Exercise

When you are traveling you naturally get a workout walking around cities and carrying your backpack around.   To get more of a workout walk at a faster pace or take the stairs. By the ocean and rivers we snorkeled and kayaked a lot, which is great as you are getting a great workout without really thinking about. We obviously love the mountains so of course lots of hiking and trekking help for burning calories.   Here are a handful of extra things we incorporated into our traveling lifestyle.

• Running
  Always have running shoes with you and run as often as you can. We have run through little villages, on beaches, around the Andes, in city parks and along river walk ways.   It is an amazing way to see a new area. We have gotten some of the strangest looks when running in villages but that was half the fun! The locals either look at you like you are an alien or will cheer you on!

• Swimming
  We did open water swims when we had the chance in calm ocean waters and sometimes stayed places with pools to do laps. Pack your swim goggles as are they a light and easy thing to carry.

• Workout videos
  We downloaded a couple of Yoga, Core and Jillian Michael’s workout videos to our computer. They were great when we had the space and time to do them.

• Core/Yoga
  Unless we were catching an early bus or staying in a dorm room, we tried our best to start our day with 3 simple exercises to make sure we got something little in each day. The goal was 100 of any type of core exercise, 30 push-ups and 20 squats.   Or just get in a couple of sun salutations. Keep the goal simple and realistic or you will not do it each morning.

• No-Nonsense Workout
  The no-nonsense workout is a great full body strength workout that you can do anywhere. Sometimes we combined this into our runs or did it on the beach before our swims. Again, you will probably get some strange looks or people will want to join in with you! When we are sick of the exercises we simply substitute a different type of exercise, which will work the same muscle area.

No-Nonsense Workout: Repeat 3 times
Jumping Jacks – 50
Squats – 20
Squat Jumps – 20
Alternating Lunges – 20 (each leg)
Burpees – 15
Push-ups – 25
Mountain Climbers – 30
Crunches – 50
Plank Hold – 60 seconds