I’m away this week for the final week and graduation from the Goldman Sachs 10000 Small Businesses program. We’re all in NYC, and we’ve got a busy couple of days, but upon checking into my hotel, I had a couple hours free, so I headed to the hotel fitness center and did a short workout. That got me thinking that it might be a good time to talk about how and whether to workout when you’re traveling. The answer to “should I workout when traveling” will obviously depend, so let’s give some factors for consideration.
- Will getting structured exercise make me more or less stressed? In my opinion, this is the most important consideration. If trying to get to the gym while you’re away is just going to add to your stress, just skip it. If, on the other hand, hitting the gym will give you a mental break, maybe a physical break from the people you’re with, and will help you feel a bit more relaxed, then it might make sense to get it in.
- Is my motivation about self care, or am I being a little obsessive? There’s motivation, drive, and grit, and there’s unhealthy obsession. Sometimes folks think that the line between driven and obsessed is pretty fine, but I think that where it starts to veer into unhealthy is when you’re missing out on other important things because you had to hit the gym.
- Am I training for something specific? If you’re training for a competition and need to get some lifts in to be prepared, it might make sense to find a gym that offers a drop-in and hit your main lifts or do an abbreviated version of a regular training week. That said, depending on what you’re training for and how far out you are, it usually is fine to skip a week.
- How long is my trip? If you’re traveling for a short period of time, it might not be worth it to try to squeeze in workouts. If you’re away for multiple weeks, maybe it makes more sense to get some training in.
- Am I getting a lot of other movement in? Sometimes when I’m traveling with my family, we do so much all day that I’m getting like 25000 steps a day and I honestly don’t feel like I need to do more on top of that. I’m tired, and it’s not worth it to me to get an additional workout. Sometimes we travel and we’re skiing, hiking, or doing other outdoor activities. I’m not going to bother getting extra workouts in if I’ve spent most of the day out hiking in the woods. That is what I train for: to be able to go and hike without needing to do a bunch of prep, to be capable of slapping a pair of skis on my feet and just go do it and not be exhausted after two runs.
- Is fitting in a workout going to be a pain in the ass? For real. Travelling can be stressful enough, whether it’s for fun or business or with family or friends, it can be stressful! If trying to get a workout in is going to be a whole production, skip it. It’ll be fine, it’s not that deep.
Okay, so let’s say you reviewed those questions and decided, yeah, I want to get a workout in. What to do? If you’re doing programming through PPG, this is a great question to ask your coach! We have some simple bodyweight workouts we can program, or good travel workouts to give you an option for a way to move while traveling.
- Ask your coach for a program. As I said, a PPG coach can offer something to do during a period of travel!
- Freestyle it. That’s what I did today. I walked into the hotel gym, took a look at what equipment they had, and they had a bank of machines that I don’t train on typically because we don’t have them. So I started a timer and made a little machine circuit. It was simple, didn’t require a bunch of thinking, was interesting to do some stuff a bit different than usual, and I got a good sweat. For making up an on the spot workout, I like a circuit. Just set a timer for maybe 30 seconds work/30 seconds rest, or 40/20, find about 6-8 movements, and do them in a circuit for a few rounds.
- Find a full gym to do a drop-in. Sometimes gym tourism can be fun & interesting, and it can be a cool way to meet some locals and learn about the place you’re visiting.
The decision whether to try to workout when you’re traveling shouldn’t be a guilt-ridden calculation. Remember to zoom out when you’re trying to decide these kind of things! Measure consistency over longer periods of time, like months. The goal is to be a person who keeps moving your body over your whole life, not just for a season.
