Top five strategies for staying fit while you’re on the road.

By Barry Ratzlaff, 1999 Canadian Body-for-Life Champion Tip one: Take your fitness lifestyle with you It would seem that most of my clients who travel, whether it be for business or pleasure, view “away dates” as an excuse for letting their nutrition and training go down the tubes. DO NOT MAKE THIS CRITICAL ERROR! Your goal in eating responsibly and becoming more physically active should be to make this a permanent part of your life and routine. Going on the road can make maintaining these habits challenging, and that is a good thing. It is exciting to get to your destination and find out what is available to you in terms of facilities and equipment. You will probably have to get quite creative to make it all work, and again, good! Your body craves variety as does your mind, and this may be just the thing the doctor ordered. Before you even get near a plane, train or automobile, make the decision that nothing will come between you and your fitness goals. The last thing you want is to get home from who-knows-where and find yourself five pounds heavier, feeling sluggish and unmotivated. Keep your goals right in front of you no matter where you are. You are an athlete now, think like one, pack like one (take along at least two sets of workout clothes, including running shoes), and be prepared like one.

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Barry Ratzlaff

Tip two: Try to book accommodations with fitness facilities You have had this experience before. You’ve booked a good hotel which, you’re assuming, has a gym. You get to the hotel, unpack and go down to check out the facilities. You stand in the doorway of an over-sized basement closet containing a belt-resistance bike from 1957, a blue plastic chair and some form of cable machine you cannot quite describe (not to mention the trench-foot odor). I guess you won’t be training this trip. Do some research and find out what is available to you in the area you will be visiting. Does the hotel have its own gym? Does the hotel have an agreement with a nearby public or private gym? A great place to start this search is on www.HotelGymReview.com. Including training facilities in your trip plans will give you a head start on keeping those self-promises you made at the end of that last cruise. Tip three: Travel day; start off on the right foot In terms of momentum, a long and grueling first travel day can throw you off of your fitness intentions faster than you can say “would you like a beverage?” Be prepared for what lies ahead. Remember the last meal you had on a plane (try not to gag) and bring your own along in your carry-on. When given the option of a beverage, take water or green tea. The air conditioning in airplanes dehydrates you very quickly, so don’t compound the problem with coffee, alcohol, or diet/regular soda. Decide before you leave that gas stations are only for gas and water. Take some time along the way to do a thorough stretch (I use the tiny plane bathrooms for this. At 6’3”, it is quite a challenge and quite humorous!). If you are driving, use a rest stop to get out and stretch out. Stretching doesn’t burn or build, but it does put you in touch with you body and increases blood flow, loosens your muscles and puts a touch of fitness into an otherwise sedentary day. When flying, use the stairs in the airports and not the escalators. If you have to wait for your flight, take a long power-walk around the airport and down some water. You’ll feel much better for it.

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You’d be amazed (perhaps you wouldn’t) at how many of my clients tell me it was day one, the getting-there-day that threw them for a physical loop. Anticipate this and have a plan. Be proactive in your eating and moving, and keep the momentum you have built up at home alive! Tip four: Start each day with training/activity Whether you’re on vacation or traveling for business, chances are once the day’s schedule gets rolling there will be little thought of or time for a workout. I make a point, whether on a cruise, at a resort, or in an urban center hotel, of beginning each day with a resistance/cardio blended workout. If I’m away for a week I will work one major muscle group a day and then do a 30 to 45 minute cardio with my heart rate around 70% of my max. This sets the tone for my day, encourages me to make good food choices, and boosts my energy for what can be long days on the road. If there are no facilities in your hotel, use the stairways and go up and down for at least twenty minutes; it’s a challenge! If you’re luck enough to have a pool available to you, get out into the deep and tread water until you are tired, then go to the shallow end and, with your hands cupped, flap straight arms horizontally, until you can feel your chest, back and shoulders beginning to burn. Repeat. Where there is a will there is a way, but if you are completely convinced that your hotel has absolutely no options, here’s a solution: Resistor Bands.

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These little gems are basically long, tubular elastic with a handle on each end. They look a little namby-pamby, but can afford a great workout, in the comfort of your hotel room! Here is a series of resistor band exercises that will get your major muscles working and your heart pumping!

1. Resistor Band Squats 3 sets, 15 reps

2. Resistor Band Lunges 3 sets, 12-15 reps per side

3. Resistor Band Pushups (standard or knee position) 3 sets, 15 reps

*Alternate with Seated Rows, no rest between sets

4. Resistor Band Seated Rows 3 sets, 15 reps

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5. Resistor Band Shoulder Press 3 sets, 15 reps

6. Resistor Band Overhead Tricep Extension 3 sets, 15 reps *Alternate with Curls, no rest between sets

7. Resistor Band Standing Curls 3 sets, 15 reps

You can break the workouts up into upper and lower body days, and tag a 30 to 45 minute cardio on the end of each workout. Definitely the right way to start your road trip day!

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Tip Five: Have a Nutrition Game Plan! It is in your best interests to try to anticipate what you may be facing nutritionally on your trip. Will there be large buffet meals and banquets? Visualize and strategize how you will behave when confronted by unlimited food. Start with a green salad and a tall glass of water before you hit the proteins and carbs. Try to avoid saucy carbs (potatoes in cream, pasta in cream sauce, buttery anything). Seek out low fat sources of protein and decide before hand that you will not visit the dessert table! Having made the decisions before you’re confronted with them will bolster you resolve and better your chances of getting out unscathed. Will the restaurants in the area offer any nutritionally sound menu options? One thing I like to do is to check the menus of the restaurants in my hotel and pre-decide what I will order and, more importantly, what I will not. Trying to resist the nasty stuff when you’re hungry can make for rationalizations and poor choices. Anticipate each scenario and have the good decision already made before it even confronts you. My last line of defense is to bring individual serving meal replacement protein shakes and a shaker cup with me. I have had a meal-on-the-spot while waiting in line for Splash Mountain in Disneyland all the way to the beach in Thailand. You cannot say you had no options when your backup plan is in your briefcase or backpack! The long and short of it is this: there is no perfect world and life has a way of placing speed bumps in your path. Being prepared for these detours can be the difference of feeling empowered or like a victim, between successfully reaching your fitness goals, or, blaming your lack of success on circumstances. Success truly favors the prepared mind and body. I trust your next road trip will be a success on all levels. Health and strength, Barry Ratzlaff Pro-active Transformations

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About Barry Ratzlaff After 11 blissful years of marriage, Barry awoke to find himself 60 pounds overweight and feeling hopelessly sedentary. That was fall of 1998. He knew he wanted to change, but lacked knowledge. Then came the Body-for-Life (BFL) Challenge, and the rest is history. Barry lost over 50 pounds of fat and put on 20 pounds of muscle in 15 weeks. That was good enough to win his category in the 1999 Challenge. He followed up his EAS victory by earning his Personal Trainer's certificate and went on to train David (Eddie) MacDonald in his first runner up placing in the 2001 BFL contest. Since 2001 Barry has trained three other BFL champions. Barry, along with his wife Jana, continues to train and inspire anyone that desires to change, teaching them sound transformation techniques, and helping them reach and exceed their goals. To contact Barry, visit his website www.patransform.com

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