New Year's Resolution: 5 Tips to Help You Stay Fit on Your Next Trip
Tuesday, January 3, 2012 at 10:33AM
Let’s face it. It can be tough to stick to a workout routine on a normal day, let alone when you're traveling miles from home. Being away from the ordinary can derail even the most disciplined business traveler from the track of healthy living.
Experts believe exercise can reduce the side effects of jet lag and increase sleep length and alertness – two ingredients for a successful business trip. Great! But unless you have a personal trainer that travels with you, how does one muster up the long-distance motivation to exercise? Below are a few tips we hope will inspire and encourage you to continue your exercise regime and healthy lifestyle even while traveling:
1. Don’t forget your shorts!
It’s a great excuse – “I’d love to work out, but I forgot to pack my gym shorts!” Make it a routine to throw your sneakers, gym shorts, t-shirts, yoga mat, pedometer, workout DVD, resistance band or jump rope into your luggage before leaving for any trip, or keep it in your luggage from one trip to the next. Unless you pack 40 lb. dumbbells, these items are lightweight and will not take up much room in your bags. They are visible reminders of that healthy lifestyle you’ve been trying to maintain back home.
2. Eat light before your flight
In a study published in the Journal of Science, researchers suggested that fasting for about 16 hours before a long flight may reduce the side effects of jet lag. If you aren’t a fan of fasting and think 16 hours without food sounds a bit unreasonable, limit your pre-flight meal or snack choices at the airport to light and healthy ones and drink plenty of water. Stay away from greasy foods. Once you land, you can enjoy a full meal, and you’ll have renewed energy for a quick swim at the hotel or a walk around your new surroundings.
3. Do what the locals do
If your hotel doesn’t have its own fitness center or swimming pool, ask the front desk if they have partnerships with local gyms. If you are a member of a national gym chain, you may have access to their various locations at no additional charge. The front desk may also be able to provide you with a map of nearby hike and bike trails. Take a brisk walk in the local mall and shop for souvenirs at the same time! Or, exercise in your own hotel room like our road warrior and General Manager of Corporate Sales Penny Watermeier does. She always travels with her trusty Insanity Workout DVD. A new in-room fitness trend in hotel rooms is also making it easier on business travelers to complete workout routines without ever leaving their hotel room.
4. BYOS (Bring Your Own Snacks)
In between tightly scheduled business meetings or conference sessions, convenience calls out to our hunger in the form of fast food restaurants and vending machines. Be proactive and travel with your own snacks. Throw some protein rich granola bars, trail mix, dried fruit or energy bars into your purse or briefcase. These items won’t need to be refrigerated and can travel with you all day from meeting to meeting, on the subway or at the airport. They will give you that needed boost of energy to keep you productive and focused.
5. Aim for 50% of your normal workout
Finally, don’t stress yourself out if you aren’t able to put in your normal 5-mile run while on your next business trip because there was 4 feet of snow on the ground. Don’t worry that you didn’t get to bench press your normal 300 lbs. because the hotel didn’t have the proper equipment. Some circumstances are going to be out of your control. Focus on the things you can control, like the 4 tips mentioned previously. Aim to accomplish 50% of your normal workout routine by the time you return home.
Whether you successfully reach your workout goal while traveling or leave some room for improvement, you can use that experience to motivate yourself again on your next trip. Dominate jet lag!
Update: January 4, 2011 at 16:45 CST Travel and Transport's VP of Account Management Nancy Rissky added this comment below. We thought it was a great idea so decided to add it to the post. Thanks Nancy! "Nike has a free app for the IPhone called Nike Training, it has several great 30 minute workouts to do in your hotel room." You can find the app here.
Reader Comments (3)
Nike has a free app for the IPhone called Nike Training, it's has several great 30 minute workouts to do in your hotel room. You can also download a few Jillian DVDs to your iPad.
Here's wishing everyone happy workouts!!!
Great Tips Nancy - we're going to update the post with that Nike one. Thank you!
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