Fitness While Traveling: Stay Fit Anywhere

Fitness in Motion

When people go on short vacations, breaking from their daily lives, the temptation for gluttony, treats, lounging and drinking is profound.  Many travelers tap into this free-loving mentality, building on gratification while exploring.

However, when traveling as a lifestyle, it’s important to maintain fitness and health.  On some level, this is easy.  Food abroad tends to be healthier in many places and less processed.  A traveler is usually exercising all the time while taking mountain treks, swimming in oceans, climbing up ruins and exploring huge cities on foot.  

On the other hand, routines are harder to adhere to and a regular gym membership can’t be maintained. Generally, staying fit takes a little more effort.  There are many ways to ensure fitness while staying mobile. 

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What is Travel Fitness?

Fitness while traveling is defined by capability.  Can you climb a rock wall or cliff?  Are you capable of trekking for eight hour a day?  Can you swim in a shallow sea, manage difficult terrain or walk up the steep hills of a mountain city?  

While fitness at home is generally aligned with functional goals, such as number of reps, weight thresholds or time in motion, travel demands fitness be a little more freeform, as the environment usually changes.  As such, travel fitness routines are more aligned with bodily maintenance, preventing injuries, increased stamina and conscious planning.

Natural Walking Health

Walking is the absolute easiest way to maintain a level of fitness while traveling.  A vagabonder needs to be able to walk long distances, often with a sizable backpack.  An inability to do so makes travel more difficult in less developed areas, or more expensive since transportation is needed to do everything.

The advantage to this lifestyle naturally lends itself to fitness.  Walking frequently, handling the weight of luggage, eating healthier foods abroad and doing activities like rock climbing, swimming or martial arts all make a healthier, more physically capable person.

Sticking to a Workout Routine

Just like living anywhere in the world, sticking to a routine is an important feature of remaining fit.  Sleeping and waking up at regular intervals helps maintain a good schedule.  Eating at normal times allows a person to avoid overconsumption.  Additionally, having a good fitness routine reduces the amount of willpower needed to work out.

Everyone has a different workout style.  Some people prefer working out in the early mornings, the late afternoons, alone or with companions.  Their style of workout can be tailored to match personal preferences.  The most important features include having a workouts which is easily started (reasonable daily goals) and consistency.  

Calisthenics, Cardio and Yoga

Generally, a travel-workout routine is different from a standard gym routine.  Going from place to place means there is very little chance for heavy weight training.  The vast majority of exercises are body-weight exercises, Cardio, motion or different types of stretching.

Calisthenics is the easiest exercise to handle.  These fitness routines don’t require any real exercise equipment, relying entirely on repetitions, body weight and exercise form.  These exercises include activities like planks, push ups, squats, lunges, dynamic stretches, burpees, mountain climbers and leg lifts.

Also popular in the Calisthenics Camp are pullups and chair dips, both of which require limited equipment.  These are extraordinarily easy to do.  Simply go out and find a playground or low tree ranch for pull ups.  A concrete block, park bench or normal chair is enough equipment to manage these.  

Cardio activity is one of the least important aspects of fitness while traveling.  The travel and vagabond lifestyle already lends itself to cardio activities with long walks, swimming, biking and other transit exercises.  However, if a person wishes to develop a cardio based routine, jogging, jump rope or HITT exercises work well.  

The most important exercises a traveler can do are maintenance based.  These include stretching, breathing, yoga, dynamic stretching and smooth motion exercises.  Aside from improving general fitness while traveling, these exercises are splendidly helpful with preventing injuries or recovering from other strenuous activities.  

Martial Classes, Tango Lessons and Gyms

Some people travel for the sake of learning a skill which counts as an established exercise routine.  Learning Flamenco Dances, Krav Maga or Rappelling are all intense activities which lend themselves to better physical conditioning.  

Though these exercises are generally great for improving a person’s health, it’s generally a good idea to add in extra recovery exercises or stretches to prevent injuries.  

Eating, Sleeping and Hydrating

Though fitness is associated with exercise, the most important parts of taking care of oneself comes from eating properly, sleeping well and hydrating often.

Try to make your own healthy meals as much as possible when on the road.  This saves a considerable amount of money while also ensuring food is healthier.  While it’s great to treat yourself once in a while with a novel food choice, your core diet should be stable and healthy.  

Likewise, sleep is incredibly important.  Proper rest helps with decision making, impulse control and helps prevent injuries.  Sleep is, by far, the most important aspect of traveling smart.

If you’re having trouble sleeping, invest in a travel blindfold, neck pillow and ear plugs.

Water is also important to living a healthy life.  Limit alcohol consumption when possible and drink plenty of water.  Read more about water and travel safety here.

Workout Anywhere

The key to having a workout routine while traveling is availability.  Whatever your routine is, you should be able to do it anywhere.  If you are in a hostel, a hotel room, a city park, a lonely beach, a mountain trail or tundra plain, all of your workouts should be possible.  

This means limiting equipment usage to nothing or just a few small items which can easily be carried.  It also means avoiding exercises which are unnecessarily loud or disruptive.  

The best routines while traveling tend to involve public workout equipment for pull ups, chin ups and other body-weight drills.  

Travel Workout Routine

Below is my daily travel workout routine, which I do upon waking up in the morning. It has elements of cardio, dynamic stretching, calisthenics and yoga.

Wake Up

Wake up, perform brief stretches and head to a public park or playground.  If there are no public playgrounds nearby or I’m in an unsafe environment (such as a savannah with morning lions or a developing city) a small patio or private room works fine.  

Cardio

My absolute favorite workout for cardio is jumping rope.  It’s meditative, allows the practice of controlled breathing, remains quiet and not disruptive.  A jump rope is very light, packs easily and can be used for additional stretches to improve posture.  For me, this exercise is usually eight minutes.

Dynamic Stretching

After my body has warmed up, I move onto dynamic stretches.  These are motion-oriented movements which prevent injuries and prepare a body for a healthy workout.  The best  routine includes the following:

• Torso Twists
• Walking Lunges
• Leg Swings
• Calf Raises
• Squats
• Shoulder Rolls
• Arm Circles
• High Knees

Following Dynamic Stretches, move on to calisthenics.  These are strength-building exercises which gradually increase as competency and muscles improve.  They focus on different muscle groups, so the workouts change daily between core groups, upper body groups and lower body groups.  The workout forms also change to increase difficulty ( example: placing hands in diamond position for more advanced push ups).  

Workout one group each day, allowing for the muscle groups to recover between days.  Pay special attention to form to prevent injury.  

Upper:

• Pull Ups
• Chin Ups
• Dips
• Push Ups
• Burpees

Core:

• Side Planks
• Low Planks
• Leg Lifts
• Superman Hold
• Glute Bridge

Lower

• Variation Lunges
• Variation Squats
• Jump Squats
• Mountain Climbers

Cooldown Yoga Routine

Yoga (and pilates) is one of the greatest travel exercise options of all time.  Beginner yoga routines can be performed by anyone regardless of level and yoga is often found within travel culture, making it easy to find other enthusiasts and teachers.

I highly recommend traveling with a light yoga mat.  It can double as a sleeping pad in a pinch and can be strapped to the outside of a backpack easily, without taking up much space.  

My absolute favorite yoga mat for travel is the Jade Voyager Yoga Mat.  It’s much lighter and more compact than a standard yoga mat, handles the rigors of travel well and fits easily against my luggage.  It’s quite durable:; mine has lasted since 2017.

Yoga routines vary greatly depending on a person’s level.  But some of the easiest routines to start with include the following poses.

• Easy Pose – Sukhasana
• Cat Cow – Bitilasana Marjaryasana
• Child’s Pose – Balansana
• Pigeon Pose – Eka Pada Rajakapotasana
• Cobra Pose – Bhujangasana 
• Hero Pose – Virasana 
• Downward-Facing Dog – Adho Mukha Svanasana
• Tree Pose – Vrksasana
• Warrior Pose I – Virabhadrasana I
• Warrior Pose II – Virabhadrasana II
• Lord of the Fishes – Ardha Matsyendrasana
• Corpse Pose – Shavasana 
• Happy Baby – Ananda Balasana

Fitness While Traveling Anywhere

Overall, learning ways to stay fit without a gym is an important aspect of wellness while traveling.  All the exercises above lend themselves to better health when done properly.  The routine listed above is simple and requires less than an hour each morning.

Gyms, weights, personal trainers and heavy equipment aren’t needed to continue wellness.  An experienced traveler creates their own routine which can be maintained on the road. With this being said, there are certain fitness routines that might not be possible in certain areas.

During a visit to the Amazon, it was far too easy to get lost in a dangerous environment without my guide. Morning jogs were out of the question, so I ended up practicing extra yoga instead.

Staying fit while traveling takes a few extra considerations, but it’s entirely possible anywhere in the world.

Best regards and excellent trails,

Old Sean

When traveling the world, there’s a good chance that a primary mode of fitness is rooted in walking. And walking. And walking. Read about it here on the blog