Guide To Training While Traveling
By Coach Harry
The moment that we’ve all been waiting for finally arrived when restriction-free travel made its grand entrance back onto the scene. Many of us have or will be taking full advantage of these freedoms granted to us once more. However, free or not, there has always been a dilemma that has plagued us when planning our holiday; how to maintain our fitness and nutritional goals whilst on the road?
In all honesty it doesn’t have to be a problem. We can actually do a huge amount with very little; little equipment, little time and little effort. But if feeling prepared is something you know will keep you focused, motivated and disciplined then look no further, we’ve got you covered.
Before we start it’s worth stating the obvious that you could find your nearest gym or group exercise studio and almost pick up where you left off, but depending on the type of holiday, who it’s with and where it is, this isn’t always going to be a viable option.
Train for maintenance- Let’s say on average we book our holiday 6-10 weeks before our travel date. We can use the last 3 weeks before we leave as an intensification phase within our training. Meaning that our training frequency, volume and intensity gradually builds until we leave. This then gives us a scheduled training maintenance phase or ‘deload’. A time where we train less times and less intensively in order for our bodies to recover and allow us to continue making progress. To maintain muscle mass, performance and mobility actually requires a surprisingly little amount of training. 1-2 sessions per week of between 2-5 stimulating sets per muscle group have been shown to be enough. Of course there are variables to consider when making this statement: notably calorie intake, sleep quality, session intensity and how trained the individual is.
Eat for maintenance- Just as with training, eating a maintenance calorie intake doesn’t require huge effort, perhaps some will power, but this is when you have to be honest with yourself about how ‘on track’ you want to stay. Remember, higher levels of activity allow for higher intakes of calories. There are numerous calorie tracking calculators and apps that will give you guidance on recommended food intake based upon your total daily calorie expenditure. Context is always valuable, a few missed training days won’t see us lose all of our hard earned rewards from the gym, and by the same token, some indulgence at the restaurant won’t see a complete relapse back to square one. But if you know you enjoy the breakfast bar, or a few cocktails of an evening then allow yourself this pleasure but reduce food portions somewhere else in the day.
Get creative- The world is our playground, some of the most enjoyable workouts can be done outside using park benches, running tracks, steps and children’s play areas. Any open space can serve to give you everything you need to get a great session in. And to take that Bootcamp style workout to the next level, make sure you pack some bands and/or suspension trainer with you. Bodyweight training is great but does limit you to mostly push movements (squats/lunges/burpees/push ups), of course there are pull ups, but if you’re not able to perform these yet then they’re not of much use. Using bands will enable you to access a whole load of ‘pull movements’, giving us the opportunity to work our super important back muscles which will add to our session variety and effectiveness.
These 3 tips will give you what you need in order to make sure your workout routine doesn’t fall by the wayside, allowing you to arrive back home feeling strong and energetic, not sluggish and lazy.
But, being Pherform members we have one unique option that isn’t available to the general population……..
4. FST At Home programming via WodUp- We have amassed some 120 workouts on archive for you to do online at any time that suits you. Each workout follows our FST programming structure and comes with coaches notes, session plans, equipment lists and a pre-recording of the actual workout led by one of our coaches. This means you get a coach to lead you through the session, movement cues, motivation and visual references of demonstrations and technique reinforcements. You’ll be able to log your results like you would in any of our in studio classes which is a great way to keep up with your training whilst you’re away. You can get your family and friends involved too!
Holidays should be guilt free and stress free, especially if you haven’t been away for the best part of 3 years. But we appreciate how important your training is to you and being able to maintain your routine will add to your holiday experience, not subtract from it.
Happy travels Pherformers!!!