Fitness while traveling is like a day with a substitute teacher when you were in grade school: Full of slacking off and acting out.
Traveling as an adult often means ditching your normal, healthy routine—like eating well and working out—and adopting a less healthy, lazier one.
The good news is you don’t have to throw those good habits by the wayside when you leave home for a while. It just takes a little planning and will power.
Here’s what we suggest:
Travel program
Talk to your coach about writing a training program for you while you’re away. It doesn’t need to be super intense, and it can even be designed for you to do in the space between the beds in a hotel room (you don’t need much space for an EMOM of burpees and air squats or push-ups and lunges).
Or if you know you’ll have access to a hotel gym while you’re away, it can include dumbbells and some sprints on the treadmill. Calling the hotel ahead of time to find out what they have in their gym can help your coach create a useful training plan for you, and at the very least maintain your fitness.
We have found that athletes who have a specific program to follow on the road goes a long way in helping them stay accountable to follow through with their workout intentions.
If you’re on a vacation where you’ll be day drinking at the pool, here’s a tip: Commit to hitting the hotel gym first thing in the morning before you’re two margaritas in…
Go for a run
Yeah, let’s be real here…CrossFitters, in general, don’t like running very much. I could go into a million reasons why you should be running, but that’s a separate blog post in and of itself. Anyway, a great way to explore a new city is by going for a jog or a walk to take in your surroundings.
I’ve taken many trips to foreign places both in and out of the U.S. and one of the first things I’d do after settling in would be going for a nice easy jog around the area to discover where things are located. Chances are you’ll run past a place you’ll want to go to for dinner later. This also gives you the opportunity to get your body moving after hours of sitting in a plane and/or car.
Seek out kitchens
Although eating out at new places can be fun, and potentially healthy if you make the right choices, too much eating out on travel/vacation exposes you to plentiful highly palatable, delicious foods that probably aren’t the best for your health. I’m not saying to not eat out, but try as best you can to limit this by staying at places with kitchens, or at the very least, a fridge. This will allow you to go grocery shopping and keep food on hand, and maybe limit your eating out each day to just dinner.
When you return, get right back in the saddle
One of the most common times people fall off their fitness regimen is after a vacation. They’re out of the rhythm and they become apprehensive to return to the gym.
The easiest way to ensure you’ll get back into it the moment you return is to schedule a private coaching session with your coach before you take off traveling. This is a good way to keep yourself accountable to get back into the gym without delay when you return from travel. This is also a good opportunity for you to catch up with your coach and formulate a strategy to get you back on track and set some new goals!
Even if you let yourself slip a little during your travels, remember you’re always just one workout away from feeling like your usual, healthy, fit self again!