt between the two states and finding ways to do that be it relaxing or challenging it, can help your overall resilience.

So, my advice is to bring a bit of holiday into your everyday life and bring a bit of everyday life into your holiday.

Balance is key!

One thing not to do is to activate the nervous system with activities like phone use and reading the news from home. This will activate the nervous system but not in the way you want. Paying too much attention to the news can activate a brain chemical called noradrenaline or norepinephrine, this is important for focus and memory but when we stimulate it too much it can direct us more towards a fear pattern behaviour, making us unable to relax and stay in the fight or flight zones. On holiday and at home reduce your exposure the news.

Activities on Holiday for staying the Zone

Walking holidays

Cycling

Sports

Swimming

Cooking holidays

Playing cards

I would love to hear your thoughts.

Have you ever tried to be active on holiday?

Do you prefer an active holiday?

How do you maintain balance in life?