Travel Fitness Tip: Always Pack These 3 Things

You’re a Constant Traveler. A Digital Nomad. A Wayfaring Stranger. However you prefer to put it, it means the same thing – you live a life on the road. But you’re also a Fitness Freak. So how do you achieve a consistent degree of travel fitness?

It’s easier said than done. Maintaining a cohesive fitness routine tends to demand some degree of regularity, but when you’re on the move all the time, you don’t tend to have access to your usual gym and home equipment.

Different travelers find a range of solutions to the fitness conundrum. For me, it starts by packing along the right gear. Here are three things any traveling fitness enthusiast should pack along every time they hit the road.

#1. Your workout clothes.

This one might seem obvious, but I continually meet travelers who leave their workout clothes behind to save space in their luggage. When they want to exercise, they reason, they’ll just use whatever clothing they happen to have brought along.

The logic here falls short for two reasons.

The first is very practical – if you’re traveling with limited clothing options, are you really going to take an outfit out of rotation by getting it all sweaty and smelly? I think not, and that you’ll instead end up skipping the workout altogether.

Second, exercise is a largely mental undertaking, and it can help to have cues to get you into the right mood. No matter where I am, once I’m in my gym shorts and running shoes, my mind switches into “fitness mode.”

#2. A jump rope.

I love my jump rope. Love it.

The jump rope first entered my routine when I was living in Granada, where slick cobblestones in the winter followed by blistering temperatures in the summer made outdoor cardio less than inviting. But with a jump rope, suddenly I had the option of bringing my cardio comfortably indoors.

What’s more, a jump rope takes up virtually no space in terms of packing and use. It curls flat and requires next to zero room in your bag, and if it’s sized properly you can use it in a relatively compact space in wherever you happen to be staying—a rectangle that is three feet wide and the length of your own height will do.

#3. A swiveling forearm phone band.

These days most people put their phone in their pocket when they run, or use the traditional armband. A better alternative for travelers, however, is a forearm band that swivels.

Usually manufacturers of said bands advertise that they’re easier to use on the go, and while that’s certainly true, it’s not the main reason I use one. I prefer mine because it makes it easy to snap on-the-run photos.

And when you’re running through some novel destination, you never know when you’re going to want to take a quick snap. Around every corner is some cathedral or mural or view or whatnot, but nothing interrupts your run like stopping to dig your phone from its holster. With a rotating forearm band, however, you can just swivel your phone, take the shot, and continue on your way.

For me, the ability to quickly and easily take photos makes going for a run even more appealing.

All of this gear is space-efficient and cost-effective. With the exception of running shoes, you can acquire each item new for as low as $10, and they take up almost no room in your bag. The shoes fit better if you get a pair made out of mesh, and when I’ve needed extra room I made it by clipping them to the bottom of my carry-on with a carabiner.

There are a range of other travel fitness tools on the market, but from my experience they’re usually either too space-costly, or flat out useless. This gear has you set for a solid cardio and bodyweight workout wherever you go.

I’ll discuss how to get in a weighted workout while on the road in a future post, but for now, this is everything you need to maintain a basic degree of travel fitness.