Often I find myself far from home and challenged to find time to work out.
Over the years I have developed bullet proof strategies to keep fit and be time efficient no matter where my travels take me.
Today I will give you some of my proven “road warrior” strategies for great fitness on the road. First I will give you the principles--in my next blog the specifics how’s what's and when's of fitness on the road.
Keep in mind as you read this you can be creative as long as you stick to the basics.
Also remember these are time tested strategies so you don’t need to reinvent the wheel if you don’t want to.
Finally, even if you never leave your house you will face time and efficiency challenges when it comes to fitness. So keep the following in mind when those inevitable challenges happen.
Greta B's Road Warrior Fitness Principles
Principle #1--Maintain your commitment to yourself.
Whether you are fit for pleasure leisure or business you’ve made a commitment that requires some degree of constant maintenance.
Habits take a few weeks to form but the converse is also true. You can lose a valuable exercise habit in a week or two if you are not careful. I have a “stop loss plan” where I go no longer than 2 days in between workouts no matter what.
Principle #2--“Adapt and adopt!”
I could also say adopt a plan. When you are out there in the world away from your usual fitness support solutions (gyms friends etc.) you need to adapt to your surroundings.
Use the facilities and the terrain around where you are staying to get the workouts you need. Even a set of stairs can be morphed into a great workout “facility” if need be!
Similarly you should “adopt a plan”.
This means taking 10 minutes out of your usual planning of vacations and trips to budget in workout times. The more specific you are with dates and times the more likely you are to workout at those times.
The best is to make appointments with yourself for those workouts during your trip. This way you will always find time.
Principle # 3--Take the gym with you.
I am an unabashed fan of Equinox gyms.
My home club is in NYC but I have visited Equinox Clubs on the road. My secret goal is to work out and visit every single Equinox in the country!
They always treat me like royalty and I can count on the best trainers and equipment in the country. I hope you can say the same about your gym! If you can then you can pretty much keep your fitness up to par anywhere in the country. If not then you need to visit and sign up. Tell them Greta Blackburn sent you!
Principle #4--Some is Better than none.
Even if you only squeeze in 10 or 20 minutes you can get a great workout by keeping up the pace of your workout and keeping rest intervals to a minimum. If you are a super slow rep person with long rest breaks the road can be a great place to shock your muscles into new growth and your cardio into new levels by keeping a higher pace.
Remember we are trying to keep the habit first and foremost so to some extend what you do is less important than the fact that you are actually doing it.
Principle #5 The Crazy Fun Fitness vacation.
Being an integral part of the fitness world I run across all kinds of fitness fanatics. One client named Dr. Dave runs an 80 mile race through the Canadian Rockies every year just because he can!
That is an extreme example of a fitness vacation--no kidding, huh?
I have something that most of you will find a bit more appealing and that is the return of my famous Fitcamp. You may or may not know that I have been running Fitcamps since the 80’s and pretty much originated the concept.
There is nothing like a Fitcamp vacation to ramp up your fitness level or even to get you started or back on track. It’s been a full 4 years since my last Fitcamp and I have been getting requests almost daily to do another one.
Well, after putting in 4 years of some unique research I have decided it is once again time to revolutionize the fitness world and I am going to do it at my next Fitcamp. This time around I will share everything I have learned in the past 4 years with you and believe me there is a ton of new and exciting stuff …stuff I guarantee you have not seen before.
I can also tell you the Fitcamp presenters are unique and absolutely cutting edge in what they have to teach you.
This will be the best fitness vacation ever! So, keep these dates open: October 14th thru 18th 2009 in Boca Raton Florida.
Go to Fitcamp.com and get the inside skinny on the camp because it’s going to fill fast.
Here’s to Health and see you soon with my next blog!
--Greta B
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