Good morning and Happy St. Patty’s Day to all of you. The one day a year that we are all Irish in America. I admit though I tend not to go out and drink all day. Now that I am getting closer to 40, I watch more what I eat these days so that I am not out buying more clothes because my waist is getting bigger.
This brings me to the point of staying fit while traveling. How do you stay fit while traveling? Do you run, do cardio? Only stay at locations that have full gyms? Find places near gyms? Do you just give up and hope for the best?
I have spent a great deal of time on the road in my career and I can say that it is extremely hard to stay fit when traveling. I have tried the watching what I ate, which meant that I watch all the food go from my plate into my stomach. I think of eating as a challenge that I need to conquer. When I hit 30 I needed to do more than hit the gym when I was home. I started running outside if possible, sometimes on the beach, or on a treadmill.
What I found is that I truly hate running. From the having to plan out how far I will run to make sure I am burning off enough calories, to running on the beach and seeing old retired women watching us guys run by like we were T-bone steaks with running shoes on. Now I know what women feel like sometimes. It was creepy. I also found that even though I had music I got really bored with running. I would look at the houses, buildings, sunsets, water, but just doing the same thing over and over one stride at a time bored me to no end.
I then tried to map out hotels that had gyms nearby and if the hotels had discounts because one day memberships add up. Especially when you are on a strict daily allowance for traveling like some companies mandate. This too became exhausting to plan all the time and then I would have to wait to get on weights and machines while some person did a few reps and then stared at themselves in the mirror to see how big that last rep made their muscles. Please don’t be those guys.
When I hit 32 I had been seeing advertisements for something called P90X while I was in the hotel room. This weird guy was on there challenging you to get out of your head and do something to push yourself to better health. I think it took me a year or two to really start looking into it. Come to find out a woman that I went to high school with was a coach and was pushing this work out routine. I started inquiring about it and found out about the DVD’s that you could buy and do a 90 day workout that was mapped out.
I was still thinking that it was false information and that body weight movements would not be as effective as lifting heavy weights as I had been used to. That and I did not like cardio and there was no way I was going to do yoga. That was for women and very old men with huge beards. I still asked tons of questions and asked how much room would you need to do the workouts and what not.
After six months of asking questions I finally told myself that I was going to pull the trigger and do it. I ordered the DVD’s and then got into doing the workouts, bought some bowflex dumbells, and resistance bands. I started pushing play and working out to the same guy from TV that was kind of a mix between Ace Ventura and Tony Robbins. His name was Tony Horton. I did the workouts and did not change my eating habits back then and started getting in better shape almost immediately. I was also a volunteer fire fighter back then, so this change actually helped me in my training at the fire department like when we would pack up and climb the aerial ladder 75 feet into the sky in 90 degree heat. I was getting faster, more agile, and had way more energy.
The best thing is I could plan my workouts to the times I was in hotels where I didn’t need a pull up bar or weights. I could do plyometric training, yoga (no I didn’t grow a beard), stretching, etc while I was on the road. I also started moving the hotel furniture, so I could create the 8 x 8 space I needed to workout. I would take photos and post them on Facebook and people would comment about my architecture skills of standing a couch on top of a table with a chair upside down on the couch. I guess you could say I was letting my artistic inner- self come alive as well. Most of the time I would put the furniture back, but there was one time where I left the hotel thinking I wonder how the hotel staff will reorganize the room today for the next guest 😊
I had been doing P90X for four years and then branched out into other workouts, but none have matched the effects of what P90X has brought to me. I am planning to start P90X 2 to see if that helps me get in better shape. Keep in mind that P90X 2 has been out for a while and they actually have a P90X3 that is only 30 minutes long. I have also been able to do mud races, sprint triathlons, and take on new sports with better agility and balance without excess extra workouts specific to those events. I can literally show up and complete those events without dying. You may want to practice swimming for a triathlon though. I was able to finish, but I needed lots of prayer and floating on my back for that portion.
Beach Body who runs these video style workouts has recently come out with Beach Body on demand where you can pay roughly $110 for access to just about all of their workouts that have the similar small space to workout, not a big deal. I have tried 21 day fix extreme, hammer and chisel, core de force, and a few others as well. I am looking forward however to getting back to workouts with Tony Robbin and Ace Ventura’s offspring though in April.
No, I am not a beach body coach, I don’t sell the materials, or their magic shake formula (which I don’t use), but I do endorse this format especially if you are an on the road sales person constantly traveling. It works if you put forth the effort to say yes and push play. I have used this workout formula which helps me mitigate stress, process ideas while working out, and clears my head. If it worked for me then it can work for anyone.
A side note I also put forth a goal to finish a workout program and when I do I treat myself to something.
I hope that helps any of you that travel a lot for work to stay fit in your hotel room and maybe some ideas on how to make the hotel staff smile when they clean your room from furniture art.
As always if you have questions, want to dig deeper, or if you would like to ask about other topics feel free to reach out to me at info@kevinsidebottom.com. Also you can comment to the blog to keep the conversation going with other readers.
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
Sales and Leadership Enterprises