I recently transitioned to a new job and I'm having a hard time maintaining the level of fitness in my old job.

Old job:
-Very little travel,
-easy to regiment meals and macros,
-gym work out 3-5 days a week in my very well equipped office gym.
-strong lift 5x5 program with some cardio and additional muscle groups worked in

New Job
-Travel almost every week (2-3 nights)
-eating on the road, in airports, etc, harder to track
-my office has a gym but it sucks and I'm never there more than a day or two a week. It has dumbbells up to 50lbs (not enough) and a smith machine but not enough plates to get my workouts in.
-I don't have a gym membership because I'm never home more than a couple days during the week and I try to prioritize my kids on the weekends.

For those of you who travel for work, what are your tips for staying fit and building strength? I'm not getting fat, but I've lost my ab definition and most likely a lot of strength. Fortunately I've only gained 2-3 pounds since starting this job in Feb, but I know I've had some muscle loss.

I've thought about getting a power rack for home and just trying to get workouts in early in the morning on days when I'm home m, but I don't really have a good place for one.

Do you travel to the same cities and if so do you get to choose where you stay?

I lead sales for the entire country so I'm rarely in the same cities.

I do choose where I stay within reason and I'm pot committed to Marriott brands. I'm generally at a Marriott, Courtyard, Aloft, AC, etc.

Couple of solutions.

1.) find the ones with the best gyms. They don't be good but some are better than others.

2.) join a national chain gym that allows you to visit any location Planet fitness and anytime fitness come to mind. Not the best but better than hotel gym

3.) whatever gym you use walk in with a written down plan. If you don't it's east to say **** it when the gym had no energy or you don't have the energy.

4.) pack snacks. My go to are beef jerky, mixed nuts, and protein bars. Most airports now have places to buy fruits and salads.

5.) adding I use IF so I may only eat two meals a day or one meal and snacks. I try to choose semi healthy options. Most places let you trade out sides.

Thanks, those are all good tips.

I really just need to quit being weak and stay focused. It's easy to get back to my hotel room and make excuses about being tired, or that the gym doesn't have enough weight so why do it at all. The only consistency I've maintained is that I do >100 pushups every day and haven't missed a day since I started that in 2024, but that's more of a mental commitment that a fitness thing.

SweaterVest said:

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Thanks, those are all good tips.

I really just need to quit being weak and stay focused. It's easy to get back to my hotel room and make excuses about being tired, or that the gym doesn't have enough weight so why do it at all. The only consistency I've maintained is that I do >100 pushups every day and haven't missed a day since I started that in 2024, but that's more of a mental commitment that a fitness thing.

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This.

I started my health journey and lost 60 pounds when I was in a sales job and traveling minimum 3 weeks a month. Now that was slightly different as I was mainly doing cardio at that point and wasn't trying to continue an established lifting program in hotel gyms, but still.

Lots of grilled chicken dishes at restaurants and having healthier snacks available. I made sure to still take the time to log everything to hold myself accountable.

Also lots of good tools/apps out there now to direct you to healthier options. For example you tell it you're at chick fil a and are following a high protein diet and it tells you the best menu options. Generally have to pay for these, so not worth it for me, but if eating out a lot it may be.

Based off that post you will hate my last suggestion.

Do your workout in the morning. Way too easy to say "need to stop for dinner" or "I have emails to respond to"

honestly, i was in better shape when i was traveling vs the last couple years at home. when on the road, i have a decision...in the evenings, i can sit in the hotel room, go to a bar, something else not productive, OR i can work out. I chose to work out. I'd do big volume when not at home. that also allowed to dial it back on the weekends.

At home, I have kids activities to balance, working around my wife's schedule, making sure there is family time on the weekends, etc.

I'll likely be back to traveling soon and I'm looking forward to it from a fitness standpoint. Always sucks to be away from the family, but this will likely only be ~12 month period of heavy travel.

This! The morning workout (mainly runs for me) is the best way to kick start a travel day.

I'm with you on logging and choosing healthy.

I don't IF but when traveling I usually skip breakfast or go with a quest bar. I'm no stranger to logging food and macros. I went 2.5 years in keto logging everything and only brought carbs back in a couple years ago to improve strength in the gym. I'm a "food is medicine" guy but have just been inconsistent these last few months.

Yeah, it sounds like to sum it up I just need to quit being a little beotch about, stop making excuses, and realize that an imperfect workout is better than no workout.

Check out F3. Lots of locations throughout the states. You can do it wherever you're local to, but I've really enjoyed attending as a guest when downrange. Popped into workouts in my hometown and recently when in Savannah GA.

I don't have any specific advice, but I do think the truism of "don't let should get in the way of good" applies here.

If it's important you will do it - if not you won't. Pretty simple.

I used to swim in the Carlsbad high school Natatorium to get my swim sessions in.

I super commuted for a while. What I learned.

1. Workouts in the morning. The worst thing about traveling nobody thinks about until they do it for work is the amount of little extra things you have to do that you normally wouldn't at home. Things like find dinner or bottles of water or snacks or whatever for your hotel room or finding the best opportunity to call home and say hi to the family va just being able to do it more casually if at home on your terms. Not even getting to not sleeping in your own bed, having to commute routes you normally don't. Being exhausted from traveling isn't an excuse or a mentality - it's a reality. So you really need to plan around that reality. Just get training out of the way early in the morning prior to general fatigue hitting you later in the day.

2. You sound hooked on one sort of training. Yeah… most hotel gyms and work fitness centers aren't going to have barbells and heavy dumbbells. It sucks… but work around it. Up the reps on things, do more body weight exercises etc etc.

3. You didn't mention this but per diems aren't your friend. Even if you skip meals, having the per diem and restaurants usually means you just eat bigger the other 2 meals and when you are eating big at restaurants… you usually aren't eating well. And if you aren't eating well… yeah, you are going to feel exhausted easier and traveling already is exhausting. Goes without saying too… but try to limit the alcohol.

I would throw in one other thing. Make sure you drink water. When I am home or in the office I drink lots of water. I didn't used to do that on the road. One of the symptoms of dehydration is fatigue.

While traveling is an ass kicking being dehydrated will make it that much worse. When I fly I buy a bottle of water for the plane and drink water on the plane. All layovers I drink water. It's a game changer for me.

Nice thread. I travel often and have to remind myself of these things.

At home I run with a group. I seek out other running groups when I travel and join their group runs. Have run with Pensacola and Naples groups in the last week, actually. Usually can find groups by internet search (city + run club) or checking local running store sites/social media.

ptothemo said:

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I don't have any specific advice, but I do think the truism of "don't let should get in the way of good" applies here.

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I would echo this.

If you're anything like me, once you've researched all of this and know what "works", you lack motivation to do "lesser" versions of things because in your mind, it isn't as effective or it isn't doing things the "right" way.

This is the trap I'd use to fall into, and if I had to do something that wasn't "optimal" by my definition, I'd say what's the point and stop.

We all enter different chapters of our lives where certain fitness goals aren't realistic FOR THAT TIME PERIOD. It doesn't mean you give up forever on lifting heavy, or 5x5, or whatever. But right now, it may be more realistic to say, "Well, I'm always going to have access to a treadmill, so I will work on being able to run a 5k in X amount of time". Then you supplement with some dumbbell and machine lifting.

The nice thing about this is, when you do have time to get back to lifting heavy, you have the baseline strength level built in, and now you've created a solid cardio foundation to work on top of. So when you do get back to lifting heavy, you'll probably be smashing PRs in no time.

Another thing I'd look into is the Bodi app (formerly Beach Body). They have A TON of programs, like Insanity, P90x, yoga, etc. Tons of options that I think would be good for those days where you just say "I have no idea what to do".

SweaterVest said:

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I've thought about getting a power rack for home and just trying to get workouts in early in the morning on days when I'm home m, but I don't really have a good place for one.

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I'd also add, absolutely find a way to make this happen, there's foldable options that may work for your space.

I'm not sure how old your kids are, but mine are young and they see me working out at home and want to get involved and emulate me. You set a great example for them and they can mess around in the garage with you while you lift so you aren't missing any time with them.

You can still get a decent workout with a hotel gym that only has 50lb dumbbells... I do it all the time, if I have no other option. Is it as fun as throwing around a 150lb dumbbell? No, not at all - but you're still able to get things done with modified tempo and/or number of reps.

Not sure who your employer is but if they happen to have an agreement with WellHub, I would strongly encourage you to pick that up. I have one, albeit not through work but a friend, and work out at all type of gyms when I travel. EoS, Crunch, 24hr, LA, small local/regional gyms, etc. I actually enjoying working out in new gyms because sometime they have new equipment that I haven't been able to use at my home gym.

I have traveled for work for almost my entire career. I travel probably 6-10 nights a month for work, but it was as high as 15-20 at one point. I just made it a non-negotiable deal that I have to workout on the road, even if it means working out at 5:00am because I have an all day conference/meeting and then dinners at night. As my kids have gotten older, I have also found it is often easier to not skip a workout on the road too because I have less distractions.

You got this - just need to recommit to doing it no matter what.

backintexas2013 said:

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Couple of solutions.

1.) find the ones with the best gyms. They don't be good but some are better than others.

2.) join a national chain gym that allows you to visit any location Planet fitness and anytime fitness come to mind. Not the best but better than hotel gym

3.) whatever gym you use walk in with a written down plan. If you don't it's easy to say **** it when the gym had no energy or you don't have the energy.

4.) pack snacks. My go to are beef jerky, mixed nuts, and protein bars. Most airports now have places to buy fruits and salads.

5.) adding I use IF so I may only eat two meals a day or one meal and snacks. I try to choose semi healthy options. Most places let you trade out sides.

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Good info in here. Look for hotels near a nice gym, sometimes those hotels have deals that allow guests to work out at the gym free of charge. You can call the hotel or the gym to find out whether they've got something like that in place. I always pack protein bars to take on the road with me.

Another thing I've started recently is to do yoga in my hotel room in the morning. I'm by no means flexible but I can still get a sweat going and it also helps to clear my head before the day starts. There's plenty of yoga programs you can find out YouTube so it doesn't even cost money. Yoga With Adriene for example has a ton of videos available.

Use a workout app that's easy to customize to what you have available, even if the weights are light. Apps like Fit Bod you can generate workouts based solely on body weight exercises. You can do rounds of push ups, sit ups, planks, body weight squats, wall sitting, lunges, burpees, etc if you're motivated.

Something you can do with meals is tell your wife you're going to text her a picture of your meals to keep yourself accountable. It sounds silly but seriously, it can make you think twice before loading up on fast food knowing that you're sending a picture to another person.

I've never understood why there isn't a partnership between hotel chains and gym chains. Like Holiday Inn and Golds. Either a Golds compact gym in the hotel, or a day pass to stop by and workout.

Another thing to try is check with your health insurance company. Some have programs that allow you to go to gyms all over the place. I have Well on Target. It's basically got places in all big cities and lots of small ones too. I bet they aren't the only company like that. I know Well on Target is through blue cross.

Buford T. Justice said:

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I've never understood why there isn't a partnership between hotel chains and gym chains. Like Holiday Inn and Golds. Either a Golds compact gym in the hotel, or a day pass to stop by and workout.

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Seems they've tried doing some things like that. Granted not gym chains but peloton and Hilton, for example.

I've also had to shift my mindset a bit to just do what I can when traveling instead of trying to replicate my old routine perfectly. Snacks help a ton too. Jerky, nuts, protein bars, all that stuff keeps me from making bad airport choices.

I made a GPT fitness coach and it's helped to manage around my work life with travel and working later days with a new role.

For me it's all about working towards long term healthspan. So missing one or two workouts every now and then won't destroy that. In my past I would try to double down to make up for lost workouts, then travel fatigue and poor sleep plus that would ruin recovery, and then it would turn into weeks of nothing. The AI coach helps to salvage something during a week like that (at least one good vo2 cardio and one strength training session, for example), and also pace myself to avoid stacking stress. I recommend trying that out.

This pretty much nits the nail on the head for me and I need to get over that. Thanks!

Career pivot from corporate to consulting and the accompanying travel requirements. I lift heavy and often.

I'm doing a lot more bodyweight stuff. Most gym dumbbells go up to 50lbs. I just have to rep it out. I'm still strong. Always been lean. Just have to anticipate and do your research. Legs are the hardest to train. Lots of bike work and incline treadmill walking. I've even done stair work in the hotels. Just up and down, up and down. Slow and steady.

Diet - lots of protein and veggies. Try and steer clear of fast food, and so far, I've done a pretty good job. It just takes more planning

These are all great suggestions. Only thing I'd add is for meal tracking, pre-game out 3-4 meals in your tracking app that you can get pretty much anywhere (say one at Chipotle, one at Chickfila, one at Outback, etc) that are high protein and as healthy as possible so you already know your macros. That way if you need to eat out, or can't do another protein bar for dinner, you already have healthy options (with macros pre-filled) to order lined up.