How To Keep In Shape While Traveling

Hello there,

I’ve recently written an article on How to Come Back in Shape from a Layoff, be it because of personal issues, busy schedule or traveling/vacation. There is a second article on How to Take a Break From Training, which is more detailed about burn-out or unexpected events. Below, I want to elaborate on the subject in regards to what you can do while you are traveling, whether you are on a business trip or just away for a while. This article is great for people who are quite satisfied with their shape, and just want to maintain an appropriate body condition as much as possible without any gym or much material on hand. As always, it also encompasses the health, mental, diet and recovery topics!

How to Get Prepared For The Trip

First, we need to agree that all trips aren’t the same. If you are leaving for business, you will most likely have more obligations and less free time than if it’s traveling for fun. But it could also not be true if it’s going with family and/or friends and/or another significant one. Also, going away for a few days is different than going for a full week, which is different from going for two weeks, and again, which is different from going for a full month. Again, all those different trip durations will involve different factors too, regarding the recovery, with sleep, quality of food, diet and means to train. In short:

• Train as usual/slightly less + good diet + good sleep = perfect
• Advanced calisthenics + good diet + good sleep = near perfect
• Frequent training in little gym + OK diet + OK sleep = good
• Frequent Band workout & BW + OK diet + OK sleep = good also
• Few restricted in time workout + IIFYM + OK sleep = better than nothing
• No workouts but very active + some junk food + bad/lack of sleep = fine
• No physical activity whatsoever + only junk food + barely/no sleep = not OK

All trips aren’t the same as you can see, and we will need to work through that. Training is nice and can really improve a lot your life, but you shouldn’t live for it (except if you are a pro athlete). Understand that you will most likely lose some muscle definition and/or size along with some strength and/or work capacity on a few exercises (it is often the very technical demanding, weight depending or hard to recover from exercises like Olympic lifts, deadlifts, squats and bench presses variations) along with some mobility and/or flexibility (if you are really advanced and/or if you can’t maintain it).

What Can You Do Training-wise?

It will mostly depend on what you have access to, but we can plan some things:

• Get some bands and bring them with you, they are an invaluable tool in your training bag and will make you able to train every muscle you want with good set up and a bit of imagination and innovation.
• Be prepared to do a lot of calisthenics if you already know you won’t have access to anything. Whatever if it’s ultra high volume or advanced variations, it will work.
• If you have access to a gym, make sure to go there 2-3x week to keep improving/maintain what you already built. Even if you can’t go as heavy or as intense as usual, it will be the perfect moment to do a somewhat deload period or some contrast training.
• Along with training, be proactive, move around a lot, keep yourself busy.
• If possible, do some kind of other sports, games or physical activities: walking, biking, hiking, swimming, climbing, football, soccer, basket, handball, sprinting,…
• Don’t skip on yoga and flexibility training if possible, it’s still vital and the key to staying healthy and pain-free.

What Can You Do Nutrition-wise?

It will again, depend on what you can afford to do/have, and here are some guidelines:

• Make sure to keep protein intake high, 1gr per lbs or 2,2gr per kg, or slightly more to make sure to spare muscle mass and also keep the leptin/ghrelin balance good
• Make sure to eat your fruits and veggies, especially the later, to get your dosage of micronutrients and fibers.
• Don’t overconsume fat, especially if those are coming from cheap food or even totally unhealthy ones, they are also very high in calories and could stunt your diet progress.
• Don’t overconsume carbs, same as fat, especially if coming from junk food. Moderation is key.
• Watch your sugar and salt intake. it’s easy to overconsume the first by drinking juice and sodas along eating sweets, and the same for the later, if you get a lot of processed food and grilled and/or salted treats they usually give in restaurant, buffet, meetings, etc. Those are addictive substances and have huge power on your body and health, don’t forget that.
• Be careful with alcohol, it can really wreck your testosterone and growth hormone levels, mess with your deep sleep phase and weaken your immune system, on multiples levels. One to three glasses of wine, or one of strong alcohol, or one beer per day is the maximum recommendation given to avoid too much problem down the road. And that’s without talking about the rest that can come with being drunk.
• Supplements wise, there are two ways: you either stop taking them to let your body rest and also make you less stress about it you need to think about, or you keep going by preparing a little pillbox or something to get what you need with you. If powder, get a closeable plastic bag.
• If it is a short business/vacation trip (let say, for two or three days), it is actually possible to meal prep and just bring some things with you that you know aren’t going to be available when you get there.
• Getting more flexible with the diet is fine, some junk food is fine, some not so healthy meals are fine, as long as it is in moderation and just for enjoyment or avoiding social awkwardness, and not binge eating. Your guts need to stay healthy, they are your second brain after all.

What Can You Do Recovery-wise?

We couldn’t talk about training and nutrition without talking about the last trifecta aspect of health and fitness, the recovery (in all aspects). While it’s more or less taken care of with the two previous points if you stay in check, here are some additional points we can add:

• Make sure to sleep between 7 and 9h per night, some shorter nights are OK here and there, but don’t let that become a habit. Proper sleep is a vital part of staying healthy.
• Make sure to keep stretching, keep your flexibility in check with some exercises and postural prehab work, and do your yoga when you can (I insist).
• Stay cool, relax, don’t stress, even if some things are bothering you, it’s not a big deal 99% of the time. And if something like a delay, a key is lost, a car doesn’t turn on or something, just get adventurous and allow some “Yolo” in your life.
• If you can, get a massage or do it yourself to stimulate blood and lymph circulation throughout the body, to help with muscles triggers points, tender tendons, digestive tract and joints integrity. It also makes you relax a lot of course.
• Bringing some supplements like minerals, or items like a massage roller/stick or tennis ball to help with some active recovery is a great idea, same with bands, that will also help with training.

If you are in for some training allowing you to cool off without shame or fear of shrinking, be sure to check my consulting services.

Your lightkeeper,

-Hersovyac.