exercise on the road
A main goal for our everyday life while traveling was to exercise consistently. Exercise has always been an important aspect of our lives. We started dating after we spent time training and running a race together! But life with young kids and lots of work, made consistent exercise trickier.
I thought it would be so easy to exercise each day during our year of travel, but guess what? Exercising on the road has its own hurdles. And, of course, you can always find reasons not to work out anywhere in the world!
Today, I’m sharing our most common exercise hurdles and few resources and tricks to help make exercise possible on the road and maybe even one of your most memorable experiences.
GOOD NEWS FIRST… EXERCISE IS BUILT INTO TRAVEL ALREADY!
Walking around cities, carrying luggage (and sometimes children), swimming in lakes, paddle boarding. There’s so much movement that sneaks it’s way into everyday travel. We average 5-6 miles of walking a day since we started our travels almost two months ago.
EXERCISE HURDLE #1: YOU’RE JET LAGGED OR SIMPLY UNMOTIVATED
BUILD EXERCISE INTO YOUR ITINERARY
While researching for our time in Slovenia, Trent came across information on Triglav National Park. The popular belief is that you cannot call yourself a Slovenian until you hike Mt. Triglav. From then on, Trent was hooked and whenever people asked about our upcoming trip, it would be one of the first things he said he was looking forward to doing.
Putting a few, more strenuous hikes or other activities on your itinerary keeps exercise exciting and in the forefront as you train for the upcoming experience. And sometimes you’re rewarded for your efforts with a beer, like Trent was at the top of Mt. Triglav!
EXERCISE HURDLE #2: YOU’RE OUT OF YOUR NORMAL ROUTINE
GATHER YOUR EXERCISE RESOURCES BEFORE YOU GO
Having a few trusty resources in your back pocket will help you stay on track.
Running - Strava Segment Explorer
I easily become deterred from running if I don’t know a great place to run in a new city. Strava’s Segment Explorer makes it easy to see running paths that locals and travelers love to use in a city. We found Edinburgh’s Holyrood Park loop through the app and it became one of our favorite places to run.
Yoga - doyogawithme.com & Yoga with Adriene
I love having a few yoga videos at the ready. I have done some videos so often that it almost feels like a little piece of home when I do them abroad.
Running and yoga are our main forms of exercise, but there are many other ways to plan your exercise while traveling. You could ask your CrossFit instructor to make you a body weight only routine. You could research bike rental shops near your accommodation. A little bit of planning will go a long way to get into a mindset where travel includes exercise!
EXERCISE HURDLE #3: YOU DON’T HAVE THE RIGHT GEAR
We try to travel light, which means our exercise gear needs to be small and versatile.
I love these running shoes because they work as everyday sneakers and they’ve also got great tread for hiking.
I’ve had this running pack for over 10 years. Of course, it’s great to hold my phone and keys while running. But it also works as a travel wallet to wear under my clothes when we’re cautious of being pickpocketed.
Minimalism sometimes leads to creativity. I picked up the green “yoga” mat in the photo above for about $2 in Croatia. It’s actually a beach pad popular because of the rocky beaches.
On a recent trip to Flying Tiger (my favorite store!), we picked up a resistance band to add to our routine. It folds down to almost nothing and creates so many new opportunities for our daily routine.
Don’t forget about those recovery days! In addition to great hiking and running paths we wish we could use daily forever, some of our favorite travel memories have been spent relaxing in a sauna or a thermal bath.
Here are a couple of our favorite places to relax and recover so far:
Szechenyi Baths - Budapest
Palatinus Baths - Budapest
Ziva Wellness Center - Lake Bled, Slovenia
While we enjoy incorporating exercise into our travels, we also love, and need, days off. Sometimes days are best spent doing next to nothing, on long bus rides or getting a early start on your local beer taste tests!
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