Traveling for work can often lead to missed training days, but just because you may not have all your normal tools available doesn’t mean that you can’t find ways to still get your body moving. It’s widely accepted that exercise can reduce stress and increase positive mood levels so let’s go over a few ways that you can exercise without having a gym available.

Tabata

This form of exercise originated in Japan in the 90s, but is great for building aerobic and anaerobic working capacity. Formally, you would pick an exercise that can be done quickly and efficiently such as: high knees, pushups, squats, lunges, burpees, or tuck jumps. You would then do this exercise as hard as you can for 20 seconds followed by a 10 second rest. Repeating this cycle 8 times for 4 minutes. Once the round is complete there is a 1 minute rest and you would go into your next circuit. This form of exercise can be changed to have multiple exercises within one round, longer work times, and even longer rest times to accomplish more work during the working sets. Ultimately, it should have you feeling like you got a lot done in a short period of time.

Weighted Walks

Another form of exercise that is a little simpler are weighted walks. Now these can be done by carrying something heavy and walking a set distance before resting, but if you don’t have anything heavy that can be carried, then you could load up a backpack and walk for a set distance.

Mobility Routines

It’s not uncommon to neglect our mobility in training, but mobility routines are great ways to keep the body limber especially when travelling. These can be full bodied or can be targeted towards achy areas such as the back. Moving joints through their natural full range of motion is a great way to ease tightness throughout the body. Some of my favorite areas to use mobility routines for are the back and the hips. If you frequently sit and type throughout your day adding a back and hip routine would be greatly beneficial for your wellbeing.

Matthew Walcott
B.S. CPT