Everyone can make time to workout out - you are just choosing to prioritize other things.

You’ll hear these words either from your inner self or other, more diligent travelers who do make the time to workout.

It’s true.

This was our first hurdle to overcome. When we first started traveling we came from a much more active lifestyle - 1hr workouts were the norm, if not more, and if we didn’t do as much, well, then it wasn’t really a workout. So, what happened when we started traveling? It was hard to squeeze in the hour and so we’d just skip the workout. More often than not it was because when we first started we were also packing a lot into each day; on average we walked between 15,000 - 20,000 steps a day so we didn’t feel too guilty, although we did miss the cardio aspect of workouts.

With time our travel slowed down so we had more time to try to workout but then other excuses came up like “the hotel room is too small”, or “the hotel doesn’t have a gym”, or “I can’t run in the street w/ all those crazy drivers”, etc… You get the point. The honest truth is that we were lazier than we thought we were. It’s hard to admit this truth - LAZINESS. Somehow when you are honest w/ yourself then it’s easier to break through.

The plan

Here’s what we felt was achievable given our travel schedule (plus it also helped that we were going to do the Annapurna trail in Nepal and felt we should be more prepared):

Walk everyday at least 15,000 steps. Yes, this isn’t too hard, especially if you add a run to your day but we picked this goal b/c we’d be walking at least 15KM a day, on the Annapurna trail, which is roughly 20,000 steps.
Strength training 4 times a week, for a minimum of 15 mins. We felt the hike would benefit from having a stronger core so we focused on simple things like planks, leg lifts, supermans, etc… that don’t always break a sweat but work on strengthening the core. Plus we also felt we could continue to conceivably keep this amount of strength retaining.
Some form of cardio 3 times a week for 1/2 hour. Why? Well, we’d be hiking at altitude and although we’ve allowed plenty of days to become acclimated we know the heart will be working harder to pump all that blood through us, so why not strengthen this guy out too?

The Workouts

Strength training - Here’s what our 15+ min workout looks like - we squeeze this in the morning or evening and do for 3 consecutive days and 2 days of rest. If we miss a day, we continue as if it hadn’t happened until the next rest day. If we miss 2 days, we start the cycle anew. And we always stretch before and after. I do yoga as you’ll see, and Fermin does a Yoga-esque stretch after.

Cardio - for us cardio has always been running b/c we know how to pace ourselves so we squeeze this in either at the gym if our hotel has one, or out in the streets (yah! it sounds scary but it’s not bad once you just get out there to do it). Because we’ve been in SE Asia for so long, we’ve mostly been doing treadmill runs, it’s not too hard with views like these!

We’ve been on this band wagon since mid Jan 2019 and are still going strong.

What about you guys? have you found it hard to keep working out? or is it the one constant that keeps you anchored? Please share in the comments below.