The Backpackers Guide To Fitness

If you are like me and a bit of an avid traveller, but also a real fitness enthusiast then you have probably been through the same issues and anguish about maintaining your fitness level whilst travelling around the world….Where are you going to work out? When? And how can you afford healthy nutrition options?

Alas, the combination of limited fitness equipment, limited time and the temptation of calorie dense snacking amalgamates into the fitness enthusiasts nightmare and it is destined to rapidly eat (literally) into your hard earned gains!

However, fitness enthusiasts rejoice, as VT2 has your back and comes in clutch with the ultimate guide to enjoy your travels without reverting to the fitness equivalent of square one!

This guide is designed to have you maintain, as best as possible, your physique through use of reasonably healthy cheap nutrition in some of the most popular backpacking destinations, varied HIIT and resistance workouts that you can follow along with and a few tips and tricks to keep the pounds off as you indulge a little in the fine cuisine and party life on offer.

What you will need

• Resistance Bands – Resistance bands are super versatile and can add some much needed resistance to stimulate various muscle groups enabling you to maintain your lean muscle. Bands are also light weight and easy to transport making them a flexible solution that you can take anywhere in the world without sacrificing all important luggage weight. I personally went with the FitLife Exercise Resistance bands. These bands were all I needed in terms of variable resistance levels, they were super lightweight, easily transportable and pretty cheap.
• A big enough space – Parks and beaches tend to be my go to, but typically in every destination you will be able to find a large enough public space to complete a good workout. My top tip, pick somewhere beautiful…the world is absolutely your oyster here and you’ll certainly enjoy your workout a lot more with spectacular scenery!
• A bench (some workouts) – Some workouts within this guide require a bench or something around knee height to facilitate movements such as step ups and tricep dips
• A pull up bar (some workouts) – Again some workouts within this guide require a pull up bar. Many parks around the world have outdoor facilities that include outdoor gym equipment, however if this is not the case in your area I would still check out the nearest park, often you can make do with monkey bars/climbing frames or other alternatives.

The workouts

The workouts I completed whilst backpacking around focused on a 3 day resistance split with some HIIT and plenty of walking interspersed too. I chose a 3 day split simply due to versatility, some weeks things were quiet and I could afford to commit to 6 days a week of working out, but others I was super busy with activities and socialising or battling through 14 hour bus journeys that I simply didn’t have the time (or energy) to complete a 6 day routine. Hence the beauty of a 3 day, finding time for just 3 days of working out wasn’t too much of a commitment and then if things turned out to be quiet I could always repeat the routine and bring it to a 6 day.

Workout 1 – Chest & Arms

What you need:

1. Resistance bands
2. Bench or elevated surface (for tricep dips)

Approx. workout time: 35 mins

The Moves

• 10x Wide stance push ups – Wider than shoulder width stance and full descent
• 10x Standard push ups – Hands under shoulders and shoulder width apart with full descent
• 5x Diamond push ups – Close diamond stance with the hands and wide feet

The above moves should be performed in a circuit style one after the other. Following one full circuit you should take a 90 second rest. The full circuit should be repeated a total of 3 times.

Tip: If you are struggling drop to your knees and perform the moves from there. Attempt to get as many as you can in regular form before dropping to the knees and each time you complete the workout try to improve.

Superset 1

• 15x Standard resistance band bicep curl – Set up the resistance bands to the desired level of resistance (the last couple of reps should be difficult). Keep the elbows static and the palms facing forward throughout and focus on that bicep squeeze at the top of the motion.
• 20x Tricep bench dips – Closer the legs are to your body the easier this move will be so play about with that. Try to descend low enough so that the upper arm is parallel to the floor and ensure to maintain a slow and steady motion focusing on the triceps.

The above moves should be performed as a superset, meaning one after the other with no rest. Following the completion of both exercises for one set take a 90 second rest. Repeat for a total of 3 sets.

Superset 2

• 12x Resistance band Tricep Kickback – Can be a little tricky to setup, but persevere with it and play about with the foot position to increase/decrease the level of resistance.
• 12x Resistance band concentration curl – Again, a little tricky and awkward to set up, but once correctly performed you can really focus on squeezing and developing the bicep. Again play about with the foot position to increase/decrease the resistance level.

The above moves should also be performed as a superset, meaning one after the other with no rest. Following the completion of both exercises for one set take a 90 second rest and then repeat for a total of 3 sets.

If you want to make this workout more intense try adding in the Bring Sally Up push up challenge (as far as you can get) as a pre exhaustion technique.

Workout 2 – Back and Shoulders

What you need:

• Resistance bands
• Pull up bar, or somewhere to complete wide stance pull ups

Approx. workout time: 40 mins

The Moves

• Wide Grip Pull ups – 4x sets to failure
• 15x Seated incline resistance band row – 4x sets

The above moves can either be performed as a superset (1 set of wide grip pull ups followed by the resistance band row with no rest) or individually. My personal preference is an individual split as this allows you to focus on maximising performance on the toughest move (wide grip pull ups) first. A 90 second rest should be taken between sets.

Circuit

• 12x Resistance band shoulder press
• 12x Pike Push ups
• 15x resistance band lateral shoulder fly

3x sets of the above should be performed one after the other in a circuit style. A rest period of 90 seconds between each set should be taken.

Superset

• 15x Resistance band reverse fly
• 15x Resistance band lawnmower

The above moves should be completed one after the other as a superset with no rest in between. Once a full superset has been completed you should take a 90 second rest and then complete a further set (2 sets total).

Workout 3 – Legs

What you need:

• Resistance bands
• A bench, or surface around knee height to complete step ups

Approx. workout time: 40 mins

The Moves

• 20x Step up – Knee height step surface.
• 20x Single straight leg deadlift (bodyweight)
• 12x resistance band front squats
• 15x resistance band lunges

HIIT Finisher – Circuit 1 min work 20 second rest

20 min: No repeat

• Mountain climbers
• Jump Squat
• Plyo Twist
• Push up to side stand
• Lateral lunges
• Spiderman
• Burpees
• Pulse squat
• Plank ups
• Lateral jumps
• Side plank raises (left)
• Side plank raises (right)

ABS – The 40:10 Tabata

• Regular situps
• Raised leg situps
• Leg raises
• Flutter kicks
• Steps to heaven
• Leg over under
• Combo situps
• Side plank raises (left)
• Side plank raises (right)
• Bicycle crunches
• Side ankle touches
• Russian twist
• Twist up left
• Twist up right

The Nutrition

Australia – When it comes to Oz you certainly won’t be putting another shrimp on the barbie…Because shrimp is as expensive as ****. The cheapest supermarket here is Aldi, limited choice, but well worth it to save the pennies. The cooked meats selection is pricey, but worth it in a pinch. My go to was the tins of tuna though, they presented a cheap and lean form of protein with various flavours available, bag a few of these, a few tortilla wraps and a salad pack and you are onto a winner. I found Woolworths was a little pricier, but they often run special offers and typically mark down the hot food later in the day. Depending how lucky you are, you could find yourself bagging some pretty sweet bargains (full chicken for $5…Bang!)

Thailand – Thailand is cheap…Put down the 7/11 ham and cheese toastie and get your self some real nutrition at a fraction of the typical cost. Amazing fruits, veggies and lean protein sources on offer. Just make sure you don’t over indulge too much and try to build it into a structured calorie controlled diet.

Indonesia – See above

Canada – O Canada with glowing hearts we see thee rise…but with grocery prices we see thee cry. Canada is a truly spectacular country, but damn does that come with a price tag! Travelling around isn’t cheap and when its 3 bucks for a lettuce, you know you are in trouble! However, I have put together a list of the cheapest protein sources on offer and a few top tips!

Tips

• Canadian Superstore and No Frills are your friends – When on a budget in Canada you don’t want to be spending too much time in the likes of wholefoods and Safeway as despite being undeniably high quality, they also have a high quality ability to burn a hole in your pocket!
• Grab a cooked rotisserie chicken and salad pack in a pinch – If you are short on time and need a quick solution hot foot your way to a superstore and pick up a half rotisserie chicken and a salad pack. Its super quick, super convenient and a pretty healthy solution for a reasonably priced Canadian dinner.

Tips and tricks

Snacking

Snacking, AKA Craig’s Kryptonite is a major issue for me when I travel.

• Big bus journey? Snacks
• Beach day? Snacks
• Big hike? Snacks

I admit I am a serial snacker, however if you have restraint snacking isn’t necessarily a bad thing if it is done within calorie parameters. For me however, that is difficult. I often found myself buying in some snacks for a big bus journey whilst convincing myself that I would only eat half. Not even a quarter in to said journey I would have walloped my entire bag of to share pretzels. There were 2 reasons for this:

1. I was bored sat on a coach journey with nothing else to do
2. I freaking love pretzels

The only answer for me was to, I hate to say it, stop buying snacks. Or when I felt the ever increasing urge, buy a small pack that I knew fit within my calorie controlled diet somewhat. Once I had nailed this issue, my fitness levels were back on track.

Eating in general

I am absolutely not a fan of fad diets, however some times such ways of eating can be worth their weight in gold and can suit your lifestyle depending on what you are doing.

One of these diets, intermittent fasting, has become very much a fad promising insane results as long as you adhere to eating windows. This is however a misappropriation, the diet simply limits eating windows so that you consume less calories overall throughout the week. That aside however, intermittent fasting is a truly excellent nutrition tool when backpacking. This is due to a few factors:

Time – you don’t have a lot of it and often cooking windows are limited. In hostels the peak times around 5pm to 6pm it is almost impossible to cook anything with so many people buzzing about. Intermittent fasting enables you to eat your daily calories within a strategic window, when the kitchen isn’t busy and when you aren’t out and about enjoying your destination…Having the restriction on the time within which you have an eating window will also keep you on track with regard to calorie control.

Activities – If you are backpacking in a new, fun and interesting destination you are bound to have a tonne of activities booked in from sunset kayaks to skydives, the world is truly your oyster. However, this leaves limited time for cooking and eating healthy nutritious meals. Initially I found this time deficit troubling and constantly hit up the convenient and quick fast food options which began to have a detrimental impact on not only my fitness levels, but also my energy levels and mental health. The intermittent fasting option allowed me to fill my diet with nutritious and cheap options which would keep me feeling energised and full all day whilst having the time of my life enjoying a plethora of activities.

Limitations on grocery shopping – Staying in hostels your space is limited and as you’ll be travelling destination to destination some food groups are out (no point buying loads of chicken breast and fresh veggies if you are about to sit on a coach with it for 5+ hours!). With intermittent fasting you can dive into a grocery store, grab some nutritious options and cook up a storm of healthy meals to eat. If you are on the road a lot I also recommend some tinned options…It is true tins get a bad rep, but tinned fruit (in juice rather than syrup), tinned tuna and tinned salmon are pretty flexible, portable and healthy options if you are in a pinch! Grabbing yourself a low carb, low fat and low sugar whey protein supplement is also a fantastic way of increasing your lean protein intake whilst on the road.

Budget – We get it, you have just splurged $500 on a skydive and you are feeling the proverbial pinch! Fortunately by following the tips in the nutrition section above you can limit the expenditure on healthy food options as much as possible. These tips combined with an intermittent fasting diet is a recipe for health on a budget as you can concentrate your nutrition around various grocery store specials and offers that appear.

Exercise windows

I am certainly a very committed person, but I found getting into a regular workout routine whilst backpacking difficult to say the least. Often your destination will have hot weather (if you are backpacking around in the bad weather…why?) which is amazing for enjoying beaches and beer gardens…It is far less amazing for a HIIT workout. When I first started travelling I went with a mindset of whenever I am free I will workout, but if I was free at 2pm in 35 degree heat said workout was not getting completed. The solution? Whilst I am definitely not a morning person, I found that setting my alarm a little earlier and getting the workout done and dusted early in cooler weather was a great way of getting into a structured routine. You could also try the evening routine option, however despite this being my go to in normal circumstances, I found it difficult to maintain on the road. This was because you meet lots of people travelling and the evening is typically when everyone wants to get social…I would therefore find myself regularly skipping a workout to join, which was great for the experience of travelling, but not so great for my fitness levels.