Fun Workouts to Do on a Cruise

With an average of approximately 20 million people cruising each year, cruise vacations are gaining popularity throughout the world. The amount of people that go on a cruise each year is approximately the same quantity of the people living and residing in Mumbai, India (2018, population of 20,000,000). 20 million is about .04 million larger than the Beijing, China’s 2018 population of 19.6 million.

Obviously, a lot of people go on cruises each year. For many taking a cruise, they want to live their best life with top notch food, drinks, fun, and relaxation. For others, exercise is always on the agenda. When you go on a cruise, you may be tempted to skip your daily exercise for plenty of reasons, such as lacking in time, space, and motivation.

Thankfully, there are a plethora of fun things to do on cruises that can help you stay in shape and relax. Here are 5 workouts that you can perform on your next cruise to help you meet your exercise goals.

1. Jumping Jacks

Jumping jacks are a staple to almost any cardio routine. To perform a proper jumping jack (also known as a star jump) you must jump into a position with your legs spread wide and your arms over your head. A good goal is to do one jumping jack a second, for 2 minutes. At this rate you will do 100 jumping jacks in 2 minutes. If you do these 5 times throughout the day, you will have worked out for a total of 10 minutes and burned 100 calories.

2. Sprint Interval Training

Sprint interval training, known as SIT for short, is interval running for weight loss. To be more specific, SIT uses max-intensity sprint intervals to blast calories and fat away in a short period of time. Sprint interval training should be done for 20 minutes or less, because of its intensity. SIT usually use 30-45 second work intervals, which is where you sprint as hard and fast as you can for 30-45 seconds, followed by a shorter 15-30 second rest period. Rest periods usually consist of light walking to let your body rest before the next interval.

SIT is extremely effective for weight loss. For example, if a 180 lb. exerciser ran sprint intervals at a speed of 12 mph for 20-minutes, they would burn upwards of 608 calories in that 20 minute workout.

3. Zumba

Most cruise lines have classes for the widely popular dance fitness routine “Zumba”. Created in the 90s by Colombian dancer Alberto Pérez, Zumba incorporates principles of aerobic exercises through dancing to fast and slow beats to burn body fat and tone muscles.

The cruise line Celebrity Cruises has a wide variety of Zumba classes for people of all ages and fitness levels. Zumba gold, for example, is a class for older adults that use simple moves for a lighter workout routine. Two other classes are Zumbatomic, which is geared towards kids and AquaZumba which is performed in a pool to reduce the impact on the body’s joints.

4. Cardio Boxing

Cardio boxing can be found on Norwegian Cruise Lines and uses a mixture of sandbag work, kicks, punches, and heavy bag workouts in a group setting. If you like kick boxing then you need to try cardio boxing, its fast and intense workouts can help you relieve stress and frustrations while losing weight.

5. Surfing

The last exercise to do on a cruise is surfing. The Flow Rider, found on Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines Freedom, Oasis, Quantum, and Navigator of the Sea’s Ships are all equipped with this ride. The Flow Rider is a 40 ft. long surf simulator that works your core and legs to exhaustion as you try to balance on the board. You can get Balance boards for this activity.

Fortunately, the price of the Flow Rider is included in the cruise fare and does not take reservations. Before riding the Flow Rider, all participants must sign a safety waiver.