5 Summer Workout Tips for the Beach

In my opinion, your summer workout should be brief and not interfere at all with having a blast outside.

When you are young it is easy to forget that your summers are limited in number.

Believe me, at some point you will realize that this is not the case. For instance, I have 17 more summers until I am a senior citizen.

I am not sure how that happened, but one thing is for certain…I don’t plan on spending most of my summer in a gym.

If your workouts are cutting into your time in the sun, then maybe this post will help.

Tip 1: Get Your Workout Done in the Morning

If at all possible get your workout done early in the morning before work.

I am not a morning person, but it is easier to get up early when you are waking up to a sunny day.

I realize that some lucky people live in areas where it is sunny 365 days out of the year, but most of us live in climates where it is cold during winter and warmer in the summer time.

Anyway, get the workout done so you don’t miss out on BBQ’s, picnics, boating, afternoon boating, etc.

For some reason, people seem to organize a lot of last-minute activities during summer afternoons…If you are in the gym, you will be unable to join your friends.

Tip 2: Use Non-Competing Supersets In Your Workout

Craig Ballantyne is the master of this technique. An example would be alternating dips with barbell curls -or- military presses with calf raises.

This is a way to do the same amount of work in roughly 1/2 of the time. I don’t think you want to train like this year round, but it is a perfect technique for summer.

You can get the lifting portion of your workout done in 15-20 minutes if you structure this properly.

Tip 3: Skip Gym Cardio if You Are Going to Be Active Later

I would never recommend that anyone perform 2 gym workouts per day.

That being said, it is actually an extremely effective way to burn body fat. In fact, a lot of actors and actresses in Hollywood do this when they need to drop weight quickly.

So why don’t I recommend it? Training twice per day sounds to me like a life obsessed with training.

The way to get the benefits of a daily split workout (without becoming a gym rat) is to do a brief intense gym workout in the morning and then simply do a fun outdoor activity in the afternoon.

Tip 4: “Break One Sweat a Day”

Matthew McConaughey has a rule that is a great one to follow for summer.

Just really try and do some type of activity that works up a good sweat, each and every day during summer.

Whether that is playing tennis, jogging, ultimate frisbee, HIIT, basketball, etc… you are on the right track.

Try your best to get in some brief resistance training 3-4 times per week (in the morning) and you will be good.

If you can do something that makes you break one sweat a day you will be able to maintain low body fat without having to worry as much about structured HIIT.

Just throw in the occasional HIIT after lifting on days where you have more time.

Tip 5: Track Weekly Calories NOT Daily Calories

I’ve talked about this in my newsletter. The idea is to not worry about how many calories you eat day to day, just try to ensure that your total weekly calories aren’t way too high.

So for instance if you eat 3,000-4,000 calories per day on a weekend camping, simply eat quite a bit less the following 2-3 days.

When I say “track” calories, I don’t mean calorie count either. Just eat quite a bit less early in the week and on days where there aren’t social events happening.

It doesn’t hurt to have 2-3 low calorie days right after a couple of high calorie days (in fact it works pretty well in helping you stay lean).

Enjoy Life – Please Don’t Live in the Gym

I like working out, but if I could go back in time I would have trained a little less in my 20’s during the summer.

I wasn’t a gym rat or anything, but I think my workouts were close to 90 minutes 4-5 times per week.

I think I was worried that I would lose strength or muscle if I didn’t do a certain amount of training.

Don’t make this mistake.

If it is sunny and you have the day off, you shouldn’t even be allowed to be inside of a gym past 10:00AM.

Put on some shorts, flip flops, grab your beach towel, call up some friends and live a little.