I told myself before I went away on holiday to Crete recently that I would have a complete rest from exercise for the 10 days that I was there. After all, when you’re training hard regularly it’s really important to give you body a rest sometimes in order to avoid overtraining and injury and give your muscles the chance to repair themselves. For the first few days of my holiday I did little else but lie in the sun, swim in the sea and eat and drink endless amounts but by day 3 I started to feel sluggish and was soon itching to do some exercise as I felt like my muscles were beginning to seize up.

There was a gym in the hotel we were staying in but I didn’t fancy spending an hour every day in a stuffy room when there were such lovely surroundings outside. Every morning, just after breakfast I took myself off to a garden area of the hotel that overlooked the sea and did an hour’s workout. I wanted to stick to all bodyweight exercises so as my muscles had a bit of a chance to rest and I incorporated a lot of stretching and core work into my workouts as it was too hot to be sprinting and jumping around. I did squats, lunges, press ups, planks and even had time to work on my core control by practising my headstands on the beach!

I have to say I felt so much better every day for doing a little bit of exercise. It was nowhere near as much or intense as I would have done back home but I felt that I was able to maintain my strength and mentally it was brilliant as I avoided that sluggish feeling that you get after endless hours of lounging around on the beach. Hitting the gym for the first time when I returned home was hard and I ached a huge amount after my first leg workout, but I didn’t feel as if I had lost any strength – if anything my muscles felt refreshed and I found that I actually had more energy and was able to push myself harder.

I’ve been speaking to a lot of my clients who have summer holidays booked about holiday training recently. Their main fear is losing the fitness and strength that they have worked so hard for whilst they’re away on holiday. My advice has been to most importantly make sure that they have plenty of rest, as they definitely deserve it after training regularly. Incorporating some light exercise into your holiday (even if it’s just a few times whilst away) will maintain fitness levels and will mentally make you feel better. You don’t have to do workouts that you would typically do at home either – even little things like walking along the beach, snorkelling in the sea or trying out some water-sports will help and your body will react well to the variation in activity.