· By Dustin Millhollen
The Only Travel Workout Equipment You Need for A Great Workout
How many times have you gone on a trip and told yourself you’d workout? Maybe you thought you’d get a short term gym pass or do some bodyweight workouts in the park. Maybe you get one or two in at the park. Maybe you hit the gym…once. Ok, it wasn’t ideal, but you were enjoying the new sites, sounds, and tastes. I totally get it. I’ve been in the same boat many times. A gym sounds like an inconvenience when you’re trying to get the most out of your time somewhere, plus most gyms look the same no matter where you are. Do you really want to spend your time there? Getting some bodyweight workouts at the park is a great idea, but when you show up to the park, you’re like, “Ok, what do I do now?” - scramble to find a YouTube video and get a halfway decent workout, but nothing to write home about (insert laugh here).
My suggestion is to workout with some packable travel workout equipment, whether in your hotel room, apartment, or the park down the street. It’s equipment you're familiar with and takes the guesswork out of the workout. Get it done and get on with your day - or take it to a beautiful workout spot and really enjoy the sunshine and the vibe. Whatever the move, make it a good workout with these pieces of equipment.
Waterbag
This very portable piece of equipment is foldable, easily packed, and goes from an empty 1 lbs (.5 kg) to a full 45 lbs (20 kg) just by filling it with water. This makes it an indispensable tool for weighted workouts that otherwise wouldn’t be possible while traveling. Weighted workouts are important for increasing muscle and getting stronger, along with a lot of other benefits. You can fill it in a bathtub or from a sink with the connecting hose and then empty it (maybe into a flower bed or some houseplants) when it’s time to move on. It features different handle combinations for different exercises. From deadlifts to squats and lunges to rows - the possibilities are endless. Ok, maybe not endless, but you can do a lot of different exercises with it. Filling the bag incrementally with more water as you get stronger helps achieve progressive overload, which you need for strength and muscle development. This is one of the most versatile and unique travel workout tools out there.
Bands
Bands are another great tool for travel workouts and are also extremely versatile, but not all bands are created equal. You want to make sure that you find good quality bands that have consistent tension. If you get cheap bands the tension will feel inconsistent and bottom out pretty quickly when you try to stretch it to full capacity. If you get good quality bands, then they’ll have a long stretch capacity and will have been measured for consistent tension and correspond to the weight they have been designated. Also, some handle attachments and a door anchor or loop strap is a must. This way you can attach the bands to different parts of a door frame, pole, or other things at parks or outdoor areas. I have been using bands for my own training and also for training clients for years now and think they’re a great strength training tool that can be used to achieve progressive overload, no matter what your strength training goals are. Just make sure that you get good quality ones.
Folding Yoga Mat
Most of us probably have a yoga mat, but it’s most likely pretty thick and rolls up, which means that it doesn’t pack down very small. However, you can get a folding yoga mat and this will save a lot of space in your luggage. If you get one that is a few millimeters thick, this will even save you more space. I’ve found that the sweet spot is 2mm thick. This gives adequate padding, but saves some space for packing down small. Yoga mats are pretty essential to a good travel workout, especially if you’re exercising outdoors because you’re most likely doing stuff on the ground that wouldn’t otherwise be comfortable without a yoga mat. Try doing a dead bug or hollow hold without a mat for some padding - no fun. If you need more padding for an exercise, a foldable yoga mat is a great option because you can fold it on itself to increase the padding. Let’s say you’re doing a half kneeling banded row, you can double the mat up to provide more padding for the knee. You could go from 2mm to 4 or 6mm. Whatever offers the best comfort - it’s customizable. If you want to get the most benefit from your strength training workout, then exercises on the ground are essential and a foldable yoga mat is a must.
Sliders
A good pair of sliders can access muscle groups and movement plains that are less common. Doing a lateral slider lunge will not only work your quads and glutes, but will also target your adductors (inner thigh muscles) and give you frontal plane work. Moving in the frontal plane of motion (think side to side) is pretty uncommon in daily life and it’s good to practice movement patterns in this plane of motion to work less commonly target muscle groups and to prevent injury. If you want to be athletic, you need to incorporate some frontal plane exercises into your workouts and sliders are a great tool for this.
In addition to frontal plane exercises, sliders are great for core work. Slider body saws or slider mountain climbers really put a unique emphasis on the core muscles and offer a novel stimulus that gets your abs working hard. I also really like hamstring slider curls. There's not many better than this exercise for targeting hamstrings via knee flexion. Anyone that’s done these knows that it really isolates the hamstrings and you feel every muscle fiber work. Intense!
Sliders can be used indoors on carpet or hardwood floors or outdoors on surfaces like turf or anything that allows them to slide. Sliders typically have a smooth surface for rougher floors (carpet) or a fabric surface for smooth floors (hardwood). I’ve even used sliders on smooth concrete or brick surfaces and while it might not be the most ideal, it works. Get yourself a pair of sliders and get the most out of your lateral lunges and core work.
Takeaway
Just a few pieces of travel workout equipment can take your travel workouts from basic to bodacious, but make sure you get the right stuff. There's a lot of equipment to choose from, so pick the pieces that have the most functionality, travel most easily, and help you get the best workouts. This way you can have a great time seeing the world and keeping fit.
- Dustin
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Workout Wherever by Mazama Wellness is a location-independent fitness system that offers a dose of travel inspiration. The thoughtfully-designed portable travel workout equipment, intelligent strength training workouts you can do anywhere, and community of like-minded members fits easily into your flexible lifestyle – and your suitcase.
