Travel Workouts That Actually Deliver
BLACK IRON RADIO EP. 392: Travel Workouts That Actually Deliver
You won't lose all your fitness and strength in a week. A few extra drinks and a lot of good meals won't undo your progress either. Enjoy the trip.
Morgan and Jess Gordon get into what coaches tell clients about training while traveling. Most of the time it's "skip it and don't feel bad about it". And when you do want to move, keep it short. They cover the questions to ask before you pack, how to tell if you're moving because it feels good or because you feel guilty, and why your coach doesn't care what the scale says when you get home.
For the trips where you do want (or even "need") to workout/train, they cover how to scope out a gym before you go, why first thing in the morning wins, and a 30-minute full-body session you can do with whatever you've got.
Heading out on a trip and wondering if you’re supposed to train through it? In this episode of Black Iron Radio, Morgan and Jess share how they help clients decide, and what to do when the answer is yes.
Start With: Is It Worth It?
Before you plan anything, ask yourself a few questions. If the session doesn’t go the way you want, will it put you in a bad mood for the rest of the day? Will you be cutting sleep short to get to the gym? Will a rushed 15 minutes give you the stimulus you’re after?
If you’re training for a specific event, that’s a conversation to have with your coach before you leave. They can plan a deload around your trip so peak week and vacation don’t land on the same week. Strength coach Dan John’s view is that showing up to competition a little under-trained beats showing up a little over-trained, and a planned lighter week fits that.
For most people, though, vacation is one or two weeks a year. We wouldn’t spend much of that time stressed about training.
Why Are You Training?
Think about your relationship with training. Are you someone who moves because it feels good? Great, keep doing that on vacation. If you’re training because you feel guilty, ashamed, or like you owe your training something, that’s worth noticing.
Most of our clients get told not to worry about it. Sometimes we have to give a permission slip: “I’m telling you to take the week off, and you can blame it on me.”
You Don’t Have to Earn the Food or the Drinks
Working out to make up for extra food and drinks is a trap, and it’s not a good reason to train. You also won’t gain 20 pounds in a week from a few extra drinks and some good meals.
The same goes the other way. If you eat well and train hard for one week at home, you won’t come back shredded. One week off script doesn’t undo months of work either.
What to Expect When You Get Home
Your numbers will probably look different, and that doesn’t tell your coach anything about your plan. One of our coaches had a client who walked 30,000 steps on vacation against a usual 8,000. Of course the scale moved. We build plans for your regular life, and a vacation is an outlier.
Jess’s one rule for clients on vacation is to send photos of the beach and the favorite meal. Those check-ins are better than any progress picture.
If You Do Want to Train, Scale It Down
If you normally train an hour, four or five times a week, two to three sessions of about 45 minutes is enough while you’re away. Sleep, food, climate, altitude, and extra walking all change how you feel. You can also adjust the effort: an RPE of 8 out of 10 instead of an 80% lift is fine, and it’ll still be enough.
You don’t lose fitness in a week. If you’re worried about momentum, ask yourself if you like the training you’re doing. If you do, you’ll be happy to jump back in.
Pick What Matters Most
You probably won’t get everything done on one trip, so pick your priority. For strength, find a gym with a squat rack or machines and keep your sessions at a manageable effort. For endurance, go for a run, or choose a hotel with a pool if you swim. Working on a specific skill? Many gyms have open gym hours where you can drop in and practice.
Finding a Gym
Call the front desk and ask what’s in the hotel gym. Online photos can be misleading, and you don’t want to show up to two treadmills facing a mirror. Check Google reviews, and try a local gym with drop-in options. One of our coaches once packed dumbbells in the car and trained with them in the hotel room, and it worked fine.
Train First Thing in the Morning
By the end of a long day, you won’t want to. Something always comes up. Training in the morning keeps it from getting in the way of your plans, and it can also influence your hydration and food choices later. Keep in mind that walking around for hours can leave your legs more tired than usual.
No Plan? Hit the Basics
Cover a squat, a hinge, a push, a pull, and some core. Morgan’s session in a hotel gym looked like reverse lunges, RDLs, push-ups, lat pull-downs, and loaded carries. It took about 30 minutes, plus a little treadmill running.
If the gym has machines you don’t normally use, use them. A Smith machine can be great for split squats, and a lat pull-down or leg press lets you work hard with less setup. Machines work, and they’re a nice change.
The Takeaway
Most of the time, the best travel workout is a walk and a good meal. If you do want to train, keep it short, plan around what you have, and do it first thing. A week of travel won’t undo what you’ve built.
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If you enjoyed this conversation, check out more episodes of Black Iron Radio, where we cut through the noise and give you real, no-BS advice on feeling, performing, and looking your best. Each week we share practical nutrition, training, and wellness strategies and tips to help you succeed.
