Good morning!  Greetings from the Black Hills of South Dakota.  Being on vacation is a terrific thing.  Especially in the summer.  You get time with family and friends that you don’t normally see, or get to go places that you never go.  But just because you’re on vacation, your workout doesn’t have to be.  There are so many ways to take your workout on the road with you.  And some of the best exercises are the ones that you can do anywhere.  No matter where you go, you can ALWAYS walk or run (especially if the weather’s nice), so we’ll just leave that out of the equation for now.  I’m talking about ways to get good old fashioned resistance training into your routine.  I’ll focus on 3 simple and easy ways to get fitness into your vacation.  First, you can always do body weight exercises.  Squats, push-ups, lunges and sit ups/crunches just to name a few, can be added to any run, walk or hike to give you that extra boost or challenge that you need.  You can also pack resistance bands and a jumprope.  Even in the most packed car, van or SUV, you can always find room for a couple of resistance bands and a rope.  They take up NO space what-so-ever and are super portable and light.  A good set of bands and a jump rope are also really cost effective for any workout ($20 TOTAL).  With the bands you can easily do a full body workout with presses, squats, curls, push ups, rows, lunges and a whole host of other activities.  If you need some other ideas, you can click here http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/resistance-band-exercises.html.  The third way to get some training into your vacation routine is to find a park or recreational area around where you are.  Here, at any basic kids park you could do steps or jumps onto a bench, climb on a rock-climbing wall or do pull-ups on the monkey bars (or the jumping variety if need be).  Parks are also an awesome place to do agility and change of direction work.  If there is a basketball court, anaerobic training, shuttle runs, etc.  So, the bottom line is that no matter where you go in this country or in this big old world, you can take your exercise with you.  No need to get out of shape just because you’re travelling.  Have good vacations, travel safe and we’ll see you on Thursday.