I’m not going to lie to you… one of the things we miss most about life on the road is our home CrossFit gym in Arizona. We missed the people, the atmosphere, and exercises that kick out butts. This craving for our home gym workouts inspired us to looking into every option for staying fit while constantly on the move… and that’s how this travel workouts blog came to be!
How can I exercise while travelling?
The three ways we do travel workouts are: outdoor activities, TRX, and dropping in at gyms around the country.
The hardest things about exercising while living in an RV are routine and privacy. When you move around frequently in your RV, it’s physically demanding. It’s easy to get into the habit of saying dumping your tanks or hooking up your trailer was your workout for the day. The only way we have been able to truly maintain our routine on the road is with our 100-day movement tracker (shameless plug because we really do use it all the time).
Once we get into the routine of travel workouts, we then run into the issue of privacy. We RV everywhere – boondock with nobody around, campgrounds, urban camping, and RV parks. It took me a while to get over the hump of people staring at me while I workout outside, especially when I was learning new exercises on the road.
It turns out, most of the people staring are genuinely curious as to what I’m doing. I’ve even had a group of kids at a campground join me in my TRX workouts because they thought it looked so fun! You will overcome that fear of prying eyes eventually… I swear! In the meantime, running, hiking, and biking are great exercises that you can do away from your camping spot.
Let’s get into the logistics of how we actually workout on the road…
Outdoor activities
Safety warning: Make sure to tell someone where you’re going and bring your cell phone in case of an emergency. Bring plenty of water and a few extra snacks so you can stay fueled when your workout is harder than you expected. You can’t always control what happens in the great outdoors. With that being said, here are our favorite outdoor activities:
- Hiking
Hiking is our go-to outdoor workout. Hikes lead us to some of the most beautiful places we’ve seen in the country with countless waterfalls and never-ending desert views.
- Mountain biking
I am SO grateful Mike’s great aunt, Becky, gifted me her old mountain bike because this quickly became one of my favorite ways to exercise and see even more of my surroundings.
I’ve discovered a private swimming hole in the Grand Tetons, hidden waterfalls in Colorado, trails through wildflowers, and so much more just by biking at our new locations to scope out cool spots. Bring your hydration pack, a helmet, snacks, and your phone – you never know when you might see a new adventure around the corner.
THIS is how we’ve gotten our CrossFit fix in while on the road. TRX is an all-in-one suspension training system that truly gives you an amazing workout from anywhere. All you need is a tree, pole, or a sturdy door to hook up your TRX and then get to working out!
There is a slight learning curve when it comes to adjusting the straps to do each movement. They realize that, so a new TRX comes with recommended beginner workouts and access to their app with trainers and plenty of solid travel workouts. TRX is as difficult or as easy as you make it, so I love using it for stretching or intense full body workouts.
- Walking
Walk your dogs, walk your cats, go by yourself, go with friends. Walking is a great way to get a travel workout whether you’re in the boonies or urban camping. We often try to walk somewhere to eat or go out when urban camping instead of ridesharing to get a little workout in (for both us and the pups)!
- Running
In Oregon, Mike and I ran a minimum of 1 mile a day for a month. We love this challenge because you see improvement really quickly and it’s a fun way to experience nearby trails. If you’re going to start trail running, avoid crowded hiking trails, make sure to prepare for wildlife, and beware of uneven footing. I fell many times while running on trails – nothing serious but it does suck, especially if you’re alone!
- Water sports
Swimming, body surfing, surfing, kayaking, paddle boarding, cliff diving – all super fun activities you can do while on the road. There are a lot of great inflatable or collapsible kayaks/SUPs that are easy to bring with you on the road.
If something that big isn’t in the cards for you, throw on a swimsuit and just jump in. We prefer to do hikes that lead to a body of water, so we combine the hiking and water sports into one amazing adventure.
Remember, travel workouts don’t have to be boring. You can play and explore as part of your fitness routine!
How do you do CrossFit while traveling?
You can either drop in at any local gym in the world (the farthest one I’ve visited was in Berlin, Germany) or you can do one of these 20+ travel CrossFit workouts. These workouts plus the TRX will give you the intensity you’re looking for in your travel workouts.
CrossFit has its own drop in system which seems a little weird if you haven’t done it before. CrossFit gyms around the world welcome drop-ins for just one class (if you have prior CrossFit experience) and many have punch cards where you can buy a set amount of classes at a discounted rate. Drop in rates average at about $15/class.
You can find locations for these affiliated gyms on the CrossFit site. Once you find a gym you like, look up their schedule online or call and ask about their drop-in rates. It’s really fun to see different gyms and, in my case, try to convert lbs to kgs on the fly. 😅
Gyms on the road
Solo workouts aren’t the same as class workouts. We 100% understand that desire to be with a group of people all with fitness on their minds. There are several nationwide gyms that you can get a membership for and visit locations across the country. A huge plus to these gyms is that you also can have hot showers for as long as you want compared to in an RV with limited water supply.
The most popular nationwide gym memberships for full time travelers are:
- Planet Fitness (top tier membership allows free guests)
- LA Fitness
- 24 Hour Fitness
- Anytime Fitness
- Life Time Fitness ($$)
- Equinox ($$)
- Classpass (this gets you classes to different gyms across the country)
We absolutely thought we would purchase one of these memberships once we started RV life. I was about to buy it before life on the road, but Mike convinced me to wait and see if we really needed it. Thankfully I listened because we prefer our outdoor travel workouts and CrossFit drop ins. That being said, these are a great option if a gym is a must have for you.
Stay accountable to your travel workouts with our 100-day movement tracker. And check us out on YouTube for more full time travel and remote income tips.