Heading to the beach this summer on vacation, but want to stay active? The beach is a great place to relax, but it’s also the perfect spot to get an invigorating workout. In fact, you have an opportunity to get even more out of your workout than you do on flat ground. Here’s why:

• Exercising outdoors is good for you. The fresh air is just what you need, and the scenery keeps you engaged.

• Sand poses unique fitness challenges for beach workouts. Because it is always shifting, it places demands on muscles throughout the body that you don’t usually get a chance to work out on solid ground. They have to work harder, and they get more of a stretch too.

• The energy output required for a beach workout is higher. This means burning more calories in less time.

• Sand is perfect for exercises that involve kneeling. It cushions your knees. At that rate, if you take a fall, you are less likely to get injured.

• Working out on the beach is just plain fun!

What kinds of workouts can you do on the beach? You have a lot of options, but calisthenics are perfect for beach workouts, because you don’t need to lug around any weights or gym equipment with you. The movements you perform are enough on their own to get you into awesome shape. You can do these exercises anywhere, but the shifting sand on the beach will maximize their benefits. Here’s what we recommend!

Beginner Beach Workout

A1: Walking Lunges: 10 Each Leg

Start with your feet shoulder-width apart. Step forward with one foot, putting your heel down first with your toes pointing forward. Pull your back knee in and down toward the ground. Your front knee will bend automatically so that you drop into a lunge position. Your front knee should be at a 90-degree angle and your back knee should be just a couple inches off the ground. You then lift yourself back to the original position.

“Walk” forward by stepping ahead with the opposite foot, and repeat.

A2: Bodyweight Squats: Until Failure

This is one of the easiest and most basic exercises you can do. Even if you are new to calisthenics, you’ve probably tried it before. Start with your feet shoulder length apart. Start bending your knees, imagining you are sitting down in a chair. Raise your arms in front of you as you do for balance, then come back up. If desired can put hands on hips or back of head. Repeat. This exercise is fast and you can burn a ton of calories fast. You also work out your hamstrings, quadriceps, gluteus maximus, and erector spinae!

B1: Knee Pushups: 10-15 reps

These are excellent for beginners, especially those who cannot do a standard push-up with proper form. They work out your chest, delts, triceps, biceps, and back. What’s great about doing them in the sand is that your knees get to stay comfortable. It’s also easier to stay in place without having your knees slide like they would on a hard floor. The beach is the best place for these exercises!

B2: Plank: Until Failure

This is a simple core workout with a lot of variations. A front plank out is a standard push-up position. You can also do side planks or one-arm/one-leg planks. Another variation is a front plank where you raise yourself up on your elbows instead of your hands. Try it on your hands first and if it is too easy drop to elbows.

C: Sand Suicides: 4 Sprints

This is a running beach workout. We recommend drawing lines in the sand about 100 feet apart. You run quickly to one side, bend, touch your hand down to the line, run to the other side, touch down with the other hand, and then do it again. . That would be considered a full set. So it will be 4 sprints total in one set. These are sprints so it means all out as fast as you can go. On the beach this is seriously hard work!

Intermediate Beach Workout

A1: Jumping Alternating Lunges: 10 each leg

This is just like the beginning lunge workout above, except you are not stepping forward between lunges. Instead, you jump upwards out of each lunch, switch feet in mid-air, and then go down into the next lunge.

A2: Long Jumps: 5

This is exactly what it sounds like—and it is much safer to try on sand than on a hard surface! Stand with shoulder width apart, swing your arms back and jump forward as far as you can.

A3: Bodyweight Squats: Failure

Same as above!

B1: Pushups: 15-20

Hand shoulder width apart on the ground, with feet up on your toes. Lower your body till your chest touches the ground and then press it back up.

B2: Mountain Climbers: 20 each leg

For this beach exercise, get into the same position you would for a push-up. Keeping one leg back, pull the other in toward your chest with your knee bent. Then switch your legs, pushing that one back and drawing in the other. Keep going.

C: Sand Sprints: 6 Sprints

Same as in the beginner section! Except just adding one more back and forth sprint.

Mix It Up

While these calisthenics exercises are a blast and will really give you an incredible workout on the beach, they are hardly your only option. There are so many fun ways to get into shape. Those are just two example workouts. Think about practicing handstands or cartwheels. Go for a walk or a jog down the shoreline. Play some football or Frisbee with friends. Take a swim in the ocean to refresh yourself on a hot day.

Just get active! You’ll be having such an awesome time you won’t even noticing how many calories you’re burning. Have fun!