Making the time or keeping up the motivation to exercise while you travel can be daunting. Your days are already filled with activity and potentially exhausting situations. However, keeping up an exercise routine while abroad can actually give you more energy for your day-to-day activities and is great for your mental well-being as well! This post, written by guest blogger Sohaib Siddique, provides some excellent tips for keeping up an exercise routine while you travel the world.
CC Image courtesy of RobW_ on Flickr
The world is driven by passions and priorities, and my two biggest ones are fitness and traveling. I haven’t stayed in one place for longer than two years—most of which is spent visiting countries around me. But alongside traveling, I can’t live without a gym. It’s my second home. Health and fitness are right up there on my list, so much so that a day is ruined after a bad workout. Even when I’m on vacation, I need to get my heart rate up and get myself moving. And surely I’m not the only one out there.
Over my years of traveling the unexplored, I’ve run into loads of others like myself. People who are in great shape and constantly on the move—it surprised me. They gave me tips on how to keep up a fitness routine while traveling, many of which I include in my workouts on the road. And now I’ll pass those tips onto you.
Workout equipment
Your mind is an endless hub of creativity. Growing up, we would create games to play outdoors with our friends. Why can’t we do the same now? Just because we’re older, doesn’t mean we can’t let our creative mind run free. Make your mind the key to your fitness goals. There are always things lying around to use as weights. Get the blood going through your veins and your muscles warm by using litre bottles, rocks in backpacks, tables, chairs, etc. While traveling, you’ll quickly discover how to live without all the comforts of home that you’re used to – and creating a fitness routine with the objects available to you is a great exercise in resourcefulness.
If you’d like to pack some equipment with you, I’d recommend some resistance bands. These are great—you can use them to work your whole body, they aren’t heavy, and they can easily fit into a bag. They come pretty cheap, too. For around $10, you can get the most versatile and portable fitness aid out there on the market.
Playgrounds
Some argue that public parks are better than gyms. People opt to work out at parks instead of the gym because it is actually better—and cheaper. Climbing equipment is your best friend here. Find arc ladders, arc tunnels or monkey bars to have a complete upper body workout.
By creatively using playground equipment, you can work your lats, your traps, your chest, your shoulders, your biceps, your triceps, and your abdominals. Just be sure to ascertain that any public park you choose to work out in is safe before venturing out alone.
Walking tour
Walking is one of the simplest forms of exercise. Just grab some shoes and get on the move. Walking or going for a morning jog is a great way to get to know your surroundings better. This way, you can explore your destination more and get some exercise in. Or you can rent a bike to use as transportation for the day.
Park benches
Park benches are another excellent public workout aid. Use them to work your abdominals (as shown in the picture), do some push ups, dips, inverted rows, and one-legged lunges. Once you understand that a muscle is worked by the movement of its connecting joint, you can make your own exercises and vary the resistance.
Photo credit: www.bringingyoufitness.com
Hit up a swimming pool
You don’t have to be the world’s best swimmer if you want to get in a workout. In fact, the worse you are, the more effort swimming will require, and the higher your heart rate will get! Swimming is a great way to work your core, your back, and your shoulders.
Make your own boot camp
Some fresh air and some friends is all you need for this one. Making your own boot camp is not only fun, but also very challenging. Get together with your fellow volunteers and head over to some open space. Come up with 5 cardio and 5 strength moves, and make sure everyone in the group knows how to perform them. You want to look for on-the-spot cardio exercises, such as burpees, jogging, jumping jacks, kickboxing, and star jumps. The strength exercises should challenge the whole body, such as tree squats, push ups, pull ups, crunches, park-bench dips etc. Do the circuit three times and then relax on the grass. You shouldn’t be able to do anything else after that, anyway.
If you plan on venturing off for a break from your daily life, always be sure to get some exercise in, a vacation isn’t a pass to sit around all day!
About Sohaib Siddique:
Despite what it may seem like, Sohaib is a coffee enthusiast first and a fitness/travel addict second. He’s visited places all over the world, all in an effort to find which coffee shop has the best espresso. He currently lives in London and writes for HotelClub, a world-leading online accommodation community.
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