JUST BREATHE

When you are travelling on the road, not everyday is spent discovering new beaches or exploring beautiful hiking treks. There are many days that are extremely busy and involve allot of discipline. Our exercising routines are no exception. We choose to incorporate workouts to keep ourselves feeling healthy, focused and motivated. The same as you would when living in a household. 

However, there are several challenges to keeping motivated whilst living a somewhat nomadic and unstructured lifestyle. Life can be allot more unplanned on the road. Making it even more easy to prolong workouts. You also have the factors of a restricted room and of course, unpredictable weather can be challenging as well.

After our time travelling together, we have definitely constructed a foundation of routines that help us combat these challenges. We hope that if you have a long road trip coming up or are considering taking the leap into vanlife, that these hacks help provide you with some helpful exercise ideas while travelling.

UNPLANNED CHANGES

Dates and work life changes. Sickness can accrue. This goes without saying with life in general. It can sometimes be very unpredictable. Certain factors such as these can easily throw you out of routine when planning your workouts. When your schedule is looking to be even more unpredictable then usual we found a really great tip to stand by is to get your workouts done early in the morning. This will often help avoid procrastination or excuses when your busy day comes to an end. Being flexible with the amount of times you exercise also takes away allot of unnecessary pressure. If you have an extremely busy week coming up, perhaps try to fit smaller more high intensity workouts in when you can. Even 15-30mins. Then the following week, when you are not as busy perhaps, you can do a slightly larger amount. Making up for your smaller workouts the week before.   

ROUGH WEATHER

When rain hits, vanlife is always going to be challenging. One of these challenges is most definitely exercise. With no outdoor spaces, beaches or trails to use, options can feel limited. But we have found that there are a few ideas to keep handy to help in this situation. Firstly, try exercises which only require a small amount of room. You could set up a small in door workout, depending on your space of course. For example, squats, planking, push-ups, sit-ups, lunges and many more. Resistance bands and small dumb bells are a great idea for small spaces as well. You can target specific muscles and storage for this equipment is very minimal. Making it a big added bonus for vanlife. Day passes are also always a great option when travelling. Of course fees and details will vary. But it gives you an option of a great workout with equipment, free from mother natures down pour. Plus hot showers to follow, which is a big advantage for those travelling without this facility in their vehicle. 

MOTIVATION

 Lastly, possibly one of the most important points. Motivation. Even short travelling days have a funny way of easily swallowing up your entire day. With travel breaks, filling up supplies, topping up tanks, adjusting mechanics, searching for camp locations and more. Then on the other hand some days are completely free. Leaving endless choices of activities to fill up your day. These two opposites can easily lead to unmotivated workout habits when it comes to vanlife. But these tips will help nip them in the bud.

- Keep videos and apps handy so you almost have a personal trainer at your side whenever you need. There are hundreds and thousands of inspiring videos you can follow along to and personalize to your own needs.

- If you are travelling along side a friend, have their back, help them to stay positive. Or if you are travelling solo and realize you are slipping and need help in this area, contact a friend or family and let them know. A nagging vibe isn’t going to help anybody. But simply having a friend or family call and check in on your progress every so often, could make the world of difference to your motivation. 

- Another option is checking out community centres prior to stopping at your location. Centres often have yoga and fitness classes you can easily join and at usually low or sometimes no fees. It is also a great way to meet locals and like minded active folks to help uplift you as well.

- Lastly, try and set miniature realistic goals for yourself. Perhaps writing them in a small journal may help. Then having the satisfaction of being able to tick the goals off your list, once you have nailed them. 

Overall trekkers, don’t over complicate things, be flexible and choose the activities you love and enjoy, then stick to them. We hope this gave you a few added tips and tricks to keeping not just your van moving but yourself as well! 

PEACE X Kirsty, Brent & Alfie