Why It’s So Hard to Work Out While Traveling (And How to Adapt)

Welcome to the Power of Progress Podcast where we talk about mindset, motion, and momentum.

We get you from thinking to doing, turning your thoughts into actions, let's break through

your barriers so you can achieve your goals.

I am your host, Scott Friedman, and let's get started.

Welcome back to the Power of Progress.

So I've been traveling a lot recently, a lot's relative.

I was in, where was I was in Nashville, in Phoenix, I was in L.A.

So coming up will be in Nashville again, a whole bunch of stuff going on.

But I realized, and not realized, I remembered, and I felt it would be a good topic of conversation,

is why it is so difficult to work out when you travel.

Now, I'm not saying you need to work out when you travel, but if your desire is to work out

when you travel, it can be very difficult, and it's not because you don't have equipment,

it's not because you don't have time, it's not because you don't want to, but it's because,

in my opinion, we're using the same mentality we would be using during our normal routine.

You can't use your routine mentality when you are traveling, you have to adapt

how you think about the exercise, how you think about the workouts.

Let me give you some examples here.

Your routine that you do, right, you are familiar with it, whether it's at your house,

let's just assume it's the local gym for a second.

You have a gym in your office, or a gym you go to, it doesn't really matter.

But you know, you walk in there after the first few times, you know where everything is,

you know how long it takes to get to the locker room, how long it takes to get to the shower,

where all the equipment is, where the dumbbells, versus the barbells, versus the cable,

versus the plates, versus the cardio, versus the treadmill, versus the bike,

versus the elliptical, where the turf is, where the basketball court is, how to get this swimming pool,

like you know where everything is.

In fact, you recognize certain people.

It's like you know who if you go every morning, you know who the morning cruise out,

those are the four guys I always see playing basketball.

That's the one sweaty, smelly guy on the stair climber, or the treadmill,

the girl who always grunts, or this, or those are the, you know, I'm just making all this stuff up,

you get the idea, like you know where everything is.

It's your routine.

You know that for the most part, on Tuesdays, the band that you're always looking for is over

in that location, and on Wednesdays, it's over in different locations because someone else

moves it, and the staff doesn't move it back to where it's supposed to be.

And you know this, you build it into kind of your routine, your habits,

as you kind of build the program for yourself.

So it's there, you know, it's not new, it's not this shiny, like you know where it is,

you know how long things take, okay, you've mapped it out in your mind.

Am I the only one who does that?

Because I feel like that's pretty normal to kind of just know where things are,

and you know what to do in case of the band is missing, I can go over here and use this.

If that doesn't work and go over here and use this,

and then you kind of have a few different options, so on and so forth,

in your facility, it was too busy, not busy enough, you know,

one time all the treadmills are being used, okay, what do I do?

I'm going to switch what I'm doing and veer off and so on and so forth, okay?

You have it down almost to a science when you have a routine.

When you're traveling, right, when you're traveling,

you were learning on the go, you are in a new situation,

you're not familiar with what they have, you know,

what kind of weights that they have, what machines that they have,

how much weight is it?

Is it going to be busy?

Is it not, like you, how early should I wake up?

Because how long does it take to get back to my room,

to then shower, to then get ready to so on and so forth?

It's all new, you're adapting in real time to a new stimulus,

and it can be very difficult because what we expect

from our workouts, our exercise routine is consistency.

We expect it to be the same, you know, and we want it,

we want it to be stable, okay?

It's very difficult to adapt or adjust even when we know

that's what you have to do.

And so if you go into traveling or go into a situation

or even in a new gym for that matter,

thinking it's going to be like it was before,

or like how it normally is,

you are setting yourself up for failure,

or you're at least setting yourself up for being uncomfortable,

which will stop you from working out the way you want to work out.

So when you go into these situations,

being, like, go into it, telling yourself,

I need to be able to adapt.

I need to be able to adapt.

I need to not focus on what is what I normally do in focus.

Okay, here's the context.

Here's what I'm trying to accomplish.

So let's say I'm trying to accomplish an upper body

day, okay?

That's where I'm at at the routine,

and I might do a push,

I might do a pull, I might just do a walk,

whatever you're doing.

This is only a matter.

But let's say it's just an upper body day.

Normally, at my upper body day,

I start over here and I do the bands for five minutes,

and then I do this for five minutes,

then I warm up, then I do my warm ups sets on row,

then I do three sets of rows,

or two minutes in between,

then I do my bands with three warm ups sets,

then I do actual bands,

then I do my incline, then I do my lap pull,

give a routine, right?

When you're traveling, it's okay.

You walk in and go,

wait, there's no bench.

Oh my gosh, what do I do?

How do I, what do I do?

And then there's no lap pull down.

Oh, I, they don't have the equipment,

and then you get discouraged.

Oh, this is, oh, this is,

this isn't even worth it.

It's not even worth it to work out,

because I don't have what I'm used to having.

Versus, if you go into it with the mindset of adaptability,

I'm going, okay, I already know,

I'm going to have to switch up my routine.

It's not going to be great,

but something's better than nothing.

So I look around, oh, there's no barbell,

but they have dumbbells, okay?

I'll do a dumbbell bench press.

I normally do, let's just say 70 pounds.

Oh, great, they have 70s.

Okay, that's perfect.

Or, oh, they only have 50s.

Well, I guess if I normally do 10 reps at 70,

I could probably bump this up to 15,

or something like that of 50s.

Okay, I'll do that.

It may be even more or less, whatever.

And I'll just, I'll just increase the reps.

So today, instead of doing three sets of 10,

I'll be doing three sets of 15,

or 17, or something like that,

because that's the weight that they have.

Maybe they don't have dumbbells,

but maybe they have like a little, like a,

let's call it a functional trainer,

or a fly machine, essentially,

like a fly cable machine.

I'll do flies instead of doing bench today,

or I'll do, you know, I'll do a cable presses, right?

My goal is to do something with my chest,

and I gotta do something.

And then, basically,

this really matter what the way it is,

I just adapt to where it feels hard,

and to do 10 sets, or 10 reps, or 15 reps, or something.

Let's say I want to do lap hold on.

Oh, there's no lap hold on.

Oh, there's no row machine,

but they have dumbbells up to 50.

Okay, well, I guess I can,

I could do a bent over row.

And I normally do 65,

so I'll just have to increase the repetition.

Okay, I want to do three sets of that.

You know, the airflow's not great in here,

but it's a little crowded.

If I do three sets of my,

my batch, I do three sets of my rows.

Okay, look, you're starting to get a good workout in, right?

And you can adapt what you're doing

to the situation that you're in,

but you have to go into it with the mindset of,

okay, here's what I'm trying to accomplish.

And here's what they have available.

How do I get to where I want to go?

And it can be a matter,

because when you're done with that workout,

you're gonna feel so freaking good

that you did something.

You're gonna help maintain whatever goals

that you're trying to maintain over the course of it.

And, you know, it's beneficial for you.

It's not not worth it.

The whole idea of, oh, it's not worth it.

They only have this.

Okay, well, I want to run and they only have an elliptical.

Okay, we'll either run outside if it's safe

or do the elliptical, right?

What is part of the purpose of the run?

It's not necessarily the mileage,

but it's also getting the heart rate up

and getting your heart used to, you know,

to working more difficult.

So that could be something that you do.

Okay, great.

Or maybe the treadmill isn't good.

It shakes when you try and run.

So maybe you do some incline walking.

Okay, maybe I do that instead.

It's learning to adapt using the underlying goal.

If I want to exercise, here's my general concept.

Yeah.

Is it going to make me progress the same way

that it would if I was at my normal routine?

Probably not.

It probably doesn't have the same effect,

but what it does do, it keeps you active.

It keeps you moving.

It makes you not miss a day.

And it keeps you going.

And so I think the mentality we have going into travel

of it's not worth it, because I can't do my normal thing

is what's stopping us for the most part

from actually doing.

Now, of course, timing is always an issue.

If you're on vacation, I'm not saying you have to.

I'm saying if you want to work out,

go into it with I'm going to address what I'm doing.

I'm going to walk in there going,

okay, I'm not going to be dead set on anything.

They might have zero equipment, except for a pull-up bar.

And so instead of doing rows or lap, you're doing pull-ups.

If you can, I mean, whatever it is, right?

And again, I understand the situation

where you can't do anything.

I get that, but it's far and few between.

There's always something you can do.

It could be as simple as riding a bike

to get the heart rate going, yeah,

you couldn't do it with your body

because they don't have any equipment.

There's no hotel gym.

So maybe you just do some push-ups.

You do some body weight squats, put a backpack on,

do some squats.

Like, I know it seems ridiculous,

but doing a few sets of that will get your legs moving.

Maybe you walk the stairs with some weights.

Like, there's always something you can do.

I'm not saying go crazy.

Obviously, there's situations where it's like,

yeah, like this isn't worth it.

Get it.

It's more trouble than it's worth.

It's okay, I'm not gonna do all this.

I'm gonna hotel, it doesn't have a gym, it's no big deal.

One day's not gonna kill me.

Okay, fair enough.

But if you do have it and you do have the possibility

of working out and they have enough there for you, why not?

And don't allow the lack of your normal routine

in what you normally do and spend an hour and a half

or at 16 minutes doing because,

well, I only have 30 minutes.

Okay, great.

Get what you can get in.

Doing something is generally speaking

always better than doing nothing.

So don't allow the situation to dictate

what you wanna do, especially if you wanna do it.

I know you wanna do it a certain way,

but sometimes you have to sacrifice

when you're not in your normal habitat

and you have to make it work, okay?

So that's the message for today is you have to be adaptable

and going into the situation,

understand that you're gonna have to adapt what you do

with what is given to you or what you have available for use.

First is getting angry, getting frustrated,

not wanting to do it and then just not doing

because it's quote unquote not worth it

because they don't have exactly what you want.

But it's okay to adjust based on what's in the situation.

I've been to plenty hotels where I can't do anything.

So I just start doing push-ups and that's where I do,

I just do 100 push-ups that I'm done for the day.

Great.

Was it, does it get me to where I wanna go?

Probably not.

Does it keep me active?

Yeah, do I feel better?

Absolutely.

Is it gonna be world-renowned progress?

No.

If I don't do it, is it the end of the world?

No, but do I feel better?

Yes.

And so you have to take all that into account

when you're doing this, but like,

good rule of thumb, do something.

Even if it's for five or 10 minutes,

you're gonna feel better in the long run

as you do this, you'll live with less regret.

You're not gonna feel as guilty

and you're gonna feel way better.

So live in the adaptable mindset frame

when you are traveling.

All right, I hope you enjoyed today's episode.

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