6 Tips To Stay Fit On The Road While Traveling

One of the most aggravating things about being on the road is not always having access to a high-quality gym. Sure, most digital nomads settle down for a month at a time in places. But what about those periods where you’re seeing several different cities over ten days?

You’ll be walking a lot, but getting to the gym consistently is naturally going to be a bit of a challenge. Here are six tips that any digital nomad or world traveler can use as a bit of a guideline to stay fit while traveling.

1. Understand That You Want To Try New Things

Let me get one thing clear: you definitely can stay leaned out while traveling if you work at it. But it’s definitely difficult to get into significantly better shape when you’re hopping all over the place.

If you go to a new country, you’re naturally going to want to try all of the new things. Beer. Hard liquor. Wine. The local delicacies. You’re not going to want to eat grilled chicken and brown rice when you’re exploring a new city or country for the first time. And don’t lie to yourself and say that you will eat those things, all the time.

So be realistic with yourself from the get-go. Understand that you can moderate and control things, but if you truly want to get in ripped it’s probably going to take settling down, cooking food at home, and having a consistent gym schedule and diet.

Don’t kid yourself and say that you can get ripped while you hop to a new country every two weeks, boozing, picking up girls, and trying new cuisines all at once. It’s just not reasonable to have it all at once—for most people. There are certain people that could accomplish this, but I’m not one of them. And I suspect your average person falls into the same boat as me with this.

2. Everywhere Has Free Trials

Even if you’re staying in a spot for a very short amount of time, you can still get to the gym. Many places offer you a free trial. Just check all of the gym websites, and also check the local hotels. Many of them will let you go and take a trial for a day—though I don’t understand why anyone would want to work out at a hotel gym full-time.

On top of it, a lot of places will offer you a week, ten day, or two week pass. Sure, it comes at a premium—but it’s usually not more than $25-$40 in South America or Eastern Europe. I can’t imagine it’s too much more expensive in Southeast Asia, either

$25 is absolutely worth it to keep a fitness routine going. Even if you’re only there temporarily, going to the gym will resemble some normalcy of being home, which will improve your overall mood and make you more likely to be successful if your goal is to sleep with some cute foreign girls.

3. Online Programs

Every fitness guru on the planet now has online programs available in digital download format. While you’ll be constricted to bodyweight-only exercises in many cases, programs like P90X, Insanity, and more do offer a good, quick way to get a workout. They make you move at a fast pace, so if you don’t have heavy weights you’ll at least get your heart up and going.

You don’t even need to invest in an expensive program. There are hundreds of free apps that are out there on the market that do the same thing. I’ve lately been using Sworkit and it’s been a good experience overall.

Bonus: Long haul flights, lugging bags around cities, and general travel can really have an effect on your body. Try to supplement with a bit of yoga—it’s easy enough to fit a small yoga mat in a carry-on backpack. The same principles apply—use an online program or app, and help keep yourself limber. I’ve been using the Down Dog app on my iPad lately.

4. Stand Whenever Possible

I’ll never understand the people who are flying in economy and rush to get on the plane before everybody else. They’re usually the people who are trying to cram their entire life into a carry-on, and then take all of the carry-on space in the plane instead of just checking the bag.

But why would you want to rush to get into the big metal tube before everybody else? So you can sit down before the rest of the passengers before you have to sit through an entire 10 hour flight? Silly.

When you’re on the road and left in limbo, make every effort to stand when possible. If you’re trying to get some work done in the airport, try to find a bar or cafe that has a table with higher stools. They can make excellent makeshift standing desks. The more time you can spend on your feet, the better you will feel overall.

The last thing you want is to be so stiff from sitting in planes and airports that you feel unable to work out once you reach your destination. Standing and walking around the airports or other transit hubs will keep the blood flowing and make you less likely to feel like a wood board.

5. Walk Everywhere You Can

This one is fairly obvious, but it’s worth mentioning. If you’re doing some touristic stuff, don’t take Ubers, cabs, or public transit if you can help it. You never know what you might uncover by walking to your destination. You might find a local’s watering hole or a beautiful cafe. All sorts of neat things can be found when you stop rushing and take your time to take in the sights.

So if where you’re trying to go is less than a mile or two away—do it by foot. Avoid taking the easy route by calling an Uber or walking into the metro.

6. Eat Out In Moderation

I know that I mentioned in #1 that you’d be wanting to eat out. But it doesn’t mean you need to eat out every meal. Typically, breakfasts around the world are not that unique to a country’s specific cuisine, so you won’t miss much there. You should go out and see what breakfast is like—but once or twice is enough.

What I’m saying is, don’t make eating out three times a day a staple of your diet. No matter where you are in the world, it’s a challenge to eat healthy every time if you never cook.

These days, renting an apartment is very affordable. Plus, it’s often a much better experience than in a hotel. So rent an apartment and commit to cooking at least once a day. Your wallet and waistline will both thank you over the long term.

If you’re looking to improve your ability to travel and want to build a business, check out Troublesome Solutions—where I offer free consultations. Make sure to check out my niche site, Eastern European Travel, for more travel tips and tricks around Europe.

Read More: 7 Things I Learned On The Road This Year

23 thoughts on “6 Tips To Stay Fit On The Road While Traveling”

  1. Another thing I use when traveling to keep my body from turning into a melted blob of marshmallow, is to ensure each portion is the size of my fist with protein, carbs and veg. This way, you can fit in 3 meals a day, regardless of your whereabouts because you’ve always got a fist there attached to your arm to measure the portion sizes.
    Yes, this even works with deep fried stuff and everything. If you eat clean enough, you can even drop some body fat in the process.

  2. Missed out a couple of important things.
    Miss out lunch or breakfast.
    Swim if you’re near the sea.

  3. Now women can pay $80 to have someone tell them they are younger than their actual age. You send in a blood sample, then the people receiving the sample laugh and throw it in the trash because they can’t believe you actually sent it in. Then they send you a greeting card that says, “you’re not 41, you’re actually 20!!!” Its called “teloyears” and I think it’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all week. Bob Smith was right, there’s a lot of money to be made off these chicks.
    https://www.teloyears.com/home/index.html?gclid=CNfFl46h_dICFRW2wAodq3wPnQ

    1. I wonder how people think they’re getting a good sample of DNA telomeres from red blood cells, which have neither nuclei nor mitochondria.

      1. I don’t know anything about it. So far every ad I’ve seen from this product shows a woman getting a result saying she is 20 years younger than her actual age. I have never seen it, the other way around. They market the product as a way to gauge your health. Bullshit. Women will purchase this product, send in their sample, wait with their fingers crossed. And when the result comes in, sure enough, she’s 20 years younger. What a surprise. Then they run and brag to their friends and family. It’s kind of like seeing a psychic. Pay some stranger a hundred bucks to give you good news. Do psychics ever deliver a session filled with bad news? No.

        1. I still work in a psychological field and when I worked in private practice I quickly deduced that the best way to both maintain and attract clients is through flattering their egos, telling them what they want to hear and ‘filling in the gaps’. I genuinely tried to help people and work with integrity, but needless to say telling people the often painful but helpful truth just didn’t pay the bills.

  4. Nice advice. When I travel around the USSA it is extremely difficult to obtain healthy food.

    1. I traveled for work 5 years running. I finally figured out to buy a cheap Styrofoam cooler as soon as I was settled in. Then load it up with fresh vegetables, lean deli meats and spring water. I supplemented that with tuna packages and most decent sized grocery stores offer hard boiled eggs. Not only was I able to maintain a primal lifestyle, I pocketed quite a bit of per diem money as well. When it was time to fly out, I’d give the cooler away or trash it. I had one health & fitness nut out in Phoenix tell me I ate cleaner on the road than he did at home! Plus skipping breakfast on non-work out days is intermittent fasting and is good for you. It’s a matter of self control. It all depends on how important your looks and health are to you.

      1. Yup, food from the grocery store is always better for you than restaurants, and cheaper too. I bring along a propane burner made for backpacking. You can also heat water in a coffee maker for instant oatmeal in the morning.

        1. So your advice is to bring along propane, and propane accessories?

        2. You could carry the burner itself on a plane. But you’d have buy your propane cylinders locally. I had a butane heat gun / soldering iron I’d vent off and put in my checked tool box. I’d buy a can of butane near the job site. That didn’t matter to the TSA though. They “liberated” the “torch” (as they called it) in Memphis to the tune of $150 out of my pocket. No compressed gases or containers allowed, even if they’re empty and marked such.

    2. We call them Supermarkets or Grocery Stores. Inside is a vast array of vegetables and hand cut meats, both mass produced AND organic (most of time).

      1. You don’t go to supermarkets when you are staying for a couple of days at each place…

  5. Another interesting site to visit is http://www.darebee.com, where you’ll find many workouts and programs that do not require dumbbells.
    A jump rope and resistance bands do not take that much space and are not something heavy to carry in a travel bag, just like a pair of good running shoes if you want to jog.

    1. The whole hot chick working from home routine wasn’t working so they’re giving it a go with alpha male bots. Lol.

  6. President of Bing eh? Is that Xiu Nunquan? I always forget where Bing is located in China.

  7. Weird seeing guys talk about fitness when they have fat under their chin and look a little chubby. No offense OP

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