Maintaining Health And Fitness While Travelling?!

Today i'll speak out of experience and also delve into my preparation ahead of a moderately lengthy road trip.

If you're anything like me i'm sure you've stressed about taking time off from the gym and travelling. What will happen if I don't workout? Will I be able to train? Man, I'm gonna get so fat.., On and on the stress mounts, plans are determined by gym access, and you've considered yourself down and out before you've even clocked a single mile.

I suppose there are worse problems to have. I usually don't find myself worrying about if i'm 'beach ready' or summer shredded, I stress the importance of daily exercise as it's a staple of my life, my livelihood, and how I maintain stress.

However, at the root of the issue is balancing vacay and maintaining sound fitness.

There are a few things we need to consider.

- Nutrition

- Training frequency, volume, and intensity

- Equipment availability

1.

The single most important factor will be your nutrition. The easiest thing to do on vacation is slack off entirely. Whether you train for appearance or performance, you'll have to consider calorie/macro manipulation. This will be dependent on the next two points, but here's the basics. If you have access to gym equipment and are able to train normally, then macros/calories should remain the same. If equipment, time allocation, and training frequency/volume/intensity is reduced, then consider rearranging your macros so they fit the decrease in these variables. If you goal is to stay lean think about eating slightly below maintenance, this will account for any unseen calories in drinks or foods that you aren't cooking. Prioritize protein, reduce fats, and moderate carbs. For those wanting to mitigate performance loss, think about nailing your maintenance calories.

Alcohol consumption will be the greatest detriment regardless of gym access. So be mindful of the impact alcohol has on the body. Eating fresh whole source foods should always be the priority and you can hardly ever go wrong.

2.

Training frequency, volume, and intensity play a major part in retaining your fitness and health. Rule of thumb for most people is if you can get in at least 3 resistance trainings a week within the range of 80-90% of your 1RM you can easily maintain your strength and muscle density. On the low end of 2-3 days/week try to have high intensity and moderate volume (4-8 sets / muscle group). On the higher end 4-6days/week keep either the same training schedule, or reduce intensity slightly (75-85%) and increase volume (8-15 sets/muscle group). Within these ranges maintaining muscle mass, strength, and endurance should be no problem. However, the issue most often arises for those lacking access to equipment. The key here I would say is maintaining cardiovascular health first, muscular density second, and absolute strength third. Going for a jog every other day is sufficient, making sure to keep the heart rate between 120-170 BPM for 20-60mins. Muscular density can be maintained through bodyweight training. Tempo squats, lunges, press and pushes ,are integral for maintaining muscle fibre tensile strength. Absolute strength can be maintained via resistance training of some sort. Odd object carries, using whatever you have available for resistance (heavy suitcase/bag, another person, random heavy object). Prioritizing protein consumption will be extra important to help maintain muscle mass.

Be creative. Hike, bike, run, row, climb...

3.

Obviously the above two are highly dependent on gym access / equipment availability. if you can access a gym every 1-3 days, go for it, stick to your program and execute, keeping volume and intensity in mind. If you can get it everyday, good for you! Keep on keeping on as per usual. As I said above, if you have nothing, then you'll have to be creative. Just focus on getting the same stimulus as you would if using weights. For example: Squatting with barbell, 3x5 @ 70% ,may now have to be a superset of air squats x25 + wall sit x 45seconds. Higher volume and intensity will arrive to a similar stimulus and timer under tension as seen with the barbell back squat. Be creative and be focused on your approach.

Vacation is also a great time to test your fitness. Go on hikes, climb, swim, rent a row boat/kayak/canoe... Don't see it as a loss of gains, but an opportunity to use what you've worked so hard to build. Remember, worst case scenario you just bring weights and bands with you.

My plan for my 3 week road trip across canada.

- Nutrition: Maintenance calories 2400-2750 / No-Alcohol / High protein, moderate carbs, low fat

- Prioritize cardiovascular health and caloric expenditure

- Aiming to drop in at a gym every 2-3 days. Focus is absolute strength (Back&Front squat, deadlift, clean&snatch, DB press/row, lunge&carry, light gymnastic work

- KB workouts in between / Daily (20-45mins)

- Hike and jog daily

- Incorporate active activities: Disc golf, long boarding, fishing, mountain biking...

- Make it up as I go...

If you wish to follow my journey across canada I'll be posting daily on my instagram @_etxtraining, Mon-Wed-Fri on this blog, and frequently on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Travel vlog will be uploaded at end of the trip and I hope to share a lot of info on the journey, maintaining fitness and health, and tips & tricks along the way.

"Progression is built through consistency and tested by passion"

JB