Working Out While Living on the Road

Working out while living on the road is simpler than you think. It’s easy to get caught up in vacation mode and spending all of your free time exploring a new place. Maintaining your fitness can take less than an hour, four times per week!

Our Background

Fitness has not always been front and center in my mind. I allowed myself to get over 200 pounds. I made the decision to start working out so that I would be happy again and feel comfortable in my own skin. For Lance, however, fitness has been a part of his entire adult life. 

It was easy to join a CrossFit box when I lived a stationary life. Living on the road, especially boondocking 80% of the time, makes it more challenging to stay fit. Drop-ins to local boxes at $20 a session adds up quickly and doesn’t fit into our budget. Although it is fun to drop in from time to time in different cities, we had to figure out a more feasible way to maintain our fitness.

Garage Method

Garage Method has been writing our programming to keep us working out while living on the road. Benny has worked tirelessly with our everchanging access to equipment to help us maintain our fitness and achieve our goals. We cannot recommend him enough!

Anytime Fitness

After extensive research, we found that Anytime Fitness was the best gym for us. They are less expensive than other gyms and they have more locations nationwide. 

In our search, we weren’t just looking for the most locations, we were looking for the most widespread locations. 2,000 locations on the west coast aren’t going to help us when we’re traveling the country! We like the consistency of the gyms as well as the high level of cleanliness. 

An added bonus is that we can shower here when we’re boondocking to conserve our water! What better motivation to get to the gym than a long hot shower afterward?

Base Gyms

Since Lance is retired from the ARMY, we can camp on bases all across the country. We love this since full hookup sites are inexpensive and we have access to the gyms. Many of which, we find, have a CrossFit style workout area to keep us working out while living on the road.

Outside

When we find ourselves on long travel weeks or far from civilization, a bodyweight workout does the trick. Burpees, sit-ups, pushups, and running can get the heart rate up and be done anywhere. 

We pull out a yoga mat to work out on and we’re set. I have done many a sit up on a picnic table before the yoga mat!

Hiking

We like to go on hikes on active rest days. Hikes give us an opportunity to explore the area and spend uninterrupted time together. Z gets to go with us and it gives us all an opportunity to enjoy nature. 

Getting Started

Just get out there and move! It isn’t hard to schedule and set aside 4- one-hour chunks of time throughout the week to make your fitness a priority. Set in in your calendar and treat it as an appointment. You wouldn’t cancel an important appointment, would you?

Many of us travel and camp with friends. Get them to come out and join you. Making it a social event keeps you even more accountable.

For example, at the Xscapers Convergence in Salida, we did a short workout that allowed us to meet other fitness enthusiasts during the event. 

What are you doing to maintain your fitness while living on the road? Let us know by leaving a comment below.