How to Never Miss a Workout When You Travel

How to Never Miss a Workout When You Travel

While working out regularly is great for the body, traveling is soothing for the mind and the soul – but that doesn’t mean you have to pause your fitness regime. There are going to be times when you are traveling for work or vacation and are away from your home gym, so today we will discuss how to maintain your workouts when travelling, and how you can keep fit without gym equipment.

The Best Travel Workouts you can do Without Gym Equipment

You may not get five-star accommodations at every destination or a hotel that has a fitness room. In those cases, here are some great vacation workouts to try:

The Hotel Room Workout

Push-ups, squats, and sit ups don’t require any equipment, or a great deal of space. In your hotel room, also try doing lunges, triceps dips, and bicycle crunches.

The exercises listed above help build muscle, but don’t forget about your warm-up and your cardio. In your hotel room you can do jumping jacks, run on the spot, and do knee lifts.

Stationary exercises help with toning. Try some planks, wall sits, and supermans.

Decide which exercises you are going to do and for how much time. A 20 minute workout will be enough to maintain your progress and not lose all the hard work that you did at home.

The Playground Workout

In the majority of locations, it is easy to locate a playground or a park nearby.

A playground is a great place to work with portable suspension trainers or resistance bands. These are lightweight, easy to pack, and can be hooked or wrapped around sturdy playground equipment to help you get a great workout.

Even without your portable resistance equipment, you can still get a great workout on a playground. Use the equipment to do pull ups and dips, and you are never too old to use those monkey bars!

If there is a park with no playgroup equipment, it’s a great place for a yoga mat. No yoga mat? No problem. Exercise on the grass and get the added element of forest bathing into your routine.

Flexibility Exercises

Don’t neglect stretching. Even though you are going to have some fun and leave all the tumult of your busy life behind while on vacation, prioritize your health. Stretching is an important part of your fitness routine.

Stretching keeps you limber, agile, and is also relaxing. It’s a great way to start your day and set up your body and mind for the adventures you will have on vacation.

Simple stretching exercises like the standing hamstring stretch, child’s pose, glute stretch, sit and reach, neck stretch, and seated twist are easy to do in your hotel room or in a park. Stretch daily, holding each pose for 30-60 seconds.

Angry Birds Workout

This is for those who don’t like going to the gym but want to get fit. This can be done within the four walls of your hotel room or Airbnb. It is a workout based around body weight squats, push ups, pull ups, and planks. You can do the workout all at once or break it up during the day. Set the number of reps you want to achieve and score yourself on how many sets it took to reach your goal.

What is the benefit of this, you may ask?

An angry birds workout targets every major muscle group. It bolsters the upper and lower parts of the body, along with strengthening the core. So, the next time a friend asks you to race them up the hill, you can tell them to follow your trail!

Tips for Eating Healthy While Travelling

Food and fitness go hand in hand. One of the most important parts of traveling is eating all kinds of delicious, regional food. Even if someone is extremely health conscious, they cannot resist trying some new dishes. But how can you eat healthfully while traveling?

How to Eat Healthy While Traveling

While you are on a trip, some basic knowledge about which foods have protein, carbs and fats is always helpful. With that knowledge, you can identify the approximate value of the macronutrients present in your meals.

Knowing the value means you can separate your daily caloric intake throughout the day. You may even have some calories left for dessert! After all, going to a new place and not trying their authentic sweet dish is like going to the water park and watching others enjoy the rides.

So, if you want to satisfy your taste buds, plan your diet while traveling. While you can get a lot of protein from various types of foods, including fish, you can also pack whey or protein bars if you are uncertain of if you will be able to access fresh protein.

Getting carbs is also easy, since you can throw a fruit like an apple or banana in your bag for your day trips, and when it comes to eating fats, what’s better than eating nuts?

Healthy travel and eating apps

You can opt for two types of healthy eating apps. One type is location-based and recommends restaurants based on your food choices or shows you eateries in the area with links to their websites and menus. Other apps are general planning and charting apps that provide nutritional information.

As an example, there is an app called Food Tripping that provides community-based suggestions, locations, and information for all sorts of eating places, from food fairs to farmers’ markets and local restaurants. Food Tripping works throughout the USA. Food Tripping is GPS-based and its aim is to help diners find healthier alternatives to fast food.

On the other hand, there is Meal IQ, MyFitnessPal, VNutrition, and Nutrifix. The purpose of these sorts of apps is to help ou track your nutrition and calories. Along with keeping a count, some also suggest recipes based on your calorie intake limitations – perfect for Airbnb stays where you have access to a kitchen.

Other nutrition apps you may like include: Clean Plates, Yummy, and Happy Cow. There are apps for every food preference, from gluten free to paleo, from vegetarian to keto.

The Best Hacks to Overcome Jet Lag

While we are talking about health and travel, why not cruise over some jet lag tips? After all, it’s hard to be active when you are suffering from jet lag.

When you cross time zones or fly overseas, your body’s natural circadian rhythm is interrupted. Instead of feeling fresh and ready to take on the day in the morning, you may want to sleep in. Instead of resting at night, you may be ready to take on the day!   And talk about feeling sluggish – you want to be as alert and fresh as someone is when they watch the FIFA finals. But what do you get? A body that looks like a walking and talking zombie.

To overcome this, you must take the lead and try to follow the routine of the respective time zone. You can do this by adjusting your sleeping and eating pattern ahead of time to mimic the hours of your target time zone. You can also take melatonin or time your flight so you sleep on the journey and arrive at your vacation spot in the morning.

Conclusion

With a little motivation and by taking advantage of the space in your hotel room or nearby park, you can stay fit while on vacation. You can eat clean too, with some preplanning and some handy apps. But remember, travelling is about relaxing and experiencing new things, so don’t be afraid to forgo that workout if your plans are to be active all day, and don’t be shy about trying that sweet regional treat. Your body, and your mind, benefit from new experiences as much as they do from routine exercise.

Have a wonderful, healthy, rejuvenating vacation.

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