It isn't tough to stay fit while traveling, guys.
There I said it. IT ISN'T! You can start celebrating! It's doable!
Because otherwise, I wouldn't be able to do it for 6 years.
Don't worry, I'm not going to tell you to run hotel stairs, run 5 kilometers every morning, or eat 7 avocados and X grams of oatmeal (as if every traveler carry a kitchen scale) for lunch.
While staying fit you'll ENJOY traveling and stop worrying about your fitness completely.
If the above apply to you... You're so darn lucky...
Why?
Because in this post, an advanced trainee (me) about to give you the best-bang-for-your-buck tips which have had cost too much frustration and trial & error methods to learn in 6 years.
Hopefully, it won't take that long for you.
And I value this "know how" so much I'm not even mad that I sound extremely arrogant.
Yes, I've been going to the gym seriously for 6 years, I travel once every nearly 3 months, and I DO manage to stay fit while traveling. How? Buckle up.
First, let's start with some facts.
The single reason that your body gets fitter and healthier always comes down to two things:
1- Stimulation
2- Recovery. Sorry, I meant enough recovery.
You know that feel when you feel good in the gym and your stats continuously increase. Each time you hit the gym you lift more, run longer, get faster and be stronger. It's more common for newbies. As a reward, you feel and look much better.
I know, I know. It feels amazing.
After a while, you keep feeling good, but your stats somehow stop increasing. So you open your laptop (or, if I'm your friend, you text me at 02:00 AM as to why your squat is stuck at 200 lbs.) and start researching.
If you're researching from reliable resources, you'll definitely see this:
If you feel good in the gym but your stats don't increase, do a little more.
This is a great advice.
You hit the gym 1 more day every week and up the training session for 15 mins.
After a while, your stats somehow stop increasing but this time you don't feel that good in the gym. You feel tired. So you open your laptop (or, if I'm your friend, you text me at 04:00 AM as to why your squat is stuck at 220 lbs) and start researching.
If you're researching from reliable resources, you'll definitely see this:
If you feel tired in the gym, your stats don't increase, and you have been training continuously for nearly 3 months, deload.
1- Deload While Traveling
Do you know why you feel bad?
Do you know why you can't stop the barbell from rolling from your hands anymore?
Do you know why your grip strength decreased?
Your overall focus throughout the day decreased?
I do.
You have been doing more than your body AND mind can recover.
My beloved Alan Thrall from YouTube makes a much better job than me to demonstrate how overtraining works.
If you have a life (e.g. you're not a professional athlete: you're a college student or you have a job), it means your recovery will be inferior to other people. The truth is that for you, reaching that level is much easier than you think.
But if you're reading this, I should probably assumed that you're a stubborn person and probably have OCD. You'll probably convince yourself not to listen to people that are telling you to stop. But that's not true.
When you start feeling not so great in the gym after a long period of training and your lifts stop increasing, you must forget about weights and deload for an entire week if you want to get stronger, healthier, fitter or faster.
When you let your body AND your mind (which, is as important as your physique if you want to stay in shape all the time) rest enough, you'll see you look and feel BETTER!
Recently, I started to travel for my work around once every 3 months. Since I ALWAYS train hard when I have settled life, my must-take-deloads overlap with my traveling time.
As a result, when I travel, I enjoy the different food, and eat around maintenance. I swear I start to look BETTER since my body recovers, I enjoy the moment without worrying about gym as I KNOW that stopping for a week is BETTER than constantly going hard.
And when I'm back, I am always able lift more - which is not surprising at all. Read more about deloading and you'll find out.
What's more...
Being fit is a marathon, guys. If you want to stay fit ALL THE TIME, you're going to have to learn to EMBED it into your life and make it a HABIT. Gym is there to improve your life, not to consume it. If you sprint, you're going to burn out, and your fitness journey won't last than a few months. Long term goals don't come with sprints. Neither they have a finish line.
In short, deload while traveling & eat what you want but at maintenance.
But what if you'll be traveling more than a week?
2- Calisthenics
Calisthenics involve the exercises performed with minimal equipment - hence, in many situations, your bodyweight.
If you finished your deload, do the following for 1-2 weeks before you hit the gym. I guarantee you that it's the best bang for your buck while traveling.
For your nutrition, worry more about how much you eat than what you eat. You're not going to travel forever - focus on things that matter the most. I don't care if you're losing or gaining weight - stop your calorie deficit or surplus and eat at maintenance level (use your gut feel).
When applied, this tip alone works wonders.
I recommend you doing the following routine once every 3 days. Try not to eat anything at least 1 hour prior to training.
To optimize your time there, try to shower first and eat after that once you finish your training.
It's very difficult to say how many sets and reps you should do, but if you've never done them before & if your mobility isn't enough, even a single rep will be very difficult. As a starting point, I'd recommend 3-4 sets of 5 reps.
Push ups! The most underrated exercise in the world. Do you know what grinds my gears? "Serious" gym goers who have a life do 20+ sets of chest exercises A WEEK! This is more than overkill. I currently only do 3-4 sets a week. Only bench press. Yes, more of it does help once in a while, but 3-4 sets a week is more than enough for most people - especially during traveling when you're trying to preserve your physique. And push ups is one of the best chest exercises you can do even INSIDE the gym.
If you do have access to a pull up bar - do them as well. If not - skip and don't worry about them.