With two people living on 6m2 and thus limited space to store things and being on the road and on the move a lot, it´s not always easy to make sure your exercise routine keeps in place. However, we felt it´s super, super important to stay fit though, bot for your physical as well as your mental health. Luckily, we love to be outdoors and most of our hobbies we don´t even see as ´exercise´ as such. But still, we need our stretching and muscle-building moments as well. Here are some ideas.
Spent a lot of time outdoors and find a ´fit´ hobby
In our case, this is easy as we´re both surf lovers. Most of our vanlife trips will include some kind of waves, so we´re good for the exercise. But still, when we´re somewhere where there are no waves (or it´s a no-wave kind of week), we try to find other hobbies, such as hiking in the mountains, kitesurfing, stand-up paddling or skateboarding. By the way, for skateparks (and surf spots) on the road in Spain and Portugal, we use the @guiasurfskate, this little guide has saves our days so many times already!
Take a yoga/exercise mat wherever you go
I use this one for my morning stretches, we use it for push-ups and other exercises. I use it to lay on and read a book and basically, a need-to-bring tool for staying fit on the road.
Some dumbells (or full water bottles)
We have two 2.5kg dumbells in the back of our van and take them out regularly to keep our arms and shoulders surf-ready. But sure, it´s extra weight and you might not want that. Alternatively, some full water bottles that are easy to hold also do the trick perfectly!
An elastic band
This one is perfect, as it weighs nothing and takes up almost no space. Yet, you can train your entire body with it! I highly recommend bringing an elastic, not only for muscle training but also for stretching. We use this one from Decathlon (no publicity, just sharing what we use ;))
Cycle or walk everywhere possible
We tend to leave our van as much as possible. Also to save on gas and because parking a van in some places is a pain in the but, or even impossible or prohibited. We have one bike in the back of our van (and will bring another one on our next trip) and try to do everything by bike as much as possible. Also, on no-wave days or destinations, I love to go for bike trips in the area and it allows me to see the environment from a different perspective and go places the van wouldn´t go.
Running is the easiest thing to do
You literally just need a pair of shoes to go running. That´s it. Easy, but we´re both not very fanatic runners so somehow we still don´t go running as much as we should when we´re on the road. This is ridiculous because once we do, it feels so good!
Join local exercise clubs
When we´re somewhere for a bit longer time, we´ll join some local clubs. I usually try to find a pool or join a yoga class. Heverton tries to find jiujitsu training. This is not only good for staying fit on the road but also a super fun way of mingling a bit in the local culture. And sure, I did not understand a word of my Bulgarian yoga class, and Heverton was super lost in Albania in jiujitsu training, but… we had fun!
So, those are my key recommendations on staying fit while on the road. Let me know what you´re thoughts are and what your recommendations are!
