How to Work Out Whilst Traveling

You’ve worked your butt off for the last few months and have started to carve the body that you always dreamed of. Sure, it’s going to take a lot more work, but you’re getting there nonetheless.

Then, disaster strikes. Or should we say, your annual vacation comes around the corner.

For a lot of us, this is the time where overindulgence enters the picture. Whether it’s eating too much, or simply deciding to “switch off” your workout, by the time you come back home you are miles behind where you first found yourself.

In fairness, this isn’t always your fault. A lot of people might depart on their travels with excellent intentions, only to find that their go-to workout can’t be performed due to a lack of facilities or another similar reason.

Whether you fall into this category, or you just like to give your body a long break during vacation, this chapter will look at five points that you must keep in mind if you want to ensure that your progress is at least maintained when you travel.

Pack your gym bag

This is one of those suggestions that is applicable wherever in the world you find yourself. Hopefully you have already appreciated the importance of packing your bag long before your gym session, in a bid to ensure that you actually turn up to it.

Well, the same rules apply whilst you travel. One of the most common excuses that most of us come up with whilst traveling is that you don’t have the right shoes, or you’ve run out of gym shirts. Suffice to say, if you plan ahead, these excuses should never be heard.

Some of you might suggest that you don’t have enough room in your suitcase to fit your running trainers, and this might be a valid case. If you do fall into this category, look to replace some of your dress shoes.

It might sound OTT, but with the aim of keeping your fitness goals on track its absolutely essential whilst you travel. Additionally, as you have all of your fitness ammunition in your case, it will automatically remind you of the need to exercise every time you venture into your hotel room.

Plan your itinerary around your fitness

This is the main suggestion that most of you will struggle with. It’s very easy to approach a vacation as “time off”, and a period where you should just be looking to enjoy yourself. While the latter part should never be forgotten, if you do slip back on your fitness goals the dreaded return home can be even worse than it usually is.

To avoid the above, your itinerary needs to be planned around fitness. It doesn’t have to be strict by any means, and it really will vary depending on the type of trip you have opted for.

For example, in the case of a business excursion, looking for times where you don’t have any meetings is an obvious one. Or, in the case of a family holiday, potentially planning in time before everyone is awake is your best piece of advice.

As you’ll know from your schedule at home, if it isn’t set in stone it becomes very hard to stick by and this is the reason behind the strict nature of this suggestion.

Put together a hotel workout

We touched upon this in the introduction to this chapter, but your type of accommodation really can impact your workout options.

In an ideal world you will be provided with a state of the art gym, but in an age where budget hotels are the norm this is seldom the case. Of course, if you have the option, choosing a hotel with fitness facilities should be your primary solution.

If you don’t have the on-site gym to turn to, it’s time to get a little more creative. The age of the internet means that you really can go to town with this and even tune into a live streamed fitness class to help you along your way.

For a lot of us, we really don’t need to venture down such a path though. Bodyweight-only workouts are vastly underrated, and really can tick the box whilst you are away. As the name suggests, you don’t need any specialist equipment, and this bypasses one of the main problems that is associated with working out on the road.

In fact, some people will improvise even more, and maybe even start to use objects in their room as weights. There are example of beds being used for deadlifting, and chairs as squats. You can be as inventive as you like, but obviously make sure you’re not going to put any of the hotel equipment into jeopardy!

If you’re opting for the bodyweight workout, here are some of the best exercises you can undertake to help you along your way:

• Push-ups: Whether it’s standard push-ups, backbend, decline or pike – they all work. The nature of this means that you can take on five sets with as many as fifteen reps.
• Dips: One of the easiest around – and many of you will find that you can do them on the hotel bed. Aim for four sets of ten here.
• Single-leg step squats and Reverse lunges: Targeting the lower body, you should be looking for four sets of ten with both of these exercises. They target different parts of your lower body although in relation to the single-leg squats, make sure you have something like a thick book as support for your standing leg.

Never skip two days in a row

This is a really useful rule you can keep in mind, especially where the excitement of a vacation can get the better of you and you can easily forget your fitness tasks. Sticking to the two day rule is very easy in principle; it just means that you should never look to go more than two days without training.

It sort of links into the last point that we looked at, in regards to your itinerary. For example, if you know that you have a planned excursion one day, you know that you have the next two where you simply must pencil in a workout. It’s an easy way to remember and just allows you to keep on top of things.

Track your fitness as normal

The key message that you will have probably been aware of throughout this guide is to try and keep things as normal as possible. Sure, it’s most certainly a case of easier said than done, but tracking your goals can help with this emphatically.

The big mistake that a lot of us make is that we “set and forget” when we go on vacation. We don’t want to track our weight, as we know what we are eating and exactly what it is doing to our waistline. If you start to actively track your progress, it can allow you to fine-tune your eating, drinking and exercise so it’s not quite as dangerous.

Once again, we will add the caveat that vacations are there to be enjoyed. At the same time, you should be looking to ensure that this isn’t going to result in all of the hard work you have invested being totally wiped away.