When it comes to maintaining your general fitness while traveling, it can sometimes be one of the most stressful elements of the entire trip!
While staying fit isn’t the end all of travel, but if you’re in prep, heading towards a goal or on a long haul adventure, staying active and properly scheduling fitness can be HUGE.
To help you keep on track here are 5 tips that you can use to help maintain your general health while traveling.
Table of Contents
- Plan Ahead
- Bodyweight Workouts Win Out
- HIIT It Hard with Tabata Workouts
- Explore the Outdoors
- Find Travel Ready Products
- Keep Moving While You’re Moving
Plan Ahead
One of the most basic concepts won’t be a tip, but general life advice. You need to plan ahead if you want to get the most out of your sessions.
While it may seem incredibly simple when you first look into it, there can be a lot of advantages to using your fingers and Googling a whole heck of a lot of information.
One suggestion that we have for this is to look for fitness options around your destination of travel. Doing so will help you see if there are any gyms located in the area that may help accommodate what you are looking to do or if your hotel literally has all that you need to get that quick session in.
While doing this little bit of research may not take a ton of time, it will inevitably make sure that you are able to get the most out of your limited relaxation within relaxation… Time. The less that you have to stress, the more likely you are to pull through and get the work done!
Bodyweight Workouts
Now, let’s say that your research yielded almost net zero results, or you just can’t justify the extra time or expense that it may take to travel to and from that potentially terrible gym you found online, what can you do?
Keeping it simple is the way to go here, have a list and selection of bodyweight exercises ready and waiting for you to kick off and kick OUT the gains that you are looking for.
Bodyweight workouts may seem like a no brainer to most of you here, but the convenience factor of doing them in your room and the ability to target multiple muscle groups within the same workout can be POWERFUL.
Here is a quick link to some of our favorite bodyweight exercises that you can try anywhere and anytime.
HIIT and Tabata Workouts
Don’t forget to HIIT the workouts when you have time!
High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) and Tabata training sessions are efficient on the clock and kick your REAR into GEAR because by the end, if done right you’ll be huffing and puffing like the Little Engine that Could.
HIIT training (and by extension Tabata) makes use of extreme exertion within a set time frame paired with a set rest period. The general idea behind this is to force your heart rate to an extreme high, bring it back down, then SHOOT it back up. Doing this is supposed to increase your fat burning window by multiple hours after you are done.
Tabata, one of the more popular forms of HIIT training, has one of the most intense uses of this Exertion/Rest. Tabata uses a 20 seconds of exertion that pushes you to the absolute limits with 10 seconds of rest for 8 rounds or a total of 4 minutes.
If you are looking for a list of exercises that can be used for HIIT, it’s endless.
Running in place, jumping jacks, push-ups, you name it, you can do it. Keep pushing and get the work in for yourself.
Explore Outdoor Activities
The next thing you are trying to tell me is that there is literally NO way you can fit any kind of regular fitness into your schedule because it is jam packed. We would have to answer you quite simply, “Take a hike!”.
And we mean that literally.
If you are worried about missing parts of your vacation because you don’t want to miss the great outdoors, make them an integral step in getting your sessions in.
You can enjoy a multitude of activities like hiking, biking, swimming or even a well worn guided walking tour. Doing activities like these can help you enjoy the scenery around you, get some much needed fresh air and can even add a bit of entertainment while you are trying to squeeze all that relaxation into your vacation.
It’s incredibly hard to overestimate just how stimulating a good walk on the beach and swim through the gentle tides can be, even if you don’t feel it until the next day.
Make use of Travel-friendly Equipment
There are also frequent travelers who don’t have access to the great outdoors, a car and want to add in some variety to their training sessions that HIIT may not be able to strike. This is where “suitcase” fitness comes in.
Thanks to modern day technology there are literally hundreds of pieces of equipment to pick from, but we think the BEST bangs for your buck are a jump rope and resistance band set.
Both of these can be put in the side pocket of a backpack and keep you fit. Most resistance bands now come with handle sets and varying degrees of tension to let you add on and really pump up them muscles. While it may release a bit at the bottom, the squeeze at the top is where you really set in.
For jump ropes, this will let you do both low intensity steady state cardio (L.I.S.S.) and HIIT anytime provided you have clearance with the ceiling and maybe the bed spot. We just ask that you be a kind neighbor and not bounce to late at night.
Stay Active During Transit
One constant complaint that comes up from frequent travelers is getting stiff and sore during the transit portion of the trip.
Whether you are stuck in the back seat of a small car, squished between people on a plane, or on the uncomfortable bus ride from hell, there are ways you can feel your best.
Standing up regularly is a MUST. Even if it is just to go to the bathroom down the short walk of a plane, getting your legs stretched is a huge win. If you can find the time (we are talking 1-2 minutes) doing basic mobility work like slav squats or just full extension squats, where your rear basically sinks to the ground and you flex your calves at the top are a win in our book.
Two other pro tips to feel good at the other end of the line is to stay hydrated and use your bun warmers when possible. From personal experience, the secret sauce to not crying yourself to sleep on a 14 hour trip, the bun warmers and slav squats will let you feel amazing the next morning.
Conclusion
When it comes down to keeping fit on the road, if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail. Whether you are looking to use luggage friendly equipment, google the nearest place or simply go on a hike, there is almost no end to what you can do to keep on track while on vacation.
You know that there are a ton of positives that come from being active, so don’t put yourself in a corner while on a trip. What are some of your favorite ways to get better while hitting the road?
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