To maintain your exercise routine when you are on the road, traveling or in constant packing (or unpacking) mode isn’t easy. You want to keep fit to have the energy for what you do. Do you need to stay in shape to ‘do good’? The GOODista believes that. A way to feel good, is to be good to yourself by maintaining a healthy lifestyle – which enables you to ‘do good‘ in all areas of life and work.
Get your 6 tips how to maintain your exercise routine anywhere in the world. This guest blog by Johanna Cider is a welcome addition to The GOODista – especially our catalog of articles on how to get into and maintain a healthier lifestyle – while working away from home. Do let us know what you think. Feel free to subscribe to our newsletter for more tips, tools, and hints how to feel, be and do good.
How to Maintain Your Exercise Routine Anywhere in the World by Johanna Cider
Are you a frequent traveler, or planning on going abroad sometime soon? Perhaps you are a workout enthusiast? Don’t worry about not being able to maintain your exercise routine while away. There are myriads of things you can do to keep your fitness levels sustained on the other side of the world. We’ve chosen the best of them here so you can allay any exercise concerns before jetting off.
6 Tips How To Maintain Your Exercise Routine
Knowing how to pack, simplify your routine, combine moving with culture, try new ways to stay in shape and keep fit with an app are all helpful tips that will see you maintain your exercise routine far away from home. 
#1 Get your clothing in order
If you haven’t already packed the most comfortable and practical exercise clothes, make sure you do before it comes time to catch your flight. It’s all too easy to excuse yourself from exercise once you find yourself lacking the proper threads to move around in!
#2 Try simple exercises
The great thing about being overseas is that you are almost forced to get out and about. For most people this means, far more walking around than you’d usually do at home. If you opt to walk or cycle rather than catching the bus or train, you’ll save some cash for much more worthwhile activities, which is even better. This kind of everyday strolling may very well be the only activity you need to keep active while abroad. Tip: Get a walking guide to find new routes and fun adventures. 
If you would like to add some extra exercises into your travel routine to build on more than just your cardiovascular fitness, here are some ideas for the road that require little more than your own body weight:
- Star-jumps
- Push-ups
- Planks
- Sprints
- Squats
- Burpees
- Lunges
- Calf raises
Tip: Check out these books from Amazon for more ideas
#3 Do culture and sport at the same time
Travel Opens Your Mind
Furthering the previous point, you might want to plan ahead about combining your cultural excursions with exercise. Is the country or city you are visiting famed for hosting a particular physical activity or sport? If you’re amidst snow-capped mountains, for example, you’d likely have multiple opportunities to go skiing and snowboarding at the first opportunity- and equally, if you’re in South America, it’d be a crime not to go out to a salsa dancing night.
#4 Hone in on stretching
If you know you probably won’t have access to a gym and so will be getting the majority of your cardio exercise via walking, why not use your time abroad to refine your stretching routine? Stretch bands can be a great way to relax and lengthen your muscles after a long day on your feet, and what’s better, they will take up next to no room or weight in your bag.
#5 Miniaturize your home gym
For gym junkies who really want to keep up their weight-training overseas, investing in some light weights will serve you well for the entirety of the time you’re away from home. Many top manufacturers produce weights portable enough to carry in your luggage, and even 1-pound dumbbells can, with enough reps, build significant muscle. (or – use water bottles or cans – editor note)
#6 Make use of the internet
Even if you don’t typically think of using the internet as an avenue for exercise, digital aids can be very helpful in maintaining your fitness routine anywhere in the world. With so many exercise gurus posting their routines on platforms such as YouTube and Pinterest, all it takes is a quick search. You will find an exercise plan or real-time sports or workout video that suits you. From yoga to HIIT, Zumba to Tae Kwon Do, you’re sure to find what you need online. And if you don’t have access to the internet where you are, consider thinking ahead and printing out or writing down a series of workout plans that you can keep in a notebook or wallet and re-use overseas.
Johanna Cider
Guest Blogger
Johanna Cider is a New Zealand-based writer with a passion for writing about health and fitness. You can read more of her work on Tumblr
Exercise Anywhere
We really like how Johanna inspires exercise by giving solid tips that really work. You don’t need much to keep up your 
exercise routine anywhere in the world. Make it part of your day, and as an added enjoyment to whatever you’ve decided to do. Easy does it, and fitness will remain when you walk, explore, and go about your day – far away from home.
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