Fitness Tips for Frequent Travellers

As a coach, I can confidently say that travel is one of the most common progress-killers that can be reported in a check-in. It usually sounds something like this: “just wanted to let you know that I’ll be away next week. I won’t have access to a gym, but I’ll do lots of walking and try not to go too crazy with food.” For the record, this is totally fine and I will never ever tell anyone to sabotage a vacation or even weekend getaway for the sake of some gains (unless you’re deep in contest prep), but there are tons of ways to stay more on-track than off.

Before I get into it, my credentials and a disclaimer. I spend about a third to a half of my workdays away from home and take on average four flights a week. These are work-trips and not vacation, and therefore I try to be as compliant with my plans as I can. The disclaimer is that even with all my tips and tricks and a couple years of experience doing this now I still struggle on occasion. Sometimes things happen and you just can’t hit all your marks. That being said, there’s usually little excuse for going fully off the rails, so lets get into it:

National Chain Gym Membership

If it makes sense for you, consider getting a membership at a franchise gym that has locations across the country. For Canadians this would be a gym like Goodlife. This will save you from underwhelming hotel gyms as well as astronomical day pass rates at local gyms.

Smoothie Bars

99% of the time take-out is going to be off-menu and meal plan nonfriendly. The one exception is smoothie bars. The reason being that they are usually very upfront with ingredients and nutritional information making it very easy to know exactly what you are consuming and to match it to your meal plan. In Canada, Booster Juice is an excellent choice for this (I’m partial to Bananas a Whey) and there are locations in most major airports, malls, and business parks.

Alcohol

If you are a frequent traveler, then you probably have access to airport lounges and fly in business class at least semi regularly. If you look around in either of these situations you’ll notice the norm is to have a glass of wine, beer, or a cocktail whenever one is offered, which is constantly. I like to think that this is because in most cases people don’t fly all that often and it’s a ‘when in Rome’ thing. Though in reality it’s probably no more complicated than “why not,” particularly if you’ve just had a stressful work trip.

If you travel for work a lot, then resist. I don’t need to tell you how counterproductive drinking is for any sort of fitness or bodybuilding pursuits. And besides, drinking by yourself in the airport is not nearly as glamorous as you might think. Save that for when you’re flying off to some sunny destination with your partner.

Rental Car

I know this isn’t possible for every situation, but if you have the opportunity to get a rental car (especially on a work trip where your employer is paying for it), go for it! A rental car will allow you to go to any gym and also make it a lot easier to get meal-plan friendly food from a grocery store rather than take-out.

Uber Eats

Surprise! I’m not telling you to avoid it, I’m telling you to lean into it. Why? Well when you are on the road willpower is in low supply. You’re probably at least a little stressed, you likely haven’t hydrated as much as you should, and you may or may not be living off snacks. Avoid the snacks, get real food. Uber Eats (and other similar services) have a handy function where you can search for foods rather than restaurants. What this means is you can type “chicken” or “protein” and get a list of menu items that you can then sift through to find the closest match to your meal plan.

Additionally, most major cities will have at least one vendor with a meal prep service that is actually aimed towards bodybuilders and meal planners in general. You can get meal prep containers with something as cliche as pre-portioned chicken, rice, and broccoli or something more exotic. The main benefit is that nutritional information as well as ingredients will be clearly listed.

Tip: Food delivery also usually makes it easier usually to customize food orders than if you were eating out. This is for things like requesting salad dressing on the side, subbing out something like fries for greens etc. Essentially you are choosing exactly what you are ordering in a controlled non-pressure environment.

Hydration

Travelling is dehydrating, especially by plane. Get yourself a reusable water bottle that you like and which is easy to carry around with you (e.g. one that fits in/on your bag) and get used to filling it up. Just don’t forget to empty it before you go through airport security. Pretty much any cafe/lounge/restaurant will put water and ice in it for you if you can’t find a water bottle filling station. Flight attendants will also pour water into it rather than their little plastic cups.

Hotel Breakfast

Many of the main business travel hotel superchains (e.g. Hilton, Marriott, IHG etc.) have hotels that offer free buffet breakfasts. This is a blessing and a curse. A blessing because it allows you to choose exactly what you want/need and a curse because it presents a lot of temptations.

It might be impossible to match your meal plan, but always prioritize in this order: protein, carbs, and then fat. So a good serving of eggs (though be aware there’s usually extra fat in them than the ones you would make at home) and yogurt, then some sort of carb (oatmeal, bran cereal, fruit etc.). It’s best to avoid the high fat offerings like bacon, sausages etc. even if they are high in protein. They will blow your diet to bits. One exception is chicken or turkey sausages, these are usually fairly diet friendly. Avoid the sugary juices and syrups.

Hotels with Kitchenettes

Many business travel hotels (such as Hilton’s Homewood Suites) have kitchenettes with fridges, stoves, and microwaves. Sticking to a meal plan in these is no problem. If you don’t have a car and aren’t near a grocery store then using a grocery delivery service like Uber Eats is always an option.

Even if your hotel room only has a mini fridge, this can help with keeping to a diet as well. If you get any food that is on-menu in food choices but off-menu in quantity, just refrigerate the leftovers and save them for a later meal.

Hotel Gyms

If there’s no way to get to real gym while you’re travelling (e.g. no access to a national chain) than a hotel gym can suffice in a pinch, though you’ll have to shift your focus. If it has enough equipment to approximate your training plan (unlikely) than obviously do that, but if not, then you’ll have to do something different. Here’s what I like to do.

Cardio. Every hotel gym has cardio equipment or at the very least a pool. Failing that, there will be a parking lot or some kind of outside to go run in. Travel cardio is a good way to stay active and try to balance out some of the excess calories you may be ‘accidentally’ consuming through off-menu meals.

Don’t just do cardio. Though you might not be able to get a ‘full’ workout in, you can work on some of the most commonly neglected body parts with very minimal equipment. Arms, shoulders, and core (abs) are all very workable with extremely minimal equipment. These kind of makeup workouts are good opportunities to get creative and try some new exercises.

Helpful Equipment

There are a few things you can pick up to make your on-the-road fitness a little easier. The first is reusable utensils and containers. A spork and collapsible silicon tupperware can go a long way in making your eating more flexible. For example, with collapsible tupperware you now have the possibility of mixing things (protein powder, milk, and cereal for example) or storing leftovers.

It is also useful to get some small containers for holding extras like protein powder (look for the funnel shaped ones for easy pouring into water bottles). If you are super ambitious you can get a lunch bag with ice packs to bring your meal prep with you. I have seldom seen this done successfully outside of unusual circumstances (like contest prep), but it is an option. Just remember that ice packs need to be frozen solid to be allowed through airport security (and even then they may not make it through).

Last Resorts

Always carry around some snacks with you as a last resort. These are what will prevent you from situations where you are starving, have nothing to eat, and opt for something wildly off-menu like gas station pizza or McDonalds. Your number one essential will be a low-carb protein bar, but you should also always carry around a carb heavy snack like fruit (snag an extra banana at the hotel breakfast buffet). Why? Because you need carbs for energy and for your brain to function. If you only eat protein bars your blood sugar will crash, you’ll feel terrible, and probably eat something terrible to fix it.

These tips will not fit all situations, but hopefully they can prevent some common travel-fitness pitfalls for you. If in doubt, always message your coach.