workout tip

If holiday travel plans will be keeping you far from the gym and exercise equipment this season, you'll need to come up with some creative ways to stay buff while on the road.

While some hotels will have a fitness center on site, you may not have time to coordinate your schedule to keep up with your usual workout routine.

Fear not, there is a way to stay fit without sabotaging your travel itinerary. Here are some easy ways to stay fit when you hit the road for the holidays:

It's the weekend, your time to sit back, relax and enjoy some late-morning snooze sessions. While weekends are great for catching up on sleep and much-needed R&R, they can offset your diet and weight loss goals that you've been keeping up with all week long.

The antidote? Rev up your workout routine and squeeze in a bootcamp-style workout (or two).

The late summer and early fall months are a great time to head outdoors for your fitness routine. But how do you make sure you're really getting in a great workout without the help of resistance equipment and mile-counters on the machines?

Whether you choose to go swimming or head outside for a long jog, the heat may get to you faster than it would at the gym--which means you don't always know if you're pushing yourself hard enough.

Here are ways to make the most of your workouts during late summer:

You've finally stopped making excuses to get to the gym in the wee hours of the morning, and are committed to sticking with your fitness mantra this season.

Congratulations! This is a big step, and one that will pay off in more ways than one. Still, logging in time at the gym is just the beginning; if you find yourself spending hours on the treadmill, elliptical trainer or lifting weights and aren't seeing results, you might not be maximizing your gym time.

No matter how excited you were about your new fitness frenzy attitude a few weeks back, there will come a time when the motivation level hits an all time low.

Getting into a new exercise routine is great, but it's the consistency of the workouts that will get you the results you crave.

Unfortunately, many people simply give up after a series of missed workouts, or from sheer boredom. Don't be the next victim of workout burnout!

Prepare yourself for the dip in motivation by jazzing up your workout routine with some of these simple strategies:

Strengthening your core muscles not only improves your posture, but it also makes it easier to carry out your most challenging workout routines.

Dancers, gymnasts and other athletes do a number of exercises to strengthen and tone up their core muscles - the obliques, abdominals and lower back - because it helps them maintain balance and allows them to shift and control their body weight easily.

Don't have time for the gym? Don't worry about it! You can burn a ton of calories from the comforts of home, and you don't even need to stock up on the latest workout videos or fancy home gym equipment.

If you spend just a couple of hours each week doing house chores, and keep up a steady pace, you can turn your house cleaning routine into a killer workout.

This really does mean that you can forget about the gym bag (for now, anyway) and stay in great shape.

Staying flexible is an important part of fitness but only some people stretch long enough and hard enough to ensure maximum range of motion of the joints.

If you're not stretching properly before and after your workout, you are putting yourself at risk for injury, soreness and poor recovery.

Stretching is such a simple activity, but it's often overlooked. Here are some important tips for stretching properly so you can make the most of each and every fitness routine:

You've heard about the health and fitness benefits of swimming, but what if you could also jump into the pool for an aerobic workout?

Walking in water or treading water for several minutes at a time are great ways to build stamina and endurance; aquatic exercises actually help to burn lots of calories without over-stressing your muscles.

If you never feel like you have enough energy to work out, you may be a strong candidate for a water-based routine.

Here are some of the top health and fitness benefits of walking in water:

So beach season is right around the corner, and you might be busy making plans to get your fair share of some sun and sand.

But is your body really ready for bikini season? If you're still struggling with a few extra pounds or want to whittle down your waistline to be really bikini-ready, we've got you covered.

Here are some easy ways to slim down and tone up that midsection to get a show-off worthy six pack this season: