Whether you travel for business or pleasure, embracing a healthy lifestyle means staying on track with your workout routine, even when you’re miles from home. While it may not always be easy, exercising while traveling will help reduce stress, promote better sleep, and increase your energy levels. With a little advance planning and creativity, you can take your workout routine anywhere.
Strength-Training: Hotel Style
You don’t need fancy equipment or a lot of space to work your core muscle groups. As a matter-of-fact, you can work your whole body in just 20 minutes with four exercises. Start with a five-minute warm up to get your muscles loosened up, then move right into these exercises, doing as many full-circuits as you can.
- 15 full-body squats
- 10 push-ups
- 10 one-arm dumbbells rows with each arm. Of course you won’t have dumbbells, but you can certainly use your suitcase or something similar.
- 10 reverse crunches
Spend another five minutes giving your body a good stretch. Now you’re ready to start your day.
Heart-pumping Cardio: Anytime, Anywhere
If you’re hotel has a resident gym, you’re golden. You can make use of the treadmill, elliptical, or stair machine to get your body sweating. But, even if you don’t have access to a gym, you can still get in your cardio regimen. Pack your cross-trainers and hit the pavement. Walk, run, or jog your way through the city, town, or countryside. Not only will you energize your body, but you’ll get to see the sites and explore a bit too.
When your travels take you to places that are too cold, icy, or unsafe, you can intensify your indoor workout by starting the day with 30 minutes of aerobic activity before heading out the door of your hotel. Jumping jacks, power squats, running in place, or dancing will get your heart pumping. You’ll energize your body and jump-start your day, whether you spend it in meetings or museums.
Stretch Your Body and Reduce Stress with Yoga
If you practice yoga at home, you know how relaxing it is for your body and mind. While it may be tempting to skip the routine when you travel, the truth is, you need yoga more than ever when you’re faced with the stress of car or airplane travel. Just packing your yoga mat and your favorite yoga DVD will inspire you to get into those critical poses.
Need some extra inspiration? Check out Yoga and Travel, a comprehensive app for your iPhone or iPad that will help you take your routine anywhere.
Make Exercise a Natural Part of Your Day
This may not work for business trips, but if you’re in it for pleasure, you’ve got a lot of options. Whether you’re touring a city or adventuring in the wilds, you can make heart-pumping exercises part of the journey, and part of the fun.
- Make a point of touring parks and green spaces in each city you visit. Go for a jog, rent a bicycle, or work out on the playground equipment.
- Walk where you need to go. You will get up-close-and-personal with each destination simply by slowing down and letting your feet do the work.
- Try something new. A vacation is the perfect time to try out a new sport. Windsurfing, rock-climbing, skiing, hiking, snowshoeing. Find out what’s available and give it a whirl.
- Visit other gyms or yoga studios when traveling. It’s fun to see how the rest of the world works out, and touring gyms and yoga studios when you’re away from home can be an interesting adventure. Sign up for a class, or just zone out on the treadmill.
If you live an active lifestyle that includes daily exercise, you’ll find that traveling just makes working out more interesting, not more difficult. Yes, you have to plan ahead, but this is a gift you give yourself. Your body will repay you by giving you boundless energy to enjoy your journey and your destination.