Training While Traveling Tip #1: MINDSET
October 18, 2008 No Comments
One topic comes up more than any among my fitness clients – Traveling. The most common request I get : “Can you give me ideas for when I’m traveling?”
I’ll address “travel training” across a few separate blogs because there’s much more to it than doing push-ups off your hotel room bed. Let’s deal first with establishing a proper mindset for fitness on the road.
MINDSET
Traveling brings on a “vacation” mindset even if we’re traveling strictly for business. We’re leaving our home routine and going into a different climate, on a different schedule, following a different routine. It doesn’t necessarily mean we’re less busy with phone calls, e-mails and deadlines. There’s just something to be said for a change of scenery and patterns. When we get out of our normal routine, we tend to relax a few of our ordinary personal disciplines.
I rarely watch television. It’s a HUGE waste of time. However, when I’m on the road, I tend to kill time in my hotel room, channel-surfing until my brain is fried and drool is hanging from my lower lip. About 10-minutes of CNN or 10-seconds of “The View” is all it takes. It’s terrible! Give me time to kill between appointments in a different city and I’ll wander the city streets checking out new places. I’m off-schedule. The usual urgencies are missing. The behavior is simply indicative of the mindset.
Here’s a better mindset to establish: Rather than seeing a 24-hour trip as an interruption of our regular health and fitness routine, see it as a 24, 48, 72, 96-hour window to concentrate on your health and fitness. There is a LOT of downtime in a traveling schedule for quality conditioning. Don’t believe me??? TSA requires you to check-in at least 30-minutes before your flight departs. There’s 30-minutes before every flight to stretch, do isometrics or even break a sweat with some wall-sits or dips. (YES – sweat! If you’re going to sit on a plane, isn’t it better to be the “smelly” than the “smeller”?) I wear running pants, a light sweat-shirt and running shoes when I travel. It’s more comfortable and going through security is easier. You’ll also have more time to train when we change your eating habits and throw you into a different time-zone.
Fitness on the road begins first with our mindset. See traveling as a window of opportunity to advance your physical conditioning. Use it effectively. You’ll be amazed at how much different and better you’ll feel when you return home.
Keep checking back as I add more ideas and suggestions to the topic of Training While Traveling.
SUCK IT UP
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