4 Fitness Tips for Busy Travelers

Travel time and meetings might leave little room in your schedule for exercise, but a little advance planning can help you stay in shape and ease work travel stress. Here are a few tips from Brad Prigge, Exercise Specialist at The Mayo Clinic Healthy Living Program, to help busy business travelers to stay in shape:

1. Find out what resources will be available to you during your trip.
An option many people already know is that you can hit the hotel gym or pool for a good workout after a long day of traveling. Were you aware, some hotel groups now offer the ability to request your favorite piece of exercise equipment brought right to your hotel room?

Check with your rewards program, they may offer to have exercise clothes and shoes waiting in your room when you arrive. Many hotel groups are becoming more health conscious and are offering a variety of options available for guests to continue their fitness routine on the road. Check with your hotel, you may be pleasantly surprised with the amenities they offer for fitness.

2. Keep in mind the latest high-tech equipment or a gym is not a necessity; your own body is your greatest asset.
Movements like squats, lunges, pushups, Jumps, marching, crawling and others can be a great circuit routine and can be done anywhere from your hotel room to a nearby park. Take time to explore your body�s diverse range of movements and experiment with reaching movements and shifting your body weight into different positions.

Pay attention to areas that feel tight or restricted or that possibly provide relief and relaxation. If you feel it just isn�t a workout without any equipment, small packable items like suspension trainers, bands or message balls take up very little space in your travel bag and can make great travel accessories.

3. Bring your essentials. Make it easy to say yes to your workout and be sure to pack your "must have" items.
It may be tennis shoes, a swim suit, your iPod, earphones or whatever your essential items are for enjoying your workout, make sure they are along with you. Apps on your phone can be a great resource from playing your favorite music during your workout to guiding you on a run in a new location.

4. Opportunities are everywhere: get up and move around 5 to� 10 minutes every hour.
Pay attention to all the opportunities you have available to move whether it is taking the stairs versus the escalator or avoiding moving sidewalks, we have many opportunities to move and it just takes a little bit of awareness and direct intention to move to be open to all of the opportunities presented to us.

Use a smart watch or activity tracker to help remind you when it is time to move or better yet incorporate movement breaks into your travel plans and plan an activity along your way. Chairs are optional, getting on the ground and using a variety of seated or resting positions on the floor or walking while waiting for your flight or the next meetings are a great way to help you avoid long hours in the seated chair position.

Be sure to plan movement breaks on your long car road trips. Rest stops, travel centers, an interesting local park are all great ideas to get out and explore or take a stretch break for a few minutes.