How I Exercised on A Disney Cruise

I exercised on a Disney cruise. Let me tell you. It’s tough.

If you read my Disney Cruise blog about the food, you’ll recall it being the most difficult nutrition environment I’d ever lived in. Same went with exercise.

I only trained twice on a five-day cruise (40% of days). Far less than my usual 80-100% of days on a vacation. Granted both sessions were about 45 minutes long, and were hard. I’m still disappointed.

My typical game plan for vacation workouts:

• Daily
• Resistance training
• Short (10-15 minutes)
• Low reps/high weight
• One body part
• Done early in the day
• Have fun doing other stuff (sailing, hiking, wrestling, frisbee, etc.)

For Example:

(each point is the workout for the day)

• Six sets of chin ups to failure on a tree branch or under side of a deck or over-hang
• 10 minutes of non-stop air squats, lunges, and wall-sits (or I grab a child for weight)
• Push up ladder, 15, 14, 13, etc, with only 30 seconds rest between sets
• Bis and Tris with a resistance band

These are not only simple, but they are so effective, I usually gain muscle mass on vacations! My body fat goes down sometimes too, but that’s more of a nutrition thing b/c we all know, abs are apparently made in the wine cellar… I mean kitchen.

Philosophy

Training is a gift, not a chore.

• I train because it makes me feel good (upbeat, happy, calm)
• It makes me feel normal, like I’m on the right path, living who I am supposed to be
• It lets me do the things I want to do, and my family need me to do (like keep back pain at bay, and be able to pick up the kids without a spasm, etc.)

To not exercise feels abnormal and makes me unwell.

The Partnership

Once you’ve got the right mindset (ha – not so easy), the next step in training on vacation is having a supportive travel buddy.

My wife and I trade off watching the kids so the other can train. And we also know to not be selfish about that time. No 90 minute power lifting workouts.

As my kids get older (7 and 4 now) they are starting to train with us. Bonus!

The Pace and Schedule

The whole point of a vacation is to feel better. I love vacations for the freedom, slow pace of life, eating better food, and not being over-scheduled.

The Disney Cruise was none of those things. If you’ve been on one, you just said, “No shit.” It was a non-stop, over-scheduled, shit-show of lining up for things, drawn-out meal times (with shitty food), culminating with escalating fatigue and frustration, but for a few minutes with my wife, some wine tastings, and some NFL playoff action.
The room was cute and nice but was almost too small to train in. The urge to drink and over-eat was nearly constant.
All the while, on the mission to give our kids a wonderful experience. Energy levels depleting each day. I talked to a lot of strangers trying to make friends (I made three friends lol).
So while I had the training knowledge, correct mindset, supportive partner…. the schedule and stress really hurt me. Much like it hurts me in my typical spread-thin life.

The Gym

The ship had a good gym. About 2000 square feet with several quality workout machines, two benches, a good set of dumbbells (up to about 70 lbs), and about 10 cardio machines, and some spin bikes.

It was clean and subtly lit. The gym was interesting to train in while feeling the gym swaying with the ships heeling. It was on the top floor, which is the worst spot for motion. The swaying didn’t bother me much, but it was noticeable.
During one of my training sessions, I did laundry, which hilariously was on the opposite end of the ship (300 m away). I ran along the narrow colourful hallways, hoping someone didn’t bust out of their room and collide with me.

The Program

So we have the mindset, supportive partner, and the gym. The next thing you need is a program. I selected a typical upper-lower split, meaning workouts are either upper body or lower body.

Upper Body workout:

Warm Up:

• Facial moving stretching (kinda like fast tai-chi)
• Spinal rotations
• Shoulder prep work with cables
• Some pilates ab moves
• And light reps of lifts I’m about to do

Resistance Training:

• Split stance cable pushes with T-spine rotation, two sets of 5 each side
• Superset single arm dumbbell rows with a dumbbell bench press, five sets of 5-9 reps, with 90-120 seconds rest after the superset
• Side planks to fail, three sets, with about a minute rest after doing both sides
• Bi’s a tri’s on the cable stack
• Single arm overhead presses with body rotation
• Honestly I can’t remember exactly what I did but it would have looked like a bro training for loos, other than the warm up

My leg program was a bit limited, given my two arthritic knees. I can’t do full range squats. I can do the upper and lower ranges, but cannot pass through 90 degrees or it’s bone on bone, (and not in the fun way). 9/10 pain. Ouch.

So I can do duck walks, shallow squats, straight-leg deadlifts, clam shells, hip thrusts, and running. So that’s what I did.

The Curve

To my surprise and titillation, they had a curve treadmill. These are self-propelled with a tank track rather than a thin canvas, and they shaped like a shallow bowl. They feel very natural to run on, and unlike traditional treadmills, the curve engages your hamstrings.

Upon seeing the Curve, I felt a rush of child-like glee that I can only compare to stumbling upon a cache of R rated movies as a boy. And like those movies, I was going to a be an epic hero on that thing until I collapsed.

What would come first? Hypoglycemia? A sore body? A trip and fall and fling off? Depleted will to carry on?

It was hypoglycemia. So as my conscious mind was leaving my body I stumbled to a bowl of oranges and sucked the life out of it.

Plush

Orange. Nice.

Also, cold wet towels. They were in a fridge that must have been stolen from the cabanas. I’m used to seeing these filled with Red Bull.
What bliss. Sitting there with fresh orange juice, a cold towel, and a runner’s high.

I’m untouchable in these moments. Ultra confident. Thinking clearly other than occasional delusions of grandeur.

Although the acute euphoria fades quickly, the general positivity does not. Research shows that daily exercise keeps depression at bay, and in my experience, exercise is vital to my mental health.

Some of my final thoughts…

I found the other gym goers to be fairly serious types. Nice enough to chat.

The gym also offered free and paid workout classes, and a bogus metabolic assessment.

Overall I was very impressed with the gym on the Disney Cruise.

I was not overly impressed with my training efforts. But honestly, if we do a Disney Cruise again, I’m not sure I could do much better. What sets me apart from many people out there is that I don’t let a setback stop me, because I am training to be a better father and husband, not just a sexier man (which happens by accident if I focus on what’s really important).

Reach out to me if you need help! [email protected]
Want to work with us? Book a session from this page on my website: www.kylebyronnutrition.janeapp.com