Tips for Working Out While Traveling

Whether you’re heading out of town for work, spring break, family vacations, or other travel, you don’t have to take a vacation from your health and fitness. Making some time in your travels for an express workout circuit, group fitness class, or even a workout on a long flight can make all the difference in your fitness routine. Follow these tips so you can stay in shape while traveling.

How Do I Exercise While Traveling?

The easiest way to exercise while traveling is to sign up for temporary gym memberships. This may include gym day passes or short-term gym memberships, it depends on the length of your travel and your fitness needs. At Youfit Health Clubs, we offer flexible gym memberships that allow visitors to make the most of their travel fitness routines. 

With a temporary gym pass, you can workout at the gym and take advantage of all the amenities it offers. There are even personal training options, making it even easier to exercise while traveling. If you’re looking for a temporary gym pass over spring break or other holidays, visit your nearby gym to learn about pass options.

Working Out on Vacation

When building a vacation workout plan, efficiency is often the name of the game. You’re looking for a travel workout that will help you stay on track with your fitness goals, but you’re also likely looking for a quick workout that’ll let you get back into the vacation action quickly. Many gyms for vacationers offer quick workout plans, like our 30-Minute Workouts at Youfit Health Clubs.

Quick Vacation Workouts 

Youfit Health Clubs Head of Fitness Education, Raphael Konforti, shares his favorite tips for quick vacation workouts using just bodyweight. 

“This no equipment circuit can be done anywhere and goes by quickly. Start out by completing 60 seconds of each exercise and then drop the timer by 15 seconds each round like below. 

• Squats or Squat Jumps
• Pushups (Use a wall or desk to reduce the intensity)
• Alternating Lunges (Hold a backpack or purse for added intensity)
• Plank (Alternate lifting up your hands to add intensity)
• Toe Taps
• Prone Cobra Hold

If you can, try not to rest between exercises to keep your heart rate elevated. After all, you’re traveling and on a tight schedule, so there’s no need to draw out this workout,” Raphael says. 

How to Exercise On a Long Flight

Now that you’ve got your fitness plans squared away for when you reach your vacation destination, it’s time to think about fitness for your flight. Getting up and moving on a flight, especially a long flight, can help keep the blood flowing so you feel your best during your flight. 

For particularly long flights, Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) is a health concern for travelers. Sitting for long periods of time can increase the risk of blood clots forming in deep veins, so getting up, moving, and exercising during a long flight is key. The CDC qualifies flights 4 hours or longer as long-haul flights, but any flight over 2 hours can be made safer with a little exercise¹.

Here are some easy in flight exercises to try out on your next long haul flight:

• In seat foot pumps, keep the balls of your feet on the floor and lift your heels, then keep your heels on the ground while lifting the balls of your feet
• Ankle circles clockwise and counterclockwise
• Jumping jacks in the airplane aisles
• Standing knee bend while balancing on the ball of your foot
• Shoulder rotations, which can be done while sitting or standing
• Walking around the airplane and stretching
• Squats, which can be improved with a resistance band

Bringing a resistance band in your carry on is a great way to get in a workout on your flight. You can modify many long-haul flight exercises with the use of a resistance band to improve squats or to work in additional exercises for the upper body. 

Sources:

1- CDC – Blood Clots and Travel: What You Need to Know