HOW TO STAY FIT WHEN TRAVELING

For a lot of people, travelling looks like the “last frontier” in their fitness regimen.

Even some of the people you look up to, the ones who seem like they’ve got the discipline and focus and regularity of their routine down pat, face a great big bump in the road when they are away from home. This is one of the spots where the whole idea of a fitness “routine” gets called into question, because a routine is easy to interrupt.

Sure, routines can be useful at first. We groove our ideas of what a workout consists of, installing a mental checklist of muscle groups, cardiovascular development, capacity, and endurance that we want to cover in the course of a workout. But as our approach matures, it might be a better idea to think of our usual workouts as a menu of options we can call on, when our environment and circumstances change because of travel.

Eclipse Launches The Shred

Need a quick workout – say, about five minutes or so – that gets your heart pumping and your muscles burning? Of course you do, which is why Eclipse 1-on-1 has launched a video workout series called, The Shred. Twice a month, we’ll add a new video that focuses on different muscle groups. Access them anytime, day or night, at The Shred.

Pack a Goal and a Menu

A better way to think about our fitness practices is to step back and view them a lot wider than just a routine. It is time to think of ourselves as bigger than the workout. The set of exercises we choose are like files in our computer, or apps in our mobile device – we call them up as needs require and opportunities arise.

So why not set a workout goal for the trip, to give shape to how we exercise these options? We wouldn’t leave home on business without an idea of what we want to accomplish in that meeting or learn in that conference. We wouldn’t invest in a vacation trip without an idea of what we want to see and do. Let’s add to these a goal for what kind of exercise we mean to get done while we’re away.

Why? Because our schedule and our available facilities change when we travel. We can stay in charge if we consider our usual workouts to be options we can adapt, rather than pass-fail requirements.

Adapting to Time and Surroundings

Okay, now it’s not a routine, it’s a menu, especially when we go on the road. What’s next? Many runners tell us that it’s hard to make the mental shift to running for elapsed time rather than a known distance with familiar landmarks. Seems like a small deal, but not at first. And what resistance exercise fan hasn’t felt a mental “ugh,” when they first lay eyes on the “fitness center” housed in most business-trip hotels? Hardly ever looks better than your hometown gym, does it? Still, after that first glance of disappointment, we’ve got to get off it and adapt the equipment to our own use.

That’s where the knowledge you get from working with a personal trainer can make all the difference. This dialogue develops an understanding that you can take with you wherever you go. What are the priorities that best serve your own well-being? How can you adapt what you find – or don’t find – at your destination? What can you get done in the time available? You’ll have a much clearer idea when you’ve been coached by a pro.

More than 20 years helping clients has proven again and again how individual the answers to fitness and health can be. Our bodies share much in common, and yet when it comes to the finer points of fitness they each respond a little differently. Here at Eclipse 1-on-1, our accomplished team of personal trainers are as invested in your success as you are. Let’s get acquainted.