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ROB C.
WITZEL |
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HEAVY LIFTING:
Fitness counselor and educator Karen Coley from
Gainesville Health and Fitness uses a
multi-stationed weightlifting machine at the
Gainesville Sheraton. The machine is the best to
use on the road, because it works six to eight
parts of the
body.
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Tips from Karen Coley,
Fitness counseler and educator |
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1. Drink a minimum of eight
8-ounce glasses of water each day. Airport food,
sitting on a plane, jet lag — all contribute to
bloat. The best way to fight it is to stay
hydrated.
2. Use good body mechanics when
you lift your suitcases up to the check-in
counter. Lift from your knees, not your back. Be
aware of your posture as you carry your
bags.
3. Even though you’ve left behind
your daily routine, try to eat three meals a day,
maintain a balanced diet and eat plenty of fruit
and vegetables. If you’re going to eat a high-fat
meal, eat a smaller portion, or order an appetizer
instead of a main course. Split desserts with a
friend.
4. Rest. If your schedule is shot
and you’re not sleeping enough at night, take cat
naps whenever you get the chance.
5.
Stretch in the morning and evening, especially if
you’ve been sitting all day.
6. If you
will be drinking alcohol at business mixers, drink
a lot of water between events.
7. Pack
snacks: bananas and apples, yogurt, protein bars.
You can make meal replacement shakes in your room.
No, you don’t need a blender, just a container
with a tight-fitting lid, large enough to shake
the contents. | |
 f you've worked hard to establish a good fitness
routine, going on the road doesn’t have to mean your healthy
habits will be derailed.
You can keep your momentum and
endorphins flowing and maintain your fitness level when
traveling.
How? To start, keep moving.
Maura
Moore, 44, of Gainesville travels half the month in her job as
a pharmacy recruiter for Cardinal Health. When she maneuvers
through the Atlanta airport it’s on her own two feet, not on
the airport shuttle.
“When you walk from terminal A to
E, it’s quite a hike, especially when you’re lugging your
computer bag,” she says.
When she arrives at her
destination she takes advantage of the hotel’s gym — “some of
the bigger hotels really do have nice workout facilities now,
especially downtown hotels in Atlanta and L.A.” — or she finds
a nearby health club where she can pay a day fee (typically
$10 for a day pass or $25-$35 for a week).
To find out
if your gym reciprocates its membership with a gym where
you’ll be traveling, log onto the International Physical
Fitness Association’s Web site, http://www.ipfa.us/, or ask at your home
health club before you leave town.
Moore said if she
wants to go for a walk or a run in an unfamiliar place, she
chats up the concierge. That’s how she discovered Town Lake
Park, a beautiful, safe spot in Austin, Texas, frequented by
joggers.
When you’re traveling, you’re typically in
unfamiliar territory, out of your daily routine. That can mean
more stress.
“Exercise when you’re on the road helps
you unwind,” says Karen Coley, who has been a fitness
counselor and educator at Gainesville Health and Fitness
Center for 25 years.
Coley says three to five days off
from a strength routine can provide your muscles a rest. But
you wouldn’t want to go a week or more without serious
exercise, and a short respite for your biceps doesn’t mean you
should ever let your cardio workout go.
For more
fitness options, place in your luggage a Resist-A-Tube or any
of the home exercise tubing, a stability ball, jump rope or
exercise video.
“If you like classes, make your own
class in your room,” she says. Or if you work with a personal
trainer, ask him or her to design an exercise plan before you
leave town. When you’re sitting on a plane or in a conference
room, take deep breaths occasionally, tighten your stomach
muscles, then relax. Women travelers, especially, need to
periodically flex and stretch the hamstrings and hip flexors,
the muscle at the upper part of the leg that connects into the
pelvis.
Walk around your room toe-up, heel-down to
stretch your calf muscles after you’ve spent the day in high
heels. Do toe raises by putting your heels on the floor and
stepping up onto a telephone book.
Coley says men
often complain of being cramped when traveling. They need to
stretch their lower back and legs. She recommends the cat
stretch. Get up on your hands and knees, arch your back for 15
seconds, then release. Repeat.
Jeff Plasschaert,
manager of the Downtown Athletic Club, says the more
comfortable you are with operating fitness machinery at your
home gym, the easier it will be to set up unfamiliar equipment
when you’re on the road.
“You need to know what the
machines do, which muscle groups they work,” he says.
His other tip: Thera-Bands, which you can buy online
and at most sporting goods stores. Thera-Bands are heavy-duty
elastic tubing, graded by color according to elasticity and
tightness, that you can use in resistance exercises. They are
easy to pack and you can do a complete maintenance workout
with them.
Gary Schneider, 52, of Gainesville says he’s
on the road four or five
days a month for his marketing
business. When he’s in a hotel without a gym, he does a 20- to
30- minute cardio workout on the stairs. His hotel-room
workout consists of push-ups, sit-ups and dips.
“I
usually do it like a circuit,” he says. He jumps rope at the
end of each circuit, then starts the whole series over again.
“I’ll do that for 30 or 40 minutes.”
He’s run in
London’s Hyde Park, and the Lake Trail along Palm
Beach.
“When you’re traveling you get a chance to run
in some of the most
beautiful places in the world,” he
says. “There’s always something you can do. It’s just a matter
of doing it.”
On
the Web
WOMEN
FITNESS
http://www.womenfitness.net/
Tips for
exercise, muscle fitness and home exercises you can do while
traveling. Top 10 tips on a variety of topics, free fitness
analysis, fitness
articles.
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