Beating Yesterday While On the Road
Kosha Irby is not only a Garmin Fitness Ambassador, but he also works and tours with WWE. Much of his work week consists of traveling to multiple cities and spending up to 18 hours in a city before moving on to the next. Irby makes his health a priority and makes sure to incorporate healthy eating and working out while on the road. Although this can be tricky, it is doable and Irby shares how he makes it work with tips and tricks to stay fit away from home.
A recent workweek consisted of stops in: Los Angeles, Winnipeg, Dallas, Nashville, Tulsa, Lawton, Oklahoma City, and Wichita. Yes, 8 different cities over 7 days. In order to maintain my fitness, I’ve adopted strategies to be more efficient with time and money.
First, my “fitness bag” includes: my training shoes, jump rope, gymnastics grips, playing cards, resistance band, and Forerunner 920XT Garmin watch. This bag provides the bare essentials to do almost anything. Just use a drawstring bag from a recent race packet.
Usually, I try to advance the city via Yelp, Facebook, and Instagram prior to arriving. My social media network typically provides solid recommendations on where to train. I have joined numerous groups and follow several pages/feeds to gain insight on cities. Locals typically know best.
A lot of hotels provide cue sheets that allow you to run and see some great attractions. Most gyms, group workouts, and Crossfit boxes provide discounts or free admittance for out of town visitors and /or first timers. Don’t be afraid to ask your community, a gym, or the hotel for a complimentary pass.
However, sometimes I am really short of time and equipment. In those instances, I get comfortable with my body weight and resistance band. I will use the deck of cards to create a fun workout by designing a sequence of exercises based on suits and doing the corresponding reps/exercise based on the flip. The goal is to have that one go to routine to that can be done anywhere.
On the road I am willing to try different things, but nothing new. Meaning I will run the city streets vs the trails but, I will not be trying a trampoline park or parkour course. The message here is stick with what you know. I don’t want to be stuck in a rental car or plane seat with severe aches from that “new thing”.
With that, I’m not afraid to mix up my routine. Besides, a different city means hall pass on the mundane, RIGHT?! I really pay attention to the city’s terrain, my workout data, and my body. There is a lot of technology packed into my watch and I use Garmin Connect to log my workouts and monitor my workloads. If you are visiting a region with high humidity, elevation, and/or dry heat your workout and expectations should reflect that.
This leads me to stressing that I find time to recover in both sleep and mobility. I spend a lot of time swapping time zones, sitting in rental cars/airplanes, slogging at events, in different hotel beds, and working out. All of these require a counterbalance. I currently love ROMWOD to assist in my daily mobility. I am starting to rely on the Garmin sleep tracker to identify a potential hazard on the horizon.
Speaking of hazards, nothing zaps you more than the germ infested desert conditions created by recycled airplane air. Bring your own water, if not in Business Class, since flight attendants don’t serve until at an approved altitude. Also, I always aim my air vent to blow in front of my face to provide a force field to combat floating germs.
It’s not easy to find the healthiest food in some random city at 2 a.m., when we will sometimes arrive in a city. My current go to spots are Starbucks (morning), Chipotle (daytime) and Denny’s (late night). They allow for some healthy options as well as consistency. Find something you like at home and replicate it on the road.
Happy travels!
